Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Going back in almost the same way he had gone while trying to reach Mui, Xuan Hao managed to safely reach the border of the mystic realm without encountering any problems along the way outside a few demon beasts that overestimated themselves and tried to attack him.

But more importantly than all of that, Mui was still in the border region of the Mystic Realm and didn’t move a lot from her initial position during the week it took him to return to the border region of the mystic realm.

To be honest, there was a part of him that feared that she would suddenly end up falling into some kind of teleportation formation just as he was about to reach her. So, for this reason, he didn’t waste any time after reaching the border region. Heading directly for the place where he had sensed Mui wandering around in.

”Hm?”

However, as his divine sense reached the location where his disciple was currently staying, Xuan Hao could not help showing a somewhat shocked expression on his face as he also saw the group of demon beasts that were obediently following behind her.

If it had just been a group of weak demon beasts in the Core Formation Realm or below, he wouldn’t really have cared that much about it, as it should have been easy for her to use her strength to forcibly tame these kind of demon beasts. Especially considering that their cultivation was still low and their intelligence had yet to develop that much beyond a wild animal.

But… The demon beasts that he saw obediently following after his disciple had all reached the Nascent Soul Realm and were above her in terms of cultivation realm.

Not just that, but he even noticed that one of the demon beasts was already on the verge of breaking through to the Domain Lord Realm. Even if Mui used all of her strength and her strange metal balls, he doubted that she would be able to easily win against such a demon beast and might even end up being on the losing end.

For her to tame such a demon beast along with the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts… It looked like his fifth disciple had quite a talent for taming demon beasts. Probably far beyond whatever talent for those people in charge of the sect’s demon beasts had.

After all, the beast taming of those beast tamers was mostly reliant on the vast number of resources beneficial to demon beasts that the sect possessed. Not something like what Mui had done, where she had tamed the demon beasts without the need for such resources.

Of course, the beast tamers of the sect weren’t entirely useless, as Elder Song had been putting in certain restrictions and so on, but they were still consuming a lot of resources, something that there wasn’t anything to do about given that the demon beasts were truly useful for the sect. Especially when it came to transport of large quantities of resources that couldn’t be stored and moved in interspatial rings.

But… Now that he saw how Mui had managed to tame this group of demon beasts, Xuan Hao had already begun to think about how bright the future for the sect would be if they managed to decrease the resources required to keep a large number of demon beasts around.

Although he didn’t normally concern himself with the operation of the sect, he still understood that freeing up a large number of resources that would originally go to the demon beasts, would be helpful to the growth of the sect, as there would be more to use on disciples and elders.

The main problem in all of this… Was the fact that the skilled beast tamer in question was Mui…

Shaking his head as he thought about how troublesome it would be to get Mui, who was still a child in every sense of the word, involved with the inner workings and management of a part of the sect, Xuan Hao decided to leave it up to Elder Song after he returned to the sect.

For now, he himself planned to first catch her before she could disappear again and at the same time figure out what she had been up to since he had left her to train on her own. Feeling curious about where she had ended up inside the mystic realm and what she had experienced.

…

”Master!” Arriving in front of Mui only a few seconds after having examined her condition, Xuan Hao was greeted happily by the girl, while the demon beasts all looked towards him filled with both confusion and fear.

Confused because they had no idea who he was and fearful because they clearly knew that only those at the Domain Lord Realm would be capable of flying.

”Mui, it’s been a while, I see that your strength improved a lot over the past month. Not just that, but it also seems like you’ve taken in a few demon beasts during this time… Want to tell me what you’ve been through?” Smiling happily when met with the overjoyed expression of Mui, Xuan Hao made sure to praise her as he also decided to ask about what she had been up to. Feeling curious about just where she had ended up and how she ended up taming the group of demon beasts.

”Yes, Master! First of all, I was…” Nodding her head upon hearing what her master said, Mui didn’t waste any time before starting to talk about what had happened to her over the past month. Ignoring the fearful demon beasts that had huddled up behind her in the process.

Of course, this didn’t last for long, as the demon beasts soon understood that Xuan Hao meant them no harm, as they all calmed down and found somewhere to lay down and relax while Mui continued talking about the adventures she had been through.

From the first rather boring weeks she had spent inside the forest only focused on hunting down demon beasts to improve her strength and grow more familiar with fighting to her being chased by a large number of demon beasts into an ancient ruin that ended up teleporting her and the demon beasts chasing after her into an ancient city, Mui told her master about everything she had gone through. Making sure that she mentioned how she hadn’t used any of the talismans he had left for her outside of a single one.

An ancient city in the depths of the mystic realm… Is it perhaps related to the people from the Mirage Sect who managed to survive the attack on the mystic realm or from before the attack…?

Listening to what Mui told him about the ancient city ruins, Xuan Hao could not help becoming curious about the ancient city ruins. Part of him also wondered if it was from the Mirage Sect or the people left behind following the attack on the mystic realm.

If it was the former, there was a good chance that more of the city had survived and left behind clues about the past and possible treasures or other stuff that could be useful for himself and the Star Shattering Sect!

At least, given that there still seemed to be a fully active defensive barrier formed by ancient golems around the ancient city and large parts of the city was still standing. Even having spirit stones present that could be easily found and hadn’t been consumed by any passing demon beast or ancient golem, Xuan Hao felt confident that it should be younger in terms of age as when compared to the rest of the ruins in the mystic realm.

Of course, the most obvious giveaway that the ancient city ruins were not from before the attack had taken place was the fact that there was no sign of a battle having taken place inside the ancient city. Instead, it looked more like the place had just been abandoned according to Mui.

Not just that, but it had been abandoned before the people who lived inside the ancient city had time to even take spirit stones and other personal belongings with them according to Mui. Leaving behind several decaying artifacts or other personal belongings inside the palaces or houses she had entered during her time in the ancient city ruins.

As for why she didn’t bring any of the artifacts or other things she found back with her, it was apparently because the artifacts and other things she had encountered was not really in a usable state and was no different from scrap metal. Making it a waste of space to carry them along with her. Especially considering that the space inside her interspatial ring wasn’t that big.

And… There was also the fact that she feared taking these artifacts might result in some kind of formation she couldn’t see being activated, thus attracting the ancient golems she had been doing her best to hide from…