Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Seeing Li Xiaobai coming down, the surrounding disciples immediately scattered like birds and beasts, clearly not wishing to interact any more than necessary.

Li Xiaobai touched his nose with a slightly embarrassed expression.

It seemed these fellow sect brothers were particularly supportive of Misty Peak, a pity he was just a newcomer, a mere rookie, far from the secluded expert they spoke of.

“Yo, isn’t this a disciple from Misty Peak? A fresh face, eh? What’s the matter, can’t sit still with the sect competition approaching?”

A young man holding a feather fan parted the crowd and walked out.

“It’s Lin Feng, an Inner Sect Disciple!”

“It’s said his brother Lin Mang is Elder Sun’s True Disciple, which is quite impressive!”

Seeing that a disciple recognized him, Lin Feng grew even more arrogant, gently waving his feather fan with a smile on his face, full of style.

Li Xiaobai looked confused; sect competition?

Feng Lingzi never mentioned anything about it!

He had a bad feeling in his heart.

“Listen well, everyone, all Misty Peak disciples are a bunch of nepotists, relying on their good relationship with the Sect Leader to blatantly monopolize resources.”

“This time in the competition my big brother will surely reach the top ten, claiming the qualification to train at the Holy Demon Sect and then step by step walk over those from Misty Peak, showing the Sect Leader their true colors.”

Lin Feng stood tall and proud, speaking indifferently as an imposing aura filled the area, leaving Li Xiaobai utterly confused.

“If your brother is so mighty that he can make it into the top ten… but what does that have to do with you?”

Scratching his head, Li Xiaobai wore a face of bewilderment.

The watching crowd was also stunned. Yeah, your big brother’s strength has what to do with you?

“I…”

Lin Feng choked, at a loss for words.

“Haha, well said junior brother, some petty people enjoy nothing more than running their mouths. You’re called Lin Feng, right? Stop your nonsensical babbling. If you really have the skill, let’s have a go at it!”

The crowd parted once more, and another young man came forward, also in white garments and lightly waving a feather fan, yet his fan movements were thousands of times more graceful than Lin Feng’s.

Compared to this handsome man, Lin Feng looked like a bumpkin.

Li Xiaobai recognized this person; it was his senior brother from Misty Peak, named Yang Chen, whom he had met when he first joined the sect.

“We’ll just wait and see!”

“See what? What’s there to look at? Why are you all crowding here? Don’t you need to cultivate?”

The crowd sneered, and Lin Feng slunk away in defeat.

“Junior brother, how come you’ve come down the mountain?”

Yang Chen approached with a chuckle, not taking Lin Feng’s words to heart in the slightest.

“Senior brother, I just came down the mountain for a stroll, to relax a bit,” Li Xiaobai said.

“Relax?”

Upon hearing this, Yang Chen’s brows shot up in an instant, his face stern: “After death, there is plenty of time to relax. What we have to do is cultivate, from morning to night, continuously.”

“The sect competition is almost upon us; you can’t bring shame upon Misty Peak!”

Great, another cultivation fanatic.

Li Xiaobai was speechless, just about to say something, but then he noticed the scenery around him blur, and before he knew it, he was thrown into the cave dwelling.

[Attribute Points +10.]

“Junior brother, these Spirit Stones are for you. The competition is tomorrow, diligently cultivate, and do not disgrace our Misty Peak,”

Yang Chen’s voice drifted from far away.

Senior brother Yang was really… warm-hearted. He had barely descended the mountain once, and before even leaving the sect, he found himself sent back. What kind of nonsense was this?

Sorting through his thoughts, Li Xiaobai discovered several important pieces of information.

Tomorrow was the Sect competition, and the sect would select ten outstanding disciples through this competition to train in the Holy Demon Sect.

The Holy Demon Sect was a prestigious Great Sect, and it was said that its Sect Leader was a powerful individual who had survived a Heavenly Tribulation. If one could train in a Great Sect, the benefits would certainly be plentiful.

However, he was just a weakling, having allocated all his Attribute Points to defense; if it really came to a fight, he would only be beaten up.

Picking up a small bag of Spirit Stones from the ground, he touched the most commonly used and most basic cultivation resource. The moment his fingers touched the Spirit Stones, the System notification sounded once more.

[Host has obtained Spirit Stones, System Mall is now open.]

[Currency: Ten Lower Grade Spirit Stones.]

Li Xiaobai’s face lit up with joy; the mall had actually opened, and the currency for the System Mall was Spirit Stones.

He clicked on the panel to check the items in the mall, which were dazzlingly assorted into four categories: Equipment Items, Mounts, Talismans, and Elixirs.

Unbeknownst to him until he checked, among the mounts were actually Maseratis, Lamborghinis, and even armored vehicles, and to his greater astonishment, even robot Gundam models.

But after a glance at the prices, Li Xiaobai fell into despair. The prices for the mounts were insanely high, easily in the tens of thousands, and they were priced in Upper Grade or even Peerless Spirit Stones.

The cheapest Flying Broom also required a whopping thousand Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

It seemed they were out of his reach for the time being.

[Minor Swift Travel Talisman, Explosive Talisman, Vajra Talisman]: Ten Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

[Refined Waste Poison]: One Lower Grade Spirit Stone.

[Revitalizing Pill, Power Pill]: Ten Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

After scanning the selection, Li Xiaobai realized the only things he could truly afford were a few basic pieces of equipment.

[Somewhat Careful Helmet]: Wearing it slightly enhances defensive power. (Ten Lower Grade Spirit Stones.)

[Bronze Sword]: Using it slightly increases attack power. (Ten Lower Grade Spirit Stones.)

[Bronze Boots]: Wearing them slightly increases speed. (Ten Lower Grade Spirit Stones.)

Without a second thought, he chose the helmet, which perfectly complemented his skill of being 100% likely to get smacked in the face. With it on, he wasn’t afraid of getting slapped anymore.

Choose to purchase!

In front of him, starlight twinkled and coalesced into a filthy helmet. It looked rather shabby and rough, indeed quite hasty.

He tapped it, and it was quite hard. Putting it on his head, Li Xiaobai felt his constitution grow much stronger, just as described; the helmet had an amplifying effect on him.

Great, for tomorrow’s competition, there was no need to worry about getting slapped in the face.

…

At the same time, at the Immortal Feather Sect, in the grand hall of the sect

Several Elders were arguing fervently.

“Sect Leader, this is absolutely unacceptable. The spots for advanced training in the Holy Demon Sect are extremely precious; how can you allocate four of them directly to Misty Peak? I disagree!”

“I disagree too. By doing this, Sect Leader, where does that leave the True Disciples?”

“Even if you want to favor them, you should follow the rules. In my opinion, at most you give Misty Peak one spot, no more!”

“Right, Feng Lingzi, either your Misty Peak directly appoints a Disciple, or you join the competition fair and square, and let strength speak for itself!”

The many Elders were quite dissatisfied, as all of them had disciples. The Sect Leader actually favored Misty Peak so much that he intended to let four of its disciples directly train in the Holy Demon Sect.

“Well… I have no objections. Actually, the Sect Leader also has good intentions… you should understand.”

Feng Lingzi sighed, these Elders really were obfuscating the issue. The Sect Leader’s move was actually a disguised reduction of the spots for Misty Peak’s disciples to take advanced training. If it really came down to strength, he feared that, except for the newly accepted lad, the rest could make it into the top ten.

“Alright, if that’s the case, then everything will be decided by the disciples’ strength. But let me make it clear, whatever the outcome, you must accept it, and there must be no troublemaking.”

The Sect Leader was also helpless; good intentions misconstrued as ill intentions. But he couldn’t really blame these Elders; not many knew of Misty Peak disciples’ true strength since they seldom left their peak.

He just hoped that the Elders wouldn’t have regrets when the time came…