Fortunately, I didn't have to go looking for an excuse to beat up on Jian Shen. The opportunity came straight to the front door of the Lan Manor.
"Patriarch Bai? What are you doing here? Elder Xue Ren too?"
Lan Bei Er was shocked to see two of the most revered figures of the White Herb Sect visit the humble Lan Estate. Okay, maybe it wasn't humble, but it wasn't everyday when big figures from one of the seven major sects showed up at your front door.
"First…congratulations on winning the position of castellan for the Lan family." Bai Yao Cai smiled broadly, stroking his beard and inclining his head respectfully. He nodded at me, winking. "Your performance was impressive, Hei Ye. News of your overwhelming victory have reached throughout the Huang Kingdom, and spread to the seven major sects."
"Not only are you strong beyond measure, you are also well versed in literary classics and winning the hearts and mind of people." Xue Ren shook his head. "Honestly, you're wasted on the White Herb Sect."
"The only thing you're lacking is knowledge in alchemy," Bai Yao Cai said with a laugh. "But nobody is perfect."
"That's what my wife is for," I said and placed an arm around her shoulders. She blushed. "If I get hurt, she'll just refine a potion for me."
"A perfect couple indeed." Bai Yao Cai nodded. Then he sighed. "Speaking of which, we came here today to speak of a serious matter. As a surveyor of the White Herb Sect, this is particularly relevant to you, Hei Ye."
"What's the matter?" I asked curiously.
"The intersect tournament is taking place soon. I did mention it before, right? That we'll need you to represent the White Herb Sect in the intersect tournament. Well, coincidentally it's set to take place next week. We wanted to inform you earlier, but you were busy with the castellan election. So we decided to wait until you were done with that."
It suddenly occurred to me that this might be the reason why Cang Qiong and his family pulled out of the castellan trials. To prepare for this intersect tournament.
"The Azure Water Sect will be hosting the intersect tournament this time," Bai Yao Cai continued. He scowled. "The patriarch of the Azure Water Sect, Cheng Kun, has offered a prize of one million spirit stones and a single five-veined spirit pill to the winner of the tournament."
"That sounds pretty generous."
Even though I didn't believe in doping and consuming elixirs to boost one's cultivation, I was aware of what a five veined spirit pill was. Ordinary spirit pills didn't have veins – for one to have a vein, it must be like, super pure and super refined. I didn't know how to explain, but if you read enough web novels or manhua, you would know what I was talking about. In any event, the more veins you had, the more potent the spirit pill was. Basically the veins were like a level. And since it was rare to get even one vein, it was like super-duper rare to get five veins. This Cheng Kun fella must have spent quite the immense fortune just to procure one. A five vein spirit pill should be worth like millions of spirit stones. Only whales could afford them.
Bai Yao Cai sighed, shaking his head. "Yes, it sounds impressive. But there's a more sinister motive behind this prize. Basically Cheng Kun is extremely confident that the Azure Water Sect will win this year's intersect tournament."
"Naturally," I muttered. "Who wouldn't believe their sect disciples will emerge as the champion?"
"Not everyone," Bai Yao Cai admitted. "We're being realistic, knowing that the White Herb Sect will not win the intersect tournament. Even with you as our representative, our chances are still pretty low. This isn't to say we don't believe in you, but…realistically speaking, there are a lot of powerful contenders this year."
I wasn't arrogant enough to declare that I would win or tell them to believe in me or all that bullshit. Of course, it would be awesome if I could actually win first place, but life never went the way we wanted to. Everyone wants to be a champion, but only one person could actually be ranked first. I had participated in enough tournaments during my previous life to know not to set myself for disappointment. Usually I would finish right smack in the middle, like ranked 30 out of 60, or something like that.
I was not so bad that I would finish at the bottom, but neither was I good enough to compete at the very top.
Of course, this cultivation world was a different story because I had learned Heaven and Earth Formula, which gave me an advantage. Not to mention my cultivation realm was a lot higher than most people in my generation, so I wasn't going to rule myself out of the running completely. I was going to give it a shot and try my best.
However, there was something in Bai Yao Cai's words that drew my attention.
"Sect patriarch, you said that there are a lot of powerful contenders this year, right? Then why is the Azure Water Sect patriarch so confident that his sect would win, to the point that he would stake an enormous fortune on the prize pool?"
"It's because of the Divine Spirit Constitution."
"The…what?"
"The Divine Spirit Constitution," Bai Yao Cai explained patiently. "As you all know, people with specific constitutions will have affinities with certain types of cultivation, and so their progress will be much faster than ordinary people. For example, somebody with the Divine Frost Physique will be able to cultivate frost arts ten times faster than normal people, and their techniques will be ten times more powerful. The Divine Spirit Constitution allows the owner to cultivate divine techniques ten times faster and ten times more powerful than ordinary people. It's a one in a millennium genius. Nobody in the same generation will be able to defeat her."
"You're talking about Senior Bai Ning Shuang, aren't you?" Lan Bei Er's hands flew to her mouth in horror. Bai Yao Cai gave her a look and nodded.
"That's correct. I know you have some friendship with her, Bei Er. Make sure you continue to cultivate that friendship and develop a good relationship between our sects. She'll help us tremendously in future."
I didn't say anything, mostly because I was tired of this stupid constitution or physique bullshit. How the fuck did you even identify cultivators with such things? How could you just determine somebody's destiny based off some arbitrary judging system? People's talents couldn't be measured or evaluated like that. Ability was nurtured, not introduced roughly like some stupid plot device or convenient label so that the author could tell the readers, "Hey, this character is a super genius!"
I mean, look at reality. Are you telling me that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Ludwig van Beethoven had some Divine Music Physique that put their musical talent ahead of others from birth? That Thomas Edison was born with a Genius Inventor Brain that could be detected by some magic rock or hi-tech machine? Did Pele activate some device when he was a baby to indicate that he had a super soccer physique?
What utter bullshit. These geniuses were recognized for their talents AFTER they achieved their feats in their respective fields. Yet in cultivation stories, all these cultivators were already being celebrated as geniuses based off "talents" or physiques or constitutions before they started working hard and achieving anything. I supposed what I meant to say was that people should actually earn recognition for what they had already done, and not for what they might potentially or possibly do in the future. You could claim that someone was talented or an unprecedented genius using a magic rock or whatever all you wanted, but that was all useless if the person didn't actually do a single thing with his/her supposed potential.
Even Thomas Edison said that genius was 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. You actually had to work hard and earn recognition, not have it hand-waved based off some magic measuring device. Most of the time, the achievements of these geniuses in cultivation stories were set in stone because the authors already knew they would get them in future, or they would simply have the protagonists kill off the so-called genius, which rendered the whole talent or potential thing pointless.
Of course, I didn't say any of that.
"So basically everyone believes that Bai Ning Shuang will win the intersect tournament."
"She has the highest odds to be champion, yes." Bai Yao Cai stroked his beard. "But that doesn't mean we'll just roll over and let her win without putting up a fight. We should do our best and who knows? We might just upset her. In the end, talents and geniuses are just labels. If the results are already decided beforehand, then why bother hosting a tournament? Why bother competing in matches? We might as well just award Bai Ning Shuang first prize without going through all this trouble."
Finally someone who talked some sense.
"Yeah, let's do our best to pull off an upset victory," I said, though I didn't feel confident. Hope was the first road to disappointment, so best not to hold too high of an expectation. Besides, my real goal was something else. "Who else is participating in this intersect tournament?"
"The disciples from the seven major sects," Bai Yao Cai said. I smiled darkly.
"Jian Shen?"
"Yes, Jian Shen will be participating as well."
"Awesome." I pushed my glasses up my nose and smirked. "I look forward to meeting him in the tournament then."
"Great to see that you're highly motivated." Xue Ren nodded. "I hope you'll bring pride to our White Herb Sect!"
"I'll do my best," I promised.
And so we left for the Azure Valley after we made the necessary preparations. Riding on the heavenly carriages and allowing the flying kirins to pull us through the air, we reached the venue for the intersect tournament in short order.
The Azure Water Sect disciples had all gathered to welcome the various disciples from the myriad sects. They even had all the accommodations prepared, constructing inns for this particular event. Pretty impressive, though the expenses must have been astronomical.
Well, it was their money, not ours.
We hadn't gotten very far when Lan Bei Er caught sight of a familiar face. We didn't have to move over because our host strode over to greet us.
"Senior Bai Ning Shuang!"
"Junior Bei Er," Bai Ning Shuang acknowledged. She cast an icy glance at me and shook her head in disapproval. "So you really went ahead and married this trash."
"He's not trash!" Lan Bei Er snapped. "Even if it's you, Senior Bai, I won't allow you to insult my husband!"
Bai Ning Shuang pursed her lips. "I apologize for the rudeness. But I will still offer my advice. You should divorce him as soon as possible and marry either Junior Jian Shen or even Senior Cang Qiong. They are worthier of your hand in marriage."
"I'm sure you've heard of the news, haven't you, senior?" Lan Bei Er's voice was cold. "Not only did my husband save my father, he also helped me win the trials for Azure Cloud City's castellan. He has contributed so much to the Lan family that I will never be able to repay him."
"You don't owe me anything," I reminded her. "You're my wife."
"I will acknowledge his achievements," Bai Ning Shuang conceded stiffly. "But still, he is nothing compared to Senior Cang Qiong. As competent as he is, he has neither the background nor the prospects for you to have a bright future."
"I am happy with my current life with my husband," Lan Bei Er retorted. "I don't need that 'bright future' you speak of, senior. In fact, why not you worry about your own future? Since you admire this senior Cang Qiong so much, why don't you marry him?"
"That's…" Bai Ning Shuang faltered. She looked away. "My heart already belongs to somebody."
"What!?" Lan Bei Er was completely taken aback by her friend's confession. Even I didn't see that coming. "Who?"
"I don't know his name or his face," Bai Ning Shuang admitted, running her fingers along her long black hair. "But I believe he was from the Black Shadow Sect before it was destroyed. He saved me from being raped by Feng Zi, after I was…poisoned. I will never rest until I find him." She smiled, looking at the sky. "He's the only one worthy of me."
I almost spat out and fell over from the revelation, causing both Bai Ning Shuang and Lan Bei Er to stare at me strangely. Wiping my mouth, I straightened and shook my head in disbelief.
…what the fuck? She had to be kidding, right? Please tell me she was kidding.
"How romantic!" Lan Bei Er gushed, clasping her hands in wonder. "I hope you find him!"
"I hope so too." Bai Ning Shuang remained wistful. Then she turned to glare at me. "You had best leave junior Bei Er if you really love her and want what's best for her."
"Enough!" Lan Bei Er grabbed my hand and pulled me away, stomping toward our assigned accommodation. "If you continue ridiculing my husband, I'll break off all ties with you, senior!"
"I apologize." Bai Ning Shuang sighed, but she wisely stopped her nonsense. I tried not to laugh at her.
"I hope you will (never) find the guy you're in love with," I called out to her as I allowed my wife to drag me away, deliberately whispering the word never so softly that Bai Ning Shuang couldn't hear it. And I was being sincere. I really didn't want her to find out the true identity of her savior.
Otherwise this might just turn into a shuraba.