Purple Mansion Prodigy Ranking

"He's Zhou Mubai?"

Chen Daoxuan had long heard Zhou Mubai's name like thunder in his ears.

It was not just him. Among the younger generation of cultivators throughout Guang'an Prefecture, and even the entire Myriad Star Sea, Zhou Mubai's name was renowned.

He had achieved Foundation Establishment at twenty-one, then broken through to the Purple Mansion stage in less than fifty years, becoming a Purple Mansion cultivator before reaching a hundred.

One had to know that Purple Mansion cultivators had a lifespan of fully five hundred years.

That meant Zhou Mubai had over four hundred years to break through to the Golden Core stage.

Barring any surprises, Zhou Mubai had an excellent chance of achieving Golden Core cultivation. He was also hailed as the cultivator in Guang'an Prefecture most likely to become a Golden Core True Person in the past five hundred years.

And that was not all.

What truly made Zhou Mubai formidable was that he was listed on the Myriad Star Sea's Purple Mansion Prodigy Ranking.

The Purple Mansion Prodigy Ranking was one of the rankings established by the Qianyuan Sword Sect to oppose Cloud Country.

There were three complete rankings: the Foundation Establishment Hidden Dragon Ranking, the Purple Mansion Prodigy Ranking, and the Golden Core True Person Ranking!

In Chen Daoxuan's view, everything the Qianyuan Sword Sect did was merely a shrewd grasp of cultivators' desire to make a name for themselves.

In the Myriad Star Sea, the largest group of cultivators consisted of Rogue Cultivators. The second largest group was the disciples of the major Cultivation Families.

Though the Qianyuan Sword Sect was the ruler of the Myriad Star Sea, it could not simply issue an order and make every cultivator head to the battlefield to fight to the death.

Thus, the Qianyuan Sword Sect came up with a way to lure cultivators onto the battlefield through fame and profit.

The Artifact Forging inheritance, the method for constructing an Earth Fire Chamber, and even the Chasing Wind Sword Art and Overturning Rain Sword Art that the Chen Family of Twin Lakes Island had exchanged from the Qianyuan Sword Sect with Battle Merit—all of these were profit!

Rankings like the Purple Mansion Prodigy Ranking, which spread one's name across the world, were fame.

What did cultivators cultivate for?

The foremost goal, of course, was immortality!

Yet for hundreds of thousands of years, this realm had not produced a Great Ascension True Immortal who ascended to the Upper Realm.

For the vast majority of cultivators, immortality was nothing more than an illusory dream.

Beyond immortality, the second greatest pursuit of cultivators was naturally longevity.

And to seek longevity, one could not escape the need for Cultivation Techniques and all manner of cultivation resources.

Unfortunately, most of these things were controlled by the great Cultivation Families of the Myriad Star Sea and the Qianyuan Sword Sect.

If ordinary cultivators wanted to obtain vast cultivation resources, aside from snatching food from a tiger's mouth from the great Cultivation Families and the Qianyuan Sword Sect, their only remaining path was to head to the battlefield and earn Battle Merit.

Once cultivators achieved their goal of longevity, they could not possibly live empty lives, cultivating day after day merely for the sake of cultivation, could they?

Naturally, cultivators would begin pursuing other things.

Such as beauty, material pleasures, and the thing cultivators valued most—reputation!

In the cultivation world, the higher a cultivator's level, the more they generally valued something like reputation.

And the three rankings introduced by the Qianyuan Sword Sect happened to satisfy cultivators' thirst for "fame."

Using the two weapons of "fame" and "profit," the Qianyuan Sword Sect had tied all the cultivators of the Myriad Star Sea to its war chariot.

For four hundred years, the Qianyuan Sword Sect had driven this chariot through Xianyun Continent, charging in all directions and turning Cloud Country upside down.

Even from Chen Daoxuan's modern perspective, the one steering the Qianyuan Sword Sect's course was an extraordinary figure.

When he saw Zhou Mubai in flowing white robes, standing in the air at the Frontline,

Chen Daoxuan remained fairly composed. After all, he was much younger than Zhou Mubai. As for potential, Chen Daoxuan believed he would not be inferior to him in the slightest.

But Wei Sihai and Chen Xianhe beside him had loneliness in their eyes.

After all, both of them were nearing a hundred years old.

Yet in terms of cultivation, that white figure in the distance stood worlds apart from them.

As cultivators of the same era, it was impossible for them not to feel something.

It was simply that the gap between them was so vast that neither of them even dared feel jealous.

Only they themselves could understand that feeling.

Just as everyone was lost in different thoughts,

the battle at the Frontline had already begun.

However, the distance between the two sides was simply too great. Chen Daoxuan and the others' Divine Sense could not reach that far, while their eyesight could not keep up with the speed of the combatants' exchanges.

They could only see sword light flashing in the distance amid unceasing thunderous booms.

They had not expected that, at this level of battle, they did not even qualify to watch from the sidelines.

Feeling the impact of the battle's aftershocks, Chen Daoxuan sighed.

Fortunately, they were far enough away.

Chen Daoxuan even saw that the foremost row of ships had been utterly destroyed by the aftershocks of Zhou Mubai's battle with that high-rank Mermaid.

The watching cultivators wore expressions as though they had seen ghosts, fleeing in all directions.

With Zhou Mubai and the high-rank Mermaid at the center, no one dared approach within a radius of ten li.

In the end,

accompanied by a sword light over a hundred zhang long, the high-rank Mermaid fled with injuries, and the entire Mermaid tribe scattered and fled alongside him.

Another Purple Mansion cultivator from the Zhou Family was about to give chase when Zhou Mubai, pale-faced, stopped him.

"Third Granduncle, there's no need to pursue them!"

"Mubai, are you all right?"

Seeing Zhou Mubai's pale complexion, the cultivator he called Third Granduncle immediately grew tense.

Zhou Mubai was the most gifted cultivator of the younger generation of the Zhou Family.

Not only had he broken through to the Purple Mansion stage at a young age, he was also a sword-dao genius who had comprehended Sword Intent while still at Foundation Establishment cultivation!

This was also the greatest reason Zhou Mubai ranked on the Purple Mansion Prodigy Ranking—he was a Sword Cultivator, a Sword Cultivator even rarer than a cultivator with a Heavenly Spiritual Root!

And now, Zhou Mubai seemed to be injured.

How could the old man not be shocked and enraged?

With that thought, the elder Zhou Mubai called Third Granduncle could not help reproaching him. "Mubai, why bother observing one-on-one rules when dealing with such a foreign race? If you and I had joined forces to take him down just now, why would you have been injured?"

After reproaching him, the old man revealed a pained expression. "Is your injury serious?"

"Third Granduncle, don't worry. It's only a minor injury."

Zhou Mubai shook his head. "Our Zhou Family captures Mermaids every year. The Mermaid Tribe already bears deep resentment toward our Zhou Family. If we had broken the rules again and killed that high-rank Mermaid this time, I fear there would be no room for reconciliation left between the Mermaid Tribe and our Zhou Family."

"And what if there's no room for reconciliation? Does our Zhou Family need to fear a mere Mermaid Tribe?"

Third Granduncle was full of disdain.

Seeing Third Granduncle's attitude, Zhou Mubai hesitated as if he wanted to speak, but ultimately shook his head and said no more.

It was not only Third Granduncle. Every cultivator in the Zhou Family believed that the Zhou Family was invincible throughout the surrounding hundred thousand li of sea, looking down on everyone else.

Zhou Mubai knew clearly that this mentality among his clansmen was no good thing for the Zhou Family.

In recent years, the several major Foundation Establishment families led by the Yang Family had also become increasingly united in appearance but divided at heart from the Zhou Family.

He had even heard that the Yang Family had secretly been joining forces with other Foundation Establishment families, intending to build another Immortal City to contend with the Guang'an Prefecture immortal city, which was shining like the noon sun.

It was only because of disputes over the distribution of benefits and fear of the Zhou Family's might that the alliance negotiations had never gone particularly smoothly.