Chapter 3: 3. Calamity

'10 potential points in total? And I need 30 potential points in total? If this is one of the promising ones, how am I going to find a suitable disciple in 5 days!?'

Panic, immediately rushed at the floodgates. Fortunately, there wasn’t a risk of a failure event just yet. The System had given him a status function, so Han De -calmly- started checking every single disciple.

A thousand disciples were all lined up depending on their rank. The closest being the highest, and the furthest being the lowest.

'… 7, 10, 11, 8, 9, 8, oh my god…’ The results seemed to be getting worse by the second. And every disciple Han De had checked was in the front row. ‘Wait where is that Ming brat, isn't he supposed to be a hotshot?!'

[Name: Meng Wei]
[Race: Human]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 12]

[Cultivation: Qi Condensation (3/13) (1.84%)]
[Constitution: None]
[Bloodline: None]
[Roots: Fire (35%) / Ice (32%)]

[Potential Points (Total: 15)]
[Will: 4]
[Talent: 5]
[Comprehension: 3]
[Luck: 3]

[Fate]
[Cannon fodder]

[Notes]
[Cannot be accepted as a disciple. ]

'… Compared to other kids this one isn't bad, but he still isn't even close…'

Disciple Acceptance Ceremony. Han De had thought he found a solution to the quest without even looking. Now though, each status-checked disciple only served to increase desperation. After the first few rows were done, he found out the status check had a maximum range, and yet there was no one above 15 points in total!

The floodgates were now at full capacity!

Without even thinking about his act or image, Han De stormed down and walked towards the mass of disciples! He needed to get closer to check their statuses!

Elder Xaio's eyes were opened wide once seeing this.

"Does he intend to get a disciple this time? Really?"

"Hmm, he seems to be going towards Meng family heir, oh well, that kid is clearly the best of the bunch, probably the best one we've had in the last few years so it is understandable for him to choos-"

As Elder Yang was talking, Han De went past Meng Wei without even sparing a glance at him. All elders looked at him wide-eyed. Near the floor, Elder Yan's liver was in immense pain. 'Uhhh, I should've appeased him more, he really is making a scene, this damn brat.'

"Uhh, perhaps he is going for that Giant bloodline? Although he ranked in the middle, once his bloodline awakens his talent would incr-"

Han De was getting exceedingly efficient at looking at people's statuses. Opening 20 status windows at once was no problem at all! But. As he checked more, the panic in his heart increased, and hairline cracks appeared on the dam.

By far the highest potential he saw was Meng Wei, who now had a confused look on his face. Han De was checking every single person, but a thought suddenly occurred to him, bringing him to a complete stop.

'Wait, in those Xianxia novels, wouldn’t MCs always be trash? They would either start trash, or become trash, get treated like trash, but somehow obtain a heaven-defying item, and/or a creepy grandpa/loli, and quickly bullshit their way into higher realms…

F#$%! I'm thinking about this all wrong! I need to find the least talented person with the most tragic backstory! Preferably their childhood friend captured/raped, or their parents dead/tortured/raped to death in front of their eyes, etc. etc.’

Han De had already status-checked more than half the disciples. If he was in the right mind, perhaps looking for a cliché in real life -Xianxia or not- would’ve seemed preposterous.

But under the threat of soul dissipation, the dam had already started crashing down!

As if suddenly jolted back to life, Han De started walking towards the last spot with purpose!

Han De, being just 8-hours-old in this world, didn't have any practice in controlling his aura. When he did cultivate, he did so consciously, with full aid of his memories. But now, he was a man on a mission. A desperate mission to find the MC!

As he frantically searched, his aura, started leaking. To be more precise, his mid-stage Core Formation realm aura, started leaking in an arena full of Qi Condensation disciples!

If he was aware of the problem, perhaps he could quickly figure out a way to stop it using the remnant memories. But between staring at 20 status screens, and the ever-growing desperation inside, he had no concept of what was happening. A paper salesman would never need to use aura, after all!

Han De’s one and only martial art being Heaven Defying Tyrannical Sword, the aura he subconsciously naturally belonged to this martial art. Once the elders watching from their comfortable scenes understood what was going on, they immediately shifted uncomfortably in their seats!

Only Elder Yang rose from his seat. "What the hell is this brat doing?! Is he seriously testing them with that?"

Though they were shocked, they couldn’t do anything but watch. Han De, was not only the son of the sect master, but an unprecedented genius as well!

Han De’s tyrannical aura immediately knocked out the nearby disciples. Perhaps some of them would never be able to cultivate again due to the nature of the aura! Far away disciples were luckier, since they passed this hurdle only with their eyes rolling back and foam coming out of their mouths.

"Sigh, he only released a tiny bit of aura and so many collapsed in an instant… Such a drop in quality" Said Elder Xiao.

Elder Yang, being a teacher first and a cultivator second, wanted to rebuke, but he saw Han De kept moving towards the corner. The frown on his face became deeper.

Elder Yan, the organizer of the ceremony for the past five decades, and the one that invited Han De, became furious. Although this ceremony was just a tradition, prominent families also attended on occasion if they had promising candidates. This year in particular, Meng, Lin, and Tan families were present! They weren't highly regarded compared to the Starfall Mountain Sect, but was there a need to make them lose face for no reason?

'Just because I didn’t personally came to invite you, you are acting against me? You think I will stand for this?'

Elder Yan started moving towards Han De while gritting his teeth.

At the same time, though Han De was searching for the MC, he was still looking at whatever disciple came into his view. Unfortunately, right now his view was obfuscated by dozens of menus, and he couldn’t really see what he was status checking. Mercifully, the disciples were neatly ordered before passing out, so he could still status check them even without seeing them.

Finally, one particular status screen, made him freeze on the spot.

[Name: Ning Bi]
[Race: Human (100%)]
[Gender: Female]
[Age: 13]

[Cultivation: None]
[Constitution: None]
[Bloodline: None]
[Roots: Fire (100%)]

[Potential Points (Total: 35)]
[Will: 7]
[Talent: 10]
[Comprehension: 8]
[Luck: 10]

[Fate]
[Purifier of Planes]

[Skills]
[Grudge (Mythical) (Unique)]
[Never forgets a grudge. Never forgives a grudge. When fighting against a grudge spiritual power reserves become inexhaustible.]

[Notes]
[Extremely high potential. Would be a core pillar in any sect. Extremely compatible with Divine Phoenix bloodline. Recommended high stage Divine Fire or Ice constitutions.]

'… What a crazy status. This is it. This is MC level! She has max luck and talent! What a cheat! Everything about this girl is a cheat!

That grudge skill though… Shiet, I am a calamity attractor, if I acted like the previous Han De and offended this girl, wouldn’t that be the end of me? With her luck, I'm sure no one here can kill her. She would just flee to a random forest and find some legendary pills then continue her bullshit power-up and no one would be able to stop her…

I'm lucky that I didn't cause an incident. If I had, I don't know what I could've done to salvage the situation...'

Han De closed all his status check windows to get a good look at this girl. He was 100% sure he was going to choose her after a small conversation with her. But once he closed all the System UI, he immediately realized something was terribly, terribly wrong.

When did the disciples pass out? Why did some of them have blood coming out of their orifices? Some of the farther away ones were clearly having seizures. And even more concerningly, disciples with blood seemed to be those who are near him!

Han De looked up at the MC and saw the little girl shivering all over, barely keeping herself straight and conscious. At the same time, she was unmistakably glaring at him!

All blood on Han De’s face drained in an instant, and he inadvertently suppressed his aura at the same time!

‘S#$%. S#$%. S#$%, now I've done it.'

Disregarding the girl herself, Han De realized some elders were walking towards him, with the magnificent wuxia mustache uncle a dark face in front.

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Suddenly, another scary possibility entered his mind.

'If they somehow find out I'm not Han De, I won't even have to wait for this girl to grow up and kill me. I'm sure the sect leader would deal with me long before that. They could kill me, or extract my soul and torture me, turn me into a spiritual medicine, or trap me inside a spiritual artifact as punishment, or…"

One after the other, numerous Xianxia elements came to Han De’s mind. Whether they were possible in this world, he did not care at that moment. He wasn't used to environments with life and death pressure like this, so he couldn't help but think of irrelevant things as he further went down the rabbit hole in panic.

A powerful, almost growling voice came from behind. "Elder De… Would you kindly explain the meaning of your actions? Do you realize this is the disciple acceptance ceremony?"

Han De turned around and looked at the fuming wuxia uncle.

‘S#$%, I can't even tell these guys the truth, can I? If I say I panicked, they'll ask the reason. Obviously I can't say anything about the system. Even if I convinced them somehow, I still can't explain why I didn't end up restraining my aura. What? I suddenly forgot? A peerless genius of this generation suddenly forgot how to restrain his aura? And kept walking because he couldn't see what was in front of him due to bad UI? What is a UI? What do you mean by System? He is a witch! Burn him!'

Going through the motions in his head, Han De finally made the call.

'I can't tell them the truth, so I have no choice but to bullshit my way through. I can do this. I can do this! I've read enough crappy Xianxia novels! If I can spew enough nonsensical bullshit while acting like an arrogant young master, I might be able to confuse them to buy enough time to re-strategize my approach!’

Elder Yan was finding it difficult to contain his emotions at the moment. He had organized 54 disciple acceptance ceremonies. And every single one of them was boring. And Elder Yan was proud of that!

Being boring meant consistency! Being boring highlighted the more talented disciples! Being boring made for a good opportunity to hook prominent families by making them look good! Even if Starfall Mountain Sect was unrivaled in the south-eastern part of the continent, giving face to influential families with such a small gesture, was enough to maintain their loyalty.

With nearly all of the thousand disciples on the ground, that illusion was shattered completely! And worse of all, this was done on his watch.

Elder Yan and others saw Han De giving a casual glance at the disciples. "I felt a faint resonance in this year's disciples. It was like a whisper, like an echo."

Some elders couldn't help but look at each other. What resonance? What whisper? What echo?

"Is this the reason why Elder De didn't restrain his aura as he walked? Does Elder De not realize how his aura could damage or discourage the discipl-"

Han De casually waved his hand at Elder Yan.

"How could this little amount of aura damage the disciples? If they get discouraged it means their Dao hearts would never be strong enough in the first place. Talented ones can use this experience to drive themselves forward, untalented ones can use it to hold a steady ground knowing the sect has the power to support them."

Han De tied hands on his back and raised his chin. How would a master behave, how would they look, how would they talk. With all these in his mind, Han De walked toward the little girl with his best 'profound expert' impression.

Clearly, he had to get away from this place asap! And if he was to leave, by god, he was going to leave with a disciple under his arm!

"We cultivators, cultivate our hearts. Overcoming insurmountable odds, going against the will of the heavens and withstanding tribulations are common affairs for us. Better for us and for the disciples themselves if they failed here and now, rather than failing themselves and their brethren during distress.

Our sect has always put quality before quantity. If they cannot even hold the line during a war, what purpose would tens of thousands of soldiers serve? The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference. If we continue to fill our ranks for the sake of tradition, we'll need to prepare for the unforeseen consequences."

Han De stopped, looked at the elders, and faintly smiled.

"Not to mention, Elder Yan and others selected these disciples from the untold number of initiates. I trust, that they would not be so fragile...!"

A slight frown crept into Han De's face after a moment of pause. Was this not enough? Why weren’t they responding?

"If a significant number of them develop a shadow of doubt in their hearts, that might indicate there is far subtler work of fate at hand, then we need to take active measures rather than depend on a tradition to endure it."

The elders fell silent. To them, it seemed Han De was alluding to something. Perhaps it was something he couldn’t outright tell. Most of them being Core elders, and Nascent Soul cultivators, some of his words resonated with them. They could not help but try to interpret their true meaning.

"I will be taking this girl as my disciple." Han De pointed towards the glaring girl.

What was the fastest way of getting away? The natural answer to that was flying. Sword flight, in Han De’s case, as he had ample amount of memories regarding that.

He released and jumped on his sword with one hand on his back. The other took the girl by her clothes as if she was a plastic grocery bag. Unfortunately, the girl had passed out almost immediately, but that was a hurdle for later, since getting away took precedent at that moment!

Elders watched as Han De take off with the full power of a mid-stage Core Formation expert.

* * *

Martial arts families watching on the sidelines were in a commotion.

"Who was that, so young, but so powerful!"

"What? You don't even know? That was Han De!"

"The young master of the sect!?"

"Shh, don't ever call him young master, he is an elder of the sect now, only call him Elder De"

"Hmph! Choosing that weak girl who took the last place over my Meng Wei, he must have no eyes!"

"She didn't even have cultivation, right? Why would he choose such trash?"

Meng and Lin family elders had dark faces. They couldn't help but take this matter as a personal attack.

"You'd choose this trash over our Lin family? This brat, if he wasn't doted on by… by that monster…”

"Shh, uncle don't raise your voice, this issue might not be simple."

Lin family representative, Uncle Lin Li had a doubtful look on his face while looking at this nephew. "Although we didn't listen out of respect, we could still see their body language, how could we not? Elder De seems to have done this on purpose without telling the other elders, but he ended up pacifying the elders with just a few words! Isn’t this a slap on our face?”

“That doesn’t mean anything; besides, he still has the backing of that old monster, no one would dare offend his grandson for such a thing." Answered the nephew. He understood why Lin Li would’ve thought this was a ploy to reduce the martial families’ influence. But he did not agree.

"The girl in the last place was the only one that could stay standing in front of Elder De's aura. She was the last place disciple, I have seen her during the eliminations, her clothes were all torn and she didn't even have shoes! There is no way for her to have a spiritual artifact that could withstand that tyrannical aura."

Lin Li was about to explode. "Are you saying that a girl with no cultivation withstood that aura just by sheer force of will?! What nonsense are you spouting, nephew don't keep disappointing me with this nonsense! Enough! We are leaving!..."

Lin family nephew wasn't the only one that noticed this. Naturally Starfall Mountain elders, Meng and Tan families also noticed it, but they couldn't assume foul play as easily as Lin Li.

* * *

"Elder De isn't someone that would do simple calculations like this. He isn't active in the sect as an elder in the first place, and his father wouldn't allow him to do such a stunt without any clear benefit.

That girl didn't have any treasures on her, which means she really withstood it by her own willpower, yet she doesn't have a cultivation base… Elder Yan, how did that girl end up as a disciple? With no cultivation base, she should've been eliminated in the first few rounds."

Elder Yan's liver, as usual, was in great pain right now.

That girl gave him and other minor elders quite a headache in the past month. Just as they thought she would finally get eliminated, a miracle would occur, and she would get back in the race! Often she ended up being included out of technicalities, even! Elder Yan being a righteous and meticulous person, wouldn't eliminate someone if they met the requirements, even if it was out of luck!

But in the case of this girl, luck didn’t even begin to describe it! She was so untalented, even her roots were below the average of small sects! And yet she was able to enter the sect without any cultivation base! Before the ceremony today, he was already planning to rewrite entrance rules to eliminate edge cases like this in the future!

Elder Yan sighed, shook his head, then started giving orders to attend to the collapsed disciples. Other core elders could see the Elder Yan's, along with some minor elders' exasperated expressions, and unanimously decided not to pursue the issue.

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