Surprisingly Enough(NOT), Common Sense Is Overpowered in Cliché Cultivation World

1.90 Tower is Malfunctioning, I Swear

For the last ten minutes, none of the elders had spoken. They had simply watched a ninth-stage elite get blinded by spicy jungle sap, get his chest cavity caved in, get frozen, and then punched into the light of teleportation.

"Well," Lang Feilang muttered, breaking the silence as she took a slow sip of her spiritual tea. "That was... something. I believe Luo Kei will be visiting the medical pavilion to scrub his eyes for the next three days."

"Brutal," He Shou said. "That Xiao Fan kid is absolutely brutal. His fighting sense and combat ability are extraordinary, especially given his spiritual root. I am really going to have a talk with Long Xiao about taking him as a pupil."

"It seems you are truly taken with him," Lou Ren raised a brow.

"It is not every day that you witness such frightening prowess. Not every day that you see a disciple simply punch his way through every problem in front of him." He Shou, as always, remained a devoted believer in the Dao of Fuck Around and Find Out.

"You are just a bit short of saying you are like Xiao Fan." Lou Ren, diligent as ever, never missed a chance to cut his rival down.

"Both of you." Hong Zeiling's voice dropped the temperature in the room. "How many times are you going to run through the same song and dance? Keep some dignity."

He Shou and Lou Ren tsked in unison and turned their faces away from each other, but not before exchanging a quick, conspiratorial wink. Both of them were having a fine time watching the ever-serious Hong Zeiling finally crack.

"Nonetheless." Hong Zeiling turned to Ling Xin. "Your disciple's performance has also been phenomenal."

"Hehe, praise him more," Ling Xin said, lapping it up without shame.

"What did he call himself again?" Lang Feilang asked. "Stealth archer?"

"A truly appropriate name," another elder murmured.

The elders had a full overview of the trial, and Ning's role had not been lost on any of them. His read on Lei Dong and Luo Kei's psychology during the planning phase, his precise timing with the bow, always disrupting before a technique could fully form, always arriving at the exact moment someone was about to make a fatal mistake, was extraordinary in its own way.

"Perhaps we will have a true master of archery in the near future," Lang Feilang said. Then she paused. "Though I absolutely dread his style becoming popular."

"Now you are just spoiling me," Ling Xin said, brushing the back of her head proudly.

"That was not praise."

"Nu-uh."

Lang Feilang just snorted at that. Ling Xin was a master at only hearing what she liked, so convincing her was impossible.

Then the Slippery Ferret appeared on the water-mirror, and the hall's mood shifted instantly. Watching disciples plot against each other was entertaining enough, but the true spectacle started with the appearance of this unique beast.

"Oh, now this is going to be interesting," He Shou said.

"I don't think anyone has ever actually caught the Slippery Ferret," Lou Ren remarked. "Not in any trial I can recall."

"In the sect master's year, it never even appeared," another elder said. "Because he spent the first hour unleashing sword qi and thrashing the entire forest. Frightened every beast with a survival instinct straight into hiding."

"Exactly why it's so hard to catch. The creature has the cultivation of a ninth-stage beast, but it is not attack-oriented, purely evasion, speed, and the occasional bit of malicious mischief. It knows when it's being hunted, and it enjoys the situation far more than it should."

Then the water-mirror shifted again, and every elder went quiet.

Someone was organizing the remaining disciples.

"...Someone is actually allying means other than coercion? That's something you don't see every day." Lang Feilang leaned forward.

"The rules of the Verdant Hunting Grounds state quite clearly," Hong Zeiling spoke. "Survive, accumulate, and advance. When our ancestors constructed this tower, they designed a wilderness. In the grand world outside, the situation is impermanent; anything could happen. So the only thing every cultivator must learn is how to survive this ever-changing world. Xiao Fan understood his strength lay in raw impact. Ning understood his strength lay in manipulating terrain and the minds of his enemies. That, too, is cultivation."

Lang Feilang's eyes narrowed as she watched Ning's projection, the boy calmly explaining scouting shares and aggro shares to a crowd of wide-eyed lower-stage disciples. "What Ning just said about the trial having two distinct paths, he is completely right. This trial was designed to test exactly two things: the absolute authority of the strong, or the absolute unity of the weak."

"To pass, a disciple needs only fifty points," another elder said. "In a forest teeming with hundreds of low-tier spiritual beasts, that is a remarkably low threshold. If disciples simply divided into coordinated squads, systematically cleared sectors, and distributed tokens evenly, nearly eighty percent of participants could comfortably qualify every single year."

"But they never do," Ling Xin said, her smile turning sharp. "Because cultivators are inherently selfish creatures. Put five of them in a room with ten tokens, and each one will spend forty minutes plotting how to steal all ten rather than ensuring everyone gets two. They see their peers not as allies, but as rivals. Opponents."

Every elder fell silent at that. The reason young cultivators turned out this way was not entirely their own fault; the older generation bore its share of the blame as well.

"It's a pity, though. I liked the strategy of that Yi Shan girl," Lou Ren said. "She had the right idea: accumulate fifty points, rush toward the center, touch the pillar, and pass. But she didn't account for one thing: point hunters. Just like now, some eighth-stage qi cultivators are already camping near the tower to ambush unsuspecting disciples who have enough points to pass. After all, why earn points yourself when you can simply steal them?"

"Human greed makes everything impossible," He Shou nodded gravely.

A rare, faint smile touched Hong Zeiling's lips.

"Until now. Look at him. Ji Ning is not naive enough to try to change their nature; he is weaponizing their fear and greed against the elites. He is making cooperation the most profitable option on the table. And most importantly, his proposed point splits are too reasonable for anyone to argue against."

"The brat's a menace," another elder grumbled. "He is organizing a union of bottom-feeders. If they actually listen to him, they will overrun the inner region like locusts. The eighth-stage elites won't know what hit them."

"Oh, they will listen," Ling Xin said, her laughter ringing out across the platform. She looked entirely unbothered by the judgmental glances from her peers. "Ning has a very trustworthy face. And if they don't, well, we all know his methods for humbling the uncooperative. Truly a master of both carrot and stick."

Lang Feilang shuddered slightly.

The water-mirror shifted again.

A lone disciple in the outer forest tried to steal points from an injured disciple, only to be ambushed by a third party hiding behind a tree. The third party was then chased off by a horned boar attracted by the noise.

He Shou pointed at the mirror. "Well, that's the reality of things."

"We were all dumb once," Lou Ren nodded.

"Maybe you were," He Shou said. "Certainly not me."

Hong Zeiling ignored them both. "The first trial tested the foundation. The second tested the heart. This trial tests conduct in chaos."

"Conduct?" He Shou repeated. "That sounds too elegant. It tests whether they can stay alive when everything goes to hell."

"You and your simplifications..."

He Shou turned on him. "You really want to fight today."

"You keep asking that as if the answer changes."

In the mirror, Xiao Fan appeared, darting between trees after a streak of silver-blue light. The Slippery Ferret bounced off a stone, twisted through a net technique, and slipped between two disciples before either could react. Lei Dong's golden qi roared behind it, blasting a path through the forest.

"Block it!" Lei Dong shouted.

"Out of my way!" Xiao Fan shouted at almost the same moment.

A disciple who had the misfortune of standing between the two immediately threw himself flat on the ground.

The Slippery Ferret landed on his back, used him as a stepping stone, and launched itself into a cluster of vines.

He Shou burst out laughing. "That little beast has better footwork than most of the inner sect disciples."

Xiao Fan and Lei Dong's scattered group crashed deeper into the inner region after the Slippery Ferret. Lei Dong relied on cultivation and numbers, blasting obstacles apart with golden qi. Xiao Fan relied on instinct, cutting corners, using tree trunks, and somehow staying close despite the gap in cultivation. Qiu Han followed behind them with a face that suggested he regretted many life choices, but not enough to stop.

On the other side, Wei Zhusang led the newly formed alliance into the forest.

Their formation was rough but functional. Two scouts moved ahead, marking safe ground. Three shield-bearing disciples watched the flanks. Zhang Feng walked near the front, spear in hand, looking far too pleased with himself. Lang Rulang remained alert, her sword half-drawn. Jin Shu's gray wolf padded beside her, nose twitching at every beast trail. Yi Shan moved near the rear.

Ning appeared briefly on a high branch, pointed two fingers toward a patch of grass, then vanished.

The scout paused, checked the area, and found a hidden pit beneath a layer of leaves.

The group carefully moved around it.

The elders watched in silence.

Then the water-mirror showed Wei Zhusang's group encountering a pack of Thornback Wolves.

Six of them. Each manageable alone, but together capable of tearing apart scattered disciples. Their backs bristled with jagged green spines, and they moved in quick, circling patterns, testing the formation from all sides.

Wei Zhusang raised his hand. The alliance stopped.

"Shields forward."

Three disciples stepped into position.

"Scouts to the sides. Do not chase. Let them come."

A Thornback Wolf lunged. Zhang Feng's spear thrust forced it to twist aside. Lang Rulang's sword flashed from the opposite angle, drawing blood without overcommitting. Jin Shu's gray wolf growled and drove another wolf back from the flank.

One of Ning's sticky ropes snapped tight.

A Thornback Wolf tripped and snarled. Then an arrow appeared, and the rest was history.

He Shou blinked. "Oh?"

Lou Ren smiled faintly. "Not bad."

Hong Zeiling's eyes softened by a fraction. "This is what the trial wants to see."

The fight was not elegant. Several disciples shouted over one another. Someone condensed their qi into a makeshift smoke pellet and threw it too early, making Zhang Feng cough. Another nearly stepped into Ning's own bait line before Wei Zhusang dragged him back by the collar.

But they did not scatter.

They adjusted and covered their mistakes. They marked two wolves, drove one away, and finished off another after luring it into a trip line.

By the time the pack retreated, the alliance had gained points with only minor injuries. More importantly, they had gained confidence.

One disciple stared at his medallion as the points registered. "That was easier than hunting alone."

Another replied, "Of course it was. Alone, I would have been the bait."

Zhang Feng proudly raised his spear. "Behold, the power of organized grinding!"

Wei Zhusang heard someone in the shadows choke at that. 

He Shou slapped his knee. "Organized grinding! I like that one."

Lou Ren sighed, not even bothering to retaliate.

Hong Zeiling watched Wei Zhusang redistributing roles after the fight. "Wei Zhusang is suited to leadership. He is not the strongest disciple in that group, but he knows how to stabilize people. He listens, decides the appropriate course of acition, and gives simple orders. That is rare."

"A group of average disciples with structure can outperform a group of talented disciples without trust," Lou Ren said.

He Shou pointed at the other side of the mirror, where Xiao Fan had just punched a disciple through a bush while Lei Dong blasted a tree apart after losing sight of the Slippery Ferret again. "What about that group?"

Hong Zeiling considered for a moment.

"That is not a group. That is a disaster moving in the same direction."

He Shou laughed aloud. Even Lou Ren smiled.

In the mirror, the Slippery Ferret shot across a shallow stream, its long silver feet barely touching the water. Lei Dong formed a golden palm and slammed it down to block the path. The ferret twisted at the last instant, ran up the side of the qi strike itself, and leapt clean over Lei Dong's head.

"Kii!"

It landed briefly on a branch above him.

Then it shook its tail.

A small shower of leaves fell onto Lei Dong's head. The Slippery Ferret looked down at him with what could only be described as satisfaction.

"YOU!" Lei Dong's voice cracked.

The observation hall went very quiet.

Xiao Fan, a short distance behind, laughed despite himself. "Even the beast does not respect you!"

Lei Dong spun around. "YOU ARE DEAD!!"

The Slippery Ferret immediately took advantage of his distraction and vanished into a cluster of glowing vines.

He Shou slapped the table. "The boy taunted him at the perfect moment!"

"Xiao Fan has remarkable instincts for making enemies angrier," Lou Ren said.

"That is also a talent, however double-sided it may be."

The elders had assumed this was how things would play out, the ferret toying with the disciples as usual until the trial concluded.

Alas, none of them had accounted for the particular force of nature that was Xiao Fan.

...

The deeper region of the Verdant Hunting Grounds bore little resemblance to the outer forest. Here, the spiritual energy was thick enough to form a mist-like consistency, drifting between ancient, knotted trees. Vines as thick as a man's torso coiled around crumbling stone pillars, and strange, fleshy flowers bloomed and snapped shut with every ambient pulse of qi.

Somewhere through the haze, a silver-blue blur shot forward.

"Squeak!"

The Slippery Ferret launched off a low branch, rebounded against a hanging vine, then squeezed through a fissure between two boulders that wasn't even as wide as a human palm.

Lei Dong's face darkened to a dangerous shade of purple. "Seal the left! Move your useless legs!"

Two of his lackeys scrambled into position. A shimmering net of golden qi unfurled across the left side of the clearing while a third disciple hurled three talisman flags into the dirt. The stakes struck with sharp cracks, humming as they wove a restrictive perimeter of raw light.

The Slippery Ferret landed cleanly on a moss-covered stone. It blinked once, sat down, and casually began to lick its front paw. It looked less like a cornered beast and more like a bored observer.

A second later, the brush violently exploded. Xiao Fan crashed into the clearing with a panting Qiu Han hot on his heels.

Xiao Fan looked like he'd been dragged through a briar patch backwards. His robes were shredded, and several dead leaves were firmly tangled in his hair. He had been chasing this hyperactive rodent across three different biomes.

"There it is!" Qiu Han wheezed, pointing a trembling finger.

"I have eyes, Qiu Han!"

Lei Dong snapped his head around, his expression twisting with absolute disgust. "You're still following me, peasant?"

Without command, two of his subordinates rushed Xiao Fan and Qiu Han as the clearing erupted into chaos. Weapons rang out, and qi flared.

For a brief moment, the Slippery Ferret's clever little eyes flicked toward the sudden fight, distracted by the burst of spiritual energy and noise.

Lei Dong noticed that tiny pause immediately. He did not care whether his lackeys won or lost. Their fight had created an opening, and that was all he needed.

"Now! Drop the trap!"

The lackeys moved in unison. One blocked the canopy, another anchored the roots, and a third threw a heavy spiritual net into the air. Lei Dong stepped forward personally, his golden qi pressing downward like a falling mountain, leaving the ferret with exactly zero conventional escape routes.

For the first time, the silver-blue creature paused. Its large eyes darted around the collapsing perimeter. Left, the golden net. Right, a barrier weapon. Above, Lei Dong's oppressive aura. Below, surging spiritual roots.

Its ears gave a quick, rhythmic twitch.

Lei Dong's lips curled into a victorious sneer. "Caught you."

The Slippery Ferret sneezed.

"Squee!"

Its paws blurred. Instead of dodging into any open space, its body seemed to liquify, flattening into a literal shadow cast by the mossy boulder. It slid through a structural flaw in the qi net that shouldn't have physically existed and popped out directly behind the disciple holding the anchor string.

[Bloodline Ability: Slip

As per the name, it allows slippery ferret to slip past anything, be it attacks, grasp or even formations.]

The disciple blinked at an empty rock.

The ferret used the back of his head as a springboard.

"Ah!"

The lackey pitched forward under the sudden momentum, face-planting directly into his own talisman flags and shattering the array in a shower of sparks. The Slippery Ferret shot off into the dense fog.

Lei Dong's smile vanished. Xiao Fan stared. Qiu Han stared.

Then Xiao Fan let out a loud, unrestrained bark of laughter.

Lei Dong slowly turned his head, his gaze cold enough to freeze boiling water. "You find this amusing?"

Xiao Fan pointed at the disciple currently groveling in the dirt, trying to untangle a flag from his nose. "A little bit, yeah."

"After I skin that rodent," Lei Dong hissed, his voice trembling, "I am going to break every bone in your body."

"Gotta catch it first, Young Master!" Xiao Fan called back as the ferret let out a distant, mocking squeak, almost as if it were intentionally timing its calls to ruin Lei Dong's blood pressure.

"Chase it!" Lei Dong roared, his golden qi erupting so violently it sheared the tops off the nearest bushes.

The chaotic circus resumed.

Minutes blurred together. Then the massive Spiritual Pillar at the center of the grounds loomed through the canopy, radiating a brilliant green-gold aura that vibrated deep within every disciple's meridians. It was the finish line.

But the light was changing. The brilliant green was rapidly draining toward the earth, replaced by a deep, pulsing crimson. Time was running out.

Xiao Fan's grin faded.

Lei Dong's posture tightened as well. The playground antics were over. If the Slippery Ferret wasn't caught within the next few minutes, it would be lost, taking its legendary three hundred points with it.

Lei Dong raised his hand, signaling his remaining followers. They were battered and sporting various welts from poisonous flora, but they still obeyed.

The ferret had run itself into a narrow, dead-end valley right at the base of the spiritual pillar. The ravine was hemmed in by slick, towering stone walls covered in glowing fungus. There were only three ways out: the entrance they were blocking, a tiny jagged fissure between two rocks, and the direct path toward the central pillar.

Lei Dong's face twisted into a dark, predatory smile. "Finally. You three, anchor the entrance. You, jam your spear into that fissure. The rest of you, throw every net you have toward the pillar. I will handle it myself."

The Slippery Ferret stood dead center in the ravine, its silver paws tapping nervously against the damp stone.

Lei Dong stepped forward, a miniature sun of golden qi coalescing around his fist. "The game is over, rat."

His gaze snapped toward the entrance. "Interfere, and I'll execute you where you stand, Xiao Fan."

Xiao Fan, in the middle of dodging a lackey's palm strike, dared to answer without breaking stride. "I'll interfere the moment I get the chance."

Strictly speaking, his current point total was more than enough to comfortably pass the trial. He didn't need the ferret.

But Lei Dong wanted it. He wanted it desperately. And after being hunted, slandered, targeted by a bounty, and treated like an obstacle to be cleared, Xiao Fan found himself experiencing a profound, beautiful sense of absolute pettiness.

"Then die after I catch this damn thing!" Lei Dong roared, launching himself forward.

The valley erupted. Golden qi slammed into the ground, cutting off the path to the pillar. Nets rained from above. The disciple at the fissure panicked and blindly thrust his iron spear forward.

The ferret didn't even blink. It dived under the spear, kicked off the shaft, and bolted straight toward the narrow opening, completely bypassing Lei Dong's explosive strike. A flawless escape.

Xiao Fan kicked away the lackey still futilely clinging to him, flung the man aside, and lunged forward to cut Lei Dong off from the ferret.

It was almost entirely instinct.

Which turned out to be a massive mistake.

His boot came down directly on a patch of glowing valley moss. As it turned out, this specific fungus didn't just glow, it secreted an oil that was impressively, viciously slick.

Xiao Fan's foot shot out from under him. His grand, heroic intervention spiraled instantly into disaster.

"Xiao Fan!" Qiu Han screamed.

Xiao Fan went completely horizontal through the air.

What happened next made everyone freeze.

The Slippery Ferret, in the middle of executing a perfect, triumphant escape through the rocky crack, suddenly found a solid hundred and eighty pounds of unguided human meat hurtling directly into its trajectory.

Its tiny, arrogant eyes widened. "Squee?!"

BANG.

Xiao Fan crashed shoulder-first into the stone wall, his hand lashing out in a desperate attempt to grab anything to break his fall. His fingers closed tightly around something soft and warm.

The entire valley went dead silent. Only the crackle of stray golden qi broke the quiet.

Slowly, Xiao Fan opened his eyes and looked down at his right hand.

He was holding the Slippery Ferret by the scruff of its neck.

The ferret stared at him. Xiao Fan stared at the ferret.

Then the ferret sank its needle-like teeth deep into his thumb.

"AAARGH! Son of a-!" Xiao Fan yelled, but his grip remained an iron vise.

The ferret thrashed violently, its body beginning to vibrate at that bizarre frequency-shifting rhythm designed to let it phase through solid matter. But the moment the beast's spiritual energy fluctuated, something deep within Xiao Fan's soul snapped awake.

His internal meridians violently reversed. The Demon Subduing Sutra circulated entirely on instinct, casting a heavy, invisible weight over his palm, a profound, ancient authority designed strictly to suppress the bloodline talent of spiritual beasts.

For exactly half a heartbeat, the ferret's frequency-shifting ability was completely locked down.

Half a heartbeat was all Xiao Fan needed to finish the job.

The valley fell apart at that.

Lei Dong's face went entirely blank. Qiu Han's jaw dropped so far it looked dislocated. The lackeys stared toward the heavens as if waiting for the gods to explain why a peasant slipping on moss had just achieved something historic.

Xiao Fan remained seated in the dirt, his shoulder propped against the rock wall.

"...I did it?" he mumbled, utterly bewildered.

Qiu Han swallowed hard. "You did."

Lei Dong began to shake with an all-consuming, world-ending fury that threatened to burst his veins.

"You..." His voice dropped to a guttural whisper. 

The golden qi around his body detonated, cracking the stone floor beneath his boots. "YOU ABSOLUTE PIECE OF TRASH!"

He lunged, his strike aimed directly at Xiao Fan.

It missed.

Qiu Han had already arrived, hoisting Xiao Fan over his shoulder in one fluid motion.

[Supernatural Ability: Quick]

Now it was a race to the pillar.

"Run, run, quickly!" Xiao Fan urged, patting Qiu Han's back.

"I am doing my best!" Qiu Han shouted back.

By now, he had grown remarkably accustomed to carrying Xiao Fan like a sack of grain.

"I WILL KILL YOU! KILL! KILL! KILL!" Lei Dong's roar shook the trees behind them.

Xiao Fan just laughed, glancing back at the enraged pursuit. Then, on a whim, he flipped open his medallion, partly to check his score, partly to let Lei Dong's enhanced cultivator eyesight catch the numbers.

He blinked.

Then laughed harder.

"Heavens. This guy really is full of surprises."

[Xiao Fan: 366 points]

[Ji Ning: 248 points]

...

There was a reason why Ning chose the Lightning Cry Arrow, besides the overwhelming attack potency promised by the technique.

The reason was simple: he felt he would be able to advance this technique into a usable form within just a few days, making it capable of being used in this trial. Unlike the Wind Waking Arrow, Ning already had a picture, visualization, and working concept in mind, drawn both from various fictional series and the actual otherworldly knowledge he possessed.

Ning drew the bow atop a tree branch, his presence but a whisper.

Most cultivators understood lightning as heavenly yang, storm force, or the wrath of clouds. Ning did not think they were wrong, exactly. This was a cultivation world, after all. Spiritual energy did not need to obey the same rules as his old world.

But Ning still remembered one thing clearly.

Lightning came from imbalance. Separation. Pressure. Two opposing charges building tension until the world itself could no longer keep them apart.

So, Ning used that idea.

He split his spiritual Qi into two streams. One was thin and sharp, running along the arrowhead like a blade of restless light. The other was heavier and slower, sinking into the wooden shaft and pressing down like a dark cloud.

Then came the difficult part. He had to keep them apart.

Too much distance, and nothing would happen. Too little control, and the two currents would collide before the arrow left the bowstring. The Lightning Cry Arrow was powerful because it forced Qi into an unstable state and carried that instability straight to the target. He was recreating the conditions for a physical discharge using spiritual energy.

Ning was ever so grateful that he never gave up on mastering his own spiritual energy control.

A faint crackle ran across the arrow. Blue-white sparks crawled along the shaft, restless and hungry. The two Qi currents stretched tighter.

Currently, they were facing an eighth-stage elite cultivator. The closer they got to the central point, the more they encountered these ambushes. But as always, while these cultivators might jump them at first, in the end, it was always they who reverse-jumped their shit.

After all, it was quite easy: send two decoys to lure out the hunters, making them think they were the ones doing the hunting while they were actually the ones being hunted. It was essentially the same strategy Ning had used at the beginning, but on a much larger scale now.

[Lightning Cry Arrow: Song of a Thousand Birds]

For one heartbeat, the sparks vanished. Then, he released.

The arrow cut through the mist without a sound, and finally, another eighth-stage Qi cultivator who showed an opening was defeated.

"Well, that's another one down." Ning came out of hiding and nodded to Wei Zhusang, then changed positions with another long-range magic user.

The Lightning Cry Arrow was very draining on his reserves, especially when using its full power like that, so he needed a break from time to time. This was where the party system was useful.

"I don't think people will be able to shrug off your archery now, even with talismans and weapons, Brother Ning," Zhang Feng said, appearing beside him.

"That is true, but it is quite draining even with my control," Ning mumbled, glancing at Jin Shu and her wolf, who were quickly using their cultivation technique to enhance the wolf's senses to find another prey.

"Having a pet like Hei Ya is really useful for hunting, ain't it?" Zhang Feng spoke.

"Um..." Ning nodded absentmindedly.

If he had to be honest, Ning was not that happy with himself. He had not considered that in this trial, even beasts were considered weapons. It was a wild thing to even consider, but Ning wanted to be the one doing the munchkinry, finding the loopholes to further aid his endeavors.

Just like how the trial didn't take their clothes even if some were wearing what was clearly an artifact robe like his, he had to be open-minded and resolve to exploit this in the future. 

"Your smiling face is quite scary..." Zhang Feng muttered, none the wiser that his "besto friendo" was trying to elevate his Dao of Munchkinry.

"What do you mean?" Ning quickly regained his composure, maintaining his ever-polite, smiling expression.

"You are just going to brush that off, aren't you?" Zhang Feng just sighed. "But finally, our trial is over."

Zhang Feng watched as Wei Zhusang stood up and gave another speech about their persistence, celebrating that all of them had finally passed successfully.

"For the alliance!" the chant rang out as everyone touched their medallions to the now almost-vanishing spiritual pillar.

"Still, second place, huh? You beat me again." Lang Rulang teleported to his side and spoke, her eyes complex. Just like Wei Zhusang, it was surprising to her how far Ning had come. But unlike Wei Zhusang, Lang Rulang had already possessed an inkling beforehand that the boy before her was something more.

"Well, I gave my very best, didn't I?" Ning smiled. He didn't say it was just luck or something; it was just a humblebrag in the end.

"You did. That's why I am surprised that Xiao Fan still won. What's up with that ridiculous number of points?" Zhang Feng cried out.

"Xiao Fan hunted the slippery ferret," Ning answered.

"Brother Ning, you don't seem surprised." Nonetheless, when everyone had checked their medallions earlier during the point distribution, they were shocked as hell to see Xiao Fan with such absurd numbers.

"It's just a Xiao Fan thing to do," Ning said, shaking his head. The moment he heard about that unique beast, he knew the future.

"But now only a few seconds are left, and Xiao Fan still hasn't appeared." Zhang Feng had barely said that when a loud voice sounded, and the bushes opened up.

It was Qiu Han and Xiao Fan, who quickly took out their medallions and touched the almost-vanishing spiritual pillar. A few steps behind them, Lei Dong also did the same, but not before snorting at Xiao Fan.

Ning nodded to Xiao Fan, who returned the gesture, as the trial finally published the final leaderboards.

[Xiao Fan: 300 points]

[Ning: 248 points]

[Lei Dong: 238 points]

[Wei Zhusang: 190 points]

[Jin Shu: 169 points]

"Hmm? It seems Lei Dong forced his lackeys to give all their points to him." Ning realized in an instant what had happened, given the fact that Lei Dong arrived alone.

Ning watched as Lei Dong looked frustrated at the result and glared hard at Xiao Fan, who just smirked.

"It's time for the trial to give me my reward," Ning smiled giddily.

Heavens! What inheritance can he get? Alchemy? Cultivation Skills? Or even something for his time and space talent. The future was promising.

...

A few minutes later...

[Survival Guide for Demonic Cultivators]

Ning blinked and looked at the inheritance he had gotten.

"Can I double it and give it to the next person?"

...

Thanks for reading~

A/N: I flipped a coin whether Ning should win or not, nonetheless, Xiao Fan was truly heavens chosen.