Chapter 4080 — The North Island Expert Rankings
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"The North Island Expert Rankings?" Looking at the dark-gold characters at the very top, Wei Zhao could not help but feel a start. This ranking's tone was certainly grand—the North Island Cultivators' Guild claimed to encompass every cultivator on the North Island. Could those mysterious, unfathomable top experts all be on this ranking?
Wei Zhao thought that if that were truly so, then he really ought to study it carefully, and even commit it to memory, so that at least when he clashed with others in the future, he would have some idea of where he stood.
Yet the very first glance, full of anticipation as it was, made Wei Zhao immediately reject that possibility. The reason was simple: the many high-ranking figures of Triple Stack Pavilion did not appear on this ranking, nor did Gongyang Jun, nor even Shangguan Tianxia, Pavilion Master of Skyward Pavilion.
If one said Shangguan Tianxia was not the North Island's foremost expert, that was hardly strange; but to say Shangguan Tianxia could not even make this so-called North Island Expert Rankings—that was absurd.
After carefully reading the explanation beside the ranking, Wei Zhao finally understood. This so-called North Island Expert Rankings was in fact merely a gimmick. Strictly speaking, it could only be counted as a mission contribution ranking, not a ranking of strength, and moreover this ranking was limited to the Foundation Establishment realm; experts of Gold Core and above were not included.
In this North Island Cultivators' Guild, each bounty mission completed earned, besides the bounty reward, a corresponding score called mission contribution value. The more bounty missions completed, the higher the score, and the higher one's rank.
"Seen this way, this ranking isn't entirely without reference value after all." Wei Zhao pinched his chin thoughtfully.
Though it ranked by mission contribution value rather than a more intuitive assessment of strength, in this North Island Cultivators' Guild, which dealt mainly in bounty missions, one's mission completion rate could to a great extent reflect one's strength—at least at the Foundation Establishment level, it was fairly reliable.
Just then, it happened that a staff member of the Cultivators' Guild was updating the ranking. First place was still that same name, but the string of contribution value behind it had, remarkably, surged by a whole chunk.
"Whoa, Senior Brother Su Zhaohe is amazing! Only a few days since he last came, and his contribution value has shot up by so much again—past a hundred thousand already. That's just outrageous, absolutely monstrous!" A man dressed as a Skyward Pavilion disciple clicked his tongue in admiration, unable to hide the reverence and awe in his tone.
"Indeed, indeed. Second place is only a little over sixty thousand now—the gap is enormous, no contest at all! Across the entire history of the North Island Cultivators' Guild, I'd wager there are only a handful who ever broke the hundred-thousand mark!" The people around him sighed in praise as well.
At that, one of them boasted, "Hey, what do you lot know? Senior Brother Su is a genius cultivator the likes of which the North Island sees once in a thousand years. He's not even thirty, and already at the peak of Foundation Establishment. Word is he's begun preparing to form his core. At this rate, he'll surely be another legendary figure like the Pill God Zhang Lifeng!"
"If he's that formidable, then why is he still doing missions? Better to save all the energy he spends on missions and push for his core formation as soon as possible, isn't it?" someone wondered aloud.
"Let me finish before you cut in! I heard Senior Brother Su has caught the eye of Pavilion Master Shangguan of Skyward Pavilion, who means to take him as a personal disciple. So the more outstandingly he performs, the more the Pavilion Master values him!" R1152