Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Travelling through long distance teleportation, Xuan Hao could not help growing a bit worried about his three disciples.

After all, even though long-distance teleportation was fast and it would normally have taken him at least a month or longer to travel back normally without the use of long-distance teleportation, it would still take him at least 10 minute to reach the location of his three disciples… And that was considering that he ignored every dangerous area along the way and just went in a straight line.

Even though doing something like that was rather tempting considering he wanted to reach his disciples before they managed to get themselves killed, he also understood that it would take far longer to reach them if he ended up trapped inside one of those dangerous locations, as there was no lack of spatial restrictions or traps in those kinds of locations.

For this reason, the total time he would take to reach his disciples ended up closer to 20 minutes after having to stop and readjust around the dangerous locations in the way.

Of course, the locations he considered dangerous weren’t just ruins, unique secret realms or naturally dangerous locations, but also large cities that could have Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators guarding them.

Even if he doubted they would be able to do much to him even if he passed straight through the space of the city they were guarding, he still lacked information on the capabilities of the Celestial Immortal Realm and couldn’t discount the fact that some of them might have some way to force him out of the spatial passage he would be creating straight through the city they were guarding.

However, out of all the places that he decided to avoid along the way, the one he made the biggest detour around was the capital city of the Crimson Dragon Empire that he had been unlucky enough to find blocking his path back to the Northern Central Region.

No matter how confident in his current strength he was, he had no plans of potentially poking the hornets’ nest that was the main base of a major power at the top in the Eastern Central Region.

Though the Crimson Dragon Empire was unlikely to be as powerful as the Blue Sea Empire, there was no doubt in his mind that it would be for the best to avoid any possible conflicts with the Crimson Dragon Empire. Especially so given that he had already caused a bit chaos when he had been sweeping through the Dragon Tooth Mountain City looking for both Soul Ascension Realm and Dao Seed Realm Cultivators to join the Star Shattering Sect…

Because of this, even as he made sure to keep some extra distance between himself and the capital city of the Crimson Dragon Empire, he couldn’t stop himself from going back to travelling with the Illusory Light Steps until he got around the capital city. Unaware if there was some kind of special artifact in place to monitor the space around the capital city-

Rumble~!

And soon enough, his worries were proven correct, as he sensed a terrifying presence emerging from the depths of the capital city the second, he had managed to move around it and began using long-distance teleportation again.

Not just that, but a massive formation, far beyond the Saint Realm Formations he had seen in the Dragon Tooth Mountain City and the Free City under the Explorer Union, began to spread out with the capital city at its center. Sealing the space to the point where even walking normally would be challenging.

Luckily, even though the formation was rapidly expanding towards him and the terrifying presence from the capital was rushing over in his direction, he was too far away for either of them to reach him before he slipped away with his long-distance teleportation.

Even if the other party was at the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm or possibly even the Profound Immortal Realm, there was no way for them to chase after him unless they had also comprehended the Dao of Space to the Perfection Realm or at the very least the later stages of the Large Success Realm.

So, with that in mind, Xuan Hao didn’t think about the person he had left behind and instead focused his attention back on reaching his three disciples as fast as possible.

Ultimately, the small encounter and difficulty that had come from going around the capital city of the Crimson Dragon Empire was forgotten just as quickly as it took place.

Of course, that was how it was to Xuan Hao, but the same could not be said for the elderly man who was standing in the location where Xuan Hao had been seconds earlier before having used the long-distance teleportation to leave.

”Such a profound comprehension of the Dao of Space… Who was that?” As he muttered this to himself standing in the place where Xuan Hao had been standing while feeling the spatial fluctuations that had been left behind, the elderly man could not help narrowing his eyes slightly, a somewhat uneasy look filtering past his stoic expression.

”Not any of those old monsters… The only people who I might not know about with this level would be someone from one of the Nine Core Faiths, but… They shouldn’t be moving around outside their own territory given the agreement. At the very least, they would have informed me beforehand if they had something to do in my territory…”

As he continued talking to himself while feeling the lingering presence of Xuan Hao, the elderly man’s face became increasingly uneasy. Slowly concluding that the person he had just encountered wasn’t someone he was familiar with nor anyone from one of the Nine Core Faiths.

”Someone from beyond the continent…” Showing a slight hint of fear on his face as he quietly whispered a few words, the elderly man didn’t waste any time lingering around the place Xuan Hao had disappeared from a short time earlier.

However, instead of heading back in the direction of the capital city that he had originally emerged from, he instead began moving south. Not bothering to stop and talk to the few Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators who showed up a bit later. Leaving these higher ups in control of the Crimson Dragon Empire in complete confusion over what had just happened.

After all, different from this elderly man, they had not been able to pick up on Xuan Hao’s presence when he had used the Dao of Space to initiate a long-distance teleportation to leave. Only witnessing their senior suddenly emerge and rush out, while at the same time activating the guardian formation.

Now that he suddenly left without saying anything or explaining to them what had happened, the group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, who had originally been prepared for a potential battle with one of the other major powers who might be targeting them, could only turn around and go back to the capital filled with questions.

In turn, because of the uncertainty about what had happened, none of them dared to lower the formation that had been activated by their senior to guard the capital city.

Even if it was extremely draining on the resources of the empire to keep such a massive formation running, it was far better than potentially having their capital city destroyed while their senior was missing.

Unaware of any of this happening, the senior in question was unknowingly going to cost his empire years of accumulated resources because of his failure to inform those under him that everything was fine and that there was nothing for them to worry about.

…

While the Crimson Dragon Empire began the process of burning up their long-accumulated resources for no apparent reason, Xuan Hao’s three disciples were all gathered looking at the battle in the distance growing closer to them by the second.

Since Qing Yi had contacted their master, a little over 10 minutes had passed and, in the process, the battle between the powerful Soul Ascension Realm cultivator and demon beast had grown even closer to where they were located. Forcing them to directly use their qi to guard themselves from the powerful winds generated by the clash between the two powerful beings.

At the same time, behind them, the presence of several demon beasts all in the Soul Ascension Realm had begun to emerge. Making it all the more obvious that they didn’t have any way out of their current situation.

The only positive was that the wandering cultivators had remained passive so far and were similarly to them caught in a bind. Unable to escape from the current situation.

Of course, it wasn’t that they hadn’t tried escaping back through the gate to the mystic realm still buried not far away. Unfortunately, the other side of that gate had been completely occupied by the oversized rat demon beasts. Making it impossible for them to retreat into the mystic realm…