The qualifications to listen to the Zen chants in the Seven Treasures Secret Land were not judged by cultivation, but by merit. Thus, the disciples from the various peaks gathered on Great Qiong Peak differed greatly in both cultivation and age; there were teenagers of barely ten, as well as old men who looked seventy or eighty.
"This fellow is no more than moderately gifted, yet he is so arrogant."
After sweeping the crowd with his divine sense, Wei Suo discovered that among these seven hundred-odd disciples from the various peaks were quite a few young disciples whose true bone age did not exceed thirty, yet had already reached the Mind Splitting Realm Second Level. Several among them even possessed spiritual roots. Amid these people, that dashing young disciple of Great Fool Peak did not stand out at all. Yet recalling the fellow's earlier words and actions, Wei Suo could only sneer inwardly.
Super sects had the advantages of super sects: they could provide stable cultivation environments and a certain guarantee of spirit stones. But in the case of the Merit Sect, vast resources were still concentrated upon true disciples and Elder Grade figures. The many disciples of the outer peaks, unless they encountered exceptional opportunities, mostly became mere foundation stones. Much of their time was also consumed by working for the sect.
Such an environment was like several hundred relatively stable, danger-free small cities supporting several dozen great cities, allowing talent to emerge in endless streams within those great cities and safeguarding the smaller cities. Yet the cultivators in those hundreds of small cities had their cultivation and development invisibly constrained as well.
Perhaps many young disciples who had already reached the Mind Splitting Realm, if they failed to gain recognition and could not become true disciples, would remain