“Join my family and marry my daughter!”

“No, marry my daughter instead! Also, become my disciple!”

“Stop it you lot, this disciple is mine! I can offer you a thousand low grade spirit stones!”

Zhang Dong stood surrounded by a group of old men that were involved in a shouting match. After he made a miraculous pill from the ingredients that the sect provided the old fogies went wild.

Not only were the elders from the Pill Hall here but also from the Blacksmithing Hall, the Formation Hall, and even from the Appraisal Guild. The last one didn’t really have that much pull here so they had to make way for the top three halls.

He had to commend them on how much a good disciple was worth. They even started offering him their daughters, more than one at a time. If he was looking to maximize his profits he would probably end up with a large harem and a house of his own here.

Still, these people were only outer sect elders and seniors. None of them could guarantee him entrance to the inner sect. Before a fight between these old farts could break out, he needed to stop it.

He wouldn’t be surprised if they made some kind of competition between each other. One where he could not refuse after the victor was chosen.

“Please Seniors and Elders, this Dai Rong is truly not worth your time. I’m but a trial disciple, I just wished to pit myself against the other seniors from the sect to see how far I could go. I will not decide on a master before finishing the competition!”

He needed to state his terms, the oldies knew what he was implying and they clearly didn’t like it. From their perspective the young man was foolhardy, the last competition was not a cakewalk and a person could get injured.

There were many young masters that fell during the last competition. Anything could happen during a fight, even a maddened elder could jump in to deliver a critical blow to a disciple that was not taken yet. Without the proper protection, this youngster was putting himself in a heap of trouble while not having proper backing. After speaking his mind, it would be a loss to their face to beg and make more offers.

“Is the sect junior resolute in his decision?”

One of the high ranking pill masters asked.

“The junior is, I wish to compete with the other seniors in the last competition.”

The old man shook his head before throwing a bead towards Zhang Dong.

“Is that so, I wish you luck. I hope you can be victorious and hope that junior’s greed doesn’t get the best of him.”

Zhang Dong was a bit surprised by this elder who was this pill hall’s master. He did not even try to offer him anything to be his disciple. It seemed that even this sect had some people with character. The rest after noticing this old man’s speech started clearing out.

The disciples that were in the process of making pills mostly gave up as there was no way of winning this anymore. The lanky youth that made him his rival shrunk back after being blown away by his pill-making technique.

Four down and only one left to go. It was time to take a break as the battling competition would be taking place in the morning of the next day. Even then he had quite the hard time slipping away.

The pill-making elders started asking him about some insights. The same thing happened with the blacksmiths and the formation masters. All of them wished to know how such a youth was this knowledgeable in their arts that they spent their whole life in.

It was strange to see all these old men and women asking him for tips. He looked like a youth that was not even at the age of twenty. Knowledge was power in this world, even the old seniors threw away dignity and asked a junior for help. Advancing in their given skill was more important to some, even more than face.

For some, it was the other way around. Part of the seniors and elders were looking at him with rage. It was clear that Zhang Dong needed to get out of here otherwise, some of them could do something drastic.

‘I’ll go back to the cultivation cave for now…’

“Excuse me, elders. I need to go to the little cultivator's room…”

He excused himself while some of them had questions. Some of the elders and seniors tried to stop him but he used an evasive technique that made his body move like paper in the wind.

“Please wait disciple…!”

They chased after him but when they got outside he was nowhere to be seen. Zhang Dong lowered his presence and faded into the shadows and made his way back to the cultivation cave. He greeted the person that was stuck looking over the cultivation caves and returned inside.

While trying to prepare a strategy for the coming battles he heard a knock on the large door to this cave.

“Disciple Dai… are you there?”

“Elder Yusheng? Yes, I’m here.”

Zhang Dong replied while wondering what the guy wanted. He was not supposed to come back this early.

“Did you leave the cultivation cave? I’ve been hearing rumors of a particular disciple winning some competitions…”

‘I guess he knows…’

Information spread fast here apparently, he thought that this elder was a bit denser but apparently he had some informants. This could throw a wrench into his plans but also not mean much. With the man knowing that he had already been active outside there was no reason to lie.

“Ah yes, I was a bit hungry so I decided to visit the sect and would you know it, there was a competition taking place so I just had to sign up!”

“Junior had enough spirit stones to sign up on his own?”

The sum of spirit stones required for taking part in the competitions as a trial disciple was quite steep. A hundred low grade spirit stones for each competition and two hundred for the main one, this was not something a trial disciple like him should have been able to afford.

“Ah yes, my clan had left me quite a sum but now I’ve spent it…”

This was a half-truth as most of the spirit stones were absorbed by him to push his cultivation forward.

“Are you planning to take part in tomorrow's competition?”

“Yes I am elder, I wish to see how I will fare against the sect seniors!”

“Is that so…”

After mumbling some words Elder Yusheng went quiet. This was followed by some strange clicking sounds and the use of some kind of Qi technique.

“I think that would be a bad idea, you should rest for a few days disciple, I’ll come to pick you up in a couple of days…”

With that message, he could feel the elder moving away from this location. When Zhang Dong approached the door he knew that the man had locked him inside. With a little knock on the hardwood, he knew that it was reinforced with a formation.

‘A late stage Martial Master would probably not be able to leave this place now…’

It was clear that this elder wanted to keep him here. He was probably thinking that if the prodigy vanishes then he could force him to be his disciple.

‘The inner sect elders are probably too lazy to look into some rumors about a trial disciple winning outer sect competitions…’

High-ranking elders and seniors tended to not care for what happened in the outer sect. Even if they got the information that there was a promising disciple they would not care. They were in a position that didn’t require them to care, it was the disciples that were supposed to fight for their attention and not the other way around.

“I guess this would work on a regular disciple…”

Zhang Dong could easily remove this formation lock that was placed here. It was quite rudimentary and even accessible from this side. He would even be able to force his way out as his true strength was above that of a Martial Master.

‘Let me reorganize my thoughts till then.’

While his escape was already assured he moved to the middle of the cultivation cave. He sat down and started doing some breathing exercises to calm himself.

From the outside, he looked calm and collected but in reality, he was a bundle of worries. There was no way to know how long he would be stuck here. His plan could also backfire even before he reached the inner sect.

This all depended on him being able to absorb all that lightning energy. With it, he would be probably able to access the core formation realm. All those years ago he entered this world at that stage and already then he was able to compete with late-stage core formation cultivators.

Now he was many times more experienced and also his cultivation technique was far superior. With that in mind, he hoped on achieving the strength level of someone around the great circle of core formation.

“That magical world did give me quite the boost to my cultivation, maybe with this I will be able to contend with one of those watchers if they appear…”

This was the biggest bump in the road. He feared that if he was found by one of the people that were part of the system, they might see him as an anomaly and attack. The demon lord was far stronger than the hero party and anyone that lived in that world. Here that could mean that they could even be on the immortal stage or somewhere between it and the nascent soul realm.

‘Well, It doesn’t seem like these watchers will care if I don’t overstep the boundaries…’

The watcher that was disguised as the human king only came out when he started causing imbalances in that world. Probably unless he started going out of his way to cause havoc these watchers would not show themselves.

This also posed the question of what the endgame in this world was. There was no obvious demon lord to defeat, only sects and the emperors at the top. Was he supposed to become the new emperor of one of the empires? Or maybe he was supposed to reach the immortal realm and ascend to some other realm?

The immortal realm was quite illusory here. There were secret grounds built by long-dead immortals but there was not really any information about how a person could push into it. With the original version of the system, he would probably be able to achieve it by combat.

After eradicating the top sects and clans he might have had enough points to unlock that level of power. Then after reaching that level a new questline would be unlocked.

‘Or… it could be the end of the line…’

There was also the possibility that after achieving the immortal realm something life-threatening could happen. A fight with the watcher? Moving to another realm and meeting the person that created this all? Maybe even a return to his original world?

Zhang Dong gave out a sigh as he didn’t really care. He would not even be inclined to reach the immortal realm to check. His family was more important, if it meant to remain at the nascent soul level and to never ascend past it, then it was fine with him.

‘If everything goes well tomorrow, I’ll be at the inner sect… just wait a bit longer, daddy will return soon...’