There were two rankings within the academy: the Minor Storm and Cloud Ranking and the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking.
Today, he was going to challenge the rankings!
As long as he made it onto the list, even the weakest minor ranking would provide enough points and various resource rewards to raise his cultivation by a notch.
When he arrived at the place where the Wind and Cloud Rankings were assessed,
a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes.
The Wind and Cloud Rankings were located in the back mountains of Black Stone Academy.
They consisted of two nine-story towers.
The towers were entirely black, as though forged and cast from black steel, gleaming with a cold light.
Outside the towers, to the right of each entrance, stood a massive gray stone stele.
Names were engraved upon the steles.
The stone stele on the left was the Minor Storm and Cloud Ranking.
The one on the right was the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking.
When Chen Feng arrived, people were still entering the towers from time to time.
Chen Feng had never taken part in the Wind and Cloud Ranking competition before, so he did not enter immediately. Instead, he planned to first observe the condition of the others.
As he watched the academy students taking the assessment, a trace of amazement appeared in his eyes.
This was different from Black Mountain Village before.
Now, whenever he looked at these students, he could sense the Killing Intent lingering around them.
"Most of them have seen blood," Chen Feng thought, amazement in his eyes.
He then continued looking at the two towers before him.
He looked first at the Minor Storm and Cloud Ranking. According to the information he had learned, it was generally for second- and Third-grade Martial Artists.
As for the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking, the minimum cultivation was late third grade, and there were even fourth-grade Martial Artists.
Looking over this information, Chen Feng also observed what everyone was doing.
Most people entered the tower for the Minor Storm and Cloud Ranking to take the assessment. As for the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking, hardly anyone went there.
Just as Chen Feng was watching,
a burst of startled cries suddenly came from the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking.
"Senior Lin Jin is taking the major ranking assessment! Is he going to challenge Senior Wan Baoyang?"
"There's going to be a good show! Senior Wan is sixth on the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking, while Senior Lin Jin is eighth. This will be quite a show!"
"Do you think Lin Jin might win this time?"
All kinds of astonished exclamations rang out.
Many people also crowded toward the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking.
Upon hearing Wan Baoyang's name, Chen Feng was somewhat surprised as well.
He looked in that direction.
When he reached the front of the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking, he saw the slender man standing there. It was Lin Jin, whom he had met before.
Back then, Lin Jin had questioned how Chen Feng could cut in halfway through the line.
But he had been intimidated by the Recommendation Token from Sword Cultivator Yun Xi in Chen Feng's hand.
Lin Jin arrived before the tower without pausing in the slightest, then stepped directly inside.
Standing outside the crowd, Chen Feng's eyes held some surprise.
He had only seen Lin Jin enter the tower. As for Wan Baoyang, he had not appeared at all.
Surprise filled his eyes. Wasn't a Major Storm and Cloud Ranking challenge supposed to be a battle between two people?
Just as he was still puzzled,
before long, information abruptly refreshed on the stone stele of the Wind and Cloud Ranking.
"Lin Jin wins!"
Lin Jin then took the sixth position on the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking.
In an instant, the crowd outside erupted.
"Amazing, absolutely amazing!"
"I knew it! Since Senior Lin Jin dared to challenge him, he had to be confident!"
"Exactly. Sixth place may look like only an advance of two ranks, but the gains differ by dozens of times. He can earn at least several thousand points every month. Incredible."
All kinds of astonished voices rose and fell.
Still puzzled, Chen Feng looked at a dark-skinned man beside him and asked, "Classmate, may I ask what this Major Storm and Cloud Ranking assessment is about?"
"What is the main assessment? Doesn't Senior Wan need to come and fight him in an arena?"
The dark-skinned man glanced at Chen Feng, then understanding appeared in his eyes. He smiled. "Looks like you're a new student?"
"Haha, in ancient times, martial artists had to fight on an arena to determine victory and defeat. But ever since demons rose to power, things changed."
"All martial artists became the main force fighting demons."
"The higher-ups of the Demon Suppression Hall did not want martial artists to engage in overly fierce internal strife, so they equipped every academy that trained martial artists with two Wind and Cloud Towers."
"There are rumors that treasures within the Wind and Cloud Towers can imprint a martial artist's mirror image clone. As long as you defeat the other person's mirror image clone, you naturally advance in rank."
Chen Feng said in surprise, "There's actually such a method?"
"Can a mirror image clone record every method a martial artist possesses?"
The dark-skinned man smiled. "Of course not. That is why martial artists must continually improve the strength of their mirror image clones through battle after battle. That way, the clones become very powerful too."
"Many of the rankings on the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking are determined through this back-and-forth process of battle, where the mirror image clones grow stronger and stronger."
Chen Feng nodded. "So that's how it is."
He then looked at the top few ranks on the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking and asked in confusion, "So the martial artists in the top ranks all have extraordinarily terrifying mirror image clones?"
The dark-skinned man nodded. "That's right."
"To enter the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking, you need at least the combat strength to fight a peak third-order opponent."
"Otherwise, even if you make it up there, you'll easily be knocked back down."
"Of course, as long as you have made it onto the ranking, even if only for an instant, you can receive its rewards."
"Every single one of them is a seed of a Grandmaster!"
As he spoke, admiration remained in his eyes.
Listening to this, a gleam flashed through Chen Feng's eyes.
He had not expected this to be the method of battle.
That meant there was no need to worry about getting injured.
And to challenge the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking, one first had to clear the Minor Storm and Cloud Ranking.
Seeing this, Chen Feng stopped lingering.
He headed directly toward the Minor Storm and Cloud Ranking.
Seeing Chen Feng's actions, the dark-skinned student beside him shook his head and laughed. "Definitely a freshman."
"He truly fears nothing because he knows nothing. If he has never entered the Major Storm and Cloud Ranking, how could he know how difficult it is to obtain a ranking on it?"
He did not pay much more attention to him.
At that moment, Chen Feng stepped into the Minor Storm and Cloud Ranking.
Then, every scene in his field of vision seemed to change in an instant.
Chen Feng had originally thought that the Minor Storm and Cloud Ranking would also contain the mirror image clones the man had mentioned.
He had even prepared to see just how great the gap was.
Yet he had not expected that the instant he stepped inside, he would freeze.
It felt as though a buzzing filled the space before him. Then, when he opened his eyes again, everything before him had already changed.
Before you continue