Tai Bàoli finally awoke. His body hadn't changed much but he felt immense change. It was like his body was weightless.
Tai Bàoli immediately began activating his Esoteric Ghost Steps.
BAM!?!
Tai Bàoli directly slammed into the wall, thankfully it didn't hurt because of his defensive technique, but it was quite astounding. Tai Bàoli almost felt weightless like a swallow soaring through the air unhindered. His speed had increased far beyond what he had ever seen any regular body refining realm cultivators do.
But then again he'd not seen any body refining realm cultivators above Liu Yanjiang's cultivation so that didn't say much. From Tai Bàoli's understanding all the elders were at least Qi Gathering Realm cultivators minimum. From his gathered knowledge most inner sect disciples would be between the Body Refining Stage 5-7 and most direct disciples were between stage 7-9, there were even some he had heard whisperings of being Qi Gathering Realm.
After practicing some Tai Bàoli had finally stabilized himself. He concentrated some and executed his movement technique at maximum capacity, and if anyone was watching they'd have seen Tai Bàoli move faster than someone could blink, it was like his body was ethereal. He almost instantaneously appeared at the other end of the room.
Tai Bàoli began cackling this was amazing he felt he'd taken quite a large leap in strength and speed. With his current speed he didn't think a single individual below body refining stage 5 or 6 could match him in strength or speed. Unless they had trained and mastered some techniques to an outstanding degree.
Tai Bàoli thought about it and couldn't wait to go buy a Warhammer to practice his technique with. With his new mastery of the esoteric ghost steps it was almost impossible for any lower ranked disciples to see him as he made his way to the weapons pavilion, even some that were a stage above him barely saw him flash by, some merely felt a breeze. It was exhilarating for Tai Bàoli.
Tai Bàoli easily purchased a cheap Low Mortal Rank one handed Warhammer for 50 Martial credits. Tai Bàoli then immediately went back to his pavilion. He felt it, the power, the power held within his hand.
He stood in his room and began practicing the Petrifying mad hammer stance, and almost immediately it popped up on his screen, however what was unbelievably surprising was that it was immediately raised to mid mastery. Tai Bàoli was slightly astonished.
He knew he understood the concept of the technique to an extreme degree, but he didn't realize it was to such an extreme degree. What was surprising was that Tai Bàoli didn't get any bonuses from the technique being raised to mid mastery but he felt more powerful than he had ever felt before.
Tai Bàoli began swinging the hammer in front of him, that was when he started to understand. the slight bit of Qi that had accumulated in his organs was released in the technique, like a small wave in front of his hammer. Tai Bàoli was ecstatic.
He'd look at the wall far beyond where he attacked and saw the wall had been slightly discolored, like it had been covered in a concrete like film. One might even think it had been slightly petrified.
("I see? is this what real martial arts are made of? this is astounding")
-------------------
-Unlimited Experience System-
-Host-(Tai Bàoli)
-Cultivation Stage-(Body Refining 3/9, Viscera Training)
-Experience-(0)
-Upgrade Cost: 1, amount upgraded per, .1-
-Strength-(3)(+3 from Bear's Hide)
-Dexterity-(4)(+3 from Esoteric Ghost Steps)
-Comprehension-(4)
-Martial Arts-
-Cost to Upgrade: 5 experience per grade, per Rank-
-Esoteric Ghost Step: Mastery ~Peak~
-Bears Hide: Mastery ~Peak~
-Petrifying Mad Hammer Stance ~Mid~(Side Effects Detected: When used for more than 1 minute in combat consecutively the user begins petrifying themselves slightly. -1 dexterity for every minute after the user continues using the technique.)
-Martial Arts Eligible for Grade Increase-
-Bears Hide: Mastery ~Peak~(Upgrade Cost 30 experience, directly upgrades to High Mortal Rank)
-Esoteric Ghost Step: Mastery ~Peak~ (Upgrade Cost 30 experience, directly upgrades to High Mortal Rank)
-Upgrading a stat requires experience, gain experience in a myriad of ways-
-------------------
As Tai Bàoli read the screen he'd furrow his brow slightly, in combat he'd have around 8ish minutes before he'd be so slow he'd be worse than a regular individual. However Tai Bàoli was confident that within that time he'd be able to take down anyone within the same stage unhindered.
DING! DONG!
DING!! DONG!!
DING!!! DONG!!!
A resounding bell sounded through the sect. All the outer disciples had already been informed that if a bell sounded in such a way it meant it was time for the first outer sect disciple tournament of the year.
The outer sect disciple tournament ranked each of the outer disciples in various ways. Combat, Arrays, Pill making, Weapon Crafting. An outer disciple had to enroll in and participate in one of the four categories, If they did not they'd be expelled from the sect. This was to promote growth in the disciples, whether they pursued purely cultivation or not.
Tai Bàoli sighed, he knew that this was coming, there would be two more tournaments after this one in a year. Totaling three a year, Tai Bàoli hoped he'd have a couple more months before it came however. As it stood right now the only things Tai Bàoli knew were related to combat.
Which meant he could only participate in the martial arts tournament. Thankfully if he did good he'd be rewarded, as the top 10,5,3 and first place all get varying rewards based on placement. Tai Bàoli just hoped he didn't have to fight against any Bone Forging Stage Body Refining Realm disciples.
As he wasn't quite as confident he could fight them. However Tai Bàoli understood he still needed to participate.
Tai Bàoli made his way to the designed sign up spot for the martial arts tournament, Tai Bàoli saw hundreds of different outer disciples. The outer disciple tournaments weren't restricted to just the newest outer disciples, it was made to rank ALL the outer disciples.
As Tai Bàoli was looking around he didn't see many of the new outer disciples participating in the martial arts tournament. They had all probably decided to learn different things related to the other pavilions. Maybe Tai Bàoli would learn some of those things at some point but for now he only knew how to fight.
As Tai Bàoli finished signing up he was assigned a number. Participant #163, now he just needed to go to the martial arts area with the rest of the participants and wait for his number to be called, and he'd go through rounds of elimination like any other normal tournament.
Tai Bàoli was quickly called up to fight another Disciple, as he was called up he was given a new mission screen.
----------
-Mission-(Defeat Huang Jiang)
-Mission Outline-(Win your Tournament Fight)
-Mission Difficulty-(Easy)
-Experience Payout- 2 Experience
-----------
Just 2 Experience? Tai Bàoli raised an eyebrow was he really able to win that easily?
Elder Xian: "Participant 163 and 198, you both understand the rules. Please introduce yourselves and begin."
Huang Jiang immediately bowed and introduced himself
Huang Jiang: "Huang Jiang, Flesh Training Stage, Disciple for 2 and a half months."
Tai Bàoli did the same
Tai Bàoli: "Tai Bàoli, Viscera Training Stage, Disciple for 2 and a half months."
Elder Xian: "Begin!"
Many disciples made there guesses as to who would win but not many of them knew how the fight would go down, it was very unlikely that a flesh training stage individual could fight and win against a Viscera Training Stage individual but since they were both new disciples no one had ever seen them fight before.
However before everyone could even get their thoughts and bets together a victor had already shown itself. Faster then most were able to see Tai Bàoli had seemingly vanished like a ghost and reappeared behind Huang Jiang, and as he did so he slammed his hand down in a chop at the back of Huang Jiang's neck, instantaneously knocking him unconscious.
Huang Jiang's screen had appeared for Tai Bàoli at the beginning of the match,
-------
-Huang Jiang-
-Occupation- (Hidden Mountain Tiger Sect Outer Disciple)
-Cultivation Stage-(Body Refining 2/9, Flesh Training)
-Strength-2.4
-Dexterity-2.4
-Comprehension-3
-Martial Arts-
-Crouching Crane Kick: Mastery ~Low~
--------
Just from these stats alone Tai Bàoli knew Huang Jiang stood no chance. Which is why he opted to only use his movement technique, and he only showed Mid Mastery of it. Tai Bàoli wasn't stupid he knew most participants would be watching each other to learn the best strategies to fight each other with.
Tai Bàoli thought if he just quickly ended each of his matches no one would be able to think of a strategy to combat him.
Elder Xian had swiftly announced the winner earlier. he had raised an eyebrow, clearly he liked the decisiveness of Tai Bàoli
Elder Xian: "Participant 163 Wins."