Sect Mountain Entry Grand Competition, Bloodline Warriors?!

By the Backyard Training Hall, Chen Mo stood calmly beside School Master Yan Cheng, watching a young man and woman—two True Disciples—train in the arena.

"How did it feel?" Yan Cheng suddenly asked.

After two seconds, Chen Mo replied with a smile:

"Not bad."

The words carried two meanings. Knowing what he meant, Yan Cheng's smile deepened.

"Hearing you say that puts my mind at ease."

His gaze shifted to the two True Disciples in the arena.

"Jing Ming and Ling Ling are the two most gifted among the True Disciples. They're only seventeen, yet both have already broken through to the Inner Strength Realm. They have a good chance of reaching the Divine Valor Realm before the age of thirty-five."

As he spoke, Yan Cheng's eyes shone with amusement.

In a small county town like Hequ County, tucked away in a remote borderland, finding disciples of such talent was already extraordinarily difficult. It might take years before another could be found.

Finding them was only the beginning. Time and resources still had to be spent nurturing them, and waiting for them to grow would take even longer.

"Of course, they can't compare to you," Yan Cheng added.

He then got to the point. "Your next task is to train alongside them and strive to make another breakthrough."

"It's that simple?" Chen Mo was surprised.

Before coming here, he had considered many possibilities and guessed at the contents of his task, but he had never imagined it would be so simple.

It could not even really be called a task. Treating his cultivation and improvement as a task was rather baffling.

"It's already November. In a little over a month, the year will turn."

As he sighed, nostalgia, longing, and anticipation surfaced in Yan Cheng's eyes, leaving his expression complicated.

"At the beginning of February next year, the five-year term will arrive, and the Mountain Entry Grand Competition will begin. The sect will send people here to examine and receive the disciples we put forward for the competition. There are three spots in total. The requirements are to be under twenty years old and at least at the Inner Strength Realm!"

At that, Chen Mo immediately understood. He had surely taken one of the spots, while the other two had already been decided. He could not help joking, "Aren't I an Instructor Martial Master?"

"Of course you can refuse." Yan Cheng nearly rolled his eyes.

Getting an advantage and still acting spoiled—this perfectly described Chen Mo's current situation.

Yan Cheng only wanted to take Chen Mo's feelings into account and find an excuse to provide him with cultivation resources.

He did not truly intend for Chen Mo to become some Instructor Martial Master.

That would simply be wasting Chen Mo's time. At fifteen, he was at an age as precious as gold and should focus on cultivation.

"Does our sect have any restrictions on its disciples?" Chen Mo asked about the matter he cared about most.

He did not directly respond to what Yan Cheng had said earlier, but the two words "our sect" were enough to explain everything.

Understanding this, Yan Cheng smiled and explained, "There are certainly restrictions, but for you, compared with those painless and inconsequential rules, what you gain will be far greater. Hequ County is truly too small. Since you will leave sooner or later, why not choose a larger stage?"

"What do I have to give?"

Yan Cheng's words struck straight at his heart and made sense, but Chen Mo had not lost his judgment. He did not believe there was such a thing as a free lunch in this world.

Where there was gain, there was loss. To obtain something, one had to pay a price.

This had always been the principle he believed in.

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"Don't hide your abilities. Just display your talent and strength to the fullest."

Seeing that Chen Mo did not seem to understand, Yan Cheng explained, "Martial arts schools like ours that rely on the sect all have corresponding evaluation standards. The results are directly tied to how well the disciples we recommend perform in the Grand Competition. The more outstanding your results are, the more we receive."

"With my current strength, winning first place shouldn't be much of a problem, right?" Chen Mo asked curiously.

"Your opponents will be talented martial artists from Lin Chang Commandery, Yun Zhong Commandery, He Dong Commandery, and the hundreds of counties under their jurisdiction. With your strength, being selected will certainly not be a problem, and you will absolutely be in the first tier. But whether you can take first place is truly hard to say."

Looking at Chen Mo, Yan Cheng continued, "With the outstanding geniuses and talents of three commanderies gathered together, there will inevitably be a few peerless prodigies. There may even be Bloodline Warriors. You do not need to put too much pressure on yourself. Entering the first tier will be enough."

"What are Bloodline Warriors? And what rewards are there for entering the first tier?" Chen Mo asked in quick succession.

He had thought that, with his Divine Valor Realm strength, he would be invincible among those under twenty. But from Yan Cheng's words, that did not seem to be the case, which made him somewhat surprised and curious.

"Unlike us, there are certain anomalies among human martial artists. Some are born with strange bloodlines, while others acquire unique abilities through certain methods after birth, and those abilities can even be inherited. Such martial artists are called Bloodline Warriors."

Without the slightest impatience, Yan Cheng patiently continued, "The first-place winner of the Mountain Entry Grand Competition can directly become a True Disciple. As for the first tier, there are generally twenty spots, and all of them can directly become Inner Disciples."

Seeing Chen Mo's calm expression, without the slightest visible ripple, Yan Cheng suddenly felt unwilling to accept it and immediately spoke again.

"As long as you become a sect True Inheritor, you will not need to go out and carry out missions. You can also directly take an elder—or even the Sect Master—as your master. They are all grandmaster-level supreme experts who have opened their Heavenly Meridians and formed the Three Flowers."

At this point, longing flickered in Yan Cheng's eyes.

Which martial artist did not wish to become a grandmaster-level expert? He was no exception, but unfortunately, with his talent, it would be impossible in this lifetime.

"Grandmaster?" Chen Mo had no concept of it.

Seeing this, Yan Cheng smiled. "After martial artists pass through the four realms of Body Tempering and fully temper their bodies, they can attempt to control the qi and blood throughout their entire bodies and step into the Qi and Blood Realm. After undergoing the Qi and Blood Twelve Transformations and reaching the Qi and Blood Furnace realm, there is an extremely slim chance of opening the Heavenly Meridians and achieving Innate status."

He paused to let Chen Mo digest the information, then organized his thoughts before continuing.

"After achieving Innate status, one begins opening the Heavenly Meridians. There are twelve in total, with every four forming one stage. They allow one to condense the Human Flower, Earth Flower, and Heaven Flower—the Three Flowers... Once the Heavenly Meridians are opened, the Three Flowers condensed, and they gather at the apex, one may be called a grandmaster!"

"Innate... Heavenly Meridians... Three Flowers... Grandmaster!"

As he murmured the words, Chen Mo's horizons suddenly broadened.

Though he had already reached the Divine Valor Realm, and fewer than five people in all of Hequ County could pose a fatal threat to him, he was still only within the first realm of the Martial Path... the Body Tempering Realm.

He was still merely tempering his body and had no clue how to control qi and blood, much less open the Heavenly Meridians to become an Innate grandmaster.

The road ahead was still very long.

"You do not need to be too anxious either. With your talent, as long as you do not perish midway, you have a great chance of becoming a grandmaster. Unlike an old fellow like me, for whom even leaving Hequ County and returning to the sect is a vain hope." Yan Cheng looked somewhat dejected.

Those like them, disciples assigned to county towns to establish martial arts schools and seek out and nurture outstanding martial talent for the sect, were people lacking in potential who had been sent down. Unless their results were exceptional, they would never be able to return to the sect.

Now, without a doubt, Chen Mo was his greatest hope of returning to the sect.

Thinking of this, Yan Cheng's gaze toward him was filled with expectation and eagerness.

Noticing this and combining it with Yan Cheng's earlier words, Chen Mo roughly guessed what he meant. He hesitated over whether he should compete for first place in this Grand Competition.

There were still more than two months before the sect's people arrived. With the martial arts school's ample cultivation resources assisting him, he would most likely become a Qi and Blood Realm martial artist. Even against Bloodline Warriors, he could fight—and he still had a considerable chance of taking first place.

But he had not yet decided whether to compete for it.

As for taking a master, he had not considered it at all.

"Whether I compete or not, increasing my strength is my foremost goal right now." Chen Mo's gaze was resolute.

As Yan Cheng had said earlier, joining the sect would definitely bring him more benefits than drawbacks.

A sufficiently large stage was extremely important to a martial artist.

Hequ County was too small. Chen Mo wanted to go out and see the world.