"Heh heh, Senior Sun, if I don't become this cauldron servant, could it be that Qu Jiao can take my place? How laughable. Since when did people start scrambling to give up their freedom?" Zi Jiang snorted.
Sun Qing gave an awkward smile and hurriedly said, "Miss Zi, you misunderstand, you misunderstand! How could that be what I meant? The path to contending for the cauldron is incredibly arduous and extremely dangerous. According to the inside information I've heard, the cauldron lord and cauldron servant must work together wholeheartedly to have any chance of claiming the revered cauldron. Otherwise, why would we have schemed to get Sect Master Xia involved instead of having my husband and me cooperate?"
Zi Jiang looked utterly bewildered, but I had already understood the implications, so I said, "You mean that the cauldron lord's aptitude is also crucial, right?"
Sun Qing immediately nodded at me and said, "Sect Master Xia truly is clever. Though that does make things somewhat awkward for me. It seems Sect Master Xia has already seen that my aptitude only reaches the upper second grade."
"Mm. So you're saying that it's not enough for the cauldron servant to be powerful—the cauldron lord must also possess a certain level of aptitude and strength, right?" I asked.
"Exactly." Mo Wen nodded in admission, then looked at me seriously. "With Sect Master Xia's peerless first-grade aptitude, you indeed have a chance of claiming the revered cauldron. However, what use would the revered cauldron be to you? Given the current strength of your sect, I'm afraid that even if you obtained it, you wouldn't be able to protect it. I, on the other hand, possess both the ability to claim the cauldron and the strength to defend it. It would be better to give this