Sovereign of the Three Realms

The contest for the residences raised a great furor amongst the younger generation of the Regal Pill Palace. Apart from those with absolutely no hope, almost everyone in the Rosy Valley was eying the four places covetously. If they could move to the Sovereign Area, they would represent the peak of the younger generation of the Regal Pill Palace!

There were currently only eight of those residences in the entirety of Rosy Valley. With the new four, it would make for a total of twelve. There were more than a thousand core disciples in the Regal Pill Palace, ten thousand inner disciples, and more than a hundred thousand outer disciples. Given this scale, how great of an honor would it be to become the honored twelve above them all! How lofty one would be!

As long as their path was smooth and they didn’t fall halfway, there was not a shadow of a doubt that entering the Sovereign Area would guarantee one as a heavyweight of the sect in a few decades. Moreover, a heavyweight with power and clout!

The list of those interested in competing for the residences was more ridiculous than previously imagined. More than two hundred signed up for the martial dao competition, and more than three hundred signed up for the pill dao competition. This was to say that almost half of the core disciples in Rosy Valley had entered the competition this time.

Jiang Chen wasn’t surprised by this. The competition of pills was lower risk, relatively speaking. Although competition would be just as fierce, at least they wouldn’t be injured. Therefore, it wasn’t unexpected to find more signing up for the pill dao competition.

The entire Regal Pill Palace heated up as a fervent atmosphere began to spread before the contests had even begun. Regardless, Jiang Chen’s heart was as still as water. After all, he hadn’t come to the Regal Pill Palace for long. Although his name was on the list, he wasn’t the one most favored to win.

It was rather Mu Gaoqi who was considered one of the top five candidates. Jiang Chen was actually just around number ten or so. But of course, this order of candidates was merely the speculation of the outside world. No one was able to truly know who would win out in the end.

Jiang Chen once again appeared in Dan Chi’s residence on the eve of the competition.

“Greetings to Palace Head Dan Chi.”

“Haha, not bad kid! How long has it been since you’ve arrived at the sect? Even the Hallmaster of the Herbal Hall has begun speaking on your behalf. Jiang Chen, you’re not bad at all.” Dan Chi looked at Jiang Chen with smiling eyes. A trace of disbelief appeared in his eyes as he took a second look, the disbelief turning into outright shock. “You’re third level origin realm already?! In this short a span of time?!”

“I happened to obtain a core of a Redscaled Firelizard by chance and refined it. The resulting benefit barely allowed me to break through.”

“Nice going kid, ‘barely allowed you to break through’ eh?” Sage Dan Chi laughed heartily. “You’ve risen from first level origin realm to third level in just a few months. This, this is called barely managing to break through?” Dan Chi’s tone was full of admiration. “My speed of breaking through was already quite rare in Regal Pill Palace history. It seems like you’ll whip right past my record.”

“And that is all due to the Palace Head’s mentoring.”

“Haha, to be honest, I haven’t done anything other than bringing you to the Regal Pill Palace. Everything else has been your doing. Jiang Chen, Elder Yun Nie is very confident in your chances of seizing a residence in this time’s Sovereign Area. What about you? How confident are you?”

“If I’m participating in the pill contests, I have a ninety percent confidence in my chances. If martial dao, then sixty to seventy percent.” This was Jiang Chen’s own estimation of himself, so there was no need to hold back anything.

“Ninety percent?” Palace Head Dan Chi was slightly shocked. “Does that mean the rumors of Elder Yun Nie successfully refining the Hexarune Dragon Pill thanks to you are true?”

Jiang Chen nodded, not denying things. He trusted that if the Palace Head was asking, he must have received concrete intelligence to this regard.

When Dan Chi saw Jiang Chen nod, his expression also became complex. He sighed as a smile began to tug at his lips. “To think that this was truly the case! I’d only thought that I’d discovered a martial dao genius for the Regal Pill Palace, but your potential for pills is even more amazing!”

In terms of pill dao potential, there was likely no other like Jiang Chen. Palace Head Dan Chi furrowed his brow after this emotional reflection, seemingly thinking of something. He sighed again after a long while, “Jiang Chen, you’ve taught me a lesson this time, and Elder Yun Nie even more so.”

Jiang Chen was surprised. “What do you mean, Palace Head?”

“I suppose this story starts when I took the reins of power in the Regal Pill Palace. Before that, the sect had emphasized the tradition of pills, never deviating from that path. When I took control and elevated the Hall of Might to the foremost of the nine halls, the Herbal Hall was relegated to secondary importance. I still don’t know if Elder Yun Nie ever resented me for those actions. Currently, the Regal Pill Palace has indeed ignored our traditions in pill dao and focused overly on martial dao. To go too far is just as wrong as falling short. Now that I look back on my actions, they may have been too radical. I may have actually ended up throwing away the traditional advantages of the Regal Pill Palace.” Palace Head Dan Chi was a martial dao genius, and he’d emphasized the development of martial dao after taking his position. It’d been a matter of personal style when he’d raised the Hall of Might to the position of first hall.

The effects of his actions had been apparent. In the last few decades, whether in terms of experts or young disciples, there had indeed been an upsurge in martial dao geniuses. In contrast, the numbers and quality of talent of those studying the dao of pills had greatly decreased. It was apparent from this time’s competition entrants that there were almost no first class pill masters anymore.

This had greatly moved Palace Head Dan Chi, and he had begun to reflect on his strategy. He didn’t feel that there was anything wrong in promoting martial dao, but it was a grave mistake to allow it to indirectly affect the advances of the dao of pills.Therefore, when Elder Yun Nie and Hallmaster Lian Cheng had been screaming at each other from across the table, he’d been deeply moved and ultimately agreed to Elder Yun Nie’s suggestion.

If martial dao geniuses lived in all twelve residences of the Sovereign Area, what would that mean then? It meant that Regal Pill Palace’s long tradition of pills had been utterly refuted and abandoned. Elder Yun Nie’s rare loss of composure wasn’t due to personal gain, but for the heritage of the sect and for protection of the sect’s traditions.

“Jiang Chen, what do you think of this matter?”

Jiang Chen only had to think briefly before grasping where the dilemma was. “In the world of martial dao, martial dao is always first. There’s nothing wrong about that. However, the Regal Pill Palace was founded for pills, and this advantage cannot be discarded. In cycles of martial dao, the names of the strong and weak often change. But rises and declines in the dao of pills rarely occur. The latter emphasizes tradition and foundations more, whereas the changes of martial dao are often determined by just a couple of geniuses.”

Palace Head Dan Chi nodded his head lightly at Jiang Chen’s words. It was just like he’d said, the establishment of the Regal Pill Palace had enabled it to maintain its leadership in the Myriad Domain because the dao of pills focused on foundations and heritage.

Yet, martial dao was different. If an unparalleled genius appeared in a sect, such a development would benefit the entire sect, just as even one man’s pets would become immortal when he ascended to heaven. In the same vein, if an expert of a sect suddenly fell, it would also cause the sect to take a sharp downwards turn, possibly plunging immediately into decline.

Compared to the stability in the dao of pills, there were many more unknown factors and coincidences in the world of martial dao.

It wasn’t a bad notion to greatly revitalize the position of martial dao in the Regal Pill Palace, but Jiang Chen felt that it was an unworthy trade off if the price was the sect’s original advantage in pills. Of course, that hadn’t been the Palace Head’s original intentions, just that things had unconsciously developed thusly.

“Jiang Chen, you’re the only one who dares speak so openly and honestly in the younger generation.” Palace Head Dan Chi sighed softly. He had great ambitions, but he wasn’t an arrogant and self serving autocrat. Everything he’d done had been for the goal of reconstructing the Myriad Empire.

Although he’d never spoken of this ambition, the senior executives of the Regal Pill Palace could still more or less sense his intentions. Using Elder Yun Nie as an example, he was well aware of Palace Head Dan Chi’s aspirations. Therefore, even though Dan Chi had weakened the Herbal Hall’s position, he didn’t actually hate the Palace Head. On the contrary, he quite agreed with the Palace Head’s goals and lofty aims.

A great sect should indeed possess such an ambition and direction. But in terms of details, Elder Yun Nie still felt firmly that the Regal Pill Palace should never lose its advantage in pills. Never! The truth of the situation was that the Regal Pill Palace’s traditions were slowly vanishing.

“Elder Yun Nie spoke in confidence to me last time regarding his concerns for the Pill Battles of Mt. Rippling Mirage. He said that although the Regal Pill Palace was still foremost in the Myriad Domain thirty years ago, he was uncertain if this is still the case thirty years later.”

Jiang Chen also knew that Palace Head Dan Chi was blaming himself for his oversight. He could only speak up in comfort, “Looking at the greater picture, the Regal Pill Palace has made great strides in martial dao. Our foundation and traditions still exist in the dao of pills, we just need time to adjust ourselves so that we can rise again.”

Sage Dan Chi laughed heartily, “Indeed! What is frightening isn’t a temporary loss of advantage, but refusing to change even when knowing that the advantage is lost. I am no god, it’s impossible that I avoid mistakes. The direction of the Regal Pill Palace will not veer from the proper course as long as we make the appropriate corrections. Jiang Chen, your appearance truly is timely. You have formed a bridge of communication between me and Elder Yun Nie. I hope that you can leap to the skies in a single bound and attain a residence in the Sovereign Area.”

“I will try my best.” Jiang Chen nodded. “In actuality, Elder Yun Nie still speaks highly of your ambitions and strategic mind.” Elder Yun Nie had indeed mentioned this before, and had spoken highly of Dan Chi. Jiang Chen had to admire Elder Yun Nie’s personality as well.

Business was business, and personal affairs another matter entirely. Elder Yun Nie was scrupulous in separating public affairs from private matters. And at the same time, Palace Dan Chi was open minded and straightforward, not covering up his mistakes but openly admitting to them and looking for ways to resolve them. This was indeed the mindset that one of great talent and bold vision should have.

With Dan Chi at the helm and an elder like Yun Nie, the Regal Pill Palace was sure to live long and prosper.