The Divine Cauldron Sect is so blind!
Fan Hongde's face turned pale. This turn of events was far beyond his expectations, far beyond what he could bear.
What does a genius disciple mean to a sect? It means the continuation of the sect's lineage and the guarantee of its enduring prosperity! Why do all sects value the results of the competition so much? It's because they want to gain fame and lay the foundation for recruiting even better disciples in the future!
If he had known earlier that she had such talent in alchemy, he would have preferred to go to the trouble of finding a body with compatible spiritual roots for Mingzhu rather than let her leave!
He suddenly realized something: the fact that everyone in the Lianfeng Sword Sect had performed at the highest level might not have been related to Shu Yuanguan at all, but rather to Shi Xuan's actions. Once he opened the floodgates of his imagination, he couldn't stop his wild thoughts and was filled with regret.
She regretted two things: first, not discovering Shi Xuan's talent sooner; and second, not killing her completely on the night she changed her spiritual root.
Without her, the Lianfeng Sword Sect would never have been able to rise to prominence, and their Shending Sect would undoubtedly still be number one!
Shu Yuanguan interrupted his thoughts at this moment, "I give it a perfect score!" he said loudly, his voice filled with obvious pride.
This is a top-grade, flawless elixir, without a single fault. Anyone who comes here would give it a perfect score.
However, they had given away too many high-grade pills before, so now that they had encountered Wuxia, they really didn't know where to begin.
Nine out of ten for superior quality, ten for flawless? There's an extremely rare top-grade grade between flawless and superior quality, so this is clearly an insult to flawless. But there was nothing they could do but give a ten out of ten with forced smiles.
Only Fan Hongde was at a loss. The other four could at least offer some improvement, but he had nothing to offer. In other words, in his eyes, there was no difference between superior and flawless quality. If this got out, how could their Divine Cauldron Sect save face!
His face flushed red. Shu Yuanguan, meanwhile, continued to make sarcastic remarks: "I told you before, people should always leave themselves a way out. No matter what, going too far will easily lead to trouble."
This isn't about elixirs at all; it's a veiled criticism of what he did to Shi Xuan!
But he didn't say it outright; his veiled criticisms left no room for rebuttal, infuriating Fan Hongde to the point of grinding his teeth.
The disciples below the stands watched the judges score the entire time. As the Lianfeng Sword Sect produced one high-grade item after another, they went from gasping in surprise to becoming numb, thinking they had had enough of the blows. But who would have thought that the final act would deliver a fatal blow to them?
Today they finally understood the saying, "There are always people better than you, and there is always a higher level to reach." They had always considered themselves the best among their peers in the sect, and being able to represent the sect in the Six Sects Alchemy Competition was an immense honor and an affirmation of their sect's efforts. Who would have thought that going out would lead them to broaden their horizons!
Seeing Fan Hongde on the stage, his face flushed and speechless, the disciples of the six sects felt their belief in the sacred ground of alchemy had crumbled. It turned out that the Divine Cauldron Sect was nothing more than this. Coupled with their actions towards Shi Xuan, their character and alchemy skills had both been compromised.
I often hear the elders in the sect say that if a sect wants to prosper and be passed down for a long time, the most important thing is to adhere to its own path. The so-called path is the spirit that allows a sect to stand tall. If this spirit is lost, the sect will decline sooner or later.
Looking at the Divine Cauldron Sect in comparison now, one can only feel that the wisdom of the ancestors is truly beyond the reach of later generations.
The Divine Cauldron Sect, though still powerful, is already showing signs of decline.
Shu Yuanguan looked at Fan Hongde with a half-smile, wanting to see how he would end up.
Fan Hongde closed his eyes, then said angrily, "Ten out of ten!"
"Oh? Sect Leader Fan, that's unfair. Superior grade is 10 points, and now that we have top grade, it's still 10 points. Top grade without flaws is still 10 points. This..." Shu Yuanguan seemed very troubled.
Fan Hongde was furious: "In the hundreds of years of history of alchemy, no disciple has ever refined a top-grade alchemy. Therefore, it is only reasonable for me to give ten points for the first grade! Fellow Daoist Shu, why are you being so aggressive!"
When they realize they're in the wrong, they start accusing others of being aggressive. This isn't like the beginning when they questioned whether Shu Yuanguan's seven points were too low.
Shu Yuanguan smiled slightly. He had warned him at the beginning to be careful not to give too much and cause trouble, but he hadn't taken it seriously. Now, naturally, he wasn't going to give him any face either. He mocked, "Just because it didn't exist before doesn't mean it can't exist in the future? Everything in the cultivation world has gone from nothing to something, from a blank slate for millennia to the flourishing of today. If Sect Master Fan tries to judge the future based on the experience of the past, he will only be forever trapped in the same place, unable to make any progress. To only inherit without developing is not the vision of a sect master."
In front of all the sect leaders, elders, and disciples of the six sects, Shu Yuanguan spoke without any politeness, but after the disciples pondered what he said, they found it to be quite reasonable.
Cultivators in the cultivation world can learn from the experiences of their predecessors, but they cannot let those experiences limit their thinking. Cultivation is like rowing against the current; if you don't advance, you fall behind. Stagnation will only lead to the gradual disappearance of sects into the long river of history.
Even if no disciple refines a top-grade pain-relieving pill, we shouldn't lower the standards for pill quality just because there's a gap in top-grade pills. Instead, we should recognize our own potential for improvement and then find ways to fill that gap.
These words left Fan Hongde speechless, and the audience in the stands was immediately thrown into an awkward situation. The others all looked embarrassed; although the criticism was directed at Fan Hongde, they also felt somewhat dragged into it. Especially compared to their skepticism towards Shu Yuanguan's seven points during the first bottle of pill evaluation, they all felt a pang of shame.
The awkward atmosphere lasted for a few moments before Fan Hongde snorted coldly and stormed off.
The remaining people on the field shook their heads and sighed inwardly. Fan Hongde had been too successful in the path of alchemy. Having held a high position for many years, he probably couldn't listen to the advice of others anymore. In addition, the Divine Cauldron Sect had won the Six Sects Alchemy Competition every year. They had been smooth sailing for many years and had not encountered any setbacks. Anyway, the judging was basically completed, so let him calm down for a while.
The remaining five people tallied the scores across three criteria and found that all eight participants from the Lianfeng Sword Sect were selected! Only two spots remained for the five sects, but the Shending Sect took the remaining two spots. So what were the other four sects doing there?
The elders of the four sects other than Lianfeng Sword Sect and Shending Sect looked at each other in dismay. This was too much! They had come all this way and were wiped out in the first round. They also wanted to walk away in a huff!
But on second thought, the disciples these days are indeed quite impetuous. Such a big defeat might actually be a good thing to dampen their spirits.
After the results were announced, the disciples of the Lianfeng Sword Sect cheered around Shi Xuan. Everyone said that as long as you followed Senior Sister Shi Xuan in alchemy, you could never go wrong. Although the process was somewhat arduous and many unexpected things happened, the results were gratifying.
In previous years, their Lianfeng Sword Sect had been completely suppressed by the Divine Cauldron Sect. They had never had such a moment of triumph before! The disciples were overjoyed.
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