Chapter 12 - Inner Sect

The changes don't just end in a single day, days turned into weeks and weeks into months.

For 5 months, the whole sect experiences massive growth in strength. The disciples either broke through one or two stages for the talented disciples, at least three, or reaches the peak of the body-tempering realm. Because of the changes brought by new stages of Body Tempering Realm, the tournament for advancement competition was delayed.

The rules of the sect had changed, and some new rules were added. Through his innovation, Li Duyi's karmic debt was reduced, but even then, with all the manuals he has read. The new stages he invented weren't enough to pay off his debt to the sect, and he has promised that he'll make the One Sword Sect the new ruling prospect of the Earthly Martial Plane.

To lessen the karmic debt, he gave some modified manuals. All of the manuals of the sect were modified to be more versatile, flexible, powerful, and useful for the disciples.

With the modified manuals, the sect decided that if any disciples decide to acquire the modified manuals, they have to pay through sect points. A currency that was implemented specifically for this situation.

As the one who provides them, Li Duyi was promised that the sect would receive some of the sect points as a reward, but he declined because of his repayment to the sect and his karmic debt.

His cultivation reaches the early 9th stage Spiritual Sea Realm while Yu Han, the kid he saved before, reaches the peak body tempering realm. The reason for his fast progress was that Li Duyi helped Yu Han absorb different types of Beasts near the vicinity of One Sword Sect.

His relationship with Zhu Yue lowered, and Li Duyi told Zhu Yue that he wasn't ready to have a Dao Companion as it is something sacred. Like marriage, it is something that can't be easily broken.

Li Duyi doesn't have the same affection to Zhu Yue and Li Duyi knows that it is just something a fickle thing that can be erased in a single big opportunity. Li Duyi follows the Grand Dao of Giga Chad (Transmigrated Scoundrel's Exchange System reference)

He is an advocate of being a Giga Chad and will not be a simp. He will take his time in knowing who he was going to be with and if he likes her, any giga Chad knows what to do.

He is also an advocate of the Dao of Indifference and the Dao of Gender Equality. Of course, it's a joke.

On this day, the advancement competition has finally begun. Disciples registered themselves to try their luck, Yu Han was one of them. Li Duyi let Yu Han participate because he wanted someone to gather information as well.

This makes it a part of Yu Han's training while Li Duyi will befriend all of the disciples. Yu Han's Body Tempering Realm was close to perfection and he only need to balance his tempered body to achieve Perfect Harmony. Making him the second person to achieve Perfect Harmony.

The advancement competition will take 10 days of competing between millions of outer sect disciples and only ten thousand disciples will be selected, which is only .01% of the entire population of outer sect disciples.

On the first day, the disciples are distributed to 10 different separated dimensions where they are supposed to either survive the beasts or defeat their fellow disciples.

They were given a token that serves as a way to defeat as well as protection when they are unable to fight. Yu Han and Li Duyi were separated from each other. For Yu Han who's only five years old to participate makes him a prospect worth grooming in the sect.

The Sect Leader was introduced to Yu Han by Li Duyi and since then, Yu Han was trained by the sect leader as he knows that he can't train Li Duyi, who can learn in just a single demonstration. The sect leader tried, he wanted to prove that he became a sect leader through his strength and intelligence but even then, he can't compare to Li Duyi whose growth can be considered monstrous in other heaven-defying talent.

The sect leader, Chu Yin. Can also be considered a heaven-defying talent, even the core disciples are one but, Li Duyi is just a different breed compared to the others. Li Duyi, reaching Spiritual Sea Realm 9th stage in just 8 months. It didn't even take him a year.

His insight is one of a kind, his vision is the best of all, and his foundation is dubbed as the strongest in the entire One Sword Sect or even the whole continent. That's how Chu Yin finally understood the saying of there is someone out there who's better at everything in comparison to him.

Li Duyi learned Alchemist, Array Creation, Talisman Creation, Weaponsmith, Herbalist which is a subsidiary of Alchemist, Pill Concoction which is also a subsidiary of Alchemist, Elixir Concoction, and everything that the One Sword Sect can provide, he learned them all.

Making Li Duyi a force and a treasure that can't be bought or replaced. So, Sect Leader Chu Yin decided to train the less heaven-defying talent, Yu Han.

Even the Ancestors noticed all of Li Duyi's achievements and one by one, decided to test him, he passed with flying colors and beyond, making them question what they have been doing in life, it makes their Dao Heart quiver from how talented Li Duyi compared to them.

This, in turn, makes them teach the young, innocent, and ignorant little boy called Yu Han.

In just five months, he reached the peak of the Body tempering realm with the guidance of all top powerhouse of the sect. He was taught everything they knew from pill making, smithing, array creation, talisman creation, and more. But, because of his lowest potential, he can't learn their teachings if they don't transfer their knowledge to him using the qi knowledge transfer.

Li Duyi knows how low his potential was and decided to try and create some pills that could elevate his potential to a new level, in five months, he has made some progress but he is still far away from creating such a miracle pill. A pill that could change one's fate? That's something probably only immortals could do but here he is, trying to create something beyond his capacity.

This also taught him that not everything can be acquired with just his talent, he must have knowledge and power to be able to create a pill.

He even visited multiple demonic sects, making his vision strengthened. Now, he can just not see their potential but he can also make an appropriate path for them to take. His vision increases so that he can glimpse 5 days in the future.

He also has a time-dilation vision. Making his enemy perceive the time slower than it initially was. He has grown stronger, he created his array that could gather qi in a single point. Which, he uses for his cultivation, pill creation, smithing, elixir creation, talisman making, and all qi related.

With that being said, Li Duyi was transported to a grassland, devoid of trees and the grassland spans for hundreds and thousands of miles. There isn't even a single mountain sticking out, only participants are seen, standing in confusion.

Taking this as an advantage, he immediately attacked the nearest one to him and the person he attacked didn't even register that he was out of the competition. As Li Duyi continued his onslaught on the participants, Yu Han was scared to move that some nearby disciples decided to gang up on him but little did they know, he was wolf in a sheep's clothing. Yu Han notices them attacking and retaliates in return. Even if he has the lowest potential, it doesn't hide his cultivation prowess, a power that could only be seen in the inner sect disciples. He easily dominated the disciples and defeated them.

Back to Li Duyi, using his movement techniques, a speed that surpasses light makes it harder for a beginner and only had a cultivation of Body Tempering Realm of 2nd stage. It's because of the newly added stages, the sect decided that they need to reach at least the first stage of the body tempering realm before they could participate in the advancement competition.

Even with the new rule, most of the disciples of One Sword Sect have at least Mid Level potential and only a few of those are Low potential. Even though they have a low potential, it's more of an upper-low than a mid or low-low potential. So, most of all disciples either already reached the Body Tempering Realm months ago or even years ago.

With that said, Li Duyi's speed blitzed his dimension, and this time, he decided to attract attention. Making sure that the inner elders are satisfied with his potential and make him join their factions.

In the inner sects, there are 24 inner elders and each of them owned a faction. A faction is something that disciples join, it's where they will get their resources from but some disciples whose potential isn't enough are left in the dust and most of those disciples either take some dangerous missions or be bullied cause most of them had low cultivation compared to those disciples who joined one.

Only a selected few disciples are strong and won't join the faction. But these disciples are gifted and making them a hotcake in the eyes of the elders. Because of the fierce competition in the inner sect, he must show at least 10% of his strength and be one of those selected few

On day two, the remaining disciples were halved into 5

600,000's. If Li Duyi didn't wipe out the entire participants in his dimension, the remaining disciples would be around 650 thousand or more.

Most of the other dimensions don't fight each other instead teamed up to repel the beast as this is easy compared to fighting other disciples. Because the competition lasted for 10 days, the disciples wanted to preserve their qi and stamina from fighting.

For the second test, is the test of will and see if they can break through the staircase to heaven. A powerful gravitational array was implemented to the staircase and with every step, the gravity would increase little by little until most of the disciples stop moving. The required steps to pass were a hundred steps.

It might seem too little but the gravity increased considerably every ten steps, making it harder for them to continue. In this test, they are prohibited to use their qi and only use their body strength and will to pass the test.

As the test started, because of the better cultivation manual. It became easier for the disciples to pass and around thousands failed.

On the third day, was the test of heart dao. An illusion array will be placed and their heart dao will be tested, this test is both dangerous and beneficial to the disciples cause if they pass the test, they'll be stronger but if they fail, it will be hard to heal the dao heart. Some will doubt their dao heart, some become crippled and unable to continue their cultivation. That's why, most of the inner disciples are many times stronger than any outer disciples.

Around 100 thousand disciples failed this test, Yu Han also failed this test but since he is young, his dao heart is still in confusion as his goal hasn't been set. Thus, it is a great lesson for him.

Then, from the fourth day to the 10th day was for the disciples to fight each other in the arena. On the fourth day, the disciples are divided into 10 groups which consist of 49,000 disciples in each group. Each group had their contestants reduced by half, totaling 24,500 in each group.

Which by the way, Zhu Yue, Bai Yin, and Wen Li haven't been eliminated yet. This makes them stronger than they seem.

Zhu Yue was put in Group 1, Bai Yin was in Group 7, and Wen Li was in Group 9. Li Duyi was with group 2.

On the fifth day, it was the same setting and each group has their contestants reduced in half, 12,250.

On the sixth day, each group has only 6,125 disciples. Then, the ten groups become five as they merged two groups into one. Making the contestants back to 12,250.

Zhu Yue was still in Group 1, Bai Yin was put in Group 4 and Wen Li was in Group 5.

Li Duyi was in the same group as Zhu Yue.

7th day, the five groups has only 6,125 disciples.

8th day, five random disciples are exempted from participating. Making the participants down to 3,062 while the five random disciples had their separate fights and only one is the winner. In this group of five, Li Duyi was selected and become the winner. He was given to only participate in the finals.

9th day, the participants become 1,531 in each group.

10th day, the final day. The five groups were merged into one, totaling 7,655 with Li Duyi as an addition. In this battle, there will be a thousand platforms where the 7,656 disciples are given a choice to ascend and defend their rightful platforms for ten hours and in those ten hours, the disciples who have not selected a platform will fight the one who has the platform and they will be given two chances to fight and occupy the platform. If those two chances run out, they will be eliminated from the competition.

Li Duyi moved to the first platform and through his action, the disciples move to be the first to occupy a platform. In just a single minute, a thousand platforms were fully occupied. Then, the disciples decided to fight for a platform. In the 1st platform, Li Duyi was challenged by someone who was in the 3rd stage of the Body Tempering Realm. Looking at the disciple, he has a lean body, pale complexion, black hair, and black pupils. He has a sword strapped to his waist, a human-grade weapon.

" I am Hu Teng, I hope to learn from you " He bowed with his palm bumping with his fist.

Li Duyi nodded and did the same bow. As soon as the fight started, Li Duyi just speed-blitzed Hu Teng, Hu Teng was confused as to how he flew away from the platform, while an inner disciple announces Li Duyi as the winner.

The fight continues for 10 hours and Wen Li, Bai Yin, and Zhu Yue occupied each platform in those ten hours, which is an accomplishment on its own.

In this advancement competition, some rankings correlate with the platform and since Li Duyi chooses the first platform, he was ranked first. He was rewarded with a top-tier earth-grade sword, 50 Body Tempering Pills, 10 Spirit Gathering Pills, 100,000 Sect Points, and the inner sect robe. Since Wen Li, Bai Yin, and Zhu Yue only occupied the hundreds, they were given 1,000 sect points as a reward.

As the result was concluded, Li Duyi has officially infiltrated the inner sect and his mission of gathering information has finally begun.

Li Duyi has an inkling that Wen Li, Bai Yin, and Zhu Yue passed the advancement competition. It's because of him, more specifically, his influence or luck, since the three are the closest to him if Yu Han isn't included. It seems that they benefited and passed the competition and became inner sect disciples which he doesn't mind as he will have someone he was familiar with.

Now that the competition ended, Li Duyi returned to his abode to get his items which he doesn't have because he already had a storage ring. But, he was invited by Wen Li, Bai Yin, and Zhu Yue to celebrate becoming an inner sect disciple. Which, Li Duyi agreed and relax his mind once in a while and they celebrated with some spirit wine that was aged for thousand years. This wine cost a hundred sect points.

Late at night, Wen Li and Bai Yin were knocked down by the spirit wine and only Zhu Yue and Li Duyi remained awake, being Zhu Yue was intoxicated while Li Duyi is not.

" Why *Hicup* Why won't you love me... Why, Du Yen... Give me an answer, I want to know, not those bullshit you spouted from before but the real reason... I want to know to ease my Dao Heart " Zhu Yue with a heavy eye, trying not to collapse, asked Li Duyi at such a close distance that Li Duyi can feel her breath.

" You're drunk, Zhu Yue. I'll return you home " Li Duyi said, avoiding Zhu Yue's question.

" Answer me! Please... I just want my questions to be answered" Zhu Yue with her eyes tearing up, asked with a heavy heart.

" Since you want an answer so badly. Alright, I'll give you the answer you were looking for. I am afraid, alright. I don't want to love as everything I loved either die or lived a miserable life when they are in a relationship with me" Li Duyi said, making Zhu Yue gasp as she apologized.

" I'm sorry, I didn't know you had some story like that. " Zhu Yue sobered up.

" No need to say sorry. Since, you know it, I will tell you the whole story. I know you are curious too, Wen Li, Bai Yin. " Li Duyi said, looking at the sleeping Wen Li and Bai Yin who got up at a fast speed as they scratch the back of their head.

" Heheh, sorry about that Du Yen. We just wanted to make you two make up with each other and since we four are close to each other, we decided to help Zhu Yue if possible, have you answered her long-lasting question that weighs heavily in her heart " Bai Yin shyly said, looking away, not daring to have eye contact with Li Duyi.

" I see, what a great friend to have. Then, as a friend, I will tell you my story" Li Duyi said, before telling the story to them.

It goes like this, Li Duyi, when he was a teenager, falls in love with a girl around his age, and at that time, his vision which of course he didn't tell them, his vision is something uncontrollable, and every time he looked at the girl, he will make eye contact with the girl. The same could be said for the girl. They first met at the university, he changes it to school in the story. It's just any normal day, every time he met someone, he will strike up a conversation but most of them either be formal of him or be afraid because of his status as the Young Master of the Vlad Tepes.

A family that could be said to hold an enormous authority that even the whole world can't compete with. Then, when he was giving up, a girl walked up to him and it was the first time he had a conversation with someone other than his family for the first time in his life, he feels alive and fulfilled despite the curse of being equivalent to being a royal prince.

He was finally being treated as a human and not a monster who can destroy someone's life with just a single command. They talked for hours and hours that he felt happy and content with her presence.

Hours turn to Days, days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months and months turn to years. In those years, he proposed to her at the age of 20, only 1 hour left to become 21, and when the woman happily accepted his proposal. The time clocks and Li Duyi turned 21 years old, this marks the day his vision had massive change, he saw lines of life, death, fortune, unfortune, destiny, and other things. Causing him headaches which worried the woman but Li Duyi told her that it was okay.

When Li Duyi looked at the woman again, he was shocked, he saw the unfortunate destiny the girl he loved will experience, he foresaw her death and the only thing he could do is watch. In 2 months, the woman will die of a sudden terrorist attack, and in those destinies, all of it is destined to die no matter how he saves her. This causes him to break, knowing that nothing will ever change no matter what.

Of course, he changes the story to make it seems that the woman he loves will die of sickness and he can't do anything to save her.

He inquired about this to his father but when his father said that it is inevitable to save the woman of his life, he was devastated as he knows that his father also experienced something like this before and it might be his friends, family, or someone he loved.

So, Li Duyi decided to be with her and make her the happiest woman to ever live until the day of her death. So, Li Duyi decided to choose a path that isn't a painful death compared to being gunned down by multiple bullets to the body.

He chooses a path that won't make her suffer, a path that pains him. A car incident, this incident is an instant one as the pain won't even register to her brain, and at the very least, her body will still be intact. To make sure that she won't feel that much pain, he gave her an anesthetic drink that could numb the pain without her noticing.

Of course, he decided to accompany her by riding in the passenger seat as he watches her happily driving at a breathtaking speed. With a single drift, a sudden truck appeared and hit the car they were driving, causing the car to be destroyed.

As for Li Duyi, he survived with just a minor injury. But knowing that his fiance is dead pained him, causing his emotions to lose as time gradually passed. He saw the thread of death taking the fickle human life and their final destiny.

Which he of course altered the story.

.

.

.

.

In the abode of Li Duyi, he was seating blankly as he stared at the ceiling.

" Looks like I still can't forget about you, my love," Li Duyi said before his eyes gradually closed.

Morning arrived and together with Zhu Yue, Wen Li, and Bai Yin who looked at him uncomfortably and guiltily, tried to cheer him up he just smiled at them as they come aboard the flying beast.