Chapter 345 (2/2)

Zhang Dong did a little bow before the middle-aged man before him. The man looked up to the cultivation cave that Zhang Dong left and then back to the young man.

”Greetings junior… Elder Yusheng's new disciple?”

The man asked while looking at a piece of parchment. On it, he had all the cultivation caves written down and to whom they belonged to.

”Did Elder Yusheng call me that? I'm not his disciple quite yet but maybe in the near future…”

Zhang Dong chuckled a bit while trying to play it off. It was clear that the old man had probably told everyone that he was his new star pupil by now.

”Is that so, are you stepping out?”

”Yes, I've gotten a bit hungry, I also need to see some things within the sect, I've heard that a competition will be taking place at the end of the week…”

”Ah, Is the junior interested in seeing this year's contest?”

The man nodded, he probably thought that Zhang Dong here was just interested in seeing the other senior brothers and sisters compete.

”Yes, I'm not sure where it will be taking place…”

”It's not hard to miss, it's going to take place at the outer sect. Some competitions will take place in the outer courtyard, while the main bouts will take place in the inner courtyard… Then the competitions for lesser professions will take place indoors…”

Zhang Dong could recall seeing some of such places at the lower parts of the mountain. It looked like a small city there with all the sect buildings and places where the servants lived.

Apparently, the whole outer sect had about thirty thousand people living in it, while the inner sect had a quarter of that. Even with this disparity in numbers, the inner sect disciples would mop the floor with the outer sect ones in any way shape, or form. Quality trumped quantity here, a person even one small stage above the competition could win against a whole group.

After the long speech, Zhang Dong bowed once and headed out into this sect. These cultivation caves were drilled into the mountain so he had to walk down to enter the thirty thousand large city.

About a third of the population of this sect city consisted of servants, slaves, and even mortals. They were tasked to keep everything clean while the sect members only focused on their cultivation.

The buildings in this outer sect weren't all that great. They were mostly made from unevenly cut rocks or something similar to cinder blocks. The weather here was rather cold so each of the houses had some kind of chimney.

The peculiar thing about those chimneys was that they were not producing any smoke. Even when the houses lit up in a light that came from firewood, there was no smoke. As he investigated further he could feel that each of those chimneys had some kind of smoke filtering treasure in it.

Thanks to this no smoke was formed which didn't affect the already thin air. The higher-tier cultivators didn't actually need to be heated up. He was the same, with his foundation established he would be even able to run around n.a.k.e.d without catching a cold.

'Doesn't look that bad but neither is it that good…'

He would have to give this place an average score. It looked similar to his old clan before he took over but there were fewer members and lacked a whole city with millions to manage.

'This should be it…'

After asking for some directions he arrived at one of the outer sect buildings. It looked like an upside-down pyramid with half of it sliced up and balancing on four columns. When entering inside he found a person at a reception area.

There was a small line in front of it and some young men and women were standing in it. This from what he could tell was the place where you registered for this competition.

'Hm…'

To the side, he spotted a little stand with some parchments. Some of the youngsters were picking them up and moving to the side to write in them. After approaching the servant greeted him with a little bow.

”Good day sir, did you also come to register for the competition?”

”Mhm.”

Zhang Dong nodded while taking the piece of paper into his hand. The person also informed him about this being the last day for registrations.

To the side, there were some quills and ink. On these papers, a person needed to select which competitions they would be competing in.

He wanted to stick out but there wasn't enough time for him to go through all of the competitions. By looking at the curriculum he would have enough time to go through each one of these competitions and build up his fame.

Everything would culminate on the battle stage, he wanted to garner the attention of all the high-standing elders. With him never having luck with not standing out, he would try the opposite, hiding in the open.

'Well… I hope this doesn't totally backfire…'

After a sigh, he headed over to the line, in his pocket some spirit stones to pay for the entrance fee.