A Gang Competition That Had Nothing to Do with Him

"That senior brother looks really strong..."

"In three years, I'll definitely be able to take part in the next Gang Competition..."

As newcomers with neither status nor contributions to speak of,

Ling Wuyuan and the others were, without question, seated in relatively poor spots for watching the Gang Competition.

However,

it was not difficult for them to see the fierce fighting taking place on the martial arts field.

The location was merely less than ideal.

Besides Ling Wuyuan and the others,

newcomers from the other batches had also arrived one after another for the White Crow Gang's once-every-three-years martial arts competition.

This included, but was not limited to, the truly fresh recruits who were still taking literacy classes, striving to learn how to read and write, and had not even entered the gang's training grounds.

Though they were indeed very weak—

so weak that they could not make out the exchanges between cultivators at all—they still watched with great relish, occasionally chatting away with other newcomers around them about all sorts of thoughts and ideas.

Perhaps because everyone was equally weak,

despite belonging to different batches,

and despite some having never cultivated at all,

the newcomers from different batches generally got along fairly well, with no conflicts arising.

At this moment,

while listening to the surrounding chatter and conversations,

Ling Wuyuan's attention remained focused mainly on the black observatory he had seen earlier.

The thing was a raised platform more than five meters long and wide, and roughly three meters tall.

He pondered that if the black observatory had been moved here from somewhere else, where exactly might it have come from?

He felt that he could look through the gang's historical records later.

Perhaps there might be some record of it.

As a force with several centuries of history,

the White Crow Gang had always maintained the habit of recording matters both great and small, so that they could investigate clearly whenever problems arose. The origins of that black observatory might well have been recorded somewhere.

Of course,

he could not place his hopes too high.

If the White Crow Gang had truly regarded it as nothing more than an ornament,

then even if there were records, they certainly would not be very detailed. At most, it would receive a passing mention; no one would have taken it too seriously...

Just as Ling Wuyuan silently mulled over the matter,

a string of astonished cries erupted beside him, drawing his gaze toward the martial arts field.

There, upon the several-thousand-square-meter martial arts field, a young figure holding a sword in one hand was rapidly exchanging blows with another figure, likewise wielding a sword one-handed but a few years older.

Though sword shadows swept like the wind between them, both longswords dancing so swiftly that they left afterimages, making the battle seem evenly matched, many could tell that compared with the younger contestant, the older one was already struggling to keep up with the pace and was visibly falling into a disadvantage.

Before long,

one glance was enough to see it.

The younger contestant still looked calm and at ease, while his opponent was already drenched in sweat.

At that moment,

even those lacking the strength to judge properly could clearly see that the outcome had been decided.

One side was merely playing around.

The other had already given everything he had.

"Damn, that senior brother must be the strongest among all the contestants who have appeared so far, right?"

"None of the earlier contestants looked anywhere near as relaxed as him."

Hearing that,

someone who knew the details immediately explained disdainfully:

"Isn't that obvious?"

"That's the White Crow Gang's Young Gang Leader—a true genius. He's only seventeen now, but it's said that two years ago, when he was fifteen, he had already successfully entered the [Bone Forging Realm]. He has long been the strongest of the White Crow Gang's younger generation."

"When I was helping sweep the mountain steps before, the Young Gang Leader even greeted me!"

"Besides, according to a senior brother who swept the mountain paths with me, the Young Gang Leader will probably enter the [Blood Strengthening Realm] naturally in another year or two..."

The moment those words came out,

cries of surprise rang out all around them. "The [Bone Forging Realm] at fifteen?"

Naturally, sour remarks were unavoidable as well.

"Damn it, when I was fifteen, I had only just joined the gang. I didn't start cultivating until I was sixteen. If I could have started cultivating a few years earlier..."

Cultivators could not be too young, since cultivating at too early an age would affect physical development and could easily result in stunted growth or bodily deformities.

But likewise,

they could not be too old.

Once one was too old, the body's innate framework had already taken shape, making cultivation twice the effort for half the result.

And fifteen was already considered rather old.

At that age, though there was still room for one's innate framework to improve, very little remained...

Normally, beginning formal cultivation at around eight years old was the best choice.

Before that, people would at most exercise their Physical Fitness a little.

"I think the Young Gang Leader really might take over as Gang Leader in the future."

"At least for now, there isn't any genius who can compete with him..."

In this world, positions such as Gang Leader, Sect Master, and Clan Master could indeed be passed down to one's descendants, but the prerequisite was that the descendant had to be strong enough.

Otherwise, they would first be unable to command respect.

And if their strength was insufficient, they might be killed just by stepping outside...

After all,

if something happened to the force you led as a Gang Leader, Sect Master, or Clan Master, you had to show yourself, didn't you?

And you would have to step forward as the foremost target.

But if you were killed in a single move by the opposing force the moment you appeared, what were your subordinates supposed to do?

Thus, in this world, while the leaders of various forces might harbor all kinds of selfish motives when choosing successors, once they considered that an insufficiently strong descendant might be killed on the spot, they would usually abandon those selfish thoughts...

This meant that unless a force was structured like a family, the rules for inheriting leadership positions generally recognized only raw strength, not so-called blood relations.

Still, having one's own father as the leader of a force always came with all sorts of advantages.

For example, one could cultivate the best techniques, eat the finest food and medicinal materials, and receive the best instruction...

Generally speaking,

as long as one's talent was not too far behind that of one's competitors, one should be able to suppress them and thereby increase the odds of inheriting the leader's seat.

And if one's father was not particularly scrupulous, he could even use various methods to hold back the competitors.

It was just that

doing so would undoubtedly damage the foundation of the force itself, easily stirring dissatisfaction among one's own people and causing rumors to spread.

Yet during the more than two years Ling Wuyuan had spent in the White Crow Gang, he had never heard such rumors. At most, he occasionally heard rather positive comments like, [The Young Gang Leader is a genius] and [The Young Gang Leader has a good personality]...

Therefore,

the other party's talent was likely genuinely exceptional, and his reputation was also quite good.

At the very least, he was enough to command respect within the White Crow Gang.