251 Rules
15 disciples, 7 elders, and 1 sect master were all currently standing inside Ma Rong's room. Within 5 minutes of being summoned, everyone was gathered.
Ma Rong quickly did a headcount and determined that everyone had in fact come to the room.
"Alright, since everyone is here, I will start talking about the competitions. Listen up carefully," Ma Rong said. All the disciples and elders got more attentive, ready to listen to what was coming.
"The different mini-competitions for the next 5 days have been revealed. For the next 4 days, meaning Sunday to Wednesday, there will be different competitions from 7 am to 12 pm in the morning. This is the time in which the different production and specialty-related competitions will take place," Ma Rong said.
Alex was a little surprised when he heard that the battle would take place in the morning.
'That would leave enough time during the day to do what we want. Was that the competition holder's plans? To allow the different sects some free time during the day?' Alex wondered
Ma Rong continued to speak after a small pause. "As for the battle-related competitions, they will take place on Friday, starting from 7 and going until as long as it is required," Ma Rong said.
"Now, we don't care about the battle competitions all. We are a production sect, so our focus will be all on Alchemy, and a few other production battles," Ma Rong said.
Everyone nodded when Ma Rong said that. Alex didn't expect them to be okay with what she had said. 'Do we even have disciples capable of taking part in the other production matches?' he wondered.
"First of all, the rules have been confirmed. Only those who are not in the True realm and under 25 in age can take part in the competitions."
"There can only be 3 disciples from a sect in a single competition, and a single disciple can take part in only 3 competitions. So, we will have to carefully choose what competition to send you guys out on," Ma Rong said.
"For the next 4 days, the competition has been separated into 4 themes. Sunday will be all about ingredients. Alchemy ingredients, formation flag, and ingredients, Talisman ink ingredients, etc. The exact competition hasn't been revealed, however, so we will have to choose the participants tomorrow on the ground."
"For Monday, the theme is Speed. It's how fast you can do stuff. I assume for alchemy it will be making pills very fast, but we will have to wait until the competition is revealed."
"For Tuesday, the theme is Perfection. It's how well you can do a single task. It's almost certainly the highest harmony for pills. But, as I said, we will wait until the competition is revealed."
"For Wednesday, the theme is said to be Learning. From the way the competition holders talked about it, I assume it has to do with who can learn the fastest and use it. You might get a new recipe, technique, whatever. We will have to wait until it is fully revealed."
"Thursday is a break and the normal sects will have an ample opportunity to get ready for the battle competitions next. This is until where we can do anything. Past this, the chances of us winning is almost nil," Ma Rong said.
The disciples listened to the sect leader solemnly. They didn't know if they could do good or not, but they would certainly do great.
"Now, time for you newcomers to learn something. It's the point system. The point system for the first 4 days and the last one is completely different. For battle-related competitions, the point is always fixed to the top 16 place holders."
"The Winner gets 100 points. The 2nd winner gets 80. The 3rd and 4th winners get 60 points, and 5th to 8th winners get 40 points and 9th to 16th winners get 20 points," Ma Rong said.
"For the production and specialty competitions, its… kind of weird. You basically get points equal to 100 divided by your rank."
"If you are 1st in rankings, you get 100 points. 50 for a second, 33 for a third, 25 for a fourth, 20 for a fifth, and so on. So, the higher your ranking, the better points you get," Ma Rong explained.
"Now, we need exactly 523 points to get upgraded to a 1st-grade sect. That is what we will be working for. In the overall competitions, we need to get at least that many points."
"Any questions?" Ma Rong asked.
"Sect Leader, can't we go by last year's competition to figure out what this year's competition will be?" someone asked.
"No, it's always different," Ma Rong said. "We have no way of telling."
"Will there be no non-battle and non-production-related competitions?" someone else asked.
"There will be. Those are considered battle-related since fights are sometimes inevitable," Ma Rong explained.
Everyone else thought and found nothing else to ask. Seeing that no one had any more questions left Ma Rong dismissed everyone.
"Yu Ming, wait," she said as everyone was leaving.
"What is it, Master?" he asked. He wondered if she was going to tell him what competitions he was going to take part in.
"Starting today, I want you to cultivate both body and Qi at the same time. Don't stop one for the other. You can only get stronger if you can increase both body and Qi cultivation at the same time," Ma Rong said.
"But, Master I can't wake up in time if I cultivate Qi. I was thinking of skipping Qi cultivation until the end of the competitions actually," Alex said.
"That won't do. Just do as I say and cultivate both while you can," Ma Rong said.
"But I can't wa—" he remembered this morning, his master was crying. She told him there was nothing wrong with him falling asleep, but explained no further.
'Does she know something?' Alex thought.
"Master, can you explain to me why I will be fine if I fall asleep while cultivating Qi," he asked.
