Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Learning about the situation from Xuan Hao, Feng Chen was momentarily rendered speechless. Realizing that there was no way out of his current situation of having to take the place of Elder Song to manage the sect. In fact, given the distance between the neutral territory in the Northern Core Region and the Star Shattering Sect’s territory, he might have to stay in this position for the next few weeks.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem as he was more than capable of managing the sect on his own even if he allowed Elder Song to take care of the sect under most circumstances, but… He had just been given a powerful and profound sword technique by Xuan Hao and wanted nothing more than to lock himself away to study it.

Now, however, he wouldn’t be able to do that and would have to painfully wait for Elder Song to return before he could study it beyond the brief cursory look, he had given it so far.

Elder Song likely hadn’t anticipated this kind of situation either and had thought he would be able to return to the sect before something that needed his attention came up. Having already prepared for his trip ahead of time.

However, the sudden addition of the ascension secret realm had completely thrown these calculations off and messed up the rather delicate internal state of the sect in his absence. Forcing Feng Chen to step in and take control of the situation before it began affecting the overall state of the sect.

In a way, it was Xuan Hao’s fault for unknowingly messing up Elder Song’s carefully laid down plans before his trip, but there was no way he would have known and even if he did, he wouldn’t have changed what he did. After all, he wasn’t the one who ended up having to step up to fill in the space that had been left behind by Elder Song.

Instead, it could be said he had already paid Feng Chen for the extra work he was putting in to ensure that the sect continued running in the absence of Elder Song. At the same time, it also allowed Feng Chen to get a far better understanding of just how much Elder Song did, as even with his stronger cultivation realm, he found himself almost collapsing dead after a few days of working. Not able to understand how someone far weaker than himself in terms of strength managed to do it, while at the same time also having some extra time on the side.

The abnormality of Elder Song capabilities when it came to managing the sect aside, Feng Chen also used the opportunity while he was in full control of the sect to get a better idea of well the sect had been developing over the past few years while he had mostly been locked away comprehending the Dao of the Sword on his own.

From his findings, he realized that while the number of younger disciples between the Qi Condensation Realm and the Foundation Establishment Realm, categorized as outer sect disciples, had remained stable from what he had remembered with constant recruitment from the different branch sects spread throughout the sect’s now rather vast territory, the number of inner sect disciples had exploded over the past few years.

Growing from a number of around ten thousand, the number of inner sect disciples had essentially doubled over the past seven years. Reaching a little above twenty thousand.

This massive increase in inner sect disciples didn’t just stem from former outer sect disciples breaking through from the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Core Formation Realm but had instead come mostly from talented young cultivators recruited through the different branch sects that had later ended up becoming part of the main sect after their talent was recognized.

Originally, this increase had been massive, but with more stringent requirements being put in place and at the same time also wanting the different branch sects to grow stronger, the number joining the main sect had significantly reduced compared to the first few years.

In a way, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that a large number of those ten thousand new inner sect disciples had ended up joining during the first few months after the sect began recruiting actively from the different branch sects.

Of course, outside of inner sect disciples, there had also been an increase to the number of core disciples in the sect, though far lower compared to the inner sect disciples, as the requirements to become a core disciple had always been difficult and even involved a strict age requirement for reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.

Thinking about all this, Feng Chen could not help silently sighing to himself. Knowing that Elder Song was behind every little change that had taken place and at the same time also the one behind the large number of new inner sect disciples joining the sect.

Different from how others might see it, Feng Chen understood Elder Song and knew that the old man had likely predicted that there would be an influx of inner sect disciples early on before he made it more difficult for disciples of the different branch sects to join the sect.

As for the reason behind this… Feng Chen guessed it had to do with the increasing number of missions that had to be completed for the sect to operate at maximum efficiency. After all, outside of just filling up the sect and making it more lively, inner sect disciples had already reached the Core Formation Realm and could start contributing to the sect by completing sect assigned missions.

For Elder Song who wanted to continue growing the Star Shattering Sect, a large workforce was also needed… And outside of the elders being worked to the bone by the old man, the inner sect disciples could be considered the main workforce of the Star Shattering Sect. Helping ensure the safety of the sect’s territory, while also helping with construction projects that would be impossible to accomplish for normal mortals…