Cultivation Nerd (xianxia)

Finding someone talented based on appearance alone was an impossible task. But I kept an eye on interesting-looking people, like the red-haired guy.

Weird hair, plus the xianxia world equaled someone having some strange bloodline thing going for them. 

There were cases where humans mated with humanoid monstrous beasts, and it was said to create monstrous talents. However, I wasn't exactly sure how true that was, as the books on the second floor hadn't gone into details about such things. Though it wasn't like I had read anywhere near all the books on that floor. 

We walked back down the slope to where we had docked our boat. Song Song had a knowing smirk as she looked at the sea expectantly.

"What're we going to do now?" I asked.

Despite how Song Song left most things to me, she was still the official leader. So whenever I had the opportunity, I would have her handle things. 

"Well, we just sit around and rest while waiting for the other slow pokes to show up. Before everyone shows up, we can't even start the exam," her smirk widened. "Go and eat all the food on the ship if you want to, to pass the time."

She was clearly absorbed in her own world, so I just shrugged and played along. I called over the others and tried to think about how I would introduce soccer here. We were all cultivators, so kicking a wooden ball was probably okay.

"Do any of you have a sword?" I asked, and not much later, half a dozen people took out their swords and showed them to me. "Okay, I'm taking one of yours and going to make a ball from wood."

They looked a bit confused as to why I would do something like that. So instead of talking more, I showed them by jumping up a tree and cutting off one of their branches. The branch was as thick as an average tree, and as it crashed on the ground with a resounding thud, even Song Song looked away from the sea, her gaze wandering over my body. 

"You okay?" She asked. 

"Of course."

"Don't go hurting yourself before I can show you off."

What was that supposed to mean? I was not a new expensive handbag she could show her... friends? 

Did she even have friends?

Well, I guess we could be considered friends in a way.

I didn't bother thinking much longer about it and instead cut a rough ball-shaped wooden sphere. Then I showed the others how to play soccer. 

Not even ten minutes later, as one of the guys kicked the ball, it shattered into a thousand splinters. It seemed like a superhuman body, and the wooden ball did not fit well.

"No, Wilson!" I murmured under my breath while looking at the broken pieces of wood on the beach sand. 

...

Fishing, running around, wrestling with some weird dolphin-like fish, and many other things. After all that it was almost mid-day, and nine other ships showed up on the horizon.

Unlike our own, their ships looked worse for wear, like they had gone through a sea battle. Some had ripped sails and cracked hulls, and one ship had a large hole in the side. 

If I were a betting man, I would bet on them fighting amongst each other.

The rest of my team and I stopped playing soccer and stood behind Song Song as she was ready to welcome her peers. As the other inner disciples and their teams landed, Song Song's smug look intensified as she puffed her chest with pride and did nothing to hide her happiness.

"Oh? What's this?" She asked, with mock surprise in her voice. No matter how good her acting was, her eyes made her intentions quite obvious. "We were almost about to fall asleep. Sorry, I thought you might have ended up a whole day behind me. I thought something might have happened to you down the way."

The outer disciples frowned at the comment but held their tongues and only angrily huffed away. But before they were out of earshot, Song Song wasn't letting them go without some humiliation. 

“Did you see the mountain of corpses of scorpion-like monstrous beasts we left behind? We even killed them all for you, so my fellow inner disciples would not fall into harm’s way,” Song Song added, and the smile on her face was wide enough to almost split her face in two.

She didn’t stop and continued talking even after that, even as the outer elder who had waited for us at the docks looked worried that a fight might blow up here. 

I was not as worried as I should be. 

While Song Song was not the best at making certain decisions, we had built some trust between each other during this journey. The chances she would start a fight here were slim to none. Though for some reason, she was trying to tempt them into attacking.

Once they were further away, the mad smile on Song Song’s face slipped off and left only the dangerous look in her eyes. I walked toward her and stopped when I was within arm’s length, standing behind her, hidden in her shadow.

“What was up with that? Are you trying to goad them into attacking us?” I calmly asked.

“Yes,” she sighed. “I saw the look in their eyes, and every pore in my body tells me that they want to attack us. If the elder wasn’t here, at least three of them would have attacked.”

“You think something happened on the way here that made them decide to band together?”

“Who knows, they might have dreams that they could take my place as core disciples. Or perhaps someone else ordered them to do this? My master and I have many enemies, and some might have decided to finally try and take a shot at us,” she rubbed her chin. “Normally I wouldn’t worry about this. But with you here, it would be troublesome if they decided to attack while we were in the forest.”

She assumed they were already going to attack? If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t trust them with this if they just said that they felt someone was going to attack them. But she had a good intuition when it came to these things.

She had that killer instinct, so I made sure to try and memorize the faces of everyone else in the other teams and their leaders.

Though I wanted nothing to do with this. Sometimes there was no other choice.

Then the outer elder cleared his throat and announced, "Let me tell you all the rules of how this will play out. Unless in extreme situations, seniors are not to kill any of the exam takers. Infighting is also prohibited, and your goal is to ensure that we allow only the best to enter the Blazing Sun Sect! The Sect has believed in your abilities and trustworthiness to carry this through without deceit or envy!"

He continued spouting a bunch more empty words and promises. Instead, I glanced into the distance, atop the hill where we had been to see the newcomers. However, there seemed to be someone there, looking straight at us. But as I blinked, the figure was gone before I could even get a good look at it.

That was definitely not my imagination or a trick of the light. Though the sunlight had cast a strong shadow and stopped me from getting a good look, someone was there.

Also, with my vision, I should have been able to see through the light. 

Could that someone have used a technique to hide themselves from onlookers?

Okay, since the outer elder in charge of this and the other official disciples were here. The most likely chance was that someone who had stared at us from far away was an outsider. It was either some other outer elder we hadn't seen until now. Or there was some super skilled applicant.

So far, not even Song Song seemed to have seen them. I barely caught a glimpse out of dumb luck. So the chances were that they were some other outer elder.

"Okay, now you can go and enter the forest. The applicants have already spread out, and their job is to survive without getting their tags taken for a whole week," the outer elder said. "For those of the outer sect, for every ten tags they get, they will earn one spirit stone."

The outer disciples looked excited. While the inner disciples, who were the leaders of the teams, were nonchalant about it.

No matter how one looked at this, the system was rigged and heavily favored certain people. Since the inner disciples would stop anyone from the outer sect from disqualifying anyone who showed potential. Likely ending up with some inner elder getting the benefits of gaining a talented disciple. Not to mention those who had connections with the sect and all that.

"Let's go," Song Song brought me out of my thoughts.

We followed along and moved into the forest, while in the back of my mind was that figure who I had seen at the top of the hill.

For some reason, a chill went down my spine when thinking about it. Like every instinct warning me against something.

Had I met them before?

I tried recalling such feelings before, and as far as I could tell, Liu Feng had never encountered such a thing.

"Liu Feng, I need you to wake up a bit," Song Song slowed down and moved next to me, as her eyes wandered around.

"Sorry. There was something on my mind."

"Then think about it later. Because we are about to be bombarded right now."

As soon as she said that, there was a shift in the air, and three Qi signatures made themselves visible while over two dozen disciples appeared from behind trees. Some had heavy looks, while others seemed like they would be anywhere else but here.

But what was worrying was the three inner disciples leading all these disciples. The three guys had their hands between their backs, and gentle smiles on their faces. One might mistake them as unthreatening, if it weren’t for all the people surrounding us. 

One of them opened their mouths to speak, but Song Song interrupted them.

"These days, guys seem to be growing bolder with each passing second. Where did you find the guys to get in my way?" Song Song licked her lips as the Qi around her flared, and since we were so close, I could feel her Qi clearer than ever before.

It felt like warm mucus proactively wrapping around me.

Even the three inner disciples narrowed their eyes and brought their hands forward, beads of sweat rolling down their cheeks. They no longer even played at trying to look like they weren't here to fight, and all the arrogance was gone in a split second. 

The man in the middle, who was the tallest and looked like the leader, clenched his teeth and said, "It seems like you must have recently broken through."

"Well, unlike you bastards in your mid-thirties still trying to act and look young, some of us have actual talent in cultivation," Song Song shrugged.

Then she nudged me and added, "No offense to you, Liu Feng."

"I'm not old," I answered.

However, with her nudging, I knew she was preparing something. So I went ahead and played along with her word games.

"But you are not quite talented," she made a snide comment.

"True," I admitted, sighing and putting my hands behind my back like an old man. At the same time, with my hands behind my back, I was going through the hand seals to activate an array.

Two thoughts were going through my mind in this situation. The first one was that Song Song had been scarily right; that gut feeling of hers was quite something. Second, what kind of array would work best in a forest?

 

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