“Xuuuun, please, have mercy!” the pathetic, blackened figure on the floor cried. Turning to the other people watching, he begged for someone to come save them, but everyone looked away.

Everyone but Zhanghao. “Peng, you chose this path. Everything that has happened since then is exclusively your own fault.”

“You don’t understand! He isn’t human. He’s a monster. And he’s coming for you next!” he cried.

Zhanghao gestured to her puppets. “He’s already gotten to me.”

“And me too,” Zeran said as she showed her sword and the scratches she had. “Your chickens really don’t mess around.”

“Hey, hey, Peng. That was only four hours of mild training, I don’t get what you’re whining about. Back in my day- ahem, back in my parent’s days, they trained for twice as long as you,” Xun said.

Zhanghao and Zeran shuddered. What kind of crazy parents did Xun have?

“Did they get blasted with elemental technique for hours as their training?”

“Well, they weren’t cultivators,” Xun grunted. “Do you want to double your training?”

“No, no, please, nine skies no.”

It had been three months since Xun signed the group up for the sect tournament. Ever since then, Xun had dragged all of them out into the field every morning at the brink of dawn and trained them until they were so tired that they couldn't even drag themselves back to their houses.

Despite Pengzi’s charred exterior, Zeran was actually the one who fared the worst. Xun would wake her up first, and she’d begin by swinging her sword, practicing moves to the point where her hands bled. Then Xun would wake up Zhanghao for herbs to heal her hands. Afterwards, Zhanghao was sent to the farm as Xun began a more personalized teaching approach with Zeran.

He’d correct her form with a bamboo staff that was hardened by zhen. Every time she made a tiny mistake, Xun wouldn’t hesitate to whack out the offending limb or body part. If Zeran ever told him that she was beginning to have nightmares of the bamboo stick, he would believe her. Back when he was training on the sword path, his worst enemies weren’t the cultivators that he fought. It was the simple wooden stick held in his master’s hand.

Then, instead of letting her rest like a normal human being, Xun would go wake up Pengzi and bring back Zhanghao. Most of the time, Zeran had to fight Pengzi’s stupidly powerful chicken, but sometimes, Zhanghao would finish crafting one of her puppets and she’d have to find her way around the weird attacks from the shadowy figures.

But no matter how bad things got, she could look over at Pengzi and smile with the knowledge that someone had it worse than her.

Pengzi’s body cultivation had been progressing at a fairly decent pace. That wasn’t enough for Xun. He’d drag Pengzi to an empty field and start barraging him with techniques. His favorite were the improved Earth Shield Techniques that each hit with the strength of a couple thousand pounds. After that, it was the Fireball Technique that almost always elicited a yelp from the body cultivator.

This went on every day, without a single day of break. Even the spirit rice harvests were done fast enough that Xun would be back before the day was over to finish their training. It was the chickens who rebelled first. After a couple weeks of not being fed, they decided to take their anger out on Xun rather than Zeran.

Flying together in a tight formation, they dive bombed on Xun when he was attacking Pengzi. Everyone on the farm could still remember how Xun had smiled when that had happened.

Long story short, no one ever went against Xun’s words ever again. Not even the chickens.

A few days later, the sect announced the tournament date.

—

The day of the tournament came around, and blessedly, Xun hadn’t “trained” them the previous day. Instead, they had all meditated and cultivated to a point where he was satisfied, before he sent them all to sleep early.

I don’t think I’ve seen that much happiness from being forced to sleep early in my past life or this one, till now. Xun chuckled as he went to bed.

He didn’t particularly enjoy being a demon instructor, per se, but he would be lying if he said that he didn’t have fun teaching them and watching them grow into formidable cultivators in their own right. It was almost like building a sect.

Xun went to bed that night with a complicated expression on his face.

—

The Sacred Gate Sect had built a special, neutral competition stage with the other two sects in the middle of the mountain range. Using earth techniques, they had created a new small mountain that was reinforced by zhen. As the four from the spirit farm scaled the mountain steps, they met the other disciples of the other two sects.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The Twin Beast Sect were a bunch of cultivators that didn’t exactly look normal. Most of their eyes were bloodshot and animals prowled around them. The Purple Flower Sect was an entirely female sect. Almost all of them chose to wear robes in various shades of purple.

“Zhanghao, maybe you should wear a robe like that,” Pengzi joked before being pinched in the arm.

Of the three sects, the Sacred Gate Sect had by far the most disciples. Xun recognized some of the faces, cultivators who used to be a part of the Nine Thunder Sect, and others from his dealings in the sect market.

“Disciples, listen up.” One of the elders flew into the sky to explain the rules. “There are ten stages here on the mountain. Fight on any one of them. If you win ten fights in a row or no one dares to challenge you, you’ll be declared the winner of that stage. Of these ten stages, five of them are for individuals, where you can only fight alone. Three of them are for two cultivators, where you can find a friend or partner to fight alongside yourself. And the last two are group stages, you can bring as many people as you want to the stage.”

The elder surveyed the disciples that had split into three groups based on their sects. “Each of these stages, should you win, represents a split of the resources that the Seventeen Mountains produces. Go out and bring glory to your sect. In the process, you’ll also be rewarded.”

The same elder produced a scroll from his robe. He unfurled it to show a blank page. “While the ultimate results of this tournament are determined by the stages, this leaderboard here is how we measure each of your performances. The better your technique, the stronger your combat ability, and the more wins you have, the higher you’ll be ranked on this leaderboard. You can use this leaderboard as a way to figure out which cultivator to challenge. It only records the top 100 cultivators. Your name needs to appear on this board to count as participation in the tournament.”

There were far more than a hundred disciples in the Sacred Gate Sect’s group alone. The disciple began to murmur among each other.

“Quiet. If you have the energy to complain, then you should have the strength to fight for your sect. The stages are located on the other side of the mountain. Now go.”

Sighing at the long walk it would require, Xun began walking again. But as the mountain pass narrowed, they met a crowd of Sacred Gate disciples in front of them.

Tapping the shoulder of a disciple, Xun asked, “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. I think the Twin Beast Sect isn’t letting people pass.”

“Why? It’s not like this is the tournament, why waste your effort now,” Pengzi asked.

“Watch,” Xun said as his gaze locked onto one of the Twin Beast Sect disciples.

As if on cue, the disciple stepped forward with anger twisting on his face.

“You bastards killed my senior brother through shameless means. If you want to participate in the tournament, you’ll have to get through me first.” He unleashed his spirit beast, a spotted tiger, on the Sacred Gate disciples, leading to general panic. Although it was just a single spirit beast, it forced dozens of cultivators back. Wherever the beast went, the cultivators would flee. Behind him, the other Twin Beast cultivators all summoned their spirit beasts forward.

“That’s not a strong beast at all. Why doesn’t someone just beat it?” Pengzi asked. He was probably comparing the tiger to his chickens.

“Because the main problem with the Sacred Gate Sect is that we have little trust between one another,” Zhanghao responded. “No one wants to waste their zhen fighting something before they get to the tournament.”

“Shouldn’t we tell an elder? This is obviously against —“

“Obviously not,” Xun said as he gave her a meaningful look. “He has a valid reason for doing all of this.”

Of the group, only Zhanghao understood the true meaning behind his words. Why call the elders when competition was getting hobbled without any effort on their part?

Xun watched as some of the stronger Sacred Gate disciples chose to display their strength by either showing an impressive spirit weapon or through their techniques. Whenever that happened, the Twin Beast cultivators opened a path for that disciple to pass. It seemed that the goal of the Twin Beast Sect wasn’t exactly to stop all the Sacred Gate disciples from participating. Just enough such that the other two sects would have a lead.

“Stage One has been locked. The winner is Liezhou from the Twin Beast Sect,” the elder’s voice boomed out and caused a ripple of panic to spread through the disciples.

“Dirty tricks. Let us through!” one of the Sacred Gate disciples yelled as he brought out his skeletons.

“You really think we’re scared of you?” Tendrils of blood floated in front of another.

“Yes, I do,” the Twin Beast disciple said as the spirit beast pounced on the first demonic cultivator.

It became utter chaos. The Sacred Gate disciples, without any level of cohesion, couldn’t hope to challenge the more organized Twin Beast cultivators. Quickly, they began falling to the attacks of the spirit beasts. It was more than that. Every so often, a flash of a green beast would appear in the crowd and attack one of the well dressed Sacred Gate cultivators. It always succeeded in eliminating its target.

“Xun? What do we do?” Zeran asked. She drew her sword.

“We wait.” Xun pointed at a dot flying at them. “The elders probably would have ignored this if they just blocked the path. But now that they’re outright killing disciples, well, it’s hard not to manage this situation.”

The elder arrived in just a matter of seconds and punched at the Twin Beast disciples. A giant fist of zhen flew forward and was about to impact against the orthodox cultivators when a green serpent flew from the crowd and intercepted the attack.

“What’s the meaning of this?” the elder asked.

“The meaning, Elder Yuwei, is that we were merely defending ourselves,” a Twin Beast elder spoke up, his voice steady despite the tension thick in the air. “The disciples of Sacred Gate sought to force their way through our territory without regard for our customs or boundaries.”

Elder Yuwei's eyes narrowed as he observed the carnage surrounding them. “Defense, you say? Your territory? This mountain is neutral ground.”

The Twin Beast elder who had intercepted the attack stepped forward, his serpent beast coiling protectively around him. “With all due respect, Elder Yuwei, we’ve allowed many Sacred Gate disciples to pass through. But your disciples began to threaten and attack us. We had no choice but to retaliate in kind to protect our sect's honor and territory.”

Elder Yuwei's gaze shifted from the Twin Beast disciples to the fallen Sacred Gate cultivators.

“This conflict ends here.”

“I would agree. Twin Beast, let the Sacred Gate cultivators through.”