"At your age, rushing about in such a panic-where is your dignity?"
At the sight, Mountain-Moving Old Ancestor frowned and snapped at him.
Among cultivators, seniority was generally determined by cultivation realm.
For instance, if a cultivator who joined later broke through to the Spirit Wandering Realm, even an inner disciple in the Out of Body Realm who had joined decades earlier would have to address him as senior brother.
And if the former took on a higher position, such as an administrative elder, the latter might even have to address him as martial uncle in public!
Such was the hierarchy of the cultivation world, where the strong reigned supreme.
Yet within this system,
there were exceptions.
Those were fellow disciples under the same master, whose bonds were closer!
Disciples who shared a master
were generally ranked by the order in which they joined.
Even if a junior brother who joined later surpassed his senior brother in strength,
their standing as senior and junior brothers still followed the order of their initiation, with little change.
Wu Tianhao and Shen Changchuan were one such example.
Even though Shen Changchuan's current strength had long since surpassed Wu Tianhao, who had first guided him into cultivation, by an immeasurable margin, and had also surpassed Wei Yuting, Hong Yang, and the others,
he still addressed them as senior brother or senior sister for precisely this reason!
Under the same master,
the bonds between master and disciple, and between fellow disciples, were much closer!
Relationships linked together through a shared master were also more stable.
Unlike strangers in the wider cultivation world, who had few ties to one another,
they did not simply place strength above everything else.
The same principle of strength applied within a sect.
After all, an entire sect numbered thousands or