In theory, if a top sect truly wanted Marquis of Longhua to join them, they could make him betray Great Zhou—as long as their offer was good enough.
Don't think that these nobles of Great Zhou were all that loyal to the dynasty. Their loyalty depended on Great Zhou giving them enough benefits and a powerful enough backer.
The problem was that Marquis of Longhua simply couldn't accept some of the Western Frontier's beliefs and principles.
Shaolin Temple's martial artists focused on Buddhist cultivation and spiritual refinement. People in the Martial Arts World often said that Buddhist cultivation was about karma, while Daoist methods followed nature.
The Western Esoteric Sect and Shaolin Temple shared the same origins, but the Esoteric Sect's methods were far more extreme.
The Western Esoteric Sect focused on cultivating the body. They sought neither enlightenment through karma nor sudden awakening, but only to become Buddhas through the flesh.
That, however, was secondary. The Central Plains had all kinds of body-tempering techniques, and some of Shaolin Temple's methods were even more extreme than those of the Western Esoteric Sect. The Vajra Pure Body Glazed Art, cultivated by Xuan Zhen, the head of the Sutra Lecture Hall, was one such example.
What made the Esoteric Sect different was that many of its secret techniques were cultivated in ways so bizarre that people found them impossible to accept.
Compared with those methods, even Huanxi Temple's dual cultivation techniques seemed mild.
Chen Tianzhi was already a martial grandmaster in the Spirit Transformation Realm, and his martial path was set. Even if the Esoteric Sect really had a way to pass on its legacy to him through empowerment, he wouldn't want it.
The Esoteric Sect also had some very strict rules. In particular, it practiced empowerment, and if the recipient's faith