Tianshen went back to his courtyard and sat down cross legged after storing Cao Bai’s things into the storage ring gifted to him by Cao Chen a couple of days ago.
It’s important to mention that in the Blue Cloud country and the rest of the known continent, storage rings were divided into three categories: lower, middle, and higher quality. The lower quality had approximately a 10x10 meter space inside it. The middle ones had about 50x50 and the higher ones about 100x100.
Storage rings were only useful until a certain level of cultivation because after some point, cultivators learn how to manipulate space and can create their own portable storage space which is also many times bigger than any of the storage rings can provide.
Tianshen spent the rest of the time he had left until the Azure Dragon sect ranking tournament by diligently cultivating his Sword of Judgment, he wanted it to reach stage two so he concentrated more on the technique itself than his cultivation, as he thought that with his current strength, without overusing his soul power he could face opponents of the 1st Earth Realm.
He also started cultivating a second technique. It was a technique that he used a lot in his previous life and it helped him a lot on his road to reach the top. This technique was called the ‘Buddha Body’. By cultivating this technique one’s physical strength and would advance by leaps and bounds. Not only did it increase physical strength, it also increases the body’s resistance to powerful attacks.
Since he was now in the Core Formation realm, advancing was a bit harder now but it still wasn’t enough to significantly slow him down. Besides the monstrous talent that he possessed for cultivation since his previous life, he now also had the vast knowledge of a transcendent being so he indeed had an unfair advantage compared to others. But considering the challenges and hardships he had to face in his previous lifetime when starting cultivation for the first time, he fully deserved what he had now.
The day of the Azure Dragon sect ranking tournament finally arrived and all three friends exited their secluded cultivation. Tianshen was still at the 5th Core Formation realm, Bingyue was the same. While Wentian was now at the 7th Core Formation realm.
They never dreamt that their speed of advancement would be so monstrous after Tianshen bestowed upon them the Golden Crow Flames and the Divine Ice God techniques. They finally understood that Tianshen really changed their destiny and saved the many extra years of cultivation.
Tianshen looked at both of his friends and smiled at them ‘’are you guys ready?’’ he asked.
They both nodded while smiling back at Tianshen. After that, they exited the building and started going down the mountain to make their way towards the main fighting stage which was located in the center of the core region. Today, all of the disciples of the Azure Dragon sect would gather around the main fighting stage and witness the fights.
It is important to mention that only disciples that were at least of the 5th Core formation realm could participate in the ranking tournament. But everyone was still welcome to come watch the battles regardless of their cultivation level.
The three of them arrived at the place where the main stage was located, the place was already flooded with people. The stage was huge, about a thousand meters wide and a thousand meters long. On one side of the stage, located on a higher ground were eleven seats of honor which were reserved for the ten elders and the legacy disciple. Around the stage were ten pavilions that were reserved for the ten core disciples and their people. And behind the pavilions around the whole stage you could see huge stands where thousands of people could sit to watch the battles.
Tianshen looked at his two friends and extended his hands, in each of his hand was a necklace.
‘’Wear them and they will hide your cultivation level from your opponents. This way you have the element of surprise. I adjusted both of them to match the level of power you possess at the moment. So if you suddenly reach a new level of power during battle they will break, so just keep that in mind’’ said Tianshen.
‘’Good luck, I will be watching you’’ he added while smiling at them.
They both took one necklace and wore it while thanking Tianshen. Then they proceeded to the stands with the rest of the disciples and waited their turn to be called up to fight. They were living with Tianshen but in the sect they were still considered outer sect disciples so they had to go wait with the others.
The ten elders and Cao Chen arrived and sat on their seats, shortly after Tianshen also arrived next to them, he greeted them and sat next to the chief. Many disciples were looking at Tianshen with veneration while some others gave him angry and jealous looks. He chose to ignore everyone as he did not have anything to prove. As far as he was concerned, if anyone had a problem with him they could openly challenge him if they dared.
Below the main seats, in each of the pavilions sat a core disciple. Some of them were alone while others had a gang of people with them. Each of the pavilions had a number above it which indicated the ranking of the core disciples.
It’s worth mentioning that what differentiated the inner sect disciples from the core disciples was that the inner sect disciples were all people with cultivations between the 1st and 5th Core Formation realm while the core disciples were between the 6th and the 9th Core formation realm.
‘’The level of core disciples in this sect is weak, if it was any major sect outside of this province, the core disciples would probably be on a whole other level compared to the inner sect disciples’’ thought Tianshen while sighing. He really had some work to do to raise the average level of the disciples and elders in this sect if he wanted to bring back the sect to the top of the province. But he was not worried since he still around a year to do so.
In the pavilion with the number ten above it sat a youth that looked to be about sixteen years old. He was muscular and had a very large body. Tianshen checked his cultivation level and saw that it was at the 6th Core formation realm.
In the 9th through 6th pavilion sat four girls. All four of them were relatively good looking and all had cultivations of at the 7th Core formation realm. In the pavilion with the number five above it sat another boy, his facial features looked awfully similar with the guy that was currently sitting in the pavilion that had the number one above it. But what surprised Tianshen about this guy was that he had a lower cultivation that the three girls that were ranked below him. He was at the 6th Core formation level, so Tianshen assumed that this guys was relatively talented since he could most likely fight people with at least one cultivation level higher than him.
In the 4th pavilion sat a person that looked much older than the others. He actually looked like he was in his late twenties. He had a smile on his face while looking at everyone but Tianshen could tell that that smile was fake and he was actually a cunning fox.
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In the 3rd pavilion sat a boy that looked very young but very ordinary and unimpressive at the same time. He looked to be about fourteen years old, the same age as Tianshen. He was at the 8th Core formation realm. Something about this boy gave Tianshen an ominous feeling. His gut told him that this boy was not as simple as he looked.
Unlike the other pavilions that Tianshen observed before, in the second one he saw a face that was familiar to him. She was stunningly beautiful with delicate facial features. It was Cao Bai, the moment Tianshen looked at her, she looked back at him, blushed, and with a ‘’hmph’’ turned her head around.
Tianshen suddenly had a cunning evil smile on his face. He suddenly stood up, which drew a lot of gazes towards him. He then proceeded to walk down from the platform that the main seats were located and started walking towards one of the pavilions. People started to whisper and speculate what kind of trouble this demon was going to cause this time. When everyone saw that Tianshen was walking towards the 2nd pavilion, everyone gasped.
‘’Did he really like older sister Cao Bai so much that he had to approach her now in front of everyone? Isn’t this a bit excessive?’’ some people said.
Then someone else speculated ‘’maybe he knows that she is strong and just wants to challenge her’’
People’s thoughts were running wild at that moment. Then one of the elders on the platform turned to Cao Chen and said ‘’Chief, I understand that your daughter is a peerless beauty, but isn’t this the wrong time for Tianshen to confess?’’
Cao Chen knew that his daughter went to challenge Tianshen, but for the past week, whenever he attempted to ask her about the result she was just blushing crazily then always acted like she had just remembered something important she had to do and then ran off.
‘’little Bai challenged Tianshen to a battle about a week ago, so I don’t think Tianshen is going there to confess to her. Maybe they became friends after their battle’’ said Cao Chen while smiling. But deep inside, he did not mind if his daughter and Tianshen fell in love with each other. Tianshen was a monstrous genius with an unmeasurable future, and the legacy disciple of his sect. Plus Cao Chen really liked the boy’s demeanor too do he thought that it was his daughter’s good fortune to find a man like Tianshen.
When Wentian and Bingyue saw Tianshen walking towards Cao Bai, Wentian reacted with a big smile. He really admired this guy’s luck with women. Bingyue was less than amused, she just hmphed and said ‘’pervert’’ with a dissatisfied face.
At this moment Tianshen was outside of Cao Bai’s pavilion, she was looking at him with a dissatisfied face. She knew this guy was causing a ruckus in front of everyone on purpose but she didn’t know the reason.
‘’Maybe he wants to humiliate me in front of everyone because he defeated me in a sword fight?’’ she thought to herself and suddenly frowned.
Tianshen produced a set of armor and a sword from his storage ring and walked up to her, with a louder than usual voice and deceivingly polite smile he said ‘’little Bai, you forgot your armor and sword at my place from the other night, you should be more careful and not forget your stuff next time you decide to pay me a night visit okay?’’
Everyone around had their mouths open, including the elders and Cao Chen.
‘’Aren’t they a bit too young to be spending nights together?’’ Thought Cao Chen.
People started whispering and making all kinds of assumptions about what kind of nights Tianshen and Cao Bai had together. Wentian and Bingyue were also as surprised as everyone else. Wentian now had an even bigger grin on his face, this brother of his indeed had some amazing methods when it comes to women. Bingyue was mumbling something about perverts while staring at Tianshen angrily.
Cao Bai was red from top to bottom as this point. She was glaring at Tianshen and was looking like she was ready to explode from anger. Never in her wildest dreams did she expect that Tianshen was this cunning. He was clearly taking advantage of her. She wanted to jump into a hole to hide from embarrassment.
She tried to calm herself down while also trying to convince herself that it wasn’t a big deal.
After that she quickly stored her armor inside her storage ring while sheathing the sword behind her back.
‘’Thank you for returning my things brother Tianshen, I will surely visit you soon to learn more sword skills from you’’ she said while forcing a smile.
‘’Of course little Bai, you’re welcome to join me any night to learn my sword skills’’ said Tianshen while turning and walking back towards the platform, giving zero chance to Cao Bai to reply to him.
She gritted her teeth ‘’I will strangle this guy for sure after this tournament’’ she thought.
Tianshen returned to his seat and soon everyone went back to speculating and discussing about the tournament that was about to start.
‘’Chief Cao Chen, do not misunderstand, I was really just teaching little Bai sword skills since she is still very lacking’’ said Tianshen with an apologetic look.
Cao Chen thought about it for a moment then patted Tianshen’s shoulder and said with a laugh
‘’hahaha, of course Tianshen, my precious daughter is in your care, you better not disappoint me’’
Something told Tianshen that this Cao Chen really took his joke too seriously and wasn;t following the situation so he just went along with it.
‘’Of course’’ he smiled at Cao Chen.
‘’By the way, chief Cao Chen, who is that guy in the first pavilion?’’ asked Tianshen.
‘’That is Kong Zhi’s eldest son, Kong Feng. He is not far away from the Earth realm and will probably soon have a breakthrough’’ said Cao Chen. He then leaned towards Tianshen’s ear and whispered ‘’Be careful with this one, he is strong and he has been after the legacy disciple position for a while now, he will most likely cause trouble for you in the future’’
‘’Chief Cao Chen, do I look like the person that can be easily messed with? If he comes looking for trouble it will only seal his fate’’ said Tianshen emotionlessly.
Cao Chen nodded in approval. A bit more time then passed and everyone was now present for the event.
Cao Chen the stood up ‘’Disciples and elders of the Azure Dragon sect, I welcome you to our yearly ranking tournament. I hope each and every one of you had cultivated diligently for the past year so you can come on to the stage today and fight for a chance to become a core disciple. Vice chief Kong Zhi will now explain the rules of the tournament’’
Kong Zhi then stood up and gestured with his hand, next moment three servants brought a huge crystal about the size of a human, and put it in the middle of the stage.
‘’This year we have way more participants compared to last year which is something to be happy about. But alas we still need to have an elimination round before the actual tournament starts. This crystal will measure your talent, you will use your soul power on the crystal and it will indicate the level of your talent by changing color’’
‘’There are five colors, white means ordinary talent, yellow means above average, red means good, blue means great and purple means excellent. Now everyone that is of the 5th Core formation realm and above line up and wait for your turn. I don’t think I need to mention that if you are below the 5th Core formation realm and plan to sneak into the competition, the crystal will release a lethal attack and you will die. Core disciples are also not exempted from this preliminary test’’