The Competition Begins

Inside the room.

Wang Jianqiang sat cross-legged, his consciousness already immersed within his soul sea.

In the vast expanse of his soul sea, a glowing screen appeared.

Wang Jianqiang focused on the attribute panel.

The consumption of cultivation points had been minimal during this period, allowing him to accumulate a considerable amount—now totaling 358 points.

With a thought, the attribute panel shifted to the auxiliary cultivation page.

"Alchemy: High-Rank First-Tier Alchemist"

"Artifact Crafting: Unranked"

His attention settled on Artifact Crafting. With a mental command, he allocated 60 cultivation points to it.

Under the influence of experience equivalent to 60 years of arduous cultivation, his Artifact Crafting proficiency soared from Unranked directly to High-Rank First-Tier.

Withdrawing his consciousness from the soul sea, he flicked his wrist and retrieved a jade slip from his storage pouch.

As he focused on the jade slip, the system's voice rang out as expected.

"Ding. Detected inferior blueprint. Optimization and upgrade require 20 cultivation points. Proceed?"

"Yes."

"Ding. The Water Moon Skirt blueprint has been successfully optimized and upgraded to a Perfect Water Moon Skirt blueprint."

Wang Jianqiang set the perfected blueprint aside and took out three more blueprints.

"Ding. Detected inferior blueprint. Optimization and upgrade require 20 cultivation points. Proceed?"

"Ding. Detected inferior blueprint. Optimization and upgrade require 20 cultivation points. Proceed?"

"Ding. Detected inferior blueprint. Optimization and upgrade require 20 cultivation points. Proceed?"

Three consecutive prompts sounded.

"Yes."

"Ding. The Violet Jade Boots blueprint has been successfully optimized and upgraded to a Perfect Violet Jade Boots blueprint."

"Ding. The Dark Water Ring blueprint has been successfully optimized and upgraded to a Perfect Dark Water Ring blueprint."

"Ding. The Cloudwater Frostlight Sword blueprint has been successfully optimized and upgraded to a Perfect Cloudwater Frostlight Sword blueprint."

Once all four purchased intermediate blueprints had been perfected, Wang Jianqiang retrieved his only high-grade artifact blueprint—the Small Thousand Mountains Seal.

"Ding. Detected inferior blueprint. Optimization and upgrade require 30 cultivation points. Proceed?"

"Yes."

"Ding. The Small Thousand Mountains Seal blueprint has been successfully optimized and upgraded to a Perfect Small Thousand Mountains Seal blueprint."

With all blueprints perfected, Wang Jianqiang took out a prepared alchemy furnace and began crafting the artifacts.

Thanks to the system-guaranteed 100% success rate, he crafted his first artifact flawlessly on the very first attempt.

To his delight, crafting artifacts also rewarded him with additional cultivation points.

This discovery further fueled his motivation.

In just three days, he successfully crafted four perfect intermediate-grade artifacts and one high-grade artifact.

He summoned Wang Yuyao.

When she learned that all five artifacts were gifts for her, she was overwhelmed with excitement.

Her favorability toward him rose once again—reaching 99 points.

Only a single point stood between them and the maximum.

This unexpected delight invigorated Wang Jianqiang.

But after calming down, he couldn't help but grumble inwardly.

Of all things, why did it have to stop at 99?

This kind of "last-point-tease" was downright shameless.

As Wang Yuyao happily left to refine her new artifacts, Wang Jianqiang returned to his rigorous cultivation.

Time flowed swiftly.

With the sect competition rapidly approaching, outer disciples who had been away on missions or secluded in long-term cultivation began emerging one after another.

The entire outer sect grew noticeably livelier.

Before long, the day of the outer sect competition arrived.

Wang Jianqiang ended his secluded cultivation and made his way to the square where the grand competition was to be held.

Along the way, the flow of people was continuous.

There were those who had signed up for the competition, looking nervous and expectant, and there were also those like Wang Jianqiang who were simply going to watch the show.

Soon, a huge square that could accommodate tens of thousands of people appeared ahead.

Looking around, ten gigantic arenas, each a hundred zhang high, rose up side by side, dividing the square into two halves.

On both sides were rows of seats.

Wang Jianqiang reached the spectator area and casually found a seat to sit down.

Half an hour later.

All the seats around were already filled with people. At a glance, there was a sea of black heads.

Whoosh~

At a certain moment, three figures suddenly appeared in the air above the square.

A powerful aura spread across the entire area, and the originally noisy square immediately fell silent.

Wang Jianqiang cast a glance at the three of them.

Instantly, information about the three people appeared in his mind.

"Two at the early stage of the Core Formation realm and one at the middle stage of the Core Formation realm!"

"Sure enough, it's a grand event of the sect. Three inner - sect elders have come all at once."

Just as Wang Jianqiang was sighing with emotion.

The elder at the middle stage of the Core Formation realm among the three slowly spoke up, "I am Yun Zhongque, the host of this grand competition."

As he spoke, he waved his hand, and a cluster of light balls appeared in mid - air.

"Each of these light balls contains a number plate. There are a total of one thousand eight hundred and eighty light balls, corresponding to the number of participants in this competition."

"Those who draw the same number will be opponents in this round."

"Now, start drawing lots."

After Yun Zhongque's voice fell, figures flashed into the air.

In a short while, each of the one thousand eight hundred and eighty light balls was taken by a participant, and the number plates inside became visible.

Among these participants, Wang Jianqiang saw Wang Yuyao, Su Yutong, and even Chen Jiaojiao and her Taoist companion Niu Shouren.

To his surprise, Su Yutong's cultivation had also reached the peak of the Qi Refining realm.

This cultivation speed seemed a bit abnormal.

But then, he thought it over and let it go.

Recently, in order to buy resources, he had sold quite a number of perfect Cloud - Mist Pills to the External Affairs Hall.

If this woman had the intention, it wouldn't be difficult for her to buy some.

"She really took advantage of it."

Wang Jianqiang shook his head and then stopped paying attention to her.

"Those who drew numbers 1 to 10, go to arenas 1 to 10 respectively."

Yun Zhongque's voice rang out again.

Wang Jianqiang concentrated his gaze, and twenty figures had already stepped onto the arenas.

Among them was actually Wang Yuyao.

Wang Jianqiang raised his eyebrows and focused his attention on Arena 3.

Wang Yuyao's opponent was a rugged middle - aged man.

His cultivation had reached the ninth level of the Qi Refining realm.

Such cultivation was considered to be at a medium level among all the participants.

"The competition begins."

As Yun Zhongque spoke again.

The twenty participants on the ten arenas moved simultaneously.

On Arena 3.

Wang Yuyao and the rugged middle - aged man attacked at the same time.

Wang Yuyao controlled the perfect Cloud - Water Cold Light Sword. The sword was like a cold light, leaving her opponent with no chance to fight back.

After they fought for a short while, in the end, Wang Yuyao emerged victorious.

After watching this battle, Wang Jianqiang couldn't help but shake his head.

This battle seemed to show that Wang Yuyao had an absolute advantage.

However, her opponent's magical tool was just a low - grade one.

Wang Yuyao had an absolute advantage in both cultivation and magical tools, yet she failed to instantly defeat her opponent.

It could only be said that her foundation was too weak.

If it weren't for the advantage of the magical tool.

Relying solely on herself, it would be extremely difficult for her to defeat the opponent even with her cultivation advantage.

Immediately afterwards, he couldn't help but smile.

Half a year ago, Wang Yuyao was only at the sixth level of Qi Refining.

Although her cultivation base had rapidly climbed to the peak of Qi Refining thanks to the perfect pills, she hadn't had the time to improve her spell cultivation. Currently, her level of spell cultivation was still stuck at the sixth level of Qi Refining.

It was understandable that she was at a disadvantage.

On the contrary, he didn't have such concerns.

Because he had been completely devoted to hard cultivation before and had never practiced any combat spells.

Thinking of this, Wang Jianqiang felt a bit embarrassed.

"I'm going to the Cold Pond Secret Realm soon. I should practice some spells later."