Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Mind already in a state of chaos following the awesome display of talent from Lu Dongli, the spy who had ended up witnessing this from the dark without the person in question realizing she had been seen during her breakthrough to the First Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, wasted no time as he stumbled past the Foundation Establishment Realm guards within the estate before finding himself on the relatively empty streets of the capital with only a few guards wandering the streets alongside a few drunkards who were doing their best to make their way home after a rowdy night out.

Luckily, being one of the more skilled spies within the capital city alongside his own strength having reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, he managed to get out of the Lu Family Estate without being discovered in the process.

Even if the Lu Family did possess a Core Formation Realm cultivator with divine sense, he didn’t fear being accidentally noticed by the other party. Understanding full well from experience that Core Formation Realm cultivators rarely used their divine sense on a large scale beyond a small safe zone that was always active around themselves in case of an ambush.

Not just because doing so was exhausting, but also because it would essentially make it impossible for them to cultivate while keeping an eye on their surroundings constantly. Only with higher cultivation would this kind of passive area covered by one’s divine sense increase and make it far more difficult for spies like himself to infiltrate.

One of the main reasons why a place like the royal palace was a place no spy dared casually enter, as one not only had to guard against the divine sense of Core Formation Realm cultivators sweeping past every now and then, but also had to worry about the omnipresent divine sense of Nascent Soul Realm Ancestors deep within the royal palace.

Avoiding divine sense was possible through certain special techniques, but that kind of unique technique wasn’t something a Foundation Establishment Realm spy like himself could ever get his hands on…

Shaking his head as his thoughts had momentarily shifted away from the goal of getting back, he didn’t linger around outside the Lu Family Estate longer than needed, lest the guards at the door noticed him. Starting his journey back towards the Cui Family Estate, the family clan he was part of and acting on behalf of to infiltrate the Lu Family Estate and investigate the situation of the young lady of the Lu Family.

Originally, such a task wouldn’t have fallen to him, as the Cui Family had other things to focus on given the war that had erupted between them and the recently emerging family that now possessed two Core Formation Realm cultivators and threatened the Cui Family’s dominance among Core Formation Realm Families.

But… Given the strangeness of the Lu Family’s Daughter falling unconscious and them being blamed for the situation and in turn being the main cause behind the start of this war, he had ultimately ended up being sent in to investigate the situation.

Under normal circumstances, he had expected to look around for a few days before finding out there was nothing out of the ordinary happening before returning to the family again for more important jobs, as he himself partly believed the narrative that their enemies were spouting about the illusion focused cultivator from their family being behind it.

Not because he didn’t trust his family, but because he understood that this was something they and that person was capable of.

Now that he had found out his family had nothing to do with it and the talent of the young miss from the Lu Family had reached such a terrifying level, he wanted nothing more than to get back as fast as possible and share this information with the family head.

However, things rarely go as one expects them to, as the second he got close to the Cui Family Estate, he sensed something was wrong and slowed down his approach before blending in with the surrounding civilians still out for a night of drinking or trying their best to get home in a drunken state.

As things would have it, he had already been through this kind of situation several times in the past when he had to escape pursuit when an operation went wrong, so he blended in perfectly and slowly approached the Cui Family Estate.

Making full use of his skills to blend in with a group of drunks moving in the same direction to ensure he had proper cover in case things went wrong or someone decided to question his presence in the area. After all, a drunkard in a group of drunks was far less suspicious than one on his own.

”Make way! The royal guards are coming through! Out of the way!”

And indeed, as he had suspected, something was indeed very wrong, as the loud shouts from behind him caused him to stumble to the ground in a panic alongside his new friends who could barely see left from right. Of course, this action being done entirely to ensure his current image of a drunkard remained intact.

After all, with the presence of royal guards, he understood that the situation he had only barely sensed from afar was far worse than he had originally anticipated.

Any thought of winning the favor of the royal family with the information he had obtained on Lu Dongli flying out the window as he now only wanted to know the state of his family.

The only thing keeping him going with hope being the fact that the Cui Family wasn’t the only family clan located in the part of the capital city that the royal guards were moving in. In fact, for the royal guards to mobilize, there was a good chance that those involved weren’t his Cui Family but instead a noble family, as only those major noble families could warrant the mobilization of the royal guards.

Problem was that even if his Cui Family wasn’t the target, there was a very real chance that it would be affected by proximity alone or worse, the noble family targeted was one connected to the Cui Family and had turned the Cui Family into a scapegoat to avoid trouble themselves. A situation that was very possible and was an ever-present danger to everyone working together with those noble families.

And as he finally reached the edge of the district where the Cui Family was located, he not only realized that the situation had nothing to do with his Cui Family but also realized that his Cui Family had somehow disappeared alongside a large part of the district itself.

The royal guards from earlier weren’t there to catch troublemakers or cause trouble but had instead come to search through the rubble and try to make sense of the situation.

Not too far away, he even spotted an individual he had only seen once before in the past during a speech made by the king. The captain and de facto leader of the royal guards, a true Nascent Soul Realm cultivator from the royal family. Showing that whatever had happened here far exceeded anything he had originally imagined might have happened upon first spotting the group of royal guards rushing past…