Egomaniac Cousins

As time passed, the idea of my revenge didn't fade away like I thought it would. I was a cultivator as well, and in my humble hut, as I did nothing but cultivate, there was only so much I could think.

I did a lot of mental gymnastics and enacted various plans in my head. All possibilities that I could think of though, seemed to be leading me towards a miserable end.

One month after the tournament was done, an Outer sect elder came to my doorstep, to ask me of my reasons to admit defeat at the start of the tournament despite having the highest cultivation of our cohort.

I shook my head and told him I wasn't prepared to risk my life for a tournament.

He then started lecturing me seriously about the perilous cultivation world and the dangers outside. After he was done, he saw my uninterested expression and told me to 'man up' and face my troubles instead of always trying to escape them.

After he left my hut, I thought long and hard about his superficial speech, it was a kind gesture of him indeed. However naive his words might have been, they made me realize the fault in my pattern of thoughts.

I was planning so much in my head yet it wouldn't mean anything if I wasn't prepared to risk being involved personally.

And so I decided to let nature take its course and ventured out into the outer sect grounds to know more about the things going on. Without information, how was I supposed to know what tools I could utilize to have my little revenge?

The exposition guys were everywhere, giving out coherent history and background information about everything I laid my eyes on.

Very soon, I chanced upon a few of them drooling over a new heavenly beauty with an ice-cold countenance that appeared in the 'female-only sect'. Apparently, she was accepted as a legacy disciple by the sect master of that sect.

It was definitely my pretentious cold cousin.

Just like her, the ex-paralyzed guy was also accepted as a disciple by the sect leader of the sword cultivation sect.

They seemed to be performing well in their lives.

Soon, the number of disciples that I encountered outside became sparse. They were preparing for the inter-sect tournament that would happen in a year.

Since that tournament would decide the ranking of the 5 sects of our region and their allocation of resources depended on this ranking, the sects would give rich rewards to the winners.

Soon, I stopped roaming around and focused on my cultivation, only going out of my hut once in a few weeks to stay connected to the outside world.

Three months later, I heard two disciples exposing the death of a minor disciple of the sword cultivation sect to the crowd.

How were they hearing news from other sects? No one knows, no one questions. They were either traitors or plot holes, but who cares?

Apparently, the dead guy was one of my bully cousins. After joining the sect, he found a young master, son of a sect elder with some influence within the sect to suck up to, and went with his friends to bully to fight the legacy disciple.

He was beaten black and blue and became the stepping stone for the ex-paralyzed boy who was already pretty famous.

In shame and rage, he went to talk to his servant, my cute useless cousin and was in turn killed by him.

To me, it was shocking news, not because the dead guy was my cousin but because of my other cousin's actions. His behavior was quite similar to someone I dearly wanted to punch.

Suddenly, I had an idea, but I could only be sure of it during the inter-sect tournament.

Time passed quickly in my dark cultivation hut. I still didn't become an inner disciple. It just wasn't appealing to me, but my cultivation was already Grade-5 of the Qi Refining realm. I knew those guys would have far surpassed me by now, but I wasn't demotivated.

I left the sect to the tournament area, a neutral zone that was built recently by the combined forces of the 5 sects, to view the tournament as a spectator.

The sect wouldn't take me along with them since I wasn't an inner court disciple, so I left the sect one week ago to not be late for it.

In the crowded marketplace of the danger zone, vendors selling 'immortal' artifacts and talismans were everywhere.

I saw my cold pretentious cousin there with three other female disciples, strolling there 'indifferently'. She saw me looking at her and held her chin higher. My lips twitched. Some people rarely get affected by changes in the environment.

Suddenly, a crowd gathered around one particular vendor, where two people seemed to be in a confrontation over an exquisite translucent blue pill being sold.

The vendor himself looked confused at these two guys glaring at each other.

Surprisingly, one of them was my ex-paralyzed cousin. It appeared that I wasn't the one to arrive early but my sect was just arriving late.

The guy confronting him was a buff fellow from one of the sects I've had no interaction with. This was the sect where cultivation of body took priority over Qi cultivation. From the factually correct rumor that I heard from the exposition guys, their sect leader was more than a 3-meter tall giant, that slapped a Core Formation Cultivator to death with just his body.

At first, I was about to go somewhere else but suddenly, I had an idea.

The mini-giant shouted, "I saw it first. I'll pay you twice."

My cousin didn't hold back either, "I have already bought the item. If you still want it, you can talk to my blade."

Just as their argument was about to peak, I swaggered between them and screamed at my cousin, "Be a good little boy and gift this item to my boss when he arrives, otherwise he'll thrash you badly in the tournament."

The mini-giant gave me a weird stare while my cousin's face darkened. He looked at me with a disdainful smirk and said, "I remember how I used to admire you for being different from the rest of them, but as it turns out, you were just waiting to be a dog. So who are you serving?"

Hearing his words, I wasn't angered at all, instead, I was quite delighted. This guy was indeed the same as the loves-being-bullied guy back in my sect.

For one reason or another, it was as if these guys were destined to be my enemies. Their mannerisms revealed a striking ego that wouldn't sit right with anyone and then they'll claim to be victims and justify their bloodthirst.

I told him of the bloodthirsty guy back in my sect and told him to stay away from him?

When he heard the name, his disdain grew as he said, "That idiot? Even with an able and healthy body, that dum**ss kept being bullied and he thinks he's a man now because he has stepped into the world of cultivation? Heh, frogs in a well."

The people of the sword sect cheered at his epic reply. The mini giant was looking at me as if I were an idiot. The crowd that had gathered around to watch the action cheered as well.

I was done with this. The news of his 'epic reply' was bound to spread and with the violent tendencies that guy had, there was no way they'd ever reconcile.

I made an angry expression and left the place, but not before threatening him for one last time. My reputation was bound to come crashing down, but my job was done.

...and two days later, that's exactly what happened.

Without even finding out about my role in the scheme of things, he was enraged at the allegations being thrown his way.

He quickly went to the gates of the inn where the sword sect was staying and issued a challenge to the overactive ex-paralyzed guy. In response, he received a sneer, "You don't qualify to challenge me. If you can, then fight me in the tournament."

His face went red when he heard this and punched, but he was trapped by the protection formation set by the sect. The sword sect even asked for a ransom from our sect to give that guy back.

The elder responsible for leading their team was enraged at the audacity of this inner court disciple but in the end, he still paid the ransom in full. The sect also had a reputation to protect.

Without even fighting him, the ex-vegetable guy had already stepped on the violent guy's face once and had used him as a stepping stone.

I was very excited at how this would all turn out, but my enjoyment was interrupted by the elder of our sect that paid the ransom. I was quite flustered when he appeared, and I didn't bother pretending I was not.

Instead, I showed ten times the anxiety on my face than what I was actually feeling and said, "No, that girl would kill me now."

"Who?" He asked me with a dark face, thinking that he had already scared me enough to obtain any answer he wanted.

I replied with a stammer, "Sh-sh-sh-she's my cousin, elder. Please save me, she's from that women's sect."

The elder pondered, "Ohh, it turns out her disciple is a vixen too. How dare they?"

After rebuking me for another 15 minutes, he left in silence, definitely planning something.