Back at Shen Lan’s courtyard, Ji Kang sank into deep thought.

Currently his main strategy for getting rid of the contract’s restraints was to cause Lu Wu to enter a rivalry with Xiang Chang and then secretly do his best to intensify this conflict from the sidelines until he got a chance to see Lu Wu killed, either by himself or by Xiang Chang.

Now this plan seemed too flimsy in Ji Kang’s estimation. How many rivalries lasted for decades with no resolution? How many stories had he heard of old men who hated each other bitterly, had been rivals for their entire lives, and yet failed to kill the other in the course of their entire lives?

Ji Kang would be helping from the side to prevent such a deadlock situation, but even then he no longer felt confident in this plan succeeding with just this foundation. How could he increase his chances of success? He had already considered this previously and thought about making more enemies for Lu Wu.

Making more enemies was a good start, but the idea behind this could be refined further. What is the essential, fundamental effect of creating more enemies for Lu Wu? Increasing the amount of chaos in the equation.

The more chaotic the situation swirling around Lu Wu became, the more opportunities for his death would present themselves. Any actions that could increase the amount of chaos would help towards this goal.

As of now Ji Kang had no good ideas for how to sow more chaos, but he could remain on the lookout for opportunities to do so.

Ji Kang’s train of thought abruptly paused. He was slightly amused and more than slightly dismayed at the turn of his own thoughts. He had recognized that his plan was lacking in structure, so to remedy that he had decided he would wait for opportunities to sow chaos, which would lead to more opportunities to achieve his actual goals?

He was waiting for opportunities to then wait for opportunities?!? How was that different than simply doing nothing while placating himself?

Ji Kang shook his head and sighed. It was moments like these that helped him rein in his opinion of his own intelligence. He was naturally intelligent, but it wasn’t to the degree that his naive teenager brain would like to believe. In truth he was greatly lacking in practical experience with plotting, once he gained more experience he would experience this situation of reaching the limits of his imagination less frequently.

Waking himself out of that intense and unhelpful introspective spiral, Ji Kang reevaluated his situation.

The thing he knew he could do now, that would have the biggest impact on his plans was simple. He needed to cultivate. Just the day before he had made that same conclusion, but he got distracted and went off on a tangent involving the spiritual plane and his own self esteem.

Ji Kang was getting the impression that the first large barrier in cultivation was boredom, and young people’s lack of self discipline, and he was clearly not an exception.

Ji Kang reaffirmed his determination to cultivate in some aspect every waking hour of the day for the next few weeks. And as far as plotting went, with another sigh he allowed that for now his best plan truly was to wait for opportunities, however ridiculous that made him feel.

Weeks flew by in a flurry of cultivation. Ji Kang expanded his already heavy cultivation schedule to encompass nearly every waking moment.

He was constantly aware of how little time he had to prepare for the inner sect tournament, making sure to dedicate time to sharpening his martial skills as well as his cultivation.

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Barely a week had passed before he had completely finished the book of spells and techniques Shen Lan had given him. Most of the spells were very situational, useful only under niche circumstances.

Turtle Breathing, that Ji Kang had used to spy on Xiang Chang for instance, would be entirely useless in the tournament which would mainly feature direct combat on a small stage with no room to hide.

There was a minor telekinesis power, meant for manipulating weapons from afar which could possibly be used, but it was limited in two large ways. Namely, that the controlled object couldn’t be moved very quickly, with the top speed being a little less than an out of shape mortal’s running speed, and secondly that it took several seconds of chants to activate and would require a hand seal to be maintained the entire time the spell was being cast.

That could perhaps be used for a come-from-behind sneak attack situation, but would likely fail.

There was also a spell to create a weak landmine effect which you could lure your opponent into stepping on. Ji Kang found this spell promising because it required very few hand seals and he was confident in being able to perform them behind his back while moving and speaking the chants softly.

Ji Kang was truly learning the severe limitations that Qi Condensation cultivators had in regards to spells. Every single spell in his book required verbal components when casting, most required some degree of hand signs, none could be cast instantly or within a single second, and all of which lacked true potency.

It seemed that Ji Kang’s best bet for effective force was just to leverage his increased speed, strength and agility to fight with his sword. Even then he could probably be beaten by a moderately dedicated mortal swordsman who had trained for a decade.

Luckily, his enemies would be other inner disciples who were all around the same age, and who had started their cultivation within less than a year of when he did. Some of those disciples, like Lu Wu and Xiang Chang had been extensively trained in martial arts before joining the sect, but as long as Ji Kang could keep up with their cultivation pace and leverage the very slight advantage spells offered he even had a chance to contest with them.

If he happened to go up against Lu Wu however, Ji Kang would almost certainly back out of his own volition unless doing so would guarantee demotion from the inner sect.

Yu Shuren and Lu Wu didn’t sit back and relax during this time, they both also spent the majority of their time in cultivation, with Lu Wu being the only one of the three to spend a significant amount of time relaxing.

As always, Lu Wu’s insistence on being arrogant and assuming everything would be fine aggravated Ji Kang, but he didn’t let it show.

Lu Wu had been born with a silver spoon and granted all the opportunities possible, yet time and again he seemed determined to waste the advantages he had been given by not trying very hard to grasp the opportunities in front of him. Lu Wu’s relaxed state of mind despite this, made Ji Kang jealous almost to the point of madness and from that jealousy his dislike of Lu Wu grew ever more prominent.

Ji Kang had never thought well of Lu Wu and had always intended to eventually get rid of him because of the odious contract, but it wasn’t until one afternoon when he and Yu Shuren were taking a short break between bouts of sparring under the burning sun when this resentment crystallized.

Mopping sweat from his brow in a vain attempt to stop it from continually dripping into his eyes, Ji Kang happened to look over and see Lu Wu lounging under the overhang of the porch, drinking a cool drink that had to have been prepared by the servants. Lu Wu was the picture of ease, while Ji Kang had been worn down over the course of several weeks of bitter cultivation.

What was worse than just the jealousy, was the resentment Ji Kang felt because of what would happen if Lu Wu were to be demoted to the outer sect. There was not a single doubt in Ji Kang’s mind that he and Yu Shuren would be forced by Lu Wu to accompany Lu Wu in his demotion should it occur.

Therefore Ji Kang’s future relied not just on his own hard work, but also the hard work of the spoiled debutant-esque Lu Wu.

Fortunately for Ji Kang and Yu Shuren, Lu Wu’s superior aptitude allowed his cultivation to keep up with Ji Kang. Combined with Lu Wu’s training in martial arts that might just be sufficient to allow him to remain in the inner sect even if he didn’t work very hard.

Over two months crept by without much of note happening, and Ji Kang thought he would be able to cultivate in peace until the tournament, but it was not meant to be.