Kenja had instructed Puchi and his servant associates to keep renting the tribulation stones until his stock was emptied, and considering that they had collected more than two thousand of them in the first few hours, Puchi must have accumulated several thousand more since Kitamura Bolo had departed from the store.

Combine that with the fact that the entire sect had undergone several bestowments of Qi since Kenja’s first trip to the apothecary, the servants and outer sect disciples would certainly jump at the chance to get extra cultivation resources to maximize their harvest from Kenja’s recent accomplishments, at the cheap cost of delaying their seclusion a few days.

What Kenja had not considered was that more and more of these disciples would come to the challenge pit and wait for his return. Since they could not return to their caves, plenty of them had nowhere better to be and probably wanted to cheer him on to break another record or offer their thanks.

Didn’t they know that cultivation was all about diligence and repetition? Did they lack motivation to cultivate outside of their cave? And they wondered why their progress was stagnant?

Go somewhere else and cultivate you lazy disciples!

Or maybe they were here for the opposite reason. Maybe they wanted to demand a refund, and Puchi gave his name as a scapegoat. Perhaps the name he told Senior Aunt Hide had spread by now, and the rentors were now waiting in ambush to exact retribution or recompense from him for his ill-timed business entrapment that prevented them from cultivating in their caves.

What was this? Kenja’s face darkened as he was faced with a lose-lose scenario; they were causing him trouble regardless of the reason.

Damnit!

He really wasn’t as thorough in his planning as he should have been, diving into a one-way hole with a false identity and then calling everyone to watch the exit while also taking away any reason to leave. To think he would corner himself so badly.

Kenja’s only consolation was that the stuck-up snob, Kitamura Bolo, might have been inconvenienced by his ploy. Looking at Kenja’s bleak circumstances, if the last thing Kenja accomplished before the end of his life was causing Bolo some trouble or pain, he could pass on with no regrets.

His pained smile exhaled a chuckle at the pitiful position that he found himself in, a result of his own actions.

Kenja deflected the combined attack of four mid-level Qi Flourishing water bubbles and one high-level Qi Flourishing wind strike by throwing the smaller bubbles together at the large gale.

The volleys always had at least one or more ways of being resolved, and it was up to the challenger to determine the solution in time and execute it.

Completely absorbed in his own introspection and no longer concerned with failure, he was oblivious to the increased frequency and complexity of the volleys as he allowed his subconscious to handle them while he focused on contemplating his overall predicament.

His hand motions became more compact and fluid, his footwork subtle, and his expressionless eyes worked in conjunction with his body’s Qi sensitivity to swiftly detect the relative layout of Elder Grunty’s newly-summoned volley better than when he was consciously doing it.

Kenja’s lips pinched together to form a tighter smile. It was bad enough that the disciples outside weren’t leaving anytime soon, but Kenja didn’t have the same luxury of time as they did! With each passing hour, Elder Grunty’s water attacks seemed to be brighter in coloration than before.

It did not take long for Kenja to realize that they were not becoming brighter as time passed, but the basin’s water was getting darker. In other words, the sect’s concentration of Yin was increasing. His deposited stones were still draining away at the sect’s Yang reserves, and the extra time Sakura had bought him was nearing its end. If he didn’t leave soon and recollect all the stones, someone would notice.

He didn’t mean to forget about the stones, but so much had happened in a short span of time that they slipped his mind. With Snail’s Rusty Robber mishap, Sakura’s record-breaking spectacle, and the exciting practice with Elder Grunty, could one blame him for losing track of time?

He was still young and prone to err, but it was not too late to salvage the situation! Kenja could see a way out of this literal and figurative hole he dug himself into.

“Oh no…” Snail muttered under his breath.

Sakura who was floating in the water near the pillar Snail was on let out a questioning hum. From her vantage point, Kenja was performing much better than before. He had broken his previous record and reached thirty volleys, causing the various wills in the background to murmur in astonishment to one other.

“Not that. The kid has that damn smirk on his face.”

One of the corners of Kenja’s contemplative smile had risen further than the other, giving the spectators a slanted, smug look.

Snail panicked.

It was the same, sly smirk he had on his face when he had tricked Snail back in the forest and again with Matsupitasashimi and his fruit and a third time when he confirmed his tribulation stone theory was true.

By now, Snail knew that expression was a blaring red flag. He was planning something! Just to be on the safe side, Snail vowed to turn down any proposal to gamble for the next week. Okay, for the next day, not week. One day should suffice. You know what…no gambling for the next hour. That’s cautious enough…okay, let’s just hear him out. There’s no harm in listening to his proposal. After all, Kenja was his disciple. If something seemed fishy, then no gambling! Well, if it’s only a little fishy, Snail could still handle it. After all, who else could handle a little fishiness if not him?

Snail’s eyes danced back-and-forth as he talked himself into a gambling mood.

Meanwhile, Kenja continued to defeat each volley one after the other with glazed eyes and a devilish smirk on his face. His hand movements seemed to become more subdued with each gesture, and his footwork was softer and less erratic. The platform barely tilted or bobbed anymore.

Kenja had come up with an alternate escape plan.

The fact that the Yin-Yang concentration in the Dragon’s Basin was being directly affected by his tribulation stones’ consumption must mean that there was a tunnel connecting the basin to the moat surrounding the sect. If that was the case, then all he had to do was have Snail look for it and leave through there.

Even if the Pillars of Will wanted to stop him, they wouldn’t dare hinder Snail who had already tamed their leader.

Two giant fireballs barreled at Kenja; they were similar in size and power to Junior Brother Shin’s final attack but much faster. With a compact, ninety-degree shuffle, they grazed both sides of his body perfectly before dissipating into the air a dozen chi away.

The murmuring in the background increased, but both Kenja’s conscious and subconscious were too busy to hear them.

Kenja felt bad about this new departure plan since it might be disrespectful to these helpful senior pillars, but he didn’t have much choice. He was short on time, and considering the sect didn’t take too kindly to thieves or infiltrators, his life and death would be up for debate once he was caught.

The next volley mirrored the previous one except the fireballs had two huge masses of water following behind them. They weren’t as fast, but they were bigger with a more intimidating aura than the fireballs. This time, Kenja did a full one-eighty and used the fireballs to weaken the water bubbles before motioning for the two bubbles to rise above him and collide with each other, making a small shower rain down on him.

The water landing on his head slapped him back to reality, and he immediately regretted tossing those bubbles upwards, getting himself wet on top of a block of ice. His body shivered from the cold, but he couldn’t have Snail dry him off till after this challenge attempt was over.

His natural smile returned once more. Now that he had a plan of action that wasn’t suicidal, hopeless or risky, the burden on his back vanished. His guilt towards possibly upsetting all the Pillars of Will had not vanished, but he told himself to bear with it. If he survived, he’ll make it up to them later somehow.

Besides…requiring him to break a record was asking for a bit much. This was a great way to kill some time since it was fun and made him feel a bit better about his…handicapped status as a cultivator, but there was no way he would clear thirty-nine volleys.

Another gigantic fireball about three times’ Kenja’s size spawned, and an equally giant gale that had enough power to send Kenja flying was following directly behind the fireball as they barreled towards him. Instead of being shaken by the sheer magnitude of the attack like most cultivators, Kenja’s smile brightened to a dazzling degree as he nearly drooled at the setup. After six hours of playing around, this kind of volley was his favorite type—the bigger, the better.

With just a single three-sixty turnaround, the fireball would dry his clothes, bringing his body back to a toasty warm temperature, and that giant gale wouldn’t come near him after being blasted by the returning fireball. Now this was a bargain Kenja couldn’t resist!

Kenja reached into his bag for two Qi Accelerant Pills and hastily ate them. He steadied his breathing, readied himself…

SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsS

…and just as planned, he led the fireball like a gentleman making way for a lady before pulling her back into a twirl and sending her back the way she came. Needless to say, she didn’t take kindly to being sent back and vented her anger on the howling whirlwind obstructing her path.

With the resulting heat wave engulfing everybody for a moment, Kenja turned to look at Elder Grunty and gave her an innocent, open-mouth grin showing his straight, white teeth. He was hoping his execution earned some praise from Elder Grunty, but his expectations were far from reality.

Elder Grunty glared at him with reddened eyes of fury. She raised her hand up and slammed it down in the air.

An elephantine glacier condensed above his head in less than three seconds, and it boasted an aura way beyond anything one at Kenja’s level could comprehend. It began descending towards him like a boulder falling on a frog standing on a lily pad. There was absolutely, positively no way he could deflect that.

His smile vanished and his face paled as he began panicking. Wasn’t the difficulty increase a bit too much? Was it too late to forfeit? He couldn’t even jump out of its impact area if he tried!

“Hmph! Not so funny now, is it?!”

Before the massive meteor could mash Kenja into a paste, a loud voice echoed, “Sister, what do you think you are doing?!”

Xiang Xin appeared above Kenja and froze the glacier in place, completely halting its downward momentum.

“You saw what he was doing to me! How can I let him off?” She raised a clenched fist and jerked it open. A myriad of long and pointed icicles formed around the glacier, trained on Kenja.

Taken by surprise, Kenja’s head swiveled in place as his eyes darted side-to-side at the sharp skewers threatening to shish-kebab him. Did he do something wrong?

When she tried to swing her opened hand downwards, another hand stopped her by holding it in place and a second hand appeared on her shoulder to keep her from trying something else.

“You shouldn’t bully him any further, sister.”

“He’s truly an unpolished gem we must refine. We can’t torment him, sister.”

Huai Yi appeared in front of Elder Grunty and the ‘bald monk’ from before appeared behind her.

The woman’s combed hair unraveled in anger as their three tips began unfurling. “Bully him? I was the one being bullied! You all are going to side with that little demon over a sister you’ve spent centuries with?”

Kenja listened to their conversation with a distraught and confused expression. Was she referring to him?

He cleared his throat and spoke out, “Senior, did I do something wrong?”

When Elder Grunty heard Kenja’s words, she snapped. Her eyes widened in rage and her three hair spikes split up into several smaller, thinner spikes, giving her the appearance of an enraged porcupine. Huai Yi and the monk worked together to hold her back while giving Kenja looks of disbelief.

After confirming Elder Grunty was kept in check, Xiang Xin waved his hand and shattered the glacier and surrounding icicles before turning to face Kenja.

“Junior, do you know how many volleys you have reached this time?”

Kenja wasn’t able to keep track of the volleys, but it felt like a little bit more than twenty, maybe twenty-five. Since they were making a big deal out of it, Kenja decided to overshoot his estimation just to be safe.

“Twenty-seven?”

Elder Grunty’s left eye began twitching while the two men smiled helplessly. Xiang Xin exhaled a sigh before smiling as well.

“You defeated forty-one volleys, junior. Congratulations on setting a new record.”

Kenja took a step back in surprise prompting him to slip on the ice and…

SPLASH

…tumble into the water for the 144th time.