Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Leaving the city at the border between the Eastern Central Region and the Northern Central Region, it didn’t take long before he ended up encountering more and more settlements occupied by different small clans and families. All of them, far smaller than the one close to the border, with the average cultivation base of the ones in charge ranging between the Earlier Stages of the Domain Lord Realm to the Later Stages of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Not one of them being guarded by someone in the Dao Seed Realm, let alone a wandering cultivator in the Dao Seed Realm being present. If anything, it was difficult to even encounter a single wandering cultivator at the Domain Lord Realm not affiliated inside these smaller cities and settlements.

All of this without even mentioning the fact that the state of these smaller powers being far more chaotic compared to the city ruled by the Zhang, Qing and Xue Clan.

Although he had heard about the Eastern Central Region being a chaotic place filled with constant wars, it was only now that he realized just how accurate this kind of description was. Especially so considering that he had ended up suffering a few attacks himself whenever he went to take a look around some of the small cities or other settlements he encountered along the way.

All things considered, he didn’t really mind this kind of chaotic environment, as it did allow him to more easily recruit elders for the sect by taking advantage of the chaotic situation throughout the Eastern Central Region. Providing a safe place to cultivate through becoming an elder of his sect.

The main problem he encountered so far when it came to recruiting new elders being that the ones he had encountered so far were too weak to even be considered potential elders, though… That should be something that would be solved after he reached one of the more populated parts of the Eastern Central Region where stronger cultivators congregated around areas where it was easier to get their hands on cultivation resources.

Among the dozen or so locations like that throughout the Eastern Central Region that he had specifically learnt about during his journey and in the short time he had decided to learn more about the Eastern Central Region before entering it himself, the one he was currently heading towards was a place called the Dragon Tooth Mountain.

From what he had managed to learn about the place, it was a popular place for wandering cultivators at the Soul Ascension Realm and above to gather.

The reason being that a rare kind of cultivation resource that could help in refining the physical body called crimson eudimite, or just simply referred to as dragon blood crystals, could be found on the Dragon Tooth Mountain.

For this reason, most of the people going to the place were those who specialized in cultivating their bodies. Not that there wasn’t anyone other than those specializing in refining their bodies, just that those were the most numerous among those visiting the place.

Of course, with that in mind, it was obvious that the Dragon Tooth Mountain was an extremely dangerous place, as if it wasn’t, it would have long since been under the control of one of the major powers in the Eastern Central Region.

The danger of the place not being limited to the Dao Seed Realm, as there have even been a few cases of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators disappearing on the Dragon Tooth Mountain.

Not that any of this would have anything to do with him, as his goal for going to the Dragon Tooth Mountain wasn’t the dragon blood crystals, but instead to try and recruit some of the wandering cultivators gathered around the edge of the mountain.

Although the dragon blood crystals did interest him, he wasn’t planning on going out of his way to search for them, as they were notoriously difficult to find even for someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm and relied more on luck than anything else, as they were essentially invisible to divine sense…

Continuing to travel through the Eastern Central Region in the direction of the Dragon Tooth Mountain without the use of long distance teleportation so as to avoid accidentally revealing his presence to any of the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators in the region who might have comprehended the Dao of Space if he happened to pass by too closely, Xuan Hao took the opportunity to observe what he encountered along the way.

Making sure to keep his eye out for any wandering cultivators who could be recruited to join the sect… And surprisingly, he did end up encountering a Soul Ascension Realm cultivator who fit his criteria for being recruited to join the sect on the third day since he left the Zhang Clan.

Even though the person in question was only someone who had recently broken through to the Soul Ascension Realm and was far weaker than his two pets currently at the Pinnacle of the Soul Ascension Realm and close to reaching the Dao Seed Realm, he still counted towards the main sect quest completion, a way that he surpassed his two pets.

Speaking of his two pets, he had tried to promote them to elders of the sect in an attempt to complete the main sect quest faster, but quickly realized that this was not an option, as it seemed like the system didn’t see them as elders.

The reason was uncertain, but he had a feeling it had to do with the fact that the rest of the sect didn’t really regard his two pets as elders. Understandable considering that they couldn’t really communicate with anyone other than him at the moment. Making them elders a bit difficult.

Instead of elders, those two were more like guardian beasts with how the winged lion demon beast was helping guard the borders of the sect and ensuring that no powerful demonic cultivator caused problems for the elders and disciples of the sect.

The rabbit demon beast… It… It was less memorable and might seem more like a guardian leech in some instances, but it did help the sect out when it came to guarding the part of the sect facing the former territory of the Sky Empire. Although far less visible to the rest of the sect compared to the actions of the winged lion demon beast that fought at the border in front of the sect elders and disciples every now and again.

Back to the Soul Ascension Realm cultivator he happened to run into…

After a bit of convincing, he managed to successfully recruit the other party to join the Star Shattering Sect before sending him off in the general direction of the sect with some information to give the sect elders upon arriving that would then inform Elder Song about the situation, as he would know how to deal with this new elder. Especially so as he had already discussed this before he left the sect, so as to not cause any panic when a large number of new people appeared to join the sect all of a sudden.

Speaking of which… He had only discussed the matter of recruiting wandering cultivators with Elder Song and had not really talked about something like recruiting an entire clan at once…

”I will apologize to Elder Song when I get back…” Muttering this to himself as he could already imagine Elder Song’s reaction when he learnt about the fact that he had recruited an entire clan in one go, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit guilty over how thoughtlessly he had ended up recruiting the Zhang Clan without thinking things through.

However, he couldn’t be blamed too much, as the prospect of adding another Dao Seed Realm cultivator to the sect was simply far too tempting for him.

At least Xuan Hao convinced himself that this was the case as he continued getting closer and closer to the Dragon Tooth Mountain.

Soon enough, while lost in his own thoughts about what might happen when he returns to the sect and the future development of the sect, he crossed over the border of one of the 17 major powers of the Eastern Central Region, the Crimson Dragon Empire.

Not too surprisingly from the name of this empire, it was also the major power that the Crimson Dragon Tooth Mountain was located inside of.

After all, even if the different major powers of the Eastern Central Region couldn’t take full control of the place, there was no way that it wouldn’t fall inside the territorial borders of one of these major powers. The Crimson Dragon Empire being the major power that had ended up with it.

Of course, this didn’t mean that the Crimson Dragon Empire was one of the four strongest of the major powers in the Eastern Central Region, but it could still be considered among the stronger major powers of the Eastern Central Region. Ranking in the top three behind the four strongest major powers.

Merry Christmas~