“More often than not, the reward is found alongside the risk.”

Qai dropped on all fours when the bolts of lightning suddenly landed on him.

However, he was able to stand up quickly while the lightning effects were crawling all over his body.

When Ao Xuan saw this, she was taken aback but immediately made another incantation. Her intention was to unleash another set of lightning bolts.

Qai, on the other hand, gritted his teeth as he tried to suppress the lightning effects.

But while he was observing his body carefully, he found his skin being burned into a crisp. He screamed deep inside—then he crazily thought to absorb the lightning bolts, for after all, they were created from spiritual Qi energy.

And so he did.

Qai, thus, circulated his spiritual Qi energy and guided the lightning to temper his muscles. It took him some time to accomplish the process due to the pain it produced but he succeeded nonetheless.

The elders saw his action and they were all amazed.

‘What!? Is he’s trying to temper his body with the lightning?’

Kgzzzt.

It was at this time that another set of lightning bolts hurled towards Qai.

Baam. Baam. Baam.

Ao Xuan was relentless.

Unexpectedly, Qai simply opened his eyes and cheerfully welcomed the lightning.

‘Hahaha, I never thought that this would be a good opportunity for me to train my body.’

“Fairy Xuan, do you have any lightning more powerful than this. I’m still starving, you know.”

Ao Xuan was furious when she heard those words. But even in her anger, she kept her composure.

She thus threw away any thoughts of using further any lightning ability believing it could make her opponent even stronger.

Instead, she pulled out a pill cauldron and let it float in front of her. And after murmuring some incantations, rich spiritual Qi energy emitted from it as it grew large.

Right at that moment, the large pill cauldron immediately catapulted towards Qai’s direction. Its size was so huge that it was almost impossible to avoid.

But Qai was even more unpredictable, he prematurely finished his body tempering and charged directly towards the shooting cauldron.

And with a howl, he threw a punch and his fist slammed on to the treasure.

Boom!

The collision was so loud that Qai flew 3 steps back.

At the same time, Ao Xuan who was on the other side of the stage sprayed a mouthful of blood.

Qai quickly regained his balance and instantly summoned his Guandao. He once again charged and leaped midway. And as he landed, he slashed his weapon unleashing his ever-reliable knight skill.

Deathly crisis suddenly welled up in Ao Xuan’s mind as Qai’s frightening Intent hovered in the air.

“Stop!”

But it was too late, as everybody thought.

‘Nightfall!’

Before the attack slammed onto Ao Xuan, the official of the stage appeared all of a sudden in between them and quickly repelled the attack.

Boom.

“Winner of this round, outer disciple Qai!”

Cheers began to erupt when his name was announced.

Apparently, the spectators cheered not because they wanted Qai to win but because of the magnificence of the fight.

And with that win, Qai ended up becoming rank number 2 among the outer disciples.

Of course, Bai Chen secured the top spot after Qai forfeited their match.

Ao Tian was the most frustrated of the result among all spectators.

He was madly furious at Qai.

He didn't know how and why, but he felt that Qai had actually been belittling him. He was a genius, a chosen in his mighty clan, but was humbled twice by a nobody.

And even if Ao Tian wanted to make a move on Qai right there and then, he knew he couldn't do so openly—he will have to wait for the right opportunity.

With that, the tournament concluded marked by the amazing matches that were worth retelling in the years to come.

Qai received a total of 7000 Spirit Stones from Ji Wuheng thereafter and also received the pre-announced rewards for taking the second place.

The day after the competition, he was secretly summoned by Elder Li to ask about how he found the sect so far.

Qai, in reply, honestly said that he was liking it very much.

And from there the sect elder talked about what a disciple meant for the sect and what the sect should mean for a disciple.

“Use all of the rewards to consolidate your cultivation base and try to reach the great circle of Qi Condensation soon. And after the sect tournament next year, I hope you will breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage.”

With that, the elder handed Qai a medicinal bottle containing a single Foundation Establishment Pill.

That was actually the sect’s way of convincing Qai to remain loyal to the sect as per the Sect Master’s suggestion.

The Sect Master’s thoughts for giving a Foundation Establishment Pill was that once Qai becomes an inner disciple, he would be able to receive more resources and participate in the missions to reap Contribution Points way better.

That way, Qai would even feel more secured in the sect.

Qai apparently heeded Elder Li’s advice and immediately spent his free stay in the Treasury Hall to further his advancement in Array Formations.

And the gains from a month-worth of stay in the said Hall, devoted primarily to studying Array Formations, were no small matter. In fact, he almost finished reading all the available manuals concerning it in the first floor.

And the best part of his learnings was that he now actually understood how to refine low to mid rank formation Flags.

However, Qai slightly postponed to use the sect’s Cultivation Pagoda.

According to the information he gathered, the 9-story pagoda was a mysterious artefact in itself. It wasn't refined by any of past or present elders but was found by the founder himself and erected it on the peak of South mountain.

Rumors had it that anyone who completed the training up to the ninth floor will receive a reward from the Pagoda itself.

So Qai decided to prepare well before he made an attempt to enter it. Thus, he harvested a batch of herbs instead and exchanged them for Contribution Points.

With the addition of the rewards from the tournament, his Contribution Points were once again starting to rise considerably.

Qai then went on to visit the Crag Brothers and generously handed them his Foundation Establishment Pill plus a large sum of Spirit Stones.

“Use these Spirit Stones to buy another Foundation Establishment Pill in the city so both of you can finally breakthrough into the next realm. If you are intent on following me, you two must be strong enough to protect me.”

In Qai’s understanding, he shouldn't be too stingy to his own people. And he knew that sacrificing his own Foundation Establishment Pill was worth it.

Besides, it was not that difficult to obtain such another pill in the future. He could in fact simply exchange for it in the Contributions Hall.

What mattered to him was to make plans on how to establish his own foot into the cultivation world. And to him, belonging to a sect was not enough to accomplish it—one must also have his own forces to survive.

“Soon we're going to put up a shop in order for us to gain a stable flow of income.”

Qai explained that he intended to buy a place in the city where their group could put up a shop that would offer his own formation flags, Teng Gui’s talismans, and Teng Hu’s pills.

So he encouraged the two to continue enhancing their auxiliary skills since their attainments in Talisman refinement and Pill alchemy were still far from satisfactory.

But even then, Qai was adamant to push through it as soon as possible. And to him, it would be sufficient if the shop could at least cater to the needs of the lower realm cultivators.

That way, even if the items they would offer were small, the flow of customers could still be huge since the total number of Qi Condensation stage cultivators was many times more within the region.

Besides, in Qai’s mind, the shop would have another purpose—and that is, to gather information.

And he knew that most gossips were apparently circulated among lower realm cultivators.