Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Returning back to the small village isolated from the rest of the world with the strange demonic ritual still hidden under the small church at the center of the village along with the entrance leading into the ancient alchemy sect ruins, Xuan Hao didn’t waste any time as he slipped through the temporary concealment formation he had placed to ensure that it would be difficult for any passing cultivators to easily discover the small hidden space beneath the church unless their strength far surpassed his own and they were actively looking through the village with their divine sense, something that was unlikely to happen considering the sheer number of small villages located around the one with the secret passage to ancient alchemy sect ruins easily numbered to around a dozen.

Although not that many to someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm, the sheer number of villages they encountered along the way every few kilometers they travelled made it impossible for them to do an in-depth investigation of every single one with their divine sense. At most, a cursory scan of their divine sense was more than enough to confirm if there was any danger hidden.

Not to mention, it was unlikely that anyone would think a secret passage to the ancient alchemy sect ruins would be hidden away inside such a small village. After all, the other entrance to the ancient alchemy sect ruins Xuan Hao had encountered during his escape from the Land Creation Realm demon beast with his disciple and his friends, was far larger than the small one hidden beneath the village church. Easily taking up twice the size of the small village. Making it difficult to hide such a large entrance without leaving any noticeable signs on the surface, as one would not just have to hide the village that the entrance had emerged inside of and likely swallowed up in the process, but also any traces that connected the village with the outside world.

All that aside, Xuan Hao soon enough found himself back in the relatively intact part of the ancient alchemy sect ruins. Finding himself gazing around the place with a mild look of surprise in his eyes upon seeing the clear changes that had happened during his brief absence.

Not only had the open square located a little over two hundred meters away from the passage connecting this place with the outside world been filled to the brim with all kinds of strange artifacts that he instinctively felt were related to alchemy, but Huo Fen and Meng Jie were also busy at work throwing all kinds of strange spiritual herb into different artifacts before using others to aid the ones now filled with spiritual herbs to refine these spiritual herbs.

Observing the situation playing out instead of stepping forward immediately to inform the two of his presence, he quickly reailized the purpose of these different alchemy artifacts.

One set of artifacts were used to refine and mix raw, unrefined spiritual herbs into a kind of powder substance, while another mixed in some kind of spiritual water. Followed by another that heated up the mixture and a fourth that was automatically inserted into the boiling mixture of ground up spiritual herbs and spiritual water. Shaking the entire mixture until some kind of strange magical process took place inside and helped guide the boiling mixture into pill shaped forms before a fifth artifact took over and helped solidify and form the pills.

The entire process was handled with such precision and skill that it needed little to no input from the master disciple pair outside of a few corrections to the artifacts from time to time... And in the end, close to a hundred pills were produced in a matter of minutes with the help of these artifacts.

But maybe even more surprising was the grade of these spiritual herbs... All of them were Saint Grade...

So... This is where they got the Saint Grade Elixirs and pills from in the past? But... If they could mass produce a hundred of them so easily, why did they only settle with forty or so in the past?

Feeling his curiosity growing as he watched the two at work starting to prepare for refining another batch of Saint Grade Pills, Xuan Hao’s ancient, soon focused on the pile of spiritual herbs next to the two of them.

At first, he hadn’t paid that much attention to the large pile of spiritual herbs as he had assumed that they weren’t that important given how they had just been thrown into a pile on the ground.

But... As he focused on this pile of spiritual herbs, he realized that almost every single one of them had at least reached the Transcendent Grade with over 10% of them having reached the Saint Grade.

This kind of terrifying supply of high-quality spiritual herbs... No wonder those two were able to so easily produce Saint Grade Spiritual Pills!

Although... It wasn’t entirely accurate to say that it was the two of them who produced the Saint Grade Spiritual Pills. Instead, it was those artifacts working perfectly together to seemingly mass produce Saint Grade Pills.

Even if they were of the lowest grade among Saint Grade Pills, they were ultimately still Saint Grade Pills. Far surpassing Transcendent Grade Pills or Elixirs.

If the Star Shattering Sect could get something like this...

Narrowing his eyes slightly as his attention was now fully focused on the five artifacts working in tandem with each other to produce Saint Grade Pills, Xuan Hao decided that he would not leave the ancient alchemy sect ruins without these artifacts, they were simply far too important for the Star Shattering Sect. Not only able to easily mass produce something as precious as Saint Grade Pills, but also capable of showing the process of refining Saint Grade Pills, an invaluable experience to any alchemist... And that wasn’t even the best part, the best part by far was the fact that one could join in and assist in the process. Gaining an even deeper understanding of the refinement process.

Undoubtedly, these five artifacts were not just an invaluable treasure to any major power but, was also a precious tool for teaching those below the Saint Realm with firsthand experience without requiring too much skill in the Dao of Alchemy. After all, if it required a skilled alchemist or someone in the Saint Realm to operate, there would have been no way for Huo Fen to use this kind of artifact with his understanding of the Dao of Alchemy.

Now, the only question that was left was where in the world those two had managed to get their hands on so many precious spiritual herbs during the short time he had been gone.

Did those two perhaps raid a spiritual herb storage during the short time I was out helping Chu Yang? Hm... that does seem like the only reasonable explanation...

Quietly thinking this to himself as he continued watching the two of them happily at work, he decided to make his presence known to the two of them after they finished refining another batch of pills with the help of the five artifacts.

”Senior!? You are back!?” Earning a somewhat surprised yelp from Huo Fen, while his disciple quietly rolled her eyes in response to her master’s awkward response.

”Indeed, I dealt with the situation and came back, I just didn’t expect to see you with such a large pile of spiritual herbs mass producing Saint Grade Pills upon returning, that was... Surprising to say the least...”

”Ah... That... I tried to follow you to see where you went earlier, but you were already gone and when I returned to wait with Meng Jie, I stumbled over a loose brick by accident and fell into a nearby building.

Who knew, this building just so happened to be a spiritual herb storage whose defensive formation had long since decayed, with only the concealment formation still active...”

”No worries I understand, I would have also been curious and tried my hand at producing so many Saint Grade Pills at once if I had the chance. Ah! Before I forget.” Shaking his head to reassure Huo Fen that it was fine; Xuan Hao suddenly remembered something and took out a portion of the Stardusk Essence he had just managed to get his hands on before throwing it over to Huo Fen.

Whoosh~

”The Stardusk Essence I promised to return.”

”Huh? Huh!? Ah!!?! Thank... Thank you senior! With this, I should be able to make that elixir!” Staring at the Stardusk Essence now firmly held by both his hands, Huo Fen barely registered what had happened before giving a deep bow to thank him before rushing off to use the Stardusk Essence without wasting a single breath.

Showing how important this was to him, something that in turn made Xuan Hao curious about what kind of elixir, pill or potion Huo Fen was planning to make using the Stardusk Essence.