Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Arriving back inside his cultivation room without disturbing any of his disciples, Xuan Hao silently withdrew his incarnation before focusing entirely on absorbing the three earthly treasures. Striving to reach the Late Stage of the Land Creation Realm.

During the seclusion where his incarnation was absent and didn’t have the ability to teach Li Chi and Lu Dongli, he decided to have them spent time cultivating on their own. Seeking out his other disciples who stood far above them in terms of cultivation and were more than capable of answering any doubts they might have regarding their cultivation.

Well… Almost all of them… He doubted that they would be in for a good outcome if they ended up seeking out Mui for guidance. In fact, if they ended up seeking her out, there was a good chance they would get roped into whatever she was currently up to. Li Chi, with his experience in the sect, should know this, but Lu Dongli wasn’t as knowledgeable and might really end up seeking out this chaotic senior sister.

Even then, Xuan Hao didn’t directly warn Lu Dongli. Feeling it wouldn’t be fitting for him to interfere. In any case, even if she ended up getting dragged into the plans of the little troublemaker, she would at most be another Song Jia. Someone who had strangely enough benefited significantly from working together with- or rather playing together with Mui.

…

As Xuan Hao sank into cultivation and closed himself off from the rest of the sect to focus on absorbing the earthly treasures he had just obtained from the ascension realm tower, somewhere at the base of the Seventh Star Peak, He Jie, the older man from the now fallen ancient secret realm, had officially been brought into the sect as an official disciple thanks to Elder Song after everything with the material arts path he practiced had been fully sorted out and the different elders had made sure they had learnt everything they could from him.

Of course, with his unique situation, he didn’t end up as a normal disciple of the sect but instead found himself settling down under the tutelage of Elder Song himself, as the older man had taken a liking to this fellow senior during their time together and ultimately decided to personally take on his future training.

Not so much as a direct master, but more so like an old friend sharing some insights into cultivation every now and then.

Because of this, though He Jie wasn’t considered to have that high of a cultivation within the sect, the status he enjoyed thanks to his connection to Elder Song was almost comparable to that of a normal sect elder.

At this exact moment, he was walking along the path next to the river cutting through the area where his disciple abode was located on his way towards the wider central path leading up to the Seventh Star Peak to find Elder Song and ask for his guidance on the Foundation Establishment Realm. Having already reached the Ninth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. Only a single step away from attempting a breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Realm, a realm he had never imagined himself getting anywhere close to in the past.

Given his already advanced age, this was of paramount importance to him, as only by breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm would his lifespan increase and give him a chance to strive for a higher realm in the future.

”Hm? Who is that in the spiritual water river…?” But as he was about to turn a corner away from the river of spiritual water cascading down from the mountain above, he suddenly froze upon seeing someone moving around within the spiritual water that was considered off limits for people under normal circumstances.

These normal circumstances being drawing water for cultivation, alchemy or other similar things. A situation where someone went into the spiritual water was rare outside of someone making use of the spiritually rich water to breakthrough, but the person below was clearly not someone breaking through and instead just seemed to be playing around in the water.

”Uhm… Senior… Sister… Might this junior ask what you are doing…?” In the end, He Jie found himself unable to restrain his curiosity as he walked over to this smaller woman who he knew was his senior because of the inherently powerful pressure she unconsciously released. Doing his best to remain respectful in the process.

 ”Oh? Are you curious? If you want, you can join as well, I just so happen to lack someone capable of acting as a mobile formation pillar.”

”Huh? What do you-”

”Great! I see you have great enthusiasm for this task! Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you in any way and you might even be able to smoothly step into the Foundation Establishment Realm afterwards!” Barely managing to get a few words out of his mouth, He Jie suddenly found himself dragged into the spiritual water by some unfathomable power.

By the time he realized he was in the water, he already found the strange woman had inscribed some kind of crooked looking symbols onto a small piece of paper that she directly handed over to him and made him hold close to the chest as he was being kept afloat above the water by some mysterious force.

”Senior… This…”

”Don’t worry, don’t worry, everything is fine, all you need to do is hold onto the paper I gave you. If you do well, you might not just breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Realm but might skip straight to the Core Formation Realm in a single step!”

”Huh? But wouldn’t that compromise my foundation and-”

”No worries! Everything will- should work out fine!”

That is not the slightest bit reassuring!

Cursing silently to himself at this eccentric senior, though he knew the other party wouldn’t harm him within the sect with the law enforcement hall around, he couldn’t help feeling a bit nervous as he looked down at the piece of paper she had handed him before abruptly shifting her attention to creating what looked like countless equally crooked symbols that floated out and merged with the void around the river.

”Wha-what in the world is happening here?!” However, only a minute passed before another passing disciple noticed what was happening and came over to investigate. ”Huh? S-s-s-senior sister Mui!” But a clear difference compared to He Jie, was the fact that this disciple instantly recognized the person in the river. Giving an almost fearful response as he turned around to escape-

”Oh? Another one? Are you also curious? If you want, you can join as well…”

But before he could run, he was similarly caught by Mui and ended up next to He Jie with a similar piece of paper filled with crooked symbols in hand.

And this disciple was far from the last to get caught before being handed a piece of paper filled with crooked symbols. From the original pair of two, it didn’t take long before close to fifty disciples sat side by side swaying alongside the river of spiritual qi beneath them with a piece of paper in hand. None of them were aware of what this senior, that He Jie learnt was called Mui, was planning to do.

During this time on the river, He Jie had also learnt more about this senior who had captured them from the young man who was captured just after him. Learning just how much trouble she had brought whenever she did something, but at the same time also just how many benefits the trouble she ended up causing ended up bringing to the sect.

From this, He Jie judged that her saying he would be able to breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Realm should be correct, but what he would have to endure before this reward promised at the end was not something that was worth it in the eyes of the surrounding disciples who had been captured alongside him.

However, to He Jie, someone close to the end of his lifespan and wanting nothing more than to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm and increase his lifespan, he didn’t care much about this trouble mentioned by these younger people. All he cared about was the fact that he would really be able to increase his chances of reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm by following along with whatever this eccentric senior was up to, something he was more than willing to do knowing such a reward was waiting for him.

Because of this, when Mui asked if someone was willing to take the lead and explained that this position would bring the most benefits in the end, he was the only one who stepped forward and accepted the challenge.

If it wasn’t something life threatening, there wasn’t much an old senior like himself couldn’t endure. Especially knowing ahead of time that a precious breakthrough opportunity awaited him at the end of his struggle.