Chapter 139: The World's No.1 Restaurant

Chen Ming suddenly felt that something was off. This "Sister Red" knew a bit too much about Ding Guangsheng's affairs, didn’t she?

It was through a fortuitous coincidence that he had entered the Six Doors Authority Prison, met Ding Guangnan, and learned of his circumstances. Only when Ding Guangsheng personally came to his home to express his gratitude did he realize the relationship between the two.

And yet "Sister Red" had already figured out the entire sequence of events so quickly, even down to the origin of the individual. This intelligence-gathering capability was simply exaggerated.

Chen Ming immediately grew wary in his heart. "Looks like she must be the intelligence leader arranged by Red Sea Lord in Qingfeng City."

These thoughts flashed by in an instant. A worried expression surfaced on his face. "If the Four Seas Trading Company also sends out a Second Grade Expert, wouldn't it be very dangerous if they start fighting in the city?"

Last time, just by looking at Zhao Shouchang’s sword intent from afar, he had almost gone blind. He now had a deep understanding of the destructive power of a Third Grade Expert.

If two Second Grade Experts fought within the city, how many people would die?

The woman in red chuckled lightly. "Even if Ding Guangsheng is not afraid of death, those few old fossils in the Four Seas Trading Company still haven’t had enough of life."

Chen Ming asked curiously, "You mean to say, experts of that level can’t act freely in the city, or else… they might die?"

The woman in red looked at him in slight surprise. "You’re acquainted with the female disciple of Heaven's Path Alliance, and yet you don’t know that the Heaven's Path Alliance loves to play watchdog, always meddling in other people’s business?"

So the Heaven's Path Alliance really was seriously upholding Heaven’s mandate. Moreover, their deterrent force remained considerable. Even experts above Third Grade were extremely wary of them.

Chen Ming grew even more curious. What did the Heaven's Path Alliance get out of doing such thankless work? Even if the founding patriarch had been an idealist, could his descendants still hold fast to that ideal hundreds of years later? It was hard to believe.

"Right, don’t you enjoy sparring with others? I know a place."

At this moment, the woman in red suddenly spoke.

"Where?"

"Three months from now, the World’s Number One Tower will set up a challenge arena in Jiangzhou City to reestablish the Azure Cloud Ranking. Anyone under the age of twenty-five can participate. By then, all of Jiangzhou’s young talents will rush to the event. You’ll be able to meet the finest talents of the region."

Chen Ming’s eyes lit up. "Is that true?"

"This matter will soon reach Qingfeng City. It’s a grand event held once every five years. I’m sure you won’t want to miss it." After saying this, the woman in red added, "I must be going now."

Then she stood and left the room.

Chen Ming had originally wanted to ask if she wanted to meet Zhong Shuyu, but who would’ve thought she would leave so abruptly?

At that moment, he heard footsteps outside—it was Chunxiang bringing Zhuang Xiaotian over. Only then did he understand why she had left so suddenly. She had heard someone approaching.

Seeing him waiting at the door, Zhuang Xiaotian said admiringly, "Brother Chen, your cultivation is growing ever more profound. I hadn’t even entered the courtyard and you already noticed."

Chen Ming didn’t explain, smiling as he invited him inside. He asked, "Coming over so late, does it mean there’s some progress with that matter?"

"Mm, I’ve had an idea and came to discuss whether it might work with you..." Then, Zhuang Xiaotian shared his thoughts in detail.

After hearing him out, Chen Ming nodded in approval. "You’ve thought it through well. Let’s do it that way."

Next, Zhuang Xiaotian brought up another matter. "Today, something big happened at the Four Seas Trading Company."

He lowered his voice. "Do you still remember that Ding Guangsheng who came by your place this afternoon?"

"I do."

"He’s actually a Second Grade Expert. To avenge his nephew, he tore apart the Four Seas Trading Company. Three Fourth Grade Devotees from their side were killed. It was a huge commotion."

"Is that true?"

Chen Ming wore an expression of 'shock'.

Zhuang Xiaotian warned him, "Don’t let anyone know that Ding Guangsheng came to see you, or else the Four Seas Trading Company might take out their anger on you."

"I understand."

After thanking him, Chen Ming watched as he left in a hurry.

…

"Miss Su, are you still there?"

Once again, only Chen Ming remained in the courtyard. He called out.

"What is it?" came the quick reply.

He asked, "That matter about the World’s Number One Tower resetting the Azure Cloud Ranking—is it true?"

"It’s true. The World’s Number One Tower resets the Azure Cloud Ranking once every five years."

"That's great."

Chen Ming was a bit excited. He had been troubled by not being able to find opponents to spar with in Qingfeng City.

The Fifth Grade experts in Qingfeng City were either in the Six Doors Authority or among the Seven Great Maritime Traders. None of them were people he could afford to provoke at this stage.

At this level, it was nearly impossible to find any unaffiliated cultivators. Someone like him, who had reached Fifth Grade without a sect or backing from a powerful faction, was as rare as a phoenix feather or qilin horn.

Precisely because of this, when he faced those eleven experts from the Six Doors Authority last night and saw an opportunity, he had taken the risk to act.

Such chances did not come often.

Moreover, now that Su Zhi Ning was sticking to him without leaving his side, he could no longer pretend to enter seclusion and go around with a different identity to farm experience points.

Su Zhi Ning suddenly said, "Do you truly wish to ascend the Azure Cloud Ranking?"

"Whether I make the ranking or not doesn’t matter. I just want to spar with the talented young martial artists of Jiangzhou."

"Do you know that if you make it onto the Azure Cloud Ranking, it will bring you endless trouble? For the next five years, countless young martial artists eager to make a name for themselves will want to defeat you and step on your corpse to become famous."

Chen Ming's eyes lit up. "There's such a good thing?"

To sit at home and have challengers come knocking on his door—he would laugh himself awake in his dreams.

"……"

Su Zhi Ning seemed to know he couldn’t be persuaded and thus said no more.

The World’s Number One Tower was a mysterious organization. It was neither a sect, nor one of the Nine Great Sects. Nor was it a trading company, as they sold nothing.

This organization was obsessed with ranking individuals, organizations, and items, always producing some form of “Number One Under Heaven.”

For example, the Nine Great Sects with the Heaven's Path Alliance ranked first—this ranking was issued by the World’s Number One Tower.

There were also titles like Number One Under Heaven in martial arts, swordsmanship, saber arts, and even the most beautiful woman...

Such an organization, obsessed with rankings, had managed to exist for over a thousand years, which showed how formidable their strength was.

When Chen Ming's cultivation was still low, the World’s Number One Tower was something that only existed in legends to him, seemingly out of reach.

He hadn’t expected to come into contact with it so soon.

…

The next day, Chen Ming sent someone to purchase a complete ranking booklet published by the World’s Number One Tower.

After receiving it and flipping to the latter pages, he finally saw the "Azure Cloud Ranking."

The Azure Cloud Ranking was arranged by province, and could be considered a secondary ranking. Its influence was far below the primary rankings on the earlier pages.

However, within a single province, its influence remained tremendous.

If one could reach first place, they would become the number one among the younger generation of that province. What an honor that would be!

In the booklet Chen Ming held, the person ranked first on the Jiangzhou Azure Cloud Ranking was Ji Baichuan, of the Ji Family, who had been a Fourth Grade five years ago and was now already a Third Grade.

The second and third ranked individuals had also broken through to Third Grade, having taken that critical step.

There were only ten names on the ranking, all from aristocratic families or sects, with six of them hailing from Jiangzhou City. This showed just how vigorous the martial culture in Jiangzhou City was.

As for Qingfeng City, it had been many years since anyone had made it onto the Azure Cloud Ranking.

For this reason, people in Qingfeng City rarely mentioned the Azure Cloud Ranking. After all, it wasn’t exactly a point of pride.

This thick booklet was quite thoughtfully made. Not only did it list the backgrounds and ages of those on the ranking, but it also included their life histories.

Such as what their cultivation was during the year they competed.

In the previous Jiangzhou Azure Cloud Ranking, seven of the top ten were Fourth Grade, and only the last three were Fifth Grade. There had been at least dozens of participants, showing how fierce the competition had been.

All these Fifth Grade contenders came from aristocratic or renowned families, and practiced at least top-tier cultivation methods. Not a single one was weak.

Chen Ming felt that with his current strength, securing a place would not be easy.

Of course, the ranking itself didn’t matter. What was critical was that he couldn’t lose—losing meant losing experience points.

He had to use the next three months to improve his strength as much as possible.

Chen Ming also noticed something—on this ranking list, three individuals were not original winners from five years ago, but had instead defeated former ranked individuals and stepped over them to claim a spot.

He thought, "If I can successfully make the ranking, I’ll never lack challengers again."

The reason was simple. He had no background, unlike others who came from aristocratic families. Those wanting to challenge them had to weigh whether they could afford to offend them.

Only he was a soft persimmon, anyone could come and give him a squeeze.

Chen Ming kept flipping through the booklet. By the afternoon, Gu Yuantao and Zhou Weihao came over. As soon as they entered the courtyard, Zhou Weihao shouted, "Did you hear? The World’s Number One Tower is resetting the Azure Cloud Ranking..."

As he spoke, he caught sight of the ranking booklet from the World’s Number One Tower in Chen Ming’s hand. "Looks like you already know."

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