Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Following the incident regarding the problems caused by the Blue Sea Empire being resolved without any real problems for the Star Shattering Sect, Elder Song didn’t dare let his guard down. Understanding that this was unlikely to be the only retaliation from the Blue Sea Empire now that they had fallen out with them according to what he had learnt about from Xuan Hao.

At the very least, it was clear from the first retaliatory response that the Blue Sea Empire wasn’t looking to start an outright war with the Star Shattering Sect or try to fight them to the death. At most attempting to use their power as the local hegemon to limit the influence of the sect to the best of their abilities.

Even then, Elder Song didn’t feel the slightest bit relived, understanding just how much of an impact the Blue Sea Empire could have on the current growth of the Star Shattering Sect, the first retaliatory response being an obvious lesson for him, as he sought to strengthen the flaws of the Star Shattering Sect and ensure that the sect could remain operational without encountering any problems. Even if it ran into potential problems throughout the different spirit stone mines and spiritual herb fields located outside the main territory of the sect in the chaotic region of the former Sky Empire.

And… Unsurprisingly, it only took a few weeks from him resolving the first problem caused by the Blue Sea Empire with Xuan Hao before problems started appearing throughout the spiritual herb fields or the spirit stones mines under the sect’s control in the chaotic region.

The problems were mysterious and impossible to track down. Leaving the overall production of these locations far lower than normal without being resolved. The addition of the Zhang Clan cultivators didn’t change this, as the problems kept increasing with each passing day.

However, Elder Song had already predicted that something like that was likely to happen following the Blue Sea Empire starting to take subtle action against the Star Shattering Sect, so the overall situation of the sect wasn’t impacted by the loss in production from these few locations.

Even then, the Star Shattering Sect was continuously being attacked by the Blue Sea Empire in this kind of way.

If not for the situation with the demonic cultivators becoming increasingly worse at one of the kingdoms bordering the Frozen Wasteland. Reaching the point where the kingdom in question was completely lost to the demonic cultivators of the Frozen Wasteland, it was doubtful whether the Blue Sea Empire would have continued trying to find unique ways to suppress the Star Shattering Sect without directly confronting them or not.

However, because of the above-mentioned problems at their border, they were forced to focus their full attention on dealing with the demonic cultivators again and couldn’t spare any energy for the Star Shattering Sect even if one of the Celestial Immortal Realm Ancestors was rather eager to go against the Star Shattering Sect following his encounter with Xuan Hao.

But, even if the state of the Star Shattering Sect returned to normal in a little over a month following the subtle attacks on their spiritual mines and spiritual field in the chaotic region, Elder Song felt angry at the Blue Sea Empire for the slowdown that this had caused in the growth of the sect.

If not for the fact that he understood full well that the Star Shattering Sect was nowhere near strong enough to confront a major power like the Blue Sea Empire, he would likely have already started a direct war with them, as the little resources that the sect had managed to accumulate during the past few years had almost been completely consumed in that month.

The sect did have a lot of resources when it came to that of higher-level cultivators because of Xuan Hao and Chu Yang’s help, but when it came to lower-level resources for the Core Formation Realm and below, the sect was a bit lacking and didn’t have the same level accumulated resources. Mostly due to the massive consumption of resources in that area, making it hard to accumulate more than a few months’ worth of resources.

Because of this, as Elder Song was looking for an opportunity to get revenge on the Blue Sea Empire in a way that wouldn’t implicate the Star Shattering Sect further and would be in line with the sect’s current identity as an ancient hidden sect, Elder Song found out that the Blue Sea Empire had a supply line going through the Star Shattering Sect’s territory to supply resources to the frontlines with the demonic cultivators.

Although the people part of this supply line were unrelated merchants not directly part of the Blue Sea Empire, they worked on their behalf to provide the Blue Sea Empire with cultivation resources, artifacts and other things to help their efforts against the demonic cultivators.

Of course, most of these resources were of a lower level, at most being useful to those in the Nascent Soul Realm or below.

Just so what the Star Shattering Sect now found itself lacking due to the problems caused by the Blue Sea Empire, causing a devious plan to take place inside Elder Song’s head, as several small bandit groups soon began popping up throughout the territory of the Star Shattering Sect. Robbing these merchants and cultivations heading to the frontlines to supply the Blue Sea Empire with resources.

Although this method wasn’t that difficult to see through for the Blue Sea Empire, there wasn’t much they could do about it in the territory of the Star Shattering Sect unless they wanted to go to war with them, something they didn’t really plan on given their current situation with the demonic cultivators.

And so… The Star Shattering Sect managed to make up for the recent loss in resources over the past few months before the merchants and cultivators understood to steer clear of the Star Shattering Sect’s territory even if it meant that it would take far longer for them to reach the battlefield between the Blue Sea Empire and the demonic cultivators…