Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

About the situation of the neutral factions, Xuan Hao was left in a somewhat awkward situation. Elder Song had informed him about their request for assistance should the Wei Empire want to take control of their territory with the weakening of the Blue Sea Empire, but given that his own strength was still only at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm and had yet to reach the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm, let alone the Land Creation Realm, he had no intentions of turning a major power like the Wei Empire into enemies.

Because of this, faced with the request from the neutral factions that only had a trade relationship with the sect, he had no reason nor intention to step in to defend them against the Wei Empire.

Although this might end up affecting the resource acquisition speed of the sect, there was nothing he could do about it outside of encouraging the development of resource rich secret realms for the sect.

Of course, he didn’t outright say this to Elder Song, but instead informed him that he would keep an eye on the situation and take action if he deemed it to be nesserscary. Giving no direct garuntee, as the neutral factions ultimately weren’t an official part of the Star Shattering Sect and didn’t require the sect to take a firm stance to defend them. Especially so when the trade between the two of them had only just begun recently.

From the point of view of the Star Shattering Sect, it wasn’t a good idea to take a firm stance against the Wei Empire considering that there was still a chance that the sect would be able to establish a far more lucrative trade relationship with the Wei Empire. After all, as one of the dominant major powers in the Northern Central Region, the resource they could provide for trade were undoubtedly far more luxurious and expansive compared to that of a few neutral factions who didn’t even have a single cultivator at the Celestial Immortal Realm.

The future of the neutral factions that had managed to establish themselves in the space between two of the dominant major powers in the Northern Central Region aside, Xuan Hao realized that it was becoming increasingly troublesome for the sect that he hadn’t broken through to the Land Creation Realm.

After all, if he had already broken through to the Land Creation Realm, he wouldn’t have to be so cations about interacting with the Wei Empire. Instead, he might have been able to directly declare that the neutral territory was under the Star Shattering Sect’s guardianship and the Wei Empire wouldn’t even try to challenge him on it.

At the end of the day, the main reason why the Star Shattering Sect had been able to avoid any direct scrutiny from a Land Creation Realm cultivator so far didn’t just have to do with the sect’s identify as an ancient hidden sect, but also the fact that the sect had limited itself to territory outside the Northern Central Region. If the sect began expanding into the Northern Central Region, it would inevitably have to face the scrutiny of someone in the Land Creation Realm.

Faced with that kind of scrutiny, the sect would have to show someone of an equal level of power of they wanted to avoid any further scrutiny of the sect’s situation that might affect the sect far more deeply.

Feeling increasing pressure to break through to the Land Creation Realm as fast as possible, Xuan Hao once again returned to working together with Pei Yang to further his understanding of the Dao of Alchemy.

But instead of focusing on himself breaking through to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Alchemy, his main focus was on helping Pei Yang breakthrough to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Alchemy, as he had realized shortly after interacting with Pei Yang following him being done using the five Alchemy artifacts from the ancient alchemy sect ruins, that Pei Yang was incredibly close to reaching the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Alchemy. Far closer than he himself was to reaching the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Alchemy.

Even if it slowed down his own comprehension speed of the Dao of Alchemy for now, it would ultimately still be far faster for him to reach the Perfection Realm with the assistance of someone who had already reached the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Alchemy.

Because of this, it didn’t end up taking more than half a month of working together on studying the Dao of Alchemy for Pei Yang to successfully break through to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Alchemy. Ascending to the Saint Realm and officially becoming a Third Heaven Saint Realm Alchemist.

However, different from Xuan Hao who had no intention of pursing the path of a saint, Pei Yang was fully set on continuing his path through the Saint Realm and thus didn’t use the core formed during his breakthrough to the Saint Realm to enhance his own cultivation and foundation.

But because of this, Xuan Hao had to wait for a few days until he stabilized his realm before he would be able to pester him about the Dao of Alchemy. During which, he made full use of his time to consolidate his own understanding of the Dao of Alchemy by teaching Qing Yi and Chun Hua along with a few other talented disciple from the Alchemy Hall, something that ended up helping no small number of alchemy disciples break through the bottlenecks that had been troubling them in the past.

Of course, this wasn’t entirely thanks to his help, but also had to do with the fact that Pei Yang had already guided these disciples in the past. Meaning they ended up getting guidance from two different alchemists that had both reached the Large Success Realm in the Dao of Alchemy when they had taught them.

The first time they had been guided by Pei Yang had already pushed them in the correct direction, while Xuan Hao’s later guidance had essentially served to push them over the finish line.

Still… It didn’t change the fact that the main reason for their breakthrough was the final bit of guidance from Xuan Hao, thus the gratitude they felt towards him was understandable.

Positive as this was to his reputation within the sect, it did also end up attracting the attention of the different elders inside the Alchemy Hall, as they realized that there was someone of a similar level as Pei Yang in the Dao of Alchemy around. A realization that filled them with a level of excitement that Xuan Hao himself was anything but prepared to deal with, as he barely made his way back towards Pei Yang before he was swarmed by a group of overeager elders.

The elders themselves were not that much of a problem to deal with and their enthusiasm for improvement was admirable, so, after making sure Pei Yang hadn’t yet finished stabilizing his realm, he decided to lend these elders a hand as well. Using the opportunity to further his own comprehension of the Dao of Alchemy through teaching.

Something that made this group of elders overjoyed, as they experienced a similar improvement in understanding as the younger disciples. Clearing up some of the doubts that had been troubling them in the past.

At the same time, a few had also sneakily taken the chance to ask him about their cultivation. Knowing that Xuan Hao by far was the strongest cultivator that they knew about in the sect. An opportunity to get guidance on their cultivation from someone like that was incredibly rare.

The only other way for them to get that kind of guidance would be through exchanging an enormous sum of contribution points, a sum that none of these elders had.

Of course the guidance they would receive if they exchanged for it through contribution points would be better and far less casual than what they received from Xuan Hao, but it was still direct guidance from someone at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, so it was still immensely beneficial to them.

Finished with another few days of teaching, Xuan Hao once again made his way to where Pei Yang was staying. However, this time around, he had already sensed through his divine sense that Pei Yang had emerged from his brief seclusion after becoming a Saint Realm Alchemist.

Wasting no time as he stepped inside and congratulated Pei Yang before the two of them entered a conversation on the Dao of Alchemy.

Now that Pei Yang had reached the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Alchemy, his understanding had deepened and this kind of conversation that had only been a little helpful in the past was now far more useful to him.

This was of course not the main part of the benefit of having someone whose comprehension exceeded once own around. Instead the main benefits would come from the guidance that came after.