Chapter 690: Opening Mountain Ceremony

"The Opening Mountain Ceremony officially begins; please welcome the Sect Master!"

Amid the tsunami-like cheers, Sect Master He Yun appeared before the crowd, smiling and waving his hand while saying some ceremonial words.

Waited for a while.

After the Sect Master finished speaking, a round of contests among the disciples began.

The ordinary mortals were assigned to go down and wait for allocation, while those with talents had to pass three examinations to see which of them were sufficiently outstanding, and naturally would become sought‑after candidates.

For Yan Buji it made no difference, but he still idly glanced a few times out of boredom.

Huang Ji laughed, pointing ahead: "Hall Master Yan, look at that Illusion Formation over there; the longer one stays in it, the harder it is to break free. This stage tests whether these new entrants are sufficiently resolute."

Yan Buji nodded; he seemed to have seen this kind of scene elsewhere before.

Then a few people were seen exiting the formation first and entering a long passage, where the scenes inside the passage were displayed to everyone using some Accumulation Device.

The passage seemed to have some formidable puppets arranged, to see how their combat abilities fared.

Indeed, a few skilled ones defeated the puppets, broke through first, and reached the third stage.

"Yan Buji, have you cleared the stage?"

Yan Buji hadn't reacted yet when he turned and saw the Sect Master standing behind him, and he quickly rose, clasped his hands and said, "Yan Buji has seen the Sect Master."

"Hmm, no need for formalities."

Huang Ji stood aside, not daring to speak, but seeing the Sect Master personally come over to greet Yan, it showed that Hall Master Yan and the Sect Master had no conflict at all!

He Yun waved his hand: "No need for formalities; I see your cultivation has progressed, secluding yourself for training still yields results."

"Yes, thank you for the Sect Master's concern," Yan Buji smiled.

"Are you here this time intending to select disciples?"

"Um… my Lian Dan Tang has no one under me; I have to pick a few disciples to train," Yan Buji said somewhat embarrassed.

Speaking of it, since the first Sect Assembly, Yan Buji plunged into the cultivation chamber for seclusion and never attended to Lian Dan Tang affairs; nevertheless, Lian Dan Dian still retained his title and hall, which already gave Yan Buji a lot of face.

Honestly, which newly rebuilt Sect Elder would ignore everything except his own cultivation?

Of course, Yan Buji had rendered great meritorious service to the Great Sinful Sect, so it's clear that He Yun secretly preserved this status for him; otherwise he couldn't be sitting here.

He Yun nodded: "Lian Dan Dian has plenty of people; it's enough to cover the Sect's daily expenses. Nowadays the disciples' required pills are basically purchased from outside, and if Lian Dan Dian alone were to handle that, the manpower would be insufficient."

"Indeed, Alchemists are still very hard to cultivate."

Yan Buji thought of this: after all, a good Alchemist requires at least a hundred years to train, and during that period resources must be supplied without restriction.

Back then Yan Buji spent several decades to a hundred years honing his Alchemy Technique; he was somewhat gifted, otherwise the timespan would have been even longer.

The cultivation world has no innate Alchemy Holy Body, so training Alchemists is all luck; if a disciple shows decent Alchemy talent, they are usually assigned a dedicated instructor to strive to produce a formidable Alchemist.

He Yun looked at Yan Buji: "In recent years the Sect has had many major and minor affairs; you happen to have emerged from seclusion, so help take a look."

"Sect Master, have you run into some trouble?"

"First finish reviewing these new disciples," He Yun smiled.

Yan Buji sighed.

This is also a major drawback of being in a Sect; sometimes your time isn't decided by you, unless you truly want nothing. But if that were so, why not become a free‑cultivator?

Being a dog in the Sect, at least you don't have to strain your mind to steal or rob; you can earn benefits for yourself by legitimate means.

After watching these disciples' performances, many Elders had favored candidates, and some even quarreled over a few outstanding disciples, nearly coming to blows.

The Sect Master stepped in to resolve the matter; of the remaining people, Yan Buji casually selected two.

"I am the Hall Master of our Lian Dan Tang, Yan Buji; are you willing to join the Lian Dan Tang?"

"Thank you, Hall Master Yan; we are willing!"

The rest were almost all poor performers; of course, even the worst had at least passed the three selection stages, while those who failed were directly cleared off the mountain.

He first assigned these two to reside in his Lian Dan Tang, then Yan Buji went to find Sect Master He Yun to see what trouble he had.

"Sect Master."

"Hmm, come in, have a seat."

"Yes."

Yan Buji sat down, looking at He Yun at the desk.

He Yun set down his brush, looking at Yan Buji: "Recently the Central Heaven United Merchant Association seems to have resumed dealings with forces from Youming Jie; a large batch of goods is competing with us for the market. Li Wan Hua plans to lower prices to handle it; what do you think?"

"Foolish," Yan Buji said lightly.

He Yun raised an eyebrow, not expecting Yan Buji to be so blunt.

"Why? Isn't lowering price also a way to attract customers?"

"But we are about reputation," Yan Buji said. "If we lower price because our Spiritual Material has some issue, that's our problem. However, as soon as we lower price we'll enter a price war with others, and both sides gain little. Let them lower if they want; we only need to do one thing." Yan Buji smiled.

"What is that one thing?"

"It's nothing more than spreading rumors and suppressing competitors. Now our Sect occupies almost all of the Youming Jie Spiritual Material market share, giving us enough clout to suppress their competing products from every angle—be it quality, channels, efficacy, and so on—but I think we shouldn't crush them outright."

"Why is that?" He Yun asked in surprise.

Yan Buji smiled: "Because if we truly monopolized the entire market, with no competing products, our own staff could arbitrarily manipulate Spiritual Material prices and quality; without competition, someone will always buy, which isn't good for long‑term development. So when I saw Elder Li Wan Hua reach a trade agreement with the big merchant association, I thought his handling was fairly good."

But lowering prices to wage a price war with rivals is the most foolish thing.

Yan Buji didn't want the good situation he had painstakingly built over the past years to be ruined by others, so he presented his opinion to He Yun, leaving it up to him whether to adopt it.

He Yun nodded: "Indeed, you're right."

Yan Buji heard from He Yun many market reactions and formulated targeted adjustment strategies, far better than Li Wan Hua's suggestion; He Yun even wanted Yan Buji to continue handling the Wai Mao Tang affairs.

However, Yan Buji used the excuse that Elder Li Wan Hua wasn't seriously at fault, didn't want to clash with the other side, and declined the matter.

He Yun had no choice; he understood Yan Buji's stance.

Without a legitimate reason, Yan Buji would not return to the Wai Mao Tang.