Traveling through time to cultivate immortality: a life and death test

After spending several days with Su Yingying, Liu Xing returned to his cave to cultivate. Meanwhile, Pang Pang awoke from his slumber, beaming joyfully from his dantian. Liu Xing spat out the golden silkworm Gu. His appearance remained unchanged, still plump and white, but his aura had reached the peak of a fourth-level demon beast, revealing a heightened power. Pang Pang happily rolled it around in Liu Xing's palm before disgorging a small, glittering ball. Liu Xing picked it up between two fingers and saw it was the corpse pill of a thousand-year-old zombie. However, the poison had been completely absorbed by Pang Pang, rendering it harmless. For cultivators cultivating their bodies, a thousand-year-old corpse pill is a coveted tonic. However, due to its highly toxic nature, even if obtained, it cannot be ingested directly. It must be soaked in specialized spiritual fluids for over a hundred years to remove the toxins, a costly undertaking. Now, with Pang Pang's help, Liu Xing easily obtained a non-toxic corpse pill—a truly unexpected surprise. So he carefully put the corpse pill away in a jade box, and prepared to take the corpse pill while using the evil energy to refine his body after accumulating a certain amount of evil energy, so as to achieve better results.

After such a long search, Lü Hua finally found an 800-year-old Haoyue Grass. Liu Xing refined it into a furnace of Haoyue Pills and gifted Lü Hua one. Lü Hua was thrilled to see the pale yellow Haoyue Pills. His ancestral recipe had finally been successfully used in his own right, a testament to his ancestors. He also had a newfound respect for Liu Xing's alchemy skills.

The sect announced that it would be organizing a grand competition for Foundation Establishment cultivators! The prizes were generous: the top 100 would receive a top-grade magical weapon, and the top 10 would receive essential items for Dan-forming: Fire-Condensing Liquid and a container of Millennium Soft Gypsum. At the same time, to encourage their own disciples to participate and showcase their respective divisions, each peak had established separate prizes. For example, the top 10 at the Forbidden Peak would receive a top-grade magical weapon, and the top 100 would receive 500 points. The disciples were even more enthusiastic, spreading the word that being in the top 100 of their division was a great achievement. In addition to the prizes, the sect would publish a ranking list of Foundation Establishment experts, and any disciple who could make the top 1,000 would be included. Disciples on the list would enhance their reputation, giving them a greater advantage in acquiring resources.

I still remember the last major competition, over fifty years ago, when Liu Xing hadn't even entered the sect yet. Half of the top ten in that realm had already successfully achieved Dan, while another half had died or passed away. The sudden resurgence of the competition this time around—perhaps something unexpected had occurred? That's what the older generation of disciples speculated. However, the newer disciples didn't understand the reason, only that the rewards were enticing. The more capable disciples were eager to compete, while those less skilled were also thrilled to witness the battles between masters. So, everyone was thrilled.

Originally, Liu Xing had little interest in the competition. He always adhered to the virtue of playing the pig to eat the tiger, concealing his strength so as to maximize his benefits at the critical moment. However, the prize for the top three was related to the Dan Jin, which made him tempted. He judged that to achieve the top ten would probably require using half of his strength, so he had to weigh whether it was worth it. In the end, he decided to fight, all for the Dan Jin.

Registration for the competition soon began. With the exception of those in seclusion, nearly all Foundation Establishment disciples signed up. Registration required registering their department, name, and cultivation level. The Qianji Sect had four to five thousand Foundation Establishment disciples, representing the sect's greatest strength. The competition followed a one-in-two progression system, with random pairings. However, the organizing committee intentionally staggered the top one hundred seeded contestants to prevent them from facing each other in the early rounds. The first two rounds were internal competitions within each mountain peak. Starting in the third round, the entire sect's pairings were randomized.

The competition began immediately, and the entire sect was bustling with activity. Liu Xing's first opponent was a junior sister from the outer sect who was in the early stages of foundation building.

"Senior Brother Liu, you are my idol. Can you sign an autograph for me?" After the little sister came on stage, she looked at Liu Xing expectantly and took out her magic weapon, an exquisite folding fan, and handed it to Liu Xing.

Liu Xing was speechless. He was here to compete, not to chase after celebrities. However, Liu Xing looked at his cute junior sister and couldn't bear to make her sad, so he took her magic weapon and used his luck to carve his name on her folding fan.

"Yeah, long live Senior Brother Liu!" The younger sister cheered, leaping and dancing, conceding defeat and running off the stage. Liu Xing and the referee looked at each other in silence, bewildered. He had advanced so easily.

Half of the people were eliminated on the first day of the competition, and the remaining 2,400 or so entered the second round. On the second day, Liu Xing's opponent was a junior fellow student in the early stage of foundation building.

"Senior Brother Liu, you are my role model. Can you sign an autograph for me?" The younger junior brother also handed over his flying sword. Liu Xing was speechless. He took the flying sword and engraved his name on the hilt.

"Thank you, Brother Liu. I want to learn from you. I am no match for you now, but I hope to catch up with you in the future!" The younger brother said in a strong voice and admitted defeat.

The second day's competition eliminated another half of the people, and the remaining 1,200 entered the third round. At this time, the internal competitions of each mountain peak stopped, and the shortlisted disciples would be paired up within the sect tomorrow. They might meet brothers from other peaks. The number of people in the forbidden department was relatively large, with more than 240 shortlisted, of which nearly 200 were inner disciples, and only more than 40 were outer disciples. Moreover, almost all outer disciples were in the late foundation building stage, which means that being an inner disciple still has much greater advantages than being an outer disciple. Su Yingying was also shortlisted, but Liu Xing reminded her that she could not use the late foundation building wooden ape puppet in the competition. This was her trump card to save her life, and she would rather lose the competition than expose it easily. Su Yingying understood the importance of this and assured Liu Xing that she would not use the puppet.

On the third day of the competition, held in the public arena area, nearly all of the sect's Foundation Establishment disciples came to watch. The excitement was so intense that the Law Enforcement Department was severely understaffed. The organizing committee temporarily issued a task, offering a reward of 50 points to recruit volunteers to provide services, which alleviated the shortage.

This time, Liu Xing's opponent was a late-stage Foundation Establishment disciple from the Divination Department. He was relieved that he hadn't asked for autographs or conceded defeat. However, Liu Xing's name was well-known to almost everyone in the sect, so the disciple immediately launched a counterattack with his top-grade flying sword. With his current strength, Liu Xing could have caught the flying sword with his bare hands and sent the opponent flying with a single palm strike. However, to avoid revealing the secret of his physical prowess, he patiently summoned his Cloud Umbrella to block the flying sword, then used his Mantis Hammer to send the opponent flying. To outsiders, it seemed that Liu Xing's victory was simply due to the sharpness of his magical weapon.