After approximately an hour or so, Shen Long decided to head back to his den to continue his cultivation. After all, his main priority was to improve and get stronger, to fulfil his master's wishes and to protect his family. Shen Long had finally reached the fourth level of the [Moonlight Script of the Nine Dragons], and his Qi pool was now stabilised.
The fourth to sixth level, for Saint cultivators, focused on materialising Qi. Shen Long's Qi would become visible upon him reaching the Sixth Level of the manual. This was because the quality of Qi would be drastically strengthened as his Qi became much more condensed. This was also the reason why Saint Realm was the most crucial stage of cultivation as it would dictate the quality of the Qi. This would significantly impact how far one could walk down the path of cultivation.
Although one could theoretically make up for it in the future, but it would be very ineffective and it would require many different resources. Hence, Shen Long could not rush his cultivation, but only advance step-by-step. Now, the path of cultivation was long and arduous; one must enjoy cultivation, or at least have some entertainment. Otherwise, it would be extremely boring. At least, Shen Long had basketball to make up for light novels and other hobbies that requires technology and electricity.
For the next few days, Shen Long continued to play basketball in the morning, while he diligently cultivated in the afternoon and evening. Occasionally, he would visit Qingyu for dinner, being a freeloader to get a free meal. He was advancing swiftly while having fun each day. More disciples started to pay attention to him as he was famous for his domineering skills on the court.
As basketball grew more and more popular, the demand for the court grew. After all, there was only one court, but there were hundreds and hundreds of disciples who wished to try it out. Entertainment in the cultivator world were basically non-existent, especially for ones that were free.
As a result, Qingyu was being constantly bombarded by the uncountable requests, and nine more basketball courts opened up in the district. For cultivators who walk down the Dao of Construct, building a court and the ball after seeing their designs were a piece of cake.
Qingyu were secretly very impressed at the concept of basketball, and her opinions towards Shen Long immediately improved. Although she did treat Shen Long with sincerity before, she never expected him to come up with ideas like this. She never understood why her Master accepted Shen Long as a personal disciple, not because Shen Long was not talented, but Daoist Fireblade hadn't accepted any for the past thousand year.
Now, Qingyu was starting to approve Shen Long as her junior disciple, while finding Shen Long even more mysterious. No one really knew the origin of Shen Long besides that Daoist Fireblade and he both originated from Earth. However, they could all witness Shen Long's monstrous advancement speed in terms of cultivation.
Now, with the introduction of basketball and his skills on the court, he could be counted as a legendary figure in the palace. No other disciples besides the top 50 disciples - also named the Challengers - were comparable to him, in terms of fame. In the palace, the top fifty disciples, in terms of combat prowess, were called the Challengers as they were able to challenge cultivators of a higher cultivation level.
The ranking in the palace was official as it was approved by Daoist Fireblade. He believed that competition would improve the quality of the disciples, and it was the key to success. This was actually true as it was scientifically proven by Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Disciples could challenge the Challengers up to three times per month, if one wins, he or she could directly take his/her rank and status as a Challenger; one could also rank up through the Arena rank system.
Every disciple would have to participate in twenty Arena ranking battles every month, with the exception of newcomers like Shen Long. As the battles were all completely random - matching against random cultivators, the ranking were determined by the number of points one have, all recorded in a book, kept by the judges.
Each loss would deduct 30 points of the cultivator, while they gain 15 per win. Climbing the arena system into the higher ranks this way would be extremely ineffective as it would take way too long for anyone to step into the higher ranks. The Challengers all had over 10,000 points, with the number one cultivator having 36,660 points.
However, challenging the Challengers had its own drawbacks too. If the disciple loses the battle, the disciple would lose every single point, and they would all be transferred to the winner. For most cases, the disciple who proposed to challenge would lose as the top 50 cultivators all had their own killing moves. Even that, there were still disciples challenging them. This was because being a Challenger would have many privileges.
A challenger would be treated like a personal disciple - holding his/her own cultivation den, receiving spiritual herbs monthly, a cultivation manual of his/her choice. This was why many would dare to gamble every point of theirs to challenge them, and it was also the reason why one could only propose a challenge three times a month.
This was also why these Challengers were respected by all other disciples. The system was fair, and every challenger was well deserved. Shen Long's friend, Chen Dazhong, briefly introduced him to the Arena system before, but Shen Long wasn't really interested in becoming the top challengers.
First of all, Shen Long was still in Saint realm, while every challenger was in late Demigod realm. Even though Shen Long was blessed by the heaven, he was still unable to fight against them. After all, he had no practical fighting experience. At most, he fought against a 7th grader and he got completely destroyed.
(Yes. Shen Long was 16 at the time, by the way. Fighting a Seventh Grader... yet he still lost. Don't worry, Shen Long was not a bully, they only fought because the seventh grader cursed at Shen Long's parents after getting into a heated argument... about who was the better player in Minecraft.)
Shen Long also was a personal disciple, so then the privileges didn't really attract him that much. Hence, he didn't pay any heeds towards it. He, however, enjoyed the fame, and it made him chuckle slightly each time, hearing the chants.
Time continued to pass, and it had already been a month since he arrived to the palace. While his skills and his battle prowess increased, his urge to return to Earth also exponentially increased. He wanted to see his parents, friends, and even his teachers. Even though the palace offered him comfortable accommodation and decent food, he still wished to go back home, just to check out what everyone's up to.
Besides cultivation and basketball, he hadn't done much. He hadn't even started practising his spiritual manual [Starfall Strike] as he still had not reached the fifth level of [Moonlight Script of the Nine Dragons]. The guardian of the library had told him to visit the treasury to receive his sword only after his Qi being in Mid-Saint Realm (Fifth Level of Script).
Today, however, he was about to breakthrough. Shen Long was extremely excited as he would finally receive his first weapon. Choosing a weapon was a serious matter, as one would only specialise in one main weapon. Once Shen Long chose to wield a sword, he would forever be a sword master, a swordsman.
This was just as important as choosing the different paths of Daos, and Shen Long was determined to walk down the Dao of the Sword for a few reasons. Swords could be extremely defensive as it could parry and block, while it held extremely offensive power. Secondly, Shen Long had always liked the appearance of a sword...
When he was young, he once thought a katana looked like a giant banana in a different colour. He liked the look of it as he imagined himself being a monkey, wielding two "GIANT BANANAS" in his hands.
:D Silly Shen Long!