The Domineering and The Pragmatic

How did my cousin reach the third realm of Qi refining and become the strongest of our cohort was beyond me, but now that he did, it was bound to cause me trouble.

Our sect was divided into the outer court, inner court, and central court. One wasn't allowed entry into the central court until they had established their foundations and transcended the Qi Refining realm.

As for the inner court? These were the lifeline of the sect. They didn't have to complete missions, they had abundant resources and each one of them was nurtured lovingly by the sect.

The purpose of this competition, in fact, was to select 10 more inner court disciples. Naturally, the disciples were already pumped up, intent on giving it their all to acquire a position in the top ten and change their fate once and for all.

The battle spirit and fighting intent of the disciples was contagious but in my eyes, performing in a competition like a monkey with an abused and single-minded idiot openly showing his hostility and killing intent just seemed like a foolish choice.

I wasn't well-versed in combat, after all, there were a lot of risks.

The rules were simple, the disciples were given tokens with numbers carved on them. Those numbers would then be called out by the elder managing it all and two disciples with the same number would jump onto the stage to fight it out.

The first few rounds were supposed to be elimination rounds to thin out the crowd. Only after the top-20 were selected would there be a league stage fight.

But it wasn't something I paid a lot of attention to. I looked around at the thick green bushes around me. Assuming that someone covered themselves up completely with these bushes, there would be little chance of their aura leaking and a psychotic murderous cousin killing them, right?

Unfortunately, no one provided me an answer, I turned to stare at the Outer sect elder managing the tournament. He was a lanky middle-aged man with a snake-like face. He seemed to be in a hurry as if organizing this tournament was beneath his status.

...and this guy was my only hope. In every sense of the world, my hope was slim. After all, this was a guy that perfectly broke the bones of more than 10 of my cousins. He probably ate a baby and dog for breakfast instead of a fasting pill like the rest of us.

His eyes were scary, his personality was non-existent, and his words were creepy.

Sigh, I was tired.

Soon, the elder announced the start of the tournament and started calling out numbers. The first two that went onto the stage had a long fight, mostly because both of them didn't know how to fight.

The elder had a disgusted expression on his face, but he didn't interrupt them as he watched their brawl.

Like, two street thugs in a mortal city, they grappled on the floor with each other without utilizing Qi at all.

Soon, a winner was announced. But there was no applaud. The dark expression on the elder's face had snuffed out the warm-blooded enthusiasm from the hearts of the novice cultivators.

After a few more rounds, it was the turn of my cousin to step on the stage. His opponent had a smug smile drawn on his face, not knowing how vicious his opponent could be.

It went just as I had expected it to be,

"You piece of trash, how dare you step in this ring with a Low Mortal Spirit Root? Break your arms, kowtow on the floor and call me Grandpa three times, and I might just spare your life."

Oof, it was just painful to watch.

After being insulted, he gathered his power, and broke the guy's arm, forcing him to sprawl on the floor. Before he could take any further action, the elder intervened and allowed the surrender of the smug boy that was now rolling and crying on the floor, still threatening him.

Are the cultivators really so... dim above their necks?

My cousin on the other hand still had a maniacal aura surrounding him. He seemed dissatisfied with not being allowed to kill his opponent.

This brutal bastard, he had become an animal by then.

After going back to his place by the side of the stage, he licked his lips and subconsciously peeked at me again.

I felt goosebumps rising. After that, I made a decision.

When it was my turn to go up on the stage, I didn't allow the single-celled organism in front of me to call me trash and surrendered out loud.

The was total silence in and out of the arena. From the elder to the disciples, all of them were stunned by my abrupt decision.

Even my cousin's eyes were as wide a saucers. I didn't care. I gave the elder a bow and left the stage.

Noticing the odd stares falling on me from all sides, I was pleased. The cultivation world was calm, it was very relaxing to spend time within the arms of nature, with spirit springs spewing thick spirit Qi all year round.

One's state of mind naturally chilled out in such a place until... the cultivators opened their mouths.

Perhaps a long lifespan with most of it being spent in dark lonely caves wasn't good for the psyche of the individual, however pleasing one found cultivation to be.

After a certain stage, cultivators took sustenance directly from the Qi of heaven and earth. They didn't eat food to fill their stomachs, they did it to satisfy their palates. Since they didn't eat, naturally they didn't defecate, it was no wonder their brains and mouths were full of it.

Anyway, I didn't want to live long. I decided to leave the sect after reaching the Foundation Establishment level and spend the rest of my life as a mortal, with a beautiful wife, a humble plot of land, two naughty little kids, and–.

"HEY!"

My daydream was interrupted by an annoying voice I would rather not have heard in my entire life. It was my annoying cousin, he took permission from the elder to check up on me.

Apparently, the elder also wanted to know why one of the two strongest contenders would leave the competition without being an inner court disciple.

How could anyone not want to spread their name far and wide and climb the ranks? It was just abnormal for a cultivator.

I was on the way back to the simple hut that was assigned to me when I had entered the sect, but this curiosity and suspicion of the managing elder let him release a bloodthirsty animal on me unknowingly.

When I first heard the voice, I realized I had little chance of escaping this. Taking a deep breath, I controlled my twitching face and turned to ask him what was up.

He gritted his teeth and revealed his full aura, waiting to see my shocked reaction. I coughed and lightly clapped my hands to appreciate his achievement.

His face turned red in shame and anger quickly. It was very amusing indeed.

He knew this was not going to work, so he changed his tactics. Now, it was time for his grand speech, 'How dare you treat me like this?', 'I'm far beyond you now, trash', 'You were the ring leader that ordered all of them to bully me, now I'm strong enough to take my fate in my own hands.

Again... I applauded. It was just... amazing. Not a yelp came out of this guy's mouth when he was being bullied, but suddenly he learned to make grand coherent speeches without any stutter or lisp.

Back then, if he had just screamed like this, it would've been enough to scare those kids away, but no this guy chose to cook fantasies in his head instead of that.

When he saw himself getting another standing ovation, the shame and rage that was accumulating within him burst forth.

In his eyes, I felt a keen urge to destroy everything. This... was killing intent. This guy had definitely killed someone before. What an exciting and adventurous background but what the f*ck!

I knew I had no chance to run away. I put up a lousy defensive stance but this guy was one step ahead of me, his clenched fist suddenly magnified in front of my eyes as my vision went black for a moment.

Only when I stumbled down, clutching my right eye did the pain register. He stopped his attack when he saw it happen and made a grandiose pose. Seemingly with an intent to seem righteous, to show his magnanimity, and of course, to appear cool, he held his chin up and said,

"I'll give you a chance to admit to your faults and apologize. If you do so, I'll let the bygones be bygones, just don't appear in front of me ever again."

After he said all that, he made a disgusted face at me.

I really wanted to slap this bastard at this point as well but I quickly reigned in my anger. I wasn't the same as this guy but oh how much did I want to say, 'same to you, bro, same to you', only I know.

Anyway, so I didn't hesitate in bending my back and apologizing with a straight face.

His fist hoisted up in the air, a fierce expression adorning his face, he was stunned, for the third time in this short period.

He was in a moral dilemma now. I knew he still wanted to beat the life out of me, his rapidly changing expression and his stuttering, 'you, you, you...' told me that.

"Can I go now, brother?" I asked again since his pea-brain stopped working.

The fierce expression was back, "You don't deserve to call me brother."

"Ok, jolly chap, hope to never see you again," I said as I ran–ahem, walked away, slightly faster than normal.

If you could avoid ramming straight into a wild mountain boar with just words, why wouldn't you? It's one of the basic abilities that made us special as human beings, cultivators often seemed to forget it.

Giving up caution, co-operation, and compromise, just to preserve some lousy pride. It didn't seem like a good deal to me.

Back in my hut, I found it hard to focus on my cultivation. This was annoying. That punch kept emerging in my mind.

That when I realized, no matter how saintly I came off to be, I was just a normal person, and I wanted revenge as well. I was being slightly superficial but so what, like a gentleman, I was prepared to wait for my chance to get back at him.