The staggering wealth the Whispering Willow Sect returned with—all thanks to Lin Qi's accidental acquisition—did wonders for the sect's reputation and its new canteen menu. However, the newfound fame fueled intense resentment among the older disciples.
Chief among the green-eyed was Gao Xiong, a 3^{\text{rd}}-Stage Qi Condensation disciple who had trained for a full decade, yet still struggled to maintain a basic Qi flow. Gao Xiong had suffered repeated humiliations: he had nearly died trying to purify the Gloom-Woven Creek, and he had spent a miserable day trying to tame a common field mouse that turned out to be rabid.
Now, this clueless youth, Lin Qi, was sleeping on a fortune.
"It is an insult to the Dao! It is a mockery of diligence!" Gao Xiong fumed, channeling his rage into his next act.
He burst into the central courtyard where Lin Qi was attempting to teach his pet Basilisk, Fluffikins, how to fetch (the Basilisk kept melting the sticks).
"Lin Qi!" Gao Xiong roared, his Qi pulsing with instability. He had just consumed a low-grade, volatile Raging Spirit Pill to boost his power for the confrontation. "I challenge you! A duel! Right here, right now, to prove who truly deserves the favor of the Sect!"
Lin Qi looked up, startled. "Oh. Are we playing a game? I don't know how to duel."
"Silence, false master!" Gao Xiong misinterpreted the confusion as chilling disdain. "Prepare yourself for the power of true cultivation!"
Gao Xiong adopted a fierce stance, channeling all his explosive, pill-enhanced Qi into his fists.
The Duel of Destiny (and Distraction)
Lin Qi, genuinely alarmed by the shouting, wasn't thinking about defense. He was thinking about a butterfly—a particularly beautiful, shimmering Moon-Winged Butterfly—that had just fluttered past Gao Xiong's head.
"Wow," Lin Qi murmured, completely distracted. "That one is so pretty."
Gao Xiong misread this entirely. He's mocking my posture! he thought, his blood boiling. He released his ultimate attack: the "Three Fists of Mountain Crushing."
The first punch, dense with aggressive Qi, streaked toward Lin Qi's chest. Lin Qi, suddenly deciding he wanted a better view of the butterfly, took a casual step to his right, completely forgetting the wooden bucket he had been standing near.
WHOOSH! The first punch missed Lin Qi by less than an inch.
Lin Qi's foot collided with the bucket, throwing him slightly off balance. He wobbled, instinctively sticking out his arms to steady himself as Gao Xiong launched his second, more powerful punch aimed at Lin Qi's shoulder.
WHOOSH! Lin Qi's wobbling motion caused him to lean violently backwards, causing the second punch to slice harmlessly through the air in front of his nose.
The Moon-Winged Butterfly then fluttered past Lin Qi's ear, exiting the courtyard. Lin Qi, disappointed, instinctively swiveled his body sharply to the left to see where it went.
WHOOSH! Gao Xiong's final, most devastating strike—the third fist—met only empty air.
The Destruction of the Sacred Relic
Gao Xiong was already unstable due to the volatile pill he had consumed. Missing his target three times in a row, coupled with the sheer force of his final, unreleased strike, caused his explosive Qi to spiral completely out of control.
His three strikes, now charged with excessive, uncontrolled power, continued their trajectory straight across the empty courtyard.
They slammed, with catastrophic force, into the Monument of Founding Glory—the Sect's most sacred, most ancient, and previously most indestructible relic.
CRACK! KRA-BOOM!
The monument exploded into a shower of marble and dust.
Gao Xiong stared in horror at the cloud of debris. His attack had annihilated the Sect's only historical treasure. He immediately suffered a major internal recoil, collapsing on the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood and the bitter remains of the Raging Spirit Pill.
Lin Qi, however, was simply frowning. "Aw. It flew away."
Sect Master Wu and Disciple Supervisor Feng rushed out, horrified by the dust cloud, but quickly realized what had happened. They looked at Lin Qi, who had done nothing but move in a completely uncoordinated fashion, and then at Gao Xiong, who had destroyed a holy relic.
Wu's face contorted into an expression of utter disbelief and profound reverence.
"He... he didn't attack," Wu whispered to Feng, his voice shaking. "He used the legendary 'Dance of Absolute Avoidance'! He made the fool's own power destroy his most sacred attachment! This is true Dao Mastery! A subtle, terrifying demonstration of power!"
Wu then declared the verdict, his voice booming with forced authority: "Disciple Lin Qi wins! Not with violence, but with the Subtle Art of Self-Annihilation Inducement!"
He delivered his new, stern maxim, directed at the whimpering Gao Xiong:
> "The best defense is not to fight, but to be doing something spectacularly unimportant at the right time. Your jealousy is now a disciplinary matter, not a spiritual one."
>
Gao Xiong, having destroyed the symbol of the sect and injured himself in the process, was immediately hauled away to the disciplinary dungeon for blasphemy and "attempting a public assassination by self-destruction."
Lin Qi, once again, was the unintentional hero. He spent the rest of the day looking for the Moon-Winged Butterfly, oblivious to the political and physical ruin he had caused.