Lin Guanquan was very excited.
Having become the chief of the Seasonal Rain Palace at a very young age, he could be regarded as an outstanding talent in the Rain Clan. Originally, he had a promising future, but his prestige among the people of the Rain Clan had declined sharply because of the heavy losses suffered during the fight in Shiyu Manor.
This time, he finally took first place again.
He was the first practitioner of the Rain Clan to be included in the Earth Rankings List in thousands of years.
This achievement would raise his status in the Rain Clan and help him regain the favor of the elders.
Accompanied by the cheers of other young practitioners of the Rain Clan, he walked down the stone stairway with a smug look on his face.
However, when Li Mu glanced at him, his heart trembled, and his excitement faded.
Lin Yuhan, whom the Rain Clan had high hopes on, suffered a crushing defeat in the fight with Wang Yanyi just now, which made Lin Guanquan realize something all of a sudden. Li Mu asked him to break one of his arms when he was at Shiyu Manor, which saved his life inadvertently. If Wang Yanyi had really been in Shiyu Manor that day, he probably would have died then.
Even though he was included on the Earth Rankings List, he was still no match for Li Mu.
After the first person became included on the Earth Rankings List, there would soon be followers.
Countless practitioners scrambled up the stone stairway and struck the stone tablets, trying to get on the lists.
At such a moment, they no longer hid their true cultivation level and fighting power, and they couldn’t use their reputation and seniority to their advantage anymore. The gaps between them were revealed in the most straightforward way.
Some practitioners struck the stone tablets with all their strength, but they still couldn’t make the stone tablets show their names, which meant that they were not even qualified to be ranked.
Some others struck the stone tablets casually, but their names appeared on the tablets.
Moreover, the greater one’s power was, the higher their rankings would be.
In about an hour, the names of more than three hundred practitioners had been included on the Human Rankings List and the Earth Rankings List. Among the 215 names on the Earth Rankings List, the name of Lin Guanquan, the chief of the Rain Clan’s Seasonal Rain Palace, was ranked 47th, which was a quite high ranking.
Besides him, eight other practitioners from the Rain Clan were on the Earth Rankings List too.
This result made the people of the Rain Clan very excited.
Li Mu watched with interest for a while, then he turned around and asked Cloud Light Saintess, “What’s the difference between the three lists?”
Cloud Light Saintess scoffed at Li Mu inwardly. “You don’t even know that. What a country bumpkin!” However, she replied briefly, “Those who are in the King Realm can get on the Human Rankings List, those who are in the Upper King Realm can get on the Earth Rankings List, and those who are in the Deity Realm can get on the Heaven Rankings List. The three lists of Heaven, Earth and Human correspond to three different realms.”
Li Mu was stunned.
“Is it that simple? Does it mean that those who are in the King Realm can’t get on the Earth Rankings List and that those in the Upper King Realm can’t get on the Heaven Rankings List? This classification method is too stringent, isn’t it? Were the rules made by the Celestial Court?”
Cloud Light Saintess said, “The stone tablets are divine artifacts imbued with spiritual powers. They can identify different realms. Moreover, it is very difficult for practitioners in the King Realm to leave their names on the Earth Rankings List. The inclusion of their names on that list is just wishful thinking on their part unless they have the ability to fight those who are at higher levels.”
Li Mu chuckled when he heard that.
He thought of something very fun.
“Which list do you want to be on?” He asked.
“The Earth Rankings List for sure,” Cloud Light Saintess replied confidently.
She had already decided to compete for the ranking. She strode toward the stone tablet for the Earth Rankings List without any hesitation.
When they saw her walking up the stone steps, the people around her immediately fixed their eyes on her.
After all, she was considered one of the few most powerful young practitioners of the six major Divine Clans. Moreover, due to her beauty and elegance, she attracted a lot of attention and was regarded by the practitioners of many immortal sects as one of their goddesses.
With a look of absolute confidence on her beautiful face, she walked up the stone steps and came to the stone tablet for the Earth Rankings List erected on the stone platform.
Boom!
She struck the stone tablet heavily with a finger.
Golden beams of light erupted from the stone tablet.
Numerous golden patterns which resembled tadpoles appeared around the stone tablet, rose up, and formed two large words above the stone tablet—
Li Rouran!
The name was ranked in first place, higher than all the other names on the Earth Rankings List! The letters that made up the name were the largest, emitting dazzling light like that of the golden sun that almost blinded the people, who could not open their eyes due to the glare.
Li Rouran ranked first on the Earth Rankings List.
The crowd burst into exclamations.
Li Mu murmured in surprise.
“Is Li Rouran her real name?”
He remembered that her master called her “Yun’er”, so he thought that there should be the word “Yun” in her real name. Unexpectedly, she had such a beautiful name, and her surname was the same as his.
Cloud Light Saintess closed her eyes slowly when she saw her name appear at the top of the Earth Rankings List.
She found that she was not overly excited at this achievement.
She turned around and walked down the stone stairway.
She walked toward the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List instead of returning to Li Mu’s side.
As the crowd watched in surprise, she walked up the stone steps and came to the stone tablet.
“What is she going to do?”
“The Heaven Rankings List? Isn’t it enough for her to be on the Earth Rankings List? Does she want to get on the Heaven Rankings List too?”
“How could she be so confident?”
“Does she think she has the ability to fight the masters in the Deity Realm?”
Everyone started talking about her.
The practitioners of various immortal sects were not very surprised to see her take first place on the Earth Rankings List. After all, she was one of the most outstanding successors of the six major Divine Clans. However, many of them were shocked when they saw her walking toward the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List.
“That’s a little crazy.”
“She’s just a master in the Upper King Realm. How could she get on the Heaven Rankings List?”
“She must be kidding.”
Since ancient times, very few people had been able to do so.
At the moment, there was not a single name on the Heaven Rankings List. The masters of the older generation in the Deity Realm were not in a hurry to take action, and there was no master in the Deity Realm among the rising stars of the new generation. Perhaps the real big shots would not show up until the last moment.
Under the gazes of countless people, Cloud Light Saintess stood in front of the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List and began to activate her power.
This time, she didn’t act as casually as she did in front of the stone tablet for the Earth Rankings List. Cloud lights swirled as she accumulated power. Some extremely strange changes took place inside her. Her aura surged like a raging wave in the Blood Sea, and an invisible strong force spread out from the stone platform, making all the people in the inner square feel suffocated.
Li Mu’s pupils suddenly constricted.
“Has this woman… become more powerful?
“It seems that the combination of the two ultimate secret skills, the Cloud Palace Invisible Locking Technique and the Cloud Light Heaven-startling Finger Strike, has increased her aura and fighting power considerably. She seems to be a completely different person now.
“I’m sure that she didn’t have this kind of power when she engaged in the battle behind the Gate of the Ancestors. She must have mastered those ultimate skills recently. It seems that she did learn something and improve a lot in that battle. She deserves to be called a martial arts genius of the Cloud Clan.”
Li Mu realized something.
He believed that was one of the reasons why she was so confident in getting on the Heaven Rankings List.
Boom!
As the crowd watched, Cloud Light Saintess struck the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List with a finger.
Terrifying energy waves surged and spread in all directions like lead clouds. The looks on the faces of the people around the stone platform changed drastically, and they subconsciously stepped back to avoid being hit by the terrifying blast of waves. Even ordinary masters in the Upper King Realm couldn’t afford to be hit by these waves.
Right at that moment, a beam of soft light suddenly flashed by the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List.
The stone tablet had absorbed all the blast waves produced by the finger strike.
Golden patterns flashed on the surface of the stone tablet and converged in the same direction as fish swimming in the water. The trajectories of these patterns were untraceable.
“How could there… be divine patterns?”
“No way. Is she really going to leave her name on the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List?”
“What a joke!”
“Is Cloud Light Saintess… really… that powerful?”
“Is the top genius of the new generation in the Deity Realm about to emerge?”
Countless practitioners watched the scene with extremely shocked looks on their faces, their mouths agape in wonder. This scene was indeed very frightening. The figure of Cloud Light Saintess in front of the giant stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List looked as tiny as a small piece of rock at the foot of Mount Tai, but she really made the stone tablet shake.
However, things soon took a different turn.
The golden divine patterns on the surface of the stone tablet gradually dimmed before they could completely converge. In the end, they disappeared like water seeping into the sand.
No name was left on the stone tablet.
Everything returned to normal.
Disappointment flashed across Cloud Light Saintess’s face.
The crowd broke into sighs of sympathy.
“She almost did it. She came so close to success.”
“She almost worked a miracle, but she failed in the end.”
“As expected, it’s impossible for a master in the Upper King Realm to challenge the Heaven Rankings List.”
Cloud Light Saintess turned around and walked down the stone stairway from the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List with a calm look on her face. She walked over to Li Mu and stood behind him in silence with her hands clasped behind her back, as if the crowds’ sighs and gazes of sympathy and awe did not affect her in the least.
Li Mu was keenly aware that some changes had taken place inside this woman.
Some… terrifying transformations.
Just then, the crowd broke out with exclamations of surprise.
A burly young man wearing a square scarf and a scholar’s robe walked slowly toward the stone tablet for the Earth Rankings List.
He was the successor of the Thunder Clan named Lei Cang.
When he didn’t need to fight, he liked to take off his Divine Armor and put on a scholar’s robe and a square scarf, which looked very out of place with his burly build. However, he just liked to dress in that way.
As the successor of the Thunder Clan—one of the six major Divine Clans, he was known to be on par with Cloud Light Saintess.
Of course, reputation sometimes didn’t mean everything.
Young Master Tingyu, who died in the wilderness, was as famous as Lei Cang and Cloud Light Saintess, but he was far from being a match for them in terms of performance in combat. The overall strength of the Rain Clan was somewhat inadequate.
Boom!
A bolt of lightning struck the stone tablet for the Earth Rankings List.
Beams of light swirled.
Golden divine patterns which shone brightly appeared on the surface of the stone tablet, converged, and formed two large words in an instant.
Lei Cang.
It was the true name of the Thunder Clan’s successor.
As the crowd watched curiously, these two words rose up continuously, overtook the names on the stone tablet for the Earth Rankings List, and finally stopped moving at the top of the stone tablet.
The new top master on the Earth Rankings List emerged.
Lei Cang, the successor of the Thunder Clan, overtook Cloud Light Saintess and became the new top master on the Earth Rankings List.
The practitioners of the Thunder Clan around the stone tablet cheered loudly and excitedly.
The practitioners of the Cloud Clan looked indignant, but there was nothing they could do about it.
The six major Divine Clans of the Celestial Court seemed to be very close to each other, but in fact, they had been fiercely contending against each other in secret to gain the upper hand.
Lei Cang’s lips curled into a faint smile.
Standing on the stone platform, he turned around and cast a glance at Cloud Light Saintess.
Cloud Light Saintess stood behind Li Mu with her head down and hands folded, expressionless, as if what was happening had nothing to do with her. She just took first place on the Earth Rankings List, but the first place had been taken over by someone else in such a short while. However, she didn’t seem too bothered about that.
Li Mu could clearly feel that she really was not in the least affected and she was not merely pretending that she didn’t care.
“It seems that this woman’s mindset has really reached a higher level.”
As expected, Lei Cang walked down the stone steps from the stone tablet for the Earth Rankings List and stepped toward the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List with a confident look on his face.
“Even Cloud Light Saintess, who was now ranked second on the Earth Rankings List, could strike the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List. The golden divine patterns produced by her almost converged and formed her name. I rank first on the Earth Rankings List, so I can surely go further and become the first practitioner in the Upper King Realm to get on the Heaven Rankings List.
“This is a unique glory.”
Lei Cang felt very confident.
Most of the practitioners around him had the same thought.
He walked slowly to the stone tablet for the Heaven Rankings List.
