As he spoke!
The blue-robed Nascent Soul Cultivator raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce through the walls toward the most radiant part of the Cultivator Association headquarters.
A barely perceptible bitterness entered his voice:
"But the reason we have never been able to stand shoulder to shoulder with those truly top-tier sects...
is precisely because we lack that terrifying foundation—built up over ten thousand years, accumulated generation after generation, enough to suppress one's fate and fortune.
Otherwise, when the Cultivator Association held its investiture ceremony shortly after its founding a few years ago, our Treasure Pavilion, along with several other major powers, would not have failed to secure even a single Venerable seat as a chief hall master."
He gently sipped his Spirit Wine, feeling the mild Spirit Energy diffuse through his body, yet unable to dissolve the faint chill in his heart.
"As expected, we received only a deputy hall master position as scant consolation.
As for the chief hall master positions, almost without exception, they all fell into the hands of Half Venerables from top-tier sects, as well as those senior figures who had once formed the core leadership of the Sea Suppressing Alliance."
The moment these words were spoken!
The atmosphere in the room seemed to quietly turn colder and more stagnant as his words fell silent.
The faint rumbling and fluctuations of laws drifting in from outside only made the stillness indoors more pronounced.
Immediately after, the white-robed Nascent Soul True Lord abruptly tipped back his head and drained the remaining Spirit Wine in his cup in one gulp. His Adam's apple bobbed, producing a soft "glug."
He heavily set down the wine cup. Its base struck the jade table with a crisp "crack."
Then he let out a long sigh, filled with complicated