Noticing the relaxed smile and thoughtful look on Xiao Chen’s face, Elder Wu asked, “What? Did you think I’m just scaring you, young man?”

“Of course not.”

Xiao Chen laughed. He still possessed Bai Ying’s Wisdom-forsaking Technique, you know. People laughed off the technique before the Annihilation Times, but this cultivation method would prove to be a supreme one right now!

It would be hard for him to raise his cultivation grade and the Mystic Stones wouldn’t be of much help either. But what if he paired the stones with the Wisdom-forsaking Technique? “Terrifying” would be the only appropriate word to describe the outcome.

The technique didn’t simply involve degenerating one’s cultivation. If that was the case, everyone was free to undo cultivation as they pleased. Rather, it was about using a special cultivation method to remove the dross of the cultivation, leaving behind only its essence. The same logic applied to steelmaking. It took a lot of smoldering for iron to turn to steel.

However, Xiao Chen still had misgivings. He frowned. He was in the Qi Refining Realm back then, so it was so easy to use the technique. Degenerating fourth-level Nirvana Realm would be a lot more challenging. Moreover, Bai Ying wasn’t here to help him now. Could he pull this off on his own?

Bai Ying… Xiao Chen suddenly remembered catching a fleeting glimpse of a graceful silhouette when he first came here. From behind, the person resembled Bai Ying. Could it be…? No, it was impossible. He shook his head. How could Bai Ying appear in the Wastelands when she was in the Human World? It didn’t make any sense at all.

Moments later, the other disciples gradually poured out of the stone chamber after their Mystic Power test. Most understood the extent of their strength, so they didn’t look too disappointed when they saw their placement on the rankings. Only a few of them actually made their name appeared on the Human Ranking.

Jiang Qianqian made the 87th place of the Human Ranking, with Yumu Shisan in the 65th and Chu Qi in the 103rd. There were two other disciples who barely made the bottom of the Human Ranking. Xiao Chen was the only one who got into the Earth Ranking, in the 69th place.

Many youngsters cheered for him. Some of the older disciples, who were here to check out the newcomers, looked amazed and approving when they saw that a newbie had broken into the Earth Ranking.

Of course, Xiao Chen understood that their amazement would just serve as the worst poison if he were to be smug about it. There was still a long road ahead of him.

He looked up at the Heaven Ranking, where he found Ye Cangming in his eternal number one spot. In second place was Qiansha Yufeng, in third place was Jiang Ranchou, in fourth place was Cui Hanyan… In seventh place was Hua Lianyue… In tenth place was Yu Hanying…

He clenched his hands. One day, he swore his name would appear up there.

“All right, kids. Now, let me tell you how you can break into the rankings and get your hands on the Mystic Stones.”

No one noticed when Elder Wu walked out of the stone chamber. Everyone turned to look at him and heard him say, “You will get ten Stage-1 Mystic Stones every month and you can also earn them through completing missions. But the Mystic Sky Rankings are the key source of the stones.”

He paused for a beat before saying, “You will get your one-off reward for breaking into the rankings for the first time. You will also get a reward for staying in the rankings, to be accumulated every day and paid out every month. The higher your ranking is, the more rewards you accumulate. Do you understand, kids? You have to work hard. Of course, those who didn’t make the rankings have to work hard too. Mystic Stones accumulation is still based on your achievements, except your rewards will be fewer than those who are in the rankings.”

“Let me put it this way. This kid who is in the 69th place can accumulate approximately 30 stones a month.”

“Um…” Xiao Chen was feeling pretty awkward. To think that he could only get one stone a day. Elder Wu then pointed to the Heaven Ranking and said, “The top ten of the Heaven Ranking can get more than 30 stones a day.”

“Wow…” The crowd let out cries of amazement.

Xiao Chen was just as surprised. Wouldn’t this just help the strong get even stronger? How could people even work their way up? But, to be frank, only such cruel and intense competition could nurture an environment where everyone would work tirelessly for their future. It was much better than many sects, where they would only organize a sword-fighting competition every few years.

Elder Wu coughed twice, clearing his throat before continuing, “Now, let’s talk about entering the rankings. There are two ways to get your name on the rankings. First, you can do it via testing your Mystic Power, as you did earlier. This is the usual way. You can try once a day but remember: Your good condition today might allow you to reach the 30th place, but your poor condition tomorrow can drop you to the 50th place. That… would be pretty embarrassing. You might as well just stay in the 30th place and not do the test again.”

Xiao Chen frowned. “Then what’s the second way?”

“Good question, kid.” Elder Wu had quite a humorous way of talking. He looked at everyone and explained, “The second way is to challenge the rankings. You can select a person and try to kick him off. Of course, this is also done through the Mystic Power test. If your results are better than his, you can replace him on the rankings. If he wants to reenter the rankings, he can either pick up the challenge or go through an ordinary Mystic Power test. The Mystic Stones that he’s supposed to receive for the day would also be forfeited. I must make this clear: you cannot challenge someone who ranks lower than you.”

Elder Wu’s expression changed a little. Xiao Chen was so sharp-eyed that he instantly noticed this minute change. It seemed that there were quite a lot of cases where disciples issue challenges out of malice here. Even though there was a rule whereby one could not challenge a lower-ranking opponent, one could just get someone else to do it for him. That way, he could target anyone he wanted.

“Another thing,” Elder Wu added. “You have to pay a certain amount of Mystic Stones to issue a challenge. If you succeed, you can get half of that back. If you lose, you’ll surrender that amount to the person you challenged. For example, if you’re going to challenge this kid in the 69th place, you have to cough up ten Mystic Stones.”

Xiao Chen was speechless. Could this old man stop using him as an example…

“And if you want to challenge that person!” Elder Wu suddenly pointed to the first place on the Heaven Ranking, his expression turning solemn. “You’ll have to pay 1,000 Mystic Stones!”

“Wow…” The newcomers cried out in surprise.

“All right, that’s about it. Your fate is in your hands, not the Mystic Sky Rankings.”

Xiao Chen lowered his head to compose his thoughts. Fighting to get into the rankings was one thing, but challenging the rankings seemed… For some reason, he was getting a bad feeling about this. The main source of the Mystic Stones was the rankings reward. Even with the Wisdom-forsaking Technique, he would still need a lot of Mystic Stones.

Meanwhile, four old men were sitting in a little pavilion atop a certain floating island. One of them was sitting upright and still. He was the strict old man responsible for distributing badges to the newcomers earlier, the First Grandmaster. Sitting in the middle of the old men was a large mirror showcasing the situation in the Mystic Sky Pavilion.

“Elder Lei, what do you think? These newcomers…” An old man in cyan clothes looked at his stern-looking companion.

The stern-looking old man frowned and waved his hand. “Forget it. No matter how bad the past three batches were, they can’t compare with this batch. Let’s just leave it to Shui Yue.”

“Um…” The three other old men looked at each other. One of them said, “But I noticed a few good disciples in this batch, too. The one named Xiao Chen is especially promising. He made the Earth Ranking as soon as he joined. Elder Lei, why don’t you consider accepting a few of these good disciples? Leaving them to Shui Yue is a waste of their talents…”

“Talent?” The stern-looking old man cast a sidelong glance at the mirror and sneered. “He’s just relying on his fourth-level Nirvana Realm cultivation. If he’s in the Nascent Soul Realm, he won’t even make the Human Ranking. Just dump it on Shui Yue. I don’t want them.”

“Um…” His three companions hesitated. The one who spoke earlier added, “Even though the child is relying on his Nirvana Realm cultivation, his cultivation grade still has room for improvement. Him humbly seeking Elder Wu for advice shows that he’s the self-motivated kind. Why don’t you reconsider your decision? After all, what our academy lacks the most right now is talent…”

He then looked around and lowered his voice. “It was the same with that person back then. Had you accepted that person as your disciple, Chongyang wouldn’t have been able to become one of the Three Perfected Immortals…”

“Quiet!” the strict-looking old man shouted. He swiftly scanned their surroundings before turning his attention on the mirror. His brows furrowed as he looked deep in thought.

…

Back in the Mystic Sky Pavilion, Elder Wu continued to drone on to the newcomers until twilight arrived. He coughed twice before saying, “That’s about it. Kids, you will be meeting your masters. I’ll tell you about the four grandmasters at the Cloud Mist Academy. The First Grandmaster is called Lei Yan. He’s just like his name, thunderous and stern. He’s very strict, but every disciple under him has been extraordinary. They occupy nearly half of the Heaven Ranking.”

Xiao Chen narrowed his eyes. That must be the strict-looking old man who had issued them their badges. That man’s cultivation was indeed unfathomable. He wasn’t polite to Perfected Immortal Chongyang either, but for some reason, Xiao Chen just wasn’t comfortable with him.

“The Second Grandmaster…” The mention of the Second Grandmaster put a bright smile on Elder Wu’s face. “The Second Grandmaster is named Feng Wuhen. Again, he resembles his name that means traceless wind. He became an immortal a long time ago. He’s handsome and elegant. It’s unfortunate that I wasn’t able to achieve immortality…”

His outlandish expression made everyone laugh. It seemed that after chatting for a while, he didn’t seem all that scary anymore.

“The Third Grandmaster…” Elder Wu put his hand under his chin and narrowed his eyes. There was a strange smile on his face, which made him seem too cheeky for his status. He beamed and said, “The Third Grandmaster has achieved immortality a long time ago. Her name is Shui Yue. Like the moon in the water, she is every bit as charming as her name. Tsk, tsk, tsk. She can take away the soul of a person even 400 kilometers away…” He gestured the number four as he spoke.

Some in the crowd got tickled by his outlandish behavior. Some of the more innocent girls couldn’t take their eyes away from him. This Third Grandmaster must have very high cultivation to be able to take the soul of a person even 400 kilometers away!

Elder Wu shook his head, clicking his tongue as he droned on. He seemed to have forgotten about the Fourth Grandmaster altogether and didn’t even notice the sudden appearance of an elegant person standing on the teleportation formation.

“Elder Wu, you seemed bored.”

A woman’s voice, carrying a hint of amusement, drifted into everyone’s ears. The sound was like that of spring water hitting a bed of stones, of pearls hitting a jade plate, of the drizzle falling in the third month of the year. It was so mesmerizing that it felt like one’s soul was being consumed.

Xiao Chen was truly stunned at this moment.