"My dear Dong Shui, today you will learn to never judge someone based on their words, hehe"

Xuan Wu looks towards his system, already having the perfect plan for vengeance.

"Senior brother Dong Shui, even if you aren't my senior, I'll still call you that!"

A big man, 13, around 6'5 ft in height, praises Dong Shui.

"Haha, Feng Zhi, the great man you are, always praising us"

Lei Ming smirks, giving Feng Zhi a pat on the back.

The group laughs together as they follow the sect elder.

Xuan Wu looks around, it seems majority of the disciples have gotten into teams.

He grits his teeth. "That damn Dong Shui, gossiping and starting rumors, look, everyone's separated themselves from me!"

Xuan Wu looks at the system.

[Dong Shui] [Title: None]

[Age: 12/80 +/-]

[Race: Human +/-]

[Cultivation: None/Mortal +/-]

[Innate Talent/s...]

Xuan Wu nods at the system.

"It seems it's similar to my stats, just has... more."

He looks down.

[Personality: Troublemaker, smartass... +/-]

[Kinks: ... +/-]

[Inventory: ... +/-]

...

"Oh Dong Shui, you poor, poor soul. If you had just minded your own business, none of this would be happening! Well, guess you just had to do it, and now, I have to do this."

Xuan Wu puts his hands together in praying, praying for Dong Shui.

"The Heavenly Dao, if you can hear me, please have mercy on Dong Shui for what I'm about to do."

Dong Shui minds his business, chatting with his friend-group, excited for the Disciple Ceremony.

A gnarly, evil finger reaches towards the 'Kinks' tab.

"Hehe, system, you definitely knew what you were doing with this..."

(+/-)

[Kinks:]

[None]

"Hehe, first, let's add a little humiliation kink."

[Kinks:]

[Humiliation]

"Now, let's alter his personality a bit."

[Personality]

[Troublemaker, Smartass...]

"How about a little..."

[Troublemaker, Smartass, Glutton, Disrespectful (Towards Elders)...]

"Now, he'll mess up before he knows it, and get kicked out... I don't want to be too rude."

Xuan Wu closes the system and continues walking, the group of disciples nearly having reached the Disciple Ceremony.

Dong Shui suddenly feels a change, like he wants people to laugh at him, and also feels like smacking the back of the sect elder's head.

"Hehe, maybe my new friends will accept me a bit more if I do that... maybe at the disciple ceremony"

Dong Shui giggles to himself, already having the perfect plan.

The sect elder is probably low-ranking after all.

Liu Chen, Xun Long, and the other clan members and invited guests arrive at the Ceremonial building.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The sect elder they've been following with a hood speaks.

"Bow towards the sect leader."

Each person, whether they are in a small clan or large, each bow towards the figure standing with his hands behind his back.

The sect leader ponders, looking towards the three statues of each sect founder.

"Oh ancestor, I thank you for rewarding us with a superior-grade talent..."

He mumbles to himself.

Outside, the group of disciples arrive at the Ceremonial Building.

The sect elder speaks, staring at each disciple.

"The first rule in the ceremonial grounds."

"Be quiet."

"The second."

"Respect your elders."

Dong Shui feels a shudder run through him, quickly dismissing it, as each newly admitted disciple enters the Ceremonial Building.

The building from the outside looks like a pagoda, with the inside being a square hall. Tables are lined with dishes, and three large statues are placed at the front. With a stage in front of them.

The balconies to the sides of the hall contain clan members and invited guests, drinking wine and chatting.

Meanwhile the stage at the front contains 8 Peak Elders, presumably there to allocate each disciple into a peak.

As the crowd of disciples gathers in front of the stage, a terrifying coercion is felt.

THUMP

Each disciple kneels, their heads hitting the ground.

The supreme elder next to the sect leader presses the disciples down with his aura.

BOOM

The first disciple, Xiong Nuan, with medium-grade talent falls, giving up.

Then the second.

Then the third.

A wave of disciples start falling.

Xuan Wu struggles to keep his head up as the coercion progressively gets stronger.

[Detected coercion threatening host, eradicate it?]

"No... I... need to keep... being... low—"

Xuan Wu's head crashes to the carpet.

Then the coercion fades.

The supreme elder nods.

"We've got quite some talents here, I'd say."

Xun Shi and Liu Huan both, with the highest talent stay with their heads up, blood flowing down their foreheads.

"Arise."

The sect leader commands, and each disciple feels a wave of healing power, erasing away the pain caused by the coercion.

Xuan Wu grumbles as he stands up and swipes the dust off of his shoulder.

"I could've eradicated your weak coercion, you're lucky I'm being low profile."

The sect leader turns around.

He has a face taunted by time, long dark hair reaching his shoulders. Wearing commanding white robes.

His eyes sparkle with a long lost thirst for battle.

"Disciples. Welcome to your Disciple Ceremony."

He raises his arms, and each peak elder introduces themselves.

The first to step out is Lady Yi Na.

She bows humbly towards the disciples, even though she is a far higher cultivation.

The disciples already get excited, partly because of her good looks and the other part because of her modesty.

"I am Lady Yi Na, the Peak Elder of Serenity Peak. We cultivate peacefully, unbothered by worldly affairs."

Then the next introduces himself, Elder Lu Peng.

And then the next.

"...The Strength Peak..."

"...Virility Peak..."

After each Peak Elder introduces themselves, the sect leader continues.

"You, you children will have to choose one. Whether you get accepted or not is up to the peak elder."

The five children, including Dong Shui, each step up to choose their peak.

Dong Shui, the leader of the friend group speaks.

"We'll go to the Clan Peak, a Peak specializing in friendship values and teamwork? Perfect for us!"

Then the next group, a group of 4.

"We'll choose the Virility peak..."

Eventually, the disciple numbers dwindle down as they go to their respective peaks.

Xun Shi and Li Huan are some of the last to choose their peaks.

Xun Shi shouts, "I'll go to the Sword Peak!"

Li Huan shouts, "I'll go to the Spear peak!"

Each at the same time, they depart to their respective elders.

Xuan Wu humbly follows Xun Shi to the Sword Peak.

"Better follow the supposed protagonist of this world if I want to keep a low-profile, maybe I'll even become a side character!"

Just as Xun Shi is about to enter the crowd behind the Sword Peak elder, Zeng Su, he puts out a hand in front of Xun Shi.

With a smug frown.

"Why should I let a low-grade talent into my Sword Peak?"

Xuan Wu's face turns red

"Oh yeah? He wants to challenge me? Syst—"

"Let him in."

Xun Shi says nonchalantly, cutting him off.

"I see the potential in him."

The Sword Peak Elder steps aside. "Whatever the superior-grade talent says, I suppose."

He crosses his arms as Xuan Wu enters the crowd.

"None of you get how hard it is restraining myself from using the Cheat System!"

Xuan Wu grumbles to himself angrily, settling into the crowd of arrogant sword cultivating bastards.

Li Huan and Xun Shi glare at each other, sparks floating as they have a mental battle.

Dong Shui, the bastard speaks in the middle of intermission.

"Haha, it seems the idiot got a free pass into the Sword Peak, how nice of them."

He's obviously talking about Xuan Wu.

The Clan Peak Elder, Cao Qiu, grabs Dong Shui by the back of his head, lifting Dong Shui up to face him.

"What are our core values?"

He shouts in Dong Shui's face.

Being lifted in front of everyone like this, surely the victim would feel humiliation.

But...

Dong Shui suddenly blushes, submitting instantly to the Elder.

"I-I'm sorry elder, our core values are t-to prioritise friendship and teamwork."

He says shyly.

Cao Qiu senses something wrong, but continues to show an example out of Dong Shui.

"Well you disrespected those very values, calling your fellow sect member an 'idiot', go kneel towards him!"

A collection of gasps ring out.

Xuan Wu grins.

"I'm starting to like this elder, maybe I should give you an opportunity, hehe"

Most, if not every disciples posed with that order would definitely try to get their way out of it.

But not the recently-changed Dong Shui.

Without even considering it, he runs up to Xuan Wu and gets on his knees, even kowtowing towards him.

"I apologise, senior brother, please punish this idiotic junior!"

Another collection of gasps, followed by murmurs of disgust ring out.

Cao Qiu, already regretting making an example out of Dong Shui, floats over to him and picks him up, throwing him back into the Clan Peak crowd, where each disciple distances themselves from him, while he giggles to himself.

"Damn it, did I pick up a kinky disciple or what!?"

The sect leader abruptly turns towards the disciples, suddenly shouting.

"DUCK—"