A few days later, Jiang Hao received a call from a senior brother informing him to go to Dragon Tiger Mountain for the Ordination Advancement Ceremony assessment. Ordination advancement was a major matter, so Jiang Hao immediately bade Zhou Xinyan farewell and headed for Dragon Tiger Mountain.
The Zhengyi Sect stipulated that one could apply for advancement three years after initial ordination, for an additional ordination eight years after advancement, and for further advancement twelve years after that. The initial ordination was the Three-Five Du Gong Sutra Ordination; after three years came the Zhengyi Mengwei Ordination, then the Shangqing Five Thunders Sutra Ordination, followed by the Shangqing Sandong Five Thunders Sutra Ordination, and finally the Shangqing Dadong Sutra Ordination.
Jiang Hao had been to Dragon Tiger Mountain before. When he arrived, he found that aside from tourists, there were far more Daoists than usual. Most of them had come from other sects to take the ordination advancement assessment.
What was an "ordination register"?
An ordination register was a document recording the names and affiliations of Celestial officials, merit officers, immortals and deities of the ten directions. It granted the authority to summon and command divine officials and perform cultivation methods and spells.
Only after Zhengyi Daoists received an ordination register could their names be entered into the Celestial Bureaucracy and could they hold Daoist official positions. Only then could the memorial texts used in their Ritual Services reach the Heavenly Court and receive divine protection. Otherwise, those memorial texts were ineffective.
Only after one's name was entered into the Celestial Bureaucracy and one held a Daoist official position did one gain the authority to dispatch a certain number of divine soldiers to protect oneself. Only then could one slay demons, eliminate evil, deliver sentient beings, and aid those in distress.