Chapter 25: The Disciples' Merit Rankings

On the disciple merit leaderboard, the characters in the first row shone with particular brilliance.

First place: Qiu Yingying, thirty-six thousand seven hundred merit points.
Second place: Li Kantian, twelve thousand merit points.
……

“What a huge gap between the first and second!”

Qingxi’s attention was entirely drawn to the name Qiu Yingying. This was the person known throughout the Lingyuan Sect, yet rarely seen—a figure existing only in legend, the inner sect’s senior sister, granddaughter of the current sect master Qiu Mingzi.

A prodigy blessed with a rare, mysterious spiritual root! Even among the prodigies of the two-star powers in the Cloud River Prefecture, she was second to none.

Though he had never met this senior sister, Qingxi could deduce her formidable strength from the vast disparity on the leaderboard alone. With points three times those of the second place, it had to be said: Qiu Yingying was incredibly powerful.

Qingxi couldn’t help but admire her. His gaze continued down the list, finally settling on the hundredth place.

Hundredth place: Zhang Xusheng, nine hundred ninety-nine merit points.

“With only nine hundred merit points, one can make it onto the board. Seems the difficulty isn’t that high…” Qingxi murmured, but before he could finish, the leaderboard’s characters began to shift rapidly.

As the display settled, Zhang Xusheng in last place was replaced by a female disciple named Yu Wei.

Hundredth place: Yu Wei, one thousand one hundred fifty-three merit points.

Not only the hundredth place—the ranks above shifted as well. Some vanished from the list, replaced by newcomers; others surged to higher positions.

Overall, the merit leaderboard was trending upward.

Qingxi looked again at the top two names and was momentarily stunned.

First place: Qiu Yingying, forty thousand merit points.
Second place: Li Kantian, thirteen thousand three hundred merit points.

“Senior sister actually reached forty thousand merit points—amazing!”
“Senior brother Li Kantian is impressive too, gaining thirteen hundred more points since last time.”
“Look, the hundredth place has finally broken a thousand points. This year’s leaderboard is getting more interesting.”

Disciples crowded around, discussing animatedly in front of the leaderboard.

At that moment, unbeknownst to everyone, not far away at the edge of a grove, a young man in white leaned against a tree, arms wrapped around a sword, his expression tinged with helplessness.

“Senior sister truly lives up to her reputation. Even after I hunted down a formidable innate-stage monster and earned thirteen hundred merit points, I still couldn’t close the gap… No wonder she’s one of the seventy-two new stars of Cloud River Prefecture!”

Further away, a figure shrouded in a black cloak glanced at the updated leaderboard, then hurried off. The cloak, once voluminous, now clung tight in the wind, outlining a graceful, commanding silhouette.

Even the white-robed youth, for all his strength, could only glance thoughtfully in the direction the figure departed, his brows knitting slightly.

“Was it her?”
……
Task Hall, in front of the main hall.

Qingxi browsed the task board on the right side of the leaderboard, his smile gradually freezing.

The tasks were as varied as a blooming garden: some called for slaying beasts and collecting materials, others for gathering medicinal herbs or capturing wanted criminals.

These were reasonable enough.

But when Qingxi read the following tasks, he felt utterly bewildered.

“Help Granny Wang in the village plant vegetables for half a month; reward: 1 merit point.”
“Weave fifty fishing nets for Old Liu next door within ten days; reward: 2 merit points.”
“Serve as temporary deputy city lord of Little Luo City for half a month, ensuring no major disturbances; cultivation at least above the thirteenth level of Qi Refinement; reward: 5 merit points.”
……

Qingxi quietly recited these tasks, feeling as if he’d wandered onto the wrong stage.

Could these count as sect tasks?

Looking at the strange contents and the single-digit rewards, he began to doubt his life choices.

He’d thought earning a spot in the top hundred within a month would be easy, but the sect’s task rewards were far too meager.

Spending half a month for just a handful of points—how many years would it take to accumulate over a thousand?

Yet, while Qingxi dismissed these tasks, many newly initiated outer sect disciples eagerly signed up for them.

“Senior brother, I want to plant vegetables for Granny Wang!”
“I’m going to weave fishing nets for the neighboring village!”
“Hey, don’t crowd—I want to be deputy city lord!”
……

A group of disciples, their cultivation between the tenth and thirteenth level of Qi Refinement, swarmed into the task hall, signing up with the disciple in charge.

Qingxi shook his head and looked at other tasks.

“Serve as librarian in the Book Pavilion for a month; applicants must be familiar with the division of martial arts in the pavilion; reward: 10 merit points.”
“Work the smelting furnace at the Forging Peak for a month; requires mastery of fire-based techniques; reward: 8 merit points.”
……

These tasks tempted Qingxi, especially the Forging Peak assignment, which would surely grant abundant metal and fire essence. If not for his current quest to climb the leaderboard, he would gladly choose Forging Peak, Pill Peak, or the Book Pavilion.

After searching, he finally grasped the difficulty of earning merit points.

All sect tasks were divided into five star levels.

The simplest, one-star tasks, primarily demanded time—planting vegetables, weaving nets, holding mundane positions, and so on—never rewarded more than ten points.

Two-star tasks offered slightly greater challenge, such as escorting treasures or venturing into wild mountains to slay low- or mid-tier beasts, earning several times the points of one-star tasks, but seldom over a hundred.

Three-star tasks were significantly harder; without mastery of Qi Refinement, one could rarely complete them alone.

Four-star tasks rewarded over a thousand points per assignment, but their difficulty was tremendous—requiring innate-stage strength or a team of Qi Refinement masters to attempt.

As for the most difficult five-star tasks, the current task board listed only five, each granting over five thousand points!

Yet, in the Lingyuan Sect, no disciple dared take one.

To complete a five-star task solo, one needed at least late-stage innate strength—comparable to a great elder at peak innate stage.

However, not a single disciple in the entire Lingyuan Sect possessed such mastery.

The legendary senior sister Qiu Yingying, famed for her extraordinary spiritual root, had only recently reached the peak of early innate stage, still far from the pinnacle.

“One month to enter the top hundred—I’ll need at least one thousand one hundred fifty-three points, and with the leaderboard’s fluctuations, perhaps even more… One-star tasks are out of the question; I must choose at least two-star ones.”

Qingxi scanned the task board, noting that two-star tasks generally offered rewards between thirty and eighty points—meaning he’d need to complete dozens.

On average, one two-star task per day.

With that realization, Qingxi abandoned the idea of two-star tasks and shifted his focus to three-star assignments.

As for four- and five-star tasks, he had no intention of attempting them yet.

For him now, those levels were simply terrifying.