Using his century of experience in drawing, Yan Xiaolong drew at least one lewd doujin every day for a whole month. By the end of the month, he had published over thirty doujins and amassed over one-and-half million spirit stones. He would have made more if it were not for ten-percent tax rate on his artwork. 

 

“As I thought, even though this world has brothels and sex slaves, there’s always room for pornography. In fact, because the pornography market is so niche, the sale of these doujins skyrocketed.” Yan Xiaolong thought while rolling around in a giant heap of spirit stones. “Over time, I’ll make more doujins and rack in more spirit stones. Moreover, I’m the only person to do this  right now so I have a monopoly over this market. It might take a few years, but I’ll get that damn dao technique. Nothing will stop me from becoming the Pervy Daoist I dream of myself to be!” 

 

Beside drawing, he also cultivated. He was already in the mid-stage Foundation Establishment level. His time spent in the dream world gave him lots of insight into the Foundation Establishment chapter of the Immovable King’s Scripture so he could reach the peak-stage in a matter of months. However, Yan Xiaolong was more occupied on drawing than cultivating so his progress was intentionally slow.  

 

Days went by. One doujin after another was posted in the Hall of the Inner Court, and sales were as high as ever. However, they drastically dropped one day. 

 

“Hm!?” Yan Xiaolong placed down his brush. “Zhong Yun, something’s wrong. Post-nut depression must’ve hit our sect brothers hard because our sales went down. Quick, we need draw more vanilla!” 

 

“Young Master, today is the first day of the Inner Court Tournament. Many people must have gone to spectate.” Zhong Yun continued to carefully shade the panel. The servant was used to hearing the strange words and phrases from his young master. 

 

“Inner Court Tournament? We have that?” 

 

“Young Master, we always had that. It occurs every five years, and put inner court disciples into a grand tournament to fight for rewards, as well as a place in the Necropolis Trial. The top thirty-two disciples of the tournament gets their place. There are similar tournaments for the Outer Court and Central Court as well. However, the former occurs annually and only accept the top sixty-four disciples; the latter occurs every decade and only accept the top sixteen disciples.” 

 

“Hold up. Why am I not in this tournament?” 

 

“Young Master, you already won ninth place in the last Inner Court Tournament and obtained the Seven-Colored Cloud Art, a Heaven-Tier Cloud cultivation art, which you gave to me. You can only participate in a tournament once if you ever received a slot for the Necropolis Trial. This way, more people can obtain opportunities to enter the Necropolis Trial. In total, there are only seven-hundred twenty slots.” 

 

“O-Oh, right. I remember.” Yan Xiaolong thought, “I already skipped the Tournament Arc and have to participate in another quest. Is this... Is this fine?" 

 

[Probably not.] 

 

"I hate you." Yan Xiaolong stood up and walked out. "Come on, Zhong Yun. Maybe we can advertise our artworks. Let's check it out." 

 

"Yes, Young Master." 

 

The two walked out of Iron Sword Peak and headed toward an arena in the distance where screaming and cheering were taking place. Their immortal carriage quickly arrived at the scene. As they stepped out, a Qi Disciple attendant led him to the higher floors of the arena. On on the way up, they were stared at by the other disciples from the Outer Court, Inner Court, and even Central Court. Those disciples backed away and whispered to themselves. 

 

“That’s the infamous silkpant, Scumbag Yan.” 

 

“Why is here? Didn’t he get a slot in the last tournament? There’s no way he’s here to just watch, right?” 

 

“Maybe he’s here to pick up some female disciples. He’s a womanizer, after all. Let’s hope not too many outer court disciples aren’t tricked into his sheets like last time.” 

 

Listening to the scorn and seeing all the glares, Yan Xiaolong realized his infamy. He chuckled very slightly, but that incited the ire of the crowd. The attendant quickly led him to a private balcony and left. Yan Xiaolong sat down while Zhong Yun stood by his side. 

 

Yan Xiaolong gazed at the match below where several disciples were fighting in different rings. “So these should be preliminary matches. The main battles should not have started yet.”

 

Although he tried focus on the battles, the crowd was still glaring at him. He no longer received attention from the inner court and core disciples, but the outer court disciples were hostile toward him. “Zhong Yun, what’s going on? I don’t remember being public enemy number one the last time I went out.” 

 

“It seem more rumors about you had spread, Young Master. Probably from the Han Clan. Moreover, many of these people were part of your generation or joined before you. Many have stayed in the sect for ten years or so, but never reached late-stage Qi Disciple, but you joined a few years ago. They are most likely jealous of Young Master’s talent. No worries, our clan will do something about this. For some influential ones, we can bribe them with some spirit stones to say good things and sway public opinion.” A cold gleam flashed in Zhong Yun’s eyes. “And for the vocal ones, we can silence them.” 

 

Yan Xiaolong nodded his head with a wry smile. Most of the battles were lackluster and Yan Xiaolong dozed off at some point. “Maybe I should draw something here...” 

 

He took out his brush and ink to draw some more art as time passed by. Suddenly, the crowd exploded with excitement. Yan Xiaolong looked up and saw a contestant walked out in golden armor from head to toe. He was built as large as a bear, but was heroic to the extreme. Moreover, he was in the late-stage Foundation Establishment. 

 

“Zhong Yun, who’s that?” 

 

“He’s Jin Wu, a senior disciple in the sect. He’s been in the mid-stage Foundation Establishment for years now, but recently made a breakthrough. That is because he cultivates an Earth-Tier cultivation art. Although he is not particularly strong, he is widely respected by the other disciples.” 

 

Moments later, another contestant walked out and the crowd jeered. It was a young man in plain robes with a plain face and a plain aura. In fact, he was so plain that it almost seemed like an anomaly for him to even be in the arena. He had the aura of an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. 

 

“Booooo!” 

 

“Booooo!”

 

“Beat his ass, Senior Brother Jin!”

 

Yan Xiaolong blinked. “And that guy is...” 

 

“His name is Tai Shan. He’s a newly promoted inner court disciple. Apparently, he joined the sect three years ago, but quickly rose to Foundation Establishment from one year of cultivating. No one is completely sure if that’s true or not, but it does not seem like he cultivates any of the sect’s Void-Tier cultivation arts. He’s quite popular among the new disciples and those from poor families. They see him as their idol.” 

 

Yan Xiaolong’s eyes popped out as he looked at Tai Shan. “Popular among those groups? Tell me his backstory.” 

 

“From what I can remember, he was born from the small Tai Family in the small city of Spring Grass which is located in small country of Four Seasons. Although, what is strange is that all those places are located in the Holy Tree Continent, the smallest continent,” Zhong Yun said. “However, no one can confirm if that information is true or not. Apparently, most information about him are highly confidential because the higher-ups wanted it that way so there are questions about who he is. Everything I’ve said is what is given about his identity. I only knew this because I once asked Lord Tie after I noticed that peculiar young man. Lord Tie does not know much himself.”  

 

“Small family... small city... small country... small continent... highly confidential... name is Tai Shan...” Yan Xiaolong mumbled to himself. “Sweet, merciful Buddha, I’ve found him.” 

 

“Found what, Young Master?” 

 

“Mount Tai.” 

 

“Huh?” 

 

“You fool! He’s right there in front of us.” Yan Xiaolong put down his brush and leaned closer to the balcony. “That plain face... that plain robe... and that plain aura! This is it. I’m the safest young master in existence because my eyes... recognize Mount Tai!”