Cultivating immortality through titles, without bottlenecks.

After saying this, the other party soared into the air, a beam of sword light shooting into the sky, splitting the clouds in the sky in two.

"Haha, what cowards! They've been holding a grudge for years, what a bunch of cowards."

"Today, I will give you this opportunity."

"Xu's head is here; who dares to claim it!"

The sword light soared into the sky and disappeared on the horizon.

"Chase him! Don't let him escape!"

Watching the cultivators leave the mountain gate, Wei Zhong breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"That was close. I thought the Qingya Sect was going to be wiped out today. Turns out they were after our Martial Uncle."

With the crisis averted, Yang Jingting stepped in to comfort his disciples.

The following day, the three top disciples of Qingya Sect left; all three were subordinates of Tu Shangtong. This was to escape Qingya and seek refuge elsewhere.

Tu Shangtong was good at causing trouble, and his disciples were no less so.

After experiencing such a turmoil, many of the nominal disciples of Qingya Sect were filled with fear and left in large numbers.

In an instant, nearly a hundred registered disciples were reduced to only a dozen or so.

The entire Qingya Sect has drastically shrunk in size. Including the five direct disciples and Master Yang Jingting, there are only twenty people left.

Looking at the empty sect and the sparsely populated rows of disciples before him, Yang Jingting remained expressionless:

"If you fear for the safety of my sect, you may leave on your own. I will not make things difficult for you."

These words were naturally spoken to Wei Zhong and other disciples who were registered under his name.

Wei Zhong glanced sideways and noticed that no one made a move to leave.

"That makes sense. Those who wanted to leave probably already have. The rest are either bold and have families backing them, or they have no background at all and can't even guarantee basic cultivation without Qingya Sect."

How could I possibly leave at this time?

Wei Zhong scanned the area and recognized the familiar faces of Meng Qian and Gu Xue.

As for the latter's "lackeys" and "cash cows," they had already gone down the mountain long ago out of fear of retaliation.

Meeting Yang Jingting's gaze, Gu Xue stepped forward and clasped her hands in a respectful gesture:

"This disciple swears to live and die with Master Yang and with our sect!"

His expression was firm, and his words were forceful, prompting Yang Jingting to applaud involuntarily.

"Good, my good disciple of Qingya Sect!"

"Gu Xue, right? She's reached level three of Qi Refining after only two years of training. She has good talent."

"From this day forward, our Qingya Sect will establish new inner disciples, who will be under the direct instruction of the master and above the registered disciples."

"You will receive personal instruction from your master, be exempt from miscellaneous spiritual fees, and receive a spiritual stipend of one spirit stone per month."

"Gu Xue, you are now the first inner disciple of my Qingya Sect!"

Upon hearing this, Gu Xue was overjoyed and immediately took two steps forward, kneeling down before Yang Jingting:

"Master, please accept my bow!"

"Oh no, they beat us to it!"

I wonder how many people shared Wei Zhong's sentiment, regretting that they missed this best opportunity to show their loyalty.

Yang Jingting's gaze swept across the crowd, and he pointed out several more people from among the dozen or so registered disciples:

"Meng Qian, Luo Zhihong, Cui Henian, and... Wei Zhong, you are all now members of the inner sect."

Wei Zhong was taken aback, and when he looked up, he saw many people staring at him.

Meng Qian and Gu Xue were at the third level of Qi Refining, while Luo Zhihong and Cui Henian were elders within the sect, also at the third level of Qi Refining. It was perfectly reasonable for them to become inner disciples.

However, Wei Zhong's mere second-level Qi Refining Realm level is indeed quite conspicuous and unreasonable.

However, Yang Jingting didn't offer any further explanation. Instead, he turned his gaze to Ning Zhiyuan beside him, a gentle look in his eyes.

"Zhiyuan, your cultivation is still too shallow to be included in the personal disciples. You should stay in the inner sect for now."

"Yes, Master!"

The latter didn't care at all, after all, he was Yang Jingting's prospective disciple, and his current treatment was even better than that of the other disciples.

Inner disciples and personal disciples are just empty titles.

Yang Jingting then looked at the remaining eight registered disciples:

"You eight are loyal, but your cultivation is too low and you have no special skills. For now, you will remain on the register and be exempted from spiritual miscellaneous fees for one year."

"After a breakthrough, you will be promoted to the inner sect."

"Thank you very much, Teacher Yang!"

After everyone expressed their gratitude, Yang Jingting did not leave immediately. Instead, he explained the cultivation secrets of the "Qingya Health Preservation Technique" and answered the disciples' questions about cultivation. It took him a full hour or two before he turned around and disappeared from everyone's sight.

"This is a way to win people's hearts!"

As Wei Zhong had expected, Yang Jingting's actions reflected his determination to unite all forces within the sect at this crucial juncture.

Otherwise, wouldn't the Qingya lineage become an empty shell?

"Brother Wei, Brother Luo..."

Meng Qian, who was among the inner disciples, was in high spirits and immediately began chatting with many of his fellow disciples.

"Ning, Ning..."

Ning Zhiyuan turned around shyly:

"Senior Brother Meng is a few years older than me, so you can just call him Junior Brother."

The latter burst into laughter:

"In that case, I shall accept without further ado. We can change it back when you are promoted to a personal disciple."

The inner circle sticks together, and the same applies to the registration system.

Only the five remaining close disciples had different expressions, and their eyes were filled with worry.

After leaving, Yang Chupei found her father:

"Father, if things continue like this, can my Qingya Sect still hold on?"

Yang Jingting sighed:

"Although Master and Junior Brother Tu left, they did not take away much of the sect's heritage."

"The spirit stones can last for a while. Once this storm has passed, Qingya will reopen its gates and add some new disciples."

Yang Chupei nodded upon hearing this.

"How's things going at Songlinfang?"

"Father, things are relatively stable. The previous slight disturbances were resolved by Junior Brother Ding and Junior Brother Liao."

Ding Mo and Liao Yuran were the fourth and fifth direct disciples of the Qingya Sect.

Primarily responsible for Songlinfang affairs, earning spirit stones for the sect.

"That's good. Everything inside remains the same. You don't need to worry."

"With me here, the sky won't fall!"

"yes!"

Several months passed in the blink of an eye. Wei Zhong took a deep breath, parted his lips slightly, and exhaled a long rainbow from his mouth.

"Finally, I've reached level three of Qi Refining!"

Feeling the expanding Qi Sea within his body and the gaseous magic power floating within it, Wei Zhong couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks to Master Yang's new policy, the price of Qi Nourishing Pills has dropped by half a spirit stone."

With two and a half spirit stones and one Qi-Nourishing Pill, Wei Zhong bought several pills and successfully broke through to the third level of Qi Refining in one seclusion.

"Five personal disciples, Junior Brother Ning, and..."

"All told, there are only eleven people in the sect whose cultivation is higher or equal to mine, although there are even fewer who are inferior to me..."

Wei Zhong shook his head, walked out of the house, crossed the empty sect gate, and arrived at the inner courtyard inside the mountain.

Hearing shouts and occasional bursts of magical sounds from within the courtyard, Wei Zhong gently knocked on the dark blue gate.

"Master Yang, your disciple Wei Zhong requests an audience!"

"Come in!"

"Your foundation is incredibly solid, and a breakthrough is just around the corner. However, your current mastery of techniques is lacking, so you need to practice diligently..."

After giving Ning Zhiyuan some instructions and sending him away, Yang Jingting turned to look at Wei Zhong:

"What is it!"

Wei Zhong immediately stepped forward and bowed:

"This disciple is obsessed with the Dao of alchemy; please teach me, Master!"