Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having located both the treasury and the formation core without any effort, he originally thought it would be simple enough to get through the defensive formation guarding the core of the city’s guardian formation, but as he found himself silently observing the formation guarding that place, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible for him to get anywhere near the formation core.

High as his comprehension of the Dao of Formations was, the formation put in place around the formation core wasn’t just connected to the city’s guardian formation but was also created with some kind of ancient formation symbols that far exceeded the city guardian formation’s complexity.

Or in other words, though far weaker on its own, the complexity of the formation had stepped into a completely different level compared to the city’s guardian formation. Reaching realm that made him think it would have allowed the city’s guardian formation to reach the Venerable Realm in terms of strength had it been constructed by the same person who had laid down the small defensive formation guarding the core of the city guardian formation.

As for why this defensive formation was on such a different level compared to the city’s guardian formation? It wasn’t too difficult to understand, as though the complexity of the formation gave him a headache to look at with his current comprehension of the Dao of Formations, he could at least sense that the spiritual qi drawn to keep this formation running was downright terrifying.

Even with it being in a passive state only guarding a relatively small area compared to the formation guarding the entire city, the spiritual qi it consumed was close to half of this guardian formation.

If this kind of formation was used to cover the entire city... The cultivator alliance would most likely burn through all their remaining spirit stones in a few short seconds if they even had enough around to activate such a terrifying formation in the first place.

With any plans of taking down the guardian formation of the city essentially gone because of this terrifyingly complex defensive formation that was out of place to say the least, Xuan Hao found himself moving back towards the place where the treasury of the cultivator alliance was located. Making sure to hide himself from the guards to avoid drawing any unwanted attention to himself for approaching the treasury after already having been spotted there once, something that wasn’t too difficult to accomplish given the fact that the strength of the guards was generally not that high with most being around the Dao Seed Realm.

The main defense of these different important locations never relied on these guards, but instead relied on the defensive formations in place and even if those defensive formations weren’t enough, they would at least buy enough time for the more senior members of the cultivator alliance to show up, something that wouldn’t even take five seconds considering how this was the main headquarters of the cultivator alliance and most of their senior members were in secluded meditation here.

Hm? The formation around the treasury is not on the same level as the one guarding the formation core?

But as he found himself approaching the entrance to the treasury and began inspecting the formation guarding it up close, he couldn’t help feeling a bit surprised upon noticing that the formation put in place around the treasury was of a far lower quality compared to the one around the formation core.

Of course, it was still linked together with the city’s guardian formation and would cause that vast formation to activate once attack, but the lower overall quality of the formation gave him some hope in silently slipping through the formation without causing any disturbance that might activate the vast city guardian formation.

He didn’t need to create a hole in the treasury formation large enough for his entire body to fit through. All he needed was a small almost nonexistent hole that his divine sense could reach through, as he would through his divine sense tunnel his way into the treasury using his mastery over the Dao of Space.

Even if doing things this way would obviously still end up triggering the formation guarding the treasury once he stepped inside, he only needed an instant to sweep everything within the treasury into the interspatial rings he carried on him. After which, he would be able to forcibly tear through space and escape far from the city before the city’s guardian formation had the time to lock down the space within the city beyond the current passive state that at most prevented someone at the Small Success Realm from moving around within the space around the city outside of certain special locations like around the formation core and the treasury.

Still, with a hole in the treasury formation, he would be able to easily slip back out and directly tear through space to leave the city.

The one problem with doing this was the fact that he wouldn’t be able to obtain the information he wanted on the devil forest and the lord of the devil forest from the cultivator alliance after doing something like that unless he directly captured one of their senior members and forced the information out of them.

Hm? Now that I think about, doing that should be simple enough if I go to another city under the control of the cultivator alliance in the future and just grab the person in charge- or I could just go in without gathering any information ahead of time. In the first place, the main reason I came to cultivator alliance was never for the information...

Silently thinking this to himself as he decided on what to do next, Xuan Hao ultimately found himself not wanting to try and seek out new information on the devil forest and its lord. Instead deciding to go ahead and look for a way through the treasury formation before him.

In the end, although the treasury formation was complicated and should have been created by someone with a bit below his level of understanding in the Dao of Formation, it was ultimately just a stationary formation and over a few hours, he managed to successfully pry open a small hole in the formation. Invisible to the naked eye, but large enough for him to force his divine sense through without being detected in the process.

Whoosh~

Hesitating for only a short second before allowing his divine sense to spread out towards the small opening. Understanding that if there was some kind of secondary defensive array waiting for him on the other side that he couldn’t see from the outside, he would have to give up his original plan and run.

No secondary formation...

Luckily, his worry about the cultivator alliance layering several different defensive arrays on top of each other to guard their treasury being unfounded, Xuan Hao began to silently take in the interior of the treasury through his divine sense. First spotting countless precious cultivation resources alongside spirit stones that should have been gathered by the cultivator alliance during its long existence before his divine sense shifted its perspective towards the deeper parts of the treasury where the precious cultivation arts and combat techniques were stored.

But great as these scrolls might be for expanding the sect library, his attention was mainly drawn towards the deepest part of the treasury where three unique treasures could be seen gently suspended within a small sealing formation that kept their quality from degrading over time.

From a glance, he could see that these three were heavenly earthly treasures. The main thing he had wanted to find within this treasury, as they would be useful not just in his own cultivation, but also towards aiding his disciples and sect grow in the future.

The only unfortunate thing was that these three heavenly earthly treasures weren’t unique like the one he had found within the neutral city that was of the Dao of Ice. Instead, they were the most common kind.

Still, they were ultimately heavenly earthly treasures and were of immense value, so he of course still planned to take them.

Now, what was left for him to do was plan on how to get as much as he could from the treasury after taking away those three heavenly earthly treasures. After all, he doubted he would have the time to take everything away before being forced to run away.

Focusing on the cultivation resources at the very front of the treasury seemed like the obvious choice, but the countless scrolls within the middle section wouldn’t just help significantly expand the sect library but might also contain the information he wanted on the devil forest.

And maybe more importantly than that, he had sensed a few beings following the Celestial Path that had reached the Celestial Lord Realm within the city. Meaning, there was a very real chance that he would be able to finally find out how to reach the Celestial Lord Realm and officially help expand this cultivation path for the sect...