Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Lost in his own thoughts as he slowly moved closer to the city together with the rest of the people waiting in line to enter the Dragon Tooth Mountain City, Xuan Hao noticed out of the corner of his eye that there was actually someone in the Core Formation Realm waiting in line along with him, something highly unusual considering that even Nascent Soul Realm cultivators were hard to see among the people waiting in line.

Even more so after considering that there wasn’t really anything inside the Dragon Tooth Mountain City that would be in any way useful to someone only in the Core Formation Realm.

From what he had managed to learn about the city during his journey through the Crimson Dragon Empire and a little small talk between the cultivators waiting in line, the Dragon Tooth City had been deliberately set up by the Crimson Dragon Empire.

First to block any unauthorized entry into the Dragon Tooth Mountain and second as a place to nurture their mid-level cultivators of the empire who were no longer among the younger generation and could be considered the backbone of the empire.

A Nascent Soul Realm cultivator going would be unnatural, but not unexpected, as some younger geniuses of the empire obviously wanted to test themselves and hopefully make use of the dangers on the Dragon Tooth Mountain to breakthrough and cross over to the Domain Lord Realm.

Someone in the Core Formation Realm going to the Dragon Tooth Mountain… That was simply a death sentence! And of course, that was only so if the other party even had the means to pay the terrifyingly high entrance fee required to step inside of the Dragon Tooth Mountain City.

However, as Xuan Hao and a few others who had caught sight of the young Core Formation Realm cultivator watched him proceed towards the entrance, they were all shocked to see the guard bowing his head before quickly calling for a superior at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm who cautiously guided the young Core Formation Realm cultivator inside of the city without delay.

This… Is he perhaps the son of one of the Celestial Immortals of the Crimson Dragon Empire? Or perhaps an imperial descendant in line for the throne?

Not knowing what else to think upon seeing the sheer respect together with no small amount of fear hidden beneath the surface on the face of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm cultivator who appeared to guide the young Core Formation Realm cultivator inside of the city, Xuan Hao could not think of any other reason for that kind of reaction.

Even if the other party was the son of someone in the Dao Seed Realm, he doubted that the reaction of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm cultivator would have been that exaggerated. Meaning that the young Core Formation Realm cultivator had a great identity than just a descendant of Dao Seed Realm cultivator.

”That- Who was that young man?”

”No idea, but the fear on old Yang’s face when he escorted him inside was rather obvious even if he tried to hide it.”

”Indeed… For even someone at the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm close to reaching the Earth Immortal Realm to react like that, I fear that I, with my meager cultivation at the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm would die if I offended that young master.”

”Sure, sure, we know you broke through to the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm a few days ago. No need to use every opportunity to show off in front of others.”

”Hehe, sorry, sorry, but regarding that young master, I think he should be the son of the guardian.”

”Son of the guardian!? A-are you talking about Guardian Zhang…?”

”Yes, I’m talking about him, heard a bit information about his son possibly showing up at the Explorer Union and given his strength fits along with the respectful behavior of old Yang, I think it makes sense, as only someone like that would be able to command that level of respect and fear from old Yang.”

”This… Indeed…”

”Nothing to say, you make sense…”

”True, even in the face of a Dao Seed Realm cultivator, old Yang doesn’t flinch, let alone in the face of the son of a Dao Seed Realm cultivator…”

Listening in to the discussions of the few other cultivators who had seen the same scene as him, Xuan Hao could not help nodding his head in understanding after learning about the identity of this Guardian Zhang from a few other people behind him.

Guardian Zhang was the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator currently guarding the Dragon Tooth Mountain City.

For the son of someone like that to show up even though his cultivation realm was only in the Core Formation Realm, it was not that odd, as the other party at least had a reason to be there.

Not to mention, it made the fearful and respectful reaction of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm guard a bit more understandable.

The only thing that did make him a bit confused was that the young man had seemingly lined up alongside everyone else entering the city when it was obvious that he would be able to easily skip the line and enter with his identity.

If anything, waiting in line was nothing short of a risk to his life, as anyone who might want to assassinate him would have the perfect opportunity to do so given that the hidden guards would at most be in the Soul Ascension Realm given that the strongest person around the entrance was in the Soul Ascension Realm from what he could sense.

Of course, assassinating the child of a Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator so close to the father in question was nothing short of giving up on escaping after the kill. Especially considering that there would be no way to teleport away from someone so proficient in the Dao of Space.

Perhaps the son has some kind of special circumstances and is not at any risk of being assassinated…

Shaking his head as he thought about this while looking off in the direction that the young master had disappeared in, he soon came face to face with the stone-faced guards at the entrance and painfully handed over the spirit stones to enter the Dragon Tooth Mountain City.

Whoosh~!

Stepping inside the city the next moment, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine, as he clearly felt the formation guarding the city bearing down on him for a split second as it seemed to forcibly scan him from head to toe.

Luckily, the formation clearly couldn’t perceive the difference between the Domain Lord Realm and the Dao Domain Lord Realm as it retracked without doing anything to him other than scanning his cultivation base and ensuring that he wasn’t some Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from an enemy nation trying to sneak inside to cause trouble for the Crimson Dragon Empire.

Looking back at the other cultivators who came in closely behind him, he realized that he wasn’t the only one to receive this kind of special treatment from the formation, as it seemed that the formation treated everyone equally.

The only difference he picked up on was the fact that it had clearly taken the formation far longer to scan him earlier, though due to there being no hostile reaction and using his understanding of the Dao of Formations, he concluded that this was just because the formation encountered an unexpected error that it quickly processed and fixed.

If the formation master who had created the formation was not present, such a small error that was quickly fixed by the formation itself should go completely unnoticed.

Even someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm wouldn’t be able to pick up on it, as it required a certain understanding of the Dao of Formations and wasn’t the slightest bit related to the strength of the cultivator.

The main thing that worried him was whether the formation had some kind of inbuilt formation that would record any errors for the formation masters taking care of the formation, but… Given the other party’s comprehension of the Dao of Formation exceeding his own, Xuan Hao highly doubted that the other party wouldn’t place in such a simple formation that would help make the process maintain the larger formation far easier.

With that in mind, depending on how often the formation was looked at and taken care of without any major failures or damage occurring, he most likely only had a limited time left inside of the city before someone found the error and narrowed down where and who it came from, something that should be rather simple if he was still inside of the formation.

 ”…”

Feeling a bit annoyed at this predicament he now found himself in as he wanted to recruit people to join the sect from among the countless wandering cultivators that could be found throughout the city, Xuan Hao decided not to waste any time and directly headed towards the Explorer Union.