“Senior Sister! Senior Sisters! Lingyin Valley has been named the Best Medical Cultivation Institution of the Year by Heavenly Way Magazine!”
A disciple from one of the outer peaks ran over, shouting loudly in hopes of catching the attention of a few Lingyin Valley senior sisters.
But what greeted him was a room full of deadpan stares.
The poor kid almost peed his pants on the spot.
“What’s the big deal?” one senior sister replied weakly, her voice full of resentment. “We’re already this weak and still managed to get first place. That just means everyone else is even weaker…”
“No, Senior Sister, you’re not weak at all!” the disciple said, half-laughing, half-crying. Lingyin Valley was already ranked first among all medical cultivation organizations in Shenzhou. If this is weak, then what’s strong?
As the most outstanding medical cultivation organization in all of Shenzhou, Lingyin Valley’s skills were far ahead of their time. To other medical cultivators, Lingyin Valley was the ultimate Saint Land, the Tribulation Immortal Hall of the medical world!
Yet at this moment, the people of the Saint Land were all hanging their heads low.
One Lingyin Valley senior sister lay on a reclining chair, applying a lemon face mask. But the mask looked strange no matter how you looked at it.
She pressed two halves of lemon over her eyes and sighed up at the sky, “What is it that blinds my eyes—”
Another senior sister was clutching a thick copy of Practical Internal Medicine, mumbling as she walked, “What’s the point? Even without it, we can get by.”
Then a third senior sister hurried over anxiously, muttering, “I’m already this weak; if I don’t hurry and study, I’m doomed!”
The junior brother who had come from an outer peak to flirt stood there, heart in chaos. He finally realized—they weren’t faking their saltiness; they really believed they were weak!
Hey, they’re number one in the world and still calling themselves weak!
Seeing the senior sisters working so hard and diligently, the once slightly proud junior brother, who thought himself above average in talent, suddenly felt drained of all strength.
He slouched and staggered back to his peak like a living corpse, muttering to himself, “The senior sisters are so strong and still working hard; if I’m this weak, what excuse do I have not to work hard? Forget chasing girls, studying and cultivation come first…”
When he returned to his peak, the surrounding disciples stared at him like he’d gone mad. “What happened to you? Even if you got dumped, it’s not like this. And what’s with that terrifying aura around you? Hey, did you just come back from hell?”
He gave a dry, silly laugh.
The others, sensing something was wrong, quickly changed the subject. “It’s okay! Junior Brother, you’re exceptionally talented. You’ll become a powerful figure who shakes the world someday. You’re way better than us!”
“No, I’m too weak,” he said firmly.
With that, he gave a dazed, bitter smile and staggered back to his room.
Everyone exchanged glances.
Suddenly, a powerful spiritual energy fluctuation erupted from his room, shaking the entire peak!
“Holy crap, he broke through?”
“To be this young and already at the Four Symbols Realm, and still thinks he’s weak? Look at us…”
The senior brothers were moved to tears.
“We’re too weak, looks like we’re all too weak…”
“Yeah, yeah…”
Jiang Ke’er didn’t understand what was going on either.
She had just run over to a few other peaks to deliver messages, and the overwhelming lethargic gloom hit her like a wave.
If not for the accompanying intense passion for studying beneath that strange atmosphere, Jiang Ke’er might have thought that Taiming Sect was infected with some kind of zombie poison.
What was happening?
Were they under some strange kind of psychological attack?
“I love cultivation. Cultivation makes me happy,” they said when Jiang Ke’er asked.
Everyone was working so hard, it was wonderful.
But if that was the case, then what use was it for a useless person like me to try hard?
The more one longs for a thousand-mile view, the more one loses another floor.
And Jiang Ke’er became even gloomier.
Things only started to improve in the evening.
Around seven or eight o’clock, many senior sisters were outside enjoying the cool air.
When Jiang Ke’er passed by, she overheard them saying—“It’s about to start, it’s about to start. There’s going to be noise again.”
“Sigh, it’s the same every year, so annoying.”
“What’s about to start?”
Jiang Ke’er was puzzled.
Before a senior sister could answer, a deafening roar suddenly came from the sky.
“Wei Shen is awesome!!!”
“Long live Divine Spirit Team! We are—CHAMPIONS!”
But the cheering didn’t last long before a barrage of explosions erupted.
The outer peaks seemed to have broken out into fights, magical treasures and talismans flying everywhere.
Jiang Ke’er spread out her divine sense to eavesdrop and immediately heard a mess of shouting.
“You f***ing champion! If it weren’t for the Wasteland War Team’s mistake, your Divine Spirit Team is nothing! I can do better!”
“But the Divine Spirit Team is still the champion, neener neener! You can’t change that~”
“Tonight, you’re going to get rekt!”
Jiang Ke’er listened in a daze for a while and finally understood.
The Divine Spirit Team and Wasteland War Team were the names of two teams.
They had just participated in a grand competition, and in the recent final match, the Divine Spirit Team had emerged victorious, clinching this year’s championship.
Jiang Ke’er was quite surprised.
It was the first time she realized that in this cold and merciless cultivation world, there existed an event with such a high level of attention.
Judging from the expressions of disciples on the other peaks, they clearly held an almost fanatical admiration for this competition and the teams—just like how football fans feel about the World Cup.
Whenever the World Cup starts, it’s an even bigger celebration than Spring Festival or Christmas.
By asking around the senior sisters, Jiang Ke’er learned about the origin of this competition.
Initially, it was just an internal contest among the disciples of major sects.
—Every year at a fixed time, elite disciples were sent to compete against other sects’ elites.
The results were used to allocate territories or resources.
This was how the great sects resolved disputes—minimizing casualties while settling conflicts.
Later, the competition expanded gradually, with more sects participating.
Eventually, it gained tremendous attention and became a grand event in the cultivation world!
With growing popularity came sponsors—wealthy merchants donated money to join in, and the great sects naturally welcomed it.
Thus, the competition became more formalized, and winners not only resolved sect disputes but also earned massive amounts of rare treasures as rewards!
As the event grew bigger and with merchants promoting it extensively for advertising, ordinary cultivators also began following it.
The small team battle format was highly entertaining, stirring up spectators’ enthusiasm.
Many cultivators formed favorite teams, just like sports fans.
All in all, every year at this time, cultivators would mostly stop their work to watch the competition.
After the matches, they’d often fight with rival fans.
This was the battle cultivators’ biggest carnival.
But for the senior sisters of Lingyin Valley, who paid no attention to fighting and killing, it was simply a noisy disturbance.
Jiang Ke’er shrugged.
Looks like it has nothing to do with me either.