"Kernick Caedes." Dyon suddenly said. "Come forward."
A tall young man with soft features stepped forward. His hair was the very same magenta hair that was the staple of the Caedes family, but it didn't seem to give him the same murderous intent.
This young man was none other than only Duke of the quadrant and former key wielder and Legatee of Soul Rending Peak.
It was a shame. Although he was well liked, he had his key stripped of him by Lilith. Then, just now, he had his Legatee responsibilities stripped by Dyon. It felt like everything he had worked toward his entire life was taken from him to be worn by someone else, and these people also happened to be his betters, making him feel incredibly stifled. No matter how much of a good soul he was, how could he not feel anger?
Seeing the young man, Dyon looked him in the eye. "How do you feel about my arrangements? My giving your younger cousin your key? My stripping you of Legatee responsibilities?"
The former Legatee stared at Dyon for a long time. Those around him couldn't help but feel bad for him. Although Soul Rending Peak was incredibly corrupt, one of the few bright spots was this young man here.
Many could remember how hard he fought to push himself to enter the celestial floors. Hundreds of years of strife just for that single goal…
Many wondered why he tried so hard. After all, in the past few thousand years, the only one to succeed was their Master at the time. There was no shame in failing.
Yet, Kernick insisted that he wanted to pave a brighter path for their future. It was his responsibility as their Legatee, how could he not go all out?
Still, despite his heart and determination, he failed. Although he had managed to step into the 9th saint stage and had the potential to become a 4th grade celestial because of it, it was far from enough for the tower…
In the end, he could only come back in failure and train hard to succeed the master. However, now that Dyon was here, even that was taken from him. The martial world was too cruel.
Finally, Kernick sighed. "I'm unresigned."
Dyon's eyes twinkled with an odd light. "Unresigned?"
"I'm too weak to defeat you. I was too weak to defeat Lilith. As of right now, I don't deserve to succeed the former Master. Nor am I deserving of being our key wielder. My little cousin is in fact more talented than me… But, my story isn't finished yet. So, I'm unresigned."
Dyon smiled. Although Kernick wasn't arrogant, he still had the pride of a Legatee. Dyon could appreciate that.
"Good! You qualify to be an outer disciple of Soul Rending Peak."
Kernick's lip twitched.
Outer disciple? Why did he even make it sound like it was a great honor? What the hell?
Dyon didn't explain, instead, he called the next person. Kernick only barely registered that the empty hole in his heart was filled. "Donari!"
Donari came up quickly, still having a slightly guilty expression on his face.
Dyon rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. "Outer disciple!"
The crowd was shocked. Donari was only qualified to be an outer disciple as well? He had an Earth level constitution! His potential was endless!
Not every place had abundant constitutions like Dyon's home universe. If an Earth level constitution appeared, especially one with the ability to level up like Donari's, any of the quadrants ranked below 30th would scramble to add this disciple.
However, how could Dyon care about mere Earth level constitutions? He could forge one out of this air back when his soul was barely at the 5th stage in the Queen Fairy Pill.
Although that constitution was ranked far below Donari's and not every Earth level constitution could be forged so easily, the truth still remained.
Donari wanted to protest, but he soon found that he didn't have the right to.
"Elder Ricci!" Dyon called out Violet's father. "Working Disciple Elder!"
The crowd went into yet another uproar.
Everyone understood the disciple rankings. Working disciple, outer disciple, inner disciple, core disciple and finally, legatee disciples.
For every disciple ranking, there was the equivalent elder ranking. The trouble was that working elders were no more than glorified janitors meant to hand out tasks to working disciples trying their best to become outer disciples. Yet, the former Master could only be regulated to this role?! He was a second-grade celestial! A genius many quadrants would fight for!
The former Master looked at Dyon seriously before saying something that shocked them all. "You don't need to place me in an elder role, I'm willing to be a disciple! I have much to learn!" He said seriously.
Dyon smiled. "Good! Disciple Marco Ricci, Inner Disciple!"
The crowd sighed in relief. They felt that if Dyon made the former master an outer disciple a riot would have started. If a second-grade celestial couldn't become an inner disciple, what chance did they stand?
They thought Dyon's standards were too high, when Dyon actually believed he was being kindhearted.
His sect was a place that should be teeming with dao formation experts in the future. How could a mere celestial be an elder of note? He refused to lax the standards any more.
"Sophia!" Dyon suddenly said a name many didn't recognize. However, Violet did. It was the very same girl Dyon saved from the brink of death.
A simply dressed girl made her way forward. Although she had been captured by soul market, because of how recent it was, she was in much better condition than the other soul slaves and thus woke up far earlier.
Dyon scanned her for a moment before smiling at her shy expression. "Outer disciple!"
Many were shocked. Who was this girl? And how the hell did she earn the same rating as Donari and Kernick?!
Dyon didn't seem to notice the reaction of the crowd. He continued to call out names an organize disciples appropriately. With his divine sense, even with his injury, he could see through these warriors easily, so he could grade them accordingly.
The minimum requirements for becoming an outer disciple of Soul Rending Peak was twofold. The first was to have at least a first-grade innate soul. The second was to have completed the meridian formation stage to perfection.
However, only four people met this requirement sadly, and one of them was the former Master. The good news was that many more met the standard, it was just that their souls were injured and needed to be healed.
Marco just barely met the requirements for inner disciple which required a peak 1st grade innate soul and either 12th stage sainthood or 2nd grade celestial realm cultivation.
Of course, Dyon's requirements were different from other sects. For example, Madeleine's required stepping into the celestial realm as a first-grade expert to become a core disciple, but Madeleine was already an inner disciple as a 10th stage saint years ago.
Because Dyon had yet to set up appropriate steps, he couldn't account for battle prowess differences like this, so he could only use crude methods until he refurbished the methods left behind by the original Soul Rending Peak.
For those who didn't meet those requirements, Dyon gave them two choices: the first was to receive a targeted cultivation cleansing pill that would bring them back to the meridian formation stage, or, to be allocated among the sub peaks.
For obvious reasons, many chose the latter option.
As for the sub peaks, there was no innate soul requirements, however, Dyon directly made them all working disciples.
The point of the sub peaks was to raise warriors who might not be talented in the soul path, but willing to cultivate anyway. How could Dyon give resources to those without the determination to re-cultivate? They weren't worthy.
When Dyon received the master symbol, he learned that the core teachings of the peaks were left intact. This wasn't too surprising considering its mystic level technique remained. Clearly everything was well protected just like the core teachings of the Celestial Deer Sect.
Knowing this, he couldn't hand these core teachings to spineless cowards.
Although these people were disappointed, Dyon appeased them with various things that made them salivate. To Dyon, these things were meaningless, but to them, they were holy treasures.
