I started following Mom back to the house so we could leave, but since I needed to grab some things, I ran ahead of her.

  Entering the courtyard first, I ran over to the spot where our training equipment was stored and grabbed my sword as well as a bow and quiver full of arrows before slinging all of them on my back. I then decided to move my sword to my waist so it would be easier to mess with. After that, I remembered that this was an official sect event, so I most likely needed to wear my outer sect robe.

  Because of that I ran into the house and up to my room so I could change my clothes. This meant that I would have to remove the weapons I had just put on, but it was something that needed to happen.

  Mom then walked in as I was putting on some clothes to go under my robes. When she saw that, she gave a soft sigh, and a smile formed on her lips as she walked forward and grabbed my hair.

  I was confused by that for a second until Mom brought out a ribbon from somewhere and used it to tie up my hair into a ponytail. She even made sure that the knot was tied into a little bow that was tilted off to the side. I then felt like there was something around me that was broken, and my perspective suddenly shifted. My clothes also felt tight for a second before resizing.

  Looking down at my body, I saw that it was restored to how it was before the age curse. Turning around and looking at Mom in surprise, I saw that even though she was smiling, she seemed to be disappointed. Mom then said, “Most of the disciples in the sect age faster than normal due to the effects of cultivation. So, all of them are already physically mature, and you don’t need to be that young. I should also fix my mistake.”

  This made me feel both happy and guilty at the same time. I knew that she wanted me to stay younger for some reason, but I also needed to have my original age for various other things I was doing. It also felt like there was something that I should say at this moment, however, I also wanted this to happen, so nothing came out of my mouth.

  We then finished getting myself ready and walked back out of the house with Yuki following behind us. She was apparently going to join us for the day and watch how I did in the event.

  Since we were all ready, Mom used her Qi and enveloped Yuki and me so she could fly us toward the outer sect area. Mom then took off and soared through the air at a decent speed.

  Looking next to me to see how Yuki was doing, I saw that she did not look that good and was trying her hardest not to look at the ground.

  I pulled some herbs out of my bag, along with a mortar and pestle, and started grinding them in a specific order in the bowl. This was a simple and rudimentary anti-nausea medicine that was supposed to be made into a tea, and since we would be arriving at any moment now anyway, it was better to make it this way.

  That st thought was more correct than I expected, as when we touched down, I was already almost finished with the tea. Not moving from my spot, I made three more turns of the pestle before pouring the mixture into a small measuring cup. I then handed it over to Mom and looked around.

  I had never been to this area of the sect before, so I was interested in what it looked like.

  All around me were paths that spread throughout the area, going to different pces. There were even a few one-story buildings and an open bazaar that were all closed at the moment.

  Next to me was a rge colosseum with many people walking inside through two massive archways. A small distance from the archways was a small table with two inner sect disciples sitting behind it. There was also a small queue of people in front of the table who were doing something before walking through a door next to the table that I had not seen before.

  Mom then pointed over there and said, “That is the registration for the outer sect competition. You will need to go over there to confirm that you are going to be taking part.

  They will also be checking all of your weapons before you use them.”

  Listening to all of this, I made sure to nod in response to show that I heard what she said before saying, “Alright then! I will go sign in now!”

  That got a slight ugh and a sigh out of Mom as Yuki tried to smile as she said in return, “We’ll be watching so do your best.”

  With that, I turned around and ran towards the queue off to the side. Mom also took this chance to follow the rest of the crowd and find a seat inside the arena. I had to wait in line for a few minutes before I was able to talk to the disciples in charge of registration.

  The process of registering was fairly simple as all I needed was to show my current cultivation level as well as presenting my sect medallion. After that, my name was written down, and I was instructed to enter the arena through the doors next to us. This door led to a small room where another inner sect disciple was waiting to check our weapons for any tampering.

  The moment they saw my weapon, or more so the fact that I had more than one weapon, I was instantly told that I could only use one.

  I tried to argue that I was not informed there was such a rule and that one of the elders had allowed me to do this, but he immediately shot it down.

  I was going to try to expin myself once more with slightly more information when another disciple off to the side said that what I was doing was within the rules and that there was nothing wrong. This almost got a retort from the man who was stalling me and everyone else.

  It was then that the voice of the new inner sect disciple spoke up, breaking the stalemate, “As long as her weapons are clean, then the participants are fine to move on. That is our job and nothing else.”

  This moved things along, and I was now able to get my weapons checked. They started with the bow and then my arrows. Of course, there was nothing wrong with them, so they easily passed without an issue.

  My sword, on the other hand, caused issues due to the crossed guard on the hilt. This was still passed, thanks to the kind inner sect disciple who was helping me out. After that, he led me to the entrance of the lower arena, where all of us participants would most likely be fighting.

  We were all given a pce to sit and wait, but most people chose to either practice alone or mingle with others.

  Since that was the case I decided that I would also spend some time training and started practicing my body cultivation technique. This was the first time I have practiced the technique without any sort of boost or restriction and it also allowed me to see how monstrous my meridian count truly is. There was also some sort of formation that was pushing Chi into my body in such a way that it seemed to be trying to heal me. I was not injured, so it was not doing anything, but my Chi was also too strong and it was not allowing the newly introduced Chi to leave.

  That meant that I was effectively standing in a massive body-tempering formation.

  The stage I was on was also mostly reted to how well someone could control their Chi and and not accumution. This was something I was already good at for some reason, and combined with my medical knowledge, I was speeding through the cultivation.

  Someone else noticed what I was doing and started talking about it with their friends, but I ignored them in favor of completing this level.

  Soon, I reached the end of the level and rapidly moved on to the next. This level was where the difficulty actually increased to a slight nuisance. It was not truly hard, but it still required enough focus to were I was starting to get bored of repetitive action.

  Still, with the boost I was getting, I almost finished the stage by the time someone decided they were having enough of talking behind my back.

  The sound of footsteps coming towards me made me want to finish this stage even faster, so I tried to increase the difficulty slightly by speeding up the cultivation process.

  This turned out to not be just a slight increase but a massive one. It almost made me forget that there were footsteps approaching me. Thankfully, I did not have that much left to do and managed to complete the level before the person who was now in front of me spoke.

  “So you’re that lowly fox that managed to join the sect.”

  Snapping my eyes open at those words, I saw a man who looked to be about 16 years old but was most likely younger than that. He had long bck hair that was tied up behind him and deep bck eyes with streaks of white going through them. He was also wearing a set of dark blue robes that were clearly not issued by the sect and seemed to be made of high-quality fabric.

  In fact, most of the other disciples here were not wearing their sect-issued robes for some reason.

  I did not care to think about that very much and instead focused on the man in front of me. He was clearly looking down on me at this point, and I knew in the back of my mind that I should not respond to him, but I still asked regardless, “And why am I a lowly fox young human?”

  That seemed to strike a nerve, but before he could respond, there was the loud sound of a gong being struck, and everyone turned their heads in its direction.

  There, on the other side of the Colosseum from me, was a balcony like where you would see kings or emperors sitting in movies. On that balcony was both Mom and the sect master.

  Mom was standing next to the sect master, saying a few whispered words to him before he stepped forward and began announcing, “This year's annual outer sect competition is upon us. And, like most years, there are quite a few participants.

  Now, as most of you know, the ones who win this competition will move on to the inner sect. However, the number of people allowed to move on to the inner sect is always changing.

  This year, ten openings are going to be filled, so the top ten participants will be moving on to the inner sect as long as they fulfill the conditions.

  Now, since most of you here know the rules and the referees will also be going over them, I only have one st thing to say.

  Welcome everyone to this year's outer sect competition, and enjoy the show!”

  Vulthurtoor