Chapter 2616 - 1508

Jiang Congtang lined up in the team of Foundation Builders, and together with those who had already been tested, he would go look for the arena where they’d compete.

Today was only for testing; in the afternoon there would be a melee battle.

In the melee, once you were eliminated, you wouldn’t need to participate in any future matches.

At first, Jiang Congtang worried he’d be eliminated and expelled from the Immortal Sect.

Only then had he learned that with Foundation Establishment cultivation, he could find a teaching position in Jiangmen.

To those in the Qi Refinement Realm, the ones who had just entered the sect, he could already be considered a senior.

After all, Foundation Establishment already counted as a "shishu," he’d stepped over that threshold.

Jiang Congtang waited in the competition arena; while he waited, his Divine Sense entered the Planting Space. He was racing against the clock, not wasting even the tiniest bit of time.

In other people’s eyes, he had only eaten a single meat pie at noon.

Then drunk a cup of water.

For the afternoon melee, Jiang Congtang didn’t intend to win, because once he won, there would be many more fights, and he wasn’t about to waste his time on this.

Even though winning battles would bring rewards, he no longer cared about those rewards.

Some rewards allowed you to read in the Scripture Pavilion of the Immortal Sect.

Some rewards were Magical Treasures or Pills bestowed upon you.

Jiang Congtang lacked none of these, so he wasn’t going to fight for rank.

With so many people fighting, they’d definitely have to battle through many rounds before anyone got rewarded.

Jiang Congtang chose to be eliminated in today’s fight, then devote more time to managing the Planting Space, cultivating, and doing multi-skill work.

Even though he didn’t sell his goods, he at least had to produce more of them; only with more practice would he gain more.

Only then could he improve the proficiency of all his skills, only then could he improve his own abilities.

Jiang Congtang was very strict with himself, never getting trapped in his own idle thoughts.

Only by increasing his strength, only by increasing it quickly, could he take revenge. The hatred had been buried in his heart for over ten years.

All these years he hadn’t dared return to his hometown, hadn’t dared face it.

In the melee, Jiang Congtang was bombarded by Talismans and repeatedly struck with Magical Treasures; he attacked whoever he saw, beating one opponent after another.

He pushed his own ranking a bit higher.

In the chaos, Jiang Congtang kept dodging, refusing to let anyone injure him. In the chaos, as long as you stepped off the Martial Platform, it counted as a loss.

"Aiya."

Jiang Congtang pretended to be blasted off the Martial Platform by someone, and then he gloriously lost.

So fake?

He wasn’t the first to be thrown out of the arena. Although he looked weak and his acting was so fake, there were still people who bought it.

Jiang Congtang feigned an injured look and quietly left from under the Martial Platform.

Everyone’s gaze was focused on the platform.

Jiang Congtang quietly left the grounds; he could go back into seclusion again.

Although he very much wanted to leave the Immortal Sect quickly, Spirit Immortal Sect was, after all, an excellent place of protection.

It had let him lie low here for more than ten years; it was still a very good hiding place.

For now, Jiang Congtang wasn’t going to leave. After all, his apparent cultivation was only Foundation Establishment; even if he met his enemies, he still wouldn’t be able to take revenge.

Besides, over these ten-plus years, during their own growth, the other side had likely raised their strength even higher.

They might have used the resources they took from his family to expand their power.

Although Jiang Congtang had been impulsive as a youth, he now carried the faint fragment of another person’s soul.

It had made him somewhat more mature.

Perhaps it was the tempering of life, but in his solitude Jiang Congtang’s mindset hadn’t twisted; instead, compared to some elders who grew up protected, his self-sufficient living and learning conditions were quite good.

It was just that Jiang Congtang’s low profile wouldn’t be able to last much longer.

Because he, a Servant Disciple, was already in Foundation Establishment yet still living here.

Those who had ignored him before were now starting to remember him.

In the courtyard where Jiang Congtang lived, there had been group after group of people—new entrants who came and then left. Anyone who had the means would not continue living here.

Since Jiang Congtang entered Spirit Immortal Sect, they had already recruited several batches of disciples.

Group after group moved to different quarters. No one paid any attention to those with low cultivation. The reason they didn’t pay attention was that they felt such people simply weren’t strong enough.

People always envy and respect the powerful. Jiang Congtang had still been in the Qi Refinement Realm before; who would have thought that in just a single year he’d already reached Foundation Establishment?

Some people never reach this height in their entire lives.

And Jiang Congtang had Five Elements Spiritual Roots; when he entered the Immortal Sect, his abilities had already been carved onto the sect’s disciple plaque.

He’d been living here all along, and with his rather ugly looks, others isolated him even more.

He had been in seclusion for a year; everyone thought he’d gone elsewhere on a mission and wasn’t around.

If not for this competition, where Jiang Congtang revealed the cultivation he had, others would still think he was a useless Qi Refinement Realm nobody.

No matter how poorly Jiang Congtang performed, he was still in Foundation Establishment. To the Servant Disciples in the Qi Refinement Realm living in the nearby courtyards, his strength was simply that of a senior.

By generation, they could already call him "shishu."

Even though he was only fifteen or sixteen years old.

Still, compared to the others living in the same courtyard, he was a bit older.

Every day, someone knocked on Jiang Congtang’s door, but he didn’t open it.

If he met with one group of people, there would definitely be more to follow; no way those people weren’t looking for trouble.

Since they hadn’t known him before, since they hadn’t interacted before, now even if he had some ability, he wasn’t stupid enough to reveal it.

Jiang Congtang still remembered his need for revenge; he absolutely could not let others know his true strength.

Even less would he kindly teach others.

His abilities were learned from a Deity’s Secret Manual, not taught by Spirit Immortal Sect.