Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

Patriarch Bing and the rest of the elders waited for the said disciples to arrive.

They didn't know what to expect and neither did they know why they were only coming now. The last they had seen them, they were barely at the Qi refining realm with some being at the core condensation realm.

Only Pei Jun was at the Nascent soul realm, and him going missing was a loss that the sect did not like. Every disciple that could reach the nascent soul realm was valuable and could become a future elder.

There were very few of them in the sect anyway and would always be in the minority.

If there were ten thousand disciples, perhaps one or two from them would even reach the Nascent soul realm. The rest would forever be stuck in the core condensation realm and the few that managed to reach the pseudo nascent soul realm and trigger the Heavenly Tribulation would simply die.

There were of course a few that managed to trigger the Heavenly Tribulation but aborted it in the middle due to how injured they had gotten. But this would usually damage their foundation and make it so that they needed a lot of resources to correct that path.

These were resources they wouldn't have and the sect wouldn't provide them easily either as they would know about the talent of the disciples already. Using those resources on them could be considered a waste and they would not give them out easily.

Unless there was a very valid reason for them aborting the Heavenly Tribulation the sect would refrain from nurturing them any further. It was these very disciples that would become outer court elders and deacons.

They would also take positions such as guarding or doing designated duties in the many halls and specific buildings of the sect.

"THEY ARE HERE!" Disciples tasked with guarding the hall on the outside announced.

The elders whispered amongst themselves and soon received several messages on their communication jade slips.

The information they all received was the same: the lost disciples had just entered the sect and were being brought to the main hall of the sect.

The elders didn't know why but they were feeling a strange sense of anticipation. Even Supreme Elder Weizhe who had a very calm demeanor seemed to be a bit excited. Though his excitement was only shown through his eyes that were open slightly more.

"THE DISCIPLES HAVE ARRIVED!" The announcement was finally heard as the door of the hall opened.

~CREAK~

The pair of large doors made some sound as the ground trembled slightly. When the doors were finally open, the elders could peek at the disciples standing behind them. There were fifteen of them as they were informed and all looked to be good.

"It really is them…" an elder who had taught the disciples before muttered in surprise.

They had long since considered that these disciples were dead, and didn't even consider investigating more due to the conflicting issues between the three divisions.

The one thing that had come out of the entire war in the sect was that now the divisions had all united.

The Frozen Cliff division was fully eliminated with only some disciples left, while the Frozen Plains division joined up with the Frozen Brook division considering the change in the situation.

Wang Xiong had done well after the massacre to manage the sect and help the distressed disciples, even if they were not from their division. This was exactly why the Frozen Plains division also supported him and was fine with his position as the Chief disciple.

Wang Xiong had proved his abilities well enough for most to not doubt him.

And while he was still a junior compared to most of the elders here, he still had better mentality than most of them. This was the main reason why Patriarch Bing had chosen him as his successor.

And the leadership skills Wang Xiong had shown were rather impressive too for them. At the very least, he qualified to be a leader in the further if not the Patriarch.

~step~ Step~ Step~

Tens of footsteps could be heard all at once as the fifteen disciples entered the hall. They came up to the center before cupping their hands.

"Disciple Pei Jun greets the elders, the supreme elder and Patriarch Bing!" Pei Jin was the first one to greet being the leader.

"Disciple Tian Xiaoge greets the Patriarch, the supreme elder, and all the elders." Xiaoge joined in as well.

One by one, all of the disciples gave their official greetings.

The elders all scanned the disciples from top to bottom and couldn't help but want to know more. Some were a bit brazen and directly used their spirit senses to check the disciples. But when they did this, they didn't know that they were in for a surprise.

'Huh? They can block out spirit sense?' The elders were stunned.

They had not expected such disciples to be able to do this.

But the surprise was momentary as the elders soon realized another factor that was many times more important.

"Wait… if they can block our spirit senses… then doesn't that mean…" a few of the elders realized something but didn't dare confirm it right away.

It was simply far too shocking for this matter to be true and they didn't want to get the patriarch's hopes up either.

"Welcome back, juniors…" Patriarch Bing replied in greeting, his tone mostly flat.

"And now that you all are here, I would like to know what happened to you all? We thought you were all dead?" The patriarch questioned.

"Indeed… if you all were alive and were even able to return to the sect after this entire decade, you should have been able to do so before too right?" Another elder asked.

This was a difficult question, as it bordered on assuming if the disciples had chosen to desert to sect or do a dereliction of their duties that were not done in these years.

"It would be way better for them to demonstrate this to you, elders, Patriarch Bing." Wang Xiong interrupted them.