Chapter 43 The Rankings

Everyone present was utterly shocked at the bloody scene that had unfolded on the stage. A stunned stillness settled over the room.

The disciples were only just beginning to take it in what had happened when Elder Abbott pronounced that Ricky was the winner of the battle.

Dustin, who was at the ninth grade of Skin Refinement, ranked fifth among the top ten outer disciples. He had a three-star top spiritual meridian, and a skillful talent for swordsmanship. Even though coming into the battle, he had the absolute advantage. However, Ricky eventually beat him. Now Dustin was dead.

If Ricky had been one of the top ten outer disciples, this deed might have been more acceptable.

But Ricky had only been training in the Snow Sect for less than three months. However, it was no doubt that he had already become one of the best disciples of them all.

To top it all off, when he joined the Snow Sect, he was only at the third grade of Skin Refinement without a spiritual meridian. Back then, he had been the bottom of the ranks of all the disciples.

'Ricky has become one of our best outer disciples already, ' some of the other disciples thought. Slowly, they began to accept this fact.

The times when they had called him a loser were long gone, forgotten. Now Ricky was definitely in the top tier, at least among the outer disciples.

The outer disciples admired Ricky a lot. But unlike them, the inner disciples envied him a great deal.

Most of them speculated that the reason Ricky had turned the tables during the battle was that he had a special kind of cultivation method.

'It seems that he wasn't showing me all his cards, ' Grace thought to herself as she calmed down. Grace knew some things about the Nine-degree Body Refining Formula. Even if Ricky had reached the formula's second level, he still wouldn't have been able to block Dustin's sword-light.

Elder Abbott departed after he announced the result of the battle.

But before he left, he stared meaningfully at Ricky. He was shocked at the fact that Ricky had already mastered Nine-degree Body Refining Formula, even just the first degree. And yet, he was also a little amazed at the strength and power that the once-underdog warrior had.

Leaning on Heather and Vivian, Ricky slowly returned to Grace's yard, while controlling his breath to alleviate his aches.

*

The battle between Ricky and Dustin had been settled once and for all. But for the disciples, the impact of its result still continued.

Most of these ordinar

ust won a battle, Ricky wasn't thinking of these plots against him that were brewing up in the various factions in the land.

He had been concentrating on cultivating in solitude in order to heal himself.

He had finally expelled Dustin's sword-light out of his system upon taking the Spiritual Energy Nourishing Pill Grace had given him.

Ricky began to realize the true extent of the sword-light's power.

Jim's sword-light was much smaller than Dustin's.

'I should really try to cultivate the Light Apperception!' Ricky thought decisively.

Once he had healed his wounds, Ricky was in no haste to end his cultivation. He instead turned his mind on concentrating on the mysterious runes in the Blood Zone.

When he had been battling Dustin, these mysterious scarlet runes had suddenly and voluntarily connected to his mind. They had asked him to use their power. It meant that he was now even more fit to understand these runes more.

'There is definitely a connection between the runes and the Chaos Manual!' Ricky thought.

He closed his eyes, trying to connect to those mysterious runes deep in his mind.

This time, the runes didn't deflect his connection. They willingly and easily allowed him to connect to them.

All of a sudden, Ricky felt as though he could control with ease these mysterious runes and even the scarlet flames.

"Boom!"

Suddenly, these mysterious runes gathered together, and in a flash of light, integrated themselves into Ricky's mind.

Ricky saw what appeared to be a sea of blood, all around, undulated waves of red light.

'The Chaos Manual—Devouring Skill!'

These five words appeared out of nothingness in his mind.