Qianyue only gave him a glance before turning towards Li Qiye. There seemed to be something charismatic about him that stole her unblinking attention.
Huang Ning’s smile froze at this sight and slowly turned into a grimace. His achievements so far were top-notch, enough for him to be elated while the rest of the crowd cheered him on.
That’s why he also wanted to be praised by her and for her to know that he was a worthy suitor.
Alas, she paid it no mind and only cared about Li Qiye. This was truly humiliating.
He noticed that Li Qiye’s hand was still on the ashen dao bone. The guy had his eyes closed, seemingly meditating.
In Huang Ning’s opinion, Li Qiye was only trying to be cool and mysterious - truly nauseating.
“Hmph, are you comprehending the dao bone or not? Doing it with your hand? No, just ask around if you don’t know how to start, stop trying to act cool.” Huang Ning aggressively glared at Li Qiye and said. The main reason for his animosity was still jealousy.
“He’s just trying to get everyone’s attention by acting mysteriously.” A demon helped Huang Ning: “Unfortunately, everyone just thinks it’s stupid.”
“He can do whatever he wants but when the time comes and he still can’t do it, he’ll have to bark.” Another disciple said.
It was interesting how much they hated him despite not having any prior feud and grievances.
Li Qiye ignored all of this and continued to touch the dao bone. In reality, Zhang Yue and the elders have been paying attention to him since he had done some insane things during the trials.
First was Tortoise Fist then his chaotic banging resulting in a golden dragon. This was no coincidence - they knew this much.
There were so many dao bones but he picked this particular one, inviting the curiosity of the upper echelon.
It was randomly picked up by a disciple in the past and had been evaluated before. They found that it was useless since it didn’t contain runes and the power of any chaos primal beast. Even if it wasn’t a piece of crap, it would only be a low-level yellow bone at best.
So why did this devilish youth pick it over the other bones? That’s why they were watching to see if he could do something astonishing in this trial as well.
After a while, he opened his eyes and pulled his hand back.
“Oooh, the son of miracles, did you figure out any supreme merit law from that dao bone?” One disciple instantly jeered.
“The answer is clearly yes, he has the ultimate luck. Maybe he has figured out all the mysteries there and will be able to derive ten merit laws out of the bones.” Another snorted.
“I want this dao bone.” Li Qiye simply told an elder nearby.
“It belongs to the sect so disciples can’t take it out.” The elder smiled and shook his head.
“Hmph, this isn’t your house, you can’t take whatever you want.” Huang Ning scowled at Li Qiye’s attitude, always acting superior.
Qianyue found this surprising. Why did he want this worthless dao bone?
“Elder, aren’t there rewards for contributions to the sect?” Qianyue immediately asked the elders for Li Qiye’s sake.
This prompted Huang Ning to scowl again since she always picked Li Qiye’s side.
“That depends on the contribution. This dao bone has limited value but on principles, the ones that are added to the treasury belong to the sect. Why do you want it?” The oldest elder was interested in Li Qiye’s shenanigans. None of them could see how it was special.
“Fate brings us together.” Li Qiye smiled while looking at the dao bone.
Meanwhile, a different elder looked at the time and told the rest: “There’s not much time left, keep on trying if you haven’t finished.”
The still-testing disciples became anxious after hearing this.
“Time’s almost up, that’s when you carry out the bet.” Zhan Hu smirked and reminded Li Qiye.
The other betters finally remembered about this part.
“You’re betting with a lot of people, I think you’ll have to bark till sunrise.” The same demon gloated on Li Qiye’s future misery.
“He brought it upon himself for bragging without being able to back it up. Let’s see how he’ll derive ten dao bones with so little time.” The others stared at him, not letting him renege.
“Oh, thanks for reminding me.” Li Qiye smiled, still polite to the doubters.
He then stared at the elders and touched his chin: “Is there a reward for deriving ten dao bones?”
“If you can get ten merit laws that haven’t been found before, then it’s just not a regular contribution. It’s a grand achievement deserving a grand reward.” The elders didn’t know what to say. Zhang Yue spoke up instead.
“Yes, a big reward.” The elder in charge nodded.
There were two main sources of merit laws in most sects. First, those created by their patriarch and ancestors. Second, the ones derived from complete dao bones by powerful cultivators.
For example, a high-level earth bone would contain a high-level earth merit law after a perfect derivation.
Ping Suoweng was the only one capable of this in Divine Black. An expert of his level was highly valued anywhere.
Furthermore, the high-level bones were also rare and valuable. This sect certainly had limited heaven-level dao bones.
Currently, this storage had plenty of lower-level dao bones but not all of them have been derived.
Ping Suoweng didn’t have the time nor the energy to derive every single bone here. That would be a waste of time because Divine Black had enough low-level merit laws.
Nonetheless, no sects would complain about having too many merit laws. The more, the better.
That’s why they would reward whoever can derive complete merit laws.
“Okay, I’ll do ten right now, no need for a grand reward or whatever, I just need this dao bone.” Li Qiye chuckled and pointed at the dao bone.