Grand Epoch Sect Zone, home to more than eight thousand registered sects. The actual number fluctuates constantly; some star‑sky sects decline and dissolve, others are invaded or annexed, making an exact count impossible.
Like the ebb and flow of the tides, rise and fall are ever-present.
"However."
Over the years, the three supreme sects have always ranked at the top. All upper, middle, and lowest‑grade sects must strictly obey every command from the three supreme sects... One of these, Highcrest Sect—this is Highcrest Sect’s Outer Sect World.
Bailey, just awakened, works hard to fulfill its role as an Intelligent Core.
It quietly pokes out its little head, a faint energy hologram. Its master, Andrew Han, conceals his aura with a secret art from the Archaic‑Hall Spark‑Heritage Region—a technique so profound that Bailey is unconcerned about Highcrest Sect noticing anything.
Andrew Han stands beside the planet.
Outer space is silent, dark, and cold. Ordinary Starlight‑tier beings could hardly survive here. “Strange, why is this region so frigid?”
He doesn’t dwell on it.
Andrew Han turns his palm, as if stamping a jade seal, quietly watching the Outer Sect World.
In an instant, his soul-sense spreads out, directly blanketing the entire life planet. He converts every sight and sound he perceives into a stream of energy data and transmits it to Bailey, his Intelligent Core. Only by passing it to the Intelligent Core can he obtain the most precise and thorough analysis.
"Received."
Bailey’s computational modules begin to spin.
In pure computation, even Cosmos Union cultivators cannot match an Intelligent Core. Especially Bailey, who has undergone multiple upgrades in the Spark-Heritage Zone, now far surpasses its former self. In less than half a second, Bailey exclaims: “The average temperature in the habitable zone of this life planet is only minus twenty degrees Celsius. Ordinary mortals can barely survive... The population ratio is also strange—far too sparse.”
There are far too few apprentices, nowhere near the estimated number.
According to Highcrest Sect’s public expansion statements, there should be at least ten million apprentices. Including those retained from previous years, over a hundred million would be normal. Yet this Outer Sect World holds barely nine hundred thousand apprentices.
“That’s not all.”
Bailey sounds puzzled: “The entire planetary surface is shrouded in ice year-round. Within the never-melting snow and ice, energy fluctuations appear—these look like cold-inducing materials.”
Cold-inducing materials?
Andrew Han looks at Bailey.
He sighs quietly, almost inaudibly: “You foolish children, truly ignorant. In past years, how many of those outer‑sect disciples and bottom‑tier apprentices ever returned to our Highcrest Sect after these exchanges? Once they leave for an exchange, they never come back, yet you still scramble for the chance...