Chapter 18: The Scouter

"We're here!" While the entire conversation that has been happening in my mind with Goldy had got me fuming, I never noticed that we actually reached the tournament arena until dad called out to me.

"Ah, yes!" I suddenly snapped back to reality and looked at the marvel before me. It was one hell of an arena. To say that it's on par with a normal football stadium would be an understatement. It was far more majestic than that. And I hadn't been into it yet.

Once I got in, my opinion towards the structure increased tenfold. While the major clans had something like a VIP box, where they could enjoy watching the fight, the minor sects had good seats to view it as well. Really cool stuff! I was truly impressed. But, if there's one thing I could nitpick on, it would be that the VIP booth was too big. Like, the seating arrangements for the major sects were too bizarre and extra. Had they reduced that, they could have easily accommodated at least a thousand extra people. But, yeah... Hierarchy.

However, now that I reached my destination, I had no time to think about such stuff. I got one whole day to check upon all the people around here And I can't afford to waste it. I know there's always next year's rookie tournament, but I would like it if Ao or mum accompanied dad on that. I would be busy with cultivating as well. So, there's that.

{Hey, what am I supposed to do now?}

[Whoa, come with me!]

Goldy walked away from us. Since he politely asked me to tag along, I got up as well. However, dad grabbed my hand. "Hua, where are you going?"

"Ah, I'm going to the restroom." I brought out the most used lie.

"Oh, fine. Come fast, okay?"

"Yes, father." I replied, although I didn't know how long this will take or where I am even walking to. Once dad let go of my hand, I paced myself and followed Goldy, before he stopped abruptly.

[Here.]

I looked where Goldy was pointing towards. It was the place where the participants of this year's rookie tournament were gathered up. And among them, I saw Zhangsun Shan and Qiu Si chatting with each other. Seems like they got even more comfortable with each other, which is a good sign. I'll be able to see the cut scene live then. That would be exciting!

In the midst of this, somehow Qiu Si spotted me, who was at a considerable distance away from me. She seemed to be saying something for some reason, but I could neither read her lips or hear what she said. However, there was one beside me who could.

{Hey, what's Qiu Si saying?}

[Hmm, let's see. She said that she will beat every other competitor and win the tournament. And then she said something about making you proud.]

{Ah, that's great and all. But, why is she saying that to me? Making me proud? Like, why?}

Since I knew that those lines were definitely not meant to me, I looked around and saw the Taiyi sect members just above me. Now, her lines made total sense. {Of course, she's talking to her sect members. Damn, I was worried there for a second that she was talking to me or something.}

[You idiot!] Goldy shook his head in dismay, as if I said something wrong.

{Anyway, why are we here?}

"You can raise your voice, you know? No one's gonna hear you in this heated crowd!" Goldy spoke.

"Well, you heard what Qiu Si said, didn't you? If it's so, someone could hear mine as well, if they are to concentrate." I replied.

"Scratch my previous statement. No one's gonna CARE enough to hear you. Like, why spend all the effort to hear something that the totally useless one of the blue moon sect said?" Goldy shrugged.

I had to agree with him on that part. "You're right. Anyway, you still haven't told me what we're doing here."

"Well, we're here to check whether a competitor here uses sacred pills. If he does, well the sect backing him would be pretty powerful with a lot of sacred pills, right?" He wondered.

Again, what he said made sense. We're here among a sea of people. Even though he could identify the people who use sacred pills, it would be a drag to do it that way. This way, we could get the main ones out first, which kinda doesn't serve a major purpose in the hindsight. Well, at least we don't have to look at their part of the VIP booth while we're searching for the ones with sacred pills. "Hey, why the hell are we even here? We could've just checked the crowd if we wanna know about the sacred pill users." In the end, I couldn't just be satisfied with the explanation that I gave to calm me down.

"Really? Don't doubt my techniques. There's a reason behind my madness." Goldy scoffed.

This irked me. "And I wanna know what that reason is.This just seems stupid to me, you know?" I pouted.

"Hmm, if this seems stupid to you, maybe you should find the sacred pill users then." Goldy pouted back as well.

I sighed. "You know I'm not downplaying your credibility! It's just that I feel incredibly stupid without knowing what you're doing." I explained my thought process.

"Sheesh, fine. Look, they are as the name suggests, rookies. These kids are in their initial stages of cultivation. So, if there's someone with a blue sapphire Qi, that means they just got there. So, their sacred pills wouldn't be fully processed. I find people's Qi levels using that, if I'm not in direct contact with them. This way, not even expert illusions casted on it to fool people can't fool me." Goldy chuckled like a maniac.

Honestly, I was impressed. I kinda wanted to know how he could find people's Qi level without direct contact. Although, I did imagine it to be something like an ultra instinct or something, this explanation made the most sense. "Dayum, you know what. You're like a walking, talking scouter. Like, you know about literally everything. I'm sure if you're introduced to the game after I died back on Earth, you'd have been a pretty broken convenient person who just casually reveals important plot points that had been evading the main lead for the longest time; just like you're doing right now. Although, people would kinda hate such a character in the game… Like, if your backstory and the existence of Gods aren't revealed pretty early on after your appearance. And to think that your original debut is in a DLC." I sighed.

"Well, try living for a thousand or so years. You will learn several things as well. I'm not overpowered. I'm just well versed in what I do." Goldy shrugged. "Okay, note it down. The third one and the eighth one in that lane are the only ones with a blue sapphire Qi."

"Ah, Zhangsun Shan; a no-brainer at this point. Taiyi sect, huh… Who's the next? That robe… Tang sect, huh? Damn, I do remember the sect names! Anyway, I didn't expect the poison experts to have a stockpile of sacred pill with them. A pleasant surprise nonetheless." I wrote down the names.

"Okay, now that that's done, we'll check the rest of the people around." Goldy spoke as he took a high point to look at the entirety of the people. However, since it was near the people of Taiyi sect, I didn't dare to step there. Instead, I decided to keep my distance and we communicate through our minds. However, even though I was kinda satisfied by the explanation he gave before, it seems like we ended up searching the entire populace anyway. Well, I can argue that we got a head start with checking the participants. Maybe, that was what Goldy wanted- a place to start. Or I'm an idiot that can't understand shite now matter how many times it's repeated. I firmly believe that's the case.

Anyhow, what I expected to take about the entire day, took just an hour or two; and I'm not talking about just the sacred pill. Although Goldy seemed to have a slow start, he recovered and was going damn fast towards the end with recognizing people's Qi levels...or shall I say, unprocessed Qi energy stored inside them. So, about thirty four sects seemed to have the sacred pills, in which three sects seem to have in abundance, while fourteen sects had the level four stuff and eight had level five…

Since one of my main tasks was done, I decided to be on the lookout for my second task, Qiu Si's win and the emotional cut scene. It seemed like the boys major sect representative category got their final two members. And as expected, it was Zhangsun Shan and the Tang sect guy. Although, I kinda knew the result, I was excited nonetheless! To see the main lead whom you played as fighting before you was a nice experience!