Second Time

Chapter 59 - 10 Years Later

Ten years flew by.

In the cultivation world, ten years was not much.

To ancients like Liezhu or Shao Yue, it was practically nothing.

To the younger women, Cai Fei and Xiao Shi'er, it was very long, representing one half or one third of their life.

Over the years, everyone made rapid advancements. Their cultivation soared with the constant supply of pills, the thick world energy on the peak, and Shao Yue's guidance.

However, Shao Yue forbade them from breaking through into the Heavenly Realm, even if they had the ability. Once they reached the peak of Spiritual Manifestation, she changed their monthly pills from cultivation pills to supplementary pills, such as body tempering pills or soul strengthening pills. Instructed by Cai Fei, they all began training the Dragon Turtle Body.

In this way, many of them began to press against the absolute limit of the Spiritual Manifestation Realm.

None of the disciples had a problem with it. They knew all the other peaks would be doing similar things with their prized disciples.

After all, the time for the tournament that would determine the ranking of each peak was quickly approaching. Each peak's performance in the tournament would determine the allotment of resources they would receive over the next decade. They would give it their all.

The allotments Shao Yue cared the most about were time slots for the weaponsmiths. Her time in the Eternal Ore Domain and the trading of materials she did in the Central Qilin Pavilion was all to prepare for crafting a sword worthy of the Sword Empress.

On the day of the tournament's beginning, Shao Yue gathered up everyone and set off to the peak where it would be held.

Although some of them left the peak now and then for various reasons, it was the first time they had all left together, moving as one. A rainbow caused by their clothes streaked across the sky, gathering the attention of anyone who noticed it. If the onlookers tried to examine it with their divine sense, they found they couldn't approach closer than fifty meters.

Such attention was unfamiliar to most of the women after having spent a decade in near-seclusion. Some of them liked it, others ignored it. Jin Liling was reminded of why she had gone to the peak in the first place.

They arrived at a mountain. The top one hundred kilometers of it had been completely levelled to provide space for a massive arena which nearly had enough seating for the entire sect looking over eight hundred stone platforms, each one of which would soon become a battlefield. Each peak had their own designated area, easily visible from a distance by the clumps of colour.

Shao Yue led her group to their spot and everyone sat down, looking relaxed and chatting happily with each other.

The other peak leaders had information on the Rainbow Mist Peak and knew that every single member was present. What shocked them was how, other than the unreadable Shao Yue and Cai Fei, nearly all of the women were giving off a peak Spiritual Manifestation Realm aura.

The first phase of the tournament involved comparing not techniques, but development. The participants would all have their cultivation measured and compared to how it had been in the previous decade.

A peak which kept twenty disciples at the peak of Spiritual Manifestation might do well in the tournament, but the lack of development would reflect very poorly on their ranking. Peaks which could repeatedly train up powerful disciples would rank higher.

In that sense, Shao Yue would be at a disadvantage in later tournaments. She only had direct disciples. After the tournament, they would break through to the Heavenly Realm and she would have nobody to replace them with.