Chapter 350 (2/2)

”Ah yes, I was a bit hungry so I decided to visit the sect and would you know it, there was a competition taking place so I just had to sign up!”

”Junior had enough spirit stones to sign up on his own?”

The sum of spirit stones required for taking part in the competitions as a trial disciple was quite steep. A hundred low grade spirit stones for each competition and two hundred for the main one, this was not something a trial disciple like him should have been able to afford.

”Ah yes, my clan had left me quite a sum but now I've spent it…”

This was a half-truth as most of the spirit stones were absorbed by him to push his cultivation forward.

”Are you planning to take part in tomorrow's competition?”

”Yes I am elder, I wish to see how I will fare against the sect seniors!”

”Is that so…”

After mumbling some words Elder Yusheng went quiet. This was followed by some strange cl.i.c.k.i.n.g sounds and the use of some kind of Qi technique.

”I think that would be a bad idea, you should rest for a few days disciple, I'll come to pick you up in a couple of days…”

With that message, he could feel the elder moving away from this location. When Zhang Dong approached the door he knew that the man had locked him inside. With a little knock on the hardwood, he knew that it was reinforced with a formation.

'A late stage Martial Master would probably not be able to leave this place now…'

It was clear that this elder wanted to keep him here. He was probably thinking that if the prodigy vanishes then he could force him to be his disciple.

'The inner sect elders are probably too lazy to look into some rumors about a trial disciple winning outer sect competitions…'

High-ranking elders and seniors tended to not care for what happened in the outer sect. Even if they got the information that there was a promising disciple they would not care. They were in a position that didn't require them to care, it was the disciples that were supposed to fight for their attention and not the other way around.

”I guess this would work on a regular disciple…”

Zhang Dong could easily remove this formation lock that was placed here. It was quite rudimentary and even accessible from this side. He would even be able to force his way out as his true strength was above that of a Martial Master.

'Let me reorganize my thoughts till then.'

While his escape was already assured he moved to the middle of the cultivation cave. He sat down and started doing some breathing exercises to calm himself.

This all depended on him being able to absorb all that lightning energy. With it, he would be probably able to access the core formation realm. All those years ago he entered this world at that stage and already then he was able to compete with late-stage core formation cultivators.

Now he was many times more experienced and also his cultivation technique was far superior. With that in mind, he hoped on achieving the strength level of someone around the great circle of core formation.

”That magical world did give me quite the boost to my cultivation, maybe with this I will be able to contend with one of those watchers if they appear…”

This was the biggest bump in the road. He feared that if he was found by one of the people that were part of the system, they might see him as an anomaly and attack. The demon lord was far stronger than the hero party and anyone that lived in that world. Here that could mean that they could even be on the immortal stage or somewhere between it and the nascent soul realm.

'Well, It doesn't seem like these watchers will care if I don't overstep the boundaries…'

The watcher that was disguised as the human king only came out when he started causing imbalances in that world. Probably unless he started going out of his way to cause havoc these watchers would not show themselves.

This also posed the question of what the endgame in this world was. There was no obvious demon lord to defeat, only sects and the emperors at the top. Was he supposed to become the new emperor of one of the empires? Or maybe he was supposed to reach the immortal realm and ascend to some other realm?

The immortal realm was quite illusory here. There were secret grounds built by long-dead immortals but there was not really any information about how a person could push into it. With the original version of the system, he would probably be able to achieve it by combat.

After eradicating the top sects and clans he might have had enough points to unlock that level of power. Then after reaching that level a new questline would be unlocked.

'Or… it could be the end of the line…'

There was also the possibility that after achieving the immortal realm something life-threatening could happen. A fight with the watcher? Moving to another realm and meeting the person that created this all? Maybe even a return to his original world?

Zhang Dong gave out a sigh as he didn't really care. He would not even be inclined to reach the immortal realm to check. His family was more important, if it meant to remain at the nascent soul level and to never ascend past it, then it was fine with him.

'If everything goes well tomorrow, I'll be at the inner sect… just wait a bit longer, daddy will return soon...'