Gongyi Tianheng’s present location was a bronze-ranked ancient city called Great Phoenix City. In this place, the highest organization was the bronze-ranked Flying Phoenix Sect. The industries that operated under its banner were complex. Out in the open, there were businesses like casinos and restaurants that lined the sect’s pockets. Meanwhile, in the dark, the stores had quite a large domain for selling information.
Ever since Tianheng left the Roads of Heaven’s Chosen, he had been hiding from the searches of numerous bronze-ranked organizations. During his journey, he made inquiries, and finally arrived at this place.
Naturally, his objective was to make plans for his future survival.
There was a written account on that notice board just then. It stated that the silver-ranked organization, Ten Ultimates Sect, was recently recruiting disciples. Flying Phoenix Sect, as one of its subsidiary organizations, sent out this information to give the world’s outstanding individuals a channel to join them.
Tianheng came to this restaurant for the sake of confirming that information’s authenticity.
In addition, he also wanted to make discreet inquiries into the style and conduct of Ten Ultimates Sect. Then, he would make a decision.
Not long after, Tianheng finished drinking a pot of wine, and departed.
At this very moment, he knew a thing or two about the matters of Ten Ultimates Sect.
First of all, there was the state of affairs.
Ten Ultimates Sect was the only silver-ranked organization within a range of five hundred thousand kilometers. The region was vast, and the sect’s tracts of land spanned over fifty thousand kilometers. It possessed countless subsidiary sects, and its number of prodigies wasn’t low.
That sect was named after the ten types of ultimate martial skills it held. Each of the ultimate skills were at the heaven rank, whose might was endless. The geniuses of each generation practiced these ten ultimate skills, and the strongest among those who practiced each ultimate skill were known as the Ten Ultimates Sovereigns. And under normal circumstances, each of the Ten Ultimates Sovereigns were prodigies.
The martial prowess of Ten Ultimates Sect was extremely formidable.
The greatest strength of silver-ranked organizations were Cosmic Realm martial artists. The more Cosmic Realm martial artists there were in a silver-ranked organization, the more stable the organization and the more profound its accumulations.
The Cosmic Realm was likewise divided into low, mid, high, and peak states. Each and every martial artist who was at the high Cosmic Realm or above could be addressed as a Heaven Lord.
Ten Ultimates Sect had at least ten Cosmic Realm martial artists because the title of the Ten Ultimates Sovereigns had never decreased over the generations within this organization. These Ten Ultimates Sovereigns were precisely the ten people who were the strongest among the organization’s Cosmic Realm martial artists — No one even knew if those Heaven Lords among the previous Ten Ultimates Sovereigns, who had gone into seclusion and disappeared, had died or if they had broken through in secret.
— Not every silver-ranked organization would rush to advance to the gold rank after getting a Lesser Emperor Realm marital artist.
Under Ten Ultimates Sect, there were countless forces that adhered to it. Regardless of whether it was sects or clans, the number of iron and bronze-ranked organizations wasn’t low. Therefore, in principle, the domain that each of these organizations occupied belonged to Ten Ultimates Sect. This has allowed the original territory of Ten Ultimates Sect to expand multiple times over.
Besides these things, the numerous powerhouses inside the sect had their own personal adherents. The same went for the prodigies who hadn’t matured yet, too. In addition, while the relatives of some of the sect’s disciples weren’t previously considered adherents, after those relatives deepened their foundations in the sect, they also developed inclinations and preferences. Gradually, they were in no way different from the sect’s adherents.
This was equivalent to an extremely terrifying force!
At the same time, this also allowed the range of the sect’s organizations to radiate even farther.
The industries of Ten Ultimates Sect were also exceedingly widespread. The personal properties of the disciples, and the foundations and industries of the sect… All of it had been established into a tremendously huge interest group.
It could be said that, for this veteran sect organization, it wasn’t known how many tens of thousands of years it had been taking root, how long its history spanned, and how robust its foundations laid. If Ten Ultimates Sect was compared to Qingyun Sect, then it would be like a giant and a mole cricket. It was the difference between heaven and earth. Perhaps, Ten Ultimates Sect wouldn’t even need to extend a finger — No, it would only need to shed a strand of hair to easily annihilate Qingyun Sect!
In short, the information that Tianheng had scouted out was that Ten Ultimates Sect was a veteran silver-ranked organization where many things had yet to be revealed. Perhaps, it was no worse than some relatively weaker gold-ranked organizations.
This kind of sect could be rated as the ideal backer!
When he heard this, Tianheng already had some thoughts.
On the Central Continent, the things that a person could accomplish when one walked a solitary path and when one relied on a sect were entirely different.
After this, Tianheng learned that the information about Ten Ultimates Sect recruiting disciples was also true.
This wasn’t strange at all. It was only because Tianheng had just come to the Central Continent and he wasn’t aware of it yet. In actuality, all of the conventional organizations basically chose days when they would recruit disciples every year.
The Central Continent was vast, and its geniuses were many. However, the competition between organizations was similarly fierce. Within each family that adhered to an organization, they would often send their own outstanding children to higher-ranked sects. While it was true that this was an important source of disciples for the higher-ranked sects, one couldn’t ignore the geniuses who sprung up in large numbers in places further afield and among the wider territories. Limiting oneself to only the geniuses from the adherents of an organization might be fine in the beginning, but over many years, this could possibly cause a shortage of activity for the sect. After all, in this world, there were too many geniuses with all sorts of aptitudes. For identical organizations, especially within identical clans, there were probably duplicates in the types of emerging geniuses.
Indeed, while it was advantageous to some insular and outstanding bloodlines, a sect couldn’t limit itself to these bloodlines. In the end, it would become lifeless. If it only worked based on conventional practices, there wouldn’t be any motivation.
So to say, if an organization didn’t recruit disciples year after year, perhaps some impoverished disciples with extraordinary aptitudes might inadvertently choose another smaller organization to join. Or, they might be dug out by another larger organization that recruited disciples annually. And once this disciple was raised and had skyrocketed, maybe they would become a big shot for one side. This would cause the people who missed that disciple to wring their hands endlessly out of regret.
Of course, despite making selections every year, not everyone would be received. If one wanted to enter a silver-ranked organization, and that individual didn’t have any channels to enter through the back door, then what that person needed to rely on was their own aptitudes and current skills.
Usually, this kind of disciple was the most numerous, and guaranteed the fresh development of a silver-ranked organization.
Tianheng gathered the material of his cloak, and came to a nearby beast escort company.
In this place, there were countless wild beasts and all sorts of transportation tools. So long as one could take out enough money, one could make a purchase and use it to hasten their journey.
Tianheng touched the bangle on his arm.
On the Central Continent, those who had bangles weren’t that rare. It was just that they either had respectable identities, were extremely strong, or had enormous influence. He didn’t have any of that, so naturally he kept it hidden. He didn’t deliberately show off.
After entering the beast escort company, Tianheng chose three Wind-Walking Rhinos and a sturdy, bronze chariot. After paying a few dozen spirit crystals, he sat in front of that bronze chariot. He flicked the whip, and started moving forward.
— He didn’t select any actual flying wild beasts for the sake of gathering even more information about the Central Continent while on this travel path.
He needed a greater understanding of this landmass to determine his style of conduct in the sect.
Several days later, he arrived at Ten Ultimates Sect.
Probably because the time when the sect recruited disciples was fast approaching, even though Shijue City was so large, it was almost overflowing with people.
Gongyi Tianheng came to the front of the city gates. He lifted his eyes, and saw the towering city walls. They were roughly over three hundred meters tall. Smelted from an unknown type of metal, it was cast into huge monoliths. It was like a long, formidable dragon that entrenched the entire ancient city. One couldn’t see the boundaries with a glance. No matter which direction one looked, one would only see the endless surfaces of the walls. It was incredibly stunning!
The city gates were very high and wide.
Tianheng saw with his own eyes that there were numerous wild beasts that were dozens of meters tall. They were like a miniature mountain range as they slowly entered through the city gates. Set on the backs of those wild beasts were incomparably luxurious palanquins. Some even had exquisite or straightforward buildings. They were extremely imposing. Surrounding these wild beasts were some troops whose mounts had slightly smaller builds. On the mounts’ backs sat armored warriors. And the appearances of these warriors were quite bizarre. Their skin and figures were substantially different from commonly-seen martial artists.
What were these warriors?
Could it be that…they weren’t of the human race?
Teams and troops that came from unknown lands all entered the city one after another. Tianheng made careful observations. At the entrance of the city gates, ordinary martial artists only needed a single spirit crystal, but if an entire troop wanted to go in, they needed to hand over a profound crystal or a treasured crystal.
Of course, this trifling bit of property didn’t enter the eyes of the men and women who possessed those huge numbers of troops.
Tianheng mixed into the crowd, and entered this Shijue City.
At the entrance of the city gates, what he sensed was this city’s lofty and long history. And after entering it, what he saw were countless similar and unusual sights. Compared to all of the powerful cities he had seen in the past, this one was a hundred or even a thousand times more bustling!
In fact, after entering Shijue City, one could already be counted as having entered Ten Ultimates Sect.
Just as Qingyun Sect had a city and an outer circle on the outside, Ten Ultimates Sect, as a silver-ranked organization, was naturally the same as well. Shijue City was the sect’s outer circle, and residing within it were countless clans and smaller organizations. And beyond the gigantic dragon-like city walls were innumerable sects among the many mountain ranges. It was all because they had adhered to Ten Ultimates Sect and had migrated over.
Over the many years, the vicinity of Shijue City became a seat of power.
Tianheng didn’t search for a tavern for lodging. He only looked for a restaurant to drink and listen to some news. He circled the crowd a few times before following the flow of people and arriving under the main gates of Ten Ultimates Sect.
Unlike Qingyun Sect, the outer circle of Ten Ultimates Sect didn’t have a true outer gate. Rather, it had an academy known as the “Sect Offering Academy”. It specialized in delivering talents to Ten Ultimates Sect.
In the past, those adherent organizations all wanted to send their families’ children to this academy. By passing through the filter of studies, the academy could select the outstanding ones among the students to enter the sect. For external disciples, if they came too late and didn’t make it in time for the disciple recruitment period, then they could pay a certain amount of spirit crystals or receive testing to enter the academy for learning. Similarly, if one was discovered to be an outstanding student after learning, they could enter the sect.
Tianheng’s luck was pretty good. Since he came during the disciple recruitment period, if he reached the standard, he could be directly recruited by the sect. If he couldn’t pass their tests, but his aptitudes were satisfactory, then he could directly enter the academy for learning, and wait for the next opportunity.
Currently, there were only two days left until the end of the recruitment drive. And the location where apprentices received testing was inside the Sect Offering Academy.
T/N: Thanks for the correction, Charysa.
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