Kapitel 173: The Beginning of the Decline of the Azure Sky Sword Sea
After the Fourteen Sons of the Vast Heaven, it was the grand competition for preparatory disciples to be promoted to official disciples.
Nowadays, among the preparatory disciples, there was one less heavyweight figure, Chen Xia, because he had already skipped the ranks and become a Law Elder.
So this time, the first place among the preparatory disciples was basically confirmed to be Li Yang among the Fourteen Sons of the Vast Heaven.
Indeed, there was no surprise. Without other Great Emperor's seedlings competing, Li Yang steadily won the first place and was promoted to an official disciple.
Liu Qing, who was with her, wasn't as outstanding, but still managed to be promoted by stepping on the last spot. It was also good news.
Chen Xia watched the entire competition. It wasn't that he wanted to, but as one of the Fourteen Sons of the Vast Heaven and a Law Elder, he had to attend.
The fights among the competing disciples were a bit too childish for Chen Xia now. He almost fell asleep watching.
Fortunately, after slapping himself, he got rid of most of his sleepiness and then started chatting with the Great Emperor's seedlings beside him about all sorts of things.
"Where's your hometown? How old are you? What kind are you?"
Chen Xia just kept asking, and very quickly at that, not giving the other Great Emperor's seedlings any chance to catch their breath.
Fortunately, sitting beside him were Di Du and Qiu Li, two brothers. They had been "bullied" by Chen Xia a lot before and could now swallow their pride.
If it were other Great Emperor's seedlings, they might have fought with Chen Xia.
The grand competition for preparatory disciples quickly came to an end. There was no suspense, no dark horses. It felt like a routine thing.
According to the process, after that, it would be the recruitment of disciples.
The Fourteen Sons of the Vast Heaven and the elders all had the right to recommend disciples, but whether they could actually join the Vast Heaven Sword Sea still depended on their strength.
Chen Xia didn't recommend anyone. Instead, he even wanted to sell this quota outside but just hadn't found the opportunity.
He had saved a lot of money now, but he still wanted to earn more spirit stones. One could never have too much.
Now, Zhang Daoming's Alchemist Association brought him thousands of spirit stones in income every ten years. It wasn't a huge amount, but it was stable.
In addition, Chen Xia also had places to spend money. For example, buying spirit beads, collecting top-grade medicinal materials.
What he needed to do now was to refine pills beneficial to nourishing dragon qi, nourish the True Dragon Qi, and advance to a higher level.
But the pills that could nourish dragon qi were really expensive. The starting price was sixty thousand, equivalent to middle-grade Dao Medicines.
Chen Xia definitely wouldn't buy the pills directly. So he bought medicinal materials and prepared to refine them himself.
However, to be honest, the medicinal materials for refining True Dragon Qi were also not cheap. Just the True Dragon Bones used as supplementary materials were one thousand spirit stones each.
What made Chen Xia curse the most was that even the little finger bone counted as one True Dragon Bone.
And for the top-grade pill he was going to refine, it required a whole True Dragon Bone. There were a hundred of them in total. Just the dragon bones alone cost one hundred thousand spirit stones.
But it was also because the pill Chen Xia was going to refine was too top-grade. According to the pill formula, it was the top-grade pill among Dao Medicines and was already infinitely close to the Great Medicine.
If it was refined by Chen Xia, when it finally became a pill, it was hard to say whether it would be a Great Medicine.
After all, he had always refined pills by luck.
Besides the dragon bones, there were some other materials that cost a lot of money. So Chen Xia was now trying every means to make money.
He even asked Zhang Daoming to recommend more business for refining Dao Medicines to him. If he refined once every twenty years, he could earn one hundred thousand spirit stones in a hundred years.
Zhang Daoming was naturally willing. But he was still a bit puzzled about Chen Xia's lack of money. After all, Chen Xia had already made a lot of money. Besides himself, he hadn't heard that Chen Xia had paid back the three hundred thousand spirit stones he owed.
Chen Xia told him his situation and even asked Zhang Daoming to lend him money.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Daoming immediately pretended to be dead. No matter how many reasons Chen Xia had, he just wouldn't lend the money.
He would even retort, "If you're short of money, why don't you sell those spirit beads instead of coming to me to borrow money?"
"You don't understand," Chen Xia shook his head and replied. "Borrowing money is for life, but spirit beads are for dreams."
"Even for life, one can't give up dreams, right?"
He sounded so reasonable, but Zhang Daoming thought it was bullshit. He rolled his eyes and still shook his head, refusing to lend.
Chen Xia had no other choice but to save money steadily.
The next batch of preparatory disciples of the Vast Heaven Sword Sea arrived as scheduled. There were even more than the previous batch, a neat one thousand cultivators.
But among these one thousand cultivators, there wasn't a single Great Emperor's seedling. Even the Supreme Seeds were pitifully few.
Most of them were Ancient Seeds, and there were also lower-grade Ancient Seeds.
Although it wasn't really good to judge by variety, that was the truth.
Even though the Vast Heaven Sword Sea was trying hard to recruit new bloodlines, to spread its branches and leaves, and to sprout new buds.
But anyone with a discerning eye could see.
The Vast Heaven Sword Sea was already on the decline.
This was inevitable. There wouldn't be a sect that remained prosperous all the time. After several Great Eras of peak prosperity, the Vast Heaven Sword Sea was finally coming to an end.
Now, the extensive recruitment of disciples could be understood as the last struggle before death.
Could a batch of preparatory disciples without a single Great Emperor's seedling still be competitive?
Probably not.
Li Yang became the only Great Emperor's seedling in the Vast Heaven Sword Sea.
The Fourteen Sons of the Vast Heaven were both the peak and the swan song.
Everyone could see it. The elders of the Vast Heaven Sword Sea knew it too, but no one was willing to admit it.
They were all a bit sad.
Even the Supreme Elders rarely came out of seclusion. For example, the Third Elder often sat on the high tower of the Sword Pavilion, staring blankly at the horizon, watching the stars rotate and the constellations change.
He had been born in the Vast Heaven Sword Sea, had a noble background, and was arrogant. He had provoked many people and fought a lot.
When the Vast Heaven Sword Sea was at its peak, he was high above.
Now that it was about to decline, he had to accompany the Vast Heaven Sword Sea to finish this journey.
Whether it was the new beginning or the twilight, he had no regrets.
The elders below him also felt bad. The fact that there wasn't a single Great Emperor's seedling in this batch of preparatory disciples undoubtedly symbolized the beginning of the decline of the Vast Heaven Sword Sea.
They had joined the Vast Heaven Sword Sea for so many years and had developed some feelings. At this time of decline, they always wanted to find some ways to save it.
But the methods they thought of were really a drop in the bucket.
The second sign of the decline of the Vast Heaven Sword Sea soon appeared. The spiritual energy within the entire Vast Heaven Sword Sea suddenly dropped a lot, being forcibly taken away by the Heavenly Dao.
Because of this, the cultivators in the Vast Heaven Sword Sea were all frowning, often getting together to talk and sighing.
The entire Vast Heaven Sword Sea was in a sad atmosphere.
Fortunately, there was always an exception.
Chen Xia was walking on the Sword Path, with a gloomy expression, his head lowered, looking as worried as the outside elders.
He walked very fast, as if he was anxious, and headed towards his cave.
The other cultivators saw him and thought it was normal, since the entire Vast Heaven Sword Sea was in such a worried and anxious atmosphere.
When Chen Xia arrived at his cave, he closed the door tightly. As soon as he raised his lowered head, his gloomy expression instantly changed, and he grinned with joy.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein