Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Reaching the gate of the city, Xuan Hao couldn’t help narrowing his eyes a bit as he sensed the guardian formation of the city up close. Knowing from a simple look that the guardian formation was far stronger than he had originally thought it to be. Not only having reached a level of strength that exceeded the Land Creation Realm on its own, but also possessing a formation spirit, something the guardian formation of the Heavens Faith Sect had lacked.

This should be something that was a given for a formation of this size and strength, but part of him had forgotten about it due to his experience on the twenty seventh floor where the demigod of the Heavens Faith Sect had essentially taken the place of a formation spirit and placed himself at the very core of the formation.

The existence of a formation spirit didn’t mean it would be impossible for him to seize control over the guardian formation, but it undoubtedly meant that it would be a far harder task to accomplish than he had originally anticipated even if he managed to locate the core of the formation. Not to mention, the complexity of the formation itself also exceeded his current understanding of formations by quite a bit.

Meaning... His best option to deal with the guardian formation of the cultivator alliance would be for him to blow it up like he had done with the guardian formation of the Heavens Faith sect back on the twenty seventh floor. Although, doing that meant he wouldn’t be able to use the formation to potentially put pressure on the cultivator alliance.

”Next! Please step forward and submit to inspection, it will only be a few seconds.” And as he found his attention entirely captured by the complex guardian formation that now stood before him, a rough voice could suddenly be heard calling out not too far from where he was standing, causing him to shift his attention back towards the dozen or so guards standing guard at the gate.

The one being called out wasn’t him, as he had made sure to conceal his presence while inspecting the formation. Instead, it was a cultivator with strength around the Earlier Stages of the Nascent Soul Realm.

And as he watched the inspection beginning, he quickly realized why this inspection was so short, as it seemed like the formation spirit itself was lending some of its strength to these guards. Allowing them to quickly search through the people entering the city, a rather neat ability that allowed these guards somewhere between the Soul Ascension Realm and the Dao Seed Realm, to conduct an inspection at a level better than even he could with the assistance of the formation. Not just confirming that the Nascent Soul Realm cultivator was in fact a human and not a demon beast but also searching through his possessions.

The only real problem with this kind of inspection being the fact that it didn’t account for an interspatial ring, but then again, the twenty eighth floor was even more resource scarce when it came to spiritual metal with a spatial attribute. Meaning only those standing above the Dao Seed Realm had interspatial rings.

For him to slip through this kind of security was simple enough with the only real worry being the formation spirit seeing through his cultivation and alerting the seniors from the cultivator alliance about his presence.

Just thinking about potentially being attacked inside the city from all sides with the guardian formation still intact nearby was painful and something he wanted to avoid even if he had no real clue if the cultivator alliance would even attack him in the first place given how their goal aligned.

Still, if he wanted a chance to get the treasures- knowledge on the devil forest hidden away somewhere inside the city, he would inevitably have to pass through this first layer of defense a fact that wouldn’t change no matter how hard he stared at the formation from the outside, as his current comprehension of the Dao of Formations was simply far too low to start manipulating or changing such a great formation from the outside without even getting his hands on the core of the formation. Maybe only when he surpassed the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Formations would he be able to accomplish something like that when dealing with a formation of a similar level.

Because of this, after a initial examination of the formation, he silently blended in with the crowd of cultivators lining up to enter the city. Placing himself close to the front to avoid waiting in line for long. Soon enough, finding himself face to face with on the guards that just casually looked over him before mobilizing part of the great formation behind him to sweep over hm.

An experience that only took a few seconds, but lasted for hours in his eyes, as he did his absolute best to conceal his true cultivation base in the face of the terrifying power that attempted to force its way into his body to fully scan every single part of it.

To avoid looking suspicious, he essentially had to create a fake internal state that mimicked someone who had just broken through to the Breaking Dawn Realm, as going any lower than that would end up involving fundamental changes that simply wasn’t possible for him to accomplish internally after he reached the Profound Immortal Realm. External appearance was easy to hide, but internal was far more difficult.

”Here is your token, you are free to enter. Next!”

Luckily things turned out fine and the formation soon enough began to retreat after seemingly confirming his strength at the Breaking Dawn Realm. Even if the only real reason why he just barely managed to fool the formation and was allowed to enter was because the Profound Immortal Realm was still considered a single major realm even if it didn’t exactly feel like it. In simple words, it was possible for him to pose as being anywhere within the Profound Immortal Realm with far less effort compared to if he wanted his internal situation to look like someone who had just broken through the Foundation Establishment Realm and make it believable enough to convince the formation that he was truly someone at the Foundation Establishment Realm.

No matter, things worked out and he soon enough began wandering around the rather generic city that didn’t have anything beyond the normal artifact shops, alchemy shops, auction houses and so on. Making him feel little to no interest in exploring the city, as he directly made his way towards the very core of the city where the core of the guardian formation was bound to be located and at the same time also the headquarters of the cultivator alliance.

Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult to slip inside this kind of core area without somehow getting his hands on a fake identity like he had done back when he had entered the Heavens Faith Sect, but it just so happened that the meeting location was this headquarters of the cultivator alliance. Meaning it was simple enough for him, a stranger, to enter the main headquarters to participate in the meeting itself.

Of course, not everyone was able to enter the headquarters of the cultivator alliance, as that would be far too many people gathered in one place. Instead, it was only those at the Profound Immortal Realm who could enter, while those with lower cultivation were delegated to other locations that was being managed in tandem with the main meeting to update these weaker cultivators about the situation.

How he got in was also very simple, as he just needed to use the token that had been handed to him by the guard when entering the city to enter. After all, there was no need for a second check in the eyes of the people from the cultivator alliance after he had already been inspected by the formation once.

So, with no hesitation, he simply strode up to the headquarters of the cultivator alliance, showing his token to the guard standing at the entrance before being given a small nod and smoothly entered. Everything was going so smoothly that he began feeling like he was walking into some kind of trap, but in the end, nothing happened as he was allowed to just wander around freely within a specified part of the headquarters while waiting for the meeting to begin.

His early arrival did not arouse the slightest bit of suspicion, as he was far from the only one to have shown up ahead of time, as several others had gathered to either talk about the upcoming meeting or just general chatter about the state of things.

And because of this, it didn’t take him long to track down the location of the formation core and the location of the treasury. The only thing stopping him from entering those places being a defensive formation linked together with the city guardian formation and a few guards who had kindly reminded him that ahead was the treasury or the formation core and those places were considered off limits for guests like himself.

Truly... A Stellar performance by the guards, even helping him make sure of where the things he wanted to find were located...