Why is YD not better than all the other greats?
WCY taught YD the "pre-heaven skill" which with his "yi yang zi", he can easily defeat OYF. Throw in the fact that he is the only one that studied the 9 yin zhen geng, how is he not considered the best of the greats?
Also WCY's "pre-heaven skill" is the highest level of quan zhen internal cultivation where not even ZBT knows, this alone should put him on par with WCY right?
Yideng-an unsolvable mystery
How good was Yideng? He should be #1 by the end of ROCH, but the truth was, he wasn't. Why?
We know that ZBT treated martial arts seriously and was a very good gauge of one's skills. He doesn't like sucking up either. He mentioned that WCY's Xian Tian Gong would allow one to gain internal power even without training. YD learnt XTG from WCY to counter OYF. It was possible that WCY didn't impart the whole skillset to YD, but I reckon a good deal was taught to YD. But it is more possible that WCY imparted the whole skillset to YD as a gentleman's agreement.
So with XTG, why wasn't YD a lot stronger? It could be due to YD exhausting his energy to heal HR, but 9yin allowed H7G to recover, so why not YD?
YD also had the good fortune of learning 9yin.
The only explanation was that he was more interested in Buddhism and doing good. But surely by becoming a more skilled fighter, one can rid the world of evil do-ers? Who knows when a more powerful OYF might pop up? If YD was stronger, he would be able to stop GWM. Plus it is impossible to chant scriptures 24 hours a day right? I mean cmon, even Shaolin monks trained in martial arts.
It makes no sense that YD isn't a lot stronger.