Chapter 67: The Five-Cultivator Rankings — The Top Sword Cultivator of the Four Great Sects Must Be…

When Lian Mu and Ji Mingyue returned to the Immortal Sect, it was already nearing evening.

The results of the first round of the Five-Cultivator Rankings had been posted, hanging in front of Cold Arrival Peak’s mountain gate for all disciples of the Four Great Sects to see.

But Lian Mu and Ji Mingyue didn’t go to see it right away—instead, they headed to the Scripture Pavilion.

“If you want to master alchemy, just recognizing a few spirit plants isn’t enough.”

After their visit to the Star-Plucking Tower, Ji Mingyue had realized that although Lian Mu dabbled in alchemy, she was still fundamentally a sword cultivator. Her knowledge of spirit plants was extremely limited.

Today, the Scripture Pavilion was quiet, with just the two of them present. Lian Mu sat cross-legged on the floor, a copy of Record of Spirit Plants for Alchemists laid out before her. She had read part of the book before but had only learned the sections she needed.

Lian Mu said, “I just want to take care of my health.”

She wasn’t really interested in alchemy or artifact refining—she only studied them out of necessity.

“Alchemy isn’t as easy as you think,” Ji Mingyue replied. “People say alchemists have it easiest among cultivators, but that’s complete nonsense. If you want to refine good pills to nourish your body, surface-level knowledge won’t cut it.”

“Since we have time today, take this Record of Spirit Plants home and start memorizing from the first page. The next sect competition will be held in Vermillion Bird South. I heard the illusion realm they’ve chosen is in Insect Mountain and Snake Ridge—that area’s similar to where I’m from. Vermillion Bird South is rich in rare spirit plants.”

“The second illusion realm is designed for alchemists from the sects to gather spirit plants and prepare for the next stage. Our sect doesn’t have many alchemists. If you study up now, you can help gather plants later.”

Lian Mu did have a habit of collecting spirit plants in illusion realms, but only the ones she recognized. Hearing this, she nodded. “Alright then.”

Might as well take it as a chance to learn something new.

“By the way,” Lian Mu asked, “those spirit plants Bai Su gave us—are they actually useful?”

She had never even seen spirit plants or tools above the third tier and couldn’t tell good from bad.

The spatial pouch was still with Ji Mingyue. She unhooked it and said, “They can probably be added to replenishment pills. That person clearly has powerful backing. Just this one pouch has so many tier-three plants—not even the big sects could cough that up so easily.”

Lian Mu said, “Sounds like we didn’t squeeze her hard enough. We should’ve extorted more.”

Ji Mingyue: “…Is that really the point?”

“Actually,” Ji Mingyue added, “I’ve heard of the Feihai Pavilion she mentioned—back in Vermillion Bird South. Of the Seven Domains, four are controlled by the Four Great Sects, and the remaining three are run privately. The Third Domain belongs to Star-Plucking Tower, while the Sixth Domain is under Feihai Pavilion. The Sixth Domain doesn’t have many magical beasts, but it’s rich in spirit mines, pets, and rare plants—it’s a major power in Vermillion Bird South.”

“It’s not just those two. In Azure Dragon East, there’s also the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion. Together, they’re known as the ‘Two Pavilions and One Tower,’ all powerful factions of rogue cultivators.”

Lian Mu had never heard of any of this. “Are they really that impressive?”

Ji Mingyue nodded. “If the Four Great Sects are the orthodox sects among immortal factions, then the Two Pavilions and One Tower are the hidden factions. They don’t take formal disciples and prefer to deal with rogue cultivators. They focus solely on business, not maintaining peace or slaying magical beasts. Those beast bounty missions you saw at Star-Plucking Tower? Purely profit-driven.”

Lian Mu said, “No wonder they were all big-money jobs.”

She had really gone to the right place.

“That Bai Su must have some serious backing. She must be loaded,” Lian Mu’s eyes sparkled.

When she got to Vermillion Bird South, she had to find a way to cash in.

Ji Mingyue glanced at her, already guessing what Lian Mu was thinking. “Are you really going to sell Green Bean?”

Lian Mu replied, “I’m broke. If it stays with me, it’ll starve every other day. Better to send it off to a wealthy family.”

Ji Mingyue could clearly see how poor Lian Mu was—when she came to learn alchemy, she was so stingy she’d split a single leaf in half before tossing it into the cauldron.

Lian Mu sighed, “It’s pretty cute, but if I keep raising it, I’d have to sell off my own organs just to afford the upkeep—and even that wouldn’t be enough.”

Ji Mingyue was slightly stunned. “…The fact you’ve managed to raise it this far is already impressive.”

The two looked at each other and fell silent. It was unclear whether the silence came from the tragedy of Lian Mu’s poverty or the uncertain fate of Green Bean.

Before long, someone knocked on the door of the Scripture Pavilion.

A senior brother outside called out, “Junior sisters, someone’s looking for you!”

Lian Mu stuffed the Record of Spirit Plants into her pouch and left with Ji Mingyue.

Outside stood Wen Yun and his group. Baili Que looked at Lian Mu and instinctively joked, “Back to cultivate your mind and spirit again?”

“I’m just here for moral support,” Lian Mu said, pointing at Ji Mingyue. “She’s the one reading.”

Wen Yun rushed over and said, “The first round of the Five-Cultivator Rankings is up! Wanna go take a look?”

Lian Mu wasn’t particularly interested, but since Ji Mingyue was going, she figured she might as well join in the fun.

In front of Cold Arrival Peak’s gate, a crowd had already gathered. The Five-Cultivator Rankings were long and not easy to read at a glance. Some people were even discussing as they read, which made the crowd denser. A few sword cultivators had taken to flying overhead just to see the rankings clearly.

Luckily, it hadn’t snowed today—otherwise, it would’ve been chaos.

Xu Xianxing, who was in charge of posting the rankings, had taken the best spot—but as an artifact refiner, he couldn’t fend off the crowd and ended up squished between two body cultivators, his face nearly squashed.

Guan Shize was smarter. He’d secured a spot early, recorded the rankings with a memory stone, and slipped away immediately.

So when the group arrived later, they didn’t need to jostle with the crowd—they just gathered around Guan Shize to watch.

He sat on the steps, with Lian Mu and Ji Mingyue on either side, and Baili Que and Wen Yun behind them.

The sword cultivator rankings came first. At the top of the memory stone’s image was a half-bloomed magnolia blossom, with a row of names listed beneath it, each one followed by their sect.

Among the top five sword cultivators from the Four Great Sects, four were first-seat disciples, and one was the second-seat from the Azure Profound Sect. A quick glance showed that most of the Magnolia Rankings were dominated by Azure Profound Sect.

“Azure Profound Sect’s sword cultivators just keep getting stronger each generation,” Guan Shize sighed.

Baili Que said, “They’ve got the advantage in raw talent. It’s normal they’re ahead right now.”

This generation of disciples from Azure Profound Sect—even those on the formation team—mostly had dual spiritual roots or better.

Unlike other sects that held selection trials, Azure Profound Sect took a different approach. In the first round of recruitment, they contacted juniors from various immortal families and admitted them after testing their spiritual roots. The second round involved using a pearl-sensing device to locate high-grade spiritual roots elsewhere and sending people to recruit them.

Disciples of Azure Profound Sect came from all walks of life—from the sons and daughters of noble clans to orphans and beggars on the streets.

No matter their background, the one thing they had in common was exceptional talent and spiritual roots superior to most.

The reason Azure Profound Sect stood at the top of the Four Great Sects was because they cherished talent.

“If our sect’s top masters hadn’t run into trouble, we’d be drawing in a lot more outstanding disciples too.”

Wen Yun added, “If we can take first place this time, who knows what might happen next round.”

Lian Mu glanced over the list. It was too long, and she couldn’t find her own name, so she only looked at the top few.

Ranked first was Ying You, the chief sword cultivator of the Azure Profound Sect. Second was Lu Feishuang from the Crimson Sky Sect. Their rankings came as no surprise—they could easily dominate others based on their famed swords alone.

Guan Huailin, the chief sword cultivator of the Returning Immortal Sect, was in fourth place, with Gong Rumei from the Clear Thought Sect in third.

Lian Mu had seen the swords of the three chiefs, but she had never seen Gong Rumei’s.

Lian Mu asked, “Gong Rumei from the Clear Thought Sect—what’s his sword like?”

It was normal for a sword cultivator to be curious about swords. Baili Que, having hung around Xu Xianxing for a while, knew a thing or two. “Gong Rumei is from the Gong family. Like Senior Brother Guan, he uses twin swords. His sword was forged by an artifact refiner from the Tang family. It’s said to be called Plum Blossom Snow, and it’s also a first-grade sword.”

Lian Mu was a little envious. Heavenly spiritual roots really did make a difference—everyone had a first-grade sword.

Ji Mingyue switched the image in the memory stone to the other rankings. As expected, the top four were basically all chief disciples.

When the Orchid List for talisman cultivators appeared, Wen Yun couldn’t help but laugh. “I didn’t expect Shen Wuxie to not even be as good as their vice-chief. Twelve years later, and he’s still an embarrassment.”

Lian Mu glanced over and saw that a vice-chief had made it into the top five—Baili Yu from the Clear Thought Sect. He even outranked Shen Wuxie, who was the chief.

“Heavenly spiritual root?” Lian Mu turned to ask Baili Que.

Baili Que replied, “…Yeah, he is. But he didn’t become the Clear Thought Sect’s chief talisman cultivator. That part really surprised me.”

Lian Mu said, “Baili Yu isn’t weak. He just underestimates his opponents.”

She’d fought him during the entrance trials and could tell he was strong, but he was far too arrogant, practically begging to get beaten up. He never left himself a backup plan, so he lost badly.

“You fought him?” Wen Yun asked.

Lian Mu nodded. “Ran into him. I won.”

Wen Yun clapped her on the shoulder. “If you can beat someone with a heavenly spiritual root, maybe you’ve got a shot at cracking the top five on the sword cultivator list!”

At first, Wen Yun thought Lian Mu had a heavenly root herself. When she revealed she was a triple spiritual root type—and with a damaged dantian at that—Wen Yun had been shocked.

But later he thought it through. Back then, even Feng Tianche had risen to become the number one alchemy cultivator starting from a crippled root. Why couldn’t someone with three roots surpass a heavenly root?

Wen Yun pointed to the top name on the sword cultivator list. “That spot—I believe you’ll take it one day.”

Lian Mu responded with a smile, “If I had a good sword, being the number one sword cultivator among the four great sects would be mine, no doubt.”

Ji Mingyue chimed in, “Once you’ve saved up enough money, you can commission a new sword from a top-tier refiner. For now, the most important thing is to recover your health.”

For some reason, whenever Lian Mu said something, Guan Shize just instinctively believed it. “Then carve a name onto the broomstick you gave me. Once I go out traveling with Master, if anyone tries to mess with me, I’ll just drop your name.”

The group chatted casually about the Five-Path Rankings, completely unaware that someone was approaching from behind.

That someone was none other than Shen Wuxie, who had been pushed out of the crowd. He hadn’t even seen the rankings—he’d just been stepped on from all sides, his foot swollen from it. When he lost his balance and stumbled backward, he tumbled down the steps.

And that’s when he overheard their conversation—he even caught Wen Yun mocking him for being worse than Baili Yu.

Clenching his jaw, Shen Wuxie snapped, “Heh. With just the few of you from the Returning Immortal Sect, you think you can take first place? Keep dreaming!”

The five of them turned at the same time upon hearing his voice—