SCC Chapter 13 (Patreon)

Hidden cultivation realms weren’t all that uncommon, but many had limits on who could possibly enter them. The one the Cloudy sect owned was only active for a single week once every twenty years, and only those in the qi condensation realm could enter. 

Not only were there plenty of rare cultivation plants and spirit animals, but the person who created the hidden realm would often leave many of their treasures behind or make it a trial to find the person who would inherit their knowledge. Oftentimes, these are traps where the original person will attempt to take control over whoever managed to finish their trial.

This wasn’t like that, though. The person who made it was, in fact, just someone who left behind their treasures so no one else could get a hold of them. This upcoming event would cause a skism between the other sects that often took part as someone outside of the sect found one of the person's inheritance. The inheritor was slain, and their treasure eyes were taken from them, which was most likely the start of the sect's downfall.

The sect lost access to the two higher-ranked hidden realms as no one trusted them anymore. People began to default on their debts as smaller sects attacked like piranha, weakening them. They managed to stick it out for decades, diminishing in size every year until the oldest person I needed to get my revenge on put the death nail in the sect.

At the time, I had grown disillusioned with the sect myself, so I only viewed him as a righteous warrior. I didn’t find out that he essentially honey-trapped the high-ranking sword maiden of the sect, which began the cascading failure of the sect. Its breaking apart was one of the reasons I could rise out of my slow progress as no one cared enough for the mid-rank techniques.

Many abandoned sect buildings had valuables inside, and I managed to learn a better cultivation and one of my bread and butter fighting techniques I used for decades after. I know now how terrible that technique is, but at the time, it had saved my life countless times. The competition was only a few days away, and after that, it would take another two months before the hidden realm portal opened.

There wasn’t much preparing I had left, I decided after I got my token that if it took me more than three moves to defeat a person, I would concede. I refused to let the sect leaders know how strong I truly was as they would attempt to find a way to get something out of it. Perhaps many of their disciples would pester me over my own master, the master that I made up and didn’t exist, and perhaps they would figure out that he wasn’t real and it was me.

That would be the end of my life; at the very least, I’d have to flee the sect. Fleeing the sect wasn’t that big of a deal, it would make taking revenge harder as all of us were in the same sect at some point. That was also why I couldn’t win the competition even though it would be easy for me. I couldn’t get involved in politics because that was the fastest way to get outed as a secret master.

There wasn’t much preparation that could be done in the few days before the competition. I just continued to ‘cultivate’ with my partner while enjoying life. That day, we signed up and could see how large the clan really was. There were eighteen thousand participants for the qi condensation realm. About half of the cultivators in the sect took part in this competition, and the sect was bottom-heavy on members.

It meant that the sect had about fifty thousand members in total; becoming a cultivator was slightly less rare than a one-in-a-hundred chance. This was one of the bigger sects, but even still, it didn’t have even a tenth of the cultivators in the entire continent. Five continents, all a similar size with a similar number of cultivators, and you could gauge how rare access to one of the three known hidden realms on the continent was.

That was why I had to go to this; the risk was worth it, in my opinion. Every single round was immediate elimination. The eighteen thousand cultivators who took part was reduced to nine thousand, then four thousand five hundred. I would have to win eight fights to reach the top one hundred; that was what I was aiming for. I could win another two or three, but anything in the top ten, and I should lose on purpose to draw less attention.

The first four rounds were the weeding of people with no talent for fighting. Many would sign up for this event just for the participation spirit stones. Who knew if they’d get lucky and win a match or two against similar unskilled people? I have finished each of my matches in a single blow so far. My luck didn’t last. I got placed against someone who could have won the entire thing for my fifth round.

She was near the peak of the qi condensation realm. I had to win, and there were still far too many other contestants being tested for an oddity like her losing to go noticed. Perhaps if she had a teacher, it would be found out, but I did my best to show I had won by a fluke. It would have been dramatically easier if I didn’t have to feign weakness.

I could have defeated her in six moves if I wasn’t holding back, but even then, it was still an indicator of how talented she was to be able to last that long. The drawn-out fight where she overextended and was tripped out of the ring was a show of how talented my acting was. The female disciple glared at me. I half expected her to mention how I had only won through luck, but she just left.

I made it to the final sixteen participants, but my luck finally ran out, and I got put against Fatty Wei. Him winning would guarantee him a spirit weapon for his rank; it was something that he would need for the realm. The female cultivator could have beaten him, but it would have been close. If Fatty Wei used his fat burning technique, it would be a far closer fight, and I’d give him the edge, but at how skilled both were, a single mistake could determine the victor.

He even won the next match but lost the one after, placing him in either the third or fourth position. It was crazy to think about how much of a difference the pills made on his ability. The first timeline, even five years after we joined the sec,t he was still in the qi condensation realm. We were only three years in, and he was holding back on reaching the foundation establishment realm, a much stronger and more robust body on top of the backup seals I placed on him.

The person who defeated him went on to win the competition. He was the strongest, but I didn’t remember him. He would either die in this hidden realm or someone would cripple him out of jealousy soon. That was always the risk when you stood out too much. That was why I couldn’t risk placing first in the competition.

It was a trap slathered in rewards. He was skilled, but there were probably a half-dozen inner-core members stronger than him. He appeared to be a lone wolf, which would get him killed in the group-focused hidden realm. I wonder if he thought that far ahead; most likely not, if I didn’t remember him.