Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Following the formation master Jing setting off from the Dragon Tooth Mountain City, Xuan Hao appeared at the gate of another large city not much different from the Dragon Tooth Mountain City located in another important location of the Crimson Dragon Empire.

The main difference from this city compared to the Dragon Tooth Mountain City being that while it was also guarded by a powerful formation and someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm, the scale of the formation guarding the city was far smaller and only covered the central part of the city where the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator guarding the city had his estate.

Of course, outside of the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator’s estate, the Explorer Union branch, auction houses, artifact shops and so on were also located in the core of the city that was protected by the formation.

However, the important thing that Xuan Hao had managed to find out about this city was that most of the wandering cultivators could often be found either relaxing or cultivating in the outer parts of the city outside of the formation.

The main reason for this being that it was hard for any wandering cultivators to stay in the central part of the city unless they had reached the Dao Seed Realm or were related to the Crimson Dragon Empire.

For this reason, Xuan Hao also deemed this city to be a perfect location for him to search for Soul Ascension Realm wandering cultivators willing to become part of the Star Shattering Sect.

Main problem being him having to determine the quality of the different wandering cultivators before deciding to accept them into the sect.

To ensure that he wouldn’t end up making any mistakes that could potentially harm the Star Shattering Sect, he also came to the decision that Elder Song would be going through each of the wandering cultivators he sent back before they were formally accepted into the sect. Having used a precious top grade spirit stone to inform him about this change of plans after he had left the Dragon Tooth Mountain City and made sure that there wasn’t anyone trying to chase after him.

Speaking of people chasing after him, he was a bit surprised that the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator guarding the Mountain Tooth Dragon City didn’t chase after him when he left.

Unaware of the fact that the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator in question had been far too terrified to do so after he realized that his opponent was someone who had comprehended that Dao of Space to the Perfection Realm.

Although Xuan Hao himself had no clue what this implied, the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from the Crimson Dragon Empire was fully aware of just how rare it was for someone to comprehend the Dao of Space to the Perfection Realm. Even more so someone that was completely unknown.

At this point in time, it had even reached a point where he had convinced himself that Xuan Hao was someone from one of the Nine Core Faiths, as only they would have cultivators that powerful that were still unknown to the rest of the continent.

Something that Xuan Hao would not learn about for now, as he instead turned his focus towards recruiting more wandering cultivators in the Soul Ascension Realm for the Star Shattering Sect.

As for recruiting more Dao Seed Realm wandering cultivators… That was not something that was easy to accomplish no matter where he went and would be up to luck where or not, he encountered or found out about someone who would be fitting for the Star Shattering Sect.

After all, a Dao Seed Realm cultivator held a certain significance and couldn’t recklessly be absorbed into the Star Shattering Sect at the current size of the sect, one of the main reasons why the old ancestor of the Zhang Clan was not allowed into the Shattered Star Peaks even though he had become part of the sect. Instead, being put in charge of external sect matters together with the Soul Ascension Realm cultivators of the Zhang Clan.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao began to search for more Soul Ascension Realm cultivators to join, the first of the Soul Ascension Realm cultivators he had managed to recruit to join the sect reached the territory of the Star Shattering Sect with a somewhat doubtful expression on his face.

”So… Is this the territory of the Star Shattering Sect? Far more remote than I expected and directly bordering the Frozen Wastelands as well…” Muttering this to himself, the Soul Ascension Realm cultivator could not help wondering if he had wasted his spirit stones on using different teleportation formations to rapidly cross through the Eastern Central Region to the Northern Central Region.

The reason was not so much because he was disappointed in the strength of the Star Shattering Sect, as he was well aware of how hidden ancient sects tended to not be located anywhere near the central region of the continent as they had their own unique ways of gathering cultivation resources, either in the form of ancient secret realms or mystic realms that had been nurtured by these ancient powers for a period of time unimaginable to most major powers currently present on the continent.

No… Instead of that, this cultivator’s regret came from the fact he had ended up using almost all the spirit stones he had saved up to use the teleportation formations of different major powers to quickly reach the territory of the Star Shattering Sect.

Although teleportation formations from different major powers were normally not available to a wandering cultivator, there were always exceptions… And paying enough spirit stone was one such exception.

The main problem being that it was incredibly expensive.

Now standing at the borders of the Star Shattering Sect’s territory or more accurately the borders of the Iron Sky Kingdom, the cultivator realized that there was no reason for him to squander all his spirit stones just to get to the Star Shattering Sect a few months earlier than if he had travelled by foot.

Thinking about what Xuan Hao had said during their meeting when he had been convinced to join the Star Shattering Sect, he couldn’t contain his excitement and had rushed over as fast as possible.

The reason he didn’t doubt the words of Xuan Hao was rather simple, as the other party was obviously someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm and simply didn’t have any reason to deceive a mere Soul Ascension Realm cultivator like himself.

In the end, it had caused him to end up in his current predicament where he had indeed managed to reach the territory of the Star Shattering Sect at record speed, but at the same time he had also ended up using most of his spirit stones in the process. Essentially rendering him penniless in the process.

At this point in time, the only thing that kept him somewhat positive was what he had managed to learn about the Star Shattering Sect during his journey so far.

Given that he had mostly passed through large cities under the control of different major powers when using their teleportation formations, he had also managed to ask around about the Star Shattering Sect and had learnt that they were indeed known as a recently emerged ancient hidden sect throughout most of the Northern Central Regions major powers.

What gave this claim some credibility was not just people talking about it in the different cities he passed through, but instead the fact that the Blue Sea Empire, a powerful empire known throughout the continent as one of the strongest major powers, had decided to keep clear of the Star Shattering Sect and avoid confronting them even though they had essentially taken away a small part of what could be considered their territory.

Outside of that, there was also the fact that the demonic cultivators that should be bordering the Star Shattering Sect and attacking them now didn’t do so through the shared border, but instead through the Star Shattering Sect border with a neighboring kingdom. Even then, the strongest among the demonic cultivators attacking had barely reached the Soul Ascension Realm in terms of strength and at most served as training for the sect’s younger generation as far as he was aware.

Although the reason for the demonic cultivators actions were not clear, it gave off the impression that they were similarly afraid of and avoiding confrontation with the Star Shattering Sect.

All things pointed towards the Star Shattering Sect indeed being an ancient hidden sect, making this recently broke Soul Ascension Realm cultivator feel a sense of relief as he stepped forward and into the Iron Sky Kingdom-

Squeeak!

Swish-!

”Huh? Wha-!?”

Bang!

However, after only taking a single step inside the Iron Sky Kingdom, he suddenly found his world spinning, as he was knocked flying by what could only be described as a small ball of fur moving far faster than even, he as someone in the Soul Ascension Realm could perceive.