An hour later Bai Yun left the library. But this time he had taken three other books with him: A History of the Howling Wind continent, Geography of the Howling Wind continent, and Dangerous places and how to avoid them.

After finding these books, Bai Yun started on his way back. This time no one called out to him, so he was able to travel with no problem. As he started walking, he once again drew his attention back to the Moonlight Sword. With his understanding of the sword he quickly saw through the key points of the Moonlight Sword. He continued to read in order to remember it properly as well use the book in order to modify it in order better integrate with his swordplay.

Suddenly he asked. "What is the annual clan meeting." There was no one next to him, and he looked like an idiot, talking to himself. If anyone had heard him, they would have thought that he was crazy.

"Old butler I know that you are here. Just stop hiding and tell me." He said once again.

After a moment an old man appeared next to him. He was clad in a strange suit. A servant's badge was on his chest, but its gold color indicated that it was of a very high rank.

"How did you notice." The butler asked.

Bai Yun realized his mistake. The old butler as at the soul tribulation stage. He had followed him while hiding, without informing him. It should not have been possible for Bai Yun to notice him.

"I knew that mother and father would not let me travel by myself. It was highly likely that they would sent someone to watch over me. So I was always on the lookout. I sensed your presence during the fight." Bai Yun said.

The butler nodded. "The clan is a large place. Its rules are strict, but fair. It gives the resources to people by considering their age and cultivation, disregarding their standing or their families power in the family. But it also highly regards talent and hard work and tries to reward them. Talent is not too important in the first step for a clan as powerful as the Bai clan, and isn't taken into consideration when giving out resources. But cultivation as well as the combat ability of each person is also important and needs to be tested. That is what the annual clan meeting is for."

"During every year during the clan meeting the most outstanding people are awarded. The clan meeting is divided into four. The people of the qi condensation, foundation establishment, core formation and nascent soul stages all fight against people in their own cultivation stages. The winner of the tournament and the top rankers all get more resources."

"All the cultivators of a single stage are to fight against each other. Isn't that unfair? People can't show their true strength if their if their cultivation is low." Bai Yun asked.

"True. But its not like the clan can make it extremely fair. It will take too much time and resources. Besides only the people in the top stages will actually register. People with lower cultivation only register to have fun."

"Okay. So its just a fighting tournament." Bai Yun said.

"Yes, basically." The butler replied.

Even though he had never partic.i.p.ated in a tournament. He had seen a few when growing up, while visiting as guests along with his parents. He had also heard about them from the people in the Grand War.

"When is the next tournament?" Bai Yun asked.

"Seven months from now." the butler replied.

"So if I want to win, I need to be able to match up against top qi condensation cultivators in seven months."

"You would think so, but no."

"What do you mean?"

"Last year all the top one thousand in the qi condensation stage exam was in the foundation establishment stage."

Bai Yun stopped dead in his tracks. He looked up at the butler in astonishment. "What the h.e.l.l? How is that possible?"

"The qi cultivation tournament is a seven day event. For the clan meeting the cultivation is measured on the first day. After that your cultivation doesn't matter. And the battles only begin from the second day onward. So many people use this time to break through in the night. And then partic.i.p.ate in the meeting as foundation establishment cultivators to increase their chance of getting to the top."

"But even then isn't a thousand too many."

"This is the headquarters of the Bai clan. Consider just how many people there are here. And how many of them are young. Consider the number of people in the required age. Many people spend years in the qi condensation stage. And a lot of them suppress their cultivation in order to breakthrough after registering. In fact even though there were only a little more than a thousand foundation establishment cultivators last year, it is estimated that around three thousand people tried to breakthrough after registering."

When Bai Yun thought about it, he realized that the butler was right. "How many people register for the tournament?" He asked.

"Oven ten thousand people register each year."

This seemed reasonable to Bai Yun. Thinking about fighting the foundation establishment cultivators, he wasn't sure if only seven moths were enough for him to do so. Even with his knowledge, and the completely broken Simple Sword, he wasn't sure if he could do so unless he reached at least the eighth stage of the qi realm, and a similar stage in body also. After all the people at the top weren't going to be morons like the idiot from earlier. Suddenly Bai Yun remembered a question he forgot to ask.

" Who was the brat from earlier?" He asked.

"His name is Bai Shun. He is the great grandson of the ninth elder. The one who stepped in in the middle was his older brother Bai Song."

"Why did he attack me?"

Suddenly the butler started to laugh. "You truly have no idea." He asked.

"No."

"The tournament isn't the only thing that happens during the annual meeting. Five months ago, during the previous meeting, he was determined to have exceptional talent. Ever since then he has been walking around as if he owns the place. At that time you were standing quite close to him. When you told him that you only remember important things, he thought you meant that he wasn't important."

"There should be people with greater talent in the clan right? Why does he think he is so special?"

"There are indeed many talents in the clan. But we usually prop up the top few and keep them away from each other so they don't feel threatened."

"Why?"

For a moment the butler wondered whether to tell Bai Yun the truth. But after looking at his eyes he acquiesced and told the truth.

"Its a matter of confidence. If they think they are special, they will be filled with confidence and their cultivation will be smoother."

Bai Yun understood. Heart was important, and it only became more and more important as one went farther. Otherwise his father wouldn't have been stuck a the gate of the dao seed realm for so long.

"If you think that this is bad, you should go to the Yellow City. The city is full of arrogant p.r.i.c.ks that think they are G.o.ds gift to mankind."

"Whatever. I will just consider that it was unlucky to run into him."

"I don't think so. He waited for you outside for two days."

Bai Yun frowned. His mind quickly considered its implications. "Is it too much to hope that he was simply too bored?"

"Yes. Most likely he was sent here to test you. One of those so called princes of the clan must have heard about you coming to the library, and sent someone to incite that moron to fight you as a test. That kid is easily agitated."

"Why would they care about me?"

"You'll have to thank doctor Mu for that. The last few years, every time he got drunk, he would always say how much of a pity someone as suitable for cultivation as you would be born with a damaged soul."

Bai Yun sighed. "One last thing. Why didn't anyone try to stop the fight?"

"It was a fight between members of the junior generation at the qi condensation realm. No one of the senior generation would step in to stop that. Fights between junior generation are to be settled in the junior generation. Similarly fights in the senior generation is to be settled by them and not be spilled over to the juniors. As long as no one died there are no problems. These are the rules. Besides there were a couple of people in the second step around. They would have stepped in if things became dangerous."

"What about when Bai Song stepped in? He was in the foundation establishment stage."

"It is still considered between younger generations. And technically he is younger than you by a year. Also he abided by the unwritten rules and only hurt you mildly. If he had attacked more heavily he would have been punished. But if you were in the outside world, the situation would have been different. You could have easily been killed for something like this."

Bain Yun sighed. "This world is cruel isn't it."

"Cruel. Maybe. It s certainly indifferent towards you. The heavens are indifferent to the trials of man. Why should man be any different."

Bai Yun stopped and stared at the sky. "Are the heavens truly indifferent?"

The butler looked at him. "Who knows?" He said after a pause.

Bai Yun then thought of a kind old man, whose pockets seemed to contain an infinite amount of candies. 'He probably knew.' He thought. There was no reason for this thought.

Bai Yun then thought of the problem at hand. The annual meeting. He needed to raise his cultivation by a lot to win. The problem was that he needed to raise his cultivation by eight stages in seven months to do so. It it was only in one path, he could probably do so. But the problem was due to the Way of Harmony, his three cultivation needed to be in sync. The soul cultivation was already too lopsided, that he absolutely could not do anything on that path until he reached the peak of the first stage in the other two systems.

"Wait do I even need to partic.i.p.ate in the d.a.m.n thing. The registration is voluntary right. " Bai Yun realized.

"True, but I am sure that the master would like you to partic.i.p.ate in the annual meeting after this one. The resources given as rewards are incomparable to what is normally given. The winners also get many special authority given to the top few. There are many treasures given as prizes. The first prize even gets to chose anything they want from the clan treasury that they can control."

"What. Anything?"

"Yes. As long as it is something that that person can control, or can show an immediate use for, anything can be taken. But only the first place for each of the four stages can do this."

The moment the butler said this, Bai Yun thought of an item that he needed for the plan he came up with over the last two months. An item too expensive that his parents who were broke and in debt after the purchase of the soul healing pill could never afford. An item a great clan like the Bai clan was sure to have.

An item without which his plan would surely grind to a insanely slow speed.

Which meant that he needed to win this time.

Because by the time the next clan meeting came about he would have long since left Yellow City.