Ranking Announced

The rankings were finally decided 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 after hunting four Peak First Rank exotic beasts, I still couldn't squeeze into the top ten? The sect truly had 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 in the Foundation Establishment Realm Hunting Tournament was a dark horse named Cao Guandao.

He had successfully hunted a Half-Step Golden Core great demon, claiming the top spot alone 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.

He was only fifty-three years old and already one of the Heaven Sect's candidates for Holy Son, with extraordinarily formidable strength.

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

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

The Thunder Division's five Foundation Establishment Realm disciples had all participated in this Hunting Tournament.

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-ranking among the Thunder Division disciples 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 quite well this time."

Lu Heng, who had just come down from the stage after receiving his reward, was the first to spot Dong Lin.

"Just luck, just luck. Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters are still more impressive; every one of you made the rankings."

"Ah, only Senior Sister was a little fiercer. The rest of us merely did passably."

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

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

"Junior Brother, you did very well. I had thought our Thunder Division would have a gap in the Qi Refining Realm rankings.

I never expected that this time... 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 Junior Brother's cultivation has advanced at lightning speed.

When you have time, we can spar in Lightning Arts."

"Of course, Senior Sister. Definitely when I have time," Dong Lin replied with a smile.

The atmosphere among the Thunder Division disciples was quite good. Unlike some factions, they did not scheme against one another and fight 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-attributed 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 quietly calculated.

Though there were only two rewards this time, their value was extremely generous.

The Sect Contribution Points Dong Lin received as sixth place were already comparable to those of his Thunder Division Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters.

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

were only around two or three hundred, which was already quite considerable.

After receiving his rewards, Dong Lin headed to his own Spirit Field.

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

Since Dong Lin was still unfamiliar with metal-elemental spells, turning metal spiritual energy into a sickle and controlling it with his divine sense took quite a bit of effort.

Only then did he finish harvesting this mu of Spirit Rice.

After weighing it, he estimated that this harvest amounted to around five hundred kilograms of Spirit Rice, barely meeting the standard yield for one mu 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 rather casually. Other than regularly fertilizing and removing pests,

he had done no additional work, such as turning the soil or pulling weeds.

The pest-removal task he had previously accepted from the sect was also temporarily unnecessary now that the Spirit Rice had matured and begun to be harvested.

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

Maybe I should find time to accept some sect tasks instead."

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

only to hand over more than half his harvest in one stroke to cancel out sect tasks. It truly was not worth the loss; he might as well do some tasks himself.

Now, Dong Lin had quite a bit of confidence in his own strength. The Merit Affairs Hall's tasks presumably would not be able to stump him.

Back then, his cultivation had been too weak and he had not been skilled in combat, which was why he had wanted to avoid tasks.

But after two months of tempering, Dong Lin had undergone a complete transformation and was no longer so afraid of Qi Refining Realm Yellow-rank tasks.

—Shouyang Trading House—

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

For twenty-three Low-Grade Spirit Stones, he bought a packet of Spirit Rice seeds.

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

grew particularly plump Spirit Rice, and that you hardly needed to worry about them at all?"

Zhang Tao regretted that Dong Lin had not chosen that premium Spirit Rice seed again.

Perhaps it was the frustration of seeing his outstanding product go unappreciated.

"Senior Brother Zhang, my eye for these things is ordinary. I truly couldn't see much difference.

I'll grow ordinary Spirit Rice first. Maybe next year, I'll be able to grow some Blood Jade Spirit Rice or something."

"Next year? Brother Dong, you're that confident? You'd need a Foundation Establishment Realm spirit farmer to keep such things under control.

The exotic insects in high-rank Spirit Fields cannot be underestimated. Some have a chance of advancing to Second Rank exotic insects—that is truly a life-threatening danger."

Because insects were generally small in size, with the aid of the rich spiritual energy and nutrients in high-rank Spirit Fields,

they had a considerable chance of directly advancing to Second Rank.

The resources and time required for insects to advance to Second Rank were far less than those required by larger creatures.

Thus, the cultivation world was especially strict in guarding against exotic insects.

Swarms of exotic insects were difficult to deal with.

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

Dong Lin did not actually have much confidence that he could achieve Foundation Establishment next year.

However, his cultivation had improved so quickly that it gave him the illusion that Foundation Establishment would come easily.

"By the way, Brother Dong, you really gave me a huge shock at 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 real 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 does not count as true ability."

Dong Lin repeatedly waved his hands and answered modestly.

"Brother Dong is still so modest. Normally, few combat experts like you would choose to work in Spirit Field cultivation.

You bring me so many spirit insect shells every month. As expected, you have two tricks up your sleeve.

With Brother Dong's pest-removal efficiency, I seem to have heard that the number of exotic insects in the Spirit Fields has noticeably decreased recently.

Several of my pest-repelling spiritual liquids, which used to sell like wildfire, are now hard to sell."

"I didn't expect it to affect your business because of this."

"It's a small matter. The shells Brother Dong has supplied me over these past six months have already brought in far more profit than selling those things."