Qilin Rankings

Your Wind Severing Saber Technique and Hidden Edge Saber Technique had both reached perfection. After many fierce battles, you had gained new insights into saber arts.

In the first year of seclusion, you practiced the Wind Severing Saber Technique and Hidden Edge Saber Technique anew. No longer bound by fixed forms in your saber moves and momentum, you could wield them at will as you attempted to merge the two into one.

In the second year of seclusion, you had thoroughly integrated the two saber techniques at the level of moves, transitioning between them without the slightest hitch. You began contemplating saber momentum and Blade Intent, seeking to discard the dross and retain the essence.

In the third year of seclusion, you initially fused the swift, rapid-slashing intent of the Wind Severing Saber Technique with the Hidden Edge Saber Technique's momentum of thunder erupting from silence. You created a new saber technique.

You named it Sixfold Wind-Thunder Slash.

Martial Art: Sixfold Wind-Thunder Slash

Quality: Acquired Realm

Realm: Major Mastery

You incorporated the essence of Listening Wind Slash into Demon Slayer Strike, thoroughly merging the ultimate moves of the two saber techniques into a single move named Wind Slash Thunderclap.

Seclusion ended.

Shen Yi felt as though he had been reborn. His current system panel had undergone earth-shaking changes:

Host: Shen Yi

Cultivation: First-Class Realm

Martial Arts: Sixfold Wind-Thunder Slash (Major Mastery), Bone Dislocation Hand (Perfection), Fragmentary Array Breaker Art (Perfection), Grass Treading Flight (Perfection), Surging Tide Art (Initiate)

Ultimate Moves: Wind Slash Thunderclap, Water Treading Wave Step, Bone Dislocation Tendon Severing

Seclusion Remaining: 10 months

Though his cultivation was still at the First-Class Realm and had yet to break through.

This First-Class Realm was no longer the same First-Class Realm as before.

Whether it was his internal arts or his saber techniques, Shen Yi could clearly feel that his strength had undergone a qualitative leap.

Like the prodigies of those sects, he had built a deeper foundation and reserve at the First-Class Realm.

Perhaps.

Once his saber arts reached perfection.

And his internal cultivation methods merged into one.

Even with First-Class Realm cultivation, if he faced Fang Yu of the Acquired Realm again, he could defeat him in an open and honorable battle.

Yet Shen Yi did not grow swollen with pride.

The successful fusion of his saber techniques.

Only made him more certain of his path ahead.

The martial path had no end. Gather the strengths of a hundred schools and forge a martial path of his own—this was the road he intended to walk.

With Fang Yu dead.

The Yaksha Faction was a dragon without a head.

Under Zhao Qiushan and the core elders' leadership, Broken Blade Hall began leading its men in a counterattack.

In one burst of momentum, they wiped out every last remnant of the Yaksha Faction throughout Clear River and reclaimed Little River Village.

However.

All that remained there was a desolate stretch of ruins.

Shen Yi and Qin Jianghe walked along the barren village road.

Unable to suppress their sighs.

After the Yaksha Faction occupied this place, they had burned, killed, plundered, and acted with utter abandon. Most of the villagers had fled overnight.

Those too slow to run became ghosts beneath the Yaksha Faction's blades, or were captured and enslaved as servants.

The two arrived at Old Jiang's doorstep.

The courtyard gate was shattered beyond recognition.

The door panels lay broken into several pieces upon the ground.

The house was already empty.

According to the captured Yaksha Faction members, after killing the people of Little River Village, they had tossed the bodies carelessly into the mass grave behind the mountain.

Now, the stench of corpses was overpowering.

No one could tell who was who.

Shen Yi and Qin Jianghe had no way of knowing whether Old Jiang's family had died or escaped.

Shen Yi found only a carved wooden hairpin in Axiu's room. It was the only thing Old Jiang's family had left behind.

Qin Jianghe had the brothers of the hall.

Rebury every corpse from the mass grave.

Then erect blank tombstones.

It at least allowed them to rest in the earth.

Wisps of green smoke curled upward.

Shen Yi and Qin Jianghe stood before the graves, burning paper offerings for the dead villagers. Shen Yi felt a heaviness clogging his chest.

Yet this was an age of chaos.

Lives were as cheap as grass.

Standing upon the hillside, Shen Yi gazed at the Clear River flowing leisurely in the distance. The departed were like this river, never ceasing, and he felt it was time for him to set out as well.

"Brother Shen, it is time for you to leave."

Qin Jianghe stood shoulder to shoulder with him and spoke calmly.

It was strange.

This time, Qin Jianghe did not try to keep him.

No. Shen Yi's eyes narrowed slightly as he turned to look at Qin Jianghe.

"Brother Shen?"

The name he had always given Qin Jianghe was Chen Yu.

Qin Jianghe smiled faintly.

"These past few days, we have been nursing our wounds in peace."

"Yet the martial world of Dong Commandery has been churning with wind and clouds."

"Yesterday, Heaven's Secret Pavilion published the latest Heaven's Mystery Rankings. Brother Shen, your name is on the Qilin Rankings."

Shen Yi raised a brow.

"Huh?"

To be honest, he had always felt that he stood as far from rankings reserved for prodigies and peerless experts as earth from heaven.

He never expected to make the list.

Qin Jianghe handed him a scroll of silk.

"This is the latest list of the four rankings issued by Heaven's Secret Pavilion."

"The Qilin Rankings are at the end."

"They record the young prodigies of outstanding potential across the Nine Provinces."

As instructed, Shen Yi flipped to the end, found the Qilin Rankings, and simply began reading from back to front. Before long, he saw his own name.

Eighty-eighth on the Qilin Rankings.

Chen Yu (suspected alias), skilled in grappling arts and saber techniques. First, he single-handedly escorted Qin Jianghe of Raging Tide Broken Blade Hall through the Whale Gang's encirclement. Later, while surrounded, he slew White Rakshasa, fled a hundred li through the night to Broken Blade Hall, and joined forces with the gravely wounded Qin Jianghe to kill Chaotic Sky Yaksha Fang Yu. A hidden dragon emerging from the abyss—the beginning of his fame!

Heh.

He could be considered someone whose name was on the list.

"But where did this 'Brother Shen' come from?"

Qin Jianghe looked troubled.

"That is precisely the problem."

"The moment you became famous through the Qilin Rankings, rumors began spreading through the martial world about your true identity."

"And this morning, they were made public."

"Chen Yu's true name is Shen Yi. Formerly a runner with the Pacification Office, he later cut down his superior with a saber and fled the city. He is currently wanted for a bounty of one thousand taels of silver."

Qin Jianghe shrugged.

"Now the entire martial world knows you are connected to our Broken Blade Hall. Though our Raging Tide Gang does not fear the Pacification Office, it would not look right for us to openly shelter a wanted man. So, you truly must leave."

Shen Yi smiled faintly.

"I was already planning to leave."

"You will not ask why I betrayed the Pacification Office?"

Qin Jianghe smiled.

"I have come to understand your character."

"Since you killed your superior, that man must have had a reason he could not be allowed to live. Why should I ask more?"

"But I must remind you: you are now on the Qilin Rankings, you are wanted, and you killed a Whale Gang helmsman. Not only must you face pursuit from the Pacification Office and the Blade Catchers, as well as the Whale Gang's revenge, you must also beware those challengers itching to make a move."

"Who would not want to become famous in a single battle? As long as they defeat or kill you, even if they cannot take your place, it will still be enough to make their names resound through the martial world."

Shen Yi clicked his tongue twice.

"Why do I feel this Heaven's Mystery Rankings is no good thing?"

Qin Jianghe spat.

"It was never a good thing."

"How many disturbances has the martial world spawned because of it?"

"It is only that Heaven's Secret Pavilion is far too mysterious, existing apart from the Nine Provinces. No one can find it, much less seek trouble with them."

"But..."

Qin Jianghe said solemnly.

"The rankings are the genuine article. None who can make the list are mediocre. If you encounter them, you must be extremely careful."

Shen Yi flipped through the Qilin Rankings again.

"At a hurried glance, this list is truly a gathering of demons and monsters. Quite a few are wanted fugitives, and there are people from the demonic sects, Daoists, monks, even those from overseas and Dongying. Tsk, tsk..."

"The top-ranked one is actually an alien tribesman from the Northern Wilderness—Flying Eagle, Dugu Ao."

Qin Jianghe nodded in silence.

"This Dugu Ao is a young fierce general of the Golden Tent on the grasslands. Countless people have tried to kill him, only to die themselves, and instead helped forge his present-day fame."