The senior and junior brother and sister pair had joined Void Temple within the past hundred years. Hailing from the same great domain, both now possessed Emperor Realm cultivation but had not yet begun condensing their own Dao Seals.
People who joined Void Temple with existing cultivation were a common sight here.
Void Temple's current philosophy was to embrace all streams, because selecting better Disciples required an enormous base to choose from.
This was not something Void Temple had decided on its own, but the result of discussions with the various Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands.
Once the Star Boundary's reputation had spread, everyone knew it was a cradle for Open Heaven Realm cultivators. Those who cultivated there could receive nourishment from the World Tree, and the younger and lower one's cultivation, the greater the benefit.
With such a lure, who wouldn't want to send their juniors and younger generation to the Star Boundary to bask in the World Tree's glory?
But the Star Boundary could only hold so many people. If one faction sent a batch, and another sent a batch, how could the Star Boundary accommodate them all?
This was not even mentioning that the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands had established their own territories there, carving out regions for self-governance and selecting talented disciples from the lands under their purview.
The Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands alone had basically claimed thirty percent of the Star Boundary's territory.
If the second-tier forces also tried to send people there, the Star Boundary would eventually become overcrowded. But the Star Boundary's benefits were plain for all to see, and a complete refusal would have incited the wrath of all.
In the end, the Great Emperors of the Star Boundary and the experts from the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands held discussions and decided that channeling was better than blocking.
They gave those forces wanting to send their juniors to cultivate in the Star Boundary one chance: first join Void Temple, and Void Temple would conduct the selection. Only the outstanding among them would be allowed to go to the Star Boundary.
It was precisely because of this decision that Void Temple now boasted three hundred thousand Disciples, and this was after careful selection.
It could be said that Void Temple's Disciples now encompassed the most elite talents from every major force across all the great domains.
Senior Brother Liu and Junior Sister Chen were no exceptions—both were rare geniuses within their respective families in recent years.
After gazing upward for a while, Senior Brother Liu sneered: "Our Void Temple has so many people now—what's strange about someone advancing? But how can they compare to me? I, your Senior Brother, am a genius the likes of which appears once in a hundred years. In the whole of Void Temple, I doubt you could find many who surpass me, Junior Sister."
Junior Sister Chen replied in a leisurely tone: "Because the more outstanding ones have already been sent to the Star Boundary!"
Senior Brother Liu felt those words sting…
Indignant, he said: "Junior Sister, don't underestimate your Senior Brother. I'll be going to the Star Boundary sooner or later."
Those sent to the Star Boundary were typically those who had not yet condensed their own Dao Seals, because once one truly began condensing a Dao Seal, it would be too late to go. Once a Dao Seal took shape, a martial artist's future path was essentially set.
So the earlier one went to the Star Boundary, the better.
But this matter was not up to the Disciples to decide—it was entirely based on the elders' evaluations.
Both Senior Brother Liu and Junior Sister Chen could certainly condense Fifth-Order Dao Seals. Senior Brother Liu had even been aiming for a Sixth-Order Dao Seal all along, believing he could directly advance to Sixth-Order Open Heaven.
If one could truly condense a Dao Seal with Sixth-Order resources, that would indeed be remarkable. In the past, that would have been elite Disciple level even within the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands—like Gu Pan and the others Yang Kai had encountered back then, who had all condensed Sixth-Order Dao Seals.
Even among the various Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, such talent appeared only a few times per generation.
Senior Brother Liu naturally had grounds for his pride.
He coveted Junior Sister Chen's beauty and wanted to secure the relationship as soon as possible, which was why he followed her around chattering endlessly.
But Junior Sister Chen had other thoughts. She had been sent to Void Temple, but her goal was not the Star Boundary. Both she and her family's elders knew that with her aptitude, she had absolutely no qualification to go to the Star Boundary.
Her goal was those genius Disciples of Void Temple!
If she could find a talented lover, he could protect her Chen family in the future. The Chen family had not been faring well these past few years, beset by many hardships, and talent within the clan was withering. Junior Sister Chen could be said to be the Chen family's greatest hope.
It was precisely with this consideration that Junior Sister Chen kept Senior Brother Liu at arm's length—neither rejecting him nor agreeing. If Senior Brother Liu truly managed to condense a Sixth-Order Dao Seal and directly advance to Sixth-Order Open Heaven, agreeing to him wouldn't be so bad. But whether Senior Brother Liu actually had the ability, no one knew until the results came out.
How could Junior Sister Chen dare to gamble on him so easily?
Senior Brother Liu gazed at the beauty's profile and her long, fair neck, swallowed hard, and forcibly averted his gaze: "Stop watching, Junior Sister. Those who remain in Void Temple—even if they advance to Open Heaven—would at most reach Fifth-Order. What's worth seeing about that? I came upon something novel recently, really interesting. Why don't I take you to have a look?"
The more he understood this junior sister's calculating mind, the more he desired to win her over.
Just as his words fell, a long cry suddenly echoed from the depths of the void, and a powerful aura radiated outward from that direction.
Senior Brother Liu's expression changed: "How can it be so fast?!"
Junior Sister Chen was equally astonished.
Advancing to the Open Heaven Realm was often described as water finding its own level, but it still required some time—anywhere from three to five days on the short end, to one or two months on the long end, or even longer.
But how long had it been since they had first sensed the signs of someone's advancement? At most, the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
And they had already advanced?
It was unheard of for someone to advance to the Open Heaven Realm so quickly.
How could they possibly know that the people inside Void Temple's training grounds had been suppressing themselves for years. Living inside Yang Kai's Small Universe, unable to achieve the resonance between heaven and man, they had never been able to take that final step.