That idiot from the Sword Sect turned out to be a lucky charm.

Lin Zhifeng was busy practicing swordsmanship, and time flew by without him realizing it. In the blink of an eye, a year had passed, and his swordsmanship had finally made some progress.

The "Task Completed" button on the system screen lit up again, and Lin Zhifeng happily clicked to complete it. He received twenty points of luck and one Heart-Soothing Pill.

As the name suggests, this "Heart-Stopping Pill" is meant to calm the mind.

Anyone who goes astray in their practice will be affected by inner demons, unable to think clearly, and eventually lose their reason. Going insane is the least of their problems; in severe cases, they may even explode and die.

Throughout history, countless cultivators have lost their lives due to qi deviation. Lin Zhifeng, who practices such a dangerous dual cultivation of water and fire, has a Mind-Stopping Pill, which is like insurance for himself and can save his life in critical moments.

Lin Zhifeng played with it for a while, then put the Heart-Soothing Pill into the system's inventory.

When Qingfeng returned that day, he brought back important news: the triennial sect competition was about to begin.

This sect competition is actually a way for sects to encourage their disciples to cultivate diligently.

Almost all the major sects on the cultivation continent have similar competitions, and the Sword Sect is no exception.

The Sword Sect's grand competition is held every three years, with outer and inner disciples competing separately.

Outer disciples at the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core stages who achieve a top-100 ranking in the competition can be exceptionally admitted to the inner sect, and will also receive rewards such as pills and magical artifacts.

Therefore, outer disciples attach great importance to this competition. Besides the fact that the resources and treatment of outer disciples are significantly lower than those of inner disciples, the prizes for winning are also quite tempting to them.

The top 100 inner disciples receive richer rewards than outer disciples in the competition.

Besides the rewards, the bottom 100 inner disciples also face a punishment—these 100 people will be expelled from the inner sect and transferred to the outer sect.

This practice is very similar to the "last-place elimination system" that many companies in Lin Zhifeng's original world had.

In short, with this system in place, inner disciples are very motivated to cultivate. Nobody wants to be transferred to the outer sect; it's just too humiliating, isn't it?

Lin Zhifeng had never participated in the sect competition before because he was considered mentally challenged. This year, however, he's no longer mentally challenged, so he'll definitely participate this time.

He is still confident about his ranking.

He not only didn't have to worry about being transferred to the outer sect, but he also felt that he was very competitive, especially since there were rewards for being among the top 100.

The system promptly issued him a new task: participate in the sect competition and achieve excellent results. The task description specifically emphasized that the reward of luck value would vary depending on the ranking.

For example, the first place winner has a whopping 100 luck points, enough for him to level up his "Lucky Koi Skill" by one level.

The second to tenth place winners will be awarded 50 luck points.

The eleventh to one hundredth place winners will receive ten luck points.

Lin Zhifeng felt that this reward distribution was a bit unreasonable, but the system said that this was the rule and it did not have the authority to change it.

In Lin Zhifeng's view, this sect competition was simply a way to boost his luck. His plan was to secure ten points and aim for fifty. As for first place, he figured he should be more realistic about that.

Because Lin Zhifeng was going to participate in the sect competition, Qingfeng worked hard to gather information for him from all directions.

Lin Zhifeng now knows that there are more than one hundred disciples of the nine elders of the Sword Sect whose cultivation is at the Golden Core stage.

These people are all Lin Zhifeng's senior brothers, and they all broke through to the Golden Core stage before him. These people will be Lin Zhifeng's main competitors for a place in the top 100.

The nine elders also have several thousand nominal disciples whose cultivation is at the Golden Core stage, and these people are not weak either.

In addition, ordinary elders of the inner sect also take in some disciples; plus ordinary inner sect disciples who have not yet taken a master... This time, there are about 50,000 Golden Core stage disciples in the inner sect.

According to the competition rules for this year's sect competition that Qingfeng retrieved, the format will be the same as usual: drawing lots to determine the winners and losers will compete in one-on-one matches. The winners will advance to the winners' bracket, while the losers will be eliminated and placed in the losers' bracket.

Disciples in the loser's bracket are directly disqualified from competing for a spot in the top 100.

The losers' bracket will continue to compete, but only to find out which disciples will be eliminated and transferred to the outer sect.

In the next round of matches in the losers' bracket, winning means safety; those who lose again continue to compete... and so on until the one hundred "bad students" are selected.

The winners' bracket matches are similar. The winners of the first round draw lots again, and the winners of the second round advance; the losers are eliminated... until the top 100 are determined.

This single-elimination format continues until the top ten players are determined.

The top ten disciples will compete in a single round-robin format, meaning that if you make it into the top ten, you will play against each of the other nine disciples once. The disciple with the most wins will be ranked first.

On the day of the inner sect's lottery, Lin Zhifeng took Qingfeng to the training ground.

Lin Zhifeng arrived at a moderate time; there weren't many people drawing lots, but quite a few were waiting—after drawing their lots, everyone stayed and waited for the results.

Lin Zhifeng casually flicked his wrist, and a bamboo skewer was his.

He didn't bother to look closely, just tossed it into his sleeve, and then dragged Qingfeng to a quiet spot to wait for their next assignment.

From afar, you can see Lin Jun and his gang of brothers, along with their respective servants, all gathered together, chatting animatedly.

Lin Zhifeng hadn't actually planned to go; he found it a bit noisy. But Lin Jun saw him and beckoned him over. Because of the previous incident with Mingyue and the sword selection, Lin Zhifeng's relationship with Lin Jun had become very harmonious. He couldn't very well refuse such a warm invitation, could he?

Lin Zhifeng moved closer and realized what these people were talking about.

It turns out these people were the least hardworking among the inner disciples. Most of them, like Lin Jun and Lin Zhifeng, had a father or mother who was an elder in the inner sect. At the very least, they were personal disciples of some elder.

These people weren't actually the worst in terms of talent, but because they were lazy and gluttonous, their cultivation and swordsmanship ranked very low in the end.

Although they could continue to live and cultivate in the inner sect even if they were expelled from the outer sect because of their background, it would still be illegitimate and too shameful.

Therefore, the triennial grand competition is the most unbearable thing for these playboys.

When Lin Jun summoned Lin Zhifeng, the others regarded him as a spoiled brat just like them.

Although the news that Lin Zhifeng wasn't stupid had spread far and wide, and everyone knew he had drawn two swords from the Sword Tomb, the focus wasn't on how Lin Jun had described the sword selection process to others, but rather on how Lin Zhifeng's extraordinary talent had earned the approval of two peerless swords. Everyone unanimously regretted not having properly showcased their financial strength to the spirit swords of the Sword Tomb during the selection. If they had done what Lin Zhifeng had done, they would be the ones basking in glory now!

Therefore, these people didn't even consider Lin Zhifeng to be a master.

Lin Zhifeng actually found these spoiled brats quite endearing. Although they were inevitably a bit arrogant, they never bullied anyone excessively. They were all kind-hearted by nature; a little playfulness among young people wasn't a big problem.

They waited for about an hour, and then the drawing of lots was complete.

An elder from the sect, who was specifically in charge of presiding over the Golden Core stage disciple competition, announced: "A total of 51,713 Golden Core stage cultivators from the inner sect are participating in this competition. In the first round, two people with the same number will be drawn together, and the winner will be decided in the training ground three days later. Because the number of participants is odd, one person will receive a bye and will directly advance to the next round."

When the elder announced the rules, the disciples below didn't pay much attention. This sect competition was held every three years, and the rules were always the same; everyone was extremely familiar with them.

But when the elder said that one person would be skipped, everyone quickly flipped over their own fortune slips to see if they were the lucky one.

This is a direct chance to enter the winning group, which means securing survival in the league. Who wouldn't want such a good thing to happen to them?

Everyone checked with great hope, only to be disappointed to find that it wasn't them.

These bamboo sticks are also a simple ritual implement. After the drawing of lots, the bamboo sticks will show the number of groups and who will be competing against whom.

After looking at his bamboo skewer, Lin Jun cursed, "Hmph! I wonder which idiot got it for free!"