Ren realized he had never known true conflict. He had been a frog at the bottom of the well. To look up at a small patch of the sky and think that was all there was to it. All those fights, duels, and beast hunts were child’s play to war. And war is what was happening here.

  Countless beasts had smashed against the walls seemingly without end. In the section of the defenses where Ren and Bao Hua stood, they were faced by storm tigers that had the ability to manipulate wind to sharpen their claws beyond belief. They acted with a bestial ferocity that was hard to defend against.

  All of his skills had been employed; his sword fighting was reinforced by the arrays he employed. It had taken a bit of preparation, but he had set up the rudimentary stage of the wind razor strike formation. It had helped prevent a lot of the ranged attacks of the beasts. With it, Ren made sure to cover Bao Hua primarily but helped out his other neighbors when he could spare his focus. They occasionally repaid the favor. A girl wielding a flying sword helped stop a leaping beast that Ren failed to notice in time. On the other side was a slightly older man who would occasionally throw out a dagger at an opportunity.

  Large movements were restricted in the limited space, and Ren was relying on the speed of the Earth Striding Leap in short bursts instead of the distance it covered. When a beast broke past his sword's range, he relied on his fists. When he found himself outnumbered, Hua leveraged his power to neutralize the threat.

  While Ren had fought alongside others, this battle was practically forcing him to fight cooperatively just to stay in the fight. Their teamwork had its kinks, but every wound they garnered was a lesson that quickly refined their ability. Ren started to focus on controlling the flow of the battle, leaving Hua to crush resistance. He tried to pick out targets, defend against ranged attacks, keep them from becoming surrounded, and all while covering his allies.

  Bao Hua, on the other hand, had been wielding the Tortoise Defender with increased familiarity. His movements were sharper, and he was no longer being dragged around by the heavy sword as much. He hadn’t mastered the technique by a long shot, but battle was the fiery crucible in which true heroes were forged. His enlightenment had clearly had some effect, but even Hua couldn’t yet say what it was. Only that channeling fire qi through the sword was easier than his other attributes.

  Their exhaustion was mounting rapidly, and they were learning just how draining using qi techniques could be if not managed correctly. The air was filled with qi of all types, but the rate at which they could replenish their stores while fighting was at a snail’s pace compared to their usual speed when meditating. They both had to slow their use of techniques and focus on just reinforcing their bodies.

  Naturally, doing so led to them being unable to fight at their best. Wounds were accumulating, and their focus was starting to wane. They were really fortunate that neither of them had been critically incapacitated or encountered a foe beyond their means. Yet for every moment they fought on, it was getting more likely. Ren was worried they were one mistake from taking a debilitating injury and shouted out with a strangled gasp,

  “We need to retreat! Let’s swap out, Hua.”

  He wasn’t even sure he had been heard over the noise of the fighting and called out again. This time, Bao Hua started slowly stepping back. Ren looked back and saw there were a couple of disciples ready to take their place and indicated to them to switch positions. With a nod, an older-looking disciple stepped forward and, with a wave, threw out an array of talismans. Under the cover of the deafening explosions, the two of them fell back and collapsed the moment they reached safety.

  They sucked in rough breaths, too tired to even move from where they fell. As they looked at each other, they started laughing weakly. That had been some experience! Overhead, cultivators continued to fly back and forth on swords. Ren couldn’t even feel jealous because they were likely going to the fights further in. If the fighting was so vicious here, he couldn’t even imagine how brutal it was over there in the inner regions.

  As they gradually regained the strength to walk, they started to head towards the camp center to see how much they had earned. That was when they realized the time. Not even a bell of time had passed when it felt like they had been fighting for half a day! They weren’t foundation establishment stage cultivators with qi refined bodies but this was still anbodies, embarrassingly short duration. They really were lacking in endurance.

  Ren threaded a bit of qi into his token to check how many points he had earned and saw it list 412. According to the charts, they received as many points as the layer of the beasts they fought. For a 7th layer qi gathering realm, 7 points , 8th layer for 8 points, and so on. The higher-stage beasts went for a lot more points. The foundation establishment stage beasts began at 50 points. That was just another indicator of how much crossing realms increased your power. No wonder the strife stele was dominated by inner and core sect disciples.

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  From the look on Bao Hua’s face, he was thinking something similar.

  “We did good for our first try, brother. We earned plenty this time. If we use it well, next time we’ll earn even more!”

  Not one to linger on depressing stuff, Hua quickly recovered and said, “Just like the tournament then, right? I already have an idea of what I should do next!”

  He was absolutely right, thought Ren. This battle had shed light on his many faults and weaknesses. Having learned just how lacking he was and was determined to correct it. He had barely been able to set up his formations, one of his strongest and most versatile skills. His sword, while swift and sure, lacked the devastating strength to end fights decisively. He had utilized his qi poorly and wasted a lot of it on his movement technique. Knowing which blows he should have dodged on his own and which needed his qi techniques was crucial. Furthermore, unable to utilize all his techniques at the same time efficiently, Ren realized he had barely used his sensory technique!

  These glaring flaws would have to be addressed as soon as possible. Although he was starting to feel a little overwhelmed with just how many goals he had set, the many plans all needing his time and attention, Ren couldn’t stop himself. If he slacked off, he would be left behind in the blink of an eye by all the talented and wealthy cultivators. The strong would get stronger. So, if he was not as talented, then he would have to put in a lot more effort. If others were both talented and hardworking, then he would have to rely on his wits and gather every scrap of strength he could.

  The shadow his childhood friend Xi Yuan had left on his heart had been a constant reminder that monstrously talented geniuses existed, but his time as a cultivator in the Heavenly Sword Sect had given him confidence that he might one day bridge the gap. To do so, he couldn’t let up for an instant. Acknowledging his dao had brought peace to his heart and given him clarity for his future.

  The brief panic gradually settled and was replaced by a growing anticipation for the rewards of the battle. At the exchange stele, he tried to narrow down the listed prizes to those in his range. There were all kinds of beast parts, meat, scales, feathers, and so on. There were also spirit beast cores, eggs and hatchlings, beast nurtured natural treasures, and much more. There were ingredients for numerous qi attributes, including some Ren had only read about. Lightning, thunder, ice, draconic, light, shadow, fiery yang, ghostly yin, mixtures, multi-attribute, and many others. There were many spirit beasts out there with just as many mixtures of qi types.

  Ren couldn’t begin to imagine their various uses. He wasn’t yet an alchemist, nor was he a beast cultivator. They stood the most to gain here. Yet Ren wasn’t without ideas. He could use the beast parts in his forging, especially metallic types. He could use the monster meat to supplement his own qi growth or as fertilizer for his spirit plants. There were many carnivorous spirit plants that preferred to snack on spirit beast meat. He could also use beast cores to try influencing the paths of his Myriad Path Tortoises. They hadn’t settled into a qi attribute yet and were susceptible to outside influence. Not to mention gaining their love and loyalty with such tasty treats.

  Yes. The more Ren thought about it, the more the idea appealed to him. This was an opportunity that he was already late arriving at. While he didn’t regret honing his knowledge and starting on the path of a karmic cultivator, others had been fighting and earning points here since the tournament. Not to mention just how much he had gained from the experience of battle itself. If he made it a regular habit to fight here, he would grow at an unbelievable pace. The virtuous cycle of killing beasts, growing stronger, and killing stronger beasts was extremely tempting.

  Already his thoughts were drifting to how he would rearrange his routine to include regular trips to fight the beast waves. He could even sell the weapons he forged here. A few others had already set up shop. There was a great strain on weapons from the constant battles, and replacements were in demand. He could scale back his literary efforts temporarily and choose to raise spirit plants that needed less attention. If he wasn’t able to use the Nurturing Rain Sutra every day, he was sure to lose more crops than usual. However, he could earn any lost income back by focusing on forging and selling weapons.

  Even as he thought on this, he realized something else. It wasn’t just weapons wearing down, what about all the cultivators?! Medicinal herbs would surely be in greater demand than ever! If the plants he chose to raise could be used in medicinal pills, then he could sell them for lots of spirit stones. Or he could move up his plans of becoming an alchemist and make the medicines himself. That would earn even more money than just selling ingredients! War was turning out to be incredibly profitable!

  “Stop moving your hands like that, Ren. And stop smiling like that! That look is creeping me out!”

  Breaking out of his fugue of dastardly plans, Ren looked up to address Bao Hua, “Whatever do you mean, Brother Hua? I was just thinking of all the prof-… I mean aid that I can provide to our fellow disciples!”

  Bao Hua wasn’t even remotely convinced. “Yeah, right. Let’s just go trade in our points.”

  Unable to wipe off the manic grin on his face, Ren headed towards the temporary building with a list of items he was going to buy. His courtyard was about to see another surge of improvement. That would hopefully be used to increase his own strength and improve his ability to earn more. He could almost hear the sounds of the spirit stones rolling in!