Limited Positions, Gathering

As for the Prenatal Pill, it was stored in the Sect's treasury.

Even those at the Prenatal stage within the Sect had no right to exchange for it.

Only when a Postnatal disciple of the Sect cultivated to the peak of the Ninth Level Postnatal could they exchange for a Prenatal Pill from the treasury with merit points.

This was precisely why Zhao Kun wanted to suppress the cultivation progress of Zhang Wan, Xu Hui, Yu Shui, and others.

Zhao Kun had to ensure Zhao Qixin reached the peak of the Ninth Level Postnatal before them and accumulated enough merit for the Sect, thereby guaranteeing Zhao Qixin could exchange for the Prenatal Pill.

Considering the possibility of failed breakthroughs.

Zhao Kun needed to leave enough room for Zhao Qixin to exchange for two Prenatal Pills.

He had to further suppress the cultivation progress of the martial artists in Zhao Qixin's cohort, widening the gap between them.

At the same time, Zhao Kun couldn't guarantee that even after doing so, Zhao Qixin would definitely break through to the Prenatal stage.

If, after doing all this, Zhao Qixin still failed to break through, but someone among the suppressed martial artists succeeded, the situation would be quite awkward.

To avoid such a scenario.

Suppression had to be done with extreme discretion! It was best to slow down their cultivation speed without the suppressed individuals even noticing.

Directly killing these threatening disciples was the absolute worst option.

These threatening disciples were all elites among the students of each cohort, the future backbone of the Sect.

If they were all killed, the Jade Bone Sect would face a direct gap in the Seventh to Ninth Level Postnatal tiers! The entire Sect's strength would plummet!

No one with even a shred of common sense would do something so foolish.

If such an idiot existed, the other Prenatal experts wouldn't stand by and do nothing.

After all, not every Prenatal expert in the Jade Bone Sect had reproduced and had bloodline descendants.

Even the Old Ancestor Jade Bone wouldn't ignore such a matter.

Xu Shenghua understood all of this clearly and knew that with so many restrictions, carrying out such a task would be extremely difficult.

But he didn't refuse.

He himself had no hope of breaking through to the Prenatal stage, but his junior sister did.

As long as he could protect his junior sister, even if he and his master passed away in the future, their lineage, his bloodline descendants, would receive care from his junior sister, having a Prenatal expert watching over them.

Moreover, this wasn't something only their lineage was doing.

Prenatal experts who had bloodline descendants or favored disciples were also engaged in similar actions.

With such a vast force working together, the difficulty of achieving this wasn't as great as he initially thought.

As for the suppressed disciples, Xu Shenghua felt no guilt; they were all just striving for their own benefits.

Resources were limited, dictating that only a small portion of people could obtain them.

Those who occupied a position upfront naturally wanted to keep it for their own people, and for the remaining individuals to advance, they would inevitably face countless obstacles.

As for the final outcome, it would depend on each person's abilities!

Zhang Wan was unaware of the events transpiring at the Prenatal level within the Sect, nor did he have any channels to find out. He couldn't even catch a whiff of any such rumors.

After writing two letters and entrusting them to familiar fellow disciples to be delivered to Quanjian Village and the Beginner Martial Arts Academy, Zhang Wan went to find Wang Yue and Li Guannian again.

He asked the two nominal masters to arrange for his parents to be admitted into the Beginner Martial Arts Academy.

Wang Yue and Li Guannian did not refuse.

This was a prime opportunity to deepen their master-disciple relationship, and they wouldn't miss it.

Their kindness towards Zhang Wan also came with expectations: if Zhang Wan's future performance failed to meet their expectations, their current friendliness would turn into extreme coldness!

Just as he finished dealing with his family matters, Xu Hui and Zhao Qixin sent invitations for a gathering.

They often acted together when they were at the academy, but after arriving at the Sect's mountain gate, they hadn't met up much.

This time, they wanted to gather everyone they knew well from the academy.

It wasn't a large group, just the batch of people they had become familiar with back at the academy.

Zhang Wan also attended this gathering, where he learned about the situations of his fellow students after arriving at the mountain gate.

Yu Shui, Xu Hui, Lin Fangyan, and others had also been taken in as disciples by established Postnatal experts of the Sect.

Zhao Qixin, on the other hand, had apprenticed under her own father.

While sharing recent events, they all lamented the differences between the mountain gate and the academy.

At the academy, they had been prominent figures, the talk of the student body.

But upon reaching the mountain gate, even among the graduates of the same cohort from all the academies, there were many who were no less capable than them.

Among their other fellow disciples, a large number had cultivation levels above theirs.

All they saw were Postnatal martial artists; they could barely spot a single mortal.

Their living environment had changed drastically.

These changes made many of them feel unaccustomed.

But he was also incredibly excited.

Only in such an environment could their cultivation possibly advance by leaps and bounds and give them a chance to touch the peak of the martial path.

During their conversation, Zhang Wan also learned that besides those who stayed at the main sect, some of their peers had been sent to various branch divisions, and some had even gone to the border regions ruled by the Jade Bone Sect to stand guard.

Zhang Wan found this utterly speechless.

Branch divisions were one thing, but going to the edge of the sect's territory? Were they afraid they wouldn't die soon enough?

Those places were far more dangerous than the central and core areas under the sect's jurisdiction.

Not to mention the rogue cultivators who roamed those areas, conflicts with other True Core Sects would often occur, and those places would be the first to suffer!

It wasn't that they couldn't go.

But if they went right after graduating from the academy, wouldn't their meager strength be akin to rushing to their deaths?

Zhang Wan sighed.

It seemed that it wouldn't be long before he received news of his classmates' deaths.

Perhaps he should start preparing condolence money now?

After the gathering, everyone dispersed. As Zhang Wan was leaving, Xu Hui approached him.

"My master told me that you being taken as a disciple by two vice ministers might not be a good thing and could bring a lot of trouble."

"You need to be careful."

"En, I know." Zhang Wan chatted with Xu Hui casually.

The two had been in the same class for ten years at the academy and were the first martial artists in their class to break through to the Postnatal stage, so they had a decent relationship.

While they weren't close enough to share their deepest secrets, their bond was stronger than that of ordinary friends.

As the conversation progressed, Zhang Wan asked about Xu Hui's future plans, whether he intended to cultivate at the main sect or had other intentions.

Xu Hui didn't hide anything and spoke frankly.

"I tried when I was at the academy. It seems I don't have much talent in spirit plants or as a Talisman Master. Learning pill refining, artifact refining, or formations is too costly, and the requirement for comprehension is ridiculously high."

"Without a cultivation skill, relying solely on ordinary sect missions makes it difficult to accumulate cultivation resources."

"I plan to cultivate to the Fourth Level Postnatal and then take on missions to guard various branch divisions. That way, I'll earn more cultivation resources."

"My master also advised me to do the same."

Zhang Wan didn't try to dissuade him. This was the path most sect martial artists took. If he hadn't possessed the Experience Point System, he would have also taken this path.

At least Xu Hui wasn't foolish enough to directly accept missions and become a guard at the branch divisions.

As for how far he could ultimately go, it would depend on his own abilities and opportunities.