Chapter 183: Clan Ranking, Banner Array Quest

After the events at the Yellow Emperor’s Tomb concluded, official Player Organizations started popping up like mushrooms after rain.

Jiuyu Pavilion also took the opportunity to release another ranking list besides the Heavenly Ranking, called the Clan Ranking. This list was specifically for evaluating Sects.

The ranking system for the Clan Ranking was more than a hundred times more complex than the Heavenly Ranking. It wasn’t as simple as analyzing personal strength from a few aspects. Factors included the number of Faction members, the average Level of members, the construction of the Guild Stronghold, whether the Faction possessed an Immortal Manor, the status of Core Members and high-level combat power, possession of high-level Flying Swords and Magic Treasures, and so on.

There were numerous aspects to consider, and they could be summarized into nearly a hundred minor criteria. It was a massive undertaking.

The first edition of the Clan Ranking only included nine Sects, as there were only a few official Player Organizations established so far.

Jiuyu Pavilion’s selection criteria excluded any unofficial Player Organizations; they were not eligible for the Clan Ranking.

The top spot went to the Shushan Sword Alliance, second place to the Wanyao Palace, and surprisingly, the third place was not the second officially established Faction, Herbal Hall, but instead Tsunami Longevity Pavilion. Herbal Hall only ranked fourth.

Based on the points in the Clan Ranking, the Shushan Sword Alliance and Wanyao Palace were nearly equal. They led Tsunami Longevity Pavilion, in third place, by several times the points. They were deservedly the two behemoth-like Player Organizations on the Far Shore.

Unlike the Shushan Sword Alliance, which relied on Emei and the Vertical-Horizontal Alliance to recruit many high-level members, Wanyao Palace widely accepted all members of the Demon Race. It absorbed almost seventy percent of the high-bloodline Demon Race members. If it weren’t for the lack of an Immortal Manor as a Guild Stronghold, its final score might very well have surpassed the Shushan Sword Alliance.

Tsunami Longevity Pavilion managed to secure a spot in the top three and overtake others due to its powerful Immortal Manor resources.

This Faction had almost the fewest members among the nine Sects. It was formed by many Rogue Cultivator Players from overseas. The members were all quite skilled, and they possessed a full six overseas Immortal’s Cave Abodes, giving them limitless development potential.

Herbal Hall was primarily based in Kunlun. However, its First Core Member, Gancaozi, was only one of the four Stewards in Kunlun and did not hold absolute authority. This also affected the final score.

On the Heavenly Ranking, Yijian Kurong finally fought his way back, gloriously entering the Heavenly Ranking at ninety-fourth place. He achieved this based on his battle where he slew Haoshou Qiongjing.

However, comparing it to the previous Heavenly Ranking list, one could see that at least ten newcomers were added, especially after the fiftieth rank, where changes were very frequent.

“Cracking into the Heavenly Ranking does have some benefits. At the very least, it makes my standing within Qingcheng more prominent, and the development of the Green Emperor Alliance also proceeds more smoothly.”

Ye Rong scanned through the entire Heavenly Ranking list and confirmed that he was the only one from Qingcheng who had made it into the rankings. He was the sole representative from Qingcheng.

The past few days of frenziedly killing monsters and grinding for Experience Points had brought Ye Rong’s Level to 44. He had also finally managed to raise his Qingcheng Sword Art to the nineteenth layer. He was only one layer’s worth of Experience Points away from reaching the twentieth layer, the perfect completion stage for the Sword Art Form.

However, the amount of Experience Points required to complete this final layer made him stare in disbelief. It was a full eight million.

“Seriously? The Qingcheng Sword Art is just a basic Sword Art Form. Does it need to be this harsh?”

Even with Ye Rong’s current monster-killing speed, if he devoted an entire day solely to staying near the Water Eye and allocated all the absorbed Experience Points to the Dao Scrolls cultivation slot, he would only get about five to six million Experience Points.

Moreover, such smooth monster killing was simply impossible. Excessive slaughter of Aquatic Demonic Creatures would attract a BOSS from within the Tuo River, which he absolutely couldn’t handle. Through personal testing over these past few days, he discovered that encountering the Tuojiang Divine Turtle that day wasn’t an accident or due to his carelessness; it was a System setting.

The next day, he encountered an Azure Flood Dragon. Fortunately, its strength was clearly inferior to the Tuojiang Divine Turtle, and he spotted it early enough to escape.

This kind of setting forced Ye Rong to stop killing Aquatic Demonic Creatures after a period of time. He had to leave and couldn’t continue leveling in the Tuo River.

Even changing locations didn’t solve the problem. Those Tuo River BOSSes seemed to be equipped with tracking guidance. No matter which corner you moved to, you couldn’t evade them.

Ye Rong tried twice but didn’t dare to gamble with his life anymore. If he encountered an Aquatic BOSS of the Tuojiang Divine Turtle’s Level again, he wouldn’t even have a chance to escape.

This could be considered the System’s restriction on some super experts, preventing them from grinding monsters without limits and causing their Levels to skyrocket excessively fast.

“What? The Heavenly One Profound Ice Banner Array quest?”

“Yes, Pony and his team have already done the Banner Array quest over a dozen times recently. But so far, they’ve only managed to gather four Heavenly One Mystic Ice Banners. If we can assemble a full set of the Heavenly One Profound Ice Banner Array, it will provide a lot of convenience when we undertake the Guild Creation Quest. It’s very useful.”

Ye Rong still remembered Trail-breaking Pony. His skills were good, but he was very aloof, hardly ever talking to anyone.

However, after joining the Green Emperor Alliance for a while, this iceberg actually slowly began to thaw. Although he was still cold and didn’t like to talk much, it was still much better than before. At the very least, he was now willing to share his quest and complete it together with his team members.

Even an organization like the Shushan Sword Alliance mostly possessed Banner Arrays like the Yellow Sand Banner Array, the Celestial Blazing Fire Banner Array, or the Xuanming Yin Water Banner Array, which required forty-nine lower-tier banners. High-tier Banner Arrays like the Heavenly One Profound Ice Banner Array, which required eighty-one banners, were still very rare. At least, he hadn’t seen one in the Yellow Emperor’s Tomb. Perhaps the other versions might have them.

But at least it showed that the Heavenly One Profound Ice Banner Array was extremely rare. It could alter the heavens’ appearance, create a world of ice and snow, and had immense power.

If they had a set during the Guild Creation Quest, it would at least increase their chances of success by a fraction and become one of their greatest aids.

“Boss, if you have time, please take them to do the Heavenly One Mystic Ice Banner quest a few times. The difficulty of this quest is just too high. The slightest carelessness leads to failure. Who knows when we’ll be able to gather all ninety-one banners.”

Hengheng Haha had already been recommended by Ye Rong. After this month’s Sect Minor Competition, he would smoothly become an Inner Hall Disciple. Pecking Chicken, however, had to participate in the Minor Competition himself. He was desperately leveling up recently, so Faction affairs had fallen back on Hengheng Haha’s shoulders.

Ye Rong’s other recommendation slot was given to Dongliu Cangshui. He personally came to ask for it, and Ye Rong felt too embarrassed to refuse.

With Dongliu Cangshui’s strength, squeezing into the top sixteen of the Minor Competition wasn’t difficult. But he didn’t want to risk it anymore, fearing he might run into a strong opponent and be eliminated halfway. Instead, he sought a surefire way into the Tianshu Hall and becoming an Inner Hall Disciple.

“Alright, anyway, I’ve just been killing monsters and leveling up recently. It’s a good time to go out and do some quests for a change of pace.”

Ye Rong nodded. He had contributed very little to the development of the Green Emperor Alliance, so now that he was being tasked with this chore, there was no way he could avoid it.

…

To accept the Heavenly One Mystic Ice Banner quest, one actually had to go to Bolang Isle near the East Sea and find an NPC named Taoist Nun Min.

This Bolang Isle was not large in area. There were no Sects on it, and only a handful of NPCs. The island was only inhabited by various seabirds like seagulls and herons, so it usually didn’t even attract many Players on a regular basis.

Moreover, even if you found this Taoist Nun Min, the average Player couldn’t accept the Heavenly One Mystic Ice Banner quest. At least, several members of the Green Emperor Alliance who tried couldn’t; she simply ignored them. Only Trail-breaking Pony could.

As for how Trail-breaking Pony gained Taoist Nun Min’s favor to receive the Heavenly One Mystic Ice Banner quest, and how a Player born in a coastal area even thought of joining Qingcheng, those were his own secrets. Ye Rong naturally wouldn’t pry.

“It’s really remote. You were quite lucky to find it.”

Because the quest had to be re-accepted after each failure, Trail-breaking Pony had to make another trip to Bolang Isle before starting the quest.

Ye Rong, who had never been to the seaside before, curiously followed along. He also wanted to broaden his horizons and see what the Overseas World was really like.

Bolang Isle was located amidst a group of chaotic reefs seven hundred miles offshore. Strictly speaking, it couldn’t even be considered part of the East Sea yet.

To truly explore the Overseas World, one needed a high-tier ship for transportation. Otherwise, such a long journey relying solely on Sword Flight would be very difficult; replenishing True Qi was a major issue. Additionally, there were the frequent tsunamis, storms, and ferocious sea beasts at sea, posing great risks.

This was Ye Rong’s first time going out to sea. Although it was all water, the ocean and the Tuo River were completely different; they weren’t even on the same level.

Looking out, the azure waters were truly boundless, seemingly without end, making one feel a sense of awe.

The Overseas World was also expanded, even more so, incorporating many of the game designers’ personal ideas. Numerous Immortal’s Cave Abodes lay quietly deep in the sea, waiting for Players to discover them.

That Tsunami Longevity Pavilion possessed six Immortal Manors, regardless of their tier, was enough to make any Faction envious just based on the quantity.

The resources for Immortal Manors on land absolutely could not be as plentiful as those at sea.

However, to conduct real exploration, one needed a high-tier ship. Otherwise, you could only engage in minor skirmishes in the shallows.

Although Bolang Isle was only seven hundred miles from land, because it was shielded by this area of chaotic reefs, when viewed from afar, it looked just like a larger reef. There were no buildings on the island at all, so presumably, even if ordinary Players passed by, they would absolutely have no interest in stopping.

Following Trail-breaking Pony, they weaved left and right on Bolang Isle, startling flocks of seabirds that squawked as they flew into the blue sky.

In the center of a depression on the island, two thatched huts were unexpectedly built. They were very simple and crude.

The Taoist Nun Min who could issue the Heavenly One Mystic Ice Banner quest resided within them, which was quite unexpected.