After the Fourteen Sons of Vast Sky, it was time for the disciples to be promoted to official disciples through a grand competition.
With Chen Xia already promoted to be an Elder of Laws, the top contender among the disciples was undoubtedly Li Yang of the Fourteen Sons.
Indeed, without any other heirs of emperor blood competing, Li Yang easily took first place and was promoted to an official disciple.
Her companion Liu Qing was not as amazing, but still managed to grab one of the last spots and got promoted too, which was good news.
Chen Xia watched the entire competition, not because he wanted to, but because his status as one of the Fourteen Sons and an Elder of Laws required him to attend.
The battles between disciples seemed too childish for Chen Xia now, he almost fell asleep watching them.
After slapping himself awake, he was much more alert and started chatting idly with the other heirs around him.
"Where are you from, how old are you, what's your bloodline?"
Chen Xia just kept asking questions rapidly, not giving the other heirs any chance to catch their breath.
Luckily he was sitting next to Emperor Capital and Qiu Li, who were used to being "bullied" by Chen Xia before, so they bore it silently.
If it were other heirs, they might have wanted to fight Chen Xia over this.
The competition for disciples ended swiftly, without much suspense or any dark horses, everything went routinely.
According to procedure, it was time to recruit new disciples next.
The Fourteen Sons and Elders all had the power to recommend disciples, but whether they could join Vast Sky Sword Sea would still depend on their abilities.
Chen Xia didn't have anyone to recommend and was even thinking of selling this quota to outsiders, he just hadn't found the chance yet.
He had quite a bit of savings now, but still wanted to earn more spirit stones, there was no harm in having more!
Now with Zhang DaoMing's Dan Medicine Association giving him thousands of spirit stones in income every decade, it wasn't a huge amount but very stable.
Chen Xia also had things he wanted to spend money on, like buying spirit qi beads, collecting top-grade medicinal ingredients, etc.
What he wanted to do now was refine pills that could nurture his dragon qi, to strengthen his true dragon qi and advance upwards.
But pills that could nurture dragon qi were truly expensive, starting at 60,000, comparable to mid-grade Dao pills!
Of course Chen Xia wouldn't buy the pills directly, instead he bought ingredients to refine them himself.
That said, the ingredients for refining true dragon qi pills were also not cheap. Just the true dragon bones used as auxiliary ingredients cost 1,000 spirit stones each.
What pissed Chen Xia off the most was that even his little pinky finger counted as one true dragon bone.
And for the top-grade pill he wanted to refine, he needed a whole true dragon skeleton, 100 bones total, just the skeleton cost 100,000 spirit stones!
But the pill Chen Xia wanted to refine was extremely top-grade, according to the recipe it was the most top-grade pill among Dao pills, already infinitely close to a Great pill.
If Chen Xia was the one refining it, who knows, it might turn into a Great pill in the end.
After all, he had always relied on luck in pill refining.
Aside from the dragon bones, there were some other ingredients that cost a lot, so Chen Xia was also thinking of ways to earn money now.
He even asked Zhang DaoMing to recommend more Dao pill refining work, where he could earn 100,000 spirit stones every two decades if he refined a batch every century.
Zhang DaoMing was naturally willing, though he was still confused why Chen Xia lacked money, since Chen Xia had earned quite a bit and aside from owing him 300,000 spirit stones, he hadn't heard of Chen Xia owing money to others.
Chen Xia explained his situation and also asked Zhang DaoMing to lend him some money.
The moment Zhang DaoMing heard this he pretended to be dead, no matter how Chen Xia reasoned, his answer was just "no lending".
He would even retort: "If you lack money why don't you sell those few spirit qi beads instead of coming to me for money?"
"You don't understand," Chen Xia shook his head and replied: "Borrowing money is for living, but spirit qi beads are ideals."
"No matter how you live, you can't give up on ideals."
He spoke righteously, but Zhang DaoMing felt it was bullshit logic and just rolled his eyes, still refusing to lend the money.
Chen Xia had no other options and could only steadily save up money.
The next batch of disciples for Vast Sky Sword Sea also arrived on time, even more than last batch, a neat 1,000 cultivators.
But among these 1,000, there wasn't a single heir of emperor blood, even supreme bloodlines were pathetically few.
Most were ancient bloodlines, mixed in with some lower ancient bloodlines.
While it was not good to judge status by bloodline, this was simply how it was.
Even as Vast Sky Sword Sea strove to recruit new blood and expand, this batch clearly showed its decline.
Even blind people could see it.
Vast Sky Sword Sea was now on its downhill path.
This couldn't be helped, no sect could remain prosperous forever. Vast Sky Sword Sea's peak spanning several great worlds was finally curtain call.
Recruiting so many disciples now could be seen as a final struggle before its death.
Without a single heir among the recruits, how could they still be competitive?
The answer was they couldn't.
Li Yang became the last heir of Vast Sky Sword Sea.
The Fourteen Sons represented both its peak and its swan song.
Everyone could see it, the Elders of Vast Sky Sword Sea knew it too, yet no one was willing to acknowledge this fact.
All felt somewhat sorrowful.
Even the reclusive Taishang Elder came out, the Third Elder could often be seen sitting atop the sword tower, blankly gazing at the endless cycle of stars in the sky.
He was born and raised in Vast Sky Sword Sea, with a prominent background yet unruly nature, causing much trouble and getting into many fights.
At Vast Sky Sword Sea's peak, he lorded over others from on high.
Now that it was declining, he would accompany Vast Sky Sword Sea to the end of this road no matter what.
Whether flourishing or withering, he had no regrets.
The other Elders were also feeling terrible. This batch of recruits without a single heir undoubtedly signaled the beginning of Vast Sky Sword Sea's decay.
They had devoted so many years to Vast Sky Sword Sea, and developed some feelings for it. Now at its decline, they had to think of ways to save it.
But their ideas were just stopgap measures.
Vast Sky Sword Sea's second sign of decline swiftly followed, as Heavenly Dao suddenly siphoned away a large portion of spirit qi from the entire sect.
The cultivators of Vast Sky Sword Sea were even more gloomy now, often gathering together to sigh and lament.
The entire Vast Sky Sword Sea was permeated with a mournful atmosphere.
But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining.
Chen Xia walked along the sword path, his expression downcast as he stared at the ground while walking quickly towards his own cave abode, appearing anxious and distressed just like the Elders outside.
The other cultivators saw this as normal, since the entire Vast Sky Sword Sea currently had this kind of gloomy urgent atmosphere.
But the moment Chen Xia closed the door of his cave shut, his lowered head suddenly lifted and the gloomy look vanished in an instant, replaced by an elated grin of delight.
The extremely suppressed grin finally burst out!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
