The day of the Outer Disciple Competition came quickly to martial cultivators. As their average lifespan was far longer than mortal humans, five years of training was seen as nothing in the eyes of cultivators.
Wang Li Tian carried a make shift cloth bag that was slung around his shoulder. Early in the morning, the boy woke up to a light breakfast by his senior sister Shu Yi. He left by himself as the other outer direct disciples were not planning to join the competition. Not everyone was as skilled as Wang Li Tian in Sword Arts.
With the sword prepared and given to him by his master, Mu Zhi Xuan, Wang Li Tian headed off down the School of Artificing mountain and to the training field. Along the way, there were traces of outer disciples from the School of Artificing that headed in the same direction as Li TIan. In fact, the number of outer disciples heading over there today from the School of Artificing was shockingly more than the other school disciplines.
Typically, such a competition that considered a martial cultivator's offensive art and technical skills, people that specialised in artificing would usually not attend the competition. There was simply no chance for artificers to inscribe their weapons, scrolls or create arrays. However, from the time of the selection test, there was a clear sign of disappointment inside all the cultivators that got into School of Artificing.
In fact, many of them rather quit the academy than stay in the school discipline! Why? The opportunity to learn artificing inside the academy was close to null for outer disciples. There was a surplus of outer disciples, but very little elders to teach the disciples artificing. Other than the monthly teachings taught by Prime Elders, outer disciples have to wish on their lucky stars that an inner disciple from the School of Artificing would be willing to teach them. Such chances are only available to a lucky few.
Not only that, the Southern Wind Academy tend to dump the weaker cultivators into the School of Artificing, so as to allow those weaker disciples to carry out menial jobs so as to earn themselves contribution points. The only consoling factor was that these outer disciples in the artificing school was allowed to purchase beginner level martial techniques from other school disciplines. They technically do not have to learn artificing.
The Outer Disciple Competition was basically seen as another scouting ground for the artificing outer disciples. They cling onto the hope that some Inner disciples or elders would see their worth and pull them over to their respective school discipline. However, entering the top 50 of the entire academy is far more difficult than entering the academy. A large majority practices and cultivates for five whole years in hopes to get a placing.
Entering the top 10 could basically be seen as a pipe dream to those that come from the School of Artificing. The top 10 outer disciples are almost always taken by the direct disciples to the Prime Elders. Those innately talented cultivators would be many times stronger than those that have only trained in beginner martial techniques.
Wang Li Tian followed the long trail of outer disciples off the artificing mountain. It was thanks to them that the muddleheaded youth did not get lost on the way. His head only had one thought at the moment. Big Sister Rou Xuan. After six months, he would finally get to spend more time with her. He couldn't help but grin in excitement.
The boy soon enough reached the large training field. Reporting his name and school discipline to the administrative disciple, Wang Li Tian was pointed towards where he should stand. In the beginning, everyone would be separated into their respective school disciplines. When Wang Li Tian stated that he was from the School of Artificing, the administrative disciple did not bat an eye at him. The Artificing disciple was infamous for being the worse school discipline in the entire academy.
As most of the contestants are from his discipline, the section that was allocated to them was filled to the brim. It was clearly done on purpose by the academy. Other school disciplines had larger sections of the field, but the artificing department had the smallest. Without care, Wang Li Tian headed to a relatively empty spot on the field. He folded his arms and proceeded to wait patiently.
Soon, soft murmurs could be heard travelling around the entire field. The topic piqued Li Tian's interest.
"Did you hear that three of the five Phoenixes in our Southern Wind Academy will be participating in this round's Outer Disciple Competition?" The first disciple spoke.
"Really? All three of the outer disciples are participating?" The second disciple asked. Of the five Phoenixes, three were currently outer disciples and the other two were inner disciples.
"Yes! Jiang Rou Xuan and Xin Qiao from the School of Sword Arts. Hong Xiao Li from the School of Hidden Weapons. They are actually participating!"
"I heard that Jiang Rou Xuan is a real beauty to behold. She came in a year and a half ago and was taken in by a prime elder. The prime elder must have been charmed by her looks too. Hohoho." A third disciple made a cheeky comment, to which the other two laughed along.
Wang Li Tian heard the conversation between the outer disciples in the School of Artificing. He frowned and refuted them, "Big sis Rou Xuan is far stronger than you three combined."
"Huh? What did you say, little kid?" The third disciple looked over at Wang Li Tian. When the person turned around, Wang Li Tian was welcomed with one of the ugliest faces in his life. The man had a flat nose that looked like it had been punched into his face. Not only that, his eyebrows were combined together to form a unibrow. The third disciple had a dark expression on his face that transformed his unibrow into a U shape.