No hope for eternal life

Chapter 413 Xiao Jingshan's Method

"This old fellow is trying to gain fame just by talking." Ruan Xiong said with contempt.

"But this person is also smart. He saw that we wanted to expel everyone, so he staged this drama to teach us a lesson that we can't expel them directly." Liu Zhicheng analyzed.

"That's true." Mu Changsheng nodded slightly. After hearing what Du Ruchang said, if they insisted on expelling everyone, it would be a bigger blow to the sect's reputation.

“We can ask the sect’s strong men to come forward and take charge of the situation, and then give them a few places to silence them.” Mu Xun suggested: “The highest level of cultivation present is only at the Divine Sea Realm. If we can have a strong man at the Eighth Realm sitting in charge, we can intimidate them.”

"But how to divide this quota is still a problem." Lin Yu said worriedly.

"It's quite lively." A hearty voice suddenly spread throughout the venue, and a monk in black clothes and carrying a sword came walking in the air. His face was as handsome as a jade, but his aura was extremely strong, and the monks who approached him were pushed aside.

When Du Ruchang saw the person coming, his expression changed slightly: "Xiao Jingshan."

Xiao Jingshan is the strongest Divine Sea Realm cultivator of the two major sects. Looking across the Nine Realms, there are probably few Divine Sea Realm cultivators who can compete with him. Such a person is not much weaker in deterrence than a true Divine Power Realm cultivator.

In stark contrast to Du Ruchang's grim expression, Mu Changsheng and other sect disciples seemed to have found their backbone, and all of them showed joy on their faces. Liu Zhicheng even quickly sent a message to Xiao Jingshan to explain the situation here.

Xiao Jingshan listened to Liu Zhicheng's voice transmission, smiled casually, and said loudly: "I thought it was a difficult matter, it turns out to be the matter of allocating quotas. After all, there are only ten quotas, and there are more than a hundred cultivators in the early, middle and late stages of the Tribulation Crossing. No matter how we divide it, it will not be enough. In this case, someone must make some sacrifices."

"Why, are we cultivators who are not from the two sects and three clans not worthy of the qualification for cleansing?" Du Ruchang said sinisterly, his intention to add fuel to the fire was very obvious.

"Brother Du, what you said is wrong." Xiao Jingshan chuckled and said, "I have a suggestion here. You may as well listen to it and see if it is reasonable. First of all, of these ten places, three will be given to cultivators in the early stage of tribulation, three will be given to cultivators in the middle stage of tribulation, and three will be given to cultivators in the late stage of tribulation. The remaining last place will be auctioned freely, and the highest bidder will win. The spirit stones sold will be divided equally among all the cultivators in tribulation who have not received branch vein cleansing. This can be regarded as making the trip worthwhile for everyone present. In addition, the ten people who have obtained spirit vein cleansing this time will lose the qualification to compete for branch vein cleansing even if there are branches appearing in the Tianling Realm in the future. In other words, the branch cleansing of the Tianling Realm can only be done once by one person. Of course, this is limited to the Tianling Realm. As for the appearance of branches in other realms outside the Tianling Realm in the future, it is another matter."

Upon hearing this, Du Ruchang's expression became even more embarrassed. This way, he would lose all the benefits of a single spirit stone.

"I have no objection to auctioning the tenth spot, but what is the basis for allocating the first nine spots?" Du Ruchang asked unwillingly.

"Of course, it's according to the old rules of the Nine Realms. The competition will determine the winners, and the top three in each realm will qualify. Otherwise, if a group of mediocre people were to be cleansed by this vein, wouldn't it be a waste of God's gift?" Xiao Jingshan replied indifferently.

"Great!" Mu Changsheng immediately cheered for Xiao Jingshan in his heart. This was exactly the compromise he wanted. It did not require expelling everyone, but could calm everyone's emotions. He did not expect Xiao Jingshan's thinking to be so quick that he could think of such a wonderful idea in an instant.

Du Ruchang was immediately displeased and sneered, "Daoyou's calculations are really good. The strength of the disciples of your two major sects is far superior to that of their peers. If what you said is true, the ones who will be qualified for the cleansing in the end will most likely be the disciples of your sect. We outsiders can only watch the show the whole time."

"Since Brother Du is so considerate of fellow Taoists from all walks of life, I, Xiao Jingshan, will act as the secondary sponsor today and allow you to spend two million top-grade spirit stones to buy these ten places. You can give them to whoever you want then. I promise that no one will ask about it. The two million top-grade spirit stones will be distributed to all the tribulation-receiving cultivators present. What do you think, Brother Du?" Xiao Jingshan retorted.

"Buy it, buy it." Mu Changsheng and other sect disciples started to make a fuss. They had been unhappy with Du Ruchang for a long time.

Those cultivators from all walks of life who were originally loyal to Du Ruchang also had their eyes shining. Two million top-grade spirit stones, everyone could get tens of thousands of top-grade spirit stones. Who would not like such a good thing for free?

Du Ruchang's face turned green when he saw this. How could he be willing to spend two million top-grade spirit stones to buy ten refining places that were of no use to him at all?

Luo Jin, the head of the Luo family who was standing next to Du Ruchang, also shook his head secretly. This was too embarrassing. He decided to stay away from Du Ruchang in the future to avoid being laughed at.

"Fellow Daoist Xiao, you are joking." Du Ruchang smiled awkwardly and said, "I think Fellow Daoist Xiao's method is better. Let's follow Fellow Daoist Xiao's suggestion and decide the number of places by competition."

Without the opposition of Du Ruchang, a representative figure, others would not dare to challenge Xiao Jingshan openly even if they were still somewhat dissatisfied.

Xiao Jingshan was too lazy to continue to argue with Du Ruchang, and said casually: "In that case, let's start with the cultivators in the early stage of the Tribulation Crossing. All cultivators in the early stage of the Tribulation Crossing who want to compete for a place should stand up."

Mu Xun naturally would not miss this opportunity. With him were thirty-two cultivators in the early stage of tribulation.

"It's too slow to compete round by round, and it wastes everyone's time to seize opportunities outside. Let me use my divine power to suppress them. Whoever can't stand my pressure first will be eliminated. The top ten will be selected, and these ten will compete again to select the top three. Do you have any objections?" Xiao Jingshan asked.

Everyone agreed to this and no one objected. After all, in addition to Xiao Jingshan's own great strength, he also represented two major sects. Didn't they see that Du Ruchang, who had just expressed his opinion, was almost beaten to death?

In this way, Xiao Jingshan took on the full role of referee for the allocation of training places.

High above the branches, Liang Kuan and Huang Fan had been keeping an eye on the distribution of the branches below. They were actually also thinking of a compromise that would have the best of both worlds, but were unexpectedly beaten to it by Xiao Jingshan.

"I didn't expect that Junior Brother Xiao is not only great in fighting skills, but also has such a sharp brain. It seems that Junior Brother Xiao will take advantage of the revival of spiritual energy this time." Liang Kuan said with emotion.

"Yeah." Huang Fan agreed softly, but his mind was still lingering on the previous bet that Xiao Jingshan had asked him to make.

……

Two hours later, the three places for the early stage of tribulation were quickly selected, and Mu Xun also successfully obtained a place.

Among the other two who got the quota, one was also a disciple of the Tianling Sect. Just as Du Ruchang said, the disciples of the two major sects far surpassed other cultivators in terms of both foundation and overall strength. Such screening and refinement of the quota would indeed be more beneficial to the two major sects. This showed how thoughtful Xiao Jingshan's consideration was.

"Those cultivators in the middle stage of Tribulation, step out." Xiao Jingshan continued, and began the selection of those in the middle stage of Tribulation.

Mu Changsheng and Lin Yu would naturally participate, and there would be thirty-one other people with them.

Just like the selection in the early stage of tribulation, Mu Changsheng and others also have to go through Xiao Jingshan’s pressure test first.

The mighty power of the Divine Sea Realm came like an overwhelming force, continuously hitting Mu Changsheng like waves, and each wave was more powerful than the last.