Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Following the path without directly releasing his divine sense out of fear that he might end up accidentally offending the members of the cultivation alliance whose strength still remained shrouded in mystery and could very well have reached the Star Creation Realm with the assistance of the formation placed around their main city, Xuan Hao found himself observing the people below along the way. Trying to grasp any information he could before he got to the city that had already become visible in the distance.

”Have you heard? Apparently, those demon beasts have grown more restless over the past few months.”

”Really? Do you think they are preparing to launch another large-scale attack like the one a few hundred years ago?”

”No, I doubt it. If anything, I think they might have found some kind of treasure that is about to emerge close to the borders and plan to strike ahead of time to seize the treasure when it emerges.”

”I see. No wonder that...”

Learning from the few cultivators who also seemed to be travelling towards the city in the distance, that unrest had begun brewing between the cultivation alliance and the demon beast from the devil forest in the west.

Most were speculating that it was due to the emergence of some kind of treasure of immense value, but there were also a few who were convinced that this was the demon beasts preparing to launch another large-scale war and push the border even deeper into the east and shrink the territory under the cultivator alliance even more.

Almost all the conversations taking place on the road below were related to the movements of the demon beasts from the devil forest. Making it difficult for him to get any real information about the city ahead of time. The only real information on the city he managed to obtain from those below wasn’t even from the cultivators on their way to the city, but instead a farmer who was in the process of harvesting his crops alongside his family members. Commenting that more cultivators were showing up lately because of a meeting that had been called by the cultivator alliance, something he hadn’t heard a single of the cultivators supposedly there to attend said meeting mentioning.

If anything, it almost seemed like these fellows deliberately avoided mentioning this meeting.

But then again, that was highly unlikely given how a simple farmer had been able to casually mention it. Meaning he had just been unlucky that all these cultivators had found themselves busy discussing what should be one of the topics for this meeting when he happened to be listening in on them from above.

At the very least, the fact that such an important meeting was taking place within the city meant that the city should indeed be the main city under the cultivator alliance.

Whoosh~

Still, having learnt about the meeting that was supposedly about to be held within this city, he couldn’t help growing a bit curious about it and decided to descend towards one of the stronger groups of cultivators making their way towards the city on foot. The leader of the bunch being someone at the Middle Stage of the Breaking Dawn Realm.

”Hm? Is there something I can help with?” Seeing someone suddenly descend before him without even sensing the other person ahead of time, the leader could not help narrowing his eyes slightly as he asked cautiously. Not feeling fearful that the other party had come with hostile intentions given how close they were to the main city of the alliance.

”I just wanted to ask about the upcoming meeting, you see, I have been in secluded cultivation since the last war and haven’t really had the chance to learn much about what is currently happening.” Knowing that it might be odd to just directly ask for information on the meeting, Xuan Hao decided to come up with a simple believable excuse before asking. ”I see, I heard a lot of people were left with hard to recover injuries back then, quite a few who haven’t even emerged yet.” Something that fully convinced the man, as he had no real reason to doubt what Xuan Hao was saying.

”Indeed, a lot of people were forced into secluded cultivation following the end of the war. All I wanted to ask was the general situation and the reason for the meeting this time around. Only just learnt about the meeting through an old friend of mine reminding me ahead of time without really giving any explanation before running off before I could catch up.”

”Hehe, unfortunate, guess that is one detriment of being in secluded cultivation without any real way to contact others. From what I know, the meeting this time around is related to recent unusual movements around the borders by those demon beasts from the devil forest. No real reason was given beyond that, though I feel we will get a clearer answer during the upcoming meeting.

As for the happenings since the war ended... Not much has changed beyond the territory of the alliance now having lost its former territory outside the east. The only real territories that remain are a few neutral cities that managed to reach some kind of agreement with both the alliance and the devil forest to stay out of the conflict. Beyond that, things have remained the same.”

”I see... Thank you for the information.” Nodding his head after listening to the information from the man, Xuan Hao realized that it was unlikely for him to gain much more information from this person.

If he wanted to obtain any real information on the devil forest or even information on the cultivator alliance that wasn’t just surface information, he would likely have to find those senior members of the cultivator alliance who had called for the meeting.

Joining the upcoming meeting was one way to do this, but he doubted the information being shared would be of much use to him. Instead, it seemed like a far better idea to just grab one of these senior members before the meeting started and get the information he wanted from them ahead of time before the meeting began.

Of course, he still had to beware of the formation guarding the city, but with so many people entering for the upcoming meeting and with the assistance of his own mastery of the Dao of Formations, he should be able to conceal his own presence when he entered the city. Allowing him to potentially dissect the formation and pull off something like what he had done when he had infiltrated the Heavens Faith Sect in the past. The main difference being that he doubted a terrifying entity like the demigod of the Heavens Faith Sect was around to stop him from forcibly seizing control over the formation.

In which case, he would essentially be the one in control of the cultivator alliance guardian formation. Giving him all the leverage he needed to get whatever information he wanted from the cultivator alliance. Information that would undoubtedly be far more useful than what he had been able to obtain from the group of seven who were now unlikely to still be around.

After all, the cultivator alliance was a force that had been fighting against the devil forest for a long time according to what he had learnt about it so far.

This did make him consider the idea of teaming up with this cultivator alliance to go against the devil forest, but on second thought, if he could seize the guardian formation and gain control over their main city, he would also have the ability to take anything of value within the vast city that undoubtedly had countless precious cultivation resources that would also be of value to someone like himself at the Late Stage of the Land Creation Realm.

If he was lucky, he might even encounter a few unique heavenly or earthly treasures that didn’t belong to the usual few Daos.

Even if this would make it harder to take on the devil forest in the future, he didn’t mind it too much. Feeling confident that he had the strength to take on the devil forest with his current strength at the Late Stage of the Land Creation Realm.

In fact, if it wasn’t because part of him wanted to see if the cultivator alliance had anything valuable around, he would likely already have reached the devil forest in the west. After all, though he said he wanted to gather information on the devil forest, with his current strength, he could always learn along the way and wouldn’t need to worry too much about this lord of the devil forest.

The only real worry he had was whether this lord of the devil forest possessed some means to exert strength beyond the Land Creation Realm or not, as only in that way would this lord of the devil forest pose any real threat to him.