In the tavern, the idle martial folk around them, and even the storytellers, were all discussing the changes to the Human Ranking.
With "Sword Immortal Descends" filling his ears, Meng Qi's expression went utterly blank.
And because tenth place on the Human Ranking was, unprecedentedly, held by someone with only Four Apertures, the "Muscular Ascetic" who had acted alongside this Peerless Heavenly Talent and also made the ranking was occasionally brought up as well.
Every mention was a lash across Meng Qi's soul.
It was as if Gu Xiaosang were standing behind him, whipping him with a lash.
Why?! I'm pretty handsome too! How did things end up like this?!
"Take it easy. There are only wrongly chosen names, never wrongly given nicknames. Given your fighting style, it actually suits you quite well."
"We should value practicality. Those shallow fools don't understand. Can they defeat someone with Nine Apertures while only having Four? No, but you can."
Smiling brightly, Xu Yue pushed a local specialty—a plate of salt-baked chicken—toward Meng Qi.
"At least you made the Human Ranking, didn't you? Countless people would kill for that. Even though Zhang Yuanshan and Qing Ying have roughly opened Six Apertures, neither of them has made the list."
"When we visit the True Martial Sect later, won't Senior Brother Zhang be drooling?"
Having finally recovered somewhat, Meng Qi could not help rolling his eyes at Xu Yue's incessant chatter.
"He'll be drooling over you, won't he? This is too much. How can the gap be this huge?"
"How about we take the chance to activate the talisman and go find Ninth Lady?"
As if performing a magic trick, Xu Yue produced the Immortal Traces talisman again.
"If you want to activate it, you do it. Hmph. I'm going to Zengxian Gate to eat