The selection of the Yang faction's own children ended, and then it was the turn of the children from outside forces who had passed the preliminary round to enter the mountain.
As stated before, these children were all overlooked fringe figures within their respective factions.
Had they not been given this chance to enter Heaven-Clearing Academy and take part in the selection, the course of their lives on the Dao path would already have been set in stone. Most likely, they would have passed their lives in obscurity, or become expendable material in their faction's development, lost in some unknown corner.
This was a shared understanding among them all. It was precisely because of such circumstances that these children were more deep-minded than others their age.
Under the teachings and guidance of their elders, they had no choice but to begin learning all manner of scheming and social arts at an age when they should have been single-mindedly cultivating the Dao.
From the elders' perspective, they might indeed have been thinking of the younger generation. After all, with their cultivation talent, even if they devoted every thought to cultivation, they would achieve little.
They might as well put more effort into other areas and establish ties early with those individuals or factions who truly had hopes of attaining the Dao, so that they could at least secure a peaceful future.
Naturally, these children of mediocre aptitude understood the principles their elders spoke of, the so-called reality they described.
But asking them, at barely ten years old, to accept such an arrangement for their fate—no one would be willing to do so.
That was why, after learning that they had been granted the chance to undergo the Academy's entrance selection, once their initial shock and bewilderment passed, they all realized that