Though they fell under the umbrella of the Eternal Night, the Myriad Sea Clans each had their own faiths and cultural norms. Some practiced Lianism, others worshiped deities connected to their bloodlines, others still worshiped none, but if there was one thing that all agreed on, it was the importance of a junior's constitution.
Physique, blood, organ, bones, together these four attributes made up a person's constitution, but even for top clans, improving these attributes was far too costly. To make a single Holy or Divine Beast Descendant undergo a basic atavism, one had to consider resources in the hundreds of millions of spirit stones. For that reason, the lottery of life played a critical role.
Take the original Bai Daji for example. Born a six-tailed White Fox, she had the potential to cultivate to Dao Revelation with no bottleneck. But afterward, the bottlenecks she'd face would be several times more challenging than human or spirit experts that relied solely on themselves to reach that level. The later tribulations would be more brutal as well, pretty much limiting her future to the peak of Dao Revelation.
This was the type of talent that a Dongli native would slaughter one million for, but for a princess of the White Fox clan, it was no different from trash. If Bai Zhi wanted to elevate his daughter to the nine-tailed fox standard that he was born with, he'd need to spend resources worth tens of billions of spirit stones—just to give her a fighting chance. For that same price, the White Fox clan could help their more gifted juniors make sweeping leaps in their cultivation bases. In these brutal seas, no daughter was worth the sacrifice.
But here in the Hengye clan, it was different. One finger snap from the reigning monarch, and 100,000 Lunar Yin Flowers—each worth one billion Spirit Stones—dropped from the sky, giving each lady on the scene the chance to condense the number one dual cultivation physique that a female could aspire to: the Star-Glazed Moon Physique. Better, the Taiyang clan's Sun Smelting Divine Cauldron, a divine armament robbed by Hengye Wuxin, would help these ladies refine the flowers that, otherwise, they'd have virtually no hope to absorb.
"Abbot, this isn't fair! We were here first. Why don't we get flowers as well?" The maids, who as time went on grew comfortable enough to sometimes forget Xinzi's supreme status, pouted at our monk, grabbing his sleeves, arms, shoulders and back to make him capitulate. Alas, Xinzi, who graduated from the Qingxin-academy with a degree in No-Simp-Allowed, stayed stoic under the soft and rattling pressure of the eight maids.
"Hum, hum! The Golden Lotus be praised. Here, fairness is the norm. You will naturally receive your dues—just not now." Eyes shut and hands joined in a prayer sign, Xinzi said, forcing the pouting maids to give up for the time being. The contestants awoke from their stupor, cupped their hands, and bowed at Xinzi.
"Thank you, Divine Lord, for this opportunity!" They said in synch, their voices echoing like a choir of celestial beings. Subsequently, they sat crossed-legged, locking their Spiritual Senses on the Lunar Yin Flower.
Xinzi's Blissful Extinction Art kicked into gear, and as his Spiritual Sense connected to the cauldron, a pillar of golden flames burst out of his body. Divine Runes condensed by the Zhen-body appeared around Xinzi's lotus throne, enabling him to control the Sun Smelting Divine Cauldron.
100,000 beams of curving golden flames gushed out of the furnace, dropping on each contestant like doomsday judgment unleashed by heaven's wrath. Xinzi's eyes stayed shut, and as the flames fell on the contestants, embroiling them in purifying divine energies, he too entered meditation—connecting to the 100,000 through the cauldron. Without delay, they got to work, each channeling the golden flames to refine the 36 petals on the Lunar Yin Flower—it hovered between their hands, flashing with dark-blue light.
Lunar Yin Flowers contained immense quantities of murderous Yin Qi. Without proper arrangements, even a Supreme Clarity level expert that tried to refine the flower would see their body freeze and break down into ice particles nigh-instantaneously.
The divine flames not only solved the lethal threat but suppressed the Lunar Yin Flower to the point that even a Qi Refinement level practitioner had a minuscule chance to refine it. At the same time, they rid the female bodies of potential impurities, enhancing their already superior talents.
Given the Sun Smelting Divine Cauldron's help, each contestant had a fair shot at refining the Lunar Yin Flower's berserk energies—in theory at least. Alas, the divine flames came with their own lot of pressure, putting the ladies' souls under extreme stress. At the tiniest show of weakness, the flames would vanish, bringing this life-changing opportunity to an abrupt end.
According to Xinzi's estimations, only those who could withstand the Divine Flame Baptism for at least 36 minutes would succeed in refining the 36 petals—the results proved him right. On average, the contestants refined one petal per minute. A scant few with outrageous levels of mental fortitude sped up the process, enabling them to channel more flames and refine the petals faster than their peers. However, as they got closer to the 18th petal, they slowed down as well.
"Aaargh!" Not even five minutes after the contest had started, raging voices spread left and right, marking the failure of various contestants. Xinzi's maids shook their heads. It was one thing to have the opportunity, another to be able to capitalize on it. Most of these ladies lived sheltered existences, groomed from the cradle to draw the attention of the Evernight Palace, they didn't have to confront the terrifying realities of the Endless Sea—and therefore lacked in mental fortitude.
On the contrary, the daughters of the Western Damnation Sea's hidden clans did much better. A predictable result as, over there, all lives shared a bed with danger—safety was never an option. Half an hour passed in a flash. The contestants fell like fleas, with thousands going down by the minute. As they did, the Yin Qi that leaked from their bodies raced towards the cauldron, then moved to Xinzi's dantian, filling it with prime energy. 90% of the contestants failed miserably. Of the remaining ten percent, nine failed with dignity, some getting one petal close to the 36-mark. Most of those couldn't restrain their tears.
To come so close to the goal, and yet fail at the finish line, always filled the mouth with bitterness that only those who experienced such failure could relate to. Though Xinzi could sympathize with them, if he altered his rules just to soothe a lady's grief, why did he have them in the first place?
The last few to refine the 36 petals emerged at last. 1,003 girls remained, each shining with lustrous skin and resplendent blue light.
"Congratulations for moving on to the second and final phase. For those who failed to pass this test, this is no indictment against your Dao Heart. In the next selection, you will still have an opportunity. Keep this flower as a reminder of today's failure. I hope you can learn from it so that, in the next selection, you can avenge today's loss," Xinzi said and waved his right hand. Columns of divine light dropped from the starry night, wrapping the losers of this round in a teleportation array.
"Thank you, Divine One, for this chance!" They said, hands clenching around the fower, whose light as before—almost as if daring them to carry on. The teleportation arrays dispersed, leaving 1,003 contestants on the scene.
A dreary silence followed, with Xinzi giving the winners time to steady their mental state and focus on the next phase. Though they'd passed the first challenge, they knew that at the end of it all, only 100 would remain. 90% of the remaining gals would get kicked out. Most of them knew each other, if not personally, then at least by name and reputation. Yet, they didn't spare their acquaintances a glance, ridding their minds of unnecessary concerns to focus entirely on the task at hand.
"Now we move on to a more exciting challenge: the butt-plug test."
"The what?" The lotus throne's profound energies had barely carried Xinzi's voice to the 1,003 ladies' ears that their jaws sank, and their eyes widened in disbelief. Don't say them. The maids too reeled back, unable to believe that their ears didn't deceive them.
Again clearing his throat, Xinzi maintained the stoic demeanor of a supreme expert, refusing to let the ruffian in him ruin the facade.
"For this grand occasion, I've collected 100,000 vibrating plugs—just for the one in a million chance that you'd all pass the first challenge," Xinzi said, and snapped his fingers, making 1,003 silver butt plugs appear before the contestants. He then turned towards the maids, sweeping them with a serious look.
"For this one, you too can join if you want to." Xinzi offered.. The maids' cheeks flushed red, and they lowered their faces, unable to maintain eye contact.