Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Feeling like the situation was going to be far more troublesome than he had originally thought when his old friend had called out to him asking for help catching a demon beast, the older of the two cultivators following in the tracks of the winged lion demon beast, decided that he would make sure to charge this old friend of his a few resources and spirit stones after everything was over.

As for danger? He didn’t believe a demon beast that hadn’t even reached the Celestial Immortal Realm would be capable of posing any real threat to someone like himself. At most it was a bit more annoying to deal with because of how fast it was thanks to its wings, but then again, t was also those wings that made it precious enough to now have two people whose strength exceeded the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm chasing after it.

It was only a matter of time before they caught up to it now that they could rely on his flying artifact to carry the two of them. Saving them the trouble of having to exhaust themselves trying to chase after the escaping demon beast.

Of course, this weaker friend of his might have also been able to rely on a flying artifact to chase after the winged lion demon beast, but it was clear from a glance that the flying artifact in his friend’s possession wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the escaping winged lion demon beast, let alone catch up to it.

Understandable all things considered, as the winged lion demon beast’s speed already exceeded that of someone at the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm and was comparable to someone who had reached the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

A flying artifact capable of keeping up with that kind of speed was rare and hard to come by, as most flying artifacts in the hands of Celestial Immortal Relam cultivators generally hovered somewhere between the Dao Seed Realm and the Celestial Immortal Realm. Not slow, but also not fast, a good pace for travelling, but far from enough when it came to chasing down enemies.

In a sense, the reason why this friend of his had decided to contact him instead of some of the stronger old friends of theirs had to do with the fact that he knew he had a powerful flying artifact in his hands.

And at the same time, it of course also had to do with the simple fact that this little friend of his didn’t feel confident he would be able to gain anything from the winged lion demon beast if he ended up contacting those stronger friends of theirs.

While he might be stronger, it didn’t mean he was someone at the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

If he had to place his and his friends on a scale, he would be at the very Peak of the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm only needing a single step to reach the late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, while his friend was someone who had only recently managed to breakthrough to the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm and had only recently stabilized his foundation and established himself as a proper Middel Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator.

Large as the difference within the same realm was, neither of them would be able to easily deal with the other, thus ensuring no backstabbing would occur later.

After all, if such an attempt failed, one would have made a powerful enemy, something neither of them wanted to see happening even if it meant they could monopolize everything of value the dead winged lion demon beast would end up producing.

Whoosh~

As the two of them set of on the flying artifact in the shape of a wooden boat barely large enough to fit the two of them on top of it at the same time, far from the two of them, a certain winged lion demon beast was visibly frowning as it glanced back the way it had come from.

Like the two had already suspected, the winged lion demon beast had indeed already sensed it was being chased by someone far stronger than itself and decided to escape before it could be caught by the other party.

Unfortunately, even though it had managed to react in time and avoided being caught without even knowing what had happened, the path back to the territory of the Star Shattering Sect had already been destroyed by the ones chasing it. Leaving it with no choice but to continue in the direction where it could faintly feel its connection to its master, Xuan Hao, coming from.

The reason why it had started frowning to itself glancing backwards did in fact not have anything to do with the two cultivators rapidly approaching it from behind, but instead the fact that the faint presence it had been moving towards had suddenly shifted from being in front of it to being behind it.

Not just that, but the presence itself was also far closer and rapidly approaching at a speed that left its pas months of escape laughable, as the distance it took weeks to cover was essentially being covered within a few short minutes. Making it clear that its master had come looking for it after noticing it was missing from the sect.

Still, though it was clear it would soon get picked up and dragged back to the sect in a few hours, the winged lion demon beast didn’t feel the slightest bit at ease. Having also sensed that the ones chasing after it had similarly rapidly sped up compared to before and would undoubtedly show up before its master... And given the strength of the ones chasing it, it was doubtful it would last more than a few seconds.

After all, it might be fast thanks to its wings, but when it came to fighting above its class by an entire major realm while still being stuck at the Peak of the Dao Seed Realm, it stood no chance. Especially given how the ones chasing it hadn’t just recently broken through to the Celestial Immortal Realm but were in fact someone beyond this level where it might have at least had the chance to draw things out a bit for its master to catch up and save it.

Roar...?

What is that? A mountain? Where did that come-

BANG!

But as the winged lion demon beast found itself deep in thought on what it could do to potentially buy its master more time to catch up before those cultivators chasing it managed to catch, it suddenly found itself crashing headfirst into a towering mountain that had seemingly spawned out of nowhere. Giving it little time to react before finding itself rolling down the side of the mountain that had decided to pop up and block its path forward.

Roooar... Roar!?

Letting out a few pain filled roars as it slowly found itself back on its feet, the winged lion demon beast didn’t even have time to properly examine the mountain that had not just popped up out of nowhere and blocked its path forward but was also strong enough to stop the full-on charge of a Peak Dao Seed Realm demon beast like itself...

”There it is! Quick! We can’t let it run away!”

”I know, I know, you don’t have to yell it, it won’t make us any faster!”

The reason behind this being the two cultivators that had been chasing behind it emerged at the very edge of the horizon and began rapidly closing the distance-

Swish!

Knowing that it had no time to dawdle around in this kind of situation, the winged lion demon beast wasted no time in flapping its wings. Taking to the sky before moving around the massive mountain that had jumped out to block its path. Showing no care or consideration for the potential danger, it was about to throw itself into for understandable reasons, as staying behind waiting for those two Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators to catch up would mean nothing short of certain death.

Better take a leap of faith into the unknown mountain range that had decided to jump out and block its path forward than stay behind trying to fight those two Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators.

After all, at the end of the day, the goal was no longer to get away from those two but instead buy enough time for its master to show up.

Whatever danger might be lurking within the mountain range would not be for it to deal with, but it’s master. All it needed to do was keep itself alive long enough within that unknown mountain range for Xuan Hao to arrive at the scene and put an end to those two Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators along with whatever else ended up on its tail after diving headfirst into the mysterious mountain range...