Outside the Pagoda, in the clouds.
The Sect Master, Great Elders, and Elders stood there, floating in the air, talking with each other.
"Great Elder Li Jiang, I did not expect your family to have such a potential genius," said one Elder.
Although he was complementing the Great Elder, you could tell from his tone that he was being sarcastic.
Another Elder said: "It seems that your Li family almost missed a Heaven Chosen."
The conversation between the Elders in fact involved the internal contradiction and competition of the Dao Opening Sect.
The Great Elder Li Jiang was in fact in charge of the Hall of Resources. This hall, as the name implies, involved distributing resources to all the disciples and Elders of the sect. Whether it was the distribution of pills, talisman, weapons, or selecting a cultivating cave full of spiritual energy, they all fall in the jurisdiction of the Hall of Resources.
The Li family was in charge of the Hall of Resources for this generation.
As a matter of fact, the Dao Opening Sect is currently divided into four parts: The Wang, Yan, Li family, and the Sectarian side.
The Dao Opening Sect had 9 emperors: 4 from the Wang Family, 2 from the Li Family, 2 from the Yan Family, and 1 from disciples recruited outside of the families.
As a result, there are many contradictions and competition between the four parties.
Li Jun is in fact the Young Master of the Li family and Great Elder Li Jiang is actually his father. However, Li Jun’s life in the Li family is not very well.
There is a Glorious Time coming in the world, and many of the Four Groups have talented people to nurture to represent them in the Grand Stage that is about to come. However, the Li family does not--well at least the Main Branch of the family does not.
Li Jun, as the sole heir of the Li family, was not born extraordinary. Although Li Jun’s talent is good--if he were placed on the lower planes, he would be a heaven defying genius--but, in the Myriad Emperor Plane, in this Glorious Times coming, he is simply insignificant.
As such, his life in the family is quite hard. Although he still receives all the training and resources necessary, he has no status. Even the servants in his house always gave him a cold look.
What’s even worse is that when the kids from the Li Family Branch bullies him, and no one comes forward to stop them except for his mother.
As such, Li Jun’s evaluation in the family is someone that is not worth training. His life only got better after he started hanging out with Wang Wei. So, you could imagine the shock the elders had after seeing his performance in the Pagoda.
Great Elder Li Jiang blushes with shame upon hearing the other’s comments. How would he know his son has such a powerful will?
Although he always feels bad for his son, as the patriarch of the family, he is trained from birth to put the well being of the entire family before the need of the individual, even when it comes to his own blood.
Of course, Li Jiang is not a completely heartless and terrible father. He tried his best otherwise Li Jun would not have received as much resource as he did now.
The Noble families like the Li and Wang are ruthless, they do not raise anyone who has no value.
Back to the Pagoda.
After 8 straight days, Li Jun’s body collapsed in the desert and he was sent out the pagoda.
His body was in fact in perfect shape--as the Pagoda Trials are just powerful illusions. But when Li Jun was sent out, he was still immersed in the trial. As soon as he got out, he started screaming: " Water, water, I need water."
His father, who was in the cloud, instantly appeared before his son and fed him some water. Afterward, Li Jun passed out and was taken away by the Great Elder.
Soon, many murmured of the disciple began to spread throughout the venue.
"Was that Li Jun who passed the trial?"
"Yah, that was him."
"But I thought he was a waste. Now, I just saw him perform better than the Contemporary Sacred Sons."
"Shhhh, don’t talk about these kinds of things if you want to mix in the sect."
Conversations like these were happening everywhere in the sect. The people most affected by these rumors were the Contemporary Sacred Sons.
In the Dao Opening Sect, the disciples were divided into outer disciples, inner disciples, and core disciples. The top 10 Core Disciples were referred to as Contemporary Sacred Son. They compete with each other and the winner will win the status of Sacred Son.
What is a Sacred Son?
The Sacred Son represents the future Sect Master of the Dao Opening Sect. It represents having most of the resources of the sect at your disposal.
The Sacred Son’s status is second only to the Sect Master and the Great elders of different Halls.
The Sacred Son even has the right to mobilize the elders--which are all in the Saint Realm--when necessary.
As such, many disciples are competing for the status of the Sacred Son.
In fact, Wang Wei was designated as the Sacred Son the moment he was born, but this news was not announced yet. Although this was unfair to these disciples, this is how things are in a sect controlled by powerful groups.
Of course, things are not as simple as stated. When Wang Wei becomes the Sacred Son, he has to prove to the Contemporary Sacred Sons and all the other disciples that he deserved such title.
Otherwise, his status would be nothing but empty air. So, a fight is imminent between Wang Wei and them sooner or later.
Although Li Jun escaped the pain and misery of the desert, Wang Wei did not. Soon, 13 days passed, and Wang Wei was still walking.
All people could see on the screen outside of the Pagoda was a skeleton with worn out clothes walking in the endless desert.
Soon, the skeleton’s body started to decompose into the tiniest of sand particles blowing away by the desert wind.
Wang Wei was ejected out the pagoda after a thirteen days arduous journey of non stop walking.
It took Wang Wei a few moments to process the fact that he had escaped the endless desert.
In this brief moment, a great change had occurred to Wang Wei. In his mature and wise eyes, you could notice an iron will of determination.
A will that could make even the most ruthless man tremble.
A will that could inspire courage, dedication, and foolish bravery to all his allies.
A will that could install fear in the heart of his enemies--even if he was the Devil itself.
After Wang Wei regained his composure, he scanned at all the disciples that were looking at him. Everywhere his eyes went, the majority of the people put their head down out of fear, while the rest looked at him with reverence.
Soon afterward, Wang Wei passed out and started to fall down. However, before he hit the ground, his father appeared out of nowhere, caught him and immediately left.