Unfathomable Senior

Chapter 345

Zhang Dong glanced at his system screen which showed him his status. He felt like he was back to the beginning where this screen actually mattered a lot. Through the years his progress had slowed down and he focused more on understanding the Dao himself instead of blindly using this system.

It was still a great tool to be equipped with. The system was able to scan his body and the bodies of others. Thus it allowed him to prepare strategies to counter some opponents even on the fly.

But thanks to his lessened usage he was now able to cultivate as a proper cultivator. Even without the crafting abode, he was able to upgrade the pills that he lifted off his opponents. With their help, he was able to push his cultivation base into the middle stage.

If he was an average cultivator and with all these improved materials he would easily reach the great circle level, maybe even achieve the core formation-level if he really wanted to force it.

His cultivation technique had improved and paired with his increased soul power he was barely able to push it into the middle stage.

His foundation pillars expanded in number and each one was as large and girthy as the first one. With them giving him power he felt like no one below the Martial Grandmaster really would be able to contend with him.

There was nothing left in the spatial rings that was worthwhile besides the less valuable white tiger clan fighting techniques. The only use that he could have for them would be selling them at an auction house after he got out of this sect. There was not much that the disciples could trade in here and cultivation techniques were not one of them.

This sect mostly forced their disciples to abandon their old ways and be reforged in the dao of lightning. This was also why they only took in people below the Martial Master realm. Before this realm, the young disciples were more flexible.

They would look down on the ones that somehow used more unique techniques that were not approved by the sect. This was only a limit for the Qi cultivation, the one concerning the body was laxer.

His own body refining technique that made his body similar to metal was actually quite beneficial towards his lightning cultivation. It transferred and absorbed electricity quite well with the help of his Lightning Dao; he was almost virtually immune to these energies.

The only way for him to receive damage from lightning attacks would be if a cultivator’s Dao of Lightning was above his own. This was not something that was very feasible as he had upgraded it past this world’s set limits.

Even with the help of his system, he was unable to push past the Immortal great circle level. Was this something set up by the creator of the system on purpose or was it the actual limit of the person that made it?

‘No use worrying about it, for now, I need to focus on one thing at a time, I need more information about that contest and to sign up.’

The small mountain of spirit stones had decreased as he had used some of them to push his cultivation further. He had left some for payment, if there was a competition like this, the people that did not have any backing would probably need to give something up to participate.

He had spent one whole day in this cultivation cave and only after a week would his new ‘master’ come to bother him. Before he could be asked to become some old fart’s disciple he needed to win that competition. Only then would he be allowed to enter the inner sect and try his luck at that large lightning rod of a tower.

The entrance to this cultivation cave had a large round door. He gave it a push and he could already feel that anyone below the Martial Master level would have a hard time opening this thing.

After the door swung open he was greeted by a cold breeze. The air around here was cold and rather thin, this made it a harsh environment to live for the mortals working here.

With a little step, he descended from this cultivation abode. It was quite high up as well, reaching it without good climbing skills or a flying boat would be hard for the average disciple.

On the ground, he was seen by some of the sect elders. There were a few Martial Master’s keeping watch. They were all mostly composed of older outer sect disciples that didn’t have luck in reaching the Martial Grandmaster realm.

The youngsters with more skills didn’t bother with earning coins or spirit stones this way. This was just one of the many jobs that the sect offered to their disciples. It was a meager-paying job but for the ones, with not much skill it was a way to get by.

“Greetings senior.”

Zhang Dong did a little bow before the middle-aged man before him. The man looked up to the cultivation cave that Zhang Dong left and then back to the young man.

“Greetings junior… Elder Yusheng’s new disciple?”

The man asked while looking at a piece of parchment. On it, he had all the cultivation caves written down and to whom they belonged to.

“Did Elder Yusheng call me that? I’m not his disciple quite yet but maybe in the near future…”

Zhang Dong chuckled a bit while trying to play it off. It was clear that the old man had probably told everyone that he was his new star pupil by now.

“Is that so, are you stepping out?”

“Yes, I’ve gotten a bit hungry, I also need to see some things within the sect, I’ve heard that a competition will be taking place at the end of the week…”

“Ah, Is the junior interested in seeing this year’s contest?”

The man nodded, he probably thought that Zhang Dong here was just interested in seeing the other senior brothers and sisters compete.

“Yes, I’m not sure where it will be taking place…”

“It’s not hard to miss, it’s going to take place at the outer sect. Some competitions will take place in the outer courtyard, while the main bouts will take place in the inner courtyard… Then the competitions for lesser professions will take place indoors…”

The man was quite chatty as he described the structure of this event. Instead of a large arena, it would take place in more open fields around larger outer sect buildings that possessed courtyards surrounded by walls and other structures.

Zhang Dong could recall seeing some of such places at the lower parts of the mountain. It looked like a small city there with all the sect buildings and places where the servants lived.

Apparently, the whole outer sect had about thirty thousand people living in it, while the inner sect had a quarter of that. Even with this disparity in numbers, the inner sect disciples would mop the floor with the outer sect ones in any way shape, or form. Quality trumped quantity here, a person even one small stage above the competition could win against a whole group.

After the long speech, Zhang Dong bowed once and headed out into this sect. These cultivation caves were drilled into the mountain so he had to walk down to enter the thirty thousand large city.

About a third of the population of this sect city consisted of servants, slaves, and even mortals. They were tasked to keep everything clean while the sect members only focused on their cultivation.

The buildings in this outer sect weren’t all that great. They were mostly made from unevenly cut rocks or something similar to cinder blocks. The weather here was rather cold so each of the houses had some kind of chimney.

The peculiar thing about those chimneys was that they were not producing any smoke. Even when the houses lit up in a light that came from firewood, there was no smoke. As he investigated further he could feel that each of those chimneys had some kind of smoke filtering treasure in it.

Thanks to this no smoke was formed which didn’t affect the already thin air. The higher-tier cultivators didn’t actually need to be heated up. He was the same, with his foundation established he would be even able to run around naked without catching a cold.

‘Doesn’t look that bad but neither is it that good…’

He would have to give this place an average score. It looked similar to his old clan before he took over but there were fewer members and lacked a whole city with millions to manage.

With this change in culture, the cultivators here probably had a lot more time to practice and reach higher cultivation levels in a shorter amount of time.

‘This should be it…’

After asking for some directions he arrived at one of the outer sect buildings. It looked like an upside-down pyramid with half of it sliced up and balancing on four columns. When entering inside he found a person at a reception area.

There was a small line in front of it and some young men and women were standing in it. This from what he could tell was the place where you registered for this competition.

‘Hm…’

To the side, he spotted a little stand with some parchments. Some of the youngsters were picking them up and moving to the side to write in them. After approaching the servant greeted him with a little bow.

“Good day sir, did you also come to register for the competition?”

“Mhm.”

Zhang Dong nodded while taking the piece of paper into his hand. The person also informed him about this being the last day for registrations.

To the side, there were some quills and ink. On these papers, a person needed to select which competitions they would be competing in.

At first, Zhang Dong hesitated but soon he started noting down all of them that he thought he would be able to win. Formation creation and disassembly, pill making, forging, there was even one for apprising that he took. The one for combat was also taken which made it five.

He wanted to stick out but there wasn’t enough time for him to go through all of the competitions. By looking at the curriculum he would have enough time to go through each one of these competitions and build up his fame.

Everything would culminate on the battle stage, he wanted to garner the attention of all the high-standing elders. With him never having luck with not standing out, he would try the opposite, hiding in the open.

‘Well… I hope this doesn’t totally backfire…’

After a sigh, he headed over to the line, in his pocket some spirit stones to pay for the entrance fee.