262: Heavenly Ranking

"Holy crap, I need to sit up for this."

Zhou Yan sat up straight and carefully examined the description of himself on the Heaven Rankings.

In the past, he would have feared this kind of public attention. After all, his identity back then was fake, and being on the rankings would only invite trouble.

But now that he had become the real deal, it didn't matter anymore. Thus, Zhou Yan was more interested in seeing how the world evaluated him.

True Person Yunshu, twenty years of age, a Nascent Soul Early Stage Cultivator.

"I'm twenty?"

Zhou Yan scratched his head, thinking back.

When he filled out the Sect entry form back then, he seemed to have written nineteen.

Calculating the time, he should indeed be twenty now; by nominal age, he was even twenty-one.

True Person Yunshu came from humble beginnings.

Before entering the world, True Person Yunshu originated from a Demonic Cultivator Family in a border nation of the Great Qian Dynasty.

In his early years, his talent was not outstanding. Later, he was betrayed by his Family and fell into the hands of a rival power, where he suffered endless torture.

However, after suffering came the sweetness. True Person Yunshu was not crushed by hardship; instead, he comprehended an unknown Opportunity, broke his cage, cleansed his Spiritual Root, and joined Qingxu Grotto-Heaven with the Aptitude of a Single Spiritual Root. With the Sect's cooperation, he successfully eliminated demons and evil, purging the hidden ailments of Great Qian.

The current Emperor of Qian once remarked that Zhou Yan possessed both courage and wisdom, expressing regret that they had not met, for otherwise, the two would surely have become close friends.

"This is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?"

"I don't even know who's in the Great Qian Imperial Family. When I was passing through while fleeing, I couldn't even enter the Great Qian capital."

Zhou Yan continued scrolling down.

A golden scale is no creature of a mere pond; once it encounters wind and cloud, it transforms into a Dragon.

After joining the Sect through many twists and turns, True Person Yunshu finally had the chance to display his Aptitude.

This person is highly likely an Immortal Reincarnation. Consequently, he earned the appreciation of the Qingxu Grotto-Heaven Grand Elder, who made an exception to open the Saint trials.

During True Person Yunshu's first trial after descending the mountain, he used the Qi Refining realm to forcibly kill a Truth Cult Foundation Establishment Stage derivative creation across levels. Because of this, he was recorded in the Earth Rankings and began to enter the public eye.

Only one month after descending, he attained Dao and reached Foundation Establishment, and his ranking rose once more.

Later, in the tomb of the Recluse of Spiritual Stream, he encountered an assassination attempt by the Great Yu Truth Cult. He broke through successive realms, reaching Foundation Establishment Perfection, and with that cultivation, he single-handedly slew two restricted Core Formation Cultivators and one heavily injured Core Formation remnant soul.

Based on this record, he made an exceptional entry into the Heaven Rankings with his Foundation Establishment cultivation.

Zhou Yan watched, dumbfounded.

So in the eyes of the world, he was actually like this?

Is this really writing about me?

He skipped the middle content and scrolled directly to the end.

The entire piece consisted of slightly exaggerated objective descriptions, but a lot of information was withheld, and some content was blurred.

At the very least, there was no mention of 'Kun Gou' here; it only stated that Zhou Yan had resolved a major crisis threatening Great Yu and was thus conferred the title of Imperial Preceptor.

The only one who should know the details of the Secret Realm was the Sixth Elder; he likely knew the full inside story, including his Dragon transformation Divine Ability.

However, what the Heaven Rankings actually displayed was only 'proficient in performing a golden bow Divine Ability, possesses a special Physique and a powerful Physical Body, and practices both Water and Wood methods.' Nothing else was mentioned.

It was likely that the Sect had also seen Zhou Yan's intention to hide, so they deliberately withheld a portion.

As for the title 'Daoist Yun Shu', the official statement explained it as follows:

It refers to how Zhou Yan acts with justice, saves many lives, and has an elusive, unconventional presence, thus gaining the meaning of 'Cloud Unfolding'.

But he didn't know if it was an illusion, but since his appearance had changed like this, Zhou Yan always felt that some titles used on him were prone to ambiguity.

He hoped he was overthinking it. After all, this Butian Pavilion was a major Sect and shouldn't resort to such bad puns.

"This Zhou Yan is quite the character."

Zhou Yan left an anonymous comment below the content, then put away the token and prepared to start Cultivating.

"The outside evaluation is already so impressive; I should hurry up and solve my own problems."

"Even though the Fifth Elder will perform as a body double for the ceremony, one must be strong themselves. I need to improve as quickly as possible."

Just as Zhou Yan put down the token, he couldn't help but take it out to scroll again, wanting to see who exactly the top three on the Heaven Rankings were.

First: The Carefree One — Feng Xu.

Second: Nian.

Third: Xuantian.

At a glance, there were actually two familiar names.

However, they only had names; only Feng Xu had an additional title, while all other information was blank.

Not to mention Feng Xu, no one knew how many years it had been since he passed away.

And the name 'Xuantian' was profoundly significant; Zhou Yan would not forget where he currently was.

If it were truly that person, they would likely have passed away many years ago as well.

As for the second-ranked 'Nian', to be ranked alongside those two, even if Zhou Yan didn't know who it was, they were likely an extremely ancient existence.

With no information displayed, it was easy to guess that they were also likely involved in some buried truths.

Thinking that he had not only failed to get information on the top three but had also inadvertently accepted a task for himself, a wave of annoyance surged in his heart. This feeling was similar to when he was in that mysterious space—a kind of dizzy, nauseous feeling, a case of the surroundings triggering old emotions.

With that, Zhou Yan lost interest in further exploration and instead began to study his own Physique.

"Let me see how Qing Xuan described it."

"The primary issue in developing the Physique lies in the imbalance of Yin and Yang, leading to significant changes in physical form."

"However, since the dao body is already formed, the appearance is difficult to fundamentally change and can only be slightly adjusted."

"So Saint Brother, don't have appearance anxiety; it can still be remedied."

"Huh?"

Zhou Yan had never mentioned this matter!

How did that guy see through it?

His ears instantly turned hot, but his eyes still honestly continued reading.

The general meaning that followed was that by practicing according to the mainstream methods for the Yin-Yang Body and the One Life, Two Destinies Frame, the Physique could be gradually improved and developed.

Committing the development method to memory, Zhou Yan then looked at the few cards in his bag that could improve his Physique.

"Will the improvement cards plus the guide produce a miraculous effect?"

In the main city.

Qing Xuan had already forgotten the previous unpleasantness and was soaring freely among the city buildings.

This feeling was completely different from the Library.

Although the Library also had small spaces, and flying through multiple realms was considered pleasant, the sense of confinement from those layers of restrictions was far less free and easy than here.

In the past, people had tried to take it away from the Library, but all had failed.

Even if they took out a bit of its will or a soul fragment, it would be subject to various restrictions, making it worse than staying in the repository.

It reminisced about the past while patrolling on its wings, when it suddenly caught sight of a figure appearing below.

"That kid down there looks a bit familiar... he looks quite like that weird guy with absolutely no life force."

Since this was Zhou Yan's space, and given that it had lived for so long and only Zhou Yan had made it suffer such a setback, Qing Xuan had nothing to fear and dived down to get closer.

At this moment, Mo Ran, who had just returned to update his daily affairs, suddenly heard a voice from above.

"I shall dominate the sky, and the earth shall grovel at my feet!"

He looked toward the sound and saw a translucent green crow had quietly landed behind him.

Mo Ran was startled by this display.

Since entering this Divine Kingdom, he had only seen his 'Incense Clone' and those peculiar existences in the Secret Realm; every one of them revealed a stiffness lacking life force, and one could tell at a glance they were not real living beings.

But this strange bird before him was different; not only could it speak, but the lively glint in its eyes could not be faked.

"May I ask which Senior this is? I am Mo Ran, a believer under Heavenly Venerable Zhou."

Heavenly Venerable Zhou? Mo Ran?

Qing Xuan had spent plenty of time wandering the main city, and Mo Ran's skill shop was a place it frequented; naturally, it had read the diaries Mo Ran wrote and knew something about him.

Through Mo Ran's diaries, it learned that Zhou Yan seemed to be practicing the Divine Dao.

Although it didn't know where he had obtained such a niche Legacy, since he chose to practice the Divine Dao, then as his subordinate, it was better to help if possible.

Of course, Qing Xuan had also looked into some of Zhou Yan's information and firmly believed in his so-called 'Celestial Venerable Reincarnation' claim.

After all, having lived so long, it had never seen an 'Immortal Reincarnation' who simultaneously possessed so many peculiar traits and such an obvious background.

All sorts of clues proved that even if Zhou Yan's past life was not a Celestial Venerable, it was likely not far off; perhaps he really carried some memories from before his Reincarnation.

From a certain perspective, Qing Xuan was suffering from being too well-educated.

"Ahem, this seat is the attendant under the Celestial Venerable, Qing Xuan."

"I have heard of you."

"Have you encountered some difficulty?"

"This seat has officially moved into this... well, this Divine Kingdom today."

"And my greatest strength is knowing endless knowledge. If you have difficult problems, you can ask me; if things happen, you can also report to me, and I can relay them to the Celestial Venerable."

Mo Ran was instantly overjoyed.

Just as he was worrying about his meager strength while being alone, the Celestial Venerable had actually sent an envoy to assist; the Celestial Venerable truly possessed infinite wisdom.

"Praise Heavenly Venerable Zhou."

Seeing Mo Ran suddenly place his hand over his heart with a face full of devotion, Qing Xuan also subconsciously followed suit and recited a line.

"Praise Heavenly Venerable Zhou."

Seeing Qing Xuan make the same gesture, Mo Ran was first stunned, then a more fervent radiance burst from his eyes.