The Difficulty of Comparing

"So, for the aspects the manual isn't the best at, is there a way to grade those? Or a standard that can be used to evaluate it?"

The clerk's heart died a bit inside. In the end it was indeed what he thought it was. "Oh. I see what you mean, This can be considered an old problem with no real solution." 

The clerk had a troubled expression. It wasn't like this wasn't something people had wondered about before, but the difficulty with evaluating manuals was that the whole point of cultivation was the 'cultivating' aspect. 

As in, the user was always growing. If you had to make comparisons, it'd have to be at the peak or start of a stage, but even that wasn't particularly helpful, as often times people's cultivation was slightly imperfect, or in cases, more than perfect if they consumed some spiritual treasure or had some physique that gave them an advantage.