Nine Transformations of the Fish Dragon (First Update)

"Ren Xihua, it was Ren Xihua! Ren Xihua, an Inner Disciple who had only entered the sect a year ago, had charged onto the Heaven Ranking!"

"Seventy-second—no, already seventy-first! His ranking is still climbing!" In the distance, a group of Outer Disciples had already gathered before Heaven and Earth Cliff on the southern side of East Arrival Peak. As they stared at the names constantly changing on the Heaven and Earth Ranking, clamor and cries of envy rose one after another.

Seeing this, Ye Zhen hurried over as well, wanting to see what was going on.

Ye Zhen had actually heard of the Heaven and Earth Ranking before. Back when he had still been a Menial Disciple, it had been an elite topic among the menial disciples. Any Menial Disciple who knew of changes in the Heaven and Earth Ranking would surely become the center of attention in their post-meal conversations.

The Heaven and Earth Ranking was actually made up of two rankings: the Heaven Ranking and the Earth Ranking.

The Heaven Ranking contained seventy-two people. Under normal circumstances, only Inner Disciples could possibly charge onto it. Those entrenched upon the Heaven Ranking were mostly the finest among the Inner Disciples. Of course, if an Outer Disciple had the ability, they could also fight their way onto the Heaven Ranking, but such a thing had never happened so far.

The Earth Ranking, however, differed from the Heaven Ranking. It held a total of three hundred and sixty people and was an exclusive combat-strength ranking for the Outer Disciples of Qi Yun Sect. Only Outer Disciples could be listed on it. The moment an Outer Disciple advanced to become an Inner Disciple, their name would immediately be removed from the Earth Ranking.

Competition for the Heaven and Earth Rankings was extraordinarily fierce—perhaps even several degrees fiercer than the annual Sect Grand Competition. At times, it even carried a hint of bloodshed.

That was mainly because the benefits of the Heaven and Earth Rankings were immense. If Inner or Outer Disciples could fight their way onto either ranking, not only would their status within the sect soar, they would also gain tangible benefits.

Ordinary Outer Disciples could collect a Blood Origin Pill from the sect every five days, one pill each time. But once an Outer Disciple fought their way onto the Earth Ranking, the number of Blood Origin Pills they received each time would increase to two.

Not only that, the rewards increased for every one hundred and twenty places they advanced on the Earth Ranking. If they could charge into the top two hundred and forty of the Earth Ranking, they could receive three Blood Origin Pills each time.

If they charged into the top one hundred and twenty of the Earth Ranking, they could receive four Blood Origin Pills each time. If they made it into the top ten, they could receive five Blood Origin Pills each time.

The top ten of the Earth Ranking received ten times the cultivation resources of ordinary Outer Disciples.

What truly made people's eyes burn and hearts race was that if any disciple could fight their way to first place on the Earth Ranking, the pills they received each time would become Condensing True Pills.

Condensing True Pills were benefits only Inner Disciples could enjoy—pills that increased True Essence, incomparably precious. And that was only one part of the rewards.

The rewards for Qi Yun Sect's Outer Disciples who charged onto the Earth Ranking were already so tempting. The rewards for the Heaven Ranking, which held only seventy-two names, were even more alluring.

It could be said that as long as one charged onto the Heaven or Earth Ranking, the cultivation resources received from the sect would multiply. If cultivation resources multiplied, one's cultivation would naturally advance faster.

More than that, the Heaven and Earth Rankings were an exceedingly rare opportunity for Qi Yun Sect's Inner and Outer Disciples to raise their status.

Within Qi Yun Sect, if Outer Disciples wanted to advance to Inner Disciples, or Inner Disciples wanted to become True Disciples, then aside from the annual major assessment during the Sect Grand Competition, the Heaven and Earth Rankings were their only path.

If an Outer Disciple could fight their way into the top ten of the Earth Ranking, they would gain the right to challenge any Inner Disciple at any time. If they defeated an Inner Disciple in the challenge, that Outer Disciple could directly advance to become an Inner Disciple.

And if an Inner Disciple could fight their way into the top three of the Heaven Ranking, they would have a chance to catch an elder's eye and be accepted as a True Disciple.

All these factors made the Heaven and Earth Rankings the most fiercely contested, even cruelest, place in Qi Yun Sect.

Qi Yun Sect's Heaven and Earth Rankings were displayed upon Heaven and Earth Cliff. Heaven and Earth Cliff was half a mountain peak suspended within Qi Yun Sect, said to be a wondrous treasure refined by the sect's predecessors with immense magical power.

It could resonate with the Identity Jade Tokens issued by Qi Yun Sect to its Inner and Outer Disciples, allowing the rankings on the Heaven and Earth Rankings to change in real time.

When Ye Zhen reached the southern side of East Arrival Peak and looked toward Heaven and Earth Cliff, Ren Xihua's name on the Heaven Ranking was still flashing from time to time. In just that brief interval, Ren Xihua had charged from seventy-first place on the Heaven Ranking to sixty-ninth.

However, Ren Xihua's name flashed more and more slowly. After reaching sixty-sixth place on the Heaven Ranking, there was no movement at all for a full quarter of an hour.

"Strange. How could Ren Xihua challenge so many people at once?" Watching Ren Xihua's ranking flash all the way from the moment he entered the list, charging straight to sixty-sixth place, Ye Zhen could not help feeling puzzled.

Ye Zhen vaguely remembered the challenge rules for Qi Yun Sect's Heaven and Earth Rankings. A disciple ranked lower, or one not on the rankings at all, could challenge any person on the list. If they lost, there was nothing more to say.

But if they won the challenge, they could directly take the challenged person's rank, while everyone else's ranking would shift back one place. Still, few dared to challenge someone two or three ranks above them.

"Tch, you don't even know that? Ren Xihua is attempting the Fish Dragon Path!" The gaze of a black-clad Outer Disciple beside him was filled with contempt as he looked at Ye Zhen.

"Attempting the Fish Dragon Path?" Ye Zhen was utterly bewildered. Attempting the Fish Dragon Path could also get one onto the Heaven and Earth Rankings?

After asking around in several places, Ye Zhen finally figured it out. It also resolved a question he had had several days ago.

The Fish Dragon Path Ren Xihua was attempting was also known as the Nine Transformations of the Fish Dragon. It was the true Fish Dragon Path within Qi Yun Sect. The Fish Dragon Path that Ye Zhen and that batch of Menial Disciples had attempted a few days earlier had merely been the staging point before the true Fish Dragon Path.

No wonder that after Ye Zhen had completed the Fish Dragon Path that day, he had seen another mysterious gate bearing the words "Fish Dragon First Transformation." That had been the beginning of the Nine Transformations of the Fish Dragon.

It was said that the Nine Transformations of the Fish Dragon was a treasure passed down within Qi Yun Sect, wondrous beyond measure. Once Inner or Outer Disciples entered the Fish Dragon First Transformation, Monster Beasts and evil fiends formed from spiritual power would appear within. Killing these Monster Beasts and evil fiends formed from spiritual power would earn a certain number of points.

When the disciple who entered could no longer endure and was kicked out of the Nine Transformations of the Fish Dragon by the Monster Beasts and evil fiends formed from spiritual power, the total points they had earned from killing those foes would serve as the basis for their ranking on the Heaven and Earth Rankings.

As for the method Ye Zhen knew, of directly challenging disciples on the rankings to raise one's place on the Heaven and Earth Rankings, few people used it. It was a method that damaged one's face and easily bred enmity.

Yet it was also one of the most thrilling grand events within Qi Yun Sect.

Ren Xihua's ranking ultimately stabilized at sixty-fifth place on the Heaven Ranking, leaving the surrounding Outer Disciples greatly astonished. Having entered the sect only one year earlier yet standing out from among hundreds of Inner Disciples and fighting his way to sixty-fifth on the Heaven Ranking, he was undoubtedly a genius among geniuses.

The speed at which his cultivation and combat strength had soared was even twice that of Qu Zhanqian, who now sat firmly at first place on the Heaven Ranking. Among the Inner Disciples, only Changsun Ran, ranked twelfth on the Heaven Ranking and blessed with a mid-grade Six Meridians bloodline talent, could compare to Ren Xihua's cultivation speed.

The Heaven Ranking had little to do with Ye Zhen at present. What he needed to pay attention to was the Earth Ranking. Although the Earth Ranking held three hundred and sixty people, compared to the more than eight thousand Outer Disciples, it was still a narrow single-log bridge.

Ma Hun, three hundred and forty-seventh!

Ye Zhen spotted the name of Ma Hun, the man who had been causing him trouble, on the Earth Ranking. No wonder Ma Hun was so arrogant and had so many lackeys at his side. He turned out to be an Outer Disciple listed on the Earth Ranking.

As the name of the Inner Disciple Ren Xihua stopped flashing, the several hundred Outer Disciples gathered there lost their motivation to keep watching. Amid their discussions, they dispersed one by one, and Ye Zhen followed the crowd down the mountain.

As he walked, Ye Zhen pondered the Earth Ranking. He had to charge onto it in the shortest possible time so that he could obtain more cultivation resources from the sect. With more cultivation resources from the sect, his cultivation could advance faster.

That way, he could enter a virtuous cycle.

Bang!

Without warning, a leg shot out from the side and viciously tripped Ye Zhen amid the crowd. His body swayed, and he staggered toward the side of the mountain, about to plunge over the edge.

Beside the mountain lay a ten-thousand-zhang sea of clouds whose bottom could not be seen. If he fell, he would surely be smashed to pieces.

At the critical moment, Ye Zhen exerted force through his waist and performed Lazy Bear Stretches Waist. His body abruptly flipped over. Just as he was about to fall from the mountain, he seized a protruding rock and, with a burst of strength, leaped back onto the mountain path.

On the mountain path, Li Xuelong—the one who had suddenly stuck out a foot to trip Ye Zhen—was looking at the still-shaken Ye Zhen with a mocking expression.

Ma Hun stood beside Li Xuelong, smiling.

"Li Xuelong, you fucking tried to get me killed!" Ye Zhen, having narrowly escaped death, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and pointed at Li Xuelong, the culprit, as he cursed.

"Junior Brother Ye, that's where you're wrong. You nearly fell to your death because you weren't careful while walking. How can you blame Li Xuelong?" Ma Hun laughed in a strange, mocking tone.

"I wasn't careful? Li Xuelong clearly did it on purpose!"

"I did do it on purpose. So what? Bite me!" Li Xuelong made no attempt to conceal his malice, looking as though Ye Zhen could do nothing to him.

As Ye Zhen's forehead veins throbbed with fury at Li Xuelong's shameless face, Li Xuelong sneered at him again. "What, angry? Want revenge? If you've got the guts, come with me to the Martial Arena. I'll give you a chance to get your revenge!"

Today, I'll make up for yesterday's missed update. This is the first update!