Rankings Announced

The rankings were finally confirmed after everyone's hunting results had been submitted and verified.

Dong Lin ranked sixth in the entire sect with a high score of 143. Baili Tianming came in eighth, Zhao Shuheng tenth, and Tao Yan eleventh.

Four of the five members of the team had entered the top ten.

"Even killing four peak first-order exotic beasts wasn't enough to squeeze into the top ten? The sect really is crouching tigers and hidden dragons."

Dong Lin sighed as he looked at the published rankings.

Since the scoring rules for the Foundation Establishment Realm Hunting Tournament were the same as those for the Qi Refining Realm,

everyone also took the opportunity to witness the terrifying strength of the sect's Foundation Establishment Realm disciples.

The first-place winner of the Foundation Establishment Realm Hunting Tournament was a dark horse named Cao Guandao,

who had successfully slain a Half-Step Golden Core great demon and stood alone at the top with 2,300 points.

Second place went to Xing Yuan of the Black Mountain Dao Pavilion, the personal disciple of Second Elder Guo Ming.

He cultivated the Profound Dao Celestial Sect's supreme technique, the Supreme Heavenly Origin Scripture.

At only fifty-three years old, he was already one of the Heaven Sect's candidates for Holy Son, and his strength was exceptionally formidable.

Yet he had still narrowly lost to that dark horse, earning the terrifying score of 2,021 points.

As for third place, it was Dong Lin's Second Senior Sister, Han Qingxue, who had won 1,832 points.

The five Foundation Establishment Realm disciples of the Thunder Division had all participated in this Hunting Tournament as well.

Third Senior Brother Jiang Qingfeng scored 1,100 points, while Fourth Senior Brother Lu Heng scored 1,043.

Fifth Senior Brother Han Che scored 985 points, and Sixth Senior Brother Zhang Shaoyou scored 960.

Even the lowest-ranked disciple of the Thunder Division had placed eighteenth.

They occupied a quarter of the top twenty Foundation Establishment Realm rankings, making the might of Lightning Arts cultivators plain for all to see.

"Junior Brother, you did well this time."

Lu Heng was the first to spot Dong Lin after coming down from the stage with his reward.

"Just luck, just luck. Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters are still the impressive ones. Every one of you made the rankings."

"Ah, only Senior Sister is really fierce. The rest of us merely got by."

Dong Lin went up to receive his reward and met Han Qingxue, Jiang Qingfeng, and the other Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters coming down from the stage.

"Junior Brother Dong, not bad." Jiang Qingfeng said with a smile.

"Junior Brother did very well. I'd originally thought our Thunder Division would have a gap in the Qi Refining Realm rankings.

I never expected Junior Brother to... Hm? Junior Brother, you've advanced to the Late Qi Refining Stage?"

Han Tingxue looked at Dong Lin in surprise. "It's only been a few days, yet your cultivation has advanced at a breakneck pace.

When you have time, come spar with me in Lightning Arts."

"Alright, Senior Sister. I definitely will when I have time," Dong Lin replied with a smile.

The atmosphere among the Thunder Division disciples was quite good. Unlike some factions, where people schemed against one another and fought until chickens and dogs were thrown into chaos.

As sixth place in this tournament, Dong Lin received ten Azure Wood Spirit Pills and two hundred Sect Contribution Points.

Azure Wood Spirit Pills were excellent healing medicines. They were also greatly beneficial for stabilizing the Dantian and cultivating wood-attribute techniques.

The pills contain powerful azure wood spiritual energy. I wonder whether they can assist the cultivation of the Pure Origin Earth Arts, Dong Lin calculated inwardly.

Though there were only two rewards this time, they were extremely valuable.

The Sect Contribution Points awarded for sixth place were already enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with those received by his Thunder Division Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters.

Naturally, they could not compare to Senior Sister Lin's, but the Sect Contribution Point rewards received by those ranked in the teens

were only in the range of two or three hundred, which was already quite considerable.

After receiving his rewards, Dong Lin headed to his spirit field.

After more than six months of growth, the Spirit Rice in the field had fully matured.

Since Dong Lin was not yet very familiar with metal-element techniques, he had to use metal spiritual energy to form a sickle. Manipulating it with his divine sense took quite a bit of effort,

before he finally managed to harvest this acre of Spirit Rice.

After weighing it, this harvest came to around five hundred kilograms of Spirit Rice, barely reaching the standard yield for an acre of spirit field.

Looks like I do have some talent for farming after all, Dong Lin secretly rejoiced.

Because he had been busy cultivating, he had managed the spirit field quite casually. Apart from regular fertilizing and pest removal,

he had done little else, such as turning the soil or weeding.

The pest-removal task he had previously accepted from the sect was also temporarily no longer necessary now that the Spirit Rice had matured and harvesting had begun.

"If I want to offset sect tasks, I'll have to hand over three hundred kilograms of these five hundred kilograms of Spirit Rice.

Maybe I should take on some sect tasks when I have time instead."

Dong Lin found this method of offsetting tasks somewhat painful. He had worked hard farming for half a year,

only to hand over more than half of it at once to cancel out sect tasks. It was simply not worth the loss. He might as well do the tasks himself.

Now, Dong Lin had quite a bit of confidence in his own strength. The tasks at the Merit Affairs Hall probably would not stump him.

Back then, he had wanted to avoid tasks because his cultivation had been too weak and he was not skilled in spell battles.

But after these past two months of tempering, Dong Lin had undergone a complete transformation. He was no longer so afraid of the yellow-grade tasks for the Qi Refining Realm.

Shouyang Trading House

After thoroughly understanding the market prices, Dong Lin no longer believed Zhang Tao's nonsense this time.

He bought a bag of Spirit Rice seeds for twenty-three Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

"Hey, Brother Dong, didn't you feel that the Shouyang No. 3 Spirit Rice seeds I sold you last time

grew Spirit Rice that was especially plump, and didn't require much care from you at all?"

Zhang Tao regretted that Dong Lin had not chosen that premium variety of Spirit Rice seeds again.

Perhaps it was the feeling that came from seeing his excellent product go unappreciated.

"Senior Brother Zhang, my eye isn't very discerning. I really didn't see much difference.

Let me grow ordinary Spirit Rice for now. Maybe next year I'll be able to grow something like Blood Jade Spirit Rice."

"Next year? Brother Dong, you're that confident? Only Foundation Establishment Realm spirit farmers can keep such crops under control.

The exotic insects in high-grade spirit fields cannot be underestimated. Some may have a chance of advancing to second-order exotic insects—that would be truly life-threatening."

Because insects were generally rather small, the dense spiritual energy and nutrients in high-grade spirit fields could help them

advance directly to the second order with a considerable chance.

Since insects required far fewer resources and much less time than large creatures to advance to the second order,

the cultivation world was particularly strict about guarding against exotic insects.

Swarms of exotic insects were difficult to deal with.

"That's next year's problem. We'll talk about it next year."

Dong Lin did not actually have much confidence in achieving Foundation Establishment next year,

but the rapid rise of his cultivation had given him the illusion that Foundation Establishment would come easily.

"Oh, right, Brother Dong. You really gave me a fright during this Hunting Festival—sixth place!

Sixth among the Heaven Sect's Qi Refining Realm cultivators. Do you know how outrageous that is?

When I heard the news, my jaw nearly hit the floor. Your combat ability is that strong, Brother Dong.

"Brother Zhang, you flatter me. It was merely a fortunate convergence of circumstances and a moment of luck. It cannot be considered real skill."

Dong Lin waved his hands repeatedly and replied modestly.

"Brother Dong is still as humble as ever. Usually, battle experts like you rarely choose to work in spirit field cultivation.

The number of spirit insect shells you bring me every month is so great—you truly have two tricks up your sleeve.

With your pest-removal efficiency, Brother Dong, I seem to have heard that the number of exotic insects in the spirit fields has noticeably decreased lately.

Even several of my previously red-hot insect-repelling spiritual liquids are becoming hard to sell."

"I never expected that to affect your business too."

"It's nothing. The shells you've supplied me with over the past half year have already earned me far more than selling those."