Chapter 42: Secret History of the Unified Exam
When the students’ shock had faded slightly, Feng Chutang resumed his lesson. “After two Chosen Ones met a terrible end one after another, even the lofty immortal sects could do nothing no longer. That is one reason, though the reason I’m about to tell you is more important. Before all this happened, while the sects were still divvying up the lands, some immortal sects barely got a handful of territories because they cared too much about how it looked, whereas other immortal sects shamelessly claimed a ton of territories because without regard for their dignity or reputation whatsoever.
“The former barely got a handful of worthy disciples despite a long wait, whereas the latter enjoyed a massive disciplebase and so rose rapidly in terms of power. Naturally, contradictions arose between the two sides. The immortal sects with few territories demanded that the regions were redistributed, whereas those with more territories refused as a matter of course. And so the two sides argued for over a century and fought overtly and covertly against one another. Heavens only know how many battles they’ve fought, and how many powerful cultivators had perished because of this.
“Finally, the immortal sects decided that enough was enough, and that change was necessary. It was at this moment an eccentric person appeared out of nowhere and proposed the concept of sharing geniuses. To be specific, he proposed that the cultivation talents of the human realm should be shared among all major sects. He proposed a unified sect examination where no cultivation geniuses will be overlooked. The sects themselves were split into tiers based on their strength. The superior sects would be given priority in the selection, whereas the inferior sects were only left with scraps.”
Over a thousand years had passed since the unified sect examination was implemented. Every student present had passed the exam to enter the Palace of Absolute Beginning. That was why they were very familiar with the rules of the unified exam and thought that this was the way it should have been. However, even they could not help but think that the eccentric person who came up with this idea in the first place was, indeed, eccentric.
Feng Chutang smiled as if he could read their minds. “I was just as disbelieving as you when I first heard about this story. Geniuses can be shared? This doesn’t make sense be it in the past or the present, and the concept of open recruitment and selection even more so. Now then, I have a question for you all. Can anyone tell me who this eccentric person is?”
“An immortal senior who reincarnated back to life?”
“A prodigy of unparalleled genius?”
“A Chosen One?”
The students made all sorts of guesses, but Feng Chutang shook his head again and again. When no one was guessing anymore, he finally answered, “He was, in fact, a denizen from another world. In his world, this method was just common sense.”