Chapter 55 The Outer Competition Kicks Off

Upon entering the ideal realm of the Bertha's manual, Ricky felt that he was much, much closer to the
comprehension of Light Apperception.

The manual that Bertha had cultivated was by no means better than Ricky's Chaos Manual. However,
Bertha far surpassed Ricky, who was still a greenhorn in terms of fully understanding manuals. The
ideal realm devised by Bertha far outshone that created by Ricky.

'It was definitely the right decision to come here as an observer!' Ricky sighed.

But the sobering fact remained that Bertha would never let him live a smooth life here.

In this world, integrity was much more valuable than life to all the women here. Bertha would never
forgive Ricky having seen half of her body. This was a great taboo for a virgin.

It took her all of half a day to cast weapons.

Ricky and his companions came to sober realizations after assimilating into the ideal realm.

Ricky had gained a lot from observing the world here. For one, he had a deeper ability to comprehend
manuals and the method of forging. And in addition to this, he had a gut feeling that he would soon find
a way to harness the power of Light Apperception.

"Winfred Wang, take this sword with you and tell the leader of the Weapons Hall that the price of this
sword cannot be less than 50, 000 silver coins," Bertha said to her disciple, turning over the sword she
had cast. Indeed, it was a perfect blade, excellent in every respect.

"Fifty...fifty thousand silver coins! How precious it is! What is the grade of this sword?" Ricky was
astonished upon hearing that this sword was worth fifty thousand silver coins.



"Ricky, you should know that Bertha is a casting master at the intermediate stage of Mortal Level. And
the weapons she casts belong to the Mortal Level," Winfred explained.

"You may not have known this, but the truth is that Bertha is the youngest casting master at the
intermediate stage of Mortal Level across the whole Snow Sect," another disciple added, voice full of
admiration.

In addition to her sophisticated casting skills, Bertha was so incredibly comely and charming that all
disciples admired her greatly.

What these disciples said obviously pleased Bertha quite well. She raised her head slightly, a hint of
happy pride flashing in her eyes.

Then, she said to her disciples, "My work for the day is done. You should start to cultivate as soon as
possible!"

"Yes, Bertha," all these disciples replied, bowing. They then headed toward their respective work areas
where they practiced casting weapons.

"Ricky, follow me! I need to assess how much have you learned from my manual," Bertha said with a
snicker.

"Goodness! The nightmare begins," Ricky said, feeling dejected.

Those disciples cast him a sympathetic glance. But they couldn't do anything to help.

Shortly after, a yell was heard from the front of Bertha's house.

Then the sound of wood being chopped followed.



Even if the wood Ricky chopped was enough for Bertha to use for a dozen of days, she wasn't the only
one who worked at casting weapons in the courtyard. Ricky continued to chop wood for the rest of
casting masters.

....

In this way, Ricky lived a life of normalcy in this courtyard. During the daytime, he observed Bertha and
his fellow disciples. He watched them forge weapons and occasionally sparred with Bertha. Ricky was
always beaten by Bertha in these mock duels.

And at night, Ricky chopped wood.

Though he had little time to rest, Ricky felt invigorated with the Chaos Manual.

Ricky's routine made it possible for him to see great results in a natural manner.

First, he obtained a deeper understanding of the method of pounding as declared in the Chaos Manual.
Given five more opportunities, Ricky felt that he would be confident in casting a weapon of inferior
Mortal Level. On the whole, Ricky was competent enough to be a casting master of inferior Mortal
Level.

Indeed, it could be said that Ricky was a genius in casting weapons. It only took him half a month to be
a casting master, beginning from having zero knowledge in the skill.

It typically took six months, if not longer, for even the most prodigious casting geniuses on the continent
to be a casting master of Mortal Level if starting from scratch.

In addition to this, Ricky eventually came to understand the Light Appreciation. Though there was a
long way to go before he could totally comprehend it, Ricky still believed that he would be able to
observe a significant amount of progress in a short span of time.



But there was another truth to his success that Ricky himself did not know either.

Every time he sparred with Bertha, Ricky was beaten mercilessly. But he retained all of the combat
experience in an intangible way. This was due to the fact that the person he trained with was Bertha, a
warrior at the peak of Blood Purification.

And in the days that followed, Ricky began to understand more about Bertha. She was not only the
sixth strongest among the top ten inner disciples, but also the second in command in Amber Faction.

Ricky finally realized that the name of this faction was a combination of Amelia and Bertha's names.

....

Bertha didn't let Ricky go until three days before the Outer Competition.

Before his departure, Ricky gave profuse thanks to her, because he was grateful for Bertha's invaluable
help even if she had shown personal motives of vengeance during the nearly ten days he had spent
there.

.....

Arriving back in his courtyard, Ricky told Grace and Heather of his experiences, before beginning to
cultivate in seclusion.

A solid foundation for the eighth grade of Skin Refinement had been laid in the period of time he was
away. He now prepared to cultivate the ninth grade of Skin Refinement.

This time there was no need for Ricky to be assisted by the Devourer Zone, because now, he could
reach the ninth grade of Skin Refinement at any moment by himself.

Ricky prepared two hundred Body Refining Pills for his cultivation.



Majority of these pills had been gained when he triumphed over adversaries during the Iron Blood Trial.

After consuming one hundred and ninety Body Refining Pills, Ricky successfully entered the highest
grade of Skin Refinement.

After spending half a day fortifying his new level in Skin Refinement, Ricky stopped his cultivation.

Now, he had no intentions of cultivating in seclusion or casting weapons. Instead, Ricky shifted his
focus on training his mind so as to channel all his strength and get into the best shape possible for the
Outer Competition.

He attached little importance to his place in this competition but placed high value on winning awards.

These awards had attracted many advanced warriors of Blood Purification.

The last time around, the competition's prize for the winner of first place was the freedom to select his
desirable weapon of intermediate Mortal Level, in addition to a set of cultivation method of the inferior
stage of Black Level as well as ten Blood Purification Pills.

Any one of these three prizes was sufficient to conquer warriors of Blood Purification, to the extent that
their heads would be broken and bleeding while fighting for the prize.

.....

Finally, the day of the Outer Competition arrived.

All of the Snow Sect was bustling with noise and excitement, the atmosphere bursting with anticipation.

Almost all disciples of the Snow Sect had arrived at the largest square of this sect.

Nevertheless, not all disciples would participate in Outer Competition. Only those who were deemed fit
to enter the top 100 would join, because the awards were prepared only for the top 100.



There were a great number of disciples attending this competition, each thinking highly of their own
skills and competence.

In the crowed square, the first to arrive were the nine Elders — the renowned nine demi-immortal
warriors of the Snow Sect.


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