Faith returned to the Far West quickly after a day of rest. Core formation cultivators have amazing physical stamina; they can use their mana to directly wipe away simple injuries and physical tiredness. Their mental strength is likewise amazing; they don’t need sleep and can feed directly off mana.
After flying for a few days, she reached Halfmoon City and went to Charles's palace. There, she declared that the ancient gods are going to create a facility to teach godly arts. The higher-ups of the tribe were eager after hearing it; there was no resistance, only support.
The Far West branch of the sect, which will be built here, will eventually expand into a big branch like the headquarters. For now, Faith planned on building a simple sect campus; she didn’t plan on bringing helpers from the headquarters, intending to train immortal personnel from among the barbarians themselves.
The work of building the sect branch started immediately; all the tribes were informed of the gods’ facility and were ordered to send necessary materials, such as stone, wood, and children; the children were to be tested and, if lucky, to learn godly arts.
...
Ten years later.
Amber had already broken through to the core formation Six years ago. Master Jack then asked Faith to return to take over as the sect master.
Faith went back and requested to remain chief of the Far West branch. She created the Far West branch through a lot of hard work and was attached to it. In addition, the West has an amazing concentration of energy.
Jack allowed her to negotiate with Amber; the two decided among themselves about these matters.
After negotiating with Amber, they decided to take turns; Faith would remain chief of the Far Western branch for 35 years. After 35 years, she would return to the headquarters to take over the position of sect master from Amber.
Amber readily agreed to the deal. She was still affected by her past prejudices and didn’t like living among the low-cultured barbarians.
If Amber knew how much Faith earned during her time as Far West's leader, she would not have agreed to the deal.
When Faith was in the western branch, she found hundreds of energy stone mines, all kinds of immortal treasures, two other immortal beasts (not counting Redy), hundreds of immortal trees and fruits, etc. She shared all of these details with Jack, who ordered her to keep everything found in the West in the Western branch's treasury; there was no need to send it to the headquarters.
During this time, Jack made some slight changes and clarifications to the sect's governing structures. The sect was small in the past and had few disciples, so there was no need to think of these. However, the leadership issues must be clarified now that there are thousands of disciples.
The lowest rank is ordinary disciples, who have no responsibilities and whose only job is cultivating. Of course, to cultivate, they need resources; to gain resources, they must perform sect tasks.
The next rank is core disciples, who are chosen by elders as personal students. Their only job is cultivating.
What is the difference between disciples and elders? Elders have management responsibilities, while disciples have no responsibilities.
After core disciples, the next rank is that of elder; each elder is responsible for a part of the sect's management. They can no longer focus solely on cultivation; of course, they have a salary as a reward for their time and service. There are many elders, such as security elders, intelligence elders, hiring elders, disciple assessment elders, etc.
Next are great elders, who are a big deal. They supervise elders and are responsible for hiring and firing them. Great elders make the big decisions that affect the entire sect.
Elders and great elders are responsible only for the affairs of the branch of the sect in which they reside; this means that the chief security elder of the headquarters is not responsible for the security of the western branch. The same is true about great elders; a great elder who resides in the headquarters cannot appoint the Far Western branch's elders.
That is not to say that the sect is separate; an elder responsible for the headquarters is still recognized as an elder in the Far Western branch. It's just that Jack decided that the best governance is local governance, so he disallowed the headquarters from imposing its will without actually physically being there. If the headquarters wants to decide something related to the branches, they must send a great elder to go in person. This also encourages the headquarters to distribute its power; Jack doesn’t want all great elders to remain in the headquarters.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
With his system, the headquarters would be inclined to at least place one great elder in each branch of the sect. As long as there is a great elder in that branch, the headquarters would gain authority to order the branch directly.
Even the chief of a branch of the sect, like Faith, is below great elders; great elders are the sect's big shots, and the branches must obey.
The sect branches are free to distribute power however they want; however, even the highest authority of the branch must obey a great elder appointed by the headquarters.
The total number of great elders shall not be more than twice the number of sect branches. The sect currently has three branches: one in the Republic, one in Halfmoon City, and the other in Lake City in the Far East. That means the maximum number of great elders can be no more than six.
For the moment, the sect has four great elders; one is Amber, who serves as both sect leader and great elder.
The second is Faith, who also has a dual role as a great elder and branch leader.
The third is Mike, who is both the leader of the Far East branch in Lake City and a great elder.
The fourth is Jack, who is both a supreme elder and a grand elder.
The sect has 13 core formation cultivators but only 4 great elders; not everyone who can break through core formation can become a great elder. For now, Jack ordered them not to appoint more great elders.
After the rank of great elder, the next rank is sect master.
The sect master is the leader of the headquarters; his or her rank is very high, and their power is the highest beside the supreme elders.
They have lots of power; the sect master is responsible for all major personnel management issues. They can appoint branch leaders, send great elders to the branches, or bring them back. They can assign tasks to any sect disciple or elder, declare war on other forces, and, in emergencies, directly take over all responsibilities of different elders and order branches. The sect master is, without a doubt, the most powerful position.
The position of supreme elders has undergone many changes. Jack originally wanted to appoint Faith and Mike as supreme elders, but he changed his plans when the sect grew larger.
There can be only one supreme elder: himself.
The supreme elder is the king of all; his power is unlimited. He can do whatever he wants, and his words are binding beyond any other elder or sect master.
With Jack there, the sect leader or any of the elders won’t have any meaningful power. But that is temporary; Jack will not waste time managing the sect. He plans on leaving everything to his subordinates and focusing on cultivation. Who has time to deal with the details of sect management? Jack sees these jobs as a waste of time.
After ten more years of cultivation, he has already reached the sixth stage of core formation! He is getting closer and closer to the nascent soul. Unless the issue concerns the sect's extinction, he will only focus on his cultivation.
In any case, he has enough resources; Faith and Amber both take care of him and gift him all kinds of resources. It can be said that Jack was a good judge of character. He chose and supported them mostly because he saw they were both loyal students. Of course, their talents were also a factor, but there were many talented disciples. What he was looking for the most was loyalty, not talent.
Currently, ten core formation cultivators are in the headquarters, one in the Western branch, and two in the Far East.
The Far East branch is the most at-risk branch, as it is constantly being assaulted by forces there. But, with Michael at the 5th stage of core formation, it will have no issue defending itself.
Jack sent Mike to the Far East over a decade ago, ordering him to build a branch there. But his results weren’t outstanding; Michael wasn’t talented at organizing a force.
As such, Jack ordered Gabriel to go and help.
Gabriel failed to break through to the core formation and nearly died. By this point, he was an old man. Jack wanted to help him, but unfortunately, Gabriel was not talented in cultivation.
Mike and Lucy were fully talented humans, but Gabriel and Raphael weren’t; they were full of skill but not full of talent. Lucy and Mike broke through to core formation, but Gabriel and Raphael were stuck at the peak of energy gathering. Raphael was close to the core formation, but his core wouldn’t be perfect like Jack’s; he would most likely have an impure core and little chance of a nascent soul. As for Gabriel, he failed his breakthrough and only survived because of Jack's assistance. He has no chance of core formation at all.
After the Far East branch was organized, Jack also sent Lucy there. Lucy was at the fourth stage of core formation and one of the strongest in the sect. With those two, the Far East branch began to prosper.
The enemies in the Far East had already discovered mana and energy; their leader broke through to core formation two years ago. However, one core formation with no cultivation technique is no match for Lucy and Mike; even more, his core was low quality, so it can be said that Mike can kill him with a single strike.
For now, Jack ordered them not to kill him. Jack was never the type who killed first and asked questions later. He liked to let the Easterners be there for now to see if they would bring him any surprises. The Easterners have limited time; Jack would complete the world domination task as soon as he reaches the nascent soul stage. If the Easterners are going to bring any surprises, they have at most 50 years until Jack breaks through.
Once Jack completes his task of world domination, the world will advance to rank 11, and the new transmigration system will also come online.
The transmigration system is one of Rachel's programs; all Dreamworld ranks 11 and above are ordered to implement it. The system draws the soul of some poor guy or girl who dies somewhere in the creation/gray realm and reborns them in some random world.
The transmigration system is said to be Rachal's big plan to get ahead of her competitors in other charges of reality; of course, even though Jack is one of Rachel's closest subordinates, he only heard this rumor from one of Rachel's incarnations; he does not know much more.
Even if Jack's main body knows more, the Jack incarnation here doesn't have access to any more details.
With promotion to rank 11, the world also unlocks the rest of the cultivation levels; the land expands over a million times, and many more continents with immortal forces appear.