Chapter 285 – Moon Lake (XI)

Chapter 285

Moon Lake (XI)

Was I getting a rundown of the ‘top ten known prodigies’? Of course I was.

“There was actually the change in the tenth ranking just recently, when Shi Fen managed to defeat…”

It was a long hour, suffice to say.

Of the ‘top ten’ kiddos battling away for the ranking, only one didn’t belong to any of the Holy Lands: number 2, Xiong De, a vagrant cultivator who is rumored to have inherited some or another ancient art in some or another ancient tomb.

All other members belonged to the Holy Lands.

Do I truly think that these are the actual top strongest kids in their age range? Doubtful. Though, the way Wei talked about the number one sounded like he really might be the strongest, as his stories reminded me a lot of protagonist aura.

Nobody knows his name, just that he appeared out of nowhere under the banner of Buddhism and has not lost a single duel since then. Not just against his generation, but even some of the more senior cultivators of the world.

The story went that the Eastern Monks found the boy as a babe, wrapped in a tattered yet beautiful blanket. When they picked up the child, the heavens rumbled and a streak of rainbow lights appeared above them, bathing the world in glamor.

The kid went on to begin cultivating at the mere age of two, reaching Foundation Establishment by nine. He was fourteen when he supposedly broke into the Spirit Manifestation Realm. And now, a decade on, he was in his mid-twenties and in the same realm as I, the Revolving Core Realm.

It had all the hallmarks of a protagonist but also the stepping stone of one–I mean, his story sounded less like a story of struggle and fighting against the current and more like he was just… given everything and did the best of it.

But, honestly, how much of Wei’s words can I even trust?

One of the first things he yapped about was how there were rumors that the sixth-ranked Liao Yan and the eighth-ranked Long Mu were star-crossed lovers whose sects had been warring for centuries. Proof of that?

There was none.

He just ‘heard it’ someplace.

Which meant literally nothing.

It was slightly interesting, however, to take a glimpse of a world beyond my little sanctuary. Though I’ve wandered and seen quite a few things by now, I was still wholly ignorant of the world at large, truth be told. I don’t even know precisely how many Holy Lands there are, but that’s not on me; it seems that not even the world itself knows just how many there are.

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At least five seem to be in everyone’s lists: Heavenly Star Sect, Soul Sanctuary, Immortal Spear Sect, Immortal Sword Haven Sect, and Void Ascension Sect.

But there’s also like eight others that dip in and out of people’s rankings, so… ugh, whatever. Let them sort it out–it has nothing to do with me.

As we continued eastward on foot, the terrain finally started to change. Rolling hillsides began to grow taller and sharper, with more jagged edges, and before long we were adrift amongst a rather spectacular set of gorges and canyons, occasionally trekking the uppermost edges and occasionally traversing the maws.

The utter shock came when we chanced upon a legitimate five-mile drop–it was a gash spanning about four hundred yards across and at least a dozen miles onwards, almost as though it had been cut by a sword. Honestly, it’s kind of amazing that’s where my mind first went, though a singular glance inside dispelled that notion.