Volume 1, Chapter 328 – The Sect

The number of disciples entering the sect far exceeded Shi Lan’s expectations.

Even though the scions of the great clans were temporarily holding back, the mortals who wanted to change their own fate came in an endless stream, like carp crossing a river.

The three hundred disciples were soon stretched thin. Left with no other choice, Shi Lan transferred another two hundred people out of the small world before they could barely cope.

Fortunately, Li Canglan was extremely strict in his selection standards. All the riffraff who had come purely to muddle through and fish in troubled waters were turned away by him.

So although a great many people came, after a month, only a little over ten thousand had actually entered Tianyan Sect’s mountain gate. Compared with the number who came, it was practically one in ten thousand.

Cultivation on the immortal path was divided into the immortal and mortal realms. The mortal realm was divided into eight stages: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Spirit Infant, Spirit Transformation, Dao Integration, Tribulation Transcendence, and Mahayana. Mahayana was the absolute summit of the mortal realm. Cross that step, and one became an immortal.

To make cultivation easier for these new disciples, and also to prevent the immortal arts from leaking too widely, Shi Lan directly split the immortal scripture into four sections.

From Qi Refining to Golden Core was the Qi-Guiding Chapter. From Spirit Infant to Dao Integration was the Spirit-Nurturing Chapter. The two realms of Tribulation Transcendence and Mahayana were the Return-to-Truth Chapter. The final immortal-ascension method was the Defying Fate Chapter.

According to the immortal scripture, a true immortal was eternal and immeasurable. Even if heaven and earth fell into silence and extinction, immortals would still endure through the ages in this world. With a description that terrifying, calling it a method to defy heaven and change fate was no exaggeration.

Shi Lan placed no restrictions on the Qi-Guiding Chapter. As long as one entered the sect, one could cultivate it. Even if someone secretly passed it on outside, Shi Lan would simply turn a blind eye.

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The Spirit-Nurturing Chapter that followed was much more restricted. Only Tianyan Sect’s core disciples were qualified to come into contact with it. As for the later Return-to-Truth and Defying Fate Chapters, for now they were held only in Shi Lan’s own hands.

Shi Lan had thought that controlling the cultivation methods would settle everything, but not long after these disciples entered the sect, she was instantly overwhelmed with headaches.

According to Li Canglan, unified sect robes and insignia were the basics. Monthly cultivation resources also had to be distributed, or where would cohesion come from?

There also had to be the basic division between inner sect and outer sect. The sect needed healthy competition internally, core disciples had to be identified and specially nurtured, talent could not be allowed to break off, revenue had to be broadened and spending cut, and the sect needed its own spiritual veins and mines.

A sect could not be supported by a single cultivation method alone. At the very least, it needed some offensive and defensive arts. There had to be a Scripture Pavilion as well. Once there were spells, magical artifacts and magic treasures naturally could not be lacking either. If there was to be an Artifact Refining Hall, then there naturally also had to be an Alchemy Hall.

These things could not always rely on Shi Lan alone, like a child that had never been weaned. A sect had to become self-sufficient. It could not collapse the moment a single person left.

A sect like that had no meaning in existing at all.

Founding a sect was far more complicated than Shi Lan had imagined, and the most complicated part of all was sorting out and managing the disciples within it.

After all, in such a short time, it was no easy matter to clearly understand a person’s temperament and background. The current Tianyan Sect could only be described as a chaotic mix of fish and dragons.

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Fortunately, Li Canglan handled all those troublesome matters. He did not seem irritated by them at all. If anything, he seemed to enjoy them.

As the former Young Palace Master of Xuansheng Palace, he had spent far less time on cultivation than on managing a sect, because in some cases, the manager of a sect did not necessarily have to be someone of overwhelming strength.

Some powerful cultivators, after exhausting their entire lives, still failed to establish a great sect that endured. The forces they built were mostly like meteors in the heavens. After blooming with a brief, brilliant light, they vanished into the starry river, leaving not even a name behind.

The strong existed to suppress and stabilize a sect’s destiny. Managing a sect required more than strength. It required even more the wisdom to plan and direct from afar. These two complemented one another.

Once these disciples entered the sect, just as expected, the Qi-Guiding Chapter of the immortal scripture leaked out very quickly. Any family with even a little power managed to get a handwritten copy.

Those with deep cultivation were able to infer the greater whole from the smaller part and almost instantly discovered how extraordinary the immortal scripture was. Not long after, even a few mnemonic lines from the Spirit-Nurturing Chapter were leaked.

The appearance of the Spirit-Nurturing Chapter made those families completely unable to sit still.

For a time, aside from the mortals, even the scions of the great clans began flocking in. Even though Shi Lan repeatedly raised the threshold for entering the sect, those clan scions still came bearing massive amounts of cultivation resources in both hands, all competing to get in.

Among them were quite a few from the four great royal clans. Their secret observation over this period was enough to prove that Tianyan Sect truly possessed immortal arts that reached the heavens, and could even break through the shackles of the King Realm and ascend to an unknown domain. That made it impossible for them to remain calm.

Now the entire heaven and earth of Yunyan Star had been sealed off. The passages to the outside world that had once been controlled by the various foreign races had all become useless as well. There was no path upward.

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Shi Lan’s appearance was undoubtedly a sliver of hope, enough to make those great clans pay a certain price in exchange for sending their disciples into the sect.

Of the original eight great powerful races on Yunyan Star, seven had been wiped out not long ago. There were simply too many cultivation resources left vacant. The four great royal clans had become the greatest beneficiaries, all of them rolling in wealth. So even when Li Canglan eventually began naming outrageously high prices, those families did not hesitate in the slightest.

They gave whatever was asked.

The sect lacked a sect grounds?

They offered up a hundred thousand spiritual mountains.

The sect lacked cultivation resources?

Hundreds of mineral veins were supplied, along with all the manpower needed to mine them.

Once they learned that Tianyan Sect needed to establish both an Artifact Refining Hall and an Alchemy Hall, Yunyan Star’s strongest surviving artifact-refining master and Daoist alchemy master appeared at Tianyan Sect and became its guest elders.

Tianyan Sect had almost become the center of all Yunyan Star, pulling at everyone’s attention.

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[…]

In the southern part of Yunyan Star, there was a region where spiritual peaks gathered, with no fewer than a hundred thousand mist-shrouded spiritual mountains. Until recently, this place had belonged to one of the eight great powerful races, the White Feather Race. After the White Feather Race was exterminated, the place was annexed by the royal Qin clan.

Two days ago, the Qin clan had used this land as a bargaining chip in exchange for one core disciple slot in Tianyan Sect, sending one of the outstanding younger generation of the Qin clan into the sect.

At the center of those hundred thousand spiritual mountains stood a colossal peak that seemed to brace heaven and earth. At its summit was a magnificent cluster of buildings, built of black-gold stone with walls of spirit jade, wrapped in a sea of clouds like an immortal realm.

Many places here had originally been blasted into ruins. The Qin clan had spent enormous manpower and material resources to barely restore most of it to its former appearance.

Within the great hall at the center of the complex, Shi Lan reclined sideways on a throne carved from warm jade. Her dark red hair spilled over the jade armrest, carrying a faintly seductive sheen.

The steady warmth rising from beneath her made Shi Lan narrow her eyes. A throne carved from ten-thousand-year warm jade was extravagance to an absurd degree.

Only core disciples were qualified to glimpse the Spirit-Nurturing Chapter. The mnemonic lines those families had obtained were all deliberately released by Li Canglan at Shi Lan’s instruction.

Without seeing profit, those families would never make a move. Everyone understood the principle of not releasing the hawk before seeing the hare. Judging from the current results, the outcome was naturally gratifying.