One may think that immortal sects are old and have buildings like ancient times, but that is untrue.

Immortal sects are actually extremely high-tech, though their style is different from that of mages. Their buildings are also different from those of mages, and the immortals like to call each other fellow Daoists and wear different clothes.

A rank 13 immortal sect like Heaven's Way is far beyond anything an advanced mortal civilization could achieve. Their meetings were all virtual; as long as one was within a certain distance, they could connect and meet.

It is said to be "virtual," but immortals' virtual meetings are no different from going in person; everyone has avatars and can walk around, meet, and talk to other people. The most challenging aspect of arranging these virtual meetings is actually their security; no one wants their secret talks to be monitored. Otherwise, just setting up a virtual meeting is too easy.

virtual meetings are the most advanced stage of modern cultures; advanced cultures could easily set up virtual meetings using computer avatars.

In advanced cultures, one can even entirely live in a virtual world and have all physical sensations, like taste and touch.

it is a crisis for many advanced civilizations, as nobody wants real sex if they can experience all they want in their virtual world; they can choose the man or woman they like to be with and do whatever they want in their own virtual world.

That is why the falling birthrate crisis is usually very serious.

late advanced civilizations engineer their population, changing the DNA to the most desirable state and giving birth to their child in artificial wombs.

Engineering DNA is not that difficult, but doing it flawlessly is only possible in the late advanced stages.

After all, DNA is very complicated, so trying to do it while not having absolute certainty is dangerous; some advanced civilizations may do it in their mid-stage, but doing it in a mid-advanced civilization is risky, as the technology is not flawless.

Five people announced their candidacy for sect master in a virtual meeting of all supreme elders and supreme ancestors.

The sect has 133 universal laws in total, 35 of which are directly owned by the patriarch. The other 98 are owned by 90 different people.

Eighty-eight of the supreme elders and supreme ancestors are rank 12, meaning they each have only one universal law. Five own two and are rank 13; these five became candidates.

The difference between rank 12 and rank 13 is not as great as the difference between rank 11 and rank 12. Rank 12 universal immortals have a fighting chance against weaker universal master immortals.

But, having a chance is not saying much; in the end, the difference of a big realm is too much to overcome. Universal master immortals are usually much older, have much bigger energy reserves, are much more experienced, have better masteries, and usually have better universal laws.

The advantage of having two different universal laws is often too big to overcome.

However, there are exceptions; if the rank 12 universal immortal owns a very specific universal law that happens to be good for battles, the early stage rank 13 universal master immortal may lose.

After all, when it comes to universal law, the most important is how specific one's law is; a rank 13 universal master immortal may lose against a more specific universal law, even if he or she has far more energy reserves.

Among the 88 rank 12 universal immortals of the Heaven's Way sect, however, there was no such person with a very specific universal law; therefore, none of the rank 12 universal immortals became candidates for sect master positions because they knew they had no chance.

The universal immortals, however, became candidates for the Council of Supreme Elders.

The Council of Supreme Elders has only 21 members, so not all universal immortals can be members.

One must not confuse becoming a supreme elder with membership in the council. All elders who reach rank 12, the universal immortal realm, are automatically promoted to become supreme elders; however, the council of elders is the body with the ability to make laws for the whole sect, and not all supreme elders can be members of it.

Every one of the 88 universal immortals became candidates to be members of the Supreme Elder Council. There is no downside to candidacy.

The selection method is as one may expect from an immortal sect; it is not an election, it is a direct selection by the patriarch.

Daoist Heaven, however, was unwilling to get too involved, so he set up some rules and let them play and choose among themselves.

Firstly, every great grandmaster mastery increases candidates' scores by 1 point, while every supreme grandmaster increases it by 100 points, and quasi-grandmaster increases by 10 points.

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Secondly, every universal law increases one's points by 100 points.

Thirdly, one can earn points based on one's disciples, energy reserves, weapons, etc.

Lastly, one can earn points by winning against other candidates in controlled combat; because it is a contest among universal and universal master immortals, he cannot allow them to go all out, so the battle is more a battle of skill than a battle of intense firepower.

Some were dissatisfied because they felt their universal law was more suitable for high-firepower battles, but nobody dared to contest the patriarch.

The patriarch is a powerful rank 13 with an unimaginable wealth of energy reserves. He has at least three masteries into supreme grandmasters and is probably stronger than the rest of the sect combined.

With the rules set by Daoist Heaven, the sect master was chosen after a short while; it was Master Straight Road, who was a rank 13 universal master immortal with two universal laws and a supreme grandmaster in formations.

Honestly, with the rules set by Daoist Heaven, it was already predetermined who would win.

Firstly, the Daoist Straight Road is the only one with supreme grandmaster mastery. The rest of the rank 13s have quasi-supreme grandmasters, but none has mastery of the supreme grandmaster.

Secondly, the formation concept is best at controlled fighting, so nobody even attempted to fight him in the controlled environment set by Daoist Heaven. They would have zero chance of winning; the supreme grandmaster is no joke; they would be crushed if they fought.

Still, the controlled environment would have prevented deaths, so one may wonder why they didn't even try.

The reason is face.

One's face is extremely important in the cultivation world; some would prefer to die rather than lose face.

Of course, among immortals, who have let go of many worldly things, they can survive even if they lose their face, but they still prefer to keep their faces intact.

The universal master immortals would have fought even if they had a 1% chance, but they really believed they had no chance, so going in would lose their face and humiliate them for no reason.

Losing face refers to being humiliated or being rejected.

For example, if one high-ranking cultivator with a lot of face requests something from another cultivator, that cultivator must abide by the request; otherwise, he would be accused of not giving face to the first cultivator. Such acts are frowned upon.

In any case, the situation is much better among immortals; they are farsighted and would never start a fight over losing face.

Among high-level mortal cultivators, they would go to a death match if one ignored their face and rejected them. There have been many cases where whole sects were destroyed for not giving enough face to stronger forces.

After Daoist Straight Road was selected, nobody protested, even though the other rank 13s believed that if the battles were in the open, they would have had the chance to win.

That is because Daoist Straight Road, even though a supreme grandmaster, had two non-specific universal laws and would have lost a confrontation of universal laws. Among universal immortals, universal laws are more important than masteries, so there was a great chance that he would have lost to others if the battles were in the open.

Still, the other four universal master immortals didn't protest, firstly, because Daoist Heaven had a massive and heavy face, which nobody dared to defy, and second, because they wanted to give face to the future sect master.

Among the rank 12s, the first 21 with the most points won.

There were 10 people who were quasi-grandmasters; these 10 were easily included in the top 15.

The five rank 13s, of course, had their positions in the elders' council, so the rank 12s, in fact, had 17 places to compete.

With 10 directly given to immortals with quasi-supreme grandmaster masteries, the remaining seven places were left for the remaining universal immortals.

Frankly, the battles were unfair; they gave a massive advantage to those with better masteries rather than higher real combat power.

The quasi-supreme grandmasters crushed all their opponents in controlled battles, even though some had less specialized universal laws.

That's why the 10 quasi-supreme grandmasters were locked in, and nobody could defeat them in a controlled environment where technical and delicate battles were the only way.

For the next seven positions, only those without any quasi-supreme mastery were left, so the battles were fairer, and seven people with more specialized universal laws were selected.

After it was finished, everyone accepted the results. These immortals won't start a fight over these; it might be boring, but that's the truth.

With all of it done, the sect returned to its normal operations.

...

Daoist Heaven had long hair, a beard, and a third eye in the middle of his forehead.

Taking out a pill container, he started talking, "Rachel! What should I do now?" he asked.

Nobody knew it, but Daoist Heaven was actually one of Rachel's hosts for countless years, which is the main reason he grew so powerful.

There are many others, like Daoist Heaven, throughout the universe. It is not an exaggeration to say that at least 10% of the entire universe's high-level powerhouses are, or were, at some point, her hosts. Some betrayed her and left her, but most kept her.

"Okay! Now, you should leave here and go to the edge of the universe where I told you! Don't worry; my main body will help you do the task!"

Daoist Heaven nodded.

Rachel wanted to make sure the rank 14 powerhouse office would not run away, so he ordered Daoist Heaven to go and guard the formation around it; as for why not send one of Luther's incarnations.

It's because Luther, after all, has limited energy, and Rachel prefers him to focus on matters in the universe; secondly, keeping connecting to an incarnation outside the universe is extremely costly.

Daoist Heaven here would be gone for at least 200 million years and cannot keep any incarnation in the universe.

"Rachel, I'm doing you a solid here! I hope you give me the info before I start my task!" Daoist Heaven said.

Rachel, of course, promised Daoist Heaven information regarding rank 14. At this level, the only thing that can attract the attention of big shots like Daoist Heaven is information of rank 14.

Rachel actually couldn't force Daoist Heaven to do things he didn't want. He is a host but is not owned by Rachel.

Rachel has two different groups of hosts: the group that she basically owns and will do whatever she wants, and the independent group, which she must convince if she wants them to perform a task.

"Don't worry! I will give you all the info when you get there; then, you can multitask and start reading the info while watching over the office," she said.

She doesn't care about the info; when she breaks through rank 14, no ordinary rank 14 who is newly promoted can be a threat.

Daoist Heaven nodded and cast his spell, moving quickly in a specific direction.

Of course, Rachel's main body would help him move faster; otherwise, even at rank 13, it would take a long time to reach the edge of the universe.