Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Using his now rather limited divine sense to explore the city in the distance that Li Feng and the other youths were heading towards, he realized rather quickly that the strongest person within that city was even weaker than the one that he had managed to see through his divine sense back when he had forced it into the ancient secret realm and had said divine sense erased not too long ago, with the strongest cultivator only having reached the Second Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.

From this bit of information, it was clear that even though the limit of this ancient secret realm was the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, the actual strength of the inhabitants of the ancient secret realm struggled to go beyond even the Early Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm because of the scarce spiritual qi.

As for reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm in this kind of environment… Xuan Hao doubted it would be simple, as the only real way he could see that reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm might be possible would be to rely on spirit stones.

However, doing that might lead to an unstable foundation. Meaning that even if someone managed to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm, their overall strength would be far weaker than that of someone who had broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm outside the ancient secret realm.

In other words, Li Feng, who had already broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, could be considered close to the pinnacle of power inside the ancient secret realm.

Even the few youths who were worrying about not being able to enter the Star Shattering Sect could be considered first-tier experts within the ancient secret realm, as few would be able to stand against them.

The only thing they might be lacking being combat experience, as they were ultimately still young and hadn’t had much of a chance to hone their abilities through combat.

This was also one of the reasons why he didn’t consider Li Feng to be at the pinnacle in terms of strength inside the ancient secret realm, though another reason had to do with the unique cultivation path that the inhabitants of the ancient secret realm seemed to have come up with, as most of the natives didn’t practice immortal cultivation and absorbed spiritual qi, but instead focused on refining their physical bodies.

In fact, the realization that there was a brand-new cultivation path to be found inside the ancient secret realm made him think that this might be the immense opportunity that the side quest had mentioned.

Because of this, he didn’t waste much time after confirming that it was indeed a different cultivation path that could also be cultivated alongside normal immortal cultivation and immediately set off to search for more information about this body refining path that seemed to be simply referred to as martial arts by the natives of the secret realm. His first target to learn more about this unique cultivation path being the local dynasty that seemed to be in control of the city that Li Feng and his friends were heading towards.

Whoosh~

Of course, compared to them, he could at least still rely on his sword intent and comprehension of the Dao of the Sword to fly on his sword. Allowing him to traverse the ancient secret realm with a degree of ease that few Nascent Soul Realm cultivators would be capable of.

After all, his ability to fly wasn’t tied to his cultivation or domain, but instead his comprehension of the Dao of the Sword.

In fact, most of his strength was tied to his comprehension. Meaning that although he was limited to the Peak of the Nascent Soul realm, the strength he could wield could easily squash a weaker Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator.

Then again, he had a feeling that if he ended up using that degree of strength, the guardian formation protecting the ancient secret realm might strike him down on the spot. After all, it wasn’t exactly realistic for a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator to wield that kind of power under normal circumstances…

”Oh? This is the capital?” Not taking more than a few hours to reach his destination, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit surprised as he looked down towards a large sprawling city home to at least a few hundred thousand people.

His surprise wasn’t because of the large number of people, but instead because of the powerful figures he could sense throughout the large city.

From an initial sweep with his divine sense, there were at least five people at the Foundation Establishment Realm, but outside of those five, he sensed several other presences that were far stronger but didn’t belong to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

If he had to note down everyone, he sensed at least a few hundred comparable to the Foundation Establishment Realm and around a dozen close to or barely reaching the Core Formation Realm.

Surprising as this was, it also made him feel a bit more excited about the unique cultivation path that the natives had developed, as it was clear that these powerful figures that didn’t follow the traditional immortal cultivation path had instead followed this martial arts path to reach their current level of strength.

However, alongside his growing interest in this unique new body refinement cultivation path, one flaw compared to traditional immortal cultivation stood out like a sore thumb as his divine sense swept over the capital city, and that was the simple fact that this unique cultivation path didn’t extend life like the traditional immortal cultivation path did.

Even the dozen or so individuals who had reached a realm comparable to the Core Formation Realm had only experienced a small increase in their lifespan equivalent to 50 years. Increasing their lifespan to 150 years in total, while those below this comparable to the Foundation Establishment Realm had barely increased their lifespan by decade or two.

Compared to the Foundation Establishment Realm that normally increased one’s lifespan to 200 years or the Core Formation Realm that increased it to three hundred years, the difference was clear.

Something that could also be seen from the fact that the few Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators found throughout the city generally seemed to be found around the core of the city itself and seemed to exist within the same place as one of those figures that had reached a realm comparable to the Core Formation Realm.

Most likely, those few Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators had only been able to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm thanks to the protection and nurturing of those terrifying figures standing behind them.

Understandable as this was, it also made it clear to him that his initial assessment of Li Feng’s strength compared to the natives of the ancient secret realm might have been wrong.

Although he wasn’t exactly close to the pinnacle of power having only reached the First Pillar of the Foundation Establishment Realm, he could still be considered powerful… And with the effort of nurturing someone to the Foundation Establishment Realm inside the ancient secret realm being clear from a glance, he had a feeling that Li Feng’s would be mistaken as someone from a powerful clan or family in case he ever entered the capital city.

After all, only those with powerful enough backing seemed to have the chance to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm.

In a way, the ancient secret realm itself and how Li Feng navigated it alongside his little group of friends was a perfect way to test him and his friends without having to do anything himself as he would focus his attention on the side quest that had been given to him by the system

The only problem was that his divine sense wasn’t exactly capable of keeping an eye on him like he might have been capable of outside the ancient secret realm, the best he could do was keep his general location in mind and sense if died or not.

Still, this was far better than what most Nascent Soul Realm cultivators would be capable of accomplishing over such a long distance that didn’t involve splitting off part of their soul.

That aside, having a general plan regarding how to deal with Li Feng and his friends in the future as they made their way through the ancient secret realm searching for opportunities, Xuan Hao’s focus returned to the matter at hand. Investigating the unique cultivation path that the natives of the ancient secret realm had come up.

And to do that, the best choice would be for him to sneak inside the royal palace’s library, something that was simple enough to accomplish with his current strength.

After all, though those Core Formation Realm equivalent figures might pose a deadly challenge to someone like Li Feng, they posed little to no danger to someone like himself, as he could go wherever he pleased inside the capital city, be it the marketplace filled with people or the palace where the emperor resided.