97: Chapter 97 The Prodigy Ranking

Time is nothing but a flowing river; whether you care or not, it flows on methodically. Of course, if you don't watch it, it might flow for an entire ocean's length without you even noticing.

For an immortal cultivator, fifty years is just a blink of an eye.

Fifty years have passed since you arrived on the Tianheng Continent.

For a Mortal, fifty years is already the better part of a lifetime, but for a long-lived immortal cultivator, fifty years is merely a snap of the fingers.

Time is vast and fleeting.

You have spent these fifty years staying in Qingfeng City.

This is a city under the Great Cloud Empire. The strongest person in the city is the City Lord of Qingfeng City, who should be a Nascent Soul Cultivator.

You look outside. The city gates are tightly shut, and a large group of refugees outside is knocking on the gates, begging for them to be opened so they can enter. The scene inside the city doesn't seem much better; adults with children, dragging luggage, are also running. Those outside cannot get in, and those inside want to get out.

"So chaotic," you say, looking outside.

"I heard that the Great Cloud Empire's border army was defeated by the Great Qian Empire's army, and now the Great Qian Empire's army is heading this way," Venerable Li Kun says.

"Tsk," you click your tongue.

"Aren't you running?" At this moment, you are sitting in the restaurant on the ground floor of this hotel. There are quite a few people in the restaurant, and the waiter is not panicking, serving your dishes in an unhurried manner.

"You're joking, honored guest. Aren't you an immortal cultivator yourself? Even if the Great Qian army comes, they wouldn't dare do anything to us immortal cultivators." The waiter looks outside. At this moment, a woman is tripped and falls to the ground. The people around her do not stop at all, stepping on her body as they continue to run.

Just as the woman tries to get up, she is stepped on by a large pair of feet. She lets out a few cries before falling silent. A small boy nearby is crying; it seems to be her son.

The waiter places the dishes on your table, emitting an enticing aroma.

"What a pitiful Mortal," the waiter says, looking at the wailing boy.

You don't speak, instead picking up a piece of meat and putting it in your mouth. It must be deep-fried; it is very crispy and delicious.

"Waiter, hurry up and chase that crying boy away. If it weren't for there being too many people, I would have killed them all already," a man says, looking at the wailing child.

The waiter responds, "I'll handle it right away, honored guest."

When the waiter returns, his hands are stained with blood. Seeing you looking at him, he smiles, "Forgive me, honored guest, it was just a Mortal!"

"Where is the previous waiter?" you ask him. "I haven't seen that old fellow for quite some time."

In fact, when you first arrived, that waiter was still a young man. You remember him holding a wedding in this hotel, marrying a wife, and later a small child running over to call him 'Daddy'.

You hadn't seen him for a while, and he has been replaced by this young man.

Come to think of it, you seem to have stayed here for quite a long time.

"You are joking, honored guest. My father passed away from natural causes a year ago," the waiter says.

You still don't speak, looking at this waiter. "So you are his son."

It seems indeed that a long time has passed.

"Do you have any candy?" you say to the waiter.

"Yes, honored guest," the waiter asks. "What kind of candy would you like?"

"Lollipops, the kind with a stick at the bottom that you can hold while eating."

After quite a while, the waiter brings it up. "Is this the kind of candy you mean?"

"Yes."

You take a few, peel off the wrapper, and put one in your mouth. It's strawberry-flavored, but it doesn't taste very good.

That makes sense; you never really liked eating these sweets anyway.

"Let's go, Venerable Li Kun," you say, sucking on the lollipop while looking at Venerable Li Kun. "I suddenly lost my appetite."

"Oh, all right, Your Highness!" Venerable Li Kun says.

'Your Highness' is how Venerable Li Kun addresses you. At first, he called you 'Fellow Daoist', but after witnessing your unfathomable methods, he wanted to call you 'Senior'. In the end, whether it was your chuunibyou acting up or something else, you made him address you as 'Your Highness'.

"Venerable Li Kun, how long have I been on the Tianheng Continent?" you can't help but ask.

"Fifty years, Your Highness," Venerable Li Kun says after calculating. He truly cannot believe that only fifty years have passed.

In fifty years, with your help, he has broken through to the Peak Stage of Return to Void cultivation.

It has only been fifty years. Fifty years is just a snap of the fingers for an immortal cultivator. If it weren't for you, let alone fifty years, even if it were five hundred years, he wouldn't have the confidence to break through to the Middle Stage of Soul Transformation.

"Fifty years, huh," you murmur to yourself. "I've almost forgotten the feeling of time passing. So fifty years have already passed; I thought only fifty days had gone by."

"That is how it is, Your Highness. The more powerful a Cultivator is, the more this happens. I have heard that for those Mahayana True Immortals, three hundred years is an autumn, and three hundred years is a winter; even a thousand years of time is merely a snap of the fingers to them."

You nod. "You should be ready to break through to Body Integration, right?"

"It is all thanks to your blessing, Your Highness."

You look at the Spiritual Root within him and say, "Then go and break through. And bring me some dinner while you're at it."

Venerable Li Kun leaves the room. You suck on the candy, "Still doesn't taste very good."

You feel the Formation that has been constantly preventing you from absorbing Spiritual Qi.

Now you can already discern the Rank of this Formation. It is only a Body Integration Realm Formation, but the person who set it up must have had Undergoing Tribulation cultivation.

To put it simply, this Formation grants Spiritual Roots to living beings on Earth and the Tianheng Continent when they are born. A so-called Spiritual Root is, frankly, just the permission to absorb Spiritual Qi. Like your High Grade Profound Spiritual Root, the permission is one hundred units of Spiritual Qi per second; once it exceeds this value, it gets restricted.

However, the speed at which a person can absorb Spiritual Qi is not granted by the Spiritual Root, but depends on their own innate talent.

In other words, it's not that you are good because you have a good Spiritual Root; it's that you have good talent, so you are given a good Spiritual Root.

This Formation detects a person's talent at birth and grants them a Spiritual Root. Of course, the granting of Spiritual Roots is not one hundred percent accurate. You have also heard that some people have a Heavenly Spiritual Root, but their lifelong achievements only reach the Nascent Soul Realm. According to the people of the Tianheng Continent, this is a waste of a Heavenly Spiritual Root.

But in your view, it is the Formation that made a mistake, giving a Spiritual Root that was too high, which did not match the person's talent.

You don't know who set up this Formation, but their level... you have no words to describe it.

You must know that this is only a Body Integration level Formation, yet it covers the entire Tianheng Continent and has been operating throughout the millions of years of the Tianheng Continent's history. Even when it makes mistakes, there are only a few cases.

If one really had to say something, it would be: terrifyingly powerful!!!

You have been studying this Formation for fifty years, and only now have you finally obtained a sliver of authority over it.

That is to say, you can now modify the Rank of Spiritual Roots.

However, the maximum authority for a Spiritual Root is Saint Grade Heavenly Spiritual Root.

Even if you give an ordinary person a Saint Grade Heavenly Spiritual Root, it is basically useless. Take Venerable Li Kun for example; you had already tried modifying his Spiritual Root to a Heavenly Spiritual Root, but it was completely useless—Venerable Li Kun's Spiritual Qi absorption speed did not increase.

A Spiritual Root is merely the maximum capacity for Spiritual Qi absorption speed.

If one's own talent is lacking, it's still lacking.

Furthermore, even the absorption speed of a Saint Grade Heavenly Spiritual Root is still too slow for you.

Therefore, you tried loading multiple Spiritual Roots into your own body to increase the absorption rate—to put it simply, to exploit a bug in this restrictive Formation.

But you failed. You tried putting hundreds of Earthly Spiritual Roots into your body to increase the Spiritual Qi absorption rate, but once you reached the maximum value of a Saint Grade Heavenly Spiritual Root, you were stuck.

Helpless, you could only find another way.

Finally, the method you found was to not follow the path of immortal cultivation, but to use other means to break through.

In fact, there have been such cases on the Tianheng Continent. The most famous one is the Heavenly Sword Great Emperor. It is said that he only had a Low Grade Yellow Spiritual Root, yet he entered the Dao through the sword and finally attained the cultivation of a Tribulation Transcendence Great Emperor.

But unfortunately, this was hundreds of thousands of years ago, and there is no information on how this Great Emperor entered the Dao through the sword.

Helpless, you could only start from zero yourself. Coincidentally, Mu Xue is not by your side right now.

Then you spent one year entering the Dao through airplanes, stepping directly into Undergoing Tribulation.

But no matter what, there was no way to step into the Mahayana Realm.

Immediately after, you entered the Dao through Medicinal Pills, Formations, and swords... You felt that you had entered the Dao through everything possible, and now your body contained an unknown amount of cultivation from countless Undergoing Tribulation stages stacked together.

Yet, no matter what, you still couldn't reach a Breakthrough to the Mahayana Realm.

What was even stranger was that your immortal cultivator cultivation still existed on the side; over these years, you had subconsciously absorbed Spiritual Qi, and you were already at the Early Stage of Soul Transformation.

"Your Highness, I have achieved a Breakthrough," Venerable Li Kun said upon returning to you.

"Hmm." You nodded. Over these years, under your careful guidance...

Venerable Li Kun, this fool, was finally able to reach the cultivation speed of a Medium Grade Heavenly Spiritual Root.

The thing you feared most now was Venerable Li Kun suddenly running over to ask you, "Your Highness, there are some places here I do not understand."

Hearing that sentence made your head spin, and you even considered whether you should just kill this fool!

After stretching your muscles and bones, you felt that you should leave this small place.

Although you couldn't be called invincible in this world with your current strength, you had more than enough to protect yourself.

You wanted to go find Mu Xue.

It had been fifty years since you last met.

Just as you were thinking this, golden light suddenly appeared in the sky.

"It's the Heavenly Pride Ranking of the Tianji Pavilion!" Venerable Li Kun said from the side.

"This is the Heavenly Pride Ranking that the Tianji Pavilion releases every hundred years. Those on the list are all famous Prodigies on the continent under a hundred years old, totaling one hundred people." Venerable Li Kun looked at the golden light and said excitedly, "This is not the first time I have seen this list, but I know that Your Highness will definitely be the number one on this Heavenly Pride Ranking!"

"Is that so?" You said, looking at the golden scroll in the sky.

You felt that your Undergoing Tribulation cultivation was somewhat like a bug you had exploited, and you didn't know if the Tianji Pavilion could detect it.

The scroll slowly unfurled.

"Knowing the past, present, and future."

"Understanding Yin and Yang to determine the universe."

"Today, the Tianji Pavilion releases the Tianheng Continent Heavenly Pride Ranking. All Prodigies under a hundred years old may be listed."

100th Place: Ouyang Nan'an

Cultivation: Nascent Soul Peak

Affiliation: Wanbao Pavilion

Reward: One Five Elements Medicinal Pill

99th Place: Xing Tianshou

Cultivation: Nascent Soul Peak

Affiliation: Loose Cultivator

Reward: Rank 5 Spiritual Artifact, Heaven-Breaking Spear

...

The golden list in the sky kept calling out; although it was a bit noisy, you found it quite interesting.

"How does one obtain these rewards?" You asked.

"You can go to the local branch of the Tianji Pavilion to claim them," Venerable Li Kun said, looking at the Golden List with great interest, as if he were looking forward to seeing your name appear.

You looked at the Golden List, deep in thought. Although this Heavenly Pride Ranking gave rewards, one had to go to a Tianji Pavilion branch to claim them. It was fine for Prodigies from large Sects, but for those Loose Cultivators—not to mention the risk of being killed for their treasures—these large Sects might not even let these Loose Cultivators leave.

However, perhaps some people were just looking forward to making it onto this Heavenly Pride Ranking and then joining a large Sect.

The Heavenly Pride Ranking continued. The top fifty seemed to all be at the Nascent Soul Peak cultivation, and roughly one in every ten was a Loose Cultivator.

By around the fiftieth place, they were already at the Soul Transformation cultivation.

At the thirty-second place, you saw a familiar name.

32nd Place: Chen Tianxiao

Affiliation: Tianyuan Sect

Cultivation: Soul Transformation Early Stage

Reward: One Concentration Medicinal Pill

You couldn't help but smile when you saw this name.

Starting from the fiftieth place, you basically couldn't see any Loose Cultivators anymore. Between the fiftieth and twentieth place, you only saw one Loose Cultivator.

But it was also reasonable. This world was not a novel; there were no Loose Cultivators rising from obscurity. Most were heaven-favored children cultivated by large Sects.

Then, at the eleventh place, you finally saw a Loose Cultivator.

11th Place: Lin Heng

Affiliation: Loose Cultivator

Cultivation: Soul Transformation Early Stage

Reward: Rank 6 Spiritual Artifact, Heaven's Net Sword, ten Concentration Medicinal Pills

"Impossible!" Venerable Li Kun looked at the list with a face full of confusion. "Absolutely impossible. How could Your Highness only have Soul Transformation Early Stage cultivation? How could you only be eleventh?!"

"Alright, Venerable Li Kun," you said. "Keep watching."

This Tianji Pavilion really had something; your immortal cultivator cultivation was indeed only at the Soul Transformation Early Stage.

As soon as your name appeared on the Heavenly Pride Ranking, the entire continent was in an uproar. In the top twenty, this was the first time they had seen a Loose Cultivator.

Since the founding of the Tianji Pavilion, the Heavenly Pride Ranking had been released thousands of times. Very few Loose Cultivators had ever entered the top twenty. One had to know that they did not have the resource allocation of large Sects.

Countless Sects began investigating in secret, wanting to find out who you were, hoping to get you to join their own Sect.

They all knew that if someone like you received the cultivation of a large Sect, not to mention becoming a Tribulation Transcendence Great Emperor, you would at least become an Integration Venerable!

Sword Sect.

A young girl had a sword tucked at her waist, her face beautiful, with a lollipop in her mouth. When she saw your name appear, she suddenly smiled. "Eleventh place, huh!"

The corners of her eyes curved slightly, revealing a mischievous smile like a little devil.

The Disciples nearby were astonished to see the young girl laughing.

"This is the first time I've seen Senior Sister laugh so happily!"

The list continued.

Starting from the tenth place, the cultivation was already at the Soul Transformation Middle Stage.

So it was reasonable that you were placed at eleventh.

10th Place: Su Qinghe

Affiliation: Sword Sect

Cultivation: Soul Transformation Middle Stage

Reward: Rank 7 Spiritual Artifact Flowing Cloud Sword, three Marrow-Cleansing Enlightenment Medicinal Pills

...

From the tenth to the third place, all had Soul Transformation Middle Stage cultivation.

And in the second place, you saw a familiar figure.

2nd Place: Chu Nanxuan

Affiliation: Loose Cultivator

Cultivation: Soul Transformation Peak

Reward: Rank 6 Demonic Bone Battle Armor, three Asura Dao Heart Fruits

"Chu Nanxuan!" You smiled inexplicably when you saw this name. Speaking of which, it seemed you still had to kill this guy once.

After all, Prisoner 5 had told Chu Nanxuan that he would kill you the next time they met.

It wouldn't make sense if you didn't kill him once.

Speaking of which, the other party seemed to always refer to himself as "this Emperor." So, his cultivation before Rebirth must have been a Tribulation Transcendence Great Emperor?

If that were true, if you killed a Tribulation Transcendence Great Emperor now, and he didn't die in two moves, you'd consider yourself a failure!

The golden light slowed, and the first place was finally revealed.

Speaking of which, Chen Tianxiao had made the list, but you still hadn't seen that name, and now only one spot remained.

You had already guessed who the first place was.

1st Place: General Zhou Muxue

Affiliation: Sword Sect

Cultivation: Void Return Middle Stage

Reward: Rank 7 Void Dharma Robe, one Body Integration Realm Barrier-Breaking Medicinal Pill

Brilliant Dao sounds echoed through heaven and earth, resounding across the entire Tianheng Continent, lingering for a long time.

Thus, all rankings for this year's Tianheng Continent Heavenly Pride Ranking were fully announced!

The moment the list settled, a vast and solemn Tianji Dao sound resonated simultaneously in every corner of the Tianheng Continent, entering the ears of all Cultivators, clear and unmistakable.

"All Prodigies on this year's Heavenly Pride Ranking may go to the nearest Tianji Pavilion branch to claim their corresponding list rewards.

Top Prodigies ranked in the top twenty of the Heavenly Pride Ranking must go to the Tianji Pavilion headquarters in Central Province to claim exclusive top-tier rewards and the honor of being a continental Prodigy.

In addition, ten days later, the Tianji Pavilion in Central Province will hold a Prodigy Competition. Anyone who is dissatisfied with this Heavenly Pride Ranking or believes their strength far exceeds their ranking may take the stage to fight, freely challenging higher-ranked Prodigies. Ultimately, the rankings will be re-determined by actual combat strength. All victories and defeats will be decided solely by the strength in your hands!"

"Let's go, Venerable Li Kun." You said, looking at the golden light fading in the sky.

"Where are we going, Your Highness?"

"To Central Province, to the Tianji Pavilion!" You said, sucking on a lollipop. "To teach the first place of this Heavenly Pride Ranking a lesson!"

Venerable Li Kun immediately became interested. "That's right, I just felt that this Tianji Pavilion made a mistake; the first place should have been Your Highness!"