Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Barely having time to comprehend the pain that suddenly erupted from the very core of his soul without any warning after he agreed for the awakening of his divine physique to proceed, Xuan Hao found himself collapsing on the ground motionless as tears welled up in his eyes at the terrifying pain that suddenly began coursing through his body with such intensity that he felt like his dantian was directly torn out of his body before being repeatedly shattered and shoved back in only to start a process of internal collapse–or in more simple terms, this was by far the most painful experience he had ever gone through.

Even having broken through to the land Creation Realm with a mental state and soul strength far beyond what he had just a few minutes earlier when he had still been in the Sea Formation Realm, the pain of awakening his divine physique rendered him unable to move a single muscle. Only able to remain stationary on the ground like a salted fish. Not that he had much time to care about his current appearance, as his mind was already fully occupied with the terrifying pain.

But… Along with the terrifying pain coursing through his body and soul, changes slowly began to take place as his body was being refined from the inside out. His already awakened ability, the divine void eyes also showing signs of evolving into a far more profound state, while the biggest change by far was the rapid expansion and strengthening of his dantian. The somewhat unstable state of his cultivation base that he hadn’t had the time to stabilize yet after his breakthrough to the Land Creation Realm fully stabilizing in the process.

On the other hand, when it came to external changes, there weren’t many. The only real visible changes being that his eyes became more mysterious and unfathomable while his height grew by a few centimeters. Not really anything that would increase his combat strength directly.

Of course, these were only the changes he could sense taking place during the awakening process, as he had no time to properly assess all the changes that was taking place in the face of the terrifying pain that almost rendered him unable to think straight while lying on the ground.

One change he was certain about but hadn’t yet been able to confirm being that his comprehension of the Dao of Space and maybe even the Dao of Time should have increased significantly following the awakening of his divine physique.

In the end, as he thought, he had finally started to get used to the pain coursing through his body and soul from the awakening of his divine physique, a new, even more terrifying pain suddenly erupted. Overwhelming what little resistance he had built up in an instant. Knocking him out in the process, as his body continued to rapidly change for another few minutes after he lost consciousness before finally coming to an end. His awakening having been successful.

But…

Even with his awakening having finished and the terrifying pain disappearing, he still didn’t wake up even after a few hours passed. The reason being that the damage to his mental state and soul had been far too great, as the pain he had suffered had been enough to truly knock him out and force his soul into a deep sleep to shield itself from the terrifying pain that had been far too much for someone in the Land Creation Realm to bear.

This automatic defensive mechanism of the soul had been successful and allowed him to survive the awakening of his divine physique, but it had forced him into a deep sleep that left him unable to interact with the outside world as his soul was entirely focused on recovery from the damage it had ended up suffering.

One positive thing about the situation was that the recovery speed of his soul also seemed to have undergone significant improvements after his breakthrough to the Land Creation Realm and the added enhancement from the awakening of his divine physique.

So, a deep sleep that might have lasted months had he still been in the Sea Formation Realm had essentially been cut down to a few days. Nothing significant, as a few days would pass by quickly.

Even if the Star Shattering Sect might be without his protection during this short period of time, it was hardly anything worth worrying about, as although the state of the Blue Sea Empire was incredibly chaotic, it was still far from the Star Shattering Sect and shouldn’t affect it. Especially considering that the people involved in the struggle would likely not want to involve the Star Shattering Sect in their battle.

To this day, Xuan Hao was still unaware of the information that had been spread by the smaller neutral factions that the sect had entered a trade agreement with the Star Shattering Sect.

If he knew about it, he might not have been able to enter a deep sleep so easily, as the half year time limit that had originally been given by those neutral factions was in another few days.

Not showing up might invite unwanted attention that could result in someone deciding to probe the Star Shattering Sect more seriously than what had been done in the past, causing potentially catastrophic outcomes without him around to stabilize the situation in case a Land Creation Realm cultivator decided to directly launch a sneak attack on the Shattered Star Peaks to test out the reaction of the Star Shattering Sect.

Although the current chaotic qi formation might be able to easily block the attack of someone in the Land Creation Realm now that it had been upgraded, if someone did not emerge in response to that kind of unprovoked attack, it would undoubtedly draw even more attention to the Star Shattering Sect… And with little effort, it should be possible for someone in the Land Creation Realm to figure out that the Star Shattering Sect wasn’t an actual hidden ancient sect from capturing one of the sect’s earlier elders who had been with the sect since the start and forcibly searching their soul.

If that happened, the Star Shattering Sect wouldn’t be feared in the same inherent way as it had been in the past by relying on the name of other hidden ancient sects and could potentially become a target for not just the major powers in the Northern Central Region, but also the demonic cultivators from the Frozen Wastelands.

After all, to this day, the Star Shattering Sect was surrounded on almost all sides by demonic cultivators who would undoubtedly be more than happy to get a chance to properly integrate the territory of the sect into the Frozen Wastelands.

In the end, what kept them back was the same as what kept the major powers of the Frozen Wastelands from causing trouble, the sect’s reputation as a hidden ancient sect.

No matter what, at least for now, this identity had to be upheld, as outside of just the safety it provided in the face of local powers from the Northern Central Region and the demonic cultivators of the Frozen Wastelands, it more importantly served as a shield against the more terrifying major powers that existed all the way in the Southern Central Region.

Though still unknown why, it was clear that the major powers on the Ewaria Continent didn’t tolerate the rise of any sect outside of hidden ancient sects and the ones who ensured that was the case was exactly the major powers from the Southern Central Region–or more specifically, the nine core faiths that had long since established themselves as the supreme powers on the entire continent.

All of this was to say, Xuan Hao wouldn’t have felt so calm falling asleep if he had known about the potential sect ending crisis the sect might end up facing in the next few days if he ended up being asleep for a few days too long…

This sense of danger was felt most directly by Elder Song, who was becoming increasingly uneasy with each passing day.

He knew about the situation and had decided to wait for Xuan Hao to emerge from seclusion before asking him if there was anything he wanted to do about the situation, but now that things had ended up dragging on for longer than he had originally anticipated and Xuan Hao having entered a final seclusion inside the ascension secret realm to break through. Having cut off communication in the process. Elder Song found himself becoming far more uneasy than he had ever been and started regretting not shooting down the rumors that had been spread by those neutral factions in the past.

Due to a momentary lack of judgement and also having been busy with other things, the sect now found itself in a rather dangerous position, with the only one cable of solving the problem locked away in seclusion without any means of contact…