Somewhere, there is a ‘xianxia’ crossroad.
The kind of crossroad where many fights took place on, many people died close to it, and many people made quite a bad decision when it came to their choice of direction, with fatal consequences.
But today, an event the crossroad has never seen before took place on it.
Three people were shouting random words, before running forward and bumping against each other at great speeds.
“See? I told you!!”
“Told what?”
“That this is the only certified way for MCs to reveal how strong their plot armor is!”
“...are you sure it is certified?”
“Yes! Three MCs like us participated, so that makes it a proven way of ascertaining things. One MC is a guess, two MCs are probability, and three MCs make it a certified thing. Such is the way of the universe.”
“...”
“...”
I had no idea what he talks about, but lately I have no idea about many things.
Must be because I got so clever. Right?
Pe Teng's method, the MC who is heading to the Starfall sect like me, lies in the fact that ‘high-quality main characters’ (I don’t know what he means by that, but I am definitely ‘high-quality’) should bump against each other and the one ending up being closest to the center has the biggest plot armor.
Which means I am a third place. I can live with that. Being in the top 3.
Sitting up, I… had spent some time thinking about nothing, which I am particularly good at. Thankfully nobody is reading my life as a story, because instead of cunning or clever thoughts I just have this profound emptiness most of the time.
Then Da Hon, the other main character, started singing after a certain time. Let me tell you, it sounds like me when I cultivate the wind scripture. So it did not take long, and with my long “BOOO”, I joined him out loud.
The servants of the Starfall sect seemed a bit angry, but that is okay. It is inevitable that the great me - or us - will leave a lasting impression.
After one hour of practice, the small spiritual boat took flight and me and Da Hon have secured extraordinary positions - being tied by a rope to the end of the boat, while flailing in the wind. Just perfect.
---
The Starfall sect was the kind of place where even grass seemed to be made of spiritual herbs, every wooden stump a piece of a hidden formation, and where they would find faster an epic artifact instead of something you can eat.
But more importantly, there were 12 more of ‘us’.
Well I had no idea there are ‘us’, until Pe Teng came up with the ‘main character’ concept. It sure sounds something like me.
And the arguments he uses sound solid as well.
“You know, and that’s why you need to be patient, and not strike the arrogant young master of this sect right when you see him.”
“But, Pe, I am righteous, right? No compromises!”
“But… you are GREAT, right? You DESERVE the best woman around, the best scripture around…”
This is the ninth time he uses this sentence, as he talked to the eight friends before in the same manner.
“Well… now that you put it this way, I am certainly kind of a big deal.”
“And this is it. You need to admit your greatness. Would a great man strike the arrogant young master right when he sees him, or try to discover all the evil men behind him first?”
“Huh…”
“Right? You are great, so you should not belittle yourself. Don’t be content with little. Aim for more!”
“Huh…”
Huh. That’s what each of them was saying in the end.
Taking me behind a corner after the talk, Pe confided in me few things.
“Man, really… these MCs, they are so damn explosive…”
“Really?”
“And their IQ… don’t make me even start.”
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“Really?”
“You know, you can carry a lot more things, right? We need meat for everyone, so go there… see that? Take this and that and then follow me…”
“Okay.”
---
I learned that every sect has several types of training rooms. The Starfall sect, in particular, has ‘training rooms for disciples’, ‘training rooms for elders’, but also ‘training rooms for when you are punished’, ‘training rooms for when sect master is really dissatisfied with you’, ‘training rooms for when sect master tells you to go hide somewhere or…’ , ‘training rooms for when sect master tells you to improve your cultivation or die’ and so on.
Our guide, an elite disciple called Mr. Haofei, let us take a look at the last type.
It consisted of a seat on the floor, with many strange rotating crystals around. Supposedly, when you are not completing your cultivation cycles on time, they start to shoot rays of penetrating light that somehow resonates with your deepest fears and pain.
I wanted to try, but Pe said no.
Instead, he started inquiring about the situation here. And I felt satisfied, because our agreement was that he will be the ‘brain’ and I will be carrying things. I like carrying things.
“What is that big place right there?”
“Oh, that is a profound palace for burning down the remains of the sect’s enemies. We obviously can’t just let their bodies rot on a grass somewhere…”
“What an honorable sect this is, then. To care so much about few bodies a week… wow, I feel good being here.”
“Yes… only few groups of bodies a week, sometimes rather big groups. We are quite the honorable sect.”
“...”
“...”
“And who has the main say around here? Sect master, right?”
“Yes, sect master… unless his wife has an objection.”
“So, it’s his wife, then?”
“No, obviously, it is the sect master. I insist. It’s just that his wife might object to his decisions. It is up to his conscience… and guts… to not take her opinion into account before he decides anything. But that is the virtue of a married couple, right? To mind how the other person will see your actions.”
“So his wife is very mindful of him as well, then?”
“But of course. But she is very wise, so it may not be as obvious.”
“...”
The rest of the walk was about similar things, so I just turned my mind off. As we were approaching the place we agreed upon, I finally unloaded the several tens kilograms of meat I was carrying with me.
“So, Mr. Teng, you think this is really necessary?”
“Yes. We are… special cases. You know it. So we need rankings. Because rankings are one of the few things that can keep us looking at the long term situation.”
“And this pile of meat… he was carrying… that is for…?”
“Ah, you know, when you do a tournament, you need to make the rewards obvious. You can’t say the winner can eat what he wants. No, you need to have there a visible pile of meat. And this is just the meat - I made him carry it to prove the point. The same goes for any women, any artifacts and so on. You need to show abundance.”
“Heh. And tell me again, how will this help to identify the special cases, then…?”
“Well, a lot of the special cases suffer from a certain kind of heart-demon, if you will. They feel they are better than anyone else, and just need to show it to the world to prove it. So they are searching for these kind of opportunities.”
“But if you are better, you just need to work hard, and naturally will get better results…?”
“No, it’s not like this - when you are special, you are used to get awesome things just because of ‘good ideas’ or ‘luck’ and so you don’t want to actually work for it. You just want a fast, short-term opportunities to show off.”
“I see. I suppose then that when young master Han De will have time to see you, he might be pleased with the idea. And when it comes to a tournament just for the 15 fo you, I can approve that by myself.”
“Thank you. We need the rankings, really.”
---
The next day, Pe Teng had us all gather together.
“Fellow cultivators… you are the greatest, right?”
A lot of yeah or right sounded from the group.
“Yet you feel like you suffer the most, don’t get what you deserve, and have no good opportunities, right?”
Again, a lot of voices confirming that.
“So let me teach a way out - when there is none, you need to create an opportunity for yourself!”
This time, a curious huhs were voiced out.
“Let me teach you a technique … a technique which is, honestly, better than your plans of beating up the young master first thing in the morning I can’t make you abandon… the ultimate, soul piercing gaze!”
Everyone knows that when there is the word ultimate, it must be good. So we all kept paying a lot of attention to him.
“It goes like this… you frown a little… yes… and then look into the eyes of the person you want to pierce with your eyes... “
“But how does that help?”
“It reveals the true nature of things. Obviously, before the great you, everyone should reveal any secrets when you frown menacingly, right?”
That makes sense.
“So when we meet the young master, and you see his women, or… anything makes you angry, you need to use this technique. That’s the only way.”
“But how do we know who is the strongest?”
Yes. That is really important. I wonder how Pe could have forgotten about that.
“Simple - the one who frowns the hardest will be the one young master will speak to.”
“Really?”
“For sure.”
When we finished with the instructions, Pe said that he needs something really strong to drink, since nobody is paying him ‘for this’.
I thought that we will see young master this very day, but the time when we saw Han De for the first time was Sunday. I know, because that was the day that - upon listening to me cultivating the wind scripture for hours - one of the servants came up with an idea tailored just for me.
He took me to a special training room filled with water, with a lot of undercurrents due to the wind elements embedded in the room, told me I can cultivate as long as I want, and then threw me into it.
Sadly, when I opened my mouth to shout out the magical “BOOOO” sound, a lot of water was getting into me, but in the end I somehow managed.
Not only that, it turned out really great.
When he took me out of there after 7 hours, he noticed that my cultivation sharply increased, which left him standing in place for few minutes, having no reaction whatsoever.
I forgave him. There is no reason to be nasty toward him just because he cultivates some strange scripture as well. I hope we can be friends.
Later in the day, the young master was about to see us, so we were joined by six more people, and in the end 18 of us were hauled to the outer training grounds.
So we were waiting….
And then some more....
I was just standing there, devoid of any thoughts, but some friends got a bit restless. I guess the only thing keeping them in place was their agreement with Pe Teng.
It was also fortunate that there was a delay, since two more ‘main characters’ came, so we had to ascertain who has the strongest plot amor all over again, and had to go through few rounds of bumping into each other. I still kept my third place!
It helped everyone calm down a bit.
Yet that did not last long, as Han De came, and one really elegant girl, following in his footsteps, had suddenly a rather cold remark: “Master, who are these people?”
I heard it from Pe Teng before. That one of the harshest thing you can do to people like 'us' is to make us feel like we are… unknown.
But that was also the sign of starting the rankings. I still remember the instructions.
Assuming various looks on their faces, everyone was frowning as hard as he or she could. With my eyebrow twitching from the pressure, I lamented not practicing this technique as diligently.
Then, finally, Han De spoke.
He revealed his true colors, since he could not stand the menacing frowns of our soul piercing gaze!
“I started a program to look for talented individuals that are getting mistreated by their environment. The purpose is to provide them with a safe place to grow, without having to worry about the security of themselves or their families.”
Some of us could not endure the frowning anymore, but Pe Teng, as the founder of the technique, probably attaining the highest layer of profficiency in it, even clenched his fists.
Not long after, he bowed before Han De. Could it be Han De spoke to him? It must be!
When the young master left, Pe Teng gave a rank to each of us. To make it have a real impact, he said that we will also divide our resources based on that.
But that’s not important.
When you have a ranking, you are officially a disciple! Yes!