CH 494

Chapter 494: The Openminded and Straightforward Palace Head Dan Chi

The contest for the residences raised a great furor in 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, that represented the peak of the younger generation of the Regal Pill Palace!

There were currently only eight residences in the entire 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. With this scale of people, how great of an honor it would to be the honored twelve above them all! How lofty one was!

There was no doubt that as soon as one entered the Sovereign Area, as long as their path was smooth and they didn’t accidentally fall halfway, they were sure to be a heavyweight in the sect after a few decades, one with power!

The list of those interested in competing for the residences was more ridiculous than imagined. More than two hundred signed up for martial dao, and more than three hundred signed up for the dao of pills. This was to say that almost half of the core disciples in the entire 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 that more would sign up for the dao of pills.

The entire Regal Pill Palace sank into a fervent atmosphere before the contests had even begun. 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 one most favored to win.

It was rather Mu Gaoqi who was one of the top five candidates. Jiang Chen was actually number ten or so. But of course, this was only the speculations of the outside world. No one was able to truly speculate just 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 come to the sect? Even the Hallmaster of the Herbal Hall is speaking on your behalf. Jiang Chen, you’re not bad at all.” Dan Chi looked at Jiang Chen with smiling eyes, then shock suddenly blazed out of them. “You’re third level origin realm already? In this short span of time?!”

“I happened to obtain a core of a Redscaled Firelizard by chance and refined in, managing to break through after that.”

“Nice going kid, ‘just managing 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 just managing to break through?” Dan Chi’s tone was full of admiration. “To think that my breakthrough speed 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 up to you. 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 for himself, so there was no need to hold back anything.

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

Jiang Chen nodded and didn’t deny things. He trusted that if the Palace Head was asking thus, he must have received concrete intelligence to this regard.

When Dan Chi saw Jiang Chen nod, his expression also became complex. He sighed with a smile. “To think that this is 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, seeming to be 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 would have to start with me taking the reigns of power in the Regal Pill Palace. Before that, the sect had emphasized the tradition of pills and had never deviated. When I took control and elevated the Hall of Might to the foremost of the nine halls, the Herbal Hall retreated to secondary importance. I don’t know if Elder Yun Nie has ever resented me for this. From our current culture, the Regal Pill Palace has indeed overlooked the dao of pills over the past decades and overly focused on martial dao. This is indeed at great odds with the traditions of my Regal Pill Palace. To go beyond is as wrong as falling short. Now that I look back on things, I feel that I’ve been too radical and 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 his personal style in raising the Hall of Might to the 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 in the dao of pills had greatly decreased. It was apparent from this time’s competition entrants that there were almost no premier pill masters anymore.

This had greatly moved Palace Head Dan Chi, and he began to reflect on his strategy. He didn’t feel that there was anything wrong in promoting martial dao, but it was a grave mistake that this had indirectly affected development in 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 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 thought briefly before grasping where the dilemma was here. “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 became 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 plunge immediately into decline.

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

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 thus.

“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 was one with great ambitions, but not 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 ambitions 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 with 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 make no 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 also hope that you can soar to the skies with one move this time 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 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. He was scrupulous in separating public affairs from privates matters. And at the same time, Palace Dan Chi was openminded 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 a 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.