Grandmaster Ranking, Dragon Tiger Ranking, Elite Ranking

There were fewer than a hundred Grandmasters in the world, scattered across the Five Nations and Three Domains. Even Great Qin, the strongest of them all, had no more than twenty-odd Grandmasters.

Below Grandmasters came the Late Xiantian Realm.

At this point, Zhang Yuan's cultivation and combat power already placed him among Great Qin's top fifty.

Because of the chaos within him, outsiders could not sense the extent of his cultivation or strength. Everyone who had seen his true power was already dead.

As for his Martial Way techniques, he had broken through to the Great Perfection Level three years ago, reaching complete mastery.

He fused the Mountain Yue Saber Technique and his fist techniques, along with the Cape Saber Technique, Ironclad Fist, and several techniques he acquired afterward, turning them into a technique that belonged to him alone.

He gave this technique a name.

"Mountains and Rivers Move."

With Yu Lin's mountain-based technique as its foundation, his own insights into saber and fist arts became the force of a great river, unceasing and unbroken.

With this technique, Zhang Yuan's combat power could double.

Over the past five years, to temper his battle techniques and accumulate cultivation resources, Zhang Yuan had quietly assumed many identities.

In Luyang Prefecture, he was Zhang Yuan, an Eighth-Rank Black Robe Guard of Great Qin's Luyang Prefecture. As an old veteran of the yamen, and the sole man to return from the bloody battle in Fengtian County City, he was respected by all his comrades-in-arms.

Even his superiors in the yamen treated Zhang Yuan with great courtesy.

Normally, Zhang Yuan served less than half the year at the yamen, and no one bothered to restrain him.

As a Subordinate Sixth-Rank Black Armored Captain of the Black Ice Platform, codenamed Black Tiger, he had been recruited three years earlier. After the Yan Army withdrew from Fengtian County, Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao went to pay respects to Yu Lin and their other fallen comrades-in-arms, where they encountered a Black Ice Platform spy. After speaking with him, they were brought into the Black Ice Platform.

In truth, Zhang Yuan had already been a Black Robe Guard, though he did not belong to the same chain of command as the true Black Ice Platform.

At first, the spy who recruited Zhang Yuan and the others merely valued the fact that they had survived the bloody battle in Fengtian County City and were familiar with the Yan Army's methods of warfare.

What he had not expected was that Zhang Yuan and the others would complete several missions with outstanding results. The spy rose step by step alongside them and was now the Principal Sixth-Rank chief of the Black Ice Platform in Luyang Prefecture.

The identity of Bounty Hunter Black Tiger had been arranged by Young Master Tao for Zhang Yuan, to conceal his presence in the martial world.

It happened to let him take on assassination jobs, temper himself, and earn silver. Sometimes, those jobs even overlapped with Black Ice Platform missions, killing several birds with one stone.

The Crimson Fox Caravan had been established with the four hundred remnant soldiers Zhao Changming had led away as its foundation.

After the battle in Fengtian County City, they had disobeyed orders by defending the city to the death. Their military status was stripped away, and they were no longer members of the Crimson Scale Army.

Those four hundred remnant soldiers had nearly turned bandit.

Young Master Tao had Zhang Yuan take out the silver he had earned through less-than-honorable means and establish the Crimson Fox Caravan. Zhao Changming and the others traded along the border year-round, while only a handful of people knew who Crimson Fox, the caravan commander, truly was.

Zhang Yuan cared the least about his identity as Lord of Eighteen Green Mountains Strongholds. The eighteen strongholds needed someone to shelter them. Not many people in the martial world knew how strong Zhang Erhe truly was, but Zhang Erhe was Righteous and Loyal. Whoever moved against Qingshan Village first had to consider whether they would provoke public outrage.

For five years, what Zhang Yuan had done was temper his Martial Way and visit the families of his comrades-in-arms.

The ones truly making plans behind him were Young Master Tao and Hu Chunniu.

Young Master Tao's path in the Martial Way had been cut off, and the injuries to his heart and lungs were difficult to heal. So he placed all his obsession with the Martial Way upon Zhang Yuan.

When Zhang Yuan entered the Elite Ranking under the name Black Tiger, Young Master Tao drank himself senseless.

According to him, if Zhang Yuan could enter the Dragon Tiger Ranking, he would die without regrets.

Yongtian Continent had three rankings in total: the Grandmaster Ranking, the Dragon Tiger Ranking, and the Elite Ranking.

The Grandmaster Ranking had one hundred places, occupied by Grandmasters and half-step Grandmasters. Only those with Grandmaster Realm combat power could enter it.

The Grandmaster Realm was the core military strength of a nation, a strategic deterrent. The number of Grandmaster Realm experts represented the strength of a country's national power.

Great Qin could fight several nations alone because, against any single nation, its Grandmaster Realm experts could crush them.

The Dragon Tiger Ranking was filled with renowned Xiantian Realm experts, with even the weakest being in the middle stage of the Xiantian Realm.

There were three hundred Dragon Tiger powerhouses across Yongtian Continent, and more than half of the top fifty were in Qin State.

As for the Elite Ranking, one needed to be under fifty years old and possess Xiantian Realm cultivation. It had five hundred places in total, and to enter it, one had to defeat someone already on the list.

Young Master Tao worried that Zhang Yuan's identity as Black Tiger would be exposed because, once he reached the top hundred, many would challenge him to make a name for themselves and seek out information on Black Tiger.

"Grandmaster Tribulation, Heavenly Dao Opportunity... just how am I supposed to find them..." The light screen in his mind faded as Zhang Yuan, seated cross-legged on a wooden couch, murmured softly.

He had already prepared ample Qi and Blood True Essence to enter the Grandmaster Realm, yet he did not know what the Grandmaster Tribulation was, nor what a Heavenly Dao Opportunity was.

All these years, he had remained near the border and never encountered true top-tier experts. As for the path of cultivation at higher levels, he had no way to probe it.

Within the lands of the Five Nations and Three Domains, methods of higher-level cultivation were all monopolized.

The great martial sects held them in the martial world, while the imperial court held martial arts in its grasp.

For a cultivator like Zhang Yuan, who had been feeling his way forward alone, even taking one more step was fraught with countless difficulties.

"Soon."

Zhang Yuan slowly clenched his fist, and a sharp gleam shone in his eyes.

The meritorious wishes written on that strip of burlap had nearly all been fulfilled. The chief of the Luyang Prefecture Black Ice Platform had also told Zhang Yuan that, at an appropriate time, the Black Ice Platform would arrange for him to systematically study martial arts.

Now, the Black Ice Platform was also paying close attention to Black Tiger, this Black Armor with exceptional Martial Way talent. The Black Ice Platform had lain dormant for many years and needed gifted prodigies to join it.

When the east began to pale, Zhang Yuan was already up and washed. Then he practiced his fists in the courtyard.

Even though his technique had reached the level of complete mastery, he had never slackened in his daily practice in the slightest.

Martial Way cultivation meant either advancing or retreating, and there was no end to it.

Breakfast had been prepared by Old Man Xu's daughter-in-law. It was not lavish, but it filled the belly.

"Chen Wu came last night. He drank quite a bit, sat outside beneath the eaves wiping away tears. I talked him into going back."

"That kid is an honest sort. He's always felt that Lord Zhang has given too much for them, suffered too much..."

As Zhang Yuan stepped out, Guo Da came over and spoke softly.

Zhang Yuan was rarely home in ordinary times. He mostly left behind silver and had Guo Da, Old Man Xu, and the others look after the families of those comrades-in-arms.

Quite a few young men had grown up under their watchful eyes.

Over the years, Chen Wu had gone to Ding Family Alley more often than he went to his own home.

Guo Da and the others treated him as one of their own children.

"This fellow isn't getting any younger. Huang Sanliang's second son already has a child on the way, yet he still hasn't started a family." Zhang Yuan shook his head, his face stern. "I need to make the decision for Elder Brother Youde and quickly find him a wife."

Watching Zhang Yuan walk out with the air of an old man, Guo Da grinned.

"You're not getting any younger yourself..."

When Zhang Yuan arrived outside the city gate, a carriage drawn by an old horse was already parked by the roadside.

Upon seeing Zhang Yuan, the driver hurriedly jumped down from the carriage frame and bowed. "Lord Zhang."

The driver had also fled from Fengtian County and remained at the academy to drive carriages and guard the gate.

Zhang Yuan nodded and climbed into the carriage, where he saw Young Master Tao seated to one side in a blue cloth scholar's robe.

The scent of wine still lingered in the carriage.

"You drank?" Zhang Yuan frowned and asked in a deep voice.

Hu Chunniu had warned Young Master Tao about his condition. If he spared his mind and avoided alcohol, he could live a few more years.

"Chen Wu, that kid, drank quite a bit last night. He had worries he had nowhere to speak of, so he came to the academy to find me. I drank two liang with him." Young Master Tao held up two fingers. "Truly, only two liang."

Zhang Yuan sat opposite Young Master Tao and drew a deep breath. "You know your own body. If you want to live a few more years, don't touch alcohol."

Young Master Tao chuckled and blinked. "But do you know what has Chen Wu worried?"

Worried?

What worries could a young man in his twenties have?

"What, did the kid take a fancy to some girl last night?"

Zhang Yuan looked up at Young Master Tao.

Young Master Tao nodded. "One of his colleagues introduced his younger sister to him. She's a girl from a respectable family."

"The kid thinks he isn't worthy of her, so he drank a great deal of bitter wine last night."