Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Finding Elder Song busy handling the entrance of elders and disciples on his own, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit bad for the old man, as he hadn’t even had a chance to try ascending the ascension realm tower himself. The only positive was that he wasn’t alone in this, as he had dragged over the friends Chu Yang had made when he had been captured by a Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator in the Eastern Central Region. Having the group of formation masters work on a formation that would take care of everything in the future without the need for someone to hang around at the entrance checking that everyone paid accordingly.

The main reason why what should have been a rather simple formation had ended up already taking hours without it being completed was rather simple, there was no space for these formation masters to work. Most of the time, they found themselves dodging disciples and elders alike while barely setting up a small bit of the formation while at the same time also helping Elder Song manage the elders and disciples that kept showing up.

Clearly, the information about the ascension realm tower had already spread beyond the Shattered Star Peaks and caused a lot of those outside the Shattered Star Peaks to return out of curiosity, causing the current situation where Elder Song and the rest were left with no time to rest.

Unfortunate as this was, it wasn’t entirely negative, as Elder Song also seemed to be using this as an opportunity to comprehend the Dao of Order by making the rather rowdy crowd more orderly. The problem was… He could do little to calm down the crowd with his current strength and was left helpless when someone like Pei Yang appeared.

Even then, he didn’t complain and continued working hard to try and re-establish order, a challenge that slowly began working as the crowds of disciples began to shrink.

Of course, by the time he appeared at the scene, the situation was still somewhat chaotic, and he almost couldn’t get himself to approach Elder Song in this kind of situation.

Only after waiting for another few minutes for the situation to calm down through his own subtle influence, did he dare to approach the old man before informing him about his plans regarding the things inside the shop…

”Good! If we can establish those secret realms, we won’t have to worry about the Explorer Union any longer! I will inform Pei Yang and the others at the Dao Seed Realm and set out appropriate rewards for them in return.”

Something Elder Song was more than happy to agree with, though as he mentioned appropriate rewards, Xuan Hao couldn’t help feeling a bit worried, as he had no idea what the sect could offer that would be worth secret realms of such size and the sheer effort that would have to be put in to buy them from the ascension realm tower’s shop.

Only latter would he learn that the reward mentioned by Elder Song was none other than himself- or more specifically, a personal lesson from him, something that was incredibly valuable in the eyes of these Dao Seed Realm cultivators, as they had all become aware of his strength in the Profound Immortal Realm by this point in time after his rather public visit to the Frozen Wastelands not too long ago.

The reason why a lesson from him was so valuable was rather simple, as he was not just someone who had already gone through the Dao Seed Realm, but also someone who had experience overcoming the tribulation for the Profound Immortal Realm. Experience that these Dao Seed Realm cultivators who had already set their sights on surpassing the Dao Seed Realm ever since they became part of the Star Shattering Sect, valued far more than anything they could currently buy with ascension coins.

Even if something that would help them in breaking through to the Profound Immortal Realm in the future did end up appearing inside the shop, it would almost certainly be far more expensive than the secret realm seed. Not to mention, they had no idea when such a thing could appear in the first place.

And so, unknown to Xuan Hao, Elder Song informed the sect’s Doa Seed Realm elders about the special reward, causing the few who hadn’t yet shown much interest in the ascension realm tower to rush over without the slightest bit of hesitation.

As for Xuan Hao… After informing Elder Song about the situation and his suggestions regarding how to obtain the secret realm seeds from the shop, he didn’t linger around any longer than necessary on the ground floor of the tower. Heading back up to the fifteenth floor of the tower to continue where he had left off. Now with a clear goal in mind after finding what the sect needed inside the shop.

…

At the same time everyone in the sect had gathered at the ascension realm tower to see how far up they could go or just check out the mysterious tower that had suddenly appeared inside the sect out of thin air. Deep in meditation comprehending the Dao of the Sword, Feng Chen found himself opening his eyes with a look of satisfaction. Having managed to take another step forward after close to half a year of secluded meditation.

Normally, this wouldn’t have been possible given his identity as sect master, but with Elder Song around to take care of the situation on his behalf, he had more than enough time to cultivate and only needed to oversee some important decisions that Elder Song couldn’t make on his own.

Because of this, as he opened his eyes for the first time in half a year, the first thing Feng Chen did was try to contact Elder Song to get an update on the current state of the sect.

”Hm? Is he perhaps busy?”

But instead of Elder Song answering like he normally would, he didn’t, something that wasn’t too odd considering he normally wouldn’t easily answer if he was busy dealing with something… And considering how Elder Song was essentially the person keeping the sect running, Feng Chen didn’t say anything regarding something like this, as the old man would always contact him later when he was done with whatever had kept him busy.

”Huh? Where are my disciples?”

However, as he stepped out of his cultivation room, he began noticing something off, as his disciples that should be cultivating outside were nowhere to be seen.

A handful of them missing was fine and wouldn’t be that odd, but all of them missing at the same time was odd, as the total number of disciples under him was close to fifty. Far more than other elders inside the sect, as he took pleasure in teaching any slightest passionate disciple that carried a drive towards understanding the Dao of the Sword.

It was also for this reason that he found the current situation even more odd, as those passionate disciples would rarely do anything but focus on the Dao of the Sword like he did. Only if something important happened would they let go of their sword practice for a bit.

”Odd… Truly odd…” Muttering this to himself as he scanned the practice ground outside his cultivation room, Feng Chen soon enough found himself wandering outside his own little kingdom and stepped into wider sect outside.

But the second he stepped outside, he only became more confused, as the sect was almost entirely abandoned, with only a few disciples being visible moving around, though most of those present weren’t even disciples, but members of the Servant Quarters who oversaw the sect’s more mundane functions.

 ”Where… Where did everyone go?” Quietly voicing out his inner thoughts, Feng Chen found himself panicking slightly at the confusing situation and without a second thought, he decided to use his divine sense to search through the sect to see if he could figure out where all the elders and disciples had gone. Part of him believing that it might have something to do with why Elder Song was busy. Perhaps an event of some kind that had attracted all the disciples and elders to join in.

”Huh?” But as his divine sense swept through the sect, he soon found his divine sense being severely restricted by some unforeseen force that soon bounced back on him and directly pinned him to the ground. Leaving him unable to even move a single muscle as he slammed face first into the ground.

It wasn’t difficult for him to understand where this force had come from, as it could only be the chaotic qi formation. The problem was, he should have partial control over the formation, and it shouldn’t respond so aggressively just because he extended his divine sense a bit.

However, as he attempted to interact with the formation, he realized to his horror that the connection that should have been present had disappeared at some point in time. Even worse, he had been pinned to the ground somewhere rather secluded and while he might be discovered easily under normal circumstances, with the current desolate state of the sect, it would likely take some time for someone to find him.

Not to mention, he didn’t really want to get found in his current state and could only silently pray that Xuan Hao realized that something had gone wrong with the chaotic qi formation.

Unfortunately for Feng Chen, the person he was silently praying to had already ascended to the fifteenth floor of the ascension realm tower and hadn’t sensed the changes in the chaotic qi formation after it had been upgraded. Having assumed everything was fine given how the formation worked normally for the disciples and elders. Unaware that the permission given to Feng Chen had been erased during the upgrade of the chaotic qi formation…