Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

At the same time Xuan Hao left the Explorer Union branch to search for the three Dao Seed Realm wandering cultivators who had the potential to become elders of the Star Shattering Sect, somewhere at the edge of the large city, a slightly older woman caring with her a presence that seemed to command respect appeared.

From a glance alone, it was obvious that this woman was no ordinary person, something that only became more obvious from the surprised looks the guards gave her the moment they saw her approaching.

Among the guards at the gate, one who had just recently returned from escorting a certain young master almost instantly spotted the older woman before rushing over with a clear look of surprise plastered all over his face. ”M-Madam Jing, I thought you wouldn’t be coming until the annual assessment of the guardian formation?”

”Hm? Oh, little Yang. Haven’t seen you in some time, I just decided on checking up on the formation a bit earlier this time around as I will be too busy to take care of the old formation soon.”

”Check on it early? Busy soon!? M-m-madam, who will take care of the formation without you around!?”

”Don’t worry, someone else will take over in my absence, though the formation will have to go a few years without being checked. Although… I doubt it will make much difference considering the level of this formation. Even checking it every year feels like too much, doing it once every ten or so years would be more than enough…”

As the conversation between the older woman and the guard at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm played out for the wandering cultivators waiting in line to see, it soon became clear that the identity of the older woman was special.

Not only was she an incredibly skilled formation master, but she was also the one currently in charge of maintaining and repairing the guardian formation of the Dragon Tooth Mountain City!

Given that it was a rather well known fact that the guardian formation had been set up by a Saint Realm Formation Master and was even capable of resisting against someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm, to even be capable of repairing and maintaining such a terrifying formation in its peak state was an achievement in and of itself, while also being a testament to the older woman’s strength.

To maintain and repair a Saint Realm Formation, even with proper guidelines to follow left behind by the Saint Realm Formation Master, it at least required someone in the Senior Grandmaster Realm to always keep the guardian formation in peak condition.

However, considering the strategic importance of the Dragon Tooth Mountain City, none of the wandering cultivators waiting in line believed that this woman was just someone in the Senior Grandmaster Realm.

Instead, they firmly believed that she should be someone at the Pinnacle Grandmaster Realm. Possibly even the disciple of the Saint Realm Formation Master who had created the formation in the first place!

”… Well then, I will get going. After all, I plan to finish this as fast as possible to avoid wasting too much time here.”

As the wandering cultivators lined up to enter the city were all eagerly listening in on the conversation between Old Yang and the mysterious Madam Jing, the two quickly finished their small talk before Madam Jing disappeared inside the city. Soon returning the area around the gate to its former state.

After all, the appearance of a formation master who would fix any problems with the guardian formation or just overall check on its health on a yearly basis was a well-known fact.

Although it seemed like something had happened to push this check up on the formation a few months ahead of time, it didn’t really have anything to do with them nor would it affect them in any way whether the guardian formation of the city was checked now or three months later. At most, it would be a good distraction while waiting in line to enter the city.

…

Entering the city, the older woman referred to as Madam Jing, moved straight to the center of the city before blatantly walking inside the large estate where the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator in charge of guarding the city resided.

Along the way, she didn’t encounter any resistance, as she smoothly entered the estate before moving through a large garden filled with all sorts of exotic spiritual herbs and trees.

However, none of this seemed to catch her attention. Instead, she seemed fully locked in on her goal, as she soon came to a secluded area where a middle-aged man sat quietly in a meditative position. Clearly deep in meditation, either ignoring the woman or simply not noticing her presence.

”…”

The woman didn’t really seem to care about this, as she simply glanced at the middle-aged man briefly before focusing her attention on the large crystal sphere floating a few meters behind him.

From her expression, it was obvious that this crystal sphere was her goal and the reason she had come to this place.

”The formation core… Still as beautiful as ever…” Muttering this to herself as she looked towards this floating sphere, the woman slowed down her speed to a small jog, as she soon found herself standing in front of the floating sphere more than twice her own height.

With how close she was at this point; countless tiny formation symbols could be seen flowing across the surface of the sphere in complex and intangible patterns incomprehensible to those who hadn’t comprehended the Dao of Formations.

At this point, even someone unfamiliar with the Dao of Formations would have realized that the sphere was the core of the Dragon Tooth Mountain City’s guardian formation.

However, as the woman was admiring the formation core, she was also silently inspecting it with her divine sense. Checking for any problems that might have occurred since her last visit less than a year ago.

 ”Hm?”

As a result, she soon noticed something different from the past, causing a small frown to form on the corner of her lips as she stared deeply into formation symbols swirling around inside of the crystal sphere.

”How odd… It seems like an error of sort happened this time around. Not just that, but one within the simplest identification formation that is automatically used on anyone entering the city to prevent unknown Dao Seed Realm cultivators or above from entering the city secretly.”

Almost whispering this to herself as she went over the error that had occurred since her last visit, the woman’s frown deepened even further as she realized that things wouldn’t be going as smoothly as she had expected.

Normally, she would just come in, check up on the formation core and see if something was wrong. If there were no changes, she didn’t have to do anything and could just leave after concluding that the formation was still in an optimal state.

In truth, she had come here to do what was essentially a yearly check-up a bit earlier because she had never really expected the formation to encounter any problems that would need her attention.

After all, this was a formation set up by someone in the Saint Realm, even if left unattended, it would be able to keep running for thousands of years without any significant problems.

The reason she even came to observe the formation once a year was because of the importance of the Dragon Tooth Mountain to the Crimson Dragon Empire and the fact that it was a good opportunity for her to deepen her insights into the Dao of Formations by observing the inner workings of the formation core created by a Saint Realm Formation Master.

Even more so, considering that the formation master who had set up the formation wasn’t an ordinary Third Heaven Saint, but instead a Second Heaven Saint.

Third Heaven Saint, Second Heaven Saint, First Heaven Saint and finally the mythical Great Saint.

Most cultivators who managed to reach the Saint Realm only ever managed to reach the Third Heaven Realm. Anything beyond that would be incredibly rare across the entire continent.

Compared to Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, Second Heaven Realm Saints were far more difficult to come across, let alone someone who had managed to reach the First Heaven Realm…

For this reason alone, she was incredibly taken aback to see that an error had taken place in the formation created by a Second Heaven Saint. Especially considering that the formation itself wasn’t that old, only being a little over a hundred years old.

Whoosh~

Of course, as she realized the seriousness of the situation, she instantly dropped her former relaxed demeanor and became far more serious as she began to seriously inspect the error that had occurred.

Even if the formation had managed to fix the problem on its own, it was crucial that she figured out what had caused this problem to occur in the first place, as it presented a potential weakness in the formation that the enemies of the Crimson Dragon Empire could take advantage of.