Seven Years

Time slowly passed.

One year, two years, three years...

Before anyone knew it, seven years had gone by.

Over those seven years, Ning Fa vanished without a trace from the Cangyuan Cultivation World.

Yet the Ling Shu Pavilion Star Ranking still updated once every three months.

For the sake of their Star Ranking positions, countless powerful Golden Core Cultivators in the Cangyuan Cultivation World challenged others, and the rankings changed considerably with every update.

Among them, one person's changes drew the most attention.

It was Ning Fa.

Because he had achieved such a high ranking on the Star Ranking before even reaching a hundred years of age, he had naturally attracted enormous attention.

Whenever the Star Ranking was updated, many people in the Cangyuan Cultivation World watched for changes in his ranking.

But ever since Ning Fa disappeared, his ranking slipped a little with every update.

After seven years, his rank had even fallen to forty-ninth.

That was a full thirty-four places lower than his peak rank of fifteenth.

Among the many experts on the Star Ranking, his decline was the greatest.

Naturally, this drew ridicule from many people, who believed Ning Fa had merely bloomed like an epiphyllum for a single night, that his potential was lacking, and that he would soon fall out of the top fifty—or even the top hundred.

And Ning Fa's declining rank made matters even worse for the current Huayu Sect.

That day, many Golden Core Elders gathered in the discussion hall on Huayu Sect's Green Feather Peak. Everyone wore grave expressions, their faces unpleasantly dark. The entire hall was shrouded in gloom and misery.

Ouyang Zhenhua slowly rose to his feet.

In only a few short years, he seemed to have aged more than a decade. His eyes held an exhaustion he could