Hearing about those rewards, Ling Xiao was naturally excited too.
But his excitement differed from the others.
He was mainly fixated on the Ling family’s advanced martial techniques.
With his Mountain and River Martial Soul, as long as he could enter the third floor of the library, he could take out all the martial techniques there.
The limit of one or two books meant nothing to him.
Of course, the pill rewards were also quite appealing.
After all, a set of three breakthrough pills cost three thousand taels of silver.
And a hundred Qi Gathering Pills required ten thousand taels.
Only a fool wouldn’t want them.
“Everyone, quiet down. Let Senior Brother Ming continue—what are the rewards for breaking into the top ten?”
“Breaking into the top ten lets you choose three sets of advanced martial techniques, and the breakthrough pills increase to three sets!”
For Ling Xiao, this wasn’t particularly enticing, but for ordinary disciples, an extra set of advanced techniques and pills was a huge win!
“Too bad only ten people can make it to the top ten.”
“No matter what, we’ve got to try.”
“Yeah, even if it’s just for the rewards!”
“You’re satisfied with that? How unambitious. Let me tell you, if you break into the top three, you get all the previous rewards plus an additional top-tier martial technique and a Gang Qi Pill!”
“What! A top-tier martial technique as a reward?”
“And that Gang Qi Pill— isn’t one worth ten thousand taels?”
Senior Brother Ming’s words shocked many into shouting out loud.
What did a top-tier martial technique mean?
It meant the best martial arts in the secular world!
For disciples unaware of the Mortal Realm or Mortal Techniques, a top-tier martial technique was the ultimate prize!
As for the Gang Qi Pill, it was the best pill for the Gang Qi stage, made with the blood essence of a level-four demonic beast plus other materials.
For anyone below Martial Vein Sixth Layer, it was an absolute treasure.
Why did Ling Xiao want a Gang Qi Pill? To break through to Martial Vein Fourth Layer.
He hadn’t expected this year’s annual competition to offer such a reward.
Great—the more of these, the better. Even after breaking through to the fourth layer, it’d still be useful.
And a top-tier martial technique? No need to explain—everyone coveted it.
“The second-place reward is similar to third, but it includes an extra Gang Qi Pill!”
“What about first? First place has to come with a big surprise, right?”
“To be honest, first place gets all the previous rewards plus a mysterious prize. Even I don’t know what it is—Grandpa Ling will announce it personally. It’s meant to keep you guessing,” Senior Brother Ming said with a shrug.
“What? That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s such a tease!”
The crowd around him started to lose it.
Even Ling Xiao felt a itch of curiosity.
With the other rewards already so good, this mysterious prize couldn’t be anything less.
“Next!”
It was Ling Xiao’s turn to register. He shook his head, brushing aside his questions.
No point overthinking it—focus on competing in this annual event. As long as he secured a rank, he’d find out what the rewards were.
“9588!”
That was the number plate Ling Xiao received.
No helping it—he’d arrived late due to training, so his number was way at the back.
But it didn’t matter. Everyone had the same shot in the elimination rounds regardless of their number.
Still, the number startled him. Even though he was late, getting 9588 meant at least nine thousand-plus participants—nearly ten thousand!
As mentioned before, both the Elite Hall and Genius Hall had age limits: under twenty. Anyone over twenty would be reassigned elsewhere and couldn’t stay.
Even so, this many participants was surprising.
Most of them were low-tier disciples, the bottom rung.
The Elite Hall maintained around a thousand members.
That meant ranking in the top thousand got you into the Elite Hall—otherwise, you’d be kicked back to the lower tier.
Nearly ten thousand competing for a thousand spots—that was fierce.
And even in the Elite Hall, to get better treatment, you had to crack the top hundred.
That made it even tougher.
As for the Genius Hall, it was downright brutal.
The Genius Hall only had a hundred disciples total!
Not one more.
If someone rose to the Genius Hall, someone else got demoted back to the Elite Hall.
This was survival of the fittest—pure, unforgiving competition with no shortcuts.
On the competition plaza, a massive stone wall displayed two hundred plaques.
Each plaque bore a name.
This was the ranking for the Genius Hall, Elite Hall, and lower-tier disciples.
After each annual competition, these plaques would shift—not just in order, but some might be replaced entirely.
The annual competition had two parts.
One was the contest between Elite Hall and lower-tier disciples, with the top ten earning the right to challenge Genius Hall disciples.
The Genius Hall disciples would also compete among themselves to reestablish their rankings.
So the rewards Senior Brother Ming mentioned weren’t just for topping the Elite Hall—they included beating the Genius Hall to claim first overall!
On the stone wall, the plaque in the top spot stood out, forged from pure gold.
The name on it: Ling Feifan!
One of Tianfeng City’s Four Young Masters, the most outstanding Ling family disciple under twenty.
Back when he was Ling Xiao’s age, he’d already broken through to Martial Vein Fourth Layer.
A rare genius indeed!
For three years since taking the top spot, no one had shaken his position.
He was undeniably the Ling family’s number one genius.
Of course, this year might be different.
Second place had a silver plaque, also eye-catching, belonging to a disciple named Ling Yun.
Third place was a bronze plaque, still notable, and surprisingly, it was a girl named Ling Shuang.
From fourth to two-hundredth, the plaques were wooden and looked much the same.
Ling Xiao studied them closely. The top ten were all Genius Hall disciples.
The eleventh spot was Ling Yihang, Elite Hall’s number one.
That surprised him. It seemed Ling Yihang had privately sparred with Genius Hall disciples to earn that rank.
Elite Hall’s second, Ling Yixue, was all the way down at 101.
Ling Feng was 102.
Ling Tieshou was 103.
But rankings weren’t set in stone. The top five in the Elite Hall were all at Martial Vein Third Layer Peak. If they grasped transforming qi into gang, they could potentially beat Genius Hall disciples.
“Huh? I’m on the list too?”
Ling Xiao hadn’t expected to rank in the top two hundred, but there, at the very bottom, was his name!
In the Ling family, no two people could share a name—duplicates had to change theirs.
So it was definitely him.
“Probably because I beat Ling Chong and Ling Fei, and sparred with Ling Tieshou, so they bumped me up.”
To Ling Xiao, that was the only explanation.
“Interesting. Making the top two hundred is worth celebrating, but it’s still too low. This competition’s a perfect chance!”
