The crowd only saw a young man with eyebrows sharp like swords, who was wearing a long white robe with three lines of purple-golden runes around the sleeves. A huge, almost-illegible character '南' (‘Nan’ = south) could be seen on his chest, and above it was a red line of runic words. He stepped forward with an obscure yet demeaning aura.
Two other young men in similar clothing were following on each side of him. However, there were only two lines of purple-golden runes around their sleeves, while there was no sign of the runic words above the character.
Behind the crew of five was an old man and ten other cultivators with respectful expressions.
The old man was the butler of the City Lord’s Mansion.
"Three lines of purple-golden runes and the runic words of the God Ranking, could he be an inner disciple of the South-Heaven Sacred Ground, a genius of the God Ranking?"
"I know who he is, the one who's ranked nine thousand three hundred and twenty-seventh on the God Ranking, Ning Jianfei!"
"What? Nine thousand three hundred and twenty-seventh?"
"Why would someone like that come here?"
The experts were slightly startled.
Everyone knew that Linran City was considered average among the factions in the half-God region. It was normal to see some inner disciples of the eight ancient tribes here, but that was not the same for the inner disciples from the three great factions, particularly those ranked on the God Ranking.
Most of them would consider Linran City as somewhere too remote and boring.
Meanwhile, Qin Nan's eyes were filled with doubts.
He had just inspected Ning Jianfei with his left eye of the Divine God of Battle. His cultivation was only at the peak Martial Progenitor Realm. Besides, wasn't his ranking on the God Ranking merely nine thousand three hundred and twenty-seventh? Why would the people be impressed by him?
"Brother Ning, why are you here?"
Dong Kuo immediately wore a joyful look as he walked up to the young man without a single hint of his previous scornful attitude.
"I've got my eyes on something, and I happened to be passing by as well, so I've come to check the auction out."
Ning Jianfei said calmly without casting a direct glance at Dong Kuo.
"Brother Ning, you've come at the right time. I would like to introduce you a genius, his name is Duan Qing, and his eye-technique…"
Dong Kuo said as he suddenly came up with a plan.
It was most likely that Duan Qing had some sort of background since his eye-technique was incredible. He had no confidence to beat him at all, but if he were able to provoke Ning Jianfei into dealing with Duan Qing, there was no way Duan Qing could win regardless of how talented he was.
"Not interested, I'll talk to you later."
Ning Jianfei quickly glanced in Qin Nan's direction and withdrew his gaze. He turned around and headed for the booth on the second floor.
Be it Duan Qing whom Dong Kuo had mentioned or anyone else in the crowd, they were not significant enough to let him stay any longer.
"What's with his attitude? Isn't he just a genius of the God Ranking?"
Zhan Xiaoxian murmured under her breath seeing this.
"What did you say?"
To her surprise, the four disciples of the South-Heaven Sacred Ground immediately wore murderous looks hearing the comment.
"What now? Looking for a fight? Let me tell you, the others might be afraid of you, but that doesn't include myself."
Zhan Xiaoxian said with a cold harrumph.
Her brother had an outstanding status in the Battle Tribe, thus she did have the right to challenge the disciples.
The faces of the four disciples of the South-Heaven Sacred Ground immediately turned cold. Before they could do anything, Ning Jianfei's calm voice could be heard coming from the booth, "Come up here, there's no point in arguing with someone from a fake ancient tribe. It would bring shame upon ourselves."
"Acknowledged, Senior Brother."
The four glared at Zhan Xiaoxian before turning around and left.
"You…"
Zhan Xiaoxian was so infuriated that her nose almost went out of shape.
She hated those who claimed them to be a fake ancient tribe the most.
"Hold your ground." Yi Feng immediately pulled Zhan Xiaoxian back seeing this, "Let's head to the booth first."
Zhan Xiaoxian calmed down slightly after hearing this. She clenched her teeth and proceeded to the second floor.
The experts were slightly disappointed. They initially thought Zhan Xiaoxian would be bold enough to start a fight for them to watch.
Dong Kuo and his crew headed straight to the booth where Ning Jianfei was seated.
To them, it was a great chance for them to fawn over him.
If possible, they could even provoke Ning Jianfei to deal with Duan Qing.
As for Zhan Xiaoxian, she blurted out the moment she entered the booth, "Master Yi Feng, why did you stop me? My brother is ranked around nine thousand one hundredth on the God Ranking, which is significantly higher than him. I'm not afraid of him!"
Yi Feng wore a wry smile hearing this, "That's your brother after all. If you started a fight, even if he were to kill you on the spot, he would have an excuse to do so. Your brother wouldn't even have a reason to avenge you."
"Uhh…"
Zhan Xiaoxian was left speechless.
"This Ning Jianfei is only ranked nine thousand three hundred and twenty-seventh on the God Ranking, is that enough for him to be so proud?"
Qin Nan who had been quite confused finally got a chance to ask the question.
"Only nine thousand three hundred and twenty-seventh? Are you saying that it's not high enough?"
Zhan Xiaoxian seemed surprised.
"Hehe, Cultivator Duan Qing, it's fine that you don't know the details since you've just come to the half-God region." Yi Feng smilingly said, "The rank of nine thousand three hundred and twenty-seventh can be considered quite impressive for ordinary cultivators in the half-God region, as the ranking is quite different than the one you have in the Middle Continent."
"Mm?" Qin Nan's eyes flickered with interest.
"Firstly, only those ranked in the top ten thousand would be marked with the special runic words, which you saw on Ning Jianfei's chest. Therefore, the God Ranking is also known as the Ten Thousand People Ranking."
"Secondly, those ranked in the top two thousand five hundred are all Martial Monarch Realm experts."
"Thirdly, only a limited number of people have the chance to participate in the Monarch Horoscope Contest or the God Horoscope Contest. As a result, the number of Martial Monarch Realm experts and cultivators will always increase. According to some news a few years ago, the number of cultivators on the God Ranking has exceeded fifty thousand people."
Yi Feng patiently explained.
Qin Nan's heart shuddered. It all made sense now.
After all, the Martial Monarch Realm experts alone had occupied the top two thousand five hundred spots, not to mention the generations of cultivators that were still ranked on the God Ranking. As a result, it was incredibly difficult to rise up to the top ten thousand.
"Senior, If I'm not mistaken, the Hundred Forms Silver Soul Flower has something to do with Ning Jianfei, right?"
Qin Nan's eyes flickered as he transmitted his voice.
"I'm not so sure about that, you have to investigate it yourself."
Yi Feng said with a mysterious smile.
Qin Nan did not ask further, as he would only need to stick to the task at hand when the time came.
There was still some time until the auction began. Qin Nan suddenly recalled the unusual reaction of the Heaven-Shattering Saber, left eye, and left arm some time ago, thus he immediately chatted with Zhan Xiaoxian to learn more about the Battle Tribe.
It went without saying that Zhan Xiaoxian was willing to answer every single one of his questions. However, she was entirely clueless about the secrets of the Battle Tribe as well, thus she only knew the basic information.
"The things that Zhan Xiaoxian has mentioned and the roaring of their blood is quite interesting. Maybe I should pay a visit to the Battle Tribe if I have the time."
Qin Nan made up his mind.
Following this, one formidable cultivator after another arrived at the palace for the Linran Dragon Lunar Private Gathering…
