The day of the Grand Competition.
The Outer Sect Grand Competition officially began at the Mao hour (5:00 AM).
Azure Cloud Sect’s outer sect training ground was usually shabby and quiet, but today it had been temporarily spruced up to look somewhat imposing.
Tall flagpoles stood at the four corners, flying the banners of each peak, which snapped loudly in the morning wind.
A viewing stand had been set up at the northern end of the training ground, where the Sect Master and the seven Peak Masters sat.
Below, a dense crowd of outer disciples stood—at least three hundred by a rough count.
The competition rules were simple: draw lots to form groups, then duel in pairs.
The winner advanced, and this continued until the top ten were decided.
Those ten would enter the Inner Sect, and the top three would receive additional rewards.
Luo Qingci drew Group Seventeen.
She waited at the edge of the training ground, wearing a faded gray outer disciple robe and her long hair casually tied up with a wooden hairpin.
Her face showed no emotion.
The female disciples nearby chattered about their opponents’ cultivation levels and techniques, but she didn’t join in.
She just quietly watched the ongoing matches.
The first match was between two male disciples at mid Qi Refining.
One used a staff, the other used fists, kicking up clouds of dust.
The Peak Masters on the viewing stand showed little interest; they just drank tea and chatted.
The second match: late Qi Refining versus mid Qi Refining.
It ended in three moves.
The third match…
By the time it was Luo Qingci’s turn, it was already three-quarters into the Chen hour (7:45 AM).
Her opponent was a male disciple at the eighth layer of Qi Refining, surnamed Wang.
He was fairly well-known in the outer sect, skilled in the Wind-Breaking Fist Technique, with a fierce punch that had once shattered a three-foot-tall blue stone.
When he saw his opponent was Luo Qingci, he paused for a moment—clearly surprised he’d drawn her—then grinned.
“Junior Sister Luo, don’t worry. I’ll go easy on you.”
Luo Qingci smiled back, her expression gentle.
“Thank you, Senior Brother Wang.”
The referee gave the order.
Senior Brother Wang struck first.
His fists, wrapped in spiritual power, came at Luo Qingci’s face with a howling wind.
The punch was ferocious and fast—impressive for the eighth layer of Qi Refining.
Luo Qingci didn’t draw her sword.
She sidestepped to dodge the first punch, ducked to avoid the second, and as the third punch was still forming, her palm pressed lightly against her opponent’s chest.
It was as light as brushing dust off a table.
But Senior Brother Wang felt as though a mountain had slammed into him.
He flew backward, crashed onto the blue stone slabs at the edge of the training ground, and slid a full ten feet before stopping, face-down and disheveled.
He lay there for a long time, unable to get up.
The entire place fell silent for a moment.
Then came a chorus of sharp intakes of breath.
“It’s… it’s over?”
“One move? No, she didn’t even draw her sword!”
“Senior Brother Wang is at the eighth layer of Qi Refining! Even against a Qi Refining peak cultivator, he shouldn’t have lost that badly!”
Luo Qingci withdrew her hand, turned to the referee, and gave a slight bow.
“You’re too kind.”
The referee was stunned for a second before recovering and announcing loudly,
“Group Seventeen, Luo Qingci wins!”
On the viewing stand, several people who had been slouching suddenly sat up straight.
The Sect Master, Shen Yuan, was a middle-aged man with an elegant face.
He was at the late Nascent Soul stage, considered a top expert within the thousand-mile radius of the Cangwu Sect.
His hand holding the tea cup paused, and his gaze fell on the gray-robed girl in the arena.
He let out a soft “Hmm.”
“That move was clean.”
He turned to the side.
“Whose disciple is she? Taught by one of the outer sect elders?”
The Grand Elder beside him shook his head.
“No. The Cloud-Brushing Hand is a basic outer sect palm technique that everyone learns, but to control spiritual power to this degree… that girl’s precision with spiritual energy surpasses most early Foundation Establishment cultivators.”
The Sect Master nodded and said nothing more, but his eyes followed the gray-robed girl as she walked back to the edge of the field and stood quietly, waiting for the next round.
In the following rounds, Luo Qingci won just as cleanly.
Second round: opponent at the ninth layer of Qi Refining.
She used her sword—only one strike.
The tip of her blade touched the ridge of the opponent’s sword, and his weapon flew out of his hand, embedding itself thirty feet away in the ground with a hum.
Third round: opponent at the peak of Qi Refining, a veteran outer disciple who had been there for five years and was experienced.
They exchanged over a dozen moves, with Luo Qingci responding unhurriedly, like a practice partner.
Finally, she exploited a flaw in his stance, gently pushed the hilt of her sword, and the man lost his balance, stumbling out of the competition circle.
Again, no one was hurt.
Every match was won cleanly and neatly, without embarrassing the opponent or wasting her own energy.
On the viewing stand, the seven Peak Masters reacted differently.
The Peak Master of Danxia Peak was a female cultivator at the Golden Core peak.
She looked at Luo Qingci with clear admiration.
“This girl has good talent, and her mindset is excellent. My Danxia Peak is short on people. Sect Master, let her come to me later?”
A chubby Peak Master beside her laughed.
“You’re recruiting again? Last year you snatched that ninth-layer Qi Refining disciple.”
“That’s called a bird choosing a good tree to perch on.”
“Oh, come on. Your Danxia Peak isn’t for sword cultivation. That girl is obviously a sword cultivator. What would she do at your place?”
The Danxia Peak Master snorted.
“Better than some people. And even if she learns the sword, it’s not your place to decide, is it?”
As she spoke, she glanced at a person sitting to the side, yawning.
Someone was sitting in a chair.
“Sitting” wasn’t quite accurate—he was more like half-sprawled.
He had one leg crossed, his body tilted to one side, one hand propping up his chin while the other tapped lazily on the armrest.
His robe was brand-new—but anyone with a discerning eye could tell it was the cheapest first-grade robe, without even a decent array pattern on it, costing no more than ten low-grade spirit stones.
He looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old.
His face was handsome, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, but those eyes were now half-closed, as if he were dozing off.
He wasn’t faking it.
He was genuinely tired.
Last night, he had made an emergency trip to Black Wind Ridge, hunting two fourth-grade demon beasts, and had almost reached dawn by the time he returned.
He had planned to collapse into bed and sleep to death, but today was the Outer Sect Grand Competition, and the Sect Master had ordered all Peak Masters to attend.
He couldn’t skip it.
So he came, with two big dark circles under his eyes.
“Peak Master Xiao,” came Sect Master Shen Yuan’s voice from the central seat, tinged with helplessness.
“If you’re really that sleepy, you can stand. It’s harder to fall asleep standing up.”
“No, no,” the man waved a hand and yawned.
“I’m listening. That girl just now fought well, yeah, really well…”
He tilted his head again and closed his eyes.
The surrounding Peak Masters exchanged a look that said, “Here we go again.”
This Peak Master Xiao was none other than Xiao Yan, the Peak Master of Lingyun Peak and a Golden Core peak Sword Cultivator.
Xiao Yan was the youngest Golden Core cultivator in Azure Cloud Sect in the last hundred years.
His talent in the sword path was monstrous, but he was also widely recognized as the “poorest Peak Master” in the entire sect.
Other Peak Masters rode spiritual boats when they went out; he relied on his flying sword.
Other Peak Masters gave high-grade magic tools as welcome gifts to their disciples; he gave hand-written sword manuals—because he couldn’t afford anything else.
It was said that every month he disguised himself as a disciple and went to the sect’s Mission Hall to take high-level tasks.
Not because he had free time, but because if he didn’t take tasks, he wouldn’t have any spirit stones to spend.
When there weren’t enough tasks, he even went to the Elder Hall to help carry things and clean the storage rooms, earning a few spirit stones for his hard work.
Even though he only had two disciples, he was still broke.
As the competition entered its final stages, the atmosphere on the viewing stand clearly turned more serious.
Sect Master Shen Yuan set down his tea cup, his gaze falling on the gray-robed girl in the arena.
She had just won the semifinals and was resting at the edge of the field, fine beads of sweat on her forehead, but her breathing was steady and her expression calm.
“This little one is pretty good.”
Shen Yuan took a sip of tea and smiled.
The Grand Elder nodded.
“Peak Qi Refining, but her spiritual power concentration is close to Foundation Establishment. And her control over spiritual power is astonishing—every bit of energy is used perfectly, with no waste. That’s not just talent; it’s hard work.”
“For an outer disciple to reach this level is truly rare.”
The Danxia Peak Master spoke again.
“I want her. Don’t fight me for her.”
“You’re an alchemist. What do you want with a sword cultivator?”
It was the Peak Master of Tiangong Peak, a lean old man.
“She uses a sword. Of course she should come to my Tiangong Peak. Refining and the sword path complement each other.”
“Old man, your Tiangong Peak took in eight disciples last year, and you can’t even afford a proper sword-casting furnace. Have you no shame?”
The Peak Masters bickered back and forth, faces reddening.
Sect Master Shen Yuan’s head ached from listening.
He was about to step in and stop them when a lazy voice came from the far side.
“Everyone, stop arguing.”
All the Peak Masters fell silent simultaneously and turned to look.
Xiao Yan had opened his eyes at some point, and a glimmer of light showed in his half-lidded gaze.
He wasn’t looking at the other Peak Masters.
His eyes were fixed straight on the gray-robed girl at the edge of the training ground, and a slow grin spread across his face—a grin that could only be described as brilliant.
“Let her choose. Maybe she’ll come to me.”
The Danxia Peak Master was the first to respond.
“Xiao Yan, your Lingyun Peak doesn’t even have a decent cultivation room. Does she want to go there?”
Xiao Yan waved dismissively.
“I’ll teach her the sword. I don’t know anything else, but I can teach that.”
“You’re so broke you can barely put food on the table! Last time I visited your peak, you didn’t even have spiritual tea for guests—you brewed wild mountain tea!”
She wasn’t wrong.
Sword cultivators didn’t refine pills, draw talismans, set up arrays, or grow spiritual plants.
All their time and energy went into swords, and all their spirit stones went into buying, maintaining, and repairing swords.
Others needed a lot of pills to assist in breakthroughs during closed-door cultivation; sword cultivators didn’t.
They required very few pills, but instead relied more on life-or-death insights—in other words, they went out to pick fights, came back covered in wounds, recovered, and then went out to fight again.
What did ordinary people think sword cultivators were like?
Noble and aloof, decisive in killing, cutting through the void with a single sword strike.
What were sword cultivators really like?
Single-minded violent maniacs who would always cut something down with their sword.
They’d work for anyone who paid.
And they were very poor.
Sword cultivators from every sect always carried the flashiest swords and used the sharpest sword techniques, but they always wore white robes.
Because they couldn’t afford other clothes.
The reason was simple: all their money went into their swords.
Not to mention the enormous expenses on sword scabbards and accessories—just the cost of maintaining and repairing their swords was enough to drain the private savings of a large group of people.
For sword cultivators, their heads could be cut off and their blood could spill, but letting their sword suffer—that was absolutely out of the question.
That’s why sword cultivators were generally multi-talented.
It was normal for them to teach themselves tailoring, perform for money, or work as enforcers for wealthy families.
Some even used disguise techniques to work as drinking companions to earn money to maintain their swords…
No matter how embarrassing it was when earning spirit stones, it was always exhilarating when showing off in front of others.
“What’s wrong with wild tea? Wild tea is still tea.”
Xiao Yan said matter-of-factly.
“If you don’t like it, don’t come next time.”
“As if I’d want to visit you?”
She pursed her lips and stopped talking.