At the first faint light of dawn, Yang Kai woke up. After washing up briefly, he picked up the broom leaning against the corner of the wall and walked out of the small hut where he lived alone.
Standing at the doorway, he stretched lazily and glanced toward the horizon, where a pale strip of light had begun to appear. He closed his eyes and quietly enjoyed the peaceful moment for a while. Then he opened them, began moving the broom in his hands, and lowered his head to sweep away the dust and fallen leaves on the ground.
He wore a plain, clean set of blue-green clothes. The mature color of his clothing made the young man look several years older than he really was. Yang Kai’s back was as straight as a spear. Even though he was doing the lowest kind of menial work, his expression remained meticulous and serious. His movements were steady. His hands did not use much force while holding the broom, and his body barely moved at all. Merely by turning his wrists, the broom moved as naturally as if it were an extension of his own arms, sweeping back and forth. As his footsteps moved forward, the dust and debris that had accumulated on the ground seemed to follow along magically, as though they had suddenly grown two legs of their own.
Yang Kai was a Trial Disciple of High Heaven Pavilion. He had entered the sect three years ago and begun cultivating, yet even now he had only reached the Third Stage of Body Tempering.
The senior and junior brothers who had entered the sect at the same time as him had long since surpassed this stage. Each had encountered opportunities, become disciples of experts within the sect, and risen rapidly in status, while Yang Kai could only watch them helplessly from afar.
Three years, yet only the Third Stage of Body Tempering.
Talent like this could no longer be described with the simple word “ordinary.”
It could only be called utterly mediocre.
With no other choice, Yang Kai had taken a job sweeping the sect grounds, struggling to cultivate while also earning enough to survive.
High Heaven Pavilion was a rather unusual sect.
What made it unusual was the cruelty of the competition among its disciples.
Within this sect, those with ability rose to the top, while those without ability were eliminated. The iron law of the strong preying on the weak was displayed to its fullest extent within High Heaven Pavilion.
Other sects might still have some friendship and brotherhood between fellow disciples.
But High Heaven Pavilion had none!
If one wanted to climb higher, the only way was to step on the shoulders of those so-called senior and junior brothers, walk through their blood, and rise above them.
Only then would one be qualified.
High Heaven Pavilion’s rules for its disciples were extremely strict and were famous throughout the entire Great Han Dynasty.
Although it could not be considered some great super-sect, the brutality of the competition among its disciples was second to none!
Because of this, every disciple cultivated a fierce and aggressive martial spirit. When they traveled through the martial world, very few people dared to provoke them.
High Heaven Pavilion had a rule.
For any disciple under the age of fourteen, regardless of who they were, the first three years after entering the sect were considered a trial period.
During those three years, food, clothing, lodging, and all basic necessities were provided by the sect. The disciples only needed to concentrate on cultivating.
If they could break through the Body Tempering Realm within those three years, they would become qualified to become disciples of the sect’s experts and receive their personal guidance in cultivation.
Of course, they could also choose not to take a master and cultivate on their own.
But when it came to cultivation, having a capable master guide you and blindly exploring the path yourself were completely different matters.
In a certain sense, High Heaven Pavilion’s rule was actually rather free.
As for those who failed to break through the Body Tempering Realm within three years, they had only two choices.
They could either leave the sect or be demoted to Trial Disciple.
Trial Disciple.
That was Yang Kai’s current identity!
It was also a disgrace within High Heaven Pavilion!
Unlike ordinary disciples, the living conditions of Trial Disciples were much harsher.
Once someone reached this point, they had to take care of their own food, clothing, lodging, and transportation. The sect would no longer waste even the slightest cultivation resource on them.
And once someone was demoted to Trial Disciple, there was basically no hope of ever making a name for themselves again in this lifetime.
Unless their strength increased dramatically within a short period of time and made the sect feel that they were once again worth investing resources in.
There were three thousand disciples in all of High Heaven Pavilion.
And how many Trial Disciples were there?
No more than could be counted on ten fingers!
Yang Kai had the great fortune of becoming one of them!
For a Trial Disciple to survive inside High Heaven Pavilion was practically as difficult as climbing to the heavens.
Take the small hut Yang Kai lived in, for example.
He had built it himself, piece by piece, using one log after another.
Several holes had appeared in the roof, but he did not even have the time to repair them. Whenever it rained, water collected inside the hut and was difficult to drain away.
He bought his own clothes.
He found his own food.
Everything was his own responsibility.
Even the location of the hut was in the most remote and neglected corner of High Heaven Pavilion.
Such terrible treatment was something an ordinary person would find difficult to endure.
That was also why High Heaven Pavilion had so few Trial Disciples.
Basically, any disciple who failed to break through the Body Tempering Realm after the trial period would choose to leave High Heaven Pavilion.
But Yang Kai had stayed.
He had already been driven out once before.
How could he allow the same thing to happen again this time?
Several months ago, after being demoted to Trial Disciple, Yang Kai had taken a sweeping job within the sect in order to support himself.
It could be said that Yang Kai was now both a Trial Disciple of High Heaven Pavilion and a lowly sweeping servant of High Heaven Pavilion.
But even this sweeping job was sometimes not enough to provide Yang Kai with proper food and clothing.
From time to time, he would go hungry one meal and eat the next.
If he caught a cold, no one cared.
His life was lonely and miserable.
Even so, Yang Kai had never once thought about retreating.
A person only had a few decades in this world.
Since he had chosen this path, he had to keep walking down it.
Giving up halfway was not something a man should do.
Yang Kai possessed an unyielding stubbornness.
The kind of stubbornness that would not turn back until he smashed into the southern wall!
The sky gradually brightened.
Yang Kai swept for a while, and everywhere he passed became clean, all the dust and debris swept away.
Sweeping did not require much physical effort, but Yang Kai had been working for a long time early in the morning without eating or drinking anything.
Soon, cold sweat covered his entire body.
This had nothing to do with his strength.
It was entirely because his constitution was simply too poor.
If a person went hungry for two meals out of every three, anyone living under Yang Kai’s conditions would have a weak constitution.
Gradually, some disciples of High Heaven Pavilion began gathering around him.
Every one of them had gotten up early.
Yet instead of going off to cultivate, they surrounded Yang Kai.
Many of them looked at him with great interest.
Some even stared at him with unmistakable greed, as though Yang Kai were currently a completely naked, breathtakingly beautiful woman, or some irresistible delicacy giving off an enticing fragrance.
And among the High Heaven Pavilion disciples gathered around Yang Kai, a tense atmosphere of competition began to spread.
They cautiously watched the senior and junior brothers standing beside them, and none of their expressions were friendly.
Someone in the crowd showed a trace of sympathy and whispered,
“There are so many people here. Isn’t this going a little too far?”
Someone immediately replied,
“If you think there are too many people, you can leave. Nobody is forcing you to stay.”
Those words immediately silenced the first speaker in embarrassment.
Everyone knew why they had gathered here.
Everyone knew why they were staring at Yang Kai.
They were all waiting for that moment to arrive.
The time limit was almost up.
Wouldn’t leaving now be far too regrettable?
If someone managed to seize the first opportunity, they would gain another reward today.
Yang Kai naturally knew what was happening around him.
However, his expression never changed.
He went through something like this once every five days, six times a month.
There was really nothing surprising about it anymore.
And judging from the number of people present, there were actually fewer than usual.
Presumably, not everyone had arrived yet.
So he continued sweeping.
He paid no attention to the people around him, simply walking and sweeping as he went.
As time passed, more and more people gathered around Yang Kai.
A rough estimate placed their number at least somewhere between thirty and forty.
Yang Kai suddenly stopped.
Right there in the middle of the road, he sat down and slowly drew in a breath, recovering the physical strength he had used up early that morning.
The instant they saw this, everyone gathered around Yang Kai immediately spread out and formed a circle around him.
The tense competitive atmosphere suddenly climbed to an entirely new level.
It was as though even the air itself had stopped moving.
None of them liked the sight of the others, yet every one of them stared eagerly at Yang Kai.
If someone who did not understand the situation happened to see this scene, they might have assumed that the person surrounded by the crowd was some supreme expert.
Otherwise, why would so many people be needed to deal with him?
But in reality, Yang Kai was merely a Trial Disciple at the Third Stage of Body Tempering.
Every single person present was stronger than Yang Kai.
“Yang Kai, stop wasting your effort. In a little while, just obediently let one of us beat you down. That’ll save everyone some time, won’t it?”
Someone saw Yang Kai recovering his strength and immediately spoke with disdain.
He was only at the Third Stage of Body Tempering.
What was the point of recovering?
He was going to lose anyway.
He might as well make things simple and straightforward.
Why bother struggling like this?
“That’s right, that’s right. Yang Kai, you should at least consider how all your senior and junior brothers feel. We’re not like you. After this fight is over, we still have to go cultivate.”
The way they spoke made it sound as though Yang Kai was supposed to let them defeat him quickly, as though even taking time to recover his strength was somehow disrespectful toward them.
Yang Kai acted as though he had heard nothing.
He sat there like an old monk deep in meditation.
Time continued to pass.
Suddenly, a long, resonant bell rang through the air.
It was High Heaven Pavilion’s morning bell.
The sound entered everyone’s ears, and all the disciples gathered around Yang Kai immediately became energized.
The bell rang nine times.
The rising sun appeared in the east.
A new day had begun!
Everyone’s breathing suddenly became quiet.
They stared expectantly at Yang Kai, who stood at the center of the circle.
Yang Kai slowly rose to his feet, holding the broom in his hand, and calmly swept his gaze across the people surrounding him.
“Choose me, Senior Brother Yang!” someone shouted loudly. “I’ll go easy on you. I guarantee it won’t hurt when I hit you!”
“Bullshit! Pick me. I’ll give you a quick one. One punch and it’ll be over. I definitely won’t waste everyone’s time.”
“Pick me…”
“Pick me…”
The entire place was filled with noise and commotion, like vegetable vendors in a marketplace trying to sell the produce from their own fields, each competing to prove whose vegetables were fresher.
“Yang Kai, you’d better not break the rules you set yourself!” someone called out in warning.
Yang Kai chuckled softly and casually tossed the broom in his hand into the air.
Dozens of pairs of eyes immediately looked upward, filled with anticipation as they waited for the broom to hit the ground.
In their hearts, they kept praying over and over again,
“Pick me, pick me!”
Time seemed to slow down.
The broom spun several times in midair before falling.
It bounced a couple of times on the ground and then finally came to a complete stop.
The front end of the broom pointed toward a burly young man standing in the crowd.
A wave of disappointed sighs immediately rang out, filled with resentment and unwillingness.
The burly young man, however, burst into laughter and stepped out of the crowd.
Cupping his fists toward everyone, he said with a smile,
“Senior and junior brothers, I’ll be taking today’s fight. I hope none of you will hold it against me.”
“Damn, what shitty luck!” someone said jealously.
“Why can’t it ever pick me? I come here once every five days! I’ve been coming for an entire month already. Yang Kai, you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
“Don’t even mention it. I’ve been coming for three months, and I haven’t been chosen even once!”
“Senior Brother, you’ve got it worse than I do.”
“Not bad, not bad. We can just enjoy the show.”
The two fellow disciples looked at each other and smiled knowingly.
By now, everyone else had moved away from the center of the field, leaving only Yang Kai and the burly young man standing opposite each other.
“Trial Disciple Yang Kai, Third Stage of Body Tempering!” Yang Kai said as he looked at his opponent.
“Ordinary Disciple Zhou Dingjun, Fifth Stage of Body Tempering!” the burly young man introduced himself.
The disciples of High Heaven Pavilion were also divided into different ranks and levels.
From lowest to highest, there were five major ranks:
Trial Disciple, Ordinary Disciple, Seated Disciple, Elite Disciple, and Core Disciple.
Zhou Dingjun had said that he was an Ordinary Disciple.
That meant he had not yet entered the tutelage of one of the sect’s experts and had not received guidance from a distinguished master.
If he broke through the Body Tempering Realm and became a disciple under one of the sect’s experts, he would become a higher-ranked Seated Disciple.
One level above that were the Elite Disciples.
Every one of them was outstanding among their peers, and they were selected from among the Seated Disciples.
As for the Core Disciples, they were the hope of High Heaven Pavilion’s next generation.
The sect trained these people as its future successors.
The sect’s strict and severe disciple-ranking system might appear cold and heartless, but it was extremely effective at stimulating the fighting spirit and competitive nature of young people.
This was also the foundation of High Heaven Pavilion’s harsh system.
And the fundamental reason why so many people were fighting over the chance to challenge Yang Kai was another rule of High Heaven Pavilion—
the rules governing challenges.