Chapter 213: Rookie Rankings
Ever since Yi Yun broke the record, he led a quiet life. He still went to the #60 herb mountain to pick herbs, and to practice the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’.
Yi Yun passed his thirteenth birthday during this period. Although his face still looked a bit childish, but after practicing martial arts for some time now, his body had begun to slowly grow. He was now a handsome young man.
It was still ten days away from the rookie rankings competition!
Yi Yun had complete control over his Radiant Sun Qi. He had also completed his foundation in the first level of the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’.
“Yi Yun, the rookie competition’s rankings are out!”
When Yi Yun was eating dinner, Song Zijun and Zhou Kui came to find him.
Song Zijun and Zhou Kui could be considered to be under the same tutelage as Yi Yun. All of them came from the Jing state and the nearby states, together with Baldy Qin, to the Tai Ah Divine City. Although Zhou Kui and Yi Yun had some falling out and competition earlier, it was now a thing of the past. After the Hongdao Association singled out Yi Yun, Zhou Kui felt conscience-stricken. Besides, during the rookie ranking competition, they would be part of the same team; hence, their relations had to be closer, and they had to help one another.
“Oh? What rankings are you talking about?” Yi Yun raised his head without understanding much.
“The rookies’ rankings. Before the rookie competition, all of us rookies will be given an approximate ranking. Later, we will be fighting according to our ranks. The people ranked towards the back can challenge the people ranked in the front, and the people ranked in front cannot refuse the challenge. Of course, both sides have to place a bet.”
“In contrast, the people in front can also challenge the people at the back, but the opposite party can refuse. And there’s not much benefit to it; hence, that seldom happens.” Zhou Kui explained. He had been looking at the rookie rankings for a long time. He had always wanted to know what his ranking would be. Although this ranking was decided by the Tai Ah Divine City’s administration and was not a complete reflection of a person’s strength, it also decided on a person’s potential. It was also a matter of face.
Anyone would wish for their rank to be high, despite the fact that being ranked higher meant they had to fight more.
“Oh, so it’s that ranking. What’s my ranking?”
Yi Yun carried on eating his meat, clearly uninterested in the rankings.
When Song Zijun and Zhou Kui saw Yi Yun’s behavior, they were speechless. This Yi Yun was too magnanimous. Did he not know how many people were eyeing him!
“Your ranking is 10,003.” Zhou Kui looked at Yi Yun with sympathy.
“10,003? What does it mean?” Yi Yun did not understand immediately.
“Actually it means third place. According to rules, the rookie rankings competition will begin from 10,000 onwards. The first place will be 10,001, second 10,002, so you are in third place!”
The elites in the Divine Kingdom would train in the Tai Ah Divine City for six consecutive years. Each batch was approximately 2000 people. Counting the sum of the first five batches, it typically exceeded 10,000. With the rookies’ first place starting from 10,000 onwards, some veterans will end up being interspersed among the rankings past 10,000.
For the veterans to be ranked among the recruits, it was a very shameful thing to them.
“Third place…This ranking is pretty good.” Yi Yun was very pleased, but he knew that his earned dragon scale runes accounted largely to the rankings. His dragon scale runes earnings were definitely first in the Tai Ah Divine City amongst the rookies. As a result, being third place was reasonable.
Hearing Yi Yun’s words, Song Zijun and Zhou Kui were speechless. Being third place was just “pretty good”?
Also, did Yi Yun not know what he was facing? Fire was burning at his doorstep, yet he was eating his meat delightfully!
Zhou Kui said, “Yi Yun, do you know what my ranking is?”
“Oh? What is it?” Yi Yun asked.
“11,523! This is the overall ranking. If it’s just among the 2000 rookies, I’m approximately ranked around 1100. The additional 400 people are the veterans who did not enter the top 10,000.”
“In the past three months of rookie training, I had given my all, and only barely entered the middle ranks. Brother Zijun and some of my Xuanwu Army brothers are ranked even further back.”
“Many of those who entered the first 1000 are from the Zhong state, the imperial city or reclusive family clans. Many reputable and ridiculous people are all ranked behind you!”
Zhou Kui explained to Yi Yun what it meant to be ranked third.
Ignoring the reclusive family clans that could probably match the royal family, just the family clans in the imperial city were far from what the Jing state family clans could match.
As the saying goes, “You don’t know how small your title is until you go to the capital”. Nobles in the Divine Kingdom’s imperial city may be in charge of some tiny offices and their fiefs may not be big, but when compared to other local places, they could be in charge of a middle-sized city!
Of course, the local family clans had no way of competing with the imperial city for resources and bloodlines.
Those with strong bloodlines and a strong family clan foundation would often move closer to the imperial city. Ignoring the imperial city’s resources, just from the fact that their younger generations could marry the members from the imperial city’s large family clans made their own family clan’s bloodline better.
“Brother Yi, you sure became a bigwig. I know a brother whose father is a marquis. He’s considered pretty good within his family clan, but he’s only ranked around 200 amongst the rookies. Also, there are two grandsons of the Xuanwu Army’s Marshal who is in the same batch as us. Their rankings are around 300. Now do you know what it means to be ranked third…”
“I see…” Yi Yun wiped the oil off his mouth. It sounded really exaggerated.
There were too many family clans in the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom. Every family clan had a huge number of sons and grandsons. Not only was it difficult to charge up the Tai Ah Divine City’s overall rankings, even to rank high among the 2000 over rookies was not an easy task.
“That’s why! Many people are eyeing you! And the two people ahead of you, one of them is Qiuniu, and the other is Chu Xiaoran! One of them was born with supernatural strength, and the other has extraordinary perceptivity! You may not know that when many of us were doing odd jobs, Qiuniu and Chu Xiaoran already went into the Divine wilderness to hunt desolate beasts. They even have a ranking on the Heaven roll of honor now! That is why they are ranked first and second!”
“Qiuniu and Chu Xiaoran are taking this opportunity to charge up the Earth rankings. I have no idea how far they will go. They might even reach the 3000-4000 ranking!”
After the rookie rankings were decided, Qiuniu and Chu Xiaoran who were at the top could be challenged by others behind them, but at the same time, they had the right to challenge more senior cultivators in the rankings ahead of them.
Challenging someone also meant betting. To see how far they could go, it depended on their own skills.
Baldy Qin had previously said that whichever rookie could enter the top 1000 of the Heaven or Earth roll within a year would receive the attention of various large factions in the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom.
Yi Yun and his batch of rookies had entered the Tai Ah Divine City three months ago. If he wanted to enter the top 1000 within a year, then entering the top 3000-4000 now would not be considered too great an exaggeration!
“Qiuniu, Chu Xiaoran…” Yi Yun pondered slightly. These two people had the capability to enter the Divine wilderness to hunt desolate beasts while others were doing odd jobs. Indeed, they had the ability, or they would not be ranked first and second.
Yi Yun did not know how far he could rise up the Earth ranking at this time.
“Brother Yi, nobody dares to touch Qiuniu and Chu Xiaoran. So now, everybody is eyeing you. You have become extremely famous among the rookies in the Tai Ah Divine City! Everyone knows that you are overflowing with wealth. And according to the rules, you were ranked third largely not due to your strength. It was all due to you earning too many dragon scale runes. You picking the primordial herb and breaking the herb-picking record have made many people jealous!”
“Many people are disgruntled by the fact that you are ranked so far ahead. With your wealth, many people are eyeing it and want to take a bite off your flesh, and that doesn’t only include the Hongdao Association!”
“But the Hongdao Association has already made it clear that no one is to challenge you without their permission. If anyone does so, they would be snatching business from the Hongdao Association, and the Hongdao Association will make sure to get even with them, so this has discouraged many. It could be said to be a blessing in disguise…”
Song Zijun said with a wry smile. Clearly, the words “blessing in disguise” was satirical.
When Yi Yun heard this, he rubbed his chin, “Snatching business? Using this term means they are treating me as fish meat put onto a cutting board.”
Zhou Kui said, “Brother Yi, the first round of registrations for the battles are beginning soon. Each day is limited to 12 battles. Your nameplate has been eyed by many, so they would all begin snatching for it at the beginning. You will likely have to fight 12 matches a day for three consecutive days!”
“You might not know, but the Hongdao Association have even begun taking bets on how many matches you can last. I think the first few opponents will be the Hongdao Association’s Four Bully Lords. They are ranked in the top few hundred amongst the rookies. While I was forging, I met one of them. Their reputation in the capital is much greater than mine.”
“Four Bully Lords?”
Yi Yun thought about the rare tall, short, fat, thin combination he saw in the pawnshop. These guys were at least nice, to pawn all their assets to gamble with him.
“Brother Yi, I bought the bet that you can complete more than ten rounds.”
Song Zijun patted Yi Yun on the shoulder as he said that to show his support.
Actually, Song Zijun, Zhou Kui and the youths that came with them from the Jing state knew Yi Yun was strong. Even without dragon scale runes, Yi Yun could get a high ranking just from his strength.
The crux of the problem was he might not be able to last through a tag-team battle.
And Yi Yun’s third place was too ridiculous. Those rookies among the top 50 were all formidable people!
Some of them could even charge into the top 4000 in the Earth rankings.
“Thank you!” Yi Yun cupped his hands. “Where’s the registration going on? I want to see it when the registration officially begins.”
He had a limited number of fights a day. He could not just fight with any Tom, Dick or Harry. They had to have some quality, uh… actually, they had to have a sufficient amount of dragon scale runes.
If not, wouldn’t it be a waste of a battle?