At that moment—
Nuwa, Yuanshi, Laozi, and the Two Western Sages had been beaten yet again.
Feeling the heavy wounds to their Dao, they could only smile bitterly in silence.
They were used to it.
And deep down, they knew...
This beating—
They had pretty much asked for it!
During this Investiture Calamity Cycle, Tongtian alone had repeatedly guided his disciples to compete. The other five Sages had not helped their disciples compete at all.
Worse—
They had warned their disciples and followers not to vie for an Upper Star Deity Position, lest they meet with calamity, their souls return to the True Spirit Sea, or they enter Reincarnation to cultivate anew!
At the time, the price of being reincarnated and starting over during a Calamity Cycle had been far too high.
Fuxi, Di Jiang, Xuan Ming, and the others might have reincarnated smoothly and returned far stronger.
But they had ridden the wave of the Human Dao's rise.
Afterward—
Plenty of cultivators at Great Luo or above had also reincarnated and started over. Those who made great strides after returning were few and far between!
And the favors and sacrifices required far outweighed such meager gains.
Thus—
Even Yuanshi, who expounded Heaven's will and followed its Dao, had not helped his disciples.
Which meant—
Of the five Upper Star Deity Positions and more than a hundred Middle Star Deity Offices that Lord Dan Jing had promised them on the Investiture of the Gods all those years ago,
only Tongtian's Interception Sect had filled its allotment—and exceeded it.
As for the disciples and followers of the other five Sages... not one had become an Upper Star Deity, and their hundred-odd Middle Star Deity Offices had not been filled either!
Lord Dan Jing had not been wrong to call them "slackers."