“An immortal in pursuit of the peak of Dao must learn to cultivate patience to its limits as well.”

Since the Crag Brothers became his followers, Qai took the liberty to sharpen himself by dueling with them.

And after 3 days of training, he left the two with medicinal pill each from the bottle he got from Old Bu’s pouch.

Even if he didn't know the pills’ name, he knew they weren't ordinary pills since Old Bu personally used them while in the Foundation Establishment stage. Besides their main ingredients were beast cores so he was certain of their high efficacy.

“I am actually hoping that these pills are enough to help the 2 of you to reach the great circle of the Qi Condensation stage soon.”

When the two received the medicinal pills, they were overjoyed.

As Qi Condensation stage cultivators, such pills would definitely aid them by leaps and bounds.

“Many thanks, young master.”

Thereafter, Qai asked them to simply stay in their immortal cave and cultivate since hre wouldn't be able to bring them to the sect.

Before leaving though, he summoned 2 of his Ant Soldiers and let them stay to act as protectors of the hill—but he strictly instructed the Spirit Beasts to stay hidden.

“If there is anything I need to know, just let these giant Ants hear you and your message will come to me.”

There were millions and millions of mysteries in the cultivation world so the Crag Brothers were no longer surprised to learn of the ‘communication’ abilities of the giant Ants.

When Qai left, the 2 brothers excitedly rushed inside their caves and immediately went into seclusion.

As soon as Qai got back to his valley, he checked on all his herbs and his calf.

He was surprised to learn that the Ant Workers were letting the young Eland eat some of the precious herbs.

Qai did not know whether that would be a good thing, but he considered that Spirit Beasts should know better the needs of fellow Spirit Beasts so he just let them be.

Since the tournament would come sooner or later, Qai decided to use the remaining medicinal pills for himself to attack the eighth level of the Qi Condensation stage.

The medicinal battle contained around 7 pills and he gave two to the Crag Brothers which left him with 5 medicinal pills.

He quite understood that because his ‘Transcending Autumn Arts’ was much slower compared to many other cultivation techniques, he could only rely on external aid like medicinal pills and other cultivation resources.

However, he wasn't much very aware that he was actually consuming too many resources just to advance.

Currently, he was very expectant of the 5 medicinal pills in his hands.

‘These medicinal pills should be enough to achieve perhaps even the ninth level.’

Qai thus tossed a pill inside his mouth and started to absorb and circulate the spiritual Qi energy it contained. As it happened, he could feel its richness and the flow of his spiritual Qi energy surged like waves within his body.

A week later he took another pill, then another after a month.

A couple of days just before the ranking tournament began, he finally opened his eyes.

His hair disheveled and his body filled with dirt.

He finally broke through to level 8 of the Qi Condensation stage—in fact, he reached its peak. But he was appalled by the fact that he had to use all the medicinal pills.

He was expecting that the 5 of them would be enough to attain at least the ninth level of the Qi Condensation stage, if not the great circle.

Nevertheless, a breakthrough was a breakthrough.

Not all disciples in the sect would be able to have an abundance of resources to help them advance. So in all, his achievement was still worth celebrating.

He immediately spread his Spiritual Sense and found that it could now extend half a mile.

From a hundred meters to its current state, it was definitely a leap by multiple times.

He picked up his Guandao and his Dart to test how much his control of flying treasures improved.

Obviously, Qai was now able to fly with his Guandao much faster.

In fact, his Guandao had a better flying speed than the flying sword he acquired from Old Bu.

And after just a day of training with his weapons, his Sky Piercing Dagger technique broke through to the mid-level.

Surprisingly, when he emerged from his stone house, he noticed that his Eland had grown into a true fawn.

It now galloped around the valley and kept on gnawing an herb from time to time. It was agile and appeared to have the same Wind elemental affinity.

Qai did not know whether to laugh or cry.

His garden of herbs was supposed to be a stable source of Contribution Points but it had become the Eland’s fodder.

Qai gauged the Eland’s strength and he could see clearly that it was already a level 1 Spirit Beast. However, he had no idea how to command it to unleash its ability.

‘Maybe I should research on beast rearing as well.’

Qai still had a day or two before the competition so he took advantage of the remaining time to deliver a batch of herbs to the Contributions Hall. Unfortunately, Elder Meng no longer seemed to need more Flame Mushrooms—but he still received 500 Contribution Points in total.

The Mo disciples meanwhile came to see him and brought their promised portion of the harvest.

They said that they actually dropped by several times, but because Qai was in seclusion, they weren't able to catch up to him back then.

Mo Chen and Mo Yufei, both broke through to level 7 of the Qi Condensation stage. And because they were almost of the same age as Qai, they also qualified to participate in the tournament.

‘How about we all go together in the arena.’

The total number of disciples in the sect numbered around thousands. And since it wasn't easy to acquire a Foundation Establishment Pill, most members were outer disciples.

However, not all outer disciples qualified to join the competition due to the cultivation base and age limit.

Evidently, Mo Shui and Ji Wuheng were examples of outer disciples who did not meet the age requirement.

While there were many other youthful disciples, many were still in the fifth and sixth levels of the Qi Condensation stage.

Thus, when the group arrived at the South peak, there were only about a hundred participants.

But what surprised Qai was that the previous large area was now divided into 10 dueling stages surrounded by layered bleachers filled with spectating disciples.

Soon, the names of the top 10 in the current ranking were being called one by one, except for the previous number 1 rank, Lin Feng.

Each ranked outer disciple was told to take a stage. As it appeared, they were the seeded disciple in a particular stage.

Thereafter, the rest of the participants were called as well.

When the last name was called, each stage turned to have 10 or so outer disciples.

Qai belonged to stage number 3 where the seeded fourth-ranked disciple arrogantly stood.

From one of the stands, 10 streaks of light beamed on top of each stage.

They were the Foundation Establishment stage cultivators who would stand in as officials of the matches.

Meanwhile above the stands, there was a floating platform from where the sect elders could watch.

Qai saw it and was amazed by how a huge platform turned out to be floating in the sky.

From there, one of the elders suddenly flew out then hovered above the stages.

“Elder Meng!”

Many disciples recognized the elder.

All of a sudden, the elder’s Core Formation stage aura loomed and his voice boomed over the entire arena.

“Greetings, dear sect disciples. For this time’s ranking competition the winners will receive rich rewards.”

Everyone turned quiet and keenly waited in anticipation.

“For the top 4 to 10, each will receive 1000 Contribution Points, cultivation pills and a week worth of stay in the Treasury Hall. But for the top 2 and 3, both will receive 2000 Contribution Points, cultivation pills, a month worth of stay in the Treasury Hall and another month worth of stay in the Cultivation Pagoda.”

Dang!