None of the top hundred experts on the Wind and Cloud Expert Rankings were anything less than veterans who had made their names in the virtual gaming world years ago.
These experts hadn't just dominated a single game—they had risen to fame across multiple titles, sometimes a dozen or more virtual games, racking up an incredible record of glorious victories. They were truly master-class players, worlds apart from the newcomers who had only appeared in the last few years.
For a rookie to crack the top thousand was already extremely impressive.
Breaking into the top hundred? For a newcomer, that was nothing short of a miracle.
Yet Black Flame had not only accomplished that miracle—he had skyrocketed all the way to fifty-first place, sending the players of the Star Moon Kingdom into a frenzy of excitement.
The vast majority of the top hundred experts resided in the great empires within the Divine Realm. For the longest time, the players of those empires had looked down on players from smaller kingdoms with undisguised contempt.
In the back of everyone's mind, kingdom players were simply inferior to empire players.
Now Black Flame was ranked fifty-first—and he came from the Star Moon Kingdom. Every player in the kingdom suddenly felt a surge of pride.
"Sky Arena really is going out on a limb for this newcomer, aren't they? He's been through one guild war and they've already vaulted him to fifty-first place. Is he Sky Arena's secret child or something?"
"Exactly. All he did was lead a rising guild to defeat a first-tier guild once. That's not exactly unheard of. Every expert in the top hundred has won through dozens of major battles to earn their spot. Sky Arena is way too biased toward Star Moon Kingdom's players."
"There's definitely something shady going on!"
"That Black Flame's title is absurdly arrogant—using 'Sword King,' of all things. Does he really think he's the king of swords? Any Swordsman in the top hundred could mop the floor with him. And he dares call himself Sword King? What a joke!"
…
Alongside the spread of the Wind and Cloud Expert Rankings, players from other empires and kingdoms were vocal in their criticism. They felt Black Flame was being hyped far beyond what he deserved. Seeing a god-tier expert they had once admired casually overtaken by a mere newcomer left a particularly bitter taste. Many expressed skepticism about Sky Arena's ranking methodology, arguing it was biased and unfair.
But Sky Arena couldn't be bothered to explain.
There was no point in arguing with fools. The battle footage spoke for itself—anyone who couldn't see that was simply lacking in judgment, and no amount of explanation would change their mind.
Had Shi Feng not demonstrated a standard on par with the Void Realm, he would never have been placed at the fifty-first position.
While the top expert players in the Divine Realm had taken note of the ranking and grown extremely wary of Black Flame—especially those in the top hundred—there was more to the rankings than met the eye.
The Wind and Cloud Expert Rankings had three thresholds, known only to Sky Arena and a select handful of elite players. Ordinary players had no idea they existed.
The first threshold was the top four hundred.
If a player had not yet stepped into the realm of Subtlety, then no matter how impressive their in-game performance, they could never break into the top four hundred. Placing within that range was proof that a player had entered the Subtlety realm.
This was why Shi Feng had previously been ranked at four hundred and eighty-first. Sky Arena's thorough investigation had determined that at the time, he had not yet truly reached the Subtlety realm—he was only half a step in. Otherwise, his ranking would have been even higher.
The second threshold was the top two hundred.
If a player had not reached the state of Flow, they could forget about it entirely. No matter how well they performed, the absolute ceiling was two hundred and first place.
The third threshold was the top hundred.