Chapter 56: Secret Agreement
1. Gu Ziyuan, 1107 points
2. Rong Zhan, 809 points
3. Lin Chun, 798 points
4. Jiang Yue, 796 points
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13. Yu Nianzhen, 783 points
"Your ranking fell." Jiang Yue stated as he looked at the list.
When he previously checked, Yu Nianzhen was ranked sixth, while he was ranked close to one hundred.
After that, he fought several rounds and didn’t check the ranking until now.
"I rested for a while." Yu Nianzhen answered, but he didn’t go into details.
Before the battle, he was very interested in contribution points.
However, his mentality changed as he fought.
More than contribution points, his focus shifted to polishing his strength.
It wasn’t until now that he recalled the ranking and his master’s instructions.
’Rank thirteen, not good.’ He thought as he looked at the list.
From his master’s negotiations with the sect, Yu Nianzhen could only receive a placing if he ranked within the top ten of the origin forging realm list.
Luckily, he recalled in time, and the matter could still be remedied.
"Why is there such a big gap between the first and second place?" He wondered and a frown formed on his face.
"Gu Ziyuan is the young master of the Gu clan."
"Gu clan?"
"I forgot that you were in seclusion for the past five years." Jiang Yue said and then explained.
The Gu clan like the Ouyang clan was a powerful sect clan.
It was one of the sect’s founding clans, and its ancestor was a supreme elder of the sect.
However, the clan was in decline.
In recent centuries, it hadn’t produced any extraordinary talents.
Because of this, its position among the sect clans wasn’t as stable as it used to be.
Just when things were looking dire for the clan, Gu Ziyuan was born.
He originally belonged to a side branch of the Gu clan, but his family was absorbed by the main family after his origin test.
"In fact, you have met him before." Jiang Yue said.
"I have?"
"He was among those that reached the tenth floor of the ten-storey pagoda."
Yu Nianzhen focused his mind, and vaguely familiar faces appeared in his mind.
After a while, he remembered an arrogant boy who sat across them at the top of the pagoda.
The boy had argued with Jiang Yue, but Yu Nianzhen knew nothing else about him.
"The Gu clan has many descendants in the sect. It is very likely that they are helping Gu Ziyuan with the ranking."
Jiang Yue sneered when he said it.
Over the past five years, he had met Gu Ziyuan several times.
Gu Ziyuan wasn’t incompetent, but he wasn’t so powerful that he could top the list of origin forging realm cultivators.
In the same generation, he was weaker than many others, including Jiang Yue, Yu Nianzhen, Ouyang Shu, and Kong Fan.
It was because of this that Jiang Yue suspected his kill points were because of his clan fellows.
Although the Gu clan couldn’t kill the sea beasts for Gu Ziyuan, they could severely injure them to make it easier for him to kill them.
"It doesn’t matter as long as they don’t touch our interests." Yu Nianzhen sighed and rubbed Jiang Yue’s head.
He also looked down on this kind of behaviour, but only those with ability had the right to object.
At the moment, he and Jiang Yue were weak.
"I didn’t know that you were so magnanimous." Jiang Yue teased.
"I am not." Yu Nianzhen narrowed his eyes and once again looked at the list.
He acknowledged the current reality, but he didn’t plan to allow others to ride on his head.
Although he couldn’t object out loud, there were other ways to protest.
If the Gu clan were using such methods to get ahead, what he needed to do was to kill one more sea beast than them.
For a moment, a sharp aura exuded from his body, but the aura was soon suppressed.
Jiang Yue laughed when he saw this.
Although he was also competitive, Yu Nianzhen was even more so when it came to some things.
He didn’t necessarily want others to look up to him, but he certainly didn’t want to look up to others.
"Will you accept a friendly competition?"
"What?"
"If you can top the list, I will...." Jiang Yue leaned forward and whispered in the other’s ear.
Yu Nianzhen listened without a change in expression.
However, his ears pinkened with every word, and a determined look hardened his eyes.
"The sea beasts are still attacking, we should return to the battlefield."
Yu Nianzhen stood up as soon as he said that.
His face was set in hard lines, and a sword was already in his right hand.
Jiang Yue laughed when he heard it and also stood up.
"Do you agree?"
Yu Nianzhen nodded and quickly walked away.
Behind him, a song-like laugh could be heard, and a slight smile curled his lips.
Soon after, the two returned to the battlefield.
However, unlike when the war first started, they didn’t separate.
The situation on the battlefield had become increasingly dangerous, and they were not at ease being apart.
"For the time being, you can try to top me." Jiang Yue said and rushed to attack a sea anemone that was two metres away.
When he heard that, Yu Nianzhen paused, shook his head, and rushed towards a seal.
After fighting nonstop for many days, the two had become extremely skilled in killing sea beasts.
Within a few moves, both the sea anemone and the seal were killed.
Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen looked at each and then rushed to their next targets.
Sea beast after sea beast fell in the hands of the two.
The sea around them was filled with sea beast corpses, but the two were tireless.
Hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks.
During that time, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen continued to improve themselves.
After two weeks of continuous fighting, Jiang Yue had more or less become proficient in using his eight knots technique.
It was still not perfect, but its utility was much higher than when he fought the spear-wielding squid.
Yu Nianzhen was not left behind.
Although he had yet to comprehend the intent of any of his ten sword arts, his comprehension of the arts was infinitely close to achieving intent.
On this day, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen had retreated into the array after a hard battle.
"Did you notice?" Jiang Yue asked after they adjusted their conditions
"Mmmm."
Yu Nianzhen immediately understood what Jiang Yue was talking about.
Although many disciples and soldiers had fallen over the past few weeks, the human side was gaining the upper hand.
In the last short while, there were lesser and lesser class one beasts on the battlefield.
Class one beasts were not very powerful, but they were the sea beast’s main fighting force.
Now that fewer were appearing on the battlefield, it meant that the sea beast’s main fighting force had been whittled down.
With that, it was only a matter of time before the war came to an end.
"I have been thinking, the war between sea beasts and cultivators is a little strange." Jiang Yue frowned.
Yu Nianzhen had also noticed it, and an idea had already formed in his mind.
No matter sea beasts or cultivators, they had scarce resources.
This war seemed like a contrived way to weed out each other’s weaker members.
If that was not the case, Yu Nianzhen couldn’t think of a reason why the war was so ’civil’.
In a real war, the sea beasts should have done their best to invade the Sea Cloud territory, and the Sea Cloud territory should have done its best to wipe out the sea beasts.
However, that was not the case.
Other than commander Wang Ling and the nine-legged crab who were fighting away from the main battlefield, all the other high realm sea beasts and cultivators did not make any moves.
"The world is like this. Only the strong can live."
The atmosphere became a little tense, and the two were silent for a long time.
In this war, both sides suffered heavy losses.
On the surface, they all died for a worthy cause, but that was only the surface.
In truth, all the fallen were cannon fodder.
They consumed resources but were not strong enough to significantly contribute to their race.
When the two thought about it, this war was neither just nor unjust.
It was just the way of the world.
"You are still a little behind Gu Ziyuan." Jiang Yue teased to ease the atmosphere that had become a little solemn.
"...but I have already topped you." Yu Nianzhen smiled.
He then winked and whispered into Jiang Yue’s ear, "don’t worry, the war is not over yet, and I am very motivated."
Jiang Yue flushed a brilliant red, and his heart beat more than twice faster.
Without waiting for the other, he escaped from the array and returned to the battlefield.
