Arriving at the topmost floor of the Silver-robed Elder Pavilion, Zhang Ruochen finally met this Silver-robed Elder Pavilion Master, who could be called the most powerful figure of the thirty-six counties of the Heavenly Demon Ridge.
“Greetings, Pavilion Master Lei!” Zhang Ruochen and Si Xingkong bowed at the same time.
Lei Jing, was already ninety-four years old this year, yet he didn’t look old, with the appearance of a middle-aged man in his fifties, with broad arms and bronze skin, full of explosive power.
Humans who had cultivated their martial arts to the Heavenly Extreme Realm, their own physique was as strong as a high-grade savage beast, and they could control their body’s functions, which would have slowed down the aging process.
What’s more, Lei Jing’s strength was powerful, and it was by no means as simple as just being in the Heavenly Extreme Realm’s martial dao realm.
He sat beside the desk, holding a volume of Iron Book Martial Dictionary in his hands as he was reading, and after a long time, he slightly raised his head and faintly said, “Si Xingkong, you can retreat first!”
“Yes, Pavilion Master.”
Si Xingkong respectfully bowed once more, then, retreated.
In the room, only Zhang Ruochen and Lei Jing remained.
Lei Jing put down the martial arts codex in his hands and somewhat curiously surveyed Zhang Ruochen, revealing a faint smile as he said, “You are Zhang Ruochen?”
“Exactly student.”
Zhang Ruochen took out the account book and said, “Pavilion Master, this is ……”
“There’s no rush!”
Lei Jing smiled and shook his head, as if he was more interested in Zhang Ruochen than in that one account book.
“I heard that you were outside, claiming to be a secret disciple of the old man. Could this be true?”
The aura on Lei Jing’s body changed, his entire body emitting a red glow as a powerful aura surged out, covering the entire room.
Zhang Ruochen’s face turned slightly white, to him, Lei Jing simply looked as if he had transformed into a huge volcano, erupting fiery magma that transformed into an ocean, wrapping him up and seemingly melting his body.
“What a terrifying aura, Pavilion Master Lei’s martial cultivation should have already surpassed the Heavenly Extremity Realm Grand Completion and reached another realm of martial arts, the Fish Dragon Realm. Only a martial artist of the Fish Dragon Realm has such a terrifying aura of power.”
After coming to eight hundred years, it was the first time Zhang Ruochen had encountered a strong person of this level.
Just the martial aura emanating from the other party had already suppressed Zhang Ruochen to the point that he couldn’t breathe, and his body felt like it was burning inside a magma.
Zhang Ruochen clenched his teeth and silently recited the Nine Heavenly Bright Emperor Scripture. Spirit Flame True Qi, he raced through the thirty-six meridians in his body, dissolving that wave of martial pressure.
At the centre of his eyebrows, a flame mark emerged, like a burning fire.
Lei Jing’s eyes lit up and a soft eep escaped from his mouth.
There was no telling how long it took for that terrifying pressure to pass, and it disappeared.
Feeling that the pressure had disappeared, Zhang Ruochen immediately stopped running his gong methods and looked over towards Lei Jing once again, only to find that Lei Jing was still sitting on the edge of the desk, having not moved a bit from the beginning to the end.
“It seems that Pavilion Master Lei was just testing me and wasn’t really angry.”
Zhang Ruochen let out a slight sigh of relief, if he really offended a character of Lei Jing’s calibre, even if Zhang Ruochen had three heads and six arms, right now, it would be impossible for him to be his opponent.
“Not bad, under the pressure of 30% of the old man’s Qi, you can actually remain standing, you are the first amongst the martial artists under the Heavenly Extreme Realm.” Lei Jing laughed.
Zhang Ruochen said stiffly, “Pavilion Master’s secret disciple is Chen Ruo, not me. I’m afraid that among them, there is some misunderstanding.”
Lei Jing said, “Is that so? However, I heard that not long ago, in Boulder City, Chen Ruo and Han Qiu of the Yuntai Zongfu killed the Four Square County’s Zhenjun Marquis, Huo Yundu, and also took an account book from Mu Qing’s mansion. Have you heard about it?”
Zhang Ruochen was a little ashamed, and after pondering for a moment, he smiled bitterly, “I dare not period Pavilion Master, in fact, the student did use the alias ‘Chen Ruo’, and only claimed to be the Pavilion Master’s secret disciple in order to protect himself. This matter is indeed something that the student did wrong, please chastise Pavilion Master!”
Lei Jing did not expect Zhang Ruochen to admit it so dryly and let out a laugh, saying, “Interesting!”
Lei Jing said with a straight face, “If you were a mediocrity, I would have to clean you up. For a mediocrity to claim to be Old Husband’s secret disciple, wouldn’t that be smashing Old Husband’s signboard?”
“But just now, Old Husband tried it out and found that you are an amazing genius. A genius claiming to be Old Husband’s disciple, after word gets out, people will only think that Old Husband has taught you well and is wise, so it seems like a good thing to do!”
“What does Pavilion Master mean?” Zhang Ruochen said.
Lei Jing said, “I have a condition, as long as you can do it, not only will I no longer pursue this matter, but also, I can truly accept you as a secret disciple! What do you think?”
Zhang Ruochen asked, “What condition?”
Lei Jing did not tell Zhang Ruochen the conditions immediately, but asked first, “In your body, a total of twenty-seven meridians have opened up, right?”
“That’s right.” Zhang Ruochen said.
In reality, thirty-six meridians had opened up in Zhang Ruochen’s body, it was just that nine of them were odd meridians, which even Lei Jing couldn’t detect, which was why he thought that Zhang Ruochen only had twenty-seven meridians in his body.
Even so, it made Lei Jing quite shocked.
“To want to open up twenty-seven meridians within your body, I’m afraid that the technique you’re cultivating is quite powerful, and it seems that you’ve had a great deal of strange encounters.” Lei Jing said.
The entire Kunlun Realm had a long history and had given birth to countless sages and saints, and even in the Heavenly Demon Ridge there were definitely some secret cavernous mansions that had never been discovered.
Even if Zhang Ruochen had obtained some strange encounters, it wasn’t strange, it only showed that his fortune was powerful.
Lei Jing nodded and did not ask Zhang Ruochen what technique he was cultivating, but instead said, ”My condition is that you must, this year, rush into the top 100 of the Earth Ranking. And, do one thing for me.”
“What is it?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
Lei Jing laughed, “Don’t worry, old me won’t ask you to do something very dangerous, just cultivate hard, as for what exactly you have to do, when you enter the top one hundred of the Earth Ranking, old me will naturally tell you.”
Zhang Ruochen asked, “Why me?”
Lei Jing smiled and said, “First, you owe me a favour, aren’t you going to return it?”
“Secondly, none of those trainees from the Martial City Palace have a chance to hit the top 100 of the Earth Ranking. Even the strongest one, Si Xingkong, is only ranked 4,740th on the Earth Ranking right now, and as for the other two trainees, all of them are ranked after 10,000th.”
“Your talent is very high, it shouldn’t be difficult for you to enter the top one thousand of the 『Earth Rankings』. As for the top one hundred places on the [Earth Ranking]….., although it is difficult, it is still possible to put up a fight, and it is not completely without a chance. If I don’t choose you, I really can’t find another suitable candidate.”
The 《Earth Ranking》 covered a wide range of areas, including the entire Eastern Region, and included a total of 100,000 top Earth Extremity Realm martial artists.
What’s more, the 《Earth Ranking》 only included martial artists who were no older than fifty years old, once you exceeded the age, even if your martial cultivation was no matter how powerful, you would be kicked out of the 《Earth Ranking》.
If you are over fifty years old and have not broken through to the Heavenly Extremity Realm, even if you reach the Heavenly Extremity Realm in the future, the space that you can improve is already very low.
Therefore, the 《Earth Ranking》 was not just a symbol of strength, but also a symbol of talent and potential.
In the entire Heavenly Demon Ridge’s thirty-six counties, there were only seventeen people who had entered the Earth Ranking, and seven of them were young martial artists who were less than thirty years old.
Among them, the highest ranked was Si Xingkong, at 4,740th place.
In second place was Zhang Tiangui, who had just broken through to the Earth Extremity Realm’s Great Perfection Realm, ranked 5,041st.
In third place was the number one expert of the younger generation of the black market, Hong Yu, number nine thousand four hundred and seventy.
All those other martial artists were ranked after ten thousand.
Of course, that one Little Saintess of the Moon Worshipping Demon Sect was also in the Earth Ranking and ranked in the top one hundred, her strength was unfathomable. It was only that she had only appeared once in the Yunwu County Kingdom, so everyone didn’t treat her as a native martial artist of the Heavenly Demon Ridge. Everyone thought that she had already left the Sky Demon Ridge.
Zhang Ruochen said, ”Pavilion Master, which of the martial artists in the top 100 of the Earth Ranking are not the top wizards of the Eastern Domain? I’m afraid it’s not an easy task to reach that level.”
“Don’t you have confidence in yourself?” Lei Jing said.
Zhang Ruochen shook his head and said, “Of course I have confidence, but why must I enter the top 100 of the Earth Ranking?”
“Because, you have to be my secret disciple, and that’s the minimum requirement.” Lei Jing said.
In fact, Zhang Ruochen didn’t want to be Lei Jing’s secret disciple, because with Zhang Ruochen’s insight in martial arts, Lei Jing couldn’t teach him anything at all. However, in the beginning, Zhang Ruochen had after all borrowed Lei Jing’s name and was considered to owe Lei Jing a favour.
If you owe a favour, of course you have to pay it back.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Alright! I promise Pavilion Master that within a year, I will definitely impact the top 100 of the Earth Ranking.”
Lei Jing nodded in satisfaction and reminded, “By now, everyone should know that Chen Ruo is Zhang Ruochen. I don’t care why you used this alias in the first place, but after your identity is revealed, if you encounter any trouble, just let me know. In this region of the Heavenly Demon Ridge, there are very few things and people that I can’t handle.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Ordinary enemies, senior will be able to deal with them on his own. Enemies with great strength, senior will not be able to mess with. Therefore, there is no need to trouble Pavilion Master for the time being. Of course, if in the future, if senior really encounters a big trouble that he can’t solve on his own, he will naturally come to seek help from Pavilion Master.”
Lei Jing smiled and said, “Alright! Now, you can present that one account book over and give it to me to take a look at.”
Zhang Ruochen handed over the account book and placed it on the desk in front of Lei Jing.
Picking up the account book, Lei Jing began to flip through it, and gradually, his brows became tighter and tighter as a cold colour appeared in his pair of tiger eyes.
“Boom!”
Lei Jing slammed the account book onto the desktop and snorted coldly, “The Sifang County King is really bold, could it be that he thinks that the Sifang County Kingdom is already his private territory? Zhang Ruochen, you can step back! I will immediately send this account book to the Eastern Region Saint King’s Palace, so that the higher-ups of the First Central Empire can clean up the Sifang County King. Co-operating with the black market and harming the interests of the empire, a dead end.”
