Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

As Xuan Hao went out to find Bai Ning, the news that the Star Shattering Sect was recruiting was starting to recruit new disciples began to spread through not just the sect’s territory but also surrounding kingdoms and empires. Even reaching some of the nearby major powers in the Northen Core Region.

Following the short clash that had taken place between Xuan Hao and the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from the Blue Sea Empire, the Star Shattering Sect had managed to fully establish its status as an ancient hidden sect. The different major powers no longer dare to speculate against the sect due to the clear presence of someone possibly above the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

And it was because of this that the news of the Star Shattering Sect’s large-scale disciple recruitment managed to spread all the way to the Northern Core Region. Drawing the attention of several smaller powers in the Northern Core Region who were interested in having their younger generation join the Star Shattering Sect.

Not just because they wanted to use these younger members to gather more information on the Star Shattering Sect, but also because they understood the importance of being able to ensure their own survival in the current chaotic state of the continent.

If their younger members were able to establish friendly relationships with the Star Shattering Sect, it could potentially be lifesaving to some of the smaller powers in the Northern Central Region. Especially considering that it was a well-known fact among those in the know about hidden ancient sects, that these kinds of sects always had a terrifying foundation stretching back to ancient times.

In a sense, it was also this ancient foundation that made most major powers scared of moving against hidden ancient sects, as the minimum strength of these foundations were established by existences that had surpassed the Profound Immortal Realm.

Only the strongest empires and powers like the Blue Sea Empire had some confidence in going against an ancient hidden sect, but still tended to avoid doing so, if possible, as it was difficult to tell the depths of the hidden ancient sect one was dealing with from the outside.

Because of this, the large-scale recruitment of new disciples was not only successful, but also brough a lot of talented young people to the sect.

However, because there would undoubtedly be a large number of spies among the newly recruited disciples from forces that had malicious intentions regarding the Star Shattering Sect or were simply just curious and wanted to learn more about the sect, Elder Song decided together with Elder Dust Fairy, the elder in charge of the sect’s information gathering network, decided to not directly recruit disciple into the main sect at the Shattered Star Peak.

Instead, they recruited the new disciples into the different branches spread throughout the sect’s territory, using the opportunity to properly make use of the many branch sects, while at the same time also giving them to properly look through the new disciples entering the sect before deciding to allow them to enter the main sect located in the Shattered Star Peaks.

It was not that the two intended to root out all possible spies, as that would be impossible, all they wanted was to ensure that the most troublesome would not be able to enter the Shattered Star Peaks.

Of course, there were a few exceptions to this, as elders in the Domain Lord Realm and above were allowed to personally bring in a set number of disciples into the main sect in case they found someone especially talented or someone they wanted to take under their wings as a personal disciple.

In either case, those elders would thoroughly keep an eye on the disciples they brought into the sect.

The only problem that the Star Shattering Sect ran into was the number of disciples increased all the way from a little over thirty thousand spread across the different branch sects and the main sect to a staggering one hundred thousand.

Although the Star Shattering Sect had more than enough cultivation resources to assist that number of disciples. Especially considering that most of them were barely starting out their cultivation journey and were still in the Earlier Stages of the Qi Condensation Realm, the sect had to mobilize most of the sect elders to take care of the large number of new disciples.

After all, at the moment the total number of elders in the sect was rather low.

In total, there was around a thousand elders in the Nascent Soul Realm, most of whom had been dispatched by Elder Song and Elder Dust Fairy to take care of the new disciples, while there was around a hundred elders in the Domain Lord Realm. Around half of which had also been forced to assist in taking care of the more than seventy thousand new disciples joining the sect. Ushering the sect in a short time of chaos, as Elder Song and Elder Dust Fairy worked over time to ensure that everything went smoothly, even using their authority to directly promote some promising disciples who had managed to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm to elders before throwing them at the problem.

No matter how prepared they might have been before the recruitment began, neither of them had expected the sect to increase its numbers by so much in such a short period of time, though it was partly their own fault, as they hadn’t put a limit on the number of disciples being recruited and had only for the talent and ability of those aspiring to join the sect.

Even then, the two weren’t the slightest bit unhappy with the outcome, as they both understood that these new disciples would make up the future foundation for the Star Shattering Sect to establish itself on the continent.

Not to mention, even if they had not yet grown up, the new disciples could always be used in the spirit stone mines, spiritual herb fields or other simple work that the servant quarters couldn’t handle…

As Elder Song and Elder Dust Fairy were discussing questionable practices regarding where to make best use of the large number of new disciples that had joined the sect, Xuan Hao was smiling happily as he watched Bai Ning careful forge an artifact sword that he had been helping him with the past few days.

Out of curiosity and not having much to do as Bai Ning finished the last steps of the forging process on his own, Xuan Hao decided to glance over his status screen. Not really having much else to do as he waited around.

[Main Sect Quest: First Steps towards Becoming a Major Power (I)]

[Description: The sect has entered a state of rapid growth and is about to finally step onto the main stage of the Ewaria Continent. Help the sect reach the requirements to become a major power on the Ewaria Continent.]

[Core Formation Realm Disciples: 4892/10.000]

[Nascent Soul Realm Disciples: 17/100]

[Domain Lord Realm Disciples: 5/10]

[Soul Ascension Realm Elders: 67/100]

[Dao Seed Realm Elders: 4/10]

[Profound Immortal Realm Ancestor: 0/1]

[Reward: World Stone (Immortal), Chaotic Qi Formation Upgrade, ???]

[Note: Does not count host as part of the requirements]

”WHAT IS THIS!?”

However, as he looked over the main sect quest that had slowly been progressing without him doing much, he was shocked to discover that the number of Nascent Soul Realm disciples had suddenly plummeted by more than a dozen-

”Ah!? Noooo! The sword! It… It’s gone…!”

Accidently causing his disciple to mess up the forging process with his sudden suprised outburst…

”Master!? W-what happened?!”

But even then, Bai Ning didn’t seem to care much about the ruined artifact sword as he was instead far more worried about what could have caused his normally calm master to suddenly burst out like that.

”This… I don’t know, I will have to investigate this matter personally!” Not knowing what had happened to suddenly have caused the loss of so many excellent disciples, Xuan Hao could only shake his head before quickly leaving his disciple behind to investigate the situation.

No matter who it was, he was going to make sure that they paid a price for wiping out so many of the sect’s excellent disciples!

However, as he soon found himself in front of Elder Song, asking about the situation and where these excellent disciples had disappeared to, it didn’t take long for him to learn about what had happened.

”Promoted to elders… You say…?”

”Yes! The sect is in lack of elders at the moment, so I decided to promote a few promising disciples in the Nascent Soul Realm ahead of time to help alleviate the situation.”

”This… I understand…” Not knowing what else to say upon learning the truth, Xuan Hao could only stand there frozen for a few seconds before taking his leave.

Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that he didn’t just have to worry about there being enough Nascent Soul Realm disciples, but he also had to worry about them being promoted…