Chapter 1186 – Rising Ranking
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As Zhong Wenshu and Lin Ming were locked in combat, within the Crimson Light World, representatives of the four God Beast Clans were gathered together in a floating palace beneath the giant golden scroll. Several peak eighth-grade vassal sect influences accompanied them. They were conversing about the amazing festivity that was the Divine Realm First Martial Meeting.
At some time, beside Huo Violentstone, the Ancient Phoenix Clan disciple that was responsible for keeping track of the divine dream jade slip suddenly stirred, his eyes brightening. He quickly reported to Huo Violentstone, “Elder Huo, Junior-apprentice Brother Lin’s results have rapidly risen to 20,000. He is now ranked in the top 1% of the True Martial Great World.”
“Mm? 20,000?” Huo Violentstone mumbled. This brat was finally beginning to put in some effort. But, 20,000 merit points was still lacking.
In fact, after Lin Ming finally emerged from seclusion there was a massive number of high level nightmare beasts and participants with a high number of merit point he could kill. His merit points should have quickly risen at the start. After killing Zhong Wenshu’s several little minions, his merit points had instantly risen to 20,000.
But the further he went, the slower this would go. The key question here was just how high Lin Ming could rise. Huo Violentstone feared that Lin Ming would be disinclined to continue hunting once he earned enough merit points to pass the first round of eliminations. If his merit points stayed at the bare minimum, that would truly make Huo Violentstone’s old face swollen with shame.
“Nephew Lin just reached 20,000 merit points and seems to have managed to pass the first round of eliminations. This is truly an occasion worth celebrating.”
The Ancient Dragon Clan’s Laughing Dragon chuckled as he traced his dragon horns.
Although they were congratulatory words, an extreme genius should be able to pass the first round of eliminations, so there was no reason to boast about it. These congratulations contained a clearly mocking taste.
After Huo Violentstone heard these words, his complexion turned ugly. He loathed this old man who didn’t even fight anymore but still insisted on manifesting a pair of dragon horns. The Ancient Dragon Clan, like the Ancient Phoenix Clan, weren’t descendants of true God Beasts. Rather, they were mortals that had transplanted the God Beast bloodlines within them. This Laughing Dragon’s true mortal body had no natural dragon horns. The dragon horns he showed now were formed from energy. In other words, they were nothing more than fakes.
“What are you so happy about? This is just the start! There’s still over 20 days left. It’s hard to say just what his results will be!” Huo Violentstone grumpily responded.
“Haha! What Brother Huo said is true. I’m also looking forward to it!” Laughing Dragon slowly said as he stroked his beard. “Nephew Lin should have killed some trial challenger just now and obtained a portion of their merit points, which is why his merit points rose so dramatically. But for these kinds of merit points, it will be more and more difficult to increase the further he goes. This is because if his merit points are higher, the merit points he’ll receive for killing others will naturally be less. For example, my clan’s Dragon One managed to obtain 1.3 million merit points a month ago, but now after the second month has passed, he only has 1.6 million!”
Laughing Dragon shook his head, a regretful expression on his face. However, his bragging words were clearly to show off the contrast between Lin Ming and Dragon One. Huo Violentstone nearly smacked him in the face.
However, what Laughing Dragon said was reality. The further one went, the harder it was to increase one’s merit points. Moreover, the disparity between merit points would become increasingly large. With 20,000 merit points, one was ranked around 100 million. With 1.6 million merit points, one was ranked 72 in a great world. The disparity between these numbers could be imagined.
Normally, after accumulating merit points for a long time, the number of them would finally equalize with that individual’s approximate strength level. The ranking wouldn’t change much after that.
Huo Violentstone was disinclined to bother with Laughing Dragon. He kept an eye on the divine dream jade slip, looking forward to another change in Lin Ming’s merit points.
As the next 20 some breaths of time passed, Lin Ming’s merit points remained still. But at this moment, the divine dream jade slip suddenly shined with a brilliant blue light. Lin Ming’s named flashed and the numbers behind it began to jump up by a maddening amount!
The figure rapidly rose by tens of thousands, immediately breaking past 100,000. It rose by hundreds of thousands, 600,000, 700,000, 800,000, 900,000, one million!
“Heavens!”
The disciple responsible for keeping track of the divine dream jade slip cried out in alarm, nearly dropping the jade slip. Lin Ming’s merit point value rose to one million but it didn’t end there. It rapidly broke past 1.5 million and rose straight to 2 million!
“What!?”
Huo Violentstone’s eyes widened. He kept his eyes and senses locked onto the divine dream jade slip.
As Laughing Dragon heard the two people cry out in shock, he immediately stood up. As he looked toward the jade slip in the Ancient Phoenix Clan disciple’s hands, he saw a number projected in the air, rapidly rising, dazzling, enough to make him dizzy.
“How…” Laughing Dragon was dazed. “Lin Ming, he… What has he done?”
Huo Violentstone kept his complete concentration focused on the divine dream jade slip and maintained total silence.
The barrier of 2 million was instantly broken through!
This number immediately flung Dragon One’s 1.6 million far behind it.
Lin Ming’s number began to rise in units of 100,000, then by units of 1 million.
After 2 million, the number jumped by another million, reaching 3 million!
3.1 million!
3.2 million!
3.3 million!
Finally, the figure stopped at 3.36 million.
In a single breath, Li Ming rose from 20,000 to 3.36 million!
This number of merit points took him from the 100 million rankings and put him straight into the top 28 ranking of True Martial Great World!
Not to mention Laughing Dragon being shocked, but even Huo Violentstone was left bewildered. In truth, Huo Violentstone didn’t have too great a grasp on Lin Ming’s strength. Lin Ming had too many secrets on him Huo Violentstone didn’t know about. He also didn’t know that after leaving the Ancient Phoenix Clan, Lin Ming’s strength had risen by a terrifying degree.
Huo Violentstone’s original expectations were to raise Lin Ming into a first-class figure like Xiao Daoji or Huo Burning Heaven, someone that could become a half-step World King in the future. From there, he could restore the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s honor and lead them to a brighter, more prosperous future.
In this First Martial Meeting, Huo Violentstone didn’t have high expectations of Lin Ming to begin with. He only wanted Lin Ming to pass through the preliminaries and obtain a good result in the semi-finals, hopefully entering the top 100,000 rankings of the Divine Realm. As for entering the true finals, Huo Violentstone felt this was a hopeless dream. This was because of the time spent training and the fact that Lin Ming only had an early Divine Sea cultivation. In terms of cultivation and time in training, Lin Ming was at far too great a disadvantage!
But he never imagined Lin Ming would give him such a pleasant surprise!
Only several hours had passed before Lin Ming finally started to move, and yet he immediately rose to the top 28 rankings of the True Martial Great World. If he could continue this momentum, he might even have a chance of reaching the top 10 or even the top 5 rankings of a great world!
Lin Ming’s surprise ranking immediately caught the attention of everyone in the palace. Everyone looked over at Huo Violentstone, including Elders of the Kirin Clan and Roc Clan, as well as high level figures from many peak eighth-grade sects. These eighth-grade sects were mostly related through marriage.
Everyone looked at the divine dream jade slip in Huo Violentstone’s hands. The long number that was projected in the air left everyone dizzy.
At this time, the originally shocked Huo Violentstone responded. He began to laugh, guffawing loudly, showing off his satisfaction without holding back.
“Hahahahahahahahahaha! Yes! Well done! I said that with Lin Ming’s strength, sweeping away those little baby dragonlings should be nothing more than child’s play, and it seems I was right! Only several hours have passed and yet his score has already reached 3.36 million! What was that baby dragon’s score again? I think it was 1.6 million or something low like that, haha, Lin Ming’s score is over twice that!”
Huo Violentstone’s voice was originally of the extremely loud variety, where not even sound insulation could stop it. At this time, he was only afraid no one would hear just how loud he was laughing. Even people outside heard his loud bellows of happiness. As for those wandering the palace halls, their ears were left shaking in numbness.
Laughing Dragon’s face turned gloomy. He wasn’t an idiot. If Lin Ming’s ranking leapt up so much, there was only a single possibility. That was, he had killed an extreme genius of a World King level Holy Land; otherwise, it was impossible to achieve such a ranking!
Such a strength was something that Dragon One absolutely could not compare with. Let alone the current Dragon One, not even the gifted Dragon One who died in the God Beast Mystic Realm could obtain such a score.
Moreover, according to the projections of time, Lin Ming hadn’t taken long to finish this fight. Such strength was truly terrifying.
If Laughing Dragon was able to think of this, the Elders of the other Holy Lands and eighth-grade sects could also come to this conclusion.
For a time, all sorts of praises and congratulations filled the air.
“Congratulations Elder Huo!”
“Haha, what a celebratory occasion. The Ancient Phoenix Clan has picked up a gem this time!”
“With Nephew Lin’s talent, becoming a half-step World King in the future is already 90% guaranteed!”
As the Elders in the hall began congratulating Huo Violentstone, he received them all, whether they were true or not. He heartily laughed, saying, “This old man’s judgment when looking at others is never wrong. This Lin Ming completed the Ancient Phoenix smelting trial’s Thousand Slaughter, then left to adventure and gain experiences. Now it seems his achievements are even greater than they were before! However, ahem, his personality is a bit too casual and lazy. He probably isn’t even taking these preliminaries seriously!”
Huo Violentstone spoke in a very flat tone, causing Laughing Dragon’s lips to pull down in a straight grimace. This damned old man, give him a few rays of sunlight and he could illuminate an entire planet. It seemed he couldn’t hold his head up high today.
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Divine Dream World –
Lin Ming stood amidst the razed jungle. In his vision, the mass of energy Zhong Wenshu had dissipated into after dying had broken down into lines of red and yellow light. Although these red and yellow lights were far from comparable to the brilliant and fantastical lines of the Divine Dream Law he absorbed using the Magic Cube, they were still many times brighter than the energy lines he absorbed from the nightmare beasts, and the energy inherent within them was tens of thousands of times greater.
Lin Ming allowed this mass of energy to float towards him. He slowly reached out his hand and thrust it into the energy lights. For a time, the red and yellow lines turned chaotic, turning into countless streams of light that submerged into Lin Ming’s body.
The icy cold dreamland energy spread through Lin Ming’s body like clear spring water. The energy finally converged at his soul, nourishing the two soul marks there. These two marks shined with brilliant light. They were filled with something close to perfection.
Following that, Lin Ming could feel as if his own soul was being pulled upwards by some invisible power. This sort of feeling was like a mortal climbing up a tower, a level at a time, never dropping until they finally reached the top. At the summit, that feeling of wonder and victory would spread through the body as though they became immortal.
This light and floating feeling made one feel as if they dominated the world and looked over all with the eyes of a divine god. Such a feeling even seemed as if it purified the soul.
Lin Ming could see his soul form within his spiritual sea shining. In that moment, he underwent a holy baptism where his soul seemed to be transformed.
Above his spiritual sea, his battle spirit was also vitalized, faintly approaching gold perfection.
This was the effects of the Divine Dream Law transcendent divine might. After Lin Ming perceived it for two whole months and also underwent a baptism of dreamland energy he was finally seeing a harvest from his efforts.