Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Unaware of the fact that they had been followed as they escaped from the ancient secret realm through the spatial passage that had once again been created by Li Feng through the jade he had been caring connecting to the spatial gate within the ruins to the formation disc that they had originally entered the ancient secret realm through, Li Feng and his group of friends emerged in a panicked manner before scattering to get away from the spatial passage. Afraid that they might get sucked into it when it began collapsing. Sending them back to the collapsing secret realm.

Luckily, as everyone scattered and took their distance from the formation disc, no such thing happened, as the spatial gate that had been created merely wavered for a bit before disappearing alongside the formation disc that was ultimately pulled into the void and destroyed.

In the end, everyone emerged safely without any of them getting sucked back into the collapsing secret realm. Even better, they were all aware that although they hadn’t been able to make much progress within the QI Condensation Realm, all of them had managed to make a lot of progress through the body cultivation path during their relatively short time within the ancient secret realm.

Compared to other Qi Condensation Realm cultivators, they could be considered to have reached the very peak, with some of them even feeling confident that they would be able to fend off someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm for a time relying on their powerful physique.

Although this had yet to be tested, the confidence alone spoke to just how much these younger people had managed to improve their strength during their time within the ancient secret realm.

From originally feeling uncertain about being able to enter the Star Shattering Sect, they all felt a certain degree of confidence in being accepted into the Star Shattering Sect.

Li Feng, who had originally hidden his strength at the Foundation Establishment Realm had also ended up revealing this strength during their escape from the ancient secret realm, but none of his friends found it odd for him to have broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm as he had also managed to reach the Grandmaster Martial Arts Realm, equivalent to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

In fact, they didn’t think he had broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm before entering the ancient secret realm and instead believed that his breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Realm had ended up happening along with his breakthrough to the Grandmaster Martial Arts Realm inside the ancient secret realm.

Having his Foundation Establishment Realm strength already revealed, Li Feng saw no reason to correct this assumption and felt that it might be for the better as it would at least be more convincing in case his family learnt about his sudden rise and breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

With that in mind, the group of youths didn’t linger around longer than necessary after they escaped from the ancient secret realm and watched the spatial gate collapse in on itself. After all, they still had to get to the Branch of the Star Shattering Sect in time for the disciple recruitment and didn’t have that much time to waste after their excursion to the suddenly appearing secret realm.

Mysterious as everything was, it wasn’t enough to make them think too much about the secret realm they had entered. After all, secret realms weren’t an unknown throughout the continent and they had already grown up with tales of cultivators, both weak and powerful encountering them and obtaining valuable opportunities from these secret realms not much different from what had happened to them.

Of course, the main reason why they didn’t think anything was odd about their experience inside the secret realm was because they hadn’t had the opportunity to explore much of the secret realm before they had been forced to escape.

In the end, the only thing they encountered was a smaller city alongside a poisonous swamp and a few other desolate locations with only demon beasts around with no real opportunity to interact with the locals beyond that one city at the start.

Odd as locals living within a secret realm might seem, it wasn’t exactly rare, as many powerful cultivators with the resources to construct a secret realm used it as they sanctuary and cultivation abode. If they were from a family clan or a powerful power, it would almost certainly become a place for the younger members of the clan alongside servants and visiting cultivators to visit.

In case the connection and passage to such a secret realm was lost, it wasn’t weird for the survivors to develop on their own within the secret realm and develop independently if the connection was lost for long enough.

The secret realm that they had encountered was one such secret realm that had been cut off and lost for a long time, only rarely connecting with the outside world like how they had accidentally been able to enter this ancient secret realm.

As for the collapse of the ancient secret realm and the evacuation of the locals through spatial passages that they had only heard about from a few of the locals they had moved past during their way back to the ruins where the spatial gate connecting to the formation disc, they had originally used to enter the ancient secret realm through? That should be some kind of last-ditch safety measure that had been imbedded in the formation operating to keep the secret realm running. Using the last bit of its power to forcibly reestablish the cut-off spatial passages as the secret realm collapsed- or that was at least what one of the more powerful locals at the Grandmaster Martial Arts Realm that they had run into had told them.

And… To be honest, they felt this made sense.

After all, for someone capable of constructing something as magnificent as a secret realm, it only made sense that the other party would leave behind some kind of safety mechanism for evacuating the secret realm in case something went wrong.

Along with these beliefs and already resuming their journey towards the Branch of the Star Shattering Sect, Li Feng along with the other youths aspiring to become disciple of the Star Shattering Sect could not help chatting about whether the Star Shattering Sect had any secret realms that they might be able to visit after becoming disciples.

The entire conversation between everyone flowed smoothly, as outside the clear improvement in strength that everyone had experienced, the journey to the ancient secret realm that had only lasted a few days had brought everyone closer, something that was mainly possible in such a short time due to everyone’s young age and lack of experience.

…

”Looks like there is no need for me to worry about them any longer…” Observing the group of youths as they made they way towards the Branch of the Star Shattering Sect while chatting happily about the ancient secret realm and what they had just gone through alongside what they themselves hoped to accomplish in the future, Xuan Hao couldn’t help smiling happily as he watched them make their way forward.

Given their strength and the unique progress they had ended up making within the body cultivation path, he was certain that they would not just be able to become disciple of the branch that they were heading to, but their unique cultivation of the body cultivation path would almost certainly end up drawing the attention of the elder in charge of the branch, which would then end up drawing the attention of the main sect and later end up reaching Elder Song, who would then end up reaching out to him about this at some point down the line.

Of course, before this reached him, to ensure that these unique disciples were nurtured properly and kept an eye on, Elder Song wouldn’t hesitate to bring them into the main sect. After all, a new cultivation path that was unknown to him and everyone else in the sect was far too important to simply ignore and allow to linger in some branch sect.

In a way, because of their trip to the ancient secret realm and their progress within the body cultivation path, every single one of these youths had unknowingly managed to secure themselves a direct path to the main sect, something that would normally only have been possible for Li Feng who had already reached the Foundation Establishment Realm at such a young age.

Truly, Xuan Hao couldn’t help admiring the luck of these youths, but at the same time, he had also felt his interest in taking on Li Feng as a disciple fade.

Not because he wasn’t talented enough, but because he felt it would be good to leave some talented disciples for the other elders of the sect. Especially considering that Li Feng seemed to be especially talented when it came to the body cultivation path and the path he himself was on wasn’t the body cultivation path.