Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Although he was immensely curious about Jiang Chen and how he had managed to reach the level of strength he had at the Core Formation Realm, he had a feeling that it might have something to do with his already profound comprehension of the Dao from before his reincarnation, something that couldn’t exactly be copied by others. After all, comprehending the Dao to the point where one could directly jump three major realms was far from something possible within the lifespan available at the Core Formation Realm. Not to mention, it would be far simpler to just reach the Domain Lord Realm or Soul Ascension Realm if one had that kind of terrifying comprehension in the first place. No need to linger around the Core Formation Realm in the first place.

As for the reason why, Jiang Chen had ultimately still decided to remain at the Core Formation Realm even with that kind of terrifying comprehension that far exceeded the Core Formation Realm… He had no idea and didn’t dare attempt closely by using his divine sense to observe his dantian. Fearing that doing so might end up triggering a potential failsafe left in place to protect his dantian where his soul was located.

Jiang Chen aside, Xuan Hao ultimately did not end up finding anyone that he felt was suitable for him to take on as his sixth disciple within the sect.

This didn’t mean that he immediately decided to give up on finding a new disciple. Instead, it just meant that he turned his attention outwards to try and search for a potential new disciple outside the Star Shattering Sect… And considering just how large the territory under the Star Shattering Sect had grown, there was plenty of space for him to search for a potential disciple.

After all, most of the young people within the territory of the sect that were suitable for cultivation didn’t directly enter the Star Shattering Sect itself, but instead found themselves becoming part of one of the countless minor powers that existed under the Star Shattering Sect.

Among these minor powers, the independent sects that had originally existed under the partial control of the Sky Empire were by far the largest, as different from the Star Shattering Sect, they had a far lower requirement when accepting disciples. The only reason why the Star Shattering Sect could be considered to have more disciples was due to the countless branch sects that now exist throughout the territory of the Star Shattering Sect helping make up numbers.

In terms of number of total disciples across both the main and branch sects, the current Star Shattering Sect had over a hundred thousand along with around two or so thousand elders, while the independent sects through the relatively small area under their control had around the same number of elders and disciples.

Even if the strength of the disciples and elders from the independent sects were far weaker than that of the Star Shattering Sect, their numbers alone also meant that there would always be some geniuses appearing every now and then… And although the Star Shattering Sect didn’t step in to try and take away these talented disciples, they didn’t exactly stop them from joining the Star Shattering Sect if they wanted to.

Originally, this might have been a problem given how this would essentially carve away at the foundation of these independent sects, but with the sheer difference in strength between them and the Star Shattering Sect, it wasn’t just the disciples that wanted to become a part of the Star Shattering Sect. Even the elders wanted to become sect elders of the Star Shattering Sect so they could take full advantage of the benefits that they only partly enjoyed so far without officially being part of the Star Shattering Sect.

In a way, it wasn’t entirely accurate to call them independent sects any longer, as they could be considered a form of more independent branch under the Star Shattering Sect after years of having existed together with the Star Shattering Sect.

Although some didn’t want to see something like this happening, it was a minority and the Star Shattering Sect didn’t directly interfere with the management of these independent sects. Allowing them to still operate normally with the added benefit of not having to worry about being attack by some kingdom or empire like they had in the past when they had existed under the thumb of the Sky Empire, something that had made sure that those who didn’t want to get absorbed completely by the Star Shattering Sect didn’t cause any trouble.

To some extent, becoming a member of the Star Shattering Sect had somewhat turned into a form of retirement in the eyes of those senior elders, like how the sect’s oldest elders and ancestors would lock themselves away and focus entirely on cultivation upon reaching a certain age or bottleneck. After all, the Star Shattering Sect didn’t restrict the elders who ended up becoming members of the Star Shattering Sect and were more than happy to let them go back to the independent sects in their free time.

After all, in the eyes of someone like Elder Song who oversaw the management of the sect’s elders, these independent sects had already become an integral part of the Star Shattering Sect itself. What did it matter to him if the elders wanted to visit one of the larger branches under the Star Shattering Sect? Even if they spent their time teaching the disciples there, it was only beneficial to the Star Shattering Sect, as most of those talented disciples would ultimately end up becoming part of the Star Shattering Sect at some point in the future.

On the contrary, the elders going back to the different independent sects to teach disciples in their free time without being paid any contribution points, was essentially them working for free in the eyes of Elder Song, he had absolutely no reason to step in and try to stop. Instead, he was more than happy to encourage it.

Because of this, after Xuan Hao had finished looking through the Star Shattering Sect without finding anyone suitable to become his sixth disciple, he turned his attention towards the different independent sects that existed under the Star Shattering Sect. Looking through them to see if there was anyone suitable for him to take on as a disciple hidden away within them.

The main difference he faced compared to when he had searched through the branches of the Star Shattering Sect was the fact that there were far more people to look through.

However, this was far from enough to stop him, as he soon enough began slowly making his way through the countless disciples that existed under the different independent sects.

In the process, he found himself also looking through a few other smaller powers along the way, something that ultimately ended up with him looking through over one million young people in his search for a potential sixth disciple.

Not only did this end up taking far longer than he had originally anticipated, but the number of candidates that were suitable for him to take on as a sixth disciple was also far lower than he had originally expected. Making it even clearer to him just how lucky he had been to find his first five disciples.

In the end, the total number of potential disciples had reached seven, a respectable number of candidates even if he had to look through more than a million others to find them.

Problem was, even if these seven were suitable in terms of talent, he hadn’t yet had the chance to examine their character, something he had a feeling would eliminate most of them… And in case more than one ended up making it through his more thorough examination of them, he would be more than happy to take on more than one disciple this time around. After all, it wasn’t like the current Star Shattering Sect lacked cultivation resources to nurture them.

Even if the sect lacked some resources, he himself was more than capable of producing them on his own with his current strength. In case he couldn’t there was always the option of making use of the Star Shattering Sect’s recently established dominance over the Northern Central Region to procure whatever cultivation resources he couldn’t find on his own.

As for why the matter of cultivation resources being difficult to acquire even entered his mind in the first place? That had to do with the simple fact that more than one of the seven potential disciples had a dormant divine physique that required some special materials that he had no idea if the Star Shattering Sect had.

Before starting to test these potential disciples, he felt it might be a good idea for him to first learn if the sect had these cultivation resources in the first place, as having them and helping the a new disciple directly awaken a divine physique would undoubtedly leave a better impression than him setting off to search for the treasures and materials needed to awaken said physique directly after taking them on as a disciple…