Chapter 113: The Bottom of the Ranking

Chapter 113: The Bottom of the Ranking

Ji Xinghuo was sweating profusely in the training room when he suddenly paused and wiped his sweat before stepping into the living room, where he encountered a familiar figure.

"Xinghuo!"

Jiang Nan Caiyi had just pushed open the door when she saw Ji Xinghuo and exclaimed in delight, "When did you get back?"

"A few days ago," Ji Xinghuo replied with a smile.

It went without saying that Jiang Nan Caiyi had come to clean and tend to Ren Mian's garden.

"Aren't you going to hunt down the Beiluoshimen tribe, Xinghuo?" Jiang Nan Caiyi asked.

Ji Xinghuo paused, as he hadn't mentioned his trip to the Star Realm frontier to her. Feeling curious, he asked, "How did you know I became a bounty hunter?"

"Huh?"

Jiang Nan Caiyi was initially confused but quickly understood and laughed, "Xinghuo, you didn't know? You and a few friends hunted down a legendary Dagun, and the news made headlines. A lot of people know about it now!"

"Was it that sensational?" Ji Xinghuo was genuinely unaware.

"Not too sensational, but it did make it to the top three trending topics domestically," Jiang Nan Caiyi said vaguely, knowing that Ji Xinghuo couldn't conveniently return to Earth. She then elaborated, "Your friend Jing Ji accepted several interviews, and people are quite interested in him. Although they mentioned you, it wasn't extensive."

"That's good," Ji Xinghuo nodded with a smile, knowing that he had requested Jing Ji to handle things this way.

However, Jiang Nan Caiyi let out a soft laugh, "There's one more thing, Xinghuo. You've made it onto the global ladder."

"I'm on the ladder now?" Ji Xinghuo was quite surprised.

"Yes, after ADC's investigation, they decided to include you and created a 'Strange Person' file for you," Jiang Nan Caiyi explained. "They believe that your participation in the hunt for a legendary powerhouse and your record-breaking monthly points prove your strength surpasses that of most super 'Strange People', qualifying you for the ladder."

"However," she continued, "due to the scarcity of your information and the inability to interview you in person, your ranking isn't very high."

At this point, Jiang Nan Caiyi's expression turned odd.

"Xinghuo, want to take a guess at your ranking on the ladder?"

Ji Xinghuo thought for a moment and guessed, "Nine thousand something?"

Jiang Nan Caiyi shook her head.

"Could it be eight thousand then?"

Ji Xinghuo felt that with his strength, a ranking within the top 500, or even the top 100, should be achievable.

If ADC had true insight, they could have guessed from the clues that he shouldn't be ranked at the bottom.

Jiang Nan Caiyi shook her head again but didn't play coy anymore. She softly said, "You're ranked 10,000th."

"The last place?" Ji Xinghuo was astonished.

The global ladder only had 10,000 spots, and he was at the very bottom. Although he didn't care much about rankings and didn't want to attract too much attention at the moment, being ranked last was a bit laughable.

Sometimes, being in last place could attract attention and make one more memorable.

It would have been better not to be on the ladder at all.

Jing Ji, Yuan Chongzhen, and Alex, the three people Ji Xinghuo knew, had already been on the ladder before he met them.

Jing Ji was ranked in the 700s, Alex was around 1,000th, and Yuan Chongzhen was outside the top 3,000. After hunting down the legendary Dagun, their rankings would surely rise significantly.

In comparison, his 10,000th ranking seemed like a joke.

Even Jiang Nan Caiyi felt indignant on his behalf.

"The people at ADC's ladder center are so shortsighted. Xinghuo, your ranking should be within the top 300 at the very least," she said.

"Did they give a reason for the ranking?" Ji Xinghuo asked.

ADC provided key comments for every 'Strange Person' on the ladder.

"They think you're only a mid-level ranger, and it hasn't even been a year since you became a 'Strange Person'. While your achievements are impressive, there's insufficient information about you, so they've placed you at the bottom, with a validity period of six months," Jiang Nan Caiyi explained.

The validity period meant that he wouldn't be removed from the ladder within six months.

Unless there were new achievements, he would remain at the bottom.

"That's reasonable," Ji Xinghuo said, having come to terms with it. "They don't know much about me, and only recognizing me as a mid-level ranger, they're still willing to put me on the ladder. That's not bad."

It was rare for a mid-level 'Strange Person' to make it onto the ladder.

Most of the 'Strange People' on the ladder were super-level, and even high-level ones made up less than 1% of the list. There were only a handful of mid-level 'Strange People' on the ladder, fewer than ten.

Ji Xinghuo stopped thinking about it and asked, "Caiyi, how's your preparation for advancing to a super 'Strange Person' going?"

"I'm almost there with my star power, and I'm in the process of choosing a star gland," Jiang Nan Caiyi said, sounding less enthusiastic when talking about herself.

"Keep at it!" Ji Xinghuo encouraged her.

The two chatted for a while longer before Jiang Nan Caiyi got busy.

Ji Xinghuo returned to his solitary cultivation.

One benefit of having Jiang Nan Caiyi around was having someone cook for him, so he didn't need to order takeout. However, she would only stay for a day before returning to Earth.

Ji Xinghuo resumed his solitary training, venturing out daily to the Extreme Martial Arts Hall for combat training.

His star power gradually increased, surpassing 450 points.

If he continued cultivating like this, in less than two Star Realm months, his star power would reach the mid-level cap, triggering his third life evolution.

By then, he expected his star power to be around 500 points.

This was already comparable to the star power of ordinary high-level 'Strange People' nearing their fourth evolution. However, Ji Xinghuo wasn't satisfied.

There were several 'Strange Powers' that he could upgrade.

For example, 'Thousand Spirit Dexterity' and 'Aether Affinity' were both at level three, and only required a little over a thousand points of spiritual source energy to be raised to level four.

Each life evolution increased the probability of triggering an advancement in 'Strange Powers', allowing them to merge deeper with him. He couldn't afford to miss this opportunity.

The higher the level of 'Strange Powers', the greater the probability of triggering an advancement.

But he didn't have any spiritual source energy!

After cultivating for half a month, Ji Xinghuo could no longer contain his restlessness.

The spot on his left arm where it had been cut off had long healed, leaving no trace of the injury, and he couldn't feel any after-effects. Thus, he packed his bags once more and set off for Jian Gu Fort.

Jian Gu Fort was located southeast of Olympia, approximately 500 kilometers away from Dongji Pass, Midway Fortress, and Olympia.

It took over four hours to reach Jian Gu Fort by airship.

There were more than seventy fortresses and strongholds on the Star Realm frontier, and Jian Gu Fort's geographical importance ranked within the top ten.

With its advantageous geographical location, it did not require a large number of troops.

Ji Xinghuo had heard from Yuan Chongzhen before that there were only two legends stationed at Jian Gu Fort, and the total number of troops from various countries was less than 30,000.

Including bounty hunters, civilians, merchants, and various facilities and staff serving the military, the permanent population of Jian Gu Fort was around 40,000 to 50,000.

Ji Xinghuo walked through the narrow fort and checked into an inn.

The inn was well-equipped, featuring an archery range, training rooms, a martial arts arena, and a swimming pool, offering privacy and top-notch service, though at a higher price.

Ji Xinghuo didn't mind the cost.

This time, his plan for Jian Gu Fort was to maintain a balanced pace, avoiding the high-intensity hunting he had done at Midway Fortress the previous month. He wanted to minimize the impact on the enemy forces in this sector and expand his hunting range to make it more sustainable and safer.

After settling in, Ji Xinghuo went out to find Yuan Chongzhen and located him in another inn not far away.

"Xinghuo!" Yuan Chongzhen exclaimed in delight when he saw Ji Xinghuo, jumping to his feet. "I thought you were just joking, but you actually came!"

Ji Xinghuo walked over and gave him a hug, smiling. "Am I not welcome?"

"Of course, you are!"

Yuan Chongzhen patted Ji Xinghuo on the shoulder. There were three other people with him, all dressed as bounty hunters. He introduced them, saying, "Come, let me introduce you to each other. This is Ji Xinghuo, the amazing ranger I told you about."

Then he introduced Ji Xinghuo to the three, who were his friends, two men and one woman.

They eyed Ji Xinghuo with curiosity.

Ji Xinghuo still looked like a ranger, wearing ceramic steel light armor and carrying a black compound bow on his back. A war sword hung at his left waist, but what was peculiar was that behind him, in addition to the compound bow and quiver, there was also a long sword sheathed in a heat-formed scabbard, with the hilt protruding from his left shoulder.

Rangers were versatile and usually equipped with close-combat weapons, but it was uncommon to see one like Ji Xinghuo, who had both a sword and a dagger.

Yuan Chongzhen also noticed the long sword on Ji Xinghuo's back and sighed inwardly.

Who would have thought that this sword was a super three-star weapon worth over 100 million?

Ji Xinghuo sat down.

He chatted briefly with Yuan Chongzhen and the three bounty hunters. Suddenly, one of the bounty hunters said, "I went back to Earth a few days ago and saw that you're ranked 10,000th on the global ladder, while Chongzhen is 2,407th."

The atmosphere became awkward.

Although the bounty hunter's tone was casual and didn't seem malicious, Ji Xinghuo could tell that the other person, also a ranger, felt somewhat displeased by Yuan Chongzhen's high praise of him.

However, Ji Xinghuo didn't mind.

It didn't matter to him whether others believed in his strength or not. On the contrary, Yuan Chongzhen's face darkened as he said, "Junjie, are you questioning Xinghuo's abilities?"

"I didn't mean it like that," the bounty hunter named Junjie quickly replied. "I'm just curious how a mid-level ranger could participate in a battle with a legendary powerhouse..."

Before he could finish, Yuan Chongzhen interrupted, "Do you think everyone is like you? Even as a high-level ranger, you only dare to hunt down one or two isolated enemies? Xinghuo can take down in a day what would take you two months. Don't make baseless comments about things you haven't witnessed. There are plenty of geniuses out there who are more capable than you!"

"I..." Junjie wanted to argue.

But Yuan Chongzhen lost interest in the conversation. "Xinghuo made it onto the ladder, even if he's at the very bottom. When are you going to get on the ladder and show me what you've got?"

Junjie's face turned red, and he fell silent.

"Chongzhen, let it go," Ji Xinghuo quickly stepped in to smooth things over. "Junjie didn't mean any harm. We're all friends here, just joking around."

"Alright, I won't say more," Yuan Chongzhen nodded. "Let's drink!"

The three bounty hunters could tell that Yuan Chongzhen, usually unwavering in his words and actions, treated Ji Xinghuo differently, as if he placed himself in a lower position.

However, Ji Xinghuo himself carried no air of arrogance and interacted with them just like any other ordinary bounty hunter.

From time to time, Ji Xinghuo would ask about the situation near Jian Gu Fort's defense line.

After a hearty meal, Ji Xinghuo declined Yuan Chongzhen's proposal to hunt together, preferring to act alone.

That night.

Ji Xinghuo ventured out and returned to Jian Gu Fort at dawn.

During the night, he had claimed over twenty bounties, which he turned in to the rewards office, earning him a moderate amount of credits and points.

He acquired over 30 points of spiritual source energy, which he invested entirely into Aether Affinity. After resting for a few hours, he began a day of cultivation in the inn's training room.

At night, he ventured out again to hunt, returning at dawn with his bounties.

This routine continued day after day.

Ji Xinghuo never targeted an entire patrol team; he usually only killed Beiluoshimen tribe bounty hunters or eliminated small groups of hidden sentries, keeping the casualties within the normal range for both sides of the defense line.

Sometimes, he would travel to more distant locations to hunt, dispersing the enemy's casualties.

As a result, he didn't attract the attention of the Beiluoshimen tribe.

Every day, he acquired a stable amount of spiritual source energy, ranging from 30 to 50 points, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

As the "Night Moon" phase passed and the "Extinguished Moon" phase began, Ji Xinghuo had successfully upgraded his Aether Affinity and Thousand Spirit Dexterity to level four.

However, neither of the two abilities advanced during the upgrade.

Aether Affinity was at (Level Four 1/7079), and Thousand Spirit Dexterity was at (Level Four 1/4987).

His star power also increased to over 470 points.

Just as Ji Xinghuo was planning to continue harvesting spiritual source energy to upgrade his Golden Scale Iron Spine to level four and advance to a high-level Strange Person in Jian Gu Fort, an unexpected event occurred.

The largest of the three arrows in the Myriad Phenomenon Star Pupil interface suddenly showed noticeable movement!

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end