Chapter 36: Strength Ranking

Hearing the rewards, Ling Xiao was naturally very excited.

Merely, his excitement was not regarding the same things as the others.

He was mainly interested in the advanced martial arts.

He owned the Landscape Martial Soul. As long as he could enter the third floor of the Library Pavilion, he would obtain all the martial arts there.

What limits? That restriction had no meaning to him.

Naturally, the pills were also good.

After all, the three-pill set cost 3,000 taels of silver.

A hundred qi-gathering pills cost 5,000 taels of silver.

“Don’t be noisy! Listen to senior apprentice brother Ming! What are the rewards for those who enter the top ten?”

“Those who enter the top ten can choose three advanced martial arts and get three sets of pills for breakthroughs!”

This was not very attractive to Ling Xiao, but for ordinary disciples, getting an extra advanced martial art and set of pills was a great profit!

“It’s too bad that only ten people can reach it.”

“In any case, we have to give it a try!”

“Yes, not to mention the glory!”

“Are you all satisfied with just this? You all are truly lacking. Let me tell you something. As long as you can enter the top three, not only will you get all the previous rewards, but you will also receive a peak martial art and one gang-qi pill!”

“Oh! A peak martial art!”

“Furthermore, a gang qi pill, worth 10,000 taels of silver!?”

His words made many people exclaim in shock.

What did a peak martial art mean?

It meant that it was the best of the secular martial arts!

For these disciples who didn’t know about the Transcendent Realm or transcendent martial arts, a peak martial art was the greatest reward!

As for a gang-qi pill, it was needed for the gang-qi stage and refined with the essence blood of a rank four demonic beast along with other materials.

It was a high-end pill for anyone below Rank Six Martial Vein.

Why did Ling Xiao want gang-qi pills? They would help him breakthrough to Rank Four Martial Vein.

He had never thought that there would actually be such a reward this annual competition.

Anyway, this kind of pill fit in the ‘the more the better’ category. In any case, they could still be used after breaking through to Rank Four Martial Vein.

As for a peak martial art, there was no need to mention anything about it; everybody absolutely wanted it.

“The reward for the second place is similar to the third rank’s, but he or she will receive one more gang qi pill!”

“What about the first place? The first place will definitely have an even bigger reward, right?”

“Honestly speaking, in addition to all the second place’s rewards, the first place will get a mysterious reward. Even I don’t know what it is. They said that the Venerable Sir Ling will personally announce it when the moment comes, but it will remain suspense until then.”

Senior apprentice brother Ming shrugged.

“Why is it like that?”

“Yeah, this is truly leaving people hanging!”

Everybody around was driven nuts.

Not to mention the others, even Ling Xiao’s heart itched.

The other rewards were already so good, so this mysterious reward would definitely be spectacular.

“Next!”

It was now Ling Xiao’s turn to register. Shaking his head, he dismissed his confusion and stepped forward.

He wouldn’t think unnecessarily. He only had to participate in this competition. As long as he obtained first, he would naturally learn what the reward was.

“9588!”

This was his number plate.

After his training, he had ended up late, so he could only accept a number at the back of the pack. 

However, it didn’t matter. All had the same qualifications in the elimination round.

Merely, this number plate surprised Ling Xiao. Although he had only been a bit late, he had still received 9588 as his number plate. The number of people participating in this annual competition exceeded 9,000 and was close to 10,000!

As mentioned before, both the Elite and Genius Halls had an age limit of 20 years. Once someone grew past that age, he or she would be assigned to a post and forced to leave the Halls.

Even with those restrictions on the participants, there was a surprising number of people.

However, most of these participants were unqualified disciples,the lowest rung.

The number of disciples in the Elite Hall was always 1,000.

In other words, only those who placed within the top 1,000 would enter the Elite Hall. Otherwise, they would be kicked back down to being unqualified disciples.

Nearly 10,000 people competing for 1,000 quotas led to intense competition.

Moreover, after entering the Elite Hall, one had to squeeze into the top 100 to obtain better treatment.

This competition was even more intense.

As for the Genius Hall, it was even more challenging because the total number of disciples in the Genius Hall was limited to one hundred.

This number had never changed and would never change.

If someone were promoted to the Genius Hall, someone would be sent back to the Elite Hall.

This was a brutal competition where only the fittest survived. Trickery and luck had little place at the highest level of competition. 

On the competition square, 200 plates hung on a huge cliff.

Each plate had a name.

This was the ranking wall of the Genius and Elite Halls as well as the lowest rung disciples.

After every annual competition, these plates would change. Not only would the sequence shift, but some plates might even be replaced.

The annual competition was divided into two parts.

The first was a contest between the Elite Hall and unqualified disciples. The top ten places would then have the qualifications to challenge the disciples of the Genius Hall.

Afterward, these ten and the disciples of the Genius Hall would compete to decide on a new ranking.

The rewards senior apprentice brother Ming had announced before would belong to the top rankers of the whole competition and not those who won the first stage. 

On the cliff, the plate in first place was very eye-catching since it was forged from pure gold.

The name on it was——Ling Feifan!

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He was one of the four noble sons of Heavenly Peak City and the most outstanding disciple in the Ling Clan below 20.

When he had been same age as Ling Xiao, he had already broken through to Rank Four Martial Vein.

He was absolutely a rare genius!

Since he had become number one on the ranking list, no one had shaken his position for three years.

This fellow definitely deserved the title of Ling Clan’s number one genius.

Naturally, it might change this year.

The second rank plate was forged with silver and also very eye-catching. It belonged to a disciple named Ling Yun.

The third rank plate was forged with bronze and relatively eye-catching. This was actually a girl named Ling Shuang.

From fourth to 200th, there were only similar-looking wooden plates. 

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Ling Xiao examined the wall and quickly noticed that the top ten places were occupied by the Genius Hall’s disciples.

The eleventh place was Ling Yihang, the number one of the Elite Hall.

This surprised Ling Xiao. Ling Yihang must have exchanged pointers with the disciples of the Genius Hall in private to rank there.

Looking for Ling Yixue’s name, the number two of the  Elite Hall, he found her right at 101.

Ling Feng was 102.

Ling Tieshou was 103.

However, this ranking might not remain constant. After all, the top five disciples of the Elite Hall were all Peak Rank Three Martial Vein. Once they comprehended how to convert true qi into gang qi, they could defeat those in the Genius Hall.

“Eh? I’m actually on the ranking list?”

Originally, Ling Xiao had thought that it would be impossible for his name to appear, but to his surprise,he was actually the last name!

It was impossible for there to be two of the same name in the Ling Clan because the weaker of the two would be forced to change his or her.

Therefore, this was definitely him.

“It’s probably because I defeated Ling Chong, Ling Fei, and also competed with Ling Tieshou, so my rank advanced.”

Ling Xiao couldn’t come up with any other possibility besides this.

“A little interesting. Although entering the top 200 deserves some happiness, it is still too low. This annual competition will absolutely be my chance!”


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