C115-1 : Weight Of A Cultivator

"Really, Xuhan? What were you doing last night if you weren't studying THIS?" Xiao Wu grumbled in a displeased tone, his hands constantly moving around trying to point at the entirety of his handiwork at the same time.

As it had turned out, the strange details Han Xuhan had noticed on his way to Xuan Zi's residence were of significant importance. And as a model disciple of the Crimson Snow sect, Xuhan should have been aware of what was going on. However, he had been far too busy concocting far fetched business schemes the previous evening, after which he had focused on one of his newly gained personal treasure, namely the 'Hand that Holds Treasure' technique he had gotten from Kong Ye. Later that night, Zhanxian's breakthrough and brother BB's visit had wrapped up his schedule quite tightly.

In short, he had forgotten to study what he should have been studying that whole time, The mass integration type cultivation technique that had been imparted to all disciples of the sect, the Celestial Gateway  technique.

"I had urgent matters to attend to," he answered in the end evasively. "Give me the general overview, martial brother."

Xiao Wu sighed and began explaining in a tired tone.
"As you can remember from our exchange with master the other day, sister Zhou explained that this Celestial Gateway technique is a mass integration type technique, meaning that we all have to practice and reach a certain degree of proficiency in it in order to properly execute it togther.
The concept sounds simple enough at first, but the technique itself in particular delves a bit deeper in terms of complexity before execution.
The Celestial Gateway technique has three levels, or minor realms, whichever title you prefer to use. Accordingly, our entire sect shall have to divide itself into three levels of practitioners soon. In each realm, a certain number of participants can take their positions as the practitioners of that particular realm. This is usually done to filter out the talented ones from the mediocre and make the competition fair and transparent."

"Wait a minute," Xuhan interrupted Xiao Wu with a frown forming on his face.
"Doesn't that mean only a fixed number of members of the sect can take part in the execution of this technique? I remember our sect master saying that our entire sect will be performing this technique."

Xiao Wu nodded. "Yes, exactly. The number of disciples practicing this technique right now is more than twice the number of possible positions in each minor realm provided in the technique. This is actually the main part of the test.
Every sect that has recieved this technique will allow their disciples to practice it, as well as the elders. In fact, anyone who wants to go to the venue of the tournament will have to learn this technique and execute it with the rest of us. Even our sect master himself is not an exception to this rule.
I do not need to remind you that the elders, teachers and sect masters are all quite talented at cultivation. They'll definitely be able to learn the Celestial Gateway technique within a few days, far faster than most of the normal disciples. The same goes for the super talented disciples. So what do you think will happen if a vast, particularly powerful, resourceful sect takes part in the tournament? "

Han Xuhan carefully thought for a second and found the obvious answer.
"They will have the advantage of raw talent. . . . ? Their slots in the technique will be filled up with too many powerful elders and talented disciples compared to the rest of the sects. They can bypass the rules by just controlling their proficiency in the technique. Some talented cultivators will stop at the first realm and fill up the slots for mediocre cultivators. Some will do the same in the second realm."

Xiao Wu nodded in response. "Of course. And that raises the issue of safety for the regular sects. It'll be impressive enough for most of the sects to be able to train enough disciples in the technique so that they can reach the basic requirement of filling up the slots. But who'll guarantee their safety in the tournament when they'll face those giant sects whose least impressive participants are disciples at the peak of physique transformation realm? Will they feel comfortable going up against their opponents? Will none of the top sects take advantage of the situation to get ahead during the later rounds? Might makes right in these competitions, after all. The rules of the alliance will not stop most sects from trying to take the shortcut, intimidate the talents from smaller sects when they're out there without the backing of the rest of their sect, bully the weaklings, you know the drill," Xiao Wu said with a rather evil laugh.

"Damn, least impressive disciples at the peak of physique transformation realm? You're scaring me, brother Wu."

Xiao Wu's laughter died down. To Xuhan, he too seemed to be worried over the issue. After all, the Crimson Snow Sect fell into the catagory of the mid level sects, from what they'd learnt. It would certainly not have any advantage in that situation and was more likely to end up becoming a prey. However, Xiao Wu's next sentence broke his assumption.

"That's not exactly an issue we need to sweat over right now. Because this phenomenon has been discovered long ago. The alliance has even came up with a solution for this half a century ago. Otherwise, no small sect would dare to participate in the tournament. That's not a good thing for the alliance."

"Oh? How did they solve it?" Xuhan asked, feeling increasingly fascinated by the entire concept.

"They introduced a new element into the fold, a new variable named 'weight'," Xiao Wu said with a dramatic flair, his voice solemn and hands outstretched.

"That sounds pretty discriminatory toward fatties, brother Wu. No wonder you looked displeased!" Han Xuhan exclaimed.