The surviving sect members had to move from the location where their sect was located because they no longer had the strength to retain it and thus could only move to one of the most outskirt branches they had that still remained loyal to the sect as most branches immediately turned and renamed themselves as new sects the moment they heard what happened to the Main branch.
Despite countless years passing by, the sect was never able to regain its former glory and has just been stuck as a rank 4 sect which in part is due to missing the two cannons of their legacy art; The elegy of the enduring still mountain and river of piety cultivation art. It was a gold-grade art, it was rumored to have been created by a grieving son to honor the wishes of his mother to live a long and healthy life. He created that art to honor that wish. The art was aimed at strengthening one's heart, mind, and body to ensure longevity in all circumstances.
The art in its complete form was a gold-grade art. The creator was a rogue cultivator and he ended up passing the art down to his only disciple who ended up creating the Enduring Mountains And Rivers Sect using it as its foundation.
The art was split into three canons. The first canon was used in establishing the foundation from the body refining realm to the core formation realm, once one mastered the first cannon to perfection, and had reached the peak stage of the core formation realm they would gain the qualification to master the second cannon that would be used for breaking through to the palace realm and would sustain them throughout that realm while the last cannon was used in the domain realm.
The first cannon was distributed all throughout the sect and its branches while the second and third were rumored to have been inscribed on a steele by its creator, in which he imbued his will onto the steele. Without reaching the perfection realm in the prior cannon, if one attempted to learn the next cannon, they would have their bodies destroyed through qi deviation triggered by forcefully learning it. The cannon was created that way. One had to reach perfection in terms of mastery before they could learn the next or risk having their cultivation base and body destroyed.
Those from the branch, if they met the requirement, would visit the main sect and learn the next cannon, but with the destruction that happened at the sect, the Steele that contained the second and third cannon got destroyed in the process and was thus lost forever.
Guo Feng had been an elder in charge of guiding the new disciples of the sect and like most, he had grown up hearing the stories of how great their sect was and idolized it to the point of obsession. Like most within the sect, he hoped that his sect could one day return to those heights which was why when he realized his talent was not high enough to make it a reality, he decided to devote his life to guiding the new disciples.
He was strict, passionate, and zealous in that endeavor, however, it ended up being problematic when he grew extreme in his methods. New disciples would get injured more heavily in their training to the point of being traumatized and then it grew even further when some had their cultivation bases crippled.
Despite being warned, he refused claiming those unable to survive his training showed they were unable to carry the mantle of the sect forward and that the sect would be fine without them.
When the number of crippled disciples grew too high and their ability to attract more disciples plummeted as a result of it, the sect master finally acted.
The sect master could not bring himself to treat Guo Feng to the sect's rules which involved getting his cultivation base crippled and banishing him from the sect. With the number of grudges he accumulated over the years as an instructor, it was no different than sentencing him to his death, which he could not do. Guo Feng's heart was in the right place even though his methods were extreme, and when he was charged, he was willing to accept the punishment, readily.
The sect master unable to come up with a solution decided to send the matter to the Order to make a judgment on it. He was given the option of a rehabilitation program or getting sent to Requiem, to which he chose the latter. He was looking to die and hoped he would get that chance at the Requiem.
It wasn't until one of the Instructors read his file, did his circumstances change. He was given the option to be part of the life and death duels and his reward was the option to perfect the first canon of his sect's legacy art.
Once any art reached the blue grade, it had a will or spirituality to it that grew the higher up the grade one moved. If Guo Feng reached the perfection realm in terms of mastery and understanding of the first art, then the art itself may guide him to the door of the second cannon. It was something commonly seen in interconnected and fragmented gold-grade arts.
As long as one had the main root foundation of the art, they could gain insight into the next parts without seeing the other parts, but they had to reach the absolute peak of perfection to induce an epiphany to the next parts.
Guo Feng on hearing this, immediately agreed and has been engaged in those duels for the past seventy years improving his mastery over the art every time which had helped him survive to this point, and from what Yang Qing could tell he was about ready to reach the core formation realm.
The fact that the blonde-haired student was matched up against Guo Feng his defeat was all but set in stone as Guo Feng had blue grade pillars himself and over the years he has even defeated a few gold grade pillars and forced a bitter draw against a few purple grade pillars.
And what happened next when the fight was announced to begin wasn't a surprise to Yang Qing.
The blonde-haired youth declared confidently that he would defeat Guo Feng in ten moves and if he didn't, it would be considered his loss.
He launched his blue grade art; the golden flame swallow spear art at the onset bringing a fearsome momentum with him that drew solemn looks from the inmate side and gasps of awe from the students' side but what happened next brought a deathly silence to the arena.
Guo Feng punched slowly, however, the movement of his punch created a sonic pulse that tore apart the golden flame spear art aiming to run him through. The attack was destroyed to smithereens without the punch diminishing in force. The punch went on to smash the blonde haired in his stomach producing a quaking sound in the process.
The student flew like a kite whose strings had been cut as he smashed at the walls of the cliff surrounding the arena and dropped unconscious with just a breath left.
Instructor Pan announced the winner but all the participants were wide-eyed, in shock at what had just transpired while the cause of all this bowed to Instructor Pan and calmly left the arena.