Becoming a Saint From the Iron Armor Skill

Chapter 500: Chapter 248: The Strongest Realm

A slogan like that from the Sutra of Ultimate Sect was undeniably deceptive.

But it was extremely effective. Most of the unaligned geniuses who made it onto the Rouge Ranking chose to join the Sutra of Ultimate Sect.

Even many geniuses who had already joined other sects would leave their original organizations and switch their allegiance to the Sutra of Ultimate Sect.

Among them were even True Disciples from other sects.

In fact, among the True Disciples who defected, the largest number came from the Taiyi Sect, the most dominant power in the Northern Territory.

For this reason, the Rouge Ranking was utterly despised by the major sects, all of whom wished they could ban the list outright.

But that was obviously impossible. Everyone on the Rouge Ranking possessed outstanding Martial Arts Talent, and they were all handsome youths, naturally piquing public curiosity.

Every generation produces new talent, so who wouldn’t want to see which rising stars had emerged with the potential to reach the Innate Realm?

In the Land of the North, the Rouge Ranking was practically a household name.

Only within the Great Dao Sect, which disliked inter-sect conflict and deliberately suppressed such news, was the Rouge Ranking not widely circulated.

However, as the major sects established their presence in Sanmen Prefecture and Linji Prefecture, it was clear the Rouge Ranking would soon spread like wildfire.

When that happened, the Sutra of Ultimate Sect would naturally recruit many young geniuses from the Su State region.

Compared to the Sutra of Ultimate Sect’s passion for recruiting geniuses, the Great Dao Sect appeared quite passive.

In Linji Prefecture, for example, a rigid social hierarchy had long since solidified around the pursuit of the Martial Dao: the poor pursued scholarship, while only the rich could afford martial arts.

Children from poor families often couldn’t get enough to eat. Malnourished from a young age, their physical development was stunted, meaning their Martial Arts Talent couldn’t be very high.

Commoner families with a bit of money, whose children developed normally, were inevitably entangled to some degree with the Government Office or various Jianghu Influences.

And both the Government Office and the Jianghu Influences were backed by the Four Great Clans of the Inner City.

Therefore, anyone in Linji City who wished to cultivate the Martial Dao ultimately had no choice but to rely on the Four Great Clans of the Inner City.

Ostensibly, the City Lord’s Mansion was a subordinate power of the Great Dao Sect, responsible for recruiting disciples with outstanding Martial Arts Talent on its behalf.

The City Lord’s Mansion did indeed select commoners with exceptional Martial Arts Talent for training every year.

But the City Lord’s Mansion was controlled by the Jiang Family, after all. Even when they selected a disciple with exceptional Martial Arts Talent, that person would be prioritized for training as one of the Jiang Family’s private soldiers.

Anyone unwilling to pledge allegiance and serve the Jiang Family would be suppressed, no matter how extraordinary their Martial Arts Talent.

For this very reason, every talented figure of Linji City’s younger generation for years had come from one of the Four Great Clans of the Inner City.

Take Chen Cheng, for instance. If he hadn’t chosen to align himself with the Shen Family, he certainly would have had to do so with one of the other three clans.

Otherwise, he would never have obtained a Muscle Strengthening Pill, let alone the even more precious Bone Tempering Pill.

Faced with this situation, it was nearly impossible for disciples from humble backgrounds to rise through the ranks.

The Great Dao Sect couldn’t possibly be unaware of this situation. The fact that they knew and took no action meant they had tacitly approved of Linji City’s recruitment methods.

’Or perhaps the Great Dao Sect itself used similar methods to select talent internally.’

’Wherever people gather, a Jianghu forms. Those in power within the Great Dao Sect likely did the same, prioritizing the cultivation of their own family’s children.’

’They hoped that dragons would beget dragons and phoenixes would beget phoenixes, ensuring their descendants would carry on the family’s glory for endless generations.’

’In a way, wasn’t the Great Dao Sect just as corrupt and decayed as the Great Yu Royal Family?’

Compared to the Great Dao Sect, the other sects were clearly more forward-thinking and competitive.

To say nothing of the Sutra of Ultimate Sect, which went to great lengths to create its Rouge Ranking.

Even the Taiyi Sect used Taiyi Numerology to divine fortunes, scouring the land to discover disciples with exceptional Martial Arts Talent.

As for the Blood Moon Sect, it was originally much like the Sutra of Ultimate Sect—hardly a prestigious and righteous organization.

Its subordinate organization, the Wind and Rain Tower, still engaged in the business of assassinating targets for bounties.

However, the Blood Moon Sect had apparently succeeded in whitewashing its past to become a so-called righteous and prestigious sect.

The Hidden Flower contracts accepted by the Wind and Rain Tower were limited to targets at the Acquired Body Refining Realm, specifically those ranked below a Major Sect’s True Disciple.

The Wind and Rain Tower would not—and could not—accept any Hidden Flower contract targeting a True Disciple of a Major Sect.

This was because among their four tiers of assassins—A, B, C, and D—even their top-tier A-rank assassins were only a match for an ordinary Martial Artist at the Bone Marrow Cleansing Realm.

In contrast, the Blood Moon Sect’s training emphasized practical combat; many of its disciples were recruited directly from the ranks of assassins.

Almost every Blood Moon Sect disciple had to endure countless life-and-death battles before they could finally be promoted to the rank of True Disciple.

Of course, both the Taiyi Sect and the Blood Moon Sect had their own significant drawbacks.

The Taiyi Sect, for example, had its nine leading True Disciples, known as the Nine True Inheritor Disciples.

Anyone who earned this title would receive boundless resources from the sect to support their cultivation.

However, the lineup of the Nine True Inheritor Disciples was constantly in flux. One moment, a disciple might hold the title; the next, they could be replaced by a newcomer with even greater Martial Arts Talent whom the sect had just discovered.

This system was incredibly ruthless, leaving the Nine True Inheritor Disciples with little sense of security or belonging.

This was one of the reasons the Sutra of Ultimate Sect was so successful in poaching True Disciples from the Taiyi Sect with its Rouge Ranking.

The Blood Moon Sect was even more brutal. Its True Disciples frequently competed with one another for rank.

These competitions weren’t sparring matches that stopped once a winner was clear; they were battles to the death, akin to duels in a Life and Death Arena. They not only determined rank but also decided life and death.

The True Disciples of the Blood Moon Sect were utterly ruthless, and the one who ultimately emerged as their leader was, by extension, the strongest.

Of course, this also meant that a great many True Disciples ended up dead.

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