The Sect Leader System-Chapter 194: Consumer of All

Fatty Ren had never met anyone who seemed so different between one encounter and the next as the sect leader did. One moment, he was literally the friendliest person ever, seeming like a generous grandfather giving wisdom and candies in equal measures to his offspring. The next, he was casually demonstrating the number of Golden Core cultivators he had killed.

Scary.

Fatty Ren wanted nothing more than to remain on the sect leader’s good side, going out of the way to remind him of their relationship by constantly calling him Friend Su. Whether that slight manipulation helped or not remained to be seen.

At the moment, all Fatty Ren could do was try his best to advance to Golden Core. The sect leader had emphasized how important it was to him that the sect gain a member at that realm.

Fatty Ren shuddered. What would happen if he failed?

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Word had reached Vermilion Incomparable Rain Town about what had happened to the Jade Chameleon Sect branch in Sixth Flawless Flowing City. There was nothing left. Nothing.

All that wealth. The buildings. The formations. Treasures. Everything. Gone.

The message that destruction sent to the sects was imposing. It said, “I care not for wealth. I cannot be bought. Cross me, and I will not even leave enough of your bodies behind to be buried.”

Fatty Ren shuddered again. If he failed, would the same fate await his town? Probably not. Hopefully. But he couldn’t be sure.

It was with tremendous motivation that he walked into the Trials Pagoda. He could not fail. He would not fail.

Another thing about the sect leader that was hard to figure was his expectations for his disciples. Sometimes, he seemed to take the greatest of care making sure that his student understood each step in the process. Other times, he seemed to expect the student to figure everything out on their own.

From the outside, it almost appeared as if the sect leader was a forgetful old man who sometimes didn’t consider that his student might not know what to do.

Fatty Ren, of course, knew differently. Every action had not just one purpose but multiple.

Like what he experienced in the lead up to the Trials Pagoda. He walked into the Contribution Points Shop having been told absolutely nothing about the process, having been given no hints at all.

When he left the sect leader’s presence, Fatty Ren had felt that he would surely fail as he walked into the complete unknown.

All four of the disciples sent to escort him, however, had all already underwent trials and were thus able to supply information about the what and the how of the process, from touching the orb on the pedestal to the blue screen that popped up to giving advice about the actual trial, persistence being the main key.

All that stuff the sect leader had said about not caring about the talent level of the recruits was weird, and Fatty Ren naturally held some doubts. What kind of sect was he joining that didn’t care about talent? All sects cared about talent. Regardless of what the sect leader could provide, could a sect truly stand if it let just anyone join?

Then came the part where his new sect brothers and sister told him about passing their trials. The whole thing was obviously meant to reassure Fatty Ren that the Rising Tide Sect members were both capable and reliable. Maybe there was some weird reason to add random people to the sect, but the core members were just as talented as those in any other sect.

In having those four escort him, the sect leader had both improved Fatty Ren’s chances of passing the trial and made him feel much more confident about his new sect.

As Fatty Ren entered the Trials Pagoda, that knowledge of what was about to happen calmed his nerves some, but he was still more than a little anxious as he touched the orb. And he was really glad he’d been warned about the blue box.

He had been almost sure that his new sect mates were joking with him about it, but it actually existed. Which wasn’t all that crazy, really. An illusion array that projected a screen wasn’t hard to create. The somewhat strange thing was that he didn’t sense any qi.

Once he made his selection of the type of trial, a new screen popped up.

Selection to Advance Cultivation requires approval from Sect Leader Chao Su.

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Contacting Sect Leader Chao Su.

Sect Leader Chao Su says, “Fatty Ren, you obviously have my blessing to attempt this trial. I do have one last bit of information that may or may not prove useful to you, however. Your exact qi aspect is ‘Ever hungry consumer of all.’ If the trial becomes difficult, meditating on those words might be beneficial. Good luck!”

Fatty Ren hadn’t sensed any qi at all when the screen said it was contacting the sect leader. Neither was any sensed when the message from the sect leader was displayed.

Of course, that message could have been built into an illusion array at any time. And Illusion was good at hiding qi.

If not for Yang Xiu’s tale of trying to select a different trial and the sect leader clearly responding through the blue box, something he couldn’t have known about in advance, Fatty Ren would have thought it all a trick. Instead, it was simply one more impossibility, and a lesser one at that.

For a man who could immediately increase every inductee’s spiritual roots upon joining his sect, what was a blue box that operated with no visible qi usage?

Fatty Ren was soon transported to a gray room. Beyond the floor he was standing on, some form of rock, everything disappeared into a mist in all directions.

A man appeared to the side. “Prepare to defend yourself. Three. Two. One.”

A burst of qi shot at Fatty Ren from the front. He triggered his qi shield.

The next thing he knew, he woke in a gray void with a voice telling him that he had died and asking if he wanted to continue.

From the tales of his fellow sect members, that result was not beyond his expectations, and he quickly confirmed that he did want to continue.

When the next burst of qi was shot at him, he converted a small amount of stored fat into energy and fed it into the shield. It apparently wasn’t enough because he again woke in the gray void.

The next time, he converted a lot of stored fat, nearly ten percent of his total. The shield held.

“Prepare to defend yourself,” the man said again. “Three. Two. One.”

Again, ten percent of his stored fat converted into qi was enough to hold off the burst of qi.

And again. And again. And again. Until he used his last ten percent of stored fat to hold off the burst of qi.

“Prepare to defend yourself,” the man said again.

“But I don’t have any more fat!”

“Three. Two. One.”

The qi burst came, and Fatty Ren woke in the gray void.

Well, that had both worked and it hadn’t. He’d at least prolonged his failure. That was something, right?

Persistence was the main key, but then again, it wasn’t. The true key was to persist until he figured out whatever the trial was trying to teach him.

“You have died,” the man’s disembodied voice said again. “Continue the trial or quit?”

“I wish to have a moment to think, please,” Fatty Ren said.

The man didn’t answer, but neither was Fatty Ren transported back to the room.

He needed to go back to the beginning. The entire purpose of the trial was to teach him something about his cultivation so that he could get past his bottleneck. Thus, defending himself from that burst of qi was supposed to somehow teach him something about cultivation.

What was that something, though?

Fighting, he could do. Sitting and cultivating was easy for him. Thinking and figuring stuff out, on the other hand, was not his strong point.

He learned best by doing, not thinking. Maybe he could figure it out on the fly.

“Continue,” he said.

The next time in the room, all his fat had returned, at least, but he couldn’t think of anything to try. He ended up dying when the first qi burst hit him. The time after that, the same thing happened. The third time, desperate to try something, he attempted to dodge the qi burst.

That didn’t work. The burst followed him and sent him back to the void.

In thinking about what he tried, it was obvious that it wouldn’t work. Dodging had nothing to do with his cultivation. His cultivation was about eating food.

It was then that Fatty Ren remembered the message in the blue box. His cultivation was tied to his qi aspect. Specifically, it was “Ever hungry consumer of all.”

It wasn’t “Ever hungry consumer of all food.” Of all. Period.

The Righteous Rain Sect had only been able to determine his qi element, Gluttony. Though he knew that there existed ways to figure out one’s exact qi aspect, those methods weren’t common. He’d never had access to such.

He’d always simply taken the energy from food and stored it in his body in the form of fat for later use. His sect leaders had taught him that. They had, in fact, been overjoyed by discovering him. Even with his middling C- roots, he was celebrated. Gluttony cultivators were rare, and the ability to store qi for future use allowed them to fight above their realm.

Those quick bursts of power came at the expense of years of eating, but most cultivators had no way at all to fight enemies at a higher cultivation realm. He’d always felt that he had a fantastic advantage over most everyone he encountered.

If what he was beginning to suspect to be true was in fact correct, he had been way, way underestimating his advantage.

“Continue,” Fatty Ren said.

He took a deep breath as the man began his countdown. Feeling nervous and a little stupid, he deliberately did not will his shield to activate.

The qi burst appeared as a fast-moving, teardrop-shaped ball of light heading toward his stomach at great speed. Despite knowing that the ball of light had killed him multiple times already, he made no move to dodge.

As it hit him, he focused on a single thought—consume.

And that was exactly what he did. Instead of expending fat to block the qi, he absorbed it into his body. His fat grew.

He grew!

The implications were huge. While he’d still be weak to actual weapons like swords and arrows hitting him, qi that struck him would only make him stronger. Lightning. Fire. Maybe even anything made solely of qi. All of it would strengthen him.

“Congratulations,” the man said. “You have passed the trial.”

The next thing Fatty Ren knew, he was back in the fancy entrance to the Trials Pagoda standing next to the orb on the pedestal. He immediately sunk into meditation.