Meng Jingzhou suppressed the urge to unleash the Bachelor Curse Fist. Even if he had been set up once, there was no need to curse someone to eternal bachelorhood.
It was simply unethical.
With Lan Ting actively conceding, the match came to a close, leaving the spectators below longing for more.
Was this what battles between geniuses were like? It felt like it had ended far too soon.
"From now on, I won't have the face to call myself an early Golden Core cultivator. Feels like ten of me put together wouldn't measure up to them."
"Who says otherwise? When I formed my core, I thought of myself as a Core Formation powerhouse, an eminent figure of my region. After watching them fight, I'd better just go back and cultivate honestly."
Cultivating to the Golden Core stage could ensure a clan's prosperity for five hundred years, allowing one to rule as an ancestor in smaller regions. Yanjiang Commandery, for instance, had only three Golden Core cultivators in total.
That was why they had formed their cores with such high spirits and eagerly attended the Golden Core Appraisal Convention to make fellow daoist friends—only for their confidence to be smashed to pieces by the display put on by Lu Yang and the others.
Old Mr. Kang had long anticipated that seeing the disparity would leave them struggling to accept such a vast gulf. "You need not belittle yourselves. Reaching the Golden Core stage already places you above ninety-nine percent of cultivators. Moreover, yours are middle three grades Golden Cores, with hope of reaching the Nascent Soul realm. How can you deny your own worth over a single battle?"
Yuan Zhi smiled bitterly. "It isn't that we deny our worth, Elder. The gap between us is simply too colossal. We can't feel at all that we've surpassed ninety-nine percent of cultivators."
Old Mr. Kang shook his head. "You must not compare yourselves to disciples of immortal sects, especially those five today. Geniuses of their caliber do not appear even once in centuries or millennia, yet an entire cluster has emerged in this single era. Why? Because they were born in response to the heavenly mandate, destined to stand out in the struggle of the Golden Age, perhaps even acting as protagonists who direct the Golden Age!"
Old Mr. Kang had made his point abundantly clear. Among ordinary cultivators, they were doing quite well, a dime a dozen across the Central Continent. Lu Yang and his peers, however, were once-in-a-millennium geniuses. There was simply no comparison, so there was no point in tormenting themselves.
Having been eliminated earlier, Heir Yan, Gu Qisheng, and the others watched the arena with shining eyes.
Everyone was under eighteen. Those five had not only formed their cores, but could also fight above their realm. By contrast, they themselves were still fretting over how to form a core. The disparity was stark.
Yet they were not discouraged. The gap was so vast that it did not even spark jealousy or rivalry; they simply found Lu Yang and the others formidable. Watching the battle helped them recognize their own shortcomings, strengthening their resolve to cultivate diligently upon their return.
***
Lu Yang had not paid attention to Meng Jingzhou's ring and was thoroughly surprised to hear he was the first to finish.
"How did you lose so fast?"
Meng Jingzhou waved Lu Yang off with a sullen face. "Get lost, get lost! Don't bring that up, or watch me hit you with a full combo of the Bachelor Curse Fist."
Lu Yang was unfazed by the threat. He had an immortal's protection; how could he possibly be cursed by mere Meng Jingzhou?
As they bickered, Lan Ting walked over, holding a palm-sized, tri-colored stone.
"What is that?"
Lan Ting smiled. "Did Senior Brother Lu Yang forget? The first-place reward: a Core Formation spiritual item. It increases the chance of Core Formation by fifty percent."
Lu Yang had heard of such items. They were wildly sought after by half-step Golden Core and false Core cultivators, with prices steep enough to bleed their savings dry.
The Dao Seeking Sect had everything under the sun, except Core Formation spiritual items.
The same held true for the other Four Great Immortal Sects.
They were all geniuses. Why would they ever need external aids to form their cores?
As first and second place, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou were entitled to two Core Formation spiritual items and two manuals detailing insights on Core Formation.
"Stop joking, Lan Ting. What would Old Meng and I do with that? Give it to third and fourth place."
Chuckling, Lan Ting put the spiritual item away. It was actually from her personal collection, brought out purely to tease Lu Yang; the actual reward items had already been presented to the third- and fourth-place finishers.
Bai Ming and Yan Tianzhi walked over as well, offering an invitation. "It's rare for us to meet. Why don't we find a place to sit down?"
"Sounds good," Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou agreed.
As fellow disciples of the Five Great Immortal Sects, mingling was inevitable.
"A subordinate of the provincial governor recommended a few restaurants to us. They're all renowned establishments from the city that set up temporary branches here."
Bai Ming led the group to a three-story restaurant. Though constructed hastily with magic, its interior was decorated like a venerable, thousand-year-old establishment, showing remarkable attention to detail.
Seeing Bai Ming enter, the waiter warmly inquired, "Esteemed master, are you here to beg for alms?"
"...I'm here to eat."
"A vegetarian meal?"
Bai Ming snapped in annoyance, "I'm not a monk!"
The waiter recalled a rumor from the pugilistic world about a technique that used hair as weapons. Every single strand could serve as a weapon of immense power. However, the technique had a fatal flaw: once used, the hair would never grow back. Use a strand, lose a strand.
Supposedly, someone had stumbled upon the manual, mastered it, and then fought a mighty foe. After the fierce battle, his head was stripped completely bald, leaving him with no choice but to enter the Buddhist monastic order.
Because of this, some suspected the technique had been deliberately spread by Buddhist sects just to recruit disciples.
Pity surfaced in the waiter's eyes as he looked at Bai Ming. Here was another unfortunate soul in denial about losing all his hair.
"Oh, right. Take this—you can use it for now." Seeing the exchange, Lu Yang pulled out a wig and handed it to Bai Ming.
Ever since learning the Arhat Fist, Lu Yang had kept a stockpile of wigs just in case. And look, it was coming in handy already.
Bai Ming glared at the wig offered by the very culprit behind his predicament. Suppressing the urge to draw his spear and skewer Lu Yang on the spot, he snatched it up and sullenly put it on.
Lu Yang's Arhat Fist did not cause permanent hair loss, so wearing a wig for a month would easily tide him over until it grew back.
"Let me introduce him," Bai Ming said. "This is Yan Tianzhi from the Prison Suppressing Sect. He doesn't talk much."
Yan Tianzhi gave a nod without uttering a single word.
He truly was a man of few words. Lu Yang offered a greeting: "I'm Lu Yang from the Dao Seeking Sect, disciple of Daoist Buyu."
"Meng Jingzhou. We've already met in the ring."
Upon hearing Lu Yang's background, Yan Tianzhi's eyes went wide. "It's... your... master... g-got... got... my master... killed!"
"My master got your master killed?" Lu Yang's immediate reaction was disbelief. No matter how unreliable Daoist Buyu was, he would never do something like that.
Lan Ting coughed lightly and explained, "Yan Tianzhi stutters, so he keeps his sentences brief. It's not what you think."
"Yan Tianzhi's master is the Sect Master of the Prison Suppressing Sect. In their youth, he had a terrible relationship with Daoist Buyu. When he learned that Daoist Buyu had become the Sect Master of the Dao Seeking Sect, he was utterly indignant. He felt Daoist Buyu lacked both the virtue and the capability to lead the sect, and swore he would rather live eight thousand years less if it meant Daoist Buyu stepped down from the position."
Cultivators at the Body Integration stage could live for eight thousand years.
"Now that the Sect Master is your Eldest Senior Sister Yun Zhi, Yan Tianzhi's master felt he couldn't go back on his word. So he erected a tombstone for himself. Whenever he has free time, he buries himself inside; whenever something comes up, he climbs back out, telling everyone he meets that he's already dead."
Lu Yang: "..."
He recalled Eldest Senior Sister's warning: when away from home, never tell people you're Daoist Buyu's disciple, or it'll invite trouble.
Chapter 362