Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

”Lychee…? My name is Lici!”

”Ah, sorry.” Smiling a bit wryly at the realization that he had mistakenly pronounced the formation spirit’s name a bit wrong; he quickly apologized to avoid potentially angering it.

”Hmph! As long as you remember it.” Luckily, the formation spirit didn’t seem to mind the mispronunciation, though part of him felt like the main reason why it didn’t mind had to do with the fact that it hadn’t realized that he had mistakenly referred to it as a fruit. ”Of course, and if it wouldn’t be too much to ask, can I ask what’s on the other side of this formation.” And partly because of this, he quickly shifted the conversation away from the mistake he had made towards one of the questions he hoped the formation spirit would be able to answer.

”What’s inside the formation? Nothing much, a few stragglers from the last invasion along with the remnants of the original residence. Originally there was far more, but most of what was inside was destroyed by those few stragglers, as I can’t exert any real power outside the core area and the different formation nodes.

Well… I can, but that will force me to weaken the protection around those areas and give the broken formation outside a chance to move against me.” Hearing the question, the formation spirit didn’t hold back in the slightest as it answered without holding back, somewhat surprising Xuan Hao, who suddenly found himself learning about the not so friendly relationship between the guardian formation of the ancient secret realm and the formation spirit in front of him.

As for the few stragglers that had been mentioned by the formation spirit… He had a feeling that they should be what the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator had run into and barely avoided when stumbling into the core of the holy lake.

The one thing he did feel a bit more curious about after the formation spirit had finished talking was the identity of these few stragglers, as outside of them being creatures born through the Dao of Corruption, there was also a chance that they might be powerful demon beasts that had managed to invade the secret realm during a past invasion before ending up inside the formation.

After all, though demon beasts capable of using the Dao of Space to traverse the void were rare, they weren’t nonexistent. Not to mention, the battle that had played out in the past might have had far reaching effects on potential surrounding secret realms that might have accidentally dragged foreign demon beast into the ancient secret realm in the process.

”The stragglers you mentioned…”

”Hm? Just a few demon beasts who were dragged in during the last invasion, though not that strong, they are a bit too much for the current secret realm to handle, thus I made sure they couldn’t leave.”

”Too strong for the current secret realm? Are they above the Nascent Soul Realm? But wouldn’t the guardian formation kill them if that was the case?”

”Ah, yes, it would indeed kill them. Not just that, but it would absorb their spiritual qi and blood to strengthen itself while using their bones and other materials to repair and expand itself. In other words, I would just be helping that damnable broken formation get stronger by allowing those stragglers to escape.”

”I see…” Hearing what the formation spirit said along with the annoyed expression on its face, he could only nod his head in understanding, while also making note of the underlying information within what the formation spirit had shared, that being the fact that the guardian formation had no way to exert its influence within the formation that stood before him. Meaning he should be able to exert his full strength within if the formation spirit in front of him allowed him to do so.

”Now that I think about it… In name elder of the Mirage Sect, with your strength, you should be able to deal with those stragglers. Yes, with you dealing with them, I won’t have to dedicate some of my strength to keeping an eye on them all the time and should be able to focus entirely on dealing with that damnable broken formation! In you go~” Not bothering to even ask him as it began muttering something to itself, the formation spirit suddenly waved its hand grandly before Xuan Hao suddenly found the space around him twisting as he was shuffled a few meters forward inside the core of the holy lake- or into the formation that he had been standing at the edge of.

”…”

Not at all having expected the formation spirit to just throw him inside instead of asking him ahead of time, Xuan Hao couldn’t help feeling the corner of his lips twitching in annoyance. Especially when he sensed one of the stragglers mentioned by the formation spirit rushing towards him the second he appeared.

Of course, though annoyed, he still moved to kill the demon beast rushing towards him. Releasing his cultivation that had been sealed after he entered the ancient secret realm, as the demon beast in question wasn’t something he would be able to deal with while his cultivation base had been restricted to the Nascent Soul Realm. Having reached the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm from what he could tell.

Roar!?

Not expecting the weak Nascent Soul Realm cultivator that it had been charging towards to suddenly undergo a terrifying transformation and become an existence far above itself, the demon beast barely had the chance to let out a surprised roar before a terrifying pressure bore down on it from above. Crushing it before it even had the chance to fight back, as what it was facing wasn’t pressure alone, but a direct manifestation of the land Xuan Hao had nurtured inside his dantian upon reaching the Land Creation Realm.

With the demon beast reduced to nothing more than a demon beast shaped pancake, Xuan Hao took the opportunity to properly observe his surroundings. Spotting a large numbers of ruins on the ground a few hundred meters away, with a few of pieces of said ruins having broken off and found themselves floating gently in the water a short distance from the ruins they had broken off from.

If he wasn’t wrong, these ruins should belong to the ancient residence of the Noble Li Clan, but… If that was the case, the side quest that he had been given by the system should have been completed…

[Side Quest: Search the Ancient Secret Realm of the Noble Li Clan] [Description: You have encountered the ancient secret realm belonging to an ancient noble clan that once stood at the pinnacle. Searching through the place might lead to finding something of immense value.] [Requirement: Find the ancient residence of the Noble Li Clan hidden inside the ancient secret realm.] [Reward: Heavenly Earth Vein Root (Heavenly Material)] But, looking at the side quest, it was clear that it hadn’t been completed. Meaning the ruins in front of him didn’t belong to the ancient residence of the Noble Li Clan that the formation spirit he had encountered should be in charge of guarding.

Confusing as this was to him, he quickly realized that the reason behind this might be that the main residence contained the formation core and had thus been hidden away by the formation spirit. Ensuring that no one could accidentally stumble into it by accident.

For him to reach it, he most likely had to be given access by the formation spirit, as he doubted that he had the strength to force his way through a formation that at least stood equal to the guardian formation of the ancient secret realm.

Problem being, the formation spirit had disappeared after it threw him inside and showed no sign of returning.

The only clue he had when it came to making the formation spirit show up again and giving him a chance to ask about the ancient residence that he was searching for being him completing the task that had been handed over to him by the formation spirit. Cleaning up the demon beasts wandering around inside the formation.

After all, though the demon beasts weren’t powerful in the eyes of the formation spirit, they were still troublesome, as they would drain part of its strength whenever they crashed into the formation attempting to leave.

Having him clean them up was the best solution in the eyes of the formation spirit, as it could get rid of these pests without having to potentially risk a confrontation with the guardian formation of the ancient secret realm. At the end of the day, though weak in the eyes of the formation spirit, these demon beasts were at least at the Celestial Immortal Realm in terms of strength required serious investment to deal with.

A fact that only became more clear to him as he noticed the large number of demon beast that had appeared around him all hesitating to attack after the display of strength…