Chapter 573: Making a Move
After leaving the Qingmu Courtyard, Chen Qing did not hurry to summon the Golden Feather Eagle and depart. Instead, he stood at the edge of the verdant bamboo grove outside the courtyard gate.
His divine sense spread outward like a tide, silent and vast, sweeping across the entire Five Terraces Sect.
The Qingmu Courtyard remained as tranquil as ever.
But further out, within the four outer courtyards, the auras of disciples were more than double what he remembered. Those auras varied in strength, from newcomers who had only recently stepped onto the martial path, their qi and blood still raw and unrefined, to core disciples calling out to one another as they sparred on the training ground.
Further still, in the administrative hall near the mountain gates, several familiar auras were attending to affairs. These were disciples who had already entered the sect back when Chen Qing had still been at the Five Terraces. Now they had all become stewards themselves, responsible for instructing the newer generation and managing day-to-day matters.
Chen Qing quietly withdrew his divine sense. A trace of something complex flickered through the depths of his eyes.
Over the years, he had rarely set foot in the Five Terraces Sect. On the occasional visit, he had always come and gone in a hurry, exchanging no more than a few brief words with He Yuzhou before leaving.
Even so, the sect's reputation and influence had grown with each passing day.
He Yuzhou had now reached the True Origin realm at the third stage of refinement, presiding steadily over one corner of the world. Looking across the entire region surrounding the Ten Thousand Poisons Marsh, the Five Terraces Sect had become the largest local sect in the area. Those factions that had once eyed it covetously now gave the Yunlin Prefecture a wide berth whenever they passed through, afraid to invite misfortune upon themselves.