The competitive atmosphere in the Infinite Dao Sect remained heated and lively.

On the sixth day, the competition was the responsibility of the Heritage Pavilion, and it was a day when both the competitors and the audience benefited.

Since, aside from the previous champions, no one else could cultivate and everyone was bored, plus it was an interesting sect event, practically all disciples were present.

Thus, everyone had the opportunity to acquire new techniques for free.

The challenge was simple. The elder acting as the master of ceremonies would recite a spell aloud, generating images of its patterns, and after that, both the challengers in the arena and those in the stands could try to comprehend it within the given time. If anyone managed to understand it before the time was up, they could demonstrate it.

The first spell was an elementless Refiner-Tier spell that anyone could practice. The given time for comprehension was ten minutes.

At the end of the time, the first to perform were the competitors in the arena. Then, a provisional ranking was created, assigning points according to how well they had mastered the spell in such a short time.

After that, some disciples were eliminated. Then, from the audience, if anyone believed they had understood the key points of the spell better than the classified disciples, they could step forward and demonstrate.

Thus, the second round of elimination took place.

Once the ranking was set, the second challenge began. This time, the spell was Founder-Tier, which was the true gain for the entire audience, and the comprehension time was thirty minutes, restricted only to the competitors in the arena.

This time, many couldn't even use the spell within the short period they had, and those who did couldn't display a high level of mastery.

Between the two spells, Aotian hadn't shared any, so no one had the advantage of having learned them before.

Finally, the elders evaluated the mastery of the spells, assigned points, and concluded the competition, producing the final ranking.

The winner, unsurprisingly, was the core disciple of that pavilion, once again proving that Aotian had an excellent eye when choosing his direct disciples.

And who was the disciple? It was none other than the beloved Little Brick, who, perhaps due to his silly nature, had an exceptional understanding of cultivation. After thirty minutes, he was the only one who managed to comprehend the spell enough to barely use it in battle.

Such a fact surprised everyone — except Aotian, who already knew how good the comprehension of that sturdy boy was, whose appearance didn't match his identity as a disciple of the Heritage Pavilion in the slightest.

On the seventh day, it was the Treasure Pavilion's turn, whose competition was quite simple.

Various treasures of different types, elements, and values were placed on several tables, mixed with useless items, with several elders acting as stall owners and sellers.

The disciples were given a limited amount of credits to make purchases. The challenge was to obtain the greatest possible profit with the money they had.

To do so, they had to bargain, negotiate, and buy strategically without drawing the attention of other competitors while trying to profit amid potential interference from them.

The one who suffered the most in this challenge was poor Xiao Ling, the core disciple of the Treasure Pavilion and public enemy number one in that competition.

Whenever she set her eyes on a treasure and tried to negotiate, several disciples would gather around, eyeing the same item. All was fair in love and war, and the challenge favored this kind of behavior, as it reflected reality — one had to be clever to prosper.

Everyone focused on her, as they already knew how much of a threat a core disciple could be, based on the previous competitions. Cang Song was the only one who hadn't taken first place, though he still finished second.

Xiao Ling then had to get creative. When she wanted to buy something, she would purchase the item together with a bunch of useless things, or sometimes she would just pretend to buy junk. The disciples would compete with her, and she would let them win from time to time, making them spend a lot of money on garbage.

Thus, the smarter ones soon left her alone, while the less perceptive ran out of funds, ending up with a pile of worthless items.

With her cunning, trained by her master, and her eye accustomed to recognizing treasures, Xiao Ling managed to come out on top and took first place, even while being everyone's target.

Her shrewdness and intelligence impressed everyone, and if before the disciples only respected the white and gold robes of the core disciples, now, besides respect, there was also deep admiration.

Those robes ceased to be merely a symbol of status and became a symbol of competence.

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Aotian wasn't surprised by the result. Xiao Ling might not have been the best at handling treasures when she arrived, but she was smart and extremely dedicated.

As the first disciple of the Treasure Pavilion — and now its only core disciple — she had been trained almost since her arrival by Bao Hui in the arts of negotiation and value assessment.

Perhaps Aotian wasn't the best in that field, but by using Bao Hui, his mind worked at full speed in matters of finance and commerce, turning him into a true genius of business. Thus, while teaching Xiao Ling, he was a very competent instructor — and at the same time, he also learned, which brought him great benefits.

On the eighth day came the Punishment Pavilion competition.

In the first round, a scenario with various clues, evidence, witnesses, and a crime was presented. The disciples had to discover who was guilty, who were the accomplices, and who was the mastermind.

Aotian drew much inspiration from his past life to create the nearly perfect crime and mentally thanked the directors and screenwriters of the detective series he used to watch.

The one who did best in that round was the former young trickster Bai Yan, who had reformed and become an excellent law enforcer — or rather, an outstanding core disciple of the Punishment Pavilion. As a former swindler, he was great at noticing details and understanding people's mindsets, which led him to quickly identify the culprits.

In the second round of this competition, there was a team battle, since that pavilion didn't value lone wolves. The top ten ranked disciples became leaders and could choose ten competitors to form their teams.

After a draw to decide the opponents, the battles began.

Once again, Bai Yan's team won. He had many friends, strong connections, and excellent strength, which ensured his victory.

Thus, the order of the top ten was decided.

Finally, the two remaining pavilions — the Beasts Pavilion and the Sword Pavilion — held simple competitions, conducted in a duel format. The first involved battles alongside trained beast companions, while the second focused on sword users.

These two competitions took place simultaneously, lasting two days since the duel format required more matches.

The winners of these two competitions were both inner disciples.

The reasons were simple: the Beasts Pavilion still didn't have any core disciples, and as for the second pavilion, it was a peculiar case. The core disciple of the Sword Pavilion, Liu Rihai, simply didn't participate. She sat calmly beside her husband in the spectator seats.

Faced with everyone's confused gazes, it wasn't her who answered but Aotian, who merely smiled and released a faint pulse of aura, surprising everyone.

That was the presence of a cultivator at the Golden Core Realm.

Rihai followed him and also released a trace of her own aura, and then everyone understood. They hadn't participated because they already possessed Golden Core-tier techniques.

Although many were confused — after all, in their eyes, the two strongest disciples, Long Aotian and Liu Rihai, could easily have won techniques for free in the competitions, yet strangely chose to buy them — no one questioned it. Everyone simply turned their attention back to the event.

Aotian had already spoken with Rihai, and both had decided not to hide their financial capability any longer, even if they didn't take on many missions.

With Lei Yun as a precedent — buying several techniques while selling his own to the sect — Aotian found it reasonable to use the same justification.

Fortunately, his wife didn't object this time. It seemed that recovering her spiritual roots had also restored her confidence. After a year in the Infinite Dao Sect, she already considered it a second home and no longer feared as before.

Thus, Aotian's life as a carefree young master could finally begin… not that it hadn't already.

At last, the 11th competition began.

This time, it wasn't an event led by a single pavilion but a battle royale organized by the sect itself.

Aotian wanted the disciples to experience a large-scale battle against opponents of similar levels. And where could they find better opponents than among themselves?

Under the supervision of powerful elders assigned to protect the disciples, an intense and chaotic battle unfolded in a vast open field far from the sect.

Of course, Aotian only dared to hold such an event because of the increased number of elders. Otherwise, the battles would have been much smaller.

Even with 660 elders, overseeing nearly 14,000 disciples was still a massive challenge. Each elder was responsible for about twenty disciples, but thanks to the high cultivation realms of the Avatars and the vigilance of the two Ancestors watching from the clouds, the battle concluded without a single casualty.

Since all disciples participated, only the three winners from each of the ten previous competitions — along with the couples Aotian and Rihai, and Lei Yun and Mu Luyin, totaling 34 people — watched as spectators of that grand battle that shook the ground and filled the sky with the sound of explosions.

In the end, the ten last disciples standing (without being expelled from the arena by the elders) were the ones who earned the Golden Core-tier techniques.

Amid the thousands of disciples sitting on the ground, exhausted but thrilled after that spectacular battle, the sect leader appeared.

His powerful presence made everyone raise their heads to look at him with respect and admiration.

"Disciples of the Infinite Dao Sect!" His powerful voice echoed. "In these past eleven days, you've proven that the year the sect invested in your growth was not in vain!"

"Every drop of sweat, every drop of blood shed in this competition is a symbol of your triumphs!"

Under the firm speech of the sect leader, many eyes gleamed — especially those of the winners. But in contrast, many of the defeated looked disheartened.

Tian Zhu noticed those looks and stared directly at them.

"A ranking in a competition, whether good or bad, does not negate your efforts. Remember who you were a year ago and see who you are now. If you consider yourselves failures, then all I can say is that you are insatiable!"

His thunderous voice instantly awakened everyone.

But their leader's guiding voice did not stop there.

"Does victory lead to glory? Does defeat lead to failure? Not always!"

"A victory can blind the victor with undeserved confidence and uncontrollable arrogance, dragging them to the depths where they drown."

"A defeat can fill one's heart with determination and erase the fear of failure. After all, those who have tasted defeat know the bitter flavor of loss — and crave the sweet nectar of victory."

As the speech flowed, many gazes grew resolute.

"Those who won, remain steadfast and do not let yourselves be blinded. Those who lost, strengthen yourselves and make your opponent taste what you feel now — so you may savor what they feel today."

"You may lose everything but not your spirit. Will you disappoint this sect leader's expectations?"

His voice resounded with power and authority.

"NOOO!!"

A powerful shout echoed from the crowd.

"Will you?" he pressed, his gaze deep.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!"

This time, the shout was even more intense, finally making Tian Zhu nod.

"Good. Then, the internal competitions of the Infinite Dao Sect are officially over. Work hard and show how far your determination can take you when the external competitions begin."

"YES, SECT LEADER!!!"

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