Chapter 284: Chapter 232: Ancestor and the Monkey Kid
Xinglong City, the Zhao Family’s Dao Field, was in the midst of the semi-final stage of the most intense part of the annual competition among the Eight Branches, vying for the top sixteen to advance into the top eight.
“Next up, Zhao Yanqi of the Shen Character Lineage against Zhao Dehan of the Xin Character Lineage, please both debaters come out to the field!”
No sooner had the voice faded than two figures flew out from the crowd. They pierced through a white light barrier and landed in a large Dao Field that was two hundred zhang long and one hundred eighty zhang wide, entirely paved with yellow soil.
At this moment, the Dao Field was full of pits and uneven surfaces, strewn with traces of smoke and fire, and swamps and frost left behind from previous fights.
Around the edges of the combat field, eight barrier light shields were erected, enclosing it. Standing at the edge of the area outside the barriers was a crowd of people.
At a glance, they were all Cultivators of Zhao Sheng’s Eight Branches, from the Foundation Establishment elders to the Qi Refining First Level novices. Over two hundred of the entire Zhao Family’s three hundred plus cultivators were present this day.
Zhao Yanqi of the Shen Character Lineage was a man in his fifties with a cultivation at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.
A Coiling Dragon Flying Knife hovered in front of him as he eyed Zhao Dehan with a sharp glint in his eyes.
Also at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, despite being a generation older than his opponent, Zhao Dehan maintained a youthful appearance. A man who was actually over seventy, he looked to be in his forties, holding an Eagle Feather Seven Feather Fan with refined elegance.
“Uncle Eighteen, I have offended!” Being of a lower generation, Zhao Yanqi bowed first before he spoke.
Zhao Dehan tapped his Magic Fan with his right hand and sneered, “Heh, when we start, just don’t be careless like last year, my great-nephew!”
In last year’s competition, the two had also faced each other in the top sixteen. Zhao Yanqi had fallen short in strategy, resulting in immediate defeat on the spot.
“Haha, thanks for the reminder, Uncle Eighteen. I’m making my move now, be careful!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Zhao Yanqi’s expression turned solemn. He pointed forward with his right hand, and the Coiling Dragon Flying Knife in front of him suddenly transformed into a saber rainbow over a zhang long and shot out rapidly.
Where the saber rainbow passed, with a sound like a dragon’s roar, soil flew in all directions, carrying a fierce saber intent, and slashed towards Zhao Dehan’s chest.
“Good timing!”
Zhao Dehan narrowed his eyes, and with a roar, he swung the Eagle Feather Seven Feather Fan in his hand. Deflecting sand and rocks, a dragon tornado, a zhang thick, suddenly condensed before him, perfectly blocking the oncoming saber rainbow.
With the roaring of the wind and the glinting sword light,
the two Qi Refining Ninth Layer Cultivators went all out from the beginning, engaging in a fierce battle.
Outside the Dao Field, the Qi Refining Clan Members of the Zhao Family’s Eight Branches watched the fight with bated breath, feeling both dazzled and bewildered, while the clansmen from the Shen and Xin lineages were completely absorbed, their expressions extremely tense and excited.
On the surface, this was merely a competition to decide who would make it into the top eight, but the result of the match would actually determine next year’s allocation of family resources.
Every year, the branches whose members made it into the top eight in the Dao Field would receive certain resource rewards, with the most important among them pertaining to the allotment of Foundation Establishment Pills.
The Zhao Family produced a fixed number of Foundation Establishment Pills each year. After deducting those that had to be exchanged with the family’s good deeds, only a limited number of pills remained to be distributed as prizes, never exceeding three pills in a year.
The importance of the Foundation Establishment Pill goes without saying.
Besides the fixed pill awarded to the first-place winner of the annual competition, the remaining Foundation Establishment Pills would not be distributed based on ranking. Instead, they were allocated according to the total points accumulated by the Eight Branches in the Dao Field.
For example, the eighth-place finisher would earn one point, the second-place finisher ten points, and the first-place winner wouldn’t count towards this total. Points were tallied each year, and the sum of multiple years was calculated.
Over the years, once the competition concluded and it came time to allocate the Foundation Establishment Pills, the branch with the highest total points would receive one pill and simultaneously have twenty points deducted. If there were any spare pills, they would be distributed according to the point ranking.
Though the Zhao Family could have distributed the Foundation Establishment Pills based on competition rankings, why was the system made so complicated?
This was thanks to the foresight of Ancestor Zhao Xuanjing.
The entire point exchange system was his idea.
Just as the battle between the two on the field reached its climax, none of the Zhao Clan Members present noticed that there were two figures standing in the air above the Dao Field, one tall and one short.
From within the concealed barrier, the Zhao Family’s ancestors watched on as the seemingly sickly and jaundiced “child” in front of them was asked by the amiable ancestor, “Qingyang, what do you think of the two below?”
Zhao Sheng looked up at Zhao Xuanjing before casting his gaze downward, speaking in a seemingly weak and powerless tone, “Nothing special, I could take on ten of them with one hand.”
Zhao Xuanjing gave a slight smile at the response and did not reprimand him; he knew that if this “child” said he could do it, he really could.
The child, barely eighteen, was already at the Qi Refining Great Perfection Realm. His appearance was misleadingly frail, but within his slight frame flowed vigor as robust as that of a dragon and elephant, with a body of steel and boundless strength, enough to tear apart a Croc Dragon barehanded.
What was more important was that Zhao Qingyang was a genius, a veritable all-around prodigy in all aspects, from actual combat to Alchemy and Talisman Making among the Hundred Skills of Immortal Cultivation.
Having just spoken, Zhao Sheng asked, puzzled, “Ancestor Jing, the Cultivation World has always seen the strong prevail. Why did you come up with such an exchange system back then?”
Zhao Xuanjing answered with profound meaning, “For the sake of fairness and unity, do you understand?”
��Now that you mention it, I understand!” Zhao Sheng suddenly seemed thoughtful, his mind going back to the painful lesson of the division at Dragon Carp Lake. He realized that Zhao Xuanjing must have had such a precedent in mind when devising this complicated rule system.
Since the fall of Zhao Sheng in his fourth life and his sitting down transformation in his fifth, up until today, time had flowed like water, and seven hundred years had passed.
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