Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

The worsening condition of the different major powers when it came to facing off against the demonic cultivators didn't just have to do with the fact that they had been caught off guard by them following their swift response after the turmoil inside the Frozen Wastelands had subsided, but also had to do with the simple fact that there were far more demonic cultivators in the Demon King Realm ready to make a push forward while the Celestial Immortal Realm who would have normally stopped them were busy informing their seniors about what had taken place in the Frozen Wastelands. Rendering them unable to respond in time to the demonic cultivators.

Of course, this wasn't entirely due to negligence on their part, but also had to do with the fact that other demonic cultivators had managed to copy what Xuan Gui had done in the Blue Sea Empire and were now taking the chance to cause chaos behind the scenes.

Although these copycats were nowhere near as devastating as Xuan Gui, who was still operating to this day, they managed to archive their purpose of serving as a distraction for the major power they had infiltrated before ultimately being killed off. Unable to hide away like Xuan Gui had managed to do.

Even then, they managed to accomplish what they had set out to do and made it close to impossible for the different major powers to react in time. Allowing the demonic cultivators pushing towards the Northern Central Region to succeed.

All of this didn't really have much to do with the Star Shattering Sect, as its current neutral position could be considered secure after what had happened not long ago, but the fall of some kingdoms and empires close to the Star Shattering Sect itself did end up causing an influx in both mortals and cultivators escaping into the territory of the Star Shattering Sect to avoid being killed off by the demonic cultivators that invaded their now former homes.

Taking full advantage of this, Elder Song and Feng Chen both decided to expand the territory of the Star Shattering Sect more. Soon enough engulfing three smaller kingdoms that had just fallen to the demonic cultivators during the short time while the different major powers were busy trying to deal with the sudden offensive from the demonic cultivators. Allow the Star Shattering Sect's sudden and rapid expansion to go relatively unnoticed.

Then again, it might also be because the Star Shattering Sect restrained itself to only expanding in the outer regions of the Northern Region.

In all honesty, this kind of expansion was extremely beneficial to the Star Shattering Sect. Even if the resources that could in the outer regions were worse than those in the core regions, it was more than enough for the current Star Shattering Sect. Especially considering that the sect had been able to secure an ample supply of spiritual metal through the Iron Sky Kingdom and the Azure Sky Kingdom, while the spiritual herbs weren't lacking either with the help of the Ninth Star Peak the harder to acquire spiritual herbs needed by the sect.

For now, at least, there wasn't really any incentive for the Star Shattering Sect to expand into the core region, as its current resource needs were met. Not that someone like Elder Song intended to give up on expanding into the core region, as the old man still very much had his eyes on the fallen Sky Empire and was already setting into motion plans for the Star Shattering Sect to rapidly take control of it in the future.

The process to ensure that the sect would be able to smoothly take over the territory of the fallen Sky Empire was far from simple and would take time. Not just because the size of the fallen Sky Empire still to this day exceeded the size of the current Star Shattering Sect's territory, but also because they would have to keep an eye out for potential interference from the Blue Sea Empire that shared a border with the fallen Sky Empire.

Under normal circumstances, they might have left the territory of the fallen Sky Empire on its own, but when it came to said territory potentially ending up under a terrifying ancient sect that could very well be stronger than the Blue Sea Empire, it was inevitable that the Blue Sea Empire wanted to prevent this.

After all, sharing a direct border with the Star Shattering Sect would mean that their next course of expansion if they ever wanted to push into the core region would be through the Blue Sea Empire, something that the Blue Sea Empire wanted to prevent at all costs.

For this reason, when the time came for the Star Shattering Sect to expand, it would be best if the Blue Sea Empire was preoccupied with something else at the time… And this something would be the demonic cultivators.

Of course, not the current demonic cultivators, as although the impact over the last few days had been devastating, it was far from enough.

What Elder Song was waiting for was for the demonic cultivators to reach the true borders of the Blue Sea Empire and begin to truly launch an attack on the Blue Sea Empire. Not just a few subordinate kingdoms and empires that served as nothing more than a meat shield to prevent any of the damage from clashing with the demonic cultivators from affecting its own territory.

For the time being, the Star Shattering Sect could only focus on expanding in the outer regions when the opportunity presented itself. The main limiting factor for the current Star Shattering Sect being the number of elders and disciples available, as the expanding territory of the sect ultimately requires more elders and disciples to manage it.

And given the importance of management and how it would affect the Star Shattering Sect's overall development, it wasn't something Elder Song felt like he could reliably hand over to wandering cultivators. Not just because of a lack of trust, but also because of reputational damage doing something like that might do to the Star Shattering Sect, as recruiting too many wandering cultivators would be odd considering the sect's status.

With that in mind, the best solution was to recruit more disciples through the branch sects and train them up so they could contribute to the expansion of the sect in the future, something that would take time, but was the right path for expansion.

At least that was what he felt while pondering about it during his comprehension of the Dao of Order…