Many people in the audience noticed the scene and looked on in shock, whispering among themselves.
Perhaps the gossip level was simply too high, or maybe the blessing of being amidst a crowd gave them courage, but those cultivators were literally whispering instead of using sound transmission.
It might also have had to do with the human urge to share one's own opinion — after all, it wouldn't be satisfying enough if only one companion heard it; it was better when those nearby also listened and joined in the talk.
Whatever the reason, the melon-eaters — or, in Western terms, the tea-sippers, or simply drama lovers — were thrilled and intrigued by the image of an old man being grabbed by the ear and scolded by a middle-aged man.
Fortunately, from the crowd's perspective, there was nothing inappropriate about the scene. After all, it wasn't an act of elder abuse, but rather a elder strictly disciplining his disrespectful disciple.
Cang Song wasn't feeling pain. His master was only scolding him, not hurting him. But his pale and frightened face said otherwise.
'It's over…'
He trembled inwardly as he felt the gaze of everyone in the crowd and that of his master.
From the beginning, he had been deceiving his master — not out of malice, but out of habit. However, realizing he had been discovered months ago, without knowing, and had continued acting all this time made him feel deeply ashamed.
Besides that, his master was certainly furious now because he had tried to hide his abilities from both him and the crowd by placing second.
As for the truth being revealed to the disciples and everyone else by his master at that moment, it wasn't the worst problem, but it went against his desire to remain low-key. From now on, no matter how much he tried to hide, no one would believe he was ordinary — at least not when it came to alchemy.
Dan Hong, seeing his pale disciple, rolled his eyes in irritation and smacked his head, waking him up.
"Stop being such a drama queen, acting as if someone in the sect is going to kill you for having talent. It's not like your life will change that much because of it. I only demand that you improve. I don't care if you want to act discreetly, just stop thinking you can fool your master and be honest from now on."
He scolded him and left the embarrassed Cang Song behind, who rubbed his head and sighed bitterly.
Before completely leaving, Dan Hong left a phrase that immediately lifted the coward's spirits.
"I've blocked our conversation, so no one heard. Your master won't meddle in your affairs as long as it doesn't bring harm to you or others in the sect. I can't dictate how you live your life. But remember this: don't cower when the time comes to make a crucial decision, because your master… will always be your strongest support."
Leaving those words behind, he disappeared, and Cang Song, whose color returned upon hearing them, felt deeply moved.
A silent sigh escaped his lips.
…
In the audience, one of the people watching the scene was the couple Lei Yun and Mu Luyin.
After four months, they seemed much closer — a real couple — and their relationship had developed quite a bit.
As for cultivation, four months ago, when Lei Yun had an epiphany, he deliberately held back from breaking through to the 4th level of the Golden Core. Even so, he reached the peak of the 3rd level and could advance at any time.
After the epiphany, he spent several days strengthening his foundation before advancing to the 4th level, and now, four months later, he was already close to reaching the 5th level of the Golden Core realm.
As for Mu Luyin, she had also managed to obtain a Nascent Soul-tier technique from the sect, but it had drained her finances completely.
In the sect, the easiest way for disciples to earn contribution points was by submitting techniques to the sect, but there were limits.
First, each disciple had a limit of ten techniques per realm each year.
Second, it couldn't be a technique that had already been submitted to the pavilion before.
These were limits Aotian had set to prevent disciples from stacking garbage and collecting too many points.
Everything they read, Aotian received as feedback, but he didn't directly place it in the Heritage Pavilion nor block the disciples' means of earning points. He wanted to encourage them to collect new techniques.
Thus, those two limits were established.
Mu Luyin, under Lei Yun's insistence, needed a Nascent-tier technique from the sect, but to get it she had to pay 20,000 points for the sect's initial package, 50,000 for the Foundation Establishment part of the technique, 500,000 for the Golden Core, and finally 10 million for the Nascent Soul.
The prices were so high they made one's teeth ache — even the wealthy young lady Mu Luyin couldn't endure it.
Even after bringing several techniques from her clan when she joined the sect, due to the elders' advice, it still wasn't enough. The selling price of normal techniques was far inferior to the purchasing price of the sect's synthesized ones.
With ten Nascent Soul techniques, she only gathered five million points.
With ten Golden Core, ten Foundation Establishment, and ten Qi Refining techniques, she gained respectively 200,000, 20,000, and 2,000 points.
Thus, with 5,222,000 points, she was still far from the 10,552,000 needed for the technique.
And Lei Yun couldn't use his own selling quota to help her, since contribution points couldn't be transferred between disciples.
When she was about to give up — since she hadn't brought any Soul Formation techniques, the treasure of her clan that could never be sold to an external force — her dao companion, Lei Yun, suddenly revealed his wealth.
He handed her a Soul Formation technique, and a rare one at that, of the Thunder attribute.
When she, shocked that he — who had no background — possessed such a precious technique, regained her senses, she immediately refused to use his wealth. But his simple sentence, "What's mine isn't yours? Trust me, I know what I'm doing.", silenced her completely. Blushing, she obediently went to exchange the points to buy her technique.
Grinding her teeth in bitterness, she handed over the technique and gained ten million points, finally enough to make the purchase.
Then, almost growling from feeling robbed, she brought the technique back to her cave and used it.
When she felt its effects, the only phrase she managed to utter was:
"Cheap, way too cheap! The sect should charge more!"
Enchanted by the effect, she wished she could recultivate using the sect's techniques. Unfortunately, in this world, that wasn't possible.
Each realm represented a transformation of one's very existence. There was no way to simply take a Nascent Soul, crush it, and turn it back into a Golden Core. Nor was it possible to undo a Golden Core and revert it to the reinforced dantian of the Foundation Establishment realm.
It was like burning a piece of wood — one couldn't take the ashes and turn them back into a new log.
Or like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly — even if its wings were cut off, it would still be a butterfly, just wingless.
Perhaps there existed magical materials capable of allowing such a process, but with the current abilities of the cultivators of that world, or even Aotian himself, that was still impossible.
Fortunately, with the sect's powerful techniques, as long as she dedicated more time to refining each level and realm in the future, when she reached a higher stage, the imperfections of the past would gradually be corrected, and her foundation wouldn't be much inferior to that of other disciples.
Of course, that was only possible because the sect's techniques were powerful enough to correct most flaws during cultivation.
Thus, because she had spent those months refining her foundation, and also because her realm was already very high, she hadn't made any breakthroughs during that time, remaining at the same level she had been when she left the Dragon Lake — the 3rd level of the Nascent Soul realm.
"Are you going to take part in any competition, Brother Yun?" Mu Luyin asked curiously, holding his hand, her green eyes sparkling.
Lei Yun pondered for a moment, but in the end, he shook his head.
"No, I don't need many contribution points right now. It's better not to compete with the other disciples."
Mu Luyin understood and nodded.
Her brother possessed many techniques to sell and had already accumulated a large number of contribution points. He had even purchased some of the sect's expensive Nascent-tier, Core-tier, and even Founder-tier spells, the last of which were still useful and highly cost-efficient for someone in the Golden Core realm. This had greatly increased his combat power — and his admiration for the sect even more so.
What impressed him the most was the fact that the sect truly possessed countless Thunder-element spells, and they were extremely powerful. So powerful they defied logic — a Core-tier spell from the sect had the strength of a powerful Nascent-tier spell, without additional energy cost, something that still left him both incredulous and thrilled.
In his past life, he had struggled immensely to obtain Thunder-element spells, and many he had to create himself, as his affinity was extremely rare.
But in the Infinite Dao Sect, there seemed to be no shortage of spells and techniques of that element, which deeply impressed him.
Of course, not only the techniques and spells, but the entire heritage of the sect was incredibly powerful.
Watching that alchemist competition, even though it was only among Founder-tier practitioners, clearly showed the contrast compared to other sects.
After all, the worst alchemists there would be considered absolute geniuses anywhere else — especially considering it had barely been a year since they started studying alchemy. Forget geniuses, they would be seen as true monsters.
Even Lei Yun, a former Mahayana, was determined to learn the sect's auxiliary cultivation arts as soon as he had time, further strengthening his abilities.
…
With the end of the competition, the award ceremony, and everyone's congratulations, the crowd slowly dispersed, eager to return the next day and continue watching the spectacle.
But almost everyone, without exception, cast envious looks toward the three disciples — Huo Qing, Cang Song, and Lan Jun — who were being led by Elder Yang Shi to the Heritage Pavilion to receive the final prize: their Golden Core cultivation techniques.
Not only were the spectators excited, but also the three winners themselves.
They were about to reach the peak realm of the continent where they had grown up — the realm they had always heard legends about… the Golden Core. Just thinking about it made them tremble with excitement.
As soon as they received the techniques from the pavilion and thanked the elders, none of them wasted any time and immediately ran to their respective caves.
Through the eyes of his avatars, Aotian watched everything.
With his main body, he returned to his own cave, bid farewell to Rihai, and finally entered his room.
There, he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes, eagerly awaiting the events to come.
Under Bao Wuji's spiritual sense, he felt, within the caves of the three champion disciples, an aura slowly rising until… the breakthrough process began.
Slowly, three Supreme Cores were formed within the sect's cave mansions that day.
And with their formation, a sound echoed that brought a wide smile to Aotian's face:
Ding!