Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Spending a few days properly solidifying his cultivation realm at the Star Creation Realm while also using the time to get used to his new strength following his breakthrough, Xuan Hao ended up taking a bit longer than expected before setting out to find the winged lion demon beast to see how it was doing and if it was truly slacking off somewhere within the sect or had encountered some kind of bottleneck that it wasn’t able to overcome.

However, just as he set out in search of the little winged lion demon beast after realizing it wasn’t inside the sect but instead at the border between the sect and the frozen wasteland. Helping guard against some of the stronger demonic cultivators that inevitably attempted to sneak inside the sect’s territory. Feng Chen contacted him. Much to his surprise, it was only at this moment that he realized the other party had left several messages on his communication talisman.

Not discovering them due to the simple fact that they hadn’t been anything urgent and mixed in with the other regular messages he had ended up receiving during his now several-year-long seclusion.

And glancing through these messages following Feng Chen reaching out to him just as he was about to leave the sect, he quickly grasped what he wanted to discuss with him, as all the information regarding the Myriad Treasure Hall was contained within the different messages he had sent him over the years. Not just the information that the delegation had shared, but also some information that had been dug up over the years by the sect’s own intelligence network that had understandably shifted its attention towards finding out more about the Myriad Treasure Hall.

Difficult as this might have looked on the surface given how the Myriad Treasure Hall operated exclusively in the Southern Central Region and wasn’t exactly a place just anyone could go, it was well known to the point that anyone from the Southern Central Region knew about and thus, it was rather simple to gather some simple information on it through the different wandering cultivators moving between the different central regions searching for opportunities.

From this extra intelligence, the sect had managed to learn that outside of the Myriad Treasure Hall being the power in control of the different auction houses throughout the Southern Central Region that had kept a neutral stance since it came into existence in the past, it was also well known to be the only major power that regularly dealt with ancient hidden sects. Meaning, their knowledge on ancient hidden sects was by far the best throughout the entire continent.

A fact that would undoubtedly prove troublesome if the Star Shattering Sect engaged in a actual meeting with the Myriad Treasure Hall.

After all, while it might be simple to fool the small delegation formed by a group of weaker cultivators with little experience when it came to dealing with ancient hidden sects, the same couldn’t be said for a dedicated negotiator from the Myriad Treasure Hall who undoubtedly had plenty of experience dealing with ancient hidden sects.

If not for the fact that he had just broken through to the Star Creation Realm and felt far more confident in ensuring the safety of the Star Shattering Sect even if it was exposed that the Star Shattering Sect wasn’t an ancient hidden sect, he would have wanted Feng Chen to try and prevent a possible meeting if possible or at least delay it.

In a way, a delay had truly ended up taking place, but that was due to chaos that had erupted within the Southern Central Region and had nothing to do with them.

To some extent, the chaos in the Southern Central Region had ended up being a small blessing to the Star Shattering Sect, as it had allowed the official meeting with the Myriad Treasure Hall to get delayed while he had been in seclusion trying to reach the Star Creation Realm...

Shaking his head as he thought about this while landing inside Feng Chen’s personal courtyard, Xuan Hao didn’t immediately make a sound upon spotting the owner of the courtyard deep in meditation next to a small artificial pond in a corner of the courtyard. Instead, he curiously observed Feng Chen. Sensing his cultivation and the sword intent swirling around him as he was deep in meditation comprehending the Dao of the Sword.

Surprisingly, Feng Chen wasn’t just comprehending the Dao of the Sword normally but seemed to have entered a state of enlightenment with his comprehension of the Dao of the Sword rapidly advancing at a breakneck pace that left even him somewhat surprised.

He had no idea what kind of opportunity Feng Chen had obtained nor how it had caused him to enter a state of enlightenment so shortly after contacting him for a meeting, but he understood that this was not something he should interrupt.

On the contrary, he decided to use his own Dao of the Sword that had already reached the Perfection Realm and the sword intent born through this pure sword dao to subtly guide Feng Chen. Knowing that this was a very real opportunity for Feng Chen to advance his Dao of the Sword from the Small Success Realm to the Large Success Realm, a major breakthrough that would not just elevate his strength but also take him one step closer to the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

Whoosh~

And so, following his subtle guidance from the side serving as a pillar of support from which to draw inspiration from, Feng Chen successfully managed to take advantage of the sudden enlightenment to successfully advance his comprehension of the Dao of the Sword to the Large Success Realm. Experiencing a massive leap in strength in the process as he was now one step closer to reaching the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm. Showing signs of potentially even surpassing his own disciples when it came to reaching the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

”Haha! Great success!” Unaware of him standing right behind him, Feng Chen happily jumped up from the ground after his successful breakthrough. Dancing around in joy for a grand total of three seconds before he turned around enough to spot Xuan Hao standing behind him watching the joyful little dance with much amusement. ”Aaah!” Letting out a small, surprised sound before remembering how he had been the one to call the other party only to show such an undignified appearance.

”So... Now that the dancing is over, outside of the reason you called me, can I ask how you suddenly entered a state of enlightenment in the short time between contacting me and me getting here?” Not minding the rather undignified appearance his sect master had shown during the joyful little dance following his successful breakthrough, Xuan Hao instead found himself far more interested in what had happened between him being called over and him showing up.

A sudden enlightenment wasn’t something that couldn’t happen, but it felt far too abnormal for it to happen just after the other party had called him over.

”This... I don’t know, when I contacted you and settled down to wait, I just observed the flowing water and felt a sudden idea emerging in my head- and before I knew it, I unknowingly entered a state of enlightenment...”

”So... It really was just a sudden enlightenment?”

”Yes...”

Hearing the response from Feng Chen that confirmed a sudden enlightenment and not him finding some mysterious ancient artifact that he was in the process of inspecting before it had pulled him into a state of enlightenment like part of him had originally been suspecting, Xuan Hao couldn’t help examining Feng Chen for a bit before shaking his head in disappointment.

Sudden enlightenment was great and undoubtedly beneficial to Feng Chen himself, but if it had been some ancient artifact capable of allowing others to enter a state of enlightenment, it wouldn’t just be useful to Feng Chen but could potentially become a core artifact for the sect, similar to the Dao Enlightenment Monument that helped increase the chance of the sect’s elders and disciples alike reach the Domain Lord Realm and even a bit beyond that.

”I see, was hoping you unearthed some powerful ancient artifact that could help the sect’s Soul Ascension Realm cultivators or even those above increase their comprehension speed of the Dao...”

”That... How would I get my hands on something that precious!?”

”Who knows, maybe the old founder left something behind? After all, we both know that old fellow was far from normal... No matter, let’s move on to the original thing you called me here for, the future meeting with the Myriad Treasure Hall.” Shaking off the enlightenment talk with a bit of disappointment, Xuan Hao redirected the conversation towards the Myriad Treasure Hall.

”Yes! The situation is like this...” Something Feng Chen was more than happy to follow up on, as he began talking in great detail about what he expected from the meeting along with a few things he had learnt about the Myriad Treasure Hall that he hadn’t shared in the different messages he had sent him during his seclusion.