Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Gathering Qi Festival
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In the world of immortals, there were all sorts of ways to transmit information.
Carrier pigeons, teleportation arrays, relay riders...
In the society of cultivators who roamed freely beyond the mortal world like immortals, the methods of sharing news were countless.
While rumors spread slowly in the secular world, crawling along like inchworms, in the cultivation realm, they raced like words with wings.
But such methods weren't always reliable.
Carrier pigeons required trained birds, teleportation arrays demanded intricate formations and vast quantities of spirit stones, and relay riders needed well-bred horses and skilled couriers...
Even in the cultivation world, they chose the right method for each situation.
For urgent news, they'd use a teleportation array no matter the spirit stone cost. If getting the message through at any cost was key, a carrier pigeon. For reliability, a relay rider.
So, what about within the sect, where the area was small and the announcement needed to reach everyone?
The most cost-effective and efficient way.
A verbal proclamation!
The most primitive method: mouth to ear.
Disciples assigned to messenger duty scattered throughout the sect, posting notices on bulletin boards before bellowing out loud. Their voices resonated with infused qi, booming like thunder.
"Disciples of Response Qi Great Completion, hear this! In one month, the Little Cave Heaven for gathering Gathering Qi Pill materials will open. Any disciple who desires a Gathering Qi Pill, challenge the Gathering Qi Festival!"
Gathering Qi Festival.
An event where disciples entered the Little Cave Heaven—where the ingredients for Gathering Qi Pills grew wild—to harvest spirit herbs. Beyond the key ingredient, Warm Yang Herb, a variety of materials for the pill sprouted there naturally.
The Gathering Qi Festival, open only to Response Qi Great Completion disciples, wasn't exclusive to the Radiant Moon Sect.
Hosted by the three great sects of the Ten Lakes, it took place in a Little Cave Heaven within a jointly managed zone under their control.
The Little Cave Heaven referred to a small pocket realm connected by spatial rifts—too tiny and incomplete to be a proper world, a fragmented one where even the laws of reality hadn't fully coalesced.
Only Response Qi disciples could enter to harvest materials, as the unstable fragment couldn't withstand anything beyond Gathering Qi Realm.
Those who saw no hope of breaking through to Gathering Qi on their own all flocked to the festival, hoping to gather ingredients and earn a Gathering Qi Pill as a reward. Not just the hopeless ones, either—even those aiming to bulldoze the Response Qi bottleneck swiftly with an external pill joined in.
The Radiant Moon Sect exchanged gathered herbs and pill materials for Gathering Qi Pills once a quota was met, so their Response Qi Great Completion disciples lit up with fervor.
But with all three great sects participating, the festival was always a bloodbath.
Especially the disciples from the demonic Blood Fiend Clan, who played dirty without mercy—it was a festival brimming with peril.
In truth, casualties cropped up every time, so it was no mere celebration.
Still, droves of Response Qi Great Completion disciples signed up.
Gathering Qi was the dream realm for Response Qi cultivators.
No matter the danger, they deemed it worth the risk.
"The Gathering Qi Festival is upon us again, right on schedule."
"I wonder which disciples will claim a Gathering Qi Pill and achieve Gathering Qi this time?"
Those in the know had even heard the participation criteria and chattered about it.
"They're selecting entrants via a spellcraft tournament this year."
"Makes sense—space in the Little Cave Heaven is limited."
"Yeah. Can't wait to see what standout talents show up."
Yuk-gyeong, true to xianxia fashion, wandered to the bulletin board to check the notice and eavesdrop on the gossip.
He wanted in on the Gathering Qi Festival. He wanted to compete in this tournament.
'Gathering Qi Pill! I want a Gathering Qi Pill too!'
Yuk-gyeong, who had never once hit a bottleneck in Response Qi, felt more frustrated lately than ever. He was just half a step away. Half a step—why couldn't he cross it?
It was like cruising an autobahn in a sports car, only to slam into Seoul rush hour.
That sensation fueled his craving for a Gathering Qi Pill.
So, when was this spellcraft tournament?
"In one week! Participants will be decided by spellcraft tournament!"
One week.
Time to prepare.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ One week later.
The spellcraft tournament was hosted at Iron Citadel Peak.
Their martial fervor was legendary.
Their peak lord's favorite saying was, after all:
"In the cultivation world, power is everything! Power is the Dao itself!"
He'd even imported the martial world's term "sparring tournament" for the sect and was the one who held them.
With his one-track mind and lofty realm, he belonged to no faction and did as he pleased.
Such a peak lord never missed an event like this.
The tournament prepared by Iron Citadel Peak dwarfed the scale of their past sparring events.
For starters, every elder except those with unavoidable duties showed up to observe.
Even the sect leader took the high seat to watch.
That alone showed how crucial this spellcraft tournament was.
A spellcraft tournament drawing the elders' and sect leader's attention.
"Before the tournament begins, the sect leader immortal shall offer words of encouragement!"
"As you face the spellcraft tournament preceding the Gathering Qi Festival, give it your all. And among fellow Radiant Moon Sect talents, show mercy in your strikes..."
Beyond just selecting Gathering Qi Festival entrants, the event's true purpose was gauging the state of future sect pillars.
Gathering Qi was the solid backbone of the Radiant Moon Sect.
Securing talented Gathering Qi cultivators guaranteed the sect's future.
Gathering Qi cultivators became Core Formation ones.
Even if only a tiny fraction reached Core Formation, without Gathering Qi, there'd be no Core Formation at all.
'Strictly speaking, Gathering Qi is pre-Core Formation, and Response Qi Great Completion is pre-pre-Core Formation. Reserves of reserves, but reserves are always vital.'
Yuk-gyeong mulled such idle thoughts amid the crowd.
The sect leader's encouragement dragged on. The lofty, outdated exhortation from the noble Hereditary Immortal could be summed up in one line.
'We're all Radiant Moon Sect disciples—don't spill blood, and go easy on each other.'
After the sect leader's speech came rites honoring the sect's ancestors, followed by a recitation of tournament rules. Refrain from lethal spells, cherish brotherhood among sectmates, and so on.
Now came the introduction of tournament participants.
An Iron Citadel Peak inner disciple boomed out the names.
"Geum Muk! Yang Hwa-yeong! Won Gyeong-wi! Deung Ja-jin! Jang Su-wi!..."
The inner disciple rattled off names from the parchment list in order, voice thundering.
But near the end, he hesitated. An unexpected name appeared.
"...Yi Yuk-gyeong!"
Yuk-gyeong's name sparked a stir among the elders—mostly the sect leader and his allies.
'Didn't we say a Gathering Qi Pill for the single spiritual root bearer was already prepared?'
'I don't think we mentioned it.'
'Shouldn't we have?'
'Just leave it. They won't send him to the festival anyway—have him compete here and gauge his skills while we're at it.'
'Heard he's Response 8th stage. Why's he here?'
'Who knows.'
The elders' commotion settled quickly. Dignified elders wouldn't squabble like kids. They were just briefly startled.
With Yuk-gyeong's name, the introductions of Response Qi Great Completion participants wrapped up.
Quite a crowd.
Rare Response Qi Great Completion disciples from across the sect had gathered, a sight of envy for ordinary Response Qi cultivators—idols all in one place.
Gathering Qi inner disciples felt distant as stars, but Response Qi Great Completion ones were reachable leaders pulling ahead.
Yi Yuk-gyeong stood out oddly among them.
Like someone who didn't belong.
Every crowd has those who envy the talented.
A veteran outer disciple, fifteen years in, shot up his hand with a challenge. His voice brimmed with indignation.
"Disciple Yi Yuk-gyeong was Response 8th stage just recently! Not even near Great Completion at 9th—how could he have reached it already? Isn't he faking his realm to enter the tournament?"
Some sparring tournament veterans—who'd vied for Response Qi top spot—had entered too, but all were Response 9th stage, on Great Completion's doorstep.
Yet Yi Yuk-gyeong had been 8th stage then. Skipping 9th straight to Great Completion? Absurd on its face.
Other disciples murmured agreement, nodding.
They backed the outer disciple's objection.
Iron Citadel Peak couldn't ignore a legitimate challenge.
If Yi Yuk-gyeong wasn't truly Response Qi Great Completion, that'd be a problem too.
The tournament was for Great Completion only, and while most were known, verification wasn't routine—hence the doubt.
Not just Yuk-gyeong's haters; most gathered disciples wondered.
Wasn't he Response 8th stage recently? Great Completion now? No way.
"Elders! Please verify!"
"Is Yi Yuk-gyeong truly Response Qi Great Completion?"
"How could Response 8th stage reach Great Completion so fast?"
Outer disciples protested to the inner ones, who looked flustered by the uproar.
"Silence, all of you!"
An Iron Citadel Peak elder bellowed the crowd quiet, then leaped from the dais and seized Yuk-gyeong's wrist.
Probing with projected qi, he examined him, then declared:
"Disciple Yi Yuk-gyeong is indeed Response Qi Great Completion. And... half-step Gathering Qi!"
He vouched for Yuk-gyeong's realm—and revealed the half-step Gathering Qi to boot.
The crowd gasped.
He'd been Response 8th stage just recently! 9th would've been shocking enough, but Great Completion already? Half-step Gathering Qi?
Was this guy some immortal's son? Or an immortal regressing through realms?
Such a meteoric rise was unreal.
Was he a genius rivaling the sect leader's disciples or the peak lords' senior brothers?
"Response Qi Great Completion? Half-step Gathering Qi even?"
"Who's the idiot who slandered the single spiritual root bearer as fake?"
"He hit 8th stage in a week—who knows how quick from there to Great Completion."
Outer disciple opinion flipped in an instant.
Now scorn poured on the challenger.
The instigator couldn't lift his head. Unable to watch the tournament, he slunk away, bowed low.