Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

After his short conversation with Sheng Mei about the ancient language and her former lord, Xuan Hao was about to go over and see his disciples when he encountered a rather strange situation on his way back to the Combat Hall where his disciples had gathered.

SQUEAK!

”I-I’m sorry Lord Rabbit, I will make sure to bring go and bring you more spirit stones as fast as possible!”

The scene in question being his rabbit demon beast seemingly bossing around a human in the Soul Ascension Realm in front of a crowd of younger disciples who were curiously observing the human Soul Ascension Realm cultivator speed off to find spirit stones.

”This should be the human subordinate that it brought back…” Muttering this to himself without having any clue what to say, Xuan Hao decided to just ignore the situation and pretend he wasn’t there. Even actively deciding to use his dao domain to conceal himself as he continued moving towards the Combat Hall.

Although it was a bit weird for a demon beast to have a human subordinate, it seemed like both parties involved were at least in agreement like they had been the first time he saw them. Meaning there was no reason for him to interfere in the affairs of the rabbit demon beast.

And so, without the rabbit demon beast knowing about his return to the sect, Xuan Hao made his way towards the Combat Hall where Mui was busy showing off how much her strength had managed to improve during her time adventuring in the mystic realm. Earning her a rather jealous look from Chu Yang, who also wanted to enter a dangerous place like the mystic realm to improve his strength.

Unfortunately for him, he also understood that his master was unlikely to return to the mystic realm so fast considering that he had just gone there with Mui less than a day ago.

Even then, it didn’t stop him from staring in an almost begging manner towards his master when he joined them for their training session in the Combat Hall. Making it rather clear to everyone around that he also wanted to go out on adventure to improve his strength like Mui had done.

If not for the fact that he didn’t feel safe sending Chu Yang inside the mystic realm on his own after knowing about the possibility of a demon beast in the Dao Seed Realm or above being present in there, Xuan Hao would have been more than happy to let him go and train inside the mystic realm.

To make things worse for Chu Yang who clearly wanted to go out on an adventure, it wasn’t really safe for him to leave the sect either, as there was still the problem with the demonic cultivators that posed a certain risk.

But… After thinking things over and having to endure the begging look from his oldest disciple for the next two days, Xuan Hao finally gave in and decided to let him leave the sect’s territory to go out to improve himself.

Of course, there were a few conditions that came along with the agreement, like staying away from the Frozen Wasteland or powerful major powers like the Blue Sea Empire, but outside of that, he pretty much had free reign to do what he wanted.

In the end, Chu Yang ended up staying in the sect for another two weeks. Spending this time being taught by his master about the core region of the continent and what places he should avoid before he left with a few life saving talismans that had been refined by his master for self-defense.

The talismans in question were the same he had left the rest of his disciples in the past and weren’t really that complicated to make. Only requiring Xuan Hao to use his mastery over formations to create a special kind of formation that could contain his power.

The only problem with this method being that it took quite a long time to prepare even a single talisman like this and they didn’t last for long, as their power slowly decreased over time with the power inside them leaking out as time passed.

At most, these kinds of talismans would be able to last for half a year to a year before the strength started to fall below the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm and began a stage of rapid decline.

Out of everything, the only method he really had that could last for a long time, was the soul mark he left behind on his disciples as a last line of defense.

But… For obvious reasons, he couldn’t really go around leaving his soul mark on everyone in the sect, as even a single soul mark affected his soul to a certain degree. Although the ones he had left on his disciples were far from enough to cause any adverse effects on his soul, he was not planning to try and test out the limits of the soul mark, as it would risk damaging his soul…

Following Chu Yang leaving the Star Shattering Sect. Nothing much changed, as the sect continued its normal operation of expanding its information network, fighting back demonic cultivators, building up and strengthening branch sects, recruiting new disciples and continuing to integrate the different new powers that had come from the Onyx Empire not too long ago.

Like this, two months had peacefully passed since Chu Yang left the Star Shattering Sect to explore on his own.

…

”Hehe, it’s finally completed! I hope the demon king will be pleased with it! What about you two, did you finish up the formations ordered by the demon king?”

At this time, inside the recently rebuilt capital city of the Onyx Empire, an old man covered in a black rode hidden inside a small alleyway happily said this into a small communication talisman with a proud expression on his face.

Looking closer, this was none other than one of the demonic cultivators that had been sent out by the Blood Lotus Demon King when the demon king had been busy holding off the three ancestors from the Blue Sea Empire.

”Of course, I finished mine a little over a week ago.”

”Hmph! Both of you are so slow! I finished mine over a month ago!”

Not long after the old demonic cultivator finished talking two similarly proud voices echoed out from the communication talisman. However, one of them clearly stood out a bit, while also seeming a bit haughtier and more arrogant.

”One month ago!? What about powerful cultivators? Wasn’t there anyone from the Blue Sea Kingdom around!?”

”Yeah! How did you complete the formation in only two months!?”

In response, the two other demonic cultivators could not help almost yelling back with shocked expressions plastered all over their faces. Not understanding how this fellow had managed to set up the formation so much faster than them. After all, the formation they set up was the same and there shouldn’t be this much of a difference between their speed in setting them up under normal circumstances.

”Hehe, you two don’t know, the place I was to set up the formation is rather desolated, and I only had to hide away from the Blue Sea Empire’s people three times over the past three months!”

”Tch! How Lucky, I could barely continue work on the formation for more than a few hours before being forced to hide away. Scared me to death whenever I felt those people from the Blue Sea Empire flying past above.

If not for the safety measures left behind by the demon king to help hide my presence, I fear that I would have long since been found and killed by those people!”

”Now, now, let’s get back to the matter at hand. Now that the three formations have been set up, we should contact the demon king and wait for his signal to activate the formations.”

””…””

Hearing the words of the third demonic cultivator jumping in, the other two quickly quieted down. Understanding that the moment they decided to activate the formation they had spent the past three months working on, their locations would be revealed to the people from the Blue Sea Empire.

Even though they might be able to carry out the plan of the demon king without any problems, as the hardest part had already been completed, they all understood that there was little chance of them escaping alive after activating the formations. Especially the demonic cultivator currently in the Onyx Empire’s newly built capital city.

The moment the formation there activated, the Celestial Immortal still inside the Onyx Empire would likely rush over to kill him. Leaving no chance of escaping.

Only the other two stood a small chance of escaping depending on what would happen after the activation of the formations.

”Haaa… It’s our fault for being too weak…” Sighing to himself as he muttered this to no one in particular, the demonic cultivator located in the ruined capital of the destroyed Sky Empire decided to be the one to deliver the news, as he picked up a special communication talisman and sent his qi into it with a somewhat reluctant expression on his face…