Journey of the Immortal Grandmaster

In his little house, Han Lingyun was busy cultivating. It had been 3 days since he had taken the translucent pill and lost his cultivation. Even after being prepared, the weakness he felt had been suffocating at first, as if he was moving in water.

Thankfully, those negative sensations disappeared when he tried to cultivate again. He had jumped in delight after seeing 5 streams of qi that started rushing to his qi pathways. As Han Lingyun calmed back down and concentrated on his cultivation again, he sensed an additional sense of perfection and fulfilment he hadn’t experienced before. It just felt right.

Han Lingyun hadn’t left his house for the next 3 days and had been alternating between cultivation and short rests. Unlike new body strengthening cultivators, he wasn’t restricted to only doing one cycle before his mind, spirit and body were tired out. As such, just like qi condensation cultivators, he could continue to cultivate for multiple cycles and those cycles took a lot less time. In those short 3 days, Han Lingyun had already reached the 3rd level of body strengthening. He had caught up with the slowest 2nd grade talent already!

On that day, he had to leave his house to switch to a new accommodation at the 3rd year’s settlements. Han Lingyun picked up all his flags and formations he had installed around his house and joined Wang Yimo on her flying sword for the trip. Obviously, Han Lingyun couldn’t fly any more.

A rumor had already spread that Han Lingyun and Wang Yimo were together, so this didn’t raise too many eyebrows, it just brought some jealous stares.

The homes for the 3rd year disciples were radically different from the previous houses. All the 3rd years’ homes were individual caves carved on one large peak, commonly referred to as the 3rd peak because of the 3rd years inhabiting it. A common joke was to ask newbies to fetch something on the first or second peaks, when in fact, no peaks have such a name in the sect.

The 83 disciples that qualified for the tournament phase at the SCA competition had the 83 highest caves available, with the top ranks having the caves at the top of the mountain. This advantage wasn’t just for the prestige as the mountain was one of the special cultivation grounds of the sect: qi density increased as one approached its summit.

It’s on this occasion that Han Lingyun learned of Yu Tao having left the sect. With Wei Muchen having been killed, Han Lingyun had thus been promoted to number one among the disciples in the rankings of the SCA competition! And yet, he was probably among the weakest at that moment. Han Lingyun couldn’t help but chuckle at the situation.

After Wang Yimo dropped him inside his new cave, Han Lingyun first installed back his formation arrays before contacting Elder Yi though his token to enquire about Yu Tao.

The response quickly followed: “I killed him.”

Han Lingyun put the token away and let out a sigh of relief. Some part of him wanted to defeat Yu Tao but the rational part just realized that Elder Yi had removed a thorn in his side and a potential threat. But Han Lingyun was far from feeling reassured. This event also acted as a silent reminder that he was at the mercy of this powerful cultivator. Once again, Han Lingyun began longing for the day he would be able to travel the cultivation world unfettered and with no sword of Damocles hanging over his head.

The next morning, the new 3rd year disciples gathered at the “3rd plaza” for the first ranking of the year. It promised to be full of changes because rather than using the ranks of the previous competition from 3 months ago, the ranks followed those from the SCA competition.

As a result, the 83 that made it to the tournament where in the 83 first positions, then came the majority that qualified for the 1st phase and finally the rest. When disciples had reached the same stage at the SCA competition, they were placed in order corresponding with last rankings from 3 months ago.

This rearranged completely the rankings ahead of the challenges. Disciples like Shen Lin that where in the 2nd bracket thus were relegated further away, while some 2nd and 3rd grade disciple managed to enter the top 100. This was another way for the sect to reward those disciples as they were assured to lose at most one bracket per competition, guaranteeing a huge reward upgrade. In addition, once more for a new year, the rewards were increased and the delay between rankings elongated: the next ranking competition would only be in half a year’s time.

Like always, the rewards were brightly inscribed on a giant display.

-9th bracket. Rank 600- 626: 200 Ps +50 qi crystals.

-8th bracket. Rank 400-599: 400 Ps +1 medium qi crystals.

-7th bracket. Rank 200-399: 800 Ps +2 medium qi crystals.

-6th bracket. Rank 100-199: 1500 Ps +3 medium qi crystals + 1 sun pill.

-5th bracket. Rank 50-99: 3000 Ps +5 medium qi crystals + 1 sun pill.

-4th bracket. Rank 25-49: 5000 Ps +7 medium qi crystals + 2 sun pills.

-3rd bracket. Rank 12-24: 10 000 Ps +10 qi crystals + 2 sun pills.

-2nd bracket. Rank 5-11: 20 000 Ps +20 medium qi crystals + 2 sun pills + 1 condensation pill.

-1st bracket: Rank 1-4.

-Rank 3-4: 25 000 Ps +25 medium qi crystals + 2 sun pills +2 condensation pills.

-Rank 2: 35 000 Ps +35 medium qi crystals + 2 sun pills + 2 condensation pills.

-Rank 1: 50 000 Ps +50 medium qi crystals 2 sun pills + 3 condensation pills + 1 special medal for the semester.

The numbers had doubled but when looking more closely, the rewards hadn’t truly increased that much, because the resources wouldn’t be distributed again for another 6 months (twice the precedent time of 3 months).

This was partly because the general cultivation level of the disciples does not drastically improve between the 2nd and 3rd year, unlike the gap between 1st and 2nd years where most 4th grade talents cross the path to the qi condensation realm.

Another notable change was the concentration of more and more resources for the top disciples. For the ranking competition of 1st years, the number 1 disciple was awarded around 50 times more resources than the last ones. The factor grew to over 220 for 3rd years.

It was another half day of challenges. Han Lingyun was honestly starting to get sick of all those rankings. He was glad the next one would only be in half a year.

There was still something keeping Han Lingyun at the edge of his seat though. He was sitting on the number 1 place! He, currently one of the weakest disciples.

Once again, he had come to the competition with Wang Yimo and both had kept their mouths closed about Han Lingyun’s current situation. They found the situation somewhat hilarious and had high hopes nobody would challenge Han Lingyun. He still had to concede to Wang Yimo the difference in Ps and crystals between the 1st and 2nd ranks. The exchanging of Ps was just a formality, it could be done by buying a worthless bit of dirt for 15 000Ps, especially with Elder Zhang for supervision.

Han Lingyun tried to act as relaxed and unconcerned as possible while the duels were taking place. In the worst case, he would be relegated to the 11th rank, but he had good hope of receiving more free money.

Han Lingyun could have waited for a couple more days to consume the pill that dissipated his cultivation. But to be fair, he didn’t care too much about those resources in comparison to his cultivation. He still had a card worth thousands of medium grade crystals that Elder Wen had gifted him. In truth, with the importance of the decision, Han Lingyun had completely forgotten about the upcoming competition.

Back to the duels, Han Lingyun watched the challenges for the second bracket with appreciation. Shen Lin even managed to rise to this point. It was now time for those that made it to the 2nd bracket to issue challenges. Some disciples’ absence were being felt, and weighing heavily on the other’s hearts. It was relatively obvious that the rankings at the top had thinned out, with missing names including Qin Tengfei, Ma Zhong, Wei Muchen and Yu Tao.

As a result, the four that were in the first bracket (top 4) at this stage were:

#1 Han Lingyun

#2 Wang Yimo

#3 Lai Meihui

#4 Liao Shao

The challengers that made it to the 2nd bracket (5 to 11) counted:

#5 Qi Bo

#6 Liao Zhenzhen

#7 Shen Lin

#8 Pan Xiulan

#9 Qin Mei

#10 Liao Qiaolian

#11 Li An.

In the end, no one in the 2nd bracket challenged Han Lingyun or Wang Yimo. Those that had ambitions for the top 4 were convinced to have better chances by fighting Lai Meihui and Liao Shao. Based on their respective displays at the SCA competition, they were not wrong! Yet, Lai Meihui and Liao Shao proved that their place in the 1st bracket were not undeserved as both won their duels.

It was now Liao Shao’s turn to issue a duel. Han Lingyun’s position was thus already guaranteed in the first bracket.

But Liao Shao was deep in thought. Being so close to Han Lingyun in the seats and with his elite perception, Liao Shao could feel Han Lingyun’s cultivation or lack off. This comforted him in his decision to not challenge Han Lingyun, convinced that he had already broken through to the late qi condensation realm to be able to hide most of his cultivation from his senses like this. Liao Shao had also been moved by the extraordinary means Han Lingyun had demonstrated during the SCA competition. He knew that he couldn’t win against him. Therefore, he just challenged Wang Yimo which nearly made her laugh at the choice.

Those challenges were a lot less stressful as a Core cultivation elder was watching other them and preventing injuries. In the end, Wang Yimo won with her qi advantage.

Finally, Lai Meihui didn’t even consider fighting Han Lingyun. She hated his unorthodox style and was quite content with her rank already.

And thus, the rankings ended, and Han Lingyun was de facto the new number 1.