Could it be that I am the cruel villain?

Clang——

Clang——

The ringing of the bell echoed throughout the mountain ravine.

A streak of bright color appeared on the horizon, a deep and dignified bell sound resounded, transmitted across every corner of the Zixiao Mountain through the Spiritual Energy Array.

In just a few short moments, over seventy percent of the sect's young disciples gathered at the main peak, while the outer layers were guarded by various powerful protectors and stewards, and the sect master and the great elders personally maintained order inside the Martial Arts Arena at the main peak, which could accommodate ten thousand people.

Everyone widened their eyes, the entire arena was bustling, especially when that tall and serene-looking female cultivator slowly stepped onto the stage, drawing waves of cheers.

"Yun Xiyin! Yun Xiyin!"

"Senior Sister Yun will definitely win, Senior Sister Yun will definitely win!"

"Quick, quick, quick! She's here, do you see? She's so beautiful, truly worthy of being the number one beauty among the third-generation disciples of the Purple Cloud Palace, and also a top-tier master. Besides Chief Gu participating, the other chief disciples are mostly absent."

"With that in mind, Yun Xiyin can be considered a top expert in this Nine Peaks Martial Competition, at the peak of Core Formation, with solid foundation, also the direct disciple of Uncle Master Yun Yue, now the chief of Yuzhu Peak, just entered a bit late."

"Have you heard, people from Pavilion of Flowing Clouds came to us for marriage proposal, their elder came over to propose for their young master, fancying our Senior Sister Yun from Yuzhu Peak. They reportedly met during Senior Sister Yun's adventures several years ago, and then he took a liking to her."

"You're dreaming, how could Uncle Master Yun Yue allow her chief disciple to marry out, let alone asking if we'd agree."

"We shouldn't let our resources flow outside our sect, our sect is already so impoverished, just look at our mountain gate, damn it, we might as well rename our peak to Vajra Temple..."

A group gathered, emitting various mixed voices, but from the resentful tone, it wasn't hard to determine they were undoubtedly from Chi Xiao Peak.

There's no helping it, Red Cloud Peak Master focuses on forging and smelting, the mountain gate is exclusively male disciples, not that everyone is rugged and rough, but this work is indeed unsuitable for women.

Their remarks were deeply felt by others, honestly, the whole sect was already in a state of many monks with little meat, don't be fooled by Jiang Feng always mingling among women, actually, the male-to-female cultivator ratio is barely seventy-to-thirty.

One classic example is Dragon Head Peak, where there are nearly fifty Inner Sect Disciples, with only ten female cultivators, each one treated like a precious treasure by the senior brothers and junior brothers, afraid they'd break.

The mountain gate only has a few peaks like Yuzhu, Qingxia, Divine Wood with more female cultivators, the former only accepts females as disciples, while the latter two are open to all, but due to cultivation technique biases, the number of female cultivators is almost equal to male cultivators.

But soon, another set of voices drew everyone's attention.

Just boos.

"Whoa, look, here comes our male protagonist."

"This guy is really..."

"Lucky dog."

"Yes, a lucky dog, damn it, not only did he join Peak Master Liu's sect, but he got two bye rounds, why? If you say a newly entered disciple of Peak Master Liu got a bye round, we can understand, after all, it's a newly entered junior sister, we should care more, but why him?"

"Hmm, great minds think alike, aside from encountering Wang Quan, there's not a single decent opponent, and Wang Quan isn't really a master, recently broke through to High Grade Core Formation, doesn't have any significant treasures."

"Wang Quan probably won't even make it into the top eighty in this Inner Sect Disciple competition, and he directly advanced to the top thirty-two with two bye rounds, honestly, I feel the sect is biased."

A disciple expressed dissatisfaction in his tone.

Originally, the sect's martial competition was conducted normally, but due to the incident of Jiang Feng being attacked last time, it was postponed for a few days. During these days, others' matches proceeded as usual, while Jiang Feng rested, so his draw was a bye round.

If the bye rounds were in the early stages, maybe no one would say anything, but this is already in the later rounds, where most disciples of High Grade Core Formation are battling each other, eliminating one another, and suddenly, you get a bye round.

Directly advancing to the top thirty-two, it seems a bit excessive in terms of both reasoning and emotions, so what about those of us who were eliminated?

Once he appeared, some booed, while others talked among themselves, but the majority didn't have a big reaction, even though people spoke, Mr. Jiang's popularity within the sect was still quite good.

When someone criticized, naturally someone defended.

"That's not right, even if it seems biased, it's an unavoidable measure, the sect just went through this incident a while ago, Lao Jiang being the victim, the sect has to compensate both emotionally and logically."

"Lao Yan, I know you're close with Jiang Feng, I'm not saying anything about him, but I'm already eliminated and can't even complain a bit. If he hadn't gotten the bye round, I'd have smoothly advanced, he drew against the Peak of Core Formation."

Yan Fengchun would certainly argue a few words, but everyone could understand the sect compensating Jiang Feng, after all, right after contributing to the sect, he was assassinated, and it even happened within the sect, which was like a direct slap in the face.

Although he was successfully rescued, ultimately, he needed some consolation.

"It's alright, top thirty-two already, to have such achievement within three years of entry, given his age, he can certainly participate in the next one, by then he'll definitely be Nascent Soul, a shot at the championship isn't impossible."

"But let's save it for next time, this time it's Senior Sister Yun, the chief disciple of Yuzhu Peak. Unless the cultivation realm is overwhelmingly superior, even Gu Miyun may not be able to decisively defeat her."