Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having already used his divine sense to get a general grasp of his surroundings, he had already learnt that the closest trading hub where a branch of the Explorer Union could be found was located inside the territory of a smaller temple called the Nascent Fire Temple, a temple that just so happened to be associated with the Heavenly Dragon Temple.

The only positive was that the Nascent Fire Temple itself wasn’t strong and seemed to be a Soul Ascension Realm level power, with no one stronger than that present in the temple. The concern was whether there would be someone powerful from the Heavenly Dragon Temple around to cause trouble for him again.

After all, even though he was confident in his own strength when it came to dealing with the Heavenly Dragon Temple, he understood just how dangerous it would be for him to start fighting with the Heavenly Dragon Temple in the still unknown Western Central Region. Especially considering how all the different major powers seemed fully united against outsiders and would likely team up on him if he ended up as an enemy of the Heavenly Dragon Temple.

At the same time, part of him could not help feeling a bit tempted in trying to learn more about the situation of the Heavenly Dragon Temple, as there hadn’t been anyone coming to try and break into the Star Shattering Sect since he cleaned up the last few trying to investigate the state of the ruins on the Fifth Star Peak.

Those ruins had been a mystery to him so far and still eluded him to this day, as he still couldn’t fully understand them... And having tried to forcibly enter them after they closed with no success even after reaching the Sea Formation Realm, it became rather obvious that the formations guarding that place wasn’t simply left by someone in the Earth Immortal Realm or the Dao Seed Realm, as the disciple he had interrogated from the Heavenly Dragon Temple had claimed.

Even diving into that lake to try and forcibly drag it out was useless, as the ruin itself seemed to be hidden inside some kind of alternate space utilizing spatial methods that exceeded his own even after he had reached the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space.

But... Even as his interest in those ruins hidden on the Fifth Star Peak continued to grow every time his strength increased and he became increasingly aware of just how special those ruins were, he was also left completely helpless, as there was no way for him to enter those ruins since they had closed.

The only information he had about the ruins had come from his brief trip inside them that didn’t really help him much with understanding them and the disciple from the Heavenly Dragon Temple he had interrogated, as the ruins themselves hadn’t opened once since that time and had shown no signs of opening any time soon as far as he was aware.

For him to learn more, he would have to either wait for the ruins to open again or find a way to get the information from the Heavenly Dragon Temple, as it was clear that they should be aware of what might be present inside those ruins.

No! I can’t like this! Won’t I just end up causing myself more problems if I end up trying to seek more information from the Heavenly Dragon Temple like this? Not to mention, the only ones who would know about the ruins on the Fifth Star Peak and potentially ask around for information about them would be someone from the Star Shattering Sect!

Asking in that kind of situation would essentially just be giving away my identity... And with how I already killed their people, they would undoubtedly start plotting my demise...

Shaking his head as he quickly purged his earlier curiosity about the ruins of the Fifth Star Peak upon remembering that it wasn’t time for him to stir up trouble, Xuan Hao once again focused his attention on traveling peacefully through the air in the direction of a large city under the control of the Nascent Fire Temple.

Although he guessed that the reason why the Heavenly Dragon Temple had given up on trying to reach the Fifth Star Peak was because of the existence of the Star Shattering Sect becoming well known as an ancient hidden sect, he didn’t believe that this identity would save him if he ended up being recognized by someone from the Heavenly Dragon Temple in their territory.

Instead, there was a high likelihood that they would take advantage of the situation to gang up on him with the other major powers from the Western Central Region to try and learn more about the Star Shattering Sect through him. After all, the different major powers from the Western Central Region had already begun unifying to expand their territory into the Northern Central Region... And the existence of the Star Shattering Sect had become a clear obstacle to this goal.

The reason for this was not because the monks from the Western Central Region had something against a hidden ancient sect, but more so because the monks of the Western Central Region were well-known to not tolerate any other major powers in the territory under their control unless it aligned with their cultivation path.

In a sense, the monks of the Western Central Region could be considered among the most ruthless of the factions that existed on the continent, as they would systematically erase the influence of any other powers within their territory... And they were among the only ones who were known to have power to wipe out ancient hidden sects, a power that was seldom possessed by anyone other than the Nine Core Faiths and a select few other powerful factions in the Southern Central Region.

For this reason, the Western Central Region was also the most difficult location for a faith to establish itself, causing most religious organizations to choose to ignore the Western Central Region.

From what he had read about the past of the Western Central Region, this had caused significant conflict, but apparently some kind of agreement had been reached and neither side bothered each other in the current day.

Something that made him incredibly vary of the monks of the Western Central Region, as they should have something to rely on to avoid further conflict...

Whoosh~

Feeling his thoughts wandering on their own as he cautiously flew through the sky while attempting to remain hidden from any prying eyes, he soon found himself reaching a large city with countless people moving through the towering gates that were in seven different locations around the city.

Looking closer at the equally towering walls that surrounded the city, Xuan Hao ended up rather surprised, as he realized the seemingly harmless looking walls that had no signs of any formation symbols on them gave him a somewhat threatening feeling not much different from facing someone in the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

A city under a small temple where the strongest person has only reached the Soul Ascension Realm has this kind of defense that not even, I can see through...?

Feeling not just surprised but also somewhat bewildered at this realization, he didn’t immediately decide to approach this city, as from everything he could see, it felt like an obvious trap that had been designed for someone.

Although... The heavenly Dragon Temple had no idea about his presence, so the trap shouldn’t be for him, but someone different, though who it was, he had no clue. All he knew was that he didn’t plan to get himself involved in some kind of internal conflict among the powers of the Western Central Region who now seemed less united than he had heard.

Whoosh~

At the end of the day, it didn’t bother him too much, as he just decided to look for another nearby city and avoid the potential trap that was laid for someone different.

However...

As he reached a second city within the Nascent Fire Temple’s sphere of influence, he found himself faced with yet another trap.

Perhaps an expansive net designed to catch someone?

Ultimately, he didn’t think too much about this and soon moved on again.

But... As he continued travelling to the third, fourth... Sixth, seventh... Ninth City, he found similar traps waiting for him. Making him increasingly suspicious about these traps inside these relatively unimportant cities.

And after he decided to investigate these traps more closely after a little over half a day passed, he came to the realization that these traps were in fact not traps, but instead some kind of protective mechanism that worked like a guardian formation in charge of protecting a city.

The main difference was that the core of this protective formation wasn’t a formation core covered in countless formation symbols, but instead a lone temple at the center of each city.

How it worked, he had no clue.

All he knew was that his divine sense couldn’t enter the small temples at the center of the city... Well... he could force way inside, but doing so would undoubtedly trigger some kind of alert or response...