The road to the snake forest seemed much shorter than last time. Each step Wenlong took seemed to be longer and longer until he was almost skating along the twilight-covered trail leading to the Snake Forest. There was no need to suspect the snake princess of aiding him. His swift and almost soundless mode of movement almost startled the life out of a hunter along the way.

The cultivation glade awaited him in the snake forest, along with the crone and all the snakes. Already tempered by two weeks' worth of experience, he quickly maneuvered in between all the currents and eddies of white smoke to find the cultivation spot in the centre of the forest. The sensation was even better than before - like relaxing in a warm ocean, energy continually pouring in through his nose with each inhale, the fog in his dantian throbbing and strengthening with each breath. Scents of the deep forest tickled his nose, rays of sunlight stabbing through the canopies here and there to form a magical atmosphere in the quiet forest.

Inside his dantian, the Snake Princess was stupidly happy. Her lazy blinking coinciding with each pulse of the fog rushing in. Even the bamboo she lived on shook slightly, growing taller and taller under the influx of qi.

At the end of the first week of meditation, there was an explosion inside Wenlong's mind. When the green smoke and light cleared, the green crystal in the back of his mind appeared real and dripping with greenish acidic smelling venom. Green light shone off its silky surface; the thorn-like thing looked more like crystallized poison than anything else. Soft green glowing motes spread over his body in a warm wave, and finally settled in his eyes as a faint green glow. Immediately, a chorus of snake sounds shook the forest, as if greeting the emergence of a snake lord.

Ooooh! Finally! You have your own poison bite. Admirable. It's even powerful enough to kill turtle eggs outright. This will be handy at dinnertime if your soup is not quite dead or spicy enough. Who knows, maybe one day it will be able to harm humans as well. Teehee. You have been an obedient slave, so this princess shall bless your new poison skill with a drop of her own divine blood. Oh, the lengths this princess is prepared to go to for you, a lowly slave. Why aren't you kowtowing yet?

Despite her words, Wenlong was fairly certain that the poison was quite a bit more dangerous than food seasoning - it was probably quite deadly even before she added her own "blessing". And afterwards? He immediately thought of testing the poison, but where and on whom? Perhaps it would even be dangerous if someone saw him use it.

The way home was uneventful. Was every living avoiding his gaze?

He breathed in, deeply, feeling the bamboo tree that had grown to nine zhang and nine chi tall rustle in that immaterial world of his dantian. Like it was on the verge of... something...

(Part 2 coming tomorrow)

---

What bait? You chose your poison yourself :P
External - 41+3=44
Internal - 80+18=98
Lightness - 51+11=62
Meridians - 66+11=77

New Skill: (to be named poison art)

Another reason for the way home being uneventful was the Snake Princess slumbering all day long. It seemed like she overfed. The half-hanging-upside-down pose, slightly bulging tummy and tongue poking out just a bit... these all conspired to make her look exceedingly cute in a fairy-tale-like manner. Of course, it would be unwise to point this out later on when she woke up.

Coming "home" to the Green Forest Pavilion felt anticlimactic. Everything seemed just like before. The houses nestled against the mountain. The view of the village far beneath it. The sparse forest covering the mountain. The faint foggy flows of qi that only Wenlong could see were still in the same place. Morning sunlight touching rooftops with warm fingers.

The smell of a fresh breeze carried a few leaves in just as he was passing the entrance.

The first person Wenlong encountered was Lei Guo, the peacocky sarcastic youth he was quite familiar with already.

"Brother Wenlong! How did your training go?" Lei Guo wanted to come close and pat Wenlong on the shoulder, but stopped while just a step away. Slowly, carefully, the youth took a step back, as if afraid that something might bite him. "What's... wrong with your eyes? Why is there this poisonous pressure emanating from you? Have you been poisoned?"

"He is fine." Ma Liang's clear voice carried a heavy burden of disappointment and fatigue. The old man walked closer, rheumy eyes scanning Wenlong carefully. "He just chose a... darker path of cultivation. There is only one month left to train until the Young Stars competition. Wenlong, I was going to expend the remaining power in our Pavilion's Spirit Pool to aid you... but now, with that poison aura leaking from you, I'm afraid the pool would be ruined if I let you use it.

"Stupid old fart. Who cares about some skinny-dip bathtub? Isn't having this Snake Princess' blessing a million times better than dipping in some stinky pothole? Hmmph!"

"Oh, well. Your growth is still astounding. Even if I can't help but worry for your future. We need to find a way to hide that aura or else there will be no end to your troubles. Come on, there's some breakfast left. You can tell me about your experiences at the table.

---

Wenlong causes poison pressure from now on. He has no way to control it for now.

You need to name your new skill, too ♥ If you wonder where the Spirit Pool comes from, it was mentioned in the very first post of this thread ;)

Options for the last month of practice (pick 4):

1. Snake forest expedition (If you haven't had enough)
   
2. Bamboo style practice (Probably not enough time for that...)
   
3. Sparring? (Better not...)
   
4. Beast hunting (For fun and relaxation - are you relax yet, son?)
   
5. Six Arhats Combine practice (probably not necessary)
   
6. Quiet meditation
   
7. Find a method to suppress the poison aura
   
8. Convince Ma Liang to let you use the Spirit Pool anyways (this might ruin the pool forever)
   
9. Research opponents for the contest

This message was last edited by the GM at 08:12, Fri 29 Oct 2021.

"Yes, brother. I'm fine. I think." He wasn't COMPLETELY sure he was fine, but he certainly didn't feel bad - and he also wasn't sure he could get poisoned even if he tried. Still, he did his best to reassure Lei Guo before addressing Ma Liang "And also yes, learning how to suppress this is absolutely a priority" He had, after all, promised he wouldn't accidentally poison anyone else. Key word: 'accidentally'. "As for the pool, I'm sure there are those who earned it by training here longer and harder than me."

Despite how important it was, he couldn't help but hope that getting the aura in check would not take too long - he really wanted to get at the contest with at least a vague idea of his opponents, and he also needed to figure out just how poisonous his new 'bite' was - ideally not by testing it on one of his fellow disciples, since he wasn't sure he could trust the tiny snake's definition of 'light poison'. How deadly was it? How much control did he have over it? Could he use it to paralyze instead of to kill, like he heard some poisons did? All questions that he needed answered - hopefully before trying it out on another human.

ESPECIALLY before trying it out on another disciple.

And then maybe after he figured out how exactly it worked he could come up with a proper name for it. "..or maybe 'Soup-Flavouring Touch' is fine? What do you think?" He teased the snake a bit through breakfast - that would surely leave an impression on anyone who heard it.

Last month, last plan: getting the aura under control was the priority; if that took the whole month, so be it. If it didn't, Wenlong wanted to spend one week investigating the opponents in the contest in order to not go in completely blind - and any remaining time suppressing his aura and hunting beasts to figure out his new ability.

finding a way to suppress the poison aura was easier than expected. Perhaps it was his innate affinity to poison, or the snake princess, or the time he spent in the snake forest? At any rate, it took Wenlong just one week to be able to suppress the poison aura fully. At the same time, he experimented with the condensed poison. Quickly enough he discovered that the green tooth-shape thing in his dantian acted as a poison reservoir. With minimal expenditure of qi there would be poison welling up from the endpoints of his meridians drop by drop. Equally easily, he could pull the toxin back into his qi channels.

The snake princess was particularly fond of this poisonous sliver hovering in his dantian. Already it was starting to display a sheen from being polished by the small snake again and again. While Wenlong felt no dread towards this thing, he had the strong suspicion any normal person would be terrified.

Pffft. You, a lowly slave, have a lot to learn about literature. This princess shall educate you... thoroughly. But for now, I believe calling it the Snake Forest Essence should suffice. I believe this skill has yet to mature. Right now it's almost like an... embryo. A sweet, cute little thing. I can't wait for it to get eyes and become sentient! Teehee!

The sweet, cute thing  turned out to be insanely poisonous. While out hunting, one single drop was enough to instantly snuff out a grown water buffalo. There didn't seem to be a way to use it in a less lethal manner - the only thing he could control was the amount. And even the tiniest drop seemed fatal to even big animals. As for testing this out on his fellow disciples - after a brief thought about this he rejected the idea.

Somewhere along the way, as he quietly sat in the bamboo forest on the small mountain, he felt a deep sense of peace coming over him. Something connected inside him; there was an almost inaudible explosion, and all the white flows of smoke he took for granted for the last six months suddenly rushed at him, directly into his dantian. The bamboo tree that had been almost ten zhang tall shuddered, and from the ground around it dozens of new bamboo shoots poked out, nourished by the influx of white gas, trembling slightly. About half of this energy was absorbed by the green poison, in turn making it crystalize into an emerald-like, shiny treasure, with the slightest imperfection in its centre.

The Snake princess blinked in satisfaction.

Finally. I was beginning to think that you were defective somehow. A whole six months to get to this stage, no wonder you never managed to pass the entrance exam even to this dogshit ruin of a branch sect. But now that this viper princess took you under her protection, even you, a lowly slave worm, shall grow into an earth dragon. Teehee.

Getting information about the other contestants was far from easy, and Wenlong got only fragmentary rumors.

• Green Forest Pavilion - 12 students - notable students: Lu Xuefeng, Huang Feng / Wenlong already met those
• White Peak Pavilion -27 students - notable students: Leng Nie (cold whisper), Hao Tongkong (White iris)
• Endless Grass Pavilion - 45 students - notable students: Gong Lao (huge mountain o fa man, a bit simple) Tan Gong (endlessly chatty, with no clear advantages...)
• Blue Lake Pavilion - 80 students - notable students: Chi Shuang (Twin pools - might refer to her eyes?)

Ma Liang seemed satisfied that Wenlong managed to hide the poisonous aura. The next week would be devoted to packing and travel preparations, then three weeks of travel. Unlike larger sects, the Pavilion had no workers or outer disciples to guard the place while everyone was gone. But with the place being this far out in the wilderness, nobody was expected to stumble upon it for years - and even then, what could anyone steal here?

---

External - 44+1=45
Internal - 98+4=102
Lightness - 62+2=64
Meridians - 77+6=83

Any extra preparations or last minute ideas before travel?

"Don't even joke about more sentient beings in my dantian! My mind is crowded enough as it is!" The thought of even more voices in his head was not particularly appealing - though he had to admit he had not felt lonely in a while, even after failing to bind too deeply with his new brothers. "Still, a dragon you say." To say the thought was not appealing would be a lie: he wouldn't have spent so much time surrounded by snakes otherwise. "Alright then, miss viper princess. Let's see how high this path goes." He suspected the path passed through 'better learn some finger techniques' town and 'maybe also alchemy' village before reaching anywhere significant, but one step at a time was the only way he could follow it.

Packing his things took next to no time: he came here with nothing, and what he had now was not much more than that - nothing and a change of uniform, maybe. Still, there was work to be done around the pavillion and he could think while moving his hands. Excitement, anticipation, curiosity - and a hint of fear. His practice rounds with the other students would have made him extremely overconfident in his chances at winning the Young Stars Contest - but the near constant nagging in his head about how he was actually just barely passable kept sowing doubts about his actual capabilities, leaving him in a really strange, highly conflicted headspace. He was looking forward to at least solving his doubts at the contest, in one direction or the other. And while the special technique and cultivation resources for the winner were extremely tempting, the forced admission into the Western Thunder Place was a bit less so - or maybe that was just his fear talking.

Last problem: White Peak Pavillion. While with the intensive training of the past months Wenlong had not thought back on the first, unpleasant meeting with Tao Shuren he had not forgotten it - and he had the sneaky suspicion the man had not, either: hoping he'd just file it under 'just one slightly disrespectful youth I shouldn't be concerned about' sounded like a bad plan if Wenlong wanted to be ready, but there was very little he could do to be prepared: just spend the packing and preparing moments working in the same general area as Xion Jian and try to the chatting topic on Shuren. And on how worried he was supposed to be if he had to face one of his students.

This viper princess isn't feeling lonely yet. But in time, some companionship in this space would be welcome. If you, a lowly slave, don't provide some, this princess shall naturally take care of it herself! Teehee!

The little snake blinked lazily, wrapped around the tallest bamboo in what was now slowly becoming a thicket in Wenlong's dantian. With an increase in the number of bamboo stalks, his ability to draw in surrounding qi seemed to increase explosively as well. He could now inhale ten times as much of those white wisps. However, using even a third of this ability completely depleted all the wisps around him. As if the qi density here was far too insufficient for his needs.

His martial brothers and sisters accepted him - but nothing more. Wenlong didn't manage to create an opportunity to bond with them, and most only remembered him from that unfortunate strike and poisoning that almost took a fellow sister's life. The pavilion leader didn't put much emphasis on him either. Perhaps it was envy towards that unnaturally rapid progress? Or a sense of helplessness, because there was no way to significantly help this promising young man. But perhaps there was a third, still hidden reason to Ma Liang's dour mood...

The small group advanced quickly on foot. Their lightness skills made the trip more bearable than one would expect. Wenlong was surprised to see that only the pavilion elder exceeded him in speed. Perhaps, the bunch of students around him really were the scrapings left at the bottom of the barel, just like Tao Shuren had said. In any case , all were traveling lightly, and stopped each evening at an inn to eat and sleep comfortably.

Taking the path down the mountain, through the plains and towards the coast the group advanced at good speed. Walking about a hundred li per day, it would take them about five days to reach the coast and a further day to reach the Blue Lake Pavilion. Ma Liang had planned in a week of rest to get his students into top shape and acquire whatever medicines were prepared for the competition, as well as a week for last preparations. He certainly semed careful and thorough...

Pfffft. The safe road leads to ruin sooner or later. The old stinky frog probably met a frog with a louder fart, and the stinkiness blew him all the way to that dogshit mountain of yours. Not even a lowly slave like you deserves that kind of fate. No, you have to take chances here and there. But don't worry. With this snake princess' keen taste, even a lowly worm like you shall squirm into the richest hole! After all, this princess can't let her slave be bullied by stinky frogs. Teehee.

Traveling had its own Dao to it. Watching landscape shift and transform, clouds float long the sky, the rhythm of steps naturally regulating the flow of qi. Wenlong felt a sense of peace, and for a while even the viper princess was less wordy than usual. She even pointed out some pleasing bamboo groves along the way.

On the evening of the fifth day, in the "Happy Hot Duck" inn, their small group met their competition for the first time. A dozen disciples from the Endless Grass Pavilion. It was easy to recognize them, the uniforms with grass motif being a dead giveaway. Their leader was elder Zhuo Lai, an old fellow with the hands of a farmer and a perpetual squint. The greetings the two groups exchanged were cold, the elders seemingly having no love for each other in particular.

"What bullshit luck. I picked this path to avoid running into them, and still we run into them. Heavens have no eyes, truly." Ma Liang sighed continually while dining with his students. The other group of students commandeered the table at the opposite end of the common room. Even simple travelers were aware of the awkward tension between the two groups, and chose to withdraw. The evening went on for a while, even if punctuated by stares being shot from one to the other camp, and everyone was about to get to bed. Quarters assigned to the pavilions were on opposite sides of the first floor, with two beds per tiny bedroom. Wenlong had just opened the door to his assigned room when the snake princess snickered.

Really, really amusing. These earthworm dogshit disciples are really funny. They dare to use poison insects... laughable. Even most children wouldn't stoop so low. That old fart didn't have farmer's hands from working rice, but from raising bugs it seems. Slave, your bed has been infected with Crimson spirit bedbugs. Unless you want to scratch yourself bloody, avoid lying down there.

Was this an inevitable truth of the world of cultivation? The distance with his fellow disciples only kept growing, and if at the beginning he tried to get closer now he just settled for the same courtesy they offered him. It felt eerily similar to when he wasn't talented enough to make the cut for admission - except now he was on the other side of that wall. The emotional distance only grew during the trip, as Wenlong ended up spending a good part of the travel time a small distance away from the group, together with them but not really with them. Still, he managed to find the time to tour a few pretty cool bamboo groves, so all was good - hopefully this didn't mean he was doomed to spending the rest of his future ONLY talking to snakes.

This peaceful sense of detachment was probably why he didn't pay particular mind to the students of the other Pavillion - even if he probably should have.
"Would they really want to bite me?" He didn't have a precise grasp on his abilities, but he surely knew most living creatures tended to stay a fair distance away - at least if he stopped holding back his poison aura.

"They're not snakes, but they're still poison. Can we make use of them? Or, well, I wouldn't dare feed this snake royalty anything less than the purest snake qi, so can I make use of them?" Hopefully the answer wouldn't involve soup: he knew that some insects were useful for medicine - he just had no idea if these were, or how.

"Brother, wait a moment." He addressed his roommate for the night. "There's something strange with the room. Please give me a moment to find out more. Can I ask you to go to our brothers and sisters to tell them to be careful while I do?" He didn't know if the viper princess had ideas, but she had yet to make a single suggestion where a witness wasn't a problem - and someone actually HAD to warn the others.

If the other beds had bugs it might cause some bad blood between the sects - but so would half his brothers waking up bloody in the first place. This pettiness was very different from how he imagined a cultivator's life to be - this seemed to be exactly the cultivator version of a prank with bugs in bed.

A prank? If you can swallow having your cultivation halted for months on end and suffering incessant pain for days, with a chance of being disfigured is your idea of a prank, then yes. Insect cultivation is something undertaken by talentless, gutless idiots. That kind of poison aims at being debilitating at best, or aiding in digestion at worst. About the only good point about insect cultivation is that it requires no innate skill or guidance, just a lot of time and corpses. These arts aren't anything that should catch the eye of this princess' slave. As for its medicinal use, if you need to expel parasites from someone's bowels, they might do a good job... but so do medicinal plants. Insects are something to be looked down upon. The slightest jolt of your snake poison qi and a mountain of them would have to accept death. Hmph.

The quick warning Wenlong sent to the other disciples resulted in the total failure of this plot. The group gathered in the hallway, discussing these insects and how they just magically seemed to appear in their beds, when someone noticed the disciples of the Green Grass Pavilion peeking from around a corner.

"What, have you come to gloat?" someone yelled.

"Don't throw around accusations needlessly!" came the reply.

"You turtle's eggs, do you think we're blind? Come out and let me give you a beating!" an angry Huan Feng (the girl Wenlong almost killed with poison) had to be restrained lest she charge into the other group.

"Well, you're ugly and have shit for brains, no wonder you're unmarried!" The reply came quickly, acidly.

Ma Liang stood there with his fists clenched, lips pressed together into a thin line. Anger and indecisiveness played around in the old man's eyes. Perhaps Wenlong's words and influence were just the thing to tip the balance ...

1) make them fight?
2) make towards a peaceful solution?

And even then, there wass the option of using his poison in a creative way, either to kill off the parasites in the beds, or get even with the other students. Or do something even more drastic...

Wenlong stepped in the fray before violence started - more importantly, he stepped into the fray before his own side started violence."Brothers, sisters... let's not rush judgement. I'm sure the noble disciples of the great Green Grass Pavilion would never resolve to such weak, pathetic, worthless tricks as bugs in beds. I mean: any talentless, gutless idiot can dig for an insect or two, and I'm sure this is well below what fellow cultivators would do. Maybe someone with bowel problems just forgot their medication around?" He offered the other disciples a smile, no less venom in that grin and his words than in his dantian as he continued to mercilessly shovel insults on them: without taking responsibility, they had no real way to counter. The snake princess was an absolute treasure trove whenever he wanted to piss someone off.

"And beyond the actual useless method, just how much of a coward would someone have to be to strike without taking responsibility for it? Only the absolutely worst scum would do that! Don't you all agree with me?" He addressed the Green Forest students directly. Attacking now would be admitting what they did... while agreeing with him would just be just insulting themselves, as everyone on the scene knew.

He was okay with either result.

Crooked beams above cause crooked beams below. While elder Zhuo Lai might not have been directly responsible for the "bedbugs", his low moral character shone through his treasured disciples. Bravery was not one of their outstanding characteristics, letting Wenlong and his company drew some conclusions from that.

Wenlong's incensing words caused the opposing disciples to shout even more loudly. This in turn fired on his own side to come up with more colorful insults rather than resort to violence. One word led to another, and soon enough the whole affair degenerated into spittle-slinging, shouting and finger-pointing. At least until the inn's host came up and reminded his treasured guests to shut the fuck up or be thrown out into the cold night. That was the trigger for the two elders to step in and herd their respective disciples away. Ma Liang somehow had insecticide powder already prepared, for some reason. One might have called it foresight, or experience.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully, even if most disciples felt a phantom itching and scratching despite being sure there were no actual insects anywhere on them. By the time the Green Forest disciples gathered in the common room, the Endless Grass disciples were already gone from the inn. This was probably for the best - but gave everyone an even worse impression of Elder Zhou's character.

The little snake blinked contentedly. While she did murmur something about poisoning, she also had a clear idea that not every encounter should end in a bloodbath. Not attracting too much attention was also a good idea.

Leaving the Happy Hot Duck, the group continued on a well-trodden path leading down. The salty scent of the sea became strong even before its azure shimmer became visible through the morning fog. Sunlight shimmered off wave-tops, seagulls cried above head, fishing boats bobbed gently - the surroundings conferred a sense of peace and leisure as the group advanced along the coast.

After a day of strolling the group slowly came up to their destination. The Blue Lake Pavilion was built upon a mile-wide boulder that looked like a giant had placed it onto the otherwise flat and placid shore. A small village had come into being around the boulder, signifying that the number of disciples had grown large enough to support an outer sect. The boulder had been carved with staircases, cultivator caves, tiny parks and buildings, its top dominated by a large plaza.

Half a dozen blue-clad disciples waited a couple of li away from the sect to receive them. Their leader was a tall, pale man with a pockmarked face. He clasped his hands and bowed slightly in greeting.

"This lowly one has the privilege to receive honored guests to their accommodations. If honored guests have any wishes, please let this lowly one know them."

Surprisingly, the words sounded natural and honest, with no guile or double meanings despite extreme politeness.

Several simple cultivator caves halfway up the boulder were prepared for the Green Forest disciples. Each was just a room with a bed, table and several chairs, but all were clean and well maintained. The view over the sea was an added bonus. Qi was much more plentiful here, at least double the density Wenlong was used to. Inside his dantian, the bamboo stalks began to grow perceptibly.

Wenlong had an opportunity to stay in the cave and absorb as much qi as possible in preparation for the contest; or he could use the time to explore the sect some more; or perhaps he might find some trouble for disciples of other sects?

Not exactly a cathartic ending with the Endless Grass Pavilion, but probably a good thing: no real need to solve things with a punch-out when good, old-fashioned insults could be enough. Of course, what he had just insulted to start it all was Elder Zhou sect's Cultivation methods right in front of him, so he doubted he made a new friend that night. With his own sect still pretty cold towards him and Tao Shuren still... somewhere, perhaps his tongue was proving a bit too sharp for his own good.

Days later they finally reached their destination, with the new sights and smells doing wonders to distract Wenlong from the apparently ever-growing list of people he threw verbal jabs at. After thanking the one who welcomed them he headed to the cave that was to be his home, dropped his meager belongings and settled in to meditate and prepare until the start of the contest: soon he'd be in important fights, his first serious ones since he entered this world - so staying put and taking advantage of the favorable atmosphere to squeeze in a few last hours of practice was the best use of the time he had...
...
...
...or so he wanted to think, the idea holding him focused enough to nearly complete one set of breathing exercises.

First time in a new place, with all the worldly experience he had accumulated in his lifetime as a village boy? No way he'd ever manage to stay put: kicking himself up from the meditating position he headed for the exit with a brisk step. Places to be, people to meet - he had to get it out of his system, or it'd be too much of a distraction for decent practice anyway! Or at least he decided that was the official excuse.

He headed up, walking in the direction of the big central plaza and stopping to sightsee at the small parks or to check out the buildings - noting the differences with his own Green Forest Pavilion while trying (with mixed success) to avoid looking like a lost tourist. For the first time the difference in size really sunk in: less than half the partecipating students of the next biggest school (to say nothing of the difference with Blue Lake Pavilion itself) was not simply a matter of student numbers, but in... well, he could only sum it up as 'infrastructure'. Of resources one could funnel into the best pupils, and - apparently - of plainly superior environment for Qi-gathering.
For a moment he had a sneaky suspicion that they were welcomed with such polite courtesy simply because they were seen more as guests and witnesses to the greatness of others than real contenders for any meaningful prize - then the new sights (and the smell of street food) dragged him back to his exploration.

As he walked he made a point to try and avoid people with the uniforms of White Peak and Endless Grass pavilions: in a contest between four schools, it was probably already an achievement one could be dubiously proud of to have two start pissed off at him with less than a year of cultivation under his belt.
In Wenlong's defense, he was not actively looking for trouble, but people deserving of trouble kept finding him!

...hopefully he could at least manage to avoid offending the Blue Lake Pavilion before the contest started?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:39, Tue 01 Feb 2022.

Laozi, on behalf of Zhu Wenlong, rolled 53 using 1d100.  Luck. More is better.
Seems like nothing special will happen... for now. *dramatic foreshadowing*

---

For once, Wenlong's luck wasn't horrible. He made a rather good impression of a village idiot encountering civilization for the very first time, gawking and staring slack-jawed at the wonders of cultivation. Parks engulfed in gentle twinklings of zither music; upwards-flowing waterfalls; bridges made of semi-translucent bricks spanning yard-wide cracks in the boulder; vendors offering tiny spirit fruits that exploded with taste in one's mouth. To Wenlong, the wonders and amazements of this place were innumerable. His uniform and behaviour clearly marked him, and let others' attitude towards him tilt towards condescension that masqueraded as benevolent neglect. After all, this was the archetypical poor, dumb relative coming to visit, no? Poor guy, so out of his depth...

After an hour or two of this, the snake princess almost couldn't hold her poison back.

Insufferable! Simply insufferable! If I didn't need to keep a low profile I'd have drowned them and this pile of dogshit sect in poison ten times already! Damned smelly frogs, acting so high and mighty towards this princess! Slave, we have to return some time in the future and stomp this stinky rock into the ground! Hmmph!

Wenlong's meanderings had just brought him to the plaza on top the huge boulder when the princess had her little monologue. The plaza looked quite like the central square in the Green Forest Pavilion. The white, green, yellow, red and black patterns Wenlong was intimately familiar with were replaced with glazed bricks in various hues of blue. Also, the area of the plaza was many times that of the familiar spot in the mountains...

...and then Wenlong realized, he just might invite a calamity by breathing in too deeply. As it was back in the mountains, this area served as focus for threads of qi, and his very presence made those thin threads of smoke tremble and gravitate closer to him. The density of these smoke threads was at least twice what he was used to.

Thinking about him, he managed to see a blue-robed elder explain the rules of the competition again to some youngsters. "The winner of the Young Stars competition will have gained the rights to special cultivation resources, a special technique, and direct acceptance into student ranks of the Western Thunder palace. Second place will net a technique and direct acceptance. Third through fifth placed students win only direct acceptance into the student ranks of the palace... This might not seem like a lot to you now, but know that it's otherwise quite difficult to get a spot there. Realistically, winning the competition is the only practical way to do so for you. As for rules of the competition - there aren't many, but killing is strictly prohibited, and causing permanent injuries needlessly is frowned upon. Pavilion heads will do the judging, as well as a special emissary from the Western Thunder Palace. Hmmm. I believe I covered all the main points. Questions?" The elder stroked his white beard with a self-important, pleased smile.

On one hand, Wenlong felt like he should have taken offense at the treatment he was receiving. On the other hand... well, it was true that he had never seen an upwards-flowing waterfall. Was he even supposed to have seen one before? Still, some manner of damage control on the viper princess mood could only help. The topic? The only one he could be sure of. He stopped a few moments after reaching the plaza, looking in the direction of the sea.

"So. I hear some seas and coasts have snakes too? Bright and coloured like rainbows, but with venom as deadly as any on land. Excluding Your Royal Snakeness, of course - on both counts." The time spent training amid snakes in the forest had left its mark, as he nearly found himself continuing with 'What does their qi taste like?' before settling for a more normal "Can you tell me anything about them?" Plenty of time to become creepily snake-obsessed later on. Even if he was hardly sure he could hide the slip-up from someone talking direcly in his head in the first place.

Snakes or no snakes, he finally reached the top... and immediately froze, unable to even breathe - especially unable to breathe. Was this his chance to anger the one remaining sect and get accused of more heresy? Still, better to find out now than during the contest itself. Shallow breathing, light steps and he could maybe function like a normal human. Even if the temptation of just breathing in as deep as he could (maybe not with witnesses around) was ever-present in the back of his mind.

However, 'function like a normal human being' and 'able to fight without causing a diplomatic accident' weren't necessarily the same. He looked around, hoping to spot someone going through individual practice: if that wasn't frowned upon, maybe he could run through a few sets of exercises to get accustomed to moving in a qi-heavier environment. Instead of practice he stumbled upon a recap lecture for the contest, one hardly revealing things he didn't already know. Maybe he wasn't aware of the details of the ranking system, but 'first place gets the best prize' was a given everywhere. With little to ask and even less willingness to attract attention to himself he didn't even think of raising his hand, instead giving a cursory glance at the group to see if he spotted anyone resembling the description of the contestants he heard of.
If only Blue Lake students were attending, his whole list was 'Twin Pools' girl. Grandmaster investigator!

Laozi, on behalf of Zhu Wenlong, rolled 99 using 1d100.  second time is a charm. The more the better.
so, a very good, very special result, with two nines? Ooh this will be fun!

---

There was just the slightest rustling sound as the snake princess slowly, lazily shifted her body. Coiled tightly as she was around the thickest bamboo in Wenlong's dantian space, she looked every bit the ruler of this whole little universe. Her scales bright splotches of color in the green hazy world. The emerald poison crystal he acquired in the Snake Forest orbited slowly around the tree, glistening with what Wenlong knew was lethal poison.

Of course, there are sea snakes. Their poison is passable - just enough for killing pigs and other small-toothed livestock. But have no fear. Under the guidance of this viper princess, you've already acquired immunity to their poison. Were it not for your great fortune of meeting me, you'd die even from catching a whiff of their bile. Those sneaky cousins like to hide in water, so look for ambushes. Hmm? What's that music?

Soft zither sounds filled the air of the plaza. People quieted down and turned to listen in amazement. As if the sound was enough to calm the heart and soften rage. Instantly, all the gathered students from various sects formed their own thoughts about this music. Perhaps this was the legendary soul-calming music that allowed cultivators to shed distractions and focus on their Dao? Perhaps the instrument itself was a rare magical treasure? Perhaps this was an echo of the Pavilion protecting magical formation? There was a special quality to the music, making the green crystal in Wenlong's dantian space vibrate in resonance. The viper princess looked sharply, eyes gleaming with inner light.

Poison! Extremely well hidden! Deep in the music... how insidious! Watch out for whoever is playing this!

Wenlong blinked and turned around, to face the source of the music.

Blue.

He blinked again, instinctively using the full strength of his internal cultivation to avoid falling forward into the endless blue that threatened to swallow him whole. There was the slightest, briefest sound of glass breaking. His vision cleared in half a heartbeat, and he found himself locked in a staring contest with a zither-playing girl. A pair of endlessly deep blue eyes; elegant eyebrows; midnight hair; red lips; porcelain skin. She was beautiful enough to bring ruin to kingdoms and make Buddhas kneel. A trace of surprise made her face lose a bit of its immortal beauty, and turned her from an impossibly distant jade statue into a surprised young girl.

The zither before her grew silent, its last sounds softly dying down. One of the strings had broken in the very moment the two locked gazes.

Like some sort of spell had been broken, the gathered students and elders started talking, all at once, praising the music and sighting at how the string had broken just now, filling the suddenly empty air with sounds of human voices. Clearly the instrument she used was not ordinary - made of polished wood that seemed to be dark blue in colour, and when looked at from the right direction seemed like frozen waves. The zither girl wore the Blue Lake Pavilion uniform.

A dozen seconds later, Wenlong was still staring into her eyes. This made the slightest blush creep onto her cheeks, and she lowered her gaze to tend to her zither. Working quickly to free the broken string from the frame, she managed to flash a short gaze up at him again a few seconds later, but looked away right after that, the blush on her cheeks intensifying.

Slut. The viper princess' verdict was quick and mercilessly poisonous. Then again, not being a stinky animal or insect was a huge compliment coming from this snake.

Then someone bumped into Wenlong. A big, muscular disciple wearing blue clothes and a barely concealed sneer. "Stop staring at eldest sister Chi. It's impolite. Some of us might decide to teach you a lesson for offending our goddess."

"Ah, come on... I'm sure I saw you sway to her music. Could it be the legendary song of a snake charmer?" THAT, at least, explained the 'Twin Pools' bit.

At a later time, Wenlong would wonder how one could lace venom into music and marvel at the potential applications of a proper poison as a subtle tool. He'd also wonder about the exact effects of the girl's poison: used so brazenly in public it couldn't possibly deadly like his - maybe something closer to a drug, a venom to addle the mind?

At a later time because on the moment he was, to be honest, way too busy wondering about the scent of that midnight hair, about the softness of her skin and about other things a healthy boy would naturally wonder about when facing such heart-shattering beauty. He was distracted, to say the least - so distracted he didn't even notice the other until he bumped into him.

Don't start a brawl.

Wenlong opened his mouth to answer, and stopped himself just in time as he noticed he was about to simply vocalize a confused-sounding "Blue" for answer. He closed his mouth, looking for a moment like a fish fresh out of water. By the time he opened it again his wits were back.

Don't start a brawl.

"Your words enlighten and humble this one, wise brother!" Wenlong bent himself into a quick bow in front of the bigger student, speaking with excessive humility. Coincidentally, the bow lasted just long enough to give him time to try and check if 'some of us' was actually just this guy or if he had cronies. "Entranced by the music, this one did not properly consider the right course of action. Thanks for the advice - this one will immediately remedy the situation." Every word was absolutely sincere - it was simply the meaning of 'right course of action' that probably was not what the two agreed on: as soon as the other showed an opening (perhaps to enjoy his small victory), Wenlong shamelessly sidestepped him, blatantly ignoring him as he walked at a brisk step straight towards the girl who could only be Chi Shuang. He hoped for the other's shock to earn him a few steps - and he also hoped he wouldn't dare just straight-up tackle him in front of his idol.

Not that he had the slightest idea how to break the ice with the girl, of course. He'd figure something out.

Don't start a brawl.

Probably something that would start a brawl.

Feh. That music is far from being able to affect this snake princess. Other people in earshot, however... they've already been affected by that slut's mind-numbing poison. How brazen of her. Does she think that no one will notice? That zither in her hands seems to be made from a a poison sea dragon scale. Someone clearly had good fortune, heh. if you were to acquire the instrument, this princess can suck its poison essence dry in a heartbeat. It's an insignificant snack at best, but tasty nonetheless. Do your best, slave.

Do your best to not look like an idiot, too. Close your mouth and wipe your drool. Your behaviour reflects badly on your owner. This viper princess has her dignity.

Wenlong made his glib-tongued maneuver and slipped past the first brute, only to find himself surrounded by no less than half a dozen more. These looked at him with no little amount of disgust, and the way he was searching for their idol with his filthy gaze made them bristle even more. The crystallized poison in his dantian grew excited, as if sensing an opportunity to strike out.

It was hard to determine which one of the seven threw the first punch. He would later remember using leaf steps and bending like bamboo, wondering why the ruffians seemed so heavy-footed and clumsy. In the end he had to focus more on calming his agitated Snake Forrest Essence than on his "opponents". After all, killing them all with poison would be bad behavior, unbecoming of a guest in their sect (and reflecting badly on the snake princess...). So it was that the seven oafs were left behind, stunned expressions flowering on their faces. One of them actually managed to land a punch; Wenlong's internal skill made it so the man felt as if he had punched cotton, the punch resulting in no injury at all. The immediate surroundings grew quiet, students and elders alike gaping at the display of lightness and inner strength.

Then everything stopped. The blue-eyed girl was just a few steps in front of Wenlong, eyebrows raised quizzically. Perhaps she was intrigued by his skill - or just surprised by the sheer audacity of his approach. Still holding the blue zither. Unmoving expression hiding her true thoughts as he looked into the endless abysses of her eyes. He could actually smell her refreshing scent from here... or was it only wishful thinking?

The slut will be even more surprised when she sees your tool, slave. Teehee.

What now?

In the end, he did start a brawl after all. Or at least a brawl was started at him, and he could only hope it made a sliver of difference when people came to ask questions. From what he had seen so far of this world he doubted it, but with no serious injuries nobody was probably going to REALLY care about it.

The ruffian's attempt to block his path was valiant, but ultimately futile: like a gentle wind trying to keep a leaf from reaching the ground - maybe in the end he took a little more to reach the girl and followed a longer, irregular path, but there was nothing they could actually do to stop him. They ended up careening into one another much more often than they brushed against him. "Now, don't be hasty - a snake can only be eaten once, but its poison can be milked for a long while. Let's see what happens."

In the frozen instant of time before he opened his mouth, he tried to recall if he knew something - anything, really, about zither music. Perhaps hoping for martial arts training to somehow enlighten him on the nature of noble arts. Of course, nothing of the sorts happened: if the Green Forest Pavilion even HAD a tradition for music, in the short time he spent with them they had only focused on teaching him martial forms.

"- Beautiful" The problem was only compounded by the fact that he was finding his tongue only glib when it came to rousing ire to himself, a talent of questionable utility. He blamed the viper princess and her... interesting character... for this: with her company, she was rubbing off on him. He was offering the girl a little bow, not even deep enough for him to break contact with her eyes. Honestly, he wasn't sure he could if he tried - so he didn't even try, leaving unnerving green locked into deepest blue. "I mean, the music. Beautiful. I've never se- heard something so beautiful."

A moment of silence, during which he reminded himself that breathing was kind of useful in order to be able to talk. Do introductions. You can do introductions, you idiot! "My name is Zhu Wenlong, I'm one of the disciples of Green Forest Pavilion." Apparently 'talking to pretty girls' and 'mantaining full courtesy' weren't two things he could handle together, since he switched back to first person after the episode with the bigger boy. "Without these older brothers' kind encouragement I'd never have mustered the courage to offer my compliments -" He broke eye contact for a fraction of a second, just enough to be sure he wasn't about to be ambushed AGAIN. After spotting one or two of the boys doing their best to look like immobile parts of the background, he allowed half a playful grin to cross his lips. "- But I hope I'll get to hear it again before we depart."

The beautiful girl stared, wide-eyed, right into the green of Wenlong's eyes. A bit of a snakelike, hypnotic shimmer caught her eyes there, making her defenses fall for the briefest moment. Expressions shifted on her face like changing seasons in a year that lasted for a heartbeat... almost like the harmonies of a deliberate song on her beloved instrument.

Amazement, at how this young man moved. The way he side-slipped some punches, and the punch that landed having no effect at all.

Anger, at the familiar way he started speaking. It had been years since anyone had done something like this. Who did he think he was? Even listening to a country bumpkin was a loss of status for her!

Shame, after the misspoken word of his sunk in, making her instinctively hunch her shoulders and try to make herself less conspicuous, like a simple peasant girl might do.

Surprise, after realizing that he really was from the bottom-most Pavilion. Despite the clothing being a dead giveaway, and this in turn making her doubt her own mind at this moment.

Amusement, at him twisting the obvious into something absurd yet impishly entertaining.

Finally, a frown wiped the emotions on her face away as she finally got hold of herself, expression returning to a neutrally pleasant one. It took her half a breath's time to make her heartbeat slow down into its usual rhythm, and make the slight blush on her cheeks disappear. After all, she couldn't allow herself such a show of weakness - not here in this place, where a thousand pairs of eyes gauged her every motion.

Inside, flames of anger burnt hot and high. Losing control of herself like this... unforgivable! Completely unforgivable! Cultivating a dao heart with such an unreliable soul is impossible! How could she have slipped? The punishments her mentor would heap on her... a cold shiver ran up her spine.

Yet, when she looked up at those green eyes, she couldn't stop her heart from trembling again. In this situation, she didn't trust herself to speak. Instead. she just coughed lightly and nodded, as if in answer to Wenlong's question. With quick, practiced motions (a bit too quick, perhaps, her fingertips trembling ever so slightly, hurrying to get away from this situation) she wrapped the instrument up in dark blue satin. She caught herself being unwilling to break eye contact with Wenlong. This in turn made her even more angry at herself.

While this takes a while to describe, in actuality it was no longer than a moment.

Then again, moments change lives irrevocably...

This slut is quite talented at seduction. Her talents extend to other things, too, judging by the width of her hips. Teehee. The snake princess' judgement was quick and merciless.

A soft snort broke the magic between the two youngsters. A tall, white-bearded elder of the Blue Lake Pavilion put a heavy hand on Chi Shuang's shoulder. Her expression froze.

"Enough fooling around. You kids will have time to talk later. Shuang'er, we need to go see the Sea Priestess."

Before leaving, the man squinted appraisingly at Wenlong, then nodded in approval. "Not bad, not bad. It's unfortunate that you didn't get better training - who knows how much farther you could have progressed if you had different coloured robes?" The elder winked, and walked off with Chi Shuang in tow.

This left Wenlong, a dozen bullies and hundreds of spectators in the huge plaza. Some standing quietly, others discussing music, martial arts, food, and bashing in the face of the hick who dared to defile their Goddess.

What now?

"I look forward to talking more later -" Wenlong replied to the first comment of the elder while flat-out ignoring the second. Nothing good would come from challenging his judgment of his sect - and it probably was an objectively true statement, in any case. Instead he uttered the next words right as Chi Shuang turned to leave, under his breath but making sure she couldn't miss them. "- a date, then."
The elder probably heard as well - Wenlong wasn't under the impression of being able to hide a real message. From the quick exchange, it just didn't look like he'd hold the teasing against him.

Hey, it's my masterful padronance of the smooth arts of seduction you should be praising! As the other two turned to leave he addressed the viper princess while bidding farewell to the gathered, gossiping crowd with an exaggerated bow - not unlike an entertainer thanking his crowd after a successful show.
Then he immediately moved to get the hell away from there before they could get through the stages of confusion and decide to try and beat him up again - perhaps this time calling for someone actually able to do so. So. Now I think all three of White Peak, Endless Grass and Blue Lake have their reasons to make me want to swallow my own teeth. It's not like he was running, headed for one of the parks on the massive boulder. He was simply applying just enough lightness skills to very briskly walk towards his destination. For reasons entirely unrelated to wanting to leave as much space and obstacles between himself and the... helpful older brothers. I have no idea how that could happen, I'm absolutely lovable. Soon he found himself surrounded by green, and his gaze was unimpeded as it fell on the sea, once more marveling at the size and wonder. Any last minute tips from the wisest of all snakes, or do I just grit my teeth and hope to walk away with my perfect smile still intact?

He was reasonably confident - the last bout proved him he was on a completely different level from the standard disciples, to the point where making sure he didn't accidentally kill them was more of a chore than actually defeating them. But he wouldn't have minded one last burst of improvement, just to be on the safe side. After catching his breath and refocusing he turned away - headed once more towards the stalls and markets. Despite the confirmed feeling of superiority, this meeting had higlighted a flaw that no amount of dumb luck or natural talent could overcome: the time spent training all sorts of accessory arts was not something that could be faked: zither for the girl, but not limited to that: herbalism and alchemy, zoology and medicine - and all sorts of helpful notions any real poison use would have, without even taking the unexpected into account: you could poison sound?

Unless the viper had better training plans he could only wander the markets and hope for a stroke of ridiculous luck: a local plant that attracted his inner snake's attention, sold by someone willing to talk about it and where it could be found - or overheard chatter about nearby groves of snakes. Heh. Maybe I should get a flower too?

With no improbable twists of fate to distract him, he was ready to at the very least return to his assigned dwelling and finally finish the breathing practice he interrupted to play tourist.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:18, Tue 29 Mar 2022.

However improbable it seemed, Wenlong got a few quiet days. To be honest, the lack of sudden challenges or trouble just popping up was more than a bit unnerving. By now, he should have been the butt of countless attempts at violence and worse... but somehow... he simply had the time to enjoy the sights, eat spirit fruits, and meditate. After a while, everything somehow got boring - even the snake princess found the sect less and less annoying, with fewer and fewer sharp comments to offer about everything and everyone.

No other significant cultivators appeared to entertain him either.

So, Wenlong returned to his cave and his breathing exercises. The plentiful qi here made it so the practice was intoxicating, and he had to stop himself each time before driving his body to exhaustion.

Time passed. He felt the qi inside him thicken, the snake princess basking in the increased flow. Compared to the time in the mountains, the amount of qi available in his abode here was tenfold, and increasing every day. Thick wisps of smoke became visible as he inhaled them; the snake even seemed overfed at times, its tummy sticking out ever so slightly as she rested on her back on a bamboo branch.

It was the cutest thing, but no sensible person would have mentioned that, right?

The crystallized poison in Wenlong's dantian space seemed to slowly strengthen as well. Ever since it caught a whiff of poisoned music it started emitting various soft sounds. These ranged from the softest crystalline tinkling akin to glass fracturing in slow motion, to sounds of leaves being cut by a sharp blade. Only once had in produced a sharp shriek, after which the crystal seemed ashamed and hid itself behind the thickest bamboo tree for a while.

More time passed.

Things were too good to be true, of course. Above his cave, a vortex of whitish motes visible by naked eye rotated unstoppably, sucking in more and more spiritual energy from the surroundings. Things hadn't progressed to the point where sect elders would intervene, but Wenlong did cause quite a few people to take notice of him.

Look, it's that bastard who defiled our Goddess with his drivel. Now he's shamelessly stealing the resources of our sect. It would have been fine if he took just a little bit... but this is far too excessive! I can't wait until big sister teaches him a lesson on the day of the tournament. Did you know he even asked her on a date? Yes, a date! Some guys are already collecting poison snakes to pour into his cultivation cave, are you coming too? Great!

So it was a little bit later that a literal boatload of poisonous sea snakes were poured into Wenlong's cultivation cave.

Lunch! the snake princess uttered, causing the initially ferocious sea snakes to suddenly freeze and very, very slowly and carefully crawl backwards. Wenlong had never seen a snake crawl backwards, and this seemed thoroughly unnatural. Not to mention the expressions in their shiny eyes...

Leave your poison here before you go, little brats, and know your limits from now on, the snake princess said in the softest voice. The rapidly retreating now toothless sea snakes didn't dare to raise any objection.

So it happened that in addition to pure qi Wenlong was blessed with an increase to his poison qi base as well. Truly, this sect treated its guests exceedingly well!

Only a day was left until the competition. Time really did fly, and he felt almost as if waking up from a dream.

Are there any particular plans Wenlong has for the bouts, special combinations, or advice he wants to ask of anyone?

(new stats: External - 46 Internal - 122 Lightness - 66 Meridians - 91)

Such boundless generosity on part of his hosts, granting Wenlong an absolute bounty of precious cultivation resources! He'd have to make sure to repay every favour at least threefold in the coming contest.

Even as the growing amount of independent thinking going on in his dantian left him a vague sense of unease, he couldn't help but be curious about the new activity of the poison crystal and - as much as he could and against any remaining semblance of common sense - encouraged the experiments.

As for the competition itself, he was looking forward to it with a strange mixture of emotions: as much as he had yet to meet a real peer among the other disciples (with the possible exception of Chi Shuang herself), he couldn't help but worry about his lack of actual experience. At least that doubt was about to solve itself and give him peace of mind, one way or another.

In another life, maybe he could have made decent friends with the other students of the Pavilion and planned something with them. As it was, his best (and, possibly, only) sources of last-minute advice were the snake princess and master Ma Liang. With the viper not exactly shy at making her advice known, he decided to instead ask the old master for wisdom of the last moment.

Ma Liang stabbed a stare from beneath bushy white eyebrows right into Wenlong's eyes. Behind him, the few students of Green Forest engaged in noisy sparring matches. Days seemed to shorten as the date of the competition neared, and there was a sense of urgency rising in all the participants. Apart from Wenlong, that is.

"Hmph, at least you kept your poison aura at bay. See, you're fantastically gifted and able to cultivate freely with no hindrances, at least as far as I can see. This in itself makes you a threat to other cultivators near your level. They might be simply jealous - but even the rational ones who take into account the longer perspective will realize that you'll overtake them in cultivation base in no time at all. So... keep a low profile for the time being."

There was no real tactics or strategy to be discussed. The Young Stars competition was a series of duels, participants determined by coin toss.

Yet again, as it had been usual in the past months, Wenlong lucked out. He draw the very first match, and his opponent turned out to be among the weakest of the Endless Grass students- a short and skinny fellow named Te Sung. So it happened that our young hero found himself standing on a rectangular leitai five zhang to the side and two chi high. The opponent was nevertheless quite confident. Wenlong didn't want to fight back in the inn during the "Happy Hot Duck", and this was certainly a sign of weakness, right? So Te Sung stomped his feet against the white tiles of the leitai and dropped into a fighting stance, callused fists up.

The stands were mostly empty, with a few dozing competitors waiting for their matches and several bored disciples comprising the whole of the viewership. In a stealthy place above the viewing stands, from behind a curtain, a pair of deep blue eyes followed Wenlong's movements with embarrassed interest.

How much of his skill and power did Wenlong use during the match? Barely enough to win, or enough to shock everyone? Keeping the poison hidden was a no-brainer...
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:33, Thu 26 May 2022.

"Well - I did give my word I would learn to keep it in check." Probably not the way the elder (or any self-respecting member of a properly righteous sect) would have preferred, but while Wenlong was far from calling his ability to wield poison 'mastered' he was still moderately optimistic he wouldn't use it on people by mistake.
Hopefully.
Better not to dwell too long on the thought.

Now - the real question was: how was he supposed to hold back enough to more or less appear 'normal' while also managing to avoid looking like he was just playing with his opponent to wiser eyes in the audience?
At least the first opponent didn't seem like trouble.

"Did you find the poor guy with bowel problems who lost his medicine in our room?" Wenlong asked with a hint of a smile as he gave his opponent a bow and took his own position. He wasn't going to make friends in any case - getting people to make mistakes was an acceptable alternative. "It would be terrible if he never got his bugs in the end."

His own position almost mirrored the other fighter, completely eschewing the Bamboo style to focus exclusively on what he learned of the Six Arhats Combine. It didn't come as natural to him and the viper princess didn't like it, but this was the best starting point to hide his talent.

Inhaling deeply, he prepared to fight in a way he wasn't naturally gifted for: straight lines instead of circles, hard blocks instead of deflections and absorptions - straight punches instead of palm strikes and arm-whips.

Laozi, on behalf of Zhu Wenlong, got the result "You may rely on it" on the magic 8-ball.  is wenlong going to fool anyone?
so yes, uninteresingly main character-like.

---

The bout went on for an average amount of time, with the action barely worthy of description. Even on a good day, the Endless Grass disciple had less than half of Wenlong's body strength. With external strength being the least powerful of Wenlong's attributes, that was more than telling of the difference in their power. Unsurprisingly, the audience yawned collectively. The hidden figure watched with narrowed eyes, deeply suspecting some sort of foul play but unable to confirm any suspicions. The elders in charge were barely awake during the "fight". Even the poison crystal, prone to making different kinds of noise in Wenlong's dantian, seemed to doze in a fit of boredom...

Pretending to be harmless is an useful skill, of course. Seems we've found something you're good at that doesn't involve talking rubbish, haha! Now, if you hadn't demonstrated that you're much more able back while chasing that slut around, you might have fooled intelligent people as well. Instead, now it's the idiots looking down on you, the intelligent people laughing and the powerful ones dismissing you outright. But you've done allright for now, slave.

The rest of the fights went on during the slow morning. Surprisingly, the White Peak disciples came out on top despite not showing up with the most people. Much murmuring of unfair tactics aimed against water techniques and exploiting the innate advantage ice techniques had against water ones was heard, but all is fair in ove and war, no? After all, this contest was to be a sharpening tool for the young generation. The Green Forest Pavillion students did amazingly well for themselves, winning two thirds of their fights, and every fight against the Endless Grass. This provoked much gloating and ridicule among them, and even Ma Liang wasn't immune to turning his nose up a bit. In fact, the Endless Grass students suffered the most losses, a fact that even the most casual onlooker could grasp and appreciate.

All the star students breezed through the first round. Unlike Wenlong, they all chose to display their power and intimidate future opponents. Chi Shuang used the leather cord used to pack her musical instrument as a soft whip. Indeed, no part of her instrument was simple - the whiplike cord snaked and twisted like a living thing, the lead weight at its end smacking right in the middle of her opponent's forehead and leaving him unconscious in a single move.

The second round of the competition in the afternoon had Wenlong pitted against another Endless Grass student. A rather boring fight later Wenlong was free to dust his sleeves and step off the platform, having displayed a convincingly mediocre performance. Judging by this level of power, no one expected him to make it through the third round.

The third round was held in the evening. The environment was rather beautiful - the sunset provided a multitude of colours to paint the sky, the seabirds' voices frolicked on the wind, the slightest clamor of the crowd watching the fights giving a background noise that mingled with the ocean... Even the fights looked more like opera performance than real combat, with very few real injuries, and barely a drop of blood spilt.

Wenlong, used to the rough life in the mountains, found himself wondering if all this was real or just theatre.

Then it was his turn to fight again. The dice assigned him another opponent from Endless Grass. It was yet another broad-shouldered, spade-handed, dark-faced ox. This time, however, mere tricks didn't work, as the sheer physical strength of the opponent countered the Arhat style. Using an unnaturally stiff fighting method just wouldn't allow for a win, Wenlong realized after being tossed around the fighting area for a few minutes, forearms and shins bruised from hard blocks. The excitement among the Endless Grass students was almost palpable, as they expected a much-needed win here.

How do you want to handle this one, slave? A bit of poison? A single kiss should be enough. Or some love from your real skill? The ox' meridians seem so vulnerable. Or you could just stand on his head, haha. Or do you want to use that useless stinky frog farting loudly technique? Then again, you could just bore the guy to death with this fighting style you are using. Gah, playing the underdog is so humiliating! But the satisfaction when poisoning someone unsuspecting... so sweet! Stupid farts, I can't wait to drown them all in poison!

Wenlong couldn't help but be fascinated by the whip dance Chi Shuang, finding immediate and obvious parallels to the whipping arm movements of the bamboo style strikes. Still, he didn't have much time to consider such things before being dragged into a new match of his own.

A match where he finally found some of those limits he was seeking: apparently he was strong, but far from the strongest around. All in all, this seemed to be the limit of the pure use of the Arhat Style. Or at least of his understanding of it, which made little practical difference in the immediate.

Perhaps it was time to be a little more flamboyant?

If the oaf was strong enough to hurt him, he just had to change his defense: this was a game he had already played, back in his first training match. The only difference was, this time he had actual training to back it up.

So, at the next strike of the Endless Grass student, he reacted by simply... not being there. A lucky dodge, by the breadth of an hair - close enough to make the other think he could strike a victory if he just tried a little bit harder.
Except the difference in speed meant he could never try quite hard enough to achieve more than brushing hits.

None of Wenlong's own counterattacks were particularly effective, either - but he didn't need them to be. He just the other to blindly follow along in an ever-widening spiral - each circle closer to the edge of the ring while the heavier fighter - hopefully - sapped himself of more energy than he did.

Finally his opponent managed to 'corner' him against the edge of the ring and attack, hoping to finally finish the duel with one last strike - a strike that Wenlong dodged a bit more spectactularly than the others: by using the boy's shoulder as a pivot as he literally vaulted over and behind him, light as a feather.

After that he hoped he was just a quick combination away from victory: a low attack to further uproot him, and a push to 'encourage' him to follow his own strike's momentum and get pushed out of bounds.

Hopefully without need to resort to the Six Arhats Combine Cannon, but he wasn't against pulling that card out as well.