To be honest, the rules of the Divine Fruit Banquet that the Empress had announced were not fair.
One of the most important rules was the ranking list.
The ranking list was not a competition between the martialists participating in the Divine Fruit Banquet. Instead, it was a ranking list that the Empress and the others had decided on.
Many martialists would not be convinced by such a ranking.
Apart from that, the Empress had also announced that any martialist would only have three chances to challenge someone. If they used up all three chances, they would not be able to challenge anyone again.
As a result, it also restricted some cultivators from casually challenging stronger cultivators and relying on luck to increase their rankings.
Although many of the martialists in the clouds were not convinced, these rules had been announced by the Empress herself. Who would dare to be unconvinced? Even if someone was unconvinced, they would not dare to voice it in front of the Empress.
"Next up is the ranking list for the Divine Fruit Banquet. The ranking list will change at any time. The Divine Fruit Banquet will last for about three days. After three days, the final results will be out. You have to cherish these three days."
After the Empress made a simple announcement, she flipped her palm and a golden scroll appeared in her hand.
She threw the golden scroll into the sky. The golden scroll suddenly unfurled in mid-air.
Very quickly, the golden scroll expanded to become a huge list that was hundreds of meters tall and dozens of meters wide. The list was filled with densely packed names.
"Found it. I'm actually only ranked 3,700th on this ranking list. How is that possible?"
"I'm even worse. I'm actually ranked 3,000th."
…
The moment the list was opened, almost every warrior immediately sensed their own ranking on the list.
Apart from a small number of martialists, most of the martialists were not satisfied with their ranking.
Martialists who were able to become quasi-heavenly beings and had the confidence to participate in the Divine Fruit Banquet were all geniuses. It was difficult for such geniuses to gain their admiration, let alone admit that they were inferior to others.
Only Ye Chen lifted his head to look at the ranking list with a speechless smile.
Because, at the very top of this list, the name that was ranked first was actually his name, Ye Chen.
As they scanned through the rankings, many people around them were already whispering, "Who is this Ye Chen? Why haven't I heard of him before?"
"That's right. Even Heavenly General Divine Wind from the Heavenly Court is only ranked second."
"The strongest genius of the Angel Pool, Barbarian King, is only ranked fifth. Are all the young experts of the Celestial Continent so monstrous?"
…
Exclamations could be heard from the side.
Ye Chen shook his head and continued to scan the list. He began to search for Ye Yao and the others.
Ye Yao's ranking was quite good. She was ranked 320th.
Next was Yan Xiu and the rest. Their rankings were much lower than Ye Chen and Ye Yao.
Yan Xiu, who was ranked the highest, was only in the 60,000th place. Baguio, Lin Guanqi, and the others were at the bottom of the list.
Lin Guanqi and the others were not convinced by their rankings. They were rubbing their palms and staring at the list carefully, planning who to challenge later.
In addition to Ye Yao and the others, Ye Chen also found the rankings of Heavenly General Bi Luo, Heavenly General Huang Ji, Fang He, and the others, who had plotted against him and had a grudge against him before.
Among them, Heavenly General Bi Luo's ranking was the highest. She was ranked 780th.
Fang He was in the 1700th place, and Heavenly General Huang Ji was in the 800th place.
According to Ye Chen's understanding of these people, the ranking list was quite fair.
"Eh? This is Hua Lingxuan's name." Glancing through the list, Ye Chen suddenly found a name that made him quite surprised.
Hua Lingxuan was using Zhan Wuji's body.
Many cultivators of the Angel Pool, including the two Primes of the Angel Pool, were here.
Hua Lingxuan actually dared to appear here with such fanfare and participate in the Divine Fruit Banquet.
Moreover, Hua Lingxuan's ranking on the list was quite high. She was actually ranked 91st, much higher than Heavenly General Bi Luo.
…
While the outside world was in chaos and many cultivators were planning who to challenge next, the Empress and the others were sitting in a palace in front of them. Through a water mirror in the middle, they could clearly see everything that was happening outside.
"Empress, aren't you overestimating Ye Chen by placing him at the top? He is indeed quite strong, but he doesn't seem to have any advantage over your Heavenly General Shen Feng," Thunder Temple's Ancestral Master Gu Deng said with a chuckle.
The list outside was jointly created by them.
However, in reality, most of the information was gathered by the Empress.
Therefore, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that the list was created by the Empress.
Heavenly General Shen Feng of the Heavenly Court was the strongest genius that had appeared in the Heavenly Court in the past 10,000 years.
Almost everyone thought that such a genius would be ranked first on the list.
However, after the list was released, the Empress actually placed Heavenly General Shen Feng at the second place.
However, the one who was ranked first was Ye Chen, a little brat whose name was unknown.
Although Ancestral Master Gu Deng and the others had seen Ye Chen in the battle against the Three-Headed Hound, they were still unfamiliar with Ye Chen.
He wasn't like Heavenly General Shen Feng, who had been known as a genius since he was young and had been famous in the Sky Human Continent for many years.
"Although Heavenly General Shen Feng's strength is not bad, his flaws are too obvious. Ye Chen is different. Ye Chen cultivated step by step in the River of Time and Space. I think that Ye Chen is far superior to Heavenly General Shen Feng in terms of temperament and talent. Therefore, I placed Ye Chen at the top," the Empress said calmly.
She had set up the list in pursuit of fairness and impartiality.
Therefore, even though Heavenly General Shen Feng was her successor, she didn't favor him.
"Alright, Heavenly General Shen Feng is at the second place after all. He's not much different from the first place." Ancestral Master Gu Deng smiled and didn't continue harping on the issue.
In fact, the treatment that the top 100 of the Divine Fruit Banquet received was about the same.
Each of them would receive one Fruit of Faith.
The 100 most powerful universes in the River of Time and Space would also be divided among them.
Ye Chen and the other quasi-Diva didn't know the benefits of being the ruler of these universes, but the Empress and the others knew very well.
This was because they had come to where they were today as rulers of universes back then.
However, later on, the birth of the Sky Human Continent gradually sucked the many universes in the River of Time and Space dry. As a result, there was no place for the rulers of universes.
Now, the Sky Human Continent was about to collapse. Once the Sky Human Continent was gone, these universes would definitely gradually return to their original state.
When the time came, the benefits of becoming the ruler of a powerful universe far exceeded the imagination of ordinary warriors.