Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Focusing his attention on comprehending the Dao of Space and the Dao of Formations now that the opportunity to do so stood before him without the guardian formation of the ancient secret realm being in any shape capable of doing anything to him in the process thanks to the spatial storm, Xuan Hao didn’t forget to look at what Li Feng and his group of friends were up to and if he needed to lend them a hand before focusing his attention elsewhere.

In the end, what he saw was rather shocking, as Li Feng had somehow broken through to the Grandmaster Realm following the path of body cultivating, while his group of friends weren’t too far behind in terms of progress following the path of body cultivation. One of them even having followed along close behind Li Feng himself, having also somehow managed to reach the Grandmaster Realm.

Shocking as this development was, it at least ensured him that he didn’t have to worry about Li Feng or his friends, as they seemed to be doing fine on their own within the ancient secret realm and who knew, with the terrifying progress this little group had managed to somehow achieve when it came to the body cultivation path, they might all have reached the Martial Arts Lord Realm by the time he finished comprehending the Dao of Space and the Dao of Formations.

At the very least, now that he had obtained knowledge on the body cultivation path leading all the way up to the World Bearing Saint Realm, he wasn’t worried about this potential disciple, Li Feng, following the body cultivation path instead of the traditional cultivation path that all his other disciples were following.

Not to mention, he still hadn’t exactly taken in Li Feng as his own disciple yet, though he clearly felt interested in doing so with how talented he had proven to be when it came to the body cultivation path.

If nothing else, he could be nurtured as a leading figure following the body cultivation path for the sect and be able to provide insight and assistance to the disciples and elders who also decided to go down this path in the future.

Rumble~!

Having his thoughts momentarily wander because his attention briefly shifted towards Li Feng and his little group of friends, Xuan Hao soon enough found himself drawn back into the terrifying clash playing out not too far away. Throwing the thoughts of Li Feng and his friends to the back of his mind for now as he focused all his attention back on comprehending the Dao of Space and the Dao of Formations.

In any case, he doubted that there was much that could threaten this little group headed by Li Feng within the ancient secret realm outside of a few powerful older cultivators at the Martial King Realm and some deeply hidden demon beasts like the large snapping turtle he had run into around the Giant’s Valley.

Speaking of which, it also reminded him of He Jie, that potential older disciple that had run away. Originally, he had thought about finding him now that his divine sense could cover the entirety of the ancient secret realm without any restrictions, but he didn’t find any traces of the old man.

Him having died was the first thing he thought might have happened, but on second thought, he realized that there would have been some traces left behind if that was really the case. Not to mention, he could easily track down the location that he had ended up appearing after he had escaped from him in the past within the ancient secret realm. Having already memorized the spatial coordinates so he would be able to try and find this older potential disciple later before he left the ancient secret realm.

In the end, the only thing he could think of regarding what had happened to this potential older disciple as he got back to comprehending the Dao, was that he had found some way out of the ancient secret realm not much different from how he had entered the ancient secret realm along with Li Feng and his friends.

Surprising as this was, it wasn’t entirely unexpected given the ancient teleportation talisman he had somehow also obtained. If anything, it was expected.

…

”Where is this place…?” And, around the same time Xuan Hao shifted his attention back towards the battle between the spatial storm and the guardian formation of the ancient secret realm, He Jie emerged from an ancient gate in the middle of a small valley that had long since been hidden away from the outside world, a clear look of shock on his face as he took in his surroundings. ”The spiritual qi here is so rich and abundant- Is it perhaps the legendary divine realm?” Amazed at the terrifying abundance of spiritual qi in the air compared to what he had grown used to within the ancient secret realm.

To call the place he had ended up the divine realm, a place only mentioned in fragmented rumors throughout the ancient secret realm as their original home and the place they had been cut off from during an ancient war in the past wasn’t entirely wrong.

But even though he was filled with amazement over the rich spiritual qi that made him want to give up on his body cultivation and instead just focus on his traditional immortal cultivation that had only barely reached the Fourth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, he also understood that the strength of both cultivators and demon beasts he might run into would be far stronger than any he had faced in the past.

For this reason, after his initial excitement over the abundant spiritual qi all around him and searching the place around himself to make sure he was alone while also using the opportunity to look for any hidden treasures of which he found none, He Jie quickly found himself a somewhat secluded spot to sit down and enter seclusion.

Focusing his mind on recalling the traditional immortal cultivation technique he had once gotten his hands on in the past with relative ease even with it leading directly to the Foundation Establishment Realm. The reason for its ease of access mainly having to do with the simple fact that it was close to impossible to ever reach the foundation Establishment Realm inside the ancient secret realm without any kind of major support, something he himself had also found out the hard way, as he had once dreamed of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm and in turn increase his lifespan by another 100 years.

Of course, a dream that ultimately ended in failure, as he found it impossible to make much progress after he broke through to the Fourth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, as the spiritual qi within the ancient secret realm was close to nonexistent and even breaking through to the Fourth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm had been entirely thanks to getting his hands on a few spirit stones during a lucky encounter…

Rustle~

Not too far away from where He Jie had emerged and ended up sitting down to cultivate. Absorbing the abundant spiritual qi all around him, two younger people wearing the standard outfit for Inner Disciples of the Star Shattering Sect emerged from the nearby foliage undetected. Looking towards He Jie with somewhat confused expressions on their faces.

”Huh? Why did someone suddenly appear next to the spirit stone mine out of the blue?”

”How would I know? His strength has barely reached the Fourth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, so it should be impossible for him to have gotten here on his own… Maybe some kind of spatial abnormality?”

”Hmm… I guess that is possible, but we should ask an elder just in case, after all, it might be someone hiding their true cultivation realm.” Pondering over the response of his fellow disciple, one of the two quickly concluded that it would be best for them to contact an elder about the current situation. After all, the possibility of the strange cultivator who had appeared out of nowhere hiding his true cultivation looking for trouble was a very real possibility.

”True, even if it doesn’t look like that guy sensed us…” Though his fellow disciple didn’t seem to entirely agree even if he ended up still agreeing to look for an elder.

”Or maybe he is good at pretending?”

 ”Haha, sure~ Let’s get going maybe there is some kind of ancient secret realm, or something hidden around here, if there is, we might get an opportunity to do something other than looking after this spirit stone mine.” Rolling his eyes somewhat in response to the one who seemed insistent on He Jie being some expert hiding his true strength, the other disciple shifted the attention elsewhere before starting to make his way back towards the spirit stone mine where the elder was stationed.

”Hmph!” An action that his fellow disciple picked up on, as the two of them soon enough began making their way back from their lookout post together.

Their original task being one that involved patrolling the outskirts of one of the sect’s spirit stone mines, this sudden arrival of a stranger that had appeared out of nowhere at least provided them with something a bit more interesting to do that didn’t involve them wandering around aimlessly.

After all, there weren’t exactly many powers around daring enough to eye up a spirit stone mine under the Star Shattering Sect.

As for the ruins that this stranger had appeared next to? The two of them and even the elder in charge of the spirit stone mine had long since visited these ruins to see if there were any hidden treasures, but in the end, nothing had been found.

Only today, with the sudden emergence of this stranger next to those ancient ruins that should once have been a gate of some kind, did a potential clue to what might be hidden there emerge.