The last person she had judged a monster was Ye Xing, grandson of the commander-in-chief of the three armies. This fellow had crossed into the Legendary tier before the age of thirty, had contracted two Overlord-tier lifeforms, and had personally hunted three Overlords—a veritable monster, even more abnormal than her sister had been in her day.

And Shi Jin was a monster in another sense—possessing such strength with a telepathy talent...

Of course, what she could not understand even more was Shi Jin's identity as the Environmental Protection Department head.

And if all of this were put together... it seemed, perhaps, not so hard to understand.

"Monster." Seeing Shi Jin still looking so calm and unruffled, Huang Qi and Qin Mingzhi nearby were both struck with disbelief.

If their memory served, this sword spirit, Shi Tan, had still been Commander-tier back in Mirage Abyss City.

Breaking through to Monarch-tier now was no problem, but to possess such terrifying strength right after the breakthrough—what was that if not a monster? Give Shi Shuo a bit more time to strengthen his pet beasts, and who knew what would become of him.

"I wouldn't presume. I still have far to go." At the same time, Shi Jin exited his possession form, and Crimson Pupil turned back into a bird spirit, alighting once more on Shi Jin's shoulder. Shi Li: "And if not for the accident that took out your ace, Commodore Xiao Qin..."

This Commodore Xiao Qin's ace main force seemed to have suffered considerable losses, otherwise she would not have been transferred from the front lines to the mechanical corps.

"What's past is past. Things are fine now. Let's go, Minister, let us set off." Having lost, Xiao Qin now acknowledged Minister Shi Tan wholeheartedly.

"Very well." Shi Cen nodded.

At this moment, the most impatient of all was still the Gem Cat; hearing the others say this, it directly moved the several people and their pet beasts onto the warship.

A moment later...

"Why is this fellow so slow..."

"Then take the warship with you when you teleport."

"Never mind, never mind..."

...

Meanwhile, at the very moment the few of them set out for the Banlan Islands, in Donghuang, the first edition of the Sequence Ranking that countless people had been waiting for finally appeared. It was a ranking of strength drawn up by the Donghuang Association from the various combat records of beast tamers under thirty across the nation.

And this ranking swiftly set off a tremendous uproar throughout Donghuang.

Among the names were many figures familiar to Shi Jue, and many familiar to Shi Jin.

Such as the first sequence: Ye Xing.

First in the Three Armies Martial Contest, a level-seven beast-taming space, a Legendary Beast Tamer, contracted to two Overlord-level lifeforms, with a record of slaying an Overlord-level being.

Such as the fifth sequence: Ji Feng.

A national individual champion in one year's competition, a graduate of Imperial Capital University, and possessor of the beast-taming talent Myriad Affinity, he was a top-tier Master. Not only could he befriend every kind of dire beast, he could also befriend the forces of nature, enabling his pet beasts to command natural power even at Monarch level. As one of the foremost among top-tier Masters, he had succeeded, while undercover in the Totem Zone, in assassinating an Overlord-level lifeform and withdrawing unscathed; and he had the further record of defeating Bureau Eleven's genius, Lu Heng.

Such as the seventh sequence: Lu Heng.

Though ordinarily of little renown, and though the base race of each of his pet beasts was hardly high, as a genius archaeologist he had once obtained a tremendous stroke of fortune in a mythic ruin. Some of his pet beasts had received a mythic inheritance and mastered what could be called the strongest super-tier skill, "Mythic Revival," which let his pet beasts fight above their level with ease.

Such as the eleventh sequence: Zou Yun, Heavenly King Zou.

As today's Heavenly King of the Masters Tournament, he had happily claimed the lucky number 11.

There was also Gao Xuan, last year's national individual champion, ranked 22nd, a front-runner, and at 21 the youngest of them all; and Xiao Qin, a Navy Commodore ranked 29th. Both were figures of enormous buzz.

The current ranking listed only the top 100, ordered solely by past records and present circumstances; and among them, the contestants at the top of the list all shared one trait: they had fought Overlord-level lifeforms!

A certain Shi had signed up online as well, and whether his Shenyuan City record had been counted was anyone's guess, but since he had never traded blows with an Overlord-level lifeform, his ranking... did not seem high.