Chronicles of Daoist Fan

The tournament was held to decide this year's rankings after the newbies joined. The new year in this world started with the first month of Rising, that is, the beginning of spring.

It was to be held a month later. I asked the fatty how he knew about it and he said that his brother told him who also was a trainee in First Sky Martial House, a junior trainee actually.

Those who joined recently were newbies, then there were juniors who usually stayed on the third floor of the pagoda. The seniors stayed in fourth and the Veteran trainees in the top fifth.

This was usually decided by the rankings and the practitioners who managed to score high would have their status elevated in this Martial House.

''Interesting…'' I stroked my chin.

We had reached the Martial House by then. The mission hall was packed with new practitioners. Some had completed difficult missions while some were lazy and failed to complete even the easy ones.

Lingling had been waiting for us there. Seeing her, the fatty jealously said, ''You really are blessed by the Goddess. I have seen you with so many different girls.''

''How are you so popular?'' He asked.

I didn't answer. Being with women didn't necessarily mean they would like you. When we separated from the fatty and others, Lingling asked why we were wet. Chunu filled her curiosity while I went to meet someone else. This mission would give us fifty points each.

The Resource Hall was a large circular structure. It only had one floor but was as tall as that dorm we first stayed in, a two-story building. There inside, I met Waur Sherre, the one in charge of keeping the mission record. He noted who completed the mission and who didn't

Short, unremarkable but high-tempered, and egotistical; he really wasn't the person I would want to bribe. He was at Viscera Purifying 8th rank, a senior trainee. Usually, these seniors and veterans were exempt from the monthly mission hassle.

''You get forty points.'' He said after taking our tokens.

There was something magical about these seemingly normal-looking trainee tokens. When Sherre placed the tokens over a large stone tablet, the number 20 on them changed to sixty. They were inscribed by the elders themselves.

All new trainees got 20 points after joining but none of us had spent those points other than one practitioner from our group.

Here, this record keeper was extorting us. Instead of giving us 50 points, he gave 40, taking ten points from each of us. That was a form of bullying here. The old trainees had been bullied by the previous batch and the new ones would be bullied now.

Just within some weeks of joining this Martial House, I got to know what unspoken rules lay here. The external elders turned a blind eye to such things and no one spoke out. The previous batch of practitioners was too busy to care about us newbies.

'It wouldn't be so easy…' I had expected something like this. Strength mattered the most and everything else was irrelevant… well, except for a good face.

''Little beauty, how about a dinner at Piao Piao Pavilion?''

''Shut up Kutte Chor, can't you see this lady wants to go with me?''

''You all are making her uncomfortable, be least a 1000 steps away.''

Viscera Purifying rank 3, rank 6, rank 8, rank 5… holy there was an army of simps surrounding my sister. Then I had an idea, mischievous but utterly unacceptable to them. I went to Chunu without complaining about what Waur Sherre did.

''Little Nu,'' My voice was gentle yet commanding. I held Chunu by her hand who was frowning at the moment and led her out of this 'simp encirclement.'

''Junior, you dar-''

Whoever that was, his voice stifled hearing Chunu say ''Big brother,'' with a familial tone. Yes indeed, I was the 'big brother' for her and for these simpletons as well. Lingling was giving dagger stares to those practitioners and when she came to my side, the envy was real, so thick it might even materialize right at this moment.

However, they couldn't offend me, the 'big brother,' could they? Some might try violence and this had to be taken care of quickly.

Not here, but somewhere… maybe when I went out for a mission once again. Or in the coming tournament.

They would try hard to reach high in the rankings and win the trophies… but most importantly, the heart of beauties while trampling me on the floor… I shook my head seeing those naive faces.

I was only at the 1st rank of the Viscera Purifying stage, so they thought this 'big brother' was easy to convince or beat.

Little did they know, I wouldn't be participating in this tournament at all. Fuck this, I had better things to do, like practicing instead of playing around with kids.

It wasn't compulsory to participate in this tournament anyway. Sure, I wouldn't get this so-called combat experience, some cheap rewards and would remain last in the rankings.

But I didn't come to this city to be caged in one room, practice, and work for some organization with little benefits while getting bullied and all. No, I wanted to hoard everything. I wanted to advance quickly and leave this shitty mortal world.

I didn't care one bit to stay in the upper room of some pagoda of some Martial house run by some random Qi gathering cultivator. The only reason I joined this was to get an identity that would be useful in the Rong Sat nation. Everything else, like ranking up, getting the attention of masters was unimportant.

When we left the mission hall, we immediately headed towards the gates again. First, we would have to practice diligently, and as someone who wanted quick benefits, this didn't go by my principles. But now was not the time to be young masters, that time would come later.

''Lingling, now you see what trouble a beautiful face gives,'' I said to her. My earlier impression of her as ''moderately beautiful'' hadn't done justice to her looks.

Those eyes of mine had been spoiled too much by the artistically perfect yet unrealistic anime faces I had seen on earth. Real people didn't look like that, they had their own charm and Ling'er was at the 'Jade Beauty' level in terms of looks.

''Men will always be men,'' Lingling snorted while Chunu nodded. Feng Yi would've been thrilled by such attention had she been there, but these girls were different from her.

''We need to be powerful,'' I added. ''With that, we can catch a sect's attention.''

Lingling looked at me with a surprised expression while I heard Chunu mutter, ''This early?''

The girl in white looked around the street and whispered in my ears, in case someone thought we were crazy, ''Joining sects? Didn't they disappear some thousand years ago?''

'Now where did she hear that?' I smiled when I heard Ling'er.

There was a different history told to the people of this world. Ling'er told us that her parents hadn't been from the Shang desert but from a different place called the Eastern Mountains.

There, the legend of sects was ever-present. Her homeland had great peaks, perennial rivers, forests full of wild and vicious beasts… the air was fresh in the village they had stayed in… and whatever else her father and mother used to reminisce about when she was still with them.

''Some thousand years ago, sects used to come to our villages and select people with cultivation aptitude. They flew on swords, spoke of immortals. It was said that no one came back to meet their relatives after joining the sect.''

''Ok Lingling, that's enough bullshit.''

''What? I'm telling the truth.''

''Didn't you say it's a Legend?'' I shook my head. We had reached the CangGong courtyard that Sheng Shao had given to me. It was nothing to a rich and generous young master such as himself.

'Feng Yi must be practicing inside,' I thought.

''Whose house is this?'' Chunu asked, opening the smooth wooden gates. I hadn't told her and Lingling about this.

The house she was talking about had a distinctly Japanese style to it. The area inside the gates was huge. A long ground flooring, raised a little, walled by thick wooden planks, and roofed by black tiles was situated at the middle of this courtyard.

''This is our house. Your brother bought it with his hard-earned money.''

Chunu looked at me suspiciously while Lingling outright didn't believe what I said. I had a habit of lying and by now they would always guess that I had either done something illegal to get anything. This time though, I had gotten this as a reward.

''Don't look at me with such eyes, my dear sister. Your brother is an honest man.''

''Honesty would die coughing blood hearing this.'' Oh, Feng Yi had come. She had a large gallon on her one hand. The hems of her clothes were wet and dirty. She had been doing something else instead of practicing.

''Go take a bath.'' I tried shooing her away.

''Who's talking with you? I'm here to show them my garden,'' she harrumphed. After seeing my sister at the Viscera Purifying Stage, her mouth turned wide. Then she became sad that her luck was bad that day.

''I could have also reached the next stage by now,'' she sighed.

''Hehe, then practice diligently.'' I opened the sliding doors and was about to go inside when I remembered she said something about a garden.

Just as I turned around, I heard her excitedly say, ''I'm planting different herbs! They will grow up someday and with the pills I make, I'll be much stronger than you all!''