The Nightmare Of Cultivation

'The real challenge in this trick is to keep his tiny Channels from collapsing. I can guess that if he stops cultivating for around four hours, his Channels will collapse, and all the hard work will be in vain.' The Sect Leader was impressed.

'Above all that, he has to be really careful while cultivating and fighting. If he pushes a large amount of energy into his tiny Channels, they will explode, and he may die in the worst-case scenario.'

'He also has to train every day to familiarize himself with his new power.'

'A genius, talented, and a cheater at the same time,'

'He is giving me a headache again.'

…

Desper was roaming the platform, searching for his next prey.

On his pendant, the number 10 was visible, and the three indentations weren't glowing, meaning he had defeated ten disciples without any losses.

He spotted a disciple who seemed to be about his age. There was no circle underneath him, meaning he was a free target.

"You are the next." Desper charged toward him.

But before he reached him, a blue circle appeared below the feet.

Desper turned his body. He saw a young disciple above the blue circle as him.

 The young disciple had gold hair and blue eyes. He was holding a spear in his hand. His pendant showed the number 5 with no losses.

Desper guessed that he was a half-disciple.

"Hi, Uncle. Sorry, but I'm here to take a point," the half-disciple said, waving his hand toward Desper.

"Uncle?" Desper looked around, thinking that the young disciple was talking to someone else.

"I'm talking to you, Uncle," the boy said with a smirk on his face.

Then, He looked at Desper's pendant.

"What is this?! Ten wins with no losses." The young disciple was astonished by Desper's score.

"Were you so lucky that you met the weakest ten disciples?" he asked in disbelief.

"Why do you think I was lucky, not too strong?" Desper sighed in disappointment.

"Wake up, old man. You have just awakened your Origin. It is impossible for you to be that strong," he scoffed.

"You are just too blind to see that the one in front of you is an organ cultivator," Desper shook his head.

"Stop talking nonsense. It is the end of your luck."

The young disciple held his spear tightly, and rushed toward Desper.

"Sighhhhh... you should have just believed me." Desper sighed.

The teenager seemed like he didn't hear Desper. He thrust his spear toward Desper's stomach.

Most of the half-disciples were at the late stages of bone cultivation, so Desper wasn't afraid of them. He had avoided them at first just to earn points by defeating the older disciples before they reached three losses and were disqualified from fighting.

There were still 15 older disciples Desper hadn't defeated yet. But this boy cut his path.

Desper was much faster than him, so he could evade the incoming spear easily.

The boy was surprised that it didn't hit.

Desper closed the distance until there was only half a meter between them. He could have pushed his sword toward the teenager's throat and ended the fight, but he didn't. Instead, with his index finger, he tapped the teenager's forehead.

"Let me teach you a lesson: you should respect the people older than you," Desper said with a smile.

The boy's body trembled with anger.

"I will kill you." He stepped back to create distance between himself and Desper. Then, he tried to strike again with his spear.

This time, Desper didn't let him do what he wanted. He closed the distance again, slashing his sword across the boy's neck.

The blue circle faded as the fight ended.

Desper left without giving the boy another look.

Desper had trained with Eland on how to fight a spear wielder, preparing for the fight with Alric Teryn, the Third Elder's son and the only mid-muscle cultivator in this competition. So, the fight with this teenager was much easier than the others.

…

After half an hour from the start of the competition, a third of the disciples had been eliminated, most of them from the older disciples.

The number on Desper's pendant was 21, with no glowing indentations.

He was hunting every disciple with one attack, depending on his fast muscles.

Unfortunately, he couldn't fight the same person again. Otherwise, the number would be larger.

The disciples started to avoid Desper after seeing the number on his pendant.

Desper found it annoying. His pace became slower.

He exhaled a long breath, raising his head to look for a new opponent.

…

Outside the platform, the three Elders could see Desper's performance.

"Who is this kid?! And how can he be that strong?" The Fifth Elder was astonished.

"To have such power despite awakening his Origin recently, his body must be special like Darek, or…" The Fifth Elder murmured.

"Or he hasn't awakened his Origin recently, but a long time ago, and pretended to be a new disciple to get the Purifying Pill," the Third Elder completed the Fifth Elder's words with a frown.

"If he is the first, that means our sect has obtained another super prodigy. But if he is the second, he must be eliminated from the competition and punished. We must inspect his body" the last Elder spoke. He was the Ninth Elder of the sect.

"You don't need to waste your time."

Suddenly, the Sect Leader's voice came out.

"What do you mean, Sect Leader?" the Third Elder said nervously.

"I can guarantee that he awakened his Origin recently," the Leader sighed.

"What?! Do you know him?" the Third Elder asked with a trembling voice.

He was afraid that his son might lose the competition.

The Sect Leader gave Desper a deep look and didn't answer the Third Elder's question.

…

"Ahahahaah... look at this. I knew he wouldn't disappoint me." Eland was full of excitement, watching Desper's performance.

"Look at this number, 21 wins only in half an hour, and without any losses. He will break your record after 7 more wins. How do you feel about that, Darek?" Eland looked in joy at the man sitting next to him.

"Haaaaaaah... do you really think that I will get upset from something childish like that?"

Darek didn't seem bothered by Eland's teasing, but he seemed disappointed.

"He wouldn't even do that with his own power, but with a coward's trick," Darek sneered.

Then his eyes narrowed as he looked at the arena.

"Hmm, it appears that his speed will drop," Darek said and smiled.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Eland asked, following his gaze.

On the third platform, blue circles were scattered everywhere.

Desper was above one of these blue circles.

"I tried to avoid you in this stage and meet you in the next. Why do you insist on coming after me?" he asked while looking at his opponent.

A teenager with messy green hair and green eyes was looking angrily at Desper.

His face was covered in sweat. He was wearing a pair of wooden gauntlets. The pendant on his neck showed the number 13.

He was Soren, the only muscle cultivator in Desper's group.

He was a low-muscle cultivator, so he was stronger and faster than Desper.

Desper didn't want to fight him in the first stage.

"How do you have that large number on your pendant? You must be cheating," Soren cried at Desper.

His face was red, and veins could be seen on his forehead from anger.

"Cheating? There are three Elders supervising the competition. Even the Sect Leader is here. Do you think I can cheat under their eyes?" Desper laughed at him.

"I don't know how you did that, but I will expose you!" Soren shouted. "I'm the strongest one in this group, and I must be the one with the largest number in the first stage."

He didn't understand how Desper got this number.

He didn't know that Desper had cultivated his organs, which helped him a lot to get this high number in addition to his muscles.

'What a headache.' Desper murmured inwardly. 'I still can't win against a muscle cultivator.'

"Be ready, I'm coming now!" Soren screamed and lunged toward Desper.

Desper smiled at him.

"I'm sorry, but I will meet you in the next stage."

Desper turned his body and ran out of the blue circle. One of the indentations on his pendant glowed red.

Soren was left stunned in his place, seeing that Desper was on a new blue circle. The number on Soren's pendant turned to 14.

He couldn't fight Desper again during the first stage.

Soren clenched his teeth. He was tired after half an hour of fighting. He knew he would never catch Desper.

"I will make you regret it!" he screamed.

Desper couldn't hear him. He was busy fighting another disciple.

"How shameless!" There was a frown on Darek's face.

"Pohahaahahahah... he is a genius, he is a genius!" Eland roared with laughter.

Desper didn't know how much time he had left, so he did his best to end every fight as quickly as possible to beat Darek's record, just as he had promised Eland.

Finally, an hour had passed since the start of the competition.

"The first stage has ended," the Fifth Elder declared with a loud voice.

Desper dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. His clothes were soaked in sweat, and his hands trembled with exhaustion.

There was a grin on his face. The number on his pendant was 35.