The Divide Between Past and Present

After introducing the topic, Feng Chutang said, "To talk about the Sect Unified Examination, we first need to understand where it came from—in other words, why it came to exist. We all know there are countless Dao Paths, but techniques vary in quality, and the same is true of Dao Paths. Some are great avenues to immortality; others let you cultivate little more than crude brute strength. But in ancient times, any Dao Path that allowed cultivation could be used to found a sect. And so countless sects came into being."

Feng Chutang continued, "Whenever something becomes plentiful, the good and bad get mixed together. Sects were no exception. Only those with a Dao Path that led to immortality could be called immortal sects. They stood high above the rest and naturally never lacked for disciples. Their only problem was that too many people wanted to join, and they couldn't accept them all. So, since ancient times, immortal sects had set all sorts of thresholds for accepting disciples and made things difficult in every way. If they really couldn't find a reason to turn someone away, they could simply say, 'You have no fate with our sect,' and send them packing."

Laughter filled Qisi Hall. Only a handful of students, Wei Yuan among them, didn't laugh. Needless to say, in that era, someone born poor like Wei Yuan would have been one of those who "had no fate with the sect."

"But for other sects, a promising cultivator could be the source of the sect's revival. For a small sect, such a person could even mean a complete transformation—a rebirth from the ashes. So, in order to snatch up promising cultivators, sects gradually began resorting to all kinds of methods. The worse a small sect's Dao lineage was, the more unscrupulous it became..."

Feng Chutang went on to describe all sorts of tactics. As the students listened, they felt as if a whole new world had opened before them.

At first, a few small sects had merely promised talented disciples from poor families some rice, flour, cooking oil, and salt. Later, those offers gradually turned into gold, silver, farmland, and houses. Once every sect was handing out money and land, that wasn't enough anymore. To poach disciples, some sects promised that if one person attained the Dao, even his chickens and dogs would ascend with him, and his entire family would be brought to live at the sect. Others found a different way, promising wives and concubines to anyone who joined.

Naturally, if some handed out wives and concubines, others handed out male companions.

Once every sect started giving things away, and gifts alone could no longer give them an edge, some sects dropped all pretense. They simply occupied mountains and claimed territory, declaring that every promising cultivator in a particular city or region belonged to them. Nobody else was allowed to poach them—not even to come and take a look.

Later, a small sect managed to recruit a disciple blessed with fortune. Realizing it couldn't teach him properly, it suddenly had a bright idea: it sold him off for a certain price to a great sect, opening up an entirely new world of possibilities.

Once people started selling disciples, it wasn't long before some decided that small-time dealings weren't interesting enough. Small sects began approaching superior sects and even immortal sects to obtain basic cultivation methods. They had every disciple recruited in their territory practice those methods. Those with the right talent who succeeded were sent to the superior sect; those who failed were kept or simply kicked out. Since the disciples had been practicing the sects' own basic techniques, those sent up to the superior sects adapted quickly and didn't fall far behind the direct disciples in their progress.

It was like gaining a steady supply of disciples, and the superior sects were more than happy with the arrangement.

As this became more common, rules and procedures gradually took shape.

The small sects and superior sects would reach an agreement: every few years, the small sects would send a batch of disciples, and the superior sects would pay them money and supplies according to the disciples' quality and cultivation. Just like that, cultivating immortals was turned into a business.

The small sects gained a steady income, while the superior sects gained a steady supply of disciples. Each got what it needed, and the arrangement spread far and wide. For a time, nearly every commandery and county was claimed by some sect. There was not an inch of unclaimed land in the whole world.

As time passed, the chaos grew worse. Many genuine cultivation prodigies were tricked into entering small sects by all kinds of schemes and forced to practice trash techniques. At first, trickery had been the main tactic. Later, they simply resorted to threats and inducements, using every method they could. And since these methods worked, some sects even stopped giving out the things they had once promised.

By then, the immortal sects, once so far above everyone else, finally realized something was wrong. Fewer and fewer unaffiliated disciples were coming to them. Then one day, an immortal sect happened upon a Child of Fortune. In an age when fortune was invisible, it was like finding the sect a leader who could bring about its revival.

But that person had already cultivated in a small sect for six years, forging a trash Dao Foundation with no chance of salvaging it.

Under normal circumstances, a Child of Fortune would naturally join the immortal sect best suited to them through a series of fortunate coincidences. But this one had first been lured in, then abducted by the small sect. They were confined, threatened and bribed, tortured, and forced to practice techniques wholly unsuited to them. This Child of Fortune truly had formidable talent: even while practicing techniques completely at odds with their fortune and Root Bone, they managed to forge a Dao Foundation in just a few short years. But their once-heaven-reaching Dao Path had been crippled, and they would never advance beyond the Dharma Idol stage.

The incident sent shockwaves through the immortal sects. No one had imagined that even a Child of Fortune, blessed with heaven-defying luck, could fall prey to the small sects' nets.

Not long afterward, another major incident occurred.

Another Child of Fortune had appeared, but they had been born weak and sickly, while the superior sect in the region of their birth was famous for body-tempering techniques. A local small sect had forcibly dragged them into its ranks. After narrowly surviving, they had barely passed the examination and earned the right to cultivate at the superior sect. But they had been born frail, so cultivation took twice the effort for half the result, and their progress was slow. Having also grown up poor, they were stubborn and didn't know how to smooth things over or adapt. They were constantly humiliated and called a good-for-nothing wherever they went.

Before long, someone framed them, and they were expelled from the sect. But as a Child of Fortune, they always managed to evade their enemies' pursuit. After wandering for several years, their luck finally turned, and they gained the chance to join another great sect, one famous for its Talisman Dao. They had been born with a powerful Primordial Spirit and were destined to be a Talisman Dao prodigy. In less than a hundred years, they successively attained the Dao Foundation and Dharma Idol realms, rose straight to Imperial Scenery, and created several kinds of immensely powerful Dao Talismans.

After achieving success in cultivation, they secretly descended the mountain. First, they slaughtered everyone in the small sect that had once forced them to join. Then they went to the superior body-tempering sect and wiped out the families of everyone who had humiliated them. They even killed their former master and their master's master.

They remembered everyone who had ever called them a good-for-nothing, and even those who had merely looked at them with disdain. They dug three feet into the ground to find them and kill them. Their bloodbath finally alarmed several grand elders of the body-tempering sect, who came out of seclusion to suppress them.

But their combat strength was astonishing. The Dao Talismans they had created were unprecedented and devastatingly powerful, and the elders of the body-tempering sect suffered badly in their first encounter. In the end, facing Imperial Scenery with Imperial Scenery, they killed three elders of the great body-tempering sect and fought their way out, gravely wounded.

By then, the Talisman Dao superior sect could no longer protect them. The immortal sects joined forces, and eventually surrounded and killed them in the Eastern Sea.

But that wasn't the end of the matter. The body-tempering sect had lost three grand elders and its strength had been severely weakened. The following year, mountain tribes broke through the region it occupied, and three million people across two commanderies were wiped out.

This incident was not recorded in the history books.

At this point, Feng Chutang saw that all the students were staring at him in stunned silence. He paused to give them a moment to take it all in.