Five-Element Heavenly Thunder Shatters Baleful Intent; Water-Raising Dragon-Scaled Crocodile Seeks to Defy Heaven

Life plaques.

They were made by sealing a wisp of a living being's True Spirit within a specially crafted jade plaque, a method used to determine whether the True Spirit's owner was alive or dead.

However, this method was often compulsory. Generally, only small sects, minor schools, and heretical paths used such measures, binding cultivators to their sect for life and making them serve the sect.

In the end, it was an inferior method.

The orthodox Xuanmen sects and Pure Yang Sacred Lands of today used far more profound methods.

Take Penglai, for instance. The names of true disciples were inscribed in golden registers, their auras retained and life lamps lit. True disciples carried true disciple jade plaques with them; should they perish outside, their life lamp would go out and the golden register would issue a warning. Using the lingering aura, the sect could even locate the true disciple's corpse, bring it back, and enshrine it within the sect.

Even ordinary disciples had their names recorded in silver records and received their own identity jade plaques. Should anything happen to them while traveling outside, the sect would recover their remains.

It could be said that most Pure Yang Sacred Lands now used life lamps in conjunction with jade plaques. Only life plaques that sealed away True Spirits remained, and unless someone had committed a monstrous crime or betrayed the sect, they would not use a method like life plaques that harmed one's future path.

But Azure Wave Pool was merely a Great Vehicle power. It was neither an orthodox Xuanmen or Buddhist lineage, much less a Pure Yang Sacred Land.

In the eyes of the old Azurewave Dragon King, who trusted no one and regarded everyone with suspicion, only those who left behind life plaques were barely reliable enough