In the side hall, everyone was pondering what their First Senior Sister had said. The way they looked at Senior Sister Chanxi was filled with trust, and even more so, deep conviction.
Even the Golden Core stage disciples of the New Disciple Training Department felt the same way.
“As for the remaining questions, including Ningyun's doubt, I won't answer them for now. Take these questions with you to the outer peaks. During your tenure, you will naturally find the answers to them—answers that represent your own understanding.”
...
Two days after the meeting at Governing Peak, messages started popping up in the “Prosper Together” small group chat.
Lu Heyun: “There are quite a lot of people who reached Foundation Establishment in your batch. In our time, only 152 disciples had reached Foundation Establishment by this point.”
Jiang Yao: “Senior Brother Lu, didn't you have 132 groups, totaling 264 Foundation Establishment stage disciples, when you recruited new disciples?”
Lu Heyun: “Another 112 junior brothers and sisters only broke through to Foundation Establishment during the following year.
“Ningyun's single epiphany helped who knows how many disciples break through their bottlenecks and boosted the cultivation potential of countless others.
“When you go to recruit new disciples a year from now, the number of disciples passing the Path to Immortality will probably be much higher.”
Mu Chenze: “Senior Brother Lu, was our Ruiyu Pavilion on Qixia Peak selected?”
Lu Heyun: “Yes, picking 93 pavilions out of 132—the odds were quite high.”
Mu Chenze: “Have you and Senior Sister Yang started the handover of your duties as Pavilion Masters?”
Lu Heyun: “Not yet. We just finished our meeting.”
Yang Churan: “Don't worry about the handover. We Pavilion Masters still need to convene a meeting with the Abode Masters to explain things first.”
Lu Heyun: “Exactly. Don't be nervous about taking office either. Xiaoyao has existed for so many years and has long since established a mature set of regulations. Just follow the regulations and take your time.”
Seven days after chatting with Senior Sister Yang and Senior Brother Lu, Gu Ningyun and Wen Xuan received a transmission and came to Songyue Pavilion on Fuyao Peak.
Their senior brother and sister each handed over a jade slip. Inside were the duties of the Head and Deputy Pavilion Masters, along with some of their own experiences in the role.
Gu Ningyun had originally thought the handover would simply involve showing them around their scope of work and giving a verbal explanation.
She hadn't expected them to be so thoughtful as to prepare jade slips and share so much of their personal experience.
With these two “guides” in hand, even if they encountered problems later on and didn't know how to handle them, they could search the jade slips for solutions.
In addition to explaining the jade slips and the workflow, their senior brother and sister also took them to the External Sect, visiting all twenty abodes under Songyue Pavilion.
Through this tour, Gu Ningyun and Wen Xuan gained a general understanding of the External Sect and the abodes under their jurisdiction.
The Xiaoyao External Sect stretched hundreds of thousands of miles outward from the periphery of the floating peaks, encompassing mountain ranges, valleys, and plains.
The abodes were scattered throughout, assigned different tasks depending on the terrain.
Each of the twenty abodes under Songyue Pavilion had about three hundred handyman disciples.
Eight of these abodes were located on the plains: four were responsible for planting and caring for low-grade spirit herb gardens, two handled spirit rice and various low-grade spirit vegetables, and two were in charge of raising low-grade spirit beasts.
Within the mountains of the External Sect, four abodes were distributed on each mountain, occupying the east, south, west, and north sides respectively.
Under Songyue Pavilion's name, there were eight abodes located across two mountains.
Because the spirit energy on the mountains was more abundant, the disciples here were mostly at Qi Refining level six and above.
Only a small portion of the spirit rice fields, spirit vegetable fields, spirit herb gardens, and spirit beast gardens they managed were low-grade; the vast majority were mid-grade.
The corresponding arrays in these gardens were also much more complex and high-grade.
In the valleys of the External Sect, there were anywhere from one to two abodes per valley, depending on its size.
Depending on the density of the spirit energy in the valley, the cultivation levels and responsibilities of the disciples also varied.
The specific differences were similar to those between the abodes in the plains and the mountains.
Four of the abodes under Songyue Pavilion were located within these valleys.
No spirit fields or spirit vegetable fields were set up in the valleys; instead, they cultivated various aquatic spirit creatures, such as spirit fish and spirit turtles.
There were also many spirit herb gardens and spirit beast gardens in the valleys, arranged according to the environmental preferences of the herbs and beasts.
The senior sister handling the handover explained, “Xiaoyao has 32 outer peaks, with 12 pavilions established on each peak. Since each pavilion manages 20 abodes, this means there are 7,680 abodes in the External Sect alone.
“Even if we assume an average of 260 people per abode, that means there are nearly two million handyman disciples in the External Sect.
“Unlike formal disciples, who receive different benefits, handyman disciples in the External Sect only get free lodging. All their other needs, such as food and cultivation resources, must be exchanged for spirit stones or sect points.
“The various spirit herb gardens and spirit beast gardens established in each abode are merely the basic tasks assigned by the sect.
“With arrays set up in the gardens and the cultivators knowing spells, completing these basic tasks doesn't consume much of their time or energy.
“The spirit stones and points earned from these tasks are only enough to sustain their most basic needs for food and cultivation.
“Handyman disciples have more and thinner spirit roots, so simply meditating like we do isn't enough for them.
“To increase their cultivation, they rely heavily on the assistance of cultivation resources like pills.
“Therefore, in addition to these basic tasks, they will also go to the Mission Hall to take on other missions to earn spirit stones, sect points, promotion points, and the like.”
This was the first time Gu Ningyun and Wen Xuan had heard the term “promotion points.”
The senior brother handling the handover then explained the promotion system of the handyman disciples to them.
By the time they finished touring all twenty abodes, met each Abode Master, and explained all the duties of the Pavilion Masters, a full day had passed.
The handover was essentially complete. Before they finally parted ways, the senior sister said,
“Almost all affairs within the pavilion will be sent to you through the Deacon Jade Tablet. You can handle them directly on it.
“Since the recruitment of new disciples is more than a year away, there won't be any major events in the outer peaks or the External Sect over the next two years.
“Since you've just taken over, simply handle the daily affairs step-by-step to familiarize yourselves with the process.
“If anything comes up, the two of you can discuss it together. If you can't make up your minds, just come and ask us.
“Don't worry about troubling us; this is also part of the handover process. If anything goes wrong, we share the responsibility.”
Naturally, they listened to their seniors' advice. After their senior brother and sister left, Gu Ningyun and Wen Xuan each held a Deacon Jade Tablet and stayed in the Administration Hall of Songyue Pavilion, flipping through past records.
In the past, matters concerning the abodes were uploaded by the Abode Masters and managers through the deacon panel, and the Pavilion Masters and Abode Masters would handle them there as well.
All of this could be found on the platform interface, specifically on the Fuyao Peak Songyue Pavilion platform.
In terms of workflow, one could clearly see the beginning, progression, and resolution of any sect matter.
In terms of content, the complete text for each stage of the process was visible.
This included the standardized reporting formats and terminology used by the Pavilion Masters when reporting to the outer peaks.
This kind of procedural workflow, standardized reporting format, and professional terminology were exactly what they currently lacked.
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