Chapter 90: The Great Competition Begins

  Misty Mountain, famous for its misty scenery. At this time, Misty Mountain is covered with ancient trees that stretch up to the sky, lush and verdant, with layers of peaks rising high into the clouds. The mountains and rivers are picturesque, with mist swirling everywhere, forming a paradise on earth, a land of immortals. The mist rising gently is like the "qi" (life energy) described in Taoist scriptures, intertwining with each other. In the mountains, birds and beasts start their day early, searching for food. The waterfalls cascade down, with the sound of rushing water echoing through the valleys, like thunderclaps. The flowing water also serves as a source of water for all the magical creatures living in Misty Mountain.

  Also including the establishment of Danxuan Gate in the Misty Mountains, at this time Danxuan Gate was already very busy. Although the sky had just dawned, many disciples had already gotten up early because today was the annual Inner Disciple Competition of Danxuan Gate, and the Outer Gate competition would be held three days later.

  The Inner Disciple Competition is about to begin, and the individual peaks' disciples who are participating in the competition have all come out of their closed-door training early to make their final preparations. Every year, this is a great opportunity for some disciples to gain fame and fortune, and none of them want to miss it, unless they themselves are truly weak and won't be able to achieve a good ranking even if they participate.

  The annual tournament is not only a ranking of the sixteen peaks of Danxuan Gate, but also a ranking of the entire Northern Domain. Every disciple who ranks high will be known throughout the Northern Domain at that time, and this is the benefit brought by the Great Gate Sect. In such a large sect with tens of millions of people, everyone wants to stand out, each one is a proud son of heaven, a rare talent that appears only once in a thousand years, and every sect will pay attention at that time.

  This time, the inner gate of Danxuan Gate has invited many celebrities to participate in the grand competition, including Huang Cheng, the lord of Huang City, and Shuntian Pavilion's pavilion master. Some family heads from large families have also been invited to attend as observers. This is also a way to increase popularity. These big families naturally want to climb up Danxuan Gate's big tree. Although Danxuan Gate has started to decline in recent years, a thin camel is still bigger than a horse. The accumulation of thousands of years cannot be underestimated, and every sect has its own survival method. Just because of temporary decline, it doesn't mean that Danxuan Gate has withdrawn from the scope of the four major powers. If someone dares to think so, he must be crazy.

  At this time, the Dan Xuan Gate was busy, but there was no sign of chaos. Everyone was doing their own thing in an orderly manner. This was also a result of years of accumulation. The annual competition had formed a pattern, and these disciples only needed to find the mode of operation.

  "When" a crisp and melodious bell sound spread throughout the entire Misty Mountains, some small magical creatures that were born this year and were hunting looked up at the sky, wondering what the sound was, but soon lowered their heads to continue foraging. Some powerful magical creatures, which could no longer be called magical creatures, but should be called demon beasts, each of whom had lived for hundreds of years and had spiritual intelligence equal to that of humans, also looked towards the direction of Danxuan Gate, muttering to themselves, "Another year has passed, the grand competition of Danxuan Gate is about to begin again." A tiger-like demon beast surprisingly spoke up;

  Suddenly, Chen Xuan's eyes opened wide, and he was also startled awake by the bell from his cultivation. "Has one night passed so quickly? I've been sitting for a whole night, and time has slipped away quietly. No wonder it's said that cultivators are racing against time. Some people close their doors for tens or even hundreds of years, but when they're about to die of old age, they still haven't broken through to the next realm. They can only return to dust, turn into a pile of yellow earth, and disappear into thin air. If I don't break through in my lifetime, I'll probably live for over 200 years at most. My strength has increased, but what about my family?"

  Chen Xuan's current strength is increasing every day, but his family members are hard to keep up with him so quickly. Chen Xuan does not want the whole family to be left with only himself in the end.

  "I want my family to always be with me, and I also need to quickly improve my strength. When I have the opportunity to return to my family, I still have a lot of Yuanling Dan on me. These Yuanling Dan are thousands of times better than the Peiyuan Dan in Hongling Town. At that time, my own family will also produce a large number of Lingwu realm disciples. It's best if I can promote my parents to the Lingwu realm as well, so they can always be by my side." Chen Xuan sighed after exiting his cultivation state.

  After tidying up his clothes, Chen Xuan put on a new inner disciple uniform and combed his hair again. His entire demeanor changed instantly, becoming vigorous and spirited. The improvement in his strength over this period of time had also made him slightly taller, and he no longer looked like a fourteen or fifteen-year-old youth. Now, he seemed more like an eighteen-year-old young man, and his whole person had become much more mature. A sunny face always wore a faint smile, making people who didn't know him think that this youth was definitely a harmless and gentle soul. He tied the Evil Spirit behind his back once again. Chen Xuan no longer liked to put the Evil Spirit in his storage ring; he had done so before, but he could feel the Evil Spirit's mournful cries. The instrument spirit inside the Evil Spirit had already begun to develop a hint of spiritual intelligence, and this instrument spirit was also a strand of Chen Xuan's soul that had split off from him. Therefore, the Evil Spirit and he were almost connected by blood and flesh, and Chen Xuan could feel every sensation of the Evil Spirit. The Evil Spirit didn't like being in the cold storage ring; when it was put inside, it would let out a mournful cry.

  Since then, Chen Xuan has been carrying the evil charm on his body every day. Unless it is refined into a yuan device later, it can be retrieved in the body and nourished by the yuan force. The longer the nourishment time, the greater the power of the yuan device. After tying up the evil charm, Chen Xuan also walked out of his cave. As Master Big Brother said last time, the inner door disciples who participated will first gather at the martial arts hall on each peak, and finally be led by the peak master to go there.

  Chen Xuan also headed towards the large martial arts training ground of Lian Shanfeng. When Chen Xuan arrived, the square was already packed with many people. This time, Lian Shanfeng had a considerable number of participants for the inner door competition. Chen Xuan took a rough glance and estimated that there were about a hundred people, most of whom he didn't recognize. Chen Xuan had been at Dan Xuan Gate for over two months, but spent very little time in the sect, so he barely knew any of these inner disciples. Some he had seen before, but didn't know their names. Only a few people had more contact with Chen Xuan. Chen Xuan took a look and walked into the crowd.

  "Chen Xuan, you're here," a group of four or five people walked over to Chen Xuan. "We haven't seen you for a while, have you been in seclusion?" a young man asked.

  "Yes, Lu Shixiong, this retreat has been rewarding. Are you and the others participating in this grand competition as well?" Chen Xuan asked several people;

  "We're just here to make up the numbers, we're probably not even going to make it into the top 500, but we still want to give it a try and gain more experience from the competition. As for you, Chen Xuan, your strength is probably good enough to get you into the top 20, and when that happens, our status will also rise with the tide. You're really abnormal, you've already left us far behind in just two months, give you another year and we'll probably all be looking up to you," said Lu Feiyu.

  "Senior brothers, you're too kind. I'm able to stand here at Danxuan Gate thanks to the support of all senior brothers. If it weren't for a few senior brothers, I might still be in some small place in Hongling Town, and even if I managed to break through, my strength wouldn't have increased this quickly. Senior brothers can rest assured, as long as Chen Xuan's strength increases, he will never forget the kindness of all senior brothers."

  "Junior brother is too polite, with junior brother's talent, even if we didn't go looking for you, you would still be a remarkable person in the future and would eventually soar to great heights. We just happened to introduce you to Dan Xuan Men first, but if disciples from other sects had discovered you, they would also have tried to recruit you. It's just that we were luckier," said Pei Wenliang.

  "Junior brother, in Danxuan Gate almost all inner disciples are grouped together, some forming cliques. We few people also form a small group. Junior brother, why not join our little group? In the future, we can take care of each other. If one person is bullied outside, we can join forces to deal with it. Our combined strength is much stronger than yours alone. If there's a task that one person can't complete in the future, we can form a team to work together and split the task points evenly."

  At Dan Xuan Gate, Chen Xuan also found that many of his disciples were in groups of five or six, or even ten or more together. Were these the so-called small cliques?

  "What are the requirements for joining this small group?" Chen Xuan asked.

  "There is no requirement, just mutual protection. If one of us is bullied by another group, we will join hands to help each other out, and our strength will increase a bit, it's just a way to protect ourselves."

  "Alright, I'm in," Chen Xuan replied directly;