875 Along the Bridge
"Was the senior at the center the sect leader?" Alex asked as he and Gan Murong left the building.
"No," Gan Murong explained. "The Frozen Heart sect has no sect leader. We have the 9 elders who collectively make decisions for the sect."
"Oh," Alex was surprised, to say the least. "She was the one talking and asking the questions, so I assumed she was the one with the most power there."
"In a sense, she does," Gan Murong explained. "In the Frozen Heart sect, there must always be the 9 elders who are known as the Frozen Elders. They are the highest authority in the sect."
"Whenever an elder gets too old or wishes to no longer be a Frozen Elder, another normal elder is elevated to the post of the Frozen Elder."
"There have been many such changes, but Elder Xuan is the only Frozen Elder that has been here since the formation of the Frozen Elders. So, she garners respect from the rest of the elders, and as such is in a way not that different from a regular sect leader in how she's treated," Murong explained.
"Ah," Alex thought. "Ever since the Frozen Heart sect was formed… does that mean right after the Snow Immortal sect was destroyed 8 thousand years ago?"
"Of course not," Gan Murong said. "The Frozen Elders formed some 5 thousand years ago after most of the male elders had either left or went into closed cultivation. Now, no male elder or disciple remains in the sect any longer."
"Right, that makes more sense," Alex said. "It's hard to imagine someone could live 8 thousand years."
"There are some," Murong said. "But I guess they all went into closed cultivation very long ago, so I'm not sure if they count."
Alex nodded. He knew humans were capable of living even longer as a Saint cultivator, but the humans from these realms did not have much potential, to begin with. Still, being alive for 8 thousand years was not bad at all.
"If you don't mind, can you explain to me a little about what you guys cultivate here? I read that you lose emotions towards men, but how does that help you make stronger?" he asked.
"Ah, it's the opposite," Murong said. "The Frozen Heart scripture we practice is one of the best Heaven grade cultivation methods for anyone from Self tempering realm to the saint realm. It gives you a giant boost in power, especially when it comes to using yin or water arts."
"However, as a result, we lose the emotion of love. It's not just for men, but for everything. We lose all emotions of love."
"That is not to say we are emotionless," Murong said. "We do care about people, we do laugh, feel sad, angry, and everything else the other people can feel."
"We… we just can't feel love," Murong said. "It's tragic in a way really, but what can you do? You can't get strong without losing a few things."
"Some lose their childhood, some lose their family. Some lose friends and time. Some even lose their humanity to become stronger. If we really think about it, we are luckier than others when it comes to it," Murong said.
"Also, the Frozen Heart scripture isn't everything we make the disciples read. Only that those who haven't cultivated the Frozen Heart scripture aren't allowed to enter the Core disciples, or be part of the sect once they are all grown up," she said.
"Meaning they can leave and have a normal life if they wish?" Alex asked.
"Yes, they can," Murong said.
"I see," Alex said. "Would you mind if I bring out my Seeking mouse? I wish to see the sect through his eyes."
"Oh, sure. Go ahead," Murong said.
Alex nodded and called out Whisker. The little mouse came out from his right shoulder plate and jumped into his robes.
'Do not use your spiritual sense.' Alex made sure the mouse heard it the moment he was out.
"Oh, seeking mouse have cultivation base?" Gan Murong was surprised. "Since when?"
"He seems to be a mutant beast," Alex explained. "Also, he's incredibly slow at cultivating. Although, I guess he's still a little better than other Seeking Mouses."
"You got lucky. Where did you find the little guy?" Murong asked.
"Ah, do you know the realm of the Ruler in the state of Xue? I got him in a forest not far from there. I tried searching for more, but I couldn't find any," Alex said.
"Oh, we'll have to send some disciples to check the area sometime later then," she said.
Alex saw the world through Whisker's eyes. There was no mountain here. No volcano to warm up the land.
Even at day time, the cold atmosphere gave the city-like sect an abandoned look. If it weren't for the occasional disciples walking by, greeting Gan Murong, Alex would have definitely thought there was possibly no sign of life in the sect and the ancient sect of Frozen Hearts sect was nothing more than a facade.
They walked upon what looked like a massive bridge that slowly sloped downwards until it reached the ground down below. Alex made a whisker look behind him and saw that he had been in a towering castle with multiple stone bridges coming out of it from all sides, moving down to the cityscape.
There were multiple houses down below, all that looked like a normal city. But from what Alex understood, these were houses that belonged to the disciples.
If he was right, then the 3 walls that circled the city were to separate the Core disciples from the inner disciples, who were separated from the outer disciples.
The bridge sloped forward and they walked down it until they were at the edge, where there was a flight of stairs that took them nearly 50 meters down.
Only after coming down from the bridge did Alex finally see the enormous amount of female disciples wearing crystal blue robes that walked around.
Some of their eyes turned curious when they saw Alex. Most of them were surprised as male disciples weren't allowed in the sect.
If he was a guest, then he wouldn't have come down here either.
However, seeing as he was with the leader of the Law Enforcing team, they quickly bowed and stepped aside.
Alex was subtly checking the cultivation bases of the girls that walked by him, and to his surprise, each one of them had a cultivation base of True King realm or higher.
Not a single one of them was lower than that.
"Senior Murong, are these all Core disciples?" he asked.
"Yes, they are all core disciples," Murong said. "There are nearly 3 thousand of them in the sect."
Alex's eyes went wide. "And they're all over True Lord realm in cultivation base?" he asked.
"One of the requirements for entering the core sect, aside from learning the Frozen Heart sect is being in the True King realm or higher," she said.
Waves of shock hit Alex the likes of which he would have never imagined. Hearing that this was an ancient sect that was many thousand years was good and all, but hearing that there were 3 thousand different women that were all in the True King realm or higher was something he had never expected in his wildest dream.
That was akin to having 3 times as many competitors as in the Tournament of the Champions back in the Western Continent, and that included disciples from all over the empire.
Being able to bring this many disciples from just the Core sect of the sect was something else.
"Wait, do you mean there are more of such disciples if we don't count the requirements?" he asked.
"Of course. Many of the inner sect disciples are no less scary than the core sect disciples," she said.
Alex took a deep breath to gather himself. "Just… just how many disciples are there in this sect?" he asked.
"Hmm, should be around 200 thousand," Murong said. "There's a constant flow of disciples coming in and going out, so it is hard to tell."
"200… thousand?" Alex's first instinct was that she heard the question wrong, but she clearly explained why there were that many too.
Were these ancient sects these big? Then, another question came to his mind.
"Senior, if it isn't too much of a bother, can you tell me how many Saint realm cultivators there are?"
