It made sense. The Taihang Mountain Cultivation Group had so many cultivators; how could they overlook this issue?
However, while his own cultivation problem was solved, Quan still couldn't understand. The reason Taihang Mountain could now guide commoners onto the path of immortality was that senior cultivators had collected numerous malevolent energies and suppressed them in secret chambers using cultivation techniques.
But how did the very first batch of cultivators, the pioneers, come into contact with the malevolent energies of异兽 (yìshòu - exotic beasts) without dying and break this vicious cycle, before they had even created cultivation methods?
As soon as this thought arose, Quan couldn't quite grasp it. Yet, being intelligent, after some time, he felt he was vaguely catching hold of the crucial point.
Thus, instead of asking Mo, he used his own newfound understanding to figure something out.
The earliest immortal path pioneers indeed could not approach the 异兽. If the world only consisted of these pioneers and commoners, then beings like 异兽 would be impossible to defeat.
This would lead to a vicious cycle.
But because there already existed bloodline humans in this world, low-level bloodline humans could fight 异兽, and nobles could kill fierce beasts.
The corpses of the 异兽 and fierce beasts left behind became the best research material for the immortal path pioneers.
Therefore, the method the immortal path pioneers used to collect malevolent energies back then was not to approach real, living 异兽, but to find ways to bring more dead 异兽 corpses to them.
Then, they experimented with the malevolent energies.
The bloodline humans were the key to breaking the vicious cycle.
Quan traveled through many mountain ranges. With Mo accompanying him, although they encountered some 异兽, these beasts did not harm them.
In this world, tribes were integral parts of civilization.
It was the gathering of so many humans here that made the 异兽 and fierce beasts dare not invade.
Outside the tribes, beyond civilization, on the vast wilderness, were regions where numerous wild beasts and 异兽 roamed.
The area between Qingyang Tribe and Taihang Mountain was clearly such a region.
Normally, traversing areas teeming with wild beasts and rampant 异兽, without the protection of nobles or bloodline humans, was essentially courting death.
But with Mo, a preacher, leading the way, this potentially life-threatening journey became a risk-free one.
Without much time and encountering no danger, Mo, Quan, and many commoner humans arrived in Taihang Mountain.
Taihang Mountain was the holy land of the cultivation group. It already had fifty-seven cultivators in the Core Formation realm, over a thousand in the Yang Gang realm, and an estimated five thousand or more in the Yin Sha realm.
Mo did not immediately have the commoners begin cultivating. This was because collecting malevolent energies required a thorough understanding of their properties. Without understanding the nature of the malevolent energies, the step of Core Fusion would almost certainly fail.
Or rather, the prerequisite step of integrating various malevolent energies, before Core Fusion, would already be considered a failure.
And the process of synthesizing elixirs, even for those malevolent energies that had been suppressed in secret chambers, calmed from their ferocity, and made accessible to commoners, would lead to many problems, often dangerous ones, if synthesized haphazardly without understanding their specific properties and undergoing extensive study.
The immortal path pioneers and seniors had indeed solved the problem of malevolent energies, reducing the rate of failure and death. But this was based on the premise that commoners were already familiar with the properties of various malevolent energies and had acquired sufficient knowledge.
If one's understanding of malevolent energies was vague, scoring less than ten out of a hundred on a test, then the problem lay with the individual, not the cultivation system.
The process by which cultivators condensed elixirs using malevolent energies, consumed them to form divine ability seeds, and stepped onto the path of cultivation had reduced the mortality rate to almost zero and the disability rate to less than one percent. However, if commoners did not study this knowledge and directly went to the secret chambers to collect malevolent energies and synthesize elixirs, it would be akin to ignoring the laws summarized and pioneered by the senior cultivators. Such individuals would naturally have extremely high mortality and disability rates.
What the commoners needed was not to directly enter the secret chambers to collect malevolent energies, but rather to become familiar with various knowledge. In other words, Mo wanted them to first attend classes and learn knowledge at the Taihang Mountain Cultivation Group before embarking on the path of immortality.
The day they could embark on the immortal path depended on the amount of knowledge acquired.
Quan had not expected that the first step in embarking on the immortal path and changing his destiny would be to first start learning about the various knowledge related to malevolent energies.
The period for learning knowledge was three months. After passing the knowledge assessment, they would be approved to enter the secret chambers, collect malevolent energies, and begin their cultivation journey.
This was for those like Quan who understood writing.
Those Qingyang Tribe members and commoner humans who did not understand writing would have to enter literacy classes first, starting with basic literacy.
They would learn what writing was, what each character meant, and then proceed to learn about malevolent energies.
This process would take at least half a year to a year.
Some of the arriving commoners expressed complaints because they had assumed they could begin cultivating upon arrival, only to find out it would take so long due to their illiteracy.
Mo then said something that left a deep impression on Quan.
Mo said that there were plenty of malevolent energies in the secret chambers, and they were not scarce. If they were willing, they could also apply to enter the secret chambers without passing the assessment, and the cultivation group would generally approve.
However, the failure rate and disability rate would significantly increase. No one would care if they went mad or became disabled.
This single statement silenced the commoners worried about the slow pace.
After a month of study, Quan had a comprehensive understanding of the properties of malevolent energies and how to cultivate.
It turned out that not everyone could cultivate; there was also the matter of aptitude.
Aptitude was not related to bloodline; they were two different things.
For example, if two powerful bloodline noble humans had offspring, the offspring's bloodline would definitely not exceed the sum of the parents' bloodlines by two, nor would it exceed the stronger of the parents' bloodlines.
Bloodlines, when passed down, would only weaken over generations. As for surpassing one's parents in bloodline abilities, it was impossible.
There was a law in bloodline abilities: the child's bloodline ability and bloodline concentration would never exceed that of the stronger of the two parents.
However, aptitude was entirely different from bloodline.
According to the research of the Taihang Mountain Cultivation Group, everyone had aptitude, but the levels of aptitude varied.
Aptitude differed from bloodline because even if both parents had very low cultivation aptitude, they could still have a child with high cultivation aptitude.
Conversely, even if both parents had extremely high cultivation aptitude, they might still have a child with low cultivation aptitude.