This was going to be another huge mess. Taiyi's eyelids twitched violently. The Underworld fiasco had yet to be dealt with, and now the Merit Stele was covered with Qin Fen's name. He had dominated every major event of the past year. It could be said that he had caused all of them—and caused them spectacularly. The Heavenly Dao kept throwing commendations at him as if they cost nothing.
If awards were being handed out, Qin Fen had swept every award from the previous year. If it was about making headlines, Qin Fen had been the only king of topics all year long. Almost every subject revolved around him, as though no other immortals had anything to do.
How was that possible? Taiyi stood there dumbfounded, unable to accept it. Huanglong watched Taiyi space out. He had always handled the Merit assessments for the tea gatherings, so naturally he knew how difficult this was.
In previous years, things happened every year, but they were absolutely never recorded in such detail on the Merit Stele.
For example, Guanyin Bodhisattva went somewhere and did something, earning widespread public praise.
Or perhaps there was a drought somewhere, and the Jade Emperor ordered rain to fall, delighting the people. Such records had one thing in common: they would never be followed by words like "boundless Merit," nor would they describe achievements that would endure for ages. There was a vast difference. What those immortals did might have seemed huge in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of the Heavenly Dao, it was mere trivia.
They deserved encouragement, but never massive publicity. Now look at Qin Fen. The comments after every single entry were incredibly favorable. Even the number of Heavenly Dao announcements about Qin Fen this year had been downright insane.