"Mm."
Ye Tianxiong nodded. Though faint bloodshot veins lingered in his eyes, he revealed nothing. He stepped onto the altar and began the heaven-sacrificing ceremony, going through the procedures before addressing everyone with a few stock phrases.
Everyone should strive together for the sect's interests, safeguard the sect's unity and stability, and as long as they worked hard, they could obtain the sect's...
Next came the awards ceremony. Chu Yunshang was only third on the Earth Ranking, so she went up first to receive her rewards: three freely chosen secret arts or divine abilities from the sect's Scripture Repository, a weapon custom-forged by a Heavenly God-level artifact refiner, promotion to core disciple, doubled monthly sect stipends, a Sacred Heaven Pool slot, and a Sacred Vein Flower Fruit once she broke through to the God level...
That long string of rewards was no different from ascending to the heavens in a single step for ordinary sect disciples. But for Chu Yunshang, it was merely going through the motions. The main purpose was actually to encourage the ordinary-born disciples below.
The Sacred Heaven Sect's territory held more than ten billion people, while the younger generation of Direct Descendants from the Founding Families numbered fewer than five hundred even when counted to the last person. The odds of being born into a Founding Family were less than one in ten million.
Such an identity was something ordinary people could only gaze upon from afar, forever beyond their reach.
There were no ripples throughout the process. Chu Yunshang was not particularly calculating, and she wore a delighted smile the entire time, enjoying the feeling of being the focus of countless eyes from the foot of the mountain.
After Chu Yunshang's awards ceremony was over, Duanmu Lei's booming voice rang through heaven and earth. "Little