Chapter 27 - Intertwined Fate

The buzz surrounding the tournament had only grown louder.

By the second day of registration, over a hundred names had been recorded, and the Commission Hall was beginning to overflow with hopeful outer disciples. Rumors spread fast, talks of hidden geniuses, favored candidates, and mysterious dark horses. Training fields were now filled from dawn to dusk with the sound of fists and blades.

But while the sect boiled with excitement, Lao Xie remained strangely calm.

Inside his hut, he sat cross-legged in silent meditation, but his thoughts weren't on cultivation.

They were on people.

Specifically, Ling Ruxin.

[Main Task – Ling Ruxin]

Progress: 0%

Time Left: 23 Days

The panel hovered in his mind like a quiet threat. Failure meant losing an entire realm of cultivation. Unacceptable.

But success…?

"Not just spirit stones and rewards," Lao Xie thought, slowly opening his eyes. "Trust is leverage."

Ling Ruxin was already popular, respected, and distant. Too distant for a direct approach. But popularity also came with envy… and that envy would be the very crack he'd use.

He rose to his feet and stepped outside.

Today, he wouldn't train.

Today, he would observe.

...

He spent the morning near the central plaza, leaning against a shaded post while listening in on conversations.

"…Did you see that inner disciple girl again? The one who played the guqin?"

"Ling Ruxin? Of course I did! She was on the Azure Sky Restaurant balcony two days ago. Even inner disciples came to listen."

"I heard someone from the Inner Court got scolded for bothering her."

"Idiot must've thought being bold gets you noticed. Hah!"

Lao Xie's eyes flickered. "Inner Court, huh?"

He slowly turned and walked away, heading toward the general training ground where lower-ranked disciples gathered to practice and spar. Among them were the loud, the foolish, and the kind of people who'd see a girl like Ling Ruxin and think power meant entitlement.

Just as he expected, it didn't take long before he caught a name.

"Brother Hai, again? Still thinking about that girl, Ling Ruxin?" someone teased loudly near the archery targets.

A lanky youth in dark-red robes snorted. "She's too proud for her own good. But one day, she'll have to recognize me."

A few others laughed, though awkwardly.

Lao Xie watched quietly from afar.

"A toad trying to eat a swan?" he said inwardly.

He memorized the name and face, then turned and left without a sound.

...

Later that afternoon, he returned to the Commission Hall briefly, not to register again, but to gather more intel.

From a posted bulletin, he confirmed the final numbers, the main bracket would be limited to eighty disciples, meaning the preliminaries would be ruthless. Each participant would be evaluated through live combat or recommendation-based screening.

And only those with solid strength or backing would make it past the first phase.

That suited him perfectly.

He didn't need to draw attention yet. All he had to do… was get into the top eighty and observe.

After that, he could act.

...

That evening, back at his hut, Lao Xie pulled up the system panel one more time.

[Side Task – Tournament Participation]

Objective: Reach Top 10

Status: Registered

Reward: 100 Spirit Stones, 1x Low-Grade Talisman, 1x Low-Grade Artifact

And beneath it.

[Main Task – Ling Ruxin]

Condition: Gain her trust and she must willingly rely on you.

Time Left: 23 Days

He leaned back on one hand and smiled slightly.

"Jealousy, timing, and a helping hand," he murmured. "People never notice the hands pulling strings behind the curtain."

A soft breeze blew through the open window, rustling the scrolls stacked on his desk.

He let it wash over him.

Tomorrow, he would put the first stone in place.

And if things went as he planned…

By the time the tournament truly began, Ling Ruxin would already be standing on his side without even realizing it.

.........

Elsewhere, near the back of the Inner Disciple Peak…

A soft breeze drifted through the secluded waterfall garden, carrying the scent of damp stone and blooming orchids.

Ling Ruxin sat alone beneath a willow tree, her guqin resting silently across her knees. The silver light of dusk shimmered faintly off the water's surface, reflecting the delicate veil over her face.

She wasn't playing this time.

Her slender fingers hovered above the strings, unmoving like a sculptor frozen before the first cut.

The silence around her was beautiful, but incomplete.

Her gaze was fixed on the rippling pond before her, yet her thoughts wandered elsewhere.

"That senior brother…"

"Mhm. Was he really a senior?" she wondered.

Her mind had been restless ever since their last encounter. Calm as he appeared, something about him didn't sit right and not in a bad way, but in a way that nagged at the edge of her instincts.

He wasn't like the others.

The inner court was filled with prideful geniuses, each flaunting their strength and background like a badge. But this one? He had no presence, no reputation. Nothing to suggest who he really was.

"I tried asking around," she whispered, voice soft against the breeze. "No one could recognize him."

Not from the inner court. Not from the outer ranks. Not even from the senior disciples who normally kept tabs on rising talents.

"Could he really be… an outer disciple?" She frowned beneath the veil. "But he didn't feel like one."

She recalled the faint golden glint in his eyes. The way he carried himself. That effortless, aloof posture like someone used to standing above others.

The idea was absurd. Outer disciples barely reached the Qi Refinemment Realm. Yet his aura…

"Unless…" Her voice lowered further. "He's something else entirely."

She hesitated.

A strange thought surfaced, one she hadn't entertained in years.

"…Core Disciple."

She stared at her reflection in the pond, watching the ripples distort her face.

In the Silver Crescent Sect, becoming an Inner Disciple was already the dream of many, a symbol of talent, resources, and future prospects. But beyond that… there were whispers.

Stories of an even more secretive tier.

The Core Disciples.

Said to be the true pride of the sect, monsters of talent selected in secret, nurtured far away from the public eye. They were not listed on the disciple rolls, never appeared in sect meetings, and never walked among the common ranks. Hidden. Untouchable. Protected.

According to the rumors, they received direct guidance from the high elders… or perhaps even from the mysterious Sect Leader himself.

But those were just whispers.

No one had ever seen a Core Disciple.

Some said it was a lie, a myth created to inspire inner disciples to push harder.

Others believed the sect kept them hidden on purpose, shielding the sect's greatest geniuses from outside attention… and internal jealousy.

Ling Ruxin had always dismissed the idea.

Until now.

"He had that feeling," she thought. "Detached. Cold. Like he didn't need anything from this world."

Her fingers pressed lightly on the guqin strings, but no music came.

"Could he really be…?"

A gust of wind blew across the water, scattering a few orchid petals into the pond.

She didn't chase them.

She just sat there, watching the petals drift, her heart stirring with an emotion she couldn't name.

Was it admiration?

Was it infatuation?

Or just pure curiousity?

Something inside her whispered that the man she met that day, whether he was a Core Disciple or something else. He was far from ordinary.

And she would likely cross paths with him again.

But then-