Chương 49: Chapter 48 – A Whole New Set of Challenges

The flag pulsed with qi to announce Zhao Ren's request for entry to Mei Ling's mountain. He was granted permission to enter, and he began climbing the mountain. The number of beasts on the mountain was a fraction of those around him, but they were more diverse. He could see nesting birds, insect hives, snakes, and tall four-legged beasts that traveled in herds. The further he climbed, the more apparent it became to Ren that the beasts residing on the mountain were largely venomous or poisonous.

He had to be increasingly careful where he put his feet.

'Did Ling pick the mountain because of them, or are they here because of her?' He eventually reached the upper reaches of the mountain and found the basic security arrays already open to him. The others had already arrived. They were seated in the open air around a table with snacks and tea.

"What took you so long, Ren? Did you forget and lose yourself in the library?" Ling asked.

"Just taking the time to admire your new home." Ren deflected to avoid how predictable he was.

"Yeah, why is that, Ling? I nearly got stung by a scorpion the size of a tiger on the way up?" Hua was delicately sipping tea in a cup that was engulfed by his big hands.

"It has to do with some news I have to share! Here, Ren, come sit!" She pointed to the seat beside Xi Yuan.

"Big Brother Ren! You look tired. Have you been pushing yourself?" Xi Yuan asked worriedly.

"Only a little." Said Ren, relaxing and taking a sip of the tea. They started sharing their stories from the past month. Bao Hua had been busy hunting and searching for a new sword. According to him, the Tortoise Defender was too light to be effective for much longer. It was only natural, as it was a sword forged when Ren was a beginner qi gathering realm. Hua had also signed up for the long expedition that Ren had seen a notice for.

They would be heading into an area with significantly higher levels of lightning, so he was also busy preparing for that. Ren asked if he might be interested in body cultivation in preparation for the Monastery's trial, and Hua seemed quite interested. Surprisingly, so was Xi Yuan. Xi Yuan's master was sending her out to gain experience. She would be investigating the attack of a few villages by an unknown spirit beast and eliminating it if necessary.

Although he had never dared ask until now, Ren finally found out that Xi Yuan had 1st order spirit roots, meaning she only had the metal attribute. Her master had her trying out various weapons, and she showed affinity to a large variety, including blades, throwing weapons, flying sword arrays, and even large bludgeoning weapons like hammers and staves. The discordant image of a petite, fairy-like girl chasing enormous beasts while wielding a massive hammer was as amusing as it was terrifying.

The biggest news came from Mei Ling, however.

"I've been accepted as a direct disciple of Elder Si. She is a respected doctor and poison user who believes I have talent for the same." Everyone predictably reacted with shock and pleasure simultaneously. When asked how it came to be, Ling replied,"She happened to fly past my mountain and liked my arrangements on this mountain. She came to talk to me, and before I knew what was happening, she offered to teach me!

I think part of it had to do with how the things I planted drew all those poisonous insects and beasts."

"She gave me a new cultivation manual and filled my spatial pouch with resources. I have to improve my mount up to her standards before she next time visits." Everyone congratulated her for catching the eye of a talented elder. Her future cultivation path would be much brighter with proper guidance. Ren felt almost embarrassed at how little progress he had made in comparison to his friends.

The guilt only lasted a few moments as he reminded himself of the progress he had made with the spirit spring and the energies of the dragon vein surrounding his mountain. He had also taken the initial steps on a number of projects. While there weren't any results presently, when they came to fruition, he would have every right to stand alongside his friends. Ren was also a little surprised to find himself counting Xi Yuan amongst his friends.

For the longest time, he had nurtured a hidden fear of the ruthless and talented young girl. While he didn't dare avoid her, he had always carried himself with caution around her. Even now she was strong enough to crush him in an instant if she wished, but Ren had changed. Maybe it was maturity, or maybe it was a newfound self-confidence, but Ren found himself able to meet her eyes steadily.

As their gathering carried on from tea to wine and food in celebration, Ren felt the tension that had him frantically pushing himself drain away. His eyes slowly drooped closed and all faded to black. When Ren woke, he found himself hanging over a deep lake, dark as an abyss with ominously large shapes swimming in the shadowy depths. With a panicked yell, he struggled to get away only to realize his arms were tied to his sides and he was hanging from a line like a worm on a hook.

Raucous laughter greeted him from the edges of his blurred vision.

"Hahaha! Serves you right, Young Master! We gather here after a month, and you dare fall asleep while tasting my specially brewed plum wine?! Do you know what I had to go through to get those plums? Wahaha!" Ren slowly swung until he could see Hua clutching his stomach and laughing. He was also taking gulps from a gourd on occasion. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Ren gnashed his teeth in anger but also to maintain control over his churning stomach.

"Let me down! I, your grandfather, will make you pay for this insolence. Urp…" The threat was severely diminished by him heaving with nausea at being swung around when drunk. Even Ling, who was flushed red, was chuckling with a soft 'heh heh heh' while she clung to Xi Yuan as though the smaller girl were a cute pet. Every now and then she'd exclaim, 'That's right!' even when no one said anything. Xi Yuan, who hadn't handled her drink well, was half asleep with a broad smile on her face.

When they finally let him down, he had the others drink cups of wine as an apology only to then join them as his own apology for falling asleep. If they wouldn't be able to meet for many months to come, then it was better to have a good party to send everyone off! With the grace period of assistance given to new inner sect disciples almost over, Ren decided to take advantage of it one last time to go and set up a few more trials in the outer sect.

None of the spirit plants he was planning to offer as prizes would impress inner sect members, but they would be very useful to the outer sect disciples. The best part was they were all plants he had found in the wild near his mountain. He had discovered them in their hiding spaces and identified them using the library. When Ren was designing the 3 new challenges he had in mind, it had occurred to him that his achievements in the martial path paled in comparison to his talent with arrays and formations.

The complex structures and rules were easy for him to comprehend, and his ability to adapt or innovate using the formations he knew for creative new purposes was certainly not very common. The days he had spent in the outer sect, learning the fundamentals of arrays during his classes in the Hall of Learning, and his own studies searching for common arrays had given him a solid foundation to work with.

It had also led to copious notes that he was now considering making into another book, like he had for the spirit herb care he had written in the past. His introspection led him to review all his past experiences. Even his success in the trial could largely be attributed to his skill with arrays, from repairing the camp array to all his solo hunts. And now he was manipulating the cultivation environment of an entire mountain!

When he finally acknowledged his own talent, Ren began to work even harder to hone his strengths. It also led Ren to reexamine his entire list of skills and hobbies and compare them. Only upon careful study did he realize he had another area where he stood out. It wasn't growing herbs or forging as he wished it might be. He was unusually adept at sensing qi. Perhaps it had developed alongside the array skills, which had high qi manipulation and sensing requirements.

But even in his inexperienced opinion, the extent to which he had pushed his Third Eye Sense technique was abnormal. This knowledge had resulted in the three arrays he was planning to set up as challenges being refined many times over until they were sublime. He was just that pleased to realize that he was also a cultivator with talent. While not at the level of a hidden ace, it was nice to have strengths to hone instead of only mitigating his weaknesses.

When he was dropped off in the outer sect, Ren explored using his qi senses to find the perfect places to set up the challenges. The first was placed in a narrow passage between two towering cliffs. The cramped region had little light, so he set up the detection challenge there.

With restricted space to move in and difficult visual conditions, the challenger would either have to rely on a detection technique good enough to find and dodge the tiny stones being pelted at them, or they could pick apart the stealth formations tied to the stone pellet launching array. As always, he set up a sign at the start, stating it was the 3rd challenge and a recommended difficulty of 7th layer qi gathering realm. This one was actually higher because of how good his stealth arrays were.

At the end of the challenge, he planted the seed of a ' Smokeroot herb.' But it was only half the prize. He left a condition that if the successful challenger didn't need the whole herb, they could choose to leave it behind for the next challenger and take only the less potent leaves. In exchange, they would be given a chance to carve their names on the stone, keeping track of the best performers. For the 4th challenge, he found a wide open meadow and set up a stealth challenge.

This one required them to hide from the sensing and alarm formations and cross the meadow undetected. This time the condition he left at the end of the challenge was that they could choose to leave behind something they didn't need. If they did leave something, they were allowed to carve their names on the final stone. For the 5th challenge, using up the last of the array flags he had forged from ore he bought, he created a mud pit. This one used a clinging earth array, which would prevent one from moving forward.

The challenge was a trial of strength, endurance, and mindset, as challengers would need a firm mindset to make it all the way through as the very earth tried to hold you back. The condition for this challenge's winners was that the winner with the fastest time could choose to leave behind an item. The item would be recorded alongside their names on the final score as well as how long they held the top spot.

So if someone offered a reward, it would be recorded that they held the top spot for so-and-so days and the prize they offered was such-and-such. Only the one who beat their time and claimed the new top spot could take away the item and leave a different one in its place. Ren placed the best security formations he could come up with around the items to prevent cheaters from taking them away. He even placed a contingency that a thief's qi signature would be captured for the others to see.

It also meant that someone who didn't get the fastest time would reach the end and receive nothing. Because the condition was particularly harsh, he stated it clearly at the start of the challenge. On the other hand, if someone offered a weak prize, then their miserly attitude would be displayed for all to see for a long time. Ren had his reasons for all the strange conditions at the end. Ren had thought long and hard about what message he was sending through the challenges he set up.

If he wanted to simply create something of worth or if he wanted others to take up a similar mindset. But through his studies of Meditations on Karma and Causality of Karma, he knew these matters couldn't be forced. Even if the challenges were voluntary, no one was obligated to listen to him. So he left it up to them to choose. Another reason was that he was already pressed for time and couldn't spend all of his precious spare time replacing rewards in the challenges.

He would check on them when he could and replace those spirit herbs he could, but part of the legacy he wanted to leave in the sect was disciples taking up some of the responsibility so they would continue even when he couldn't. Ren counted on the egos of cultivators to always provide a decent reward or forgo material rewards in exchange for glory. It would also let him know which trials with their subsequent conditions would be well received and thus which message was most palatable to the majority.

This was an experiment to test how karma was formed between him and all the interrelated winners of challenges. And if even a fraction of them were open to his ideas, then Ren couldn't wait to see how his karmic cultivation would progress!