In the Eastern Sage Immortal Sect, everyone was a heaven chosen. Even for external disciples, only geniuses would be able to join the sect.
However, there was also the differentiation between the strong and the weak among geniuses. From the over 10,000 participants of the thirteen prefectures, which among them aren’t genius characters? However, the disparity was too great, only 1,000 could join the Eastern Immortal Sage Sect as external disciples, 160 participants as core disciples and three participants as Sage Child characters.
All were geniuses but the disparity was simply too vast. Those geniuses from the thirteen prefectures that weren’t selected were no longer geniuses if placed in the perspective of the Eastern Sage Immortal Sect.