The Romantic Cultivator

Ji Yuan had a stupefied look as he left the speculator stand.

He soon caught up with Yu Jingjing who had changed into a new bodice and robe.

She was still teary and when she saw Ji Yuan, she began to say coldly. "Are you here to mock me? If you are then you should be very happy now."

Just as she was about to dash past, Ji Yuan had taken out the earth-step divine sword that he had just looted and said coolly. "This may not be able to replace your heaven-step zither but at least this is still an earth-step divine sword. You are going to need this for your upcoming battle. As long as I am undefeated, this divine sword won't disappear from your hands since I am the original owner."

Yu Jingjing hummed coldly. "So are you taking pity on me? Or when I have reached out my hands to take it, you will humiliate me by taking it back. Or you are only offering to me because you are lusting after my body?"

Ji Yuan said quietly. "None of the above. I'm offering this divine sword to you because I was too rude to you earlier. Please accept my apologies."

When he had said that, he had simply thrust the earth-step divine sword into the flooring as though it was dirt in his eyes and had walked away.

Yu Jingjing was startled as she stared at the divine sword that was in front of her while muttering. "Did he just throw a divine sword away just like that? Isn't he just a poor peasant? Am I wrong about him or is he just trying to show off in front of me?"

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After Ji Yuan had left Yu Jingjing to her own company, he visited the First Wing Cultivation Hall where his guide told him was the place to purchase for rare cultivation resources.

When he had arrived there, there were already quite a number of cultivators from the Fire Faction on the first floor.

There was a second floor but the access was sealed for him.

He turned to ask his beautiful guide. "I can't see the other cultivators from the other factions here?"

The beautiful serving maid aka the guide smiled. "No, you can't."

Ji Yuan began to frown immediately. "Why is it so?"

The beautiful serving maid smiled. "So you're missing your friends who are in the other factions?"

"Of course not!" Ji Yuan immediately said weakly. "I am just being curious."

The beautiful serving maid smiled. "We can't have you checking on what your rivals are buying for their cultivation resources, am I right? Also, we can't have any groups ambushing their rivals as well. This won't be fair, am I right?"

Ji Yuan returned a weak smile. "So I see."

Then he turned his attention to look at the numerous shops at the First Wing Cultivation Hall and was stunned by how expensive things were.

He pointed at a third rank profound pill and muttered. "This is only a third rank profound recovery pill but it cost five hundred high grade spirit points and one slaughter point?!"

The beautiful maid smiled wryly, "You have no idea how precious recovery pills are in the trial. It will mean the difference between life and death."

Ji Yuan: …

He muttered. "Well, I wonder how much does a divine sword cost here? You do have one here, am I right?"

The beautiful maiden smiled, "Naturally we have it here. It will cost you 1 million high grade spirit stones and 300 slaughter points for a half-step divine sword."

Ji Yuan smiled most bitterly. "Why don't you rob instead?"

He took a quick look around and was appalled at the outrageous prices that were offered for the cultivation resources.

There was really nothing he could do with his remaining 2000 high grade spirit stones so he had decided to call it a day.

A short while later, he had walked into the main hall of the Fire Fraction and he was followed closely behind by his personal serving maid.

Hundreds of cultivators could be seen gathering in this place already.

As he approached the inner hall of the main hall, he was quite startled that there was a display board that detailed their battle results.

Fire Faction;

Victories: 250, Defeats: 705, Deaths: 135

He began to rub his chin as he muttered. "Not bad…"

But his jaws almost dropped when he saw the results of the other three Factions.

Air Faction;

Victories: 660, Defeats: 400, Deaths: 25

Earth Faction;

Victories: 424, Defeats: 240, Deaths: 77

Water Faction;

Victories: 312, Defeats: 301, Deaths: 53

Ji Yuan could not believe his eyes when he saw that his side had the most number of defeats and deaths as well as the least number of victories.

"What the hell?! I am in the losing faction…"

And the number of defeats and deaths on the Fire Faction appeared to be increasing every minute.

Ji Yuan: …

Ji Yuan: …

Ji Yuan: …

He soon spotted Feng Minyue and Mo Bei walking into the hall together.

Mo Bei was frowning as he proudly showed him his forearm. "Little Brother, where have you been? Did you see my fight? I've won. So have Maiden Feng!"

Feng Minyue nodded lightly. "My opponent is a little weak though."

Ji Yuan smiled weakly as he pointed at the battle board. "I guess that we're the lucky ones."

Mo Bei's jaws almost dropped. "It seems that our side is the worst performer."

"Indeed." Ji Yuan echoed softly.

Then he turned to them to say. "Something is amiss for this trial here and we ought not to trust the guides that are given to assist us."

At which Ji Yuan's beautiful serving maid replied with a smile. "You can absolutely trust us to safeguard your confidentiality."

Mo Bei smiled with great delight as he looked at his empyrean beauty guide. "Naturally, naturally. I've complete trust in my guide."

Ji Yuan, Feng Minyue: …

Ji Yuan suddenly asked. "It seems that this hall is unusually crowded?"

Feng Minyue explained. "The battle arena is only opened for half a day today for us to get used to the Jade Mansion. It will be a full day tomorrow though. Maybe that is why there are so many cultivators here. We thought that we may find you here as well."

Ji Yuan laughed. "I was just wandering around. I've just been to the First Wing Cultivation Hall…"

Then he added with a weak smile as he spotted several cultivators with two pair of wings on their forehands. "It seems that we have some strong cultivators here that already have a two pair of wings."

Feng Minyue nodded quietly as she took a quick look around. "We've even seen one with three pair of wings."

Ji Yuan muttered. "Why are they so eager to rise to the top in a single day? Are they in a rush to reincarnate?"

Mo Bei asked curiously to his empyrean beauty. "I wonder what the highest progress is right now? What is the most number of wings now?"

His empyrean beauty returned a beautiful smile, "It is currently the fourth now. There is a board here that will show the progression of the levels that are currently unlocked. Why don't I show it to you?"

And so Mo Bei, Ji Yuan and Feng Minyue followed the guide for a short walk around the corner where there were hundreds of cultivators that had already gathered and everyone was shaking their heads as they gossiped loudly.

Ji Yuan smiled bitterly when he saw the status of the board;

Fire Faction; Highest level unlock: 3

Water Faction; Highest level unlock: 4

Air Faction; Highest level unlock: 5

Earth Faction; Highest level unlock: 5

Ji Yuan was startled that there were actually cultivators from the Air and Earth Faction that had reached the fifth level.

He remembered that Little Princess and Bai Qianfeng are in the Earth Faction while Sisi is in the Air Faction.

He so happened to remember as well that Little Princess, Bai Qianfeng and Sisi are all impatient cultivators that are more likely to go up as high as possible because they have a disdain for most other cultivators.

Did they know that they are heading for disaster by doing so?

They need my good brains to help them to overcome this trial…

"Ji Yuan, what are you thinking?" Feng Minyue asked curiously when she saw that he was rubbing his chin in deep thoughts.

Ji Yuan answered weakly, "I'm beginning to think that this trial is a trap."

Mo Bei laughed. "How can this be a trap? I say we should fight hard to improve our trial ranking within our own faction. In this way, we can lift our heads high and everyone will regard us as heroes."

Ji Yuan answered weakly. "Of course this is a trap. It is because I don't know which factions to support now."

Mo Bei: …

"Are you going to be a traitor to our Fire Faction?" He gasped loudly.

Ji Yuan protested weakly. "Of course not…"

But all of a sudden, many of the cultivators were surrounding Ji Yuan with an angry look after they had overheard Mo Bei sudden gasp.

"No wonder we have such dismaying result on our side…"

"So we have a traitor on our side…"

"He isn't fighting hard at all…"

"Isn't this cultivator the so call great hero of the Desolate Celestial Fraternity?"

"The cultivators from the Desolate Celestial Fraternity cannot be trusted, especially the beardless one…"

"Maybe those cultivators from the Desolate Celestial Fraternity are in cahoots with him to sell us out…"

"Lynch him!"

"Kill this traitor!"

"Bang him!"

Ji Yuan took several steps back as the number of cultivators had suddenly increased to several hundreds and more cultivators from the other side of the hall were also coming to take a look.

He mustered his profound strength to shout weakly. "Hahaha. Now that I've got everyone's attention, shall we have our first battle strategy on how to overcome this trial together? That is because I've found a loophole for us all to overcome this trial!"

Everyone: ???

"A loophole?"

"For us all to overcome this trial?"