Chapter 9: is worth mentioning, but not worthy of being recorded.

The matter of cleaning the old courtyard was something Jiang Man had asked Little Fatty about.It was indeed a real thing.

Each courtyard had to send someone to do the cleaning.

And the first and second ranked students in the sixth courtyard had the authority to assign the cleaning duties based on rankings.

This time, Fang Yong had designated the person ranked last for the past two months to clean the old courtyard.

Such an assignment was completely valid.

Previously it had been done in rotation, but now to motivate everyone, having the last-ranked person do the work was reasonable.

Or rather, it was how it should have been all along.

Of course, refusing to do it was also an option.

But during the qualification competition period, violating rules could easily lead to punishment.

The most direct consequence would be losing the qualification to compete for spots.

Jiang Man understood perfectly well which was more important.

Although he was being targeted by Fang Yong, this kind of targeting was much better than direct physical confrontation.

He would endure it for now.

It wasn't worth creating more conflict - he had just started cultivating and definitely wasn't a match for them yet.

Thinking this way, he went to clean the old courtyard.

The only downside was that going there meant he would miss the teaching session, which was quite a pity.

Fortunately, the cleaning only lasted three days.

The old courtyard was originally the three-story building and six pavilions, but had been abandoned after some incidents occurred.

However, it was regularly cleaned by someone.

No one knew the exact reason, but there were some rumors.

It was said that a certain master was hidden there, and if the cleaning person was chosen.

Then they could receive guidance from that master.

Because of this rumor, many people voluntarily came to clean, making more people willing to do the work.

Everyone hoped they would be the special one.

Jiang Man took a broom and cleaned everywhere.

The layout here was quite similar to Azure Cloud Pavilion.

He was responsible for cleaning the old rear courtyard of Azure Cloud Pavilion.

The ancient-style courtyard was overgrown with weeds, and fallen leaves drifted with the wind.

Jiang Man sighed and worked hard at cleaning.

However, whenever he encountered some stone tablets or ancient paintings, he would touch them.

Then he would communicate with the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books.

Afterwards, he started receiving some book records.

Without exception, they all appeared on the last page.

Until Jiang Man came to the inner courtyard hall, where he spotted at first glance a plaque hanging high from the beam.

It was inscribed with the two characters "Azure Cloud."

Even Jiang Man, who knew nothing about calligraphy, could sense its extraordinary nature.

Without further hesitation, he moved something over to climb up and tried touching it.

Immediately, the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books began flipping pages.

Jiang Man felt somewhat excited.

Surely this thing couldn't still be "not worth mentioning," could it?

But disappointingly, the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books still stopped at the last page.

Fortunately, the text was no longer "not worth mentioning."

Then rows of text appeared.

Just worth mentioning?

Jiang Man realized the threshold for being "worth mentioning" was really high.

But the plaque contained the cultivation method Azure Cloud Art?

This counted as an unexpected surprise.

Afterwards, Jiang Man began examining carefully and indeed discovered a hidden compartment in the corner of the plaque.

With excited anticipation, he slowly opened the hidden compartment.

Then he froze in place.

Empty.

The so-called Azure Cloud Art had long since disappeared without a trace.

Sighing, Jiang Man felt he had wasted his emotions.

But upon careful consideration, it seemed reasonable.

This plaque had been stored here for an extremely long time, with all kinds of people coming through, and there certainly wouldn't be a shortage of impoverished individuals.

So someone had already detected the extraordinary nature here and even came up to investigate.

Especially since the hidden compartment wasn't too concealed - it would be abnormal if it hadn't been found.

Easy opportunities wouldn't wait for him, and rare opportunities were beyond his reach.

Relying on chance encounters to break through his current circumstances seemed rather difficult.

He could only depend on his talent to clear away the clouds and see the sun and moon.

Afterwards, Jiang Man could only focus on cleaning, occasionally touching some other objects.

But after touching seven times, his head started hurting when he tried again.

It seemed he couldn't casually communicate with the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books either.

His talent had limitations.

And this was just with a few characters - if there were more words, wouldn't he get headaches even more easily?

At noon, Jiang Man finished cleaning.

After returning to the courtyard, he immediately found Little Fatty.

He asked what had been taught that morning.

"They taught palm techniques, the Six Harmonies Palm, but whether you come or not doesn't matter - at most they'll let you listen, they won't actually give you the technique, and you can't steal it either." After pausing, Little Fatty said seriously: "But those with sufficient strength definitely need to learn it, whether for the qualification competition or the sect selection competition, in the end they can't avoid combat.

So these things all need to be taken seriously.

These were Master Fu's exact words.

But most people are just training partners, only the first and second ranked have this opportunity."

Hearing this, Jiang Man understood that some things could only be obtained when one's cultivation reached a certain level, so he decided to ask something more useful:

"Who are the first and second ranked?"

"Luo Xuan is first, Fang Yong is second." Little Fatty thought for a moment and said: "They both come from wealthy families, so having such results is inevitable.

The Luo family is a major clan in Lucky Cloud City.

As the young lady of the Luo family, Luo Xuan has consistently maintained first place in the sixth courtyard.

Fang Yong is also not simple - they say he has family inheritance, with extremely strong strength, and has nearly taken first place several times.

He just fell short by one move.

Probably because although his family is remarkable, their resources aren't as good as Luo Xuan's."

The two of them dominated the top two positions, which Jiang Man already knew previously. He brought it up to ask the next question: "What are their cultivation levels?"

"Cultivation levels?" Little Fatty recalled and said: "That's actually hard to say, but I know their scores - Luo Xuan scored sixty-two points, Fang Yong sixty points.

Anyone scoring above sixty points has cultivation at least at Qi Refinement fifth layer, with the highest probably being Qi Refinement seventh layer."

Instantly, Jiang Man remembered his own zero points - ordinary people got zero points.

But these people's cultivation was actually this strong.

Looking at it this way, fighting wasn't allowed casually within Azure Cloud Pavilion.

This was probably still related to the qualification competition.

Otherwise, if Fang Yong were to attack him directly, it would be truly difficult for him to continue improving.

"What's your score?" Jiang Man asked curiously, looking at Little Fatty.

The latter didn't answer directly, just proudly said: "It's a score you could never catch up to."

Jiang Man felt puzzled inside.

How many points could the second-to-last ranked person have?

Over ten points?

Or less than ten points?

Afterwards, Jiang Man asked about how scores were calculated.

"Usually it's based on cultivation level, that's the biggest factor.

Of course, this includes the level of Qi Refinement Method, Blood Energy Method, Visualization Method - the higher the level, the higher the score." Little Fatty explained.

After roughly understanding, Jiang Man realized that surpassing the first and second ranked in three months was indeed not easy.

If he didn't surpass them, he wouldn't get the qualification.

The difference between the two paths was like heaven and earth.

Thinking this way, he began operating his external cultivation technique.

He would start with a hundred cycles to warm up, then work on improving his cultivation level as quickly as possible.

Before the next monthly ranking reassessment, he had to reach a sufficient level.

A single major leap would make them less hostile.

If he improved slowly, probably everyone would come to target him.

And when Little Fatty saw Jiang Man starting to cultivate, he felt utterly exasperated.