Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Chapter 1819: Escaping the Forest

”Huh!? W-what is that!?”

”Eeep!”

”T-Terrifying...”

Just as the shockwave from the final clash between Xuan Hao’s avatar and the flying sword controlled by the guardian formation swept through the forest covered ancient alchemy sect ruins, the other wandering cultivators who had managed to successfully escape from the flying ship and stay alive up until now, all found themselves looking in the direction that the terrifying shockwave had come from filled with fear.

Although they had no idea where the shockwave had come from, they all felt the power behind it as it swept over them...

”What was that!? Did a powerful demon beast perhaps awaken from its slumber?”

”How would I know!? But from the terrifying shockwave just now, whatever it was, should have killed anyone unlucky enough to have travelled in that direction.”

”Indeed... Luckily, we chose another direction to travel in, or we might have already been dead without even knowing what hit us...”

Only after a few minutes of silence did the different groups of wandering cultivators finally gain the courage to talk about what had just happened, though the fear in their eyes had only deepened.

In the end, most of the wandering cultivators spread throughout the dense forest concluded that the terrifying shockwave should have come from a powerful demon beast being stirred awake by something.

What it was, they couldn’t figure out, but one thing was for certain... And that was the fact that the demon beasts that had been getting increasingly difficult to deal with had seemingly disappeared into thin air. Even searching for the demon beasts through their divine sense, it was difficult to find any. Hiding far more deeply than they had before.

Knowing that this might very well be their only opportunity to get out of the forest safely and escape from the ancient alchemy sect ruins, the wandering cultivators hesitated only for a second before all of them began rushing forward without any regard for their surroundings.

Now that all the demon beasts had decided to hide away, they didn’t need to restrain themselves as much as they had done in the past to avoid being noticed by the countless demon beasts hidden throughout the forest.

Of course, this wasn’t entirely without risk, as they essentially turned themselves into targets for any demon beast brave enough to peek their head out of the ground, but they honestly couldn’t care less about this risk.

Having already spent hours moving through the forest and being constantly attacked by demon beasts from all sides, they understood that if they didn’t take this opportunity that had been granted to them, they might never be able to escape from the ancient alchemy sect ruins before the stronger demon beasts began roaming around hunting again.

As for the powerful demon beast they suspected to have awakened and caused all the demon beasts to go into hiding? They threw the thought of its existence to the back of their mind. Understanding that such a powerful demon beast would be able to find and kill them no matter how much they tried to hide themselves. All they could do was silently pray that this demon beast had not yet fully woken up or was simply disinterested in dealing with them.

In a way, many the wandering cultivators were silently hoping that this powerful demon beast would target the flying ship and the owner of the flying ship that had captured them in the past. After all, different from them, the owner of the flying ship should at least be someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm, an existence that should draw the attention of such a powerful demon beast that most of them already suspected to have similarly reached the Celestial Immortal Realm.

...

”What is that energy? It prevents me from healing my arm...”

While the rest of the wandering cultivators scattered throughout the forest began their desperate escape without any regard for the demon beasts that might notice them in the process, one of the formation masters who had lost his arm earlier had suddenly realized that he couldn’t recover the missing arm.

”Huh? I-I can’t recover my leg either!”

”My hand as well...!”

”This... I...”

Not long after the first formation master’s exclamation, the rest of the formation masters who had similarly ended up losing a limb earlier discovered that they couldn’t heal like they would have been able to do in the past.

The reason itself didn’t take long for them to figure out, as there seemed to be some kind of scorching energy left behind where their limbs had been cut off. Preventing them from healing by directly vaporizing any spiritual qi they directed towards the injured location.

Soon enough, those who had been uninjured and still had some strength left came over to try and assist but were ultimately left helpless in the face of the terrifying scorching energy that seemed to be inextinguishable.

”This... Is it perhaps the leftover energy from the flying sword that master’s avatar clashed with...?” Muttering this to himself as he also joined in and tried to help remove the scorching energy with the help of his dao domain, Chu Yang didn’t take long to realize the origin of this scorching energy.

However, this left him rather helpless, as he understood that there was likely no way for any of them to remove this scorching energy with their current strength.

Well... They could remove with enough time on their hand, but from his calculations, it would likely take years to do so.

In other words, the missing limbs of the formation masters, who had been unlucky enough to get hit by the more deadly fragments left behind from the origin of the shockwave of spiritual qi, wouldn’t be able to regrow their missing limbs.

Bad as this was for their current situation, it wasn’t entirely doom and gloom, as those missing a few limbs were at least able to move around normally by relying on their domains.

Direct flight was impossible but floating a few centimeters off the ground was possible.

With that in mind, Chu Yang and the rest didn’t waste any time after realizing those missing a few body parts could still move around and resumed their journey through the forest in search of another place for them to hide in while waiting for Chu Yang’s master to show up.

At the very least, now that the group of formation masters knew that Chu Yang was waiting for his master to come and safe him and having personally seen the strength of his master through a simple projection, they were more than happy to follow along.

Compared to the rest of the wandering cultivators who had no clear path out of the ancient alchemy sect ruins, they at least had a way to escape by staying alive for long enough.

As for how long they would have to wait before Chu Yang’s master appeared? They had no idea, but... The mere realization that rescue was coming their way was more than enough to make them feel a sense of relief.

In turn, because they now all knew that Chu Yang wasn’t just a simple wandering cultivator who might have been lucky enough to stumble upon a spatial artifact, but instead someone with an actual powerful background, he ended up becoming the de facto leader of the small group of eight.

Although... Given their current circumstances, there wasn’t much of a benefit to becoming the leader, as they were essentially just moving through the forest with him in the lead.

If anything, his position had become more dangerous than before, as he was now the one leading the group through the forest. Meaning that he was the one in the front and the one who would be encountering danger first in case they stumbled upon any...

Like this, Chu Yang and his group continued moving through the forest for the next half hour before their surroundings changed abruptly. Going from a lush, dense forest one second, to a mountainous region filled with steep cliffs and shattered peaks the next.

The sudden shift in environment being jarring to say the least, as they tried to get a grasp of what had happened. Only to realize that they had not only found themselves in a completely unfamiliar environment, but the path to the forest now behind them had been blocked by some invisible barrier the second they crossed over to the mountainous region.

However, the worst point was not the inability to return to the demon beast infested forest, but instead the fact that they could sense countless powerful cultivators clashing with each other throughout the mountainous region.

Originally, they had been confused where all the cultivators from the different major powers had gone as they had clearly been swarming towards the ancient alchemy sect ruins, but now they all realized where all these powerful cultivators had ended up going. Worse yet, they soon felt an especially powerful divine sense surpassing the Soul Ascension Realm locking on to them...