Spencer, who watched the entire situation, was baffled. Cultivation was so fucking cool? The flicker of desire to pursue cultivation increased in him.
He would have done it anyway with the motivation of his girlfriend driving him, but there was still a separate personal desire welling up inside him. One for his own benefit, one for his own purpose of fun, for his longing to live a good life.
He sighed with a smile on his face. Somehow, he felt more at ease now.
Gonath didn’t feel discouraged when Atlas stopped fighting him and proceeded to talk to Lord Lysander. He knew would’ve lost fair and square anyway. That cultivation art was broken, he didn’t know how Atlas managed to make that.
Making qi emulate other things was far harder than it sounded. There were several cultivation arts which converted qi into things like lightning, ice, lava, fire, water, earth, air, plasma, and many other things. It was extremely difficult to do even that, all the cultivation arts which emulated qi into the above things were made by high ranking people of the cultivation world who had plenty of experience under their belt.
To emulate qi into something, you need to have an extreme comprehension of the said thing. Intent could bridge the gap if comprehension fell short but you would then need an intense amount of it. How intense must Atlas’ intent be if he was successful in making qi emulate a particle which was capable of exhibiting location superposition? After all, even the scientists on Earth didn’t have complete comprehension over such particles.
What purpose did Atlas have? What belief was he working toward that he had such laser focused intent? No one knew.
Atlas kept his position of bowing, he hadn’t heard Lord Lysander speak yet. He had always rejected others' invitation of becoming their personal disciple and never even took the initiative to become an inner disciple because he wanted to be free, and battle everyone. What better position to do than to become Lord Lysander’s personal disciple?
That man was an Elder and not a Grand Elder because he didn’t want to take up so many responsibilities. He didn’t even want to be an Elder but his elder brother, the Sect Master, forced him to be one to put some sense of responsibility. Turns out he ran away into the demon world every chance he got leaving everything in the Boundless Sky sect behind even after becoming an Elder.
Atlas felt like Lord Lysander was the only one who he could resonate with. Lord Lysander was also the one who could shield him even better than the Sect, such that he would go to farther lengths to protect him if he stirred up some trouble, after all he should very well know how similar Atlas was to him.
Atlas dearly wished to be the battle maniac’s disciple. He felt like he would get even more freedom if he had that position.
“Why would you want me to be your Master? And why would I want you as my disciple?”
Atlas gritted his teeth and answered truthfully to the first question. He banged his chest and added a declaration. “Lord Lysander, I'll bring glory to your name by not shying away from any fight. I believe I am talented enough to be your disciple.”
The middle aged man in the sky playfully replied. “My personal disciple Alice is equally as talented as you, if not better.”
Atlas didn’t give up. “What’s better than one talented disciple is two talented disciples.”
Everyone knew Atlas didn’t have any talent. At least not the type which was granted to people. The type which high ranked people sensed on Earth. The type of talent Atlas had was related to his own terrifying comprehension and hard work.
Lord Lysander had a look of deep contemplation over his face. When any other Elder or Grand Elder would’ve accepted Atlas as soon as he proposed to take them as their Master, the battle maniac simply fell deep into thought. After about a stiffening silence of a minute, he opened his mouth.
“Your talent is indeed good, I admit. But do you know what I don’t like? You keep battling among disciples of the sect. And you actually also only challenge people who you are sure you can defeat. I’ve never seen you accept challenges from higher ranked disciples of the sect. I remember personal disciple Theodore challenged you once but you pretended to be behind closed door cultivation.”
Atlas’ face twitched as he suppressed a flicker of shame and replied politely. “Lord Lysander, personal disciple Theodore is at Nascent Soul rank, and is one of the members of the main tournament team of the Sect. How could I go against him?”
The man was having none of it. He restated with a stern tone.
“I don’t accept cowards as my disciples. Stop playing in this beginner’s lobby and head to the demon world. Bring me the corpse of a Nascent Soul level demon which you’ve killed within a week. I don’t have any cultivation art to deduce if you would have actually killed the demon but this is your only chance. If in the future I come to know somehow that you weren’t the one who killed the demon then be prepared for the consequences.
“Of course, you can also not take up on the offer. In which case you’ll have lost your only chance. Don’t disturb me again unless you’ve bought the corpse.”
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He left after giving an ultimatum. The skies brightened, the lightning receded and the sound of thunder lessened before ceasing to exist.
Atlas looked around and laughed. “Thank you everyone who came to witness the battle today. I hope all of you got some inspiration from the battle today.”
He left the stage and exited the colosseum, with the crowd moving after they broke out of their stupor a dozen seconds later.
Spencer clenched his fist with renewed determination while heading towards the announcement hall. The sky was darkening, it was time for dinner but he had already taken the food pill. Since he was going to be introduced after dinner, it would be better if he went there now so as to not be late.
He wanted to embark upon the path of cultivation as soon as possible. The terrain of the sect was entirely rocky, with occasional patches of soil. One could also see trees randomly strewn about on the ground, around which one could see some disciples meditating.
Damn, that commitment.
“They are homeless, or you could say caveless.”
A person beside him said, he turned around to the familiar face of Clara who was holding a book in her hand. Sophia was nowhere to be seen, she probably went after her boyfriend.
Clara continued after looking up from her book. “They are people who’ve lost the right to even their caves. Having lost it in a bet or failed to pay their rent.”
“There is rent for caves too?”
Clara raised an eyebrow and corrected herself once again. Spencer was a newbie who had joined only just today. From the looks of it he hadn’t read the rule book at all, so he didn’t even have basic knowledge of the sect. She sighed and explained.
“There are paid caves, which are obviously better, and free caves. Newbies only get to live in a free cave for a month, with protection. When the protection period ends, these guys you see outside who don’t have a cave can challenge you, losing which means you’ll have to leave the cave.”
Spencer suddenly felt the impending disaster looming over his head. If he didn’t manage to become strong enough to defeat them within a month then he would have to live outside in the open.
“Don’t worry, there is a reason these guys don’t have a cave. All of them are weakest of all the disciples. You’ll most likely lose the first match, since progressing enough to defeat even the weakest of our disciples in one month is difficult. But if you work hard enough and persevere, you can easily take back the cave.
“Don’t worry, this is a process the majority of the newbies go through.This can be called tempering. Most of them progress through the ranks and manage to take back the caves, while some even get the paid caves. Of course, a small number of them end up like these guys, lazy and unmotivated.”
“I need to work hard huh.”
Spencer nervously chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck. He hadn’t anticipated even competition for a living quarter would be this fierce.
“You are one of the talents they’ll be introducing, right?”
Spencer tilted his head at the quick change of topic then hastily nodded to confirm. He hadn’t told this to anyone but the disciples were most likely notified of the event.
Just when he was about to ask if she was heading the same way, Clara opened her mouth again.
“If you’re suspicious about me, you have every right to be. I am most likely just a stranger who is randomly helping you out. I am reminding you because I am from Earth too. I had a pretty rude awakening and I don’t want you to be the same. Earth enforces laws of civility and obedience, but here? They enforce the law of the jungle.
“There is a saying, one who is unreasonably solicitous is definitely hiding evil intentions. This is especially so in the cultivation world where kindness is extremely rare. I’ll be straightforward with you, I don’t have a pure mind either. I am simply investing in you. If you grow up one day and my investment pays off, do remember me. If you don't, I'll just count it as a failed investment.”
The lady simply walked off in another direction, not where the announcement hall was. Spencer silently looked at her leave while processing her words, it was a not-so-polite awakening for the orphan who thought he had made a friend, or at least an acquaintance rather quickly.
With a dejected sigh, Spencer shook his head and continued heading towards the announcement hall. He intended to return to his cave as soon as the introduction was done and get back to cultivating as long as he didn’t feel like sleeping.
He also had one more of that pill when he bought two for one spirit stone from Clara. It would come in handy when he didn’t feel like eating from the restaurant, or wasting any time.
It was approximately a few minutes later when he finally arrived at the Announcement hall. Similar to the Administration hall, it seemed like the builders didn’t know of anything other than size. What things were impressive according to them? Big ones.
The Announcement hall? Big. The pillars inside? Big. The entrance doors? Big. The ceiling? Big. The chandeliers? Big. The windows? Big. The archways? Big. The staircases? Big. The balconies? Big. The central podium? Big. The statues lining the walls? Big.
Towards the end, his own existence felt so tiny he wanted to hole up somewhere. It didn’t help that there were already many people present in the hall, with some glancing his way.
Somehow, by instinct, or by some cultivation art, his eyes were drawn over near the central podium. The lady who had registered him in the administration hall was subtly beckoning him. He nodded to her and walked up towards the stage, navigating through the crowd of people without pushing, not that he could anyway.
When more and more people realized he was the person who was about to be introduced, they gave way to him. Despite what he heard from Clara and what he had read about in novels, the people were surprisingly polite and well mannered as no one stopped or messed with him.
Maybe it’s because an Elder is present?
He had noticed a middle aged guy with a scary aura standing on the central podium, along with another petite young lady. The woman from Administration hall had already backed off near the edge of the podium after calling him.
Is there one more talent who is going to be introduced?