Chapter 25: Small Event

Chapter 25: A Little Event

Tianling Mountain, Inner Sect Cave Dwelling

"Yu Cong, Yu Cong! There's a tournament!" Yan Fei yelled as he hopped off his flying sword, and without even stepping inside, he couldn't help but shout excitedly.

Yu Cong was just working through practice problems from an "Introductory Arithmetic" book when Yan Fei caught him off guard, and he blurted out excitedly without thinking, "What? Another exam?"

"It's not an exam, it's a tournament," Yan Fei corrected. "Junior Brother Mo proposed to the Immortal Venerable Lord to hold the 'First Ever Immortal Chess Tournament'—it's not just a test of chess skill, but also a contest of piece strength..."

"No, no, don't tell me! Didn't I say not to bring up anything chess-related until I finish my seclusion?"

Yu Cong covered his ears, looking like he was tuning everything out.

Yan Fei couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

Ever since his friend found out that making his own piece required a certain score, he'd been stuck in this state for days—not only dodging any talk of chess but also declaring he was "in seclusion hitting the books," acting like he wouldn't come out until he aced his exams.

But Yan Fei had been obsessed with Secret Realm Chess lately, so he hadn't really bothered with him. It was only now that he tried to talk some sense into him: "Is it really that big a deal? Even if it were an exam, do you think you'd pass if you went now?"

"Who knows! I now think the elementary teacher my parents picked for me back then was no good—he held me back," Yu Cong said smugly. "I've realized I'm pretty gifted in every subject, especially when it comes to math. Who knows, with a couple more days of study, I might even be able to chew through the Book of Changes."

"Did you hit your head?" Yan Fei asked suspiciously.

He reached out and felt Yu Cong's forehead with concern, momentarily forgetting about the tournament. "You're not feverish—why are you talking crazy?"

"I'm not talking nonsense!" Yu Cong held up his practice book and shook it vigorously. "I graded it myself—I got seven out of ten right!"

"...You peeked at the answers, didn't you?" Yan Fei said as he took the book.

For most people, getting seven out of ten would be normal, but Yu Cong was the type of guy who, if someone spent 60 spirit stones to buy his flying sword (originally priced at 100, with an 80% depreciation discount per the rules), he'd end up giving them 30 spirit stones back. Sword cultivators get scammed because there are too many people like him.

But Yu Cong had zero self-awareness: "It's not even a real exam—why would I cheat?!"

"If it were a real exam, you'd have the guts to... Where on earth did you find this math book?" Yan Fei asked.

Yan Fei could see at a glance the secret behind Yu Cong's "progress."

It wasn't because Yan Fei was some kind of eagle-eyed detective, but because he wasn't great at math himself—not quite to Yu Cong's level of bad, but just looking at a math book gave him a splitting headache.

But this book didn't do that.

The writing was simple and easy to follow, and the exercises were clear and fun. Yan Fei felt that if he'd learned from this book as a kid, he might not have ended up becoming a sword cultivator.

And Yu Cong, who was using a beginner's book at his age, was oddly proud of himself: "I told you it was that old geezer at the private school who messed me up. I might be a math prodigy after all."

"..." Yan Fei gave him a cold look but didn't bother to roast him.

Yu Cong finally said, "What's with that look... Fine, the Immortal Venerable wrote this textbook."

"Immortal Venerable?" Yan Fei was taken aback. "Why would he write something so elementary?"

"Elementary? I think it's tough!" Yu Cong protested. "And I did copy this book from the Instructor class! I heard it's the latest textbook that's going to be used throughout the sect!"

"Instructor class?" Yan Fei raised an eyebrow.

After the last sect-wide exam, both the outer and inner sects were split into classes based on each class's learning level. The most talented and patient disciples were picked to be instructors and got personal pointers from the Immortal Venerable, but they also started their lessons earlier than the other disciples.

After the instructors finished their training, they'd come out and teach the regular disciples. So if this is their textbook, it'll probably be rolled out to the regular disciples later.

Yan Fei was still puzzled: "Even if the Immortal Venerable wrote it, no disciple needs something this elementary..."

Yan Fei paused as he looked at Yu Cong.

He sighed and said, "The Immortal Venerable really has it rough! Having to worry about stuff like this."

"This thing" shot up immediately: "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Alright, alright, since you've got the Immortal Venerable's secret book, you're set for the next exam, right?" Yan Fei hadn't forgotten his original purpose and said coaxingly, "So why not come watch the Immortal Chess tournament?"

"Immortal Chess? I haven't been there in days—how'd you guys come up with such a flashy name?" Yu Cong said discontentedly. "No way! Even if I go, I can't play anyway."

"You just can't make your own piece right now—it's not like you can't play at all," Yan Fei said.

Yu Cong curled his lip: "I only want my own piece, that's all." Playing with someone else's piece is just no fun.

Seeing this, Yan Fei dangled the bait: "The prizes this time are amazing! I heard the top ten all get high-tier spirit stones, plus all kinds of elixirs and pills, and you can even pick a weapon that suits you!"

"That's got nothing to do with me—I've barely played a few rounds," Yu Cong said.

"If you don't know how, I can teach you, and I'll even lend you my piece!" Yan Fei pleaded desperately. "Brother, don't you think it's a waste to stay holed up like this? If we team up, we can beat everyone!"

"...Don't give me that." Yu Cong said coldly.

He and Yan Fei were sworn brothers, sure, but precisely because they were so close, he could tell what Yan Fei was up to just by the look on his face.

"If it were just about chess, you wouldn't need me!" This guy hasn't shown his face for days! And no matter how good-natured Yan Fei was, he wouldn't plead this patiently for this long.

Yu Cong stared Yan Fei down and said, "Spill it. What's your real goal?"

"Ha, ha, ha..." Yan Fei let out a couple of dry chuckles and finally came clean: "I want you to spar with me."

"Sparring?" Yu Cong looked at Yan Fei in surprise.

Yan Fei's overall grades were better than Yu Cong's, but in the one specialized skill—swordsmanship—he was no match for Yu Cong.

Especially lately, Yan Fei had been so into chess that he hadn't even touched his sword for days.

Yu Cong asked, puzzled, "What does that have to do with the tournament?"

"Cough, one of the events in the tournament is comparing the strength of the pieces everyone makes," Yan Fei said sheepishly. "I heard the strongest piece will be chosen for the 'First Generation Immortal Chess Set' and become a standard piece in future games."

That was what Yan Fei was really after.

Think about it—from now on, whenever anyone walks into the chess room and picks a piece, they'll see his Yan Fei piece as the sword cultivator representative. Wouldn't that be glorious!

By then, every sword cultivator in the Celestial Spirit Sect would be green with envy!

At least Yu Cong was already green with envy.

It was bad enough that he couldn't make his own piece—now he had to help someone else win the title!

And this guy was still going on and on: "Since it's going to be a permanent piece, I definitely want to make it perfect. Didn't you say that move of mine has a weakness? I want to correct it, and I also want to tweak the attack motion to make it look cooler—"

"No time!" Yu Cong said bluntly.

Yan Fei wrapped his arms around Yu Cong's waist: "Bro!"

"Get lost!"

"Dad!"

*

Of course, not all disciples shared Yan Fei's ambition.

As for the others, Mo Xi, Junior Brother Mo, had a different scheme in store for them:

"Have you heard? The reward for the Immortal Chess competition is that the winner's piece can be made into a permanent piece."

"That has nothing to do with me. I know my cultivation level; even if I got a piece, it wouldn't be that strong," the speaker said with a world-weary air. "I'm only planning to enter the chess portion of the competition."

"Hey, don't write it off so fast. I heard there are rewards for betting!"

"Our Celestial Spirit Sect doesn't allow gambling, right?"

"Of course, so if you bet correctly, there's no spirit stone reward, but—" the other emphasized, "if you bet correctly, you get a custom piece!"

"A custom piece?"

"Yeah, like, if you bet on Senior Brother and he wins, the standard set will include a regular version of his piece. But you'll also get a special sword-move version!"

"Holy crap!"

"Wait, where are you all going?!"

"To bet on Senior Brother, of course."

"I was just giving an example. This competition doesn't allow anyone below the Golden Core stage to enter, so Senior Brother, Second Senior Brother, and Senior Sister's pieces are not an option."

"Can we choose Senior Brother Guan and Senior Brother Lu?"

"One of them is an Artifact Cultivator, and the other is an Alchemy Cultivator; they're probably not that strong in a fight, right?"

"What about Junior Brother Mo? His piece even beat Senior Brother's piece in a single move. I was there; it was awesome!"

"No, he's the organizer and won't participate."

"Doesn't that mean none of the direct disciples are eligible? Then we can only pick from the inner and outer sects? It feels like they're a step below the direct disciples."

"For sword cultivators, what about Yu Cong?"

"Forget it. He didn't do well in the last sect exam and doesn't even have a piece. He's in seclusion now!"

"Yan Fei?"

"He's only good at one move. Even if he wins, there's no need for a special piece. I think we'd be better off choosing Zhao Xiuxiu."

"No, for spell cultivators, Xiao Yang is stronger, right?"

"Zhao Xiuxiu is prettier!"

...

"Wait, aren't you all forgetting someone! She's also a direct disciple. In theory, anything Junior Brother Mo can do, she can do too! She's strong! And she's cute! Most importantly, compared to Junior Brother Mo, she's a real girl—"

"Ah!"

Everyone let out an "ah" of realization and all looked toward the same part of the sect.

*

Meanwhile, Zhou Hui was placing a piece on the chessboard.

He wasn't playing that "Immortal Chess" but rather regular Go.

Yu Wenxuan slouched in his seat across the board, looking at the piece and wailing, "No way, I concede! Wahh, Master, you're way too harsh, not showing any mercy at all."

"If I wanted to show mercy, why would I play chess?" Zhou Hui said calmly.

"But you're not merciful in other areas either. I was here first, yet you play favorites with the younger one? A whole mineral vein, just given to Junior Brother like that." Yu Wenxuan flopped around.

"Then how about I give you the Celestial Spirit Sect?" Zhou Hui said nonchalantly.

"Ah... never mind then. Let Qu Qianxing worry about the position of future Sect Leader!" Yu Wenxuan waved his hand. "I wanna go check out other worlds."

"You're quite confident," Zhou Hui said with a smile.

But given Yu Wenxuan's cultivation progress, he definitely had the right to be confident. And if he achieved Ascension one day, let alone the Celestial Spirit Sect's assets, the entire world would mean nothing to him.

But then there was the Heavenly Dao...

Zhou Hui thought back carefully and confirmed once again that Yu Wenxuan did not exist in the Heavenly Dao's script.

It was strange. His Chief Disciple seemed to have just disappeared, never appearing in the "novel." But in Zhou Hui's previous lives, he remembered that after going into seclusion, he had sent Yu Wenxuan to find a very rare healing medicine. The kid was like a kite with a broken string—flew off and was never heard from again.

But as long as he didn't die out there, it was a good thing he dodged the sect's annihilation.

Zhou Hui was quite happy with this outcome—no need to worry about Yu Wenxuan. He was even thinking about sending the guy out to find medicine again in this life.

But Yu Wenxuan was, after all, Zhou Hui's Chief Disciple, and he had a stronger sense of "Master's things are my things" than Qu Qianxing.

He flopped around and sighed, "But a mineral vein is different. A mineral vein! Think of all the spirit stones that can be dug out and used to buy so many good things. I love stuff like this—no responsibility, just spending money! Master, think about it—how many veins does our sect even have? Junior Brother gets one, Junior Sister gets one—"

"Bei'er doesn't need it," Zhou Hui said, looking at the chessboard. "That child's Extreme Yin Body is the absolute best of the best. If we recklessly change it, she'd be ruined entirely. Besides, she's not the type to be swayed by external things."

"What she needs is a heart."

"So, Master, are you going to give her a heart?" Yu Wenxuan stopped flopping around and raised his head, asking with interest.

"Let's give it a try!" Zhou Hui scattered the pieces on the chessboard. "Though I'm not sure if it counts as love, those people yelling 'wife' might be just right for a heartless puppet."