Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Continuing to keep an eye on the battle and watching out for any changes that took place as the winged lion demon beast and the demonic cultivator both continued to rapidly grow stronger with each passing second, Xuan Hao ultimately decided to wait until the demonic cultivator broke through to the Demon Lord Realm before he would do anything.

The main reason for that being that he could use the opportunity while the demonic cultivator in the Demon King Realm behind the scenes was unaware of his presence to help the winged lion demon beast rapidly increase its strength and reach the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm in a period of time that would normally be impossible without the great sacrifice from the side of the hidden Demon King Realm demonic cultivator.

Although, given the constant presence of the blood tendrils around the winged lion demon beast supplying it with qi and blood to fuel its rapid increase in strength, he would only be able to make a move when the winged lion demon beast broke through and attracted a heavenly tribulation. Taking the opportunity while the blood tendrils hadn’t yet had time to reattach to grab the winged lion demon beast and take it to a safe location.

After which, he would see what the Demon King Realm demonic cultivator intended to do next. After all, he would be showing off his current comprehension of the Dao of Space and ensure that the other party understood that the one he was dealing with wasn’t someone easy to catch.

Even though he did want to find out what the other party might be planning to do with the winged lion demon beast, he subtly understood that doing so would almost certainly put the winged lion demon beast’s life at risk. Especially considering that there was close to no chance that the demonic cultivator hidden somewhere in the Frozen Wastelands had any kind intentions regarding the help he or she had provided to the winged lion demon beast.

With all of that in mind, Xuan Hao once again calmed himself down as he silently observed the fight that continued without a clear winner.

The only difference compared to before being that the demonic cultivator was now clearly the one winning every time he clashed with the winged lion demon beast.

Like this, a few days quickly flew by, as the strength of the two continued to increase, while the area affected by their battle similarly grew in size and began affecting the small kingdom located next to the Star Shattering Sect.

In turn, because of this, the battle also ended up drawing the attention of the Blue Sea Empire, as someone at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm from the Blue Sea Empire soon arrived to observe the situation.

Of course, knowing that the battle was ultimately centered around the border of what they believed to be an ancient sect, the person from the Blue Sea Empire decided to not interfere in the battle and instead just observed the winged lion demon beast and demonic cultivator fighting each other.

However, because he had just recently arrived and both the winged lion demon beast were close to breaking through, he believed that this should just be the Star Shattering Sect making use of a powerful demonic cultivator to train one of their demon beasts under pressure and help it break through.

Considering the size and age of the Blue Sea Empire, they had done similar things in the past. Making it rather easy for this Peak Soul Ascension Realm cultivator to understand what was happening.

Although, the rapid speed at which the winged lion demon beast was reaching the peak of its realm and starting to attack the barrier was astounding, though he just thought of it as the excellent training methods of the Star Shattering Sect being superior to those of the Blue Sea Empire when it came to training demon beasts. Not surprising considering an ancient sect normally had superior cultivation methods compared to empires like the Blue Sea Empire that had been around for a far shorter period of time.

Even then, the existence of the Soul Ascension Realm cultivator from the Blue Sea Empire and a few other cultivators from the Blue Sea Empire who had gathered from nearby to watch the battle did end up causing Xuan Hao, hidden in the shadows, to feel a bit troubled.

After all, with them around, there was no way he could go with his original plan of just grabbing the winged lion demon beast and using his Dao of Space to escape. Doing so would be a sign of weakness and make it look like the Star Shattering Sect was afraid of demonic cultivators, something that went completely against how ancient sects had acted in the past when interacting with demonic cultivators.

But… The problem was, the current Star Shattering Sect was indeed afraid of incurring the wrath of the demonic cultivators. Especially considering that it was still unknown whether or not the demonic cultivators perceived the Star Shattering Sect as an ancient sect that should be avoided at all costs if possible.

Should I just go with the flow and go all out in keeping up the act…?

Feeling increasingly troubled about what to do as he watched how the winged lion demon beast and demonic cultivator both decided to stop their battle to break through once again, Xuan Hao felt like he would have to make a very important decision that could affect the future of the entire sect.

Even worse, as he sensed the winged lion demon beast breaking through to the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, he also sensed a new powerful figure appearing on the side of the Blue Sea Empire.

However, different from the few Soul Ascension Realm cultivators who had gathered so far, this one was clearly here to observe the situation on behalf of the Blue Sea Empire’s higher ups. Having reached the Middle Stage of the Dao Seed Realm or equivalent to someone who had reached the Half Bloom Stage also known as the Peak of the Earth Immortal Realm.

Fooling a few Soul Ascension Realm cultivators might be possible, but fooling someone at the Middel Stage of the Dao Seed Realm with his current strength was close to impossible. Even keeping himself hidden from the other party’s divine sense was a bit difficult and would have been impossible if he was still at the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

BOOOOM-!

As the winged lion demon beast endured its heavenly tribulation and was bathed in lightning, the demonic cultivator that had already reached the Peak of the True Demon Realm was the first to break through, directly reaching the Demon Lord Realm-

”HAHAHA! I’M FINALLY AT THE- AAAaaaah!?”

However, just as he began laughing wildly to himself filled with happiness over finally breaking through to the Demon Lord Realm, countless formation symbols that had been barely visible during his past breakthrough, suddenly lit up like the sun, covering his entire body in an instant.

Rumble~!

Seconds later, as the demonic cultivator already began rolling around on the ground in pain, Xuan Hao watched as the blood tendrils that had remained invisible to the rest of the world so far finally revealed themselves before surging towards the demonic cultivator on the ground… And soon enough, the demonic cultivator was engulfed by blood tendrils. Forming a cocoon of blood tendrils around his body.

This… Is that demonic cultivator perhaps cultivating a second body or an avatar of some sort?

Filled with confusion as he watched what was happening, Xuan Hao instantly guessed that the demonic cultivator behind the scenes might actually be lacking a body and thus decided to cultivate one for himself in this kind of way.

If not, it might be him cultivating an avatar of some sort to help in battle in the future.

Although, all of this didn’t explain why the winged lion demon beast had been similarly strengthened alongside the demonic cultivator.

The only reason Xuan Hao could think of at the moment was that the winged lion demon beast might have also been strengthened alongside the demonic cultivator to let the demonic cultivator let down his guard while fighting with the winged lion demon beast.

After all, there was no option for him to accept this increase in strength if his opponent continued to grow stronger.

Even if he wanted to investigate it, there was no time for him to do so, as he would have to put his full attention towards fighting the winged lion demon beast, thus resulting in the current state of things where he had been overwhelmed and without the slightest bit of resistance even though he had already broken through to the Demon Lord Realm and should in fact have more than enough strength to resist the blood tendrils currently holding him in place and engulfing him completely inside a cocoon created by them.

After all, the strength of the blood tendrils themselves weren’t that much and only barely reached a level comparable to the Nascent Soul realm…