Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having locked himself away for secluded meditation intent on breaking through to the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm before he emerged, Xuan Hao was unaware of the troubled state of Feng Chen when he learnt about the ascension secret realm inside the ascension realm tower. Not because of the appearance of the ascension secret realm, but instead because he had originally wanted to find Elder Song for help, but soon enough he realized that Elder Song was nowhere to be found. Essentially forcing him to take charge of the situation.

Delegating the task to someone else wasn’t possible, as the matter was far too important to leave to just anyone and the few other elders who might have had had enough status within the sect to take charge of the situation were either busy elsewhere or in the process of challenging the ascension realm tower. Leaving only him behind to take care of the situation on his own.

But… Troublesome as it might be to get control of the overeager sect elders who wanted to rush inside the ascension secret realm to take a look themselves or make an attempt to breakthrough inside, it was far from the only problem he ended up encountering, as he also soon realized that with Elder Song not present in the sect, there were other things that needed his attention as well.

In short, with Elder Song having been absent for an extended period of time, Feng Chen was essentially forced to temporarily transform into a second Elder Song and take charge of the sect to ensure nothing went wrong and the sect continued operating normally.

All of this was of course extremely unusual for someone like Elder Song who normally rarely ever stepped outside the Shattered Star Peaks. Ultimately resulting in Feng Chen worrying that something might have happened to the old man. Especially so because he had been unable to contact him so far.

In the end, Xuan Hao, who had just entered secluded meditation a few days earlier, was forced out again under the urging of Feng Chen. Much to his annoyance, but still… Understanding the situation, he decided to expand his divine sense to its limits when searching for Elder Song even beyond the borders of the Star Shattering Sect.

Not worried about any interference along the way, as the only ones who would be capable of interfering with or detecting his divine sense were either at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm or the Land Creation Realm. None of which should be within the scope of his divine sense unless the Land Creation Realm Ancestor from the Blue Sea Empire or a powerful demonic cultivator from the Frozen Wastelands happened to be wandering near the territory of the Star Shattering Sect, something that was unlikely and also something he would like to know about if it was the case.

Luckily, there was no one around the sect powerful enough to detect his divine sense, though he did notice that a Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator at the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm had been mobilized by the Blue Sea Empire and stationed at its border facing the Frozen Wastelands secretly, while an equally powerful demonic cultivator had hidden on the side of the Frozen Wastelands. Likely stationed there in case the situation developed beyond the current battles that at most involved someone at the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

The Celestial Immortal and demonic cultivator eyeing each other aside, he did find out where Elder Song had gone, though to his surprise, the old man wasn’t within the boundaries of the Star Shattering Sect but had instead moved beyond them and was currently somewhere within the neutral territory between the Blue Sea Empire and the Wei Empire.

His disciple had visited the place in the past and ended up in a rather deadly situation in the process, but different from that little troublemaker, it was clear that Elder Song wasn’t being chased around by someone but was instead in the middle of a meeting with a group of senior figures belonging to the different neutral factions that existed inside the neutral territory.

Not just that, but the topic of the conversation was clearly trade related to different cultivation resources that the sect had found itself in need of after the Explorer Union had decided to cut them off.

From the conversation alone, it was clear that this wasn’t something Elder Song had just a hastily put together meeting, but instead something that had been discussed over a long period of time.

Clearly, Elder Song had already silently been making moves in the dark to ensure that the sect would be able to continue growing smoothly without having to rely on the Explorer Union for future trade. Directly bypassing them and going to the region where a large portion of the cultivation resources bought by the sect came from. Offering these neutral factions far more than what the Explorer Union would, while at the same time also making sure that they understood how powerful the Star Shattering Sect was. Directly comparing it to a major power like the Blue Sea Empire just to ensure that they had some idea about what kind of power they were dealing with.

Doubtful as they might have been originally, after having apparently brought some of these representatives back to the sect to see for themselves, they had been convinced and entered final discussions about their future cooperative relationship.

This was also the reason why Elder Song had not been able to answer when both he and Feng Chen had tried to contact him, as neither of the two had sent any kind of emergency distress signal that would bypass the non-disturbance setting that his communication talisman had been placed in.

Knowing that there was nothing to worry about, Xuan Hao casually informed Feng Chen about the situation before returning to his secluded cultivation that had been interrupted only a few days after it had begun…