Chapter 46: The Original Purpose of the Top Ten Tournament

Ji Yao was confident, for after this round, seventy-five contestants would advance, but there were still twenty-five inner disciple positions left. These would be contested among the seventy-five who were eliminated. With Qi Lianyi’s abilities, Ji Yao believed it wouldn’t be too difficult for her. Ji Yao’s victory over Qi Lianyi owed little to sheer strength—it was more about strategy, every step calculated from the moment she stepped onto the stage.

From the very start, Ji Yao had employed a circuitous approach, intending to lure her opponent into her trap. This was only possible because Qi Lianyi lacked experience and favored a decisive, all-or-nothing fighting style. Thus, throughout the match, Ji Yao appeared cautious and meticulous—a necessity, given that her cultivation was two levels below her adversary’s.

Maintaining such a defensive posture for too long could lull an opponent into believing she was nearing her limit. For someone like Qi Lianyi, always poised to strike at any sign of weakness, this was a tempting bait. Yet Ji Yao had miscalculated one thing: she hadn’t foreseen that, in the final instant before being completely restrained, Qi Lianyi would hurl her Twin Star Blades at her, nearly knocking Ji Yao out of the ring as well.

At that moment, it wouldn’t have mattered who crossed the line first—as long as the judge hadn’t declared a result, it would have been a tie. That was what truly unsettled Ji Yao in retrospect.

The spirit energy orb Ji Yao unleashed at the end wasn’t intended as an attack—it was meant to bind, to exert just enough force to propel her opponent from the stage. She knew the formation would not hold long without her own spirit energy to sustain it; as she expended her final reserves to cast the orb, the entire formation was already beginning to unravel.

This spirit energy orb was a secret technique taught to her by Situ Jing, and it was Ji Yao’s first time using it. The technique worked best at lower cultivation levels; at Nascent Soul or Spirit Transformation, it could at most restrain a peer for half a breath or less, and only if they were caught off-guard. Against someone at a higher level, it was utterly useless—a true double-edged sword.

Worst of all, the technique’s greatest flaw was its debilitating aftermath: regardless of how much spirit energy remained, using it would leave the caster weakened for a time. When Situ Jing had taught Ji Yao, she’d said it was a last resort—something to use if she was absent or unable to intervene, giving Ji Yao a slim chance to escape or hide in her spatial realm in a fatal crisis.

That was why Qi Lianyi, having lost outside the ring, remained silent, gazing at her so intently.

All Ji Yao had ever intended was to force her opponent out of the ring—nothing more. And if such a formidable opponent couldn’t be won over, it was best not to make an enemy of her. In this, Ji Yao had gambled correctly. At the very least, Qi Lianyi bore her no ill will and was even willing to meet her again, wasn’t she?

Thankfully, the outcome of this round was a narrow but safe victory—she had made it into the inner sect.

At the end, Ji Yao couldn’t help but beam foolishly at Qi Lianyi. She was exhausted—not in body, but in mind. She would definitely need a day and night of sleep to recover.

After the top one hundred inner disciples were determined in this round, the next would officially begin—a contest for the top ten, drawn from the seventy-five who had first advanced in the fourth round. The venue shifted to the main peak of the inner sect, Tianmu Peak, the principal summit of the Lingyun Sect. The audience was now composed of Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining inner disciples, no longer the familiar outer sect peers; the pressure was immense.

The sect’s intention was mutual encouragement. Some inner disciples with dual spiritual roots had been admitted solely on talent, but had grown complacent, sometimes less diligent than even the outer disciples, squandering their great potential. Thus, holding the top ten contest on Tianmu Peak served two purposes: with four rounds of selection behind them, even the luckiest entrants had proven their strength, ensuring the matches would be of the highest quality; and the contest would spur the inner disciples to greater effort, letting the excellence of the majority set the standard and put pressure on the newcomers.

Cultivation was a struggle against the heavens, a ceaseless advance against the current. Spiritual roots, aptitude, and comprehension determined only half; diligence and effort mattered just as much. No amount of talent could compensate for idleness.

Ji Yao no longer cared much for the upcoming matches. At the ninth level of Qi Refining, those she would face next were all at the peak of Qi Refining, none of them weak. Even if she gave her all, the best she could hope for was a narrow victory, perhaps a draw; in any case, she would certainly be injured, and if those injuries were severe, the poison within her would flare up again.

She instinctively felt that the more often the poison recurred, the harder it would be to suppress. If the day came when even the Ten-Thousand-Year Azure Herb failed to contain it, all her years of effort would become a cruel joke.

Situ Jing had promised that once Ji Yao reached Golden Core, she could seek out the Source of Wood, and would help her then. But who could predict the future? Tens of thousands of years had passed—enough time for worlds to be transformed, especially in the Mancang Realm, where cultivators abounded and great powers could shift mountains and seas.

Who could guarantee that the place Situ Jing had once found still held the Source of Wood? Moreover, in these fifty thousand years, no one had succeeded in transcending the tribulation or ascending. Strange phenomena linked to demons had become frequent. And why, after her soul had recovered, did Situ Jing not choose to reincarnate and cultivate anew, but instead fixate on having Ji Yao complete a certain task?

With so many clues converging, Ji Yao’s suspicion about the truth only grew stronger.

Because of this, Ji Yao’s goals were clear. No temptation could outweigh the value of her life; every effort she made now was for the sake of living longer and better.

So Ji Yao had no intention of exhausting herself in the coming matches. If she could fight, she would; if not, she would simply step down and yield her place to another.

In the lottery for the seventy-five who advanced from the fourth round, one person would draw a bye and advance automatically, joining the thirty-seven winners of the fifth round in the contest for the top sixteen.

What Ji Yao never expected was that she would draw the bye. Was fate mocking her caution, thrusting her into the path of even stronger opponents?

Some would say luck was a kind of strength in the cultivation world. But she didn’t want to attract too much attention—better to lie low for now. In a world of wolves, weakness was the greatest sin.

Ji Yao was certain: come the sixth round, she would be the weakest, most easily bullied among all the advancing disciples, and whoever faced her would be the envy of the rest.

She would surely win much sympathy. But as she thought of this, an uneasy feeling crept over her.

Would she end up as the proverbial “white lotus” among the new inner disciples? That was hardly a good sign.

At this moment, Ji Yao realized she couldn’t continue her previous strategy. On the stage, she mustn’t appear too weak—even if she chose to forfeit, she should first give her opponent something to remember, then withdraw with dignity. At the very least, she mustn’t let others think her cowardly.

She needed to make a name for herself in the inner sect first.