Chapter 63 – Divine Weapon Hall
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“126?!?
“By heaven! He’s only 15 years old!”
After the more than 100 disciples saw Lin Ming’s position, there was a collective gasp among the audience.
Even Ling Sen, Ta Ku, and Zhang Guanyu did not achieve such an abnormal ranking! During their first ranking war, Ling Sen had been ranked 145, Ta Ku 142, and Zhang Guanyu had destroyed them both and passed through the top 140 rankings to reach the 138th spot, and even that was a far inferior result to Lin Ming’s rank of 126. It had to be known that every step up the ranking was increasingly more difficult!
This was truly a monstrous genius!
Some people were still stubbornly staring at the Ranking Stone, as if they did not believe the results shown above. “Is there a problem with the cliff’s magic array? It’s only been two and half incense sticks worth of time, there is no way he could have reached the 126th rank!”
“The Ranking Stone’s inscriptions were drawn by a Xiantian master from the Seven Profound Valleys, how could there be a problem? The result wasn’t wrong, if one wanted to advance past the 130 rankings, they would usually need to spend about three incense sticks of time. The only scenario in which they could have gotten more points is if their strength was high, and they didn’t engage in an extended melee with the enemy, but instead killed them with only a few moves…” A person slowly said. This person was Lin Ming’s instructor, Hong Xi.
Listening to Hong Xi’s words, a few people’s Adam’s apple spasmed as they gulped down dry mouths. Strength that far surpassed the enemy, enough that they could not even retaliate… does this little kid even have such a great power!?
This was too terrifying!
Zhang Cang had an ugly facial expression as he stared at Lin Ming. 126! Although it was far from his current position, this youth was three years younger than him!
“This Lin Ming, I don’t know what sort of godly material he’s eaten to be powerful to such an extent, but he is only at the peak of the Second Stage of Body Transformation! Was he really able to absorb the so much of the efficacy of the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill and Golden Snake Scarlet Pill with only his medium third-grade talent?”
Lin Ming stared back at Zhang Cang, and a hint of fighting spirit glimmered in his eyes. With the rest of a month, surpassing Zhang Cang was not a problem!
“Good… you very good!” A voice resounded in Lin Ming’s ear; it was a greeting from Zhang Cang sent by true essence, “You really managed to give me a good surprise. Although you’re only a trashy medium third-grade talent, you managed to absorb so much of the efficacy of both the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill and Golden Snake Scarlet Pill and achieve rank 126. But you are far too naïve if you think with just this measly performance that you will be able to defeat me in the leftover time you have. You also had some sort of ability to be able to get such wonderful medicines like the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill and Golden Snake Scarlet Pill, but your luck ends at me. Even if you got this far, this kind of massive growth brought by the pills only means your true essence is impure. Do you really think you can purify it in the short time you have? You really think you can do that, boy?”
“You will lose!”
Zhang Cang angrily said as he moved towards the Ten Thousand Killing Array. He was unable to recover his calm again.
The last disciple who had participated in the assessment with Lin Ming was finally shot out by the Ten Thousand Killing Array. Although he had been inside the illusion for a very long time, his ranking was actually inferior to Lin Ming’s. He had also managed to pass the top 130 ranks, but his was only 129th.
The Ten Thousand Killing Array began to activate again as its symbols and runes lit up. Among the disciples sitting in the 12 spots was Zhang Cang. The assessment would begin!
When the magic array began shining with light, Zhang Cang sat tranquilly on the altar with a calm appearance, motionless and every breath even and long, as if here were in a peaceful meditation.
Although the Ten Thousand Killing Array was a magic array, the illusory world inside was inseparable from reality. Consuming true essence or physical strength would cause one’s breath to accelerate and their heart rate to hasten. Even injuries would cause their bodies to pale and ache all over.
With Zhang Cang so relaxed, the enemies he was facing in the Magic Array were not his current match at all.
“This fellow apprentice is Zhang Cang, he is a master at rank 109. Truly a fierce martial artist!
As a new disciple heard this, his eyes filled with excitement and awe; this was the first time he had seen such a high ranking old disciple.
“Yes, I heard that the last time he participated in the ranking war was three months ago. He should have made more progress by now. He might even make it to the top 100…”
Lin Ming watched the incense burn, and soon the second stick of incense was reaching its end.
In the time it took for these two sticks of incense to burn, the Ten Thousand Killing Array had already ejected several disciples. One of them was one of the new disciples of the Earth Hall. His new ranking was 215, which wasn’t too terrible a performance for his first ranking war.
The third incense stick began to burn down, and it quickly burnt to half. With this, Zhang Cang had surpassed Lin Ming’s time. But with his strength and age, it was natural that he would be able to persist in the dream world longer.
No one present thought this was a mistake, only if Zhang Cang failed here would it be extraordinary.
When the third incense stick completely burnt through, Zhang Cang finally appeared to feel weak.
When the fourth incense stick started to burn, Zhang Cang coughed. He had clearly been injured in the Ten Thousand Killing Array, and when the fourth incense stick was half done, Zhang Cang was ejected from the altar.
Final ranking, 103!
After Zhang Cang emerged from the Ten Thousand Killing array, he glanced at his new ranking and frowned, as if this result wasn’t satisfactory. Although he had surpassed his old ranking by more than 5 positions, his original hopes had been to attack the top 100 rankings.
He looked at Lin Ming, and said with voice transmission, “In the decisive battle one month from now, I’ll wait for you there.”
But Lin Ming had not paid attention to Zhang Can’s words, he was thinking of the weapon he had chosen – the spear.
He had to go find a good spear!
The inspection continued through the entire morning. During the morning, most of the martial artists that came to be assessed were at lower level of cultivations, Second Stage and Third Stage of Body Transformation, and their rankings were outside the top 100.
Shortly before noon the more senior disciples finally started to arrive at the Ten Thousand Killing array. These were the masters at the Fourth Stage of Body Transformation, Altering Muscle, and their strength was on a completely different level from the previous disciples. Several of them attained rankings in the top 50.
Many of the new disciples of the Seven Profound Martial House were enthusiasm-filled youths who stayed to observe the ranking war, but Lin Ming instead departed early. If he could actually see these masters fight in combat then he would certainly have stayed, but the only thing he could see at present were all of them sitting on the altar of the Ten Thousand Killing Array, so he wasn’t able to glean anything from that and thus had no inclination to stay.
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Shortly before noon, Lin Ming made his way through several alleys and streets and arrived at Sky Fortune City’s largest and most prestigious weapon shop, the Divine Weapon Hall.
The Divine Weapon Hall was Sky Fortune City’s most ancient weapon shop. It had been managed and handed down generation to generation from the previous dynasty; its storied history might even have been more glorious than Sky Fortune Kingdom! 200 years ago the Sky Fortune Kingdom had been founded as a nation, but the Divine Weapon Hall had already been there for at least 100 years.
Lin Ming peered at the Divine Weapon Hall from a distance. The massive pavilion style building had nine decorated stories, and there were soldiers scattered around that gave a feeling of supreme morale. The entrance was wrought with finely fashioned gold gilding. Above the entrance was a wooden banner with dignified characters brushed on with thick, black strokes and hooked by silver chains. Just by catching a glimpse of the entrance, it felt like there was a relentlessly imposing aura that rushed out at him. Without a doubt, the man who wrote the characters was a master of martial arts.
There weren’t many guests in the store, but of those there, more than half were martial arts experts, and several of them were powerhouses at the peak of Bone Forging. This made Lin Ming secretly startled. These experts were only a step away from the Pulse Condensation Period, of course, wanting to take that one step forward and reach that realm was an incomparably difficult step.
Before Lin Ming had left the Seven Profound Martial House, he had put on the unique uniform of his school. So even though his age was still young, he managed to attract the sales clerk’s attention. He was only a disciple of the Seven Profound Martial House, but their status was still very high.
“Young hero, what sort of weapon would you like to purchase?”
“Spear!” Lin Ming replied.
“Oh?” The sales clerk said, slightly stunned. There weren’t many people who came to purchase spears. Even if they did, it would usually be a tall and burly man. 99% of young men and students who came here would come to look at their swords. He hadn’t thought that as soon this 15 or 16 year old young man entered, he would open his mouth and ask to buy a spear.