PAK!
Lan Xiaorong punched the metal tree in front of him to release his inner frustration.
"AH! Useless! All of this is useless!" He punched so hard that blood came out of his fist.
"Big Brother Xiaorong!! Please stop hurting yourself!" A woman's voice came from behind him, her tone filled with concern.
Behind Lan Xiaorong, there were three figures dressed the same as him in the black-green robes of the Lan Clan.
Lan Yueli approached Lan Xiaorong and helped wipe away his blood. Her eyes also showed hints of frustration no different from Lan Xiaorong’s, but she endured it.
"Brother Xiaorong, please calm down. It can't be helped since the other side comes from the peak faction of our continent. I doubt even Hengsheng may not stand a chance against them..." Lan Baixing spoke as he tried to make sense of the situation that had just happened to them, but before he could finish his words, Lan Xiaorong cut him off.
"Shut up!" Lan Xiaorong yelled, his voice filled with frustration. Then, he recalled the earlier event that had reduced him to this state.
A few days ago, he and his group, which consisted of him, Lan Baixing, Lan Xuanyan, and Lan Yueli, had accepted the invitation of a Golden Sword Sect disciple they had met while searching for treasure deep inside the secret land.
The disciple in the golden robe promised them a Divine-grade treasure and a large number of spirit stones if they came to help fight against a group of aggressors.
Lured by the treasure, Lan Xiaorong and his group accepted the invitation and followed the disciple to the Golden Sword Sect’s secret area, hidden within a large concealment formation.
Inside, they found many others similar to his group who had also accepted the Golden Sword Sect's request.
Most of them came from the Silver Lotus Pavilion, a first-rate force. This group was large, with almost 300 cultivators. They were an all-female sect known for combining Metal and Water Qi with the Flexible Sword techniques.
Other than them, there were a few groups from second-rate forces. He did not see anyone else from the Lan Clan, but he did spot a group from the Wang Clan, and he also noticed Wang Dalong among them.
He and Wang Dalong had been rivals since childhood. Whenever their two clans held an event together, they were always forced to compete against each other under the elders' orders.
Aside from the Wang Clan, he only spotted two other factions—the Crimson Fang Sect and the White Blade Sect.
Both of them were rival sword sects with completely different sword styles, their relationship was almost like the case of the Lan and Wang Clans.
He tried to observe the training ground but did not see any more factions. Only one first-rate force and four second-rate forces were present.
He began to think—did the "aggressors" the golden-robed disciple had mentioned refer to the three other first-rate forces and the remaining second-rate forces, If that's not the case, why isn't anyone from those forces appearing here?
How could those disciples dare to openly start a war against the Golden Sword Sect?
Aren't they afraid that the Golden Sword Sect's elders will take revenge on their faction afterward?
If things had happened as he had thought, then he and his group might have gotten involved in trouble far beyond what they could handle.
But backing off now was not an option. Besides, if they did, the Golden Sword Sect disciples might count them as aggressors as well. They could not bring their clan into conflict with The Overlord, even if it meant their deaths.
As the leader of the group, Lan Xiaorong led his team into the training ground. He intended to get to know the other people there.
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The story followed the customs and culture of cultivators until the most important part came—deciding who would be the leader and who would be the follower by measuring their strength.
In the name of "sparring," cultivators from different factions began to fight against each other. The Golden Sword Sect disciples oversaw the spars to prevent them from going too far.
Lan Xiaorong and his group performed well against the other three second-rate forces, as their strength was evenly matched.
However, when the Silver Lotus Pavilion disciples joined the sparring, only Lan Xiaorong could keep up with the Flexible Sword techniques that the female disciple from the first-rate force threw at him. After exchanging more than a hundred moves, he managed to win.
Meanwhile, the other three members of the Lan Clan could not last more than twenty moves before their swords slipped from their hands, causing them to lose.
Other second-rate forces faced the same situation as the Lan Clan. Only the best among them stood a chance against the disciples of the first-rate forces.
Lan Xiaorong continued to spar with the first-rate force disciples, winning more than he lost after more than ten rounds.
However, he noticed that the best disciples of the first-rate forces were not going to spar with him. The silver-haired fairy who stood behind the female disciples did not even acknowledge him. Her eyes seemed to say that he was too weak.
This made him very frustrated. Just as he was about to protest and demand that she step in and spar with him, a disciple in a golden robe interrupted and offered to fight in her place.
At first, Lan Xiaorong thought this guy was looking down on him, but after just ten moves, his proud wooden sword was shattered under the slash of the Golden Qi Sword.
This incident nearly formed a Heart Demon inside him. He was utterly defeated—not just him, but Wang Dalong and the other two group leaders of the second-rate sects also suffered the same fate, being easily defeated by the disciples of the Golden Sword Sect.
Lan Xiaorong did not give up easily. He continued to spar with other disciples of the Golden Sword Sect, aside from the one who had defeated him, but the results were disastrous. He faced defeat after defeat, with no sign that he could hold up against them at all.
What shocked him the most was that the one who had defeated him in ten moves was just a low-ranking disciple of the Golden Sword Sect!
Besides his own fights, he also watched the other battles and found that the disciples of the Golden Sword Sect didn’t even use half of their strength against second-rate force cultivators.
The sparring event ended with the silver-haired fairy fighting one of the senior disciples of the Golden Sword Sect—his name was Luo Yuhan.
Their fight was on another level compared to when Lan Xiaorong and the other cultivators from the second-rate forces had sparred.
Their spiritual power alone created a heavy pressure that those watching from the sidelines could feel.
Each sword clash caused the Heaven and Earth Qi to react, manifesting images of the River of Hell and an Immortal Mountain.
This scene almost made Lan Xiaorong’s spirit collapse as he realized the vast difference in strength between himself and them.
Even if a hundred of him fought just one of them, he would still lose.
He clenched his fists tightly, frustration and despair filling his heart.
The fight ended on the 100th move. The silver-haired fairy revealed her mastery of the Law of Flow—every attack from the Immortal Mountain was redirected, its power absorbed into her thin sword. She slashed like a whip, destroying the opponent's Immortal Mountain Qi image and placing her sword against Luo Yuhan’s shoulder.
After the event ended, the Golden Sword Sect disciples led the guests to the abodes they had prepared for guests like Lan Xiaorong and his group.
On the way, Lan Xiaorong could see it in the disciples' eyes—it was clear they looked down on him and his group their expression obviously did not welcome them.
His heart burned with anger, but not at them—at himself. Had all his years of dedicating himself to cultivation without rest only brought him just this?
He was useless.
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Lan Xiaorong sat on the mat and gazed at his hand, which still bore traces of the wounds he had inflicted on himself. As a cultivator at the Spiritual Foundation Realm, such small wounds could heal in no time, but he chose not to let them. He decided to keep them as a reminder of how arrogant he had been—daring to think so highly of himself.
Knock! Knock!
"Brother Xiaorong!" Baixing’s voice rang from outside his chamber.
"They’ve brought the treasure and spirit stones already! Please come out, we need to distribute them!"
Lan Xiaorong stepped out of his chamber and followed Lan Baixing to the common chamber.
The four of them sat in four directions, and in the middle lay a pile of spirit stones that Baixing had just taken out from his space ring.
They stared at the spirit stones, their eyes dazzling—they had never seen so many before. A million middle-rank spirit stones!
Their frustration from the sparring event washed away as if it had never happened. Their thoughts were now filled only with greed, and they began eyeing each other with distrust.
"Ahem! As the big brother, I should take half of them, and you guys can divide the other half. That should be fair," Lan Xiaorong shamelessly declared and was about to step forward to claim his share immediately!
"Brother Xiaorong, what nonsense are you spouting?! Do you have no shame?" Lan Xuanyan shouted, stepping between Lan Xiaorong and the treasure.
"We should split it equally!"
"That’s right!"
Under the pressure of his three clanmates, Xiaorong had no choice but to compromise. He divided the spirit stones into four parts.
The only thing left in the center was the green crystal—this was the Verdant Divine Crystal, a divine-grade treasure that could directly upgrade a cultivator’s Wood-type Spirit Core to divine-grade!