25: A sect competition? No, this is an acting contest!

"Bang!" A broken gong was struck, the sound as unpleasant as someone scraping the bottom of a pot.

On the bare main plaza of the Hidden God Sect.

Li Daoxuan stood on a platform temporarily constructed from a few broken wooden boards, holding a bamboo pole as a microphone, and cleared his throat.

"Ahem!"

"Fellow Disciples, fellow family members!"

"Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend our Hidden God Sect's First 'Misery Competition' and 'Golden Broom Award' ceremony!"

Offstage, the applause was sparse.

The trio of Xiao Chen, Shi Tian, and Leng Yanran stood at the very front, looking utterly lifeless.

Behind them, Fat Aunt stood with her hands tucked in her sleeves, Limping Liu leaned on his crutch, Grandpa Wang had his eyes closed, and Dahuang was lying down dozing.

This was the current family portrait of the Hidden God Sect.

Ever since the last "mobilization meeting," Li Daoxuan felt that empty talk without practice was useless.

To thoroughly implement the culture of "The Way of Hiding" in every corner, it was necessary to regularly test the learning results.

Thus, this unique "Sect Competition" was born.

"This competition is not about cultivation, not about combat power, but about one thing."

Li Daoxuan paused, his eyes becoming incomparably deep, and he thumped the bamboo pole on the ground.

"Acting!"

"What is our purpose?!"

"Hide!" the three shouted listlessly.

"What is our goal?!"

"pretend to be a pig to eat the tiger!"

"Very good!" Li Daoxuan nodded with satisfaction. "The rules are very simple. Everyone takes turns on stage to perform a 'weakling' skit, and no Qi is allowed during the performance."

"Whoever acts the most miserable, the most like an irredeemable fool, is the champion!"

"The champion's prize is an egg just laid by that chicken in the backyard!"

Hearing there was a prize, Shi Tian, who was originally dozing off, had his eyes light up instantly.

That was a Phoenix egg!

The kind that makes you breathe fire after eating it!

"I'll go first!"

Shi Tian jumped onto the stage first, fearing the egg would be snatched by someone else.

"Junior Brother, what are you going to perform?" Xiao Chen asked from below.

Shi Tian scratched his head, thought for a moment, and then...

His eyes instantly lost focus, the corners of his mouth split open, and a string of crystal-clear drool flowed down his chin, dripping onto his chest.

"Hehehe... Hehehehe..."

He even stuck out his tongue, licked the tip of his nose, and revealed an innocent, intellectually challenged silly smile.

The audience was dead silent.

Xiao Chen: "..."

Leng Yanran: "..."

Li Daoxuan: "..."

Did this kid... need to act?

Wasn't this just a natural performance?!

"Good... Good!" Li Daoxuan's mouth twitched, and he bit the bullet to critique, "Second Disciple's performance can be said to be natural and unadorned. He portrayed the image of a mentally challenged youth vividly and incisively."

"Next, Xiao Chen."

Xiao Chen took a deep breath and walked onto the stage.

He closed his eyes and brewed his emotions.

When he opened them again, his eyes were full of despair, unwillingness, and the desolation of being abandoned by the whole world.

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, don't bully the young because they are poor—!"

He roared at the sky, his voice shrill, then suddenly knelt on the ground, pounded the floor with both hands, and burst into tears.

"Nalan Yanran! Why did you break off the engagement! Does a fallen Genius deserve to be humiliated by you?!"

"Heavens! Earth! What did I, Xiao Chen, do wrong?!"

The acting was very dramatic.

It was just a bit... over the top.

Li Daoxuan covered his forehead: "Stop, stop, stop. Cut it out."

"Disciple, Revered Master asked you to play a weakling, not a bitter woman."

"Your acting is too exaggerated; it's obvious you're acting. Emotions need to be restrained, understand? That kind of endurance where you want to cry but can't is the essence."

Xiao Chen lowered his head in shame: "This Disciple is dull."

"Next, Yanran."

Leng Yanran walked onto the stage expressionlessly.

She said nothing.

She just stood there.

Suddenly.

A mountain breeze blew by.

Her frail body swayed, her face instantly turned pale, her willow eyebrows furrowed slightly, revealing a pitiful and weak appearance.

"Ahem..."

She covered her mouth with a handkerchief and coughed lightly twice.

Then...

Her eyes rolled back, and she fell straight down.

"Thud."

She fell cleanly and neatly.

"Senior Sister!" Xiao Chen and Shi Tian were shocked and rushed up to catch her.

Li Daoxuan's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh hard.

"Good!"

"What a 'weak willow in the wind'!"

"This is true acting! It perfectly presents the image of a delicate and sickly little white flower before us!"

"You two, learn from her!"

Xiao Chen and Shi Tian looked at each other, full of admiration.

As expected of Senior Sister, even acting is so professional.

Just as Li Daoxuan was about to announce the winner.

A sound of extremely disdainful sneering came from offstage.

"Hmph."

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound.

They saw Dahuang, who had been playing dead on the ground, standing up at some point.

It raised a paw, very humanly covering its own dog eyes, while the other paw drew circles on the ground, with an expression of "I can't bear to watch."

Li Daoxuan frowned, feeling that things were not simple.

"Dahuang, do you have an opinion on Revered Master's judgment?"

Dahuang lowered its paw and rolled its eyes significantly.

The next second.

A clear, human voice with a thick, disdainful accent came out of its mouth.

"Too lousy."

"This acting is simply a disaster."

"With this level, if I were the villain, I wouldn't even bother with a finishing blow, I'd just kill them one by one."

Silence.

Dead silence.

The trio of Xiao Chen, Shi Tian, and Leng Yanran were like three stone statues, completely frozen in place.

Their mouths opened wider and wider, their eyes widened, and their expressions went from astonishment to shock, and finally turned into deep... existential doubt.

"Dog... dog... the dog talked?"

Shi Tian pointed at Dahuang, stuttering, feeling that his brain wasn't enough.

"It... it can even roast us?"

Xiao Chen's worldview was hit by an unprecedented impact.

He remembered Elder Nalan who was bitten away by Dahuang that day, and he remembered Revered Master's words: "Your Dog Martial Uncle has a bad temper."

So...

Dog Martial Uncle... is a real Martial Uncle?!

"Dahuang! You!"

Li Daoxuan was also shocked and angry.

He was shocked that this dog could actually speak, and angry that it dared to undermine him in public!

"You traitorous thing! Who told you to speak!"

Dahuang curled its lips with an expression of "I just can't stand it."

It stood up on its hind legs, with its two front paws behind its back, pacing on the stage like an old cadre.

"Sect Master, it's not that I want to talk about you."

"What kind of rubbish are you teaching them?"

"The true Way of Hiding is to be like wind and rain, nourishing things silently, to turn oneself into air, not like them, afraid that others won't know they are acting."

Dahuang pointed out the country with its paw while speaking.

"Look at that kid, crying like his father died, too fake."

"And that girl, falling at a touch? Do you think the villains are all idiots? They will definitely suspect you are plotting something!"

"A true weakling has numbness in their eyes, slowness in their movements, and inferiority carved into their bones!"

Dahuang became more and more enthusiastic as it spoke, even wanting to demonstrate it personally.

Li Daoxuan's face was already as black as the bottom of a pot.

You damn dog!

Give you a little sunshine and you get bright, give you a chicken leg and you open a dye workshop, right?

You dare to lecture me?

Just as Li Daoxuan was about to use the "Dog-Beating Stick Technique" to teach this unruly guy a lesson.

"Dong—dong—dong—!!!"

A dull, thunder-like sound of war drums suddenly came from outside the mountain gate.

The sound was extremely penetrating, shaking the entire valley and making it hum.

Immediately after.

A soaring Evil Qi rose from the foot of the mountain like wolf smoke.

"Enemy attack!"

Leng Yanran reacted first, her face instantly turning cold.

Li Daoxuan couldn't care about disciplining the dog, his brow furrowed tightly, and he instantly activated [Heavenly Eye Vision].

He saw at the foot of the Hidden God Sect mountain.

A black mass.

Banners were waving, and blades and spears were like a forest.

A well-equipped, Evil Qi-filled army was forming a battle formation, slowly approaching the mountain.

That number, more than ten thousand?

A rough scan showed at least one hundred thousand!

The leading general in golden armor, riding a ferocious iron-armored rhinoceros, pointed his long spear at the top of the mountain, emitting a sky-shaking roar:

"Bandits on the mountain, listen!"

"I am the Great General of the North of the Great Yan Dynasty!"

"You slaughtered the Blood Fiend Sect and violated the territory of our Dynasty, you deserve to die!"

"Get down here and accept your death immediately! Otherwise, when the army arrives, we will flatten this mountain, destroy your Divine Souls, and leave no one alive!"

Xiao Chen and Shi Tian listened until their faces turned pale.

One hundred thousand troops?!

And it was an army of the mortal Dynasty?!

How did they find their way here?

A flash of understanding crossed Li Daoxuan's eyes.

"So that's how it is."

"That Blood Fiend Sect was the Great Yan Dynasty's backer in the cultivation world."

"Now that the backer has fallen, they are... coming out to stand up for their Revered Master, and by the way, want to get a share of the loot?"

He looked at the black army, then at the few old, weak, sick, and disabled (on the surface) people around him, and that dog who was still chattering.

A playful arc curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Just right."

"The performance competition just now hasn't decided the winner yet."

"Now, the audience has arrived."

"Disciples, are you ready... to welcome your final exam?"