The people who got second and third were giving Tang Ze side glances even as they were all on stage, but Tang Ze thought so little of their presence he never even glanced towards them, and as such did not notice this at all. If those two had been planning on trying to unnerve him or to probe him via their glances, it was not working.
Tang Ze felt as if a huge burden had been taken off his shoulders as he got off the stage, and that was all that he could focus on.
'Even if worse comes to worse, I at least won one event,' - he thought. Still, he needed to start preparing for the others.
The prefects from his sect division took the trophy - as it was, it was only a ceremonial piece and not worth anything in and of itself. It would, however, look good in the sect division's trophy cabinet.
It was a little past noon, but there was still time for the contestants to mingle with each other.
Naturally the star of all the attention would be Tang Ze.
However, although he had only thrown three punches, it felt like that had taken all the wind out of him and he went back to his tent almost immediately, ignoring nearly everyone who came to talk to him along the way.
Several of the women, particularly from his own sect, sent him flirtatious glances hoping to catch his attention.
Such tactics might have worked on someone other than Tang Ze - because he was so used to being looked at with disgust by women back in his own sect division that he just glazed over all of these amorous looks as he expected the same thing to happen here. Basically, they were being far too subtle for him to realize what their intentions were.
Once he was in his tent, he fell asleep almost immediately.
When he woke up it was late in the evening, and his mood was considerably better now. The next event was a quiz on the Raswatian Empire's history, and he definitely could not do anything in that event, so he could relax for now.
He decided to walk out and speak to some people now that he felt better, though he stayed within his own sect's boundaries. It was not taboo to walk between the different camps, at least during the daytime, though you might get some odd glances here and there, but given recent events Tang Ze chose to forego these.
Most of them congratulated him, some of them challenged him to contests like arm wrestling which he declined, while others wanted to know if he had any secret training regimen.
Well, there was a secret, just that none of these people would believe him about it even if he told them.
There was little more to talk about to such people as it was - he wasn't from this world and didn't know much about the hobbies or going-ons of things. He hadn't felt like that really mattered when he was with his squad, but it was a different matter with these people. He was ignorant regarding most current political events, and with his sect division being in a backwater, this did not extend to simply the Empire's politics but also sect politics as well. The others seemed to be well-versed in those topics, which Tang Ze had no clue about.
He knew that all of them, or at least most of them, meant well as they all did belong to the same sect, but he could also tell that they were frustrated when he couldn't really carry any conversation with them for longer than five minutes.
Naturally, though, morale within the Rising Phoenix sect's camp was high and something of a small party was thrown that night - and unfortunately Tang Ze once again found himself the center of attention during the celebration.
Ah well - at least, on the bright side, he could sleep in tomorrow as it was a break day to let the candidates rest.
The next day he felt more refreshed, and reflecting on things, realized that now that he had won first place in an event - just like Elder He Xuan had once told him earlier, it was as if he had more than paid the sect back for all the resources they invested in him.
The two prefects who had come with him also came in to congratulate him, but did also say that it would be for the better if he came out of his tent occasionally instead of being holed in it while avoiding as much social contact as possible like a medieval version of a NEET (not exactly what they said of course, but how Tang Ze interpreted it). He had tried to do so yesterday, but according to the two of them this was not enough.
And so Tang Ze did make more efforts to socialize, though again, whenever he was out, he wished he was back in his sect division with his squad and not with all these strangers.
His lack of knowledge was also made painfully obvious during these moments.
Talk was going on about what the upcoming matches were, the favorites to win, and strategies to engage in to try to optimize victory.
The next day the quiz was held - and the winner was a member of the Diamond Dust sect. Though Tang Ze personally had a bit of a grudge against the sect, he couldn't deny that the win was absolutely deserved.
One of their contestants seemed to have an eidetic memory - capable of answering any question almost instantly. They left the other contestants in the dust, so even though their cultivation was low much like Tang Ze's, they ended up winning and got a large amount of acclaim.
The next event was horse riding - Tang Ze had no real interest or ability with this, and something like this depended more on breeding the perfect horse than the horsemen.
The Jasmine Dragon sect took first place in this event.
The next event up was another one that Tang Ze would be participating in - it was the foot race.
While all Tang Ze was doing was sitting in his tent and mediating while occasionally doing warm-up exercises, others were more... shall we say, proactive when it came to the events.
Two such people were Mo Yan of the Silver Moon sect and Li Zhi of the Emerald Floral sect.
The two of them were both eager to participate in the upcoming foot race, and normally would be competitors for the first spot.
But, both of them had felt a chill creep down their spines when they learned that Tang Ze would be participating. If his speed was anything like his strength - they were done for.
"Do you think it's true what they say?" Mo Yan asked. "They say that he beat a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Astral Winds sect in combat!"
"Impossible," Li Zhi said. Even though she herself had heard it confirmed from multiple sources, she couldn't at all believe such a thing happened. No one would. It was unfathomable - unless Tang Ze was using some kind of technique or treasure to keep his cultivation at a very low level when other people tried to detect it. But, they had all been checked thoroughly before being allowed to participate in this event, meaning there was no way for him to fool anyone here like that.
"And yet, everyone says so," Mo Yan said. "They say he won by cheating, though, using a demonic technique."
"That must be true, how else would it be possible? Foul play had to be involved in the event."
The two of them wanted to get more information on Tang Ze, but it was rather scarce compared to the other participants. For one, he had only recently joined the Rising Phoenix sect and seemingly had no presence before then. Secondly, he had not participated in the Novice Tournament before, so they had nothing to go on.
"He seems to be some kind of recluse," Li Zhi noted. "Always staying in his tent and rarely venturing out."
"A normal serious competitor would be trying to move about as much as possible," Mo Yan said. "Trying to gauge the enemy as much as they can."
While doing what Tang Ze was doing by isolating himself had its own benefits in hiding one's own aptitude, it also meant that one could not gauge other people's skills.
A truly talented person would hide their own aptitude while gleaming information on others - that was what Mo Yang and Li Zhi felt.
As such, Tang Ze was not playing optimally. But, this still meant that they had very little idea on what their potential strongest foe could do - something they couldn't just abide by.
But, how could they get more information on him? He was deeply nestled within the Rising Phoenix sect's camp, and rarely came out of his tent. Meaning that if they tried to walk up to him, it would be immediately obvious that they had some kind of ulterior motive.
Naturally he would put himself on guard were that the case.
Actually, it could be said that Tang Ze was playing to his strengths in a way. He was not as diplomatic or charismatic as someone like Zhang Long, and given the fact that he might end up saying something off without really being able to understand anything about his opponents - this was one of the scenarios where keeping him hidden was from a certain perspective the optimal play.
Mo Yan and Li Zhi though, weren't aware of the full extent of this.
Many others like them had wanted to gain some information on Tang Ze naturally - either because of what he had done to the Senior Elder of the Astral Winds sect, or because he was poised to win first place in some of the events. And when he actually did win the Iron Fist challenge by a huge margin, naturally such attention had reached its peak and the number of such inquisitors had risen several fold.
Mo Yan and Li Zhi, though they belonged to different sects and were former rivals, had agreed to cooperate in this regard given they had no idea what their new rival could do. Oftentimes, what scared humans the most was not knowing what lay before them - Tang Ze was an unknown aside from the fact that he had incredible upper body strength. Naturally they wished to get to the bottom of this.
"Ah, but I have a plan where we can gauge how he is doing," Li Zhi said. "He might be somewhat of a recluse, but he does go outside for one reason - he has been inquiring about buying a snow leopard pelt in the market for some time."
"Snow leopard pelt?" Mo Yan wondered. That seemed so random of an item for a cultivator to be looking for - it was an item that didn't have that much common use aside from maybe those who coveted how it looked. "What for?"
"Who knows - it's just that I know he goes to the market daily on his days off to try to find one," Li Zhi said. "Now, I don't know why, but I do have a plan if you want to see how good he is."
It required Mo Yan's cooperation, but as a plan, it was quite airtight. At least, Mo Yan and Li Zhi felt that it was their best bet.