What the disciples have earned is already a lot, but there is also the amount earned by the three elders of the Blood Skull sect.
Arthur doesn't know how much they earned, but he can guess that, just like the case with the disciples, what they got came at the expense of the other sects.
He dares to say that even though the people of the Blood Skull sect only account for 14.3% of the people who entered the secret realm to harvest, what the people from the Blood Skull sect earned should account for 70% of the total output of the secret realm.
He can imagine how absurd such a proportion is, but he believes it.
The secret realm has been at peace for 90 years and allowed to rest and grow for that long. Then the Blood Skull sect came and took resources that were worth 5 times their proportion of people.
What's worse is that the other groups, who account for 85.7% of the harvesters, had to manage the remaining 30% between them. Yet, there are still 7 secret realms that the Blood Skull sect keeps to themselves and doesn't share with anyone.
When Arthur thought of this, he said to himself, "No wonder they can afford to give a new disciple 10,000 low-grade energy stones every year for five years straight for being at the top of the newbie ranking list and can give old disciples even more. They are rich."
"It truly is worth it to take the bulk of the resources of the region without the need to go to war with the other sects. And by the looks of things, a time might come that the Blood Skull sect is able to take on all the other sects without losing much. After all, we are growing faster than them."
He looked at the airship he was standing on and then compared it to the airships of the other sects and families. He hadn't noticed it before because he wasn't looking for it, but he was beginning to see some differences now.
He noticed that the airship for the Blood Skull sect is bigger and wealthier. It is fancier. It has more space and more guns. He wouldn't be surprised if the airship was faster than others too.
As he noticed these things, he realized something. He said to himself, "We are richer and are getting richer every day, and there is nothing anyone can do about it because we are strong and we deserve what we have."
Then he pointed at himself and said, "I got into the best sect and made so much progress because I'm stronger and better than everyone else. There is no need to be ashamed that I am living a comfortable life. I deserve it."
After having this understanding, he said to Jason, who had been silent too. "I guess this is the way of the world. It is the food pyramid. The strong sit at the top of the pyramid and eat everyone else."
"In order not to be eaten, one must reach the top of the pyramid, and for one to achieve that, one must have power. This is why the Dyson family needs their descendants to reach the fourth mortal coil."
"But I have a question for you. If you reach the fourth mortal coil, will you help the Dyson family rise up the pyramid?"
Jason laughed when he heard that question. He laughed and shook his head and said, "First of all, I don't think that reaching the fourth mortal coil will change the situation of the family much simply because each sect has at least one person in the fifth mortal coil."
"With a nascent soul patriarch, the family can forget about overthrowing a sect. No amount of cultivators at the fourth mortal coil can change that."
Arthur interjected, "But I heard that a golden core cultivator from our sect managed to kill a nascent soul cultivator. So golden core cultivators aren't that useless."
Jason shook his head even harder. "You're only helping to make my point. The key is that the golden core cultivator was from our sect. No other sect can manage such a feat. This just goes to show that even if the Blood Skull sect doesn't have a nascent soul elder, it will still be difficult to overthrow us."
Arthur nodded and said, "That's true."
Jason chuckled and said, "It might surprise you to hear that most families already have someone in the golden core. They just hide them so that the sects won't kill them when they encounter them."
Arthur was surprised to hear that. He said, "I didn't know that."
Jason smiled. "So you see, having cultivators at the fourth mortal coil doesn't mean that a family can replace a sect. It only means that if a calamity befalls a sect, the family has a chance of benefiting from the situation and will be able to contend with the weakened sect."
"This is why I don't think reaching the fourth mortal coil will change the position of the family on the food pyramid. However, things might be different if I were to reach the fifth mortal coil."
Arthur looked at him in surprise. He was surprised that Jason thought that he could reach the fifth mortal coil and that Jason would help the family.
Jason saw his look and said, "Don't look at me like that. It is just a possibility. Even if I achieve it, I will only help the family replace another sect. I can't betray our sect."
Then he added belatedly, "I also won't be their nanny. If the Dyson family can't hold on to their position as a sect, then they don't deserve it."
Arthur chuckled and said, "That's going to be a tall order, asking them to hold onto the position of a sect on their own. A sect can easily produce 1,000 disciples at the peak of the second mortal coil, but many families can't put together 40 disciples. They need to sell the extra slot to loose cultivators."