It wasn't long before the Executive Hall announced the date of Xiao Bi's trial, and Zhou Shixiong brought back specific news.

  Refining Qi Small Competition, cultivators above the 7th layer can sign up. The top thirty in this competition will receive a reward of one Foundation Establishment Pill and other spiritual stones. Upon hearing this news, everyone's face lit up with joy. The top thirty will have rewards, it seems that this time the sect's refining medicine is extremely smooth.

  Although the Zhū Jī Dān is not some kind of ancient wonder medicine, its materials are also not commonly seen. It often takes the collective effort of a school to refine one furnace over several years. The success rate of this one furnace will affect Xiao Bi's reward. When luck is bad, only about ten or so pills in one furnace will be successful products. After deducting the quotas for disciples of the 11th and 12th layers of Qi refinement, and reserving a portion for rewarding disciples who have made significant contributions, what remains will be Xiao Bi's reward. Calculating it this way, basically only the top ten can receive rewards. It's truly extremely lucky that this time, even the top thirty have rewards.

  The Xiaobi is also a competition, but it's a knockout match after drawing lots, with the winner advancing to the next round until the final champion is determined. This way of competing makes many people harbor lucky thoughts, if they draw a weak opponent, they can easily get a high ranking. However, once you enter the top 50, you basically can't rely on luck anymore, as there are about 400 cultivators above the 7th layer of Qi refinement, and it takes three rounds of competition to enter the top 50.

  Disciples of the Seven Layers and above began to prepare, and for a time, the prices of goods in the sect's market skyrocketed. Talismans, elixirs, and spiritual instruments were all at least twice as expensive as usual. Mo Tian Ge was relieved that he had made preparations ahead of time; otherwise, by now, he wouldn't have had any money to buy anything - his own stockpile of spirit stones had been almost depleted during his two-year closed-door meditation.

  This time, Second Uncle had prepared many talismans and elixirs for her. When she found out, she discovered that Second Uncle had sold off a portion of their wealth. Because of this, Mo Tian Ge secretly made up her mind, even if it was for Second Uncle's sake, she would obtain the Foundation Establishment Elixir.

  Not long after, Zhou Shixiong brought another message. The invitation from the Purple Mist Sect hopes that the three factions will hold a small door-to-door comparison to motivate their disciples.

  This is not the first time in the history of the three factions, and it has indeed been held together with small comparisons before. However, the strength of the three factions is so different that they are holding it together for the first time. As a result, Jin Dao Men and Jin Zhang Men were not happy about it. Finally, Li Zhang Men of Zi Xia Zong proposed to take out some foundation-building pills from Zi Xia Zong as rewards for the overall ranking, while the internal ranking rewards would be distributed by each faction themselves. This made Jin Zhang Men feel a bit more comfortable, even if no disciples of Jin Dao Men received rewards, they wouldn't lose anything, just that their face wouldn't look good. However, if they refused, it would lead to rumors and make people gossip about the weakness of Jin Dao Men's strength and small courage, so they could only reluctantly agree, hoping that one or two disciples would fight for honor.

  Moy Tian Ge was very puzzled and couldn't understand the purpose of the Purple Mist Sect. Although the Purple Mist Sect said they would only take out ten Foundation Establishment Pills, these ten pills might be enough to add one or two Foundation Establishment cultivators to their sect, but was it necessary to make such a contribution just for the sake of appearances?

  Four people were chatting in a small hall when Jiang Shanghang, who rarely went out, heard her words and snorted coldly, saying: "It looks good on the surface, and it will be easy to recruit talented disciples in the future. In the long run, the benefits are much greater than those of one or two foundation-building cultivators."

  Everyone was silent, although no one liked Jiang Shanghang, but this person was also a member of the Jiang family. His perspective on things was vastly different from theirs. What he said made sense, if they became famous, in the future, children with spiritual roots in this area would first go to the Purple Mist Sect. If several single-spirited or hetero-spirited individuals appeared among them, the gap in strength between them and the other two sects would only grow wider, which was not something that one or two foundation-building cultivators could make up for.

  After saying this, Jiang Shanghang returned to the house. In these years, he still ignored everyone and focused on cultivating. Now that he was only one step away from building his foundation, it seemed that he was determined to win this small competition.

  Xu Jingzhi looked at Jiang Shang's house door and asked the three of them in surprise, "Did you guys see that? Brother Jiang actually spoke to us, is this real?"

  This tone made Mo Tian Ge laugh: "Brother Jiang isn't someone who never talks to us." He just doesn't speak in a very good tone and not too many times, that's all.

  Qin Xi, who was drawing talismans on the table, raised his head: "Is Xu Shidi all set?"

  This question hit Xu Jingzhi's sore spot, and he said with a bitter face: "No, my big brother is also going to participate in the small comparison, and the whole family supports him, so I can only give you some symbols to make up for it."

  "After all, you're better off than us," said Liu Yidao, putting away his sword. "You still have family support, but we're genuine, authentic, and completely dependent on our sect for everything."

  Xu Jingzhi jumped up and exclaimed: "Liu Shixiong, you still have the nerve to say that! Last time in Misty Valley, how many rewards did you get?!"

  Liu Yidao grasped his head: "It's been two years already, Xu Shidi, you still remember..."

  Xu Jingzhi hummed: "That's right, I didn't gain anything, otherwise, I would have also advanced ten levels like Ye Shidi. Alas, I don't want to be called Uncle by Ye Shidi soon..."

  "It's not that easy," Mo Tian Ge sighed, "Brother Xu, you're not unaware that I have a Five Spirits Root constitution, and being able to cultivate up to the 10th layer of Qi Refining is already my good fortune. How many Five Spirits Root cultivators can smoothly advance to the Foundation Establishment stage?"

  At this point, Xu Jingzhi also shook his head and sighed: "Although I have a four-spirit root talent, my cultivation has not been very good all along, so I can only enter the sect through the Xiantai Conference... Alas, Ye Shidi, you can cultivate to this level with five-spirit root talent, which is more impressive than me."

  The two of them let out a sigh, and the atmosphere suddenly became gloomy. Qin Xi continued to focus on drawing talismans, saying: "Innate talent is important, but it's not the only factor. Some Yuan Ying cultivators aren't even single-spirit-root or dual-spirit-root geniuses, yet half of them have double spirit roots, and some even have triple spirit roots."

  "This is something I've never heard of: 'Why is this?'"

  Qin Xi snapped his fingers, and the damaged talismans were burned together. He looked at her: "Single-spirited roots and different spiritual roots cultivate the realm of immortality very quickly, it's easy to advance in rank and condense elixirs, but that's also why their hearts are not firm enough, they haven't been tested by heart demons. By the time they reach the yuan ying stage, talent no longer plays a role, but the influence of heart nature is huge. They can easily cultivate to the completion of the elixir, but often fail at the condensation of the yuan ying's heart demon. On the other hand, dual-spirited root and triple-spirited root cultivators find it difficult to reach the completion of the elixir, they usually undergo trials, their will is firm, by the time they reach the condensation of the yuan ying stage, generally more than half of their lifespan has passed, their heart nature and experience can withstand the test. Therefore, although their cultivation is not easy, the condensation of the yuan ying is much safer."

  The other three people were shocked and amazed: "So, isn't it better to have double spiritual roots or triple spiritual roots? Why doesn't the sect value them?"

  Qin Xi raised the corner of his mouth, looking like he was smiling. He occasionally smiled now, which was more than when he first arrived: "Although it's said that single-spirited roots and hetero-spirited roots are rare, dual-spirited roots are even fewer, but triple-spirited roots are everywhere. In a sect with 5,000 Qi-refining disciples, there might be only two or three people with single-spirited roots or hetero-spirited roots. There will be around 400-500 people with dual-spirited roots, and the remaining 4,000+ will have triple-spirited roots. As long as nothing unexpected happens, these two or three people with single-spirited roots or hetero-spirited roots will all advance to the stage of forming a Golden Elixir. However, among the 4,000+ people with dual-spirited roots and triple-spirited roots, only around ten people can advance to this stage. And as for forming a Nascent Soul...the former has a 50% chance, while the latter...might not have even one person." He sighed when he reached this point, "The path of forming a Nascent Soul is truly much more difficult than imagined. People with good innate talent and diligent effort are still not enough to guarantee success in advancing to the Golden Elixir stage. Those with slightly worse innate talent...can't even mention forming a Nascent Soul; being able to cultivate up to the Golden Elixir stage already requires several times more effort."

  He finished speaking, and the other three fell silent for a long time. It wasn't until later that Liu Yidao spoke up: "Let's not even mention forming the Elixir of the Great Pill, building our foundation is already a problem for us."

  "Yes," Xu Jingzhi took over, "more than 400 Qi-refining disciples, maybe only two or three can advance to the Foundation Establishment stage, and I don't know if anyone among us will be able to move to North Peak next year."