Caught Red-Handed

In the end, Chu Zeming still could not resist the temptation of an ancient great master's secret art. With an exceedingly complicated heart, he picked up the little yellow book again.

The more he read, the more he felt that the movements in the book defied human anatomy.

Were the people in the illustrations made of rubber bones?

Could they bend into such a damned shape?

Chu Zeming refused to believe it.

After reading through the night, he finally finished the ancient text.

Chu Zeming had stayed up until his face was the color of wilted vegetables, his head spun, and his mind was filled with the scenes from the ancient text.

He felt terrible. He did not want to read it, but with a heaven-grade ancient secret technique delivered right to his doorstep, he would not be reconciled if he did not.

Early morning.

Xuan Mo brought his fellow disciples to wait outside their eldest senior brother's door.

When the door opened, they saw their eldest senior brother emerge in black robes, surrounded by a deeply oppressive air.

Everyone looked at one another, somewhat afraid to speak.

What was wrong with Eldest Senior Brother?

His mood seemed rather subtle.

It could not be called bad, but it could not be called good either...

Chu Zeming swept his gaze over everyone and asked in a low voice, "Last night, did any of you see anyone suspicious approaching my room?"

Xuan Mo thought for a moment and said, "No." Then he turned to ask Ling Tian beside him, "Did you see anyone?"

Ling Tian said, "Neither did I."

Chu Zeming's suspicious gaze fell on Yue Lian. Before he could question him, Yue Lian answered first, "Neither did I."

Chu Zeming stared at Yue Lian hesitantly, not quite believing him.

Still, it was not good to make baseless suspicions without evidence. Setting aside the displeasure in his heart, Chu Zeming led his fellow disciples toward the Guiyuan Sect's plaza.

The second round of matches was far more exciting than the first.

As he watched his fellow disciples take the stage in turn, Chu Zeming explained the matches to the disciples watching below the arena—where their attacks had been too slow, where their predictions had been wrong... He treated the thrilling, tense, smoke-filled arena matches as fresh teaching examples.

The disciples gathered around the young man in black robes, listening with great interest and staring without blinking.

Ling Tian was listening too, but his mind was on something else—he had always known Chu Zeming was handsome, but his once lofty and arrogant demeanor had greatly displeased him, which was why he had opposed him at every turn. The current Chu Zeming was still wild and proud, yet that air of looking down on everything and considering himself above all others seemed to have vanished...

It made him impossible to dislike.

He even found himself beginning to like him.

Watching the young man's flamboyant bearing, Ling Tian thought that he must have been possessed by ghosts.

"Senior Brother Ling Tian, you're staring at Senior Brother so hard you've gone blank."

A faint voice suddenly came from beside his ear, pulling Ling Tian's thoughts out of their chaos.

Sure enough, it was Yue Lian again.

He never cultivated properly in the sect, and he never listened when that dog of a senior brother taught him. His attention was always fixed on strange and bizarre things.

Drawing back his gaze, Ling Tian put on a stern expression with his baby face and assumed the bearing of a second senior brother. He rebuked coldly, "Junior Brother Yue, as the weakest among the brothers on this journey, you should be cultivating diligently without the slightest slackness, rather than paying attention to who is looking at Eldest Senior Brother again."

After saying that, Ling Tian cast Yue Lian a disdainful glance and walked away.

Once again drifting beyond the crowd, he stared blankly at Chu Zeming from afar.

Yue Lian was not angry at being scorned by Ling Tian like that.

He thought for a moment, then lowered his head as if looking for a spot. He slowly circled around before raising his head again to look at Chu Zeming through the crowd, an imperceptible smile appearing on his pure and lovely face.

Ling Tian's view of Chu Zeming was suddenly blocked by a figure's back. He froze slightly, then grew a little angry.

He shifted his position, and that white-clad figure happened to shift as well.

It blocked the young man in black robes completely and perfectly.

Ling Tian's anger rose from nowhere.

There was definitely something wrong with Yue Lian's head!

Ling Tian withdrew his gaze and simply stopped looking. He closed his eyes and began meditating to regulate his breath.

Time passed quickly.

As everyone watched the matches with lingering interest, the list of the top two hundred and fifty was fully announced.

A massive glowing scroll slowly unfurled in the center of the plaza, and the names of the various sects and their advancing disciples appeared upon it in succession. Chu Zeming led Xuan Mo and the others to the scroll, carefully examining the names on it.

According to Xuan Mo's tally, a total of five disciples from the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect had entered the top two hundred and fifty.

Aside from Chu Zeming himself, Ling Tian, Xuan Mo, and Yue Lian, who had coasted to victory all the way through on luck, the other was the honest-looking disciple surnamed Wu, whom Yue Lian had previously accused of peeping at him while he bathed in the carriage.

After counting the advancing names from their own sect, Chu Zeming had intended to lead everyone down the mountain and back to the inn to rest and gather their strength for the next day's top one hundred arena matches. But suddenly, a long cry sounded from above. Everyone in the plaza immediately halted and looked up at the sky.

There, a blue luan of peerless quality, with an awe-inspiring presence and feathers shimmering in flowing radiance, suddenly appeared overhead.

An old man with white beard and brows, snow-white hair, and the face of a child sat cross-legged upon the blue luan's back.

Chu Zeming had read some information about this tournament and knew that this man was the Guiyuan Sect's Supreme Elder—He Wuwei.

He was already two thousand one hundred years old, a great expert of the Body Integration Realm and one of the foremost powerhouses. The immortal estate secret treasure for this Joint Grand Tournament had been provided by him.

Just as everyone stared at the sky in complete confusion, He Wuwei slowly spoke. "Children—after discussion among the elders and sect masters of several great sects, the rules for the top two hundred and fifty advancing to the top one hundred in this Joint Grand Tournament have been temporarily revised. It will no longer proceed through arena-style duels as before. I shall open the Realm of the Divine Tree. Treasures will be placed on the third, fourth, sixth, and ninth levels of the Divine Tree, while the immortal estate secret treasure shall be located on the tenth level at its peak. This time, rewards will no longer be distributed by the sects. The strong shall obtain them, and how much one gains depends entirely on one's strength. The secret realm will open in five days. Adjust yourselves quickly and prepare to seize treasures."

At this, the cultivators in the plaza immediately erupted into an uproar.

Their faces were filled with disbelief.

The coming matches would no longer take place as arena battles, and everyone would enter the Divine Tree trial instead?

The Realm of the Divine Tree—a dangerous secret realm known throughout the cultivation world. Did that mean that aside from cultivators from other sects, they would also face dangers lurking everywhere within the Divine Tree?

Some showed dissatisfaction, while others stirred up the crowd, wanting to protest.

But when He Wuwei's indifferent gaze descended, the pressure of a great Body Integration Realm expert blanketed the entire plaza, and all disciples harboring objections fell silent.

After all, they were merely a group of cultivators under a hundred years old. Before He Wuwei, they were like infants who had only just learned to walk.

"Our sect will not force anyone to participate. If you fear encountering danger within the Divine Tree, you may withdraw voluntarily. But if you do not even dare face this little danger, there is no need to continue upon the path of immortality. I am ashamed of you." He Wuwei's calm voice resounded through the heavens.

When everyone looked up again, He Wuwei had already disappeared.

The plaza filled with cries of misery.

They had thought they had struck it lucky in this Joint Grand Tournament. The rewards were so abundant that even seniors without the qualifications to compete had turned green with envy. Yet they had not expected that obtaining those rewards would be nothing like the simple affair it had been in previous years.

Xuan Mo could not help sighing as well.

He looked up at his senior brother, who was deep in thought, and said with a bitter smile, "Senior Brother, there goes our lucky break. Even if my opponent had an upset stomach and did not appear, I still could not win my way into the top ten. Our luck is terrible—the Joint Grand Tournament suddenly changed its rules."

Chu Zeming raised his brows, looked at Xuan Mo, and smiled. "Why are you so discouraged? Isn't this a good thing for us?"

It was.

This was bad news for the other sects.

But for the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect, whose overall strength was generally low, it was good news.

The original arena matches valued individual martial strength and required no consideration of all sorts of outside factors. To win, there was only one road—overwhelming one's opponent with absolute strength.

The cultivation world was, after all, a cruel world that depended on resources.

The cultivation resources of great cultivation sects vastly surpassed those of third-rate sects—that was, the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect. Therefore, if they followed the former arena-match format, aside from himself and the salted-fish protagonist bottom who had coasted to victory, the chance of the sect's other disciples entering the top ten would be pitifully small.

But now, things were different.

Compared with arena matches, Chu Zeming felt that this was what truly counted as a real contest.

Chu Zeming looked at his listless fellow disciples and said meaningfully, "This is your chance. Whether you can seize it depends entirely on you. Remember, once you enter the Divine Tree, it will no longer be only the strongest people who are qualified to claim victory. If you want to win, you can also rely on other things—intelligence, fortuitous opportunities, and a little scheming... Learn to create opportunities and advantages, and turn everything you can use to your own advantage."

Xuan Mo had the best comprehension.

Hearing Chu Zeming's words, he first froze, then an understanding smile appeared on his face.

"I understand what you mean, Eldest Senior Brother!"

Chu Zeming nodded in satisfaction.

As expected of the former leader of the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect's chicken thieves. He understood at a single point.

Ling Tian and the disciple surnamed Wu did not understand so quickly.

But after a while, the two gradually grasped Eldest Senior Brother's meaning as well. They looked at each other, their expressions somewhat strange yet somewhat excited. As righteous cultivators, they had long been accustomed to acting as upright gentlemen... Why was there a tiny bit of anticipation in their hearts at the thought of suddenly becoming despicable and sinister?

There were no matches for the next five days. Everyone was busy cultivating, and their days passed in a tense yet orderly fashion.

Yue Lian alone was the exception.

He did not cultivate, and he had already visited every market stall, shop, and night stand in the vicinity. Life suddenly became dull.

After gathering several more ancient books that looked rather good, Yue Lian went around the inn's long corridor and sneakily made his way to Chu Zeming's room again.

He took out an exquisite little box, beautiful and scented with incense, and placed it at the door. Before Yue Lian could rise, the tightly shut door suddenly opened.

Yue Lian looked up and met his flamboyant, beautiful wife's eyes.

Yue Lian: "..."

Trembling, Yue Lian withdrew his hand and blinked. He said innocently, "How strange. Eldest Senior Brother, there's a pretty box at your door."

Author's Note:

Chu Zeming: I believe your mother's head.