Chapter 27 (Part 1)

Song Yuanxi woke from hunger. His body was hungry, and his divine sense was even hungrier. He wanted to eat, but even more than that, he wanted to absorb spiritual energy.

He opened his eyes. The little yellow chicken was lying on his chest, sleeping soundly. But now, in his eyes, it had become spicy chicken, white-cut chicken, kung pao chicken, chicken stew with mushrooms…

“Junior Brother Song, you’re finally awake.”

A joyful voice shattered the fantasies of the man on the bed.

Song Yuanxi dragged his gaze away from the little yellow chicken with great difficulty and looked up ahead. “Senior Brother He?”

“I came over to chat with you, but who would have thought that as soon as I entered your little courtyard, I’d see you lying on the ground? You scared me half to death. I almost thought you were dead.”

He Man was about to keep rambling, but Song Yuanxi hurriedly interrupted, “Senior Brother He, do you have anything to eat?”

“Huh?”

“I’m hungry…”

His tone was unexpectedly aggrieved.

He Man sat across the table and watched with his own eyes as Song Yuanxi polished off two braised Spirit-Rhyme Tender Chickens, a huge tub of spirit rice, and one roasted Changling pork leg. Only then did the speed at which the other man ate finally slow down.

In the end, he absorbed over a hundred spirit stones and drank an entire enormous sea-bowl of lingzhi soup. Only then could this meal be considered finished.

He Man suddenly stood up and reached toward Song Yuanxi’s belly. Song Yuanxi was so frightened that he backed away again and again.

“Senior Brother He, what are you doing?!”

He Man looked at Song Yuanxi’s stomach and clicked his tongue in wonder. “How strange. You ate so much, but your lower abdomen is still flat. Where did all that food go?”

Song Yuanxi was helpless. This was simply how Body Cultivators were. The energy consumed by their bodies was several times that of Sword Cultivators and dozens of times that of Dharma Cultivators. Before they reached the point where they no longer needed food, they had to eat in large quantities every day. It was a craving born from the body’s instincts.

During the third round of the ring defense competition, he had consumed too much spiritual energy and divine sense. Even though he had constantly replenished himself with Return Origin Pills throughout, that only treated the symptoms, not the root cause. His body had been in deficit the whole time.

As for all that food just now, he had only eaten until he was seventy percent full.

“Senior Brother He, I consume a lot because of Body Cultivation, so eating more is unavoidable. Right, why were you looking for me?” Song Yuanxi worked hard to hide his true nature as a rice bucket and firmly refused to eat any more.

Only then did He Man say, “The three rounds of the outer sect competition have ended. The rankings are out now. There are four thousand five hundred and sixty-three people in total, but there still has to be an overtake challenge round to determine the top three thousand.”

“Overtake challenge round?”

“According to the comprehensive assessment of the first three rounds, these four thousand-plus disciples are all currently ranked. Any disciple ranked after three thousand who wants to go to Tushan Secret Realm can only challenge one of the top three thousand disciples. If the challenge succeeds, their rankings are swapped. If the challenge fails, the challenger is eliminated outright and cannot issue a second challenge…”

Seeing Song Yuanxi’s confused expression, He Man knew the other man had not carefully looked into these rules at all. He analyzed all the twists and turns within them clearly, and when he saw Song Yuanxi’s enlightened expression, he felt satisfied.

“Junior Brother Song, your ranking this time is stuck at the very end of the two-thousands. You’re ranked two thousand nine hundred and eighty-second. As long as no one challenges you, you can go directly to Tushan Secret Realm.”

He Man continued, “The top thousand rankings are basically worthy of their names. Aside from battle maniacs who will challenge further ahead, ordinary disciples won’t be that stupid. But the last two thousand rankings should shift greatly. Especially since you’ve become rather famous recently and shone brilliantly in the competition. If they want to step on your glory, rise in rank, and become famous in one battle, it wouldn’t be impossible.”

Song Yuanxi merely smiled and said indifferently, “I don’t mind. If anyone comes to challenge me, then I’ll accept. I won’t refuse anyone who comes.”

However, imagination was beautiful, and reality was cruel.

There were quite a few disciples with little schemes in mind. One after another, as if they had all agreed on it, they lined up to challenge Song Yuanxi. Some had cultivation levels around the third or fourth level of Qi Refining, some were a little higher at the fourth or fifth level of Qi Refining, and there were even disciples at late-stage Qi Refining.

There was no limit to the number of overtake challenges. Day after day, Song Yuanxi dealt with wave after wave, until his head nearly exploded.

“Are they done yet?” Song Yuanxi was going crazy. “Have they never asked about me? The people who fought me before were all senior brothers and sisters at late-stage Qi Refining. Even they couldn’t take me down. Are these people purely here to give me experience?”

He Man, however, burst out laughing. “It’s precisely because you fought those senior brothers and sisters and even defeated them that all these people are flocking toward you. There are nearly a hundred thousand Qi Refining disciples in Xuantian Sect. To stand out from such an enormous number, one has to find another path.”

“Wouldn’t it be enough to just cultivate hard? Once they reach Foundation Establishment, they can enter the inner sect directly,” Song Yuanxi said, puzzled.

He Man said, “Junior Brother Song, you haven’t stayed in the outer sect for long, so you don’t know how cruel the competition among bottom-level cultivators is. Forget it, I won’t say too much to you, lest I dirty your eyes.”

After Song Yuanxi accepted his twenty-third challenge, he finally began to feel sick of it. The overtake challenge round would last ten days in total, and this was only the third day. He was truly about to go numb.

“No, I have to think of a way to discourage those disciples. I need to pull something off and scare them.”

And so, Song Yuanxi went to find Du Tianyu. After all, this senior brother was following Daoist Master Yunhua and handling the disciple arrangements for the Redcloud Peak outer sect competition, so he understood the rules in great detail.

After Du Tianyu finished listening to Song Yuanxi’s reason for coming, he pondered for a moment and said, “If Junior Brother Song wants peace and quiet, it isn’t impossible. The outer sect competition has an unwritten rule: anyone who enters the top ten has the right to refuse challenges from lower-ranked disciples. However, disciples within the top ten can still spar with each other.”

Song Yuanxi’s eyes immediately lit up. “That’s a great idea!”

Du Tianyu laughed despite himself. “Junior Brother Song, you’re thinking too simply. The rule is already stated clearly. How are you going to convince a disciple in the top ten to accept a challenge from someone barely hanging on at the end of the top three thousand?”

Once anyone agreed to such a thing, it would be a joke in itself. If they won, it would be only natural. If they lost, they would directly become a laughingstock. Moreover, the disciples could remember it for a hundred years. Every time the sect competition came around, it would be dragged out again and again for repeated public flogging.

“Junior Brother Song, don’t think about it. Just deal with the remaining challenges properly. Seven days will pass in the blink of an eye.” Du Tianyu was not worried at all that Song Yuanxi would lose. This junior brother could be said to have a very rich family background.

But Song Yuanxi was unwilling. With that time, he might as well go mountain-running.

“Senior Brother Du, tell me who the top ten are.”

Du Tianyu was helpless and could only report ten names. Who would have thought that when Song Yuanxi heard the last name, his eyes would light up with a swish?

“Thank you, Senior Brother. I’ll treat you to a meal another day.”

He came and went like a gust of wind. After bidding Du Tianyu farewell, Song Yuanxi ran through the sect, leaving behind an afterimage, and finally arrived at the foot of Tianling Peak.

This was his first time stepping onto Tianling Peak. In truth, aside from the sect’s main peak, he had only set foot on three of the other seven peaks: Qingtian Peak, Redcloud Peak, and Wanhai Peak. He had gone back and forth among them only because he had connections there.

As for the remaining four peaks, he had barely interacted with them.

Song Yuanxi fumbled around at the foot of the mountain for a while and finally found the path up. But halfway up the mountain, he was stopped.

He could not see the other party’s cultivation level clearly, so he spoke first and greeted her. “Senior Sister, is there something you need?”

“You’re not a disciple of Tianling Peak. What are you going up for?”

“How did Senior Sister tell?” Song Yuanxi was quite curious.

“All Tianling Peak disciples have imperfect Daoist robes. Your clothes are rather clean. If you really are a Tianling Peak disciple, then you must be someone who slacks off and doesn’t draw talismans. The idle may not enter the peak summit. That is Tianling Peak’s rule.”

As that senior sister spoke, she looked proud again. “However, every disciple of our peak is diligent and would never shirk work or play tricks. So someone like you must be a disciple from another peak.”

Song Yuanxi did not know whether to laugh or cry. So loving cleanliness was wrong? This Tianling Peak was truly strange!

But one still had to keep up appearances, especially in front of senior brothers and sisters. One had to maintain a smile even more. “Senior Sister’s guess is absolutely right. I am Song Yuanxi, a disciple of Wanhai Peak. I would like to go up Tianling Peak to visit Senior Brother Ji. May I trouble Senior Sister to point out the way?”

“You’re Song Yuanxi?”

“Ah, yes.”

That senior sister stared at Song Yuanxi and quietly sized him up. After a while, she finally said, “Go up toward the southeast, circle around Eighteen Pavilion and turn left, turn right at the second little peak junction, then go to Lotus Pond… Finally, detour around Qingfeng Courtyard, and you’ll be there.”

Song Yuanxi was speechless. You’re not joking with me, are you?

However, after that senior sister finished speaking, she went straight down the mountain and did not care about him at all. Song Yuanxi went over her words in his mind once and roughly memorized them before walking forward.

After winding around for more than two hours, he finally saw Ji Wuyi himself.

“Junior Brother Song?” Ji Wuyi was surprised when he saw who had come. “Why did you come to Tianling Peak? Is something the matter?”

“Yes, something is the matter.”

“Did an elder from Wanhai Peak ask you to come deliver a message?”

Song Yuanxi shook his head. “No. It is I, your junior brother, who came to find Senior Brother. I have an important matter to discuss.”

Song Yuanxi explained why he had come. To avoid causing unnecessary misunderstandings, he weighed every word again and again and expressed himself very carefully. After all, to Ji Wuyi, this matter was a kind of “humiliation” in itself.

After Ji Wuyi listened, he fell silent, neither nodding nor shaking his head.

Song Yuanxi sat on the stone stool, his heart pounding anxiously. Would Senior Brother Ji suddenly fly into a rage and slap him twice across the face? Or would he directly draw out three hundred talismans and blast him out of Tianling Peak? Or perhaps…

He imagined countless possibilities. The only thing he had not expected was that the other party would agree at once, and that he would agree readily with a smile on his face.

“Senior—Senior Brother Ji, you agreed just like that?”

“I do not care about rank. To me, tenth place and two thousand nine hundred-something are the same. As long as I have the qualification to enter Tushan Secret Realm, that is enough.”

“But the sect gives generous rewards for the top ten of the outer sect competition.”

“So, in what area does Junior Brother Song intend to compensate me?”

“…?”

At that moment, Song Yuanxi felt that Ji Wuyi’s smile was not quite so adorable anymore. So the pit had been dug long ago, just waiting for him to jump into it himself.

He thought for a moment about the sect’s material rewards in previous years, pondered for a while, and took out items of roughly equivalent value from his storage bracelet. Who would have thought that Ji Wuyi would not accept them?

“Senior Brother Ji?”

“Although the Ji family cannot compare with the Song family, we do have a modest family background. As for these worldly goods, though I, Ji, am untalented, I can still obtain them casually.”

Song Yuanxi fell silent. After a long while, he forced a smile and asked with difficulty, “Then what does Senior Brother Ji mean?”

“I heard that your younger blood brother Song Yuanruo is the heavenly prodigy of the Song family. His mutated lightning spiritual root stands out as unique in the sect. Since we are both single spiritual roots, I would like to spar with him.”

Seeing that Song Yuanxi did not agree, Ji Wuyi added, “It would not be a fierce battle. It would simply be a spar in talisman arts. Song Yuanruo once came to Tianling Peak and earned repeated praise from the elders of our peak. At the time, I happened to be on duty outside and had no chance to see him. I have always felt rather regretful.”

“…”

Song Yuanxi felt his teeth ache just listening. How did this man manage to use such a gentle tone to say something that made people’s hair stand on end?

Spar with Song Yuanruo in talisman arts? Was he sure it would not turn into smashing talismans at each other over the slightest disagreement?

Ji Wuyi was a ghostly talisman-drawing talent who held three hundred thousand talismans in his hand. Even knowing that Song Yuanruo was the male lead, Song Yuanxi still could not feel at ease. This was his own younger brother!

“Senior Brother Ji, forgive me…”

“It is only an introduction. If Song Yuanruo does not agree, I will not force him.”

All right then. The requirement was lowered even further. Although he was still very worried about his younger brother’s safety, why was he strangely tempted?

…

After leaving Tianling Peak, Song Yuanxi was in an extremely wonderful mood. There was not even any need for a fake fight. Ji Wuyi directly swapped their ranking plaques.

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