“Humph!” Rin snorted and kicked Takeichi in the shin, causing him to cry out. 

Yuki smiled and shook her head as she watched the two. The small group continued to talk with one another and seemed to be enjoying their time together. If this was months ago, Yuki knew she would never be able to have a conversation with so many people and laugh and smile again. She remembered her time with Chi, her best friend from her village, and clenched her fists. Nana sensed something off about Yuki and reached out and held her hand. This calmed Yuki down slightly. She was no longer alone. She and Nana will work together to take revenge for their clan members.

“It seems most of you are here!” An old voice rang out. An old man that Yuki and Nana had never seen before stood up on the battle stage and looked out over everyone. He had his hands behind his back, and next to him stood Haruhi and Elder Nishikawa, along with the other grand elders. “Today, we will begin the outer sect tournament. But there will be a slight change this year. After the main tournament is over, outer sect disciples are allowed to challenge inner sect disciples and replace them in the inner sect.”

This sudden announcement caused an uproar within the crowd. It was already hard enough to enter the inner sect, but now they were allowing those who could beat an inner sect disciple to enter and replace them. This was not something that had ever happened during the outer sect tournament. 

Yuki leaned over to Rin and asked: “Who’s the old man?”

“Hehe… That is the sect master. He is at a cultivation level that we can only dream about at this time.” Rin sighed. She wished she was Haruhi, who was able to raise her cultivation to that of a peak astral star with ease. Within the kingdom, she was one of the strongest. 

“I see…” Yuki now understood why Haruhi was standing next to the old man.

“We will now move over to the first phase of the tournament.” The sect master waved his hand, and a portal opened up behind him. It looked like a circular pool of water that stood sideways in the air. “Beyond this portal is a mystic realm. Within it, you will find flags. These flags are placed all over the mystic realm. The top one hundred who have the most flags will be in the main tournament. I will say this now. Attacking one another while in the mystic realm is allowed. You will not die. Before entering, you will all be given a token that will detect a fatal blow, block it and send you out. This preliminary round to is mandatory to allow you to learn how to fight other cultivators. Joining the inner sect, you are able to roam more freely and are not just bound by missions. Everyone needs to go on a journey in order to progress through the ranks of cultivation. Staying within the walls of the sect will get you nowhere.”

The sect master’s eyes looked over all the faces that seemed unwilling to go into the portal and chuckled. “I will not force those who do not want to go, but they will then need to come up with one thousand contribution points in a week to stay in the sect.” 

Elder Nishikawa face palmed. This old man was ruthless! There was no way these disciples could get one thousand contribution points in a week! Not even many inner sect disciples could pull that off! 

“Alright, since you all understand, you will have one month in the mystic realm. Now get going!” The sect master stepped aside, and the disciples, one by one, began jumping up onto the battle stage and entering the portal whether they wanted to or not. Everyone knew they could not get one thousand contribution points, so they had no choice but to try their luck in the mystic realm.

Yuki leaned against Nana as they waited their turn. “If we get separated, make sure you get as many flags as possible.” 

“Mm… I will kill anyone I see.” Nana nodded.

Yuki felt the same. Since they could basically kill people for flags, she felt I would also be an ideal way of dealing with things. She also needed to get used to fighting other cultivators and using her sword to kill them. She wanted to win the tournament as Elder Nishikawa had asked her and then challenge Yuko. She wanted to rip that girl down from her throne and teach her a lesson she would never forget.

“Yuki, your killing intent is rising,” Nana whispered, causing Yuki to take a deep breath.

“Sorry.” Yuki pursed her lips.

“It’s fine. I know what you have planned.” Nana poked Yuki in the cheek. “But remember, we can not go all out just yet on her. Use her as a stepping stone for now, and then we will deal with her after.” 

“I know. I will not do anything to get me kicked from the sect. Master has been too good to us. But once we enter the inner sect, we should head out and begin looking into our clans. Staying here will not allow us to get more information.” Yuki knew it was time to go on a journey. While she was not really all that strong, she still needed to go out and begin working on looking for details about her clan.

“I will follow you anywhere.” Nana slipped her arm around Yuki’s waist and smiled. “After all, we are now life partners.”

“Mmm.”