Read Reincarnated as an Energy with a System Chapter 151 - Invitation online for free - AllNovelFull
Dust flew everywhere as the sound reverberated throughout the entire arena. People gasped when they saw the bald man attack his already down opponent.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" the host shouted and flew to where the bald man was. The different elders nearby ran upfront as well.
Even the important elders from the audience had come down. One of the elders blew away the dust and was finally getting to witness the scene in front of them.
Ahead, was the blue-robed man on the ground with his entire face bleeding. The red-robed man was right next to him, however, the club had never reached his target.
In between the two was Ning who had managed to casually catch the club mid-swing. He looked to the shocked red-robed man and said, "Don't attack a man who is already defeated."
Ning then pulled away from the club and threw it behind him in front of the shocked disciple.
The elders ran up and started scolding the red-robed man who still wasn't out of his shock. The strongest attack of his was blocked just like that by the person in front of him.
He looked very young to his eyes, but the strength was not what he was expecting.
"Are you… okay, doctor Ning?" one of the elders asked.
"Ah yes, I am fine," Ning said and started treating the disciple in front of him. His nose was broken from the punch and Ning thus needed to immediately stop the bleeding before proceeding to fix it.
He used a bunch of materials to up medicine to stop the bleeding and then bandaged the nose. The disciple was unconscious, so he asked someone to take him to the clinic.
Ning then stood up and marched straight towards the bald man with a serious face. The bald man was a little scared seeing Ning walk directly to him.
The elders also got a little apprehensive.
"Brother Ning, I am sorry. That was my fault. I thought the competition was over after the final punch and got careless. Please let go of this disciple's mistake," the host said.
Ning made a weird face but didn't stop. The other red-robed elder tried to stop Ning but Ning was already in front of the disciple.
He immediately grabbed the disciple's shoulder and tore off his robes. The elder tried to stop him, but then realized what he was doing.
"You are bleeding quite bad. Sit down," Ning said. He was trying to treat the disciple. The other elders took a sigh of relief and laughed at themselves for thinking Ning was petty enough to attack a disciple.
Ning quickly made a paste and applied it both to the shoulders and the man's face and told him it was going to be ok.
Once the disciple walked away, Ning turned around, only to find a buff man with short hair right in front of him.
"I apologize for my disciple's misbehavior, doctor," the man said. Ning recognized the man.
"That was just a young man being impulsive. You have nothing to apologize for, sect leader," Ning said. The man in front of him was the sect leader of the Red Tiger sect, named Gion.
"Doctor Ning, are you alright?" Preso walked up to him.
"Ah yes, elder Preso. I am fine," he said.
"Haha, of course, you would be. You are Anya's master. It would be weird if you actually got hurt," Preso said.
"Hm… Anya's master? What does that mean, the third Elder?" Gion asked.
"Ah, sect leader. Doctor Ning was the one that taught Anya to cultivate and got her to how strong she was," Preso said.
"Oh, that is surprising," Gion said.
Yelca, the sect leader of the Blue Dragon sect walked forward and asked, "Are you truly okay, Doctor Ning?"
Ning nodded and said, "Yes."
"But, your hand? Is it not hurt by the attack?" the sect leader asked curiously. Any normal person would be quite injured if they had to stop such a strong attack with their bare hands.
"See, I'm fine," Ning said while showing his hands.
"Woah. You are very strong, Doctor Ning. To think you are so strong while being a doctor. Not to mention you are only 22 years old right now," one of the elders said from the side.
Suddenly, all the major elder's eyes went wide in the crowd.
"Doctor Ning, you are only 22 years old right now?" Yelca asked.
"Yes. I haven't kept track of my age for a while, but I should be less than 23 years right now," Ning said.
Yelca looked towards Gion and gave a knowing look. Gion too gave a knowing look and nodded, as if to confirm the other person's idea.
The elders looked at them weirdly, while the higher-status ones seemed to realize what was up.
"Doctor Ning," Yelca said. "Would you mind joining the sect as a disciple?" he asked.
"Huh?" Ning was surprised. 'What brought this along?' he wondered.
"I… don't think I will stick around this island long enough to want to stay as a disciple of the sect," Ning said.
"Aw, that sucks," Gion said. "When do you plan on leaving?" he asked.
"Umm… in around 6 months," Ning said.
The two sect leaders whose eyes were downtrodden suddenly seemed to be revitalized. "In 6 months? That's perfect," Gion said.
Ning was surprised.
"Doctor Ning, the thing is, we want you to join the sect so that we can have you take part in the competition. You are so young and so strong. You will be a major asset to the island if you were to take part in the Triennial Tournament in 5 months," Yelca said.
"I… " Ning started thinking. He was only going to be there for half a year, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to join.
"Okay," He said with determination.
The sect leader and elder smiled and welcome Ning.. As such, Ning was now a disciple of the Blue Dragon sect just so he could take part in the Triennial Tournament.
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"Alright, everyone. The competition is over. These 15 disciples of our Blue Dragon sect and Red Tiger sect are going to take part in the Triennial Tournament," the host spoke out loud.
"Umm, Host! Why is there an elder in the midst of the disciples?"
"Yeah, wasn't the final participant going to be someone from the losing group? Why is there an elder amongst them?"
Numerous complaints appeared from the group.
"Doctor Ning is our physician. However, he is also very young and talented. He has a high cultivation base and is very strong. As such, under the dual decision of both the sect leaders, we have taken Doctor Ning as a disciple. If you have any complaints, go talk to the sect leaders," the host said.
No one was stupid enough to question the decision of the two sect leaders, so as such, the competition ended.
The next two months passed just like that.
While Ning was a disciple in name, he was still the physician of the sect. The only difference was that after learning that Ning would soon leave, they had hired another doctor in the last few weeks.
So, Ning was finally starting to have some free time.
He used this free time to do exactly 2 things. The first thing he did was use the spirit stones he had to cultivate.
A normal spirit stone gave a lot of Qi directly to the person and that was helping Ning immensely in speeding up his cultivation.
He still needed to keep the Qi on his body somehow, but thanks to his Earth Shattering - Heaven Tempering art, his meridians had gotten very robust. So they could now hold more Qi than a normal cultivator.
So, after starting using the spirit stones for just a few days, he was starting to feel bloated. However, this was where he suffered his first, real bottleneck.
Since he was closing in on the first major realm change in his cultivation, he needed something more than just everyday cultivation.
He needed to do something else to advance in his cultivation.
Thankfully, there was the library and he had managed to read up on advancing to the Foundation Establishment realm all he could.
'I need to condense the Qi in my naval area huh?' he wondered as he read the information in the book. He read more and came to a general understanding of what he was supposed to do.
First of all, he had to condense the Qi he already had. Throughout the Qi Condensation realm, he had gathered and condensed them, but now it was time to take it one step further.
Since he couldn't collect any more Qi, he could only use the Qi that was in his body. He closed his eyes and started meditating to slowly jam his Qi into his naval area, a place the cultivators liked to call the Sea of Qi.
It was a place that could hold a certain amount of Qi, and thus, the more condensed the Qi was, the more it could hold.
It took some time to condense even the most little amount of Qi into the sea of Qi. As its name, the Qi inside the Sea of Qi was so thick, that it was basically a liquid that floated around.
Which was why it was called a Sea in the first place. The condensation couldn't be completed in a single day and took a lot of time. So, he had to stop for the day since his work was going to start again.
Over the next few days, he took his spare time and used it to condense his Qi. Thanks to his robust meridians that held more Qi than normal, it took him a little more than normal cultivators to complete the process.
However, he was happy knowing that once he was done, he was probably going to be stronger than normal cultivators once the process was over.
Finally, after a week, he witnessed a change in him. The Sea of Qi that he had to force his Qi into was starting to suddenly work on its own and started collecting the Qi in his body to condense it.
He no longer had to force the Qi into the sea as it was now automatic. He still couldn't collect any more Qi, so he waited for the Qi inside of him to empty into his Sea of Qi.
He just had to use his cultivation technique and the Qi would automatically turn into the liquid in his Sea of Qi. After a few more days of this, he finally managed to completely convert all of his Qi.
Suddenly, a change occurred. The pores in his body slowly opened up and waste products in his body started getting pushed out.
He was experiencing the same thing he did when he first entered the Qi Condensation realm. And now he was experiencing it again when he was entering the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Just as this was happening, another change, much higher in importance was taking place at the same time. Even with his eyes closed, Ning was starting to see everything that was going on in his body.
His body, the pores, the waste, the Sea of Qi, and the Qi inside of it; he could see everything. He had finally unlocked Divine Sense.
He wanted to see more with his divine sense but now was not the time, so he focused on the Sea of Qi. The sea was really tumultuous as new areas were being built around the sea.
Slowly, the amount of space for the Qi that could be gathered was starting to expand. It expanded such that the amount of Qi that could be stored was doubled.
It continued to increase and soon it was tripled. After that, it became so large that he could fit 4 of the current sea in the new space. Then 5, then 6.
It kept on going more and more. Finally, when it was 10 times as large as it originally was, it stopped and stabilized.
Ning had officially entered the Foundation Establishment Realm.
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Ning didn't bother with anything else and immediately checked his current cultivation. As expected he was in the 1st realm of Foundation Establishment.
A wave of power unlike before rushed through his body. There was no more Qi on his body itself as they were all concentrated on his meridian.
He finally opened his eyes and looked at himself; he was filthy. "Oh right. Forgot about this," he thought and quickly went to his bath to clean himself.
He returned back after 15 minutes or so and went to the fields. He had just entered a new realm and needed to familiarize himself with it.
So he went out to do the second thing he could do now that he was free, Train. He was given access to the different techniques and he had chosen 2 of them.
He was going to train in them now.
The first one was a sword technique. He was now using a sword, and while he had a good technique, he didn't know how to use the sword itself.
So he needed a physical sword art that didn't rely on Qi. He found a nameless sword technique for now and started learning it.
He decided that instead of focusing on learning a good sword art right now, he would instead buy a great one from the system that matched his criteria.
SWISH
His sword moved around in the heavy rainfall, cutting off the raindrop as they were falling. There weren't many disciples on the training ground, so he got a little more space to himself.
He started noticing things while practicing that he couldn't before. He could now see his forms due to his divine sense, which was impossible for him before even when he had an omnidirectional vision.
SWISH SWISH SWISH
He practiced some more and got familiar with his body. He was now a lot faster than before and was much stronger in general.
It was his first jump through a major realm and that was a way too massive a jump for him to immediately get used to his new cultivation.
Suddenly, he disappeared from the spot and appeared elsewhere. He was very fast and took the rain along with him.
He had learned a new, better movement technique called the Floating Crane's movement technique. The technique allowed the user to effortlessly glide around whether they were on the ground or in the sky.
It was also very fast and made it seem like the user disappeared from the initial place.
Once Ning was in the other place, he once more bent down his body and released his Qi to push himself around at a very fast speed.
He kept practicing the two swords and movement techniques until it was time for him to go back to the clinic.
There weren't many people practicing, so there weren't many people injured either. So, he had quite a free time for the day.
He used this time to check up on the new divine sense he had unlocked. He couldn't tell where it originated from or if he had a steady supply of it, but he could feel the new sense emanating out of him.
He closed his eyes and tried to look with just his divine sense; it was much better than his omnidirectional vision for sure. Not only could he see all around him, but he could also see in places his eyes couldn't see as well.
Behind something, under something, inside something; these were all possible with divine sense.
'I probably won't have to worry about seeing in places with no light either. That means I won't have to buy that Night Vision III when the system comes back,' Ning thought. The range of his divine sense was only 10 meters for now, but he was sure that would slowly increase over time with his cultivation.
He spend all the free time of his next two weeks doing nothing but training the new things he had gotten, and he got really good at it.
From time to time, the disciples of the sect would call him to practice with them, and he would have no problem beating them.
He was too strong for his similarly aged disciples.
After the two weeks, he went back to cultivating. He noticed that this cultivation method had changed as well. Every time he drew in Qi, it would enter his meridian and stay around until it got little by little condensed into the liquid form that would then get collected in his Sea of Qi.
He was a little disappointed by how slow the process was but took solace in the fact that it was supposed to be slow for everyone.
He wouldn't be able to breakthrough as fast as before, but when his system came back, he wouldn't need to. He kept on practicing his cultivation method and the tempering method to increase his Qi, body, and mind's strength.
Soon, another month passed. The new doctor was fully working now and Ning had much more free time. So, he would now take the time to go to the Red Tiger sect for a few days a week.
It had been a while since he had seen Anya, and he wanted to make sure she was doing great.
Anya had grown much taller in the 8 months he hadn't seen her. She had long flowing hair, wore red female robes, and looked much more feminine now.
"Wow, you look great," Ning said as he patted her head.
"Master, you finally came to see me," she said with teary eyes.
"Sigh, yes. I was busy working and only got free time now. How is your learning going? Did you learn all the medical knowledge I passed you?" he asked.
He didn't need to ask about her cultivation since he could see that she was already at the 7th level of Body cultivation, and the 6th realm of Qi Condensation. Ning was surprised at how fast she was but didn't say anything.
"Yes, master. I read everything. I… still need practice, but I know all the knowledge," she said.
"Good.. Here is some more advanced knowledge," Ning said and took out two more books he had written in the last 3 months.
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Over the last 3 months, Ning had taken small time out of his free time to write the different knowledge that was in his mind. He had spared no effort during the last time he taught her, but she was too amateur to be handed everything at once.
That would just overwhelm her. So instead he had only passed along the basics. Of course, the basic alone was more advanced than anything the people in the pure cleansing sect could've learned.
Anya happily took the book and flipped through it. Her eyes turned wide when she saw new knowledge she wasn't aware of previously.
"Woah, thank you, Master," she said.
Ning felt happy seeing her face. 'Maybe I really like being a teacher,' he thought. He spent a bit longer with Anya and returned back to the Blue Dragon sect.
He wanted to break through just once more, so he seriously cultivated for the remaining 2 months. During this period, his time was separated into 4 parts.
Dealing with the disciple's injury along with the new doctor, Training new techniques, going to meet Anya from time to time, and Cultivating.
Cultivation took the majority of the time.
Unfortunately, even by the end of the two months period, he couldn't breakthrough. He knew it was impossible, but he was still hoping to be able to do so.
He went to visit Anya one last time and said his goodbye. Learning that this was perhaps the final time she was going to see Ning, she cried a lot.
Ning got a little teary-eyed as well. He never really got to say goodbye to anyone before. His parents died before he could say goodbye, the orphanage kids left without notice, and he himself died with no one to say goodbye to.
After reincarnating, he had met Freya, who he couldn't say goodbye to either. And then there were the Klavi people. He cared for the entire village and he couldn't say goodbye to any of them.
This was the first time he could properly say his goodbyes, and that made him nearly cry. "It's okay. I will come to check up on you when I ever have that ability," Ning said.
"But— But you will be so far away. Can you really come to visit me?" Anya asked.
Ning smiled a little and said, "It may be impossible for others, but not for me. Once I am stronger, I can come to visit you in a snap of a finger."
"Really?" Anya was a little skeptical.
"Of course. So just continue cultivating and learning the books I gave you. Take care of your father and brother. I will see you later. Goodbye," Ning said and patted her on her head one last time before leaving.
Anya started crying harder, but Ning didn't turn around. He knew if he did, he wouldn't be able to leave. He kept on walking and left the sect grounds of the Red Tiger sect.
He returned to the Blue Dragon sect and rested for the day. He didn't bother treating people, or training, or cultivating. He simply rested for the day and woke up the next day.
A knock came on his door. He opened the door and saw a disciple.
"It's time to leave senior," he said. Ning nodded. It was time to leave for the Triennial Tournament. He packed everything that he could and left.
There were 6 Blue Dragon sect disciples staying around with a few elders and Ning met them. Once they were all there, including the sect leader, they left.
They started walking to the northern part of the island, towards the right ear, and met with the people from the Red Tiger sect who were already there.
There was a boat waiting for them and they got on it.
"Ah, good to see you, doctor Ning. I hope you can bring glory to the Deepskull island," Gion said with a big smile.
"I will try my best, sect leader," Ning said and started looking at the ocean again. No matter how many times he saw the ocean, it was still very unfamiliar to him.
"How long will it take us to reach the Hub island?" Ning asked.
"Oh, it's quite a long way from here. We have to pass a few islands along the way, so about a day and a few hours. You should just go and do something to pass your time," Gion said.
"I will do that later. Thank you for telling me," Ning said. He talked with Gion for a bit longer and went to the deck to watch the ocean.
He socialized with a few other disciples that were there. However, he could never talk to them as a peer due to his status as a doctor. That made him feel a little isolated.
He looked at the ocean and the massive expanse that it was.
'I see, so this is the speed we will move on huh? No wonder we will reach Hub island in just a little over a day. The ship is so fast,' Ning thought as he looked through the map on his head.
The hub island was about 2000 kilometers away from Deepskull island. Normally, it would've taken a lot of time to reach there on a boat, but given how fast the boat was, it was going to be much less time.
Ning felt the boat with his palm and thought, "is this boat a spirit artifact s well?". There was no other reason why it would be so fast.
After spending a few hours on the deck, he went to his room inside the ship and started cultivating. The Qi was quite sparse in the ocean, so cultivation didn't help a lot.
However, he was body cultivating and tempering his mental strength as well, so he continued it.
He left his room from time to time to go outside and see the different islands that he would pass by, but most of the time he just spent holed up in his room.
Finally, he felt the ship slowing down after a day. He walked out onto the deck and saw an island not far away.. They had finally reached Hub island.
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"Woah!" Everyone exclaimed when they saw the Hub island for the first time. Ning knew the general structure of the island, but he too was unaware of exactly how it looked.
It was amazing.
Even a kilometer away from the shore, he could see the tall pagoda-like buildings deep in the city. The outer houses weren't fancy, but there were many, giving the allusion that there were a lot of people living on this island.
A minute later, the boat docked on the shore and everyone got off. There were other boats there too from the other various islands in the scattered isles.
From what Ning could read regarding the map of Kumia, there were about 500 islands with a diameter of over a kilometer. He didn't know how many of them were inhabited, all those that were would be coming to this competition for sure.
Suddenly, a ship came down from the sky.
"Woah, that's a flying ship artifact. Those sects must be very rich," a disciple said.
The sect leaders looked at the emblem at the front of the ship and said, "Ah, it's the participating group from the Cloud Heaven island."
"They are quite rich due to their Cloud Stone mines that can be used as ingredients for a lot of different artifacts."
The disciples nodded when they heard the sect leader say that. Ning looked at the floating ship and was surprised as well.
'I wonder if they are faster than planes,' he wondered.
"Oh right. Flying is prohibited in the city. You will be in trouble if you do that. You might even get disqualified from the competition, and in a worst-case scenario, disqualify the entire island," Yelca said.
Everyone nodded in understanding.
"Alright. Let's go register our island and participants. Then we can freely roam the city as we want," Gion said and took the disciples to the registering area.
There was a queue of people registering from the other islands, so they had to wait for their turn. Ning looked at the sun and realized that it was only midday, so they had time to spare.
Finally, it was their turn to register, and they did. The elders registered as guests and the disciples registered as participants.
Ning was a participant as well.
Everyone was given a talisman that held their Name, face, status, and Qi aura. Ning wondered where he would have to use this, but he didn't have to worry, as the usage for the talisman came pretty soon.
Just a little away was a moderately tall wall that was hidden behind the buildings. Only one game was available on the southern side, so they had to pass through here.
Anyone without such a talisman would be rejected entry from the city. The Deepskull island folks had them, so they were freely allowed to enter the city.
Only after entering the city did he realize just how massive it was.
The city was actually around a small concave land where the middle of the city was in lesser height than the rest of the city.
"Woah," they all said. It was the first time for the disciples to see such an island, so they were truly surprised.
The concave city had tall buildings all around it. There were 4 major roads that connected to the center of the island that was surrounded by an even taller wall than the outside.
"You see that enclosure? That is where the secret realm lies; the place where the tournament will be held," an elder said.
"A secret… realm? What's that?" someone asked.
"Basically, there inside lies a small pocket dimension that had a small space in it. You can freely enter and exit from it, however, it can be manipulated from the outside, and so that is where you lots will be participating in a few days," the elder said.
"Alright, you guys will understand it later on. Let's go find our hotel now. According to the register guy, it should be… right over there," Yelca said and started moving.
The group walked to the hotel.
The hotel was a massive pagoda-style building with nearly 3 dozen floors. The hotel was sanctioned off for the different participants of the upcoming competition.
The group walked up to their floor and stayed there.
"The tournament starts 3 days later, so try not to do anything stupid and get yourself disqualified. You can go out and visit the city, or stay inside the hotel until the tournament starts. It's your choice. Just make sure to return back to the hotel every night."
"Also, try not to start a rivalry with another island. We don't want enemies before the competition even starts," Gion said.
Everyone nodded and went to their own rooms. The floor had plenty of rooms for them, so Ning chose a random one and entered.
The room was not very large, but it was enough for Ning to just spend a few days in. He slumped down on the bed with the soft mattress and closed his eyes.
He was a little tired from the journey, so he decided to lay off on visiting the city for the day. He would do that the next two days.
However, he wouldn't just sleep around. He got up from the bed and sat in a lotus position and started meditating.
Vortex of Qi slowly gathered around him and entered his body. 'Woah,' he thought when he realized that the quality of Qi in this city was much higher than either the Deepskull city or the Starsight city.
'Is it because of the shape of the city? Since it's concave, more Qi can gather in it. Or is it because I am closer to the main Northern continent, so the Qi is much better?' he wondered.
He didn't have an answer right now, and would only have one once he went to the mainland. He ignored all thought and cultivated throughout the rest of the day, and night, only waking up in the morning the next day.
He finally stopped and got up.. He would now go visit the city.
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It was early in the morning when Ning walked out of the hotel. The city was already alive and people were walking around in a hurry to get to their destination.
Only a few cultivators seemed to be relaxed and were just walking around. Ning looked towards the place downhill that had the actual main markets in it and walked towards there.
He looked around the roads at the different shops and started buying stuff he liked. Thanks to being a doctor for so long, he had a lot of money saved up that he hadn't used at all.
He bought clothes, food, different trinkets, and other items that he didn't necessarily need but was simply buying them cause he could afford them.
He went to restaurants to eat, went to the library to read up on different things, went to the market to buy ingredients for different medicines, etc.
He spent more than half a day doing just that before returning back to his hotel room. He then cultivated for the remainder of the day and the night.
He felt like he had progressed a lot as a 1st Foundation Establishment realm cultivator, but he still wasn't full. He could only know that he reached the breakthrough point previously when he started feeling the lack of Qi during his cultivation.
However, now it was different. He could simply check the level of Qi in his Sea of Qi and know how far along he was.
From what he could see with his divine sense, his liquid Qi had filled around 95% of the 2nd level. So he was not far off from reaching the 2nd Foundation Establishment realm.
Once he filled that level, he would fill the third level to reach the 3rd Foundation Establishment realm. So on and so forth until he filled all 10th level and reach the Golden Core Realm.
However, he was still very far away from that, so he would worry about it when he reached there.
Once again, it was morning and he stopped his cultivation. He had learned about something interesting that was going to take place today and was very much looking forward to it.
He went around the city for a few hours in the morning and finally came upon the place he wanted to visit.
The Auction House.
It was still a few minutes away from opening and there were people gathered outside of the auction house. He could see many different people waiting around outside.
Suddenly, someone tapped on his shoulders. He released his divine sense to check who it was and turned around with a genuine smile.
"Mr. Kaezir, it's nice to see you again. I hope you are doing good." The one that had just tapped him was none other than Kaezir.
He looked to the side and saw Mikaela there as well so he greeted her too.
"Ah, it really is you, Volunteer Ning. I almost couldn't recognize you with that long hair," Kaezir said. Kaezir seemed a lot older than a year ago when Ning had left the Starsight city.
"Haha, yes. Are you guys here for the tournament too? Starsight city must be doing good enough if it can send people here" Ning said.
Kaezir's face frowned all of a sudden and he simply just shook his head.
"I'm afraid Starsight city is no more. We tried to stay and keep it going for as long as we could, but when there is no public staying in the city anymore, it's hard to run a business going. So, both Mist Origin sect and we had to move to separate cities."
"Mist Origin sect moved to the Gray Forest Island, and we moved to the Bluestone island. So, today we are here representing Bluestone island instead of Starsight like we did the past years," Kaezir said.
"Oh," Ning got a little sad hearing that. It seemed that a sect couldn't last in a place where the people didn't stay.
'Mist Origin sect has beasts to feed. Without the materials from the city, it would be hard for them to survive,' he thought.
Mikaela suddenly nudged Kaezir and nodded her head towards somewhere.
Ning turned his head to see a group of people walk into the auction house even though the others weren't allowed yet. Every single one of the orange robe-wearing people was allowed free access to the auction house.
"Ah, I see they are here as well," Kaezir said.
"Who are they?" Ning asked.
"They are the Dazzling Sky sect from the Hero island and are the strongest sect in the scattered isles. Their sect leader is a golden core cultivator and thus they get a lot of fame and fortune. I hear they have exceptionally competent participants this time around. Those kids just now must be it," Kaezir said.
Ning hadn't managed to catch their faces since they had entered so quickly but didn't think much about it. He would do what he could and leave the rest to fate.
'The Hero island… that's a little up north from here. Are they stronger because they are north?' Ning wondered. He talked with Kaezir for a few more minutes and then the auction house opened.
People entered in droves and Ning didn't want to be late either.
"I will see you later, Volunteer Ning. We two have a room to ourselves, so we will be going there," Kaezir said and left.
Ning nodded and walked to where the rest of the people were being taken to.
He finally entered a massive hall with thousands of seats inside. He walked to a random free one and sat on it. He looked around and saw people seating down around him as quickly as they could to get their hands on a seat.
Soon the thousands of seats filled very quickly and suddenly there were no more people entering. 'It must be first come first serve,' Ning wondered.
He waited around a few minutes, listening to the murmur of the crowd when suddenly the curtain on the stage opened up.
The auction was now starting.
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As the red curtains parted, light shined onto the stage revealing a vacant podium. No one was on the stage right now, but that didn't mean it was going to remain that way.
Footsteps sounded from the stage and suddenly everyone grew quiet. A young girl in a red dress walked out from backstage and stood in front of the entire audience.
Her fair, confident face and a wide smile showed that this was not her first time here.
"Welcome everyone, to the Titan Auction house. I, Niya, will be your auctioneer for the day," she said.
"The auction will now start."
A trolley of items was hauled out from backstage, each one hidden behind a black cloth. Ning tried to guess what it was but the shape was impossible to guess.
Niya took off one of the cloths and revealed a talisman.
"Our first item is this talisman. This is a defensive talisman that can block a single serious attack from a 4th Foundation Establishment realm cultivator. It's a single-use talisman and will be destroyed after it had blocked the attack."
"The item will start selling with a price of 140 gold coins. Your bids must have a 5 gold coin minimum increase," she said. "Please begin."
This was Ning's first time in an auction hall so he was very surprised when the crowd suddenly erupted into a cluster of sounds as everyone started bidding on the item.
"150 gold coins."
"155 gold cons"
"165 gold coins"
"170 gold coins"
Ning was surprised how much the people were steadily increasing the bid. 'Is this item worth that much?' he wondered, but then soon realized that the people bidding for it were in the Qi condensation realm.
'It's probably worth it to them,' he thought. Thankfully, Ning didn't need the item, so he didn't bother bidding. However, he was curious to see that if the first item was this, what the following items would be like.
Soon the bidding reached 240 coins, 100 coins higher than the original price, and stopped.
Ning looked up and saw a slew of rooms on a floor higher than the one he was sitting in. The current bid that won the talisman was from one of these exact rooms.
"Congratulations to the VIP guest on room 32 on winning this Talisman," Niya announced.
Some people clapped, some grumbled, while others just waited for the next item. Ning just looked at the rooms on the upper floor.
'So that's where the VIPs are staying huh? Those Dazzling sect fellows must be up there. Now that I think about it, Mr. Kaezir and Mikaela may be up there as well,' Ning thought.
Niya walked up to the trolley and removed another cloth to reveal the next item on the auction.
A book
The book was a cultivation technique known as Killing Flames. It helped the user create fire with extremely high temperatures that one could use to fight their opponents.
The higher one's cultivation base, the better the fire would be.
Niya started the bid with 150 gold coins and soon it reached 280 gold coins where a VIP guest from the room above acquired it.
More and more items started being auctioned off. Sometimes it was a brush to make talismans. Sometimes it was a dress with defensive techniques.
There were a few books that either taught knowledge, cultivation technique, or a cultivation method. Those sold for quite a lot.
Ning tried to bid for a few of them, but he was very easily outbid. Especially by the ones in the VIP room. He didn't really want those items, so he let go of the bidding war each time.
Slowly the price of the items was getting higher and higher. After a while, artifacts started being sold.
The first artifact that Niya showed was a low-grade Spirit Artifact armor that could block all damages from anyone below the 2nd Foundation Establishment realm.
This was heavily preferred by everyone around him and immediately everyone started bidding.
Ning didn't need such a low-level defense so he just stayed put and didn't bid on anything. The surrounding people, especially the younger ones were rabid and bid whenever someone else didn't.
The armor that started at 600 gold coins soon reached 1500 gold coins in the bid and it was still going up. Ning was really surprised how much these people were willing to pay for armor that didn't do a lot in his opinion.
'Body cultivation is quite good huh? These people wouldn't be throwing away money like this if they just knew it,' he thought.
The final price of the item was 2000 gold coins and it was bought by a rich person in the VIP rooms.
'Damn, that's what I made in 2 months while working as a doctor, and these people just spend it like this huh. Their sects must be really well off,' he thought.
Once the bid was over, Niya passed along the armor and brought out something else. What she held was a long staff-like object wrapped around in black cloth.
She brought it out in the spotlight to show it to the crowd as she opened the cloth and revealed what was inside the cloth.
'Oh,' Ning thought in a little surprise when he saw what it was.
Inside the cloth was a Spear. The handle was made up of a deep blue material and was about a meter and a half in length.
The blade was abnormally long at about half a meter and was made up of white, silver-like metal.
Overall, the spear looked very unique and one of a kind.
Niya moved the spear around to show it to the audience and spoke, "This spear is called the Jade Sapphire Spear. The body of this spear is made of Ocean jade, and the blade is made up of Metal Sapphire."
"It is one of the best Low-Grade Spirit artifacts sold in the auction as of yet. So, the starting bid for this spear will start at 1000 gold coins, and each bid much is a 10 gold coin increment.. Please begin."
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" 1010 Gold coins"
" 1020 Gold coins"
" 1030 Gold coins"
.
.
.
" 1100 Gold coins"
Before most people could even realize the bidding had started, the bid had already increased by 100 gold coins.
"1110 gold coins," Ning bid as well, but his voice was quickly drowned in other bids of higher value. Ning then decided to keep quiet and wait for the number of people bidding to lower.
It didn't take long for the price of the item to double as the bid reached 2000 gold coins. Only then did it even remotely slow down.
It took a bit longer for the bid to reach 2100 gold coins when there were only 3 people bidding. 2 people were from the VIP rooms on the upper floor and 1 of them was from the hall below.
"2-2160 gold coins," the guy on the hall below hesitated for a bit before increasing the bid. It didn't seem like he had much more money to bid.
"2170 gold coins," one of the people from the VIP room bid. He could hear a young man's voice, but couldn't see anyone there.
"2180 gold coins," a much elderly-sounding voice shouted from the VIP room.
The man on the ground lost all hope seeing the two of them instantly increase the bid and decided to drop out.
"2190 gold coins," the younger man in the VIP rooms bid.
"2200 gold coins," the older man bid.
The back and forth went on for a bit longer until the older man started hesitating.
"2450 gold coins," the older man bid after nearly 5 seconds, instead of the instant bid he was doing a bit ago.
"2460 gold coins," the young man didn't hesitate at all.
The old man deliberated for a bit and bid, "2480 gold coins."
"2490 gold coins," the young man once again bid instantly.
The old man didn't bid any longer. There was silence for a bit and then he finally spoke, "Sigh, alright you win. I don't want that spear anymore."
"Thank you, Elder," the young man spoke from inside the VIP room. "Haha, since there are no more bidders, I think we can proceed to the next item," the man said.
Niya on the stage nodded and said, "going 2490 gold coins, Once."
"Going 24— "
"2500 gold coins." Ning decided to finally step in and bid.
The audience was a little surprised that someone from the lower hall was actually bidding so high.
"2510 gold coins," the young man bid without hesitation still.
"2520 gold coins," Ning wasn't stopping either.
" 2530 Gold coins"
" 2540 Gold coins"
"2550 Gold coins"
" 2560 Gold coins"
The bid continuously increased as neither of them backed down.
Soon, the bid reached 2800 at which point the young man in the VIP room started to get a little nervous. He had quite a few gold coins, but he still needed to save some for the better items that would be sold later on.
So, he decided to negotiate. "Brother. I have a spear I currently use that costs around 1500 gold coins. I will sell it to you for only 500 gold coins if you let me take this spear," the man said.
"Oh," Ning was a little surprised that the man was actually so desperate for this spear. Unfortunately, he wanted it as well.
"Is your 1500 gold spear as good as the one currently being auctioned?" Ning asked.
"Umm… no, not rea—"
"2820 gold coins," Ning didn't even let him finish and directly bid.
The young man was shocked and continued bidding, but at some point he decided to stop. Spending so much money on an item like this wasn't worth it to him. Especially since he already had a good enough spear of his own.
Ning waited for the next bid but nothing actually came.
Niya realized this as well and decided to end the bid.
"Any more bids?" she asked, but nobody responded.
"3070 gold coins going once."
"3070 gold coins going twice."
"3070 gold coins going thrice."
"Sold to the gentleman on seat 583," Niya announced to the crowd. The spear was taken away by the staff and soon a staff member walked up to him in the crowd and handed him a slip of paper.
That was to identify that he was the one that bought the spear. Ning let out his divine sense to check the paper and felt some sort of energy in it.
'Oh, it's a talisman. Nearly didn't recognize it because of its shape,' he thought. 'Do I really need a talisman to show that I am the bidder? Or are they afraid I will run away after bidding and are using this as a tracker?' he wondered.
Either way, it didn't matter to him since he would buy the spear. To be honest, he didn't have to buy the spear. He could've simply waited for a little longer and he could've bought a better spear from the system.
But he didn't know exactly when his system was coming back and needed a spear for the upcoming competitions.
The auction went as per usual, but nothing came up that really interested Ning anymore. There were a few cool stuff that was put up on auction, but none of it was something he wanted.
The most valuable item sold on the auction was actually a journal of a cultivator's journey from being a mortal all the way to him reaching the Nascent Soul stage.
It had vivid explanations of what he did and how he reached that stage. Unfortunately, the cultivator was long dead, but the information lived on.
That book was sold for exactly 50 Spirit Stones. Once the auction was done, Ning walked to the staff who took him to get his spear.
He paid the bid price and stored the Spear in storage space before walking out of the auction house. Along the way, Orange clothed, handsome-looking man, kept staring at him as he left.
Ning didn't understand at first but soon realized that that was probably the man he stole the spear away from.
'Whatever, not like he can do anything inside the city anyway,' Ning thought and went to visit the rest of the city for the day.
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Ning spent the rest of the day just roaming around the city. But the novelty of the city had worn off by the 2nd day so he just went back to his hotel and started cultivating.
He took out a spirit stone and held it in his hand. 'Sigh, I spent nearly all of my gold in the auction today. If I had bid anymore, I would've had to resort to using these Spirit stones to buy the spear,' he thought.
He could use the spirit stones for speeding up his cultivation, so he really didn't want to use any of it. Fortunately, the auction hadn't come to that.
So, he started cultivating and used a spirit stone to speed up the Qi gathering process. His Sea of Qi was filling much faster and it wouldn't be long before he could break through to the next realm.
So, he took it slow and cultivated for the entire night.
The next day he woke up. Today was the day of the competition. To be honest, he was very much looking forward to it. The last few months, he had been training different techniques very diligently and he couldn't wait to test them out in real battle.
He walked out of the room to go meet up with the sect leaders. Yelca and Gion were both outside their rooms with a bunch of other disciples.
"Sect Leader, do we leave now?" Ning asked.
"Yes, the tournament should begin in around 2 hours. We should start going there soon. Let's wait for the other disciples to come," Gion said.
They waited for a few more minutes as Ning decided to ask a few questions. Gion answered what he could about the competition, but according to him, the competition differed a little each time.
However, one thing he did confirm was that the competition was separated into two parts. The first one was a normal competition where people did stuff to earn a chance to get into the 2nd competition.
The 2nd competition was where the true fun of the competition, the 1v1 fight took place. Ning nodded after learning all of this and couldn't wait for the tournament to really begin before he could really find out what he was supposed to do in them.
Soon the other disciples came outside and everyone started walking out of the hotel.
The downward slope to the center of the town was filled with hundreds of people walking there. Even though it was 8 am in the morning, everyone seemed to be overly hyped for the competition.
"Are the nonparticipants allowed in?" Ning asked along the way, shooting the question to anyone that would answer it.
"Uhh… yes but they don't have to," Yelca said.
"They don't have to?" Ning asked with a confused face.
"Outside the walls of the arena, the Hub island shows the inner happenings of the secret realm to everyone. So regardless of whether one enters or not, they can see the entire show from outside," Yelca said.
"Actually, entering the arena costs 100 coins per day. So the audience actually prefers watching from outside," Gion added.
"Oh, but you guys get to go it right?" Ning asked.
"Yeah, there is a maximum limit of 10 extra people per island, but we get to go in," Yelca said.
"Maximum limit? So if others come with them, they can't enter?" Ning asked with surprise.
"They can, but the island would have to pay in their stead. There are a total of 200 islands participating in this competition. If they allowed everyone to enter for free, the arena would be filled by the participating sects alone. So there is a maximum limit on it," Gion said.
Ning nodded in understanding and didn't ask any further questions.
Soon they reached the arena at the center of the city. There were hoards of people staying around the arena, but thankfully, the tournament holders had made an open area for the incoming participants to walk through.
Ning looked around and was truly shocked at how many people were participating. '15 people from 200 different islands… 3000 people,' he thought in shock.
He hadn't bothered to calculate until now, but now that he did, he couldn't fathom the number. 3000 didn't sound a lot, especially when considering the size and population of the planet. But when Ning saw the numbers he was shocked.
These wasn't the real numbers either as they were scattered throughout the 4 sides of the arena, trying to get in, but just seeing the hundreds of different colored robes, all with high cultivation bases made Ning realize how big this world was.
He was sure that even without the crowd trying to watch the competition, the outside of the arena would be full of just the people trying to get in.
It took them 15 minutes to finally reach the gate and show their paper slips to get in.
As soon as he got in, Ning was once again surprised, this time by what was inside the arena.
The Arena was a large stone slab in the middle of the field, surrounded by stadium-like seats that could house tens of thousands of people.
Yelca and Gion took their group and walked to an area full of stone seats and sat there. "Let's just wait for the tournament to start," Gion said.
Ning looked around the stadium and saw it slowly fill up. But until now, it was only the participants. There was not a single audience member that had come in yet.
He then looked at the middle of the stadium where lied a single stone stage and searched for something. He looked around for a few minutes, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find any clue about it.
Not wanting to search anymore, he decided to simply ask the sect leader.
"Where is the secret realm?" he asked, catching the attention of the two sect leaders who suddenly had mysterious smiles on their faces.
"If it were so easily found, it wouldn't be a secret now, would it?"
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Suddenly a small buzzing sound appeared from the stage and a small, circular white light flashed in there. Ning immediately turned his head to look at it and was surprised by what he was saw.
The white glow was abnormal as it didn't originate from anything on the stage and it looked like the space itself bent on the stage.
As soon as it appeared, however, the light disappeared and the stage was back to normal. It wasn't only Ning that was surprised. The other disciples that had come along were a little surprised too at the paranormal event that had just taken place.
Ning could see people from the other islands getting curious as to what had just happened as well.
"What was that?" Someone asked.
"Tsk. And here we thought of keeping it a surprise until later on. Sigh, whatever. That is the opening to the secret realm. Once you enter there, you are teleported to the secret realm," Dion said with a disappointed face.
"What is the secret realm exactly? Another universe?" Ning asked.
"Another universe? Haha, you think way too grand Doctor Ning. No, it's either just a simple pocket dimension or the more possible answer, a simple portal to another location somewhere on this planet," Yelca said.
Ning finally understood a little. 'Maybe I will know if the place is on the map or not once I enter," he thought.
There were no more such flashes. People steadily entered the arena and soon the arena was almost filled.
A group of people walked onto the stage and stopped around the location where the white portal had previously flashed.
"What are they doing?" Ning asked the group.
"Ah, they are finally here. The tournament will begin very soon then," Gion said. "Just keep watching, you will see."
The 5 men who had just entered the stage suddenly took out a long metal rod with a weirdly iridescent cloth at the top.
'Is that… a formation flag?' Ning wondered.
He was correct. The 5 people had taken out formation flags and planted them in 5 separate spots around the place where the portal had appeared.
They then placed a bunch of spirit stones just inside the formation they had just created and started silently activating it.
Soon, everyone in the arena could see turbulence in the space inside the formation. The space started twisting and turning until there was a tear in it.
A visible crack in the space shocked everyone who was new to the place. Subsequently, the portal appeared once more.
However, this time, it wasn't wibbly-wobbly like the last time and seemed very stable. The 5 men had managed to make the portal stay open permanently.
"Is it as stable as it looks?" Ning asked.
"Yes. They do this every 3 years so they are quite good at it now. See? Not a single fluctuation in space," Dion said.
"Now that the portal is ready, I think you guys will have to leave soon. Remember, help each other whenever you can. Of course, that is if you happen to meet each other," Yelca said.
"What do you mean if we happen to meet each other, sect leader?" someone asked.
"Well, basically, you will all be separated once you enter. So, when you are inside you will have to fend for yourself," Yelca said.
"Good morning everyone. I am your host for the tournament. My name is Trivex. Before I announce anything else, will the participants please gather onto the stage?" Trivex said.
"Alright, good luck to you guys. Do as well as you can. No pressure," Gion said.
"Have faith in your training, you guys will do fine," Yelca said, before sending off the participants.
Ning and the other 14 disciples as well as the other 3000 participants walked down to the arena nearly filling the entire thing.
"Wow, I see this every single tournament, and this still somehow surprises me. There are always so many of you," the host said.
He waited for the rest of the people to come down and then started speaking.
"Alright, listen up carefully. I will now explain how the tournament will be held. The tournament will be divided into 2 segments."
"The first one will take place in the secret realm, while the second one will take place on this stage," the host said.
"The one starting right now is the one that will take place in the secret realm."
"For this tournament, each one of you will be given a bunch of storage bags and a single talisman that you will have to forever keep on your chest."
"Your task inside the secret realm is the either gather ingredients or kill the monster and then gather their corpses as much as you can."
"Each ingredient and monster will give you a certain number of points that will be recorded into your talisman. "
"The talisman is also your saving grace. The talisman will immediately teleport you out of the secret realm if you ever are about to face a fatal injury."
"If those damage or injuries are to be caused by the participants, you will lose half of your points then and there to your killer," the host said.
The participants got a little nervous as well as exciting learning that one did not have to hold back in fear of accidentally killing the other.
The host continued. "Here is how we will count your points. The points for the ingredients are very random and are determined based on their rarity, so you can't know for yourself how many points they will get you."
"You can however see how many points you have in your talisman at any points and find out."
"As for the monsters that you will kill, most of the monsters are only up to the 9th realm of Qi Condensation, so you will get points based on what realm there are."
"The monsters in foundation realm that you will rarely find will start at 50 points with 5 extra points for each higher realm it is in."
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