"The Immortal Gates have announced the starting of a prosperous era…" the Summit Leader cut straight to the point, his tone and expression as dignified as could be.
According to astronomy experts and divination hermits, the Jianhu will experience a surge in talents.
In this era of heroes, some geniuses will carry the fate of a city, a province, a country, an empire—or even the fate of the entire era on their shoulders!
The sects that managed to grab and nurture these geniuses can ride on the wave of their strong destiny and strengthen the sect as a whole!
However, if the sect's destiny wasn't strong enough, they would be destined to become stepping stones for others.
There is no such thing as a sect secluded from outside affairs—no one can escape this whirlwind of destiny.
Thus, the reclusive Hermit Sect will open it's gates during the next disciples recruitment ceremony, but they wouldn't close the mountain gate afterwards.
Instead, the disciples will leave the mountain to search for opportunities and fortune in this prosperous era, and the Summit Leaders are expecting the elders to show full support on this endeavor.
After explaining the situation, the Summit Leader asked if anyone had any suggestions on how to recruit talents.
He wanted to expand the scope to beyond the recruitment ceremony, as the sects had decided to open their gates unconditionally to receive talented disciples for the time being.
A seasoned Elder with long white hair and shallow breath said, "We can station outer court and inner court Elders somewhere with greater population to pass down the teachings of our summits."
Another Elder said, "It's too inefficient to rely on Elders alone. As such, we should relegate the task to the Chief Disciples of the various halls and reward them with merit points accordingly."
Someone added, "We can set a time limit and a bone age recruitment for a competition between the various stations, and under the premise of equal resources—excluding those self acquired—we can distribute honors and rewards to spur the competitive spirit. This can also help us eliminate any unworthy discounts."
After two people rolled the ball, the other Elders started to join the discussion.
The Summit Leader closed his eyes, seemingly lost in meditation, but he was obviously paying attention to the discussion as evident by his occasional nod or shake of the head.
Soon, an Elder asked, "Can't we use divination or fate treasures to locate the disciples?"
The Summit Leader opened his eyes.
He said lightly, "The heavenly secrets are in disorder—there is too much providence and destiny involved. Unless you use the treasures selectively on each disciple one at a time, it's useless."
That Elder nodded, sighing and shaking his head in pity.
Lu Mingyuan listened to these big shots discuss among themselves. As a newly appointed Elder, and with his shallow knowledge of the outside world and it's affairs, he had better keep to himself.
A few hours later, the discussion finally bore fruit.
In three days after the official disciple recruitment ceremony, the interested Elders can leave the sect either alone or in a group.
They would choose a neutral region where there isn't much of a conflict with other forces or choose a location within the territory of a friendly force to establish a private organization.
Lu Mingyuan decided to go by himself, so he followed a separate set of rules and regulations.
Many people were surprised by this decision because as far as they knew, Lu Mingyuan never left the sect ever since the Summit Leader brought him in.
The regulations were both lax and strict.
For instance, any incurred karma outside the sect must be settled outside the sect, as the lack of a delegation might give off the impression that he was acting on his own will, not the sect's.
But of course, going alone would provide him with greater freedom to act, so the pros and cons would cancel out each other.
Every three years, the Elders must travel back to a neutral city of the sect's choice for the competition. The coordinates would be shared at that time through the identity token's communication feature.
"Alright," seeing that there wasn't anything practical left to discuss, the Summit Leader decided to end the meeting.
After he finished talking, the space in the hall trembled, and his figure disappeared without a trace.
The Elders started to discuss among themselves in a rather relaxed posture after the Summit Leader left.
With nothing to do, Lu Mingyuan stood up from his seat and stepped out, feeling out of place with these people.
According to memory, his current body was about sixty years old. To a cultivator, this age was too young.
To those Elders who lived for hundreds or even thousands of years, he was just a child.
After stepping outside the Great Hall, Lu Mingyuan ran into the fox spirit in human form.
She was seated by the pond and playing with the duality fish.
He nodded in greeting, and with an absent mind, he continued on his way.
The fox spirit pursued her lips and shook her head helplessly. "Master is like a father figure to him, but he doesn't even go to greet Master in person…"
She dipped her bare feet into the pound and watched the fish circling around her ankles with an absentminded expression.
Lu Mingyuan hurried to his courtyard and found his way to his meditation cushion.
The moment he sat down, he willed for the system interface to appear and he immediately opened the inventory to check the bundles he purchased.
After sweeping the list of items on the catalog, he heaved a sigh of relief.
Rows of weapons, pills, armor, and mystical treasures suitable for all cultivation realms were shining inside the inventory.
There were plenty of spirit stones as well, and the most shabby in quality were the high-grade spirit stones—millions of them.
There were peerless-grade, flawless-grade, and origin stones.
There were also the items that cost Lu Mingyuan the most…
The World Tree, Chaos Sea, Ten Thousand Spirits Encyclopedia, and a Chaos Scroll to create a cultivation technique from Primal Chaos Dao Fragments.
Without hesitation, Lu Mingyuan claimed his rewards, immediately fusing with the World Tree and Chaos Sea to enhance his current self.