Showcase of Power

After saying those words to his uncle Shi Xingtai, Shi Li went back to his courtyard. With the help of his newly solidifed [Flame Bursting Step], he was able to reach his courtyard in a matter of minutes. At the moment he entered the courtyard, Moddy was in a cultivation pose within the living room.

Hearing the creaks of the wooden floor under Shi Li's footsteps, Moddy was awakened to the arrival of Shi Li. "Nya...What did you do?"

Shi Li slightly chuckled and replied, "It's just clan matters, nothing too important. Anyways, how much progress have you been doing in the cultivation technique you picked?"

Since the state of inner peace was broken by Shi Li's questions, Moddy wasn't in the mood to cultivate anymore, and stood up on its four paws. Looking at Shi Li with a smile, it replied, "I'm close to breaking through to the 2nd level nya!"

"That fast?" Shi Li was shocked. The cultivation technique that Moddy chose to cultivate was an internal cultivation technique named the [Roaring Hit Manual]. Although it was an internal cultivation technique and not an external cultivation technique that had more stringent requirements to cultivate, it was still a High Mortal grade technique, which is definitely quite harder for someone starting to cultivate.

"Moddy, you're a monstrous genius when it comes to cultivating," Shi Li couldn't help but say. Of course, the reason why Moddy was able to cultivate this fast was because he already had the experience of being at that level. Recultivating back to that level would only be a matter of time. The true genius when it comes to cultivating anyways is Shi Li, starting out from nothing to becoming a cultivator at the peak of the Martial Novice stage within 2 months.

"Anyways, go back to cultivating, I'll cultivate in the training space so I won't disturb you," Shi Li added as he waved goodbye before headed towards the training space within his courtyard.

...

"Huuh..." Shi Li stood in the middle of the training space for a short bit as he looked at the night sky, taking in a few deep breaths of air. He then sat cross-legged on the ground before letting out the air he inhaled.

"Haah..." At this moment, Shi Li felt that he had calmed down by a lot after the excitement that was the Novice Tournament. He then rummaged through the insides of his robe and brought a pill that was an earthy yellow color. This pill was familiar to Shi Li as he had used it multiple times before.

"Spirit Gathering Pill!" Shouting inwardly, Shi Li opened his mouth and popped the pill in, allowing its energy to gush all over his body as he was savoring its feeling. "Good pill!'

Although he knew that cultivation pills would inevitably leave some remnants in his body that would be hard to remove at his current realm, he would still rely on it, and just purge it out of his body before he entered the Martial Master realm.

Closing his eyes, he then willed all of the energy from the Spirit Gathering Pill to surge towards his soul. He decided that if he wanted to grow strong faster, it would be to cultivate his soul to the peak of the Martial Novice stage first before his body, as his aptitude made cultivating his soul extremely easy.

Whoosh!

As the energy moved towards his soul, it gradually enveloped the soul that looked like a statue of him that was moulded out of refined steel. Although some parts of this statue were still dirty, these were the parts Shi Li was aiming for, wanting to cultivate towards the peak of the Martial Novice stage.

"Envelop!" Shi Li shouted inwardly. In an instant, the energy from the Spirit Gathering Pill started to gradually envelop his soul, making it look like his soul was glowing a faint yellow. Not long after that, this yellow energy transformed into multiple tiny spiralling spears that drilled into the dirty parts of his soul, mining away at it gradually revealed the shining refined steel part hidden beneath it.

Since Shi Li was already used to this kind of sensation, Shi Li did not even make a sound or show a face of enduring something painful as time passed by extremely quickly.

And so, after 8 hours or so, Shi Li opened his eyes, both of them gleaming like the stars that lit up the night sky. Taking a few deep breaths as he looked around his surroundings, he couldn't help but say, "Everything looks clearer than before and I can hear better than before. These are definitely the benefits of a strengthened soul."

Shi Li then stood up from where he sat and lightly stretched his body before heading towards the ever familiar strength measuring pillar within the training space of his courtyard and bent his legs perpendicular to the pillar. After that, he let out a punch that landed squarely on the pillar, which was covered in a faint white glow not long after.

Peng!

A few seconds later, a double digit number appeared in front of the white strength measuring pillar and made Shi Li happy as he knew that he was getting closer to his goal of 100 ren.

"Haha! I have a strength of 77 ren!" Shi Li couldn't help but laugh loudly as he softly passed through Moddy, who was still cultivating, and left a note of him leaving before heading towards the clan arena.

...

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Of course, with his strength boosted, the effects of his [Flame Bursting Step] became stronger as well as he traversed the path from his courtyard to the clan arena in a time of less than ten minutes.

After entering the center stage of the clan arena, he greeted those he knew and stood at a place that was not that far from the raised platform.

Well...at this moment, the raised platform couldn't be called a raised platform anymore as it was now flushed with the ground, and the space it occupied was more than half the center stage as a barrier made out of qi covered it.

After a few more minutes, the other participants that were present yesterday showed up and saw the place where they were going to fight against their peers.

A few more minutes later after that, Shi Xingtai, the presider of the Novice Tournament, appeared in front of everyone, hovering above the barrier that covered the place that the participants that were going to fight inside in.

"Attention everyone!" Shi Xingtai said at a voice not too loud and not too soft, yet was still heard throughout the center stage. After hearing this, everyone looked at Shi Xingtai, eager to know the rules of the final part of the tournament.

"We are now holding the final part of the tournament, which is the dueling portion of the tournament. This is the part of the tournament where you should strive to get the highest ranking for you will get nothing if you think of this part as nothing!"

"Let's not delay this any further."

"Let us now..."

"Begin!"