Cultivation: But Not a Game

In the sky, streaks of light flickered and swiftly painted a scroll above the arena. On it were three ancient seal characters — Wind and Cloud Ranking.

"Wind and Cloud Ranking!"

Everyone stood up, watching as the scroll slowly unfurled. A new name appeared somewhere near its end —

Su Yu: Core Disciple of the Xuanzhen Immortal Sect, 24 years old, Qi Cultivation level, ranked 2965th on the Wind and Cloud Ranking.

Ranking Achievement: During the sword competition in the Fire Domain at Longwan City, battling the Celestial Derivation Immortal Sect against the Horned Demon People, Su Yu defeated 50 competitors of the same rank, sweeping completely, and also defeated three Horned Demon People seeds from the Supreme Ranking. After confirmation, the performance was verified to be true, and the Immortal Treasure Wind and Cloud Ranking captured his aura, granting him the fortune of the Human Race.

"Hiss!"

"Achieving the Wind and Cloud Ranking with Qi Cultivation is extremely rare throughout history."

Everyone looked at Su Yu with burning eyes.

"Good!"

Earth Immortal Han Zhuofei, the Junior General, praised, standing up and laughing heartily:

"Excellent! In this competition, you have made the greatest contribution. After the battle, I will grant you an opportunity."

Su Yu cupped his fists and bowed:

"Su Yu thanks the General for the reward!"

Han Zhuofei waved his sleeve and laughed heartily:

"No need for formality. This is what you earned yourself."

Su Yu was pressed to sit down by an invisible force, remaining as steady as a mountain amid envious gazes of the crowd.

Having swept completely, according to the competition rules, the forthcoming battles no longer concerned him, unless he dared to challenge those Loose Immortal experts of a higher rank.

According to the rules, if one fights and wins against a higher rank, each victory grants 5 extra points, equivalent to five matches.

But this is a trap.

Those challenged on stage were all within levels 140 to 150, each an elite among peers, with most close to the sect’s True Inheritance level. Among them, some were themselves sect’s True Inheritance, extremely powerful.

Unless Su Yu’s Dragon Transformation remains, he too would be beaten badly if he ascended.

Su Yu quietly observed the battle, primarily focusing on those Loose Immortal experts at the upper levels of the arena.

At the Qi level, there are supreme seeds, while among Loose Immortals, there are top-notch experts on the Wind and Cloud Ranking, though no supreme ranking masters.

Whether by coincidence or agreement, each side, human and Horned Demon People, had only one.

Recalling the Qi level had each side with only three supreme seeds felt like a prior arrangement between both.

He observed for a whole day, and by noon the next day, a member from the Horned Demon People side entered the fray again. A female Horned Demon with delicate jade horns, resembling a human beauty, appeared on the stage, and Su Yu suddenly heard Cheng Shayu’s voice transmission:

"Pay attention, this is Wu Min, ranked 1550th on the Wind and Cloud Ranking, First-Grade Dao Foundation."

Su Yu immediately focused on the stage.

As the battle began, the woman threw a fiery red whip which expanded in mid-air, rapidly transforming into a kilometer-long red flood dragon with a terrifying template, spitting out a string of fire thunder.

She then retrieved a treasure cauldron surrounded by lightning, which rose high, unleashing dazzling lightning. From it emerged a Thunder God encircled by lightning, with a terrifying template level of 178.

Magic Realm: Spontaneously manifest, able to refine flying sword artifacts into various sizes and forms.

For instance, this fire whip manifested into a Fire Flood Dragon, the Thunder Cauldron into a Thunder God.

Typically, only Tier Seven or above artifacts can transform, with higher-grade artifacts producing stronger phantasms.

Phantasms can utilize the artifact’s full power, yet crucially, they possess self-generated spirituality, capable of autonomous combat, serving as additional combat power, which is pivotal.

With the combined force of two phantasms, utilizing no major moves, only conventional methods, she swept opponents off the stage one by one.

Until a Wind and Cloud Ranking candidate from the human side stepped up, a top Sword Immortal named Shi Qing, whose swordsmanship had reached an astonishing level.

Sword Qi Thunder Sound reached perfection, with the flying sword’s damage and attack speed increased by 200%.

Condensing Sword into Silk reached divine proficiency, concentrating Sword Qi into strands as thin as hair, extraordinarily sharp.

Sword Light Division reached divine proficiency, easily splitting one sword into hundreds of Sword Qi.

True Sword Intent reached the pinnacle of mastery.

All these realms fused into one, truly achieving a level where one sword can break ten thousand techniques.

With a single slash, the powerful Sword Intent directly extinguished the divine sense and mental imprints sustaining the forms of the Red Flood Dragon and Thunder God, reverting both treasures to their original forms in one stroke.

With just two Tier Nine Flying Swords, forcefully breaking through the opponent’s various Divine Techniques and Magic, defeating them outright.

The battle between these two top-notch experts seemed ordinary, not flashy at all, appearing even less spectacular than typical Qi Cultivation Cultivators.

However, Su Yu could sense the terrifying combat power lurking beneath the calmness, the epitome of returning to simplicity, the supreme simplicity of the Great Dao.

This battle, the human side won.

Following this, Shi Qing, like Su Yu, swept through with great momentum.

Though not achieving over twenty consecutive wins like Su Yu, he too accomplished a sweep of 50 victories.

Both from Qi and Dao Foundation levels, the human side had competitors each accomplishing a sweep, securing a significant points advantage, appearing to have victory in hand.

And indeed, without surprises, as each competitor completed their three rounds of challenges, the human side clearly held the advantage. When the last battle concluded on the third day, the final tally showed the human side winning over the Horned Demon People by 42 points, securing ownership of the Fire Domain.

"Hahaha!"

The human side’s host, Junior General Han Zhuofei, laughed heartily, rising to address the Horned Demon People:

"The battle is decided, we have won!"

The Earth Immortal from the Horned Demon People, looking dejected, stood out and said:

"Consider yourself lucky this time; next time, you won’t be so fortunate."

He glanced deeply at Su Yu, waved his wide sleeve, and turned to enter the immortal ship.

"Damn, is he targeting me?"

Su Yu instinctively stepped back, shielding his teammates beside him.

Cheng Shayu laughed upon seeing this and sent a voice transmission to him:

"No need to worry, you’re already on the Fengyun Ranking, blessed by spiritual treasures. No one can use Celestial Secret Skills to scheme against you, as long as you don’t act recklessly, they can’t ambush you."

"Hmm, I know."

He didn’t need Cheng Shayu’s reminder; he already knew the benefits of being on the Fengyun Ranking.

There aren’t too many benefits, just a few, but they’re all practical.

Firstly, the blessing of spiritual treasures makes it impossible for anyone to scheme against him with Celestial Secret Skills unless immortals use even more powerful spiritual treasures to calculate.

That’s impossible; no Horned Demon immortals with spiritual treasures would be so free as to calculate against a mere Qi Cultivation Cultivator.

Moreover, being on the Fengyun Ranking grants the blessing of the Human Race’s fortune, making luck better.

Fortune isn’t just luck; luck is just one manifestation of it.

Furthermore, once on the Fengyun Ranking, if you’re a sect disciple and not a true disciple, you’re certain to be promoted to a true disciple.

This applies to sects governed by human civilizations in the human hinterlands, but sects like Blue Mountain Island still have indigenous leaders, so there’s no such privilege.

But it’s not a big deal; since you’re on the Fengyun Ranking, your strength and potential are truly formidable, achieving true disciple status is within reach.

About ten minutes later, many warships of the Horned Demon side began to retreat, followed by the surrounding large and small warships and flying ships.

About two hours later, the Horned Demons surrounding the Fire Domain withdrew completely.

Cultivators from many military divisions took over the defense zones previously occupied by the Horned Demons, began dismantling their restrictions, and rearranging their own defenses and arrays, preparing to establish a permanent base here.

This Fire Domain, even if the remains of the Demon Immortal are taken away in the future, the domain itself holds considerable value, and the blazing flame spiritual light within is a resource intrinsic to the domain, not a derivative of the Demon Immortal’s remains.

Occupying it allows for continuous production of blazing flame spiritual light and other fire-related resources, making it valuable to hold.

The Fire Domain has not yet opened, and everyone was gathered to begin the process of evaluating merits and bestowing rewards.

Su Yu accumulated 60 victories, earning a total of 60,000 contribution points, 3 minor merits, and 6 major merits.

This is the base reward; in addition, his 60 victories were crucial for the victory on the human side, earning him a military reward of 10,000 merit points and 1 major merit.

This reward is substantial; normally, only a few could achieve ten victories, and among a hundred contestants, fewer than ten can earn a major merit based on skill.

In total, combined with the remaining 4,620 merit points and 1 major merit from before, he now accumulated a total of 74,620 merit points, 3 minor merits, and as many as 8 major merits.

After the evaluation of merits and bestowing of rewards, Su Yu saw the military cultivators resetting the Fire Domain’s defense restrictions and won’t be letting them in for a while, so he immediately opened the military exchange list, preparing to spend these merits and major merits to get some good items.

However, just as he began browsing and hadn’t selected anything, he suddenly received a message from Cheng Shayu:

"Su Yu, come to the inner hall."

He didn’t think much of it and immediately went to the inner hall, seeing Cheng Shayu and Han Zhuofei there, Cheng Shayu waved at him and asked:

"You haven’t used your merits and major merits yet, have you?"

He shook his head and said:

"I was just about to use them, and then you called me, senior."

"It’s good you haven’t; I’m going to get you some benefits."

He turned to look at Junior General Han Zhuofei, who held a jade talisman and said with a smile:

"Achieving the Fengyun Ranking with just Qi Cultivation is a rare feat in human history, and according to regulations, there’s a reward for encouragement."

"First of all, are you willing to join the Human Race’s military department and contribute to the race’s prosperity and growth?"

Su Yu nodded seriously:

"I am willing!"

"Very well!"

"Wait a moment."

Han Zhuofei tapped his fingers lightly in front of him, and though nothing was visible, it was obvious he was operating something.

After a while, a prompt appeared in front of Su Yu:

"Junior General Han Zhuofei of the Human Race military department wishes to recruit you; do you wish to join?"

"Yes!"

The next second, a new interface popped up; it was the military department’s interface. He scanned it briefly; it bore some similarity to a guild, with rank distinctions, and being new, his rank was reserve.

Before he could finish reviewing it, several new prompts appeared:

"Junior General Han Zhuofei of the Human Race military department promotes you to Private."

Behind this prompt was a detailed description, which showed Han Zhuofei used his general authority to directly skip the reserve observation period and promote him to a formal military member.

"Junior General Han Zhuofei of the Human Race military department promotes you to Second Lieutenant!"

Behind this prompt was also a detailed description; it indicated this promotion was due to his position on the Fengyun Ranking, which allows for a one major rank promotion, up to Captain.

Since his initial rank was too low, only Private, his maximum promotion was to Second Lieutenant.

If he had a rank from the start, he could have been promoted to First Lieutenant or even Captain.