Oppression

Looking at the ring-shaped artifact in her hand, Xu Yue was thinking about what her master had told her just a few moments before.

"An open secret, huh," thought Xu Yue as she examined the artifact and pondered what its use might be.

She then took out a sword from her spatial bag, and used it to make a small cut on one of her fingers. A small amount of blood poured from her finger and onto the artifact. A moment later, the blood was absorbed by the ring, disappearing.

Xu Yue frowned while looking at the ring. She then made a large cut on her hand. A large amount of blood poured down on the ring, Xu Yue looked at the ring, ignoring the insignificant pain felt from her hand.

After around thirty seconds, Xu Yue took a healing pill. The wound on her hand healed rapidly, Xu Yue then made another one.

Xu Yue had to do this four times before something else happened.

Looking at the ring that was now glowing, the name and uses of this artifact entered her mind.

Xu Yue mumbled, "Luck Gathering Ring," while looking at the ring.

To understand the uses of this artifact, you need to understand a certain effect.

When defeating an opponent, a small part of that person's luck is absorbed by you, while another part of that cultivator's luck is dispersed.

This artifact was created to absorb the portion of luck that is being dispersed and grant it to the cultivator wielding it.

Because second-rate powers and lower don't have knowledge of this, even if one of their disciples wins the whole tournament, the amount of luck he would get would be quite small.

But a second-rate power winning the tournament has not happened for more than ten thousand years.

The worst thing about this is that, in the absence of a Luck Gathering Ring unless you win the whole tournament, you will have lost luck participating in it. And only get the pitiful physical rewards granted to lure them here.

This deal is not worth it and could even cause their future achievements to be lowered.

This tournament is one of the ways Peak and First-rate powers keep those below them in check and don't allow them to rise up.

Xu Yue put the ring on one of her fingers, but even so, she couldn't help but think, who had developed such a devious system.

She then thought of something.

A while later, Xu Yue was outside her master's cave abode. After a few seconds of waiting, she entered the abode.

"Master!" greeted Xu Yue, still thinking about that thing.

"What is it?" asked Feng Shuchun, looking at her little disciple.

"Can you find out what happened to those that won the tournament while not being part of Second Rate or lower powers?" asked Xu Yue, wanting to verify her though.

"The sect should keep records of such a thing, I will go find them." said Feng Shuchun before disappearing.

Around two minutes later,

Feng Shuchun appeared with a giant book in her hand.

"All of the records were kept in jade slips, so I had to create a book for you," said Feng Shuchun before handing the book to Xu Yue.

Xu Yue exited her master's cave abode and went towards her own.

Standing in her cave abode, Xu Yue couldn't resist anymore and opened the book.

Zheng Meifeng- Joined The Holy Land of the Five Elements.

Dai Xiu - died two years after the tournament.

Wu Yi - Joined the Yin-Yang Temple.

He An- Died two months later.

In this entire seven hundred-page book, every winner only had around a dozen words written about them.

There were only two results for those who won the tournament in a weak power. Join a stronger power or die. Because of the small amount of information about each winner, the rarity of the wins, and the size of the book, Xu Yue found that the first winner in this book lived around three hundred million years ago.

And for three hundred million years, only a few dozen cultivators managed to escape their fate.

Looking at the book, Xu Yue almost felt sorry for those second-rate powers. Being oppressed for almost three hundred million years, Xu Yue felt a lot better knowing she was part of the oppressors, not the oppressed.

Those dozen or so that escaped from their fate were either disciples of immortals, hidden in extreme places that only they could survive in, or in the case of two of them, became immortals themselves.

Of the two that became immortal, one of them was first invited to join the Origin Sword Sect. After refusing, the sect assassinated him, but he somehow survived the assassination, and after around four million years, he became immortal. He then informed those weak powers of the trap before besieging the Origin Sword sect.

Using the Immortal formations and artifacts, the False Immortal ancestors managed to resist him until he was forced to ascend by the heavenly dao.

After learning of the trap, under the leadership of this immortal, those weak powers managed to force the peak powers to keep themselves locked up.

After the immortal ascended, the peak powers had to conduct a purge, to destroy all information about this event.

The other immortal was much more reasonable.

Even though Bai Mei was assassinated by the peak powers, after some negotiation, and being granted compensation, she forgave those past mistakes.

The Bai family, where she originated from, has become a First Rank power and an ally of the origin sword sect.

It is said that she had gained great benefits after negotiating with the peak powers.

Looking at the now-closed book, Xu Yue felt that learning history was quite important.

"I wonder what benefits they gave her to forgive the peak sects," wondered Xu Yue.

Mortal things would not interest an immortal in the least. No matter how valuable they are to a mortal, to even the weakest immortal, they would be useless.

Xu Yue once again got a glimpse of the terrifying foundation of the peak sects.