Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Feeling a bit distraught after learning that there was such a way to prevent him from completing the sect quest, Xuan Hao didn’t know what to say to his disciple. After all, his outburst had been because he had genuinely thought that a group of the sect’s best disciples had suddenly been killed… But now… Going back and explaining that it was nothing when the artifact sword that he and his disciple had been working on for the past few days had been ruined because of his earlier interruption, he really didn’t want to do that.

So, to avoid that awkward conversation, Xuan Hao decided to simply inform Bai Ning that the situation was dealt with while he took some time help Elder Song stabilize the current situation of the sect. Making sure to send his disciple enough spiritual metal to make up for the lost sword artifact that had been lost at the last step of the forging process.

…

”I wonder what could have happened for master to react like that before rushing off so hastily…” As he was informed by his master that the situation was dealt with for now, but he still had to help Elder Song with the current situation of the sect, Bai Ning could not help wondering to himself what might have happened for his master to have reacted in such a way.

Maybe it was something related to the recent chaos caused by the influx of new disciples recruited by the sect?

In the end, the only thing he could think of was the chaos caused by the large number of new disciples that had recently been recruited by the sect.

After all, with his current strength, even though he was still considered a disciple, he had also lent a hand in helping guide some of the new disciples with an interest in blacksmithing. Giving him an understanding of just how much chaos there had been among the elders of the sect over the past few days since the recruitment of new disciples had officially come to an end.

If not for the fact that he was still a disciple, he didn’t doubt that Elder Song would already have grabbed hold of him and assigned him a branch sect to watch over.

Although… He had seen a few fellow disciples in the Nascent Soul Realm getting swept up by Elder Song and promoted to elders before being sent off. The reason for their hasty promotion not only being because the sect was in dire need of elders to manage the large number of disciples, but also because their talent of having already reached the Nascent Soul Realm, placed them among the most talented disciples of the sect and were pretty much guaranteed to reach the Domain Lord Realm in the future. So, their promotion to elders could just be seen as acknowledgment of their talent.

As for the Nascent Soul Realm disciples that had managed to avoid being swept up by Elder Song this time around… It was mostly because they had influential masters behind them preventing Elder Song from sweeping them away and assigning them somewhere outside the main sect to cultivate.

In a sense, the main reason why he had avoided being forced to take care of new disciples was because of his master’s backing. Allowing him to focus wholeheartedly on his cultivation and blacksmithing without any normal obligation that other disciples had to worry about.

For one, normal disciples had to worry about contribution points for cultivation resources or in the case of a blacksmith like himself, spiritual metals, something that would inevitably force them to take on missions from the Sect Mission Pavilion, missions that were almost entirely related to taking care of new disciples at this point in time.

At the very least, this was only something temporary, as the number of elders in the sect would grow in time and the new disciples would become more independent as they grew older and got used to life in the Star Shattering Sect or the branch, they ended up being assigned to.

Shaking his head a bit as he thought about this, Bai Ning focused his attention on the spiritual metal that his master had sent him as an apology from ruining the sword he had been forging earlier. Not only was there enough spiritual metal for another attempt, but there were more than enough for him to craft another three artifacts.

”Truly, master is great, giving me so much spiritual metal without a second thought…” Muttering this to himself, Bai Ning gently shook his head as he picked up the spiritual metal before walking towards his forge. Ready to make another attempt at the artifact sword he had been about to succeed in crafting earlier.

Although he wouldn’t have his master’s guidance this time around, he was confident that he would be able to succeed even without out. Even if it failed, he had more than enough spiritual metal to make a second or even third attempt if it was needed.

…

As Bai Ning happily began forging without thinking too deeply about what had happened or where his master had gone, the person in question arrived at the edge of a larger than average branch sect of the Star Shattering Sect that Elder Song informed him had some problems since the large-scale disciple recruitment.

The problem didn’t just originate from the lack of elders, but also from the fact that there were many spies from outside forces among the disciples that had been recruited and they were becoming a problem for the elders of the branch sect to handle, thus, he had been asked by Elder Song to handle the situation and root out the problematic elements.

Of course, this was not a task he would be assigned to take care of under normal circumstances, as a Domain Lord Realm Elder would have been more than enough to root out a few spies hidden among a group of recently recruited disciples that had at most reached the later stages of the Qi Condensation Realm.

The main reason why he was there was because he had requested a task from Elder Song outside the sect, so he didn’t need to tell his disciple that he had ended up ruining his sword for now reason…

Thump~

”Greetings, Elder Chu.”

Landing in the middle of the main courtyard of the sect master in charge of the branch, an older woman at the Seventh Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao casual greeted the old woman, causing her to jump up in surprise.

”E-Elder Xuan! W-what brings you here?”

”No need to worry, I decided I needed some fresh air, so I’m here on behalf of Elder Song to help out with your problem.”

”I-I see… This is hardly worthy of your attention senior, but if you are here on behalf of Elder Song… Give me a second, I will get the information we have managed to gather so far on the spies inside this branch.” Muttering the first part to herself, Elder Chu quickly rushed off to gather the information that she had managed to gather on the spies so far. Giving Xuan Hao a chance to examine the branch sect with his divine sense while he waited for her.

It was not that he needed the information she had managed to gather on the spies, as he could simply envelop the entire sect with his divine sense and keep an eye on every single move made by the new disciples before finding the ones that were acting suspiciously, but he had no intention of doing something like that for now.

After all, even if there were spies inside the branch sect, it wasn’t something that would pose a threat to the star Shattering Sect, as this was in the end only a branch sect. The main reason for this had become a problem that needed the attention of someone in the Domain Lord Realm had to do with the fact that there were several talented new disciples among the recently recruited disciples that wanted to enter the main sect, but didn’t have the opportunity to get recruited as a personal disciple by an elder from the sect.

Normally, this could have waited, but the number of talented disciples present and the fact that it would also be good to bolster the number of disciples in the main sect warranted special attention.

His main objective in the branch sect was to root out the spies and problematic ones among these new disciples, while at the same time cleaning up other spies hidden throughout the branch sect, as they had apparently been causing quite a few problems for the elders in charge of the sect, who had been unable to identify them.

At the same time, Xuan Hao was also curious about the talent level of these new disciples, as he wouldn’t refuse a new disciple if a talented one came his way.

Not to mention, his other disciples, except Mui, could already be considered to be independent and didn’t need his constant supervision. Only coming to him when they encountered a bottleneck or there was something they didn’t understand.