Ye Zhen was not without usable strength under his command.
He had plenty of it.
Moreover, under Ye Zhen's deliberate expansion and cultivation, the number of capable people beneath him had continued to grow.
Yet there was an awkward problem.
The forces under his command kept increasing, and there were many capable talents, but very few could surpass Ye Zhen's own level and do things that Ye Zhen himself could not.
Many of Ye Zhen's talents merely helped him shoulder affairs rather than expanding his reach or solving problems on his behalf.
There were only a handful of people under Ye Zhen who could expand his influence and resolve problems for him.
Foremost among them was Pill King Shuilian, who specialized in alchemy. Whether Ye Zhen required ordinary pills or unusual ones, Pill King Shuilian could now provide them all.
Then there were people like Big Ear Nie Ting, who possessed unique innate divine abilities, and Niu Er, Feng Jiumo, and several others, who excelled at infiltration, intelligence gathering, and planting agents.
As for everyone else, they shared one trait: if Ye Zhen could not solve a problem, neither could they.
For instance, forging the Sunset Divine Bow this time was an enormous challenge.
Ye Zhen's own artifact-forging skills had stagnated for some time. He had several talented artifact refiners under his command, but they were still insufficient.
Ye Zhen had once asked them to study the forging of the Sunset Divine Bow. Their conclusion was that their standards were even lower than Ye Zhen's; they could only handle repairs or forge standardized equipment.
Thus, how to forge the Sunset Divine Bow and bring the combat strength of Ye Zhen's Sunset Divine Shots to yet another level had remained a major problem.
Previously, two matters had troubled Ye Zhen: materials