Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Leaving behind the turbulent void that soon enough turned into a spatial storm of unmeasurable proportions, Xuan Hao made his way back to the place that he had originally set off from. Meaning that he soon enough emerged back inside the ancient valley that had been hidden beneath the border city. Placing himself face to face with the Domain Lord Realm city lord who had gone to investigate the ancient valley alongside a Soul Ascension Realm Ancestor who had just shown up to investigate the situation in person after learning about what had happened.

””…””

Unsurprisingly, neither of the two dared to say a single word, as they simultaneously froze at the sudden change in circumstances. Fearful that even a small sound might draw the attention of the powerful senior who had appeared directly in front of them, a fear that was even more prominent in the Soul Ascension Realm cultivator compared to the weaker city lord, as he could more clearly feel how terrifying the person standing in front of him was.

Hm? This is…

Seeing the two people frozen on the spot with a rather goofy look on their faces due to the awkward position they had ended up freezing in, Xuan Hao could only silently roll his eyes at the dramatic reaction from the two, but then again, he couldn’t entirely blame them, as the fear they felt towards someone with his level of strength suddenly appearing was understandable.

If anything, he would have found it weirder if they didn’t have any reaction to his sudden appearance… Scaring the two weaker cultivators aside, Xuan Hao didn’t linger around for long and left after a quick glance around the ancient valley to see if something new had emerged…

Thump~!

Thump~!

Allowing the two cultivators who had once felt like they stood at the pinnacle or were at least close to it, to breathe a sigh of relief as both collapsed on the ground in fear.

”Haaah! He’s gone…”

”Haa… That… Was terrifying!”

Following the quiet mutterings of the two, they took a good few minutes to recover before slowly regaining their strength and getting back up on their feet again. Any suspicion that the Soul Ascension Realm Ancestor might have originally harbored regarding the authenticity of the city lord’s story of what had taken place having vaporized in the process.

After all, this Soul Ascension Realm Ancestor didn’t entirely trust what the city lord had said after learning that some powerful figure far beyond the Soul Ascension Realm had suddenly appeared and dug up an ancient valley in the middle of the city. Especially given that he hadn’t been within the coverage of the terrifying divine sense that had just swept through the place, as the border city had only barely been covered by the divine sense while the rest of the empire had managed to escape unscratched.

But along with the realization that everything that the city lord had said should be correct and the simple fact that it was clear that the senior figure didn’t care about what was left inside the ancient valley, the ancestor figure felt a growing excitement welling up inside him. Having understood from a glance that there was no lack of treasures to be found inside the ancient valley. Especially around the intact corpse that even he couldn’t approach with his current strength.

…

As the ancestor of the small empire began the process of thoroughly examining anything of value inside the ancient valley after regaining movement again, Xuan Hao once again emerged above the Li Clan. No real changes having taken place during the few hours he had been gone, as he casually retrieved the small wisp of divine sense he had left on Li Feng to monitor him in case something ended up happening while he was gone.

Having essentially confirmed that that the Li Clan did indeed belong to an ancient cultivation clan before it degraded to its current state, Xuan Hao’s caution regarding the jade pendant carried around by Li Feng was legitimized, as there was a good chance that the ancient jade pendant was somehow related to the ancient cultivation clan. Potentially some kind of artifact that had managed survive within the Li Clan before ultimately falling into the hands of Li Feng.

The only question that was left to be answered was what this artifact was doing, as even though it should be absorbing spiritual qi from Li Feng to awaken or sustain itself, the spiritual qi it could obtain from a child at the Peak of the Qi Condensation Realm was essentially useless to an artifact that he suspected to be at least of the Saint Grade, the level of artifact suitable for the Profound Immortal Realm and Celestial Immortal Realm.

For it to even gain a fraction of what someone like himself could gather in terms of spiritual qi within a single second, it would have to leech off Li Feng for at least a few thousand years if not longer, something that was obviously not possible with the lifespan of someone at the Qi Condensation Realm.

The entire situation was nothing short of confusing to him, as the more he observed the jade pendant and what it was doing, the more confused he became, as the fact that it was seemingly scared of being discovered by a few Nascent Soul Realm cultivators was odd to say the least given that it should be a Saint Grade Artifact.

Even if those Nascent Soul Realm cultivators discovered what was happening, what could a bunch of nascent Soul Realm cultivators possibly hope to do to a Saint Grade Artifact? Even someone at the Land Creation Realm like himself would find it difficult to damage that kind of artifact, let alone a few Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.

But as he continued keeping an eye on the situation over the next few days instead of testing out Li Feng like he had originally been planning to, the situation took a sudden turn, as Li Feng, who had been stuck at the Peak of the Qi Condensation Realm suddenly managed to overcome the bottleneck that had holding him back for the past few years and reach the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Of course, the bottleneck he faced wasn’t a natural bottleneck, but instead the ancient jade pendant that he was always carrying around with him secretly absorbing his spiritual qi. Preventing him from breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

For him to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm had nothing to do with him overcoming some kind of bottleneck, but more so the fact that the jade pendant had stopped absorbing his spiritual qi like it had been doing for what should have been years.

And indeed, as his attention shifted back towards the jade pendant, he discovered that it had indeed stopped absorbing spiritual qi from Li Feng.

Not just that, but Li Feng, who had originally been easy to predict and understand, also changed alongside his breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Realm. Not showing off his new strength to his family but instead deciding to hide it by utilizing what he guessed to be one of the jade pendant’s abilities to mask his cultivation base. Making it close to impossible for anyone below the Profound Immortal Realm to sense his true cultivation realm, as he once again looked to only be at the Peak of the Qi Condensation Realm to the outside world.

In the process of doing this, Li Feng ended up helping Xuan Hao confirm that the ancient jade pendant was at least a Saint Grade Artifact, though… Beyond that, the sudden change in behavior from this fallen young master also ended up causing him to suspect that there might have been some old soul hidden inside the jade pendant that had taken over the body of Li Feng, thus causing the sudden change in behavior.

Confirming this could be done by forcibly examining the soul of Li Feng with his divine sense to confirm if there were any changes, but doing so might result in a battle with an old monster in case his soul had truly been replaced.

Luckily, he had another method that wouldn’t expose himself to the other party… And that was the using the system to examine him…

✧Li Feng✧ Race: Human

Status: Young master of the Li Clan, a branch from an ancient clan.

Talent: 34

Comprehension: 43 Realm: First Pillar of the Foundation Establishment Relam

And after using the examination feature of the system, he not only confirmed that the little master hadn’t been replaced, but somehow also ended up confirming with a bit more certainty that the Li Clan was indeed once a part of an ancient clan, though he had a feeling that the description had only been added because of what he had managed to learn from seeking out that ancient secret realm drifting aimlessly through the void.

Along with this, the fact that the examination had gone through also signified that this little young master hadn’t taken a master. Meaning that he should be able to rule out the possibility of there being some old master hidden away inside the ancient jade pendant for now…