30 **Chapter 30: Preperation**

Hey guys, it's truly exciting times for RI. There's a new fic out again:

Reverend Insanity: The Rule Path's Inheritance by RedLotusVenerable.

Also, no questions today as I'm kind of busy.

........

"So let me tell you the whole story…"

"It all began with the music that appeared in all of our Apertures; you have undoubtedly heard it too."

"We Elders noticed that the music seemed to come from a specific direction, and went there to go investigate… or should I say went here to investigate."

What can I say? The average idiot here was still listening with awe on their face.

'Hello? They just kidnapped us? Anyone remember?'

"After we arrived here, we came to the conclusion that this was likely the inheritance of an immortal."

"Whoa, an immortal…"

"And did you get the inheritance?"

Hearing all these stupid replies from my peers, my mood could not help but become worse.

"Psst… let me continue, okay?"

"In the following week, a lot of our clan's Elders arrived here, but the same is true for every other clan in the archipelago."

"And about 14 hours ago, we have been summoned by the immortal, who called himself Dasheng Anjing."

"He explained to us that he would like to leave his inheritance, but only to a rank 1 Gu Master that has at least B-Grade Talent. After that, he asked us to bring all of you here."

My bullshit radar was going off as the clan leader continued; they have definitely been forced to bring us here, or why would they bring even rank 1 initial stages that have awakened not long ago?

I saw a few people here that I was sure were new additions to the academy.

"There can only be one inheritor, chosen by the immortal."

"It is of utmost importance that a member of our clan is chosen. I will tell it to you like it is: the person that inherits this is going to become the king of the Xuan Feng Bao Archipelago."

It was funny how the faces of my fellow clansmen became serious, then excited, as if they had not even wasted one thought on the danger of what we were about to be forced to do.

"And their clan will be kings with them, but the losers… nothing good awaits them."

'I don't want to do this, but I also don't want to be the one to bring that up, as that would mean nothing good awaits me, in all likelihood.'

'So I will likely have to risk my life, but let's see that in a positive light. The chance of us being used in some psycho refinement process, or as Gu food, has drastically decreased. That's good at least, given that the clan leader did not lie about that too.'

Speaking of the devil, he continued: "Of course, we will not just let you go there and compete with the other clans like that. The inheritance starts in 6 ½ days; in that time, we will give you Gu, primeval stones, and personal training."

"So that you will be more than ready to face any challenges."

'They really fear death in case another one of the clans wins, huh?'

'Which is smart because I do too…'

"When we are done here, the other elders will lead you to a room where you can choose rank 1 Gu. I encourage you to choose one for each defense, movement, healing, storage, investigation, as well as stealth, if you are interested in that."

"Don't worry, these Gu are free, and you will not have to return them. The second thing we will give you is a little booklet that has information on all the clans, their specialties, and all the notable rank 1 Gu Masters you will have to compete with."

"Does anyone have any questions?"

…

…

'Finally free…' I think as I sit down on the makeshift bed in the tent they have given me after repeatedly emphasizing that I should under no circumstances attempt to break through to rank 2.

I could not help but smile a bit as I looked at the 6 Gu I had just gotten for free.

'They really let everybody choose 6 Gu, and of course, I chose to be greedy. But to be honest, most of the others did as well.'

'But to be completely honest, I don't need any of them. They will only really be useful if I can get out of the inheritance and get the chance to sell them.'

The thing I am really interested in, though, is the competition…

I pick up what the clan leader called a booklet, but what was really more of a full book, and open it for the first time.

It had 18 chapters, presumably one for each clan.

I skip the introduction and the table of contents, as I plan to read and commit every word here into memory.

The first page was just general information on our clan, with the disclaimer that they created this page with the intent of copying how the other clans would see us.

[Fei Yu Clan]

[Clan Leader: Fei Yu Lei Gen, rank 5 middle stage]

[Rank 4 Elders: 6]

[Specializes in Wind and Water Type Gu.]

[Contestants: 147]

[Notable Contestants: 11]

Note that if you are one of these famous contestants, the other clans definitely have information about you, and you will likely appear in a booklet like the one you are holding, in the other clans.

We have taken the freedom of ranking all notable contestants, in order of how much of a threat they are likely seen as.

Flipping the page, I don't recognize the first name on that list, so I flip it again, and again, until I flipped through all notable rank 1s of our clan.

'I knew only three of these notable contestants.'

[Rank 3: Fei Yu Wei Li]

[An A-Grade Gu Master, with a talent of 95%. He has been taken in as an unofficial apprentice by the military hall elder of the Fei Yu clan. He has a cultivation of rank 1 peak stage and is likely very combat-oriented.]

[Rank 2: Fei Yu Zhen Wei]

'That seems to be me…'

[Rank 1 peak stage, with a talent of 70%. Although he is not combat-oriented, he has managed to become a Rank 1 Gu Refiner in his clan almost 2 months ago. The numbers 3-8 likely have a higher combat strength than him, but if the inheritance contains refinement elements, he will be a great threat.]

[Rank 6: Fei Yu Mu Bao]

[B-Grade Talent with 79% talent. He has no notable backing in the clan, but still managed to reach rank 1 peak stage in about half a year after awakening. He has extraordinary combat strength and cultivates his bodily strength.]

That is right, in the one week between the sound appearing in everyone's Aperture and now, both of my biggest competitors in my class broke through to rank 1 peak stage.

'I knew about Wei Li, but Mu Bao is news, even to me. I have the liquor worm, but what are these guys using?'

'On a different note, even my own clan knows nothing of my true strength, so I did a good job of keeping a low profile. It was just paranoia, and I did not expect it to pay off this fast.'

I kind of expected to be ranked here as notable, as there are only a few types of people that are rank 1 and have B-Grade talent.

The first and biggest, with probably about 110 to 120 people being in that group, are academy students. The class that came before me had the most Peak Stage Gu Masters, but their most talented students already broke through to rank 2.

This means that most of the contestants will be rank 1 beginning to upper stage, and there are very few with high talent that have just reached peak stage, but did not have the time to break through again.

This likely puts me into the top 30 out of 147 in terms of cultivation, and if you consider that I am definitely the only one to be this notable in refinement, it's not a surprise.

After committing the notable people from my clan to memory, I continue with the others…

A thing I noticed was that the rank 4 clans did not have nearly as many estimated contestants as they should have had….

'It's because their Academy ends after one year, and if rank 1 Gu masters take missions to support themselves, some will inevitably die.'

Of all the clans I read about, these three were the most notable:

[Suri Clan]

[Clan Leader: Suki Xing Sun, rank 5 upper stage]

[Rank 4 Elders: 8]

[Specializes in Wood Type Gu.]

[Contestants (estimated): 190 - 200]

[Notable Contestants: 20]

as well as

[Qu Mei Clan]

[Clan Leader: Qu Mei Kun Gao, rank 5 upper stage]

[Rank 4 Elders: 6]

[Specializes in Earth Type Gu.]

[Contestants (estimated): 140 - 160]

[Notable Contestants: 8]

These two were to be expected, as they were the other two rank 5 behemoths of the area, but the one that leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth was this one:

[Guo Clan]

[Clan Leader: Gua Jie Yan, rank 4 peak stage]

[Rank 4 Elders: 1]

[Specializes in Sound Type Gu.]

[Contestants (estimated): 20 - 30]

[Notable Contestants: 2]

'What kind of bullshit is this, specialized in sound path. Fucking cheaters...'

The clan leader said nothing about this being a sound path inheritance, but even the most dull people could guess this, as it started by music playing in everyone's Aperture.

'These guys might become a problem, as they will undoubtedly have more experience in using and refining sound path Gu than all other clans combined.'

It took me, a fast reader, about 5 hours to go through all of the information the book provided, but I was writing all of it into a bookworm Gu that I had bought from the merchants for 700 primeval stones.

'Much more convenient than having to memorize all of that by myself.'

I am confident that I would have been able to do that as well, but this way I have about 6 more days than I would have had to do other things.

*Swoosh*

*Splash*

For example, cultivate. I had just broken through to rank 1 peak stage a week ago, and before I could even attempt to break the rank 2 barrier, I had to nurture my Aperture more.

My fear was that others would be able to successfully attempt a breakthrough at any time during the inheritance, as we were only forbidden from doing so beforehand.

There would probably be at least 50 people that could do that, and if I am not one of them by the end of the week, then I am falling behind.

…

Here we were, an Elder told us the precise number, 750 people, all of us nervous, some showing it more than others. A lot of people were crying; I reckon a lot of them are rank 1 initial stage.

The number 750 was a bit lower than what I, or the clan for that matter, expected, but this confusion lifted, at least for the elders and clan leader, when an explosion sounded from afar.

All of them thinking something along the line of: 'So somebody actually decided to refuse? Poor fool…'

But we, the contestants, did not even hear the explosion, as we were transported into an immortal Aperture….

"Hello, my future Master, whichever one of you it may be…"

1912 words