Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Observing Huo Fen as he rushed back towards the five alchemy artifacts, Xuan Hao felt curious what Huo Fen was planning to use the Stardusk Essence for and why he needed it enough to risk his life to get his hands on it.

However, as Huo Fen began gathering all kinds of Saint Grade Spiritual Herbs from the large pile before throwing them into the main alchemy artifact along with the Stardusk Essence, he quickly lost interest as the refining process of the Saint Grade Spiritual herbs and the Stardusk Essence progressed at a snail pace compared to before when it had only been refining a relative small number of Saint Grade Spiritual Herbs compared to the current number that had been thrown inside of it... And that without even mentioning how difficult it was to refine something like Stardusk Essence that potentially exceeded the Saint Grade or at the very least reached the pinnacle of the grade in terms of quality as a heavenly material.

All things considered, he guessed that the refining process would at least take a few hours to complete. Far longer than it had taken to create close to a hundred Saint Grade Spiritual Pills a few seconds earlier. Showing that the quality of whatever Huo Fen was attempting to create far exceeded that of the Saint Grade Pills that he and his disciple had been refining with the help of the five alchemy artifacts before he had showed up.

Interesting as this entire process was to observe from the side, a single glance was all he needed to know that there was little he would be able to learn from observing the process, as it involved a far higher comprehension of the Dao of Alchemy than before. Clearly, while the earlier refining process had been useful for those below the Saint Realm to observe and learn from, the one involving the Stardusk Essence far surpassed that and was impossible to learn anything from without reaching the Saint Realm in the Dao of Alchemy.

But... This wasn’t discouraging in the slightest to Xuan Hao, as the fact that even he couldn’t understand anything from the refining process currently taking place meant that the abilities of the five alchemy artifacts far surpassed his earlier assessment. Not only being useful to those below the Saint Grade Realm but also being able to assist those in the Saint Realm to some extent.

As for how much assistance these five alchemy artifacts would provide to someone in the Saint Realm, he had no idea and could only wait to find out after he or Pei Yang managed to break through to the Perfection realm in the Dao of Alchemy and officially become Saint Grade Alchemists.

With all that in mind, the long refining process of the five alchemy artifacts meant that the other processes involved in refining the pill or elixir would be similarly long, a dangerous prospect considering that those senior figures from the different major powers should have already made their way inside the ancient alchemy sect ruins and found the little Land Creation Realm demon beast whom he had generously granted freedom from the treasury that had imprisoned it for an untold number of years.

Although this little friend of his would provide a great distraction and prevent those senior figures from dwelling deeper into the ancient alchemy sect ruins for now, it was only a matter of time before those Land Creation Realm cultivators appeared and dealt with the little demon beast who had little to no experience when it came to fighting at the Land Creation Realm.

Confident as he was in the strength of this little demon beast, he understood that it stood no chance against an experienced Land Creation Realm cultivator, let alone if more than one ended up appearing.

Because of this, he had to prepare for potentially having to clash with these senior figures when they found this place. After all, confident as he was in the formation guarding and concealing this little cut off section of the ancient alchemy sect that had managed to remain relatively intact over the years, he also understood that it wouldn’t be able to escape the notice of someone in the Land Creation Realm.

After all, compared to the divine sense of someone who had reached the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm or barely broken through the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, the divine sense of someone in the Land Creation Realm was thousands of times more powerful. Even his own divine sense, far stronger than the average cultivator at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Relam, wasn’t anywhere close to that of someone in the Land Creation Realm. At most, it was comparable or slightly superior to someone at the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm.

But... Even if I need to ensure that this place remains safe while Huo Fen is busy ensuring that the pill or elixir using the Stardusk Essence is made, I should still have some time to look around the place before having to look out for a potential attack from someone in the Land Creation Realm. After all, the formation guarding this place should be more than powerful enough to hold back someone in the Land Creation Realm for some time, even if it’s nowhere near its peak.

Thinking this to himself as he looked towards the formation barely visible through his divine sense in the distance, Xuan Hao didn’t feel too stressed about his current situation and was honestly looking forward to potentially clashing with someone in the Land Creation Realm after his recent breakthrough to the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm.

If not for him being confident in himself and his ability to clash with someone in the Land Creation Realm after his breakthrough, he wouldn’t have allowed Huo Fen to start the refining process in the first place and would have directly grabbed him and his disciple along with the spiritual herbs and the five alchemy artifacts before dragging them back to the sect where it would be far safer.

As for the potential time wasted? It wouldn’t be more than a few minutes at most with his current proficiency in the Dao of Space.

In a way, not leaving spoke to his confidence in not only facing off against a single Land Creation Realm cultivator but potentially having to face off against all four Land Creation Realm cultivators from the Eastern Central Region at the same time.

The main reason for this confidence also had to do with the fact that he had already faced off against one of these Land Creation Realm cultivators in the past when he had been fleeing across the Eastern Central Region with the spiritual tree following closely behind. Although he had only faced one of the Land Creation Realm cultivators, it was more than enough for him to estimate that the strength of the remaining four should be somewhat similar.

After all, if one of them was far stronger than the rest, the current stalemate between the four made no sense...

With that in mind, his current estimate of the strength of the Land Creation Realm cultivators at the very top of the Eastern Central Region was the Early Stage of the Land Creation Realm. Having likely broken through the realm before they could go anywhere beyond the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm.

Breaking through to the Land Creation Realm upon reaching the Sea Formation Realm was simple and even he could do it, but... Doing so before he reached the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm would severely limit his future potential for reaching the Star Creation Realm or going beyond that.

In a way, although the four major powers in the Eastern Central Region were the only major powers with Land Creation Realm cultivators behind it, the other major powers who had Middle Stage Sea Formation Realm cultivators could easily give birth to Land Creation Realm cultivators as well.

The difference was, these Sea Formation Realm cultivators were unwilling to breakthrough to the Land Creation Realm without at least reaching the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, as it would severely limit their prospects after breaking through to the Land Creation Realm... And together with the lifespan of someone in the Profound Immortal Realm being similar no matter whether they were in the Sea Formation Realm or Star Creation, there wasn’t much pressure to breakthrough to a higher realm to increase their lifespan. The only way for someone in the Profound Immortal Realm to live longer was to surpass the Profound Immortal Realm and step into the Venerable Realm.

With that in mind, no Sea Formation Realm cultivator would willingly break through to the Land Creation Realm before at least reaching the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, as there was at least still some hope left in breaking through to the Venerable Realm in the future in this way, small as it might be.

As for waiting to reach the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm? That was far too much for most Sea Formation Realm cultivators, as the difficulty of reaching the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm was simply terrifying even for the long lifespan of the Profound Realm. After all, the lifespan wouldn’t increase by breaking through to the Land Creation Realm and one still had to reach the Peak of the Star Creation Realm that came after that to even stand a chance at reaching the Venerable Realm, something that would undoubtedly take far longer than the Sea Formation Realm...