Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Faced with the mountainous terrain, the first thing he noticed wasn’t how close his disciple was, but instead the fact that over five Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators were fighting each only a short distance away from his current location.

If not for the fact that he had hidden himself the second he left the forest and there still was a certain distance between them, he would almost certainly have been discovered immediately. Even now, it was just a matter of time before they discovered him because the scale of their battle kept expanding. Affecting a large area with each passing second.

No matter how well he hid, it would be impossible to remain hidden while also blocking their attacks. For now, the main reason why he could still maintain his current state was due to the battle itself having not reached his current location.

Of course, even with this in mind, he wasn’t too worried about the group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, as the strongest among them had only barely reached the Middle Stage of Celestial Immortal Realm. Instead, he felt far more curious as to what might have caused these Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators to fight like their lives depended on it. After all, using his divine sense to survey the battlefield, he couldn’t find any reason for such a deadly struggle to occur.

Only after listening to some of the weaker cultivators present chatting amongst each other, while trying their best to avoid getting dragged into the battle between Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, did he learn that an unknown wandering cultivator had recently passed through the place and snatched away a Saint Grade Elixir that these Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators had been fighting for not long ago.

But...

This still didn’t explain why they had suddenly started fighting each other to the death, as it was clear that the wandering cultivator mentioned by the weaker cultivators had managed to escape.

In other words, they should have discovered something far more valuable after the wandering cultivator took off with the Saint Grade Elixir...

Shaking his head as he understood full well that this would be the only reason for such a deadly clash to occur between these Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, Xuan Hao soon turned his attention away from the battlefield between the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators and instead focused his attention towards a cliffside a short distance away from where he was standing.

Even without the assistance of the weakened soul imprint left in the depth of his disciple’s soul, he could still clearly feel his disciple’s presence from that location. Even if it was hidden by a concealment formation.

Outside of him, it also seemed like one of the Dao Seed Realm cultivators belonging to one of the major powers clashing not too far away had noticed something odd about the cliffside, as she was currently using her divine sense to carefully look through the area searching for any abnormalities.

Unfortunately for this Dao Seed Realm cultivator, she couldn’t sense the concealment formation with her current strength and was ultimately unable to find anything. Showing just how skilled the friends Chu Yang had made were when it came to the Dao of Formations-

Rumble~!

Of course, this didn’t mean that the Dao Seed Realm cultivator intended to give up, as she clearly understood that there was something off about the area where Chu Yang and his group had hidden... And unable to find the problem with her divine sense, she instead decided to use force to try and forcibly expose whatever it was that had managed to avoid her divine sense earlier.

Though the concealment formation used by Chu Yang’s new friends was powerful, there was simply no way for it to remain hidden under this kind of situation. The moment that the attack from the Dao Seed Realm cultivator began ravaging through the area, the concealment formation would be exposed.

”How troublesome, stopping that fellow will undoubtedly draw the attention of that group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators...”

Not feeling like dealing with the group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators and potentially drawing out the more powerful cultivators behind them before he had the chance to figure out where a potential storage of Stardusk Essence was located, Xuan Hao decided to ignore the Dao Seed Realm cultivator and directly used the Drifting Cloud Steps to move past the concealment formation that had been set up by his disciple’s new friends.

Given that they hadn’t really set up any spatial restrictions, the entire process was smooth and went off without him encountering any resistance along the way that might end up damaging the concealment formation. Exposing it to the Dao Seed Realm cultivator outside...

”Damn it! We just barely managed to keep the concealment formation up in the face of the powerful divine sense just now, but it looks like the other party still managed to discover something!”

”You don’t say! Although it’s clear she isn’t certain about what it was, it’s clear she is suspicious and has decided to just use a powerful attack to force us to expose ourselves.

”Guess it’s time for us to- Huh!?”

As everyone inside the recently carved out cave was starting to panic after feeling that the one outside was preparing to force them out of hiding, one of the formation masters who had been about to prepare for their last ditch effort to escape in case something like this happened, turned around only to see an unfamiliar figure standing in front of him.

Well... It wasn’t an entirely unknown figure, as the formation master clearly recognized him as the one who had saved them back when they had been trapped by the formation guarding the three-tiered pagoda, Chu Yang’s master.

The main difference between the figure in the past and the one standing in front of him now was that the one from back then had been illusory, while the one standing in front of him was not just solid, but gave off a far more terrifying presence that dwarfed that of the illusory avatar he had encountered in the past.

”Hey! Why did you- Ah!?”

”What are yo-”

As everyone else began noticing something off and began turning around to see what was happening, they similarly froze on the stop in shock-

”Why is everyone- MASTER!”

Only when Chu Yang turned around and called out filled with joy did the group of formation masters recover from their shock before being similarly overjoyed.

Although they had no idea how powerful Chu Yang’s master was, they were certain that he was far more powerful than the one outside about to expose their concealment formation and even felt that he surpassed those powerful beings who had begun clashing with each other in the distance.

The reason for this belief was not just blind confidence because Xuan Hao had saved them in the past with his soul imprint avatar, but because they could feel a genuinely terrifying pressure from him that seemed to far outstrip the pressure that those beings fighting in the distance.

In a sense, it gave them the feeling that those Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators were insignificant in comparison. Words they would have never thought would ever be used to describe someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm in the past...

”Good to see you are still in one piece, though... It looks like I showed up just in time.” Smiling slightly in response to his disciple and the awed looks from the rest, Xuan Hao’s attention soon shifted towards the Dao Seed Realm cultivator outside about to launch an attack to force the concealment formation out of hiding.

”This... Indeed, master, you did arrive just in time. If you had been any later, we might have been forced into using a rather drastic escape plan to avoid the one outside...” Smiling somewhat awkwardly as he said this, Chu Yang could not help feeling a bit embarrassed after looking up at his master. Feeling in part like he had failed and now needed his master to help clean up his mess.

Although this kind of thing would be fine when he was weaker. Now that he was someone in the Dao Domain Lord Realm and had strength comparable to the Soul Ascension and could be considered a strong figure anywhere but the Southern Central Region, it felt embarrassing that he still had to rely on his master.

However, this thought didn’t last long, as he soon looked at the positive side of his current situation. Not only had he managed to gain valuable experience, but he had also made a lot of new friends in the process, friends who were wandering cultivators and could be recruited to join the Star Shattering Sect when the situation came to an end.

But maybe more importantly than all of this, he would have an opportunity to see his master in action for the first time in... Well... He hadn’t really had much of an opportunity to see his master in action in the past. So, he was really looking forward to it... So much that his eyes had already started shining as he looked up at his master filled with anticipation. Hoping to see him fighting the group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators just outside the concealment formation.