Vol 2 Chapter 62: The Genius Rankings?


    Before long, two streaks of light shot out from Beast Taming Peak in the Hundred Flower Valley. Both exuded the aura of the Golden Core Stage and quicklynded outside the valley gates, their expressions filled with delight.


    "Lin Jing, howe you''re back?"


    The neers were Elder Yu, known for his passion for Mechanized Arts, and Elder Mo, the one who had brought Lin Jing into the sect.


    "You weren’t expelled, were you?" Elder Mo stepped forward, his excitement fading into a worried frown.


    "How could that be?" Lin Jing’s lips twitched.


    "Good, as long as that’s not the case." Elder Yu nodded in relief.


    "Elder Yu? Elder Mo?" A female disciple guarding the valley gate clearly recognized the two Beast Taming Sect elders. When she saw that Lin Jing, an Outer Sect disciple, had managed to summon two Golden Core elders to personally wee him, she was stunned.


    Even a core disciple wouldn’t receive this kind of treatment. She realized she had underestimated Lin Jing''s status in the Beast Taming Sect. Could he be… the sect master’s illegitimate son?"Thank you for your service. Lin Jing is indeed a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect. We’ll take him back to Beast Taming Peak now," Elder Yu said, ncing at the Hundred Flower Valley disciple.


    After aligning with the Hundred Flower Valley, the Beast Taming Sect was given a mountain peak rich in spiritual veins—previously used for silkworm farming—as their base.


    "You''re too kind, Elder…" Before the disciple could finish, everyone’s attention was drawn upward. A pigeon-like spirit beast carrying a storage pouch swooped down outside the valley gates.


    "A Communication Pigeon!"


    Recognizing the bird, the female disciple hurried forward. In the next moment, the gray pigeon retrieved a bundle of newspapers from the pouch, handed it to her, and flew off.


    "What a coincidence! Is that the new issue of the <em>World Report</em>?" Lin Jing asked, surprised.


    "Hmm? I don’t see why not." The disciple reluctantly handed a copy to Lin Jing.


    Lin Jing stored the newspaper and followed the elders back to Beast Taming Peak.


    Shortly after they left, a blue-butterfly-d disciple returned from delivering a message, panting. "Who is this Lin Jing? Just hearing his name made Elder Yu rush to notify the other elders to greet him."


    The yellow-butterfly disciple shook her head. "No idea. But he snagged one of our newspapers! So annoying! I didn’t dare refuse with the elders there—a single copy costs several Spirit Stones. Beast Taming Sect disciples really know how to take advantage!"


    "Huh?" The blue-butterfly disciple nced at the box of newspapers. "Forget it. Take the rest inside to distribute."


    She casually picked up a copy, flipping through the major events that seemed distant and unrted to her life. But as she turned a page, her pupils shrank.@@novelbin@@


    "I think I know why those two elders greeted him personally."


    "But how could it be...?"


    "Lin Jing, tell us, why did you suddenly return?"


    The Ancient Domainy at the heart of the Ancient Kingdom, while the Great Wastnd was at its borders. Even a Golden Core cultivator would take years to traverse the distance between them. The elders couldn’t believe Lin Jing hade back simply because he missed the sect.


    In a small hall, Lin Jing looked at the two elders and smiled. "A descendant of Divine Pine is taking me to a promising cultivation site. Passing through the Ancient Domain, I thought I’d stop by."


    "Speaking of which, Elder Mo, where’s Elder ck Bear? I wanted to see him." Lin Jing was fond of Elder ck Bear. The Academy’s test subjects for medicine trials couldn’tpare to his resilience.


    "He went back home to visit his Nascent Soul mother," Elder Mo said casually.


    "Oh..." Lin Jing fell silent. So, Elder ck Bear’s mother was also a Nascent Soul demon king? And a wild one at that. Thework of demon kings behind the Beast Taming Sect might be deeper than he had imagined.


    "Are things going well at the academy?" The elders asked briefly, not expecting much progress in just a few years. With Lin Jing’s Longevity Body, breakthroughs often took decades or even centuries.


    Lin Jing remained at the Qi Refinement Stage, as expected. Yet with rare beasts and Divine Pine’s guidance, Elder Mo wasn’t too worried about him being bullied.


    The topic soon shifted to the sect’s current situation.


    "The sect master, Elder Li Hai, and Ouyang Hao have taken some disciples to Qingzhou," Elder Yu exined.


    "Most ordinary disciples and I have temporarily stationed ourselves in Hundred Flower Valley."


    "As for the demon king ancestors, they initially took the core disciples to train in the Air Domain but recently returned to the Great Wastnd and are staying here in the valley," Elder Mo added.


    "Incidentally, their Air Domain training was rted to the intelligence you brought back from the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda."


    "The treasure of the Immortal Demon Serpent?" Lin Jing hadn’t expected Elder Mo to bring it up before he even asked.


    "Exactly. The Immortal Demon Serpent’s treasure stirred fiercepetition among the Great Wastnd sects. Since the Beast Taming Sect obtained the location first, they naturally had to investigate."


    "Did they seed? Was the intel genuine?" Lin Jing inquired.


    "It was," Elder Mo replied. "The treasure’s entrance was sealed by a nearly unbreakable formation, requiring the caster to unlock it personally."


    "However, the so-called unbreakable formation, prevalent thousands of years ago, was deciphered 1,200 years ago by the Qingzhou Thief Sect and is now widely known in the cultivation world."


    Elder Moughed. "The demon king ancestors couldn’t believe how easy it was to obtain the treasure. If not for the Demon-ying Bureau guarding the pagoda, they might’ve returned to mock the Immortal Demon."


    Lin Jing was speechless. The Immortal Demon Serpent had imed that only it could unlock the treasure, a im Lin Jing had doubted. Still, he hadn’t expected the treasure to require so little effort.


    Then again, the serpent had been sealed for millennia, mistaking Lin Jing for a Buddhist master. It hadn’t considered that formations deemed unbreakable back then might now be outdated...


    "What was in the treasure?" Lin Jing asked.


    "We don’t know," Elder Mo replied. "The demon king ancestors took the treasure, but even the elders are unaware of its contents. All we know is it contained rare spiritual nt seeds, which require Hundred Flower Valley’s spiritual veins to grow. They even negotiated with the valley master over this."


    Lin Jing nodded and grinned. "Shouldn’t those seeds include a share for the disciples?"


    Elder Mo chuckled. "Since you provided the intelligence, in theory, yes. But it depends on what the demon king ancestors decide."


    "Currently, the sect’s strategy is to prioritize all resources for enhancing our sect’s fortune. The focus is on nurturing core disciples to the point where at least one can secure a spot on the Genius Rankings and elevate the sect’s status."


    "The Genius Rankings? You mean this?" Lin Jing handed Elder Mo the newspaper he had taken earlier. Both elders scanned it with their spiritual senses, stunned.


    Genius Rankings, Rank 87: Lin Jing<ul><li aria-level="1">Cultivation: Qi Refinement Stage 11</li><li aria-level="1">Age: 27</li><li aria-level="1">Sect: Beast Taming Sect</li><li aria-level="1">Description: A disciple of the Beast Taming Sect and a student of Hidden Dragon Academy. Seven-time survivor of the Immortal Pce Cavern Heaven, subdued the Ten Terrors of the Cloud Sea with his pet beasts, and defeated Genius Rankings’ Rank 44 Chu Ren and Rank 88 Tang Yun... Known for crossing realms to defeat peak Foundation Establishment opponents.</li></ul>