For a regular inner sect disciple of the corpse ghost sect, the only choice they got was to pick their poison and decide which great family you wanted to serve in exchange for the foundation establishment pill.
But that didn't mean that everyone wanted to resign themselves as a servant to the three great families. There were 5 peaks in the Corpse Ghost Sect and only three are under direct control of the three great Families.
The 2 others are still independent cultivators only with loyalty to the Corpse Ghost Sect and no particular family so it would not be completely outlandish to try such a thing. This was especially true for an especially talented and prideful disciple like Liu Zhihao. Sure, if there was no other option than to sign the pact of servitude then he would do it, but not before he tried every other option first!
