Rookies Rise

This year's Dragon Ranking Tournament was more intense than in previous years. Many defenders had been defeated by their challengers, with the proportion exceeding half.

In other words, half of the students who had ranked in the top three hundred last year had met their downfall in this year's Dragon Ranking Tournament!

Most crucially, the majority of them had been defeated by first-year newcomers.

Hailed as the strongest freshman class in a thousand years, they had proven themselves with their strength.

"Chu is on the rise!" That was what most people were thinking.

In the VIP seats, King Yan Heng, the newly enthroned ruler of the Yan State, watched everything with concern.

He hadn't come to watch the Dragon Ranking Tournament. He had come to seek an alliance with Chu. The reason Qin had withdrawn its troops some time ago was that trouble had broken out in its own backyard—in other words, the Yan State had turned against it.

For as long as anyone could remember, the Yan State had lived in the shadow of its big brother, Qin. When Qin attacked Chu this time, the Yan and Qi states, as Qin's subordinates, had followed its lead.

Unfortunately, the previous King Yan had suddenly died, and the crown prince, who favored Qin, had unexpectedly failed to claim the throne. Instead, Yan Xun, who opposed Qin, had inherited it.

That had set off a chain of events. The Yan State had turned against Qin, forcing Qin to halt its campaign against Chu. Now Yan Xun had traveled a great distance to Chu to form an alliance and keep Qin from turning around and dealing with the Yan State.

An alliance was one thing, but Yan Xun didn't want to see Chu grow too powerful.

Sage Yan was seated beside Yan Xun. Seeing the worry on his face, he naturally knew what troubled him. His lips didn't move, yet his voice entered Yan Xun's ears.

"Your Majesty, there's no need to worry. King Saint Chu has no great ambitions. Under his rule, the Great Chu Kingdom is destined to perish."

This was the art of voice transmission. Cultivators below the Spirit King realm couldn't perform it.

"With Saint Chu around, that will be no easy task." Yan Xun sighed.

Since attaining sainthood, Saint Chu had guarded the Great Chu Kingdom for more than two thousand years, his might shaking the entire Azure Dragon Continent. Saint Chu had been the greatest contributor to Great Chu's revival.

"Saint Chu is old," Sage Yan said calmly.

At three thousand five hundred years of age, unless he broke through to the Immortal Realm, he would eventually succumb to the erosion of time.

Yan Xun glanced at Saint Chu. He was an unremarkable old man, dressed in a gray hemp robe, with white hair falling to his shoulders and a face etched with the marks of time.

Perhaps sensing Yan Xun's gaze, Saint Chu slowly turned his head to meet it. His eyes were unfathomably deep. Yan Xun seemed to feel the rise and fall of ages within them.

Yan Xun lowered his head slightly in respect.

Saint Chu smiled faintly, then turned back to watch the tournament.

Yan Xun looked back toward the arena and said quietly, "Master, do you really think Saint Chu has only reached the sixth stage of the Spirit Saint realm?"

Among the Five Saints of the five kingdoms, Saint Chu had the highest cultivation, at the sixth stage of the Spirit Saint realm, while Sage Yan had the lowest, at the third. The others were around the fourth or fifth stages. However, those figures were all from five hundred years ago.

At that, Sage Yan smiled. "Your Majesty, you should know that I've already reached the seventh stage of the Spirit Saint realm. Saint Chu may not have our talent, but his faith in cultivation is profound. After five hundred years of trials, how could he have made no progress?"

"If my calculations are right, he's only one step away."

Just one final step from entering the Immortal Realm.

But no one believed Saint Chu could take that last step.

Without entering the Immortal Realm, Saint Chu, who had lived for more than three thousand five hundred years, would eventually reach the end of his life.

When Saint Chu passed away, the Chu Kingdom would fall apart.

"And then the Great Yan will sweep across the four kingdoms and unite the Azure Dragon Continent."

Yan Xun's ambition rivaled that of Qin Shi Huang.

"Look! Someone's stepped onto one of the top-ten Dragon Ranking arenas!" spectators cried from the stands.

The top-ten arenas hadn't been challenged in the first round for many years! Spectators all around the stands turned their eyes toward them.

"Student Jiang Yibei requests Senior Brother Li's instruction."

At last, someone had stepped forward to challenge a defender in the top ten.

Li Chen, ranked among the top ten, watched Jiang Yibei walk onto the arena and couldn't help giving a wry smile. "Why choose me?"

This year's top ten on the Dragon Ranking and the freshmen had both been hailed as the strongest classes Zhenguan Academy had seen in a thousand years. The students defending their places had long expected someone to challenge them this time; they just hadn't expected to be the first target.

Jiang Yibei teased, "Because Senior Brother Li ranked last."

"Picking on the weakest? That doesn't sound like you, Jiang Yibei!" The two had known each other for a long time, so Li Chen didn't mind the teasing.

Jiang Yibei was one of the most prominent freshmen, and he was extremely proud, fond of challenging the strong.

"Better safe than sorry, Senior Brother Li," Jiang Yibei said with a smile. "Wang Dong lost because he let his guard down. He's probably hiding at home crying right now. I don't want to end up like him."

They were in the same freshman class, and Wang Dong was no weakling. Jiang Yibei had naturally kept an eye on him, so he had happened to see Wang Dong's match against Yang Chengzhi.

Li Chen nodded. His smile faded as he clasped his hands behind his back and said seriously, "Then, Junior Brother Jiang, please."

" The defense match for the three hundred places on the Dragon Ranking begins now!" At the referee's announcement, a battle to defend a top-ten spot officially began.

"Whoosh!"

Jiang Yibei attacked first, becoming a blur as he charged straight at Li Chen. As he ran, a white longsword appeared in his previously empty hand.

Li Chen bent slightly at the waist, and a gleaming white longsword appeared in his hand as well.

"Clang!"

The swords clashed with a piercing ring, and the two were knocked backward.

Li Chen retreated three steps, while Jiang Yibei only took one.

However, since Li Chen had been on the defensive, their strength was likely evenly matched.

Jiang Yibei circulated his spiritual energy, and a thin layer of it covered his sword. He pushed off with his toes and thrust at Li Chen again.

Li Chen held his hand at a forty-five-degree angle, his sword pointing at the ground. As he channeled his spiritual power and flourished his blade, a crater appeared in the ground. He raised his sword, and its tip carved a broad trench through the earth.

"Boom!"

This time, before the two could even meet, their powerful spiritual energy collided and exploded.

The tremendous blast instantly silenced Jiaolong Plain. Spectators in the stands turned to look, and even contestants fighting on the other arenas glanced over, some openly and others out of the corner of their eyes.

It was the first earth-shaking boom since the tournament had begun.

This was a strike from the Spirit Sect realm.

"Now that's a fight!" Ma Feifei, watching from the stands, finally looked interested.

At first, he had watched the matches with great excitement. But as time went on, he found that, though the fights were spectacular, they were missing something. It was like watching battles in a high-martial world compared with a low-martial one. In high-martial worlds, fights came with all the special effects: storms brewing, mountains crumbling, fighters soaring through the skies and tunneling beneath the earth.

In low-martial worlds, it was just back and forth, one person thrusting a spear and the other swinging a sword, sometimes calling out the names of their moves.

To Ma Feifei, this world was a cultivation world that was even a level above high-martial worlds. So fights in a world like this should be full of flashy effects! What was the point of a cultivation world if the fights were just like those in a low-martial world?

After watching a few matches, Ma Feifei had lost interest and lowered his head to write. It was only that tremendous boom just now that made him want to watch again.

The two on the arena hadn't stopped attacking after the explosion. Their figures had become streaks of afterimages, appearing everywhere in the air and across the arena.

Cultivators below the Spirit Sect realm could barely see them, catching only glimpses of their afterimages and the instant their attacks met.

"Pop!"

A crisp sound rang out, and a barrier suddenly rose around the arena, shooting up into the sky.

It was a protective formation that was normally activated only in the second stage, but their fight had triggered it early, in the first stage.

With the formation active, the two fought with even fewer restraints. They unleashed all manner of dazzling techniques and martial skills, drawing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy from the air. It poured into their bodies and transformed into a stream of powerful attacks.

Two afterimages flashed past, and Li Chen and Jiang Yibei reappeared on the arena.

"Junior Brother Jiang, I had no idea you'd been hiding your strength so well. You've reached the second stage of the Spirit Sect realm!" Li Chen looked at Jiang Yibei across from him, his face a little pale. After just a few minutes of fighting, he hadn't managed to gain an advantage over Jiang Yibei. Even more astonishing, Jiang Yibei was at the second stage of the Spirit Sect realm!

If this had happened last year, Jiang Yibei's cultivation would have been enough to claim first place on the Dragon Ranking!

Jiang Yibei smiled faintly. "Senior Brother Li has been hiding his strength too!"

His face didn't look much better. He'd thought Li Chen had only recently entered the Spirit Sect realm. Challenging him should have been a sure thing. But he hadn't expected the guy to have been concealing his cultivation all along. Only after they started fighting had he discovered, damn it, that Li Chen had reached the second stage of the Spirit Sect realm too—and was already in the late phase. He even had a slight edge in the smaller stages.

They'd practiced together, shared drinks, and chatted about everything under the sun, yet they'd both been putting on an act. One was more convincing than the other.

Li Chen chuckled and looked at Jiang Yibei. "Facing the strongest freshman class in a thousand years, your senior brother couldn't afford to hold nothing back. Otherwise, you freshmen would leave us with not even scraps."

Jiang Yibei gave him a playful smile. "What a coincidence. Facing the strongest top ten on the Dragon Ranking in a thousand years, your junior brother has been holding something back too. Please, Senior Brother, teach me a thing or two."

With that, Jiang Yibei closed his eyes. The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy around him began surging into his body, and in moments, his aura reached its peak.

The longsword in his hand rose on its own. Jiang Yibei opened his eyes and held both hands before his chest, forming a sword seal. The longsword before him split into two, then four, then eight... In the blink of an eye, countless swords filled the air.

The swords hovered overhead, their blades infused with powerful spiritual energy and glittering with points of light. From the stands, they looked like a map of the stars.

"Sixth-tier martial skill, Star Sword Art!"

With so many powerful cultivators in the stands, someone naturally recognized Jiang Yibei's move.

Everything on the Azure Dragon Continent had a rank, including cultivation techniques and martial skills. They were divided into nine grades: the top three, the middle three, and the bottom three.

Top-grade techniques and martial skills were nearly impossible to find; the middle grades were the mainstream, and the bottom grades were considered inferior.

A sixth-tier martial skill was the highest quality among the middle grades.

It was astonishing that Jiang Yibei had mastered a sixth-tier martial skill at such a young age.

Li Chen's expression darkened at the sight of the sixth-tier martial skill. As one of the top ten on the Dragon Ranking, he'd been lucky enough to receive a fifth-tier martial skill from the academy. It was his most prized possession, yet Jiang Yibei had a sixth-tier one. How the hell was he supposed to fight that?

Even so, Li Chen had no intention of giving up. He circulated his spiritual power, and suddenly his whole body burst into flames. He became a man of fire, and as Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy surged into him, the flames grew larger and larger.

Strangely, although the flames blazed high, the spectators could still clearly see Li Chen within them. He was wrapped in fire, yet not even the hem of his clothes had burned. He stood inside completely unharmed.

"Fifth-grade technique, Netherflame Art."

The Netherflame Art was a relatively rare cultivation technique. It refined and converted Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy into netherflame, which could then inflict devastating damage on an enemy.

Netherflame was no ordinary fire. It was a special flame that burned spiritual power, not people.

"Whoosh!"

At Jiang Yibei's command, countless swords carrying the power of the stars shot toward Li Chen.

Li Chen transformed into a man of fire, and the enormous flames took the shape of a giant. The swords pierced into the flames and were burned to ash by the netherflame.

But there were too many swords. Each one the netherflame consumed made it dim a little, and the giant shrank a little. After burning through more than half the swords, Li Chen finally couldn't hold out any longer. The Star Sword Art blasted him off the arena.

"Pfft!"

Li Chen spat out a mouthful of blood as he hit the ground. The flames on his body slowly faded.

"He lost!"

When Li Chen was blasted off the arena, everyone on Jiaolong Plain watched in shock. For the first time in a thousand years, one of the top ten Dragon Ranking students had been defeated by a challenger in the first stage.

The top ten on the Dragon Ranking! If the top three hundred were the pride of heaven, then the top ten were peerless geniuses. The Great Chu Kingdom had hundreds of millions of cultivators, yet only a little over three hundred could make the Dragon Ranking. Those who made the top ten were the outstanding figures of their era, peerless in talent.

And now, one of the top ten had lost! In the first stage! Defeated by a freshman!

The times were changing!

"Senior Brother Li, I'm obliged." Jiang Yibei stood on the arena and cupped his hands.

Using the Star Sword Art at full power had left him pale as well. The spiritual energy in his body was almost completely depleted. It was fair to say he'd won by luck, thanks to his advantage in cultivation techniques and martial skills. Otherwise, the outcome would have been hard to predict.

"Congratulations." Li Chen gave a wry smile. His defeat had not only cost him face; he had also lost his place on the Dragon Ranking. He wasn't even qualified to compete for the three-hundredth place. Once a defender lost, they were immediately eliminated from that year's Dragon Ranking Tournament.

"Student Jiang Yibei has won the challenge and is now ranked tenth on the Dragon Ranking," the referee announced.

With that, Jiang Yibei became the first challenger in a thousand years to defeat a defender in the Dragon Ranking's top ten! The result sent ripples through Jiaolong Plain.

Jiang Yibei's victory seemed to open the door for other challengers. In the time that followed, every defender in the top ten was challenged.

Even Xiaoyaozi, ranked first, wasn't spared.

It was as if the heavens wanted to keep surprising everyone at this year's Dragon Ranking Tournament. After Jiang Yibei's victory, one top-ten defender after another was knocked down.

By the end of the first stage, four of last year's top ten on the Dragon Ranking had been defeated!

This utterly unexpected result brought the Dragon Ranking Tournament to a new high.