After introducing the topic, Feng Chutang began, “To discuss the Sect Unified Examination, we must first understand its origins—namely how and why it came into being. We all know that there exists countless cultivation paths, but just as techniques may vary in level, there are superior and inferior cultivation paths as well. Some cultivation paths are major roads that will take you all the way to the top, while some will gain you a bit of brute strength at best. But no matter what kind of cultivation path one follows, so long as the method isn’t impossible to cultivate, someone could use it to found a sect or a faction back in the day. That was why there used to be countless sects in the world.

“Anything that exists in large will inevitably be a mix of the good and the bad. Sects are no exception. First, only a sect with a confirmed path to immortality can call themselves an immortal sect. All immortal sects are towering existences, so they never have to worry about having a shortage of disciples. In fact, it is the opposite that worries them. There will always be more people who wish to enter an immortal sect than there is room. Thus, the immortal sects had made up all kinds of requirements and obstacles to keep the headcount low since ancient times. And if there exists a candidate who managed to overcome all of their ludicrous tests, but they didn’t want them for whatever reason, then they may simply say, ‘You are not destined with our sect,’ to the candidate and dismiss them.”

Laughter immediately broke out in the Enlightenment Hall except for a handful of people including Wei Yuan. If he was born in that era, it was entirely possible that a humble commoner like him would fall under the “You are not destined with our sect” category.

“But for everyone else who isn’t an immortal sect, any cultivation talent is a potential source of resurgence. Small sects in particular may undergo a complete transformation and rise from the ashes. Thus, in the eternal scramble for cultivation talents, the sects began using underhanded tactics to achieve their goals. Generally speaking, the lousier the lineage of a sect, the more desperate and ruthless their methods became...”

Feng Chutang began narrating these underhanded tactics to the students, and the students found themselves becoming aware of a world they never knew about.

At the beginning, things were fairly harmless. A small sect might promise some rice, flour, grain, and oil to an excellent disciple with a poor background. Later, the promises escalated to money and fields. When everyone was promising the same thing, the reward escalated further to the entire family, meaning that if the talent decided to join their sect, then their entire family would be rewarded as well. For example, they might bring the disciple’s family and relatives into the sect as well.

Some sects even took a different approach and promised wives and concubines to those who chose to join their ranks. Of course, female disciples were promised husbands and male concubines.

When the situation escalated to the point where material rewards were no longer sufficient, some sects decided to drop all pretenses and declare an entire land and mountain to themselves. They would proclaim that all the cultivation talent in City A or Land B belonged to them and forbade anyone from laying their hands on them or even looking in their general direction.

Later still, a small sect happened to obtain a disciple who was blessed with fortune, but they realized that they lacked the means to give him a proper education. Then, they got the bright idea of selling the disciple to a bigger sect. Thus, a whole new field of competition was born.

People started trading disciples like commodities, and it wasn’t long before they got “bored” with minor transactions. Some small sects sought out an upper sect or even an immortal sect and entered a deal with them. They would teach every disciple in their territory a basic cultivation method they had received from a certain sect. If a disciple successfully grasped said method, they would then send them to the corresponding sect. If not, they would keep the disciple or kick them out.

As they were all cultivating the same cultivation method, the traded disciples quickly adapted to their new life in the upper sects. Their progress didn’t lag too behind those who had joined the sect from the beginning either. The upper sects were happy to let this happen as it meant they now had an additional steady source of disciples.

Over time, what was once just a rough idea gradually became organized. A small sect would periodically—usually once every few years—deliver a batch of disciples to an upper sect, and the upper sect would pay them based on the overall quality of the disciples. In other words, they had literally turned cultivation into a business.

With this setup, the small sects gained a steady source of income, and the upper sects a steady source of disciples. It was a win-win scenario for both parties. And so the practice became widespread, and nearly every commandery or county in the entire world was “claimed”. For a time, there was no such thing as a land of the free.

As time passed, the chaos only grew worse and worse. Many true cultivation geniuses were tricked into joining a small sect and forced to learn a trash cultivation method. It was only trickery at first, but it quickly escalated into threats and lures later on. Eventually, it got to the point where there was nothing they wouldn’t do to recruit a disciple. And since they were going so far, some sects didn’t even bother paying the disciples their due anymore.

It was only now the lofty immortal sects finally noticed that something wasn’t right. Specifically, they noticed that the number of independent disciples they could recruit were decreasing each year. One day, an immortal sect happened to find a Chosen One. In a time where fortune was scarce, picking up a Chosen One was like picking up a future king of humanity.

Unfortunately, the Chosen One had cultivated in a small sect for six years and forged a trash Dao Foundation by then. There was no turning back after that point.

Normally, a Chosen One would naturally join an immortal sect that suited them most thanks to various coincidences and opportunities. However, this Chosen One was first tricked and kidnapped by the small sect, then imprisoned and put through a series of threats and torture. By hook or by crook, they forced him to cultivate a cultivation method that didn’t suit him at all.

To the Chosen One’s credit, his talent was truly outstanding. Despite cultivating a cultivation method that was completely at odds with his fortune and foundation, he was still able to forge a Dao Foundation in just a matter of years. However, this also absolutely ruined his potential, and he never made it past the Avatar stage.

The incident shook the immortal sects at the time. They didn’t think that even a Chosen One and his impossibly great fate would fail to escape the talons of these small sects.

Not long after that, another major incident happened. Yet another Chosen One was born, but he was born with a feeble body in a region where the upper sect was famed for their body-tempering arts. The local small sect had kidnapped him and forced him to go through an exam to join an upper sect, and it almost killed him to overcome it. However, as he was born with a weak body, his cultivation progressed at a horrendous pace despite putting in many times the effort. On top of that, he came from a humble background and was stubborn to a fault. He didn’t know how to be smooth or flexible. As a result, he was often humiliated by those around him and called a useless piece of trash no matter where he went.

It wasn’t long before someone framed him for a crime he didn’t commit and caused him to be exiled. However, he was still a Chosen One. Somehow someway, his enemies would always fail to hunt him down and end his existence. Several years of aimless wandering later, his opportunity finally appeared to him and led him to joining a major sect that was famous for their Dao of talismans. As he was born with a powerful primordial spirit, he was destined to be a genius in this Dao. In less than a century, he had completed his Dao Foundation, attained his Avatar, and ascended to become a World Ruler. He even invented several exceedingly potent Dao talismans.

After attaining great completion of his Dao, the Chosen One snuck off his sect and slaughtered every man and woman of the small sect who had kidnapped him. Then, he went to the body-tempering upper sect and massacred everyone who had ever humiliated him to the three generations, including his shifu and his shifu’s shifu. That wasn’t all. He remembered everyone who had ever called him a useless piece of trash or just thrown him a disdainful look. He killed them all even if he had to invest a disproportionate amount of effort to do so.

His wanton massacre inevitably alerted the supreme elders of the body-tempering upper sects, and they emerged from their secluded cultivation to suppress him. However, the Chosen One proved to be exceedingly formidable, and the Dao talismans he had invented were potent like nothing they had ever seen. As a result, the elders of the body-tempering upper sects had suffered major damage in the very first exchange. In the end, the Chosen One managed to kill three World Rulers and ultimately escape despite his grave injuries.

At this point, the talismanic upper sect he belonged to could no longer protect him. Thus, the immortal sects intervened and ultimately slew him at the Eastern Sea.

This still wasn’t the end of the incident, though. The body-tempering upper sect had become much weaker after losing three supreme elders in a row. The very next year, the Mountain Dwellers residing next to their region overcame their defenses and slaughtered all three million people in two commanderies to the last.

This incident was not recorded in the history books.

Seeing that everyone in the class was wearing flabbergasted expressions on their faces, Feng Chutang decided to take a small break and give them time to digest the information.