Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

While Li Chi took some time to recover from the sudden realization that he had essentially been lied to in the past by a few elders who wanted to show off in front of him or potentially leverage their relationship with the little rabbit to improve their relationship with the grand elder of the half spirit race to get better access to the sect resources that would normally be difficult to reach under normal circumstances, Xuan Hao decided to catch up with the little rabbit and figure out what it had been up to over the past few years.

Most important of all was figuring out about the unique spiritual carrot that had somehow helped build up a small empire for the little rabbit and even drawn the direct interest of the Explorer Union, who had even ignored the trade block that had put in place against the Star Shattering Sect to get their hands on the spiritual carrots.

Even if the trade blockage in question was only against the Star Shattering Sect itself as far as he was aware, it was clear that it should also have extended to something like the spiritual carrots traded by the rabbit demon beast, as the rabbit demon beast was very clearly also part of the Star Shattering Sect. Along with the fact that many of the sect’s elders had apparently just ended up going through the rabbit demon beast to continue trade with the little rabbit demon beast, it was clear that the Explorer Union didn’t seriously do anything to stop the trade with the Star Shattering Sect.

The reason behind this was the simple fact that spiritual carrots were seen as far too important to shut off trade with the Star Shattering Sect directly. Only doing so on the surface to appease whatever higher up within the Explorer Union had been behind the trade being shut off in the first place.

Speaking of which, Xuan Hao had a feeling that he already had an idea about who might be the one behind this trade sanction against the Star Shattering Sect, but didn’t want to get involved with it as it seemed like it wouldn’t affect the sect in the slightest now that it had become clear that the Explorer Union itself still wanted to continue trade through the rabbit demon beast to obscure the situation a bit and make it seem like trade with the Star Shattering Sect had stopped on the surface.

”So… This is a spiritual carrot…?” Muttering somewhat surprised to himself as he examined one of the precious spiritual carrots that had caused the Explorer Union to sideline one of their higher ups to continue trade, Xuan Hao was taken aback by what he saw.

Not only was the spiritual carrot useful to someone weaker, but the effects even showed signs of being useful to someone like himself!

As for how useful… That was questionable, but still, it was a spiritual herb? Or vegetable that would enhance the strength of someone at the Land Creation Realm… And after eating one of the spiritual carrots, it became clear that the enhancement from the spiritual carrot wasn’t something superficial that came with some kind of price, but instead a direct enhancement to one’s meridian. Strengthening the foundation of the consumer permanently.

Weak as this enhancement was to someone like himself who had already reached the Land Creation Realm, the improvement was still present and made the flow of spiritual qi throughout his body a bit smoother than it had been before.

For someone below the Land Creation Realm, the benefits brought by the spiritual carrot would be far more prominent, while those below the Nascent Soul Realm would see clear improvements in their cultivation speed.

Be it the Explorer Union or the Star Shattering Sect itself, it was no wonder that the Explorer Union and Elder Song both kept an eye on the little rabbit demon beast capable of producing these spiritual carrots. After all, though the spiritual carrots were currently being mass produced with relative ease by the rabbit demon beast, the only one capable of creating the seeds for the spiritual carrots was the little rabbit demon beast, who seemed to do so through some kind of special ability. Essentially making it impossible for the Explorer Union or any other major power that got their hands on the spiritual carrots to reproduce the spiritual carrots.

As for the reason why, nothing had happened to the little rabbit demon beast so far… That was mainly because the source of the spiritual carrot seeds was still unknown to the Explorer Union and in their eyes, they most likely didn’t expect the spiritual carrot seeds to come from some kind of special ability of a demon beast. The more obvious answer to them being that the spiritual carrots came from the Star Shattering Sect and was a discreet way that the Star Shattering Sect had used to circumvent the trade sanctions that had been put in place.

Originally, given the worth of the spiritual carrots, that alone might not have been enough to stop the Explorer Union from making a move on the Star Shattering Sect, but the recent actions of Xuan Hao and his display of strength that had caused many to believe that the Star Shattering Sect had at least someone at the Star Creation Realm backing them made the Explorer Union unwilling to take the risk in doing anything.

Not just because of the danger involved, but also because doing anything major would undoubtedly end up drawing the attention of the different major powers from the Southern Central Region.

At the same time, there was no need for the Explorer Union to do anything as long as a stable trade was established with the Star Shattering Sect for the spiritual carrots, a trade that the Star Shattering Sect had been more than wiling to engage in so far and even agreed to a more permanent trade deal regarding the spiritual carrots.

Of course, the one to benefit the most from this newly established trade relationship with the Explorer Union wasn’t the Star Shattering Sect, but instead the little rabbit demon beast, who now had access to an almost unlimited quantity of spirit stones. A change that had caused the rabbit demon beast stuck at the Peak of the Dao Seed Realm to already show clear signs of breaking through to the Profound Immortal Realm at any moment.

Speaking of which, Xuan Hao did find himself wondering how demon beasts broke through to the Profound Immortal Realm without having the appropriate comprehension, but he guessed that demon beasts cultivation path worked a bit differently and was almost entirely reliant on them improving their physical strength.

In a way, it wasn’t much different from demonic cultivators way of advancing. Making him wonder if there might be a way for normal cultivators to reach the Profound Immortal Realm by relying entirely on their physical strength without having to bother about comprehending the Dao to the level normal required for reaching the Profound Immortal Realm.

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao’s attention shifted away from the now half eaten spiritual carrot in his hand that had caused this long train of thought and looked down towards the still shocked Li Chi, who had difficult time coming to terms with what had just happened and who he was.

”Senio–No Elder- Ancestor, I…” The somewhat panicked response from suddenly turning into the center of attention again causing his little head to short circuit.

”Li Chi, I think you are worrying a bit too much about this.” A Fact that made Xuan Hao a bit worried about the little one, as he did his best to try and calm him down.

”That… But I can’t just–that would be disrespectful!” However, Li Chi didn’t seem to take his words to mind as he denied him and continued doing his best to be as respectful as possible in his demeanor.

A scenario that Xuan Hao had never found himself facing before, as other disciples would normally be more than happy to calm down and be less cordial when given the approval to do so.

But then again, most of those younger disciples he had interacted with were on the younger side with most of them being youths below the age of twenty, while Li Chi was a member of the Half Spirit Race who could be considered far from young compared to the rest of the sects younger generation, as he had already been a little older when joining the sect along with the rest of the half spirits and was by now close to forty years of age.

Having not started officially cultivating before becoming a part of the Star Shattering Sect, an aspect he shared with a fair number of other half spirits, as those who had been seriously focused on cultivation among the half spirits before their integration into the Star Shattering Sect had at least reached the Nascent Soul Realm by now…