Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Following the situation outside the borders of the Star Shattering Sect growing more chaotic as the weeks went by, the first group of envoys belonging to the different empires interested in seeing the Star Shattering Sect and the Onyx Empire fight, arrived at the gates leading into the Falling Star City that towered dozens of meters into the sky.

"So, this is the Falling Star City under the Star Shattering Sect? Quite impressive considering that the place was established over the past ten years."

"Indeed, it's almost comparable to the capital city. The quantity of resources needed to accomplish something like this is… No, more important than that, how did such an unknown sect manage to get enough resources to pull off something like this? Just the spiritual metal used in the gate alone will take at least a few years to produce…"

"Maybe they waited around for a long time saving up resources… Or… They might have discovered something amazing inside the Shattered Star Peaks. After all, the places are rumored to be the location of the ruins of a fallen ancient sect...!"

As the group of envoys from the different empires began chatting with each other in front of the gates leading inside the Falling Star City, all of them could not help feeling a sense of amazement at the sheer scale of the Falling Star City.

Although it had only been a short time since the Falling Star City had been established and it couldn't yet compare to the capital cities of their empires, it was obvious that it would only be a matter of time considering the constant expansion that they could see the city going through not to far from the large gate into the city.

However, more important than all of this, the group of envoys were curious about where the Star Shattering Sect had gotten their hands on the resources to take on such a large construction project. After all, their capital cities had been built up over thousands of years, while the Star Shattering Sect's Falling Star City had only been around for ten or so years at this point in time.

In the end, it was because of this that the group of envoys began eyeing the towering peaks of the Shattered Star Peaks in the distance greedily. Almost all of them concluding that the Star Shattering Sect should have found some kind of treasure left behind by the sect that existed on the Shattered Star Peaks in the past according to legends.

Of course, there was no way for them to know about the fact that most of the resources to develop the Falling Star City didn't come from the Shattered Star Peaks, but instead the massive spiritual metal mine located beneath the former capital city of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

Now that the mine had been operating for a few years, it was already churning out a large quantity of spiritual metal used in the construction of the Falling Star City. Only dwarfed by the Iron Sky Kingdom when it came to production of spiritual metal.

Not just that, but most of the stones used in the creation of the Falling Star City also came from the spiritual stone mine in the Azure Sky Kingdom. Mainly due to the fact that the stones had grown stronger than normal stones from being in close contact with the spiritual metal of the mine. Making them the perfect building material in the construction of the houses and other buildings of the city.

Out of everything used in the creation of the Falling Star City, the hardest thing to procure was not the spiritual metal and stones, but instead the spiritual wood.

Spiritual wood had to be nurtured for a long time and even the lowest quality spiritual trees used in the production of spiritual wood would at least take 10 years inside the qi rich Shattered Star Peaks, while taking close to double the time outside of it.

Even though the Star Shattering Sect had already begun the process of establishing locations dedicated to the production of spiritual wood, they had yet to mature. Meaning that the sect still didn't have a steady supply of spiritual wood.

In the end, this had resulted in most of the spiritual wood being bought through the different merchant organizations and most importantly, the Explorer Union.

Although it was far more expensive to do this compared to growing the spiritual wood themselves, Elder Song had decided that it would be worth it considering that the current Star Shattering Sect didn't lack any resources to trade. Especially when it came to their ample supply of the spiritual metal that had only increased after the Iron Sky Kingdom officially became part of the Star Shattering Sect.

In a sense, it was not wrong to say that the current largest producer of spiritual metal in the Sky Empire was the Star Shattering Sect!

"Hmph! What's so impressive about them using all of their resources in the construction of a city? In my eyes, this is simply a waste of resources that would be far better spent creating more artifacts or pills to increase the strength of their sect!"

"Yeah, they are simply wasting their resources! Just look at the spiritual metal used on this gate; it would be far better spent creating more artifacts for their elders!"

"Hehe, indeed, I don't think the Star Shattering Sect should share a bit with us if they have enough to spent on a useless gate…!"

"Yeah!"

"You are correct!"

"I agree!"

As part of the envoys present admired the sheer size of the Falling Star City and how much it had managed to grow in such a short period of time, another part of the envoys could not help complaining over how wasteful it was for the Star Shattering Sect to use so much spiritual metal on a single gate.

Even though they understood deep down that it should be because the gate was part of a larger city protection formation that guarded the Falling Star City from attacks, it still didn't stop them from complaining about it. Wanting nothing more than to take down that massive gate made out of spiritual metal and drag it away with them.

"…"

Arriving just in time to hear this, Shen Xuefeng, who had been asked to go over and meet these envoys could not help frowning as both of her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Although she and the rest of the elders already had an idea what these envoys wanted when they heard about them entering the territory of the sect, she had never expected them to openly talk about wanting to tear down their gate.

Even if these empires didn't view the Star Shattering Sect as too much of a threat considering that it only had two Soul Ascension Realm Experts from what they knew, it was far too much for this group of envoys to openly talk about wanting to tear down the gate to their city. Especially considering that the strongest among this group of envoys had only reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Welcome to the Star Shattering Sect, all of you can follow me and I will show you where to stay as the person in charge of external affairs will meet you one by one later." Because of the bad first impression, Shen Xuefeng wore a cold expression on her face as she addressed the group of greedy envoys before turning around to make her way back inside the Falling Star City without waiting for any of them-

"Huh?"

"Wha- How rude!"

"Hmph! Indeed a-"

Ignoring the shocked and complaining voices that echoed out behind her as she began making her way towards the location that had been agreed upon for the meeting location with the different envoys and also where they would be staying.

Of course, considering that the Star Shattering Sect had no relationship with these empires and didn't have any intention of pursuing one in the future, the meeting location was inside the Falling Star City and wasn't inside the Shattered Star Peaks. Not intending to give these envoys any idea of informing their lords about the plentiful spiritual energy and have them try and seize the place for themselves.

As for being rude to this group of envoys, giving them no face so to speak of? Shen Xuefeng understood very well that none of these envoys could do anything as long as they were granted a proper meeting with her sect.

In the end, they were merely a group of unimportant Nascent Soul Realm Experts in the eyes of the different empires behind them. Even if Shen Xuefeng was rude to them, they would at most sent a complaint and wouldn't ever fall out with a sect that had the backing of two Soul Ascension Realm Experts over something as trivial as having their envoys disrespected by an elder from the Star Shattering Sect…