Continuing along the path up the Ninth Star Peak to the top covered in several large spiritual herb fields where the current highest quality of spiritual herbs grown by the sect could be found, the two took a bit longer to make their way through the spiritual herb fields before descending the Ninth Star Peak. Finding themselves firmly within the boundaries of the Shattered Star Peaks and what was generally viewed as the core of the Star Shattering Sect by both disciples and visitors who had been lucky enough to step foot inside the Shattered Star Peaks.

During the rest of the journey towards the Seventh Star Peak where most of the sect disciples and elders resided, Xuan Hao took the opportunity to introduce Lu Dongli to some of the different important locations that she would likely find herself visiting in the future.

But as he was introducing the sect to her, the person in question found herself distracted by the different things around her. From the river creating an almost visible mist of spiritual qi to several smaller buildings and other things located along the main path, there was simply far too much for her to take in to fully focus on one thing.

Understanding that everything might indeed be a bit overwhelming to take in all at once after noticing how distracted Lu Dongli had become observing the countless different and new things along the main path, Xuan Hao found himself pausing his explanation for a bit as he allowed her to first take in everything on her own before resuming his explanations whenever there wasn’t anything new or interesting along the main path.

Although this did slow down the explanation he was giving, it didn’t matter that much considering the total journey from the base of the Ninth Star Peak to the base of the Seventh Star Peak would take them at least half a day to complete given their current speed. More than enough time for him to go through everything he wanted her to learn about before they got to the Seventh Star Peak, and she officially began her journey as a cultivator.

If anything, he would finish explanation long before they got to the Seventh Star Peak even with the delay from allowing her to take in the countless new things all around her along the path.

Because of this, by the time they reached the base of the Eighth Star Peak and had completed around half of the journey to the Seventh Star Peak, he decided to take the opportunity to introduce her to his other disciples and her future senior brothers and sisters.

Something that in turn made this new disciple of his look forward to meeting these senior brothers and sisters and allowed the rest of the journey to pass smoothly with him going over the different exploits of her seniors over the years- of which Mui was by far the most interesting, as she had no lack of exploits that drew the attention of the entire sect over the years.

Even now that she had gone quiet for some time, the elders of the sect, Elder Song included, had been growing increasingly worried thinking about what kind of thing she might be secretly planning this time around...

"This is the place I will be living in the future!?"

Arriving at the Seventh Star Peak and making their way to his cultivation abode and the place where his other disciples resided when they weren’t out doing their own thing elsewhere in the sect or outside, Lu Dongli could not stop herself from exclaiming oud loud staring at the small palace that far surpassed even the royal palace she had once visited during a banquet when she had been young.

Not because the palace in question was larger than the one, she had been to in the past, but instead because the material used was of a far higher quality and seemed to give off an almost ethereal pressure that made her shrink back somewhat.

Seeing the reaction from Lu Dongli as she faced the small palace that was his home, Xuan Hao could not help smiling a bit before nodding his head. "Yes, you will get to choose a room to stay in that will serve as your personal cultivation room in the future."

"R-Really!?"

"Yes, Zhi Ruo will show you the way and help you get settled down for now. Given that its already late, teaching will start tomorrow morning."

"Zhi Ruo...?"

Seeing the somewhat confused expression on Lu Dongli’s face, Xuan Hao silently called for Zhi Ruo through his divine sense and soon enough saw the young woman emerging from the side together with Qing Yi and Chun Hua. Giving the group of three a simple introduction before he left the four alone to handle the rest without him. Feeling confident that Zhi Ruo and the other two would be more than capable of helping Lu Dongli get settled in.

At the same time, he also hoped to use the opportunity to help Lu Dongli get acquainted with his other disciples starting from Qing Yi and Chun Hua who could be considered peaceful compared to Mui, who might end up scaring this new disciple away with her antics.

Of course, another reason for leaving his new disciple in the hands of these two senior sisters and the permanent caretaker, Zhi Ruo, was because he had just been called over by Feng Chen. Not Elder Song, whom he had expected to be the one to contact him first after he returned to the sect.

As for why Feng Chen of all people had called for him? He wasn’t sure as it wasn’t often, he met with this sect master who spent most of his time focused on comprehending the Dao of the Sword nowadays.

Still, having pretty much settled the matter of getting Lu Dongli back to the sect and having to account for her current low cultivation that would make it difficult for her to function without any sleep, he soon enough found himself landing in front of the sect master’s abode-

"Huh?! So fast!"

Just in time to catch the sect master returning with an expression that clearly told him that he hadn’t expected him to show up the second he was called.

"You were the one calling for me saying you had something urgent to discuss, why are you so surprised with me showing up fast?"

"Ehm... I thought you were still outside the sect and thought it would at least take a few days for you to return. Never expected you to have already gotten back to the sect."

Rolling his eyes at this, he understood that the other party had learnt about him leaving the sect in search of new disciples but hadn’t learnt about him returning to the sect. Taking the short time while making their way inside to mention the two new disciples he had ended up taking. A fact that ended up shocking Feng Chen, who hadn’t expected him to take on another two disciples so suddenly...

"So, what is it you wanted to discuss with me?"

And by the time the two of them finally reached Feng Chen’s personal cultivation room and sat down, Xuan Hao found himself unable to hold back the curiosity that had been building ever since Feng Chen had called for him.

No matter what he thought about and even using his divine sense to sweep through the sect to look for any potential problems, he found nothing that required his direct interference.

"It’s not what you think, I wanted to discuss a future matter of the sect’s development that might need your assistance."

"Huh? Who are you? Are you perhaps Elder Song in disguise? Or maybe Elder Song using an illusion technique?" Hearing what Feng Chen said, Xuan Hao felt his reaction was understandable, though Feng Chen didn’t seem to find it funny, as he just silently rolled his eyes before continuing.

"The thing I wanted to discuss is the future development of the sect’s disciple recruitment. Given the current size of the sect, there is no lack of spies and other parties attempting to infiltrate the sect by sending in young ones to act as spies on the inside.

Although the main sect stopped direct recruitment and recruits from the different branch sects after a thorough investigation now, it doesn’t stop spies from getting through and I have had to deal with several over the past year alone who managed to sneak into the main sect. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Luckily, it doesn’t seem like any have managed to gain any useful information beyond the cultivation environment of the Shattered Star Peaks, though that is hardly worth much considering the sect’s status on the continent. What I wanted your help with is finding a better way to root out those spies not just when they get to the main sect, but also within the different branch sects.

After all, though the Main Sect can still be considered secure, the same can’t be said for the branch sects that have little to no way to root out these spies before they enter the sect..."

Listening to Elder So- Feng Chen, as he described the problem, he had found himself facing as the sect master and needed help dealing with, Xuan Hao couldn’t help frowning as this was indeed a problem that needed to be dealt with.

His divine sense might be powerful and he might use it to sweep through the sect every now and then, but finding a spy who was no different from a normal disciple was not something he could do with his divine sense sweeping over them from time to time.