Chapter 35 35 – Getting Into The Top
Ken placed the mission token on the counter in front of the girl in charge. She looked at him and smiled kindly.
"Junior Brother, this mission requires a team of 5 disciples at the Soul Strengthening Stage. Overconfidence brings death, so why not pick an easier one for disciples in the first stage?"
Ken didn't feel like arguing, so he just pulled out his family token.
"It's ok, I will go with my family members and my bodyguards."
He obviously didn't have any bodyguards, and he didn't plan to take any of his family members with him, but since he could use his family token to shorten processes, he'd do it.
"Oh, the Sue family. Of course, Young Master."
She used his disciple token to imbue the mission into it and gave it back to Ken.
'Another problem I have is that unranked disciples barely get any resources, and their access to the techniques treasury is also very limited. I should rise my rank there as soon as possible.'
There wasn't a list of disciples under 10 years old, so he was part of the list for disciples between ages 10-12. Since the age range was small, to be ranked, one had to be in the top 300.
The age range was still small because kids at this age advanced quickly, and it'd be unfair to pit the 10-year-olds against disciples 4 years older than them.
He went to the Hall of Glory to find the top list and found it according to the map in his memory.
Although one couldn't appear in top lists under their age, they could still enter lists above their age for better rewards if they had the confidence.
"Hmm, Aya Sue is ranked 131 in the top list between ages 10-12, and Rose Sue is ranked 12 in the top list for ages 13-16. Dean isn't on the list at all, probably because he just started."
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Although Aya's rank seemed bad, he knew it was only because she didn't train in combat skills. Just like him in the past, she had enough resources to train without getting them from the sect.
Even if her access to techniques was restricted by her rank, he was sure that her parents could convince the sect to make an exception for her as long as her rank wasn't too bad.
Thus, she only focused on deepening the foundation of her cultivation now, and those who needed resources would waste their time learning weak techniques to get a higher rank and earn resources.
He knew that Rose must have had a similar ranking when she was 12, and the effects of her deep foundations showed now after she learned powerful techniques and jumped all the way to rank 12, passing all those who had to waste time on training their techniques earlier.
'One more familiar name. Rank 37 at only 14 years old, Annie Sue. Everyone expects her to get to the top 3 by the time she turns 16.'
Annie Rose was another girl in his grandfather's faction, but this time, she was from the enemy's subgroup. She was Krone's only daughter.
'If I learned one thing about young girls from my former world, is that they're often very bad at choosing their boyfriends.'
He wore a smile when he thought of a possible plan. In this world, it wasn't rare to marry one's cousins, especially between cultivators who rarely had sick or disabled offspring.
He found out that to have access to the best techniques he had to be in the top 10, which he could easily achieve even in the list for ages 13-16.
Although the resources were slightly better on the other list, he chose the easy way and go to the younger list. He had another plan to earn resources.
Ken went to the woman at the counter in charge of challenges and asked to challenge William Shake, the disciple ranked first on the list.
"I'm sorry, but you can't according to the rules. You must be ranked in the top 50 to challenge someone from the top 10."
"Then I want to challenge rank 11."
"You need to be ranked in the top 100 to challenge someone from the top 50."
The woman answered with a bored voice, irritating Ken further.
"What's the best rank I can challenge?"
Instead of going in circles, he decided to just ask about it straight.
"You can challenge the disciple in rank 101, but you'll have to offer a bet of at least 50 medium Qi stones. This policy is meant to prevent the endless unranked disciples from challenging high-ranked disciples when they aren't confident."
"Do I win 50 medium Qi stones if I win?"
"No, you'll just get his rank."
"Fine, you can write a bet of 50 medium Qi stones. I want you to also issue a challenge automatically against someone from the top 100 if I win and do the same thing for the man ranked first if I win the second challenge."
·ƈθm He took out his family token since he already understood the woman's lazy mentality. He threw on the counter 50 medium stones and left.
He still had around 300 stones left from before he left the branch sect, and he didn't plan to lose any of those matches anyway.
In the evening, a trained bird came with a letter. It said that his challenge was accepted and was set to the next day at 10 AM. He had nothing to do, so he just honed his familiarity with his new techniques and went to sleep early.
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"I heard it was someone from the Sue family. I wonder why he's challenging someone at such a high rank, the rich kids never waste their time competing for ranks at a young age."
The disciples at the Fighting Arena talked to each other. There were always disciples loitering around the arena. When there was nothing to do, it was a form of entertainment to watch other disciples fight.
Ken stood on the stage in front of his opponent, a female disciple with bright brown hair and a slender body. She was only 12, so there wasn't much to see.
'As I thought, she isn't from a prominent family. It must be the reason she accepted my challenge so quickly; she needs the Qi stones.'
He judged her background quickly by her clothes. Those who came from a family that was worth mentioning, had the family's symbol embroidered on their robes, while hers were plain blue.
"Junior Brother, since you're younger than me, you can come at me first."
She said it only because she didn't know his stage; she wanted to be polite to someone from the Sue family even if she defeats him later.
"I won't be polite then."
Ken gave her a dazzling smile and charged at her. Since she was only at the peak of the first stage, he didn't have any plan to show his techniques.
She lunged her spear forward and executed a higher Basic technique she practiced. Without awakened meridians, it was the best she could perform. Ken easily dodged with only his natural speed and punched her in the guts, making her lose her breath and collapse on the floor.
She struggled to breathe but couldn't get up from her knees. Ken gave her a quick round kick to her jaw and sent her to a deep sleep.
He left the stage with the fainted girl behind and went to claim his wins from a betting broker. Since he was only 10 years old and the rich kids were known to be weak at this age, he had a ratio of 1:5, multiplying his 250 medium Qi stones by 5.
As expected, those in the top 100 were all poor kids. His next challenge was against rank 51, and their fight was set for the following day. Since he didn't go to take back his 50 medium Qi stones, the woman at the counter could use them for his next challenge.
'The prize for rank 101 is 100 merit points, so I finally got some points now. let's use the rest of the day to make some money and convert them later into merit points.'
He spent an exorbitant price of 10 medium Qi to buy the best information on the disciples fighting that day and quickly did his best to calculate the winning chances of everyone after skimming through their past battles.
He chose to gamble on the arena for ages 13-16 because those had more information he could use in his calculations, while those older were in a higher stage than him, so he didn't have a good understanding of their abilities.
He used his old trick to gamble, and by the end of the day, his 1250 medium Qi stones turned into 19,500.
'I can't use this method much in the main sect. Here, my parents aren't supreme, and the bet brokers wouldn't let me take their money as much as I wish.'
He noticed that toward the end of the day, they were limiting his betting and avoiding him, significantly reducing his gains.
After he left the Fighting Arena, he went back to the Exchange Office to change his Qi stones into merit points.
'Good, I have now 9,000 merit points. After getting 1,000 points for being ranked first I will have 10,000 and I will be able to buy 10 hours in the treasury.'
He returned to his house to sleep with this thought and wait for the next match.
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"I heard he won yesterday in a single move and his opponent couldn't dodge. He might be at the second stage already, which is why he feels so confident."
The students talked about Ken's match when it was his turn to get into the ring.