Chapter 3020 - Nightmare Rabbit
"My points are growing fast, but why are theirs growing faster?" Tianming simply didn't get it.
"You are... daft huh? The trial... is nearing... its end... they have... started harvesting... the outer... mundi geniuses!" Yin Chen said.
Things finally clicked in Tianming's head. The inner valley geniuses left the outer mundi geniuses alone to hunt wildbeasts and fatten up. The ones that had lasted this long all had quite a lot of points, so defeating or killing them was a good way of increasing points. Tianming looked at the ranking and saw that the seventh place above him was considerably widening the gap.
"Well, looks like I have to get lots of points to rise to the top. Everyone that's ranked that high has a gold ring. Looks like I have to take their points." Defeating them would grant him a third of their points, while killing them would give him all. The inner valley disciples were intentionally going after outer valley disciples and had mostly killed them off, but Tianming had no choice but to spare them. It didn't take long before he found them with Yin Chen's help.
"At the end of the day, the outer mundi geniuses' efforts in slaying wildbeasts only end with them working for the inner valley geniuses! Dammit! I want those inner valley geniuses to work for me instead!"
This place was fair and unfair in different senses. At the end of the day, even though the resources they had access to were different, power was still paramount. Anyone, even outer mundi geniuses, could rise to the top with enough might. The fact that Tianming's black name had reached fifth place had provided ample motivation for many outer mundi geniuses.
"It's time to start indiscriminately attacking!" Tianming didn't dare to focus on only the top thirty inner valley geniuses, so he simply engaged anyone he encountered without a word. After defeating them and getting some of their points, he left.
His rank began rising once more, ascending once a day. Five days later, he reached the fourth place. As for the three names above his, he had heard a lot about them. They were Huang Daoxiong, Chu Tianyu, and Qiu Ciling, respectively. Their points were far higher than the others'. Huang Daoxiong had more than a hundred thousand, while the other two were near that number. Even defeating the one in third place would see Tianming rise to the top!
No doubt, those three were the favorites to compete for first place, but that didn't mean that others didn't have a chance. Tianming had sixty thousand or so points, so defeating any one of them would be enough. He was picking which one to go with.
"Qiu Ciling, the totemancer, should have a slightly weaker background. It'll be easier to target her." Tianming saw himself as a hunter.
These days, every participant on the Skyward Grandpath watched as Huang Jihuang's killer rose in rank after a brief fall. That outer mundi genius was able to crawl back to fourth place by using nearly a hundred inner valley geniuses as his stepping stones. There were few historic precedents of such a feat.
Tianming had become the protector for many outer mundi geniuses. They saw him as their spiritual support, with many cheering for him even as they struggled to raise their own ranks. As for the inner valley geniuses, they weren't too happy about seeing a black name rise so high, especially the ones who were defeated by him.
"Once I leave the Skyward Grandpath, I'll get my big brother to kill him!"
"Is he daft or just braindead?"
"Who knows? It'll be over once he's dead."
Tianming had become too well known, far more than those in the top three. Many people were curious to see the legend that dared to push back against such conventions so brazenly.
"Don't get your hopes up too high. Perhaps he's just some juiced up fool that's riding a final high before his inevitable death."
"True. There’s a few actual examples of that throughout history."
The trial was nearing its final phase and severe ranking changes accompanied that. Some rose, while others fell, making for quite the exciting show to watch. Within Skyward Hall, the pink-haired girl who lazily watched the matches as she snacked seemed rather entertained.
"Whoa! Huang Daolie, that one's from your house too, right? That little taint defeated him! Hehe! Oh, wow! He's defeated quite a lot of our inner valley geniuses, it seems. How ferocious... and interesting. Such courage... Tsk tsk, Huang Daolie, you're not angry, are you?"
Huang Daolie's face turned green from the taunting. The pink-haired girl was behind him, and when he turned around, he wore an expression of flattery. "As long as the minor pathkeeper is entertained, I have to thank that little taint. Why would I be angry?"
"You're good with words, you.... Mhm." The girl shifted herself into another seductive pose and continued watching. After a while, she furrowed her brows. "Huang Daolie, is it about time? There's only half a day left, right?"
"Yes."
"Is this how it ends? What about the wildbeasts I put in?"
"Minor Pathkeeper, we've lost twice as many people this season compared to the previous ones. Back then, one would be able to get first place with around forty thousand points, but Huang Daoxiong already has a hundred thousand," Huang Daolie helplessly said. What he left unspoken was that it was really unnecessary to increase the number of casualties by releasing those wildbeasts.
Fewer than three thousand remained on the Skyward Grandpath. Seven thousand had died, most of them outer mundi geniuses. Some were killed by wildbeasts, while others were killed by inner valley geniuses.
He was worried that once word of this spread, the outer mundi would no longer send their geniuses over to Myriadpath Valley in the future, rendering the culling operation of Myriadpath Valley useless. It would be much harder for them to send people to take out promising geniuses of other mundi, where there were so many places to hide, than to entice them to send their best over, only to be killed under righteous pretenses.
Naturally, all of that was understood, and even if the unsaid was publicized, nobody would actually believe it. Myriadpath Valley did indeed provide outer mundi geniuses an opportunity to cultivate. Many inner valley members had originated from outer mundi in the beginning as well, including House Huang. They had come from a mundus they ruled, eventually establishing their own foothold in Myriadpath Valley through countless years and effort.
"Tch!" Even though many had died, the girl simply didn't think it had been exciting enough. She craved more intense gore! Thus, she kept looking around the Skyward Grandpath for stimulating fights that tickled her fancy. Then her eyes brightened.
"That's a high-ether-class wildbeast, right? A nightmare rabbit." She saw a figure through the astral fog that created countless illusions.
"That's right! It's incredibly smart and stealthy, so nobody’s been able to find it," Huang Daolie said.
"How many points is it worth?"
"Twenty thousand or thereabouts."
"Very well!" The girl clapped and excitedly said, "Huang Daolie, change its points to be worth a million, then mark it so that everyone can track it down!"