Sword Flash looked at everyone and said, "You should know this and you should know what you're lacking. But if you don't know, I'll tell you."
"By lacking one thing or another, I mean that either your cultivation is lacking or that you haven't learned a vessel sigil technique. You need a minimum of a seventh transformation of the golden core for you to attempt to advance to the fifth mortal coil."
"Many of you haven't reached the seventh transformation yet. But frankly, I don't think anyone who doesn't have at least a ninth transformation of the golden core cultivation will have a good chance of advancing to the fifth mortal coil and I don't intend to spend a nascent soul pill to find out if I'm right or wrong about this."
"Secondly, if you haven't cultivated a vessel sigil technique, you can't advance to the fifth mortal coil. Not even a nascent soul pill can help you because you won't be able to start the process of advancement at all."
This reminded Arthur of the two ways to advance to the fifth mortal coil. The first one is the ancient external method, which requires enlightenment. This method usually has a 1% chance of success.
The second method to advance to the fifth mortal coil is the current internal method. This method requires using the high form of energy within vessel sigils to liberate the soul.
Sword Flash didn't mention the first option because it is not an option for most of them. And even if it were an option, no sane person would choose the ancient method above the second method.
What Sword Flash said about only four people being eligible for advancement was reasonable. Most importantly, there was still a chance for the rest to meet the requirement to advance. So most of the golden core cultivators were only slightly disappointed. Their enthusiasm for advancement wasn't affected at all.
But Sword Flash had more bad news. He said, "And you can't advance yet until we know what the leadership assessment will entail and know the strength of the enemy that we will fight."
"I haven't accepted the mission yet because I wanted to come to discuss with you, and I also wanted to make sure that we eliminated the Red and Blue Fire sect first. I didn't think it was a good idea to rush things, especially since there are consequences for failing the assessment."
"I wanted to see that we were in good shape and could take on the leadership assessment. Now that I have confirmed that everything is fine, I'll accept the mission. Once we know what is required of us for the leadership, I will decide when you can advance."
"I'm being cautious because the time it will take for you to advance to the fifth mortal coil is uncertain. It can be between 1 and 100 years. We can't have that kind of uncertainty on our hands when we are about to face such a momentous task."
"But if the situation allows for it, I will let you guys advance. In the meantime, we will refine the nascent soul pills, upgrade our strength with the things we looted from the Red and Blue Fire sect, and get the reward for eliminating them."
This time, everyone's enthusiasm was dampened. Only people like Arthur and Storm Hawk, who had nothing to do with advancing to the fifth mortal coil anytime soon, were not affected by the delay of advancing.
But Sword Flash had even worse news. He said, "I want you, every one of you in possession of an armor suit, to know that it works for you because it requires the life fire to work. So if you have them, you should trade them in to me for something that you can use."
This time, Void Claw fell. This was because he had four rank 5 armor suits in his possession. He had been looking forward to using them to raise his strength. So this bad news struck him hard.
He wasn't the only one who was impacted by this news. Many of them had gone to the front line to fight. They had risked their lives to earn the armor suits only to hear that they couldn't be used.
Their reactions made Sword Flash say, "Not everything is so bad. There is some good news. Most of the loot that was earned would be used to strengthen the sect and to prepare for the leadership assessment. But some of it will be used to reward you for your performance during the battle. So cheer up."
This did cheer everyone up. After all, the prospect of getting a reward is always good news, no matter the situation.
Sword Flash called their names in the other of their contributions to the war. Void Claw was the first to be called because he contributed the most.
Pink Ivy, Raging Thunder, and two other people were called next for their work in killing the rank 4 golden core elders of the Red and Blue Fire sect. Then Silver Web and Lightning Tyrant were called next.
Silver Web is one of Sword Flash's three disciples. He and Arthur hadn't gone to the front lines to fight. The two of them had stayed behind and worked on inscribing formations.
Silver Web had a higher cultivation than Arthur and was stronger, so he was able to get more work done than Arthur. This made him contribute more than Arthur.
Arthur's reward was a rank 5 AI logic module. It is the same kind that Sword Flash used to upgrade the array spirit of the sect.
When Arthur received it, he thought to himself, "I can use this to upgrade the power of the formation breaker. This way, it will be able to advance to the fifth mortal coil with minimal support."
There are four most important parts of the formation breaker. These important parts are the energy core, the computation banks, the training data, and the AI logic model.