How do I get stronger?

[AspectEmperor]

I'm level 40, and my sect master wants me to do the dailing arena but at the heavenly round it gives me level 60 enemies who I can't kill. I try doing the nine factions sect quest but everything is level 60. Do i just grind for hours or did I mess up somehow?

[darkshintos]

I hope you've been going around and doing side quests because just sitting there grinding levels won't make you that much stronger without having good stats and Martial Arts.

And if you didn't know, the Daliang Tournaments are optional, finishing all of them won't give you a new quest, the Old Man will just give you a really REALLY good reward.
The 3 9 Factions quests are the mandatory quests that will unlock the next Main Old Man quest.

If you haven't been using the Pear Blossom Spear, using that will make things a lot easier. But if you have a decent load out of Martial Arts (You want all epic tier Martial Arts by that point), you probably just need to change your Passive Tree to better fit the fights.
Usually swapping to Mountain and Forest trees is enough to win you those fights even at level 40.

[Nether]

In general, if it's your first run (and it sounds like it is) I'd suggest to just go around and poke your nose into things instead of grinding levels - sheer levels are actually the least important part of the power equation.

By this point there's a lot of *stuff* to do in the game - what you want is stat points, Combat stat and Purple+ techniques and equipment.

A couple of suggestions in no particular order

• Originally posted by darkshintos:

  But if you have a decent load out of Martial Arts (You want all epic tier Martial Arts by that point), you probably just need to change your Passive Tree to better fit the fights.
  Usually swapping to Mountain and Forest trees is enough to win you those fights even at level 40.

  This one is great - going turtle is boring but usually lets you punch higher than your weight class.
  
• Stat points: you want the base stats to be 10 sooner or later. Gather materials, run around, pray at temples, eat purple food, headbutt the statue of the hero and read confucian/buddhist books. It's been a LONG while since I last had to grind for stat experience, so I don't know which are the least painfully boring methods, but this should give you an idea.
  
• Legendary Martial Arts for fun and profit: there's a few low-hanging legendary inners you can get your hands on with minimal amount of fighting - those do wonders for your staying power: Go to Lin'An and clean the casino, sneak into the buddhist tower and read the book in their sleeping room, solve the chess game at the Linlang temple (level 60 fight).
  
• Go to places you have unlocked but never visited, meet new people and punch them in the face. Combat grows as you defeat named enemies, and is possibly the single most important stats for fighting well.
  You can also grow it with some repeatable fights (I think Du Gu in the sword pavillion is one) but it shouldn't be necessary.