Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Competition amongst the sects?” Shen Ying’s hand paused just as it was going to grab a pastry. “What’s that?”
“It’s equivalent to a competition where each sect gets to compete their skills against each other,” Lonemoon explained. “All the sects from the aristocratic families in the Upper Azure World can participate according to cultivation realm. There are three separate divisions: Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment and Golden Core. The top three in each division will receive an award from the organizer.”
“Upper Azure World Olympics?”
“You can call it that.” He nodded. “This competition among the sects only occur once in ten years and this time it’s coincidentally happening in three days’ time.”
“Oh…” Shen Ying’s interest was dwindling. “Can we not go?”
“No!” Lonemoon glared at her. “I already went to Upper Azure Town yesterday and signed up for the competition under Invincible Sect’s name. This year’s competition is organized by the Yin Family of the four aristocratic families and the venue is in Yin Tian Town. We need to set off tomorrow.”
He handed over the participation token to her as he spoke.
Shen Ying did not take it, however, but instead glanced at that token with the word ‘Competition’ written on it. “That… why must we participate? We don’t have a lot of people either.” Isn’t it better to stay home and eat?
“You dare to ask me why?” Lonemoon exploded. “Don’t you have any freaking idea of our sect’s current situation? We only have twenty sect members including the three of us. Only twenty people after a whole year! And all of them were turned into Body Cultivators by you. Does it even look like a sect?”
“Uh… twenty is pretty good too.” Just enough to clean the house.
“Good your head! Have you seen any sect that has so few people?” When he thought of those nine future iron barbies, his liver began to hurt, alright? “If we don’t do some promotion, gain some popularity, then we can say goodbye to recruiting other disciples. Moreover, I have tested the skills of the nine of them. Although competing against people with higher cultivation levels will be a little tough, their foundations are… solid!” He had gritted his teeth to spit out that word. “Anyway, they stand at an advantage when competing with those of the same level. For this competition, I don’t have very high expectations. It will be good as long one of them can land a place in the top ten. At least let other people know the capabilities of our Invincible Sect.”
“Oh…” So it’s about going there as the marketing department to advertise.
“So not only are they going to participate in order to prevent people from belittling them, we have to go as well, including you!” When he finished, he immediately pulled her arm over and forcefully stuck the token in her hand. “You better wake up early tomorrow, otherwise…” His expression became solemn as he pronounced each of the following words clearly, “Next month’s food allowance will be canceled!”
Shen Ying was stunned. Jolted from her laziness, she gripped the participation token tightly.
“Father Niu, what you said made so much sense!” She turned to say to the person beside her, “Chef, for the future of our sect, let’s work overtime tonight! Quickly prepare some cold dishes, pastries, fast food, fruits and so on to eat on the way. We musn’t let our Olympians be hungry! Understand?”
“Yes Master, no problem Master!”
Lonemoon: “…”
At the end of the day, you still can’t forget about eating!
(╬—皿—)凸
——————
Yin Tian Town was situated at the east of the Upper Azure World and it was considered the largest immortal town in that region. Shen Ying took an entire day’s effort to rush to the town before nightfall.
It was no wonder the Yin Family was the richest amongst the four aristocratic families; from the moment they showed their participation token, there was already someone leading the line of people to the independent courtyards specifically catered for the participants. Although the courtyard was not as wide as Invincible Sect’s, accommodating roughly a dozen people to rest was more than sufficient and every sect was separated. According to what Lonemoon had found out, just the number of sects, big and small, that had come to participate in the competition were already in the thousands. Evidently, the Yin Family was truly wealthy.
“The competition will begin tomorrow. Everyone get some rest tonight.” Lonemoon scanned all the nine their disciples. Some of them seemed nervous, perhaps because it was their first time participating in such a proper competition; thus, he calmly encouraged them, “Your abilities are not bad. Just relax and it will be fine. While it’ll be good to be able to clinch the top ten, there’s no need to overdo it too much if it isn’t possible. Just admit defeat at that time.”
A few of them nodded as they glanced over at Shen Ying and their eyes lit up. Lonemoon subconsciously turned to look over at her as well.
Shen Ying had finished munching on her fruit and had raised her head when her eyes met with everyone else’s gazes and she choked. “Cough… what’s the matter?”
Lonemoon’s mouth twitched. Glaring at her, he said, “Don’t you have something to give them?”
“Is… there?” Huh?
“Master, it’s the Defense Bells.” Yi Qing immediately took out a string of small bells which all looked exactly the same and handed them to her. “I pulled an all nighter to refine these defense Dharma artifacts last night. They will be able to withstand a full attack from a Nascent Soul cultivator.”
“Although this is a competition amongst decent sects, there is no guarantee that there won’t be people who are narrow minded and are out to kill,” Lonemoon explained. “Take these defense Dharma artifacts with you guys during the competition, just in case.”
Shen Ying finally recalled that this was the welfare benefit that Father Niu had mentioned yesterday. She quickly took over the string of bells and took it apart, putting one each into the girls’ hands.
Red shirt girl.
“Come on Little Hong, you can do it!”
“Yes, Sect Master.” She accepted a bell in joy.
White shirt girl.
“Little White, you can do it!”
“Yes, Sect Master.” She accepted a bell, rejoicing in her heart.
Blue shirt girl.
“Little Blue, you can do it!”
“Yes, Sect Master.” She was ecstatic as she accepted it.
The second girl with a white shirt.
“Little White… Bunny, you can do it!”
“Yes, Sect Master.” She accepted a bell happily.
…
Lonemoon: “…” Heh heh. He had already lost hope with the way a certain someone remembered names.
Shen Ying went on to continue giving out the bells. After she finished, she coughed and in a rare serious tone, she said, “The most important thing is to participate and try your best. The rankings aren’t important. After all, friendship first and competition rank second! I have great hopes for you girls.”
The faces of the girls were all filled with excitement as they carefully put away the small bell that Shen Ying gave into their sleeves as if having received some rare treasure. They were so excited that they looked like they were about to leap in joy and their eyes sparkled so brightly as they bowed in unison towards her and showed a face of hard determination.
“Thank you, Sect Master! We will do our best!”
“For Sect Master, for Invincible Sect!”
“Sect Master, rest assured! We will fight for glory!”
“We will bring your blessings to the competition.”
“May Sect Master always be with us!”
Lonemoon: “…”
Yi Qing: “…”
Lonemoon was the one who had brought the team, Yi Qing was the one who had refined the artifacts. How were those things related in any way to Shen Ying?Why are all of you excited about receiving gifts from your admired idol?
F*cking retards!
——————
Due to their few numbers, the Invincible Sect only signed up for the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core divisions of the competition. Besides Yu Hong and Si Yu, there were two other girls who were participating in the Golden Core division, four of them in total. The other five girls were participating in the Foundation Establishment division. Lonemoon’s goal was to get into the top ten of the Foundation Establishment division. There was still hope to achieve this; after all, two of the five were of Perfected Foundation Establishment.
Out of the four Golden Core disciples, aside from Yu Hong who was at mid-stage Golden Core, only Si Yu had completed her Core Formation. It would still be much too difficult to defeat a bunch of late-stage Golden Core and Perfected Golden Core cultivators.
Although they were Body Cultivators who were tougher than Sword Cultivators, the offensive techniques they had learned in the past year were all sword moves and none of them had actual battle experience. Moreover, the gentle sorcery they had previously learned would most likely not be of use.
