Summer Competition 8: 500 points short

Hao Qi was shocked at both of their displays of power. "You … Both of you have brought down a Tier 3 monster...a half step Tier3 monster granted , but still..they would be as strong as the upper layers of Qi Condensation realm cultivators. And yet you brought it down in ONLY 2 MOVES!!! How can that be possible??"

Hua looked at Luo and asked him, "Qi Gathering realm cultivators can only cover their bodies in Qi and then attack their opponents with that. I have never seen any Gathering Qi cultivators cause explosions that are as freaky as that. No to mention, those stones you used to attack caused a similar kind of explosion. Why is that? How did you do it? "

Luo hesitated but then made up his resolve and said " Would you guys tell me your family's cultivation secrets if I just simply asked you? Hua..would you tell me the secret behind that superfast attack that you did just now . It packed a hell lot of power. Would you tell me? I'm asking just like you are….Well...Would you?And what about you Hao Qi..would you tell me how to cultivate those melodies that you used?"

Hua Geming and Hao Qi were silent.

"As I thought. My master always tells me that there is nothing odd in the path of cultivation and that if you don't understand anything or if something doesn't make sense to you, then it is you who has to challenge your common sense. Is it really so odd that I have a couple good techniques?

Doesn't everyone who cultivates have such a secret or two? …..I will rest the matter here and if there comes a situation or a time when I decide to tell you then I will, but until then, please don't prod me unnecessarily. But that aside, I do like the both of you and think that we can become good friends in the future, or rival-friend in your case Hua. And I believe there will be a day where I can freely tell you about my secrets. Please have patience until such a time."

Hua and Hao Qi looked chastened and looked like children who had been scolded but with what Luo said at the end, Hua beamed and Hao Qi smiled. They apologized to Luo and said that they would wait for such a time when he would tell his secrets to them of his own volition. Xun'er tried to lighten the mood by cracking a few jokes after this.

"Wow. That was an eloquent speech brat. Tell me who is this master who told you such profound things, huh? I would like to meet this master." Yin's voice resounded in his head in a bemused tone.

"Hehe, I have no other master than you. But it just felt like a thing that you could have said, so I said it. Did I overdo it?"

"A bit, I think. Now they definitely think that you are hiding a deeply secret cultivation art. It is true, but you could have avoided being in this situation."

"It was all I could think of at that moment, master."

"Ahh, it should be fine and even if they find out, so what? HAHAHA"

Luo pulled out the monster core , glowing bright green and indicating the Poison Qi attribute. "I think all the monsters that we have killed should pretty much put us in the lead. And if we include this one as well, then I think that we will definitely win." He looked at the Poison Qi that was emanating from the monster core.

"Guys, Can I ask you for a favor? One of my techniques uses Poison Qi so I cultivate that. Would it be okay with you guys if I absorb this instead of it counting as a contribution that we have to give? I would most certainly give you an equivalent share from the other cores from my share of the collection till now."

"But then that would mean that you will not get into the top three." Hua and Hao Qi said at the same time.

"Yeah, but we still have the time, so we could hunt more and see if that is enough to cover it up."

"Maybe...but it's risky as the deadline is very close. It's almost evening. We have to go back to the meeting point by tomorrow morning" Hua responded.

When the discussion was not going anywhere Xun'er interrupted and said "There is such a clear solution here. There are four of us and there are only 3 positions who would be getting a reward.Soooo…"

"Yeah that's right. One of us would not get anything. I hadn't thought about that" Hua interrupted.

Xun punched him in the shoulder and continued speaking, "Like I said, the solution is very simple. A Tier 3 monster core is worth 1000 points right and I have with me enough cores from my share that I can compensate both of you and give the rest to my brother and he would still be in the lead you know? So I am going to do just that." Xun beamed with pride for the solution that she proposed.

Luo was touched to the bottom of his heart by her gesture. 'Just for having shown some kindness, she went to such lengths for me. She had my back. It….It feels so nice. I have never felt like this before.'

His eyes moistened and he immediately hugged her tightly and whispered to her "Thank you for showing kindness to me. Thank you for having my back. No one has ever had my back before….I…."

Xun was surprised but after hearing him say that, she smiled and patted him on the head and said "Little sisters are supposed to look out for their big brothers too you know, not just the other way around."

She proceeded to share the monster cores with the rest of them and after she was done with that, they rested for a while while Luo started to absorb the Tier 3 monster core. Around the time that the sun was setting, Luo was done refining the monster core and his Poison Qi attribute was even stronger and he had understood how to incorporate that with his Layers of Chaos technique.

After he opened his eyes, the rest of them collected the useful materials from the Tier 3 monster and then resumed their journey back to the meeting point.

With the sun now warming their faces, Luo and the others made their way to the meeting point of the test. They could see that quite a few had already made it back but none of them carried as many monster cores as they had. Cai MingZhu and the Zhong twins were already there and rushed towards them when they spotted them.

Cai looked at the quantity of monster cores "You even killed so many Tier2 monsters. You….you are stronger than me." She grew sad for a moment but later she laughed and ran off after telling Luo "You just wait. I will grow even stronger than you in the upcoming days"

"Uhhhhhh….." Luo did not know how to react to that.

Xun shrugged and said "You are hopeless, brother."

They then moved to get their contributions submitted and exchanged for points. As they neared the counting desks and handed over their numerous cores, people started gathering around Luo and others and they started cheering seeing the counts increasing and Luo, Hua and Hao Qi rising in ranks with each point that was being counted.

After the final tally Luo was in first place but did not look too enthused about that. Hua Geming came in second and was excited about the Space ring. Hao Qi was mostly expressionless.

Just as the cheers got really loud, Xiao Wu walked in , a procession of his followers in tow, each carrying a huge sack of monster cores. They moved towards the counting desks as well and then all of the cores were submitted under Xiao Wu's tally.

People started to boo. "Heyy, you should have distributed that equally." "Yeah. Yeah. What ...Did you buy them off Xiao Wu?" "So Shameless."

These were being uttered among the rest of the applicants as the counter started to count and he slowly rose to the top ranks and then one by one , he displaced Luo and the team. He was now in first place and Luo sighed with relief on getting the second place. Hua got pushed to third and Hao Qi to the fourth.

Xiao Wu beamed with pride and after checking Luo's points, walked over to where Luo and the others were and said "Do you see that. I have 500 more points than your score. That's 50 Tier1 monsters. That is the difference between my power and yours, you trash."

He looked really smug but Luo looked at Hua Geming, Hao Qi and Xun'er and all of them started laughing loudly.

Xiao Wu got really irritated by this "What..Have you all lost your minds. Why are you all laughing?"

Luo controlled his laughter and said "Ohh its nothing Xiao Wu. Congratulations on getting the first prize." He then turned and moved away with the others.

"Can you believe that! If only you would have submitted the Tier3 monster core, then he would have just freaked out. How humiliated he would have been that the collection of all those people hunting monsters still fell short of you. HAHAHAHA' Hua Geming slapped Luo's back as they walked back.