Chapter 51: The Beginning

“Wen Xuxu, I missed you so much! You’re finally out of seclusion. You have no idea, with you gone, this guy couldn’t squeeze out half a…”

Here it came, the familiar Bian-style chatter. Having not heard it for half a year, Wen Xu actually felt a trace of nostalgia. However, after listening to him ramble for the time it took to burn half an incense stick, that nostalgia quickly faded away.

Wen Xu took out two formation plaques from his storage ring and handed them over. “The latest Gale Formation. Here, something for you two to play with.”

“Wow, what does it do?”

Bian Chunzhou and Chen Zui each probed the plaques with their spiritual energy. In an instant, looks of astonishment crossed both their faces. “You made another breakthrough?” It had only been half a year. The ultimate try-hard was truly terrifying.

“How many formations did you stack on this?”

The two spoke in rapid succession. Wen Xu nodded. “Just a minor realm. As for how many I stacked, I don’t know either. I only stacked them until the plaque reached its absolute limit.”

“Wen the Try-Hard, as expected of you!” Bian Chunzhou gave him a thumbs-up. “The Sect Tournament is in three days. Is your Wind-Folding Fan repaired?”

“Yes, it’s fixed. I just retrieved it from the Refining Peak.” Of course, he had inevitably been forced to deal with Senior Brother Zheng Jin for a while, only managing to escape with great difficulty. It had to be said that gifting Senior Brother Zheng a dharma robe was one of the few regrets in Wen Xu’s life.

Speaking of which, Chen Zui pulled out the rules for the Sect Tournament from his storage bag. “Here, this is for you.”

In truth, the specific rules of the Sect Tournament were not overly restrictive. The tournament’s original purpose was to test the disciples’ cultivation levels and combat abilities. Therefore, magic treasures, talismans, pills, and formations that exceeded one’s cultivation level were strictly forbidden. Furthermore, taking lives or engaging in malicious combat was prohibited. They were fellow disciples, after all; if anyone resorted to underhanded, sinister methods, Yonglu Mountain would certainly punish them.

In extremely severe cases, even inner sect disciples could be expelled directly from the mountain.

Of course, within the permissible boundaries, the disciples could fight however they pleased on the arena stage. After all, the highest cultivation level among the participants was only the peak of the Golden Core realm. No matter how powerful their moves were, they could only do so much damage.

“Thanks.” Wen Xu took it. “I heard that the preliminary rounds of the tournament require drawing lots?”

“Yes. Because there are too many people, they’ve set up four arenas just for those below Foundation Establishment, labeled Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding^[1]. Chen Zuizui and I already drew ours. He’s on Platform Jia, and I’m on Platform Ding. Thank goodness we didn’t end up on the same one.” After all, in a one-on-one fight where they weren’t risking their lives, Bian Chunzhou knew he stood no chance against Chen Zui.

“Should I go draw mine now?”

“There are still three days left, so there’s no rush. Besides, even if you don’t go, the senior brother from Kaiyuan Peak in charge of managing the arena numbers will randomly assign you anyway.” Aside from his master’s Ruoshui Peak, the places Bian Chunzhou frequented most now were the Disciples’ Peak and Kaiyuan Peak.

Kaiyuan Peak was massive, but Bian had somehow managed to make himself a familiar face to every senior brother and sister there. Combined with his unique Water-Fire Spiritual Root, everyone was actually quite willing to befriend him. In other words, he was practically an off-books member of Kaiyuan Peak now. When Kaiyuan Peak held internal recruitment in the future, as long as he successfully reached Foundation Establishment, he would stand a very high chance of getting hired.

Hmph. Once that happened, he would have a clear understanding of the background behind all those missions. There definitely wouldn’t be a repeat of last time, where two out of three missions blew up in his face.

Wen Xu understood. “I see. I’ll make time to go then.” He would pass on the random assignment; he did not like leaving his fate in the hands of others.

Having not seen each other for half a year, the three chatted a bit longer before parting ways. Wen Xu stopped by Kaiyuan Peak to draw his lot. His luck was decent; he didn’t run into his friends early on and was assigned to Platform Yi.

Well, actually, it wasn’t a matter of luck. It was just that… he was the only one below Foundation Establishment who hadn’t drawn a lot yet. In other words, there had really been no need for him to make this trip.

For once, Wen Xu was at a loss for words, but he still calmly accepted the entry token for Platform Yi.

After he received his entry token, the lists for the four arenas below Foundation Establishment were posted directly in the plaza of Kaiyuan Peak. Having been in seclusion for half a year, Wen Xu knew nothing about the prominent figures who had risen in the sect during that time. Thus, he only glanced at the lists briefly, memorized the names, and sent the details to his two friends via transmission.

At that moment, Bian Chunzhou was just about to head down the mountain again. He received his friend’s Transmission Talisman right as he reached the mountain gate.

Boss Bian, after reading the Transmission Talisman: …shattered.jpg.

“Junior Brother Bian, what’s wrong?”

Bian Chunzhou pinched his cheek. “Nothing. I just feel like my luck with the draw isn’t very good.” How should he put it? It was great that they hadn’t clashed early on, but why did the seemingly ordinary Platform Ding have to be the ultimate battle royale?

Aside from Chen Zui, Wen Xu, and Xia Ying, every single inner sect disciple below Foundation Establishment was actually on Platform Ding! What was this, a wholesale deal? Most, most, most importantly, that fellow Lin Congcong was also on Platform Ding. Everyone in the inner sect knew he and that boy didn’t get along! No way. He could lose the match, but Lin Congcong had to get knocked out with him!

Senior Brother Chang, who was guarding the mountain gate: …Why did this junior brother suddenly get so fired up?

“Are you alright?” The junior brothers and sisters who had joined recently were all quite emotional. The junior sister just now was the same; her expression had suddenly changed dramatically, which was rather frightening.

“I’m fine, I just thought of something happy.” Bian Chunzhou composed himself and was about to head down the mountain when Senior Brother Chang stopped him. “Senior Brother Chang, what is it?”

“If you’re not in a hurry, it’s best not to go down the mountain right now.”

Bian Chunzhou was a sharp guy. He immediately caught on. “Senior Brother, why is that?”

“Just now, an outer sect junior sister…”

As it turned out, Senior Brother Chang had just been forced to get involved in a “family matter.” This was not particularly surprising. After all, everyone had parents and relatives; they didn’t just pop out of cracks in rocks, and cultivators were no exception.

Most low-level cultivators had not severed their ties to the mortal world. As long as they did not practice the Dao of Heartlessness^[2], the vast majority of cultivators would maintain their familial bonds. For one, severing these ties was extremely difficult. Secondly, cultivators were still human and possessed emotions and desires; forcibly cutting off mortal ties brought absolutely no benefit to one’s cultivation.

If one’s relatives were ordinary mortals, then after a hundred years, everything would naturally run its course. If they were cultivators, there was even less need to sever ties. Many disciples of Yonglu Mountain requested family visitation leave every year. After all… not every cultivator could reach the Nascent Soul or Soul Transformation realms. Cultivators at the very bottom would reach the Golden Core realm at best, and a large portion could only remain at Foundation Establishment. Yonglu Mountain was quite liberal; as long as one had a valid reason to request to go down the mountain and return home, it would be approved.

Many cultivation families started this way. A first-generation family head would study at a major sect, realize their own cultivation path was hopeless, and return home to marry a mortal and have children. Then, in some later generation, a cultivation genius would suddenly be born, and when one person attained the Dao, the whole family rose with them^[3].

In fact, this was also the path many outer disciples of major sects took. Very few disciples could advance from the outer sect to the inner sect, with only a handful making the cut every six years. Take Yonglu Mountain as an example: there were over six thousand registered outer disciples alone, the vast majority of whom were in the Qi Refining stage, with only a small fraction managing to reach Foundation Establishment on their own.

As for the inner disciples, they numbered only about three hundred in total. Among them, Qi Refining disciples were the fewest, while Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators made up the majority. There were also Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation cultivators, and their numbers actually exceeded the outer sect’s Foundation Establishment disciples.

Therefore, unless they firmly believed they would go far on the path of cultivation, the vast majority of low-level cultivators would leave themselves a way out. And relatives who shared their bloodline were the most reliable fallback.

Senior Brother Chang had not been guarding the mountain gate for just a day or two, and he had seen plenty of his fellow disciples’ relatives. However, he had never before encountered a family as unreasonable and prone to baseless accusations as this junior sister’s.

If that junior sister’s face hadn’t looked so deathly pale, Senior Brother Chang would have really gone to Kaiyuan Peak to lodge a complaint.

After all, the innocence of a gate-guarding disciple was still innocence!

“Tell me, how can there be biological parents who would rather ruin their daughter’s future just to fulfill some promise? What kind of promise could possibly be more important than their daughter’s future? Junior Brother Bian, you have no idea. I really went over with good intentions to break up the fight, but I never expected…”

Having watched far too many melodramatic soap operas, Bian Chunzhou didn’t find it all that bizarre. “Senior Brother Chang, I understand. Humanity is a diverse species. Just look at it as a learning experience.”

“…Even that counts?”

“Why wouldn’t it? Alright, I need to head down the mountain. If I don’t leave now, I won’t make it back in time.”

Senior Brother Chang waved goodbye to the comforting junior brother and returned to his post. Still, it was already getting dark. Why hadn’t Junior Sister Jiang returned yet? Puzzled, he made a point of mentioning it to the senior brother taking over his shift.

With the Sect Tournament just around the corner, they could not afford any mishaps.

Bian Chunzhou rushed back to the mountain under the cover of night. Qi Refining disciples could not fly using their Qi, so he relied on a Haste Talisman. To save money, he had drawn the talisman himself. Its effect was mediocre, but since he produced and used it himself, it was highly cost-effective, which was the only reason he could afford to head down the mountain so often.

He really needed to reach Foundation Establishment as soon as possible. Once he did, he would get himself a flying sword and soar through the skies. Just thinking about it was exhilarating.

“Help…”

A cry for help? Had he heard wrong? They were almost at the gates of Yonglu Mountain. Who would be bold enough to cause trouble right on their doorstep? Surely not. The voice was so faint; perhaps his ears were just playing tricks on him.

Thinking this, Bian Chunzhou decided to quicken his pace, and then…

“Help… someone… please… help…”

Someone really was calling for help!

Bian Chunzhou stopped in his tracks. He grew wary, unsure if it was a trap or a genuine emergency. However, he was not the type to leave someone to die. Since they were so close to the sect, he decisively sent a distress talisman to the senior brother guarding the gates, then hurried toward the direction of the voice.

“Who’s calling for help? Where are you?”

Bian Chunzhou held his breath. Protecting himself with spiritual energy, he lit a fire talisman, but there was no sign of any living presence. By the time he reached the spot, even the voice had vanished.

He searched the area, but even after the gate-guarding senior brother arrived, there was still no trace of anyone.

“Did you really hear someone calling for help? Are you sure?”

Bian Chunzhou shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure.”

“Then why did you…”

Bian Chunzhou held up the Shadow Retention Stone in his hand. “But the Shadow Retention Stone doesn’t lie. It recorded the cries for help.”

The senior brother’s expression changed instantly. How bold. Someone actually dared to cause trouble right under Yonglu Mountain’s nose. They must be tired of living. Yonglu Mountain would gladly see this through to the end.