When Long Chen got to the Ranking Hall, he was quite surprised to see the crowd surrounding that place.
"What the heck is happening here? Why is everyone surrounding the ranking hall now?" Long Chen muttered with a frown on his face.
"The demon is here!" someone amongst the crowd announced.
Suddenly there was chaos everywhere as the people pushed each other away to move from Long Chen's path.
Everyone separated and created an opening for Long Chen.
"Next time I hear someone call me a demon, I promise you won't be able to speak the next day!" Long Chen said loudly as he stepped towards the Ranking Hall and asked past the crowd.
There was a stone wall in front of the Ranking Hall that showed the rankings. All the rankings only listed the top hundred rankers. Thus only a hundred disciples could be on a ranking.
Long Chen stopped before the stone wall and glanced at the Strength Rankings. He was 3rd there and there was no change. Probably because of his first attempt, since he didn't even fight on his second attempt.
He skipped over the Artificer Rankings since he wanted to see the Alchemy Rankings first. The Alchemy Ranking was what he was more confident about. The other two were just casual tries after all.
As soon as he saw the Alchemy Rankings, a beautiful smile formed on his face. The first name on the Ranking List for Alchemists was now Long Chen. The previous 1st ranker was slipped down.
The second name was that of the same girl that was now the 4th in the Strength Rankings. So in a sense, Long Chen had made her drop down in two rankings unintentionally.
'Nice. I can enter the Demon Ranking room now,' he thought.
The biggest burden was off his shoulders since he now had permission to enter the Demon Ranking room.
Since he was relaxed now, he shifted his focus back to the Artificer Rankings. Although he was doubtful about this, he still didn't give up hope.
'It's quite possible that they loved my Star Metal plate and recognized my genius talent,' He thought as he read the list.
As he went through the names on the list one by one, he realized that unfortunately, his name wasn't on it.
"Looks like they didn't like my Star Metal plate after all. Their loss. They are missing out on the greatness," he muttered as he shifted his focus to the 4th ranking list, the Physician Rankings.
'Maybe the physicians are smarter and know how to recognize talent,' He thought.
He read the names on the Physician Ranking List starting from the first ranked.
"Dai Hu? Isn't this the name of the boy that runs that cafe nearby?" he exclaimed in surprise.
"Senior Dai Hu? yeah, he's the owner of that place. He's also the best physical amongst the disciples of the sect. That's one of the factors that helped him get the permission from the Sect," Man Gu explained to Long Chen.
"I think I saw him in the strength Ranking as well. He's a double Ranker? Did he attend the Demon Rankings at well?" Long Chen asked.
"Yeah, He did give it a try. But he failed," Man Gu answered Long Chen.
"Interesting. He told me that Mu Zheng tried to get on the demon ranking, but he hid the fact that he himself was a double ranker and that he tried as well?" Long Chen muttered.
"Whatever, since I'm going there myself, I don't need to ask anyone," He said as he continued looking at the names on the physician ranking list.
"What the f?" Long Chen exclaimed in surprise as he actually managed to found his name on the list.
He was ranked the 99th in the Physician Rankings.
"Nice, I'm not the worst amongst the physician rankers," He said with a bright smile on his face.
"Amazing Master! You've managed to get a triple ranking! You joined the rare few people who managed to achieve this feat. I think you'll get 5000 extra contribution points for this." Man Gu exclaimed with an excited look on his face.
"Together with the 10000 contribution points for being ranked 1st in the Alchemy List and the 50 contribution points for being ranked 99th, you have 15050 contribution points," Man Gu further continued.
"Yeah. It's quite good," Long Chen said with a smile. Although he himself was surprised, he acted as if he knew about it.
"That's for the later though. I'm going to attend the Demon Rankings. Do you have any suggestions about that?" he asked.
"I apologize to the master, but there's no information about it. Those who entered it, never talk about it. All I can say is that you should be careful. It won't be simple," Man Gu replied.
"Alright. I can handle it easily," Long Chen said as he entered the Ranking Hall.
Watching him enter the Ranking Hall, the whole crowd in the background started talking amongst themselves.
"Do you think he's going to attempt the Demon Ranking?" Someone said.
"I'm sure that he'll attempt it. He already tried all the other rankings. Why would he go inside, if not for the Demon Ranking? The main question is, can he succeed?" Another person chimed in.
"There's no chance. Even Senior Mu Zheng wasn't able to do that despite being the 1st rank in Strength Ranking. He has no chance."
"He's the demon of our sect. Only a demon can enter the Demon ranking. I think he might succeed. Don't forget, he's the disciple of Elder Jing. Elder Jing's previous disciple Senior Mu Chan was also in the Demon Rankings, So I feel like he has a better chance than Senior Mu Zheng."
The crowd kept talking amongst themselves as if they were the real judges.
While the crowd was lost in their discussions, Long Chen had opened the door of the Demon Ranking Room. He entered the room.
It was less like a room and more like stairs that were going downwards.
As soon as he stepped onto the stairs, the door closed behind him. The previously lit room had turned dark.
The thing that surprised him the most was that he wasn't able to see anything. It was as if the darkness of this place was more powerful.
Long Chen was able to see in the darkness because of his special senses, but in this place his night vision didn't work.
"It's alright. I still have the Flame Essence," Long Chen muttered as he used Flame Essence to create fire. But even the fire didn't manage to brighten the place and disappeared. It was as if even the light was swallowed by the darkness.
Long Chen realized that maybe he wasn't allowed to see here.
He brought out his King's sword for his protection as he walked down the stairs.
He was trying to use his hearing senses to protect himself against any unknown dangers.
Long Chen kept going down the stairs carefully in order to not fall. After going down for 5 minutes, the stairs stopped and he reached a flat surface.
He gripped the sword firmly in his hand as he stepped forward. He also brought out the mountain destroyer and held it in his other hand.
He waved the mountain destroyer ahead to see if there was any obstruction in the path while just keeping the King's sword ready to attack at a moment's notice.
*Ssssss*
He hurriedly swung his sword to his right as he heard the noise, but the sword didn't make contact with anything.
Long Chen stopped in his tracks and stood still. He could feel that someone or something was nearby and he had missed them.
The strange noise appeared again, making him swing his sword, but it was another miss.
"Whatever you are, I'll kill you," Long Chen said as he kept swinging his sword whenever he heard a noise. Although he missed all the time, he was starting to familiarise himself with its pattern.
The thing kept switching locations, but there was a certain pattern in his movement. It was much easier once he recognized it.
This time when he heard the noise, he didn't attack in that direction. Instead, he attacked in the opposite direction, and finally his sword struck something.
*Eeeee*
He heard a loud screech as his King's Sword sliced through something.