"I have no idea what you're talking about, go away." Tan Duo replied sternly.

"Watch out, and shut that big mouth of yours tighter. I'll search for him myself when I want to," the round man shoved Tan Duo aside before walking off into the distance.

----------------------------------------

Back at the four stone steles...

Jian Yu was still sitting down, staring at the marking on the stone stele. Despite his obsession, he never got to experience the same feeling again. In fact, he felt that even if he stayed for longer, he still would not be able to. This didn't come from any physical sign, he just had a hunch. Either way, that was enough to soil his determination and he stood up like a few of the other disciples to leave.

"Currently, I'm halfway around the Brawler's Pit. I wonder what areas I haven't seen yet," Jian Yu mused under his breath.

Throughout his life, his favorite pastime was to wander around and meet people. Then, he would enjoy chatting away with them as if he had unlimited time. Unfortunately, Acirema's public areas had been thoroughly explored by Jian Yu, leaving his bored.

Now that he was in a new home, he would do the same and know every nook and cranny there.

As he began walking along the designated pathway around the Brawler's Pit again, his mind wandered as well.

"How do people here keep track of time? There's no sun or moon here..."

"Why's everybody acting so cold? A new sect disciple is here. Celebrate!"

"What... am I really cultivating for?"

...

Suddenly, Jian Yu found himself walking behind a group of outer sect disciples happily chatting away with each other. Hearty laughter rang out of their mouths whenever a funny topic or treasured memory was mentioned. All in all, they seemed very friendly. However, Jian Yu just followed them, still lost in his thoughts.

Eventually, Jian Yu was lead to a densely packed bridge leading off of the landmass to three facilities carved into the cavern's walls. Each and every one of them seemed dull and made unprofessionally; all except for one.

The one that caught Jian Yu's eye was a splendidly carved out facility with details that the others could not match up to. It's entrance was rugged but didn't hide the splendor that emanated out of the two characters above it spelling out the word 'forge'. There were windows with no glass from the first floor to the top, the tenth floor. Coming out of all of those windows were small clouds of black smoke along with sparks. All of these were accompanied by the sound of hammering and odd hissing.

To his delight, he had stumbled upon the facilities used by sect disciples for their tasks pertaining to the three areas of expertise mentioned by Tan Duo!

All of a sudden, he was filled with the interest of blacksmithing again. His feelings of accomplishment in blacksmithing boosted by Uncle Xie's encouragement allowed the memories of blacksmithing to never fade away in his mind. To him, that was his first job and he wanted to be good at it.

His feet began moving towards the forging facility automatically but his body unexpectedly staggered as a force pushed him from the back, causing him to fall onto his knees.

His eyes shifted from the forging facility towards the sect disciples around him. According to his expectations, they all backed away. Most had caution in their eyes but some didn't and chose to stay close by to witness misfortunes up close.

After letting out a deep breath, Jian Yu prepared to face his first enemy in this cold sect. He turned around but just as he did, his eyes bulged out further than they ever did before in his surprise. What he saw was a familiarly round young man similarly surprised as he was. In fact, the young man even lurched backwards in surprise and fell under his own weight.

Jian Yu's mouth opened and closed rapidly, unable to find the right words to say before settling on, "Fatty..."

Murmurs could be heard from the surrounding sect disciples who didn't know of their previous relationship. They were all perplexed at the sudden development between the two.

"That guy called Li Ming 'Fatty'? Good luck to him..."

Similar thoughts were bouncing off of one of their minds to the next and eventually they all shared that common mindset. The infamous bully had met another one who couldn't keep his thoughts to himself...

Contrary to their expectations, Li Ming was taking the sudden turn of events very strangely. His chubby arms covered his ears and he rolled off his back, side to side. Repeatedly, he whispered to himself, "God, why's he here... I already don't like there being one of them, now there's two?"

His thoughts slowly steadied themselves as he reminded himself off his status in the Blood Reaches Sect. Although it wasn't that grand, it was enough to put the likes of Jian Yu and other ordinary outer sect disciples in fear of him.

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With a grunt, he forced himself up and shouted, "Jian Yu! You're going to assist me in training in the Brawler's..."

His now recovered calmness was shattered again as he sensed the fluctuations of the 5th stage of qi condensation from Jian Yu!

"Impossible!" He cried as panic began to surface on his distorted face. His legs wobbled under the pressure of facing a strong adversary.

Meanwhile, Jian Yu was smiling derisively. He had noticed Fatty's level of cultivation ever since he fell on his back. His previous shock was then replaced by utter delight. In fact, he wasn't even concerned with how Fatty for to the Blood Reaches Sect anymore. All that mattered was... he was weaker.

"Oi, you with a fold for a neck! I'm taking you to train with me," Jian Yu called out to Fatty whilst pointing his index finger directly towards him. "I remembered I need to pay you back for a 'severe' injury you caused me."

Jian Yu slowly walked to Fatty in anticipation of dragging him all the way to the Brawler's Pit, attracting a large crowd and exacting a public execution. His lips curved upwards just at the thought of it.

Yet, his hands tightly gripped at Fatty's collar to drag him only to find that...

"This guy's too heavy!" He bellowed.

Amused expressions emerged on the faces of surrounding sect disciples trying to stifle their laughter. Some couldn't hold it in and coughed up a giggle momentarily.

Fatty's face flushed red as his reputation that he worked hard for in a year was immediately cut clean. Everything he did was to show others his dominance and that he was somebody who could represent his generation as the strongest.

Despite that, he was found face to face to a seemingly 'talentless' individual who had surpassed his every expectation.

"Jian Yu!" He roared, causing a talisman to appear out of nowhere. As he activated it, it suddenly burst into flames that formed a blade. That very blade flew straight towards Jian Yu who was right next to him. To everybody's disbelief, that blade could even severely injure somebody at the peak of qi condensation, the 9th stage!

Considering the distance between the two is technically negligent, this surprise attack should land and completely obliterate Jian Yu. To that, Fatty simply smiled coldly and envisioned the ashes that would be left behind.

Yet, Jian Yu just harrumped and took out a talisman of his own. He activated it only to form a ball of water that similarly rushed to Fatty. Although he was highly anticipating the punishment, his guard had not been let down at all; especially against a turncoat like Fatty. When he noticed Fatty trying to pull something off, he readily took out a talisman of his own.

"Talismans? I have those too!" He thought.

These actions took moments to describe but Jian Yu's talisman activated only an instant later than Fatty's. Sect disciples in the surroundings panicked and ran away at top speeds while the two disciples at the epicenter of the battle also hurriedly backed away from their activated talismans.

Fatty closed his eyes the moment the two attacks were about to collide but Jian Yu just watched on, refusing to miss a detail. To their bewilderment, the two attacks just dissipated into nothingness. No explosions were heard or felt or even seen. They weirdly disappeared. Puzzled expressions surfaced on the two and especially Jian Yu who had lived most of his life of cultivation using those very talismans.

Rumbles shook the bridge they were on accompanied by the echoes of a loud voice that could be heard by everybody in the outer sect.

"Fighting outside the Brawler's Pit is FORBIDDEN!"

After the thunderous and domineering words sounded out, most outer sect disciples continued to act normally. Apparently, battles that were fought out of the Brawler's Pit were commonplace to the point that it no longer surprised them.

When the final word was said, Jian Yu and Fatty both knelt down in pain and blood trickled down the side of their mouths. Apparently, there were actual rules in the outer sect which Jian Yu weren't aware of. Jian Yu's eyes flashed with innocence as he felt wronged.

As for Fatty, he had assumed that his identity would cause him to experience a less severe punishment or even no punishment at all. Yet, he had been punished for attempting to kill a new sect disciple? As for his previous killings, weren't they all ignored? His belly growled and eyebrows furrowed as he was overcome with the feeling that Jian Yu might have a background similar to his...

After he got up, he glared at Jian Yu before walking towards the residential areas. Jian Yu didn't take that kindly and spat out the words, "I truly will kick your balls one of these days. In fact, I think they'll come out the top of your head as two topknots."

Fatty stopped in his tracks before continuing his journey back, not even bothering to turn his head around. His calm demeanor was completely opposite of his true feelings. Inwardly, he was infuriatingly eager to snap Jian Yu's neck and burn that tongue of his in magics techniques. No, that thing will need burn in the fires of hell itself before he would feel satisfied. However, he was constantly refraining himself from trying to do so and keeping a lid on his short temper.

Jian Yu stood up with a struggle whilst watching Fatty walk away. Currently, he was delighting in the feeling of intentionally insulting somebody causing waves of warmth pulsated up his chest.

"Ahh, vengeance sure is sweet. However, this is still not enough for a proper payback," Jian Yu murmured.

"And worst of all, my mood's ruined from this damn injury," he clutched at his chest and began to retrace his steps to head back to his own residence.

Six hours passed by shortly after and Jian Yu had finally reached his destination. Along the way, he was getting recognised as one of the 'ignorant fools' who failed to follow the rules. However, all they knew about him was his figure.

He had a somewhat odd combination of a smooth yet chiselled face. His untidy hair had grown freely down to his shoulders and his eyes were always looking around. Every so often, his eyes would flash with glee and at other times, they would narrow with caution. His entire figure was slenderly from his body to his arms and feet. There were no obvious muscles or even slight bumps. That was the most redeeming quality of Jian Yu's appearance in the vicious Blood Reaches Sect where most would have their bodies adapt to the harsh environment. Overall, Jian Yu had no redeeming qualities on his looks.

Anyways, after Jian Yu locked himself in his residence, Huan Jiao was jumping up and down. While associating the excitement of Huan Jiao with the constant rumbling of his belly, Jian Yu tossed some meat to the far end of the residence before heading to the room with the meditation mat. There, he sat down to cultivate and simultaneously recovering from his injuries.

When he rested on top of the meditation mat, he noticed that there were cracks on the walls surrounding the room dispensing a form of mist. To his astonishment, that mist was actually a condensed form of spiritual energy!

However, moments after breaching through the cracks in the walls, they would quickly diffuse away into the surroundings. Jian Yu closed his already salivating mouth and began to absorb the spiritual energy.