Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 649 - 632: Sect Grand Tournament

Chen Tingquan logged in on time and started today’s training.

Li Wenhao had also logged in. While cleaning out players who hadn’t logged in for three days from the group, he complained,

"This game’s groups can only hold 20 people, and it’s a real hassle to expand. The limits are too strict."

Chen Tingquan said, "A study group of 20 people seems reasonable."

The "Tou Fangfang" cultivation team was constantly recruiting new members. However, as "Reverse Heaven" was a new game, the player retention rate was also high, so cleaning out the group was a frequent necessity.

This was inevitable, as no matter how fun a game was, players would always drop off due to time constraints or changing tastes. No game could avoid this.

After a week, once players formed habits, the membership should stabilize.

Each study group could only hold up to 20 people. This was indeed a bit restrictive, as other games usually allowed guilds, even in mobile games, to start with around 40 members.

In MMORPGs, large guilds with hundreds of members were not uncommon.

But the cultivation team in "Reverse Heaven" evidently had a different aim.

In this game, the concept of a guild was more like a Sect, meaning the players all belonged to the Henggang Sect guild.

The group, however, was a mutual assistance organization among players, a kind of "family," hoping the players would form closer and more familiar relationships.

The larger the organization, the more members it had, but the less they knew each other. Conversely, smaller organizations with fewer members facilitated closer bonds.

After a quick cleanup of the "Tou Fangfang" group, a few current online join applications were accepted, including some fans of the two streamers.

"Hey, where’s Liang Chun?" Chen Tingquan asked.

Li Wenhao: "Probably messing with his Cave Mansion."

After reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage, players could own a Cave Mansion. Of course, opening a Cave Mansion also required a loan.

After opening the Cave Mansion, a lot of training could be completed there, with some additional benefits. The Cave Mansion could also be decorated to one’s liking, similar to certain building games.

Liang Chun was clearly addicted to this kind of idle game, having been immersed for two or three days.

Previously, the three of them had chosen different competition routes: one-year disciple, ten-year disciple, and one-hundred-year disciple.

At first, these three routes were quite competitive, almost knocking them off the excellent disciple ranks.

But over time, especially with some players leaving the game, their rankings rose slightly, finally holding onto the excellent disciple title.

So who were the ordinary disciples?

Of course, those were the casual players.

Although Chen Tingquan and Li Wenhao didn’t spend much money, they logged in regularly, seized the best training times, and completed the Sect quests. Such active players deserved the excellent disciple status.

While training, a transmission appeared prominently on the screen.

[Attention, all disciples! The Sect tournament is about to start. Please head to the tournament venue immediately and participate enthusiastically!]

[Winning the Sect tournament not only brings substantial rewards from the Sect but also offers a chance to join the Wuxiang Pill Alliance, becoming an Inner Sect Disciple, transcending the mundane, and bringing honor to Henggang Sect!]

Chen Tingquan raised an eyebrow: "Oh? Sect tournament!"

He glanced at the date. It was Sunday.

No wonder. "Reverse Heaven" appeared to schedule special activities every weekend, with the Sect tournament being one of them.

Previously, during the storyline, the Alchemist Qian had mentioned that the Sect tournament was a very important event.

In the entire Songyang Region, besides Henggang Sect, there were two other similar-sized Sects, Blood Demon Palace and Qingming Medicine Furnace.

Additionally, one of the Six Major Sects, the Wuxiang Pill Alliance, had a branch in Songyang.

This tournament wasn’t just a competition among disciples from Henggang Sect, Blood Demon Palace, and Qingming Medicine Furnace to vie for various cultivation resources; disciples from the Wuxiang Pill Alliance would also participate.

Performing well in the tournament might even lead to being picked up by the Wuxiang Pill Alliance.

That would be like skipping the effort of spending a big sum.

So, shortly after the transmission ended, many disciples who had been training soared into the sky, heading toward the tournament site.

"Mouse, call the rest of the team. Let’s go too!"

Li Wenhao hesitated: "Brother Quan, we’re completely F2P players, can we do it? We might embarrass ourselves."

Chen Tingquan waved his hand dismissively: "Hey, who cares, it’s the participation that counts. Even if we come last, we might get some small prizes."

"These group activities in games always have benefits. Let’s go, let’s go."

Soon, the online players from the Tou Fangfang casual group were all flying towards the Sect tournament.

Following the instructions, they arrived at a valley, where three different peaks were arranged according to each Sect’s architectural style.

In the middle of the valley were several spacious Martial Arts Arenas, where registered players could take turns battling.

Apart from this, Chen Tingquan noticed a large special Magical Treasure floating in the sky above the valley, resembling a giant elixir gourd with some players atop it.

All of them had the title: Inner Sect Disciple of the Wuxiang Pill Alliance.

The other players had various titles.

The disciples from Henggang Sect landed on their designated peak, bearing titles such as Henggang Sect One-Year Disciple or Henggang Sect Ten-Year Disciple.

The other two peaks belonged to Blood Demon Palace and Qingming Medicine Furnace, also divided into one-year, ten-year, and one-hundred-year disciples.

"Let’s register."

Chen Tingquan found the Henggang Sect NPC on their peak and interacted with it, bringing up a few options, including the registration interface and relevant explanations.

This tournament was held twice, once starting at noon and ending at two in the afternoon, and once in the evening starting at eight and ending at ten.

Registration was open until the start times, and the system would roughly match players by level, prioritizing matches with different Sect disciples.

The tournament was elimination-based: win to advance, lose once and you’re out.

If you made it to the end, you might receive an invitation from the Wuxiang Pill Alliance, drastically changing your cultivation path.

There was also another way to join the Wuxiang Pill Alliance.

If a player won three matches, they could directly challenge a Wuxiang Pill Alliance disciple.

Beating any Wuxiang Pill Alliance disciple allowed the challenger to take their place as a new disciple.

The replaced Wuxiang Pill Alliance disciple would be expelled from the Sect.

After reading the rules, Chen Tingquan’s eyes lit up.

"Wow, such a thrilling rule?"

"If possible, picking an easy target from the Wuxiang Pill Alliance disciples doesn’t seem like a bad plan?"

"It feels like the second method might be easier than the first in some cases!"

The first method required defeating most of the participating players. Although they were from ordinary Sects, with the high number of players, some would definitely have spent money.

Encountering such hidden whales would be almost impossible to defeat.

But the Wuxiang Pill Alliance, one of the Six Major Sects, required substantial spending to enter. Most likely, its players were whales, but there could also be those whales who hadn’t trained seriously, developed incorrectly, or lost interest in the game and hadn’t kept spending.

If he could find such a soft target and win...

That would actually be easier than the first method.

Besides, Chen Tingquan noticed the various generous rewards in the tournament.

Participating guaranteed a reward, with prizes for winning one, two, or three matches, and the ultimate winners receiving even richer rewards.

Of course, these prizes were legitimate and didn’t include Nine Dragon Elixir Pills.

But things like Foundation Establishment Pills and Strengthening Pills were still very useful for cultivation, and Spirit Stones and Magical Treasures were invaluable hard currency usable anywhere.

Spirit Stones could always be exchanged for Nine Dragon Elixir Pills through various channels.

After registering, Chen Tingquan meditated, preparing last-minute.

No matter how small, any improvement might help.

According to the rules, the initial matches were with disciples from other Sects of the same level, so Chen Tingquan’s first opponent would likely be a one-year disciple from the other two Sects, around the Qi Refining Third Level.

Playing well and winning one match would be a success!

Finally, after some intensive training, a prompt indicated that it was Chen Tingquan’s turn.

There were many Martial Arts Arenas on-site. The central one was the largest, while regular competitors fought one-on-one in the surrounding arenas.

The matches were short, with barriers preventing escape, and timed out by defaulting the player with lower health.

"Let’s do this!"

Confidently, Chen Tingquan stepped onto the stage, but one look at his opponent made his heart sink.

This guy’s muscles were visibly larger by a huge margin!

Then he saw the title: Qingming Medicine Furnace One-Year Excellent Disciple.

Chen Tingquan was stunned: "This is a one-year disciple? And just an excellent disciple??"