Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Feeling the curious gaze from Xuan Hao along with how the one from the Explorer Union had been about to hand over the Stardusk Essence to him seconds earlier, Huo Fen could not help feeling a bit uneasy as he quickly grabbed the interspatial ring with one hand before using the other to stuff the Stardusk Essence into his interspatial ring. Afraid that the one from the Explorer Union would take it away.

”With this, everything is done, I will be taking my leave in a few minutes after sorting out everything here.” Not noticing anything odd about how fast Huo Fen was acting, the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from the Explorer Union briefly nodded his head before turning to leave. Giving them a heads-up about how long the auction house would remain peaceful.

After all, though the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators present would respect the Explorer Union with someone at the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm from the Explorer Union around, the same could hardly be said when the strongest one from the Explorer Union had only reached the Dao Seed Realm.

At that point, they might not directly act against the people from the Explorer Union, but it would be difficult to stop them from making a move with something like the Stardusk Essence on the line. In a sense, the Explorer Union also understood this and didn’t intend to stop this kind of thing whenever it held an auction and something valuable came up. Especially in a location where the strongest one around under normal circumstances had only reached the Soul Ascension Realm.

The best they could do was prevent any danger for participants of the auction during the auction itself and a short time following the end of the auction when the more powerful members of the Explorer Union who had overseen the auction itself got ready to leave.

Of course, for someone at the Celestial Immortal Realm or even someone at the Dao Seed Realm like Huo Fen, this was more than enough time to implement an escape plan. In fact, the only reason why Huo Fen dared to bid on the Stardusk Essence in the first place was because he knew about how the Explorer Union operated and felt confident that he would be able to escape before the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators had the opportunity to stop him.

Although... His main escape plan hinged entirely on being underestimated by the group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators and allowing the spatial artifact his disciple was carrying around to chart an escape path for them before the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators noticed anything happening.

The problem now was that the person he had regarded as being no threat was clearly far from as simple as he had first believed, as there was no way someone in the Soul Ascension Realm could cause the kind of reaction and behavior he had just seen from the Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from the Explorer Union when he had first entered the private box.

From a simple glance, Huo Fen didn’t take long to realize that he was being treated as Xuan Hao’s subordinate... And along with the respectful gaze, it was clear that the person he had been casually chatting with for half a day by now was not someone in the Soul Ascension Realm, but highly likely someone even stronger than the Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm and someone that the other Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators present didn’t seem to have noticed like the one from the Explorer Union had.

Almost like he had deliberately revealed some of his strength to the one from the Explorer Union to cause this kind of situation.

Meaning... Everything that just happened and my current train of thought might have been arranged deliberately!

Feeling a shiver running down his spine as he thought this to himself, Huo Fen could not help feeling that the person sitting next to his disciple was far more terrifying than he had originally believed. Far from someone harmless like he had first believed, but who was to say that his first reaction wasn’t deliberately guided in a similar way...?

But... What does someone like this want from me? Clearly, the Stardusk Essence shouldn’t be it, as he could have taken it when the one from the Explorer Union handed it over to him earlier...

Chomp~!

”This is so good~! I really don’t want to leave...”

Unaware of the myriads of thoughts rushing through her master’s head, Meng Jie just happily enjoyed the different spiritual fruits that had been brought into the room when the one from the Explorer Union had entered to hand over the Stardusk Essence. Her eyes never having left the spiritual fruits since their arrival and thus never having seen the strange interaction that had taken place, as her mind was filled with the delicious spiritual fruits that had been brought in.

This wasn’t too unexpected, as outside of just being delicious, the spiritual fruits themselves were incredibly useful for someone in the Nascent Soul Realm like herself, as they were originally designed to be used for snacks while meeting someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm.

At the same time, Xuan Hao himself never said much and allowed Huo Fen to take the Stardusk Essence without causing any problems. Not because he intended to give up on the Stardusk Essence, but instead because he felt genuinely curious about why someone in the Dao Seed Realm would risk their life to get his hands on something like the Stardusk Essence, as it was ultimately not something that could be used by someone below the Celestial Immortal Realm or Profound Immortal Realm.

As for Huo Fen potentially managing to run away with the help of the spatial artifact that his disciple was carrying... That was unlikely, as at the end of the day, the spatial artifact was within the Perfection Realm of the Dao of Space and didn’t exceed him in terms of abilities by a lot.

Not to mention, he wasn’t dealing with a cultivator skilled in the Dao of Space, but an artifact. Making it far easier to predict and follow. In a way, Huo Fen and his disciple, Meng Jie, had no way to escape from someone like himself who had reached the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space.

The main reason why Huo Fen still felt confident in his escape plan likely had to do with the simple fact that someone at the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space was incredibly rare across the entire continent. In fact, this was Xuan Hao’s first interaction with something made by someone who should at least have reached the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space.

”...”

In the end, because of this and the fact that Huo Fen himself now felt rather apprehensive towards this far more dangerous friend he had ended up making, he said nothing after the one from the Explorer Union left. Instead, he decided it was for the best to continue acting like nothing had happened, something that ended up resulting in Xuan Hao once again avoiding detection by the rest of the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators at the auction, as their entire attention was captured by Huo Fen who now held the Stardusk Essence.

Of course, they didn’t entirely ignore Xuan Hao and Meng Jie; it was just that after a cursory glance at the two of them and realizing that the two of them were only in the Nascent Soul Realm and the Soul Ascension Realm, they simply couldn’t be bothered with paying any more attention to them outside of a simple glance.

”It’s time for us to leave...”

Knowing this as well along with the fact that he only had a few minutes to prepare before the protection from the Explorer Union disappeared, Huo Fen gave his disciple a subtle glance while saying this. Secretly indicating towards the spatial artifact attached to her arm.

”Mhm? Ah! Okay-Mm! Just a- Chomp~! Second, master!”

And in response, Meng Jie quickly chomped down on another spiritual fruit, while her hand softly touched the spatial artifact that looked like nothing more than a simple bracelet without evoking any suspicion from the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators keeping an eye on her master.

The only one who noticed it was Xuan Hao, who had been paying close attention to the bracelet he already knew was a spatial artifact.

In turn, he also discovered why the artifact was carried by Meng Jie instead of Huo Fen, as subtle spatial fluctuations begam emanating from the bracelet. Growing stronger with each passing second as the artifact seemed to be gathering strength for a spatial jump of sorts.

Although the spatial fluctuations themselves were extremely hard to detect for someone who hadn’t comprehended the Dao of Space beyond the Small Success Realm, if there had been multiple Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators fully focused on Meng Jie, they would have noticed. Explaining that the purpose of Huo Fen at this time was in fact to draw the attention of the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators so the spatial artifact could gather up strength uninterrupted.