Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

His rabbit demon beast aside, Xuan Hao used his divine sense to do a sweep of the sect to see if there were any elders close to reaching the Soul Ascension Realm that he might have missed earlier. After all, not everyone was at the sect at the same time and there were constantly elders moving between the different branches of the sect using the teleportation network centered on the Shattered Star Peaks.

But even though there were a few stronger Domain Lord Realm Elders that he hadn’t seen before, there wasn’t anyone else at the Peak of the Domain Lord realm close to reaching the Soul Ascension Realm. Leaving him with the few elders who had already gone into deep meditation attempting to take the final step needed before breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm following his guidance. A process that could take anywhere from a few hours to a few years by his estimates.

Not to mention, it wasn’t guaranteed that these elders would be able to successfully break through to the Soul Ascension Realm, as even though they were far better prepared to face their first tribulation compared to other Domain Lord Realm cultivators, it was still a life and death tribulation that they would have to face on their own.

On his side, there wasn’t much more he could do for these elders after giving them the final push forward towards the Soul Ascension Realm. All he could do at this point was hope that they would be able to overcome the first tribulation and successfully reach the Soul Ascension Realm. Not just because it would finally complete his main sect quest, but also because the Star Shattering Sect having more Soul Ascension Realm Elders was a matter of extreme importance for securing the sect’s territory in the future.

With that in mind, Xuan Hao didn’t linger around the group of elders already in state of deep meditation. Knowing he had done what he could and now only needed to wait for three of them to successfully break through to the Soul Ascension Realm or some elder currently outside the sect to either break through to the Soul Ascension Realm naturally or encounter an opportunity that allowed them to reach the Soul Ascension Realm.

No matter which it was, all that mattered to Xuan Hao was that the sect gained another three Soul Ascension Realm Elders so the final requirement for the main sect quest could be completed.

A quest that he had originally considered impossible for him to complete in such a short time due to the requirement of a Profound Immortal Realm Ancestor that wasn’t himself. A requirement that would undoubtedly have taken hundreds of years to complete under normal circumstances if he hadn’t been lucky enough to encounter the Land Creation Realm demon beast in the ancient alchemy sect ruins.

Speaking of which… This new ancestor of the sect had managed to settle down with no problem thanks to the help of Meng Jie, who had essentially taken on the job of being the caretaker of this powerful Land Creation Realm demon beast, something that had originally terrified her master quite a bit when he had found out that she was taking care of a Land Creation Realm demon beast on her own.

It was only around three or so years ago that this master got used to his disciple being placed in charge of such a terrifying demon beast.

Taking some time to just be able to even approach this terrifying demon beast, as compared to when it was interacting with Meng Jie, the demon beast didn’t bother restraining its presence in the face of others, Huo Fen included.

Shaking his head a bit as he remembered seeing this master at the Middle Stage of the Dao Seed Realm shivering in fear standing next to the relatively harmless looking oversized cat that was the Land Creation Realm demon beast while his disciple was happily patting its head, Xuan Hao found himself wondering about what the three were up to… And with a quick sweep of his divine sense, he discovered that it wasn’t much, as Meng Jie was currently in the process of feeding the Land Creation Realm demon beast.

”Huh… It… It doesn’t eat spirit stones…?”

However, different from the sight he had been used to seeing whenever a demon beast was fed spirit stones or other spiritually rich meat or plants, what he saw was the Land Creation Realm happily eating up something that looked like a normal stir fry made from some common ingredients without any special properties that would aid cultivation.

Not just that, but as he continued observing the Land Creation Realm demon beast in disbelief, he discovered that it began cultivating on its own after the meal. No spirit stones required. Making it look no different from how a normal human cultivated, with one major difference being that most of the spiritual qi absorbed flowed through a mysterious cycle that should be some kind of inherent cultivation mantra before most of the spiritual qi went towards further refining its physical body, while a small portion made its way to the dantian.

During the entire process, there was no sign of the demon beast being slowing down in its cultivation and in the rich environment of the Shattered Star Peaks, there wasn’t really much need for consuming spirit stones for cultivation.

Remembering the enormous quantity of spirit stones consumed by the winged lion demon beast every day, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a slight itch as he wondered if that little lion also possessed the ability to cultivate like the sect’s newest ancestor… And… If it did have the ability to cultivate in a similar way, it meant that the only reason why it didn’t do so was because it was too lazy to cultivate on its own and instead just opted to consume spirt stones instead.

Not just the winged lion demon beast, but the rest of the demon beasts living inside the Shattered Star Peaks as well.

The only demon beast he wasn’t thinking about paying a visit to figure out more about this situation was the rabbit demon beast, as that little one had already managed to fully establish itself inside the Iron Sky Kingdom and was earning its own spirit stones. Different from the winged lion demon beast that was just consuming the sect’s resources for potentially no reason other than finding it too bothersome to cultivate on its own.

Whoosh~

As his thoughts reached this point, his divine sense already spread out and soon enough expanded far beyond the Shattered Star Peaks. Rapidly expanding in the direction of the sect’s border with the Frozen Wastelands, as the winged lion demon beast was currently stationed in that location to fend off any potentially powerful demonic cultivators who might show up to cause trouble…

”This… This is…!”

But as his divine sense reached the location where the little winged lion was secluded, it didn’t take more than a simple probe of its internal situation through his divine sense for him to understand that it did indeed also have the capability to cultivate in a similar way to its senior in the Land Creation Realm. Meaning that whenever the winged lion demon beast consumed spirit stones inside the Shattered Star Peaks, it did so either because it thought spirit stones tasted good or because it was too lazy to gather spiritual qi on its own and instead just preferred to swallow it and save itself the trouble.

Not just the winged lion demon beast, but after scanning through the rest of the demon beasts currently inside the Shattered Star Peaks, he realized that any demon beast at the Nascent Soul Realm or above could cultivate in a manner no different from a human cultivator. Having seemingly awakened some kind of inherent memories that allowed them to cultivate upon reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.

The sheer quantity of spirit stones that had been wasted was astronomical and Xuan Hao could not help feeling a twinge of anger. Not towards the demon beasts themselves, but the beast tamers who had somehow allowed something like this to happen due to their indulgent and almost servile behavior in the face of demon beasts under their care.

Although they might not know about it either, as the sect’s beast tamers, it was their duty to know this kind of thing. Especially since the sect now had an extensive library filled with information that undoubtedly also included more complicated beast taming information that pertained to the care and nurturing of demon beasts in the Nascent Soul Realm and above.

Even though he wanted to punish these elders himself for their apparent failure, he understood that it might not be best for him to be the one to do it. Instead, he decided to compile a simple letter about the situation before sending it off to Elder Song. Knowing that the old man would far more scary to deal with after he realized just how many spirit stones the sect had ended up losing due to this blunder from the sect’s beast masters.