Chapter 9: Inner disciple tournament. Yao Jun spent some time wandering around town, checking out various stores. It had been a week since Yao Pianzi had gotten news of the inner disciple tournament and he hadn't met any of them since. They could suspend their chores to focus on training, putting some finishing touches on their skills before the tournament. Yao Jun saw no point in doing this, he couldn't participate in the tournament, so taking the week off from the chores would only lead to him having nothing to do all day. Rather than spend all day doing nothing, he found it better to keep up his old habits, heading to the medicine garden every morning. But as he traveled to the medicine garden alone, he found it to be a rather lonely chore, so he had also gotten quite fond of meditating in the medicine garden. Since the medicine garden had a Qi Gathering Array, the concentration of Raw Qi was much larger on the mountain, giving people twice the result for half the effort. Normally people were forbidden from meditating in the medicine garden as it would take Raw Qi away from the herbs, but since Yao Jun was the only one in the medicine garden, there was no one to tell him off. Thanks to spending time meditating in the medicine garden and his daily meditating at night, Yao Jun had already managed to reach the 3rd level, close to the 4th. He hadn't managed to step into the first grade yet, but since he had only been able to train his Inborn Spell for a bit over two months, he was still rather pleased by the result. Ever since he had managed to reach the 3rd level, he had also felt more in tune with energy, giving him the feeling that he was almost capable of seeing the Raw Qi floating around him. While training the inborn spell was divided into 9 grades, each of which was again divided into 9 levels, the training of the warrior path had much more relaxed classifications. It was not divided into levels, but rather in how strong your body was. Yao Jun had trained his inborn spell for less than a year, but had already almost reached the 4th level of the 0th grade, a feat which could only be called extraordinary. To train their inborn spell, one had to be able sense the Qi in the air around them and absorb it, leading it into the place where their inborn spell was located. To train their body, one had to absorb the surrounding Qi, but instead of gathering it in one place, one had to spread it over the entire body, training every inch. Since they had to strengthen their entire body, it took much more effort than just training their inborn spell, due to this, despite Yao Jun training his body for a whole seven years, he had only reached the level of his body being as strong as a fully grown ox. If one wanted to explain that level of strength into levels, it could only classify as the 2nd level of the 0th grade. his seven years of grueling effort were worth less than half a year of meditation and absorbing a single Demonic beast, how laughable wasn't that? In truth, Yao Jun felt very stifled in Golden Moon town. As long as he was in the town or it's surrounding area, he couldn't bring out or enter his Garden of Eden, so ever since he left Flying Fish Town, he hadn't entered it once. He could try to enter the gate while he was in the medicine garden, but he was worried that doing so would trigger some mechanism in the Gathering Array, alerting the clan. Thinking about the quiet forest and lovable Lightning Tiger located inside his Garden of Eden and knowing that he couldn't enter it, Yao Jun shook his head with a slight sigh. “Forget it, i'll just head to the clan and watch the inner disciple tournament. They are basically guaranteed to pass, but I can at least cheer big sis Zi and the others on.” Yao Jun stopped wandering around town and turned towards the Yao clan premises, making his way back. After arriving at the Yao clan, Yao Jun headed to his house to freshen up and put on some new clothes, his emerald robes had gotten a bit dirty while in the medicine garden. After freshening up, Yao Jun took out a black robe from his interspatial ring. In truth, Yao Jun felt slightly out of place in the Yao clan. Every disciple wore the black robes embroidered with the clan mark, every disciple except Yao Jun. Yao Jun still wore the same emerald green robes he had always worn, making him stand out amongst the other disciples. He had thought about changing to the standard black robes, but whenever he looked at them, he just felt that they looked so dreary and lifeless. Other than that, the green robes he wore were made by his mother, so he was did not want to simply stop wearing them. Throwing the thought to the back of his mind, he stored the black robe back into his interspatial ring, taking out another green robe. If he didn't want to wear the black robes, he wouldn't, Yao Jun did not want to live a life where he did things he did not want to do. Leaving the house, Yao Jun headed towards the largest training ground placed behind the main mansion, this was where the inner disciple tournament would take place. Clad in a green robe, sword hanging at his side, his black hair tied up with a piece of string, combined with his soft and elegant features, he looked like a scholar heading to war. But when he arrived at the training ground, no one paid any attention to him, all eyes locked onto the middle of the training field where the disciples that would take part stood. Yao Jun found an inconspicuous place to stand and watch the tournament. He wasn't too surprised at the others not paying attention to him, even if there wasn't a tournament today, they still wouldn't look at him. The only ones Yao Jun was acquainted with was Yao Pianzi, Yao Mu, Yao Wei, and Yao Zhu. Other than these four, no one else in the Yao clan had spoken to Yao Jun so far, so Yao Jun was very thankful towards Yao Pianzi and the others for making him feel so welcomed. There was not a lot to be said before the inner disciple tournament, only mentioning that weapons, intentional murder, and intentional crippling of the opponents were forbidden. The tournament followed a very simple formula, the people participating drew opponents at random, losing a fight meant that in the next fight you would fight someone else who also lost. Winning meant fighting someone else who also won their first fight. This went on until everyone had fought six fights. The clan would then choose the five people who had the best scores and nurture them as inner disciples. After being an inner disciple for a period of time, the disciple would then be given the chance to become a core disciple. After becoming a core disciple, the disciple could challenge one of the top ten ranked disciples. If they won, they would get that disciple's rank and an increase in the resources they would get, becoming a ranked disciple. Most clans would follow this set up, with some slight differences. The tournament quickly moved on, and it was indeed just like Yao Jun had thought, Yao Pianzi and Yao Mu went undefeated. Yao Wei and Yao Zhu each lost one fight, but that was only because they ended up meeting Yao Pianzi and Yao Mu. The last person who got a spot in the top five and became an inner disciple was called Yao Gu, he had pale skin and short ruffled black hair, looking very unkempt. He fought in a very frenzied way, resembling a wild beast. His power seemed to be the ability to use his Qi to enter a frenzied state, simulating a wounded wild beast, as well as giving him an increase in his physical power. Yao Wei also had a brutish way of fighting, she looked petite and lovable, but her power was a pure physical power boost. Once she activated it, her physical power would instantly double, allowing her to waltz over almost any opponent that didn't have any means of ranged attacks. Yao Zhu was more elegant while fighting, her power manifested in the form of wind transforming into the shape of strings. She could control the strings with her fingers, making it look like she was playing a zither while she was fighting. But her strings could not be underestimated for they were sharp and deadly. Yao Pianzi and Yao Mu stood undefeated and the main reason behind that was that their powers could be considered top tier. They had also managed to train their powers up to the 6th level, allowing them a greater range where they could manifest their powers. Their powers could also be controlled mentally thanks to this, meaning that one could not predict where they would strike. Yao Mu looked elegant, but his power gave him control over stone, allowing him to use the earth to shield him while simultaneously flinging large rocks at his opponents, giving them no chance to get close or attack him, he was truly a fearsome fighter. Yao Pianzi could control mist, allowing her to turn the humidity in the air around her into mist to hide her body and deceive her opponents. She was like a specter while she fought, it was impossible to get a lock on her. Her opponents could only fall for her tricks before being defeated by her swift and merciless attacks. And just like that, the inner disciple tournament came to an end. The next one would not take place before in around a year, it was also at that point that Yao Jun would be allowed to participate, giving him a chance at becoming an inner disciple.