(Bu Cai POV)
After running away and going back into the rented inn, I can't help but jump in joy due to achieving something monumental.
You may be wondering, Can't he just renege on the promise or just make up an excuse for breaching his morals?
Of Course He Can't!
What things are up there for things most valued by Protagonists?
...Valuable treasures? Sure.
...Having a Good Master? Another one.
...A solid Dao hear-...
Fuck you then; I'll just tell you my point, if you can't follow my questionnaire.
Protagonists especially love saving face and collecting Jade beauties.
Once he hops over to the Spirit Sword Sect to destroy it for a collectible, i will go over and stop him on the accounts of his promise (Which I have sneakily recorded; Thanks for being Dumb, you Cockroach Bastard), Once he realises this, there will only be 2 ways to proceed:
1. To Ignore the promise and slaughter everyone anyways.
2. To make an excuse on how i disregarded his morals.
While thinking of that he doesn't realise that he has been in checkmate from the start.
If he chooses route 1, His face will be thrown away and the Jade beauty will (Probably) like him less, hence making him look like a bad guy.
Or if he chooses to go route two, he will try and save his face, and the jade beauty will intervene (Hopefully) and tell him off for being a pussy for not sticking to his word.
BOOM (sound of heads exploding due to my genius and cunning).
I sometimes get impressed by my own genius to the point that it could be considered bragging (However It's straight facts that I am 1000 Iq).
Anyways, my next destination after calming myself down from all the excitement, Is going to be the Market and all the stalls people set up.
This is because, although I'm no Xianxia protagonist, I am confident that with my identify skill, I'll be able to find at least one good deal that could help me for the upcoming Tournament.
(Free Market, Grand Sword City)
This place is one of the biggest markets for people who want to sell whatever they have, from cheap to expensive, Valuable to invaluable, large to small, Can sell them to new owners in exchange for money or trade them for other items.
In this free market, anything can be old, so getting fake or damaged products is not uncommon, and getting swindled isn't against the law as you have decided by yourself that you will want to purchase it with money.
However if you do so you may incur the wrath of scammed individuals which is never good.
Although this doesn't apply to me as the system can verify just about anything as long as it has not got a lot more Qi than me or higher cultivation.
And i won't try my luck with them as they cost more than i am willing to spend and i won't really be able to use them to their full potential or at all due to not having any spirit roots yet.
As I walked through the Crowded streets with a seemingly endless number of stalls and people and therefore and equally impressive range of items, from pills, to cultivation manuals, to bizarre things such as, shower images of certain fairies (modern day porn), and certain types of signatures of different renowned people.
Most stuff like pills and equipment were either fake/exaggerated, or the quality of pills were bad/the durability of weapons or Armour were low.
However even though there was noting insane, I did find some ancient or lesser known herbs that were being sold for a very cheap price, but in fact have very impressive effects.
The day passed by quickly as I was engrossed in trying to fish out as much as value from my visit as possible, however the Sun began to set and the night was approaching.
I had decided to head back to the Inn, and went to my room to have a bath.
After finishing a nice warm bath, I opened the windows which allowed me to see the beautiful night sky that had countless bright stars fill up the sky and the mild wind blew onto my face, that was feeling slightly warm due to the bath, and I felt tranquil.
I looked at the 2 moons hanging up above, they both gave a silverish/whitesh illumination that and stuck out from the darkness and the numerous of small stars.
Although it was night time, the city was still lively as some people went to have a meal with friends after a hard days work, or some went out to enjoy the ambiance of the night, or some even went go to a brothel to have a little fun...
In the end it all linked back to one thing that they were doing,
Making the most out of their lives in this cruel and cold world, for however long they can...
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(The next morning)
(Bu Cai POV)
The morning sunlight seeped on to my face and I knew I had to wake up, as today was the first day of the elimination round for the tournament,
This elimination round lasted for 5 days, and the number of participants would half each day, the number of participants were in the numbers of 1,600 as to enter one must be of at least a certain strength and be able to get to grand sword City, plus the factor that having some form of background is basically necessary.
After the elimination, the next stage is a proper tournament type thing that is commonly seen in Xianxia and you get to pick out names in boxes (Cool Shit).
Then after it gets to the top 5, each person would challenge the others once and to showcase their prowess.
Afterwards, the sects and family's that are interested by any people will issue invites or send someone to invite them personally, and said person can then choose where they would like to go for training (Basically Xianxia's Got Talent).
People like Long Tian and other heirs are going so that they can get a reputation and, gain face for their respective forces that are behind them.
So to prepare for this, I will be doing some warm up and training, as well as use some of the herbs I gained yesterday to further consolidate by foundation and increase my strength to the max, as although i was indeed quite powerful out of the younger generation, i was still lagging behind some and i don't want to be demolished without getting the chance to show a bit of my strength so, increasing it to the utmost is the best way of assuring myself the best chance in this.
After finishing, I then headed of to the Huge Arena, which had masses of people already gathered although there was still a few hours until the start, This arena had a large stage in the middle which consisted of incredibly strong spirit metal so no mishaps happen with it in later on while contestants are fighting in the finals. This large arena also hundreds of smaller ares, which are going to be used for the elimination games.
Intentional murder and severe damage is not allowed,as if one of the heirs kill another one it could cause a war and chaos to ensue, to ensure there are no mistake killings or severe injuries, Nascent soul judges will be intervening in any fatal moments to ensure safety.
After signing in, I got a metal slip through which I got to know who my first opponent was and his name was...
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Author's notes:
People who are talented and have a solid foundation, usually awaken decent spirit roots at least, therefore from an early age, sects will scout out talents and train them from young to ingrain some sense of loyalty and belonging to the sect.
Family's are here to assess for talents as well as sects as, although they cannot be members (Unless they are married into the Clan), they can still be trained used to protect and grow up with clan members, and they also come to see how their members perform and also to see what talents there will be to look out for.
Anyway, I hope that if you had any confusion about this, then this will explain it.
And I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you have and suggestions for the story or constructive criticisms, then feel free to leave them in the comments so that i can try and implement them or improve on the story.
Thanks