Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Returning to the sect, Xuan Hao didn’t waste much time as he began shifting his focus towards comprehending the Dao of the Sword now that his Dao of Ice was stuck at a bottleneck that couldn’t be resolved by him simply continuing to stay at the Second Star Peak to cultivate.

Maybe entering the Frozen Wasteland where the presence of the Dao of Ice was strong and locations perfect for comprehending the Dao of Ice would be easier to find was a way for him to overcome the bottleneck and reach the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Ice, but doing so came with the clear risk of having to fight against the demonic cultivators, something that he wanted to avoid if possible. Especially so considering that the demonic cultivators were currently busy helping him weaken the Blue Sea Empire.

Because of this, the Dao of the Sword became the most obvious Dao for him to focus his attention on. Not just because his comprehension of the Dao of the Sword was strong, but also because he could meet up with Feng Chen every now and then and share his insights into the Dao of the Sword with him.

Even if Feng Chen’s comprehension of the Dao of the Sword was nowhere near his own, he had a different path than him and his unique view on the Dao of the Sword still provided him with something useful for furthering his own comprehension of the Dao of the Sword.

Not to mention, spending more time with Feng Chen and sharing his own insights into the Dao of the Sword with him, also helped Feng Chen rapidly improve his own understanding of the Dao of the Sword, something that then made it more beneficial for him to discuss the Dao of the Sword with him.

In the end, it was a virtuous cycle to talk about the Dao of the Sword with Feng Chen.

Although… There was one thing that happened because of this and that was the fact that Feng Chen’s increase in strength began to far outstrip that of his disciples, something understandable considering how much time he was spending with him discussing the Dao of the Sword, but still… It left some of his disciples feeling a bit jealous of Feng Chen.

Well… Not some of his disciples, more so just Chu Yang, who was eager to learn more from his master after breaking through to the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

And so… Not one to leave his disciple behind, Xuan Hao decided to bring Chu Yang along when he went to Feng Chen to discuss the Dao of the Sword.

Of course, to ensure that it would also be beneficial to Chu Yang, he decided to expand the conversation from just talking about the Dao of the Sword to include the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

Even if this wasn’t that beneficial to him, it was immensely beneficial to Feng Chen and Chu Yang to have him guide them through the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

After all, even if they were both following the Singular Path, and he, the Myriad Path, his overall experience when it came to the Dao Domain Lord Realm and the fact that he was someone close to the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm more than made up for this. Especially so given that he had long since read through the information that the two of them had brought back regarding the Singular Path of the Dao Domain Lord Realm. Allowing him to fully understand the path all the way to the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

Outside of that, there was also the simple fact that the two of them were still only at the Early Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm and had only barely started to explore the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

In the end, like this, a few months quickly flew by with him spending most of his time together with Chu Yang and Feng Chen, explaining the Dao Domain Lord Realm to the two of them, while he and Feng Chen deepened their understanding of the Dao of the Sword together.

Though still at the Large Success Realm of the Dao of the Sword, Xuan Hao could clearly feel that he was nearing the peak of the realm. Most importantly, he could feel that his sword intent, that had remained stagnant at the Sword Soul Realm, had also improved during this time.

If he could be considered to have reached the Early Stage of the Sword Soul Realm when the nascent sword soul became a true sword soul and merged with a sword to form an intrinsic sword inside his dantian, the intrinsic sword in his dantian had now completed it’s first refinement inside his dantian and had become even stronger.

Although not a fundamental change like he had experienced when he went from the Nascent Sword Soul Realm to the Sword Soul Realm, it was a clear improvement, like having broken through a minor realm in cultivation.

For this reason, Xuan Hao decided to come up with a way to categorize his realm in the Sword Soul Realm.

The first minor realm where the intrinsic sword had just formed inside the dantian could be considered to be focused on the sword’s formation, while the second minor realm that he had managed to reach now could be considered focused on refining the sword, thus, the two minor realms of the Sword Soul Realm were aptly named the Sword Formation Realm and the Sword Refinement Realm.

In the future, if he wanted to improve in the Sword Refinement Realm and strengthen his intrinsic sword and in turn his sword intent, he would have to continue refining the sword in his dantian.

So far, he had only barely completed one refinement and that so mainly thanks to Feng Chen, who had helped in coming up with the idea on how to proceed through the Sword Soul Realm. After all, neither of them had any clue on how they could progress through the Sword Soul Realm and could only explore on their own, as there wasn’t really any available information on what happened after breaking through to the Sword Soul Realm. All they knew was that the realm above the Sword Soul Realm was called the Sword Heart Realm.

As for how accurate their deduction regarding how to progress through the Sword Soul Realm was? That was debatable… But they at least felt that there wouldn’t be anything wrong with strengthening the intrinsic sword in their dantian, even if it didn’t help them get closer to reaching the Sword Heart Realm, it would at least make them stronger in battle.

Speaking of their exploration into the Sword Soul Realm, it had been immensely beneficial to Feng Chen, who had only been in the Nascent Sword Soul Realm or Half Step Sword Soul Realm. Allowing him to start the process of forming the intrinsic sword inside his dantian. Showing signs of breaking through to the Sword Soul Realm at any moment.

In turn, this had made Feng Chen far stronger as well, as the number of Soul Ascension Realm cultivators who could fight him inside the Star Shattering Sect now could be counted on one hand. Earning him the admiration of not just the Soul Ascension Realm cultivators, but also the few Dao Seed Realm cultivators in the Star Shattering Sect, as everyone acknowledged just how talented he was in the Dao of the Sword.

The only one who surpassed him in terms of reputation among these senior figures of the sect was Chu Yang, as he had returned to his old ways after learning about so many new and powerful elders joining the sect, as he challenged every single one of the Soul Ascension Realm Elders and even the Dao Seed Realm Elders of the sect. Not even sparing the ancestor of the Zhang Clan who stayed outside the main sect with most of his clan members to help guard the borders of the sect.

Of course, the result of him challenging these Dao Seed Realm cultivators was one sided, as he ended up getting beaten up without a chance to fight back.

Although… Being beaten so thoroughly only seemed to increase his fighting spirit as he came back for more a few days later. Reaching the point where not just Pei Yang, but even the ancestor of the Zhang Clan came to him to beg him to stop his disciple from challenging them to a fight all the time.

Troublesome as this was, Xuan Hao was happy that his disciple was so eager for improvement and before long allowed him to once again leave the sect to hone his strength.

The main difference this time around being that he only gave him the bare minimum when it came to protective talismans, and he personally helped transport him to the Eastern Central Region. Understanding that it was a good location for training, while at the same time not wanting him to create more problems for the sect by attracting any unwanted attention in the Northern Central Region.