In fact, Li Zhirui still doesn’t understand why one has to be six years old before the Spiritual Root in their body appears. Even if it’s just a day, two hours, fifteen minutes later, the Spiritual Root won’t appear!

He can only understand this as the most fundamental rule inscribed in the Universe.

Therefore, it’s not that he doesn’t want to do it, it’s that he himself can’t achieve it.

"Rest assured, I’ve decided to open the Mountain Gate here, and I definitely won’t leave. By this time next year, I will bring the disciples here again."

Of course, it’s only because the Tongtian Sect has just been rebuilt that some matters still require him to personally step in. Once the disciples grow, Li Zhirui won’t have to work so hard, but will instead leave some trivial matters for the disciples to handle.

And as the Tongtian Sect grows, it’s impossible to recruit disciples every year. In the future, it might only be once every few years, or even require those commoners to make their way to the Mountain Gate themselves.

Meanwhile, during these three days, he was not waiting in vain here but went ahead to several other commoner cities, notifying all commoners of the Tongtian Sect’s establishment and announcing when he would return to recruit disciples.

With Li Zhirui’s speed, he could travel an unknown distance in three days.

But he didn’t venture too far, because there’s no need to control such a large territory for now, and he alone wouldn’t be able to manage it.

Besides notifying the commoner cities, he was also searching within a three-thousand-mile radius for decent Spirit Mountains and Spirit Lands, contemplating opening Spirit Fields in the future or other uses.

At the same time, Li Zhirui also made a trip to the nearest Immortal City to purchase some low-level Spirit Seeds, Spiritual Objects, and Magic Artifacts for the future disciples to practice with and use.

As for the Spiritual Objects he himself possesses, he won’t be taking them out.

Because even a first-level Spiritual Object is a unique existence in the Tao Spirit Realm, and a High-level Cultivator can, given time, develop a large number of Spiritual Objects from it.

Moreover, despite the low price of low-level Spiritual Objects, the demand is immense. As long as there’s something exceptional about them, there’s no worry about not being able to sell them.

...

As the sun rose and the moon set, three days swiftly passed by.

Li Zhirui returned to the city where he first arrived, and by now, a large crowd of commoners had gathered, coming to join the excitement regardless of whether they had any eligible children at home.

Fortunately, the people from the City Lord’s Mansion, worried about offending the rarely seen Immortal Master, had organized everyone in advance to maintain order, so it wasn’t too chaotic.

Speaking of which, the reason these commoners trust Li Zhirui so much without verifying whether he is a Cultivator or a Demon Cultivator is not because he helped slay the rampant Devil Beasts, but because they are unaware of the existence of Demon Cultivators!

This is something Li Zhirui only learned later. The Tao Spirit Realm does have the Demonic Tao and Demon Cultivators, and they are quite powerful.

But the Demonic Tao is located in the Far West Land, and between it and the Immortal Tao lie the Primordial Spirit Race, Devil Race, Ghost Clan, and other alien forces.

Therefore, contact between the Immortal and Demon Paths is rare, and these commoners living in remote areas rarely even see Cultivators, let alone Demon Cultivators?

"Eligible children, come forward to participate in the Spirit Testing." Naturally, Li Zhirui couldn’t test each Spiritual Root individually, so he deployed several Spirit Testing Arrays to quickly resolve the situation.

He didn’t recruit older commoners, opting instead to choose children under fifteen for cultivation patiently.

It’s naturally easier to cultivate their sense of allegiance and loyalty to the Sect at a younger age, reducing the potential for sect betrayal in the future.

Of course, it also didn’t matter if someone betrayed the Tongtian Sect, as long as they could withstand being pursued by Li Zhirui.

"Go on in."

With a buzzing sound, the Formation was activated.

The Formation could test five hundred children at once, but due to the high standards he set, only one in a thousand met the qualification.

Thus, after a round of testing, only ten passed!

Even among these ten, most barely met the requirements; none of them could truly be described as exceptionally talented.

’No wonder the nearby forces are reluctant to come to this area to recruit disciples...’

This ratio even surprised Li Zhirui.

In the Tao Spirit Realm, a high-grade Great Thousand World, the proportion of commoners with cultivation talent is quite high, and their aptitude tends to be excellent.

However, the commoners living on this land are far below this average level.

After considering for a moment, Li Zhirui did not lower the requirements but instead used another method to induct some children into the Sect.

"The Tongtian Sect needs to recruit a batch of servant disciples; would you be willing?"

In fact, even those children who met the requirement would, after passing subsequent tests, only become Outer Sect Disciples. But since the Sect is currently rebuilding, the distinctions are not very apparent.

The aim is to establish the rules early to prevent trouble in modifying them later.

"Immortal Master, may I ask what the difference is for servant disciples?"

"They just need to take on more labor; otherwise, there’s no difference. They will also receive a Cultivation Technique and start cultivation."

"My child is willing, I hope the Immortal Master will take pity and accept him as a student." Some farming families, not hesitating, pushed their offspring forward.

On the other hand, officials and gentry were reluctant to let their children endure hardship, showing hesitation and indecision.