“What does a first failure matter? What does a second or even a third matter!
As long as you never give up in your heart, believe in yourself, and believe in the weapon in your hands, there will always come a time when you turn defeat into victory!”
“Whoever says alchemy cultivators are weak again, I’ll smash his head in with one punch!”
“We shouldn't have stereotypes. You only know if someone is strong after fighting them!”
“I think the mace is the coolest artifact today, bar none!”
“You just said Senior Sister Gu’s zither was the coolest artifact today!”
“She’s support; she doesn't count!”
“Hah, what a weak excuse.”
...
The area below the stage was bustling, and on the referee platform beside the arena, Perfected Person Ye also cast an admiring gaze toward Wen Xuan.
Wen Xuan put away her mace, performed a formal bow toward Perfected Person Ye, and then fluttered down like a little butterfly into Gu Ningyun's embrace.
“Ningyun, I did it! I actually did it!” Her voice was trembling slightly.
Gu Ningyun hugged her friend back, listening to her excited and joyful heartbeat. “Yes, you did it.
You defeated them openly and honorably, proving the strength of alchemy cultivators.
Most importantly, you proved yourself.
You were indomitable, growing braver with every setback.
As long as you carry the intent to fight in your heart, no one can truly knock you down.
Wen Xuan, you are truly amazing!”
Mu Chenze fanned his folding fan nearby. “Oh, isn't it said that water counters fire? How did I lose!”
As the only one on the field who remained calm, Jun Luo answered his doubt.
“The two of you were already equal in strength. You performed normally, while Wen Xuan’s battle intent was at its peak. Naturally, she surpassed you.”
Wen Xuan had also calmed her emotions by now and released Gu Ningyun.
Hearing this, she smiled and said, “What? If you’re not convinced, let’s have another match back at Ruiyu Pavilion.”
“Sure, but we’ll have to wait until the competition is completely over. Right now, the most important thing is the upcoming team competition.”
“Of course.”
“Sometimes, the five elements don't explain everything.” Gu Ningyun stroked her chin. “Just like Chenze’s earlier battle—earth counters water, yet the winner was Chenze, a water-attribute cultivator.”
Mu Chenze looked thoughtful and subconsciously followed up, “Or this time—water counters fire, yet the winner was Wen Xuan, a fire-attribute cultivator.”
Wen Xuan finally gave a summary, “In other words, the five elements can be a reference, but they shouldn't be followed blindly!”
Gu Ningyun and Mu Chenze looked at each other and said in unison, “Exactly!”
“Jiang Yao has been fighting for ages. Are you three still going to watch the match?” Jun Luo’s tone was rare in its helplessness.
“Yes!”
...
After the arena matches, the individual competition of the New Disciple Competition finally came to an end.
Gu Ningyun scrolled through the New Disciple Competition points leaderboard on the Fighting Peak platform.
1st Place: Gu Ningyun, 2,130 points.
2nd Place: Jun Luo, 1,708 points.
3rd Place: Si Puyu, 1,511 points.
4th Place: Fu Mingzhi, 1,403 points.
5th Place: Ling Hanbai, 1,301 points.
6th Place: Jiang Yao, 1,208 points.
7th Place: Wen Xuan, 1,122 points.
8th Place: Mu Chenze, 1,017 points.
...
Gu Ningyun and the others were satisfied with their final rankings and scores in the individual competition.
Although Ruiyu Pavilion didn't take all of the top five spots, achieving such results was already very impressive.
To them, as long as they had given their all and could face themselves, whatever the final result was would be acceptable.
Furthermore, they were confident that their rankings wouldn't be too bad.
Through this competition, Gu Ningyun discovered that their batch had a total of six sword talents.
That was, provided no one else was deliberately avoiding using a sword like she was.
As she scrolled through the leaderboard, she gained a deeper understanding of the sword cultivators' strength once more.
Aside from the unlucky Zhu Zijin, the top five on the leaderboard were all sword cultivators.
This included herself, a sword cultivator masquerading as a music cultivator.
Actually, the reason she could defeat the four sword cultivators like Jun Luo and Si Puyu—besides the strength she displayed with 《Lingtai》, her speed, and her talismans—was due to another factor.
And that was that she was a sword cultivator herself.
Swinging her sword thirty thousand times a day, grinding through the Trial Tower, sparring with others...
She had never slackened in her sword cultivation.
It was precisely because of her understanding of the Sword Dao and sword cultivators that she could beat the other four sword cultivators by a narrow margin without even using a sword.
...
On the afternoon the individual competition ended, Perfected Person Ye announced the rules for the team competition.
“First: The venue for the team competition is within a secret realm. The competition will last for ten days, after which the secret realm will automatically teleport you out.
“Second: The highest cultivation level for the demon beasts in the secret realm is rank one peak, which corresponds to Qi Refining level twelve; the lowest is rank one late stage, corresponding to Qi Refining level nine.
“Third: For every disciple entering the secret realm, the sect will issue a wooden token that automatically tracks scores. The scores on the wooden tokens will be tallied in real-time on the team competition leaderboard.
“Killing one rank one late stage demon beast adds sixty points.
“Killing one rank one peak demon beast adds two hundred points.
“The sum of the scores from the wooden tokens of the disciples in a group will be the total score for that team in the secret realm competition.
“Fourth: The points in the wooden tokens can be stolen from one another. After the points are stolen, the wooden token will return to its original owner.”
Perfected Person Ye continued, “Before you depart, the sect will provide each team with a storage bag with sufficient space for you to store the demon beast corpses.
“To emphasize the bottom line once more: harming the lives of your fellow disciples is strictly forbidden.
“Your performance in the secret realm will be relayed to the recording stones on Fighting Peak through your wooden tokens.
“If you encounter a life-threatening danger, your disciple identity jade token will form a protection shield that will guard you for fifteen minutes.
“Please remember, you must escape from danger within those fifteen minutes.
“Go back and prepare today. Assemble here tomorrow at six o'clock.”
According to the team competition rules, the cultivation level of every demon beast in the secret realm was above their own. This required them to fight as a group.
After hearing the rules, Gu Ningyun first checked the new team competition leaderboard on the Fighting Peak platform.
When she saw the long string of team names followed by zeros, a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes.
It seemed that the current team competition leaderboard only tallied the scores from the wooden tokens and hadn't yet added the team's average score from the individual competition.
While it was a bit unexpected, it was actually quite good and saved them some trouble.
All five of them from Ruiyu Pavilion had made it into the top ten in the individual competition, with her and Jun Luo taking first and second place.
It was obvious that their team's average score from the individual competition was the highest.
People were visual creatures; knowing something in their hearts was one thing, but seeing the score hanging plainly on the leaderboard was another.
The former could be ignored by shifting their attention.
The latter was different. Every time they opened the list and saw the score, it would remind the disciples that Ruiyu Pavilion was number one and their strength was beyond doubt, making them extremely cautious when facing them.
This would conflict with her plan. Her serial strategy would be for nothing.
Therefore, she had originally prepared herself for the possibility that the team competition leaderboard would actually include the team's average score from the individual competition.
Rate on N.U.
