Chapter 66 66 – Necessary Arrangements



"Haha, I see. They declare war against each other, yet the ones to truly suffer from it are the other sects who are hungry for better resources. Those old men at the top only do it to save face and show they react when their disciples get killed, but they don't want any casualties in their sect".

Ken laughed when he heard that offer. The guard moved uncomfortably in his place as he listened to Ken mocking the elders of a top sect.

"Young Master, it might be inappropriate to say such this in public. You might offend powerful people."

"Don't worry, I know what I can say only when I'm alone. Anyway, I assume our sect agreed?"

"Not yet. The elder wants a headcount of everyone in the inner sect who is interested to go. He said there will be a very high mortality rate."

"I see. Write your name to secure a spot for me then."

The guard already knew Ken was at the Core Formation Stage since Ken beat him into submission and forced him to take poison. He just nodded and agreed.

"What are the limitations for joining?"

"Only Core Formation Stage or above can go, and they must be under 80 years old. That's the deal between the five top sects. He also mentioned rewards for killing disciples of the Four Seasons Sect including learning one of their Heaven-grade techniques if it's a ranked disciple."

"A ranked disciple?"

"Yes. They have a ranking list of the geniuses of the Four Seasons Sect, and if you kill someone who appears on this list, you will get considerably more rewards."

Ken nodded when he heard that. Since Divine Sword Sect used external forces to inflict damage to the enemy and avoid getting harmed themselves, it made sense that Four Seasons Sect would do the same. 

By making a list of the important enemy disciples, they could reward generously only those who killed the real disciples of the Four Seasons Sect, while giving much lower rewards for killing hired forces. 

It was all about face; as long as the other sects didn't come out with their deal and tell others they've attacked disciples of the Divine Sword Sect, the latter won't have to open war against them too.

"You may go now."

"Yes, Young Master."

After the guard left, Ken called it a day and went to sleep. He still made sure to sleep 8 hours to avoid hindering his healthy growth.

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'It's a bit risky to show I'm a Core Formation Stage cultivator before turning 8, but I have no choice if I don't want to miss this chance to go to the Divine Sword Sect and get extra knowledge. I can still hide most of my strength and let them think I advanced with a weak foundation.'

He went to the Hall of Glory again to issue a challenge to someone from the 17-24 age group and establish himself as a Core Formation cultivator. 

He didn't recognize the woman, meaning she wasn't the one who served him the last time he came here.

"How may I help you, Young Master?"

He came with his clan's robes to get better treatment from the beginning.

"I want to challenge rank 500 on the top list for ages 17-24. Can you handle that for me?"

"Young Master, are you sure? They are all at least at the Low Core Formation Stage."

She asked dubiously. Although he was beautiful enough to make her stare at his face and lose focus from time to time, she could easily see he was too young to participate there.

"Don't worry, you can check my name. I'm Ken Sue, I'm already on the list for disciples between ages 13-16."

He said and pulled out his token so she can check it. After running a quick check on the token, she saw it was true and he had the qualifications to challenge someone from the next age group.

"All right. He can set it to any time he wants in the next 72 hours if he is in the sect. If he isn't, he will have 72 hours to accept from the moment he is back. If he is injured, then those 72 hours will start when he heals."

"All right, thank you."

Ken still had many plans for the day, so he quickly left the Hall of Glory and went to the clan's library. Although it wasn't as comprehensive as the sect's library, it was still good enough to spare him many months of hard work and experimentation.

He showed his token in the entrance and the guards bowed to him. His grandfather made sure to spread his new status in the clan to make sure that everyone respected him.

He entered the library and quickly found the Alchemy books. He browsed them quickly but only found a very few books that he didn't read previously. 

He 'snapped' the pages into his memory by looking at every page before moving on to the next one. Just like before, he could read the book later from his own memory, sparing him time in the library.

He finished in the Alchemy area soon and moved to the Formation Mastery area. This time, he had a lot to read. The clan's library's size was around fifth compared to the one of the Pill Division, but he didn't read many of them.

Now that a war broke, he didn't need to sell pills to the Four Seasons Sect anymore, so he had a lot of free time without making thousands of pills for them.

He got a letter that his opponent is wounded currently, and the estimated time of the duel will be a week from now.

He spent the next week broadening his knowledge in Formation Mastery, learning new theories, and improving his formations repertoire.

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'It's been a while since I've been here and killed Han Joel.'

Ken thought to himself as he watched two disciples dueling in the arena. One of them was a martial artist who only used his body, mainly palm attacks and kicks, while the other used a sword.

The duel ended soon with the victory of the martial artist by deflecting the sword by pushing its flat side and landing a palm attack on his opponent's stomach.

'I must admit, fighting without a weapon is cooler. But also stupid, there's no reason to give up on a tool which increases your strength.'

Ken thought to himself while watching the duel. Fighting with one's palms was elegant and beautiful, but there was nobody in the top 20 who didn't use a weapon, a clear indication of the weakness of such a fighting method.

"Next, Sue Ken VS. Paul."

Many of the commoner disciples didn't have a last name, and Paul was one of them. 

An average-looking large man climbed into the arena and faced Ken with a 2-meter-long club in hand. The man was at the same height as his club, and his sturdy body could be easily noticed even through his clothes.

His squared head was adorned with spiky black hair that didn't seem to be nurtured by anyone.

"You are Sue Ken? Have you already formed your core at such a young age?"

He looked at the kid in front of him with surprise. He seemed 11-12 years old, and nobody advanced that soon. 

First of all, nobody was at the peak of the third stage at such a tender age. Second thing second, even if theoretically they were at the peak of the third stage, they had to practice many skills to allow their core to have a deep affinity with their future path.

"I am. Are you prepared to fight?"

"I am. I apologize if it hurts!"

He brandished his club and charged at Ken. Ken's goal wasn't an overwhelming win, or else he wouldn't pick the lowest-ranked disciple on the list, so he didn't use any powerful skills. 

Instead, he stuck to the sword art he practiced with Annie which was a popular style among the Sue Clan's members.

He ducked under the heavy swing and tried to tackle his opponent. He didn't place much weight behind his leg sweep, and his leg was met with an unmovable mountain as their legs clashed.

Although it seemed that Paul didn't move from that leg sweep, he did lose his center of balance when he resisted the kick, which slowed his actions down.

He pulled his mace up and swung it down violently. If this swing connected with someone's skull, not much would remain of it.

Ken rolled to the side swiftly and dodged the club by a few centimeters and got up as he landed on his feet.

'People know about my unsheathing technique and my dashing technique, so I should put them on display, or else my acting wouldn't be convincing enough.'

Ken placed his hand on his sword's hilt on his waist, crouched slightly like a person about to sprint, and performed his technique. He wasn't willing to show the real potential of his skill.

As it was currently, most people will just assume it was an Earth-grade technique. Sure, it was extremely fast, but it was also predictable.

'One Step.'

Ken performed his dashing technique and appeared in front of Paul who was pulling his heavy club from the ground.

Paul didn't know Ken as he was busy with his training and didn't bother keeping an eye on the younger age groups, so he also didn't know about his dashing technique.

To his astonishment, Ken just disappeared from his sight, and he soon felt a deep cut in his chest before he could react.