Beast Tamer Ascension

Vol 4 Chapter 91: The Collapsing Artifact Spirit

Destiny Golden Ranking, ninth place: Dragon Carp.

Cultivation: Late-stage Nascent Soul.

Listing reason: Defeated the Holy Son of Wu God Hall, Ta Wu.

Not long after, Dragon Carp’s name successfully appeared on the Destiny Golden Ranking.

Seeing that both it and Ice Soul Gu defeated the same person, but its ranking was higher, Dragon Carp grinned so wide its mouth nearly split.

Meanwhile, Ice Soul Gu looked at the rankings like the sky had collapsed—no matter what, it wanted a solo rematch with Dragon Carp.

Lin Jing guessed that although they both defeated the same person, Dragon Carp had relied entirely on its own power without external help. Plus, with lower cultivation and pure Rare Beast bloodline, its destiny potential was greater.

Thus, it was ranked above Ice Soul Gu.

You had to understand—just recently, the Holy Son of Wu God Hall had been defeated by Ice Soul Gu.

And now, in a short time, he’d been soloed by Dragon Carp too?

And both defeats were cross-realm victories!

“No way…”

All the top talents on the continent were stunned. These were people ranked in the top ten of the Golden Ranking—how could they still be defeated by someone of lower cultivation?

Just what kind of monster was this Demon Court Holy Son?

In the Western Desert, at the Buried Immortal Volcano—

After Lin Jing and the others left, the Buddha Child of the Sun Temple had finally seized the right to cultivate there. He had just broken through to the early Nascent Soul Transformation Stage and was staring at the Golden Ranking, eyes blazing.

After his breakthrough, he had originally wanted to seek revenge on Dragon Carp. But now that Dragon Carp had even defeated the Holy Son of Wu God Hall, the Buddha Child took a deep breath—his confidence suddenly wavered.

After all, that immortal flame’s power was ridiculously insane.

“Better to challenge the Holy Son of Wu God Hall first. If I can beat him easily, then I’ll go after that carp.”

He made his decision.

Meanwhile, in Qingzhou, at the Demon Court—

Just out of seclusion, Xu Qingyao looked at the Golden Ranking and fell silent.

Three of the top ten spots were now taken by Lin Jing’s side.

Her own ranking had been pushed far down.

“That brat... pushing me out of the top ten was bad enough. I go into seclusion, and now I’m almost pushed out of the top fifteen?”

“And he even has so many pets making it onto the ranking on their own. That squirrel of his must be next!”

“At this rate, I might not even get into the Source Realm!”

Xu Qingyao had also successfully broken through to the Nascent Soul Transformation Stage.

This time, she had secluded herself for quite a while, because not only had she broken through, but each of her pets had also reached the Nascent Soul Transformation Stage at the same time.

Now, she alone equaled the combined power of several Nascent Soul experts.

Xu Qingyao was confident she could break into the Golden Ranking top ten.

However, seeing Lin Jing’s stunning performance, she couldn’t help turning to scold her own pets.

“Look at that! Other people’s pets can rank on their own. Why don’t you guys give it a try?”

Her pets all pulled bitter faces.

Even after reaching the Nascent Soul Transformation Stage, they still lacked confidence.

What a joke—none of them were Rare Beasts or had ancestral bloodlines.

Even at this stage, challenging someone like the Holy Son of Wu God Hall or the Totem Holy Son of the Snow Plains would only lead to disaster.

Those maniacs could shred ordinary peak demon lords with their bare hands…

“Master, let’s just forget it. If you want, better we all go in together.”

A pet gave a helpless suggestion.

...

“So... will I really get b*nished for this?”

Somewhere else, Cold Moon Sword Immortal had been making slow progress by comprehending the Dao-Seeking Sword Intent left behind by her master.

Her cultivation hadn’t yet reached full-stage Nascent Soul, nor had she finished condensing her Nascent Soul to compete for a spot in the Source Realm.

She looked at the Golden Ranking, practically ruined by Lin Jing, and smiled bitterly.

Knowing the second-generation Ancient Emperor well, she could already guess—if this continued, he was definitely going to step in.

Now that Dragon Carp had pushed the Holy Son out of the top ten, the Wu God could no longer sit still.

He had been hoping that the Holy Son would become the next Dao-Seeking Wu God after him!

And now he couldn’t even make it into the top ten of the ranking.

If he couldn’t enter the Source Realm either, what hope was there of reaching Dao-Seeking?

“Fine, fine, you wanna play like this?”

“Ancient Emperor, you tell me—how is it fair for ‘one person’ to occupy three spots?”

The Wu God questioned the second-generation Ancient Emperor.

At this moment, the Ancient Emperor looked at the Golden Ranking in silence, head aching.

Back then… why did he ever agree to let artifact spirits qualify, allowing pets to enter the ranking?

He’d never imagined Lin Jing’s pets would actually make it into the top ten solo.

If it were only top 20, that would’ve been fine. But now, with so many pets in the top ten, other Dao-Seeking factions whose interests were infringed would never let it slide.

“What’s unfair? The Destiny Golden Ranking is made from our Demon Court’s materials. The competition rules are right there—if you’re weak, just admit it,”

The Demon Emperor muttered when he saw the Wu God starting to lose his cool.

“Look at that old man from Tongtian Tower—none of his people made it into the top ten, and he’s not complaining.”

“Second-Gen, don’t you dare try to redistribute rankings based on tantrums. We agreed the strong would take the spots…”

Seeing the Wu God and Demon Emperor arguing, the other Dao-Seeking cultivators maintaining the realm barrier couldn’t help but chuckle—except the Tower Master of Tongtian Tower.

Seeing this, the Wu God turned his glare to one breathtaking female cultivator, dragging her into the mess.

“What the hell are you laughing at? That turtle that kidnapped my Holy Son is now heading straight for your Water Moon Immortal Island. You’ll be laughing when your top talent gets taken too!”

The Island Lord of Water Moon Immortal Island’s face changed.

She quickly cast her divine sense—and sure enough, found a turtle sneaking around their island’s perimeter, clearly trying to find a way in.

“Demon Court Lord…” she looked toward the Demon Emperor.

She remembered that Granny Yinshan had once sent a message saying that the Demon Court Holy Son had promised: if her disciple from Water Moon Immortal Island entered the Source Realm, the Demon Court would protect her safety there.

But she’d never imagined her disciple might not even qualify for the Source Realm now.

This was bad.

As a Dao-Seeking expert, she wasn’t naïve enough to believe the Demon Court would still uphold that promise once her disciple fell off the list.

The Demon Court wasn’t a charity babysitter.

All she could hope for now was that her disciple wouldn’t be solo-killed by a pet…

“Let the youngsters fight if they want to…”

“I remember the Demon Court Holy Son still has a squirrel pet, right?”

The Wu God gave a sly glance at the Island Lord.

“Enough.”

At this moment, even the second-generation Ancient Emperor realized the balance of the Golden Ranking had been tipped too far.

But if he tried to change the rules now, the Demon Court would definitely cause a scene.

“What did our Holy Son do wrong?”

“Maybe he just didn’t want to leave his pets behind if they couldn’t count as one entity in the Source Realm.”

“Look how hard he’s working. I’m touched!” the Demon Emperor sighed emotionally.

The Ancient Emperor rubbed his temples.

“Back then, I really didn’t consider whether beastmasters and their pets should count as a single entity for entering the Source Realm…”

“Since that’s the case, why don’t we let them test it at the Source Realm teleportation array?”

“We’ll see whether, when inside an inactive formation, they count as one entity or multiple. That way, we won’t be guessing anymore.”

“My guess is—it probably counts as a single entity.”

The Ancient Emperor was clearly exhausted.

Lin Jing was still in the Nascent Soul stage, yet with the bonus slot from his extreme path, he already had five contracted pets.

Counting himself, that was six potential slots.

If they all made it in, before the Demon Cult even invaded, the cultivation world of Tianyuan would erupt into civil war!

And the worst part—under the current rules, the Demon Court had done nothing wrong.

The Golden Ranking itself had been created from the Demon Court’s Golden Bell.

[Artifact Spirit, look what you've done. Think of a solution. Make a perfect rule that balances everyone.]

The second-generation Ancient Emperor sent this message to the sleeping artifact spirit—startling it awake in confusion.

“Uh... how am I supposed to do that? There’s no such thing as perfect fairness…”

The artifact spirit began frantically calculating, realizing it had planted the seed of this disaster the moment it allowed that exception long ago.