……
The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion had, since ancient times, only been responsible for observing celestial phenomena and issuing calendars.
When Great Yu had just seized the realm, although it had ended the chaos of Great Qian's final years, the Nine Provinces and Four Seas were still overrun by demons.
While evil spirits ran rampant and the Demonic Path grew unchecked, many sects of the Righteous Path kept their Mountain Gates tightly shut, with only some Holy Lands sending disciples out to subdue demons and eliminate evil.
In those days, the common people were no different from ants, and the number who died each day was a terrifying figure.
Facing this situation, the Great Yu Dynasty Court first established the Demon Suppression Division to patrol the realm and suppress evil spirits and demons. Second, it reorganized the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, ordering it to compile numerous rankings in addition to its normal duties.
As the saying goes: in scholarship there is no first place, in martial arts there is no second.
Once the rankings were compiled and spread throughout the realm, every sect and faction was shaken.
The Demonic Path Magnate ranked second on the Demon Ranking believed himself capable of any evil deed, so how could he be a mere second place? He went to cause trouble for the one ranked first.
After a certain Holy Land was ranked Number One Under Heaven on the Sect Ranking, though they understood this was a scheme by the Great Yu Dynasty Court, they also felt that Great Yu, having just seized the realm, was being quite tactful in placing them first on the Sect Ranking.
But soon, the other Holy Lands began to cause trouble for them.
Because the rankings the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion initially compiled were entirely random, this threw the Cultivation World into chaos.
Seeing this, the Great Yu Dynasty Court ordered the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion to continue producing rankings.
And so… the Prodigy Ranking, the Beauty Ranking, the Nascent Soul Ranking, the Nascent Soul Ranking, the Golden Core Ranking, the Foundation Establishment Ranking, and the Qi Refining Ranking were all released one after another.
In less than a month, the vast majority of cultivators were fighting like dogs over their rankings.
Some clear-headed individuals wanted to seek trouble with the Great Yu Dynasty Court, but the Court, using some unknown secret technique, produced two Half-Step Earth Immortals.
Even Great Powers at the Tribulation Stage were no match for a Half-Step Earth Immortal in a single exchange.
They had no choice but to back down.
And this chaos lasted a full thirty-some years.
By the time every sect and faction, every Great Power in the Cultivation World, was forced into a period of peace due to grievous losses of Primordial Qi, the Great Yu Dynasty Court had already used those thirty years to bring order to the realm and cultivate countless experts.
The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion thus became famous throughout the world!
As of today, Great Yu had stood as a nation for two hundred and forty-seven years.
Many of the rankings the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion had originally compiled had since been removed, and the remaining rankings were no longer randomly ordered. Instead, using an Immortal Artifact called the "Sky Monitoring Disk," they fairly and impartially ranked the Heaven, Earth, Human, and God rankings.
The so-called "Heaven" referred to a Cultivation Level reaching the heavens; those listed on this ranking were all ruthless figures who had dominated their era.
And the top five ruthless figures on the "Heaven" ranking were none other than the five Earthly Immortals Residing in the World within the Great Yu Dynasty Court.
Their rankings had not changed since the day the list was first published.
The "Earth" ranking took the character "Land" from "Holy Land," and ranked all the powers across the Nine Provinces, Eight Desolations, and Four Seas.
The one ranked first was none other than the Great Yu Dynasty.
As for the "Human" ranking, it listed the Prodigies among the younger generation.
The final "God" ranking was also called the "Divine Weapon Compendium," because everything listed on it was a Magic Treasure of unpredictable power.
And ranked first was none other than the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's own "Sky Monitoring Disk."
Although no one had ever seen what the Sky Monitoring Disk looked like, save for the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion and the current Emperor.
Many still knew that this Sky Monitoring Disk was a sect-guarding treasure personally forged by an Immortal of a certain Holy Land in Ancient Times.
It could use the "Earth Vein" to monitor the realm at any moment.
Anyone who possessed Spiritual Energy could not escape the Sky Monitoring Disk's surveillance.
……
Like the Demon Suppression Division, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion also had branches spread throughout the realm.
Even a Remote Small City like Guanhai City still had its own branch of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion.
It stood at a corner of the crossroads at the city center, right next to the City Lord's Mansion.
The building rose nine layers high, shaped like a tall tower, and before its gate stood four stone tablets each a zhang tall, bearing the Heaven, Earth, Human, and God rankings.
But aside from the "Human" ranking, which recorded the younger generation and changed from time to time, the other three rankings had not changed in decades.
Since the duties were not particularly busy, the one stationed at this branch was an official who had retired due to his advanced age.
His name was Lu Ziyuan, and he had once held the post of Vice Minister of Rites.
At this moment, he was bent over his desk, transcribing the "Human" Ranking's most recent changes.
"In the 247th year of great prosperity, third month, Scarlet Dragon Prefecture, Qingzhou, Daze City—Prodigy Zhou Yi joined the Sacred Land Sifang Valley at the age of eight, born with a full Wood-Fire Dual Spiritual Root…"
"In the 247th year of great prosperity, third month, Baihong Mansion, Yangzhou, Apricot Blossom Village—Prodigy Huangfu Guanxing, sixteen years old, possessing a superior Fire Spiritual Root, single-handedly fought the Four Fiends of the Northern Frontier at Late Foundation Establishment across realms at White Phoenix Forest using the Skyward Sword Technique, slaying three of the fiends and capturing the fourth…"
"In the 247th year of great prosperity, third month…"
After finishing his transcription of the latest updates to the Human Ranking, sixty-seven-year-old Lu Ziyuan subconsciously let out a long breath.
He straightened his back, set his brush down on the pen rest beside him, and raised his hand to rub his aching neck.
"Fortunate that I only need to transcribe the major achievements and not their entire lifetimes, or else who knows if these old bones of mine could hold out until the day the Court's reward arrives."
After saying this with a bitter smile, he prepared to rise.
But just then, the large brass disc hanging on the wall behind him suddenly let out a rumbling sound.
Hearing this sound, a worried expression immediately appeared on Lu Ziyuan's aged face.
As he turned around, he saw the waist-high Large Bronze Disc slowly rotating.
Before long, the patterns engraved on the disc suddenly split apart toward the edges, revealing a head-sized opening at its very center.
Inside the opening rested a Jade Slip.
Seeing this, Lu Ziyuan sighed softly and murmured, "Why has the Human Ranking changed again? These young people, really—it's so late and they still won't go to sleep, running about full of energy."
As he finished speaking, he reached out and took the Jade Slip from the opening.
Sighing as he sat back down, he pressed the Jade Slip to his forehead, closed his eyes, and used his own faint Divine Sense to receive its contents.
But in the next instant, his eyes, which had just closed, snapped wide open, filled with shock.
"How is this possible?"
His expression changed drastically as he pulled the Jade Slip away, swallowing hard again and again, his heart pounding wildly.
After a good while, he finally came back to his senses, and as if by instinct, looked up through the open doors toward the bright moon hanging in the night sky.
Even though two days had passed, the towering image of that staff, connecting heaven and earth, still left a deep impression on him.
The moment he had first seen that staff, he knew the Divine Weapon Compendium was about to change.
That scene of the Sea Surging Golden Lotus and the Nine-Colored Light Pillars connecting heaven and earth had been utterly shocking to human hearts.
But for two days straight, Lu Ziyuan had received no news of any change to the Divine Weapon Compendium.
He had assumed that the Exotic Treasure's power was no greater than the shock of its strange phenomenon.
But he never expected that just as he had nearly forgotten about the matter, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion located in the Imperial City would send him this very Jade Slip.
Thinking of the information recorded in the Jade Slip, Lu Ziyuan subconsciously drew a deep breath and murmured to himself.
"This time, it's not just the realm that will be shaken—even Guanhai City is about to grow lively."
With that, he swayed his head as he sat back down at his desk, picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and began recording the contents of the Jade Slip onto a blank sheet of paper.
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