Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

As the power of the ancient formation gathered behind the Ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire before forming into hundreds of swords over a dozen meters long made entirely out of light, the Blood Sea Demon King unconsciously took a step back and halted his attack on the defensive Ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire. The sheer might of even a single of those swords being more than powerful enough to end him, let alone a hundred of them linked together into a single sword formation that further elevated the power of these hundreds of swords.

Even this small fraction of the ancient formation that guarded the ancient ruins that the Blue Sea Empire had placed itself on top of had reached a level of strength that could even kill someone in the Star Creation Realm. For the Blood Sea Demon King who hadn’t yet reached that level of strength, facing the hundreds of light swords was essentially a death sentence, as there was no way for him to even fight back once those swords locked on to him. Space itself had already been sealed along with any other escape path he might have attempted to use.

Still, though he was now forced to face the terrifying sword formation that had been formed by the ancient formation that the Ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire had managed to gain partial control over and fix up to some extent, he didn’t show any sign of panic as he faced the terrifying light swords head on after the unconscious reaction that had caused him to step back in fear.

The reason for this was that he had long since known about this trump card of the Blue Sea Empire and had come prepared. After all, it wasn’t entirely a secret what kind of power the ancient formation under the control of the Blue Sea Empire’s Ancestor had. If not, it would hardly be able to help the Blue Sea Empire into intimidating the surrounding major powers into submission and prevent larger major powers like the Wei Empire from attacking them.

As for what kind of method the Blood Sea Demon King had come up with to deal with this terrifying trump of the Blue Sea Empire… It was rather simple, he did nothing. Watching with a smile on his lips as the terrifying sword formation crashed down toward him from above with an overwhelming irresistible power that was impossible to fight against. Soon enough feeling as his body and soul was torn apart by the blinding light that filled his vision.

BOOOOOOM-!

And along with one final explosion, the Blood Sea Demon King exploded violently into a mist of blood that was similarly caught by the blinding light created by the descending swords of light. Vaporizing every speck of blood. Preventing the Blood Sea Demon King from escaping by turning himself into a blood mist.

But… Though the Blood Sea Demon King didn’t manage to escape in time, the five demonic cultivators who hadn’t been the main target of the sword formation did manage to escape during the short time that had been bought by the Blood Sea Demon King when he turned himself into a blood mist covering an area over a thousand kilometers. Taking up the entire sword formation’s attention for a few short seconds in the process.

”Aaaaah!”

Still… Though the five demonic cultivators managed to escape, it didn’t mean all of them survived, as two unlucky ones among them were too slow and ended up getting pierced through by a sword of light. Turning into brilliant motes of light as their body and souls were annihilated at the edge of the Blue Sea Empire’s territory.

In the end, out of the five, two died alongside the Blood Sea Demon King, while the remaining three managed to successfully escape back into the Frozen Wastelands where the sword formation couldn’t reach them–or more accurately, the Blue Sea Empire didn’t have enough resources to keep up with the terrifying consumption of the ancient formation, causing the swords of light to collapse just as they were about to cross the border into the Frozen Wastelands.

”Dead…? The Blood Sea Demon King died while sacrificing himself to save three other demonic cultivators?” Seeing how everything played out, the Ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire could not help frowning visibly as he looked towards the location where the Blood Sea Demon King had perished. Feeling something wrong about the entire situation.

Not to mention how the Blood Sea Demon King hadn’t shown any signs of trying to escape, but to even sacrifice himself to allow three of the demonic cultivators under him to escape didn’t make sense at all to the Ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire. After all, demonic cultivators were well known for being selfish and sacrificing themselves like the Blood Sea Demon King had done didn’t make sense in the slightest. Making him think that he might have missed something.

But as his divine sense swept over the place where the Blood Sea Demon King had perished, he could clearly still sense the unique soul fluctuations of the Blood Sea Demon King. Far stronger than the puppet he had originally mistaken for the Blood Sea Demon King.

Having already been fooled once, he had even made extra sure that the one in front of him truly had been the Blood Sea Demon King by using several detection formations to enhance his divine sense to scan his soul for any abnormalities…. And in the end, he had found nothing wrong with his soul albeit it being a bit weaker than expected, though that likely had to do with the blood puppet he had taken down not too long ago, as controlling such a powerful puppet undoubtedly required a significant investment in terms of soul power.

With that in mind, even if he was still somewhat suspicious of how the Blood Sea Demon King had seemingly sacrificed himself, he didn’t question the death of the Blood Sea Demon King and began preparing to retreat back to the capital city to assess the damage that the Blue Sea Empire had ended up suffering during this clash with the peak experts of the Frozen Wastelands.

”Hm?”

However, just as he turned around to leave, he sensed several powerful presences rushing back into the Blue Sea Empire towards the core region.

Originally, he thought it might be someone wanting to take advantage of the Blue Sea Empire while it had been severely weakened by the demonic cultivators or those three demonic cultivators who had escaped coming back for revenge-

”That is… I-Impossible!”

But as his divine sense swept forth and reach those figures, he instantly jumped up in shock as he realized one of the people was none other than the Blood Sea Demon King. Weakened, yes, but alive, something that should have been impossible after having been hit directly by a sword formation more than powerful enough to annihilate someone in the Star Creation Realm.

”Unless… Crazy! This bastard is crazy!” As he stared towards the rapidly approaching demonic cultivators, the Ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire soon realized what had happened and felt a shiver run down his spine as he cursed the Blood Sea Demon King.

The reason for this was that the method that the Blood Sea Demon King had used was indeed rather crazy, as the Ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire realized that the Blood Sea Demon King he had killed was indeed a blood puppet.

However, different from a normal blood puppet, this one had not just been cultivated close to the same level as the Blood Sea Demon King himself, but the Blood Sea Demon King had also separated close to half of his soul and stuffed it into the blood puppet. Making it impossible to tell the difference between it and the real Blood Sea Demon King.

The reason why the Ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire referred to this as crazy was simple, cutting off such a large chunk of one’s soul could result in death at any moment and now that he had lost this part of his soul, there would be no gaining it back, as the Blood Sea Demon King had directly sacrificed this portion of his soul to make him used the ancient formation. Suffering a permanent loss in strength as a result.

Still… Without the ancient formation to guard it, there was no way for the Blue Sea Empire to fight back against the four demonic cultivators who were charging forth, something the Ancestor of the Blue Sea Empire understood deep down as he wasted no time contacting the recently promoted Land Creation Realm cultivator to escape. Grabbing what he could before joining him in escaping the Blue Sea Empire.

Although he could stay behind and fight to the death, he had no intention of fighting a losing battle and throw away his life needlessly against the Blood Sea Demon King who had so clearly seen through him and out schemed him. Instead of that, escaping to fight another day was a far better option.