Through the ages, most True Disciples of the Eight Sects had been selected and promoted from among Foundation Establishment cultivators.
They either stepped down when their terms expired or were toppled by those who came after them.
Gu Changling had come from the Lower Courtyard, not a direct line of the Eight Lords' Descendants. Yet his foundations were deep and his natural gifts exceptional, and True Lord Luo had taken notice of him early on, nurturing him in secret.
Later, at the Dragon Gate Gathering, Gu Changling had outshone all his rivals and made his name.
Upon reaching the twelfth level of Qi Refining, he had been promoted directly to the Upper Courtyard as an exception.
Several years later, with his first-grade True Xi and higher-vehicle Dao Foundation, he had successfully entered the Flying Ascension Foundation Establishment Realm and formally joined the Gen Peak Grotto-Heaven.
"Foundation Establishment True Persons enjoy five hundred years of life. Provided they don't reincarnate along the way, each heaven they ascend grants another hundred years. They're said to live a thousand autumns without dying." Jiang Yi's eyes flickered, his thoughts surging:
"Gu Changling has reached the fourth level of Foundation Establishment. He has cultivated for only five hundred years, leaving him another three hundred to polish his cultivation, attain Five Laws Perfection, and seek the Metal Position...
"Such an outstanding figure is precisely the sort of vessel for carrying the Dao that Sect-tier lineages value most.
"That was why, after the previous Dao Child Ning Hechu perished and his Dao vanished, there was such strong support for Gu Changling to fill the vacancy.
"If Jiang Yi hadn't appeared halfway through, backed by True Lord Luo, supported by the Gen Peak disciples, and acclaimed by the Eight Lords' Descendants,
"Gu Changling would not have been without