From the fourth day onward, the four of us each took a turn on the stages to test our skills. We earned enough baseline points to secure our standing and didn't particularly mind losing; after all, who could endure defending a stage for four consecutive days? By the fifth day, we decided it was time to seriously analyze the situation and hand-pick our opponents. We soon heard word of a rogue cultivator specializing in illusions who was holding Stage Eighteen. He had already defeated four or five disciples from various well-known sects. Intrigued, we naturally went to take a look.
What we saw nearly made our eyes pop out. While other competitors dressed sharply with polished weapons and dignified postures, this fellow was slender and frail, draped in gaudy reds and greens, adorned with hairpins and jade pendants. He was enveloped in a cloud of peach-pink mist and perfume, fanning himself in the middle of autumn with a garish silk folding fan. Who else could it be but our long-lost Third Brother, Ren Xuzhou? The rascal had even used illusions to alter his appearance and taken on the grandiloquent alias "Heaven-Shaking Fragrance"—a cheeky play on the phrase for "thunderous sound."
We watched as this effeminate figure waved his fan left and right, dazing a crowd of burly men until they actually began to look infatuated.
Zhu Yixin and I couldn't bear to watch. Overwhelmed by shame and indignation, we repeatedly clarified to the acquaintances around us, "We aren't with him! We don't know him!"
Seeing Third Brother fan down two more challengers, it seemed he might actually make it into the top thirty-two. If that happened, the reputation of our Old Dream Mountain would be laughed into the dirt! Zhu Yixin was so vexed she told Qiao Songlin to go up and take him down. While our Fourth Brother was still hesitating over whether to fight his own kin, Lu Lingfeng lightly tapped the ground, clutching her precious little bucket, and drifted onto the stage.
Alas, aside from fratricide, what other choice did we have?
Framed by the maple-covered mountains, Fairy Lu’s white robes fluttered as she balanced on a single toe atop a stage pillar, looking as though she might ride the wind back to the heavens—save for that battered wooden bucket, which truly spoiled the aesthetic.
Zhu Yixin and I exchanged a look. It seemed that regardless of who won, it wouldn't do much for the sect's glory.
Ren Xuzhou gave a cheeky grin, still pretending not to know her. He performed a flamboyant, flirtatious bow. "Heaven-Shaking Fragrance greets this celestial lady!"
"I am the Fragrance-Stealing Ghost," Lu Lingfeng replied with solemn gravity. She flipped the lid of her bucket and released a ghost.
The rules stated that those who did not rely on their own strength—such as beast tamers, ghost-mancers, or puppeteers—could only bring summons that were at most one minor realm higher than themselves, and no more than three in total. Since Lu Lingfeng was in the mid-stage of the Cloud-Swallowing Realm, the strength of her Ghost Prime was automatically suppressed by the stage’s formations to the late-stage of the Cloud-Swallowing Realm. Even so, after years of Lu Lingfeng’s careful nurturing, the Ghost Prime had grown quite formidable. With one claw, it tore a massive hole in Ren Xuzhou’s artificial pink mist and charged forward with a cackling screech.
Now that a mere fan wouldn't suffice, Ren Xuzhou remained grinning. With a flick of his wrist, he conjured a beautiful woman from his fan who held up a bucket toward the ghost. He had actually created a perfect replica of our Second Senior Sister.
The Ghost Prime actually froze, hesitating over which bucket it should dive into. The real Lu Lingfeng looked quite displeased. She lifted the real bucket, her eyes welling with tears. "Little Darling, this is your home..."
I covered my face and grabbed Zhu Yixin. She did the same, grabbing me, and the two of us fled the scene at top speed.
After a chaotic struggle filled with bizarre incidents, Lu Lingfeng and her "Little Darling" emerged victorious. According to the rules, the winner claimed two-thirds of the loser's accumulated points. Lu Lingfeng defended the stage casually for another half-day. When the tallies were calculated at midnight on the sixth day, everyone was stunned: she had actually broken into the top ten. It turned out "Heaven-Shaking Fragrance" had been a pig eating tigers all along, having knocked down quite a few heavyweights!
Having had a massive chunk of his hard-earned results bitten off by Second Sister, and seeing no hope of entering the top thirty-two, Ren Xuzhou wasn't angry. He happily scurried over to our quarters to squeeze into a bed with his Fourth Brother.
Qiao Songlin didn't sleep long before getting up. Leaving Ren Xuzhou there to talk in his sleep and drool, he carried a lamp and lightly knocked on the door to the room Zhu Yixin and I shared. We weren't asleep either; we were discussing our strategy for the final day.
Zhu Yixin pointed at the current rankings. "They're all tough! If we pick the soft targets, we won't earn enough points. If we knock down a hard one, we risk being eaten by someone even harder... Little Wei and the others aren't even on the list yet!"
The most powerful cultivators didn't deign to fight for days on end; they simply waited for the final hour to kick some unlucky soul off a stage in a single match. Consequently, famous names like Wei Qingming, Yan Mingqiu, and Zhang Yuande were nowhere to be seen. Currently, the top thirty-two included my Second Senior Sister, with Feng Baili at twelfth, Yu Niannian at nineteenth, Bai Yuyu at twentieth, and even Yan Xiangjun clinging to thirty-first. The person just barely squeezing into thirty-second was Yi Fei. The top ten featured Duan Hongyun and Qiu Zhengshan in third and fourth place with nearly identical scores. The rest were various Buddhist and demonic cultivators. Those in the lead were mostly from the Tianjun Sect; aside from Duan and Qiu, there wasn't a single Wujing Sect disciple in the top ten.
The most absurd part was the person at the top of the list: someone named He Hong. The name was plain and unheard of, yet she was apparently another mysterious late-stage Cloud-Swallowing cultivator from the Tianjun Sect. Her points were terrifyingly high—nearly double those of the second-place finisher, a Buddhist cultivator named Zhiding!
"This Senior Sister He has held Stage One since the start of the competition and has never lost," Qiao Songlin said.
"That's tough," I remarked. "Her surname is He... could she be a descendant of the He family, one of the founding clans of the Tianjun Sect?"
"I don't know," Qiao Songlin replied. "She wasn't among the Tianjun Sect members who came to the Wujing Sect for the exchange; she arrived at the venue on her own."
We didn't plan to target the current top thirty-two for now. Even if the points were high, we would likely just get beaten down by the heavyweights later. Of course, I wasn't exactly afraid; knowing Wei Qingming’s personality, if I were knocked down, she would undoubtedly come out early to settle the score for me. Still, it was better not to interfere with her grand entrance to "settle the heavens with a single sword." The best targets were those ranked between thirty-third and fiftieth. They would surely try to push into the top thirty-two tomorrow; we would let them kick others out, then kick them out in turn.
After a round of screening, Zhu Yixin and Qiao Songlin placed black and white stones behind the names of opponents worth fighting. I used a die. Qiao Songlin picked up a black piece and placed it firmly behind a name. Zhu Yixin and I were shocked: he was going to challenge Guan Shanping!
Guan Shanping had also made his move on the fourth day and had held his ground until now. Because of his reputation as the top figure of the Tianjun Sect, few dared to challenge him, so his points were slightly lower, placing him at eighth.
"His heart-blood is damaged; he no longer has the strength of a late-stage perfectionist," Qiao Songlin said calmly. "With Qing-di's methods, taking the lives of those two would have been as easy as flipping a hand. He did this for us."
Zhu Yixin thought for a moment, then boldly placed a white stone behind Wu Puhe. "Then I'll take him! He's thirty-fourth. He'll definitely try to make a big move tomorrow, so I'll just chase him down and be done with it."
She knew that to avoid suspicion, I couldn't challenge either of those two, so she had stepped up first. Feeling her and Qiao Songlin’s gaze on me, I chuckled and tossed my die onto the name of a Dharma cultivator named Deng Yangchu.
Fourth Brother frowned. "This person's points aren't high—he's ranked outside the top fifty. Winning won't be very profitable."
"I've watched a few of his matches," I said. "For a rogue cultivator, his mastery of arrays is superb. He'll definitely make a push tomorrow. I want to compete with him in array techniques to see how I can put what I've learned into practice."
Only then did he give a satisfied smile. "I see. The competition itself isn't worth much; significant progress is what matters most."
The next day, as soon as dawn broke, Deng Yangchu challenged Yan Xiangjun, who was ranked thirty-first. Abandoning his previous low profile, he stacked three great arrays in succession, shattering Yan Xiangjun’s Purple Light Protection Shield and teleporting her off the stage. The stages of the Tian Shan Meet were equipped with sophisticated, high-level formations that automatically granted competitors a layer of protective light. This prevented fatal injuries; if the light was triggered, it signified a fatal blow had been dealt, and the competitor was defeated.
Yan Xiangjun had exhausted many precious spiritual tools in that fight. Facing three arrays at once, even with high-grade defensive gear, she couldn't avoid being knocked down. She bled from the corner of her mouth, her face as pale as gold leaf. As she stepped off the stage, she was supported by her maids, nearly collapsing. Her admirers, who had gathered below to cheer for her, were devastated to see their goddess defeated by an obscure rogue cultivator. Panting with indignation, their brows furrowed and eyes brimming with tears, they began rolling up their sleeves to demand justice. Deng Yangchu seemed a bit surprised; he clearly didn't realize what a hornet's nest he had kicked. Honestly, even without the swarm of admirers, common folk like us really shouldn't touch a fully-equipped young lady like her!
I hesitated, originally planning to wait and let Deng Yangchu harvest some points for me to reap later. But then I saw someone heading off to find Yan Xiangjun’s brother. I couldn't wait any longer. I circulated my movement technique and flashed onto the stage.
Deng Yangchu was preparing to face the frenzied male cultivators one by one, so he was stunned when a petite woman appeared before him.
Yan Xiangjun was also stunned to see that the first person to stand up for her was me.
Though my intention wasn't truly to avenge her, I didn't mind letting her misunderstand. I turned my head to give her a resolute look, then let out an angry, cold snort. "Su Yuzhi of Old Dream Mountain! I wish to learn from this brother's array techniques!" As I spoke, I had already drawn my first formation and pushed it forward with my palm.
This was a standard base array. Usually, when array masters duel, they first set up a foundation that favors their own attributes, techniques, or defense, creating an environment conducive to combat. Deng Yangchu didn't mind this move; after taking the stage, the first thing he had done was stack various base arrays to quickly turn the stage into his own territory. Thus, high-level array masters had a natural advantage in defending a stage; the longer they held it, the more complex their base arrays became, and their defense would steadily climb. This was how Bai Yuyu, with only mid-stage Cloud-Swallowing cultivation, could hold a stage for the entirety of the sixth day and likely until the end of the preliminary rounds.
Deng Yangchu summoned his talisman brush and announced his name with some grace. In an instant, he dotted out a Lightning Attack Array.
This was the very type of array that had driven me mad while I was studying in the Pavilion of Heavenly Mystery. To this day, I remembered that day of grey skies and howling winds, with the northern sands swirling through the air. On the way back from lunch, Wei Qingming had lifted her sleeve, gently shielding me in her embrace as I struggled to keep my eyes open against the sand... Sweetness surged through my heart along with a fighting spirit. I raised my hand and used brute force to swiftly destroy one of the two sub-cores. I activated Minxue to dodge the remaining lightning strikes, calculated the location of the main core, and pierced through it with my sword.
Deng Yangchu realized he had met a professional and wanted to end it quickly. He flicked his sleeve, releasing the triple-stacked array that had defeated Yan Xiangjun in one move. Although triple-stacked arrays were common, these three specific formations weren't in any books; they were likely folk traditions, not found in the ethereal and sacred Lingxian Gallery of the Wujing Sect. However, these three arrays, which each had their own flaws, perfectly complemented one another when combined. They even slightly amplified the attack power—it wasn't just a matter of one becoming three; it was a true display of folk wisdom. I calculated rapidly in my mind and struck out with two arrays to barely withstand the simultaneous strike of his three. The purple and white lights of the formations collided, producing a massive, ear-grating tearing sound.
Seeing that my white defensive array was failing to hold, Deng Yangchu didn't dare be careless. He triggered another surge of spiritual power, intending to shatter my defense in one go and hurl me off the stage. As the purple lightning crackled toward me, the white defensive array suddenly dimmed, as if afraid to face the brunt of the attack and seeking to give way. But in an instant, it transformed into the exact same purple light, striking directly back at Deng Yangchu!
The two massive forces merged into one. Deng Yangchu’s movement techniques were mediocre, and he couldn't dodge in time. He was instantly sent flying off the stage.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 震天香 | Heaven-Shaking Fragrance | Ren Xuzhou's alias; a pun on "震天响" (thunderous/heaven-shaking sound). |
| 偷香鬼 | Fragrance-Stealing Ghost | Lu Lingfeng's alias; a pun on "偷香" (romantic trysts/stealing fragrance). |
| 故梦山 | Old Dream Mountain | The sect/location where the protagonist and her siblings are from. |
| 鬼相 | Ghost Prime | The specific term for Lu Lingfeng's summoned ghost. |
| 何红 | He Hong | The mysterious top-ranked cultivator from Tianjun Sect. |
| 智定 | Zhiding | A Buddhist cultivator ranked second. |
| 天钧门 | Tianjun Sect | A major rival sect. |
| 灵宪阁 | Lingxian Gallery | A library or collection of sacred texts within the Wujing Sect. |
| 阵眼 | Array Core | The vital point/node of a formation. |
| 护体紫光盾 | Purple Light Protection Shield | Yan Xiangjun's defensive technique/item. |
| 邓阳秋 | Deng Yangchu | The rogue array master Su Yuzhi challenges. |
| 泯雪 | Minxue | Su Yuzhi's movement technique (lit. Vanishing Snow/Eraser of Snow). |
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