SNAFU [Cosplay Cultivator Chap 64]
"I see what's happening," Yin Tiang said, realization dawning upon him. "Tang Ze has gotten so frustrated with not being able to find a girlfriend he's decided to cross over to the other side and become the girlfriend himself."
"I had to dress up like this to use healing powers on you idiots, not because I want to!"
Right then, as it would have it, a prefect had heard the commotion coming from their living quarters, and decided to investigate.
Said prefect opened the door (which, in his earlier haste, Tang Ze had not locked), and saw Tang Ze, who was currently dressed up like a woman.
The two of them maintained eye contact for a period of ten breaths before the prefect thought that he didn't want to know what was going on in there and then shut the door before walking away.
"Wait - I can explain!" Tang Ze said, but it was too little too late by the time he managed to get those words out, the prefect had already walked away.
Tang Ze was not dressed up like a woman because he wanted to.
Tang Ze knew several characters from back on Earth with healing powers who could be helpful in this situation - though nearly all of them were women.
There were very few male characters with healing powers (who were not religious figures) that he knew of.
As so, he had been keeping this outfit in reserve for a rainy day if needed. And unfortunately, that rain day had come.
One of the limitations of his powers was that whoever he cosplayed had to be an actual character from back on Earth, he couldn't make one on his own. Otherwise he would just create his own comic starring a fictional character called 'Omnipotent Man' who just happened to look exactly like him.
Unfortunately, his talent did not work like that.
As such, if he wanted a character with significant healing powers, he had to dress up like this.
Ten minutes later, he had changed back into his sect uniform, and his three other squad members were right as rain.
"Ah, I really thought we were done for there," Chen Yu said. "Thanks for using your Yin magic to save us."
"That's not what happened. Was her cooking really that bad?" Tang Ze asked.
"If you don't believe us, there's some of it left over for you to try," Yin Tiang said darkly.
"I… think I'll take your word for it," Tang Ze said.
"Well, at least things are better now," Zhang Long said.
"You do realize you'll have to tell her about her cooking someday or the other, right?" Tang Ze pointed out to Zhang Long.
"Yes, some day," Zhang Long said. "But not today."
"Well, next time she's in the area, let us know, so that we can hide," Chen Yu said.
"That's what I was trying to tell you to do," Zhang Long said. "But the two of you didn't believe me…"
Chen Yu and Yin Tiang groaned, wishing they could go back in time and tell their old selves that Zhang Long was indeed right.
"Oh right, how dare you spill my elixir?"
"How dare you break that vase! It was a gift from my mother!"
Yin Tiang and Chen Yu, now that they realized that they were not going to die, had completely gone back on their agreement to forgive each other.
"Well, at least things are back to normal now," Tang Ze said.
Right at that moment, a voice echoed throughout the entire sect division, so loud it nearly shook the foundations of the building.
"TANG ZE YOU SCOUNDREL! COME OUT AND FIGHT ME! TODAY IS THE DAY THAT I FINALLY GET MY REVENGE!"
"Spoke too soon didn't I…?" Tang Ze said, changing into a different costume given that he was anticipating trouble.
"What do you think the odds are that if we just ignore that voice, this will all just blow over?" Tang Ze asked his squad.
The looks they gave him were answer enough.
There was a knock at the door, and of all people, Elder He Xuan walked in. "Junior Tang Ze, there is an… issue that needs to be dealt with."
Tang Ze sighed, and the others followed him as he walked out into the hallway.
"What's going on?" Tang Ze asked.
"Do you happen to know someone by the name of Ling Kuang?" Elder He Xuan asked him.
"That name… doesn't ring a bell whatsoever," Tang Ze said. Who was this guy and why did he have beef with him?
"He is a Nascent Soul realm cultivator belonging to the Astral Winds sect," Elder He Xuan said. So he wasn't related to the Diamond Dust sect losers he had beaten earlier? "He says that you wronged him and is demanding a duel with you. They… have essentially ambushed us and are directly invading our territory. This is tantamount to a declaration of war, but they claim that they are here for a righteous cause and that therefore the usual rules don't apply. They are accusing us of holding a demonic cultivator… you." Elder He Xuan paused in his steps. "He is at the front gates with some other disciples of the Astral Winds sect. They are demanding to duel you. I can delay him, but with his strength, there is nothing I can do to truly stop him. His actions will have far-reaching consequences, but no one from the central headquarters will be able to come in time to reinforce us. And even if we do win the legal battle later on, it is of no use if there is no sect division still standing here."
Tang Ze tried to process all of that.
"Junior Tang Ze," Elder He Xuan said. "I am sorry, but if this Ling Kuang really wishes to fight you, there is nothing I can truly do to stop him. You will have to face him alone, I'm afraid. I cannot sacrifice this division for your sake." As he said this and turned to leave, he surreptitiously dropped something into Tang Ze's hands.
'Ah, I get what he's saying,'- Tang Ze thought. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go to the front gate."
"Are you sure?"
"Don't really have any other choice really," Tang Ze said.
However, as they made their way to the front gate, they were stopped for a moment by the sect janitor.
"I heard of what is going on," the sect janitor said, and handed Tang Ze something. It was a small bottle with a dark cloud within it.
"This is…"
"It is called a Thundercloud," the sect janitor said. "You can use it to escape should all else fail."
"Thank you," Tang Ze said, and as he slipped the bottle into one of his pockets, he also slipped on the ring that Elder He Xuan had secretly given him onto his finger. The reason for this secrecy was that in case things went south, no one could accuse Elder He Xuan of helping him.
He was familiar with soul rings from the time that Xian Yue had given him one, and one thing he had realized was that he could 'speak' to the other person with just his thoughts so long as he concentrated on the ring.
He had returned Xian Yue's ring so that she could regain some of the soul essence she had injected into it, and did not have it anymore.
"That's quite a valuable item he gave you," Elder He Xuan said.
"I don't know if it'll help me any though," Tang Ze replied. "Do you think we have a chance of beating this person?"
"Your strength is phenomenal but…" Elder He Xuan began. "Any technique used on you will cripple you at your level. I can perhaps block a technique or two in this current condition before it breaks this ring, but since he is at the Nascent Soul level, I can't be sure about that. Best bet would be to solve this without fighting, or to convince him to fight using only your fists."
Tang Ze did have another option - that was to run away. But what would happen to the rest of his sect if he did so? Who knows what this Ling Kuang would do in that situation - tear up the sect and start killing its members until he found Tang Ze? Take some of the sect members hostage?
The memory of his brother, Tang Jun, flashed through his mind.
No, he wasn't going to stand by while the people he cared about were put in danger.
Not again.
People from the sect were spilling out into the corridors as the voice yelled again. Many of them of course noticed Tang Ze, who ignored their questions as he made his way to the main gate.
Standing there was a group of around thirty people wearing deep blue uniforms with stars painted upon them - if there was one thing that Tang Ze paid attention to it was clothing, and he had familiarized himself with what the sect uniforms of each sect looked like. Without a doubt, this was the uniform of the Astral Winds sect.
Most of them were Qi Condensation or Qi Refinement realm cultivators, though Tang Ze couldn't feel any Qi from three of the individuals gathered before them. Meaning they were Golden Core realm or higher.
The man at the forefront had a long beard and wavy mustache. His hair had traces of gray signifying his age despite the fact Tang Ze couldn't feel any Qi from him meaning that he was likely several hundred years old at the very least. When this man saw Tang Ze he sneered coldly.
"Tang Ze… you demon, you finally come face me!" Ling Kuang said. Many people from the Rising Phoenix sect had gathered behind Tang Ze to see what the commotion was about.
Seeing him confirmed something for Tang Ze - he had indeed never seen this man before in his life. So, he really did have no idea why he was being targeted by this person.
"You - Ling Kuang!" Zhang Long shouted. "Why are you bullying one of our sect members?"
Ling Kuang sneered. "Bullying? Hardly - this demon deserves what is coming to him!"
"Uh… I think you must be mistaken," Tang Ze said. "I don't know who you're talking about."
"Your face matches the description we were given of you," Ling Kuang said. "There's no point in hiding it!"
"Ah, but you see, there must be some mix up," Tang Ze said. "My name is not actually Tang Ze… it's uh… Ze Tang! A lot of people get me mixed up sometimes, it's a common mistake."
"Is that really the best lie you could come up with, junior?" Elder He Xuan asked.
"What? You expect me to believe that?" Ling Kuang asked incredulously.
"No, he's right actually," the martial arts instructor yelled out. "Tang Ze is a scoundrel - the kind of person who might nearly kill one of his teachers and destroy part of a martial arts dojo because he was too dense to realize that he needed to control his own power. How could our junior brother, the honorable Ze Tang, be compared to that scumbag?"
Other members of the Rising Phoenix sect joined in.
"Tang Ze is the kind of person who would dress up in weird outfits like some kind of clown. How could the virtuous Ze Tang possibly be confused for him, even if their names are somewhat similar?" one of them said.
"Of course. I've heard that Tang Ze is the kind of lecherous person who would sneak into the girl's side of the sect," another person commented. "How could the righteous Ze Tang possibly be compared to him?"
"Yes, Tang Ze is the kind of man to insult an innocent maiden's heart," Tang Ru said.
"Oi! You take that back!" Tang Ze said, now unable to control himself. "You know, Xu Feng was right about you, Tang Ru - you are a bitch! Why don't we fight as a warmup and I'll break both your legs!"
Tang Ze still harbored quite a grudge against her for what she had done - but by now, he had accumulated enough passive strength to easily break even a Golden Core cultivator's bones without his costume. Their fight would go very differently now compared to the one-sided pummeling he had received earlier on, though the issue was that while Tang Ze wanted revenge, there was no real opportunity for him to try to get such.
Women and men were separated when it came to sparring sessions, so there was never a real time when the two of them would ever cross paths. Not unless she sneaked over to the men's side for some reason.
Ling Kuang [Cosplay Cultivator Chap 65]
However, Tang Ze had said too much in a fit of anger.
"Heh," Ling Kuang said. "So you admit it! You might try to hide it, but your true colors have now finally been shown to the world! Openly threatening to beat up a woman in public - is this what a 'righteous' man would do?"
"Believe me, she has it coming," Tang Ze said. "Alright, I am indeed Tang Ze. But I'm not the person you're looking for. I've never met you before - you're probably confusing me for someone with the same name."
The Raswatian Empire was huge - and had existed for over a hundred thousand years. There were multiple instances of people having the same name.
As an example, Tang Ru and Tang Ze were not related whatsoever, despite having the same last name.
The surname 'Tang' was actually quite common, and when Tang Ze had first joined the sect he would often have members approach him asking, 'Hey - I know this person with the surname Tang who is an alchemist near the city. Are you related to him by any chance?'
Of course, Tang Ze could not be related to them, as he was not originally from this world, but the point still stood that it was common enough as a surname that the chances of someone sharing the same first name as well were not insignificant.
The chances that there was someone else in this country named Tang Ze who was the person whom this Ling Kuang actually had a problem with was rather high.
"No," Ling Kuang said. "I know it's you - tell me does anyone in this sect know where this man is from? Who his parents are, and not their names, has anyone met them or seen records of them? What his home village is? I looked into those things - and it was as if this man had appeared from the ether itself!"
"So what?" Tang Ze asked.
"What kind of man has no history? That's right, a demonic cultivator, a man who has made an entirely new identity for himself," Ling Kuang said.
"I still don't get what you're getting at here."
"Still playing dumb? Fine then, I'll spell it out before the rest of your sect starts thinking of me as the villain," Ling Kuang said. "In my previous life, I went by the name of Hei Tian. During that time, I ran into a demonic cultivator by the name of Tang Ze. He was a fiend and notorious flower thief. I apprehended him, but he was able to defeat me. Still, I swore my vengeance, but news of him eventually faded over time. The scoundrel must've met with an early death at one point, but I knew… I knew that one day he would reincarnate and cause trouble once again! And so, I've found you! Why do you have no home village or known family? The answer is simple - because you were reborn as someone else, but now, you've awakened your old memories and chosen to take on your old mantle and spread terror throughout the world again!"
"Huh - so was Tang Ze really a demonic cultivator in his old life?'
"We make fun of him for getting no bitches - and it looks like the situation was the same even back in his previous life when he couldn't find a willing woman."
Those were the comments from the crowd, Tang Ze, however, needed a moment before he found the words to express his feelings. "I'm sorry are you intellectually disabled or something?"
Ling Kuang hadn't been expecting that kind of response and started sputtering angrily.
One of his lackeys, who was probably an elder of the Astral Winds sect given he seemed to be a Golden Core cultivator said, "Junior, you dare talk to Senior Elder Ling Kuan like that! You're courting death!"
'Ah, finally, someone who means it actually said those words,'- Tang Ze thought.
"What makes you think that I would reincarnate, and then call myself by the exact same name in my next life? What kind of idiot would do that?" Tang Ze asked the obvious question.
"Ah, but I do have proof that you are the same Tang Ze who I found a lifetime ago," Ling Kuang said. "You see, the reason that Tang Ze was so successful at defeating so many righteous cultivators was because of a demonic technique that caused even the most powerful among the righteous sects to fear him. I, myself, fell prey to that demonic technique once - [Monkey Stealing Peaches]!"
There were cries of agony from some of the male cultivators at the mere mention of that name.
"Yeah, so, what does that prove?" Tang Ze asked.
"I have it on good authority from some members of the Diamond Dust sect that you threatened to use that technique on them," Ling Kuang said, smirking. "That demonic technique is forbidden and any scroll that could teach it was burnt and the ashes scattered to the wind. Teaching of this technique was forbidden under pain of death. So how could it be that, you, someone so young, could know that technique? It is only possible if you had learned it during your past life! That, and your name - it can't possibly be a coincidence!"
"Uh, I don't actually know that technique though, I was just threatening those people," Tang Ze said.
"Ha! As if anyone would believe that- you've been doing nothing but lying since I saw you here!" Ling Kuang said. "First about your name, and now about this."
"It seems that you dug this grave for yourself, junior," Elder He Xuan said.
"You don't need to tell me…" Tang Ze said. "But how was I supposed to know that lying would have consequences in the future?"
"But I'll tell you what - you're only at the Qi Condensation stage right now," Ling Kuang said. "So, were I to attack you, people might call me out for bullying the weak. Hmph! Kowtow a thousand times and I'll consider the matter sett-" He paused, because before he could even finish the sentence, Tang Ze had already begun kowtowing!
Did Tang Ze want to do this before this idiot who had no clue what he was talking about?
No, but on the other hand, he didn't want his sect members to suffer either.
Seeing this behavior, for the first time, Ling Kuang began to have a seed of doubt in his mind. Tang Ze had been incredibly arrogant - at least, the Tang Ze whom he had fought with. He would never have agreed to kowtow like this, which is why he had uttered those words to goad him. They were not meant to be taken seriously!
But what now? He had no real intention of forgiving Tang Ze even if he did do this, but he had already spoken those words.
'Just like one cannot take back a fired arrow, one cannot take back a promise.' - a saying that applies well to this situation.
"A - stop that you demon!" Ling Kuang said. "This is clearly your ploy to gain sympathy! I won't forgive you no matter what - come at me and let's battle!"
"Hey - that's not fair! Tang Ze already was doing what you asked him to!" a voice rang out from the crowd.
There were jeers and yells at Ling Kuang from the Rising Phoenix sect members, though he didn't care for any of them. After all, what could they do before the might of a Nascent Soul cultivator?
Why was he being so stubborn?
Because at this point, he had no choice but to forge ahead with his plan.
Nascent Soul cultivators were powerful beyond belief by mortal standards. The mere fact that he had crossed another sect's borders could have been taken as a declaration of war.
It was the equivalent of a country moving several tanks and military aircraft into the territory of another nation. Naturally, no sovereign nation would tolerate such an action.
It would be one thing if low-ranking cultivators like Li Wei crossed borders, as a matter of fact, it was even somewhat encouraged in order to give the lower-ranking cultivators some combat experience by participating in such skirmishes so long as both sides agreed to certain rules to limit damage to non-combatants like mortals. However, at the Golden Core realm and above, you could forget about it.
Ling Kuang, as such, knew that he had broken several very strict rules between the sects. Still, he went forward with this plan anyway.
He had several reasons for doing so. First of all, the Astral Winds sect was more powerful than the Rising Phoenix sect - because the Astral Winds sect had an Eternal Soul cultivator among them. Eternal Soul cultivators were the equivalent of walking nuclear weapons, and as such, the Astral Winds sect could place great pressure upon the Rising Phoenix sect.
Secondly, he would justify himself by saying that he was merely here to strike at a demonic cultivator, and would frame the scenario as one where the Rising Phoenix sect was knowingly harboring and nurturing a demonic cultivator. Even if Tang Ze was the Tang Ze that Ling Kuang was looking for, this would not be true as the Rising Phoenix sect would be in the dark regarding his origins. Although Ling Kuang knew that, he also knew that they had no real way to rebuke such an accusation.
Disregarding those two reasons, he had a third, even bigger reason.
He really hated Tang Ze! Not the current Tang Ze, mind you, but the one he had fought in his past life!
Even if he had to endure censure and was rebuked for his actions, he would consider it a fair trade if he could finally get his revenge! Also, this was the only real way that he could get his revenge.
Would any court in the land seriously consider 'this man caused me harm in a prior life' to be a valid argument?
Of course not! Even if it was true, how would other people possibly believe such a statement? Very few people could remember the details of their past lives, after all.
'If I want justice for my past life, I will have to take it with my own hands!' - this is what Ling Kuang had realized, which is why he had crossed the border completely disregarding the consequences.
He had hoped that perhaps Tang Ze might slip up and admit to wronging him in a prior lifetime, but he hadn't.
However, these emotions had clouded his judgment. For one, he had reached the wrong conclusion - this Tang Ze was not the person he was looking for. The 'clues' he had found had misled him, but he had been so enamored with the idea of getting revenge these past few decades that he had warped the facts in his mind and convinced himself that this Tang Ze, was indeed the person he was looking for. As it was, given that this was a matter that had taken place during a prior lifetime, it wasn't as if he could easily get any more reliable evidence.
If Ling Kuang had thought over the matter with a somewhat cooler head, he might've even realized such.
However, the die had been cast, and it was too late now for him to second-guess himself.
Even if this Tang Ze was innocent, Ling Kuang could not let him go. If he just walked off after Tang Ze had kowtowed a thousand times, what face would Ling Kuang have left? He would not be satisfied, having not really gotten his revenge in any meaningful way, and later on, when this matter would be investigated, if it turned out that Tang Ze really was innocent it would be a huge loss of face to the Astral Winds sect.
It might even end up invoking an inter-sect war, with the other seven sects rallying against them for this action. They would not survive such a conflict, given that two other sects also had Eternal Soul cultivators with them, not to mention that the Imperial Family may also end up getting involved.
The only outcome that Ling Kuang could accept was one in which Tang Ze was dead. That way, there would be no one to stand witness against him and his sect.
It was too late for Ling Kuang to back out of this situation. He could only double down!
That was why even if he had started to have some doubts regarding this Tang Ze's guilt, and even if he had promised to spare him if Tang Ze kowtowed a thousand times, he had to disregard both of these things!
[Monkey Stealing Peaches Pro Max] [Cosplay Cultivator Chap 66]
Come what may, Ling Kuang had to kill Tang Ze. That would result in the best outcome for him. After all, this Tang Ze was barely an Initiate; even if he killed someone like that, for a Nascent Soul cultivator it was like stepping on an ant. He might be fined, but that would be the worst that could happen. Granted, Tang Ze was protected by his affiliation with the Rising Phoenix sect which was a much bigger problem for him, but he would have to let his own sect deal with that later.
Right now, he had to find a way to justifiably finish off Tang Ze.
"Hypocrite," Tang Ze said, as he stopped kowtowing, realizing that it wouldn't stop Ling Kuang. This man was pretending to be righteous, but had gone back on his word in a heartbeat!
"Why you-"
"Though," Tang Ze said, laughing coldly all of a sudden. "What makes you think that if we fight - you won't end up getting hit with [Monkey Stealing Peaches] again?"
"Heh," Ling Kuang said. "Don't you think I would've prepared for such a thing before coming to face you? My [Nuts of Steel] ability that I've honed for twenty years more than prepares me to defend against such a mov-"
Tang Ze started laughing even louder.
"W-What's so funny?" Ling Kuang asked.
"What? Do you think that innovation only goes one way, or that you were the only one who was improving all of these years?" Tang Ze asked. He had decided to completely lean into the fact that he was the Tang Ze that this guy was looking for, since Ling Kuang didn't seem to accept any other explanation - but Tang Ze was also determined to twist this to his own advantage as well! "You've improved your defense, that might be correct, but that also means that I have had time to improve my offense. In truth, the reason I lost during my last life and was killed, though it was never made public, was because my technique was defeated due to a defensive ability like that. I've been building on [Monkey Stealing Peaches] during this lifetime so that it can pierce through such defenses - I call it…. [Monkey Stealing Peaches… Pro Max]!"
"Junior, that is a terrible name," Elder He Xuan said. The thing was that Tang Ze hadn't been able to come up with a better name in the spur of the moment given how stressful the situation was. "And why are you saying all of this?"
"Relax, Elder He Xuan. I am a Supreme Grandmaster in the Dao of talking bullshit, I'll talk my way out of this situation somehow."
"Isn't talking bullshit how you landed yourself in this situation in the first place?"
Tang Ze did not have an answer to that.
"Hehe… as if I'd believe something like that!" Ling Kuang said, laughing heartily.
However, this laughter was just a way for him to cover up the sudden panic that was rising within him like a tidal wave.
'There's no chance he actually managed to build on that technique and improved it is there?' - Ling Kuang thought to himself.
And as he thought of it, the memory of his last life struck him.
When he had unlocked the memories of his prior life through meditation, the one core memory that stuck out the most… it was the pain of being hit by that move! Not his happiest moments like when he had gotten married, or watching the birth of his children, no - the recollection of the agony that move had caused was what immediately assaulted him!
Ling Kuang was only a Nascent Soul specialist and was not a soul cultivator like Xian Yue, so he had only been able to unlock the memories of a single prior life after quite a large amount of effort. He had tried to do so to see if he could recall any special techniques or inheritances he might have learned or found during his prior life.
However, once he had managed to finally accomplish it after putting in so much effort, what he had immediately managed to get was not something useful; instead he had been assaulted by the memory of the horrible pain he had felt! Naturally this had made a huge impression on him.
That was why he was so obsessed with getting revenge, even in this lifetime! That had been his goal after he had peered into the memories of his past life.
However, Ling Kuang now knew from experience how awful it felt to be hit by that move.
He wanted revenge, but he did not want to risk being hit by it again!
"Wait a moment," Zhang Long said. "So is that what you've been doing all this time when you weren't in the sect? We thought you were talking to your imaginary girlfriend, but you were really working on this killer move?"
"Oh, and isn't [Nuts of Steel] based on one of the Five Attributes - 'to be as tough as steel?' One of his squad members has the same attribute, so did he really find a way to bypass such defenses after doing in-depth research?" someone else in the crowd muttered.
They didn't know it, but they had done Tang Ze a huge favor!
Now, Ling Kuang was no longer laughing.
The odds of Tang Ze actually having such a move went up in his mind enormously! It was absolutely true that he had been born with one of the Five Attributes which he honed to make that defensive ability - but had Tang Ze already thought of a counter for that?
It was not impossible. If Ling Kuang could find a way to improve his defense, Tang Ze could also find a way to improve his offense.
This sort of battle of innovation between different techniques had been going on since time immemorial!
Tang Ze, meanwhile, couldn't believe this was working. It was like a kindergarten playground level of imaginary fighting going on here. 'I shoot at you with a laser canon!', 'Well, I activate my forcefield!', 'Well I use a laser canon that can break forcefields!', 'Then I use my special forcefield that can't be broken by laser canons!' - that was basically what this back-and-forth boiled down to.
"Can confirm, I do have one of the Five Attributes, to be 'tough as steel'," Chen Yu said, raising his hand. "My name is Chen Yu by the way, and yes, I am a member of his squad."
"Ah, Senior Elder Ling Kuang, that bit of information is correct," one of the members of the Astral Winds sect said. They had clearly investigated the sect before coming here.
Ling Kuan was sweating bullets now. He did not want to be hit by that technique again! Even if he won, it would be as good as losing if he had to endure that pain again!
In an instant, Ling Kuang had turned from a roaring tiger to a mewling kitten!
"Well, I had been perfecting the move in secret," Tang Ze said, grinning wickedly. "I also need to work on the name, but the technique itself is ready. And what time is better than the present to try it out?"
"L-Let's not be too hasty here," Ling Kuang said. He was absolutely not going to take the risk that Tang Ze knew an improved version of that technique. "How about this - we'll both fight without using any special techniques! And as you're weaker, I'll even allow you to strike the first blow in the name of fairness!"
These were exactly the words that Tang Ze was hoping to hear.
Of course, in ordinary circumstances, this was absolutely ludicrous as a fighting condition.
Ling Kuang was at the Nascent Soul realm - meaning he was at the very minimum about three thousand times stronger than a normal person, and that was barring any special techniques he might know or treasures that he might have. At maximum, a Qi Condensation cultivator would be just slightly more than two and a half times stronger than they would normally be
The chasm between the two was enormous!
But this was only multiplicative of their base strength. And currently, Tang Ze was in full costume.
A costume that gave him roughly thirty percent of the character's power. But when the character in question could destroy multiple planets, what was thirty percent of that?
Tang Ze could easily break half a continent as easily as he would a candy bar.
The only worry he had going into this fight was some strange ability or technique, like one that targeted the soul or karma - he wasn't sure if Elder He Xuan could block such a technique given that he was only at the Golden Core realm.
Elder He Xuan had incapacitated him using such a technique after the sect entrance exam.
Now though, the conditions of the entire fight were in his favor!
Not that Ling Kuang had realized that.
"Good," Elder He Xuan said. "You get one blow - finish him with that!"
"I agree to those terms," Tang Ze said, taking a fighting stance.
"Well then-" Ling Kuan said, the words barely out of his mouth as he could barely make out Tang Ze moving with incredible speed, closing the distance between them in a fraction of the time it would take someone to blink.
Tang Ze could not bring out his full speed strength out, or he risked damaging the costume if he did so, but even then, he was a force to be reckoned with!
Ling Kuan saw the fist flying towards his head, and disregarding what he said earlier - he activated multiple defensive techniques. That was all that he could do in that short span of time - the thought of counterattacking didn't even cross his mind as his survival instincts kicked in.
This was one of the Five Attributes - 'to be as tough as steel!'
Unfortunately, his defenses crumbled like wads of wet tissue paper before the sheer might of Tang Ze's blow, and the punch connected with his jaw practically unhindered, shattering it, breaking six other bones in his skull, and knocking him unconscious.
If Tang Ze had not restrained himself, he could've burst open Ling Kuang's head like a tomato.
But, just like that, the fight was over.
To the spectators, who were either Golden Core or lower, the fight was just a single blur, over in less than a heartbeat.
One moment, Tang Ze was standing far away from Ling Kuan.
The next, Ling Kuan was on the floor, unconscious, Tang Ze standing triumphantly over him. To the spectators, it was nearly instantaneous!
"..."
"What happened?"
"Senior Elder Ling Kuan!"
"He's dead!?"
"Hold your horses," Tang Ze said. "He isn't dead, but if any of you all make a single wrong move, I'll crush his skull!"
"What kind of technique was that?"
"I could barely see it!"
"Was that the legendary [Bullet Strike]?"
"No, I think that was [Fulminous Fist]!"
"Wrong, that had to be [Profound Heavenly Dragon's Fist] based on how it bridged the gap in realms between the two!"
'All of you are wrong - I just hit him really, really, hard.' - Tang Ze thought.
"Junior, it's not enough to knock him out," Elder He Xuan said. "Go examine his dantians."
Tang Ze realized what he was saying as leaned over Ling Kuang, placing the ring over Ling Kuang's lower abdomen.
Because all he had done was hit Ling Kuang really hard, it meant that he could heal his wounds rather quickly since Tang Ze had not mastered the art of augmenting his physical strikes with Qi.
As a matter of fact, around five percent of his injuries had already been patched up.
Elder He Xuan was examining Ling Kuang's Qi network, and was now injecting his own Qi into it. Tang Ze joined him in that endeavor.
[Yin-Yang Inversion Palm] [Cosplay Cultivator Chap 67]
'So this is the Qi network of a Nascent Soul cultivator - amazing!' Tang Ze thought. Qi was constantly being condensed into what felt like a massive ocean compared to the few meager drops that Tang Ze could condense. Although the dantian was a place inside the human body, the space inside of it could expand greatly beyond what would otherwise be physically possible as one advanced through the realms. Not only was there far more Qi, but it was far thicker than Tang Ze's own as well.
Even though Tang Ze could only inject a few drops of his own Qi into this network, it immediately had an effect.
One had to be careful while examining another person's dantian to be sure that they didn't inadvertently end up causing damage to it.
Conversely, if one wanted to cause damage to it, it was quite easy!
Everyone's Qi, as it was condensed, was modified by their Qi network, so that everyone's Qi which they stored in liquid form after condensing it was different - even among identical twins there would be variations.
Injecting foreign Qi into your dantians was like getting a blood transfusion from a blood group that one was not compatible with.
As such, Ling Kuang's Qi network was suffering from a violent transfusion reaction!
Even though the amount of Qi that Elder He Xuan had stored within the ring paled in comparison to his actual body, since it was much stronger, being from a Golden Core cultivator, it had an even greater calamitous effect on Ling Kuang's Qi network!
If Ling Kuang had still been conscious, for one, he would not have allowed anyone to come so near to his dantian, and secondly, he would have been able to direct this foreign Qi out of his dantian simply by concentrating.
However, he was unconscious, and could not do so. His wounds were about ten percent healed by this point, but because of the damage that his Qi network was currently undergoing, this regeneration had completely stopped.
The adverse reaction spread from his lower dantian to his middle and upper ones, and from there, to his meridians. The damage was truly extensive as his Qi network tried to get rid of the foreign Qi but was unable to!
"Honestly, this was kind of boring."
"I was hoping to see a big fight - but that was over in less than a second."
"Yeah, that Ling Kuang guy talked a lot but went down with a single blow."
"S-scoundrel!" one of the Astral Wind sect's disciples said. "We won't forget this!"
The reason that Tang Ze hadn't killed Ling Kuang was because there were still other members of the Astral Winds sect who had come along with Ling Kuang, likely people he had coerced into acting as witnesses.
Some of them were Golden Core cultivators, and he wanted to avoid a fight if possible.
"I hope for your own sake that you don't," Tang Ze said, now that he was done completely crippling Ling Kuang's Qi network. "Here's a message for your sect - if any more of you come into the Rising Phoenix sect's territory, you will find that you're not the only one who can cross sect boundaries. And then, your entire sect, all the way from the lowest Initiate to the Supreme Elder will fall prey to my new and improved [Monkey Stealing Peaches] technique!"
The men crossed their legs instinctively, though one of the women of the Astral Winds sect said, "Our Supreme Elder is a woman, you fiend!"
"Ah, a woman you say?" Tang Ze said, stroking his chin. "Good! Good! Good! I can finally put the other technique I was working on - [Yin-Yang Inversion Palm] to good use then!"
"You really are something else when it comes to making things up aren't you?" Elder He Xuan muttered.
"So that was it!" one of the Rising Phoenix sect's prefects cried out from the crowd. Tang Ze thought that the man seemed sort of familiar - as if they'd just met recently. "Brother Tang Ze really does have such a technique! I saw him earlier this evening, thinking that he was crossdressing, but it turns out he was just practicing this new technique!"
'You were right - I was just crossdressing,' - Tang Ze thought, but whatever. He wasn't sure why this man had leapt to the wrong conclusion after getting it right the first time. It didn't look like the prefect was lying to make Tang Ze's words more believable, for whatever reason, he seemed to genuinely think that Tang Ze had such a technique.
What was going through the prefect's mind was this: 'Tang Ze looked far too beautiful at that time to simply have been cross-dressing, the only logical explanation is that he really managed to turn himself into a woman! That has to be the case!'
Now, both the women and the men of the Astral Winds sect cried out.
"D-Demon! To target not just men, but women too with that technique!"
"Forget about him! We need to take Senior Elder Ling Kuang to a healer as fast as we can! That fiend messed with his Qi network, if we don't get him patched up fast Senior Elder Ling Kuang will end up as a cripple, unable to cultivate any further!"
"That's right, we need to focus on saving Senior Elder Ling Kuang!"
Even if the members of the Astral Winds sect were furious at Tang Ze, the fact of the matter was that a single Nascent Soul cultivator was more valuable to the sect than all of them combined.
If they didn't get Ling Kuang to a healer who could patch him up, his cultivation might even fall by a major realm to Golden Core. That would be disastrous - and a significant loss in strength for the entire Astral Winds sect. And naturally, they would not be able to find such a healer within the Rising Phoenix sect's boundaries.
The longer they waited to get Ling Kuang to a healer, the more damage his Qi network would take.
Also, none of them felt confident about fighting Tang Ze after what he had done to Ling Kuang who was stronger than all of them combined, let alone the crowd gathered behind him as well.
They also had no justification for the same - Ling Kuang had challenged Tang Ze to a duel, and as far as they could tell, Tang Ze had won fair and square. After all, they were part of a righteous sect, and without Ling Kuang leading the charge they did not feel confident whatsoever in breaking any more rules that day. As it was, they knew they were going to be in hot water simply by coming all the way here - but they had agreed as Ling Kuang had promised to reward them commensurately for the same. But how would Ling Kuang reward them if his cultivation was crippled?
It was only if they were able to examine Tang Ze closely that they would be able to feel Elder He Xuan's spirit in the ring on one of his fingers and realize that he hadn't actually played fair during the duel, but naturally none of them dared to get that close to Tang Ze. As for Tang Ze's ability to draw power from costumes, they had no chance whatsoever of discovering that or proving to anyone that he had such a power.
The members of the Astral Winds sect took Ling Kuang away, all the while glaring at Tang Ze.
"Honestly, it might have been better if you had just killed him," Elder He Xuan said in person, walking up to Tang Ze as the two of them watched the retreating backs of the members of the Astral Winds sect. Tang Ze handed him back his ring.
Elder He Xuan understood why Tang Ze had let Ling Kuang live, but even then, it might've been better in the long run simply to have killed him.
"Maybe," Tang Ze said. "But, I don't think I could've done it intentionally."
Cultivators were supposed to be ruthless - wiping out village after village for the slightest affront to their honor or for the slightest benefit.
That was what Tang Ze had heard - but he had been a normal college student on Earth just a year ago. He couldn't be someone who took lives so callously - and the most important aspect of being a cultivator is being true to yourself.
Why pretend to be something he wasn't?
Not to mention, if he had killed Ling Kuang, the other members of the Astral Winds sect might have lost themselves and struck at them - disregarding the fact that such was not allowed by the rules of the righteous sects. They might have come to the conclusion that they were in too deep and there was no going back.
"There will definitely trouble," Elder He Xuan said. "The Astral Winds sect will complain - or, maybe they might be too ashamed to admit that their Nascent Soul Senior Elder was beaten by someone at Qi Condensation stage. Regardless, they were the aggressors, we can more than enough show that."
"How did they know so much about our sect?" Tang Ze wondered. "Spies?"
"Hardly - merchants come and go through the sects and between the regions controlled by them - they cannot be stopped, else the flow of goods would be negatively impacted," Elder He Xuan said. "One can learn a lot from them... though indeed, someone like Senior Elder Ling Xuan might have something like a spy planted here." Elder He Xuan shook his head.
There had now been two instances of their security being breached - this had to be investigated and did not look good on him as this division's head.
But there was something else that was on Elder He Xuan's mind that greatly outweighed those other matters.
That was seeing Tang Ze walk away with the rest of his squad as the members of the Rising Phoenix sect gathered around him, congratulating him on his victory.
He had agreed to let Tang Ze join despite his complete lack of cultivation talent at the time (and to be fair, even now, his cultivation progress could only be rated as 'poor'), not because of the upcoming tournament, but because there was something else he needed a strong cultivator for.
It was clear though that he had greatly underestimated Tang Ze's strength.
If Tang Ze continued on this path, it was likely that he would be ready long before Elder He Xuan had first anticipated. That was good, he would not need to wait another decade or two.
But, that also meant that it was now a good idea to invest some extra resources in Tang Ze beyond what they were already giving him. After all, even at Qi Condensation a minor realm was a ten percent compounded increase in strength - and if you were already strong, ten percent was quite a big boost.
At this point, if you took only Tang Ze's passive strength with no costume, it was almost equivalent to that of a Nascent Soul cultivator at the lower end of the minor realms. Having only a fraction of a percent of a character's strength was humongous when said character was said to be able to crush planets at full strength. That was why, although it was technically feasible for Tang Ze to mix and match a bunch of character's powers, he was focusing only on strength for now as the boost was just absolutely out of this world.
On the other hand, having a fraction of a wizard's power or healing ability was next to nothing when it came to usefulness.
And with that kind of strength as his baseline, even a few minor realms could make a massive difference. Soon, the time would come when Tang Ze might be able to lift an entire mountain atop his back.
Political Aftermath [Cosplay Cultivator Chap 68]
"So, what did you guys find?" Tang Ze asked. The sect courtyard they were sitting in had a nice breeze blowing through it that made it hard not to doze off. They were all lazing around a little after finishing their sect duties, which they felt they sort of deserved after all that had happened recently.
He had asked the others to find any other people who happened to be named Tang Ze whose identity he might be accused of impersonating or being reincarnations of.
"So, we looked over things for the past few days," Chen Yu said. "And we found about seventeen notable people named Tang Ze. Let's see... wanted for murder, wanted for robbery, oh - this one's wanted for murder and robbery..." Given the time period for which the Raswatian Empire had stood, and how big it was as well, there were countless examples of people with the same name. There were nine different famous military generals in the Raswatian Empire's history all of whom were named Shen Wun, for example.
It appeared that, unfortunately, 'Tang Ze' was a rather common name among people with criminal records.
Tang Ze sighed. "I hope this doesn't become even more of an issue in the future."
"Nah, relax," Yin Tiang said. "After what you did, and the off chance you might have that technique, no one's coming after you."
While Tang Ze was chilling out with his crew in the courtyard, all the while not trying too hard to look for trouble, a battle was brewing that he was mostly unaware of.
It was not a physical battle per se, but a political one regarding the fallout of Ling Kuang's actions.
Regarding Ling Kuang, by the time that his other sect members had taken him back to the Astral Winds sect's territory, his Qi network had already been so significantly damaged that despite pouring some of their best resources into his recovery, he was now back at the Golden Core realm.
Needless to say, the Astral Winds sect was not very happy about such. The gap between a Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivator was immense - the power multiplier of 'four' did not fully capture this gap.
When one moved up a major realm, it was not just that they got a power multiplier of 'N' where 'N' was the number of the major realm. There would also be new possibilities that would open up which were only possible at the higher realm. For example, Nascent Soul cultivators could use various soul-based abilities and techniques that Golden Core cultivators could not. Often, these new techniques more than multiplied whatever advantage they already had several fold.
Take for example the difference between Xian Yue, an Eternal Soul cultivator, and Ling Kuang, a Nascent Soul cultivator. Ling Kuang had to put in an extreme amount of effort to simply remember the major events of one prior lifetime - while Xian Yue could easily recall them of multiple lifetimes, influence where her soul reincarnated, and was even able to tell that Tang Ze's soul was not from this world. If Ling Kuang had possessed that last ability, he never would've landed in this mess in the first place. Part of this could be attributed to Xian Yue specializing in the soul path while Ling Kuang did not, but without the foundation of an Eternal Soul cultivator such techniques could not have been possible regardless of specialization.
Furthermore, if Ling Kuang's body died, he could only remain in this world for a decade at most as a soul, and would be pitifully weak, only slightly stronger than Xu Feng's ghost. On the other hand, Xian Yue's soul had been able to remain for centuries and still carried much of the original soul's strength - that was what it meant to have one's soul tempered from Nascent Soul to Eternal Soul!
Of course, right now, as a Golden Core cultivator, if Ling Kuang's body died, his soul would instantly perish as well.
That was how much the difference between major realms mattered when it came to strength and possibilities available to oneself.
And so, the loss of a Nascent Soul cultivator would be sharply felt by the Astral Winds sect.
That said, Ling Kuang had been the instigator of this entire event in the first place. He had disregarded the rules out of a desire for vengeance, and not only had he not obtained such, he was now in heart water with his sect.
The Supreme Elder of the Astral Winds sect, when she got to know what he did and the full story behind it, beat him to a pulp once again when he had recovered.
As for the lackeys that he had coerced or bribed to accompany him, they were all kicked out of the sect save for the Golden Core cultivators who were heavily fined and assigned to the least tantalizing assignments for Golden Core cultivators within the sect for the next fifty years.
Once her anger had subsided, the time now came to pursue the matter with the Imperial Court.
Given that all the major sects were righteous, there were certain rules that they had to play by. Major inter-sect conflicts were mediated by a court consisting of the Imperial Family on one side and the sects themselves on the other as a group - each side had equal power in total, meaning that the Imperial Family had a disproportionately large influence on the court compared to the sects.
However, the Rising Phoenix sect had beaten the Astral Winds sect to the punch when it came to bringing up the issue.
Ling Kuang's actions were an egregious violation of the rules of the righteous sects. And no matter how much the Astral Winds sect accused the Rising Phoenix sect of harboring a demonic cultivator, they had no proof for the same - not to mention even in that case, there had been no emergent need for them to violate sect boundaries and enter the Rising Phoenix sect's territories.
Might makes right - and while the Astral Winds sect had an Eternal Soul cultivator while the Rising Phoenix sect did not, that could be seen as a disadvantage in this situation.
First off, there was the Imperial Family who naturally did not want any sect to gain too much power as it might affect the delicate power balance of the Raswatian Empire, and they had an Eternal Soul cultivator themselves - an ancient ancestor who had one of the Five Attributes. The higher one went up in the realms, the more they could bring out the power of the Five Attributes. Still, it was hardly enough to beat a three-to-one advantage.
And, the times during which one of the sects had a Hinayana realm cultivator were always tumultuous times. The gap between the Eternal Soul and the Hinayana realms was immense, and the Five Attributes combined could not bridge such a chasm. Whenever a sect had a Hinayana realm cultivator, they would instantly become the number one sect in the Empire, and the Imperial Family and the other seven sects would have to unite on one front simply to ensure that they weren't trampled over.
Thankfully, till date, none of the Hinayana realm cultivators had been genocidal maniacs or else the country would have been bathed in a sea of blood multiple times throughout its history and the Imperial Family unable to defend itself.
Still, during those times it was as if a heavy sword hung over the heads of the Imperial Family.
That was why Xian Yue was adamant on keeping her existence a secret. If information reached the Imperial Family's ears that she had an actual chance of advancing to the Hinayana realm; regardless of how slim it was - they would do everything in their power to stop her from ascending. Furthermore, if they got to know that Tang Ze's involvement was necessary for her ascension, they would be overjoyed as that would mean that they did not need to kill her and could simply get rid of him to nip the problem in the bud. Between Xian Yue in her spectral form and Tang Ze - it was very evidently apparent who would be easier to deal with.
Thankfully for Tang Ze's sake, they were kept in the dark regarding the same and had thought that Xian Yue had passed away centuries ago. She had been very careful to cover her tracks.
Ultimately, it was in the Imperial Family's best interests to find an excuse to suppress the Astral Winds sect.
Secondly, coming to the other four sects who did not currently have an Eternal Soul cultivator - naturally they would feel great pressure from this incident. How could the Astral Winds sect so brazenly disregard sect borders and invade into the Rising Phoenix sect's territory? This set a dangerous precedent which they were all keen to avoid lest they become the next targets of one of the stronger sects, and as such, they were united around the Rising Phoenix sect. Much like a school of smaller fish could chase away a bigger predator by uniting, they too wanted to place pressure on the Astral Winds sect.
Thirdly, coming to the other two sects who also had an Eternal Soul cultivator - the Swift Sword sect and the Emerald Floral sect; while the Astral Winds sect tried to appeal to them, neither of them was keen on lending their support.
The Swift Sword sect did not involve itself in political matters for the most part - and when they did tend to do so they would go along with whatever the Imperial Family decided. One of their founding members had been a member of the Imperial Family, and even till this day there were blood ties between the Swift Sword's higher-ups and the Imperial Family.
As for the Emerald Floral sect, upon seeing that the Astral Winds sect was now isolated politically, why would they want to put their necks on the line?
When asked by either side what their decision was, the Emerald Floral sect essentially chose to say neither yes nor no. Instead, they waffled, choosing to remain neutral.
All of this put the Astral Winds sect in a very disadvantageous position. It was clear that they could not win and could only stomach their losses for now - when they realized this they chose to gracefully withdraw rather than risk losing even more face.
When Ling Kuang heard of this, he nearly coughed out a mouthful of blood in rage.
But, it could not be helped. Unless he wished to become a demonic cultivator, he had to abide by the rules of righteous sects.
However, even if Tang Ze was completely not the same person whom Ling Kuang had been looking for, Ling Kuang now marked him as an enemy regardless because of what had happened.
Before he could focus on that though, he needed to try to ascend back to the Nascent Soul realm. His meridians and dantians had been damaged, and he needed to spend a large amount of resources in order to get them back to their prime condition before he could attempt ascension again.
All of this would take him at least forty years, and as his lifespan had also shortened when he had fallen by a major realm, he had to devote all of the energy he currently had to this endeavor.
With everything considered, it was good that Tang Ze hadn't killed Ling Kuang, else the Astral Winds sect would not have dropped the matter so easily and would have definitely fought harder.
That wasn't to say that the Astral Winds sect did not manage to get any form of retribution against Tang Ze in the Imperial Court, however, as Tang Ze would soon discover.
However, Tang Ze was, for the moment, blissfully ignorant as to this political struggle the sects were involved in as he instead focused on cultivating and making new costumes.
Invitation To The Tournament [Cosplay Cultivator Chap 69]
It was a regular day in the common living quarters, and Tang Ze, Yin Tiang, and Chen Yu were either lounging around or working on their own small projects.
Zhang Long was not there as he was dealing with some of his duties as squad leader, though he soon walked in, slightly breathless. "Everyone! Guess what happened?"
"Is your fiancé coming back to cook for us?" Yin Tiang asked, pupils dilating with dread. At those words, Chen Yu began sweating bullets, wondering if there was an ability like [Stomach of Steel] that he could develop to counter Jin Zhen's cooking.
"What? No, I just wanted to show you guys this stuff that Elder He Xuan left for Tang Ze," Zhang Long said.
There was a basket of items that he was carrying under his arm, which he put down on a table for them to go through.
"Whoa - this is really the good stuff," Chen Yu said. "Not the pittance they give us every month that's for sure."
"There's also a book - wait, it's just about the Mercury Kingdom, not something related to cultivation," Yin Tiang said with a sigh.
"There's a note from Elder He Xuan - 'This is your reward for helping us catch the culprit who stole the Grimoire of Heaven. I have also put in a book for you to peruse on the history of the Mercury Kingdom. I hope that you will enjoy reading it.'"
"Wow, this stuff is part of some of his own resources, it looks like," Chen Yu said.
Basically, it was as if the regional manager of the branch they were working at gave Tang Ze a portion of his own salary, because he couldn't directly raise Tang Ze's own.
"Some of this stuff is too good for us honestly..." Yin Tiang said. "As in, we can't even use it." These materials were meant for a Golden Core cultivator, meaning that it was far too much for their Qi networks to handle.
They were running into the same scenario that Tang Ze had found himself in when he had still been at the Zeroth realm with most of these resources.
"We can exchange it for stuff we can use, though," Chen Yu said.
Over the next few days, Tang Ze spent time not just training, but also reading the book that Elder He Xuan had given him.
Honestly it was quite boring given that it was basically just a history book with not much else going for it. Tang Ze had never found history to be a strong point for himself back on Earth. But, Tang Ze wasn't dumb - there must have been some underlying reason why He Xuan had 'asked' him to read it.
It was like a teacher back home turning around while teaching and all but saying, 'This chapter's really important for the upcoming test.' Anyone who would ignore that just had no clue what they were doing.
The only really interesting part about the book was the section on asuras.
Per records, or at least, those that had remained, the people of the Mercury Kingdom had waged a war with the asuras at the end of which the asuras were hunted to extinction. The main theory regarding why the Mercury Kingdom had fallen apart was that even though they had won said war, it had ended up causing so much damage that it left them vulnerable to a cascade of natural disasters that eventually caused their downfall and led to the Warring States period. After that, the Raswatian Empire had emerged from the rubble.
Asuras had a wide range of supernatural abilities. Normal asuras had only two arms, though the more powerful ones had more. Asura Lords had two sets of arms and were somewhere between Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators in terms of strength, while Asura Kings had three sets of arms and were somewhere between Nascent Soul and Eternal Soul realm cultivators in terms of strength.
The reason for this discrepancy in the estimation of how powerful they were was because the records seemed to vary in their descriptions of them.
The main thing that Tang Ze wondered about while reading was why Elder He Xuan was putting so much emphasis on this - he couldn't really see a practical application for any of it, even if the bits about the asuras were somewhat mildly interesting.
As it was, the book was something he made a point to read everyday, but it took up a fraction of his time compared to making costumes and cultivating.
And, unfortunately, with everything that had happened recently, Tang Ze found it even harder to focus during his cultivation. He was able to use about twelve percent of the vapor Qi he was able to gather from the environment, which was a step up from ten percent earlier, but this was still worse than any of the other Initiates in terms of efficiency. He had not started out from a strong place, and was not progressing fast either.
Tang Ze had returned Elder He Xuan's ring, and he had also returned the Thundercloud back to the sect janitor as he didn't need it. The sect janitor, for his part, just smiled lightly - but was greatly worried inwardly.
The heart demon he had seen around Tang Ze had barely changed in all of his time here. Yet, he was unsure of how to proceed further regarding the matter.
As for Xian Yue, Tang Ze hadn't made any progress at all with finishing her dress. He thought he had found a solution once, only for it to not work once he had sewn it in - meaning he now had to undo what he had just done.
Xian Yue did not show any signs of impatience - she had already been doing this for practically forever, and she couldn't really think of any other way she could get Tang Ze to work on it 'better.' She could force him to stay there all the time and work on the dress until he thought he had an answer - though this was unlikely to work and not a method she favored.
Most of the pressure regarding the dress came from Tang Ze himself - he had initially agreed to do it to help her, without asking for anything in return. She had ended up doing him a solid anyway with the Grimoire of Heaven, and so he now really wanted to succeed.
Two months passed without the gang getting into trouble or causing any other kind of mischief - a new record for them, and as nothing of significance happened from what Tang Ze had done to Ling Kuang (at least to his knowledge), now the talk of the town shifted to the upcoming novice tournament.
When he had heard of the word 'tournament' Tang Ze had initially thought it involved cultivators fighting one-on-one in brackets until a winner was decided. That was an event in the tournament, but it was only one of twelve.
As such, the inter-sect tournament was more in line with the Olympics where there were multiple events than with just a simple bracket tournament. The events were changed slightly every single time the tournament came around, and were decided upon by the Imperial Family.
Most of the events didn't involve actual fighting - some of them were based on alchemy, for example, which is why both Qi Condensation and Qi Refinement cultivators could participate.
That said, nearly every single participant would be a Qi Refinement cultivator with very few exceptions.
One of those exceptions being, of course, Tang Ze. There were always some contests involving pure strength - like weightlifting, or arm wrestling, though they would only get to know what the exact events were one month before the tournament.
Still, most everyone had a good idea of who had a good chance to win or not.
There was an application process for those hopefuls who wanted to participate - the sect could only send so many participants as such, spots to compete were limited.
People were chosen based on a wide variety of talents, after all, if someone was very good at a niche they could potentially get first place in that niche.
For example, archery had been a sport one year, and there had been a person who was otherwise average but turned out to be an extremely competent marksman who ended up winning first place in that event.
However, none of the rest of Tang Ze's squad even bothered applying.
They all decided that they weren't ready yet - maybe Chen Yu could enter the fighting tournament when he got to Qi Refinement with his bloodline technique, and maybe when Yin Tiang would know a bit more about alchemy he could participate in events like quizzes on identifying plants. Neither of them felt like they were ready yet, far from it as a matter of fact.
Tang Ze didn't even have to apply - based on his performance until now, Elder He Xuan was willing to vouch for him simply on that basis. The man had even dropped by their living area one evening.
"How are you doing, Junior Tang Ze?" Elder He Xuan asked.
"I'm fine," Tang Ze answered. "Ah- I've been reading that book you lent me just like you asked."
"Good, glad to hear you've been enjoying it, but I'm here for a different reason - I think you can already guess it's for the upcoming Novice Tournament," Elder He Xuan said. He turned to everyone else in the room. "From now on, you don't need to worry about your regular sect duties." Everyone's mood lightened up at that - no more having to clean up after mess, or shoveling pegasus dung, or fetching water in the morning? That was great news - but naturally, it came with a caveat. "Of course, I still want you to take our celestial beast out for a walk every week. And remember that I'm not giving you this free time to loaf around, it's so that you can train for the upcoming Novice Tournament. You'll be having daily lessons with the martial arts instructor from now on, and I will be tripling the amount of resources that you get a month. Put them all to good use - do you understand? And the other members of your squad - have them help you train as well. I expect to see at least two trophies on my mantle at the end of the tournament!" He said that last line with an encouraging smile.
"Understood, Elder He Xuan!" all of them said in unison.
Elder He Xuan left, and then Zhang Long turned to Tang Ze. "Alright, everyone, let's get started. First of all, his resources are going to be tripled, but if we add in each of our own, it will be sextupled instead!"