“Alright come at me like you mean it!” Ying shouted as she pointed her blade at Bing.

“I don’t think I could afford to go easy on you even if I wanted to.” He said with his shield raised.

“Haha kick her ass Tubby! I’m rooting for you!” Hu Tao cheered while lying in the grass.

“Don’t go too far in your sparring. We only have a few recovery pills between us all.” Lei Zhi informed.

“Shut it old man. I want to see some blood! Tear your shirts off so we can see some titties!” Hu Tao shouted.

“I’ll crush your balls Hu Tao!” Ying shouted back. He only laughed in response.

His fellow teammates were all outside his home. They decided together that they should listen to Jing’s advice and train for the upcoming Treasured Plains. Training together would be better than training alone, as suggested by Jing. Lei Zhi agreed with that type of thinking. It is harder to find faults with one’s technique alone. This could also strengthen their bonds as allies at the same time.

Ying was the most fired up about these training sessions. After a recent near-death experience, it seems she realized that she wasn’t training hard enough lately after getting her sword. She got complacent and couldn’t accept herself being the cause of her weakness. Lei Zhi could understand, she was young. Youth was the time to be complacent, lazy, unmotivated.

He has watched too many fall from that in his time at the sect. He has trained every single day after receiving Jing’s gifts. Finding ways of using his fishing rod in combat, practicing diligently with his martial arts, understanding his fishing rod’s abilities, and working on improving his cultivation. Lei Zhi has finally been given the chance to improve himself. No longer will he be suppressed and taken advantage of by misguided youths. No longer will he allow his meagre talent to hold him back. He will become someone great and respectable!

The two tested their skills against each other. Ying started off the battle strong with fearsome aggressive attacks. Bing looked as if he expected this kind of start and was already in position to receive her attacks. He blocked every slash and swipe of her blade with his shield. Ying’s strength was greater but Bing used that strength to his advantage. Every time he was attacked, he let the attack blow him away rather than trying to stand against it and defend.

Each time he was sent flying, he easily recovered in time to receive the next blow with his shield. It looked like he was a ball being sent flying all over the place in the eyes of Lei Zhi. You’d think that being knocked around like that, he’d look tired or injured or panicked in some way but actually Ying was the one who was working up a sweat.

“You haven’t thrown a single punch yet! You’re not looking down on me because I'm a girl, are you?” She glared.

“I believe in equal rights Ying. I would not even think about going easy on a lady. It would go against my principles.” Bing responded.

“Then hit me already!” Ying ignited herself with her cultivation technique.

“The point of a shield isn’t to hit someone but to defend.” Bing said as he activated his own martial art techniques.

The dirt beneath him sunk and all the weight in his stomach spread across his body into bulging muscle.

“But I guess I can make an exception this time.” He crouched with his shield in front of him. “Swift Devil!”

He took off towards Ying with exceptional speed. Ying smiled at seeing this. She must be glad he’s finally attacking like she wanted. A powerful release of flames shot out from Ying’s figure, blasting her towards Bing with her sword held out in front of her, ready to pierce through anything in front of her. The resulting clash between shield and sword had even Hu Tao looking excited. Which will be stronger? That which was made to protect or that which was made to kill?

“We’ll finally see whose weapon is stronger!!!” Ying yelled as Bing just gritted his teeth in anticipation.

The two met with their weapons and a piercing sound rang out, metal against bone. At first, it looked as if Bing and Ying were equal in strength but as seconds went by, Ying regained the lead in strength. She was slowly pushing him backwards with his feet digging into the earth.

“Art of Deflection.” Bing muttered as he shifted his shield.

Ying’s blade started shifting to the left instead of the middle of Bing’s shield. She tried to fix it and stab right through Bing’s shield but this only allowed him to alter the blade’s path even more. He deflected her blade into stabbing the ground and followed up by punching towards her with his shield. Ying wouldn’t have enough time to dodge at that distance and it looked like she didn’t plan on dodging either. She straightforwardly headbutted Bing’s shield head on and momentarily stood her ground, blood dripped from her forehead

Lei Zhi could only imagine the terrible strength of her skull if she could withstand a blow like that and still continue to fight. He shared Bing’s shocked expression as he saw the scene. Ying used this chance to grab her sword off the ground and swing it at Bing’s side. Bing blocked with his shield and was sent flying back towards his original starting spot.

“Alright! Enough! Seeing you two fuckers getting all hot and sweaty is making me want to fight. Sitting here cultivating while waiting for Jing to call for me is boring as hell.” Hu Tao exclaimed.

Lei Zhi saw Bing look towards Ying.

“Shut it jackass! No one said you had to be here, you know?” Ying responded, throwing a rock at his lying figure.

“Oi! What the hell is with this uncooperative behavior princess? Don’t you know we’re all a team here? Be nicer before I fuck you up for the good of the group.” He caught the rock with his foot.

“I’d like to see you try you piece of shit.” She balled her fist.

“You wouldn’t even serve as a warmup at your current strength. Maybe if you teamed up with Fatty you could make me sweat but I don’t like teases. Even if I played with you two at the same time, I would be left wanting more. How would that be fair to me if you two got the fight of your lives and I get stuck not being satisfied?”

“Grr... Just wait you piece of shit. Once I reach the Qi Consolidation stage, I’m gonna pound your face in.” Ying promised.

“Keep dreaming princess. Unless you get some sky-ranked martial arts like the fatty, don’t even think about coming at me with those sloppy skills.”

“You have sky-ranked martial arts?!” Ying exclaimed.

“Yes?” Bing responded surprised.

“How did you get sky-ranked martial arts before me!? What kind of connections do you have Bing?! Have you been holding out on me!? Even while I was looking for an Earth-ranked cultivation technique for you!?” She started shaking him by the shoulder.

“I found it with Jing. We fell into some sort of ruin and found it. She let me have it because she had no use for them.” He explained quickly.

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“WHAT!?” Hu Tao and Ying yelled together.

“Who doesn’t have a use for sky-ranked martial arts!?” Ying questioned.

“That bitch has definitely got deep pockets if a sky-ranked martial art ain’t shit to her.” Hu Tao stated.

“What a fortuitous encounter Bing. Congratulations.” Lei Zhi smiled.

“Even I only have 1 sky-ranked martial art but this piggy bastard has 3? The heavens are truly bullshit.” Hu Tao complained.

“It isn’t all that great... It takes longer for me to advance in my cultivation because of them.”

“Are you retarded idiot? Just go take whatever the fuck you need. If you need stones go rob some people out of theirs.” Hu Tao told him.

“I’d rather not make enemies with people if I can avoid it. I’m sure I can go on enough tasks.”

“Tasks won’t be enough. Even if you choose the dangerous ones. The best way of gaining resources is increasing your ranking.”

“Wait! Why wouldn’t tasks be enough?” Ying asked suddenly.

“Anything could happen during one of those. Some of them are even traps for cultivators. The ranking matches are safer and more reliable. Not that I care about safety. I’m strong enough to handle any traps.”

“That’s pretty kind of you Tao to share this information with us. Even I didn’t know there was a risk in taking tasks besides the unpredictable nature of spirit beasts.” Lei Zhi said.

“All of you owe me one favor now.”

“You think that shitty advice is good enough for a favor!?” Ying retorted.

“Yep. Now let’s go get some real training done. You three weaklings are going to be fighting in ranking matches until it's time for the Treasured Plains to open. It’s how I got as strong as I am today. If you don’t include my godly talent.” He kissed his biceps.

“If this doesn’t work, I swear I'm gonna kill you.” Ying promised.

Hu Tao took the group to the ranking rings. It was still daylight, so the rings were active. There was a board that listed the top 100 rankers, then a second board that listed the top 1,000 rankers, and then a final board that listed the top 5,000 rankers. Lei Zhi was ranked 4,995. Ying was ranked 999. Bing had no rank and Hu Tao is placed in the Inner Court’s ranking board.

“Go look for any weaklings you can fight and do this every day until it's time for the Treasured Plains to open.”

“You do know we will need to offer contribution points or something else of value to challenge someone right?”

“You do. These two won’t have to do that until they get on the second board.”

“I need all the points I can get! Why would I offer them to somebody else!?” Ying asked.

“Don’t tell me the princess is scared of a little fighting?”

“I’m not scared of anything bastard!”

“If you’re not scared then just do it.”

“We won’t actually lose contribution points if we win Ying. The rules say when you offer up contribution points to a ranking match, your opponent must have an equal or greater amount to defend their spot. If they don’t have enough to defend their spot, you will automatically take their rank. Upon winning, the winner will take the same amount of contribution points they have put up to challenge the opponent along with their original contribution points betted.” Bing read off the board.

“Oh, and you're so confident about winning every match Bing?”

“Of course not. That’s why I'll be careful and pick opponents who I can defeat.”

“Are you out of your mind Fatty? What would be the point of training if you didn’t struggle? You’re going to face off against the people I picked for you now.” Hu Tao declared.

“Me and my big fat mouth...” He muttered with his head hanging low.

“Old timer, you’re up first. Choose someone on this list and go beat their brains in.”

Lei Zhi chose one of the available names on the board. He could only choose to battle against someone whose cultivation rank was equal or one stage above his. He picked a person with the same cultivation stage as his and waited till the young man at the counter sent off a bird with a letter in its talon. Bing’s opponent was forcefully chosen by Hu Tao. Ying chose her own opponent. Both Ying and Bing’s opponents were one stage above them in cultivation.

Now they had to wait till their opponents came. Lei Zhi didn’t do ranking matches often on the account of his terrible talent and weak martial skills. But that was in the past when he wasn’t recruited by Jing. Now, he could fully hone his newly gained techniques without fear. His old bones were shaking a bit in excitement. He felt a little bit foolish getting excited over something like a fight but it’s like he’s got a whole new start at being a cultivator again. Can you blame him for being a little excited?

Lei Zhi’s opponent took around 5 minutes before showing up. He looked like a normal looking youth inside the Golden Serpent Sect. He wore the sect’s robes and had a sword on his waist. Lei Zhi made his way to their marked ring and met eye to eye with the young man. Lei Zhi smiled politely and the youth glared at him in response.

“Let’s have a good battle.” Lei Zhi told him.

“Shut up and get ready to die.” He ran towards Lei Zhi with his sword.

Lei Zhi made sure to tell Xiurong to stay hidden in his clothes. He pulled out his fishing rod and swung it towards the young man.

“A freaking fishing rod? You really do have a death wish don’t you old man?” He knocked the fishing hook into the air with his sword and ran towards Lei Zhi.

With a horizontal slash that was aiming to decapitate Lei Zhi, he leaned his head back and slipped past the young man.

“How the hell did you...?” He turned around to face Lei Zhi who got behind him and charged again.

Lei Zhi had his back turned on the youth. He could still see the young man without even having to look at him. The feisty young man was seconds away from stabbing him in the back but before he could put an end to him, A fishing hook stabbed into his clothes and whooshed him into the sky. Lei Zhi didn’t plan to do what he did with Sying. He has learned from that experience and will not embarrass the youth.

He slammed him into the ring and knocked him out cold. The disciple referee standing below the ring, called the match and informed Lei Zhi that his ranking will be fixed on the board soon. Lei Zhi nodded with a smile as he walked towards Bing’s ring whose opponent just showed up.

It was a young lady. Long flowing hair, nicely shaped body, and a small frame. She walked up on the ring and angrily glared at Bing.

“Let’s have a good fight...” Bing said to his opponent.

“I’m going to break your bones for wasting my time Fatty. I should be cultivating right now in preparation for the Plains. It’s my only chance of gaining magical treasures and highly ranked martial arts.”

“I’m sorry to hear that...”

“I’ll show you sorry!” She squeaked as she leapt towards Bing with her palm stretched out.

Bing blocked her palm strike with his shield. Her attack didn’t even cause him to budge. She scoffed before releasing a furious flurry of palm attacks.

“Blue Wind Flurry!”

Bing blocked each strike with ease. Even as she tried to attack him in places where his shield wasn’t defending, his shield quickly followed after. Lei Zhi could see that she was tiring herself out trying to get past his defense. This wasn’t looking good for her if she doesn’t try a new strategy soon.

“Try and keep up with this then!” She was about to dash away with her qi focusing around her legs.

“Let’s not instead...” Bing reached out with his hand just before she could activate her martial art.

He grabbed her shoulder with his thick palm. Lei Zhi could tell that she couldn’t muster any strength under the power of that grip. He slowly increased his strength and she started screaming while lowering to her knees. Once her knees touched the ring, Bing let go of her shoulder.

“Do you surrender?” He asked her.

Her eyes were staring into the distance, not daring to make contact with Bing’s. Her body was shaking like a leaf as she muttered something.

“The referee didn’t hear you. Speak up please.” He reached out with his hand towards her.

“I SURRENDER PLEASE!”

A gentle smile appeared on his face. He looked towards the referee. The referee nodded and called the match in Bing’s favor. He left the stage without taking a single glance towards the young girl in the ring. Hu Tao only muttered the word weaklings and the group moved over to Ying’s ring. By the time the group made it over, Ying was already finished with her battle. Her opponent was crushed into the ring with their bones in unnatural painful positions.

“Piece of cake.” Ying smiled.

“Well keep at it! I’m going to find some fights myself to pass the time. Jing is taking too long to call me.”

“When do we stop exactly?” Bing asked.

“When its night out retard. Who wants to fight when you can’t see shit?” Hu Tao responded.

They listened to Hu Tao’s instructions as he was the strongest amongst them and had more experience in getting stronger than any of them.