Though there was still a moving stream of unbridled fury inside of his heart, the teacher's words managed to bring more clarity into his mind to observe himself. If what he said were true, and he had an inkling that they were, then things were complicated. A mental demon that would gradually change him into an actual demon wasn't something that Jing found appealing in the slightest.

At the same time, a seed of doubt was once again planted inside of his mind about his position with the demonic cultivators. Although he had to admit that he didn't see much crazy behavior from them, he was still concerned. Suddenly, he remembered the crowd of people he had seen just before they had left the sect. Their miserable expressions were still very vivid in his mind.

Jing stood at the very first step for a while doing a small breathing exercise to calm down his agitated heart. The song of the birds, the subtle breeze heavy with the scents of the nearby flowers and the rich soil, and the warm rays of sunlight that filtered through the thick clouds and landed on top of him helped him tremendously.

After a while, he stood up and returned to the Amphitheatre. Along the way, Aukhman spoke in his ears, "I just received the news, things won't go as I had thought," He said. "The first episode will go live today, and the event will be held tomorrow. Prepare yourself."

Jing's eyes widened at that, and he couldn't help but feel slightly nervous at the upcoming release and event against all of the other humans. He immediately sent SilverFang a message.

Kenneth: The event will be held tomorrow, if there is a chance should we ally together inside of it?

SilverFang was quick to reply, he only had to wait a few seconds.

SilverFang: Of course, we need to take advantage of this opportunity that we have. All of the other players will be strangers to one another. But it depends on how we will compete...

Kenneth: My representative said that the methods always vary, but more often than not it's something related to fighting.

Kenneth: Have you spoken to anyone yet?

SilverFang: Not yet!

Kenneth: Should we speak to that Bearfeast?

SilverFang: Alright, I'll handle it.

SilverFang: Btw, my name is Issam. I used to live in the US too, but originally from Egypt.

Kenneth: Nice to meet you, man! I am still Kenneth.

Kenneth: How old are you btw?

SilverFang: 32

Kenneth: Damn, that old?!

SilverFang: It's still quite young, dude...

Kenneth: Whatever you say. Alrightyy then, I'll leave you to it. I have something important.

SilverFang: OK, I'll update you later with how things went with Bearfeast.

Kenneth: 👌

When Jing reached the amphitheater, he located his group and sat down. By then it was already the afternoon, and the sun's rays were getting more merciless by the second.

Witnessing his approach, the three seemed slightly surprised. After all just an hour or so ago he was a complete mess and here he was again as good as new.

Jing flashed them a sunshine smile and acted like nothing was wrong, "Don't worry, it's settled." He said.

Shen Yun sighed and said in a disappointed voice, "I've never seen someone humiliated that much Xie Jing." He swiftly stood up and looked at the three, "We'll find his place and beat him till he's red and blue. Until his back becomes softer than his stomach." He grabbed Wang Fei by the shoulders and shook him hard as he seriously looked at him, "What do you say Wang Fei? Are you with me?!"

Feeling overwhelmed Wang Fei simply flashed him his usual awkward smile and said, "Of.. of course...."

"How about you Zho Tu?" Shen Yun said glancing at the remaining twin.

Zho Tu winced and hesitantly said, "It's against the rules, and you know what Xu said, keep it low."

Jing felt startled and he immediately kicked his legs to shut up.

"Ouch," Zho Tu loudly groaned in surprise, but when he saw Jing's serious expression, he immediately understood his slip of the tongue.

"Who's Xu?" Wang Fei innocently asked.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Don't mind it," Shen Yun dismissively waved his hand and said. "As for the rules, who cares? They didn't care about the rules when that guy destroyed Xie Jing's mouth. Do you remember what he looked like? So ugly and without teeth. My heart is cold and I still felt pity toward him."

Remembering the sight Zho Tu seemed slightly moved and said, "Alright, but we need to be careful."

Jing jumped from the side, "I am sort of the main character here, aren't you going to ask me?"

Shen Yun joked, "With all of that beating you received I assumed your head won't be functioning properly, so might as well just leave it to me and the guys." He looked at the nervous Wang Fei and questioned, "Isn't that right Fatty Wang?"

Scartching his head and nodding Wang Fei said, "Yes, yes..."

Jing frowned, "Don't call him that." He said. "What's wrong with you?"

Shen Yun's eyes lit up and agreed, "That is exactly what I've been saying." He pointed to a group of disciples a distance away and said, "Those disciples there were calling him that and he didn't say anything."

Jing shook his head in disapproval and looked at Wang Fei, "You shouldn't let them say that to you, man. They will make others disrespect you even more."

"It's fine," Wang Fei embarassedly said. "I met them yesterday and they're just joking."

"No, no," Jing disagreed. "That is no joking matter. Maybe if you were really close friends they can call you that and still mean very well, but for strangers, you need to put your feet down. If they keep calling you that, others will follow, and soon the whole sect will be calling you Fatty Wang. No one will respect you by then, and in this world respect is like bread, you can survive purely on it."

Shen Yun suddenly bellowed with intense laughter, to the point that he bent forward and clasped his stomach with his hands. Through ragged breaths, he said, "If I didn't see you getting pummeled down just a few seconds ago, I would have believed that some expert was in our midst. Heavens Xie Jing, you sure do talk a lot but have no strength to back it up."

"Just wait," Jing said shrugging his shoulders. "When I will reach Qi Condensation, I will show all of those fuckers who I am."

"The village lord?" Shen Yun teased with another laugh. Witnessing the other two's confused expression he began explaining to them how initially Xie Jing had been telling him stories of him lording over a village, hunting demonic beasts, and killing all the bandits in the area.

"Be wary of this little guy," He said pointing at Jing. "He has a very vivid imagination."

"Believe what you want," Jing said with a frown. "Suit yourself."

Shen Yun sat down beside him, throwing his hands over Jing's shoulder, and said with a smile, "Don't be so sensitive, I was just joking."

Jing felt slightly awkward because the last time Shen Yun did that he followed it with a kiss. "It's fine," He cooly said and subtly scooted away.

The fights finally ended a few hours in, a time that Jing took advantage of and continued his cultivation. He still had memories of breaking through Body Tempering stages and even breaking through to the Qi Condensation realm. Thus, he understood what should be done to progress further, and most importantly he understood how to quantify his progress.

A breakthrough in Body Tempering stages occurs when almost every cell in your body has been tempered with your Qi to the point that it can no longer be anymore. What decides when your Qi becomes unable to make you stronger is the symbol used to attract Qi. Every Body Tempering manual has nine symbols, one for every stage.

The adoption of each one is a very arduous process, but generally the more you move forward the easier it becomes. The reason there were nine of them and not just a single one was equally simple. A mortal's body cannot be tempered by a 9th symbol Qi, it'll be shredded to pieces in the process. That was why it was vital to begin with the first symbol which is very mild and docile in comparison, and gradually strengthen your body to work up to the ninth one.

Fortunately, after Jing broke through to the ninth Body Tempering stage, he was able to directly start using the ninth symbol, after all, he had already built all of them. Something that all of the other demonic disciples experienced when they fell to the Body Tempering realm.

There is another very important factor that obstructs the cell's evolution with any particular level of Qi, impurities. But that was something the Qi Body Tempering of all stages was unable to access. One's Qi had to be very sensitive, powerful, and far more intelligent to allow one's cells to be thoroughly cleansed. However, it was true that the fewer impurities one had, the stronger the cultivation base they would be able to set in their breakthrough to the Qi Condensation. And that was why alchemy was one of the highest professions, they could create pills, potions, and elixirs that help with just that.

Once the fights officially ended, the teacher's assistant who was responsible for inscribing the rankings began to shout the top 10 in both the men's and women's categories.

In the men's Shen Yu was fifth, and Xu Yun was third. In the women's Cai Yi was sixth.

Jing was surprised by these results, and it seemed like he was unconsciously underestimating the Golden Mountain's disciples because he assumed those who were Qi Condensation would have more experience and be able to easily grab the first spot. But as things stood, there were crouching tigers and hidden dragons everywhere.

'It makes sense,' He thought with a wry smile, knowing his ranking would be in the three hundreds.

"Now that this is over," Teacher Liang Li spoke once again from the heart of the amphitheater. "We can proceed to the most important part of your integration day. A bit of History, and of course, The Golden Mountain's Manual."

Hearing the last word all of the disciples began gasping in both shock and excitement.

"I heard it's way better than the manual we had," Shen Yun said from the side. "If it proved to be better maybe we can just keep it. It's such a hassle to be constantly changing them."

Jing immediately understood what he was talking about as they had used the exact same demonic manual to break through to the Qi Condensation realm. Indeed, from the things he observed from the Golden Mountain thus far their Sect, fame, and to the wealth they displayed it wasn't far-fetched to assume their manual would be better.

"Follow me," Teacher Li said as he climbed the steps of the Amphi and headed to the main road that separated the outer sect's different facilities and led to both Venerable Ancestor's golden statue and the marbled steps leading up to the inner sect.

Jing and company mingled with the hundreds of disciples and dutifully followed after the teacher in silence. The older outer sect disciples were grinning from their open windows as the new disciples passed by their dorms.