Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having found himself unknowingly escaping from the destruction of the ancient secret realm after running away from the terrifying senior who had suddenly ended up appearing in front of him by using his life saving teleportation talisman and an ancient teleportation formation to ensure he would be able to escape, He Jie had found himself in a completely new and strange world where spiritual qi long since absent from the world he had been born into had become abundant to the point where it crystalized into stones underground.

Originally, he believed that he might have ended up in some divine realm that existed above his own world by sheer accident thanks to the ancient teleportation formation he had stumbled through and was overcome with joy, but… An encounter with two people who described themselves as disciples of a sect called the Star Shattering Sect proved otherwise, as he learnt through the two of them that he wasn’t in some mystical divine realm but had instead found himself in the middle of something known as a spirit stone mine.

To be honest, when he learnt about what a spirit stone mine was, he felt like his description of where he found himself being a divine realm wasn’t an exaggeration. After all, where he was from, spirit stones were rare and difficult to come by. The few he had encountered over the years had barely been enough to push his traditional immortal cultivation realm to the Fourth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.

But… Just the few hours he had spent after stepping through the ancient teleportation formation that had long since collapsed after he had passed through it, his cultivation had already broken through from the Fourth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm and reached the Fifth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. The kind of progress he considered terrifying but wasn’t viewed as strange by the two disciples who had escorted him to a place they referred to as a mining outpost.

From these two disciples, he had also learnt that their strength was far beyond anything he had encountered back in his own world, both having reached the Core Formation Realm.

However, the thing the terrified him was the fact that he learnt that behind them was an elder standing at the Domain Lord Realm.

That kind of existence was unheard of where he was from outside of the ancient past before his world had entered its current state of decline where the spiritual qi between heaven and earth had seemingly vanished.

Because of this, as he inevitably ended up finding himself face to face with this kind of terrifying figure under the guidance of the two disciples who had found him, it was understandable to say he was terrified. Not even daring to think about escape- not that he had any way to escape from someone that powerful in the first place with his pitiful strength.

Luckily, though he was terrified by the other party, it became clear after a few short minutes that the other party didn’t have any hostile intentions and was merely curious about him and where he had come from.

In the end, after explaining what had happened and how he had ended up within the boundaries of the spirit stone mine, he found himself being granted a temporary residence as the elder who had briefly interviewed him about his situation left to inform some higher ups about the situation.

Of course, He Jie understood that he himself wouldn’t be enough to draw the attention of someone at the Domain Lord Realm, let alone those above this Domain Lord Realm Elder.

Because of this, he was relatively calm even after the elder left in a hurry. Understanding from conversation with the two disciples that had decided to keep him company, that the point of interest should be his world- or secret realm as they referred to it as, that had caught the attention of this senior figure.

From these conversations, he had also managed to deepen his own understanding of the place he found themselves and more specifically what kind of world he had been living in before.

At the same time, because he was considered temporarily under the Star Shattering Sect as those senior figures began looking into his situation, he also found himself in a perfect cultivation environment that could be described as divine compared to what he had been used to.

Even if there might be some threat from this mysterious sect whose intentions he still didn’t fully grasp. From the treatment alone and his current low cultivation, he concluded that this sect didn’t have any hostile intentions, as it would be far too simple to simply force him with the clear disparity in strength.

Not to mention, the two disciples at the Core Formation Realm were especially kind to him as they were incredibly curious about his life and the adventurers he had gone through, something understandable considering that these two powerful disciples stronger than himself were apparently still youths who hadn’t even had the chance to explore the world outside the boundaries of their sect.

In fact, he learnt from them that this assignment at the spirit stone mine was their first trip outside the sect and even that was a hard worn assignment as it was according to them difficult for disciples at the Early Stage of the Core Formation Realm to get their hands on a sect assignment outside the sect.

As for those below the Core Formation Realm? They wouldn’t be able to leave the sect under normal circumstances as they were deemed to still be too young and weak.

Unexpectedly, learning this and knowing that he himself was only comparable to the Early Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, it was discouraging to say the least. Especially as he listened to them talk about some upcoming young disciples within the sect who hadn’t even reached the age of twenty but already surpassed him in terms of strength.

Then again, he could at least blame the disparity in strength on the abysmal cultivation environment that he had grown up with and in turn also grown old in.

Still, with the current situation having changed and the traditional immortal cultivation path having opened before him, he didn’t even show the slightest bit of hesitation as he focused all his free time on cultivating in an attempt to reach the Peak of the Qi Condensation Realm. Intend on reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm after that.

The reason behind this was not because he had given up hope in the path he had been following so far focused on body cultivation, but instead because his lifespan was already about to run out in another 10 or 20 years.

With that little time on hand, he didn’t see much hope in raising his body cultivation realm enough to significantly and instead felt that the Foundation Establishment Realm was the best shot he had when it came to increasing his lifespan.

Another reason was because he had discreetly managed to obtain a lot of information on the Foundation Establishment Realm from the two Core Formation Realm disciples and felt confident that he would be able to successfully establish his first foundational pillar inside his dantian before his lifespan ran out thanks to the information those two had shared with him.

Of course, the main reason for his confidence in being able to accomplish the foundational pillar establishment and step into the Foundation Establishment Realm was still the rich spiritual qi that made it feel like his cultivation was surging with every breath he took. Completely different from what he had become used to when trying to absorb spiritual qi from his surroundings.

Having found himself slowly settling in with this kind of mindset and a clear goal for the future, He Jie didn’t realize that the senior figure he had felt from a few days earlier, had already arrived above the spirit stone mine and decided to stop by to give his newest disciple a look around the spirit stone mine so she could see what such a mine looked like.

Given the power of this senior’s divine sense, He Jie had long since been spotted and while it had surprised him to find this old man who had run away before he could react back then, it wasn’t too shocking after he noticed the ancient gate near the spirit stone mine.

After all, different from the disciples and elders who had already investigated this ancient gate scattered into countless pieces throughout the clearing it was in, he could sense the different formation symbol that remained active even after the gate itself had been shattered.

Not just that, looking closer, he could even sense the faint spatial fluctuations from the activation of this already broke gate, though… He could also clearly sense that the other point connected to this ancient gate had already been completely severed and ceased to exist. Not exactly surprising considering the ultimate fate of the ancient secret realm…