Beastmaster of the Ages

”Huh? Is this some kind of scam? I worked so hard to get on the Fortuna Ranking! I know I’m at the very end of it, but three merit points are too few! What can I even do with this much?” Tianming complained. As far as he knew, even ether-class battle arts and techniques would easily cost more than ten.

”You fool!” Yin Chen snapped.

”What’d you say?” How could his lifebound beast mock him when he was already so unfortunate?

”These are... the points... you get... for staying... on the... Fortuna Ranking... per day.”

”Wait, so that means I get around a thousand if I stay on the ranking for a whole year?” Tianming anxiously asked.

”Of course!” Yin Chen was almost speechless. It was no wonder it had called Tianming a fool—there was no way Myriadpath Valley would be so stingy. A thousand points would net him quite a few decent treasures each year.

”One year is really fast.... It feels faster than a single month did when I was a child. I remember spending half a month trying to gain insight into order, and it felt like a single moment. If I get a thousand points every year, I’ll easily get forty thousand in four hundred years even if my ranking doesn’t change. Not bad!” It was as if he was getting a stipend without even having to do missions for Myriadpath Valley.

”Wait, why does it feel like I’m getting a lot of merit already for being ranked in the nine thousands.... With ten thousand people in total in the Fortuna Ranking, will Myriadpath Valley really have so many treasures for all of them to spend their merit on?”

”This is... because your... merit points... have been... multiplied by... ten times!” Yin Chen said.

”What do you mean?”

”Other people... around your... rank only... get a... hundred points... each year.”

”Wait, then why do I get a thousand if our ranks are similar?”

”Blue is... the standard. Green gets... double that! Yellow gets... triple that! Orange gets... five times! Red gets... ten times!” Yin Chen stammered through the whole explanation. Others might find it hard to understand, but Tianming immediately got it.

”Amazing! Looks like I can find some fairness in the Fortuna Ranking after all!” Normally, disciples of similar ages should fight in the same age group. It wouldn’t really be fair for someone a hundred years old to fight against others five times their age after all.

However, the Fortuna Ranking didn’t have any age gating, so younger disciples would at least get more rewards as compensation since they would have to be far more talented to be able to compete. Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to get any decent cultivation resources, and that would be a waste of their talents.

According to Yin Chen, the blue-colored disciples were around four hundred years old. The green ones around three hundred years old would get double the blue’s points, the yellow disciples around two hundred would get three times the points, orange disciples more than a hundred would get five times the points, and those younger than a hundred got ten times as much!

As there had been no precedent of a red disciple making it to the Fortuna Ranking, nobody had ever gotten ten times the merit. Since merit was awarded automatically by the system of Myriadpath Valley, Tianming didn’t need to worry about anyone else stepping in to interfere with his claim, either. Others would get 0.3 points a day while he got three.

”Hmm, I’m still ranked rather low at nine thousand plus. Merit rewards get better the higher I’m ranked. If I make it to a thousand and above at my age, I’d still keep the ten times multiplier! According to the blood tracer, I’m still thirty years away from reaching a hundred. I’ll be able to enjoy the increased merit for a long time! Not bad, Myriadpath Valley. I see that I’m treated well.”

His complaints from before suddenly felt empty. ”I bet everyone will be so jealous when they hear about the multiplier, especially if I make it to the top ten!”

The designers of the system in the distant past surely wouldn’t have expected someone to actually be able to get the ten times multiplier. The highest that people had managed to achieve was five times, but they were far and few between, and those who got it usually hovered outside the top eight thousand. By the time they made it up, their orange names changed to yellow ones, and eventually green, then finally blue. Tianming’s enthusiasm about the Fortuna Ranking had completely turned around.

”With so much merit, it should be rather easy for me to get Myriadpath Sourcespring water!” Tianming said.

”You fool! Merit can’t... be used... to exchange... for springwater,” Yin Chen said.

”Oh, right!” Lan Yun had said that only those in the top hundred could get springwater, but they didn’t use merit to obtain it. ”However, it still seems that the younger I am, the more rewarded I’ll be for my achievements. Red surnames get ten times the reward anywhere else. Ten times the amount of springwater, eh? I’m going to hit the jackpot!”

It was no wonder they color coded people’s names on the Fortuna Ranking. Unlike black and gold, which was used as font color to denote status, the color of the highlight was used to determine one’s talent ”It seems that my talent is the best as far as the Myriadpath Celestial Formation is concerned!”

At that moment, Tianming’s transmission stone shook. It was Lan Yun. A cold figure dressed in blue shouted, ”Li Tianming, I’ll give you fifteen minutes to come back to Grandblue Palace!”

”Huh?” Tianming’s smile froze as the transmission stone cut off.

”It’s over! She’s jealous!” Ying Huo said, relishing in the schadenfreude.

With so little time to spare, Tianming had to rush back. He couldn’t afford to piss off his biggest backer.

......

Huang Palace was the headquarters of House Huang. It was built atop a floating continent near Myriadpath Valley that was simply called the Huang Continent. For an ancient house to occupy an entire continent in Myriadpath Valley was a rather prestigious thing, yet after the recent incident, even an ancient house like them saw their reputation plummeting.