Chapter 517 - Cultivation Grade (1/2)

Xiao Chen turned his head, dodging the banana that was flying toward his face, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Um…” Elder Wu looked apologetic, but his expression soon returned to normal. He coughed and smoothened his beard. “Um, ahem, ahem. Nothing. Nothing at all.”

Xiao Chen frowned, finding his behavior to be odd. Elder Wu seemed to be keeping a secret from him, but it didn’t matter. “Oh, that reminded me,” he said. “What’s my grade?”

Elder Wu picked up the other banana on the table and peeled it as he replied serenely, “It’s on the Mystic Sky Rankings outside. Look at it yourself. But I suggest you start looking from the Human Ranking lest you should waste your time.”

“Tsk, show-off.”

Even though Xiao Chen found Elder Wu to be scary-looking, the man was pretty humorous. He chuckled and then walked out.

Stepping outside felt like walking into a different domain. Bai Ling and the older disciples were still standing in front of the Mystic Sky Rankings, watching the name changes on the steles. They didn’t seem to have heard his conversation with Elder Wu inside the stone chamber.

Bai Ling was standing in front of the stele for the Earth Ranking. Her slender legs were pressed together and she had one hand placed in front of her chest, the other propping her fair chin. Her eyebrows were furrowed and the hair on her temples fluttered in the wind. Her eyes, as limpid as water, were focused on the ranking. From where Xiao Chen was standing, she looked rather breathtaking.

Seeing her frown made Xiao Chen think that he must have ranked higher than she did. The thought filled him with satisfaction. He walked over to her. Just as he was about to scan the stele, Bai Ling gave him a sidelong glance. “Stop looking. Your name isn’t up there.”

“Oh?” Xiao Chen was doing it on purpose. Naturally, he knew his current strength wasn’t enough to put him on the Heaven Ranking. Moreover, Baili Xiaohualuo was only in the 36th place of the Heaven Ranking. He just found Bai Ling to be an interesting person. He followed her line of sight and found her name on the 61st place. Her ranking didn’t fall.

He faked a laugh. “Oh my, you’re 61st. Not bad.” The banter in his voice was obvious. Bai Ling rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, “Idiot.”

“Hehe.”

Xiao Chen laughed and started scanning the names above the 61st place. However, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find his name anywhere. He was suddenly reminded of what Baili Xiaohualuo said. If he was able to rank somewhere, everyone under him would fall by one rank. Since Bai Ling’s ranking didn’t change, that meant he hadn’t surpassed her at all.

The thought prompted him to look at the names beneath the 61st place until he finally found his name in an unnoticeable spot. Even the cyan glow to the left of his name seemed to be lighting up with difficulty. He was ranked 69th.

“69th?” Xiao Chen felt the world spin around him. He was ranked 8th on the List of Experts in Heaven and Earth in the Violet Manor, but placed at the end of the Earth Ranking here?

To be frank, the List of Experts in Heaven and Earth wasn’t an authoritative one. Many truly powerful cultivators didn’t bother trying to enter the ranking. Bai Ling sneered when she saw his expression. “Did you only now know how weak you are?”

Regardless of what she said, she must admit that she was taken aback when she saw him ranked 69th on the Earth Ranking. She was also relieved to know that he hadn’t surpassed her yet, though she didn’t know why it bothered her so much. Perhaps it was because she believed that he only won their battle at the Long-Gate Pass thanks to his dirty tricks.

The disciples in the same batch as Xiao Chen, however, were amazed. It was incredible that a newcomer could break into the Earth Ranking. Some of them couldn’t even make it into the Human Ranking. Even Bai Ling, back when she first entered the academy, barely made the bottom of the Human Ranking. It seemed that the Annihilation Times was truly in the works. Even though the newcomers these days didn’t have pure cultivation, their cultivation realms were higher than the disciples before them.

Even so, Xiao Chen had a hard time accepting the results. Was he, a fourth-level Nirvana Realm cultivator, truly no match for Bai Ling, who was merely in the second-level Nirvana Realm? Could Bai Ying be right? Was his cultivation not substantial enough?

The thought made him turn around and run back inside the stone chamber. Elder Wu bit off a part of the banana and said indistinctly, “What do you think? Happy with the results?”

“Well…” Xiao Chen pulled a face and clenched his fingers. “What’s going on? Please give me some pointers, Elder.”

“Hehe.” Elder Wu chortled and put down the banana. “Give me your hand.”

Xiao Chen immediately did as told, rolling his sleeve and offering his hand. Elder Wu pressed two fingers together and shot a ray of white light into his wrist. Then, as if he was a doctor examining his patient, he picked his fingers for a moment with a slight frown. “Fourth-level Nirvana Realm. Your cultivation realm is decent, but what a pity…”

“What’s a pity?” Xiao Chen asked impatiently.

“It’s a pity that your cultivation grade is too low. It’s inferior,” Elder Wu replied bluntly, retrieving his fingers.

“Inferior?”

Xiao Chen was in disbelief. He had learned a thing or two about cultivation grades on his way here. Cultivation grades referred to the purity of one’s cultivation. He knew that his current grade was incomparable to some of the older disciples here, but it wasn’t so bad as to be the lowest grade, was it? So, he asked, “How are cultivation grades divided?”