To tell you the truth, I married a fairy

Then Jiang Man and Little Fatty exchanged their sheets of paper.

In fact, Jiang Man had already read his own sheet. He only wanted to lure Little Fatty into his trap.

Of course, Little Fatty must have been thinking the same thing.

Who wouldn't want to show off a high score?

Otherwise, wouldn't that high score have gone to waste?

A moment later, the words on Little Fatty's sheet came into view.

September 17.

Cloudfront Office, Azure Cloud Pavilion.

Rear courtyard, Sixth Courtyard.

Name: Gao Yao.

Rank: 25 (out of 26).

Cultivation: Qi Refining Second Layer.

Cultivation method level: Simple Qi Refining Method, fourth layer.

Resources obtained: "Simple Qi Refining Method," "Spirit Travel Step," "Six Harmonies Palm."

Plan: practice the Qi Refining Method forty times daily.

Score: 20.

Comment: two years of cultivation amounted to less than someone else's one month.

Jiang Man was a little surprised. Little Fatty's score wasn't low.

It was already twenty.

Yet he was still second from the bottom.

Then who was last?

Drawing his gaze away, Jiang Man looked at Little Fatty beside him and found that he had long since frozen in place.

When Little Fatty first saw that he was second from the bottom, he had thought he had comfortably surpassed Jiang Man.

He had held on to his position as second from the bottom.

No matter how much Jiang Man improved, he couldn't possibly surpass him.

This was a full twenty points.

So he had intended to let Jiang Man see a high score and feel the gap between their scores.

But...

The instant he saw Jiang Man's personal information, he was dumbstruck.

September 17.

Cloudfront Office, Azure Cloud Pavilion.

Rear courtyard, Sixth Courtyard.

Name: Jiang Man.

Rank: 18 (out of 26).

Cultivation: Qi Refining Third Layer.

Cultivation method level: Simple Qi Refining Method, fifth layer.

Resources obtained: "Simple Qi Refining Method," "Spirit Travel Step."

Plan: practice fifty times daily.

Score: 29.

Comment: one month equaled someone else's two years of cultivation.

Leaving aside his cultivation and score.

That comment...

Little Fatty hadn't paid much attention to his own comment at first. Now, it looked like an insult aimed straight at him.

Coming to his senses, he looked at Jiang Man with moist eyes and said, "Brother Jiang, I admit I did speak a little too loudly a few days ago."

He was Brother Jiang again. Jiang Man exchanged their sheets back.

Little Fatty was quite curious. "Brother Jiang, were you hiding your abilities before?"

"It's my talent at work," Jiang Man replied.

Little Fatty didn't believe him. As far as he knew, geniuses never appeared out of nowhere. Their talent showed itself from the very beginning.

They were different from ordinary people from birth, and shone even more brightly once they began to learn.

They stood apart from everyone else from the start.

So he couldn't believe it was talent at work. After a little thought, he asked, "Did something happen recently?"

Hearing this, Jiang Man thought for a moment and said, "Something did happen."

"What was it?" Little Fatty looked curious.

"I married a fairy," Jiang Man replied.

Little Fatty fell silent. He decided to believe that it was Jiang Man's talent at work.

At noon.

The rankings were announced.

Jiang Man didn't stay, however. Instead, he headed straight to the Cloudfront Office's Dharma Transmission Office.

Some publicly available materials were kept here, and it also managed cultivation methods and Spell Arts.

It also registered cultivation eligibility and provided cultivation methods.

Jiang Man found the woman who served as a guide and explained why he had come.

"You're at the Qi Refining Third Layer and want to collect a qi and blood method?" She merely checked his score before registering him. "The qi and blood method available at the Qi Refining Third Layer is called the 'Simple Qi and Blood Method.' It has nine layers in total."

Then she handed the cultivation method to Jiang Man.

"Fairy, do I collect the visualization method from you too?" Jiang Man asked as he put the book away.

"Yes." She nodded, then said, "The 'Simple Visualization Method' has nine layers in total."

Hearing this, Jiang Man had been about to ask whether he could collect it early, before reaching Qi Refining, Fifth Layer.

But he soon froze for a moment.

Somewhat taken aback, he asked, "The visualization method has nine layers too?"

He immediately checked the Peerless Heaven's Chosen Destiny.

[As a Peerless Heavenly Prodigy, cultivating is as easy as drinking water for you. Provided your body allows it, you can certainly cultivate one hundred times a day and raise the visualization method to the thirteenth layer within one hundred days.]

Within one hundred days, he could raise the visualization method to the thirteenth layer.

But the visualization method only had nine layers. How was he supposed to raise it to the thirteenth?

After a pause, he looked at the woman before him and said, "Fairy, do you think it's possible for a visualization method to have thirteen layers?"

"The Simple Visualization Method only has nine layers," she said with certainty.

Jiang Man grew a little anxious. No wonder Old Yellow Ox had kept looking at him that way.

This was where the catch lay.

"Fairy, cultivation methods should differ from one another. Might there be a visualization method with thirteen layers?" Jiang Man asked.

This time, the guiding fairy merely looked at him without speaking.

Jiang Man understood and immediately slipped a Spirit Source note with a denomination of ten between the pages of her book.

Only then did the guiding fairy smile and say, "Of course there is. Simple cultivation methods belong to the most ordinary grade, Mortal Grade, and Mortal Grade cultivation methods are divided into upper, middle, and lower tiers.

"Simple cultivation methods belong to the lower tier and have nine layers in total.

"Middle-tier Mortal Grade methods have eleven layers in total.

"Upper-tier Mortal Grade methods have thirteen layers in total."

As Jiang Man listened, a jumble of emotions filled his heart.

So the Peerless Heaven's Chosen Destiny required him to practice a visualization method that was at least upper-tier Mortal Grade.

"Where can I find an upper-tier cultivation method?" Jiang Man asked.

The guiding fairy thought briefly and said, "If it's a visualization method, the Cloudfront Office should have one. I don't know about anywhere else."

Afterward, Jiang Man left with the qi and blood method. He now felt keenly why Old Yellow Ox had told him to join a sect, and why he had said that Falling Cloud City couldn't support the Peerless Heaven's Chosen Destiny.

He had only just begun, and he already needed an upper-tier Mortal Grade method.

If he needed higher-grade cultivation methods later, no amount of talent would let him meet the requirements.

He really did need to enter a sect as soon as possible.

But for now, he had to go back and ask Old Yellow Ox how to obtain an upper-tier Mortal Grade visualization method.

Only halfway back, he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to collect his Spell Arts.

He went back again and collected the "Six Harmonies Palm" and "Three Talents Force."

The "Spirit Travel Step" was available to Azure Cloud Pavilion students.

The "Six Harmonies Palm" was available to those with more than ten points.

The "Three Talents Force" was available to those with more than twenty points.

Meanwhile, everyone in the Sixth Courtyard was checking the rankings.

Since they hadn't asked anyone else's scores, they needed to check the rankings to find out.

Both Luo Xuan and Fang Yong cared a great deal about this.

Soon, the rankings were released.

First place, Luo Xuan, sixty-three points.

Second place, Fang Yong, sixty-two points.

Third place, Chang Qiwen, sixty points.

Fourth place, Cheng Yu, fifty-nine points.

Everyone's scores had improved.

Third and fourth place in particular had improved at lightning speed.

They already posed a threat to first and second place.

Those ranked below them didn't have high scores and posed no threat to these four.

The final places would likely be chosen from among the four of them.

But just as they were about to leave, someone called out, "Why am I in last place? Where's Jiang Man?"

Only then did people begin paying attention to last place.

Last place, Qiu Cheng, nineteen points.

Second from last, Gao Yao, twenty points.

The bottom three were all listed by their places from the bottom. It was far too humiliating.

Little Fatty was filled with emotion.

Brother Jiang had abandoned him and run ahead.

Everyone saw Jiang Man's ranking.

Eighteenth place, Jiang Man, twenty-nine points.

Twenty-nine points, Qi Refining Third Layer. Fang Yong lowered his gaze, finding it a little hard to believe.

That rate of improvement was a little too fast.

Luo Xuan was also extremely surprised.

Cheng Yu smiled and said, "Luo Xuan, don't tell me you taught him?"

Only then did everyone catch on.

They had a guess.

"Could Miss Luo be training a guard?"

"Jiang Man has been at the bottom forever. What makes him worth training?"

"Maybe that gives her more of a sense of accomplishment?"

"Those damn rich kids."

For a moment, everyone thought Luo Xuan intended to train Jiang Man into a guard.

Even Luo Xuan narrowed her eyes, thinking she could give him a chance.