Commander Mo Zhun of the ritual guards was willing to remain with the Zhenhai Army, and the reason was actually tied to the Ancestral God Hall's system.
Although Ye Zhen had joined the Ancestral God Hall, he only understood the priesthood system and had never studied the ritual guard system at all.
Within the Ancestral God Hall, there were priests and ritual guards. Comparatively speaking, priests held higher status and had broader prospects.
Ritual guards, by comparison, ranked a notch lower. Yet the Ancestral God Hall as a whole stood above the ordinary in Great Zhou. Though ritual guards held only average status within the Hall, they still cut a dazzling figure when sent elsewhere.
The deeper reason lay in the ritual guard system.
The Ancestral God Hall's ritual guards chiefly served the various halls and their priests.
It could be said that the Ancestral God Hall's ritual guards were the attendants and protectors of its priests.
Within the Ancestral God Hall, once one's status reached a certain level, one could obtain a dedicated team of ritual guards as an escort.
For example, deputy hall masters, left and right chief priests, hall masters, Authority Priests of the Ancestral God Hall, inspectors, and others—once they assumed such a post, they would receive a team of ritual guards of varying numbers and cultivation levels, along with an appointed ritual guard commander.
For instance, after Ye Zhen became the Left Grand Chief Priest of the Barbarian Spirit Hall, he received an escort of one hundred ritual guards and a ritual guard commander.
Yi Jue, who now commanded the slave camp, was Ye Zhen's ritual guard commander.
Basically, once a ritual guard was assigned to someone as a ritual guard commander, his fate became inseparably bound to that of the person he protected.
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