Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Officially starting his exploration of the twenty sixth floor of the ascension realm tower, outside the ascension realm tower, nothing changed, as life continued for the elders and disciples with little to no change outside of news slowly spreading about the body cultivation path. For his disciples, there was even less of a change, as he had left behind a clone connected to his main body. Allowing him to help them with any doubts or questions they might have regarding their cultivation.

Conveniently, he forgot about the matter regarding the fate of the ancient formation spirit that he had handed over to Elder Song to handle. Mainly because he didn’t fear it causing any problem, as the formation spirit itself didn’t pose much of a threat outside a formation unless it managed to cultivate on its own, something he was certain the ancient formation spirit hadn’t succeeded in from the brief interaction he had with it.

As for how Elder Song ultimately ended up handling the ancient formation spirit? He was certain that the old man would be able to figure something out…

”So… You are saying you can make help us make an illusion formation that will fit the criteria…?”

”Of course! What am I? A formation spirit! Helping those hopeless formation masters of yours create a simple illusion formation is nothing! In the past, I used to govern a few such trial formations, so I’m familiar with how they work and how to best ensure no potential troublemakers get through. Just remember to remind that senior from your sect who got me out about getting me a proper formation in the future!”

”No worries! If your illusion formation blueprint really turns out to work, I will do my best to ask Xuan Hao to find you a good formation to settle down in.”

”Haha! Great, I like your honesty old man!”

And completely unknown to Xuan Hao, the ancient formation spirit had already come to an agreement with Elder Song after providing him assistance in dealing with the problem of creating an illusion formation for testing the younger disciples of the sect and removing potential spies in the process.

Unfamiliar as this kind of formation might be to the ancient formation spirit, it was ultimately still an ancient formation spirit and had seen countless formations throughout its life and could easily think of a potential one for Elder Song. Creating a simple formation blueprint for him to follow- or rather, for the formation master from the Formation Hall to follow. After all, it was ultimately still just a formation spirit and didn’t have the ability to create the formation itself and could only rely on the different formation masters behind Elder Song to finish the work.

If not, it wouldn’t have handed over a formation blueprint but would have instead stepped forward and solved this problem on its own. Using the opportunity to earn more favorability from Elder Song, who it had almost immediately realized held a rather high position inside the sect despite his relatively low cultivation base.

Having left the ancient secret realm, the ancient formation spirit already got a general grasp of the current situation of the world and the fact that the family clan it had once been a part of was long since gone- or at the very least decayed to a state where it wasn’t recognizable any longer. If not, it would have been noticed the second it left the ancient secret realm and stepped back into the main world by the soul contract connecting it to the main formation at the very heart of the Ancient Noble Li Clan.

Considering the state of the ancient secret realm and the fact that no one had showed up to solve the issues over the long years, it was somewhat expected, but the soul contract remained in place and only dissolved after it officially left the ancient secret realm and stepped back within the range that should be reachable by the main formation.

In simple words, it was a masterless formation spirit without any faction behind it, a fact that it understood full well wasn’t a good position to be in, as it had close to no way to fight back in its current state and even ran the risk of attracting demonic cultivators because of how pure its soul body was. Equal to that of a cultivator at the Star Creation Realm to those demonic cultivators

Because of this, there was not the slightest bit of hesitation as it already decided to attach itself to the Star Shattering Sect. Knowing from its encounter with Xuan Hao that the Star Shattering Sect should at very least be a sect that had once been on friendly terms with the Mirage Sect that was an ally of the Ancient Noble Li Clan that it had been part of.

Still… It was clear from a simple look around the place that this Star Shattering Sect had also suffered quite a bit over the years, as the overall strength of this sect seemed to have reached an abysmally low level compared to what a power capable of being viewed as allies by the Mirage Sect should be.

But then again, compared to disappearing completely, it was still in a far better state and the formation spirit itself also guessed that the true experts behind this sect remained hidden or in secluded cultivation. Not interfering with the day-to-day operations of the sect, something that wasn’t too odd for a cultivation sect according to what it remembered about these sects.

The Star Shattering Sect, being a newly established sect, wasn’t even something the ancient formation spirit even considered, as it could clearly sense the terrifying formation surrounding the Shattered Star Peaks, a formation that made it feel a sense of longing.

If possible, it wanted to be the formation spirit of that powerful formation, but it also understood from a glance that it would be impossible. After all, there was no way such a powerful formation didn’t already have a formation spirit.

Instead, it became far more interested in a new formation that had been established just next to the Shattered Star Peaks guarding a small town where wandering cultivators and others could freely settle down and trade under the protection of the Star Shattering Sect.

Not because the formation in question was powerful, but instead because it was clear to it from a glance that this was going to be a formation that was going to be developed in the future to potentially reach a level beyond the formation it had called home in the past.

Of course, this was still a long way off, but it was at least something it felt was relatively certain from the current expansionist attitude of the Star Shattering Sect and outside of that, there was also the fact that it would be able to stay right next to the guardian formation of the Star Shattering Sect. Giving it a fellow formation spirit to chat with and exchange insights with.

In a sense, even if it had asked Elder Song to request help from Xuan Hao to find a fitting formation for it, it had already set the formation at the edge of the Shattered Star Peaks as its target. After all, any formation stronger than that one would undoubtedly already house a formation spirit. The only reason why that formation didn’t have any formation spirit likely had to do with the fact that it had only recently been created and was no more than a few years old.

Unaware of any of this, Elder Song happily left with the illusion formation blueprints that had been created by the formation spirit and made his way towards the Formation Hall.

Even though he had only obtained blueprints for the formation and the sect’s formation masters would still need to first comprehend the blueprint to start using the formation within it, it was a clear step forward towards a solution to the problem that had been plaguing him and the rest of the sect for the past few years since the Star Shattering Sect expand and entered the eyes of the different major powers from the Northern Central Region.

Not to mention, unknown to Elder Song who didn’t understand much when it came to formations, the blueprints in his hands was far more valuable than he thought, as the formation spirit had no idea what level of formation he wanted, so it had ended up just copying down anything from the lowest level all the way up to the Saint Realm. Even including an illusion formation that would render a formation master at the First Heaven Saint Realm speechless and unable to fully grasp what was written down.

In simple words, the ancient formation spirit had unknowingly created a clear inheritance for the Formation Hall of the sect. Showing a clear progression all the way from the bottom to the First Heaven of the Saint Realm using illusion formations, something far more valuable than just solving the problem Elder Song had asked it for help with…