Yu Tao hadn’t taken the loss in the final too well but it didn’t stop him from cultivating like a maniac. He had missed the chance to directly enter the Black Rainbow Sect but that wasn’t troubling him at all. Yu Tao felt that he still had some unfinished business on the Edera continent, with so much he had yet to explore and experience. The proud regiment was just the tip of the iceberg he wanted to witness. Little did he know, him losing the final had actually saved his life.

After Yu Tao finished his torture training under a lightning array, he immediately dived into a cultivation session. However, he had an unexpected surprise when he opened his eyes: a stunning woman was standing in front of him in his little room.

Before Yu Tao could open his mouth, she presented herself. “Hello, I am Elder Zhang and Wang Yimo’s teacher. I am here to bring you the reward for saving my disciple. I wasn’t among the Elders that made the trip to the crater so I just learned about this. Wang Yimo has described everything to me.”

She whipped out a cloth to reveal a magnificent glass bottle with a Blood Red Pill inside. “This pill is called the blood forming pill due to its color but its effect has little to do with blood: it increases the maximum amount of qi your dantian can contain. The process after eating it is excruciatingly painful but I analyzed that this pill would correspond perfectly to your needs. It cost me a good portion of my wealth and I had to get it from alchemists at the SCA’s headquarters.”

Yu Tao had first thought of refusing the gift but after hearing its effect, he couldn’t help but feel ecstatic. He was convinced that he could have won against Xue Guo if he had greater qi reserves.

“Thank you, Senior Zhang, for this inestimable gift. I will be eternally grateful.”

Yu Tao was reaching out to receive the pill when Elder Zhang crushed the bottle in her dainty hands. It looked as if blood had splattered on the floor and on the cieling as the red pill exploded.

Yu Tao looked up in disbelief with a questioning gaze. He only found a cold and frosty face.

“And this is for nearly breaking my disciple’s Dao heart.” Elder Zhang cleaned up all the red spots with a wave of the hand and left just like this.

Yu Tao was still standing in his frozen position for a time but anger started to boil underneath the surface. His face was burning as though he had just received a slap. All these humiliations, he would be sure to repay ten times in the future.

…

In another corner of the Sun Empire, Han Lingyun had his little sister in his arms; she had fallen asleep in his embrace after jumping around the house in a supercharged manner. Like they had planned, Han Lingyun had dropped his White Tiger Sect’s token near the city of Cemone before finding the Han family’s new location from a box hidden in the soil next to a recognizable tree.

The new house was situated next to a tranquil village and Han Feng picked hunting as his new occupation. They acted frugal with their wealth and the family just passed as a line of hunters that had to migrate for food. Han Xue’s time was used taking good care of her daughter and making friends with the other women in the village. A good third were field workers but the village wasn’t completely dead otherwise. In fact, the village could be considered as quite wealthy overall. Many profited from the trade due to the merchants passing by as the settlements was situated close to a town named Yumen, which in turn was only one day carriage ride from the Capital. The village thus had its hotels, bars, restaurants, market and other artisans. It was also quite safe. Because of its closeness to the capital, bandits were not present in this region.

Still, in a further measure to protect his family, Han Lingyun had installed around the house an array with mid-grade crystals as its core that could be activated by a press on a button in case threats came to trouble the peace of the village. Han Lingyun had been the one to create that array in its entirety and he was proud to use it to help his family. He had still warned his parents to not activate the formation array unless necessary or a foundation establishment cultivator could notice the active formation from afar and come to investigate, which would defeat its whole purpose.

After a refreshing couple of days in the loving company of his family, Han Lingyun kissed them goodbye and headed back to the city of Cemone to fetch his sect identification token.

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‘I really have taken up the habit of digging and unearthing stuff from underneath some trees.’ He lampooned as he picked up his badge from a hole in the ground.

Han Lingyun was about to take off when an old voice interrupted him. “Good morning young one; it’s a fine token you have here.”

The boy jumped backwards as he had failed to notice anyone. He was shocked to find an ordinary looking elderly man standing next to him on the hill with the lonely tree.

Feeling his hands turn moist, Han Lingyun tried to put on a brave front and didn’t shrink back. To sneak up on him like that, this person had to be a cultivator at the foundation establishment realm, or perhaps even higher. Han Lingyun bowed. “Senior is?”

“Hahaha, you can relax, I wish you no harm. If I did you wouldn’t be in this world anymore.”

This sentence didn’t ease Han Lingyun a single bit, and a drop of sweat trickled down his forehead.

The old man acted as if he didn’t notice. “Anyway, did you enjoy my jade?”

“Your jade?” Han Lingyun was suddenly stunned by an idea.

“Yes, the one you got from the Night Lotus Auction.”

Han Lingyun was getting more and more shocked by the implications of every additional word from the old man.

“Senior, if I may ask, how did your jade end up at the auction?”

“Because I demanded so, of course. There isn’t a single person from the SCA that could oppose my will, haha. It was more as a fun experiment. You see, I had already heard of you thanks to your teacher named Wen so I wanted to see if you indeed had a good eye and if destiny would bind us together. And I was right! You see, this jade is really quite peculiar. It emits faint waves on the soul dimension, it will only resonate in rare cases, creating an invisible attraction. However, every single one of those singled out individuals have a great soul for their level. And it just so happens that I am one of them too! Extraordinary, right?”

At first, Han Lingyun was slightly reassured by hearing about Elder Wen but he remained on his guard. He reckoned that this senior should be the one that directed the Edera Array Meet that Elder Wen had discussed. Han Lingyun didn’t sense any malicious intent from the enthusiastic old man but the bizarreness of this sudden encounter kept him on edge. “What does Senior want from me?”

The old man stayed silent for a time. “I admire your understanding of our world, but by explaining anything more, you would be forced to accept my terms or be eliminated. Now do you wish to hear what I have to say?

“If Senior sought me out, I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

The old man smiled. “Indeed, I wasn’t wrong, you have a great mind little Lingyun. In truth, what I propose would be highly beneficial on your end.

In fact, it’s really simple. I came before you because I recognize your incredible potential. My hope is to profit from your growth and accompany you when you leave this planet.”

Before Han Lingyun had the time to digest these words, the old man threw a token at the young disciple. It represented a solar system encased in a giant rainbow formation. “This is my personal token; you can contact me from anywhere on the continent by simply circulating your qi inside.

From now on, you can call me Senior Yi. As you have probably understood, I come from the Black Rainbow Sect, and most specifically, what many refer to as the Rainbow faction. I’ll have to give you a lot of context for you to understand my position.

You see, the Black Rainbow sect hasn’t always been in an internal conflict, but years without external enemies to fight led to this situation. At the origin the names “black” and “rainbow” factions were only used as jokes, if not insults. But over time, the division between the philosophies of the two camps became larger and larger, until the two sides nearly became caricatures of themselves. I consider myself as a moderate member of the rainbow faction.

Essentially, I advocate for prosperity in diversity, with the addition of a bit of conflict. The exchange, convergence and opposition of views, ideas or solutions makes the whole cultivation society thrive and the one watching over it receives the most benefits. The rainbow faction doesn’t mean the peaceful faction.

On the downside, diversity at a local scale isn’t the most natural state in the cultivation world and it requires care and a constant presence to watch over. The extremists of my faction want to restrict cultivators’ liberties further and directly manage the whole world to optimize the results. I believe that such a society would be ridiculously shackled and would in fact, stagnate. Some other notable actions instigated by our faction include spreading high level pill formulas that use low level ingredients, like the rainbow pill series for example.

On the other side, the black faction defends an ideology that is more widespread in the cultivation world. An absolute laissez-faire where the strong prey on the weak. The constant struggles would force out the best to stand out with minimum efforts. However, some argue that better results would be obtained by actively encouraging this process until a single all-powerful entity emerged. After a short while, they would then break up that entity and start again in an infinite loop of struggles and war.

For the last few centuries, the Edera Continent was watched over by moderate members of the Rainbow faction, including me, but the tides are turning. The Black Faction has been growing in popularity inside the sect and is slowly encroaching on the whole planet. I fear that things might turn dire for me and the planet in the next couple of decades, which is why I want to invest in your surprising talent, for a small chance of a backdoor opening up.

I chose to show myself to you today because I will soon be officially called back to Central Island, which will signal the start of the festivities. I should only have one or two years left here. In the meantime, I will assist you with everything you call me for. The Edera Continent is in a precarious situation, little Lingyun, and war has already been brewing in the background for decades. The black faction’s involvement might very well be its fuse and make the conflict more brutal.”