Chapter 27: Grandmaster Rankings, Dragon-Tiger Rankings, and Elite Rankings

There are no more than a hundred Grandmasters in the world, scattered across five nations and three regions. Even with the Great Qin being the strongest, a single nation would have at most twenty-odd Grandmasters.

Below the Grandmaster realm is the late stage of the Xiantian realm.

Zhang Yuan's current cultivation and combat strength could already rank within the top fifty of Great Qin.

Because of the existence of Chaos, outsiders could not perceive his cultivation level; everyone who had seen his true strength was already dead.

As for his martial arts techniques, they had reached the Great Perfection stage and achieved complete integration three years ago.

He had merged his Mountainous Saber Technique, his fist techniques, the Cloak Saber Technique, the Iron Armor Fist, and several other techniques he had acquired later into a single, unique martial art.

He gave this technique a name

"Mountain and River Surge."

Using the Mountainous Technique of Yu Lin as a foundation, his own insights into saber and fist techniques were transformed into the power of a great river, continuous and inexhaustible.

With this technique, Zhang Yuan's combat power could double.

Over the past five years, to hone his combat skills and accumulate resources for cultivation, Zhang Yuan had quietly assumed many identities.

In Luyang Prefecture, he was Zhang Yuan, an eighth-rank Black-Clad Guard of Great Qin. As an old veteran of the yamen and the sole survivor of the bloody battle in Fengtian County, he was deeply respected by his comrades.

Even the superiors in the yamen were extremely polite to him.

Normally, Zhang Yuan only served in the yamen for less than half a year out of the year, and no one bothered him.

As a sixth-rank Black Armor Captain of the Black Ice Platform, codenamed "Black Tiger," this identity came from three years ago. When the Yan army withdrew from Fengtian County and Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao went to pay respects to Yu Lin and their fallen comrades, they encountered a Black Ice Platform scout. After some communication, Zhang Yuan was recruited.

In truth, Zhang Yuan was already a Black-Clad Guard, but he no longer belonged to the same hierarchy as the actual Black Ice Platform.

The scout who recruited them had initially only valued their survival in the bloody battle of Fengtian and their familiarity with Yan military tactics.

Unexpectedly, after several successful missions, Zhang Yuan and his group performed so excellently that the scout rose steadily in rank and was now a sixth-rank official of the Black Ice Platform in Luyang Prefecture.

The identity of "Black Tiger," the bounty hunter, was a scheme devised by Young Master Tao to serve as a cover in the martial arts world.

It allowed him to take on assassination missions to hone his skills and earn money, while occasionally overlapping with Black Ice Platform missions, killing two birds with one stone.

The Red Fox Caravan was built upon the foundation of the four hundred remnant soldiers originally led out by Zhao Changming.

After the battle of Fengtian County, because they had defied orders to hold their ground, they were stripped of their military status and were no longer members of the Red Scale Army.

Those four hundred remnants had nearly turned to banditry.

Young Master Tao had instructed Zhang Yuan to take the "untraceable" money he had earned to establish the Red Fox Caravan. Zhao Changming and the others traded along the borders year-round, and only a few people knew who the leader of the Red Fox Caravan actually was.

Zhang Yuan cared the least about his identity as the Lord of the Eighteen Green Mountain Forts. The eighteen forts needed someone to protect them. Not many in the martial world knew the true strength of Zhang Erhe, but Zhang Erhe was known for his immense righteousness; anyone looking to move against Green Mountain Fort would first have to consider whether they were ready to face the wrath of the masses.

For the past five years, Zhang Yuan's focus had been on honing his martial arts and visiting the families of his fallen comrades.

The ones truly planning behind his back were Young Master Tao and Hu Chunniu.

Since Young Master Tao's martial arts path had been severed and his injuries to his heart and lungs were incurable, he placed all his obsession with martial arts onto Zhang Yuan.

When Zhang Yuan entered the top hundred of the Elite List under the name Black Tiger, Young Master Tao celebrated with a heavy bout of drinking.

According to him, if Zhang Yuan could reach the Dragon-Tiger List, he could die in peace.

Yongtian Continent had three lists: the Grandmaster List, the Dragon-Tiger List, and the Elite List.

The Grandmaster List contained one hundred people, ranking Grandmasters and Half-step Grandmasters; one required the combat strength of a Grandmaster to be listed.

The Grandmaster realm was the core combat strength of a nation, serving as a strategic deterrent. The number of Grandmasters represented the strength of a nation's power.

The reason Great Qin could fight multiple nations at once was that it could crush any single nation with its Grandmasters.

On the Dragon-Tiger List were famous Xiantian experts, the lowest being at the mid-stage of the Xiantian realm.

There were a total of three hundred Dragon-Tiger experts on Yongtian Continent, and more than half of the top fifty were in the Qin nation.

As for the Elite List, it was for those under fifty years old with Xiantian cultivation, totaling five hundred names. To enter the list, one had to defeat someone already on it.

Young Master Tao worried about Zhang Yuan's Black Tiger identity being exposed because once he entered the top hundred, many people would challenge him or seek information on Black Tiger just to make a name for themselves.

"The Grandmaster Tribulation, the opportunity of the Heavenly Dao... how does one find them..." As the light screen in his mind faded, Zhang Yuan, sitting cross-legged on a wooden couch, whispered softly.

He had prepared sufficient blood and essence for entering the Grandmaster realm, but he did not know what the Grandmaster Tribulation was, nor what the opportunity of the Heavenly Dao entailed.

For years, he had stayed near the borders and had never encountered true top-tier experts; he could not perceive the higher paths of cultivation.

In the lands of the five nations and three regions, the high-level methods of cultivation were all monopolized.

By the great sects of the martial world and the martial arts of the imperial courts.

For a self-taught cultivator like Zhang Yuan, taking a single step forward was incredibly difficult.

"Soon."

Clenching his fist slightly, a sharp glint appeared in Zhang Yuan's eyes.

The merits and wishes recorded on that linen scroll were almost fulfilled, and the official of the Luyang Prefecture Black Ice Platform had also told Zhang Yuan that the organization would arrange for him to systematically study martial arts at an appropriate time.

Currently, the Black Ice Platform was paying close attention to the Black Armor named Black Tiger due to his exceptional martial talent. Having been dormant for many years, the Black Ice Platform needed geniuses to join its ranks.

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As the eastern sky turned pale, Zhang Yuan had already risen, washed, and was practicing his fist techniques in the courtyard.

Even though his cultivation had reached the stage of complete integration, he had not slackened in his daily training for a single day.

In martial arts cultivation, if one does not advance, one regresses, and there is no end.

Breakfast was prepared by Old Man Xu's daughter-in-law; it wasn't extravagant, but it was filling.

"Chen Wu came by last night. He drank quite a bit and sat outside the porch wiping tears. I talked him into going home."

"That boy is an honest soul. He always feels that you, Master Zhang, have sacrificed too much and worked too hard for them..."

As Zhang Yuan headed out, Guo Da approached him and spoke softly.

Zhang Yuan was rarely at home; he usually left some money and had Guo Da and Old Man Xu look after the families of his fallen comrades.

Many of the youths had grown up under their watchful eyes.

Chen Wu had spent more time at the Ding Family Alley these past few years than at his own home.

Guo Da and the others treated them like their own children.

"That fellow is no longer a child. The second son of Huang Sanliang is already pregnant, yet he still hasn't started a family," Zhang Yuan shook his head, his face stern. "I must speak up for Brother Youde and find him a wife quickly."

Seeing Zhang Yuan walk out with such an old-fashioned air, Guo Da grinned.

"Aren't you also no longer a child..."

...

When Zhang Yuan reached the city gate, a horse carriage pulled by an old horse was already waiting by the roadside.

Seeing Zhang Yuan, the driver hurriedly jumped down from the carriage and bowed. "Master Zhang."

This driver had also fled from Fengtian County and stayed at the academy to drive the carriage and guard the gates.

Zhang Yuan nodded and boarded the carriage, seeing Young Master Tao sitting to one side in a blue cloth scholar's robe.

The scent of undissipated alcohol lingered in the carriage.

"You've been drinking?" Zhang Yuan frowned and spoke in a low voice.

Regarding Young Master Tao's health, Hu Chunniu had advised him to avoid taxing his mind and to stay away from alcohol to live a few more years.

"That boy Chen Wu drank quite a bit last night. He had some troubles he couldn't talk about, so he came to the academy to find me. I accompanied him with two ounces," Young Master Tao held up two fingers. "Truly, only two ounces."

Zhang Yuan sat opposite Young Master Tao and took a deep breath. "You know your own health. If you want to live longer, do not touch alcohol."

Young Master Tao chuckled and blinked. "But do you know what troubles that boy Chen Wu has?"

Troubles?

What could a young man in his twenties possibly have troubles with?

"How is it? Did the boy fall for some girl last night?"

Zhang Yuan looked up at Young Master Tao.

Young Master Tao nodded. "His colleague introduced his own sister to him. She is a girl from a respectable family."

"The boy feels he isn't good enough for her, so he drank a lot of bitter wine last night."

(End of Chapter)