In one of the VIP boxes of the arena, a tense silence filled the room.
The stubborn old man, Liu Taixuan, no matter how much Aotian asked or even begged, remained in absolute silence regarding the destruction of the world and matters involving Divine Physiques.
Even when Rihai joined her husband, pleading with the old man and saying she trusted her husband, her great-grandfather remained silent and resolute, for in his mind, this was for her own good.
'Uhh… what a problem. I don't think there's anything that will make this old man talk.' The young master Long sighed helplessly, staring at the old man who now wore a serious, calm, and determined expression.
He thought of rising aggressively, pulling out a hundred Silent Cadaver Orchids he had replanted in his free time over the last year, and saying: "You fool, if I wanted to, I could use this on Rihai at any moment, but I don't because I don't want to. So trust me!"
But Aotian had a strong feeling that the old man might go insane the moment he did that, and this time he would truly attack to kill. Anything that threatened his granddaughter was something to be destroyed in his eyes.
If he found out such a herb existed within the sect, it would be the same as an ordinary grandfather discovering there was a time bomb inside the school his granddaughter attended. Without wasting a second, he would take her out of there no matter the cost, even if the principal assured him it was armed but guaranteed it wouldn't detonate.
Thus, Aotian directly discarded such an approach.
Another idea that crossed his mind was making a soul oath, but that was something extremely dangerous, and he refused to do it. Even if he did, the stubborn old man probably still wouldn't say anything.
Swearing something like: "I swear upon my soul that I, Long Aotian, and my sect, will never harm Rihai." would not work at all.
The oath is personal, not collective. At most, the old man would believe Aotian—the one who made the oath—but not the sect. Under no circumstances would he reveal anything to the young master of a sect he did not trust, even if he trusted the young master himself.
And worse, if he made such an oath and someone from the sect harmed Rihai, even unintentionally, and Aotian—and by consequence his soul and spiritual energy—found out about it, he would suffer the immediate backlash of the oath.
Of course, he could try to formulate a more specific oath, full of loopholes to protect himself from every possibility… but would the suspicious old man believe an oath so clearly full of loopholes? Aotian doubted it.
Thus, a heavy silence fell over the room.
And curiously, as time passed, an equally eerie silence fell over the entire arena.
The entire audience had wide, disbelieving eyes as they watched an astonishing scene unfold before them.
In the first round, tens of thousands of competitors received a certain amount of Refiner-Tier materials and had to create the best equipment possible from them.
What they were supposed to build was up to them, limited only by the materials provided. Out of everyone, only one thousand would be chosen by the judges to advance to the next stage.
In the first round, aside from the fact that the disciples of the Infinite Dao Sect used cauldrons instead of hammering like most, even in such a young division, there was not much surprise from the public. The sect's fame preceded them, and most knew its disciples were extraordinarily strong.
And when the crowd saw that among the thousand classified competitors, all disciples of the sect who participated were present, people were even more impressed.
The artifacts they crafted, just by looking at them, were without a doubt of supreme quality among Refiner-Tier for those living in the desert continent.
While the ordinary cultivators in the competition, with the same materials, forged low-grade Refiner-Tier artifacts, the disciples of the Infinite Dao Sect directly forged perfect-grade artifacts.
Aotian lamented seeing this. If they had actually mastered the Refiner-Tier manuals instead of just scratching the surface, they could have forged Founder-Tier artifacts with those good materials.
Unfortunately, they hadn't reached that level.
Even so, what they had mastered was more than enough, and soon the second round began. And it was at that moment that admiration turned into absolute astonishment.
In the second round, Founder-Tier materials were given for the creation of an artifact of the competitor's choice. Only a hundred participants would pass, and once again the time limit was just one hour.
If in the first round the others nearly killed themselves to create even the worst Refiner-Tier artifacts in such a short time, in the second round many directly gave up.
Only the disciples of the Infinite Dao Sect managed to qualify in this round, as they were the only ones capable of forging such an artifact in only two hours, which certainly shocked the audience with such an insane forging speed.
Of course, with such a short period, the artifacts forged were not the best they could make, but even so, they were good Founder-Tier artifacts.
By the time the third and final round was announced, the audience had already fallen into a sepulchral silence, stunned by what they had witnessed and by the increasingly absurd challenges of the competition.
This time, Core-Tier materials were given, and only two hours.
When everyone questioned in disbelief whether that was even possible, some disciples among the finalists actually succeeded. Those who couldn't only failed due to lack of time.
There, before them, peak-grade artifacts—capable of causing wars outside—were being forged as if it were as simple as cooking rice.
The eyes of the audience, which should have been burning with envy and greed, were instead empty—lost in disbelief and doubt about their own lives.
Even in the VIP box, old Liu Taixuan had to nod inwardly and admit that the disciples' talent for forging was "not bad."
Aotian, meanwhile, had not lost focus on the competition—thanks to his thousands of minds—but his main body still kept its gaze slightly unfocused and worried, preoccupied with the possibility of an impending apocalypse.
Rihai, beside him, held his hand, frowning, worried and helpless due to her great-grandfather's lack of cooperation and, of course, she was equally worried about the fate of the world.
The two were deeply distressed by this news, but the problem was that Liu Taixuan simply dropped the bomb and gave no further information.
They did not know why the world was dying, the cause and effect of it, nor what the connection between the Dao rhymes, the Silent Cadaver Orchid, and those cultivators who killed Rihai's father was with all of this.
'I'll have to be more proactive regarding Ancestor Mo Yexuan's actions in the central continent. Even if it means putting that avatar in great danger, I have to do it.'
'Avatars can be bought, but if the world dies and all my avatars die at the same time, that will be the end.'
Sighing, Aotian's eyes became determined.
He would prefer to spend spirit stones to buy information, but the agencies that have access to that level of content are directly subordinate to the great powers and would not reveal anything. Asking would only bring trouble upon himself instead of information.
If he wanted to learn anything, he would have to force it out of someone. But with his current strength, the risk was far too great, for those who knew these things were elites of the cultivation world—at the peak of Void Refinement or even higher.
Looking at the old man beside him, he felt helpless.
Even if Liu Taixuan joined the sect, Aotian perhaps would still not be able to obtain such information, unless it was something the old man had studied.
Knowledge gained through feedback was filtered. He did not receive the cultivator's full memory, nor all information about what they had lived.
What he gained were techniques, experiences, and everything they had studied.
For example, if he received feedback from a housewife, he would gain experience in household chores, know which products were best to clean certain things; if she had studied, he would gain her literacy and other accumulated knowledge.
But he would not receive information about clothes she bought, her husband's name, the times she walked the dog, or other knowledge that was not part of a progression of experience or skill.
Thus, Aotian's chances of receiving information about why the world was ending and what the combination of Dao rhymes and orchid did was very low, unless this counted as fundamental knowledge present in the old man's experiences.
Just like with Lei Yun. Aotian did not know where he came from, what he died of, how he died, who he was, and many other details that made up his life. He could only judge things like the fact that Lei Yun had reached the Mahayana realm in his previous life, because the feedback had brought him much experience from that realm.
That was why Aotian's helplessness was so great. Seeing the old man's stubbornness, he probably wouldn't even consider himself part of the sect in a short period of time, which would delay the activation of feedback even further.
He couldn't trick him like he had with Lei Yun, showing a supreme cultivation technique that shook him and winning him over in a bet, making him accept the sect in his heart.
The synthesized knowledge Aotian currently possessed did not reach the realm Liu Taixuan had achieved in life, so it was difficult to tempt him with low-level techniques, especially considering that the old man was currently dead, existing only as a soul.
Sighing, the young master Long could only massage his temples, feeling a headache. The minds of his main body seemed to be releasing smoke from how hard he was thinking.
He turned his gaze back to the arena, where, after four hours of competition, the result was announced.
Unsurprisingly, the little girl Xiaoxue, direct disciple of the Refinement Pavilion's leader, took first place, having forged the best artifact of the round—even though the hastily made artifact was quite poor.
But to the audience, that was simply an immortal legend descending into the world to demonstrate how to forge something.
The goal of making the sect more attractive through the competition had already been an absolute success. Forget admiration—people's desire to join the sect had already shifted into frenzy.
With the end of that competition, without wasting time, the next one was announced to begin, and this time it would be alchemy.
In the VIP room, Shen He trembled slightly, and his mouth twitched fiercely.
He had applied for this alchemy competition, but after seeing the demonic challenges launched by the Refinement Pavilion and the humiliation the disciples of the Infinite Dao Sect had inflicted upon the other participants due to their equally terrifying abilities, even if unintentionally, he absolutely did not want to participate.
Shen He quickly closed his eyes and pretended to meditate, not wanting the others to find out he had registered.
Unfortunately, many times, what we most desire is what we have the least chance of receiving.
"Xiao He, why haven't you gone to participate in the competition yet? It's about to start." Liu Taixuan asked in confusion, drawing the attention of the couple beside him.
The poor boy froze and immediately felt like crying.
He couldn't help but look sadly and slightly resentfully at his master, who stared back at him in perplexity in response to that look.
Thus, against his own will, he stood up with a smile uglier than crying, said goodbye to everyone, and prepared to go down to face his bleak fate.
But before he could do so, a call came from behind.
"Hey, wait, Xiao He."
Hearing his master's words, Shen He immediately turned, his eyes shining.
'Master finally realized and is going to come up with an excuse for me to stay and not humiliate myself?' he thought joyfully.
Unfortunately, the dream was nice, but reality was cruel.
"Leave the necklace here, the old man will watch you from here," Liu Taixuan said firmly, not wanting to leave his granddaughter's side.
This time, Shen He truly cast a betrayed, deeply hurt look at his master.