Chapter 130: First on the Leaderboard

The golden sun began to rise.

Two long streets away from Jiang Min, an inconspicuous grey shadow lay hidden in the eaves where the architecture cast deep, protective shade. Only by approaching and observing closely could one discern a motionless figure huddled there—small in stature, draped in ragged, grime-stained grey clothes, seemingly blending into the darkness beneath the roof.

The figure’s face was equally smudged, much like a young beggar, yet her eyes were remarkably bright. She held her breath, staring fixedly into the distance. Her gaze pierced across the two streets, catching a glimpse of a hem of Jiang Min’s garment peeking out from a dilapidated shack.

From the moment Jiang Min had arrived in the dead of night until the break of dawn, the little beggar had watched her for nearly two hours, weighing whether or not to strike.

After all, those lone travelers who had managed to survive until now were rarely easy targets. Though she possessed the cultivation of a Foundation Establishment peak and held several life-saving trump cards, she dared not gamble lightly on the opponent being weaker than herself. Those who lived with a gambler’s mentality had already perished a thousand times over.

"Hm? She’s moving. Is she preparing to leave?"

The little beggar saw the hem of the garment at the shack’s window suddenly lift.

Then, a scene that made the little beggar’s eyes widen in horror unfolded.

From her vantage point, she could just see thousands upon thousands of tokens emerging inside the shack, catching the light of the rising sun. They coalesced into a dense, surging ocean of tokens that dominated the entire view of the window, so vast that their boundaries were invisible.

The little beggar was struck with terror. She immediately withdrew her head in a panic and fled the scene through a narrow, hidden passage.

After running for several miles in one breath, she found a new place to hide, gasping for air.

"Phew! That scared the life out of me! That really scared me!"

She had never imagined she would stumble upon such a dangerous character. She had been foolish enough to linger there for two hours, and looking back now, she couldn't even be sure if the other party had already discovered her.

With lingering fear, the little beggar patted her chest and looked up at the scroll hanging in the sky. She saw a name rising like an eagle soaring above the clouds, charging toward the top of the leaderboard!

"My goodness..."

The little beggar was dumbfounded.

It was a name that had never been noticed before.

Ming Ruoshui.

Five hundred, one thousand, three thousand, five thousand...

The number of "Villain Tokens" behind that name surged with astonishing force. It rose so rapidly that the cultivators still remaining in Villain City, who were keeping a constant watch on the rankings, were shocked.

"Ming Ruoshui? Who is that?"

"She’s almost at the top, and the count is still rising! Could she be the one who swallowed up the top players and hadn't refined their tokens until now?"

In a matter of seconds, the number of tokens held by Ming Ruoshui surpassed Yun Qianli’s, claiming the number one spot on the board, and still, it continued to climb!

At this moment, besides Ming Ruoshui’s name, another name began to shift in rank.

It was Feng Leiting, who had consistently hovered around tenth place. His background was unknown; relying on his Foundation Establishment perfection cultivation, he had gathered a group of cultivators to form the "Thunder Gang." Both his subordinates' rankings and his own had remained notably low-profile.

Currently, his ranking was skyrocketing.

"Huh? Another one is starting to make a run for the top!"

"It’s Feng Leiting of the Thunder Gang. Wait, his subordinates' names have all vanished from the board? Did he plunder his own people?"

"When the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked—isn't that common in Villain City? Joining a gang has its perks, but it also carries the risk of being liquidated."

Following Ming Ruoshui, Feng Leiting’s token count also rose steadily, pushing Yun Qianli’s name further down. It seemed he intended to chase down Ming Ruoshui’s rank, but after rising for a while, he simply couldn't keep up and stalled in place.

This was because Ming Ruoshui’s token count had grown to a staggering degree.

Ten thousand!

Fifteen thousand!

Twenty thousand!

Thirty thousand!

When the number reached thirty thousand, those watching the board did the math and finally realized it matched the combined total of Chu Dongliu, Liu Fenglian, Yun Qianli, and the Black and White Eagles.

"She hid so deep. Just how strong is the person who could wipe out the entire Eagle Alliance..."

"There are only so many cultivators who entered the city. Unless she gathered the tokens of everyone else in the top ten, no one can surpass her now."

"This damned Villain Battle is finally coming to an end. I’m starting to get homesick."

The reshuffling of the top three felt like a sign that the end was near, causing the entire leaderboard to fluctuate violently as the number of people remaining on it dropped sharply.

Inside the dilapidated shack, Jiang Min pointed her fingers at the ocean of tokens hovering before her, refining them one by one. As she did so, she calmly lifted her eyes and glanced in the direction where the little beggar had fled.

"At least you knew when to back off."

Once the refinement was complete, Jiang Min waved her hand.

*Whoosh!*

The tokens transformed into a torrent and were swept into her storage bag.

She brushed off her clothes, stood up, and walked out of the shack, looking up at the scroll.

Villain Leaderboard.

First place: Ming Ruoshui, 42,693.

Second place: Feng Leiting, 12,345.

Third place: Yun Qianli, 8,826.

Fourth place: Liu Xiujun, 6,531.

...

Seventh place: Liu Fenglian, 3,117.

Forty-two thousand tokens!

A heaven-defying number that left everyone looking up in awe.

For three silent months, the name Ming Ruoshui—a name previously unknown—was now deeply imprinted in everyone's minds.

Jiang Min looked up, quietly gazing at this name that was both familiar and strange. The years spent at Liuyun Peak felt as distant as a past life. Even after leaving the peak and meeting all sorts of people, she would never again be like she was when she first entered the immortal sect, when Ming Ruoshui—herself only half-grown—would hold her hand and teach her to write, stroke by stroke.

Because she would never again entrust her back to anyone.

She no longer believed in anyone offering help in times of need, nor did she expect anyone to add flowers to a brocade.

"When Senior Sister Ming left, she didn't say where she came from or where she was going. After I became an outer disciple, I asked the steward of the Registry Hall about her whereabouts, only to learn that she had been arranged to enter the sect by someone else, and that steward had retired and gone wandering the world shortly after."

"The world is vast; to meet again is difficult."

Jiang Min sighed softly.

*Clang!*

*Clang!*

*Clang!*

Three bell tolls rang out from the center of the city.

On the scroll in the sky, only the names of one hundred cultivators remained.

A voice resonated throughout the entire city.

"The Villain Battle has concluded. All cultivators, assemble in the city center to receive your rewards!"

*Swish! Swish! Swish!*

Figures hidden in every corner of the city darted out, heading toward the center. Jiang Min also cast her Wind-Thunder Shuttle, leapt onto it, and sped toward the city heart.

The inner city.

The gates were wide open.

A hundred cultivators arrived one after another, entering the city. Some walked in groups, others kept their distance from everyone else. Most did not know who the others were, but they all bore the remnants of terrifying, blood-stained killing intent and were covered in the dust of their trials.

Jiang Min saw Liu Fenglian again, but kept a great distance, exchanging only a brief glance without offering a greeting.

Once everyone had gathered, Villain City began distributing rewards to the cultivators according to their respective ranks, as previously stipulated, starting from the one-hundredth place.

Finally, when it reached the first place and it was time to bestow the reward upon Jiang Min, the Golden Core cultivator standing at the front of the crowd did not hand over the top-three prize. Instead, he spoke indifferently:

"Ming Ruoshui, come with me. The Old Man of Ghost Mountain wishes to see you."