"Lin Ke, you forged your Dao Foundation with the Myriad-Leak Body and defeated Lin Quan-meng, who had mastered Moon-Jumping Intent. You deserve first place in this Sect Grand Tournament!"
Rain Spider True Person announced it in a ringing voice.
At her words, the audience erupted in cheers that shook heaven and earth. Applause thundered, and the uproar boiled toward the sky.
Standing in the center of the square, Lin Ke felt the attention of countless eyes upon him. A ripple stirred in his heart, then subsided almost immediately.
He was excited, but he had not forgotten what had earned him all this.
His fists!
If he drowned himself in the hollow vanity of all this attention, forgot to keep moving forward and remain cautious, and started thinking he was invincible, death would not be far away.
"Thank you, Rain Spider True Person." Lin Ke calmly cupped his hands, no longer flushed with the excitement of battle.
Watching Lin Ke move from exhilaration to insight, then vanity, and finally calm, Rain Spider True Person nodded, her eyes full of approval. "Neither arrogant nor disheartened. That is the heart of one who pursues the Dao."
"Once these days of the Year Festival are over, I will send someone to deliver your Sect Grand Tournament rewards."
Then she waved her hand, her voice carrying in every direction. "The Sect Grand Tournament is over! Ten days of the Year Festival! Enjoy yourselves to your hearts' content!"
The Year Festival was the most important occasion of the year.
The entire Golden Wing Sect plunged into a sea of joy.
For nearly ten days, everyone put cultivation and duties aside, thinking only of enjoying themselves in the square and the various buildings above it.
Lin Ke immersed himself in the festive atmosphere too, though he did not stop cultivating.
His newfound fame did mean he had to keep his face covered with a mask.
Fortunately, people here wore all sorts of clothing, a dazzling assortment of styles, and plenty covered their faces. He did not stand out much.
"Have you heard? Our sect is about to hit the big time!"
"Absolutely! You have no idea. Our sect has always been ordinary in the Poison Tempering Mountains, neither at the top nor the bottom. Now that the younger generation has Lin Ke and Lin Quan-meng, we're about to soar!"
"What do you mean, neither at the top nor the bottom? Our sect is at least in the top ten in the Poison Tempering Mountains, right? Maybe even the top five. Hold on to fifth and fight for third!"
"What the hell does that have to do with me? My monthly stipend is still a hundred and fifty."
"Brother, that's where you're wrong. If our sect grows stronger and takes Spirit Stone veins from the other sects, won't our stipends go up?"
"I don't have time to care. I'm putting all my strength into just staying alive."
As Lin Ke walked along, he kept hearing conversations around him, and his own name came up quite often.
People fear fame as pigs fear growing fat... Lin Ke inwardly shook his head.
Still, a large gathering like the Year Festival had also let him learn and see many things.
The five-element Spell Arts he had used against Lin Quan-meng had been inspired by other people's battles in the arena.
As for that final burst of Mountain-Moving and Sea-Overturning?
According to Hua Wujiang, it was an explosive technique of the Myriad-Leak Body, allowing him to unleash all his Spirit Power in a single instant.
But the truth?
He had unleashed only forty percent of his Spirit Power.
That made him value his already highly prized, immense reserves of Spirit Power even more.
His advantages lay in his abundant Spirit Power, in Lin Can, and in his Niwan Palace!
"I wonder how things are going at the Green Mulberry Garden..."
After wandering around for a long time, Lin Ke began wanting to return.
But the Dao Foundation Stage Sect Grand Tournament had not arrived yet, so he was waiting.
Apparently, the Dao Foundation Stage matches would not take place in this square, but somewhere else.
He only needed to wait for Rain Spider True Person to summon him through his disciple token, then head over to assemble.
At the same time, he was pondering the matter of Li Le.
Now that Lin Ke had shown his edge, and Rain Spider True Person had openly stepped forward to reprimand Li Le before the sect's disciples, Li Le should, in a sense, no longer pose much of a threat.
The question was how Li Le's Nascent Soul father would react.
Still, even if True Person Yuan Yong was a Nascent Soul elder, he probably would not casually clash with Rain Spider True Person, who was at the same level.
Besides, Rain Spider True Person was the sect master's sister. Whether in strength or backing, she surpassed True Person Yuan Yong.
Yet he kept feeling that the matter was not over.
"Why did he take an interest in Zong Ya..." Thinking of this question, Lin Ke sank into contemplation.
In the original owner's memories, Li Le had never had much contact with the siblings.
But one day, Li Le had suddenly become interested in Zong Ya.
That was undoubtedly very strange.
The original owner had not thought much of it, assuming only that Li Le had been overcome with lust.
But Lin Ke kept feeling it was not that simple.
"Could the issue lie with Zong Ya herself?" Lin Ke had reached an auction house, and simply stepped inside.
He intended to sit down and think it through properly while checking whether the auction house had anything good. Buying was basically out of the question, but broadening his horizons would be worthwhile.
"Fellow Daoist, are you here to do business or simply watch?" The moment Lin Ke entered, a woman with a graceful figure came forward to greet him.
"Just to watch," Lin Ke replied.
The woman before him was at the Dao Foundation Late Stage, a sign of this auction house's resources.
Even after hearing that Lin Ke was not there to do business, the woman's expression did not change. She remained perfectly courteous. "Certainly. Please follow me, fellow Daoist. Shall I take you to the ordinary viewing area?"
Many auction houses had different grades of seating. These had nothing to do with strength or status, only with how many Spirit Stones one had.
Lin Ke naturally had little interest in private boxes and the like. He had only come to find somewhere to rest and watch the proceedings, so he agreed and followed the woman into the so-called ordinary viewing area.
This auction house was not suspended in the air, which meant that many Qi Refining Stage disciples could enter too, yet the interior did not feel crowded or noisy at all.
It must have employed spatial formations and sound-dampening formations. Despite the number of people, the interior was spacious.
After he stepped through a particular doorway, the scene changed again.
Cushions floated in the air, each with a cultivator seated cross-legged upon it.
In the center was a circular marble platform. A woman stood upon it, loudly saying something with an enthusiastic air. Behind her was a cage containing some kind of Demon Beast.
"Fellow Daoist, please step onto any jade cushion. It will fly inside on its own. If you wish to bid, simply channel Spirit Power into it." The woman who had led him in pointed to the jade cushions beside Lin Ke's feet, then bowed and left.
Many auction houses worked this way, and Lin Ke had visited some before, so he settled cross-legged onto a jade cushion with practiced ease.
The jade cushion rose steadily into the air, giving him a clear view of everything on the marble platform. He could also hear the conversations of the spectators nearby and the auctioneer's announcements.
"Three thousand eight hundred, going once! Three thousand eight hundred, going twice! Three thousand eight hundred, going three times... Sold!"
"This Water-Avoiding Pig goes to private box number five!"
"Our next item is a six-hundred-year-old Purple Puppet Dendrobium, harvested from the Poison Tempering Mountains..."
The auctioneer wore revealing clothing and spoke with an enthusiastic voice that involuntarily drew people's eyes toward her.
Once she had captured their attention, however, her sales patter redirected it toward the item itself.
It was a spiritual herb.
As she introduced the Purple Puppet Dendrobium, Lin Ke saw some disciples make their jade cushions light up to place bids.
"Calms the mind, dispels impurities, and purifies Spirit Power?"
Even Lin Ke felt tempted after hearing the Purple Puppet Dendrobium's effects.
Still, he would not buy things he did not need just to stockpile them. After all, he was still very poor.
So he continued going over memories of Zong Ya and Li Le, trying to find clues that both the original owner and Zong Ya had missed.
After turning it over and over, he did recall one unusual detail.
Apparently, Zong Ya had once said she felt uncomfortable while cultivating, then recovered after going to the kitchen and eating a spiritual meal prepared by the cook.
The original owner had not understood at the time, and when Lin Ke recalled it, he had assumed it was the monthly bodily process women went through.
But thinking about it now, something seemed suspicious.
"Fellow Daoists! Our next item is a Clam Maiden from the Clouddream Great Marsh, a Qi Refining Stage slave possessing the Spirit Xun Saint Wind Body!"
"With the Spirit Xun Saint Wind Body, if you refine her into a cultivation cauldron and seize her constitution, your future achievements will know no bounds!"
A cultivation cauldron?
Lin Ke's expression changed at those words.
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