Chapter 1215: Establishing a New Sect

"Immortals possess immense divine powers."

Old Jia and the others immediately stiffened, becoming even more respectful.

A few years ago, a branch sect of Baisheng Gate came to their small town to recruit disciples. Their children, however, had poor aptitudes and lost the opportunity to become immortal disciples. Now, naturally...

What they sought was a trivial matter to Xu Zhi, but for mortals, daily necessities like food and oil were already major life concerns. How much more so was a fated connection with immortals, which could influence generations of their families?

Old Jia and the other merchants exchanged glances. "Immortal," they said, "although our children's aptitudes are mediocre, we still hope for a connection with immortals. We are willing to provide you with various rare medicinal herbs and collect all sorts of treasures."

They took Xu Zhi for a rogue cultivator.

While not as prestigious as established sects, this was their only option.

Furthermore, they knew that some sects maintained ties with wealthy local merchants to procure resources. Even some reclusive grand sects controlled entire local dynasties.

Recruit disciples?

Xu Zhi was momentarily stunned. He had yet to truly take on a single disciple.

"Recruiting disciples depends on fate and opportunity. If the aptitude is not poor..." Xu Zhi didn't directly refuse.

Old Jia and the others' expressions stiffened. If their aptitude had been good, they would have been admitted long ago.

Xu Zhi sat in his chair, not looking at them, but gazing down at the town below. "Aptitude," he said, "does not refer to the body, but to intelligence—a specific kind of intelligence, unique talent... There's no use in saying more. If you wish to cultivate within my sect, you must pass the outer disciple assessment."

"May I ask about the assessment...?" A young man beside Old Jia quickly interjected.

Xu Zhi stretched out his hand.

He reached for a bottle in the room, and from it flew a five-colored, translucent glass bead.

The bead suddenly burst forth, exploding into a brilliant, five-colored cascade of fireworks that spread outwards.

"What is that?"

"I've seen something like it! Fireworks, like those only found in the imperial city or grand marketplaces? They say it's made with gunpowder!"

"It's beautiful!"

"This isn't just fireworks! This is a Daoist technique, an immortal's spell! I once saw an immortal recruiting disciples, and a fireball spell of similar size bloomed in his hand. It shattered half-human-sized rocks—truly incredibly powerful! If that hit a person, it would be devastating!"

Some members of the nearby caravan exclaimed in admiration.

"Your task is to replicate this," Xu Zhi told them. "When you can control it and make it bloom just like this, you will have gained entry. Not only you, but you can also widely publicize this to the town below: an immortal sect is recruiting disciples here for one month."

"Age, cultivation, gender, and status are not considered..."

The merchants were slightly taken aback. Did this mean even those past the prime age for cultivation, like themselves, could participate?

They grew somewhat excited. Abandoning their trade journey, they quickly nodded and turned back.

Within three days, the news had spread throughout the town below. Many merchants, wealthy individuals, and scholarly families from even neighboring towns rushed over.

Everyone yearned intensely for such an immortal opportunity.

In just a few days, the small town became bustling. Many white-haired elders were present, even some beggars had arrived, and a few low-level cultivators came out of curiosity.

The cultivators were clearly on a training excursion from their sect, led by a few young men and women.

"Hmph, this is clearly a trick. Not considering aptitude is one thing—some demonic sects don't care about it—but accepting even elders?"

"It's probably just a scam."

The cultivators mingled among the crowd.

Xu Zhi paid them no mind. He opened a spatial portal. "Enter," he said. "Inside, there are virtual simulations and some simple learning materials. A thousand people can enter at a time; you must queue."

Upon seeing the spatial gate, some mortals were greatly astonished and promptly queued, entering in an orderly fashion.

The cultivators, too, were surprised. They reined in their disdain and hostility, realizing that anyone possessing such a spatial treasure was undoubtedly a reclusive grand expert.

Xu Zhi, however, paid them no mind. He thought to himself:

"I haven't given them the process, only the outcome. Guiding them to evolve a bloodline universe is enough... With computers provided, they don't need to ponder the immense calculations involved; only intelligence, talent, and mental clarity are required... But is it perhaps too challenging for mortals to achieve this level of wisdom?"

After all, the saying "old people become sages" isn't false.

While intelligence, talent, and innate gifts are hard requirements and do not improve with age,

this is why some cultivators remain mediocre even after hundreds or thousands of years.

However, the wisdom of powerful individuals does increase.

This is because wisdom is a blend of experience, knowledge reserves, and life events.

Furthermore, cultivators at higher realms think faster, able to ponder hundreds of problems in a single second. This makes them appear much smarter than mortals, and that's the underlying principle.

No matter how high or exceptional a mortal's intelligence, they cannot surpass an ordinary yet powerful cultivator whose mind processes tens of thousands of thoughts per second.

"This is a contradictory issue, but it's also because powerful cultivators, having trained, are limited by their realm... That's why I'm using mortals like this," Xu Zhi murmured. "It's like the Spore Evolution Sandbox; using players who haven't even cultivated, instead of powerful cultivators, leads to so many surprises because they aren't confined by existing frameworks."

"Currently, I hope that evolving spores and evolving a universe follows the same principle... Perhaps I can try to cultivate a group of mortals specialized in evolving universes, similar to those who research spore evolution." Xu Zhi was merely acting on a whim; there would be no loss if it failed, as he was only having them perform virtual evolution.

The true World Pearls could not be wasted on these mortals.

In any case, he felt that blank slates like mortals, compared to powerful cultivators with ingrained patterns of thought, might produce more interesting results.

This was akin to bypassing all cultivation realms and directly studying the essence of things.

They would explore and complete tasks according to requirements, without even knowing what terrifying things they were creating.

Just ten seconds later, a group of mortals emerged.

"Only ten seconds? How did they come out so quickly?"

Some people began to murmur amongst themselves.

But those who had emerged were astonished. "It felt like a whole month had passed!" they exclaimed. "We found it very boring and couldn't learn, so we came out. Yet, there are still people inside studying."

"Ten seconds, a month? Could it be a matter of time?"

This miraculous technique further heightened everyone's excitement.

Even those mortals who had already left secretly regretted it, thinking that if they had known it was so powerful, they would have tried experimenting more.

At once, the cultivators standing nearby also grew envious. They couldn't help but approach Xu Zhi, cautiously asking, "Dare I ask, Senior, may we also...?"

"You are also mortals; you may go in and try," Xu Zhi replied.

"We are also mortals?"

"We are clearly powerful cultivators of the Qi Condensation realm."

They were momentarily stunned but dared not argue, respectfully lining up behind the others.

Xu Zhi couldn't be bothered with them. In his eyes, there was no difference between mortals and these cultivators; if they hadn't even grasped the rules of the universe, what else could they be but ignorant mortals?

Since they were mortals who hadn't even comprehended the universe, he naturally treated them all the same.

"I hope this is an opportunity to find something useful, something that can solve the problems weighing on my mind." Xu Zhi relaxed in his chair. For him, this was merely a small moment of leisure after the exhaustion of his experiments.