Who Radicalized The Heroines?

To avoid falling behind the fast-approaching deadline, multiple disciples were told by Lao Jun to begin their challenges simultaneously.

Three of them walked closer to the crowd and initiated their first challenge one by one.

"I have some talent in calculating good feng shui for cultivation chambers. Who wants to compete with me on this?" shouted a girl in strikingly luxurious clothing.

It was clearly a skill for folks with exceptional backgrounds. All the unselected participants began exchanging awkward looks, not daring to challenge her.

"If nobody steps up, it'll be her victory in the first round," Lao Jun said with a derisive sneer on his face. The provocation finally made them stir.

A scholarly-looking young man stepped out from the back of the crowd and gave her a strange salute.

Han Xuhan didn't know what it signified. But judging by how the girl tensed up and returned his salute, he suspected that it was some kind of obscure sectarian acknowledgement.

"I have studied this discipline briefly. How do you propose we settle this?" He said in a gentle tone.

"Each of us shall draw a word map of an abode, containing a number of flaws according to the principles of feng shui.

"Then we will exchange the maps, and within a timeframe of a hundred breaths, we will try to point out the flaws we discover in each other's map."

"Ah, very direct. Whoever finds more flaws wins, is that it?" the scholar said, sounding rather happy about the arrangement.

"Yes. And if any disputes arise, we can refer to Senior Jun."

Lao Jun's face turned green.

"Erm... Children, I don't... I am not very skilled in feng shui. If a dispute arises, I'll have to call an Elder from the mountain peaks. They won't be happy about it. So try to settle it without any disputes."

Giving the old man a dirty look, both contestants went to collect drawing materials. As a bystander, Han Xuhan's understanding of feng shui was definitely at the worst level in the crowd. So his focus jumped to the second contest.

This one was between two brawny young men, naturally, because the challenger had declared that he was exceptionally capable at hurling weights far away.

Selecting a couple of round-ish rocks bigger than Xuhan's head, they decided that whoever could throw their rock farther would win the round.

It was the quickest contest in the first round. In the blink of an eye, both rocks were catapulted dozens of meters in the sky.

Han Xuhan couldn't help but shudder at the display of sheer physical strength.

Peak human athleticism couldn't touch these guys! Their strength was definitely a product of some kind of cultivation.

A handful of claps clattered weakly when the rocks landed more than fifty meters away. Anyone with eyes could tell that the selected disciple's rock had traveled several meters farther.

He managed to retain his slot. While he was busy celebrating, Han Xuhan got a brief glimpse of the third challenger.

This one was a competition of qi-controlling speed. Both contestants seemed to be fairly experienced in their task of siphoning qi into small glass beads. Once again, the selected disciple, a boy in raggedy clothes, came out victorious.

Lao Jun's smile was growing wider by the moment, while the momentum of the mob was declining upon watching each defeat.

Han Xuhan wasn't as emotionally invested as them in the results. Rather, he started thinking about a new problem that had escaped his notice until now.

Almost everybody here seemed to be a cultivator, rookie or not. If, in the future, he wanted to join any sect, wouldn't he have to compete against opponents of similar caliber?

Good heavens! That meant he needed to learn how to cultivate before he could become a sect disciple...

Unless he had some incredible hidden talent that could make the recruiters accept him even if he was an ordinary mortal.

Daydreaming about such possibilities, he continued to watch the contests as one of the few dispassionate members of the mob.

Challengers walked over one by one. Some of them managed to return to their cohort quickly, while some got stuck by losing against the bidders.

Lao Jun separated them from others and sent them back inside the tent alongside those who had bested them.

According to him, the testers inside would have to compare a few more inherent attributes between the victor and the loser before deciding to replace the slot holder.

After all, Crimson Snow Sect wouldn't simply accept a disciple because of his feng shui calculation speed. They had a minimum standard of requirements for discipleship.

Nevertheless, it still gave the previously unselected participants a fair chance. So nobody complained about facing further tests inside the tent.

Soon, all ten challengers were done. Four of them had been eventually defeated by someone with better skills. Lao Jun's smile had faded a lot over the last few rounds.

The crowd's gaze sought out the graceful figure standing beside the old man.

The eleventh challenger, the girl whose slot was pretty much up for sale, and contestable without limits; she wore a faint smile and stepped forward silently into the center of the half-moon-shaped gathering.

"My conditions stand just as declared. Any domain of cultivation, the contestant may decide the topic according to their capabilities. The fee for the first round is... only five spirit stones."

Han Xuhan didn't know how much five spirit stones were worth. But he noticed how everyone nearly gasped. Lao Jun's eyes looked like they were about to leak tears of blood.

"Hey, brother." Xuhan nudged a guy near him. "Is that supposed to be expensive or cheap?"

The boy gave him a strange look. "Five spirit stones... Even a mortal businessman can earn that much a day if he has customers who are rogue cultivators.

"To bet a disciple's slot on that amount, that too of a sect of this level, she's almost insulting everybody here."

"...Can it be that she just wants to make money?" Han Xuhan suggested.

"Because if the price is cheap, everyone here will try to fight her for her slot. By the time the deadline comes to pass, imagine how much she can make!"

The look of ridicule in the boy's eye grew more pronounced. Han Xuhan could almost hear him swallow some insults before speaking.

"Brother, you say you've visited many sects. Have you ever met a rookie disciple who could match up against hundreds of opponents with varied talents and attributes? I'll bet you ten spirit stones that she won't last more than three rounds."

Han Xuhan gazed at the red-robed girl, who was now negotiating the rules of the first round with an enthusiastic disciple. For a moment, he took a look at his system panel, where the first Main Storyline Quest was still open...

"A wager of ten spirit stones? Why don't we follow what she's doing? For every round she wins, we will double the wager, starting right now."