I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense

Chapter 366: 367: Heavenly Ranking, Business List

“Senior, is there something you wish to ask that could spare a life?”

Cai Kunxu said, knowing that the person before him had a cultivation level so high, surpassing anyone he had ever encountered, even City Lord Mei Changqing didn’t possess such skill to manipulate him and Xiong Da effortlessly.

Including those big shots from the Central Province, they had all been deceived by him.

The so-called title of ‘genius’ was nothing more than a disguise, intended to lull many powerful masters into complacency, in order to accomplish his unspeakable goals.

But all of this, only he and Xiong Da knew, destined to never be able to spread the news!

Li Xiaobai nodded and said, “Of course. Tell me about Cangying.”

“Cangying is a top expert of the first battlefield and a high-ranking Elder of the Evil Sect in the Central Province. It is said that he took the initiative to find Mei Changqing and requested to join in suppressing Flesh Mountain. The specific reasons are unknown to anyone.”

“Seeing that he was a peak combat force, Mei Changqing observed him for a while, and finding no issues, allowed him to stay on the first battlefield.”

“During several large-scale cleansing operations, Cangying exerted a great deal of effort, even venturing deep into the belly of Flesh Mountain on multiple occasions, risking life and death. It was precisely because of this that he gained the trust of Mei Changqing.”

Cai Kunxu told everything he knew; whenever the spiritual power within his body was exhausted, Li Xiaobai would sheathe his longsword, allowing him to recover his cultivation level.

And then he continued to exert his forceful control.

At first, both of them still harbored a faint hope of escape, but after fleeing over a hundred miles away and still being forcefully controlled and brought back, they completely lost the desire to run. They cautiously retreated to the edge of the flames, honestly recuperating their internal cultivation level, and then submitting to the elder’s forceful control.

Although they did not understand why the elder wanted to do this, it was clear he intended to allow the black flames to devour the spiritual power within their bodies.

“What are the strengths of the City Lords of the first and second battlefields?”

Li Xiaobai continued to ask.

“City Lord Mei Changqing is at the Great Perfection Realm of the Mahayana stage. He didn’t manage to obtain the Immortal Spirit Qi last time; otherwise, he would now be at the Human Immortal Realm.”

Cai Kunxu said.

“Hmm? If he’s not at Half-step Human Immortal, why is he ranked first on the Celestial Rankings? In terms of cultivation, aren’t the three leaders of the Eastern Sea stronger than him?”

Li Xiaobai asked.

“Well, the rankings are made by Elder Tianji. Indeed, the previous first place on the Celestial Rankings was the Vice Leader of the Eastern Sea, but during the last strife for the Immortal Spirit Qi, he was overwhelmingly defeated by the Vice Leader, and in a fit of rage, removed the Eastern Sea’s big shots from the rankings.”

Li Xiaobai was speechless inwardly. It seemed that the old beggar was also removed from the rankings for the same reason. How could Elder Tianji include personal bias in creating a ranking list?

“Wouldn’t that make the rankings lose credibility?”

“No, the rankings are mainly for the younger generation to see. The Human and Earth Rankings are very accurate; as for the Celestial Rankings, those who understand, understand. Whether there’s a ranking or not doesn’t matter much. Immortal Yuezen’s fifth place on the Celestial Rankings was bought with money.”

Cai Kunxu explained roughly.

Meaning, the Celestial Rankings weren’t really significant; after all, those who get to this step have a starting cultivation level of the Mahayana stage, all of them big shots. Who’s before and after isn’t a big deal.

Moreover, the gap in strength between each other is well known and they don’t take the rankings seriously. The younger ones below their level wouldn’t see any discrepancies, so it was exploited.

Li Xiaobai was even more speechless inside. Didn’t this mean the Celestial Rankings were mainly Elder Tianji’s way of making money?

No wonder the big shots’ names all carried personal agendas.

Celestial Rankings first place: Mei Changqing can be interpreted as carrying goods long-term.

Celestial Rankings second place: Old Monk Xuan Bei crowdfunding for the temple.

…

Celestial Rankings fifth place: The woman with the Preserving Youth Technique, Immortal Yuezen.

They couldn’t have all been bought, could they?

This Elder Tianji sure has a business mind, coming up with stuff like this, the Spirit Stones must be rolling in.

“How strong is the city lord of the second battlefield?”

Li Xiaobai continued to ask.

“I know this, the city lord of the second battlefield is named Wang Guan, with cultivation level at the Great Crossing Realm Peak, and he is much weaker than Mei Changqing, pretty much equal to the current Sky Blade Song Que, who is short of one hand.”

“He’s quite by the book, but he always looks up to Mei Changqing as his leader in everything.”

Xiong Da hurriedly spoke up, feeling a bit endangered by the lack of his presence since it had been Cai Kunxu doing all the talking.

“Does he expand his influence?”

Li Xiaobai asked.

“He hasn’t, Mei Changqing didn’t allow him to expand his influence, but the second battlefield originally had abundant military forces and the cultivators all possessed fairly high strength levels,” Xiong Da spoke slowly.

“Hmm, I see, you guys can go, I won’t kill you,”

Li Xiaobai nodded and sheathed his Longsword.

“Thank you, senior, we swear, today’s events will rot in our bellies and not a word will escape to the outside world!”

Cai Kunxu and Xiong Da, their faces filled with joy, immediately swore to the heavens. They knew the rules; some things must be kept secret forever. They didn’t want to become dead men, so they had to swear on their cultivation hearts to keep silent.

Even if they didn’t swear, they wouldn’t dare speak out. Angering such an entity, they would surely be dead without a whole corpse left.

At this moment, all they felt was sympathy for Mei Changqing and Wang Guan; they probably didn’t know that a terrifying existence had set their sights on them.

Even if the city lords were among the top experts of the Mainland, they might not necessarily be a match for this Li Xiaobai.

For no other reason than that Li Xiaobai was too weird, without him seriously moving a finger, they were already kneeling, and with the flames’ burning of Spiritual Power, not even the city lords of the first and second battlefields could endure for a long time.

Yet Li Xiaobai could move about freely inside like nothing was wrong, it was the horrible strength inadvertently revealed that truly frightened them.

“Well, you’re quite sensible, off you go,”

Li Xiaobai was quite pleased with their attitudes, being a big shot was different, they were sensible, not everything needed his reminder.

Cai Kunxu and Xiong Da exchanged a glance, their eyes flaring with wild joy; they suddenly soared into the sky and disappeared in an instant.

Watching the two rapidly departing, Li Xiaobai sighed and silently lit up a Huazi, then raised his Longsword high and swung down fiercely.

Seconds later, two figures reappeared amidst the flames.

Cai Kunxu and Xiong Da were disheveled in the wind; they had run quite a distance, thinking they were finally free, stuffing Elixirs in their mouths like candy, their inner Spiritual Power surging back to full.

The next moment, they found themselves uncontrollably kneeling all the way back.

This familiar sensation left their faces blank, feeling the familiar burning sensation in their bodies, and looking at the familiar smile in front of them, a trace of tears shimmered in their eyes.

“Senior, didn’t you say you would let us go?”

“Hehe, didn’t I just let you go? Your inner Spiritual Power has recovered quite well though, deserving of Great Crossing Realm cultivators, that recovery power must have used quite a few Heaven and Earth Treasures, right?”

Li Xiaobai smiled cheerfully at them; after all, they were his leveling-up Divine Artifacts, why would he let them go so easily!