Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Knowing that the problem of spies required something beyond him sweeping through the sect every now and then with his divine sense, Xuan Hao could not help frowning in response to Feng Chen’s request for help.

To be honest, he knew that different major powers would attempt to discreetly infiltrate the Star Shattering Sect now that the sect had managed to successfully establish itself as a dominant power within the Northern Central Region, but he simply didn’t know how to deal with this problem and had mostly left it up to Elder Song and Elder Dust Fairy, who was in charge of the sect’s information network and the servant quarters.

For Feng Chen to come directly to him clearly meant that these two couldn’t handle this problem on their own, something that was understandable considering how young the Star Shattering Sect was in comparison to the different major powers throughout the Northern Central Region.

Even if the information network of the sect could be considered impressive, that was only in comparison to how long it had been around, compared to the different major powers who had been around for thousands of years and had information networks spanning the entire Northern Central Region and beyond, the Star Shattering Sect’s information network was undeveloped and hard pressed to stand a chance in finding out about the different spies attempting to infiltrate the Star Shattering Sect through joining it.

Feeling doubtful about how to answer Feng Chen’s request for help as he thought about this, he realized that he wouldn’t be able to do much outside of using his divine sense to sweep through the sect more often and hope he managed to catch those spies while they were in the process of sending information outside the sect, though most skilled spies from other major powers would know that they might be under the divine sense of some powerful elder and would choose to send information while outside the sect where they were far less likely to be discovered.

Even worse, Feng Chen had likely already consulted Elder Song and Elder Dust Fairy before coming to him for help. Meaning he wouldn’t be able to gain much from contacting those two.

Of course, he wasn’t entirely without any solution to the problem, as he thought about potentially using illusion to test the disciples before they entered the sect. Weeding out not just those with bad intentions, but also helping identify those with other problems that would become troublesome down the line if they weren’t corrected.

The problem with using illusions to test the disciples was that he needed to personally be present to use illusions every time and while this might be possible for the main sect where he generally resided by conducting a test once every few years to test new disciples joining the main sect, it wouldn’t solve the problem of the different branch sects being infiltrated.

After all, while it wouldn’t take that long to conduct a proper test using the Dao of Illusions, it would still take a few hours and personally conducting the tests at every branch sect was simply not something he could accomplish without completely giving up on his own cultivation in the process. Especially considering that the Star Shattering Sect was still in the process of expanding and would only grow bigger in the coming years. Adding on even more branch sects.

The only real solution he could think of was coming up with some kind of formation that could conjure an illusion strong enough for the task and at the same time simple enough for an elder at the Domain Lord Realm to control, a far more difficult task than it looked like on the surface.

Mainly because the only real solution he could think of was creating a Saint Realm Formation to handle the situation and while this might be fine for the Main Sect, the current Star Shattering Sect simply didn’t have the resources to create hundreds of Saint Realm Formations that were specifically used for the purpose of testing new disciples entering the sect.

For this reason, Xuan Hao didn’t end up leaving Feng Chen’s cultivation room as fast as he had originally expected. Instead, he found himself brainstorming ideas alongside Feng Chen till the sun rose and filtered in through the half-closed window. Stopping both, as neither had realized how long they had ended up debating over potential solutions for the problem that the sect had found itself facing.

In the end, they had decided to stick with the plan of using some kind of illusion formation to test the new disciples of the sect and make it part of the entry requirement for the sect in the future, but how the formation would be made was still a question that hadn’t been answered. How to create the illusion formation without needing it to be a Saint Realm Formation.

Given that Xuan Hao had already made plans for the day, he decided to leave this troublesome matter for Feng Chen to handle as he slipped away shortly after realizing that the sun had already started rising. Knowing that even if he couldn’t think about a potential solution to the problem, the current sect didn’t just have him who dabbled in formations, there was also the Formation Hall where the sect’s formation masters and disciples eager to learn about formations gathered.

Leaving this task for them to solve would be a good way for the Formation Hall to spread its influence through the sect and close the gap between itself and the two other major profession halls, the Alchemy Hall and the Blacksmithing Hall.

Thus, by the time Xuan Hao got back to his cultivation room and settled down to prepare for Lu Dongli’s first official lessons, Feng Chen had already set off for the Formation Hall with some of the documents the two of them had created while mulling over how to accomplish the goal of creating an illusion formation below the Saint Realm to handle the task of testing new disciples.

Unknown to both, these plans that had mainly been created by Xuan Hao as he went over different ideas on how to construct a fitting illusion formation were ultimately something that contained his insights into the Dao of Formations and caried with it the essence of the Perfection Realm of the Dao of Formations.

To any Formation Master, this kind of insight into the Dao of Formations contained within those few documents was invaluable and something that ended up making Feng Chen’s meeting with the different elders of the Formation Hall far easier than he had originally anticipated when he came to dump this troublesome matter onto them.

Instead of asking any further, they happily accepted the task the second those documents reached their hands. Understanding that this was an opportunity for them to not just increase the reputation of the Formation Hall if they were successful but also obtain the insights of a senior formation master.

In other words, it wasn’t a troublesome situation in the eyes of these formation masters, but instead an opportunity that had been rewarded to them by Feng Chen and Xuan Hao.

In the eyes of these formation masters, though the task was difficult given that they had to create a completely different kind of illusion formation compared to what they were used to, it wasn’t an impossible task and some of the elders already thought about layering several different weaker formations on top of each other to create the effect that was required for a useful trial.

And so, as the Formation Hall got to work on finding a solution, Xuan Hao found himself at the training ground next to the small palace together with Lu Dongli. Part of him having forgotten that she was still not much different from a mortal and still needed to eat as he had originally been about to teach her on an empty stomach before Zhi Ruo interfered and ensured the young lady got something to eat before they set off for the training grounds.

Outside of Lu Dongli who had just finished eating breakfast and was now filled with energy ready to begin the morning lesson, Qing Yi and Chun Hua, who had helped guide her and get her settled into her new home the day before alongside Zhi Ruo, were also there to join the fun.

Or more precisely, they had come to take advantage of the opportunity to have some of their questions regarding their cultivation answered, something that was difficult to ask others about given how he was still the only person in the sect who had successfully made it through the Dao Domain Lord Realm and could help by sharing some of his own experiences with them.

Still, his focus was ultimately Lu Dongli and assistance for the other two was mainly down during the time when Lu Dongli was busy or resting, something the two understood. Taking the time while he was teaching Lu Dongli to discuss alchemy, a passion that both shared and often practiced together.