After our first training session ended, I carefully watched everyone as they returned to their houses. Upon returning to mine, I took out my journal and started making a map.
I could only match names to the faces of a few of the forty-odd young men and women, so making a full map of who everyone was and where everyone lived would take a bit of time, but it would be invaluable if I ever wanted to interfere with the affinity testing process.
Once this map was as complete as I could make it, I stood and stretched.
That long training session had reminded me of the horrendous shape my body was in at the start of these timelines. Recently, these problems had been masked by early cultivation and several months of good living, but this time, I was forced into an intense workout without any cultivation base to speak of. After only a few hours, I was severely exhausted and was about ready to collapse.
Long ago, I used a Rank 1 Healing Pill purchased from the System to fix most of my acute health problems. The first time I shifted my permanent reset point, I had locked in the effects of this pill, so I didn’t have to worry about any major health problems. However, I was still suffering from the chronic effects of long-term malnutrition.
Reaching into my storage space, I pulled out a small seed pod and used it to concoct a Rank 0 Nutrition Pill. After taking it, I felt a soothing energy flow throughout my body as small aches and pains were washed away.
With my immediate health concerns taken care of, I turned my attention back to refining.
I didn’t like the idea of destroying my cultivation base every week, so I chose to go ahead and cultivate the terrible Low-Yellow Earth Heart Mantra like I was supposed to. While metal qi was considered ideal for a refiner, I didn’t see any reason why earth qi shouldn’t work just as well. After all, while fire qi tended to work best for alchemy, the other types of qi were still usable, and depending on the toxins present, were sometimes superior. I would just need to do my best to limit the amount of impurities I absorbed from cultivating such an awful technique.
At the end of the first month, all the new Disciples were led out of our residential courtyard and guided to the depths of the training complex.
The high red walls surrounding us made me wonder what was located on the other side, so since no one was paying much attention to me, I took out my journal and worked on drawing a map of the complex as we made our way through it. This map was a bit crude, and all I was able to draw were a few streets marked with several doors, but it was a start.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Eventually, we were led to a large open area with a raised fighting platform in its center. To my left, a group of five middle-aged men sat on a balcony. I only recognized one of them, Su YuanFei. A quick check showed that they were all Martial Grandmasters, with YuanFei the highest at Grandmaster 7.
To our right, opposite the elders, a long platform at the same level as the fighting arena held ten somewhat cheap-looking thrones. The boys and girls sitting there were all clean and wore well-tailored robes. While they were all well-dressed, Su ShouDu, who was sitting at the far end of this platform, was unrivaled in the sheer gaudiness of his outfit. His bright red robe and small golden crown made him look like a tiny emperor.
Our martial arts instructor stepped toward the arena and bowed to the elder waiting there. Then he straightened and moved to the side, allowing the elder to take charge.
“Welcome everyone. I am Su HuaTian, Eighth Elder of the Su clan. Today, you are here to bear witness to the ten most elite and honorable new Disciples of our clan. They have each been blessed with powers and abilities far beyond their peers. They are the best of you, and they will be the proud representatives of the Su Clan in the future. Bow and pay your respects.”
I wanted to laugh, but I followed along with everyone else and bowed to the ten elites.
Once we rose, the elder continued his speech.
“Of course, the Su Clan accepts only the best of the best as its elite. These ten have been specially chosen based on the combined knowledge and experience of the clan’s esteemed elders. However, if you believe that you are superior to one of these hand-picked elites, you may challenge them to prove yourself more worthy of their position. This is your first such opportunity. After today, you will only have two more chances.”
I looked at the ten children on their thrones. In the past, I had been driven by cultivation madness to think that defeating them would be easy. This time, my mind was clear, and I could think rationally. I was absolutely confident I could crush any one of them.
Still, I didn’t step forward. I allowed the situation to unfold naturally.
The elder in charge of the competition stood before us. “Does anyone wish to challenge?”
No one made a move.
Our instructor gave me a vicious look. I gave a slight shake of the head. He squinted his eyes.
Su HuaTian looked at our instructor. “Deacon Xu?”
“Sir, I believe there is one disciple who should be given an opportunity to fight. It would be a good lesson for everyone.”
“Oh? Who is that?”
“Su Fang.” He looked right at me. “Step forward and give us all a demonstration.”
I had to thank the elder for reminding me of the deacon’s name.
I smiled and bowed. “Very well, Master Xu.”
As I walked forward, I quickly assessed the elites. There were six boys and four girls. Each of them was only at Martial Disciple 2. Their foundations were far better than the young men and women from my residential area, but none of them were overly impressive.
Studying them more closely, I got a sense of why that was. The Su Clan trained their Disciples to cultivate slowly to make their cultivation bases as perfect as possible. However, a fresh new cultivator would still make countless mistakes and pollute their bodies with impure qi. The Su Clan accepted this and just tried to minimize the damage.
During my time at the Yellow Orchid Academy, I had seen how the real elites of the continent were trained. We had practiced cultivation techniques as much as possible, and our instructors didn’t care about how many impurities entered our bodies. We just needed to learn to cultivate better. Then, once we had mastered the basics, we purged our bodies of impurities and forged a pristine foundation from scratch.
By comparison to even the weakest students in the Academy, the Su Clan elites looked a bit trashy.
As I was arriving on the stage, I had to decide who to fight.
After scanning all my potential opponents, my eyes locked onto a target that made me want to chuckle.
I pointed to the eighth disciple from the left. The one who had killed me several times during this exact same competition.
“I’ll challenge him.”
A smug look appeared on the boy’s face. He was excited for the chance to put me in my place.
As he walked onto the arena’s stage, I just gave him an affable smile.
Once we both were in position, the elder looked between us.
“This will be a fight to submission. Your goal is not to kill one another. However, fists have no eyes. In challenge fights, maiming and death are possible. Do you both understand?”
We responded simultaneously. “Yes, elder.”
“Good, bow to your opponent.”
I gave my opponent as genuine of a bow as I could muster.
The elder didn’t even allow me to straighten before beginning the competition.
“Fight!”
I had somewhat expected my opponent to charge at me, but we both just stood there. So, taking the initiative, I charged at him instead.
As I did, I watched as he cycled the qi in his arm.
The boy was only a Martial Disciple 2, meaning he had only opened a single acupoint in his upper right arm, but he had also cultivated his right fist to its limit.
He shifted the qi in his upper arm to enhance its speed and shifted the qi in his fist to his knuckles, giving him the power to deliver a devastating blow.
As I approached, I maintained my qi in its relaxed position, allowing it to boost my strength, speed, and defense equally.
When I was within range of the boy, he struck like a viper, using the enhanced speed of his boosted muscles to take me by surprise.
As soon as he made his move, I shifted my qi with pinpoint precision.
I knocked his blow aside with my right hand and delivered a devastating backhand with my left.
This sent him sprawling backward.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed one of the men on the balcony jump up from his seat and glare down at me.
I backed off and allowed the boy to stand and regain his composure. However, his anger got the better of him and he started shouting.
“Do you know who I am!? I am the personal disciple of Grandmaster Su YuanKong! How dare you hit me! How dare you hit an elite disciple!”
With that, he charged me like a bull. I stepped to the side and delivered a hard kick to his backside, sending him sprawling to the ground once more.
“YOU DARE!?”
This time, the shout didn’t come from the boy, it came from the balcony.
The man who had jumped to his feet earlier was now completely enraged. Using a bit of qi, he launched himself from the balcony and landed between me and my opponent.
“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!? First, you openly question my, Su YuanKong’s, judgment by challenging my disciple. Do you think I am incapable of knowing who is and is not deserving of the status of an elite!? I am the son of the patriarch! You dare question me?”
He took a single menacing step toward me.
“Then, you openly attack my disciple, slapping both him and me in the face!”
He took one more step.
“THEN, not only did you not kneel down and beg for forgiveness, you attacked him AGAIN! From the crime of treason against the clan, I sentence you to death!”
The Grandmaster was only a few steps away at this point.
He sent a wave of earth qi hurtling toward me. If it hit me, I would be severely injured, but I wouldn’t be dead. From the look of anger on this man’s face, I could tell that he wanted me to suffer.
Quickly thinking through my options, I decided to play this out a little bit longer and see where it went.
I grabbed the man’s qi with my earth affinity and ripped it away from his control. Then, I whipped it around my body and flung it right back at him as a compacted fist of force.
Against a more skilled opponent, this wouldn’t have worked. My ability to take control of his energy so easily relied not only on my significantly higher earth affinity but also on the fact that my opponent had sent out this energy recklessly. He wasn’t even trying to control it. He was just trying to overwhelm me with it.
A tightly compacted fist of earth qi slammed into the man’s chest, snapping his ribs and severely damaging his internal organs.
Only a moment ago, the elders on the balcony had been sitting by patiently and mocking their companion for interfering in the competition, but seeing the patriarch’s son lying broken on the arena floor, they could no longer sit back and laugh. They had to intervene.
I had thought that a show of strength might make them want to recruit me into the upper echelons of the clan, but severely injuring one of their number had turned all of the elders against me. In their eyes, I was no longer a Disciple who had just won a fight I shouldn’t have. I was an assassin.
There might have been a way to better thread this needle. There might have been an elite I could have challenged that wouldn’t have upset anyone. I might have been able to defeat my opponent in such a way that I didn’t turn everyone against me. I might have been able to fight the battle to a draw, or I might have been able to find a way to lose graciously.
The thing was, I didn’t care about any of that. I wasn’t here to play their games. What would be the point of being a good little disciple? I was here to evaluate and judge the members of this clan to see who would be worth recruiting. Every single person who had been on that balcony had just failed this assessment.
With a team of Grandmasters moving to attack me, I was at a severe disadvantage. My affinities might let me counter a reckless attack, but I didn’t have any hope of fighting back against even a single high-level cultivator in a serious fight.
In any case, I no longer cared. I had learned all I was going to learn from this timeline. I was ready to move on.
I pulled a poison pill from my storage space and swallowed it.
You have died. Calculating…
You died as a Martial Disciple 4 – 40 credits awarded.
Total Credits: 754,956,558,600
…