In the North of the Dragon's Tail Continent.

A slender mountain peak reached beyond the dark misty clouds. Even from a distance, one would be able to see the multitudes of caves filling its almost vertical steep rocky slopes.

In a particular cave, a young man sat cross-legged.

He wore a dark black robe, a beautiful contrast to his long luscious silver hair that was tied to a majestic ponytail. The cave's insides were rather simple. Some paintings, a candle, food, and a soft mat where the young man sat.

He was originally sitting cross-legged facing the rugged bland rocky wall of the wave, but he stood and walked to the entrance of the cave. His eyes glanced up as they penetrated beyond the misty clouds, focusing on the tapestry of bright stars with a complicated expression.

"Kenneth, oh, Kenneth," He whispered. A smile tugged at his lips as he murmured, "I have a feeling we'll meet one day."

After a while, he looked down, and his eyes traveled way beyond the thick mist surrounding the mountain. Hundreds of disciples were coming and going, all of them were well-dressed and armed to the teeth.

"Dulan," He whispered. "Do that thing again."

A round dark creature appeared beside him. It had no mouth, and its eyes glowed with a white light and they lacked any pupil.

"Roger that," It said with a coarse emotionless voice.

A transparent wave of energy spread out from SilverFang's heart as the center, spreading in all directions. A second later, a golden notification appeared before them.

[Players Detected: 8 Humans]

...

Jing and company woke up at the break of dawn, following the serious instructions they had received from the other disciples the day before. At the center of the male living quarters surrounded by rich verdant grass and a mosaic of flowers was a shabby fountain well.

The group used the fresh water to both hydrate and wash the sleepiness out of their face before they made way for the Junior Golden Amphitheatre on the other side of the outer sect.

Upon arriving there, they were overwhelmed by the number of disciples that sat upon its circular marbled benches. Both male and female disciples lined the place with different expressions. Some were still sleepy, others nervous, and others looked terribly excited.

The sky was already tainted black due to the absence of the sun, but there was a very faint blue hue signifying its close arrival. Jing and the rest found a relatively empty spot on the first benches and sat there.

Shen Yun was eyeing all the beautiful female disciples with greedy lustful looks and a smug confident expression on his face. Wang Fei's palms were continuously sweating as he brushed them against his robe. Zho Tu and Jing's eyes were busy studying everything in their field of vision.

Jing had noticed Cai Yi, Xu Yun, and even the other male disciple that had come with them, whom he still hadn't learned his name quite yet. However, his eyes continued their search as he had a specific target in mind.

The guy that had kicked him yesterday.

His forehead still stung from the fall, and the humiliation he felt was something he wasn't planning on selfishly keeping to himself. He will share it, and very generously so.

Deep down Jing always felt lesser than almost everyone because of his unfortunate accident and the subsequent torture that resulted from it, mentally speaking. This new journey offered him not only agency in the form of healthy arms and legs but also raw power to be somebody. Whenever someone appeared and belittled him those intense feelings of being less than others would flare up, and the dream he was banking everything on would feel even more distant and out of his grasp.

Revenge to Jing now wasn't merely a way to vent his frustration and right a wrong, it was something much deeper, a display of worthiness that he had to show to himself. If he was unable to put that disciple in his place, then he might as well just begin shouting for a player to come and kill him.

His face had unconsciously morphed into an angry scowl as he surveyed his surroundings, yet look as he might, he was unable to find that disciple. But he was in no hurry, he would find him sooner or later.

As his eyes shifted from one side to the next, he caught something to his right. A group of five disciples were standing at the top of the amphitheatre having not taken a spot down yet.

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What caught his attention was a white robbed, tanned, scarred, narrow-faced young man at the center. He had this cold arrogant look on his face as he forcefully pulled on the sleeve of another disciple without a care in the world. The disciple whose sleeve was being pulled had an awkward look on his face as he mumbled something along with the other two disciples as if they were trying to appease the instigator.

Jing was unable to hear what they were saying, but the more he looked, the stronger his frown became. He immediately felt a strong sense of disgust as he looked at him, with that smug look, confident look, I know it all look, and I am better than you look.

The mentioned disciple finally let go of the other one and began dominating the others with his chest, hitting them in all the wrong places, and getting more brazen by the second. Suddenly, his eyes moved and met Jing's. In a second, sparks flew as the two worldlessly frowned at one another.

As much as Jing wanted to avert his eyes for now, he just couldn't. He wanted to convey the guttural dislike and disgust he was feeling to that man, and he did. The disciple's frown grew deeper as he marched in his direction.

Jing's face became even more unpleasant and he swiftly stood up to meet his approach.

When the two were but a few paces away from one another the disciple spoke with a daring tone, "What are you looking at?"

Mirroring his tone, Jing replied, "Eyes roam, that's their job. I can ask you the same thing."

An intense silence followed as the two sized up one another. The rising sun on the east fell above their heads in a bright warm embrace, and it surprisingly flamed the intensity between them even more.

The disciples close to them began turning around to look as they could tell something interesting was happening, and Jing's group was already alert when they witnessed his change in demeanor.

The white-robed disciple's steps gently and steadily began approaching Jing, and he was but a few inches from his face he threateningly said, "I'll ask again. What are you looking at?" He made sure to enunciate each word very slowly, and when the last one left his mouth, his right rested on the handle of a sword by his side.

Irritated, Jing pushed him away, "Your breath smells like shit."

The disciple's face flushed red with anger, and when his eyes noticed all of the watching disciples his rage reached the peak. He swiftly unsheathed his long sword and lunged at Jing with a mad look.

An invisible barrier appeared out of nowhere blocking his charge. His nose was the first point of contact as it rammed against the sturdy barrier before he weakly fell backward. His eyes turned bloodshot as tears began welling up in them after the previous collision, something that made him feel even more humiliated.

"All of you sit down," A wisened voice spoke from the bottom of the amphitheater with a commanding tone.

All of the onlookers, including the two main characters in the entertaining event turned to look at the source of the voice.

A tall middle-aged man with a neatly combed black hair and an exquisite silver robe stood at the very center of the arena with his clasped behind his back.

His eyes met with Jing, and the latter nodded in understanding and returned to his original position. All of the other disciples straightened their backs as they paid attention to the new figure, leaving the other disciple standing there with a continuously shifting face. A few seconds later, he gritted his teeth and sat in another area with his group.

"What was that?" Asked Shen Yun from the side.

"I don't know," Jing replied with a frown as he gazed in the direction that disciple disappeared in. "Some arrogant prick who hasn't learned manners yet. I've never wanted to punch someone in the face this badly before and I just met him."

Shen Yun chuckled and said, "You've changed. But this is good, if you want we can teach him a lesson later."

Jing dismissively waved his hand indicating it was fine, but more so because he noticed that the figure at the bottom of the Amphi was looking at them with a disapproving look.

"I will be your teacher in the next period." The man said, his voice soft but imbued with magical properties that sent it into every disciple's ear. "My name is Liang Li, and today is your integration day."

Liang Li had his hands clasped behind his back as he stood at the very heart of the amphitheater. His legs were gently turning around as he gave each section an appropriate amount of attention with his eyes. "You're all our new Golden Mountain seedlings. Small youngsters who want to embark on the grand path of cultivation." He said with a faint smile. "I am sure all of you have thousands of ideas about what cultivation is and isn't. Most are true and false in equal measure depending on how you look at them. But..." He finished with a mysterious and slight shake of his head.

After a few seconds, he continued speaking, "At the very root of it all, cultivation, is simply the art of cultivating the ordinary into becoming something extraordinary." He finished with a faint smile, and as if he remembered something he said, "I don't know if you've tasted spiritual rice before but you can find it in our dining halls at a reasonable price. That is the perfect example of the beauty and the depth of cultivation." The longer he spoke the more passionate his voice was becoming.

His hands moved to his wide pockets and he brought out a fistful of golden seeds as he continued speaking, "We took a normal rice seed and transformed it so completely that the result became something extraordinarily miraculous. The difference between a mortal rice seed and a spiritual one is like the difference between heaven and earth. The yield is far more bountiful, the taste is even more ridiculous, the growth time is shorter, the benefits are endless, the nutritional value is way higher, and most importantly it has Qi. The breath of life itself. The path of cultivation is the same thing, just instead of rice seed, the subject is ourselves."

"Naturally," He continued with a wry smile. "As intricate and infinitely complex a simple rice seed is, we are far more complicated than it could ever be. " He chucked and joked, "And thus, our transformation is an arduous process. Though sometimes I wish I was just a rice seed. Oh, how easy things would have been."

Jing exhaled loudly through his nose in amusement when he heard that. He liked this Liang Li guy, he had a sincere disposition.