With a long gash across his forearm, Li Lang knew he had to end the battle quickly. Letting a fight stall when one was outnumbered and injured was a fool’s errand.

Luckily, the wolves were confused, as their leader had been slain. They cautiously surrounded Li Lang but were too indecisive to take action.

Li Lang took advantage of that and charged toward his next target. Having just fought with the large leader of the pack, the other wolves appeared weak in comparison. If they were compared to humans, the alpha would be at the peak of early Energy Gathering like Li Lang while the other wolves would be around the first stage to the second stage of Energy Gathering.

The hesitation of the pack snowballed once they saw yet another of their companions mercilessly assaulted. It only took one wolf to begin retreating before it caused a chain reaction, and the rest followed.

Li Lang watched them cautiously as they did so while consuming another Recovery Pill for his wounds. With the alpha dead, the pack should dissolve, and in the rare case of them reforming, the new leader would likely be much weaker and less cunning for a long while. Either way, he had done enough to complete the mission he had taken on.

Once the wolves all disappeared from view, the lone boy proceeded to cut off the ears of his kills before moving on to the hide and fangs.

The ears of the alpha should be enough to complete the mission, but the other parts could be used as materials.

With his task complete, the boy took out a red gemstone and placed it against his head.

“Ruby, can you transport the body of a wolf into your artifact space?”

“Yes, master. As long as it isn’t alive. I’m not too sure if they’ll be useful for alchemy, though.”

“It’s fine. Better to have it so I can play around with their fangs and pelt if the need arises in the future.”

With everything settled, Li Lang took one last glance around the field he fought in and found that morning had already arrived at some point.

He managed to return to Xiang Yang before long and went straight toward Spirit Grove’s branch office.

No Skyrunner would be making its way back to the sect today, so Li Lang rested another night in the city before he returned. The entire time, he was nervous he would encounter that same girl in his year again and get caught up in trouble. It was because they both historically preferred to stay in Xiang Yang until the last second.

For better or worse, his fears manifested. He found himself facing the aloof genius of his generation, Ling Xue.

The two wordlessly boarded the same Skyrunner and didn’t interact whatsoever during the journey. It was only when Spirit Grove came into view that Ling Xue surprisingly broke the silence.

“I heard about you. You’re the one with grade one aptitude that they have refining pills, right?”

Li Lang was completely caught off guard, never having expected the girl to start up a conversation.

“...Yes, that’s right.”

“...”

The girl simply stared at him for a few moments.

“Is there something I can help you with?” Li Lang couldn’t help but ask.

“...You…should leave the sect.” The girl muttered so quietly that Li Lang barely heard her.

“What do you mean?”

Unfortunately for Li Lang, he wouldn’t get an answer. The girl glanced out the window and refused to speak further.

Well… Whatever.

The Skyrunner soon safely arrived back to the sect, and Li Lang went straight to the Mission Hall.

“I have a set of ears from the leader of the Garb Wolf pack. Is that sufficient?”

The deacon at the desk took a second to examine the articles presented to him before nodding.

“Please hand over your sect token for your contribution points.”

Li Lang swiftly returned to his routine and took new missions to Xiang Yang weekly to check on his subjects. He needed to be there to make use of his auto-analyzer to progress the experiments and continue gaining combat experience.

Through the last encounter, Li Lang felt that his use of Qi improved drastically after digesting his experiences. He felt Elder Cao’s advice was right on the money, and combat would be the fastest way for him to overcome his bottleneck toward the next stage of his cultivation.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

However, this new routine only lasted several weeks.

The annual sect competition drew near once more, and all activities outside the sect were halted in preparation for it.

During this downtime, Li Lang made use of it by purchasing every last type of alchemy material he had yet to buy before and fed it all into his lab. Throughout the ten months since the previous competitions, he had analyzed a good chunk of the available herbs for purchase. Combined with his new haul, he was hoping to use them to produce an antidote for the Qi toxins.

He had pretty accurate information on the type of toxins he was dealing with. He just needed to find the correct materials and figure out a method he could use to produce it without any fancy equipment at his disposal.

I guess there’s no toxicologist in this world and their Qi senses mainly detect issues relating to Qi. It’s weird since they have such amazing Recovery Pills for wounds, but few for other ailments. Well… it’s not like powerful cultivators need to worry about getting sick.

Time passed by quickly and the annual competition arrived once again.

Li Lang got out of bed early and went outside to do some stretches as he prepared himself mentally. It would be his first time participating in the combat segment of the competitions, but the various missions he had taken in the past two months had given him ample practice. It was just that his practice partners were always Qi beasts, and he would be fighting humans today.

As he relaxed and basked in the morning sun, a voice called out from the direction of his dorm.

“Li Lang! What is the meaning of this?”

A short young man strode over and Li Lang immediately recognized him to be Yang Quan, his dorm mate. He was confused as to why the boy sought him out as they hadn’t talked ever since Yang Quan found out he only had grade one aptitude.

“Meaning of what?”

“Don’t play dumb with me! I’m asking you why you decided to participate in the combat tournament. Aren’t you supposed to just quietly refine your pills for the sect?”

“That is my main job, yes, but there’s no rule that says I can’t take part in the combat section to gain experience.”

“You big-headed freak should know your place. Don’t think you’re really a member of the sect. You’re just a pet Elder Cao keeps around. You’re only at the third stage of Energy Gathering, so stop wasting your time and go back to doing your job.”

Yang Quan began emitting a tense aura of Qi, and it soon cloaked itself around his body. It was the characteristic ability of someone who was in the middle stages of Energy Gathering.

Just as the two kids stared each other down, more voices could be heard as other disciples came to check out what all the noise was about. Seeing this, Yang Quan quickly reined in his Qi and angrily retreated.

“You better hope you won’t be facing me before you’re eliminated because I’ll make sure to teach you a painful lesson, peasant!”

Li Lang shrugged as he returned to sunbathing.

A chance at winning an Ascension Pill! I can’t wait to analyze its principles. I’ll do whatever is necessary to win it!

The sect competition soon began inside the giant coliseum that was erected specially for the event. Just like the previous years, the outer disciples were organized by the dorms they were from. During the entire opening ceremony, it became hard for Li Lang not to feel the gaze of his fellow companion.

Most people ignored him, but Yang Quan held a heavy grudge for some reason.

Thankfully, when they went on to the combat tournament, every member of their dorm was separated into different groups.

Li Lang was assigned arena number seventeen. It was one of the dozens of arenas set aside for younger disciples who had yet to reach the age of adulthood of fifteen.

That meant Li Lang could face disciples who were up to two years older than him, and the only people who were younger were the disciples who joined in the same year as him. That was because he had joined the sect a year later than most, while the latest newcomers had their own separate section.

When he arrived below the ring where his group gathered, he couldn’t help but sigh as another set of eyes glared his way with hostility.

“Junior Li, we meet again.”

“Yes…nice to see you again, Senior…Pei.”

“Oh, you do remember me. I’m flattered.”

Despite the young man’s words and friendly demeanor, his eyes didn’t smile at all. He was one of the senior disciples who was pursuing Ling Xue, who had mistaken him for a competitor when he returned to the sect together with her.

“First match, Li Lang versus Pei Fong!” the nearby deacon yelled out.

As luck would have it, Li Lang’s first match would be against this tall and lanky senior.

Having heard this, Pei Fong immediately burst out into laughter.

“Ha ha ha, the heaven seems to want me to teach Junior Li a lesson or two. I’ve heard that you only have grade one aptitude, too. If you call me grandfather, I might go easy on you…But then again, I don’t think I’d want to have a freak show like you as my grandchild.”

Li Lang didn’t bother answering as they both climbed up to the arena. However, the people in the same group gossiped without any restraint.

“Did you hear that? That third-stage kid only has grade one aptitude. How in the world did he get into the sect?”

“Never mind if that is true or not. Just the difference between a third stage and fifth-stage cultivator means he will surely lose. And that is when we aren’t even considering the vast difference in experience. It is hard to surmount the age gap.”

“Hm, I heard there’s a young disciple this year who is rumored to be as strong as an inner disciple. I believe her name was Ling Xue.”

Meanwhile, Li Lang was focusing on preparing himself for the fight. After having fought regularly for two months, he felt himself infinitely close to mastering Qi control and breaking through to the fourth stage of Energy Gathering.

He was just too slow and clumsy with his Qi manipulation, like a toddler just learning to walk.

“What’s wrong, Junior? Getting scared? Don’t worry, as your senior, I will give you a handicap. I won’t be wielding any weapons, seeing you are still in the third stage.” Pei Fong taunted.

“Quiet, so I can go over the rules again!” the deacon reprimanded. “Now then, the rules remain unchanged. No use of outside items and no…”

Once the deacon was done with his long-winded explanation, he finally declared the start of the first round.

“Fight!”