Cultivation, Inc.I Use Capitalism to Fix a Dying Sect

Chapter 208: Sun Yi Gives Advice to the Formation Hall

The Formation Hall was located only a short distance from the Alchemy Hall. This wasn’t Sun Yi’s first visit either. Given his current mastery over formations and spatial geometry, Sun Yi’s personal attainments in the path of Formations were likely unmatched by anyone in the entire Qingyun Sect.

The moment he touched down in the courtyard, the two Foundation Establishment guards at the entrance immediately fired off a priority transmission to the Hall Master before rushing forward to receive him.

“Disciples pay their respects to the Headmaster!”

“At ease, fellow Daoists. Keep up the good work,” Sun Yi smiled, waving his hand dismissively.

Almost instantly, several figures blurred out from the main building of the Formation Hall. Leading the pack was Wang Yang, the Hall Master, flanked by his senior Formation experts.

Wang Yang’s face was flushed with excitement, looking at Sun Yi as if the Headmaster were a descending savior.

However, before Wang Yang could even open his mouth, Sun Yi cut him off with a knowing smirk. “Hall Master Wang. Let me guess: you want me to authorize a headcount expansion.”

Wang Yang’s excited smile instantly froze. He ground to a halt, his senior experts piling up behind him, all staring at Sun Yi in utter shock.

“Headmaster… do you possess the power of precognition?” Wang Yang asked, thoroughly bewildered. “I hadn’t even spoken a single syllable.”

“Hehe, no precognition required,” Sun Yi chuckled. “I just finished back-to-back inspections of the Alchemy Hall and the Talisman Hall. They both ambushed me with the exact same request, wearing the exact same desperate expression you have right now.”

Wang Yang couldn’t help but touch his own face, glancing back at his senior staff. “Was I really projecting that hard?”

“Hahaha! It’s not that you’re transparent, Hall Master,” one of the experts laughed, “it’s that the Headmaster’s insight is absolute.”

“Indeed. How could our trivial plotting escape the Headmaster’s discerning eyes? The Headmaster is a peerless visionary.”

“Alright, that’s enough,” Sun Yi waved a hand to shut down the blatant flattery. “Save the breath. I am not going to arbitrarily reassign personnel to your department.”

Hearing the flat denial, the collective expressions of Wang Yang and his staff plummeted into despair.

Sun Yi’s smile returned, softening the blow. “However, the Sect is currently running an onboarding program for over 2,000 new Cultivation recruits over at Black Wind Mountain. You are authorized to deploy ten Expert-level Formation Masters to act as adjunct instructors. Whether you can successfully pitch your department and recruit from that talent pool is entirely up to you.”

“The Refining Hall, the Alchemy Hall, and the Talisman Hall are already sending their own ten-man delegations. I’m even opening the floor to the Spirit Beast Hall and the Spirit Herb Hall. It’s a free market.”

Wang Yang’s face twisted into a bitter grimace. “Headmaster, with all due respect, that puts us at a massive disadvantage! The path of Formations has the steepest learning curve, and the prerequisite talent threshold is brutal. Historically, it’s the least popular discipline among initiates. If it’s a free market, we have zero leverage to attract top-tier talent. Please, Headmaster, throw us a lifeline!”

Seeing the genuinely pitiful looks on the faces of the Sect’s top tactical engineers, Sun Yi could only shake his head in mild exasperation.

He knew Wang Yang wasn’t exaggerating. The Formation Hall was a notoriously hard sell. After a moment of thought, Sun Yi decided to throw them a bone—not out of favoritism, but because a robust Formation Hall was critical to the Sect’s defensive infrastructure.

“Alright,” Sun Yi sighed. “I’ll give you a strategy.”

“Please, Headmaster, enlighten us!” Wang Yang’s eyes lit up immediately. He knew Sun Yi’s acumen was terrifying; if the Headmaster gave them a strategy, it was guaranteed to work.

“The path of Formations is vast, profound, and undeniably powerful in actual combat,” Sun Yi began. “The reason your department is struggling with recruitment isn’t the discipline itself; it’s your lack of brand identity. You don’t have a flagship.”

“A… flagship?” Wang Yang and the others exchanged confused glances.

“To put it simply, your Formation Hall doesn’t have any high-profile ‘rockstars’ to showcase,” Sun Yi explained. “If you strategically invest resources into cultivating a few highly visible, extremely lethal Formation experts, you create an aspirational goal for the new recruits. Once they see the raw power and prestige of a Formation Master in action, the applications will flood in.”

“Think back to our rollout of the Five Elements Art,” Sun Yi continued. “Initial adoption rates were terrible. But the moment Zhang Yuan, Zhao Lun, and their squad—all still at Qi Refining Grand Perfection—used the Five Elements Art to publicly decimate early and mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, the enrollment metrics skyrocketed.”

“Zhang Yuan and Zhao Lun became the ‘flagship’ for the Five Elements Art. Does the Formation Hall have an equivalent?”

The analogy hit Wang Yang like a physical blow. The logic was flawless.

“So that’s the play! I understand completely, Headmaster!” Wang Yang’s eyes burned with renewed purpose. “We need to build a brand!”

“Exactly. I’ve given you the macro-strategy. How you select and train your brand ambassadors is your department’s problem,” Sun Yi said, preparing to move on.

Wang Yang coughed awkwardly, rubbing his hands together. “Ahem… Headmaster. Given that your personal mastery of Formations eclipses the entire Hall… could you perhaps micro-manage us just a little bit more?”

Sun Yi stared at Wang Yang, a bitter smile tugging at his lips. This guy is literally trying to outsource his own R&D back to the CEO. Unbelievable.

“Fine,” Sun Yi sighed. “Check your archives for the Yin-Yang Twin Sword Formation. It’s a localized, two-man tactical matrix. If two operatives each hold a corresponding sword talisman, they can lock their Qi into a synchronized feedback loop, drastically spiking their combat output for a short duration. I suggest you start there.”

“It shouldn’t be too difficult to heavily sponsor a few pairs of powerful Cultivator couples, right?” Sun Yi offered.

“Couldn’t we just use two male operatives?” Wang Yang asked, his face entirely serious.

Sun Yi almost rolled his eyes. “Have you ever seen two male cultivators joined at the hip 24/7 for no reason? The Yin-Yang matrix requires constant, instinctual synchronization to deploy in a live-fire scenario. The emotional resonance of a couple bridges that gap.”

“Cultivating a single, high-level Formation Master from scratch is incredibly resource-intensive and slow. But the Yin-Yang Twin Sword Formation is a low-floor, high-ceiling tactical package. It yields immediate, explosive combat results. When the new recruits see a sponsored couple tear through a battlefield using that matrix, they’ll immediately understand the kinetic value of Formations. While that draws them in, you simultaneously run a long-term pipeline for dedicated, solo Formation engineers. That is how you scale.”

“Brilliant! Thank you, Headmaster! We know exactly how to execute this!” Wang Yang and his staff bowed deeply, their previous despair completely erased.

“Alright, enough consulting,” Sun Yi waved them off. “Give me the current operational metrics for the Formation Hall. I can subsidize your marketing, but I won’t micromanage your logistics.”

“Understood, Headmaster!” Wang Yang snapped back into executive mode. “Currently, the Formation Hall maintains a roster of 156 certified personnel. Of those, 151 operate at the second-rank, and five are certified third-rank Masters.”

Sun Yi nodded. The numbers were indeed dangerously low for a Sect of their size.

“What is the status of our runic archives?”

“Reporting to the Headmaster: we have successfully deciphered and mastered 310 first-rank Formations, 107 second-rank Formations, 35 third-rank Formations, and seven fourth-rank Formations.”

“We have a 100% successful deployment rate for all first and second-rank matrices. However, our deployment success rate for the third-rank catalog is currently hovering below 50% due to Qi and computing constraints. As for the fourth-rank Formations… we lack the necessary spiritual bandwidth to even attempt deployment.”

“Have you audited the Formation texts we seized from the Black Wind Stockade and Evil Spirit Valley?” Sun Yi asked.

Wang Yang frowned deeply, a look of distaste crossing his face. “We have reviewed them, Headmaster, but we have largely quarantined the data. The runic structures utilized by those factions are highly unethical. They rely heavily on soul manipulation, toxic baleful energy, and blood sacrifices to power their matrices. We haven’t integrated them into our standard curriculum.”