Life's Destiny Altered

The victor was Xiang Ying!

The various Clan Heads shook their heads and turned to leave. This had indeed far exceeded their expectations—it was not the outcome they wanted.

Rather than watch the Xiang household bask in triumph, they might as well leave. Out of sight, out of mind.

At the center of the Spirit Law Stage, Yun Ye naturally could not be bothered with the Aristocratic Clans' AQ Spirit.

He was shrouded in radiant light, and the embroidered ball descended from the heavens. His life's destiny changed on the spot.

"Obtained ceremonial fortune."

"Life's destiny upgraded: Rank C → Rank B."

Destiny was decreed by Heaven, while one's station was shaped by life.

With the blessing of fortune, everything went smoothly. Even someone of humble birth might be touched by crimson gold and achieve a supreme venerable position.

Yun Ye's Rank B life's destiny was already exceptionally excellent. In the mortal world, he would be the Son of Heaven's Mandate. If mortals opposed him, either a meteorite would fall from the sky or they would choke to death while drinking water.

Unfortunately, this was a cultivation world. Even with a great deal of fortune, he still could not enjoy Heaven's aid and bulldoze his way to the Supreme Venerable Position.

According to the current description of Yun Ye's life's destiny, he had merely attained a status "close to that of a Peerless Genius."

To be honest, limited by the information available to him, Yun Ye could not understand why he had already swept aside so many Peerless Geniuses, yet his status was still only close to that of a Peerless Genius.

Could there be some element he still lacked?

After thinking it over, Yun Ye found no answer and simply gave up. It was fundamentally unimportant.

He had been able to kill those in the Dharma Realm with a Rank E life's destiny. That alone proved that life's destiny was not decisive. The truly meaningful "status" still had to be earned through one's own abilities.

At most, a powerful life's destiny made everything go smoothly, while a weak one brought calamities from all sides. It was not without a solution.

"Daoist Friend Xiang Ying, congratulations in advance on ascending the Qilin Ranking!"

Nangong Xungu was an extremely proud person, but facing Yun Ye, he was still deeply wary and did not dare offend him.

He had a premonition that this child would surely rise against Heaven and become an unparalleled Peerless Genius of his generation.

"Ascending in advance? Do you mean I'll immediately appear on the Qilin Ranking, or do I need to challenge my way up?"

Yun Ye did not care about Nangong Xungu's surrender. What he wanted was fortune. If he could fight one battle fewer, he could reveal a little less of his strength. That was a good thing.

"You'll basically enter the Qilin Ranking directly. The person at the bottom is only slightly stronger than me, and your ranking weight has already reached the required level. The genius of a weak clan would normally have no chance of entering the Qilin Ranking, but you have Queshuang behind you, so calamities will naturally disperse. There's no need to worry about that."

Nangong Xungu's words were laden with meaning. He cupped his hands. "The victor has been decided, and I have no reason to stay any longer. Farewell."

Wen Yun Town entered ten days of celebration.

Meanwhile, news of Yun Ye's defeat of numerous geniuses spread throughout the Great Wilderness.

Every generation, the Great Wilderness produced monsters.

But those who became famous at the age of five were truly rare. Without exception, they possessed spirit bodies and Innate Divine Laws. From birth, they had been judged to possess Peerless Genius potential, entirely unlike Yun Ye's situation.

Someone like Yun Ye, who had mastered third-order spirituality at merely five years old and swept aside all his enemies with his own Dharma, had been rarely seen in a thousand years!

Yet most of the powerful Aristocratic Clans that heard of this regarded it calmly and were not overly moved.

This went against common sense.

Even the Aristocratic Clans with the deepest foundations accumulated strength over time. They would not let their geniuses squander their potential by making great strides at the age of five. Such an approach might indeed be powerful in the early stages, allowing them to accomplish many unbelievable feats.

But what about afterward?

A cultivator without sufficient foundations could never complete the path of Mystic Law Embodiment and step into the Dharma Realm.

Let's see what came next. If he could still remain invincible after entering the Dharma Realm, then Xiang Ying could be considered a true super-genius.

Among the many Aristocratic Clans of the Great Wilderness Spirit Marsh, only the family to which Nangong Xungu belonged held a different opinion.

Their Heir Apparent had personally faced Xiang Ying and investigated him using the Art of Intuitive Divination. He had not seen any sign of a thirst for quick success or instant benefits.

Xiang Ying was simply a pure monster. He wielded all kinds of techniques with effortless naturalness and absolutely could not be judged by common sense.

The Xiang Clan was also celebrating on a grand scale. This was the first Peerless Genius in the family's history, and it held historic significance!

The celebrations were so lavish that they were enough to make most people lose themselves. Yun Ye himself aside, the other Xiang Clan members were already so proud that they were about to shout slogans of invincibility, believing that Yun Ye truly possessed Heaven-defying potential.

That was hard to say...

Even if he truly did, such a small clan being so high-profile probably would not be a good thing.

The Xiang Clan's luck was simply excellent—they happened to catch the eye of a mighty figure like Queshuang. Otherwise, Yun Ye would probably have been assassinated before even entering the Qilin Ranking.

Indeed, the Qilin Ranking embodied rules. It was a ranking bestowed by Heaven and Earth, and there was fundamentally no way to fake it.

But once someone on the ranking was killed, the spot would naturally become vacant. Even the geniuses of great clans often perished for this reason, let alone those from small clans—or even... pigs and sheep?

Whether pigs or sheep had ever appeared on the Qilin Ranking was itself a question. At least, Yun Ye had never seen any in his previous life or the life before that.

After the celebrations for the Wen Yun Grand Ceremony ended, the entire Xiang Clan began mobilizing its resources and preparing for Yun Ye to enter the Cloud Heaven Spirit Sect.

This raised a question.

Where did the Xiang Clan's resources come from?

Back in White Stone Town, aside from secret realms, the Aristocratic Clans had almost no spiritual resources at all. Even something like grain was worth taking seriously and gathering.

But in Wen Yun Town, the concentration of spiritual energy was more than a hundred times that of White Stone Town. Cultivating most spirit plants was feasible, and the power of all kinds of Spirit Laws was also tremendous. For example, the scale of the Rainfall Art could reach ten or twenty times that of White Stone Town.

Under such conditions, growing various spirit medicines was extremely simple. Thus, the Xiang Clan would cultivate large numbers of people whose wood-, water-, and earth-type spirit roots had undergone Spirit Root Revival, then have them engage in this work for their entire lives.

This was the Xiang Clan's greatest source of income, as well as its most stable one. As long as the environment of Heaven and Earth did not change and outsiders did not seize their land, their output could be predicted.

Second was the income from spirit pills. The Xiang Clan cultivated Pill Refiners internally, and all spirit medicines were refined into pills before being sold in exchange for greater profits.

Third was the income from Spirit Stones produced by the Xiang Clan's spirit vein in North Marsh. The Spirit Stones of this world required manual refinement, and natural ore veins were scarce. The Xiang Clan often raised large numbers of mortals to mine diligently, then handed the ore to Spirit Root Revival practitioners to refine into Spirit Stones.

Finally, there was trade in demon materials.

Wen Yun Town had many Spirit Law Practitioners, each with different needs, so materials for refining Spirit Tools and magic artifacts were highly valuable in trade.

The Xiang Clan's spirit vein in North Marsh produced Spirit Stones, but it also allowed them to slay quite a few demons. Any materials they had no use for were sold.

This portion of their income was highly unstable and did not account for a large share.

Generally speaking, it was only Spirit Law Practitioners from small families who would deliberately take risks to slay demons and obtain resources. True Spirit Law Noble families had no need to do so, because they simply could not earn much money from it.

That was the complete composition of the Xiang Clan's resources. Its family wealth could be called quite substantial, and it was easy for them to accumulate resources.

After existing for several hundred years, the resources accumulated by the entire Xiang Clan were obviously beyond what any individual could imagine.

Even a very small portion would constitute a huge fortune. This was the foundation that gave the Xiang Clan the confidence to let Yun Ye enter the Cloud Heaven Spirit Sect—and to ensure that he achieved something there.