Longzang

Chapter 41 The Difference Between Ancient and Modern Times
After the topic was introduced, Feng Chutang said, "To talk about the sect unified examination, we must first know its origin, that is, why the sect unified examination exists. We all know that there are countless paths to enlightenment, but the skills vary in level, and the same is true for the paths. Some paths lead to immortality, while others can only cultivate some rudimentary physical strength. However, no matter what kind of path it is, as long as one can cultivate, in ancient times one could establish a sect, and thus countless sects appeared."

Feng Chutang continued, "When there's too much of anything, the quality varies, and sects are no exception. Only those with the path to immortality can be called immortal sects. Immortal sects are high above, so they don't worry about not having disciples. What they worry about is that there are too many people who want to join, and they can't accept so many people. So since ancient times, immortal sects have set up all sorts of thresholds and made things difficult for disciples. If they really can't make things difficult, they can simply say, 'You are not destined for my sect,' and that's it."

Laughter erupted in Qisi Hall, except for Wei Yuan and a handful of others who remained silent. In that era, needless to say, someone like Wei Yuan, from a poor background, would have been considered 'unrelated to our sect'.

"However, for other sects, a single cultivation seed is often the source of a sect's revival, and smaller sects can be completely transformed and reborn from the ashes. Therefore, in order to compete for cultivation seeds, various sects have gradually resorted to all sorts of means. The smaller the sect with the weaker its lineage, the more ruthless it will be..."

Next, Feng Chutang began to describe various methods, and as the students listened, they found that a new world had opened up before them.

In the competition for cultivation talents, some small sects initially only promised rice, flour, and oil to outstanding disciples from impoverished backgrounds. Later, this gradually turned into offering gold, silver, and land. Once every family received money and land, it wasn't enough. So, to attract talent, some sects promised that if one person attained enlightenment, their entire family would be blessed and invited to live in the sect. Other sects took a different approach, promising wives and concubines upon joining the sect.

Naturally, just as there are wives and concubines, there are also male favorites.

When all the sects started distributing items, and it became impossible to determine who was superior simply by distributing items, some sects tore off the mask of politeness and simply occupied mountains and land, declaring that all the cultivation seeds in this city and this place belonged to them, and that no one was allowed to come and take them, not even to come and take a look.

Later, a small sect snatched a disciple with extraordinary luck. Seeing that they couldn't teach him well, they suddenly had a brilliant idea. They sold him to a major sect for a certain price, thus opening up a new world for themselves.

As soon as someone started selling disciples, others quickly felt that small-scale operations were meaningless. So, some smaller sects approached higher-level sects, even immortal sects, requesting basic introductory cultivation methods. They then had all their disciples trained in these methods. Those with the talent to succeed were sent to higher-level sects; those who couldn't were either kept or expelled. Because they were practicing their own sect's basic techniques, these disciples from smaller sects adapted quickly to higher-level sects, their progress not lagging far behind that of the direct descendants.

This means there's an additional stable source of disciples, which the sect is happy to see.

As more and more of these things happened, rules and regulations gradually emerged.

The minor sect and the major sect agreed that they would send a batch of disciples every few years, and the major sect would settle accounts with them in silver and grain according to the disciples' quality and cultivation level. In this way, they turned the cultivation of immortality into a business.

In this way, the smaller sects had a stable income, and the larger sects had a stable number of disciples. Everyone got what they needed, and this method was widely adopted. In no time, almost every prefecture and county had an owner, and there was no unclaimed land in the world.

Over time, the chaos escalated. Many genuine cultivation geniuses were lured into the sects by minor sects using various means, forced to cultivate worthless techniques. At first, deception was the primary method, but later threats and inducements were employed, with every method available. Since these methods were effective, some sects even stopped distributing the items they were originally supposed to give out.

By this time, the once lofty immortal sects finally realized something was wrong; they were accepting fewer and fewer independent disciples. Then one day, an immortal sect stumbled upon a prodigy, a child of destiny. In an era where fortune was scarce, this was practically finding a future revivalist. However, that person had already cultivated in a small sect for six years, building a worthless foundation, beyond any hope of redemption.

Normally, a chosen one would naturally find their place in a suitable immortal sect through a series of fortuitous events. However, this particular chosen one was first lured and then kidnapped by a small sect, then imprisoned and subjected to coercion, bribery, and torture, forced to cultivate a technique completely unsuitable for them. This chosen one was indeed exceptionally talented, cultivating a technique entirely incompatible with their own destiny and innate abilities, yet they still managed to forge a foundation for their Dao within just a few years. However, their originally boundless path to enlightenment was severely hampered, forever confining them to the Dharma Aspect stage.

This incident shocked the Immortal Sect at the time. They never expected that even a child destined for greatness like Ni Tian could not escape the encirclement and capture of these small sects.

Not long after, another major event occurred.

Then, another prodigy was born, but he was born weak, while the sect in the region where he was born was renowned for its body-refining techniques. This prodigy was forcibly taken into a local minor sect, and after a near-death experience, he barely passed the examination and gained the qualification to cultivate in the superior sect. However, due to his inherent weakness, his cultivation was extremely difficult and his progress was slow. Moreover, because he came from a poor family and was stubborn and inflexible, he was constantly humiliated and called a good-for-nothing everywhere.

Not long after, he was framed and expelled from the sect. But he was a chosen one, always managing to evade his enemies. After wandering for several years, his fortunes changed, and he was able to join another major sect renowned for its talismanic arts. He was born with a powerful primordial spirit, destined to be a genius in talismanic arts. In less than a century, he successively achieved the Dao Foundation and Dharma Aspect, ascending directly to the Imperial Realm, and even created several extremely powerful talismans.

After achieving success in his cultivation, he secretly descended the mountain. First, he wiped out the entire small sect that had forced him to join. Then, he went to the upper sect of body refinement and exterminated all those who had humiliated him in the past, including his former master and his master's master.

He remembered everyone who had called him trash, or even just glanced at him with disdain, and he searched high and low to find and kill them. This man's killing spree finally alarmed several elders of the Body Refinement Sect, who came out of seclusion to suppress him.

However, this person possessed extremely formidable combat power. His self-created Dao Talisman was unprecedented and incredibly powerful, causing the elders of the Body Refinement Sect to suffer heavy losses in a single exchange. In the end, that person used the technique of Yu Jing against Yu Jing, killing three elders of the Body Refinement Sect in succession before breaking through the encirclement with severe injuries.

With things escalating to this point, the Fu Dao Sect could no longer protect that person, so the various immortal sects joined forces and ultimately surrounded and killed him in the East Sea.

But the matter did not end there. The body-refining sect lost three Supreme Elders, greatly weakening its strength. The following year, the area it occupied was conquered by mountain people, and a total of three million people in two counties were wiped out.

This event is not recorded in historical books.

At this point, Feng Chutang paused, seeing that the students were all dumbfounded, to let them process what they had just heard.

(End of this chapter)