Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 285: Playing the Tiger

Cai Junyang replied, “Not a lot. Ping Jingyue didn’t come, but Hongyan and Mingyang did. Besides that, there’s also Lu Yu and Hong Yi.”

“Call them up and let’s all have dinner tonight, together with Senior Brother Peng and the others. It’s about time for the club meeting, so we might as well get together.”

Cai Junyang laughed. “What made you think about inviting everyone to a meal?”

“The tournament is beginning soon, and if we don’t get together now, we might not get a chance later.”

“That’s true. Alright, then; Divine Fragrance Pavilion?”

Tang Jie hastily waved his hand. “Let’s not. I can’t afford to go there twice. What about Clearheart Restaurant? It’s a rather refined place.”

Clearheart Restaurant was set up next to an artificial lake created by the Wandering Palace.

Eating, drinking, and making merry by a lake on the mountain was quite the wonderful feeling.

“No problem,” Cai Junyang gladly agreed.

At the same time, a person identical to “You Shaofeng” went to see Long Dao. He said to Long Dao, “Tomorrow is the official opening of the Immortal Fortune Conference. Before that, we should hold a big feast and invite everyone to raise morale. It would be like a pre-battle ceremony.”

Long Dao happily agreed.

That night, Tang Jie’s group arrived at Clearheart Restaurant first.

A waiter was waiting to lead them inside.

After walking for a bit, Tang Jie suddenly stopped at a winding corridor. This corridor was different in that it led to the center of the lake, ending at an eight-sided pavilion. There was a large table here that could seat ten-some people, and there were floral decorations around it. It was an elegant and natural place.

Tang Jie pointed at the flower pavilion and said, “This place is pretty good. Let’s eat here.”

Everyone agreed. Tang Jie was treating them anyway, so any place he chose to eat was fine with them.

The waiter seemed to be in a difficult spot. “Sirs, this pavilion has already been reserved.”

“Oh?” Tang Jie chuckled. “Then just let them give it up. Our Basking Moon Sect’s name should command some respect.”

He spoke in a very relaxed tone, but his words were arrogant. However, everyone was used to such things and didn’t feel like anything was wrong. When the members of the six major sects were abroad, they always acted like this. They normally didn’t go out of their way to bully others, but if there was anything nice, the six major sects would inevitably get to enjoy it first.

Surprisingly, the waiter replied, “But this pavilion was reserved by another group from the Basking Moon Sect.”

“Oh? That’s even better.” Tang Jie was unconcerned. “Have they come yet? We’ll eat here first and then give up the spot when they arrive. We’re all part of the same sect, so we can just talk things over.”

“Right, right. It’s probably Senior Brother Zhu’s party that reserved it. These guys just love sightseeing and drinking wine, but they never invite us,” Cai Junyang commented.

A Freedom Society student asked, “But you didn’t invite them this time either, right?”

Cai Junyang glared. “Nonsense! It’s not like I’m the one who set this up.”

They sat down in the pavilion and began to enjoy themselves, seated on the lake and drinking wine while admiring the moon.

Peng Yaolong said, “The Immortal Fortune Conference starts tomorrow. Tang Jie, do you have any idea how exactly it will be arranged?”

Tang Jie shook his head. “I don’t know any details. We’ll probably only know when it officially starts.”

Liu Hongyan smiled. “About this, I actually know a little.”

“Oh?” Everyone looked at Liu Hongyan.

Liu Hongyan cleared her throat and said, “According to the rules, there are 120 people taking part in the Immortal Fortune Conference. They will go through two rounds of examination to ultimately select ten people. The first round is an elimination tournament.”

“‘An elimination tournament’?”

“Yes.” Liu Hongyan nodded. “Since this is a struggle between the six major sects, how can there be no combat? Isn’t an elimination tournament very normal?”

“How will they be fought?” Peng Yaolong asked.

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Liu Hongyan thought for a while before replying. “As I recall, we’re divided into six teams, one team for each sect, each team made of twenty people. We all draw lots, with the lots being numbered from 1 to 20. Every person will have to fight the others with the same number. For example, if you’re Basking Moon Sect’s Number 1, you’ll have to fight against the Number 1s from the other five sects.”

“So every person has to fight five matches?” Qi Shaoming asked.

“Mm.” Liu Hongyan nodded. “Each victory is one point, and the top 60 with the most points will go into the next round. People who are tied in points will fight an additional match as a tiebreaker.”

“So that means half of us will be eliminated,” Ye Tianshang sighed.

“Yes,” Liu Hongyan replied.

The rules of the Immortal Fortune Conference were simple and cruel. The tournament was actually a points tournament. The maximum number of points was 5 while the lowest was 0, and those without enough points would be kicked out.

“What about the second round?” someone asked.

Liu Hongyan replied, “From what I know, everyone will gather together and fight in a melee. Remember how the Wandering Palace promised to give ten treasures? That’s proof of the victor. Whoever gets one of the items will be considered part of the top ten.”

Tang Jie frowned at these words.

From what Liu Hongyan said, anyone who got a treasure would become part of the top ten, which was essentially a way of automatically dividing up the treasures among the students. But didn’t this mean that he would have to specifically target the Stop Gate Banner if he wanted it?

This undoubtedly increased the difficulty of the task facing him.

“Then what if you get more than one?” Shu Mingyang asked.

Liu Hongyan giggled. “That, I don’t know. I’ve only heard about all this from someone else, so I don’t know if it’s true or not. But who knows? It might be allowed.”

She spoke very sweetly, as if she was just relaying hearsay, but Tang Jie knew that she was the disciple of True Person Yuliu, her future True Inheritor, and True Person Yuliu just so happened to also be in Red Plum City.

The Violet Palace experts of the six major sects had not moved for this Immortal Fortune Conference, but quite a few Celestial Heart figures had come.

The Basking Moon Sect had sent Xie Fengtang and True Person Yuliu, but the most famous of all was none other than one of the 19 Celestial Chiefs of the Basking Moon Sect, Ming Yekong.

The Basking Moon Sect highly valued human talent and pursued a course of selecting and training up the best. Ming Yekong was the master of the Selection Hall, which was responsible for selecting human talents, which also involved recommending outsiders to be students of the academy and recommending students of the academy to the sect. Even the promotions of internal figures were under the purview of the Selection Hall. In addition, whenever there were tournaments, it was normally someone from the Selection Hall that presided over them.

Since the Immortal Fortune Conference was a rather important tournament, Ming Yekong had come to supervise it personally.

Fortunately, these bigshots were usually reclusive figures who rarely showed themselves. If they casually walked the streets, everyone else would find it hard to even breathe.

“In other words, if I took all ten of the treasures, wouldn’t I be the only one in the top ten?” someone asked.

“You want to get them all? Are you dreaming?” someone scoffed.

“You can’t say that. In the True Inheritor struggle, didn’t Tang Jie get all three missions?”

“That was Tang Jie, not you. Moreover, those happened one after another, but all ten treasures will be appearing at once this time. If you had Tang Jie try it again, even he wouldn’t be able to get all ten.”

“I probably wouldn’t even be able to get two,” Tang Jie firmly replied.

“It’s more like Brother Tang wouldn’t dare, right? I’ve heard that Brother Tang is on good terms with a certain girl from Horizon Ocean Pavilion,” Peng Yaolong chuckled.

Someone sympathetically said, “You want to enjoy both the bear paw and the fish!”

Everyone laughed and began to tease Tang Jie.

As they were chortling, someone coldly said, “You guys are sitting in the wrong spot. We reserved this place.”

As they turned around, they saw Long Dao’s group angrily glaring at Tang Jie.

It was hard to find time to get the friends together for a drink, and to their surprise, an old foe had taken their spots. If he didn’t fear Peng Yaolong and crew, Long Dao might have already attacked.

Tang Jie raised an eyebrow. “So it was Senior Brother Long who reserved this table. But since we’re already eating here, why not wait for us to finish first?”

“You!” Long Dao’s eyes flashed with anger, but he was still wary of Peng Yaolong’s presence and couldn’t lash out. But Tang Jie refused to show him any respect, and his words were so angering. Long Dao found himself riding a tiger, but he didn’t know how he was going to get off.

At this moment, You Shaofeng suddenly stepped forward and said, “Alas, since this isn’t your table, I worry that you might not be able to eat in peace.”

He stepped forward, and then the entire pavilion swayed. There was a rumble like thunder, and large clouds of dust came down. The soup and tea on the table all splashed into the air.

This caught everyone off guard, and Peng Yaolong and the others ended up getting hot water all over them.

“Bastard!” Peng Yaolong roared.

He hadn’t cared about this matter and had only come because Tang Jie had invited him and he didn’t feel like it was right to reject him. Thus, he had remained silent. But he hadn’t expected You Shaofeng to be so wicked as to use a spell art to shake the pavilion and prevent anyone from eating.

Furious, he raised a hand and tried to grab You Shaofeng.

As he extended his hand, You Shaofeng laughed and said, “We’re already waiting here, but Senior Brother Peng is trying to chase us away! You’re acting a bit too tyrannical here!”

But rather than backing away, he advanced, ramming an elbow into Peng Yaolong’s hand.

There was a boom as elbow met hand, and Peng Yaolong was unexpectedly forced back into his seat, leaving everyone agape.

Although Peng Yaolong hadn’t been serious and had probably only used about 40% of his strength, this 40% still wasn’t something that an ordinary person could contend against. But not only had You Shaofeng fought off the grab, he had even pushed Peng Yaolong back.

Peng Yaolong turned red in the face at being countered, and he was about to attack again when Tang Jie shouted, “Scoundrel!”

He slapped the table and set a plate flying at You Shaofeng.

You Shaofeng grabbed the plate and sneered. “Let me return your gift.”

He threw the plate at Tang Jie, and Tang Jie dodged to the side, but the plate turned in the air and struck Peng Yaolong’s extended arm. Peng Yaolong didn’t manage to grab You Shaofeng, but he did grab the plate, which shattered under his grip.

This was an excellent application of strength, neutralizing the combined attack of Tang Jie and Peng Yaolong. The other students couldn’t help but sigh in wonder.

You Shaofeng didn’t show this kind of strength normally, but he was now revealing an abnormal strength. Was it really the case that everyone had some ability and just hid it?

As everyone was occupied with their wild thoughts, Cai Junyang laughed and said, “To think I underestimated Brother You! Try my sword!”

You Shaofeng laughed. His hand flashed with a light, and a sword appeared. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! He swung three times in a row—one each for Cai Junyang, Peng Yaolong, and Tang Jie.

There were three booms, and while You Shaofeng was struck by Peng Yaolong’s palm and pushed back, Tang Jie suffered a deep wound on his shoulder.

Everyone was stunned once more.

You Shaofeng was fighting against Tang, Peng, and Cai, and he had actually managed to wound one of them. How many people in Basking Moon Academy were actually capable of this?

Nobody had expected this guy to be hiding so much power.

But a moment later, You Shaofeng grunted and dropped to his knees, holding his shoulder and twisting his face in pain. It was clear that he didn’t have the strength to keep fighting.

But this only made people scorn him, for they thought to themselves, This isn’t some battle to the death, and Peng Yaolong didn’t even use his full power, so why did one palm make you like this? If you really couldn’t take this blow, then how is it that you could wound Tang Jie with one swing of your sword?

It had to be understood that Tang Jie was famously known for his defense.

If he couldn’t take Peng Yaolong’s palm but could wound Tang Jie with one strike, it could only mean that this guy was still pretending, but after that astonishing show just now, nobody would believe him anymore.

The faces of Tang Jie and Peng Yaolong were shifting, clearly surprised at the result of this three-versus-one. You Shaofeng’s sudden show of ability had been like a hit to the head, warning everyone that they could never underestimate anyone, that there was no saying who might suddenly erupt with strength and reveal a side that they had never shown anyone else.

Maybe you thought you understood someone, but you never actually understood them.

Various thoughts ran through their minds, but none of them could find anything to say.

Finally, Tang Jie resentfully said, “Brother You put on an excellent show! Regardless, this table was reserved by Brother Long, and it was us who took it, which is truly improper. Forget it. Since we’ve already eaten for this long, let’s end things here. What do you think?”

He looked at Peng Yaolong and the others.

They all gave You Shaofeng a long look. Finally, Ye Tianshang laughed and said, “Yes, we’ve had our fill of wine and food, so it’s about time we left. I didn’t expect to be so fortunate today as to witness the true abilities of my junior brother. For my Basking Moon Sect to be so brimming with talent is truly something worth celebrating. It’s a pity that Junior Brother You isn’t participating in the Immortal Fortune Conference. With your abilities, you would definitely be able to get into the top ten.”

You Shaofeng snorted, “Senior Brother Ye makes a good joke. I can’t even take Senior Brother Peng’s palm strike, so how could I have the right to participate in the Immortal Fortune Conference?”

But the more he said things like this, the less people believed him. In any case, the group left their seats and yielded the table to Long Dao.

As they were leaving, a figure drifted over from the distance: An Rumeng.

Nobody understood why she had suddenly appeared. She scanned the area and stopped on You Shaofeng.

An Rumeng’s eyes brightened, and she paced over and said, “You Shaofeng, come with me. I have something to say to you.”

These words left everyone stunned.

An Rumeng was known in Basking Moon Academy for being aloof and pure. She didn’t even wear make-up. Why had she suddenly requested to speak with You Shaofeng?

Considering the show that You Shaofeng had just put on, everyone suddenly realized that this guy was really acting like a pig to eat the tiger. To their surprise, even the cold An Rumeng had taken the bait. If he didn’t have the ability, how could he have made even a woman like An Rumeng look at him in a new light?

At that moment, countless people began to focus their attention on You Shaofeng.