Chapter 0018 Ranking
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In these continuous five days of staying up late and forgetting to eat to improve his skills, not only did Qi Tian gain a profound understanding of the first six forms of the Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist, but his body and spirit also completed a considerable transformation.
From the time he crossed over to this world, nearly two months have passed. Previously when he performed tasks, he primarily relied on his physical strength. However, now, every punch he throws doesn't require his full strength, but he can still make the True Essence flow automatically from his meridians, fusing into his muscles and bones. This makes him exert less strength but makes his punches more powerful and aggressive. At the same time, the backlash felt by his body does not increase due to the improved strength of his punches, but instead, reduces.
Also, while practicing the Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist, Qi Tian unexpectedly found that combining Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist with Chasing Wind Step could yield amazing results. After all, during a fight with another person, the opponent won't stay still, and if they can't beat him, they will definitely dodge. At this time, combining footwork will allow him to catch up with his opponent and let the Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist show its power.
Qi Tian took a look at the last stick of Pure Heart Incense, which was less than an inch long. His rented space had less than an hour left.
"Practicing the seventh form of the Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist at this time would definitely not be enough. Wouldn't it be better to use the first six forms of the Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist exhaustively here to see how much strength I can exert?"
The walls of the private cultivation room, like the walls of the Force Measurement Room, are custom made iron walls that can withstand a strong impact. Qi Tian stood not far from an iron wall and poured True Essence into his fists.
"Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist, first form - Eaglet Tiger Howling in the Mountains."
"Bang", Qi Tian's punch hit the iron wall hard.
"Young Tiger Wind."
"Bang, bang, bang", this time he threw three punches in a row, hitting the iron wall. The punches almost focused on the same point. This form emphasizes speed, and it can launch multiple punches in the same amount of time, making it rather powerful.
Immediately afterwards, Qi Tian threw the other four forms in a row, a total of six forms. After throwing the six forms, he was panting. The Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist consumes a lot of True Essence. Even with him having three meridian channels which could store True Essence, the six forms nearly depleted the True Essence he painstakingly accumulated. During the last few days of training, he spent a lot of time practicing the fists without using True Essence, otherwise, his limited True Essence would not have been enough.
Qi Tian walked up to the iron wall to look at the results of the six punches he just made. To his surprise, he found that as a top-grade martial technique, the Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist was indeed exceptionally powerful. Even though the first six forms did not quite reach that high level of power, each punch had great results. Especially the sixth form, "Raging Tiger Crossing River", which produced a massive force. The depth of the fist mark on the iron wall was about one inch and two points deep. According to his knowledge of the iron wall, this depth required at least 1,200 pounds of his punch, yet he had not used all his strength when throwing this punch. You know, after opening up three meridians, he could punch with a bit more than 1,000 pounds of force when using his full strength. The fact that the Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist could magnify his punch to such an extent surprised and pleased him greatly.
Qi Tian did not wait for the fist mark to disappear. He went to another smooth iron wall, combining the Chasing Wind Step and the Eight Desolate Demon Tiger Fist for final simulated practice. His body had only a small quantity of True Essence left. While his fists can only form a skeleton, his footwork can still be practiced and adjusted.
Twelve minutes later, the fist marks on the iron wall had almost completely disappeared. Only the last one left behind a faint trace. This would be enough to prove that the punch force Qi Tian exerted in the "Raging Tiger Crossing River" just now surpassed 1,200 pounds. And this was done without using all his strength and without activating the Heavenly Dao Engine.
Qi Tian was very satisfied with this outcome as his five days of hard work were not wasted. He packed up his things and extinguished the almost consumed Pure Heart Incense, and took one last lingering look at the private cultivation room. It was a great room for cultivation, but the rent of 1,000 taels a day was too expensive. He wondered when he would be able to own such a cultivation room.
After leaving the cultivation room, Qi Tian went to return the control symbol of the cultivation room. A long queue had already formed here. Tomorrow is the monthly Moon-duel of the Imperial Master Mansion, a lot of outer sect disciples are cramming before the battle, hoping to rent a single cultivation room to improve themselves.
Like the private cultivation room Qi Tian had just used, the Imperial Master Mansion doesn't provide many for the outer sect disciples. There are fewer than 3,000 outer sect disciples, but there are only twelve rooms. The reason Qi Tian was able to rent a room the other day was mainly because he was timely. Otherwise, it would not have been so easy.
Once those queued up to rent the single cultivation room arrived, they heard that among them, there was a guy who was awfully wealthy and unexpectedly rented a room for five consecutive days at a cost of 5,000 taels.
People who practice Qi Cultivation typically lack money. Some of them are not good at running businesses and have few avenues for income. Even those who are good at making money have a lot of places to spend it. They all hate to part with their money, splitting even a single coin into two halves to spend. Renting a room for five days straight is extremely rare among outer sect disciples, causing much discussion and speculation of who he might be.
"Could it be brother Zhou Kunlin? I heard that he was recently invited to a banquet by some wealthy merchants. It's said that all the carriages that came to pick him up were drawn by Dragon Scale Horses and he even had the most popular girl from the Cuixiang Building serving him. He is pursued by so many people, he mustn't lack money."
"If it's not senior brother Zhou Kunlin, then I must say, those rich merchants are very willing to invest in talents like him. They pooled their resources and built a cultivation room that rivals those of inner sect disciples, where the cultivation results are twice as good as here at least. Senior brother Zhou certainly cultivates in that place."
"If not senior brother Zhou Kunlin, then it must be Huang Yaozu. He's the legitimate child of Huang Qingxiang, the richest man in Zhangshui City, and he's also the nephew of the City Lord. From a young age, he's been gifted and ever since he was sent to the Imperial Master Mansion, he's been outstanding. I heard that the rich Huang gives him spending money of up to five thousand taels a month, and also provided him with a shop and a farm for his cultivation uses. For him to rent a single cultivation room for five days is too easy."
"Huang Yaozu? Forget it. He wouldn't spend money here, all his money is used to buy armors and all sorts of attack talismans. In my opinion, perhaps some inner sect disciples found their cultivation resources insufficient and came over to compete with us outer sect disciples. Such things have happened before."
...
Just as everyone was in heated discussions, Qi Tian leisurely stepped forward, returning the control jade token to the one who was responsible for the registration.
The elder brother looked up at him and chuckled, "Five whole days and you made it through. How was it, any results?"
Qi Tian responded mildly, "Thanks for your concern, I have gained some insights."
"It's good that you've gained something, at least the five thousand taels were not wasted. Go on, rest well after returning and strive for a good performance in tomorrow's moon-duel."
"Thank you, elder brother, I'll be going now." Qi Tian turned and left.
Everyone was left open-mouthed, looking at the departing figure of Qi Tian. No one could have guessed that Qi Tian was the one to rent the single cultivation room for such a long time.
"Who is this boy? He's quite young, isn't he only at the first level of Qi Cultivation? Why haven't I seen him before?"
"You're just uninformed. This boy has made quite a name for himself these past few days, even senior brother Zhou Kunlin's fame has been overshadowed."
"What happened? This boy dares to steal the limelight from senior brother Zhou Kunlin? That's courageous."
"I was there at that time and I saw it clearly."
"Quickly tell us what happened."
"Well, I haven't eaten since morning..."
"Just tell us now, we'll treat you to a meal at Cuixiang Building later."
...
Qi Tian returned to his room, unrolled his bedding and immediately fell into a deep sleep. After five consecutive days of cultivation, he was extremely tired and naturally needed a good rest.
He woke up at dawn, disturbed by the noise outside his room. He hurriedly got up and left his room.
The corridors were full of people, some excited, some apprehensive. Today was the day of the moon-duel. For every outer sect disciple especially those at the bottom, each moon-duel was a hurdle to overcome. The policy of the Imperial Master Mansion was to maintain a 'sink or swim' approach. A comprehensive ranking would be done for all the outer sect disciples after each moon-duel, based on their age, cultivation level, battle achievements and contributions to the Imperial Master Mansion. The bottom ten would be immediately disqualified and expelled from the Mansion. Those who ranked from the bottom fifty to eleven would face a test, if they passed, they would stay, if they failed, they would be expelled from the Mansion too."
The stronger disciples naturally had no worries, but for the weaker ones, every moon-duel was a difficult hurdle. Before, Qi Tian's ranking among the 2913 outer sect disciples wasn't impressive, only relying on his young age he managed to secure a place in the top 1900. This ranking wasn't high, even among his peers he was at the bottom. If his ranking stays the same, he wouldn't face any issues for a year or two. But with increasing age, if his other aspects didn't improve, he would definitely be expelled from the Mansion in a year or two."
Yuan Dan who was slightly older than him had a much higher ranking, within the top 800. Kuang Ting was within the top 500 and Ling Mu was ranked 450. Naturally, Zhou Kunlin's ranking was the highest, making the first amongst the outer sect disciples and waiting to break through to the fourth stage of Qi Cultivation, the Qi Cultivation Mid-Phase, to become an inner sect disciple of the Imperial Master Mansion."