Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Day two. Thursday.
As usual, it was Bai Ruoxi’s general knowledge class at night.
Everyone knew that the general knowledge classes were the martial arts universities’ effort to pass on to the students certain basic knowledge that was shared among circles of martial artists.
Building number 6.
Tonight, Bai Ruoxi had brought a large number of printed papers.
As soon as night had fallen, she distributed a sheet to everyone.
“What you are looking at right now are the rankings for the most influential Grandmasters. Of course, this only includes Sino Nation. Other areas are not recorded.”
…
Fang Ping had browsed through the online Grandmaster rankings on the internet before; however, the online version was a simplified version, and the majority of people recorded were businessmen.
The new ranking list that they received was very much different than the online version.
“Grandmaster ranking:
Number One: Li Zhen, Commander-in-chief of the Military Department, Rank-9.
Number Two: Zhang Tao, Minister of the Ministry of Education, Rank-9.
Number Three: Shen Haotian, Guardian of the North, Rank-9.
Number Four: Chen Guyang, Guardian of the East, Rank-9.
…”
Fang Ping scanned through the list quickly and felt dazed. Unable to stop himself, he asked Fu Changding, who was sitting beside him, in a low whisper. “What’s a guardian?”
Fu Changding spared him an uncanny look before explaining. “You’re seriously clueless about the happenings in politics.
“In Sino Nation, the central government rules the world.
“Under the jurisdiction of the central government, the Military Department, Education Ministry, and Department of Investigation Services may have a reputation for being the most powerful, but in reality people usually overlook something.
“The governors of various regions!
“Governors have the authority to govern a region, and they are under the direct jurisdiction of the central government. In between, however, lies another authority: the guardians of the four cardinals North, South, East, and West.
“Usually, the four guardians’ main duty is to monitor each region. Even if they are considered superior to the governors, they are also under the monitoring body.
“The House of Guardians holds great power. Moreover, their jurisdiction covers an extensive area. Usually, they will not be stationed at a single location…”
“Is that so?”
Fang Ping frowned. “I don’t think I could find this online.”
“That’s to be expected. The House of Guardians is keeping a low profile. Honestly, the guardians’ duties are not known by many.
“I was not sure about this before, but I figured out a little by guessing. Maybe the House of Guardians chose not to be a public figure because they are also responsible for clamping down on the entrance of the Catacombs.”
“The guardians are that powerful?”
Fang Ping glanced at the list. Among the top ten Grandmasters powerhouses on the list, the four main guardians of the House of Guardians were all present!
Adding the three ministers from three different ministries, 7 spots were filled.
Other than that, two people from the central government made the top ten as well. Obviously, they were not the first few government big shots.
The first few big shots did not make the list. It was not clear whether their abilities were just average, with outstanding management skills, or they simply did not wish to stand out.
Either way, they were not on the list.
The three ministries, House of Guardians, and the Central Government occupied 9 spots of the top ten list. It was clear that with the ability to rule so many powerhouses, the central government had ample confidence.
Amongst the top ten, only one of them was not a government authority.
“Number eight: Zhao Xingwu. Leader of Sectarian Alliance.”
Fang Ping took a glimpse and asked curiously again, “What is this Sectarian Alliance about?”
Before Fu Changding could answer, Bai Ruoxi had approached them. She smiled and said, “I thought I had already covered this?
“Before the establishment of Capital Martial Arts Society, the legacy of martial arts was passed down in the form of sects, other factions, and the martial arts schools.
“After that, martial arts universities emerged. Even though the sects and the likes were losing power, their legacies had been passed on for so long that it was impossible for them to give up entirely.
“Besides, the sects have their own unique features. Due to reasons related to resources and confinement, they had fewer members and therefore weaker abilities as a whole. Even so, they still have some powerhouses among them.
“The government had established the Department of Sectarian Management, and had integrated the sects into their management system.
“The sectarian alliance represents the sects’ efforts to ensure that their voice was still heard, hence the establishment of the alliance system. Mr. Zhao Xingwu holds the position of the Leader, he is the sect’ representative to fight for their resources and position.”
“I thought the sects had been wiped out.”
Fang Ping was slightly perplexed. It was a surprise that the sects still existed.
Bai Ruoxi grinned. “There’s no need to be surprised. There are always some stubborn people. It’s impossible for everyone to give up on the sects after they had been passed down for many years.
“The government does not reject their existence either. As long as they obey the laws and regulations, they can do whatever they want.
“Actually, we can consider them as a different type of martial arts university; the leaders of the sects are something like principals, and respected elders who protect the law are like instructors.”
“Are the sects strong?”
“They’re decent.”
Bai Ruoxi grinned once more. “How about this. There are only about twenty to thirty sects left. I do not know the actual figure.
“If they exist as an alliance, then they are not weak, maybe even comparable to MCMAU.
“However, if the other party exists as a single unit of a sect, then some of them are very weak. Certain sects have one middle-rank, three to five low-ranks. They can only get so strong.
“In the modern world, sects have become increasingly weak. If it weren’t for Chairman Zhao, the number of sects would have been much fewer.”
Fang Ping gave it some thought, deciding that it was normal.
If there were fewer martial artists, the sects would be a major power, a special division.
However, if there were more martial artists and more martial arts universities, the central government would rule the whole country. The sects would never be able to compete with their limitless resources, regardless of whether they were cultivation resources or population resources.
Martial arts universities could recruit students nationwide, but would the sect be able to do the same?
It was only a matter of time before the sect would start to grow weaker.
Fang Ping stopped asking questions; instead, he continued reading down the rest.
He could recognize certain names, but not others.
There were businessmen, government officials, military powerhouses, and martial arts university powerhouses. Of course, Fang Ping saw a few other sectarian martial artists who made it to the list too.
The principal of Capital City Martial Arts University sat on the 36th place on the list. His ability was listed as peak Rank-8.
Ahead of him were two other peak Rank-8. In other words, Sino Nation had 33 Rank-9 martial artists!
That was far more than what Fang Ping had imagined!
MCMAU’s principal, sitting at the 41st place, was also a peak Rank-8 powerhouse.
Past the 100th place, Fang Ping finally saw Brother Ma at the 104th seed.
As someone who had broke through Rank-8, and with a reputation spread across the nation as a Rank-8 powerhouse, his ranking was unexpectedly just beyond the 100th place.
The Grandmaster ranking stretched to the 300th place before it ended abruptly.
Fang Ping did not read all of them in detail. After he went through the list, he asked Fu Changding, “There are a total of 300 Grandmasters in Sino Nation?”
Fu Changding shook his head. “I don’t know. I guess so. There may be even more. It is possible that there are four to five hundred of them.
“Of course… maybe less.
“From what I know, there are much fewer than this. I don’t know many of them before this.
“My guess is, most of them are guarding the Catacombs.
“The Grandmasters who are truly active in the country are probably almost a hundred.”
Fang Ping nodded. Almost a hundred. That was what he guessed too.
Grandmaster powerhouses who were active in the business field numbered 30 or so. On the government’s side, there were probably only around ten active Grandmaster governors.
Fang Ping roughly estimated the number of powerhouses in the Military Department. If he put them together, it would only amount to about forty to fifty of them.
Plus the powerhouses in martial arts universities, it totaled almost a hundred people.
From what he could see, he had underestimated the number of Grandmasters there were in Sino Nation.
“With that many Grandmasters, it was no wonder they could clamp down 22 entrances to the Catacombs.
“Initially, I thought that middle-rank was already considered a powerhouse. It seems I am still too optimistic.”
In fact, with a population of over 1 billion in Sino Nation, producing three to four hundred Grandmasters was the scale of about one to five million.
This percentage was not high.
Certain small countries considered a population of tens of millions as unfavorably high. If they followed the same ratio, one country would only have a handful of Grandmasters?
Certainly, the calculations did not necessarily depend on the population. Small countries could survive well because they had ample resources, and slightly more powerhouses.
With dozens of provinces in Sino Nation, after spreading them out evenly, there would only be about 10 Grandmasters in a province.
This had not accounted for those who were guarding the Catacombs and not revealing their faces. There were very few Grandmasters who were completely public. To have a few Grandmasters in Nanjiang was already considered relatively good.
After going through the Grandmaster ranking, Bai Ruoxi grinned again and said, “The Grandmaster level is still quite far from where we are. As martial arts university students, you should be more concerned about the ranking for lower Rank-3.
“Nevertheless, lower Rank-3 martial artists make up a group with the highest number of people!
“There are a million martial artists in Sino Nation, those of lower Rank-3 account for over eighty percent — eight hundred thousand people!
“You can imagine that with so many martial artists — and not all of them have fought against each other — it would be an extremely taxing task for anyone to create a reasonably reliable list!
“Therefore, this is more for self-entertainment. The list was made by everyone. It doesn’t matter if anyone disagrees.
“In the list of ranking for lower Rank-3, three sheets were put together to cover the more authoritative ones. One created by us from MCMAU, another by Capital City Martial Arts University, and one more by the Department of Investigation Services.
“The list made by the Department of Investigation Services is slightly more objective than the others.”
Bai Ruoxi continued, “I had distributed them to you just now. It will be on the last page. Go ahead and have a look.”
Fang Ping flipped hurriedly to the last page. It was very different from the Grandmaster ranking that was up to the 300th place. The ranking for lower Rank-3 was only a page, only 100 places.
After giving a quick scan, Fang Ping had almost never heard of the ones that top the list.
It was to be expected as lower Rank-3 martial artists were not popular.
The ones who made it to the list were the ones from Capital City Martial Arts University, MCMAU, as well as other martial arts universities.
Fang Ping scanned for quite some time before he discovered Wang Jinyang’s name.
The list might not be recent. Wang Jinyang had not achieved breakthrough then; he was listed among other lower Rank-3 martial artists.
“Number 27. Nanjiang Martial Arts University. Wang Jinyang.”
“Old Wang is only sitting at number 27 in the ranking for lower Rank-3?”
Fang Ping found it hard to believe. This Old Wang that they were talking about was the one who made a clean sweep for lower rank-3 to the point that MCMAU and Capital City Martial Arts University lost their reputation.
Feeling slightly resentful for Old Wang, Fang Ping spoke immediately, “Teacher Bai, Wang Jinyang of Nanjiang Martial Arts University is only at the 27th place?”
Bai Ruoxi gave a faint smile. “You are friends with Wang Jinyang?
“Number 27 is already pretty high!
“I’ll have you know, Sino Nation is incredibly big. Other than the public martial arts universities, there are also the sects, the Military Department, Department of Investigation Services, and the guardians of the Catacombs.
“This ranking was made based on the collection of information from publicly-known martial artists.
“Wang Jinyang may have achieved decent accomplishments in MCMAU and Capital City Martial Arts University, but he was only a Rank-1 in MCMAU, then Rank-3 in Capital City Martial Arts University, therefore he was not considered to be amongst the best of the best.
“Many of the peak Rank-3 martial artists are actually in the Catacombs. They are not interested in these kinds of challenges. However, their performance in the Catacombs, as well as their performance in completing missions, were extremely commendable!
“Qualifying in the top hundred is a sign of their powerful abilities.
“Regarding the top hundred, the ranking is not the actual reflection of their true capabilities. After all, these people had never fought against each other.”
Fang Ping nodded slightly. He agreed with this.
Yang Xiaoman, who was sitting at the front row, was feeling rather envious. “I wonder when our names would appear in this ranking sheet.”
Bai Ruoxi smiled but did not say anything. There were too many lower Rank-3 martial artists. Did she think that just about anyone could make the list?
Peak Rank-3 Wang Jinyang had set the record for numerous surprising achievements, yet that had only earned him the 27th place on the list.
In MCMAU, only 6 of the lower Rank-3 made it to the first hundred on the list.
These 6 students were mostly in their senior year. All of them were not at the university at the moment. They were all trying to achieve breakthrough to Rank-4. They might have already achieved breakthrough for all they knew.
Amongst the new students, Yang Xiaoman’s ability was passable. Yet it was difficult to say whether she could make the top hundred even at her senior year.
Some people had very powerful abilities. Despite that, if they did not fight and constantly stay under the radar, they would not be nominated anyway.
If it was Yang Xiaoman whom they were talking about, Fang Ping could not care less.
He took another look at the ranking in front of him. The one who was ranked first was a Rank-3 martial artist from the Military Department. Most of the top ten were also from the Military Department.
Fang Ping hazarded a guess. Perhaps they operated in the Catacombs, hence they would have more opportunities to employ their abilities, which was why the lower Rank-3 martial artists in the Military Department were much stronger.
In MCMAU, the person with the highest ranking was a senior placed 16th — Chen Wenlong.
Fang Ping inquired a bit about it. It was a surprise that even Fu Changding knew about it. He was a student in his junior year and also the vice president of the martial arts society, though he was not always present in the university.
Fu Changding said regretfully, “When Wang Jinyang came to MCMAU, Senior Chen wasn’t here. Or else, we would have had the chance to witness a challenge between peak Rank-3 martial artists.
“To us, middle-rank and high-rank martial artists are rather distant from where we are right now.
“Lower Rank-3 is more achievable for us…”
“…”
The discussion went on for a while amidst the crowd. Some voiced out their ambition to make it to the list in the future; others mentioned their doubts about the reliability of the ranking sheet. After all, the strongest Rank-3 student in MCMAU was only at the 16th place.
Besides that, the Grandmaster ranking exceeded everyone’s expectations. MCMAU’s principal was only at the 41st place. Everyone had anticipated that the principal would definitely be shortlisted in the top ten!
If not, then it should at least be ahead of Capital City Martial Arts University principal!
Things took a turn for the worse: Not only was the principal weaker than them, so were the students!
In Capital City Martial Arts University, 8 lower Rank-3 martial artists made it to the top hundred. The strongest one even made it to the top ten: at the sixth place.
This was a far better achievement compared to MCMAU.
MCMAU was widely known as one of the two elite schools, though now they seemed to be weaker than their counterpart in every aspect. Many students felt they were done an injustice.
The strongest of them all was still the Military Department. Regardless if it was the Grandmaster ranking or a lower ranking, many powerhouses came from the Military Department.
Hearing the students’ comments, Bai Ruoxi spoke softly, “These people risked their lives to get where they are today. Compared to the Military Department martial artists, other martial arts universities students are much more fortunate.”
Some of the Military Department martial artists had not even become martial artists, yet they were already fighting at close quarters in the Catacombs.
When they had become martial artists, they started fighting at the vanguard immediately.
Needless to say, they might not be an all-rounder like students in MCMAU. MCMAU students’ main goal was not to prioritize close-quarters combat. They were expected to take up certain courses like cultural studies and management courses.
To be an all-rounder meant that one lacked focus. When combined with the lack of experience and training, it was only natural that they were lagging behind their counterparts in martial arts.
“I will be having general knowledge class with you these two days. By this weekend, we will begin the other classes.”
After having a few words with the students, Bai Ruoxi gave them a reminder.
When it was break time, Bai Ruoxi suddenly called out to Fang Ping and Zhao Xuemei. “Your instructor had gone to the Catacombs yesterday. If you have any questions after this, feel free to come and ask me.”
“Our instructor had gone to the Catacombs?”
Fang Ping creased his eyebrows slightly. Had the situation in the Catacombs grown tense?