The Sect Tournament?
14: Chapter 14: Living Off Freebies and Waiting to Die!
The Sect Tournament?
Spring came and autumn went.
A year passed in the blink of an eye.
From the main peak of Azure Cloud Sect, wailing sounds echoed out.
“Master, come on, open the door!” “Master, it’s been a year!
Just let me in!” “Please, Master, come see your handsome and dashing disciple…” After wailing for an hour, Zhang Xuan stopped abruptly, as if completing some kind of task.
But looking at the still-closed pavilion doors, he couldn’t help but shake his head.
Over the past year, he had come to wail at the door for an hour every day to try and coax Yun Yao, but it didn’t seem to be working very well.
Zhang Xuan knew the little girl was waiting for him to admit his identity.
That was why she was giving him the cold shoulder.
But he truly couldn’t admit his identity, and so they were trapped in a vicious cycle.
“Alright then, Master.
I’m going down the mountain to have some fun,” Zhang Xuan called toward the pavilion before flying down toward the base of the mountain.
By now, he had successfully drawn spiritual energy into his body and stepped into… the Qi Refining realm.
And at the second level of Qi Refining, at that.
This was not because he had cultivated actively.
It was from eating the various spirit fruits on the main peak.
In his own words, if he actually cultivated on his own, what if he became too powerful and nobody could kill him?
The awakening of the Chaos Infinite Sword Body and the revival of the supreme sword intent had caused the sword intent and sword energy within his body to condense and strengthen at every moment.
So don’t be fooled by his mere second-level Qi Refining cultivation.
If he truly went all out, combining the battle experience of his ninety-nine past lives with the heaven-defying supreme sword intent, killing a Foundation Building cultivator would be a walk in the park.
And this was while he was actively suppressing the Chaos Infinite Sword Body.
If he didn’t suppress it, the revival of the sword intent would be even more terrifying!
The Five Elements Low-grade Spirit Root limited his rate of realm advancement.
Zhang Xuan could only say—good, let it be limited.
If he weren’t worried that a mortal’s hundred-year lifespan might not be enough to complete the mission, he wouldn’t have advanced at all.
For now, eating spirit fruits and drinking spirit spring water every day to slowly increase his cultivation and extend this life’s lifespan—just living off freebies and waiting to die—was the way to go.
He had calculated it.
With the spirit fruits on the main peak as his daily meals, even with the Five Elements Low-grade Spirit Root’s aptitude, it would be enough to slowly pile up to the Golden Core stage.
“Five hundred years of lifespan at Golden Core—that should be more than enough to complete the mission,” Zhang Xuan thought.
Of course, he couldn’t just sit around waiting forever.
What if no one came looking for trouble in five hundred years?
He still had to figure out how to create opportunities and stir up some chaos.
Over the past year, he had also gotten a rough understanding of Azure Cloud Sect’s internal situation.
Azure Cloud Sect was neither large nor small.
After all, it publicly claimed to have a Tribulation Transcendence Venerable as its guardian.
In the entire Southern Region, it was considered a notable force.
Within Azure Cloud Sect, there were several thousand outer disciples and elders combined.
The disciples’ cultivation ranged from Qi Refining to Golden Core, while the outer sect elders were mostly at the Nascent Soul stage.
As for the inner sect, there were only a few hundred disciples and elders combined, but this group formed Azure Cloud Sect’s core fighting force.
Their cultivation ranged from Spirit Transformation to Mahayana.
Inner sect disciples spent most of their time in seclusion, only occasionally appearing when sect missions were required.
The inner sect elders were responsible for managing the inner sect’s affairs.
This was essentially the basic framework of most cultivation sects.
Zhang Xuan had seen far too many of them.
Right now, he was flying from the main peak deep within the sect toward the outer sect.
When he passed through the inner sect disciples’ area, he could barely see anyone.
But when he reached the outer sect disciples’ area, there were plenty of people around.
“Greetings, Young Master!” “Greetings, Young Master!” When the outer sect disciples saw Zhang Xuan, they all hurried to pay their respects.
Zhang Xuan clasped his hands behind his back and nodded with a smile, looking every bit the elder greeting his juniors.
This made many of the disciples who greeted him look somewhat bewildered.
After Zhang Xuan flew off, they immediately began whispering among themselves.
“Why is the Young Master only at the second level of Qi Refining?” “Didn’t you know?
The Young Master has a Five Elements Low-grade Spirit Root.
To reach the second level of Qi Refining this quickly, who knows how much the Sect Master invested!” “Holy crap.
The Sect Master took a disciple with a Five Elements Low-grade Spirit Root?
What kind of lucky breaks is this guy getting?” “Who says otherwise?
I can’t even imagine how many cultivation resources this guy has consumed in the past year.” Zhang Xuan didn’t hear their discussions.
His divine sense at the second level of Qi Refining wasn’t that strong yet.
But he knew that the rumors about him in the sect were quite widespread.
He had tried to explain many times but never knew how to say it.
In the end, he could only comfort himself—these guys don’t know shit!
After flying for about an hour, Zhang Xuan finally arrived at the foot of a mountain in the outer sect.
At the base of the mountain stood a thatched hut, completely out of place among the caves of the outer sect disciples.
This was none other than Guyue Fangzheng’s residence.
Speaking of which, Guyue Fangzheng’s current position at Azure Cloud Sect was quite awkward.
If you called him a guest, he wasn’t allowed to leave Azure Cloud Sect, and he had built the thatched hut himself.
If you called him a prisoner, no one within Azure Cloud Sect dared restrict his freedom.
When the inner sect elders who had been blown away by Zhang Xuan’s sword intent returned and learned that Guyue Fangzheng was being detained, they were terrified.
They went to see Yun Yao many times.
But Yun Yao wouldn’t even see Zhang Xuan, let alone those inner sect elders.
So the inner sect elders now lived in constant fear, terrified that the Eternal Guyue Family of the Central Region might attack at any moment.
As a result, they didn’t dare impose any restrictions on Guyue Fangzheng, treating him as if he were invisible.
Zhang Xuan could only think they were worrying too much.
If a large number of cultivators were sent to attack a sect, traveling from the Central Region to the Southern Region—even at the fastest speed—it would take at least a decade or two.
The world was simply too vast.
Of course, if an immortal were involved, that was a different matter.
They could arrive in a year or two.
And Zhang Xuan actually wanted them to come.
When they did, he would sacrifice himself as the young master of Azure Cloud Sect.
Hey—mission accomplished!
“Brother Guyue!” As soon as Zhang Xuan arrived, he spotted Guyue Fangzheng sitting cross-legged in meditation before the thatched hut.
This guy was quite diligent.
Even after being detained at Azure Cloud Sect, he never forgot to cultivate each day.
His aura at the peak of Foundation Building was growing ever more profound.
It seemed he could break through to Golden Core whenever he wished.
Sometimes Zhang Xuan wondered if it was really okay to keep visiting the other party every day.
“I’m not disturbing your cultivation, am I?” Zhang Xuan landed on the ground and asked with a smile.
Hearing the familiar voice, Guyue Fangzheng opened his eyes and ended his cultivation, a helpless smile on his face.
“Brother Zhang is here.” “Here.
Why work so hard every day?
The point of cultivating for longevity is to enjoy life and roam freely—not to cultivate for the sake of cultivation.” Zhang Xuan tossed Guyue Fangzheng a spirit fruit as he spoke.
Guyue Fangzheng caught the spirit fruit, smiling bitterly and shaking his head.
He had heard Zhang Xuan say this many times before, but he couldn’t be as carefree as Zhang Xuan.
His background determined that he couldn’t have Zhang Xuan’s mindset.
As for the spirit fruit, he didn’t refuse it.
A single fruit was equivalent to three days of his cultivation.
Even in his family, he couldn’t eat spirit fruits like this as regular meals.
This kind of fruit could only be grown on soil soaked in an immortal’s Dao resonance.
Sometimes he couldn’t help but wonder—just how bad was a Five Elements Low-grade Spirit Root?
That female sword immortal had invested so many resources in Brother Zhang, yet after a whole year he was only at the second level of Qi Refining?!
What he didn’t know was that over the past year, Yun Yao hadn’t looked after Zhang Xuan at all.
He had picked these fruits himself.
After all, one’s own affairs were best kept to oneself.
There was no need to broadcast them.
As for why he visited Guyue Fangzheng every day—first, because besides Yun Yao, Guyue Fangzheng was the person he was most familiar with at Azure Cloud Sect.
With nothing to do every day, he could only come here to kill time.
Second, as a disciple of an Eternal Family, Guyue Fangzheng might not know everything about the current Taiyi Realm, but he certainly knew more than Zhang Xuan.
In his previous life, he hadn’t been from the Taiyi Realm.
Naturally, he needed to understand the current era’s situation, then piece together the information to figure out how to cause some trouble.
“Oh, by the way, Brother Zhang—I’ve heard that the Southern Region’s once-per-millennium Sect Tournament is about to begin.
Would you be interested in participating?” Guyue Fangzheng suddenly said.
“Sect Tournament?” Zhang Xuan raised an eyebrow.