"Of course, if all it had were formation-breaking capabilities, that wouldn't be enough to tempt me or my colleagues in the Formation Planning Hall."
As the trainees stared excitedly at the Dissociation Disc, buzzing with discussion, Ji Hongdao continued.
"The true power of the Dissociation Disc lies in its potential for growth."
With those words, Ji Hongdao deliberately paused, waiting for their reaction. Just as he expected, the hall instantly erupted in uproar.
It was common knowledge in the cultivation world that whenever a magical treasure was tied to growth potential, its value would skyrocket tenfold, a hundredfold.
As secondary bodies of the Heavenly Profound Mirror, these Dissociation Discs with their formation-breaking ability were already extraordinarily precious.
If they also possessed the ability to grow, their value would become immeasurable! The students' eyes burned with intensity as they stared at Ji Hongdao, hanging on his every word.
Seeing that he had thoroughly whetted their appetites, Ji Hongdao stopped teasing them and said, "As formation masters, each of us carries a long-cherished wish: to create a perfect formation of our very own. The Dissociation Disc can help us achieve exactly that.
"With every formation it unravels, the Dissociation Disc absorbs and stores the formation's data within itself.
"According to our research and observations, the Dissociation Disc will then spontaneously deduce and iterate upon the absorbed formation, attempting to patch the flaws exploited during the breakthrough.
"Once the weaknesses are mended, a brand-new formation is born.
"Afterward, the Dissociation Disc will attempt to crack this new formation once more. Breakthrough, repair, and breakthrough again.
"In the hands of an ordinary formation master, iterating a formation even once often takes several years, or even a decade or two.
"Yet with this Dissociation Disc, multiple iterations can often be achieved within a single year. Of course, that efficiency depends somewhat on the difficulty of the formation being cracked.
"If it is something on the level of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation, the speed of iteration will naturally slow down.
"Even so, the Dissociation Disc is more efficient than all of us put together," Ji Hongdao praised, showing not the slightest resentment at being surpassed by a magical treasure. Unable to resist caressing the treasure in his hands once more, he continued:
"The more formation data the Dissociation Disc absorbs, the stronger its cracking ability becomes. Likewise, its capacity for deduction and iteration grows ever more powerful.
"It is truly hard to imagine what heights they might reach in the future.
"It is said that in the beginning, the supreme treasure of our Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, the Heavenly Profound Mirror, was merely an ordinary mirror.
"It was only after witnessing the Immortal Venerable preach the Dao and birthing its own consciousness that it steadily grew over thousands of years into the wondrous entity it is today.
"So who is to say whether, in your hands, the Dissociation Disc might not evolve into a second Heavenly Profound Mirror?"
At these words, every student held their breath.
No one under the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals was unaware of the immense power and value of the Heavenly Profound Mirror. The thought that they might one day possess a magical treasure rivaling the Heavenly Profound Mirror caused their breathing to grow rapid in an instant.
"Master Ji, stop teasing us! Hurry up and announce the results!"
The speaker was a Golden Core cultivator named Qi Chengcheng, who had placed near the top in every subject during the preceding assessments.
Possessing absolute confidence in his results, he believed that one of the nine Dissociation Discs was certainly his. Hence, he could not resist urging Ji Hongdao on.
Li Fan, however, savored Ji Hongdao's words carefully, sensing an unusual undertone.
Granted, the Dissociation Disc was indeed an extraordinary treasure.
If Ji Hongdao had not exaggerated the facts, it was essentially the ideal lesser substitute for the Heavenly Profound Mirror that Zhang Zhiliang had longed for—the core computational hub for the Infinite Method.
Li Fan admitted he was tempted. Yet Ji Hongdao's impassioned promotion struck him as somewhat suspicious.
If these words had been spoken at the start of the training as motivation, it would have made sense.
Now, however, the final assessment was already over, and the scores had been finalized. Logically speaking, the recipients of the nine Dissociation Discs should have already been determined. Why would Ji Hongdao deliver such an inflammatory speech at this moment?
He had even brought out lines like "who is to say it won't become a second Heavenly Profound Mirror?"
Had Li Fan not already known that the Heavenly Profound Mirror was very likely tied to the Profound Heaven Sect's supreme treasure, the Profound Heaven Treasure Mirror from ancient times, he might have bought Ji Hongdao's nonsense.
And just as Li Fan suspected, after offering a slight smile, Ji Hongdao finally showed his hand. With a gentle wave of his hand, a golden light scroll materialized across the sky.
Upon the golden scroll, names were listed from top to bottom in order of score. The top nine glowed with a faint purplish-gold brilliance, exceedingly conspicuous.
As the golden scroll unfolded, Ji Hongdao said, "We promised before that these nine Dissociation Discs would be awarded as prizes to the top performers of this assessment.
"This was personally approved by the Formation Planning Hall headquarters, so we naturally will not go back on our word.
"However... things have changed."
At this point, a trace of helplessness appeared on Ji Hongdao's face. The students exchanged glances, a sinking feeling welling in their hearts.
"At first, there were indeed nine Dissociation Discs, and even now, the count remains the same. But just yesterday, we suddenly discovered that among the nine Dissociation Discs, eight of them have dimmed slightly.
"The remaining one, on the other hand, did not fade; its light intensified, growing slightly stronger.
"Although the change was extremely subtle, we still noticed it.
"Secondary bodies of the Heavenly Profound Mirror often possess unknown hidden traits that only manifest under specific conditions. Thus, we failed to perceive the true secret of these Dissociation Discs before...
"This was indeed an oversight on our part." Ji Hongdao sighed, his weathered face flushing with embarrassment.
The students, however, caught the underlying implication of his words.
"Master Ji, do you mean... these nine Dissociation Discs will devour each other?" Qi Chengcheng could not help asking.
Ji Hongdao nodded. "After noticing the anomaly and conducting careful research, we realized that while they appear to be nine separate Dissociation Discs, they are actually one.
"Whenever one disc's power of dissociation grows stronger, it extracts origin energy from the other split bodies to empower itself.
"If the weaker ones remain stagnant instead of striving to catch up, their origin power will be continuously drained, leaving them weaker and weaker—until they ultimately vanish.
"As the saying goes, the strong grow stronger, and the weak grow weaker.
"In the end, amidst the relentless competition among the nine Dissociation Discs, only one will survive to the very end.
"And that one will be the ultimate victor, gathering the combined might of all nine Dissociation Discs.
"The true Dissociation Disc."
Chapter 320