Chapter 91

At first, everything was calm and peaceful. This was because the Seven Stars Martial Arts Competition had not yet officially begun, and not all the participants had arrived. Only two of the four major sects had shown up.

However, apart from the two missing sects, all the others had arrived. Ordinary sects were not as prestigious as the four major sects, so they had come early to prepare.

The Seven Stars Martial Arts Competition generally involved ten sects, but the quotas were different. Each of the four major sects had fifteen participants, while the other sects, except for the Qingyun Sword Sect, had at most five, and sometimes even fewer.

The last two sects were the Lingyun Sect and the Taixuan Sect. These two sects were always very proud and had the greatest conflicts with the Qingyun Sword Sect. In contrast, the Butterfly Valley and the Yanshan Sect were more peaceful and had good relations with the Qingyun Sword Sect, and they had already arrived.

If the days ahead were like this, Bu Zheng would feel very fortunate. He would laugh at himself for exchanging all his contribution points for materials to refine elixirs, and even exchanging the remaining points for money.

Of course, he believed things would not stay this way. The real competition would begin once the martial arts competition started.

Sure enough, after it began, conflicts arose, and friction started. There were casualties, which made Bu Zheng feel the cruelty of the martial world for the first time...

Fortunately, these events did not affect Bu Zheng, as he was always guarding the gate. Although the Qingyun Sword Sect had a few miscellaneous disciples injured, it was not serious, and no one had come to fight at the gate, so it naturally did not affect him, who had not stepped out of the gate.

In the Qingyun Sword Sect, apart from a few miscellaneous disciples who had not left the courtyard, the others had all gone out.

One day, while Bu Zheng was still guarding the gate, a soldier on duty came to tell him some news—

"Bu Zheng, be careful. I heard that there was a big conflict between your Qingyun Sword Sect and the Lingyun Sect. Your Second Senior Brother disabled a disciple of the Lingyun Sect."

This had just happened, and the soldiers had much better information channels than Bu Zheng and the others, especially since this was their territory.

"What happened?" Bu Zheng asked.

"It happened during the competition. It's not a big issue, and your Second Senior Brother seems to have been noticed by a high-ranking expert, so there won't be any problems. However, they can't find an outlet for their anger, so they might target you and the other Qingyun Sword Sect members," the soldier said.

If someone is noticed by a high-ranking expert, even the head of one of the four major sects would not dare to touch them. But if the anger is not released, it will only affect the innocent, and the ones who suffer will be the miscellaneous disciples like Bu Zheng.

This is why miscellaneous disciples are in danger; they often become the scapegoats for unvented anger.

"Oh," Bu Zheng responded. He did not care whether his Second Senior Brother would be noticed by a high-ranking expert, nor did he care about the outcome of the Qingyun Sword Sect.

"Apparently, it was also related to the Lingyun Sect's disciple. The competition was already over, and your Second Senior Brother was about to step down, but the Lingyun Sect's disciple refused to accept defeat and ambushed your Second Senior Brother, who then disabled him," the soldier continued.

"That's what he deserves!" Bu Zheng said. In a competition, there are winners and losers. Losing is not a big deal; you might even be noticed by a high-ranking expert for your talent. But if your martial virtue is poor, even those from the demonic path would look down on you.

Although those from the demonic path cultivate the demonic path, it does not mean they lose their martial virtue. The demonic path also values martial virtue, sometimes even more than the righteous path.

"He deserves it, but with the Lingyun Sect's style, they will definitely seek revenge. Be careful. If anything happens, we can't help you," the soldier said. Although these soldiers were there to protect the Qingyun Sword Sect, if it was a conflict between two sects, they would just watch from the sidelines.

This is not because they are cold-hearted, but because they cannot help even if they wanted to. If they could stop those martial artists, they wouldn't be here as mere soldiers.

"Don't worry, if the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. I'll just hide behind them when the time comes," Bu Zheng smiled. He was not joking; he had already planned to seek help from Elder Chen and the others if anything happened.

"Hehe, I'm going to stand guard. You should practice your lightness technique. You need to practice your escape skills more," the soldier said with a smile. The soldiers knew that Bu Zheng practiced lightness technique every day and understood why he did it. It was obvious.

"Okay, I'll practice my lightness technique!" Bu Zheng nodded and went to practice. To others, his lightness technique looked like a strange movement.

Bu Zheng's recent lightness technique was very strange. Even an expert like Old Liu would only think it was a useless movement, too chaotic and not like a proper technique.

Because of this, no one thought Bu Zheng's lightness technique was good; on the contrary, they thought it was terrible. But this kind of terribleness suited his identity as a miscellaneous disciple, so no one paid attention to him.

If it were Qin Shuang and Chu Xiong, who had interacted with Bu Zheng and seen his lightness technique, which was much faster than theirs, they would suspect that Bu Zheng's chaotic movements might hide some profound secrets.

The movement technique Bu Zheng was practicing was something he had recently thought of, inspired by Ling Aoxue and the others, and then modified, adding elements that no one could imagine, such as formations.

The more Bu Zheng studied formations, the more he found them mysterious, sensing some underlying patterns. Of course, he did not know that these were the patterns of the universe; he only knew that movement techniques were about patterns. If he could successfully integrate these patterns into his movement technique, it might make his movements more natural and smooth, and the changes would be hard to predict.

Although it was a pattern, only he could understand it, as it belonged to the universe and to himself.

Bu Zheng thought that a movement technique should not only be fast but also versatile, making it hard for others to catch him, and thus making it hard for them to attack him. This was about evasion.

To be honest, Ling Aoxue and the others were already very powerful, but they had not studied evasion much. Their movement techniques were mainly for coordinating attacks and maximizing their strength.

Bu Zheng now wanted to escape completely, which was not something their movement techniques could handle. He had to modify them, and during the modifications, some were incorrect, making the movements chaotic and full of flaws, which others would dismiss.

In fact, even if Bu Zheng perfected and corrected this movement technique, it would still be somewhat chaotic, as it combined elements of formations, making it hard for others to understand and thus seem chaotic.

Regardless of whether others understood it or not, Bu Zheng practiced hard every day, striving to reach the level he wanted. What others thought was not important; what mattered was that he knew it was useful.

Meanwhile, the conflicts outside had not yet spread to here. With almost no one coming to the gate, everyone knew that the Qingyun Sword Sect was participating in the Seven Stars Martial Arts Competition, and only a few miscellaneous disciples were left behind. In such a situation, who would come to visit?

Therefore, Bu Zheng could get a quiet environment for practice, but only during the day. At night, things got a bit more complicated, with more visitors, but after the tenth hour, there were no more visitors.