I Level Up By Making Enemies

The medical tent muffled the sounds from plaza. Every roar from the platforms arrived as a softened wave. Lin Feng lay on the cot with his outer robe loosened and a cold herbal compress bound across his ribs. His right arm had been immobilized just enough to stop him from pretending it was fine.

Lu Cang sat on a low stool beside him, hands clenched on his knees, head turning every time the crowd outside surged.

”They’re still fighting,” Lu Cang said. ”Which means people are still getting injured. This assessment continues to be a crime against peace.”

Lin Feng kept his eyes half-lidded. ”Who’s winning?”

A medical disciple changed the compress and muttered, ”If you can talk this much, you can also remain still.” Then he left to deal with a newly arrived patient who was loudly screaming about a joint pain.

News continued to drip into the tent through disciples coming for salves and bandages.

Lei Hao had crushed his next opponent thorough. A Block A seed had been eliminated after underestimating a quiet mid rank fighter and

Gao Ren was still advancing.

By late afternoon, the noise outside changed character. Less continuous roaring, more concentrated eruptions. Then, after one final prolonged surge, an Enforcement disciple’s amplified voice rolled over the plaza:

”Combat evaluation has concluded! All disciples assemble for final ranking!”

Lu Cang shot to his feet. That’s result time. It’s going to decide whether we live like outer disciples or die like outer disciples with extra chores.”

Lin Feng sat up carefully. Pain tightened across his ribs at once, sharp enough to make his breath shorten, but he swung his legs over the side of the cot anyway. The medical disciple tried to object, received one look at Lin Feng’s expression, and settled for warning him not to rip the bindings like an idiot.

They stepped out of the tent into waning sunlight.

The assessment grounds were crowded again, but the energy had shifted from anticipation to judgment. Disciples packed around the main board. Elders occupied the pavilion in formal stillness. Enforcement stood in a clear line beneath the ranking display while a recording jade projected names one by one into the air.

First place went to a hard faced outer disciple named Li Shuyan who had torn through the late bracket with raw strength alone. Second place went to Gao Ren, a result that drew immediate murmurs of approval and no serious dispute.

Lei Hao landed high as well, to no one’s emotional surprise and several people’s moral discomfort. Then the middle upper ranks began filling.

Lin Feng did not look for first place. He looked for the line that mattered: recommendation range.

Around him, arguments started before his name even appeared.

Zhou Ming’s voice carried from the monitor cluster. ”Withdrawal is withdrawal. A disciple who refuses a scheduled match cannot be ranked as if he dominated the field.”

A Block D disciple immediately shot back, ”He beat He Yuan. He beat Zhao Feng. If those matches vanish because he got injured winning them, then the board is decoration.”

Lin Feng watched Zhou Ming’s jaw tighten and felt a familiar, modest satisfaction. Even from the medical tent path, he could still generate distress.

Elder Mo finally spoke from the pavilion, voice severe enough to flatten nearby chatter.

”Enough. The assessment is not a market argument. Contribution ranking, combat outcomes, and recorded condition will all be counted. Withdrawal after verified injury is not identical to cowardice before trial. Nor is it identical to championship.”

The ranking jade resumed. When Lin Feng’s name locked into place, it was not at the peak and not in the gutter. It settled high enough to force recognition, inside the recommendation zone, below the untouchable top seeds, above the mass of disciples who had entered and exited the platforms as background noise.

Zhao Feng’s camp looked openly dissatisfied, caught between two failures, Lin Feng had not been eliminated early, and he had also refused to stand still for a public dismantling later.

Gao Ren passed at a distance, glanced once at the ranking, then at Lin Feng’s bound ribs, and said only, ”Not the worst ranking. ”Then he was gone.

An Enforcement disciple struck the closing notice against a bronze plate.

”Final rankings confirmed! Disciples within recommendation range will await Inner Sect review notices! Remaining disciples return to assigned duties! Assessment complete!”

The formal structure of the day broke apart. Groups dispersed in tangled currents celebrating, cursing, consoling, scheming. The platforms already looked less like stages and more like empty stone. What remained were consequences.

Lin Feng took one last look at the board.His name sat there as a fact that could no longer be dismissed. Now a visible problem with a ranking attached.

Lin Feng adjusted the binding on his ribs and turned back toward the medical tent path.

”That’s it?” Lu Cang asked, half hopeful, half suspicious. ”We just... recover?”

”For now,” Lin Feng said.

He opened the system one more time as he walked, not to shop, not to force a breakthrough, only to mark the end of one hunting field.

[Outer Sect Assessment concluded]

[Host result: Recommendation range secured]

[Public attention threshold significantly raised]

[System Note: Local ecosystem is becoming overmonitored. Consider expanding the farming area after recovery.]

Lin Feng’s mouth curved despite the pain. Over monitored was another way of saying the outer sect had learned his name too well. That was fine. Names that became inconvenient in small places eventually got pushed into larger ones.

And larger places held more pride.