Zi Luan stood quietly at the heart of Taiyan Sect's Stargazing Platform. The aura around him faintly resonated with the vast Heavenly Cycle Star-Track Grand Array beneath his feet. His gaze was deep as he fixed it upon the boundless star map before him, where streams of light intertwined to enact the grandest game beneath the stars.
Ever since he had placed the first piece under the name of the "Retrieval Secret Art," the Mystic Sect's entire sphere of influence had plunged, just as expected, into violent upheaval and reorganization. On the star map, the clear radiance representing Taiyan Sect spread with unprecedented speed and breadth, like greedy roots burrowing deep into every corner once controlled by fringe sects, aristocratic clans, and even small and medium-sized sects.
Taiyan Sect's authority was seeping downward with unprecedented force while concentrating upward with unprecedented efficiency.
Countless sects offered up resources accumulated over millennia or their unique inherited methods, whether to demonstrate loyalty or gain protection. Mines, pill workshops, and flying-ship docks that had once operated independently were gradually taken over by steward disciples dispatched by Taiyan Sect in the name of "coordinating wartime supplies." Their output was given priority entry into Taiyan's reserves and dispatch system.
A great number of Third Realm fringe cultivators were drawn by the ethereal opportunity to reach the Fourth Realm. Some willingly pledged themselves, while others were swept into the cleansing campaigns. Their strength and loyalty were being reorganized through Taiyan Sect's recruitment lists, causing the sect's middle and lower ranks to swell at an unprecedented pace, becoming bloated yet more powerful.
Taiyan Sect's decrees now carried real weight beneath the stars. Those forces that had once paid lip service while defying orders in secret either vanished into ashes beneath the iron-blooded purges or submitted completely, no longer