Chapter 77

The next morning, he came to the kitchen, where several disciples of the Alchemy Hall were already eating.

The Alchemy Hall, apart from the three disciples assisting in the alchemy room, including Qin Fengming, had over twenty other disciples responsible for patrols, duties, cleaning, and meals.

He fetched some food, sat down at a table, and began to eat slowly.

At that moment, he suddenly heard a disciple behind him say, "Senior Brother Wang, have you heard? In three months, our sect will hold a selection competition among the lower-rank disciples. I heard the rewards for this competition are quite generous."

"Of course, I know about it. I heard that the disciples who make it through the selection will not only receive a high-quality magical artifact but will also be rewarded with a Foundation Establishment Pill, which is a significant aid for breaking through the peak Qi Gathering stage and entering the Foundation Establishment stage," Senior Brother Wang said, a hint of envy in his voice.

"But, I have no chance at all in this competition. Senior Brother Wang, if you try hard, you still have a good chance."

"Hehe, what chance do I have? Although I am at the eighth level, I have to compete against the ninth-level and Perfect Completion stage senior brothers. With my cultivation, I have no hope of winning. I shouldn't have any illusions," Senior Brother Wang said with a laugh.

Upon hearing this, Qin Fengming was taken aback. What selection? And a Foundation Establishment Pill? He had never heard of any recent selection in the sect. He turned around and saw the two people, both of whom he recognized. He chuckled and said, "Senior Brother Wang, I didn't know what you were talking about just now. Could you tell me what this selection is about?"

"Haha, it's you, Junior Brother Qin. It's not your fault that you don't know. You've always been either cultivating or helping Senior Uncle Fei in the alchemy room, so you're not as well-informed about sect affairs as we are. This isn't a secret, so I'll tell you about it," Senior Brother Wang replied.

Then, Senior Brother Wang and the other person began to narrate, one sentence at a time. Qin Fengming listened carefully and gradually gained a general understanding of the so-called selection.

To talk about this selection, we need to start with the cultivation world of the Great Liang Kingdom.

The entire cultivation world of the Great Liang Kingdom has three top-tier sects: Chasing Wind Valley, Wang Ting Mountain, and Free and Easy Sect. Apart from these three top-tier sects, there are five other sects that are slightly inferior, classified as second-tier sects: Luoxia Sect, Wohu Mountain, Spirit Driving Sect, Blood Refinement Sect, and Tai Xu Sect.

The entire Great Liang Kingdom is jointly controlled by these eight sects.

Speaking of cultivation, one cannot do without spirit stones, and the production of spirit stones is related to spirit stone mines. The Great Liang Kingdom has a total of nineteen major spirit stone mines, and the various spirit stones produced by these nineteen mines are of similar quantity and quality.

Of course, apart from these nineteen major spirit stone mines, there are numerous smaller spirit stone mines. The quality and output of the spirit stones from these smaller mines are incomparable to those from the major mines. These smaller mines are owned by various cultivation families and the major sects.

About two to three thousand years ago, the entire cultivation world of the Great Liang Kingdom engaged in a great war over the ownership of the spirit stone mines, resulting in countless casualties among cultivators.

In the end, the high-ranking cultivators of the various sects came to a consensus: continuing the fighting would not solve the problem and would cause immeasurable damage to the cultivation world of the Great Liang Kingdom. After joint discussions, they finally came up with a relatively feasible solution.

They decided to classify the three sects with Transformation Infant cultivators as one level and allocate ten of the nineteen major spirit stone mines to them. They would select disciples to compete in martial arts, and the winners would occupy four mines, while the rest would each occupy three.

The remaining five sects were classified as another level and would compete for the remaining nine mines. The first place would occupy three mines, the second and third places would each occupy two, and the rest would each occupy one.

However, this was not a permanent occupation but a competition held every thirty years.

The competition would involve disciples from the five sects participating in on-site trials, and only Qi Gathering stage disciples could participate. Each sect could only send forty disciples. The five sects would take turns hosting the competition, and this time it would be held at the Blood Refinement Sect.

With the thirty-year period about to expire, the higher-ups of the Luoxia Sect decided to hold a competition among the Qi Gathering stage disciples to select those who would participate in the upcoming battle for the spirit stone mines.

The competition is scheduled to take place in three months. The selected disciples will receive special guidance from Foundation Establishment stage senior uncles for half a year before participating in the spirit stone mine competition one year later.

To encourage capable disciples to participate, the higher-ups of the Luoxia Sect have offered Foundation Establishment Pills as rewards for the winners. This is used as an incentive to motivate the Qi Gathering stage ninth-level and Perfect Completion stage disciples to participate.

A Foundation Establishment Pill, as the name suggests, is a pill that cultivators take when they are establishing their foundation. This pill can help increase the success rate of foundation establishment.

However, for most cultivators, even if they take a Foundation Establishment Pill, whether they can successfully establish their foundation still depends on their luck. But without taking a Foundation Establishment Pill, it is virtually impossible to succeed in foundation establishment unless under special circumstances, such as consuming a certain spirit herb.

The ingredients required to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill are extremely rare, and even the major sects do not have enough materials to refine enough Foundation Establishment Pills for all their disciples.

Therefore, for disciples to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill, they must either have exceptional talent and excellent spiritual roots, or make outstanding contributions to the sect, such as submitting an extremely valuable material or discovering a rare spirit herb that is hundreds or thousands of years old.

In a sect with thousands of disciples, only a small fraction have the chance to take a Foundation Establishment Pill, and even fewer can successfully establish their foundation. This shows how difficult it is for cultivators to establish their foundation.

However, once a cultivator successfully establishes their foundation, they truly enter the realm of cultivation. Their lifespan will be more than double, and their magical power will be much stronger. Even ten late-stage Qi Gathering cultivators would have no chance against a Foundation Establishment cultivator in a magical power contest.

Therefore, the desire of Qi Gathering stage disciples for Foundation Establishment Pills is extremely urgent.

This time, the Luoxia Sect's selection for lower-rank disciples stipulates that only disciples who have reached the eighth level of the Qi Gathering stage and are no older than thirty years old are eligible to participate.

Although the rules state that eighth-level disciples can participate, no one has any hope for them.

In competitions among lower-rank cultivators, under equal conditions of magical artifacts and spells, the main factor is the depth of magical power. Only those with deeper magical power have a chance to win. Therefore, in past competitions, the winners were always Perfect Completion stage disciples, representing the Luoxia Sect in the spirit stone mine competition.

However, occasionally, a ninth-level Qi Gathering disciple would win, but an eighth-level disciple has never won. The reason is simple: the Luoxia Sect has hundreds or even thousands of peak Qi Gathering stage disciples. The difficulty of standing out among so many Perfect Completion stage disciples is self-evident.