Wang Jie didn’t waste anytime. Now that he was here and settled in, he had to seek out information. There was so much he didn’t know about the cultivation world, and he couldn’t rely on Tang He and Lou Fu filling him in every time. Early morning after eating breakfast, he went to the sect library for outer disciples.

It turned out that it really was only general information. Outer disciples didn’t have access to things like techniques, skills or spells. But that wasn’t what he had come for anyway, he collected a book about spirit beasts and sat down at a table to read.

He quickly realized that none of the guards had been quite on the mark. In fact they were all wrong to some degree. Spirit beasts weren’t just classified into tier 1-9, but instead made use of the same stages as cultivators. They could be a Qi Condensation stage tier 2 just like him, though they were thought to be a bit stronger than a human at the same tier.

Wang Jie continued studying for a few hours, reading up on various spirit beasts and their traits, and whatever information that was available regarding the five continents he knew of and the four mythical beasts. There wasn’t too much about the continents, but he did learn some things regarding the mythical beasts.

Like that he settled into a routine, he’d study during the day and cultivate at night. The stone had broken after five days like expected, so now he wouldn’t have any new Spirit Stones until the 1st of the month. It’d been thirteen days since he arrived at the sect, so there was still over half a month left.

The price of spirit stones was 50 gold per, far more than Wang Jie could afford. The price was absolutely astonishing for someone of his origins, he could pay for 50 people’s passage through the border wall with that amount of gold.

If he wanted to fulfill his grand ambitions, he had to find a way past this obstacle. He needed another source of spirit stones.

The first idea that came to him was the sect missions. The sect offered various rewards and spirit stones in exchange for completing dangerous sect missions. However, he was only in the 2nd tier and had no fighting techniques. Going on a sect mission was practically suicide. Most of the ones taking on a mission were either in the 3rd tier or above, or just disciples without talent desperate for spirit stones. He was desperate sure, but not that desperate.

He could also get a job in the sect. Various departments offered payment in spirit stones in exchange for working. Outer disciples were employed in many positions to help with some grunt work. However, it really was grunt work and therefore didn’t pay very well. It would also take up a lot of his time. For one or two spirit stones a month, it was hardly worth it spend several hours a day doing some menial task.

Mulling over his options, Wang Jie realized there was one more thing that he hadn’t considered. The sect had an arena where disciples could duel each other, staking a spirit stone on the match. All duels between outer disciples were unarmed, but that was the exact reason it might work for Wang Jie.

He didn’t have any nimble or elegant sword arts, but he had something else, strength. He was certain his physical body was levels above anyone of the same tier. As long as he could get hits in, he would definitely come out on top.

There was still the matter of securing the one spirit stone as his startup funds. His mind quickly went to Lou Fu. He didn’t like to borrow from others too much, but if things went as planned he could pay him back. Making up his mind he headed to Lou Fu’s quarters and knocked on the door.

Footsteps came closer and then the door swung open.

“Who is-, oh hey it’s you,” Lou Fu’s lips curled into a grin, “what can I do? You wanna come inside?”

“Nahh it’s okay, it’ll be quick. I just wanted borrow a spirit stone. I’ll pay you back later.”

“Sure I don’t mind, but what do you need it for? Cultivating?”

“No, I want to go try my luck at the arena.”

“The arena? Are you nuts!” Lou Fu smacked his lips, “You’ll just be throwing it away.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem, the rankings are split into the early, middle and late parts of Qi Condensation right? I’d only be meeting 3rd tiers at the worst.”

“Yeah but I don’t think you realize what that means. Not only would they be a tier above you, but they’ve been cultivating a lot longer than you. There are some old disciples who’ve been here for years stuck at the very pinnacle of the 3rd tier.” Lou Fu shook his head, “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. Your base isn’t even that solid since you cultivated with that other technique.”

“Trust me okay? I know what I’m doing.”

“Fine fine, you can have it but, you should really use it to cultivate instead of throwing it away.” Lou Fu sighed, “Just don’t say I didn’t try to warn you. This is the only one I’m giving, I need to buy things too.”

“I understand, I’ll pay you back when I have the chance.”

“I’m not worried about getting it back, I’m just worried you’ll waste it for no reason. Anyway, I’ll go get it right now, give me a moment.”

True to his words, shortly after Lou Fu came back out with a spirit stone in his hand and offered it to Wang Jie.

“Thanks.” Wang Jie took the stone in his hand and put it away.

“You better win now.” Lou Fu nodded, “That’s five days of cultivating right there, should be precious to you.”

“It is, I’ll put it to good use.”

With the stone secured, Wang Jie headed towards the arena. It was a solid half hour walk to get from the 4th district to the arena.

Registering was a breeze, he just had to hand over his jade token, a spirit stone and tell the disciple behind the desk that he was looking for a duel. With that out of the way he went to the arena grounds where he sat on the ground, waiting for his name to be called.

There were four stages set up, with fights taking place on them all. A few less ambitious disciples were in the stands, cheering on the various fighters. Wang Jie couldn’t see the worth in that. They were wasting their time watching fights that were little to be gained from. These were just early Qi Condensation fighters going at each other in a battle of attrition. No techniques or skills were used at all as it was extremely rare for an outer disciple to know any.

A fight finished on one of the stages as a brutish disciple smacked his opponent off the stage with a fiery hit. The referee declared the brutish disciple the winner and two disciples came running in to get the disciple that had been knocked unconscious.

“Next match, unranked Wang Jie vs rank 150 Sheng Yu.” The referee called out.

Wang Jie perked his ears, that was his name that had been called. 150? That seemed like quite a high number. He knew that there was at least 1000 outer disciples in the sect. Still, in his opinion, many of them were useless, just like these spectators. Getting on his feet he calmly walked to the stage and stepped on it.

His opponent hadn’t arrived yet so Wang Jie just crossed his arms and waited patiently. Glancing around, he saw someone walking towards the stage. At that same time the spectators spotted him too and started cheering even louder.

“Go Sheng Yu!”

“Crush him!”

Wang Jie listened to the cheers coming from all around him and sneered. Something inside him disdained these pitiful people. Cultivation was about your own strength, it wasn’t some celebrity contest.

“Hello, Wang Jie, right? I haven’t seen you around before, are you new?” Sheng Yu smiled amicably, he seemed like a friendly person.

“Yeah.” Wang Jie scoffed and didn’t bother elaborating. He felt that this guy wasn’t worth his time.

Sheng Yu couldn’t help but frown at Wang Jie’s behavior, but quickly regained his amicable smile. That was the exact thing Wang Jie didn’t like about him. He was treating this whole thing like a popularity contest, like it was his job to win over these so called fans.

“Bow.” The referee said.

Wang Jie just went through with the formalities and bowed.

Seeing that both fighters were ready, the referee started the fight.

Both fighters flew towards each other and clashed in a blow of fists at the middle. Perhaps Sheng Yu had been eager to end it after the disrespect he had been shown.

A rain of blows landed on Wang Jie’s body hitting him all over.

“They’re heavy.” He thought, “But not that heavy.”

The blows weren’t that bad. Sure Sheng Yu was a lot faster than him and could use his Qi better, he probably even had more. But his attacks just didn’t do enough damage. The tough skin and organs allowed Wang Jie to take the blows and remain relatively unscathed. Meanwhile, with every punch of Wang Jie’s that hit, Sheng Yu looked visibly rattled.

The sound of flesh striking flesh continued to ring out as the battle grew in intensity. Wang Jie had given up on dodging or blocking Sheng Yu’s attacks. He simply wasn’t fast enough as the other would use Qi to speed up his movements.

Battling was also good to train Wang Jie’s Qi control. He couldn’t move his arms in time to block the blows, but he could move Qi to the spots being struck and negate most of the force. As he increased his proficiency most of the attacks became useless, barely doing any damage to him at all.

Blood started oozing out of Sheng Yu’s eyes and a few cuts on his face. The tides were turning in Wang Jie’s favor and even the crowd seemed to have noticed.

“Come on Sheng Yu!”

“Beat his ass!”

“I believe in you Sheng Yu!”

In Wang Jie’s eyes it was absolutely pathetic. These people were cheering for a person who probably didn’t even know their names. Whether he won or lost they would have no benefits to gain from it. A bit of anger started to well up in it, and before he knew it, it had carried into his attacks. The anger fueled his attacks as he put even more force into them.

At this point it was clear Sheng Yu was already running out of gas. It seemed that he was a cultivator in the beginning of the 3rd tier.

Sheng Yu sent a desperate kick, but since most of his energy had depleted, Wang Jie was able to see it and easily grabbed the leg.

It was a comical scene as Wang Jie stood there holding the leg and Sheng Yu tried to balance himself on his remaining leg.

Cruelty came over Wang Jie, he had this idiots leg in hand, he could break it so very easily. The thought was very alluring to him. He looked into Sheng Yu’s eyes and saw the pleading. What was he doing right now? Why was he even thinking of doing it? A wave of clarity washed over him. He shook himself and pushed Sheng Yu off of the stage, sending him crashing straight into the dirt.

A thump was heard and the arena turned completely silent. The crowd began talking.

“Did that new guy just defeat Sheng Yu?”

“I don’t believe it.”

“He’s crazy! He looked like he wanted to kill Sheng Yu at the end.”

Some might have basked in the glory of the win, but Wang Jie just ignored them. After the referee had called his victory he walked off the stage to go collect his spirit stones. That was the difference between him and Sheng Yu. He believed in strength, not popularity. The way of a cultivator was paved by his own might.