Chapter 792
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Chapter 792: Immortal Communication Stele!
“Just these three ranking lists?” Fang Yu asked.
“No, it’s said that the Skygazing Bureau has several more lists internally, but those are more niche so they aren’t made public,” Zheng Ze said.
Fang Yu nodded in understanding.
At this moment, in the plaza ahead, beneath the Heaven Ranking, a large crowd had gathered.
Fang Yu and Zheng Ze couldn’t squeeze through, so they could only observe from a distance.
“The Wei family’s fourth generation, three brothers all making it onto the Heaven Ranking at once, this kind of scene… truly unprecedented…”
“So impressive! The three brothers’ names are listed together!”
“After today, the landscape of North Capital’s martial arts world is going to change!”
Waves of exclamations came from within the crowd.
Fang Yu narrowed his eyes slightly, looking toward the Heaven Ranking ahead.
At the bottom of the Heaven Ranking, around the hundredth position, he could see three consecutive names with the surname Wei, emitting a faint glow.
From top to bottom, they were Wei Xuan, Wei Tian, and Wei Zhen.
Among the crowd, some people were purely spectating, while others wore unpleasant expressions.
Clearly, the rise of the Wei family wasn’t good news for this latter group.
Fang Yu raised his eyes to look at the upper part of the Heaven Ranking.
At the very top of the Heaven Ranking was a name, Murong Jian.
Second place, Sikong Chen.
Third place, Chu Tianren.
Fourth place, Cao Baihe.
Fifth place, Nie Xunyi.
Seeing the top five rankings, Fang Yu frowned and asked, “Why aren’t any of the top five prodigies from the eight great families?”
Zheng Ze looked up at the names at the top of the Heaven Ranking and said, “These five prodigies come from North Capital’s five major sects… Although in other regions, sects have been declining, in North Capital, the sects’ influence is still strong, maintaining a basic balance with North Capital’s various martial arts families.”
“At least half of the prodigies on the entire Heaven Ranking come from various sects, and overall, the prodigies cultivated by sects tend to be stronger.”
“You can see that among the top twenty prodigies, twelve are from sects, and only eight are from the great families.”
After hearing Zheng Ze’s explanation, Fang Yu looked up at the Heaven Ranking again.
Among the prodigies from the eight great families, the highest-ranked was Wang Shuangfan from the Wang family, ranked sixth.
Then came Lin Mengxun from the Lin family, ranked eighth.
Among the top ten prodigies, only these two were from the great families.
“North Capital’s development really is completely opposite to other regions,” Fang Yu said.
After casually scanning the Heaven Ranking, Fang Yu and Zheng Ze bypassed the crowded area ahead and came to the third stone monument where fewer people had gathered.
The Saint Ranking.
Fang Yu raised his head to look at the top of the Saint Ranking and saw the characters “Huai Xu” clearly inscribed in the fifth position.
“So Huai Xu is fifth on the Saint Ranking…”
Fang Yu continued looking down, and among the top ten of the Saint Ranking, apart from Huai Xu, there were no other names he recognized.
“Master has been on the Saint Ranking for a hundred years, and with each update of the ranking, he has risen several positions. Now, he’s approaching the top position,” Zheng Ze looked up at Huai Xu’s name on the Saint Ranking, his eyes full of reverence.
“Huai Xu is indeed impressive,” Fang Yu said. “With his talent, being able to cultivate to his current level is quite remarkable.”
Hearing this evaluation, Zheng Ze looked at Fang Yu, with some hesitation in his eyes, and asked, “Master Fang, may I ask what exactly is your relationship with Master Huai Xu?”
Fang Yu glanced at Zheng Ze and smiled, “Old friends.”
“Old friends…” Zheng Ze looked at Fang Yu, his eyes still full of confusion.
Fang Yu’s true form appeared extremely young.
Although cultivators with profound cultivation could use various methods to make their faces appear younger, most cultivators wouldn’t do this.
Unless one became an immortal, a human’s lifespan was ultimately limited.
And aging was inevitable.
A cultivator who had practiced for hundreds of years might make their appearance less aged, but would certainly not disguise themselves to look so young… at least, that’s what Zheng Ze believed.
“As his disciple, he must have mentioned me to you before, right?” Fang Yu asked.
“Yes, Master has mentioned you more than once… but at that time I didn’t know…” Zheng Ze said.
“When Huai Xu first started on the path of cultivation, his spiritual roots lacked four of the five elements, so his talent was of the lowest grade,” Fang Yu recalled. “But he was determined to cultivate, so I tried everything to help him transform his constitution, though the results were modest.”
“But Huai Xu has strong willpower. If cultivation was many times slower for him than others, he would simply spend many times more time cultivating.”
“But no matter how hard one tries… spiritual roots determine one’s upper limit. For Huai Xu to reach his current level can be called a miracle, but it’s also somewhat regrettable.”
After hearing Fang Yu’s words, Zheng Ze was somewhat stunned.
He knew clearly that his master’s cultivation had broken through to the Divine Transformation stage and reached the Unity stage many years ago.
As for which level of the Unity stage his master was currently at, he wasn’t sure.
But looking across the entire region, Huai Xu was already among the strongest powerhouses.
His position as fifth on the Saint Ranking also established his status.
Yet the Fang Yu before him had used the word “regrettable.”
Could it be that he felt Master Huai Xu’s current achievements weren’t high enough?
Zheng Ze stared at Fang Yu with wide eyes, full of confusion.
At this point, Fang Yu didn’t want to delve deeper into this topic and turned his head to look at the inner courtyard nearby, saying, “Didn’t you say the Skygazing Bureau has several more ranking lists internally? Since we’re here, let’s go in and take a look.”
“…They might not be willing to let us see the internal rankings,” Zheng Ze said.
“We’ll know if we ask,” Fang Yu said.
Afterward, the two left the crowded plaza and walked to the Skygazing Bureau’s inner courtyard.
After crossing the main gate, Fang Yu saw several elderly men in gray robes, hurrying in different directions.
Fang Yu and Zheng Ze’s appearance in the inner courtyard didn’t attract their attention.
So, without anyone stopping them, Fang Yu and Zheng Ze directly entered the small courtyard inside the Skygazing Bureau.
There was no one else here, only three stone monuments.
Compared to the large stone monuments in the plaza, these three were several times smaller, less than four meters in height.
These three stone monuments also had names inscribed on them, but the monuments themselves had no names, so it was unclear what rankings they represented.
The first and second stone monuments had many names, from top to bottom, filling the entire front face of the monuments.
But the third stone monument had large empty spaces.
On the entire monument, there were only seven names.
“Master Fang, why is there only half a name here?” Zheng Ze was startled when he saw the situation below the seventh name on the third stone monument and asked curiously.
Fang Yu looked at the third stone monument.
Just as Zheng Ze had said, there were seven complete names on the third stone monument.
But the eighth name only had the character ‘Fang’ at the front, followed by a single dot, not a complete character.
Fang…
Fang Yu frowned deeply.
He vaguely felt that this character ‘Fang’ on the stone monument and the dot after it…
Why did it feel like it was about to form the character ‘Yu’?
Fang Yu looked at the stone monument before him in confusion, leaned forward, and examined it carefully with wide eyes.
After several seconds, a cough came from behind.
“Don’t look anymore, that name is indeed only half complete.”
An old, hoarse voice came from behind.
Fang Yu and Zheng Ze turned around and saw an elderly man in simple clothes with white hair, waving a palm-leaf fan, slowly walking toward them.
He was the controller of the Skygazing Bureau, Bai Konggu.
“All the names above are complete, so why is the eighth one only half?” Fang Yu asked.
Bai Konggu glanced at Fang Yu, waved his palm-leaf fan, and said, “I don’t know either, this is the Immortal Communication Stone’s autonomous behavior.”
“Immortal Communication Stone?” Fang Yu showed a puzzled expression.
“Who are you two? How did you sneak in here? This is our Skygazing Bureau’s internal area, not open to the public,” Bai Konggu raised his white eyebrows slightly and asked.
“Sir, we are from the North Capital Martial Arts Association. Master Fang is the newly appointed vice president,” Zheng Ze immediately said.
“Oh? Doesn’t your Martial Arts Association look down on these ranking lists of our Skygazing Bureau?” Bai Konggu chuckled, not without sarcasm.
Since very few people from the Martial Arts Association could make it onto the ranking lists, the Association’s attitude toward the Skygazing Bureau’s rankings was not friendly.
Zheng Ze could only laugh along, without saying much more.
