Chapter 41: Last Place on the Mortal Rank, Lu Yuan
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio | Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Fence-sitters existed in every world.
For some major forces, rather than betting it all on one party and pursuing high risks for high returns, it was better to be a fence-sitter who invested a little on both sides, thus gaining low risk and low returns.
Betting it all on one party might offer one huge profit, but a fence-sitter would never lose.
One of the ways Taohua Sect proceeded in being a fence-sitter was to plant their disciples in both the righteous and devilish sects secretly.
In this way, no matter which side won in the end, they could stand on the winner’s side with this early investment
Of course, if Taohua Sect had been just a small sect, it wouldn’t have been able to do such a thing. Rather, it may have even been annexed by the winning side due to its movements.
However, in reality, the overall strength of the Taohua Seer was vaguely above all the other sects.
Whether it was the five righteous sects or the three devilish way sects, any of them alone was somewhat weaker than Taohua Sect.
It was also thanks to their strength that the Taohua Sect was qualified to sit on the fence.
Otherwise, did one really think that any power could be such a fence-sitter? Currently, Lu Yuan was clueless about Meng Ruyan’s true identity as a disciple of the Taohua Sect.
Although he knew through the system that Meng Ruyan was a “mole”, he didn’t know which sect she was from.
After all, the system interface would only show one’s characteristics and the skills that the person had mastered. It wouldn’t tell him which force the person was from.
Coming back to the story. It had been a year and two months since Meng Ruyan left the Qingyun Sect to deal with Lu Mo, the zombie keeper.
Lu Yuan had become Elder Han’s direct disciple three months after Meng Ruyan left.
The reason why it took Meng Ruyan such a long time to complete the mission was mainly that she had spent a lot of time looking for Lu Mo’s whereabouts. It took her a very long time to find Lu Mo’s exact location.
Due to the devilish way’s restlessness and their frequent small movements, many evil incidents occurred in the territory of the five righteous sects.
As a result, it was not easy for Meng Ruyan to find information about Lu Mo among the many evil incidents in the Great Xia Kingdom.
Fortunately, this was not where the battle between the righteous and devilish way was the most intense. Otherwise, she might have to spend even more time finding Lu Mo.
The fiercest battles between the righteous and devilish ways were at the border between the three devilish sects and the five righteous sects.
There, the two sides exchanged blows and the battle was very intense.
However, looking at the current situation, the five righteous sects still had the advantage for the time being.
This was mainly because the three devilish way sects didn’t have any plans to launch a large-scale attack as of now, and their attacks were mostly to probe. Therefore, the intensity of this battle was not that high.
The cultivators who participated were basically Foundation Establishment and Qi Cultivation Stage cultivators.
When core Formation Stage cultivators Joined, it meant that the battle had truly started.
As for when this official battle would begin, no one knew.
Although many cultivators had fallen in this war between the righteous and devilish sects, it was not all bad.
Before the start of the great war between the righteous and devilish sects, many cultivators had been cultivating in seclusion, rarely having the chance to fight.
Through this war between the righteous and devilish sects, many cultivators could then gain valuable combat experience and improve their strength significantly.
In addition to increasing their combat experience, both the righteous and the devilish sects wanted to encourage their disciples to fight, so they took out many treasures as rewards.
These rewards included but were not limited to divine abilities, magic instruments, pills, and so on. They were all things that couldn’t be exchanged normally.
It could be said that this war between the righteous and devilish sects was of great importance to all cultivators.
It was both a crisis and an opportunity.
This was the fifth war between the righteous and devilish sects and had already been going on for ten years.
It was around the time when Lu Yuan had just entered the sect that this battle had just begun.
To cultivators, who could easily live up to a hundred years, it was very normal for a great war to last for ten to twenty years.
There was even a war between the righteous and devilish sects that lasted for more than a hundred years.
Thus, these ten years were just an appetizer for both the righteous and devilish ways.
it was also in these ten years that many talents emerged from the righteous and devilish ways.
Some busybodies listed these talents and ranked them.
The rankings were divided into three categories: Heaven, Earth, and Mortal.
The Heaven Rank included the Nascent Soul Stage patriarchs.
The Earth Rank included the Core Formation Stage cultivators.
The Mortal Rank included the Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators.
What was worth mentioning was that the first on the Heaven Rank was not from the righteous way nor the devilish way.
It was the master of the Taohua Sect, the number one Nascent Soul stage cultivator in the current world.
The strange thing was that the name of the Taohua Sect’s master did not appear on the Heaven Rank. There was only a rough description of his strength. Even his gender was not clear to outsiders.
The Core Formation and Nascent Soul Stage cultivators didn’t pay much attention to the Heaven, Earth, and Mortal Ranks.
Only the Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators would pay close attention to their ranking on the Mortal Rank. This was because most of them were still young and in the prime of their youth.
The majority hoped to improve their ranking on the Mortal Rank and become famous.
Among the direct disciples of the Qingyun Sect, Mu Qiqi was the one with the highest ranking on the Mortal Rank.
Mu Qiqi was quite arrogant, but her talent and strength were truly terrifying.
At the age of 20, she already had a cultivation of level 8 at the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Not to mention that Mu Qiqi had reached Foundation Establishment through the way of the heavens for her wood and water spiritual roots.
Thus, even though she was only at level 8 of the Foundation Establishment
Stage, an ordinary level 9 Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator wouldn’t even be able to take one blow from her.
That being said, even though her strength was so shocking, Mu Qiqi was only ranked sixth on the Mortal Rank.
With this, one could see the value of this list.
Among the top three on the Mortal Rank, the first and second were both disciples of the devilish way.
The third to the seventh place were disciples of the righteous path.
I he remaining eighth, ninth, and tenth were from the devilish way.
Although the number of disciples in the top ten was the same for both the righteous and devilish ways, the fact that the top two were disciples of the devilish way still made the Foundation Establishment stage cultivators of the righteous way very unhappy.
Some even began to doubt the Integrity of the rankings released by Taohua
Sect.
However, no matter how much the righteous way disciples protested, the top ten on the Mortal Rank didn’t change much.
This made many feel indignant. They wanted to find an opportunity to fight the top two demonic cultivators.
However, not everyone hoped that they could be on the Mortal Rank…
Qingyun Sect, Pharmacist Valley’s herb fields.
“Who did this? Who the f*ck did this? This is a sin!”
Lu Yuan, who was usually “refined and easy-going’” was flustered and exasperated while cursing.
He was holding a brief notice that was similar to the newspaper in his previous life. His face was flushed, and he was gritting his teeth.
What was written on this brief notice was the latest ranking of the Heaven, Earth, and Mortal Ranks.
Lu Yuan had been paying attention to these three ranks, not because he wanted to be on it but to remember those on it.
It was so that he could avoid them. It was all to avoid danger in advance.
However, he had never expected that he would actually see his own name on the rank today.
[Qingyun Sect, Lu Yuan]
[Ranking: 100th on the Mortal Rank]
[Description: A direct disciple of Qingyun Sect’s Pharmacist Valley. He practices the cultivation technique – Nine Guard Tortoiseshell Technique the heavenly flame divine ability – Green Flame Technique, and has outstanding pill refinement skills. He can refine Foundation Establishment Stage pills independently.]
[Reason for ranking: He once faced the siege of many Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators while still being at the Qi Cultivation Stage and lasted for a long time. One of the besiegers was the sixth on the Mortal Rank Qingyun Sect’s Mu Qiqi.]
Lu Yuan’s hands trembled with anger as he held the rank. He couldn’t even smile.
Damn it, what kind of trash character was he? Did he deserve this ranking? He did not!
When Lu Yuan thought about all the trouble he might encounter because he was on the ranking, he immediately lost it.
He had never expected that the person who decided the Mortal Rank could dig up the past happenings during his Qi Cultivation Stage.
This was too f*cking disgusting!