1497 The Origin Of The Immortal Ranking, Eastern Sovereign Divine Daoist, Demon Kingdom Skyward King

After Chu Kuangren returned to Hundred Academy, Mister Lu, the teachers, and the students came.

"The Chief is really back!"

"This is great! I knew the Chief would be fine. Luck is always at his side!"

"Sobs. Thank goodness the Chief is fine…"

The students were excited at Chu Kuangren's return, some of the female students even had the urge to cry tears of joy.

"It's great that you're back," Mister Lu said as he looked at Chu Kuangren sentimentally.

He viewed Chu Kuangren as the pillar of the academy, and when he heard something terrible happened to Chu Kuangren twenty years ago, he was petrified.

Now that Chu Kuangren was back, it was time for him to wake up from the nightmare of twenty years.

Chu Kuangren glanced over everyone.

A while later, Wang Chentian and the other Heavenly Champions came.

"Chief! You're finally back! The Immortal World is boring without you!" Wang Chentian cackled with laughter.

"I thought the sky-prides were fighting for a spot for the so-called Immortal Ranking. How could things be boring?" Chu Kuangren chuckled.

"It's just a lame ranking. Now that you're back, Chief, that ranking is nothing but a piece of paper," Wang Chentian said.

Similar to Lan Yu, he believed that even all the sky-prides in the world combined were not Chu Kuangren's match.

The student's admiration for Chu Kuangren had reached the point of fanaticism.

After reuniting with the folks of the academy, he received many more transmissions from other parties, inquiring about his well-being.

Chu Hong, Yu Zhi, Jue Wushen, Ye Zhu, and even Shi Ying contacted him.

Each and every one of them was close to him before, and now that they knew he had returned, they all welcomed him back wholeheartedly.

As for the rest, they were either busy preparing for a fight or busy with something else.

Chu Kuangren's return was huge news to the Immortal World, and many Prodigies had to be prepared to face him sooner or later.

"How would you people welcome me back? I'm intrigued," Chu Kuangren muttered as he looked up into the sky.

It was then that a figure in white robes appeared behind him.

Strangely, the figure looked exactly like him and had a similar demeanor.

It was his clone!

While Chu Kuangren was trapped in the Bagua Furnace for twenty years, his clone had been hiding in the outside world without anyone's knowledge.

That was the reason why he was able to grasp what had happened in the past twenty years while being isolated in the furnace.

He even sufficiently prepared himself for all the potential impending encounters.

"Welcome back, my true self," Chu Kuangren's clone said.

"Thank you for all you've done for the past twenty years."

"You know I disliked doing all this, but now that you've returned, I can put the matters aside," the clone explained.

"Have you found out the origin of the Immortal Ranking?"

"It's related to the Immortal Hall."

"The Immortal Hall again, huh? They really are full of tricks." Chu Kuangren pursed his lips.

In the past twenty years, his clone and the Feng clan in Holy Violet Planet had expanded their intelligence network greatly. Once he got news of the appearance of the Immortal Ranking, he started to investigate.

What he found out only made the origin of the Immortal Ranking even weirder.

First of all, the Immortal Ranking was not a complete list. The names on the list were all known sky-prides and Prodigies.

The way it ranked the sky-prides and Prodigies was not exactly fair either. Some of the names felt like they were just there to fill in the spots.

More importantly, the appearance of the Immortal Ranking brought the battle of the Heavenly Champion to the climax.

All the sky-prides and Prodigies fought fiercely for a spot on the ranking.

Someone also used the ranking to eliminate their rivals.

"The names on the ranking, are they planning to eliminate the current Heavenly Champions before they truly show themselves in public?"

The elimination of Heavenly Champions only benefited other Heavenly Champions who were contending for the position of Immortal World Ruler.

The Immortal Hall created that Immortal Ranking so that they could reap the spoils from the battles between the Heavenly Champions.

"A ranking that contains all the known sky-prides… They were treated as chess pieces that the people behind the scene could control at will. The Immortal Hall is really full of cunning people. Interesting." Chu Kuangren smiled.

"Oh, and Yuan Zhan of the tenth place appeared at Five Ways Mountain. He sent out challenge invitations to the sky-prides and claimed that he wanted to have a spar with them."

"Yuan Zhan? The Battle Saint Ape?"

"Yes."

"I'll go have a look. I'd like to see how people have improved over the past twenty years." Chu Kuangren smiled interestingly.

…

Meanwhile, at Eastern Sovereign Immortal Hall, a figure enveloped by endless Immortal Sparks looked at the jade scroll in his hand with an odd gaze.

"Chu Kuangren is back," the figure muttered with slight surprise.

"Chu Kuangren's reemergence is going to disrupt your plan."

Beside the figure was another man in white robes. The man with the profound and subtle aura was the Cloudy Deity Divine Daoist.

His gaze at the figure enveloped by the Immortal Sparks showed a hint of respect.

Among the same generation within the Immortal Hall, only one was worthy of his respect.

That person was known as the one who ruled over the Nine Houses, the Eastern Sovereign Divine Daoist!

The most prestigious God among the Nine Houses.

"Yeah. I was going to use the Immortal Ranking to list out the sky-prides so that they can fight each other and exhaust themselves. It will also be a stepping stone for my emergence in the future. Once the Immortal Ranking has rooted itself into people's hearts, I will seize the first place and gain an unparalleled reputation, but… the plan is built upon Chu Kuangren's absence!"

Only without Chu Kuangren, the madman who overpowered everyone, would the sky-prides fight each other, hence exhausting themselves.

Only without Chu Kuangren, the Eastern Sovereign Divine Daoist could seize the first place and reap an unparalleled reputation.

However, with an absolute force like Chu Kuangren, no matter what plans he had for the rest of the sky-prides, Chu Kuangren would be an uncrossable hurdle.

No matter what he did, he would be compared to Chu Kuangren, and once he lost, his plan to reap reputation would go down the drain.

The only thing that people cared about was the strongest person that ruled the universe.

"The Qinghua Imperial Commander, who was ninth on the Immortal Ranking, couldn't even take a few moves from Chu Kuangren. His power was beyond anyone's imagination," the Eastern Sovereign Divine Daoist said.

Being slightly stronger than everyone was not a problem, but being ridiculously powerful in the universe would make one become a common enemy.

Chu Kuangren was the embodiment of such a concept.

"Do you need me to test him out?"

"Not necessary. He has been away for twenty years, and his reappearance will definitely attract interested parties to do the job for us."

On the other hand, a figure with a vast energy presence arrived at the Hundred Academy.

The entire academy was shaken by his presence.

"I am the Skyward King from the Demon Kingdom. Chu Kuangren, I challenge you!"

The person was a buff man equipped with a pitch-black halberd. His Immortal's Core also contained Gilded Traits that filled the land, and he had come to challenge Chu Kuangren.

The students of the academy spotted him in the sky, but they were looking at him as if they were looking at a clown.