The Prenatal Pills were stored in the sect's treasure vault.
Even the sect's Prenatal experts had no right to exchange for them.
Only when a sect Postnatal disciple reached the peak of the Ninth Level Postnatal could they exchange merit for a Prenatal Pill from the treasure vault.
That was also why Zhao Kun wanted to suppress the cultivation progress of Zhang Wan, Xu Hui, Yu Shui, and the others.
Zhao Kun had to ensure that Zhao Qixin reached the peak of the Ninth Level Postnatal first and rendered enough merit to the sect. Only then could he guarantee that Zhao Qixin would be able to exchange for a Prenatal Pill.
Taking into consideration the possibility of a failed breakthrough,
Zhao Kun needed to leave Zhao Qixin enough room to exchange for two Prenatal Pills.
He had to suppress the cultivation progress of the martial artists from the same generation as Zhao Qixin even further, widening the gap between them.
At the same time, Zhao Kun could not guarantee that Zhao Qixin would definitely break through to the Prenatal realm after all this.
If Zhao Qixin still failed to break through despite everything, while someone among the suppressed martial artists broke through instead, the situation would become extremely ugly.
To prevent that from happening,
the suppression had to be carried out subtly enough! Ideally, the suppressed people would be unable to detect it as their cultivation speed was slowed.
Directly beating these threatening disciples to death was the worst possible choice.
Every one of these threatening disciples was an elite among their respective generations of students, and would become a backbone of the sect in the future.
If they were all killed, the Jade Bone Sect would have a complete gap in the Postnatal Seventh to Ninth Levels in the future! The strength of the entire sect would plummet!
No one with even a little sense would commit such a foolish act.
If there really were such an idiot, the other Prenatal experts would not stand by and do nothing.
After all, not every Prenatal expert of the Jade Bone Sect had reproduced and left behind descendants of their bloodline.
Even Old Ancestor Jade Bone would not let such a matter go unchecked.
Xu Shenghua knew all this perfectly well, and he also knew that with so many restrictions, carrying out such a thing would be extremely difficult.
But he did not refuse.
He himself had no hope of breaking through to the Prenatal realm, but his junior sister did.
As long as he could protect his junior sister, then even after he passed away in the future, and even after his master passed away, the people of their branch and his blood descendants would receive his junior sister's care and have a Prenatal expert watching over them.
Moreover, this was not something only the people of their branch were doing.
The Prenatal experts who had blood descendants or favored disciples were doing the same thing.
With such a tremendous force working together with one heart, accomplishing this was actually not as difficult as he had imagined.
As for the suppressed disciples, Xu Shenghua felt no guilt. They were all merely struggling for their respective interests.
There were only so many resources, and that destined only a small portion of people to obtain them.
Those who occupied the positions at the front naturally wanted to keep them for their own people. For everyone else who wanted to rise, was it not inevitable that they would have to face a thousand difficulties and ten thousand obstacles?
As for the final outcome, it would all depend on their own abilities!
Zhang Wan knew nothing about what had happened among the sect's Prenatal experts, nor did he have any channel to learn about it. Right now, he could not even pick up the slightest rumor in that regard.
After writing two letters and asking familiar fellow disciples to deliver them to Quanjian Village and the Beginner Martial Arts Academy, Zhang Wan went to look for Wang Yue and Li Guannian.
He asked his two nominal masters to arrange for his parents to enter the Beginner Martial Arts Academy.
Wang Yue and Li Guannian did not refuse.
This was precisely a good opportunity to deepen their master-disciple relationship. How could the two of them miss it?
The reason the two treated Zhang Wan so well was also because they had a demand. If Zhang Wan's performance failed to meet their expectations in the future, then the more friendly they were now, the more ruthless they would be later!
Just after he had settled matters with his family, invitations to a gathering arrived from Xu Hui and Zhao Qixin.
When they had been at the academy, they would often act together from time to time. After arriving at the mountain gate, however, they had barely gathered at all.
This time, they wanted to call everyone together and have a get-together.
There were not many people, only those who had already become familiar with one another at the academy.
Zhang Wan also attended the gathering, learning about what had happened to these classmates after they arrived at the mountain gate.
Yu Shui, Xu Hui, Lin Fangyan, and the others had also caught the eyes of veteran Postnatal members of the sect and been accepted as disciples.
Zhao Qixin, meanwhile, had become her father's disciple.
As everyone talked about recent events, they also sighed over the differences between the mountain gate and the academy.
At the academy, they had cut impressive figures and been prominent figures among the students.
But here at the mountain gate, even among the fellow disciples who had graduated from the same academy year as them, there were many who were no weaker than they were.
Among the other fellow disciples, there were also plenty whose cultivation surpassed theirs.
Everyone they encountered was a Postnatal martial artist. They could hardly see a single ordinary person.
Their living environment had changed drastically.
These changes made many of them feel unaccustomed.
But they were also incomparably excited.
Only in such an environment could their cultivation surge forward by leaps and bounds, giving them a chance to touch the pinnacle of martial arts.
During their conversation, Zhang Wan also learned that besides those who had stayed at the mountain gate, some of their fellow disciples from the same generation had gone to various branch facilities, while others had even gone to guard the remote regions on the fringes of the Jade Bone Sect's territory.
Zhang Wan was left speechless.
The various branch facilities were one thing, but they had even run off to the edges of the sect's territory? Were they afraid they would not die soon enough?
Those places were far more dangerous than the central and core regions governed by the sect.
Never mind the Rogue Cultivator martial artists who mixed around there; whenever conflicts occasionally broke out with other True Core Sects, those places were always the first to suffer!
It was not that going there was impossible.
But running over right after graduating from the academy—wasn't that little bit of strength simply delivering themselves to their deaths?
Zhang Wan sighed.
It seemed that before long, he would receive news of a classmate dying in battle.
Perhaps he should start preparing the condolence money now?
After the gathering, everyone departed separately. As Zhang Wan was leaving, Xu Hui came looking for him.
"I heard my master say that you were accepted as disciples by the two vice ministers. That may not necessarily be a good thing. It might bring you quite a bit of trouble."
"You have to be careful."
"Mm, I know." Zhang Wan chatted with Xu Hui about this and that.
The two of them had been in the same class for ten years at the academy, and they had also been the first martial artists in their class to break through to the Postnatal realm. Their relationship was fairly good.
Though they were not close enough to confide in each other completely, their relationship was deeper than that between ordinary friends.
Later in the conversation, Zhang Wan asked Xu Hui about his plans for the future—whether he intended to stay at the mountain gate to cultivate or had some other plan.
Xu Hui did not conceal anything and answered frankly.
"I tried while I was at the academy. It seems I don't have much talent for spiritual plants or being a talisman master. Learning alchemy, artifact forging, or formations costs too much, and the requirements for comprehension are absurdly high."
"Without a cultivation skill, it is very difficult to accumulate cultivation resources by relying solely on ordinary sect missions."
"I plan to cultivate to the Fourth Level Postnatal, then accept missions to guard the various branch facilities. That way, I can earn more cultivation resources."
"My master suggested the same thing."
Zhang Wan did not dissuade him. This was precisely the path most sect martial artists would take. If he had not possessed the Experience Point System, he would have walked this path as well.
At least Xu Hui was not foolish enough to directly accept a mission and head to one of the branch facilities to become a guard.
As for how far he could ultimately go, it would depend on his own ability and luck.
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