Cultivating Disciples To Breakthrough

by Stayrr

Within a quiet pavilion on top of a lonely mountain peak, Xuan Hao slowly opened his eyes with a bewildered look on his face, he had transmigrated into a cultivation world as an elder of the Flying Sword Sect. He was even an expert at the Nascent Soul Realm, who had the power to easily destory an entire city with a wave of his hand. Most importantly, he had a system that allowed h

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Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough #Chapter 853 Talk With Feng Chen And Elder Song - Read Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough Chapter 853 Talk With Feng Chen And Elder Song Online - All Page - Novel Bin

Having decided on sending his two disciples to the mystic realm now that they had both reached the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao made his way towards the palace in front of him where both Feng Chen and Elder Song were patiently waiting for him to arrive and inform them about how thing had gone during the sect alliance meeting... And at the same time, also find out about the young girl he had brought along with him as his fourth disciple.

"Maybe I should check out the situation in the rest of the sect and outside the sect before meeting those two~"

Knowing very well that Feng Chen and Elder Song had both already come to know about him arriving outside the palace and could hear what he was saying, Xuan Hao could not help wondering how they would react if he just decided to leave them waiting like this.

Would they come out or just stay inside the palace and-

Swish-!

"Ah! Elder Xuan! How great to see you here, why don't we go inside and discuss the matter about the sect alliance now that you are already here?"

Not even able to finish his train of thought, Feng Chen rushed out of the palace. Stopping him before he even had the chance to turn around and leave.

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"Sure, I don't have anything else to do at the moment."

Almost not able to stop himself from chuckling upon seeing the desperate expression that had appeared on Feng Chen's face after he had stormed out of the palace to prevent him from leaving, Xuan Hao decided not to say anything about it and just followed Feng Chen inside the palace where Elder Song was waiting. However, compared to the somewhat desperate expression that had been on Feng Chen's face when he had come rushing out of the palace to stop him from leaving, the expression on Elder Song's face was calm and relaxed, as he quietly sipped on a cup of tea.

"Elder Xuan, it's great to see you again. I hope the sect alliance meeting in the capital city went well and would love to hear about it. Especially if you have any idea about whether the imperial family, or any other major power in the Sky Empire, is going to interfere with the expansion and development of the Star Shattering Sect. Knowing such things now, would make it far easier for me to start preparing."

"Information about the sect alliance meeting? Sure, I'm more than happy to explain what happened during my time in the capital city..." Hearing what Elder Song said, Xuan Hao did not bother wasting any time before starting to explain what had taken place during his time in the capital city.

From the demonic cultivator that had managed to enter the capital city and cause chaos before escaping, to the different independent sects he had met and how they managed to get control over one of the four leader positions in the newly established sect alliance.

In the end, Xuan Hao told Elder Song and Feng Chen about everything he had gone through during his time in the capital city. Excluding how he had been involved in the matter with the demonic cultivator or anything similar that could cause problems for him and the Star Shattering Sect if they became known...

"Hm... I see... Looks like we won't have to worry about anything for the next few years due to how chaotic the situation inside the Sky Empire is and the different major sect should have focused their attention on the other independent sects. Haaa... This is really a perfect time for us to expand and develop the sect without having to worry about some more powerful force jumping out to suppress us..." Nodding his head with a relieved expression on his face as he said this after having listened to Xuan Hao's explanation of the current situation inside the Sky Empire and what he had seen take place during his time in the capital city, Elder Song returned to quietly drinking his tea. The main change being that he was far more relaxed than before.

This old man... Did he only want to know if he could continue developing the sect without worrying about anyone interfering?

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Thinking this to himself as he saw Elder Song's relaxed expression, it did not take a genius to understand what was going through the mind of Elder Song at this moment. Even if it was not directly related to the development of the Star Shattering Sect, Xuan Hao was sure that it should be connected to it in some way.

"Now that we have found out that the sect alliance meeting was a success... Well... At least as it pertains to our sect, can I ask you about the young girl you brought back with you? Is she perhaps a new disciple?" Having learnt that there was nothing to worry about for at least a few years due to the current chaotic situation in the Sky Empire, Feng Chen instead decided to ask about Mui.

All things considered; Xuan Hao was the strongest person in the Star Shattering Sect. For him to take on a new disciple was a big thing. Especially given his three other disciples were all talented, with two already having reached the Nascent Soul Realm, while the last was a prodigy when it came to blacksmithing. Already having surpassed many of the elders in the Blacksmithing branch of the Star Shattering Sect.

"Yes, she is someone I took in as my fourth disciple. By the way, I have something to inform both you and Elder Song about-" Taking out the token from the trial that he had been given by the system, Xuan Hao ignored the confused looks that the two gave him before continuing.

"This a special identification token that can be obtain by talented young people through some different trials and tests I scattered around during my journey to the capital city of the Sky Empire and is something I intend to continue doing whenever I leave the sect from now on.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøvl--B1n.

From now on, I want you two to make sure that anyone that shows up at the sect with a token like this will be able to become a disciple of the sect. Don't worry, there won't be any problems with the talent of the people chosen. As for the behavior and mindset of these young people... I will leave that for you and the rest of the elders to judge if I'm not there to oversee the matter."

"You scattered different trials around on your way back!?" Being the first to respond to what Xuan Hao said, Feng Chen could not help looking towards Xuan Hao with a look of disbelief on his face. Making it rather clear to both Xuan Hao and Elder Song how surprised he was upon hearing that Xuan Hao had somehow scattered all kinds of different trials all over the place on his way back from the capital city of the Sky Empire.

Not to mention how he had managed to get the different resources and other things required to construct so many trials, Feng Chen was mainly curious over where Xuan Hao had found the time to construct the trials when he had only been gone for around two months' time...

"You really do some amazing and at the same time weird things... I will make sure to inform the rest of the elders about this and make sure that the different elders in charge of the branch sects also know about this. After all, I think there is a far higher chance of someone passing one of your trials appearing at one of the branch sects. Especially now that we have expanded so much outside of the original Heavenly Sky Kingdom..." As Feng Chen was stuck trying to figure out how Xuan Hao had managed to do something like that, Elder Song just nodded his head before saying this. No sign of surprise on his face. "Is there anything else that you want to inform us about?"

"Yes, I do indeed have one more thing." Seeing how Elder Song had already figured out he had more to say, Xuan Hao could only nod his head in agreement. Compared to Elder Song, Feng Chen, the current sect master, still had quite a bit to learn. Even though he was technicality the older one among the two...

"What is it then? Did you leave some other things behind on your way back from the capital city... Or maybe you happened to find some kind of massive spirit stone mine passing through a nearby kingdom?"

"No, not at all, it's a special technique called the Divine Will Scripture, I found during my time in the capital city." Rolling his eyes upon hearing what Elder Song said, Xuan Hao did not waste any time before taking out the divine sense technique from the Divine Will Scripture. Allowing for both Feng Chen and Elder Song to read through it by themselves.

Given their cultivation realm, it would not be hard for them to figure out just how beneficial the divine sense technique would be for the Star Shattering Sect!

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"A technique will allow us to increase the strength of our soul!? Even if I still don't understand how useful it will be for someone in the Domain Lord Realm, it will be incredibly useful for those at the Peak of the Core Formation Realm trying to reach the Nascent Soul Realm and will be even more useful for those in the Nascent Soul Realm!" Being the first to understand the benefit of the divine sense technique from the Divine Will Scripture, Feng Chen could not help exclaiming loudly with a look of disbelief on his face.

Even if he would not be able to fully grasp just what kind of impact the divine sense technique was going to have on the, he still understood that it would transform the Star Shattering Sect completely. Allowing far more people in the sect to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, while also increasing the chance of those already in the Nascent Soul Realm of breaking through to the Domain Lord Realm.

Although it might take some time before this would happen, Feng Chen did not really worry about this and was instead far more interested in finding out if he would be able to increase his strength by using the divine sense technique. Especially now that his increase in strength had slowed down significantly after reaching the Domain Lord Realm…

"Increase the strength of the soul!? So that is what this technique is used for… How amazing!" Muttering this to himself as he also had a shocked expression on his face, Elder Song looked towards Xuan Hao filled with gratitude. Understandably so, as the divine sense technique would be capable of helping him heal the damage that had been done to his soul over the years of him refining the demonic medicine for Song Jia.

"It's great to see that both of you are excited about the divine sense technique, I hope that both of you will spread the technique to the rest of the elders in the sect." Seeing that both Elder Song and Feng Chen could not wait to start studying the divine sense technique, Xuan Hao did not hesitate to dump the matter of circulating the technique throughout the sect on them. Not that he had ever planned to do this himself in the first place…

"Sure, it's the least we can do-"

"Elder Song, you should leave it up to me, you already have a lot to do in the first place and I'm sure you would also want some time to study this divine sense technique yourself. If I can't even circulate a single technique among the elders of the sect, what kind of sect master would I be?"

"This- Ha… Fine, I will leave this to you sect master, but you must make sure to inform me in case anything happens! Even if it's something minor, it could easily cause a major problem for the sect!"

"I know, you don't need to worry so much about it."

Watching as Feng Chen took on the matter of circulating the divine sense technique, Xuan Hao did his best to stop himself from laughing at the odd back and forth between the two.

Feng Chen was the sect master, but in front of Elder Song who was the real person in charge of the sect's internal matters, Feng Chen had obviously fallen behind.

Well… That is what he gets for focusing close to all his attention towards improving his strength while leaving the management of the sect in the hands of Elder Song.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

Thinking this to himself as he thought back to the time before the Star Shattering Sect where Feng Chen had been the sect master of the Flying Sword Sect and always had to worry about the Raging Flame Sect, Xuan Hao could not help letting out a sigh.

Although the Flying Sword Sect had ended up becoming the Star Shattering Sect, some things never changed. Feng Chen was still trying to improve his strength, while Elder Song was still in charge of the management of the sect. Even if it was only the internal matters of the sect, with the current size of the Star Shattering Sect, the number of things he needed to do did not decrease in the slightest…

"Do you have anything else? Maybe you happened to find a precious artifact or stumbled upon an ancient abandoned spiritual herb field on your way back? No need to hesitate, I- we will make sure that it is taken care!" As things quieted down again, Feng Chen could not help himself as he asked this with a look of expectation on his face.

"No, I don't have any artifacts for you, and I unfortunately was not lucky enough to stumble on an ancient spiritual herb- Ah…"

"Hm? D-did you remember something? Did you really end up stumbling over an ancient spiritual herb!?" Seeing how Xuan Hao had ended up suddenly stopping midsentence, Feng Chen, who had asked the question about the ancient spiritual herb field and artifact in a half joking manner, had no idea what to say after noticing the reaction from Xuan Hao.

"Well, I didn't really stumble on an ancient spiritual herb field, but I did happen to find a lot of Purple Poison Grass during my time exploring the ruins of an ancient sect on my way to the capital city. I thought about giving it all to Qing Yi, my first disciple, but on second thought, it might be a bit too much to give her an entire interspatial ring filled with Purple Poison Grass-"

"Purple Poison Grass!? And one interspatial ring of it!? Even if your little disciple spent the next hundred years only making potions or pills based on Purple Poison Grass, she won't even be able to use half of it, let alone all of it! Not to mention, I doubt she would even use that much Purple Poison Grass by herself in the first place!" Interrupting Xuan Hao, Elder Song almost jumped up from the chair he was sitting on as his normal calm and collected appearance disappeared completely.

"I-I see… I will leave this for you to take care of the as long as you make sure my disciple is able to get-"

Swish-!

"No need to worry about that, I will make sure that your disciple will get all the Purple Poison Grass that she needs." Taking the interspatial ring with the Purple Poison Grass inside of it before he even had a chance to finish what he was saying, Elder Song did not show the slightest hint of shame on his face as he said this.

"…"

Just how precious is the Purple Poison grass? I'm sure it shouldn't be anything that precious…

Not having any idea why Elder Song had reacted so strongly when learning about the Purple Poison Grass, Xuan Hao could only look towards him with a confused expression on his face. Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, Elder Song had no intention of saying anything and instead just put the interspatial ring away before sitting back down like nothing had happened.

"Ehm… I think that should be everything- Unless you have anything more to share with us Elder Xuan? As for the situation about what happened during your absence, I'm sure your disciples will tell you about it when they see you again." Knowing that there wasn't really anything important left for them to talk about, Feng Chen decided that it would be a good time to end their conversation.

As for the matter regarding what had happened at the border of the Frozen Wasteland and their encounter with the soldiers from the Sky Empire, Feng Chen figured that Xuan Hao would be able to learn all of this through his disciples. After all, one of his disciples, Bai Ning, had been involved in the cleaning up of demonic cultivators.

Even if Bai Ning didn't know anything about the Sky Empire's people, it would not be too hard for Xuan Hao to learn about this matter by chatting with the other elders in the sect about the matter. Especially considering that quite a few of the sect's elders had been there to ensure the safety of the disciples clearing out the demonic cultivators in the kingdom next to the Azure Sky Kingdom that had now fallen under the complete control of the Star Shattering Sect.

"I have nothing more to talk about other than the fact that I would like for our sect to start recruiting disciples from among the orphans that can be found across our territory, with that in mind, I will be the first to take my leave. After all, I just took in a new disciple and need to get her settled in when she and Qing Yi comes back from their tour around the sect."

"Haha, that is understandable, we won't be holding you up any longer Elder Xuan, you should go back and make sure you take care of your new disciple!"

"Indeed, you should go back and accompany your new disciple. Don't leave everything to your disciples or the relationship between the two of you will grow distant!"

Swoosh~!

Hearing what both feng Chen and Elder Song said, Xuan Hao did not bother staying around for any longer, as he soon left the palace before moving back towards his own palace to wait for Qing Yi and Mui to return back from their tour around the sect.

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"Amazing! So, this is the place where people go to fight with each other?"

"Yes, the Combat Hall is the place where the disciples and elders spar with each other. Of course, its not the only place they spar and fight with each other in the sect, as there is still a lot of different training grounds that they also use for this. The Combat Hall just happens to be the most used place for this."

"I see… Guess I will also visit this place in the future…"

"Indeed. Although you still have some time before that, as you need to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm before being able to use the Combat Hall."

At the same time Xuan Hao finished up his conversation with Elder Song and Feng Chen, Qing Yi and Mui had both come to a stop in front of the Combat Hall as Qing Yi was introducing the place and answering any questions Mui had. Acting like a perfect guide for her new junior sister.

It was just at this moment when Qing Yi and Mui were about to turn around and continue off towards the next location, that Chu Yang walked out from the Combat Hall filled with energy, while an exhausted elder could be seen leaving together with him.

Even if Qing Yi did not know for certain what had happened during the fight between Chu Yang and this elder, it was rather obvious that Chu Yang should have been the one to come out ahead. Considering that this elder had reached the Fourth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, this was more than enough for one to understand just how strong the current Chu Yang was compared to other Nascent Soul Realm cultivators at the same cultivation realm!

"S-senior sister, who is that…?" Feeling Chu Yang' looking over in their direction, Mui could not help shivering as she hid behind Qing Yi while asking this. Not something odd considering how fierce the current Chu Yang looked just after a fight with a powerful Nascent Soul Realm elder of the sect.

Even if Chu Yang was not intentionally trying to scare her, his battle intent was far too intense for someone who had just recently taken their first step on the path of cultivation and was still only in the Qi Condensation Realm.

"Hah… that person is unfortunately one of your senior brothers…"

"One of my senior brothers!? I-Is he dangerous…?" Nodding her head as she said this while still hiding herself behind Qing Yi, Mui could not help inspecting the scary young man that had just come out of the Combat Hall before starting to move in their direction.

"Haha, no need to worry about him. Although he might look like a brute that loves fighting all the time at first glance, he is not scary at all. On the contrary, he is quite kind when you get to know him." Not able to stop herself from laughing after hearing what Mui said, Qing Yi did her best to reassure her that Chu Yang was not dangerous.

"Brute!? What do you mean with that Qing Yi?!" Getting close enough just in time to hear Qing Yi calling him a brute, Chu Yang rushed over to the two, but quickly came to a stop upon noticing Mui who was standing right next to Qing Yi.

"And who is this- Ah! Is this perhaps our new junior sister?" Even if he was angry at Qing Yi, Chu Yang still managed to compose himself upon seeing the young Mui next to her. Taking no more than a few seconds to realize that she was the new junior sister that Qing Yi had mentioned to him before he had gone in to fight with the elder in the Fourth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm earlier.

"G-Greetings senior brother, m-my name is M-Mui…!" Seeing the Chu Yang was looking towards her, Mui hid herself even more behind Qing Yi before nervously introducing herself to the best of her ability.

"Greetings Mui, my name is Chu Yang and I'm the second disciple of master. If you ever encounter any problems, you can always come to me and don't listen to what Qing Yi said, I'm not a brute, I just spent most of my time training in the Combat Hall." Trying his best to reassure Mui that he was not someone dangerous while introducing himself, Chu Yang only ended up making the young girl more afraid after mentioning that he spent all his time in the Combat Hall.

After all, even if Mui did not know a lot about the Star Shattering Sect yet, she had just found out that the Combat Hall was a place that people went to fight with each other to improve themselves. Spending a bit of time training there would be fine… But being there all the time? Mui could not help feeling that her senior sister's describing him as a brute that loved fighting all the time was correct.

As for him not being scary and instead being a kind person? Mui felt she would need some time to properly interact with this senior brother before finding out whether this was true…

"This… Qing Yi, you two are on a tour of the sect. Right?"

"Yes."

"Great, I just happen to have finished up my fight with the elder I had been looking for. So, I will be joining both of you!"

Realizing that his new junior sister had formed a bad first impression of him from the way she was still hiding behind Qing Yi, Chu Yang did not waste a second before saying this. Fully intend on joining the two during their tour through the sect. Hopefully being able to change his new little junior sister's opinion on him during this period of time.

"…"

Knowing what Chu Yang was intending to do, Qing Yi did not say anything and just looked towards Mui who was hiding behind her to see her reaction after hearing that Chu Yang would be following them during their tour through the sect. If she was uncomfortable about it, she would make sure to refuse Chu Yang and find some other way that Mui would be less afraid of Chu Yang.

Luckily for Chu Yang, Qing Yi's worry was for nothing, and Mui did not seem to mind the fact that Chu Yang would be coming along with them. Even if she was still hiding behind Qing Yi, it was mostly due to the battle intent that Chu Yang had been releasing ever since leaving the Combat Hall. At least now, it seemed like he had reigned it in and no longer seemed as scary as before to Mui.

"Now that you already met the first of your two senior brothers, how about we go visit the second one?"

"Second senior brother? Yes! Let's go visit him, I really want to see what my second senior brother is like!"

Hearing Qing Yi's suggestion of going to see the final disciple under her master that she had yet to see, Mui nodded her head excitedly. Even if her first senior brother was not a handsome older brother like she had first expected him to be, there was still one more senior brother that she had not seen yet!

"Great, then let's get going! If I'm not wrong, we should still be able to find him at the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces where he spends most of his time refining artifacts."The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

"My second senior brother is a blacksmith that refines artifact!? The powerful artifacts that are used by cultivators to fight and do all kinds of amazing things!?"

"Yes, he is. Not only that, but your second senior brother, Bai Ning, can be considered the most talented blacksmith among the younger generation of the Star Shattering Sect. Even surpassing some of the elders!"

"Wow…" Hearing about her second senior brother who was called Bai Ning, Mui could not help showing a look of adoration on her face.

Even if she did not know a lot about artifacts that cultivators used when fighting and doing all kinds of amazing things she could only have dreamt about before becoming a disciple of the Star Shattering Sect, Mui had still heard a fair bit during her time as an orphan. Back then, most of the orphans, including herself, dreamt about obtaining a powerful artifact that would help them on to the path of cultivation or at the very least out of their current identity as orphans.

It was also for this reason that Mui herself was filled with both awe and adoration after hearing that her second senior brother was someone who refined the powerful artifacts she had heard about during her time as an orphan.

As for how strong her second senior brother was… Mui had automatically placed him above that of her first senior brother, Chu Yang. After all, one spent all his time fighting people in the Combat Hall, while the other refined powerful and mystical artifacts that was the stuff of legends in her eyes!

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As the group of three left the Combat Hall and made their way towards the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces where Bai Ning was spending his time honing his blacksmithing skill by refining different artifacts that would either be kept for his own use or given away to the sect as a form of repayment for letting him freely use the different spiritual metals and other materials without having to do any sect missions or other things for them, Xuan Hao arrived back at his now rather empty palace.

"Hm? They joined up with Chu Yang and are heading towards Bai Ning. Looks like I don't have anything to worry about, Qing Yi is doing a great job showing Mui around and at the same time also introducing her to the other two…" Using his divine sense to figure out the current situation of his disciples, Xuan Hao could not help smiling to himself after knowing that everything was going well and there was nothing for him to worry about.

For now, it would be best to just leave his disciples to themselves and let them get along with each other without his interference. After they had returned and got some time to rest, it would be time to see how far they had gotten during the time he had been away from the sect.

As for Mui, he would need to properly introduce her to the life of a cultivator and at the same time also teach her some of the basics of cultivation. After all, even if the trial space had taught her a lot about cultivation and the different cultivation realms, it had taught her nothing when it came to common sense and other well-known things among cultivators.

One clear example of this would be how she had just been eating the spiritual fruits without trying to refine the energy contained inside of them, thus resulting in most of the benefits of eating the spiritual fruit being wasted…

Although this might not have mattered that much when she was inside the trial space and was consuming the spiritual fruits that would have never been eaten if she hadn't done it, it was different for the spiritual fruits that came from the Ninth Star Peak, as those spiritual fruits would normally be fully utilized by the other disciples or elders who would otherwise have eaten them.

Even if his status in the sect was more than enough to still allow Mui to continue eating the spiritual fruits like she had been doing so far without refining the energy inside of them, he also understood that doing so would negatively impact the sect. Not to mention, it would be bad if she ended up encountering a precious spiritual herb in the future and chose to just eat it without using the energy contained inside of it…

Maybe I should see how that deer is doing?

Knowing that there would not be anything for him to do for at least a few hours now that his disciples were out showing Mui around the sect, Xuan Hao decided to go and check in on the blue deer he had left in the care of Shu Yao before leaving for the capital city.

Thinking about the blue deer, Xuan Hao also remembered the ruins at the Main Star Peak that he had escaped from the last time he went up there. Given that he had now reached the Dao Domain Lord, he should be strong enough to deal with whatever was hiding inside the ruins. Even if it was an existence in the later stages of the Soul Ascension Realm, he should at the very least be able to escape with his current strength.

As for the existence he had sensed inside the ruins being above the Soul Ascension Realm… Xuan Hao didn't think this was possible. After all, if the other party had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm, there would have been no way for him to momentarily resist the attack back then and escape safely…

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao used his divine sense to find the blue deer in the process of playing around outside the pavilion Zu Fei had set up close to the edge of the Qi Spring Lake to harvest the water lotus flowers and lilies she had been growing there.

…

"You are eating my water lotuses again!? That damnable Shu Yao… Why does she keep leaving you here whenever she decides to do something outside the sect!?"

Arriving at the pavilion Zu Fei had established on the edge of the Qi Spring Lake, Xuan Hao was met with the sight of Zu Fei trying her best to prevent the blue deer from eating the water lotuses that she had recently harvested, something that did not seem to be working, as Zu Fei also tried her best to restrain her strength in an attempt to not accidently hurt the blue deer in the process.

"Elder Xuan!?" Spotting Xuan Hao a few seconds after he landed on the ground in front of the pavilion, Zu Fei was at first confused before both her eyes lit up. "Are you here to pick up this one!? If so, please help me or I will lose this month's entire harvest of water lotuses!"

"No problem."

Whoosh~

Waving his hand, Xuan Hao used his domain to stop the blue deer from eating any more of the water lotuses-

"Hm? This is…"

However, in doing so, he discovered that the strength of the blue deer had already reached Nascent Soul Realm. Making it obvious why Zu Fei had not been able easily restrain it with her strength.

Is it perhaps because of the water lotuses that it was able to break through and reach the Nascent Soul Realm?

Turning his attention towards the water lotuses that Zu Fei had rushed over to get the moment he used his domain to restrain the blue deer, Xuan Hao did not find anything unusual about the water lotuses that would help the blue deer reach the Nascent Soul Realm.

Although the water lotuses were spiritual herbs that were beneficial when consumed and when used by alchemists to refine different pills and potions, it did not have any special effect when it came to helping someone reach the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Thank you for the help Elder Xuan, I don't know what I would have done without your help now that the little deer reached the Nascent Soul Realm…"

"Hm? It only just reached the Nascent Soul Realm?"

"Yes! If I'm not wrong, it broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm a day or two ago. Making it far harder to stop it from eating the water lotuses without injuring it in the process… By the way, did you just come for the little deer, or did you come for something different?"

"Yeah, I just came to check up on the little one, though I never expected to find it stealing your water lotuses…"

"Hehe… Indeed, I never expected it either…"

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As the two both turned to look towards the blue deer that was trying its best to break free from the restraints that had been formed around it by Xuan Hao's domain without even noticing the person that had restrained it, Xuan Hao decided to let it go after the Zu Fei finished putting away all the water lotuses.

Thump!

Landing on the ground freed from the restrains created by Xuan Hao's domain, the blue deer first rushed towards where the water lotuses had been… But soon froze on the spot after noticing that they were gone.

"It's been a while little one, I see that you have grown quite comfortable in the sect during your time with Shu Yao?" Walking up to the blue deer as he said this, Xuan Hao watched as it suddenly came back to life and turned around to look at him with a wronged expression on its face. Clearly having figured out who it was that had stopped it just now.

This little one… Looks like I will have to ask Shu Yao to start teaching it not to steal spiritual herbs from others!

Rolling his eyes upon seeing the reaction of the blue deer, Xuan Hao turned his attention back towards Zu Fei who was also looking at the little deer playing innocent, he noticed that the blue deer was not the only one that had become stronger during his time away from the sect, Zu Fei had also become stronger.

Not only had she managed to go all the way to the Ninth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Officially reaching the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, but after careful inspection, he could also sense that the initial shape of a pseudo domain had already been created by her. At this point in time, she was only a single step away from constructing a pseudo domain that would put her only a single step away from the Domain Lord Realm!

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No wonder I didn't see her around Feng Chen earlier, it looks like she has been focusing all her attention towards increasing her own strength lately. Maybe she feels that her current strength is lacking when compared to Shu Yao and Feng Chen?

Thinking this to himself after seeing how much Zu Fei had improved in such a short period of time, Xuan Hao could not help wondering how talented Zu Fei was. After all, to go from the Fifth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm to the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm was not easy. Not to mention, she was already close to establishing her own pseudo domain and would soon be starting to prepare herself for breaking through to the Domain Lord Realm!

No matter what it was, it was a good thing for the sect if Zu Fei could break through to the Domain Lord Realm.

As for Feng Chen, who would once again have to deal with Zu Fei after she reached the Domain Lord Realm? That was a worthy sacrifice for the sect to have one more Domain Lord Realm Expert…

"Hm?"

Turning his attention back towards the blue deer that was still looking up at him with a wronged expression on its face, Xuan Hao could not help noticing that the scales on the body of the blue deer had grown more pronounced than before. Even the antlers on top of its head that had almost not been visible before had grown.

"Why do I get a feeling that you are not a deer that just so happens to be blue…" Muttering this to himself as he inspected the different changes of the blue deer, Xuan Hao felt even more certain than before that the blue deer was not just a deer that happened to mutate in a certain way, but instead a completely different animal.

"Elder Xuan? Is there something- D-did I injure it earlier…?" Seeing Xuan Hao suddenly focus all his attention on the blue deer, Zu Fei could not help asking this with a nervous expression on her face. Worried that she might have accidentally ended up injuring the blue deer earlier.

"No, it didn't get injured, I was just taken aback by how much it changed compared to the last time I saw it."

"Haaa… That is great! Shu Yao would have killed me if she found out I injured the little one. If you don't have anything you need from me, I will go back to what I was doing before." Letting out a sigh of relief after hearing what Xuan Hao said, Zu Fei turned around before making her way back inside the pavilion together with the interspatial ring where she stored the water lotuses.

Looks like she is going back to cultivating, I really hope she will keep up this good attitude and focus her attention on cultivating even after reaching the Domain Lord Realm…

Seeing Zu Fei disappearing inside the pavilion, Xuan Hao shook his head before turning around to look back towards the blue deer.

At first, he only wanted to come and check up on the blue deer and how it was doing, but now that he had discovered the changes that it had gone through over the past few months under the care of Shu Yao, he felt curious about what kind of race it belonged to.

Even if it could be something on the more common side like a scaled demon beast, a part of him still had a feeling that it should be something more amazing than that. Especially when considering that it had both scales and a pair of antlers. Making it more than possible that its race contained some sort of ancient dragon bloodline that had been diluted over the generations!

Ha… No matter what it is, there is no way for me to figure any of this out now…

Shaking his head as he turned to the blue deer that was staring towards the pavilion Zu Fei had disappeared inside in a state of confusion, Xuan Hao felt a bit taken aback over just how obsessed the blue deer was with the water lotuses.

Did they perhaps have some sort of beneficial effect for its hidden bloodline that had yet to show itself? Or maybe it was like Mui and just really liked the taste of the water lotuses-

Swish-!

Not knowing anything about what was going through Xuan Hao's head, the blue deer suddenly woke up from its state of confusion and soon disappeared behind a nearby building. Not wasting a second longer at the side of the Qi Spring Lake after discovering that there weren't any water lotuses for it to eat. Leaving Xuan Hao alone in front of the pavilion.

Did I just get left behind by that deer…? Whatever, I will just let Shu Yao continue taking care of it in the future. At least it seems like the two of them have been getting along quite well during the past few months, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Swoosh~

Leaving the pavilion, Xuan Hao made his way back towards his palace to wait for his disciples to return. Even if there was something else, he could do, like continue his exploration of the ruins at the Main Star Peak, they were all things that would at least take a few days or longer to complete.

…

"This is the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces?!" As Mui arrived at the entrance to the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces, she realized that it was nothing like what she had expected. Instead of a large building for the blacksmiths to work in, the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces was, as its name stated, a sea of a thousand furnaces!

Observing this vast network of thousands of different forges, each with its own team of disciples, materials, and techniques. In rare cases, there were also some of the forges that only had a single person standing beside it… But Mui quickly realized that the people at these forges were all elders who had a forge of their own. Out of all of them, the number disciples who had their own forge could be counted on a single hand.

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Despite the difference between all the different forges, all of them shared a common purpose – the creation of powerful artifacts!

Understanding this, Mui could not help feeling a sense of excitement as she watched the different blacksmiths at work.

Cling~ Cling~ Cling~

Each swing of a hammer, each twist of the metal, everything seemed to be imbued with a kind of mystical energy, as if the blacksmiths were channeling the very essence of the earth into their work.

Before long, Mui managed to see all kinds of weapons taking shape. From swords with blades that glowed with a powerful flame to spears that crackled with lighting, Mui felt like the stories she had been told about blacksmiths and their powerful artifacts had been understated!

"Why is she so amazed by a few pieces of scrap metal made by those disciples in the Foundation Establishment Realm…?"

At the same time Mui was looking around at the different artifacts that were taking shape all around her, Chu Yang who was walking behind her could not help grumbling to himself as he watched the awe on the little girl's face.

"Oh~? Are you perhaps jealous that you couldn't make a good impression during your first meeting with your new junior sister and is currently losing to a bunch of low-level artifacts~?"

"O-of course not!" Hearing Qing Yi suddenly calling out to him in a teasing voice while giving him a knowing smile, Chu Yang could not help feeling a bit embarrassed as he responded.

No matter what, there was no way he would ever admit that he had indeed felt a little jealous after seeing how his new junior sister had responded with awe and amazement upon seeing the different artifacts!

"Hm~ I see~ So that is how it is~" Chuckling to herself as she saw the embarrassed expression on her junior brother's face, Qing Yi decided not to tease him anymore as she turned her attention towards the core of the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces.

Barely visible among the hundreds of busy forges in the core area of the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces, the lone figure of a handsome young man could be seen surrounded by a group of disciples that were watching his every move.

Cling~ Cling~ Cling~

His muscular arms flexing as he worked the glowing metal with precise, practiced movements. Sweat glistened on his forehead, but he paid it no heed as he poured his soul into the artifact that was slowly taking shape in front of him.

With each hammer blow, he imbued the artifact with power through some mystical blacksmithing technique until it started giving off a terrifying aura that spread out enough for even Mui who was standing close to the entrance to sense it.

"Hm?" Feeling a chill run down her spine after sensing the terrifying aura of the artifact, Mui could not help turning in the direction of the young man with a curious expression on her face.

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"Who is that?" Seeing the young man who was surrounded by a group of disciples looking at him filled with admiration, Mui turned towards Qing Yi who was standing beside her before asking this.

"That is your second senior brother, Bai Ning."

"My second senior brother!?" Hearing that the young man crafting some sort of powerful artifact was her second senior brother, Mui could not wait to meet him and find out what kind of artifact he was in the process of making. Maybe she would even get a chance to find out how artifacts like that were created, something she had just become even more interested in after seeing the precise and beautiful process of her second senior brother crafting.

"Let's get going, he should just have finished with the artifact he was in the process of crafting and if we wait for too long, he will start making another artifact… And we won't have a chance to talk with him in the next few hours…" Muttering this just barely loud enough for Qing Yi and Mui to hear, Chu Yang didn't stand around admiring the artifact Bai Ning was craft. Instead starting to make his way towards the forge that Bai Ning was crafting at.

Knowing that if they ended up wasting too much time on this, Bai Ning would start crafting a new artifact and from prior experience, he understood all too well that it would be impossible for them to talk to him before said artifact had finished.

Maybe the only person that could make him pause while he was in the process of crafting was master… But understanding his master, Chu Yang understood that there was a bigger chance of Bai Ning stopping his crafting process after seeing them, than his master showing up to help them get Bai Ning to do it…

From what he knew about his master, he would not really care about their trip around the sect taking a day or two longer. At most he would be checking up on them from time to time.

"Okay- Ah! Wait up!" Seeing that Chu Yang had already started to make his way deeper inside the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces without waiting for her and Qing Yi, Mui quickly rushed after him. Not showing any signs of being afraid of him any longer.

Not long after, the group of three arrived in front of Bai Ning who had already begun finding new spiritual metals and other materials for a new artifact. Not giving the artifact, he had just crafted more than a single look before throwing it into a pile of artifacts located at the corner of the forge.

"Hah… Still not there… Looks like its far harder than I expected to craft an artifact above that level. Maybe if I ask master- Hm? Senior sister, senior brother?" Just about to start crafting a new artifact, Bai Ning realized that his senior brother and sister had suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Indeed, we are here to introduce our new junior sister to you, I take that you already know about it from when I informed you earlier. Right?"

"Ah? New junior sister?" Hearing what Qing Yi said, Bai Ning froze for a second before turning to look down towards the young girl that was standing beside Chu Yang looking up at him filled with curiosity, while also looking around his forge from time to time. Focusing most of her attention on the pile of artifacts in the corner of the forge.

"Hm? Are you perhaps interested in blacksmithing? If so, I would be more than happy to help you get started on creating your first artifact!" Realizing in an instant that Mui was interested in blacksmithing from the way she was constantly looking around the forge. Especially how she focused her attention on the artifacts he had crafted, Bai Ning's eyes started shinning as he said this.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

Although he had been happy after learning that he would get a new junior sister and wouldn't be the youngest disciple any longer, he did not care too much about… But now that said junior sister was interested in blacksmithing, it was a completely different thing!

If he could teach this junior sister blacksmithing and she grew up to be a skilled blacksmith, he would have one more person to talk about blacksmithing with. After all, at his current skill level, there weren't really any disciples in the sect that could compare to him. Not to mention, he had started surpassing most of the elders in the sect when it came to blacksmithing. Making it harder and harder for him to find someone to discuss blacksmithing with whenever his master was not around.

"Really!? You will teach me how to make artifacts!?" Not understanding what was going through the head of Bai Ning, Mui could not help opening her mouth in surprise as she said this. Not having expected that her second senior brother would be willing to teach her blacksmithing.

"Yes! I will be more than happy to do that."

"Wow… Thank you! I will make sure to make a lot of awesome and powerful artifacts for senior brother in the future!"

"Haha! I believe that you will!"

As Bai Ning and Mui both started talking excitedly about blacksmithing, Qing Yi and Chu Yang were left on the side as Mui made her way inside the forge where Bai Ning started showing her around while also introducing the different spiritual metals and other materials, he had just gathered for the next artifact he was planning to craft.

Seeing just how happy Mui was to learn about blacksmithing, Chu Yang who had been about to inform her and Bai Ning about moving on to the next location inside the sect, could not help stopping himself as he turned towards Qing Yi standing beside him. "Should we let her play around with Bai Ning for a bit and try her hand on blacksmithing?"

"Yeah, that sounds fine. Especially with how interested in blacksmithing and artifacts she is… Hm… But… I think this will take some time, should we go see master while waiting for them to finish?" Nodding her head in agreement before saying this, Qing Yi also didn't want to stop them.

"Sure, I will inform Bai Ning about it and have him return to the palace with Mui when they are done."

As Qing Yi and Chu Yang came to an agreement to let Mui stay with Bai Ning and try her hand at blacksmithing, Qing Yi went over and informed Bai Ning about it before they left the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces in the direction of their master's palace. Leaving Mui in the care of Bai Ning, who was more than happy to help his new junior sister learn blacksmithing.

…

"Hm? I didn't expect that girl would be so interested in blacksmithing… Oh well, this will also give me some time together with Qing Yi and Chu Yang before I start teaching her the basics about cultivation and cultivators.

As for visiting the rest of the important locations in the sect like the Grand Library and the Grand Mission Pavilion, I will leave that for Qing Yi to do tomorrow." Having observed the interaction between his four disciples, Xuan Hao quietly muttered this to himself before retracting his divine sense while waiting for Qing Yi and Chu Yang to show up.

Given that the two of them had reached the Nascent Soul Realm and he had already decided to send them into the mystical realm with an entrance at his old pavilion in the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao wanted to give them a few things to protect themselves inside the mystic realm in case they encountered something that they could not deal with.

Other than this, he also planned to teach them the divine sense technique from the Divine Will Scripture, as it would be incredibly useful for them and would help them rapidly improve the strength of their nascent soul and in turn help make their cultivation speed faster!

Is there anything else- Ah! I also need to teach Qing Yi about some of the things I managed to learn from the Great Poison Scripture, but that can wait for later. For now, the most important thing is to help them prepare for the mystic realm.

Remembering the Great Poison Scripture that should have belonged to an Alchemist that had surpassed the Master Alchemist Realm, Xuan Hao reminded himself that he needed to set aside some time to teach Qing Yi some of the things that he had managed to learn from it in the future.

Outside of this, I will also need to test their combat techniques and see how much they improved over the past months and see if there is any way that I can help improve-

""Master!""

Just as Xuan Hao was lost in thought trying to think up what he needed to go over Qing Yi and Chu Yang before sending them into the mystic realm. The two people in question appeared at the entrance to the palace.

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Seeing his two disciples who had just called out to him come running towards him, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of happiness that he had not felt before. Maybe it was due to him missing his disciples during the time he had been gone from the sect or maybe it was due to something completely different. No matter what it was, it made him want to delay sending them into the mystic realm for a few days.

Considering that he didn't have anything pressing to take care of at the moment, this also seemed like a good idea. Not only could he spend some more time with his disciples this way, but he would also be able to better prepare them for entering the mystic realm!

"Master, can we go to the practice area!? I really need to show you how far my spear techniques have made it during the time you were in the capital city of the Sky Empire!"

"No! Master just returned today. Having him join you for practice when it's already this late is a little too much. Not to mention, master still needs to take care of junior sister Mui when she returns from the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces together with junior brother Bai Ning!"

"Ah… I forgot about that…"

"Hehe, that is a given considering that fighting and improving your spear techniques are the only thing on your mind~!"

"No, it's not! I also do other things, like… Like… Eh…"

"Hm? Did You say something~?"

"You-!"

"Calm down both of you, I have more than enough time to teach Mui when she returns and see how much both of you improved over the past two or so months that I was not here." Listening to his two disciples as they started arguing with each other the moment they stopped in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help smiling fondly at the interaction between the two before he said this.

Realizing that they were in the presence of their master, Qing Yi and Chu Yang both froze on the spot for a short moment before silently nodding their heads. Understanding very well that they had acted a bit too childish in front of their master just now.

"Now that both of you have calmed down, do any of you have anything you want to ask me?"

"Yes! Master, I want to know about your journey! From what I learnt when asking to Grand Elder Shu Yao about the Sky Empire, even someone in the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm won't be able to guarantee their safety when travelling from the border region to the core region of the Sky Empire and even Domain Lord Realm Experts can lose their lives within some of the more dangerous areas located inside the core region of the Sky Empire!" Not wasting a second after hearing what his master said, Chu Yang excitedly jumped forward at the opportunity to learn more about the different powerful experts and demon beasts that he might have a chance at fighting in the future.

"About my journey to the capital city?"

"Yes! I'm sure Qing- Senior sister also wants to know about it! Right?"

"Yes…!" Nodding her head with a curious expression on her face as she said, Qing Yi did not hesitate in agreeing with Bai Ning. Making it clear to Xuan Hao that both of his disciples wanted to learn about what he had been through.

"Hm… Let's see… The first interesting encounter I had on my way to the capital was at a place called the Thousand Wind Mountains…" Feeling the curious and excited stares of his two disciples, Xuan Hao did not waste any time before starting to retell some of the encounters with powerful experts or demon beasts he had during his journey to the capital city. Limiting it to things that would not cause him any trouble if his disciples talked about it with the rest of the elders and disciples from the sect.

Of course, there was no way Qing Yi and Chu Yang would know that their master was only talking about some of the weaker demon beast and experts within the Domain Lord Realm that he had encountered. Not the more powerful experts in the Soul Ascension Realm.

In the end, the only Soul Ascension Realm Expert outside of those involved in the scuffle inside the capital city, was the large worm like demonic beast that he had seen on his way back. However, this alone was more than enough to make both his disciples shiver at the thought of encountering such a powerful demonic beast themselves.

"Master, is there a chance of such a powerful demonic beast hiding beneath our sect…?" Being the first to recover from the shock of realizing that such a powerful and large demonic beast existed, Chu Yang could not stop himself from asking this. After all, who knew. Maybe there was a similar demonic beast hiding beneath the Shattered Star Peaks!

At the side, Qing Yi could not help nervously looking towards her master after hearing what Chu Yang said, she also wanted to know if such a powerful and large demonic beast might be lurking beneath them!The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

"Pft- Haha! You two sure do have an active imagination! Did you forget just how large the mountain range with the worm like demonic creature was? Not to mention the countless holes located all over the mountain range that were created whenever the worm surfaced!" Not able to stop himself from laughing after seeing the nervous way his two disciples were looking at him, Xuan Hao reassured them that there wasn't any large demonic creature lurking beneath the Shattered Star Peak.

Even if there was, Xuan Hao was confident that the formation would have been able to detect them!

As for the Main Star Peak and if there were any powerful demonic beasts up there… Well, Chu Yang technically only asked whether there was any powerful demonic beast beneath the Shattered Star Peaks. Not above ground…

""…""

Seeing the way that their master responded, Chu Yang and Qing Yi both felt a sense of embarrassment after realizing just how weird it would be for such a powerful demonic beast to be lurking beneath the Shattered Star Peaks.

Not to mention the fact that demonic beasts that powerful would be incredibly rare and hard to find, it would also need to stay hidden without being noticed during the time that the few years that the Star Shattering Sect had been established at the Seventh Star Peak.

Even if it had managed to do all of this, it would also have needed to stay hidden during the past thousands of years that the Shattered Star Peaks had regularly been visited by desperate cultivators trying to reach the Nascent Soul Realm or weaker cultivators looking for spiritual herbs in the forest that had been present on the Ninth Star Peak before it was turned into a spiritual herb garden for the Star Shattering Sect…

All these things put together made it close to impossible for a powerful demon beast to have been lurking beneath the Shattered Star Peaks.

"Are you two still thinking about the possibility of there being a powerful demonic beast hidden beneath the Shattered Star Peaks?"

"No, I just thought about master's amazing journey and the many powerful experts present in the Sky Empire's capital city!"

"Yes, me too!"

Seeing how the two tried their best to pretend that they were not thinking about the giant worm demon beast, Xuan Hao could not help chuckling to himself.

"Now then, we don't have a lot of time before Bai Ning and Mui return, so how about you tell me what you two have been up to during the past two months' time? From what I can see, both of you have improved by quite a bit. Especially you Qing Yi, successfully breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm!" Following these words, it did not take long before Qing Yi and Chu Yang started talking about what happened during his absence from the sect.

From how Chu Yang had spent almost all his time challenging the different Nascent Soul Realm elders to the fact that Feng Chen had killed a demonic cultivator in the Third Demonic Transformation Realm in front of a group of people from the imperial family, Xuan Hao managed to learn about everything that had taken place during the time he had been away from the sect. Even learning about Shu Yao taking out his pet to intimidate some of the kingdoms that started causing problems for Elder Song and his plans of expanding the sect.

Out of everything his disciples told him about, the most troublesome thing that happened, was Feng Chen killed a demonic cultivator that had reached the Third Stage of the Demonic Transformation Realm in front of a group of people from the imperial family and Shu Yao later showing up to help them out with the flood of demonic cultivators coming from the Frozen Wasteland.

Along with the fact that he had already met this group of soldiers from the imperial family, it did not take a genius to figure out that the imperial family would learn about the Star Shattering Sect and the fact that they had at least three Domain Lord Realm Experts. One even having the ability to kill a demonic cultivator in the Third Stage of the Demonic Transformation Realm!

The only positive was that the imperial family would be far too busy dealing with the increasingly dangerous situation in the capital city to contact them. Especially considering that the Star Shattering Sect was not located in the core of the Sky Empire, but the border. Making it hard to reach even for a Domain Lord Realm Expert.

As for the imperial family mobilizing a Soul Ascension Realm Expert… Xuan Hao doubted that the three religions would allow this!

For now, it looked like things were still fine and the Star Shattering Sect could remain uninvolved in the things happening in the capital city… But… Xuan Hao doubted that this could last when the conflict between the imperial family and three religions grew more intense.

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"Qing Yi, Chu Yang. Now that both of you have reached the Nascent Soul Realm, I intend to let both of you enter a mystic realm to gain more experience. The mystic realm in question is located beneath my old pavilion in the Flying Sword Sect and both of you should already be familiar with what I'm talking about."

Turning his attention back towards his two disciples before saying this, Xuan Hao found it hard to keep a straight face after seeing the happiness plastered all across Chu Yang's face. Even without him saying anything, it was obvious just how excited he was at the prospect of exploring a mystic realm and challenge the different demon beast or other creatures that might be lurking inside.

As for Qing Yi… Although she didn't show it outwardly, he could still tell that she was curious about the mystic realm that he had mentioned. Not the slightest bit surprising considering that a mystic realm was something even more mysterious and harder to find than a secret realm. Something that could be considered a given with a secret realm being created by cultivators, while a mystic realm was something that had been naturally created by the world itself.

"Master, how strong are the demon beast inside the mystic realm? Are they in the earlier stages of the Nascent Soul Realm- or even stronger!?" As expected, the first among his two disciples to step forward and ask about the mystic realm was Chu Yang.

"Hehe, already getting excited? Don't worry, the strength of the demon beasts inside the mystic realm will be from the earlier stages of the Nascent Soul Realm and all the way to the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm… But you must remember, a mystic realm is a dangerous place that can even threaten the life of someone in the Domain Lord Realm!" Chuckling to himself at first before saying this, Xuan Hao did not forget to also warn his disciples about the danger of entering a mystic realm.

Even if both of them had reached the Nascent Soul Realm and could be considered more than capable of dealing with a Nascent Soul Realm Expert in the Middle Stages of the Nascent Soul Realm by working together, they were far from strong enough to be considered invincible in the Nascent Soul Realm, let alone capable of fighting someone that had reached the Domain Lord Realm…

"Not to mention the demon beasts that exist inside the mystic realm, there are also many other dangers, like remnants of old civilizations that might have once inhabited said mystic realm, natural killing formations, places where the space is unstable and might collapse and much more." Noticing that both of his disciples were looking towards him with surprised expressions on their faces, Xuan Hao decided to seize the moment to explain the many dangers that could be found inside a mystic realm.

Of course, the things that he had mentioned were not from his own experience, as he had never been inside a mystic realm personally, but instead from bits and pieces of information that he had managed to gather about mystic realms through different texts and ancient records he had read through. Among which, the most useful sources of information, was an ancient record of exploring a mystic realm, left inside the Flying Sword Sect- Now the Star Shattering Sect, by the mysterious founder of the Flying Sword Sect.

"Remnants of old civilizations… Natural killing formations… Mystic realms are indeed dangerous, but in remnants of past civilizations, relics and powerful artifacts can be found, while natural formations often have precious spiritual herbs hiding inside them! Hah… Entering a mystic realm is filled with both danger and opportunities…" Muttering this to herself after hearing her master explain just how dangerous a mystic realm was, Qing Yi's eyes shone with anticipation. Making it clear how excited she was about entering a mystic realm.

pαndα--noνɐ1,сoМ Not feeling too worried about the danger that might be lurking inside. After all, there was no way that their master would be sending them into a mystic realm filled to the brim with Domain Lord Realm demon beasts everywhere. At most there should be one or two demon beasts like that at the core of the mystic realm.

In a sense, Qing Yi was correct. The mystic realm had a limit of the Nascent Soul Realm and the few demon beasts that Chu Yang and Bai Ning had encountered when they had accidentally entered the mystic realm had been far below that of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Not only that, but the fact that they had managed to enter the mystic realm and leave without any problem made it relatively safe to explore, as they would always be able to leave the mystic realm in case it got too dangerous. This was also the one of the reasons why Xuan Hao felt confident in letting Qing Yi and Chu Yang enter the mystic realm.

"Master, when are we going to enter the mystic realm?" Suddenly realizing that her master had not mentioned when they were going to enter the mystic realm, Qing Yi could not help asking. After all, she had broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm not too long ago and still wanted to further solidify her foundation and get more familiar with her new strength.

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"Don't worry, I know you just broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm and still need some time to adjust and planned for you to enter the mystic realm in half a month's time." Understanding what Qing Yi was worried about, Xuan Hao quickly reassured her that she would have more than enough time to get familiar with her strength before entering the mystic realm. Especially considering that he would be around to help her out after he was done teaching Mui the basics.

"Do any of you have any more questions regarding the mystic realm? If not, I think it's about time for your junior sister and brother to show up-"

"Ah! I have a question master! How long are we going to stay in the mystic realm? Is it only for a few days or longer?" Energetically jumping up as he said this, Chu Yang almost ended up hitting Qing Yi who was standing beside him-

"…"

Earning glare from the person in question that had just narrowly avoided getting hit.

"Hm… Honestly, I don't have any plans for how long you are going to stay inside the mystic realm and planned to just let you decide on your own how long you wanted to stay. Be it a day or a month, it is up to you two to decide…" Answering Chu Yang's question, Xuan Hao turned towards the entrance of the palace where two figures had just appeared. "And looks like your two juniors are here, I will be teaching you two in a few days to prepare you for the mystic realm after teaching Mui the basics."

""Yes, master!""

Realizing that Bai Ning and Mui had arrived, both Qing Yi and Chu Yang suddenly stood up straight as they answered in sync, like a pair of perfect disciples obediently listening to their master. None of the excitement and curiosity from earlier was present on their face.

"Both of you can return to what you were up to before…"

""This disciple will take his/her leave!""

Whoosh~!

Whoosh~!

Not able to stop himself from rolling his eyes after seeing the display put on by Qing Yi and Chu Yang to show off in front of their new junior sister before they left through the flashiest movement technique they had learnt, Xuan Hao decided to ignore them as he instead turned his attention towards Bai Ning and Mui who was making their way over towards him.

On one side, Mui was beaming with happiness, as she carried what looked like a piece of scrap metal in the shape of a sword? Mace? Axe? Honestly, he couldn't really tell what it was.

As for Bai Ning…

"Hm? Did something happen…?" Looking at Bai Ning who was walking beside Mui, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit worried after noticing the empty look in his eyes as if he had experienced some sort of traumatic event.

"Master! Look! I made a sword together with senior brother Bai Ning!"

"I see, it's indeed a… Unique sword…" Not giving him any time to try and figure out what had happened to Bai Ning, Mui proudly walked up in front of him before showing off the piece of scrap metal that was apparently a sword of some sort.

"Yes! I couldn't have made it without the help of senior brother Bai Ning! He is reeeeeeally amazing at making artifacts!" Beaming with joy as she said this while showing off the piece of scrap metal, Xuan Hao noticed the expression on Bai Ning's face getting even worse after Mui mentioned how she and Bai Ning had made the scrap met- unique sword together.

Ah… So that is why his expression is so bad…

Not taking long to understand why his third disciple's expression was so bad after seeing this, Xuan Hao could not help chuckling to himself.

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Even without Bai Ning saying anything, it was obvious that he felt ashamed after being named as one of the creators of the… Unique sword, that Mui was proudly showing off.

But at the same time, it also made him curious as to just what could have happened to produce such a unique sword in the first place.

Even if Mui did not have any experience when it came to blacksmithing and essentially had no idea how to do anything, Bai Ning was incredibly skilled when it came to blacksmithing, even surpassing a large number of the blacksmithing elders in sect.

For this reason, it should have been easy for him to help Mui in producing some lower grade artifact, and if not, at least some normal weapons. No matter what, he should have been able to prevent the unique sword currently in Mui's hand from appearing…

"…" Knowing this, Xuan Hao could not help looking curiously towards Bai Ning standing a few meters behind Mui. Looking like he was about to jump forward and take the sword in Mui's hands away by force before destroying it and any evidence that he had ever been part of the process in making it.

At this point, the only thing stopping him from doing this, was that he didn't want to take away the prized possession of his new junior sister and damage their relationship. Especially considering that she was the only one among his master's disciples other than himself that was genuinely interested in blacksmithing!

Unaware of the internal struggle that Bai Ning was going through as he kept his eyes focused on the sword in Mui's hands, Xuan Hao signalled for Zhi Ruo, who had arrived at some unknown point during the conversation, to come over.

"Mui, this is Zhi Ruo, the person in charge of keeping the palace clean and help out with things like bringing snacks or food."

"Greetings, young lady Mui."

"G-greetings!" Hearing how she had suddenly been called a young lady by Zhi Ruo, Mui stuttered nervously before tightening the grip around the sword.

Out of everything that had happened over the past day since she had entered the Star Shattering Sect, she had never expected to be addressed as a young lady. Bringing in the reality of just how much her status had changed compared to a short time ago when she had still been trying her best to survive inside one of the independent city states in the core region of the Sky Empire.

"Given that it's already gotten rather late and both of you should be exhausted, I think now would be a good time to end things for today. Mui, Zhi Ruo will be showing you to your room. From tomorrow, I will begin teaching you the basics of cultivation and the world."

"Yes, master!" As Bai Ning turned around and left in the direction of the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces after saying this, Mui did not fall behind, as she repeated what he said- "Yes, master!" Before following Zhi Ruo inside the palace. Heading towards the room that she would be sleeping inside of from now on.

"This is-!"

Arriving inside her new room, Mui could not help freezing on the spot while staring towards the large comfortable bed located inside her room with a dumbstruck expression on her face.

The reason for this was rather simple, as she had never slept on a bed before. Always having to look for the most comfortable place on the ground during her time living as a street orphan in a city in the core region of the Sky Empire. Even during the few rare moments that she was lucky and managed to sell a higher-than-normal quality herb for a lot of coins, she had never thought of getting something to sleep on. Although… The main reason for this, was that there was a high chance of it being stolen if she really ended up buying a bed or something to sleep on, something she had seen happen more than once!

Swish-!

For this reason, after the shock had worn off, Mui didn't waste a single second before diving into the fluffy and soft bed. Not taking more than a few seconds before her eyelids started growing heavy and she ended up drifting off into dreamland. Leaving Zhi Ruo to take off the pair of shoes she had forgotten to take off before jumping into the bed.

As for cleaning the dirt that had inevitably ended up in the bed due to this-

Whoosh~

Zhi Ruo used a cleaning specialized technique that she had invented to deal with it without waking Mui, who had just fallen asleep, up in the process.

…

At the same time Mui had drifted off into dreamland with a blissful smile on her face as she was buried in the fluffy and soft bed, a large number of important elders and sect masters belonging to the different major sects inside the Sky Empire had gathered together to talk about the things currently taking place inside the Sky Empire.

"That old man Xu Bao is still alive!? How is that possible!? We clearly saw him get engulfed by the power of the two Soul Ascension Realm Experts in a half dead state!"

"Not only that, but we also stayed around to observe the situation for a good few minutes before things got too dangerous. Even if he had some kind of artifact that would allow him to resist the power of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts, I doubt that it would have lasted for long. If it really did, a treasure like that would be sure to catch the attention of those two Soul Ascension Realm Experts!"This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

"But… The information given by our spies are all saying that Xu Bao returned to his sect alive and well. Even if the chance of him being well might not be true, I doubt our spies would have mistaken someone else as him…"

"Hmph! Even if he returned alive, it's not something we can do anything about in our current situation. Dealing with the independent sects now that most of our major sect's resources are focused on fighting off the Hollow Thunder Family will only cause our position in the Sky Empire to worsen even further. All because of the Green Mountain Sect not being capable of controlling their own elders!"

"Ha!? Do you want to fight it out old man!? This is clearly something that was planned by the noble families to weaken us major sects. Even if Elder Green Wing didn't do anything, they would just have found another reason to attack us. Not to mention, Elder Green Wing is already dead!" As the conversation moved away from Xu Bao and towards the Green Mountain Sect, the sect master of the Green Mountain Sect instantly got up to defend Elder Green Wing before blaming the entire matter of the Hollow Thunder Family and the rest of the noble families.

Considering that the major sects had always been somewhat against these noble families due to them often clashing with each other over different things like control of certain spiritual herb valleys, spirit stone mines or other things. Many of the people present did not feel that it would be odd if the Hollow Thunder Family had indeed made everything up as an excuse to attack them to prevent the imperial family intervening to stop it before it even had a chance to involve the younger generation of the two.

However, not everyone believed blindly in this and some of them had even personally known Elder Green Wing before his death…

"Hehe! You really think everyone will believe in that? Don't think we have no idea about this Elder Green Hat of yours!"

"Who!?" Hearing that he was being called out by someone, the sect master of the Green Mountain Sect could not help turning towards the origin of the voice filled with killing intent. "So, it's you!"

Realizing that the person that had called him out was the sect master of another major sect that he had fallen out with a few hundred years ago, the killing intent in the eyes of the sect master of the Green Mountain Sect only increased further as his aura erupted before he directly launched an attack without holding back.

"Hehe, what a quick temper… But don't think I will just stand still!" Not one to fall behind, the other sect master similarly erupted with all his power before launching an attack in response-

"SILENCE!"

It was just at this moment, as the two attacks were about to collide with each other, that a terrifying aura erupted from the entrance meeting. Instantly reducing the two powerful attacks of the Domain Lord Realm sect masters to nothing.

pαndα--noνɐ1,сoМ ""…""

Everything happened far too fast for the two sect masters to react, as they could only stare towards the origin of the terrifying aura filled with fear after realizing what had happened.

Even if it had only been for a brief moment, the terrifying aura clearly did not belong to someone in the Domain Lord Realm...!

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As the figure slowly made his way towards the center of the meeting room, none of the people from the major sects dared to say a single word after realizing just how powerful this newcomer was. Even if they worked together, they would not be able to make up the difference in power between the Soul Ascension Realm and the Domain Lord Realm without the assistance of a formation that would allow them to combine their strength… But even in that case, there was no chance their opponent would just wait for them to set up such a formation...

For this reason, the faces of everyone present were filled with fear as they looked towards the unknown person that slowly came to a stop after reaching the center of the meeting room where the experts above the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm belonging to the different kingdoms supporting the major sects were located.

"What is the ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom doing here and how come you are getting involved with the internal matters of the major sects!? Especially now that we have fallen out with the Hollow Thunder Family, do you perhaps think we won't attack you? Hmph! Don't think we have no idea about the forbidden technique of yours, we know very well that you haven't truly reached the Soul Ascension Realm even if your power resembles that of one!" Not intimidated like the different sect masters and elders from the major sects, one of the people standing at the center called out to the person that turned out to be the ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom with a clear hostility on his face.

"So, he is not someone in the Soul Ascension Realm…"

"Haaa… I was just about to have a heart attack!"

"Me as well, I was just about to leave you all behind."

At the same time, he had also revealed the fact that the person that had just arrived was not a real Soul Ascension Realm Expert, but instead just seemed like he had reached the Soul Ascension Realm due to some sort of forbidden technique. Making the nervous and afraid elders and sect masters from the different major sects calm down.

Even if the Ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom was one of the most powerful experts in the Sky Empire and had already reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm, they also understood that he would stand no chance against them if they worked together. Especially considering that the person who had called out to him just now was a powerful expert that had reached the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!

Although he had not yet reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm and was still some distance away from reaching it, he alone would be more than capable of fighting the ancestor from the Dark Sky Kingdom, let alone if he also had the help of the close to fifty Domain Lord Realm Experts that had gathered for the meeting!

"Don't look at me like that, I'm not here for something related to the Hollow Thunder Family. Instead, I'm here to give you something that might help you when it comes to dealing with the Hollow Thunder Family." Sneering as he said this with a disdainful expression on his face, the ancestor from the Dark Sky Kingdom took out a small storage ring before throwing it over to the Domain Lord Realm Expert that had called out to him just a moment ago.

"Hm? What in the world are you up to?" Narrowing his eyes after catching the interspatial ring that the ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom had thrown towards him, the Domain Lord Realm Expert did not waste a single second before using his divine sense to scan through the things inside the interspatial ring. Knowing very well that the answer to this question would likely be answered by the content of the interspatial ring.

"This is-"

At first, he had thought that the ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom might have come to facilitate a reduce in tensions and possible ceasefire between them and the Hollow Thunder Family, with the objects in the interspatial ring being related to this… But after looking through the interspatial ring with his divine sense, it did not take long for him to realize that this was not the case…

"Information on the Hollow Thunder Family and the rest of the noble families. Not only this, but also information on all the geniuses from the large noble families and their locations to secretive storage locations for spiritual herbs, metals and artifacts that the different noble families gathered over the years!" Muttering this to himself with a look of disbelief on his face, the Domain Lord Realm Expert could not help turning towards the ancestor from the Dark Sky Kingdom standing a few meters away from him.NvεlB¡n: Where Every Word Sparks Wonder.

"I said that this would be useful to you. Hehe~ Now that my job here is done, I will take my leave, I hope that you and the rest of the people present here will make sure to take good care of the noble families. Of course, limited to the degree that the imperial family won't have any reason to interfere!"

"You are one of the three religions spies in the noble families!?" Having already figured out what was happening and what the ancestor from the Dark Sky Kingdom wanted him and the rest of the kingdoms and major sects around him to do, the Domain Lord Realm Expert who was holding on to the interspatial ring could not stop himself from asking this with a look of shock plastered all over his face.

"Hehe~ Who knows? I will be taking my leave now." Not properly answering the question of the Domain Lord Realm Expert, the ancestor from the Dark Sky Kingdom did not bother staying around for any longer after he had delivered the interspatial ring-

Whoosh~!

Directly disappearing from the meeting hall using a powerful movement technique that allowed him to teleport a short distance. Displaying just how great his mastery over space was when compared to ordinary Peak Domain Lord Realm Experts.

Because everyone present had reached the Domain Lord Realm, it also meant that every single one of the people present had managed to overhear what the Domain Lord Realm Expert had muttered to himself after having looked through the content of the interspatial ring.

Instantly causing an eerie silence to descend upon the entire meeting, as no one present had any idea what to say after the sudden revelation that the ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom was one of the three religions spies inside the noble families.

Even if it was obvious to everyone present that the three religions were trying to use them to cause more chaos in the Sky Empire and make things harder for the imperial family, they also understood that the secretive storage locations of the noble families that had been mentioned were far too tempting to let go of.

Although none of them, other than the person currently holding the interspatial ring, had any idea just what was inside these secretive storage locations belonging to the different noble families. The secretive storage locations that had been used to store the different noble families' resources over a period of thousands to tens of thousands of years would not be small.

Not to mention, the different noble families of the Sky Empire had far more territory filled with precious spiritual herbs or spiritual metal under their control compared to the major sects and the kingdoms of the Sky Empire. Mainly due to most of them having ancestors that had been a part of the establishment of the Sky Empire and in turn were given resource rich territories as a reward.

Rustle~

It was at this moment, as the experts from the different sects and kingdoms were thinking about whether to jump forward and take the bait that the three religions had dangled in front of them, that an old man who looked like he was one step in the grave walked up to the person with the interspatial ring. Attracting the attention of everyone present.

"Everyone! It's clear that the three religions want to use us to cause more chaos in the Sky Empire, but… The rewards for doing this are more or less equal in value to the risk posed by doing something like this. No, I would say that the rewards are worth more!

Don't forget, the fighting will be limited to the younger generation. Even if we rob the secretive storage locations, I doubt the imperial family will allow the fighting to involve us seniors. Not to mention the secretive storage locations won't store the most precious artifacts and spiritual herbs of these noble families and should not be enough for the imperial family to allow a full-blown war between us and the noble families!"

"That… Is indeed true, there is no way that the imperial family will allow a war to take place in the current state of the Sky Empire, they would fear that one of us turns around and supports the three religions…"

"I vote for us to play along with what the three religions want us to do. Even in the worst-case scenario, we can always blame them for being behind and trying to sow discord between the noble families and us."

"Haha! I'm all for it, I-"

Following the words of the half dead looking old man, the rest of the Domain Lord Realm Experts present soon followed and before long, everyone present had agreed to raid the secretive storage locations of the noble families and in turn make the situation in the Sky Empire even more chaotic in the process.

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Not long after, news of the noble families being robbed by the major sects and the kingdoms behind them spread across the Sky Empire. Bringing the conflict between the two major powers to a completely different level compared to before.

No longer was it something that only involved the Hollow Thunder Family and the noble families under them, but instead something that had ended up affecting all the noble families. Making it hard for the imperial family to keep this matter limited to fights between the younger generations.

Unable to stop the Domain Lord Realm Experts from the two sides from fighting with each other outside of the capital city, where the noble families had managed to gain the upper hand due to the simple fact that they were stronger than the major sects and the kingdoms behind them, and this was even with some of the larger noble families on a similar level as the Hollow Thunder Family deciding not to involve themselves because the imperial family compensated them for part of what they had lost if they didn't and the simple fact that getting involved in the matter would draw them into the center of the current chaotic situation of the Sky Empire. Not something that any of the large noble families wanted if it could be avoided.

After all, even if they could get more from getting involved in the conflict, they also understood that a similar risk would be associated with this. Especially since the reason for most of the chaos taking place in the Sky Empire was due to the influence of the three religions.

Because of this, although the scale of the conflict had escalated after the major sects and large kingdoms behind them had decided to attack the secretive storage locations of the different noble families, it never escalated to the degree that it ended up involving anyone above the Third stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Even then, the fact that the Domain Lord Realm Experts between the two major powers had started fighting with each other outside of the capital city, was still more than enough to make the rest of the powers in the Sky Empire start panicking about what might follow and if they would end up getting involved in the power struggle.

The main reason for this, being the fact that most of the Domain Lord Realm Experts in the Sky Empire were in the Third Stage of the Domain Lord Realm or below. The only reason that the situation was still somewhat under the control of the Sky Empire, was due to the simple reason that none of the Domain Lord Realm Experts on both sides had died as a result of the fighting. At most having been injured and forced to retreat as a result.

However, this would not last forever and the imperial family understood this very well. Enough that they began sending out some of their own Domain Lord Realm Experts to ensure that none of the Domain Lord Realm Experts fighting ended up dying.

Of course, doing this also allowed the three religions to cause more trouble now that less Domain Lord Realm Experts were around to keep watch over them.

Luckily for the imperial family, the three religions could not dedicate their full attention on causing chaos inside the Sky Empire, as they still had to deal with the church of the plague god, which was in the process of fully stabilizing itself inside the core region of the Sky Empire. Even if it was at the border of the core region, it would still provide a perfect entry for the church of the plague god to start spreading across the entire Sky Empire in the future, something that all three religions wanted to avoid.

In the end, the situation in the Sky Empire was barely be kept at a manageable level for the imperial family due to church of the plague god's presence.

Of course, due to this, the imperial family did not have luxury to send one of their Domain Lord Realm Experts over to the Star Shattering Sect after learning about them. Especially when considering that they only knew that the Star Shattering Sect had three Domain Lord Realm Experts of unknown strength, that was in the lower end of the Domain Lord Realm since the Star Shattering Sect was located at the border of the Sky Empire.

With all of this in mind, their assistance in the current chaotic situation wouldn't have any tangible benefit that would justify using the limited resources to get a completely unknown sect like the Star Shattering Sect to join them. Outside of preventing the three religions from convincing them to join them, something that was already extremely unlucky considering that the Star Shattering Sect was a sect.

As for the matter about Feng Chen killing a demonic cultivator that had reached the Third Demonic Transformation Realm… This was considered due to the Domain Lords of the Star Shattering Sect having teamed up to deal with it before it had been finished off in front of them by Feng Chen, who had chased after it to finish it off.

The general who had personally witnessed the strength of the Star Shattering Sect of course tried to speak up for them, but ended up being completely ignored after mentioning that the Star Shattering Sect had a Peak Domain Lord Realm Expert supporting them. Even making the imperial family worried whether his soul had suffered some kind of injury after fighting against the demonic cultivators from the Frozen Wasteland for over a month straight.

After all, while the imperial family might be able to believe that a sect with a few Domain Lords in the early stages of the realm could have appeared without their notice, they did not believe that a power with a Peak Domain Lord Realm Expert would be able to appear without their knowledge. Especially considering that the general in front of them had mentioned that the sect in question was native to the Sky Empire and not some power that had migrated over from another empire.

Not to mention, if the Star Shattering Sect had really migrated over from another empire, the imperial family would have already learnt about this, as a power with an expert at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm would have been known even outside the empire it was based inside of!

For this reason, the imperial family decided to ignore the Star Shattering Sect and instead focus all their attention towards the three religions and the problems they were causing all across the Sky Empire. Not to mention, the ancestor of the imperial family was worried that more powerful experts belonging to the three religions would show up now that he had revealed part of his strength when fighting off the two Soul Ascension Realm Experts a short time ago.

Unwilling to even let the rest of the powerful experts from the imperial family leave the capital city due to the possibility of the three religions setting up a trap.

Although the Sky Empire was more than strong enough to handle the loss of a few Domain Lord Realm Experts, the same could not be said for those that had already reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm, as they were far too rare and precious. Not only serving as a good way to project the power of the imperial family, but at the same time also being capable of assisting in fight between Soul Ascension Realm Expert that had just undergone the first or second tribulation.

…

"Hmph, looks like the imperial family is far too busy dealing with the three religions and doesn't care about the fight between us noble families and the major sects, as long as the battle is limited to those in the younger generation and the fighting outside of that doesn't result in death!"The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

"Indeed, I think we should increase our attacks on the major sects and make them pay for stealing from us… But the old master went into secluded cultivation the moment he returned from killing that Elder Green Wing from the Green Mountain Sect and haven't given any orders on what to do other than keep launching useless attacks towards those major sects and the kingdoms behind them, I really wonder what the old master plan is…"

At same time that the weaker experts form the different noble families and the major sects, and their supports were fighting with each other, two powerful elders from the Hollow Thunder Family that had been put in charge of guarding the entrance to the forbidden ground where the old master was staying were chatting with each other. From time to time turning to look back towards the forbidden ground behind them with confusion, wondering just what the old master was planning to do by going into secluded cultivation now of all times.

Even if they could avoid stronger experts joining the fighting for now, they also understood that this would not always be the case. Especially considering that the three religions would do everything in their power to ensure that the noble families and the major sects began fighting more seriously and with their powerful experts in the middle and later stages of the Domain Lord Realm.

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"What is that above the forbidden ground? Clouds...?" Just as the two elders in front of the forbidden ground of the Hollow Thunder Family turned their attention back towards the forbidden ground while curious about what the old master might be up to, one of the two could not help noticing the increasingly large and dark clouds that had started to gather in the air above the forbidden ground.

"That is weird, with the formation in place around this entire place, there should be no way for clouds to form above the forbidden ground… Unless…"

"Hm? Do you know something?"

"Yes, the only way for clouds to form above the forbidden ground where the old master is located, is if the clouds are tribulation clouds, as there is no way for the formation to prevent something like tribulation clouds from entering… But… For a tribulation cloud to be forming above the forbidden ground just after the old master went into secluded cultivation-"

"Soul Ascension Realm Tribulation!" Not able to stop himself from exclaiming this out loud as he realized what his friend meant, the elder looked up towards the tribulation cloud above the forbidden ground that was slowly increasing in size and strength with each passing second, as a sense of fear slowly welled up inside of him.

Breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm was something that was filled with danger, and one could lose one's life to the terrifying tribulation at any moment. The elder understood this very well and was not the slightest bit happy or filled with joy after realizing what they meant. Instead, the only thing left was fear.

Fear of what might happen if the old master failed to overcome the tribulation. Leaving the Hollow Thunder Family without the protection of a powerful Peak Domain Lord Realm Expert.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

Even if the Hollow Thunder Family still had other powerful Domain Lord Realm Experts, the second strongest in the Hollow Thunder Family, the Grand Elder, was only at the Peak of the Eighth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm Far from strong enough to ensure the safety of the Hollow Thunder Family and the territory under their control… And that was not to mention the fact that they were currently at war with the major sects and the kingdoms behind them!

"Calm down, what would the old master say if he knew what you were thinking? The old master isn't dead yet. Stop acting like he is! For now, we should seal this place off and ensure no one can disturb the old master during his breakthrough to the Soul Ascension Realm!" Seeing the fearful expression on the face of his friend and equal, the other elder present could not help rolling his eyes as he said this before taking out a small jade talisman that acted as an access point to the massive formation enveloping the forbidden ground-

Fwoosh-!

Instantly sealing off the entire place from the outside world so that no one would be able to interfere with the old master's breakthrough.

"This- I'm sorry, I have just been a bit too tense as of late due to what happened over the past few days…" Feeling a sense of embarrassment overwhelm him as he realized just how pathetic his behavior just now had been, the elder in question could not help wanting to find a hole to jump into.

If the old master learnt about how he, a Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert, had acted just now, he was certain that he would be lucky if he got sent to protect one of the mining territories next to one of the dangerous locations outside the capital city…

"No problem, I will open a passage in the formation for you to go through and inform the rest of the family that the activation of the formation is nothing to worry about, as for why it activated… You can just say that the old master is in the process of testing and strengthening the formation to ensure that it's prepared in case the major sects and the kingdoms behind them decide to launch an attack while he is not around." Knowing that his friend was not in the best state of mind following the old master suddenly beginning his breakthrough to the Soul Ascension Realm, the other elder opened a passage in the formation before allowing his friend to leave the forbidden ground.

Understanding very well that there was no need for this, as they could just use a communication talisman to do it instead of showing up personally.

…

At the same time that the tribulation clouds appeared above the forbidden ground of the Hollow Thunder Family, the old ancestor of the imperial family who was busy looking through a stack of ancient scroll turned in the direction of the Hollow Thunder Family as both his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Oh? That old man from the Hollow Thunder Family is attempting to break through to the Soul Ascension Realm? How interesting… If he succeeds, I will send that brat out to settle the matter with them and the major sects." Muttering this to himself as he watched the formation around the forbidden ground activate in an attempt to conceal the cloud tribulation before anyone had the chance to notice it, the old ancestor turned his attention back towards the large number of ancient scrolls in front of him.

Hiding something happening inside the capital city from him was impossible with the strength of the Hollow Thunder Family. Not to mention, even after they activated the formation to hide the forbidden ground from view, the old ancestor of the imperial family still had the ability to easily see through the formation with his strength. At most the formation would prevent someone who was in the First or Second Tribulation Realm from peeking inside…

As for preventing the rise of a new Soul Ascension Realm Expert that might turn into a possible enemy? The old ancestor of the imperial family didn't really care too much about this with his current strength. The only thing that worried him was the possibility of the more powerful experts from the three religions that existed at the true core of the Ewaria Continent.

Even if his knowledge of how strong the true experts from these religions were, he still understood that they were far stronger than the ones currently present in the Sky Empire, that much he had learnt after two of them had tried to kill him not too long ago…

Hm? Looks like that brat is here because he noticed something. At least he is not that useless of a son…

"Come in." Noticing a familiar presence at the entrance to his room, the old ancestor called out-

Bang!

"Father! Did you notice the powerful fluctuation just now!? It felt like someone unfamiliar, and the strength should be in the Soul Ascension Realm!"

And not a second later, a middle-aged man with an excited expression unbefitting of his age rushed into the room.

"Calm down, it was just that old man from the Hollow Thunder Family beginning the first tribulation. Nothing to fuss over. You are the current emperor of the Sky Empire; you should act like it. Not some brat still wet behind the ears." Feeling a sense of displeasure after seeing his son, the current emperor of the Sky Empire, barreling into the room like some child, the old ancestor could not help scolding him while his aura flared up for a moment.

"Sorry father…"

"Just keep your attitude in mind… Hah… This brat, always so troublesome… If there is nothing more, you can leave." Shaking his head before turning his attention back towards the ancient texts, the old ancestor waved his hand towards the door. Signaling for the emperor to leave now that he had found an answer to the thing he had come for.

"Father… There is something else I wanted to ask you about…" Knowing his father very well, the emperor could not help showing a slightly nervous expression on his face as he said this.

"… What?" Knowing that whatever his son was about to ask would end up making him angry, the old ancestor tried his best to remain calm as he once again turned away from the ancient texts and looked towards his son.

"You see… As you know, I plan to appoint a successor to take the role of emperor soon, but I can't choose which of my children should be the one to take the position after me. My Seventh Daughter? My Seventeenth Son? Or maybe even my Second Son? I really can't choose one and hope father would be able to help me out."

"…"

"F-father…?" Noticing something was wrong after getting no response from his father, the emperor suddenly felt a chill run down his spine as a killing intent far more terrifying than anything he had ever experienced before engulfed him. Making him truly experience the difference in power between himself and the origin of the killing intent, his father.

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"You brat… You dare to ask me about this!? Did you forget what I told you back when your first daughter was born?"

"That I shouldn't fool around so much…"

"And what did you do? Hmph! It's your responsibility to handle the infighting between your children. Stop coming to me with these kinds of things. If the child you choose is really unfitting to take over the role of emperor, I will make sure that you know about it!"

Not knowing what else to say upon hearing what his father said, the emperor could not help feeling a sense of exhaustion wash over him after being reminded of his children that were currently in the process of doing their best to show that they were the only one worthy enough to inherit the role of emperor after he abdicated and focused all his attention towards increasing his cultivation realm. Similar to what his father had done back when he had abdicated the throne and handed it over to him.

The only difference between his father and his own situation, was the fact that his father only had a single child that could inherit his position, while he had close to fifty…

"I will excuse myself…" Feeling that it would be bad if he stayed any longer, the emperor turned around and left before his father had another chance to start scolding him.

Leaving the old ancestor alone once again, as he didn't waste any time in returning his attention back to the ancient texts. Not showing the slightest bit of care towards the children of the current emperor of the Sky Empire nor the old master of the Hollow Thunder Family that was currently in the process of breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm.

…

Not much different from how the emperor of the Sky Empire had noticed the unfamiliar Soul Ascension Realm presence that had appeared for a moment before disappearing again, the Cardinals from the three religions also noticed this.

The only clear difference was that they had no idea about the fact that the Soul Ascension Realm presence they had just felt did not belong to some unfamiliar Soul Ascension Realm Expert that had entered the capital city.

Instead, they started to draw their own conclusions as to who the new Soul Ascension Realm Expert that had managed to enter the capital city was. The most likely guess being that it was a friend of the old ancestor, who had been called over to help ensure the stability of the sky Empire and keep them in check.

Something that they were less than happy about. Especially so when considering that the current chaotic situation in the Sky Empire would inevitably calm down a bit due to the presence of another Soul Ascension Realm Expert on the side of the imperial family.

Although this would not last for a long time, it would still buy time for the imperial family to try and mend the relationship between the noble families and the major sect!

…

While all the Soul Ascension Realm Experts in the capital city, outside of the old ancestor of the imperial family, were focused on the unfamiliar Soul Ascension Realm presence that had suddenly appeared for a split second before disappearing wondering just who it was-

FWOOOSH-!

BOOM-!

"AHHHH!"

The person in question was suffering under the first tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, the Tribulation of Fire. Only barely holding on against the sea of fire and lighting that engulfed him and tried to destroy both his body and soul.

The first tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, the Tribulation of Fire.

The Tribulation of Fire was known as the easiest tribulation to over come among the seven tribulations of the Immortal Soul Tribulation… But, even if it might not be that difficult to overcome when compared to the rest of the tribulations and was known as the easiest tribulation, it still had to be known that it was at the same time also considered to be the deadliest due to just how many people ended up dying to it in their attempt to breakthrough to Soul Ascension Realm.

For everyone who had reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm, the Tribulation of Fire was not the easiest tribulation in the Soul Ascension Realm. Instead, it was the most difficult and terrifying tribulation that they had encountered since stepping on to the path of cultivation.

Even affecting some Peak Domain Lord Realm Experts so much that they end up looking for another path by joining a religion or becoming a demonic cultivator to avoid having to go through the Tribulation of Fire!

The old master of the Hollow Thunder family was not like this, he instead chose to face the Tribulation of Fire head on with everything he had. Pouring out everything he had learnt over his long years as the most powerful person in the Hollow Thunder Family in order to protect himself from the sea of fire and lighting that engulfed him and seeped into his dantian and soul to destroy them.

Boom-boom-boom!

The battle between the sea of fire and lighting and the old master of the Hollow Thunder Family seemed to continue for what felt like hours before the tribulation clouds above slowly started fading-

Swish-!

BOOOOOM-!

However, just as the last bit of the tribulation clouds faded, a powerful streak of light descended from above before exploding forth violently with a power that instantly destroyed what little remained of the forbidden ground of the Hollow Thunder Family and the formation in place to hide it from the outside world while the old master was undergoing his tribulation.

Instantly attracting the attention of the different Soul Ascension Realm Experts who had all secretly been trying to find the origin of the Soul Ascension Realm presence from earlier-

"HAHAHAHA, I FINALLY BROKE THROUGH TO THE SOUL ASCENSION REALM!"

However, at this point in time, the old master of the Hollow Thunder Family had already successfully managed to pass through the Tribulation of Fire. Officially having stepped into the Soul Ascension Realm!

…

Not related to the current chaotic situation that was taking place inside and around the capital city of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao opened both of his eyes after a relaxing night of sleep, something he had not done in a long time because of the simple fact that there was no need for it at his current cultivation realm. Especially when meditating would bring about the same benefits, while also increasing one's strength at the same time.

But then again, Xuan Hao could not help feeling more comfortable than he had in a long time. Making him think that it might be a good idea for him to sleep every now and then. Even if it only ended up being a few times a month.

Whoosh~

Getting up from his bed after lazing around for a few minutes, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time before making his way out of his room into the somewhat empty space that was in front of the palace, where the small figure of Mui could already be seen patiently waiting for him with a nervous expression on her face.

"M-master!? Good morning!" Spotting him coming over, Mui fumbled over her words in surprise before greeting him.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes! The bed was far softer than anything I've ever slept on. Not to mention the fluffy pillows. Everything was perfect!" Excitedly nodding her head as she said this, it was obvious to anyone watching just how happy she was when remembering her soft and fluffy bed.

"That's great, it looks like we can begin today's lesson immediately!"

"I-immediately…?"

"Yes, don't worry too much about it, I'm only going to teach you some basic knowledge of cultivation today. Nothing complicated, that will have to wait. For now, let's sit down over there before we start with something simple. Hm… How about basic etiquette when addressing someone stronger than yourself…" Not wasting a single second, Xuan Hao guided Mui towards a small resting spot in front of the palace before he began teaching her the basics of cultivation.

From the simple etiquette of how to address someone stronger as oneself to the importance of always having a backup plan in case something went wrong, Xuan Hao made sure to teach Mui about all the things he deemed important before she could start roaming around the territory of the Star Shattering Sect and explore it by herself in the future… Of course, also adding some of his own things to remember, like the dangers of someone in a spiritual form approaching her while praising her talent and asking for her to become their disciple!

No matter what, he had to make sure that Mui did not end up getting fooled by some old grandpa or grandma in a magical ring when she left the sect to gain experience in the future. Making it especially clear that contacting him and running away would be the best thing to do if she encountered such a situation.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

"… And with that, we will finish up the lesson for today." The entire teaching session ended up lasting for a little over three hours, a rather long period to be sitting still in one spot for a young girl like Mui. Luckily for her, Zhi Ruo was there to provide snacks and tea the entire time. Making all three hours an enjoyable experience for Mui, who had previously never tasted anything as delicious as the snacks and tea Zhi Ruo made.

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Having finished his first lesson with Mui, Xuan Hao turned towards the young girl as she was busy eating the multitude of different snacks Zhi Ruo had brought out for her to enjoy along with the tea that was still sitting untouched on the side.

"Mui, is there anything you didn't understand or want to know more about?"

"Hm? Not really, I feel like I understood what master said- Ah! If possible, I would like to know where these come from!" Not paying too much attention to what her master said as she was busy eating a small shortcake, Mui suddenly jumped up after realizing that she had a chance to figure out where the delicious snacks she had been eating came from.

This girl… Can she only think with her stomach…?

Following a silent sigh escaping his lips while thinking about this, Xuan Hao turned his attention towards Zhi Ruo, who had been quietly standing not too far away during the entire lesson in case Mui would need any new snacks. "Zhi Ruo, can you take care of Mui and show her how to make these snacks?"

"Yes, master, it would be my pleasure to show her how I made them!" Nodding her head with a far livelier expression than normal, Zhi Ruo happily agreed to take care of Mui and show her how she had made the different snacks that she had eaten during the lesson.

"Looks like you are lucky, Zhi Ruo here will be taking care of you while I go and check up on my other disciples."

"Thank you master!" Not wasting any time after thanking him, Mui excitedly ran towards Zhi Ruo before both made their way inside the palace. Heading in the direction of the kitchen that was located a short distance away from the entrance of the palace itself.

Why does she seem so much more excited about this than she was about my lesson…?

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao reminded himself that Mui had been an orphan who had been living on an empty stomach most of the time before becoming his disciple. Making it reasonable for her to be so much more excited at the different food and snacks she could now eat without having to worry about anything.

In time, she would calm down after adjusting to her new life in the Star Shattering Sect…

As this thought passed through his head, Xuan Hao turned around before leaving in the direction of the training ground next to the palace where Chu Yang and Qing Yi were busy training with each other in preparation for the mystic realm that they would soon enter.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao was busy teaching Mui, Chu Yang and Qing Yi had decided to engage in a spirited sparring session while waiting for their master to finish teaching their new junior sister.

"Go big sister Qing and big brother Chu!"

Not too far away from where they were fighting, Song Jia could be seen sitting with an excited expression on her face as she watched the sparring session between Chu Yang and Qing Yi. Even if she could not see anything since she was blind, she could still sense what was happening to some degree, as it looked like two massive clouds of energy were constantly clashing with each other.

As the two fought with each other, it was obvious for anyone watching the fight that Chu Yang was far stronger when compared to Qing Yi, as he effortlessly moved his spear to intercept and counter her attacks. Each movement carrying with it the weight of his cultivation base, allowing him to control the flow of the battle without giving Qing Yi any chance to launch a proper attack before being forced back by his spear.

However, Qing Yi was already aware of the fact that she was weaker than Chu Yang when it came to fighting. Especially considering that she had firsthand witnessed the effort he had put in to increase his strength during the two months that their master had been gone… But even with this, she still decided to do her best to show she was off her swift footwork and nimble maneuvers befitting someone practicing the sword.

The only problem was… Chu Yang was far faster than her, with his movements also being far more fluid due to continuous practice against the different Nascent Soul Realm Elders of the sect. Even if Qing Yi might have been able to do well against someone normal in the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm with her current lacking Nascent Soul Realm fighting experience, she stood no chance against Chu Yang who had already become strong enough to face off against someone in the Fourth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm-

Ching~!

This became obvious as the battle intensified, and Qing Yi was forced to use all her strength to defend against Chu Yang's spear that constantly came whistling through the air towards her in a seemingly endless stream of attack that gave her no time to breath.

Bang-bang-bang!

With each clash of metal, small shockwaves were sent rippling through the training ground without damaging anything in the process, symbolizing just how good they were at controlling their strength and making sure none of it went to waste-

Boom-!

Well, almost everything, Qing Yi had after all still not managed to fully grasp her Nascent Soul Realm strength. Resulting in some of the energy shockwaves released by her being a little more destructive-

"Ah!?"

One even getting close to hitting Song Jia who was observing the fight between the two. Making Qing Yi turn her attention away from the battle and towards controlling her own energy in order to ensure she did not end up accidently hitting Song Jia.

Swish-!

As Qing Yi momentarily focused her attention away from the battle and towards the destruction that she had ended up causing to part of the training ground when almost hitting Song Jia, Chu Yang made full use of this opportunity to break through her defenses-

Zhing~!

Knocking her sword away before stopping just as the tip of his spear hovered only a short distance away from Qing Yi's neck. Signaling the end of the battle.

"I give up, you win!" Knowing that she had lost, Qing Yi helplessly put up her hands in defeat.

Although the fight did feel like it was long, it had only lasted for a little over a minute. Showing just how much stronger Chu Yang was compared to her, something she had somewhat already expected given just how much time Chu Yang had spent training in the Combat Hall over the past two months. Not to mention the fact that he had broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm before her and was already at the Peak of the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Only a single step away from reaching the Second Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm…

"That was a great sparring session! Even if you only just reached the Nascent Soul Realm, your strength has already surpassed that of some elders in the Second Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm that I've faced. Given you have time to familiarize yourself with the Nascent Soul Realm and get some more fighting experience, I don't doubt you will be able to reach my current level… But at that point in time, I would have already become stronger! With that in mind… How about another match before master shows up!?" Smiling happily as he said this, Chu Yang 's fighting spirited had already been ignited by the last fight, as he wanted to go again.

"That-"

"Good to see both of you are so lively even without me around."

However, before Qing Yi had a time to respond, the familiar voice of their master sounded out from the entrance to the training ground-

""Master!""

Causing both Qing Yi and Chu Yang to turn around with surprised expressions on their faces. Clearly, they had not expected their master to show up so fast. Having thought that the lesson with their new junior sister would last for a longer time considering that the first lesson they had with their master had lasted for the entire day.

"Elder Xuan!"The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

Song Jia on the other hand did not show a similar surprised expression and instead just happily bounced towards Xuan Hao before greeting him.

"It's good to see you again Song Jia, how have things been going since last? Is Elder Song back more often now?"

"Grandpa Song? Hm… Grandpa Song has indeed been back more often to play with me. Although he still complains about some of the elders under him being far too lazy…" Hearing the question from Xuan Hao, Song Jia tilted her head looking deep in thought for a short moment before answering with a smile on her face. Making it rather obvious how happy she was that Elder Song seemed to have more free time to spent with her now that he at least had some help in managing the sect compared to before…

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"Sounds like Elder Song is finally able to relax some more now that he isn't the only person in charge of managing the sect…" Muttering this to himself as he heard what Song Jia said, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit relieved after hearing that Elder Song had finally started to have some more free time.

Hm? A new Domain Lord Realm Expert?

It was just at this moment that Xuan Hao suddenly sensed an unfamiliar Domain Lord Realm Expert making his way through the formation without being stopped before moving towards the Seventh Star Peak. From this alone, it was obvious that the Domain Lord Realm was not someone unfriendly and should have already been allowed to enter the sect by Feng Chen and Elder Song. The most likely scenario being that it was one of the elders that had managed to break through to the Domain Lord Realm during his time away from the sect.

Whoosh~!

Not wasting any time, Xuan Hao directly used his divine sense to investigate the other party-

"Not someone from the sect…?"

But was soon surprised to discover that the Domain Lord Realm Expert was not one of the elders of the Star Shattering Sect like he had first expected. Instead, it was someone he had never seen before. Making him feel even more curious as to just what kind of person this was.

"Qing Yi, Chu Yang, do any of you know about a new Domain Lord Realm Expert in the sect?"

"A new Domain Lord Realm Expert? No, I don't think I heard about that."

"Me neither, I haven't heard about a new Domain Lord Realm Expert in the sect."

Asking his two disciples to see if they knew anything, Xuan Hao ended up disappointed, as neither of them had heard anything about this new and unfamiliar Domain Lord Realm Expert that had suddenly appeared.

Looks like I will have to ask Feng Chen and Elder Song about this later-

"Ah! I know, I know!"

Just as he was about to give up learning more about this unfamiliar Domain Lord Realm Expert for now, Song Jia who had been quietly standing beside him suddenly jumped up with an excited expression on her face as she said this.

"You know about this Domain Lord Realm Expert…?" Not having expected Song Jia to actually know something about this unfamiliar Domain Lord Realm Expert, Xuan Hao could not help asking again.

"Yes! I remember that Grandpa Song mentioned how he and the sect master found a powerful expert from one of the kingdoms that is now under our sect's control and is trying to get him to join the sect!" Nodding her head before saying this, Song Jia beamed happily after noticing the surprised expressions on the face of Chu Yang and Qing Yi, who had not expected for her to know about the things taking place between the sect master and vice sect master.

But then again… She was the granddaughter of Elder Song, so the information regarding the internal and external matters of the sect that she had access to would be far more expansive compared to what they had.

The main reason for this, was that even if their master was the strongest person in the Shattering Star sect, he did not really participate in the internal matters of the sect… And even if he did, he did not share any of it with them. Deeming it as something that was not important for them to know about.

"So, it's a potential new elder for the sect. Looks like Feng Chen and Elder Song have been working hard to increase the strength of the sect during the time I was gone… Thank you for the information."

Whoosh~!

Throwing a small interspatial ring filled with a few different things that would be useful for someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm, Xuan Hao did not bother to think any more about the unfamiliar Domain Lord Realm Expert. Instead leaving the matter in the hands of Elder Song and Feng Chen, as they already seemed to have the entire thing under control.

"This is?" Grabbing the interspatial ring that Xuan Hao had thrown to her, Song Jia could not help tilting her head with a confused expression on her face. Not understanding what the small ring was. Not something odd when considering that she had never held an interspatial ring before in her life and thus had no idea about what it was or how to use it.

"It's called an interspatial ring and can be used to store things, I filled it with different things that will be useful for improving your strength in the Foundation Establishment Realm. If you can't figure out how to use it, you can always ask Elder Song, he should know how to do it."

"Thank you, Elder Xuan!" Not having expected that the small ring she was now holding was actually something precious, Song Jia froze for a second before happily hugging Xuan Hao as thanks before dashing off in direction of Elder Song's courtyard located a short distance away. Using a simple movement technique in the process. Excited to get the things inside the ring out and find out what Elder Xuan had given to her.

So much energy… At least I can begin teaching my disciples now that she left…

Shaking his head with a small smile present on his face as he thought about this, Xuan Hao turned his attention back towards his two disciples who were looking in the direction Song Jia had left in with surprise.

All things considered, this was the first time they had seen the blind young girl run so fast without a single sign of accidently running into someone or something. Not to mention, she had even used a movement technique!

If not for the fact that they knew she was blind, they would have thought it was just something that she had made up. Of course, there was no way for them to know that she was not fully blind and could still sense the aura and presence of the things and people. Allowing her to see a general outline of the world around her.

Still… The fact that she had been able to use a movement technique without running into someone or something, was still an impressive feat.

"Now that Song Jia has left, we will begin training both of you in preparation for entering the mystic realm!" Seeing that his two disciples were still looking in the direction that Song Jia had left in, Xuan Hao reminded them why they were here.

""Yes, master!""

Making both of them turn their attention back towards him, filled with anticipation upon hearing him mention the mystic realm that they were going to enter.

Although neither of them had any idea about what they might find inside the mystic realm, they still looked forward to leaving the sect and to experience the world outside of the territory controlled by their sect. Even if the entrance of the mystic realm was still inside the territory of the Star Shattering Sect, they also understood that there was a rather big chance that other entrances outside of the Star Shattering Sect's territory were out there.

In turn, this presented a chance for them to possibly encounter cultivators from outside not only the Star Shattering Sect's territory, but even outside the Sky Empire because the Star Shattering Sect was placed on the border of the Sky Empire and from what they had learnt during the short night after leaving their master.

In that short time, they had looked through all the information on mystic realms that they could get their hands on. Wanting to know more about the possible danger they were going to encounter during their trip, but at the same time also wanting to know more about mystic realms.

From that, the most important thing they had managed to learn, that their master had not mentioned, was the size of a mystic realm.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

According to what they had managed to learn, even the smallest mystic realm could easily cover an area the size of the entire Sky Empire, as for the larger ones… They had no way to fully grasp just how big these mystic realms were.

As for the accuracy of the information they had gathered… That was highly likely not the best. Especially considering that the information had come from what seemed like a standard adventure book about someone exploring different realms.

The main reason why both of them had some level of trust in the information of the book was that the descriptions of mystic realms and secret realms were far too complicated for anyone without actual knowledge on the matter to know about.

As for why they didn't mention anything about this to their master… Well… That was because they thought it was something he already knew about…

"Okay, seeing as both of you are ready, let's begin!" Not aware of the fact that his disciples had stumbled on a book filled with information on mystic realms, Xuan Hao began training his two oldest disciples for the first time in over two months.

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At the same time Xuan Hao scanned the unfamiliar Domain Lord Realm Expert with his divine sense, the person in question felt a chill run down his spine as he felt like some terrifying existence was looking directly at him for a short moment before looking away.

"W-what was that just now? A powerful ancestor of the Star Shattering Sect?" Mumbling this to himself as he thought about the possible origin of the feeling just now, the man once again understood that the Star Shattering Sect was far more terrifying than he had first imagined when he heard about it after returning from his journey around the continent in order to look for a way to reach the Domain Lord Realm.

Even if he might have hesitated whether to join the Star Shattering Sect or not, he now felt certain that it would be a good thing to join the Star Shattering Sect.

All things considered, he very well understood that his talent was nothing special when compared to other Domain Lord Realm Expert and his strength would at most be able to reach the Peak of the Third Stage of the Domain Lord Realm without any external help. Maybe he could reach the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm if he got lucky… But with the help of a powerful sect like the Star shattering Sect, his chances of improving and going further on the path of cultivation would increase!

In the end, this was the reason why he had returned to the Star Shattering Sect after his conversation with Elder Song instead of just returning to his kingdom to gather everything of value before leaving for the core region of the Sky Empire to rebuild his kingdom there-

"Hm?"

Coming to an abrupt stop, the Domain Lord suddenly noticed that he had already reached the base of the Seventh Star Peak, causing him to freeze on the spot as he looked up towards the majestic buildings that made up the main sect of the Star Shattering Sect.

"Looks like I'm getting a bit nervous now that I'm here…" Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, the Domain Lord took a deep breath before starting to walk up the path leading to the peak of the Seventh Star Peak. Already feeling a sense of excitement welling up inside him at the thought that he was going to be part of such a powerful sect in the future.

…

"Elder Song, the ancestor of that caused trouble earlier is here, should I send him in?" Not more than a few minutes after the arrival of the unfamiliar Domain Lord Realm Expert, one of the assistant elders that had been helping Elder Song with the management of the internal matters of the Sect walked over to Elder Song before informing him about his arrival.

"Hm? The ancestor who caused trouble- Ah! The Domain Lord that showed up out of nowhere and caused problems for one of our branches! What was his name… Wan Linyun? So, he decided to return after our conversation… Hehe, looks like the Star Shattering Sect is going to get another Domain Lord Realm Expert!" Muttering this to himself as a small chuckle escaped his lips, Elder Song nodded his head. Signaling for the assistant elder to send him in.

Not more than a few seconds later, the Domain Lord Realm ancestor from one of the kingdoms that had fallen to the Star Shattering Sect, Wan Linyun, made his way inside the room with a nervous expression on his face.

Although Elder Song was far weaker than he was and had not even reached the Domain Lord Realm, he still understood just how much power this seemingly ordinary Nascent Soul Realm elder had. Not doubting that if he ended up offending him, his chances of entering the Star Shattering Sect would be reduced to nothing…

"Greetings, Elder Song."

For this reason, Wan Linyun did his best to be as polite as possible to Elder Song. Not daring to look down on him because he was only in the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Good to see you again, have you come to a decision regarding the things we discussed last time?" Nodding his head in appreciation before asking this, Elder Song looked directly at Wan Linyun. Wanting to make sure that his answer was sincere.

"Yes, I want to join the Star Shattering Sect." Feeling a shiver run down for some unknown reason as he felt Elder Song looking directly at him, Wan Linyun answered the question with a serious expression on his face. Earning a small smile from Elder Song in return.

"Great! You can leave for now and one of the assistant elders will help you get sorted out. For now, you will be designated as a guest elder. In the future, you will have the chance to become an official sect elder after you have proven yourself as an elder, but… You should already be aware of this from our last conversation."

Having already expected something like this before coming, Wan Linyun solemnly nodded his head in understanding. All things considered, becoming a trusted elder of a sect like the Star shattering Sect, that already had several Domain Lord Realm Experts stronger than himself, would be weird.

"Indeed, I'm already aware of it and it's fine with me. After all, it's not like I expected to just directly become an elder of the sect without doing anything…"

"Haha, it's great to see that you already understand this. After all, how could we just allow anyone in the Domain Lord Realm to enter the sect without properly making sure they weren't spies belonging to another power?" Laughing happily before saying this, Elder Song silently let out a sigh of relief inside his head after seeing that Wan Linyun did not react negatively to only being a guest elder.

To be honest, Elder Song had not expected this from Wan Linyun, he was after all someone in the Domain Lord Realm and would under normal circumstances be capable of becoming the core member of any sect or power he wished to join. Even the major sects of the Sky Empire would act like this, let alone the smaller powers in the Sky Empire that at most had a single Domain Lord Realm Expert…

For him to be willing to join the Star Shattering Sect as a guest elder, it was obvious to Elder Song how much he valued the Star Shattering Sect.

Be it because the qi present inside the Star Shattering Sect had far surpassed that of the outside world or that the Star Shattering Sect already had three Domain Lord Realm Experts and could be considered one of the strongest powers in the Sky Empire. No matter what it was, Elder Song was just happy that the Star Shattering Sect had managed to gain another Domain Lord Realm Expert. Even if the Domain Lord was not an elder that had been lucky enough to break through from the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Elder Song, did you call for me?"

Just at this moment, the assistant elder that had informed him about the arrival of Wan Linyun just a short time earlier, entered the room with a stack of unfinished documents in hand.

"Ah, Zeng Wu, this is Wan Linyun, he has just become a guest elder of the sect. The reason I called you here is to help him find a new courtyard where he can stay from now on."

"Guest elder? Help find a new courtyard?" becoming one big question mark after hearing what Elder Song said, Zeng Wu took a few seconds to process what he had just been told before a shocked expression made its way on to his face.

The Domain Lord Realm Expert actually ended up joining the sect! He didn't even become a sect elder and has instead become a guest elder!

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Trying his best to remain calm as he processed this information, Zeng Wu could not help feeling more shocked as he realized that a Domain Lord Realm Expert had only become a guest elder. Even more surprising was the fact that the other party had accepted the role of guest elder!

In a sense, as an assistant elder at the Peak of the Core Formation Realm, his status in the Star Shattering Sect was currently above that of Wan Linyun, a Domain Lord Realm Expert!

This alone was more than enough to make Zeng Wu feel a sense of pride from being an elder of the Star Shattering Sect that he had never felt before.

"Please follow me, I will show you where you will be staying from now on."

With this rush of pride and happiness that came out of nowhere, Zeng Wu smiled from ear to ear, as he said this without showing any hint of fear that would normally be present when someone in the Core Formation Realm was talking to someone in the Domain Lord Realm.

Impressing Wan Linyue in the process, as the two soon left the room. Leaving Elder Song to deal with the all too familiar mountain of documents that seemed to have magically grown during his short meeting with Wan Linyue.

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Not long after Wan Linyun had become a guest elder of the sect. News about the addition of another Domain Lord Realm Expert started to spread among the elders of the Star Shattering Sect, two of these elders were happily chatting with each other about this over a cup of tea.

"Have you heard? Apparently Elder Song managed to recruit a Domain Lord Realm Expert into the sect."

"Huh!? A Domain Lord Realm Expert!?"

"Yes, but this is not the most shocking thing! From what I heard, the Domain Lord Realm Expert did not even become a sect elder, but instead became a guest elder!"

"Guest elder… Does this no mean that our current status in the sect is above his?"

"Yes! Although… No matter what his current status is, he is still a Domain Lord Realm Expert…"

"Indeed… Knowing Elder Song, he should also get promoted to a normal sect elder in a few years and at that point in time, it would be best not to have become enemies with this Domain Lord by doing something stupid…"

Nodding their head in agreement with each other about this, the two elders agreed that even if their status was currently above that of the Domain Lord Realm Expert, it would be best for them not to do anything that would offend this new Domain Lord Realm Expert.

Like them, most of the elders who learnt about the new Domain Lord Realm Expert joining the sect were excited at the news and couldn't wait to find out who this Domain Lord Realm expert was.

As for the fact that their status was higher than Wan Linyun… None of them thought for a second that they were above a Domain Lord Realm Expert. Especially the Outer Sect Elders and Assistant Elders who were still in the Core Formation Realm.

"Did you hear, the sect apparently recruited a Domain Lord Realm Expert!"

"Another Domain Lord!? Do you think he will be teaching us like Grand Elder Shu and Grand Elder Xuan does every few months?"

"No idea, but I really hope so!"

Following all the elders discussing the matter of Wan Linyun, it did not take long before some of the disciples managed to hear about it. Resulting in the news of Wan Linyun spreading across the entire sect. Not taking long before even the normal servants running the day-to-day operations of the sect knew about the fact that the Star Shattering Sect had managed to get another Domain Lord Realm Expert.

In the end, the news caused everyone to feel a sense of pride at the growth of the sect, both elders and disciples being happy at the addition of a new Domain Lord Realm Expert, as they would all be benefiting from this.

…

While the entire Star Shattering Sect was celebrating a new Domain Lord Realm Expert joining the sect, Wang Hu, one of the Flying Sword Sect's original core elders, was busy overseeing the construction of a massive mine that almost reached the same level as the main mine located at the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

The location of the mine in question was none other than the city that had once been the capital city of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

Back when Xuan Hao had discovered the rich spiritual metal ore deposits below ground, he had informed Elder Song about this. However, because the sheer scale of the mine had been something that would be hard to construct and protect for the Star Shattering Sect at the time, Elder Song had deliberately delayed the construction of a spiritual metal mine until the sect had grown stronger.

It was only after the Sky Empire's visit to deal with the invading demonic cultivators and the control of any kingdom next to the Azure Sky Kingdom had fallen under the control of the Star Shattering Sect, that Elder Song had officially decided to start the construction of the spiritual metal mine. Not forgetting to do his best to keep this matter hidden for as long as possible.

After all, he understood how important spiritual metal was for production of artifacts and doubted that the Sky Empire would just sit on the side and watch the Star Shattering Sect take control of such a large spiritual metal mine. Not to mention the three religions, the noble families and the rest of the powerful forces in the Sky Empire.

The only reason why someone like Yi Min had managed to control a large spiritual metal mine by herself, was because she had a terrifying formation that even someone in the Soul Ascension Realm would have a hard time breaking without the risk of getting heavily injured and attacked by their enemies who would be more than happy to take advantage of something like this… And that was not mentioning the fact that Yi Min was already a terrifying expert at the Peak of the Domain Lord realm. Only a single step away from reaching the Soul Ascension Realm!

"Looks like everyone is happy celebrating the arrival of a new Domain Lord Realm Expert back at the sect, are you not going to go back and join them Wang Hu? I even heard your brother is holding a small get together with some of the other elders."

As Wang Hu was busy overseeing the construction of the spiritual metal mine that now covered what had once been the capital city of the Azure Sky Kingdom, a kind voice sounded out behind him.

"Senior Lou…? Ha… You gave me a shock there; I thought you would be down inspecting the new passages of the mine…" Letting out a sigh of relief as he turned around and faced the old man that had snuck up behind him, Wang Hu could not help shaking his head at the old man's antics.

Ever since he had become the Grand Elder and de facto leader of the Flying Sword Sect's blacksmithing hall, he had always been more playful than his age would suggest. After he reached the Nascent Soul Realm and got put in charge of the Star Shattering Sect's blacksmithing branch, he only seemed to have become more like this.

"Hehe, I already finished doing that, so I came back up to see what you were up to… So, how about it? Are you going to return to the sect to celebrate the new Domain Lord Realm Expert?"

"You know that I can't do that even if I wanted. The spiritual metal deposits located below the capital city of the Azure Sky Kingdom are far too important and any delay when it comes to getting a proper mine up and running will end up negatively influencing you and the rest of the sect's blacksmiths."

"Hm~? How come I didn't know you cared so much about the blacksmiths of the sect? Did you perhaps take interest in one of the new blacksmithing elders from the Spring Flower Sect?"

"You…"

Not knowing what to say after being teased by the old man, Wang Hu froze on the spot. Rendered completely speechless by the fact that the person in front of him was actually someone close to two hundred years old…

"Hehe, I'm only joking with you."

"I really have no idea what to say…"

"No need to say anything, I will be off again, I still need to check up on the most recent batch of spiritual metals that were mined."

Swish~

Watching the old man leave as fast as he had shown up, Wang Hu could not help shaking his head before turning his attention back towards the construction of the mine. Knowing very well just how important it was for not only the blacksmiths of the Star Shattering Sect, but also for the Star Shattering Sect's ability to trade with other nearby powers.

After all, even if the Star Shattering Sect was able to produce a lot of the spiritual herbs and spiritual metals that they needed, there was ultimately some rare spiritual herbs that could not be produced in the sect and some rare spiritual metals that could not be found in the ground beneath the former capital city of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

Even if this was not the case, it would always be good for the Star Shattering Sect to trade with surrounding powers, as they would still be able to get their hands on a large amount of spirit stones this way.

In turn, they would then be able to use these spirit stones to further increase the strength of the sect and maybe even get their hands on more precious things, like Transcendent Grade Spiritual Herbs and Metals that could be used in the creation of more powerful artifacts and formations for the Soul Ascension Realm. Making the foundation of the Star Shattering Sect even stronger!

Of course… All of this was still far off in the future. For now, the Star Shattering Sect still had take care of the remaining large kingdoms before stabilizing their new territory.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

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At the same time that the rest of the sect was busy celebrating the new Domain Lord Realm Expert, a group of female disciples had gathered together in a small corner of the sect. Forming a small circle around a handsome young man, as they showered him in all kinds of praises.

"Senior brother Lu Wen is amazing, to think you managed to reach the Core Formation Realm at such a young age! Among the Inner Sect Disciples of the sect, you should be ranked first!"

"Yes, senior brother Lu Wen is amazing, I-If it isn't too much, how about teaching this junior sister?"

"What are you saying, why would he do that? Now that junior brother Lu Wen has reached the Core Formation Realm, isn't it much better for this junior brother to get some lessons from this big sister who is already in the Fourth Stage of the Core Formation Realm~? Hehe, this big sister will promise you a good time~"

"Go away you old hag! Don't think we have no idea what you plan to do to senior brother Lu Wen!"

"Yes, go away!"

"Evil senior sister, go away!"

"Hmph! You brats!"

As one of the older female disciples took things a little too far in the opinion of the surrounding female disciples, she was quickly expelled and pushed out before the female disciples once again started praising the senior brother called Lu Wen.

Another Domain Lord Realm Expert appeared in the sect… Maybe I will have a chance to meet this expert and become his personal disciple, that way my strength will improve even faster and-

Unknown to this group of female disciples, their senior brother in question, was lost in his own thoughts as he was thinking about the new Domain Lord Realm Expert and how he could get in contact with him and possibly become his personal disciple.

"Big brother Lu Wen! I was looking for you!"

Just at this moment, a voice called out to him from behind. Interrupting the female disciples who were busy trying to catch his attention, while also causing him to return to reality.

"Hm? Yi Xuan? What are you doing here?" Noticing that the owner of the voice, Lu Wen could not help calling out in a surprised voice before making his way over towards her. Completely ignoring the group of female disciples that had gathered around him in the process-

"This- Who is that girl!?"

"How dare she!"

"Ah! I know! She is the personal disciple of Elder Zu Fei!"

"Zu Fei!? As in the former vice sect master…?"

"Yes, that Zu Fei! No way I'm getting involved in any of this, I'm out of here!"

Resulting in the group of younger disciples who had been trying their best to catch Lu Wen's attention turning towards Yi Xuan filled with anger before quickly escaping upon finding out that Yi Xuan was related to Zu Fei.

Even if Zu Fei might not be a scary person in the eyes of Xuan Hao, she was quite a scary person in the eyes of most disciples of the Star Shattering Sect that had once been a part of the Flying Sword Sect in the past… And in turn, these disciples had spread the tales of her to the new disciples of the sect. Resulting in not only the former Flying Sword Sect disciples fearing her, but also the disciples of the Star Shattering Sect…

"…"

Not knowing what to say after seeing the female disciples all escaping from her like they had encountered the pest, Yi Xuan could not help feeling like she had been wronged. Even if her master was a bit scarier than the normal elders of the sect, it was a bit too much for them to run away the moment they saw her!

"Ehm… Lu Wen, I came here today because I had something important to inform you about!" Deciding not to think about the rude female disciples that had run away, Yi Xuan instead focused her attention back on to Lu Wen as she said this with a serious expression on her face. Doing her absolute best to look like a proper personal disciple of one of the strongest elders of the sect.

"So serious, what is it?"

"As you already know, a new Domain Lord Realm Expert just joined the sect… But what you might not know is that a large merchant group selling all kinds of antiques from all across the continent recently arrived outside the city at the bottom of the Ninth Star Peak!"

"A merchant group selling antiques… Are you sure this is not some sort of scam?" Hearing what Yi Xuan said, Lu Wen could not help rolling his eyes as he asked this. After all, it was not the first time since they had joined the Star Shattering Sect that this girl had come to him and informed him about some eccentric merchant group selling antiques from all around the continent.

Last time he followed her to one of these merchant groups, he ended up losing most of the spirit stones he had earned by completing sect missions to a normal Earth Rank Artifact, that he could have bought over a dozen times over with the spirit stones he had spent…

"It's not some scam! Before coming here, I heard that some of the senior disciples already went to visit it and came back with all sorts of rare and exotic artifacts that can't be found anywhere in the Sky Empire, one even getting lucky enough to get his hands on a Peak Soul Rank Artifact for only a few low-grade spirit stones! Now come, we need to get there early before all of the good artifacts are gone!" Puffing her small cheeks in anger as she said this, Yi Xuan started dragging Lu Wen towards the path leading down the Seventh Star Peak and towards the entrance of the sect.

"Fine, I will join you. No need to keep pulling on my clothes." Understanding that there was no way for him to convince Yi Xuan, Lu Wen decided to follow her to check out the antiques of merchant group that had suddenly shown up not too far away from the sect.

At least this way, he would be able to make sure that Yi Xuan didn't end up getting scammed, like what had happened to both of them in the past. Although, asking Yi Xuan about it, they didn't get scammed and just happened to be unlucky and pick the wrong antiques.

…

Not long after they had left the sect and arrived at the small market that had been set up outside the city at the bottom of the Ninth Star Peak, Lu Wen let out a sigh as he looked over the different antiques displayed all around him.

"Looks like this is another scam…" Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Lu Wen turned towards Yi Xuan, prepared to return to the sect… But did not take long to discover that the girl in question had already disappeared.

"How troublesome." Not knowing what to say at the sudden disappearance of Yi Xuan, Lu Wen was just about to take out a simple communication talisman to contact her-

"Hm? This is…"

When he suddenly noticed something special about one of the antiques right next to him, it was as if there was some sort of connection between him and the antique.

"Young man, does this little antique of mine interest you? Haha, that should be a given, this antique was an ancient relic that was found in the ruins of a long-lost ancient empire that once ruled most of the continent. Even being rumored to have immortal generals with power enough to snatch down the stars from above and rip apart heaven and earth! Anything found from that ancient empire is of immense value!" Not missing a beat, the merchant who was selling the antique immediately noticed this as he started bragging about how precious the antique was.

Even without knowing anything about the antique in question, it was obvious to Lu Wen that the merchant was lying and trying to make his antique sound more valuable… But given the weird connection he felt between himself and the antique, Lu Wen could not help feeling curious about the antique and why he had some sort of connection with it.

"How much do you want for it?"The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

"Don't worry young man, even if this precious antique is from a once power ancient demon beast clan, I will give it to you for cheap. Only 5000 low-grade spirt stones, I will also accept high grade spirit stones if you have any!"

"Wha- That is far too expensive! How can you expect a normal disciple to have that many spirit stones!? Can't you go a bit lower?" Not able to stop himself from exclaiming in surprise upon hearing the outrageous number of spirit stones that the merchant wanted, Lu Wen could not help asking for a lower price-

"Hehe of course, of course, I feel like you and the antique have a special connection, so I will lower the price and also accept any artifacts you might have as payment!"

Ultimately resulting in him falling into the merchant's trap…

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Not too long after Lu Wen finished negotiating with the merchant and ultimately paid most of what he owed for the strange antique that he could feel some sort of connection from, Yi Xuan who had disappeared not too long after they had reached the temporary marketplace set up by the eccentric antique trading merchant group, appeared with a pile of antiques that she had managed to buy for no more than a dozen or so spirit stones.

"Lu Wen? What happened to you…?" Spotting Lu Wen who had a half dead look on his face while holding on to a small antique in the shape of what looked like some sort of ancient teapot, Yi Xuan could not help tilting her head in confusion before asking this. Not understanding why Lu Wen looked like he had just survived a life and death situation, while only getting a small, ancient looking teapot out of it.

"Yi Xuan?" Hearing Yi Xuan suddenly calling out to him, Lu wen turned around to look at her with dead look in his eyes. Making it obvious to her that something had happened, during the short few minutes she had wandered off to look for some promising antiques to buy.

"Ah! Did you perhaps get scam-"

"Quiet! There is no way someone like me, a young, genius, Core Formation Realm cultivator, would ever get scammed by some lowly merchant! Ehm! Let's return to the sect for now, I don't think there is anything of real value here!" Jumping up before rapidly starting to make his way back towards the sect after realizing that Yi Xuan was about to expose the fact that he had just been scammed of everything he had on him, Lu Wen didn't bother waiting for Yi Xuan before disappearing in the direction of the Ninth Star Peak.

"Hmph! This guy… He definitely ended up getting scammed and lost everything he had taken with him in the process!" Rolling her eyes as she instantly managed to see through what had happened, Yi Xuan did not bother spending any more time in the temporary antique market and instead chose to chase after Yi Xuan.

Part of her wanted to find out what he had ended up buying, while another part of her was curious about just how much he had ended up losing for him to storm off without even waiting for her.

…

Returning to the sect before making his way back to the privacy of his own courtyard, Lu Wen didn't bother wasting a single second before taking out the ancient teapot he had ended up buying with everything he had brought with him.

Rustle~

Following Lu Wen all the way into his courtyard, Yi Xuan curiously leaned forward to inspect the ancient teapot that Lu Wen had begun to examine for anything that might point towards it being some kind of powerful artifact that would make the sacrifices he had made worth it. "Hm? Is this the antique you bought? How much did you pay for it? One hundred spirit stones?"

"…"

"Don't tell me… One thousand spirit stone!?" Seeing that Lu Wen remained silent after hearing what she said, Yi Xuan could not help showing a shocked expression on her face as she said this. Even for a normal outer sect elder, one thousand spirit stones were not a small number of spirit stones and would take months to get back again!

As for someone like Lu Wen who was a little more prominent among inner disciples, it was not something he was unable to pay, but was still something that would take years for him to recover from. The only exception to this being that he was lucky enough to win one of the different events that Elder Song hosted every now and then.

"It wasn't just a thousand spirit sto- Ahm! I mean, I didn't lose anything, I managed to get this precious antique from a long-lost ancient empire for a cheap price and its worth Is much more than just a few spirit stones!" Feeling like she had hit a sore spot, Lu Wen quickly defended himself as he began showing off the ancient teapot. Making sure to retell the things that the merchant had told him in an attempt to convince Yi Xuan that he had not wasted his spirit stones…

"Sure… So, what does this half-broken teapot do?"

However, Yi Xuan easily saw through this and just rolled her eyes before moving closer to inspect the ancient teapot up close. Part of her feeling curious as to just what was so special about it that had caused Lu Wen, who was normally not easy to deceive, to buy it for such an astronomically high price without first making sure that he was not in the process of being scammed.

"Ah! Don't touch it so carelessly, what if it-"

Crack~

Not even a second after Yi Xuan touched the ancient teapot and began to inspect it in detail, a clear sound of something cracking apart sounded out before the ancient teapot broke in half. Taking both Yi Xuan and Lu Wen by surprise.

"This… Sorry, I didn't expect for it to be that fragile…" Not knowing what to say after seeing the ancient teapot breaking the moment, she touched it; Yi Xuan could only smile awkwardly before apologizing to Lu Wen for destroying the ancient antique he had just wasted all his wealth to buy.

"My spirit stones and artifacts… All gone for nothing!" Not responding to what Yi Xuan said, Lu Wen just stared mindlessly at the now broken teapot while the large number of spirit stones and artifacts he had given up for the ancient antique, passed through his mind.

Even if he deep down understood that he had been scammed by the merchant, he was not willing to admit it. Believing that the connection he had felt between himself, and the ancient teapot was real and showed that it should be some amazing treasure that the merchant had just mistaken for some junk that he wanted to use to scam him with… But now that he was faced with the broken teapot that was destroyed even by a light touch, he was no longer able to convince himself that he had not been scammed. Losing what had essentially taken him two or three years to gather.

Hm? But if the ancient teapot has been destroyed, why is the connection from earlier still there…?This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

About to give up on the broken teapot, Lu Wen suddenly noticed that the connection he had felt from it back at the market was still present.

Crack-!

"Lu Wen? Is something wrong?"

Ignoring Yi Xuan, Lu Wen fully broke apart the ancient teapot before starting to search the broke piece of the teapot. Looking for the origin of the connection that he felt. Understanding very well that the connection he felt did not originate from the ancient teapot itself, but instead originated from something inside the ancient teapot!

Not a second later, he found what he was looking for as he pulled out a small stone that looked like a normal pebble that could be found everywhere on the ground. The only difference between the small stone and a normal pebble was the fact that the small stone had a small barely visible symbol etched into it.

"Looks like my assumption was correct." Happily muttering this to himself as he felt the clear connection between himself and the small stone in his hand, Lu Wen could not help feeling curious as to just what the small stone was. Not wasting a single second before he began to examine it closely.

"…"

As a result, Yi Xuan, who had no idea about the connection between Lu Wen and the small stone, could only stare weirdly as her respectable senior brother suddenly began to excitedly examine what looked like a small pebble to her.

Not caring about the weird look, he was getting from Yi Xuan, Lu Wen turned his attention towards the small symbol that looked like a small teapot, similar to the ancient teapot that had been destroyed just a few seconds earlier.

"Hm? What will happen if I inject some of my qi into the symbol, will it perhaps cause some kind of change?"

Whoosh-!

Not thinking too much about it, Lu Wen decided to inject a small part of his qi into the symbol on the stone to see if it had any reaction-

"What are you-"

Seeing this, Yi Xuan was about to ask him what he was doing. However, before she had a chance to say anything, a weird power engulfed them. Transporting them to some unknown location.

…

At the same time Lu Wen and Yi Xuan were transported somewhere by the small pebble with the teapot symbol on it, Xuan Hao who had been busy teaching his disciples suddenly narrowed both his eyes as his divine sense swept out and began examining the location Yi Xuan and Lu Wen had been standing less than a second ago.

"How weird, there was a change in the space inside the formation, but I can't find any clues to what might have caused it… Did someone practice a space related technique…? No, the shift in space was too big and it shouldn't have been something that would have been possible for anyone below the Soul Ascension Realm. Maybe a natural space abnormality that just happened to take place inside the sect's formation?"

Not able to find anything after looking through the area with his divine sense, Xuan Hao just shook his head before returning to training his disciples. Not thinking too much about it as it didn't look like the change in space had caused any damage to the formation or the sect.

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"Ahhh-!?"

Feeling the air rushing against her face the moment she opened her eyes, Yi Xuan could not stop herself from screaming in fear, as she realized she had been transported somewhere above the clouds. Given that she had yet to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, falling from such a height was almost certain death. Making Yi Xuan start panicking even more.

"Can you quiet down for a moment? Don't you see that we aren't falling?"

"A- Huh?"

Suddenly hearing the voice of Lu Wen calling out to her from the side, Yi Xuan could not help tilting her head in confusion before starting to look around herself.

Indeed, like what he had said, she wasn't falling any more. Instead, she was sitting on top of one of the clouds she had first seen after being transported by the weird stone with the teapot symbol on top of it.

"What in the world is this- And where are we!?" subconsciously grabbing hold of the cloud below her as she said this, Yi Xuan looked towards Lu Wen with a questioning expression on her face. Wanting to know just what was happening and how she had suddenly ended up so far up that the ground wasn't even visible when looking down because of a dense layer of clouds covering everything beneath her-

"How would I know? I just inject some of my qi into the stone with the teapot symbol on it and then we ended up being transported here."

However, she had forgotten the fact that Lu Wen likely did not know any more than her about their current situation…

Whoosh~!

Just at this moment, the clouds surrounding them began moving all over the place before suddenly changing into all sorts of different things, one cloud materialized into a small forest, while another materialized into a large floating island that the forest was placed on top of right next to where Yi Xuan and Lu Wen were standing.

""…""

Not able to get say a single word at the serene floating island that suddenly materialized beneath their feet within the span of a few seconds, both Yi Xuan and Lu Wen could only stare silently at each other in disbelief over what had just happened.

If not for the fact that they could clearly feel the ground beneath their feet and the soft grass that covered the entire floating island, they would have thought that the floating island was some kind of illusion.

"Hm? Is that a house…?" Being the first among the two to recover from the shock of a floating island suddenly materializing from clouds beneath them, Lu Wen soon noticed a small house located at the center of the floating island.

The house was not special and looked no different from the house of a normal mortal. No special material had been used in its construction other than normal wood and stone. If not for the fact that the house was located on top of a floating island, it would have been easy to ignore such an ordinary-looking house…

"Let's go and take a look, we might be able to find a way out of this place inside the house." Nudging Yi Xuan who had still not fully recovered from the shocking scene of the clouds gathering together to form the floating island that they were currently standing on top of, Lu Wen began making his way towards the ordinary-looking house at the center of the floating island.

Part of him felt curious about what might be hiding inside the small house, while another part of him was scared about the potential danger they might encounter.

"Ah? Ah! Wait up for me!" Realizing that she was getting left behind, Yi Xuan quickly got up before dashing after Lu Wen. Not wanting to be left alone on the edge of the floating island. Especially when she had no idea whether there was anything dangerous lurking somewhere on the floating island.

After all, even if it seemed unlikely for a demon beast to get formed by the clouds in a similar way that the floating island had been materialized, she didn't dare to take the chance!

…

Creak~

Arriving in front of the small house without encountering any problems along the way, Lu Wen and Yi Xuan cautiously proceeded to open the door of the small house before peeking inside-

"This is…"

"An ordinary house…?"

Being met with what looked like a normal house without anything special about it.

However, given the fact that they were currently on top of a floating island in some unknown location, both Lu Wen and Yi Xuan could not help feeling surprised that there was nothing special about it like they had been expecting.

"Hm? That is… The stone with the teapot symbol on it!?" Continuing to look around the interior of the small house, it did not take long before Lu Wen suddenly spotted a stone, that looked eerily similar to the stone that had ended up transporting them to their current location, on top of a large wooden table.

Not only that, but when he looked through his belongings, he discovered that the small stone was nowhere to be found. Meaning that the small stone located on top of the table was most likely the same stone that he had accidentally used to transport them to their current location!

"The stone! Does this mean we can get out of here if you inject your qi into it!?" Unlike Lu Wen, who had not moved after spotting the small stone with the teapot symbol on top of it, Yi Xuan didn't waste a single second before jumping forward to grab the small stone.

Swish-!

"Here you go. Now get us back to the sect by doing the same thing you did to get us here in the first place!" Handing the small stone over to Lu Wen before saying this with a look of expectation on her face. Clearly, she did not want to stay on the weird floating island for even a second longer. Understanding very well that it was dangerous for them to stay in an unknown location filled with all sorts of unknown dangers that might end up killing them if they were unlucky.

"Fine…" Knowing that he had been the one at fault in landing them in an unknown situation that might turn out life threatening at any moment, Lu Wen agreed to her request, while in the back of his mind deciding to return to explore the mysteries of the floating island later by himself if it was possible.

The main reason for him wanting to do something like this was not only because he wanted to find something of value on the floating island to justify all the spirit stones and artifacts, he had lost to buy it, but also because he had clearly felt the connection from the stone with the teapot symbol on top of it had grown stronger after being transported to the floating island.

Even more mysterious was the fact that the connection between himself and the small stone was not the only connection he felt after reaching the floating island. Instead, he now also felt a far greater connection to something different on the floating island. The only problem was he could not properly pinpoint the exact origin of this connection. Only capable of feeling how strong the connection was and the rough location being somewhere on the floating island.

"Let's hope this works…" Muttering this to himself as he threw the thought of the strong connection coming from somewhere on the floating island to the back of his mind, Lu Wen poured his qi into the small stone with the teapot symbol on top of it once again-

Whoosh-!

And not a second later, both Lu Wen and Yi Xuan disappeared from the small house. Leaving no trace of them even being there behind.

…

"We are finally back! Haaah… For a moment I thought we wouldn't be able to get back from that floating island…" Letting out a long sigh of relief after seeing that they had indeed managed to return to the sect again, Yi Xuan could not help feeling a sense of happiness well up inside her.

Even if they had only been gone for a few minutes, it had still been a scary experience for her. Especially considering that she had not yet left the sect for experience like Lu Wen had been doing.

"Indeed, it was good that we could get out of there safely. For now, we should- Y-you are!" Just about to say something in response to Yi Xuan, Lu Wen froze mid-sentence as he suddenly noticed someone had appeared in front of them.

"Hm? What's the matter Lu Wen, what happened?"

Having her back facing the direction that Lu Wen was looking, Yi Xuan could not help tilting her head in confusion before turning around to see what he was looking at. Not understanding what had suddenly caused him to freeze on the spot with a fearful expression plastered all over his face.

"E-elder Xuan!?"

However, the moment she turned around, she could not help freezing on the spot like Lu Wen after seeing the person that had appeared behind her...

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Hm? That spatial abnormality from earlier is there again!?

Noticing the spatial abnormality, the moment it appeared, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes before his divine sense once again swept towards the location that the abnormality had originated from. Not wanting to miss anything that might help him figure out just what the spatial abnormality was and how it had managed to manifest inside the sect without disturbing the chaotic qi formation.

After all, the chaotic qi formation also had control over the space inside the formation, being more than capable of stopping anyone from affecting the space inside the formation without first getting permission, something only the disciples and elders who had already become part of the sect had!

"Two disciples? And from the looks of it, both are rather talented as well."

Observing the place where the spatial abnormality had taken place, Xuan Hao instantly noticed Lu Wen and Yi Xuan who had suddenly popped out from a small portal that had appeared for an instant before disappearing along with the spatial abnormalities that had been formed as a side effect of the portal.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

Managing to observe the entire thing play out this time around, Xuan Hao also noticed that the reason why the portal was only open for an instant, was due to the chaotic qi formation forcibly stabilizing the space and as a result erasing the portal in the process.

If the portal had been established somewhere outside the sect where there wasn't some terrifying formation to forcibly erase it, it would most likely have been able to stay open for an extended period of time.

"But more importantly- Where did the portal come from, where does it connect to… And what does those two disciples have to do with it?" Muttering this to himself as he once again focused his attention on the two disciples who had come out from the portal, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about them and whatever they had used to open the portal.

Whoosh~

Not wasting any time as he was filled with questions for these two disciples, Xuan Hao directly left his palace. Leaving Qing Yi and Chu Yang to wonder what had happened for their master to suddenly leave in the middle of a lesson.

…

Arriving in front of the two disciples who had not noticed him yet, Xuan Hao decided not to say anything as he began examining the two disciples more closely.

One of them was a young woman in her late teens and was covered in the standard inner disciple robes. After looking a bit closer, Xuan Hao realized that he recognized the young girl as one of Zu Fei's disciples. As for her cultivation realm, she was only a single step away from reaching the Core Formation. Indeed, she is more than qualified to be the personal disciple of a core elder like Zu Fei.

Although… Thinking about it, Xuan Hao felt a sudden sense of curiosity towards Zu Fei's disciples and how she taught them.

From what little he could remember of the few chances he had to see them, none of them were like their master. All being well-behaved and polite.

As for the young man… Xuan Hao almost instantly recognized him as the boy who Wang Hu had showed interest in taking in as a disciple during the newcomer tournament when Qing Yi had just entered the sect.

Thinking about it, I never found out whether Wang Hu ended up taking him in as his disciple…

Inspecting the young man as he thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help nodding his head in approval. Not only had he reached the Core Formation Realm at such a young age, but even his foundation was strong and robust. Even surpassing that of some Third Stage Core Formation Realm Experts.

Outside of his disciples, it also looked like there were other geniuses present in the sect. Ensuring that sect would not be lacking powerful experts in the future!

Oh, looks like he finally noticed me…

Seeing the young man suddenly turn around before freezing on the spot the moment he noticed him; Xuan Hao could not help chuckling to himself upon seeing this.

Considering that he was the most powerful person in the sect and had suddenly appeared behind them, the reaction was rather normal. Especially when considering that he had just returned to the sect through some kind of portal.

"Hm? What's the matter Lu Wen, what happened?"

Still having her back turned to him, the young woman did not understand why her senior brother had suddenly frozen up as she asked this in a rather confused voice before turning around to see what it was that had caused her senior brother to freeze up all of a sudden-

"E-elder Xuan!?"

Not a second later, she similarly froze on the spot with a nervous expression on her face. Not understanding why, the most powerful elder of the sect had suddenly appeared behind them.

"No need for both of you to be that afraid, it's not like I'm here to punish you. The reason I came was just because of the spatial abnormality that you two caused when leaving and returning from the sect just now." Saying this, Xuan Hao could not help laughing silently as he watched the two get even nervous after he mentioned the spatial abnormality, both taking no more than a few seconds to understand that the spatial abnormality that he mentioned had something to do with them being teleported away from the sect and back again.

"E-Elder Xuan… it's like this…" Understanding that there would be no way for them to lie in the face of a powerful expert like Xuan Hao, the young woman, that Xuan Hao found out was called Yi Xuan, directly told him about the small stone with the teapot symbol on top of it and what they had experienced during the few short minutes they had been gone.

"Other than this, there is also a weird connection between me and…" Not willing to be left behind without being able to say anything, Lu Wen also jumped into the conversation. Explaining the connection between himself and the small stone with the teapot symbol on top of it and the weird new connection he had felt after reaching the floating island that had been materialized from clouds.

After the two had finished explaining everything that had happened to them and what they had managed to learn so far, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about the small stone with the teapot symbol and the floating island with the small house on top of it.

No matter what it was, it was clear to Xuan Hao that the floating island should be some kind of inheritance space and that the connection Lu Wen felt should be related to the inheritance located somewhere on the floating island.

"Hm… How interesting, would you mind I take a look at the small stone?"

"O-of course not! Here, Elder Xuan!"

Taking the small stone with the teapot symbol on top of it that Lu Wen handed over to him, Xuan Hao directly used his divine sense to thoroughly inspect the small stone-

"I see, so that is how it work…"

Not taking long to figure out how the small stone had been able to create a portal to transport Lu Wen and YI Xuan, even when they were inside the sect.

Essentially, the small stone contained a profound formation that seemed to link up with an even more powerful formation located in an unknown location, that then directly established a momentary spatial corridor leading directly to the floating island.

Something like this… Even for Xuan Hao, it was difficult to comprehend just how powerful this formation was, for it to be capable of forcibly creating a portal inside the Star Shattering Sect without triggering the chaotic qi formation.

Of course, now that he knew about it, he could change the formation a bit so this would no longer be possible...

Swish-!

Having finished inspecting the formation inside the small stone and managing to get a glimpse of the powerful formation it was connected to, Xuan Hao threw the small stone back to Lu Wen.

"Huh?"

Making him let out a surprised sound. Not understanding why Elder Xuan had given the small stone back to him. Part of him already having prepared for Elder Xuan to take away the small stone.

"Keep it and. The opportunity contained inside it is yours…. And… Unless you have a death wish don't tell anyone else about it…"

Swoosh~

Not waiting for Lu Wen or Yi Xuan to recover, Xuan Hao directly left.

As for not taking the small stone for himself… The small stone and the portal that could be opened through it had certain restrictions, one of them being that one had to be below the Nascent Soul Realm, while a special physique also seemed to be needed to fully take on the inheritance.

Forcing his way through with brute force was not something he planned to do. Especially after seeing the terrifying formation that the small stone was connected to. Even without personally seeing it up close, he was certain that it should have been something that had been constructed by someone who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm!

Not to mention, Lu Wen was still someone from the Star Shattering Sect. Even if the powerful inheritance didn't end up in the hands of his disciples. At the very least it would still help to increase the strength of the Star Shattering Sect!

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"He just left without taking the stone away..." Muttering this to himself as he looked in the direction that Xuan Hao had left in, Lu Wen could not help feeling shocked that he had managed to keep the mysterious stone. Especially considering that he was certain that it was related to some sort of precious treasure due to how Elder Xuan had warned him to keep it secret before leaving. Making him even more confused as to why he had been able to keep the small stone capable of teleporting him to the floating island.

The elders from the Star Shattering Sect are really different when compared to the elders from any of the other sects I was thinking about entering in the past…The initial posting of this chapter occurred via noovelllbbin

Thinking about this as he came to terms with everything that had just happened, Lu Wen could not help feeling happy that he had chosen to enter the Star Shattering Sect instead of going to any of the other sects that had been located closer to him back when he went out to search for a sect to join.

Back then, the only reason why he had chosen to make the long journey to the Star Shattering Sect from where he lived, was because he had been lucky enough to encounter a group of young people on their way to the Star Shattering Sect after having heard rumors about the sect having a legendary existence above the Nascent Soul presiding over it.

If not for this information convincing him to follow them to the Star Shattering Sect, he would have most likely never have entered the sect and would instead have ended up in one of the smaller sects that were now under the influence of the Star Shattering Sect!

Shaking his head as memories of the past began appearing, Lu Wen decided not to think too much about as he chatted a bit with Yi Xuan about what they had experienced before making his way back towards his courtyard. Keeping the words that Elder Xuan had told him about not telling anyone else about the small stone in the back of his head.

…

"Ahm! As all of you already know, with the new Domain Lord Realm Expert joining the sect, it is almost certain that Elder Song is going to speed up the process of the sect's expansion over the next few years and he might even start to set his sight on those larger kingdoms that we have mostly decided to ignore for now because of the weird technique allowing them to forcefully breakthrough the Domain Lord Realm for a short time.

The reason why I called everyone here is for us to find out who among us are going to be leaving the sect to take up the task of protecting the new territory of the sect, as we all know that none of us really want to leave due to the cultivation environment inside the main sect…"

As Lu Wen and Yi Xuan were making their way back to their respective courtyards after parting ways, a large number of both outer sect elders and normal sect elder had gathered together in a small pavilion in the outskirts of the sects.

The weakest among them being the outer sect elder at the Peak of the Core Formation Realm, while the strongest was the old elder from the Half-Spirit at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, who had also been the person to take the lead and speak up just now.

"Senior, I understand this, but how are we going to figure out who can stay and who will have to leave the sect to ensure the safety and stability of the new territory of the sect?" Stepping forward with a doubtful expression on his face, one of the outer sect elders could not help asking this.

Fearful that the former grand elder of the half spirit race would propose something like them fighting it out with each other. Understanding very well that if something like that happened, his chances of being able to stay back at the sect and focus all of his attention towards breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm would be gone. After all, among the elders currently present, he was by far one of the weakest, even among the other outer sect elders in the Core Formation Realm…

"""…"""

Hearing what the outer sect elder said, the rest of the outer sect elders could not help showing a similar nervous expression. All of them realizing that their chances of being able to stay in the sect would not be much better if the matter ended up being decided by combat.

"Haaa… you people… Have you forgotten that all of you are only in the Core Formation Realm? Other than managing one of the branch sects, you won't be able to protect the sect's territory with your current strength!"

Seeing the nervous expressions that had appeared on the faces of all the outer sect elders present, one of the Nascent Soul Realm sect elders could not help rolling his eyes as he said this.

"Ah…!"

"That is true…"

"…"

Hearing what the sect elder said, the outer sect elders who had all been nervously looking towards the former grand elder of the half spirit race, could not help blushing in embarrassment after being called out for being too weak.

Even if what the sect elder had said was true and they were far too weak to stabilize the new territory of the Star Shattering Sect, the outer sect elders could not help feeling even more motivated to reach the Nascent Soul Realm and become a core part of the sect's strength. Not willing to remain as outer sect elders for the rest of their lives!

"Well… Now that everyone seems to have calmed down again, I was planning for us to find out who will be leaving the sect through a simple game of chance in the shape of a simple roll of the dice or something similar." Not wanting things to drag on for too long, the former grand elder of the half spirit race once again stepped forward and gave his suggestion on how he had planned for them to find out who was going to be the ones to leave the sect.

"Ha? A game of chance? A roll of a dice?"

"You want us to decide something this important through something like that!?"

"This is… Not what I expected…"

Hearing what the former grand elder of the half spirit race said, the elders present all had different reactions. Even then, the most widespread reaction was still one of surprise over just how unexpected the solution given by the former grand elder of the half spirit race was…

Out of everything that they had thought about, be a small-scale tournament between different elders of similar cultivation realm to everyone giving their own reason for why they should stay in the sect while the rest would vote for whether or not it was a more valid reason than the others. None of the elders present had expected the suggestion to be something simple like a game of chance.

On the other hand, this way, everything would be up to fate and none of them would have any sort of advantage over the other.

As the elders all slowly came to this realization, they understood that the suggestion given by the former grand elder of the half spirit race might be the best way to solve this problem. Especially when considering that the time available to them before Elder Song showed up was limited.

All of them having a clear understanding of just how fast the old man acted when he first decided on something. Even them having a few more hours would be surprising, let alone enough time to hold a tournament or something similar that would take a long time.

"I think we should go with a simple dice throw, this way we can solve this quickly and won't have to worry about Elder Song showing up while we are still trying to figure out who is going to stay and who is going to leave…"

"Indeed, I also think it's a good idea, we can also ensure that no one is cheating with all of us keeping an eye on the dice."

"Haha, looks like we have all come to an agreement! What are we waiting for, let's roll a dice and find out who is lucky and who is unlucky!"

Realizing this, it did not take long before some of the elders took out a few different dices and began the process of rolling them to find out who would stay inside the sect and who was going to be stationed somewhere outside to stabilize the new territory of the sect. The rules of the game being rather simple, the one rolling the highest won, while the one rolling the lowest lost.

Roll~

Roll~

Roll~

Not long after the first had started, the rest of the elders quickly followed the rest.

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"Nooo-! How can this be!? How did I lose when I rolled a five!?"

"Haha! Looks like I'm the one who is going to be staying in the sect! With this, I should have more than enough time to breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm and become an official sect elder!"

"Ah-! How is this possible, I rolled a one!?"

"Wow... Never expected someone to be that unlucky. Hehe, at least you ended up as my opponent!"

Arriving at the small pavilion where the group of elders had gathered together to find out who would stay in the sect and who would be leaving, Elder Song could only stare speechlessly at the group of elders as they were all rolling dice while loudly exclaiming every time, they rolled a dice.

Even if Elder Song had seen a lot of different things during the time he had acted as the person in charge of the Flying Sword Sect- and now the Star Shattering Sect's internal matter, this was still a first to him.

"What are all of you doing…?" Realizing that none of the elders had noticed him and come over to explain what was happening, Elder Song could only make his presence known as he asked this-

"Who- Ah!? Elder Song?!"

"What!? Elder Song is here!?

"Finish- We have to finish the game of chance and figure out who will be going and who will be staying!"

As a result, the elders who had been fully focused on rolling dice to figure out who would stay in the sect and who was going to leave, started panicking, as they scrambled to finish things up before Elder Song began to talk about the expansion of the sect and asking who would be willing to leave the sect to secure the new territory of the sect.

"…"

Seeing this, Elder Song who had just asked to figure out what the group of elders were up to, could not help narrowing his eyes upon seeing how desperate the group of elders were to finish the game of dice they were playing. Not understanding why these elders were so absorbed in the dice rolling game… But given that he was not too busy at the moment, he decided to wait for them to finish before moving on to what he was planning to talk to them about.

After all, he was the one who had suddenly shown up while they were in the middle of enjoying a good time together. However, as he continued waiting for them to finish their game of dice up, Elder Song could not help wondering why the elders had suddenly gathered together like this without him hearing anything about it.

Considering that so many elders were involved in this hangout event, it should have taken a few days to plan and spread around to make sure that the different elders didn't have something else to do. Not only that, but he could also hear them mention something about leaving the sect every time they lost or won-

The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

Don't tell me…

Suddenly realizing something, Elder Song's face could not help darkening as he stopped waiting and instead made his way over towards the group of elders still busy rolling dice, causing most of the Nascent Soul Realm Elders to stop what they were doing before turning to look towards the approaching Elder Song.

"Hm? Elder Song is coming over!? Could it be we took too long, and he grew impatient?"

"Who knows, we can only wait and see for now…"

Under the observant eyes of all the Nascent Soul Realm elders present, Elder Song came to a stop directly behind one of the outer sect elders. Unfortunately for this outer sect elder, his strength was only in the Core Formation Realm, so he didn't notice the fact that Elder Song had appeared behind him and was still nervously rolling dice with another outer sect elder, who had similarly not noticed Elder Song.

"Greetings Elder Fire Lama, I just arrived and was wonder why everyone is rolling dice? Is it just for the fun of it, or is it because of something different?"

Hearing the question asked by Elder Song and the answer from the outer sect elder, all of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts watching from a distance could not help shivering as they suddenly realized what was happening. However, they did not have a chance to inform Elder Fire Lama before he answered Elder Song's question.

"Haha, of course not! It's to decide who among us will be the unlucky ones to leave the sect when Elder Song decides to- Wait… Y-you are- E-Elder Song!?" Happily laughing due to him just winning his match before answering the question of who he thought to just be an elder that had arrived late, the outer sect elder called Elder Fire Lama suddenly realized that the person behind him was none other than Elder Song.

"Hm… I see… To decide who is unfortunate enough to be the one to leave the sect…" Smiling ominously as he said this, all of the elders inside the small pavilion felt a shiver run down their spine as they understood that Elder Song was angry, something that rarely happened and only a few elders from back during the time of the Flying Sword sect had experienced before.

To be honest, these elders had never thought they would ever get to see a kind elder like Elder Song angry before and had doubted the few elders who had told them about it-

"Well… Seeing as all of you are unwilling to leave the sect and just want to stay here and laze around, I thought of a perfect way to arrange the upcoming allocation of who will be leaving the sect to stabilize the new territory. Hehe, it just so happens that the number of people present here should be just enough to stabilize the new territory that will become part of the sect over the next few years.

And now that I think about it, the alchemists from Alchemy Hall requested me to send over a few elders to gather some rare spiritual herbs and other materials for them. At first, I was wondering where I would be able to get any elders considering how busy we are going to get over the next few years, but… From the looks of it, all of you here won't have much to do before the new territory is under the sect's control, so sending all of you to work for a bit in the Alchemy Hall shouldn't be much of a problem.

Haha, I can already see how motivated all of you are, no need to thank me, I will get going and make sure to let the Alchemy Hall know about it."

However, as they watched Elder Song leave after saying this, they realized just how scary an angry Elder Song was!

Even if he didn't out right say how unhappy he was about them doing something like this in order to continue cultivating in the sect without doing anything to help out the sect, all of the elders in the small pavilion, were filled with fear as they looked in the direction that Elder Song had left in.

The few short words he had said before leaving had essentially doomed them to be outside the main sect for the next ten or so years!

"…"

However, among the group of elders gathered in the small pavilion, the one who had ended up losing the most, was the former grand elder of the half spirit race.

Although, he had been the one to gather all of elders to figure out who would be leaving the sect and who wouldn't, he had only done this under the request of another elder from the half spirit race, who didn't want to leave the sect because he was close to a breakthrough and wanted to make use of the qi present in main sect to speed up this breakthrough.

After all, with his strength at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, he wouldn't have to leave the sect under normal circumstances and would not be among the elders required to leave the sect to help stabilize the new territory of the Star Shattering Sect.

Increasing his strength and possibly reaching the Domain Lord Realm was far more important and the current Star Shattering Sect did not lack Nascent Soul Realm Experts. Especially considering that a large number of the former Peak Core Formation Realm Experts from both the Flying Sword Sect and the Spring Flower Sect had managed to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm after spending a few years on the Seventh Star Peak.

Because of this, the former grand elder of the half spirit race was filled with regret as he looked in the direction that Elder Song had left in. Regretting that he had agreed to the request back then.

As for going against the arrangements set up by Elder Song? That was not something he dared to do… No matter what, Elder Song was still the current Vice Sect master!

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Not too long after Elder Song officially began to implement his plans of starting to expand into the larger kingdoms that they had ignored over the past few years while taking care of the smaller kingdoms and stabilizing them following this, the different large kingdoms all started panicking at the prospect of the Star Shattering Sect starting to invade their territory.

"What!? The Star Shattering Sect has started expanding into the closest large kingdoms!? Didn't you say that they had stopped going after the larger kingdoms after learning they had a method to forcibly reach the Domain Lord Realm for a period of time!?

Ha… And here I thought our kingdom would be able to remain outside the Star Shattering Sect's sphere of influence because we were lucky enough to have our borders completely surrounded by three different large kingdoms…"

Among all of the kingdoms that would inevitably have to face the Star Shattering Sect, a certain small kingdom that had managed to avoid falling under the control of the Star shattering Sect due to its good location in between three large kingdoms, was the one that started panicking the most after learning about the Star Shattering Sect once again attempting to expand into the larger sects.

Even if everyone understood that this would only be a matter of time deep down, none of them had expected it to happen so fast.

After all, even if the method that allowed someone to forcibly reach the Domain Lord Realm only lasted for a short period of time, it would still be more than enough time to cause a large amount of damage to the Star Shattering Sect. Possibly even having the ability to heavily injure one of the Star Shattering Sect's Domain Lord Realm Experts if there was more than one person who forcibly broke through to the Domain Lord Realm at the same time.

For this reason, most of the large kingdoms and small kingdoms that had managed to avoid the Star Shattering Sect so far, had expected for the Star Shattering Sect to stop expanding further and instead focus all their attention towards strengthening themselves for a few hundred years before expanding again. Allowing the large kingdoms some time to either have someone break through to the Domain Lord Realm or move everything of value away and settle down somewhere where the Star Shattering Sect couldn't reach them.

However, all of this was no longer possible now that the Star Shattering Sect had started to expand again. Moving the important people of their kingdom might be a doable in a year or two, but the different mines and other precious resources present in their territory was a different thing.

Even by using all of their energy and forcibly trying to get everything of value out of their spirit stone mines would at least take a hundred years or more… And that was only considering that their Nascent Soul Realm Experts were also present to help out with the mining of the spirit stones, something that would be hard to do if they were busy fighting against the Star Shattering Sect.

In the end, none of the larger kingdoms were prepared for the Star Shattering Sect expanding into their territory. Resulting in the Star Shattering Sect managing to directly take over one of the smaller kingdoms among those who had managed to get their hands on the technique allowing them to forcibly reach the Domain Lord Realm with close to no resistance.

Because of all this, the king of the small kingdom that had managed to avoid the Star Shattering Sect was especially troubled about what to do. Part of him wanting to leave, while another part of him didn't want to give up the land his family had spent the past thousands of years building up…

"What in the world am I supposed to do? Should I really just abandon the land my ancestors built up? Maybe I could do the same as other small kingdoms and join the Star Shattering Sect in hopes that they aren't going to take everything away from me." Muttering this to himself as he turned towards his son, the crown prince, who was waiting for him to give out an order on what they were supposed to do in response to the Star Shattering Sect's sudden expansion, the king could not help feeling even more anxious than before as he thought about the large kingdom that had fallen to the Star Shattering Sect.

As unlucky as he was at the moment, it just so happened that the large kingdom, which had been taken over by the Star Shattering Sect, was none other than one of the three large kingdoms surrounding his kingdom.

Considering this, he didn't really have a long time left before he would be forced to decide on whether to join the Star Shattering Sect like so many others in a similar situation to him had done before or run away.

If he didn't come up with an answer to this question soon, the elders from the Star shattering Sect would most likely soon be at his doorstep and at that point in time, there would not be any chance of him running away with the precious spiritual herbs and other treasures that had been stored in the royal treasury by his family since the establishment of the kingdom.

"Father… Are we really going to leave behind our land? Is the Star Shattering Sect really that impressive? From what I heard; the large kingdoms don't seem like they are going to lose with the powerful forbidden technique that allows them to forcefully break through to the Domain Lord Realm.

Even if the Star Shattering Sect has more than one Domain Lord Realm Expert, there is no way for them to resist if 10 or more elders from the large kingdoms forcefully breaks through to the Domain Lord Realm and decides to attack them!"NvεlB¡n: Where Every Word Sparks Wonder.

Seeing that his father was lost in thought while muttering something to himself, the crown prince could not help growing impatient as he said this. Not showing the slightest bit of fear towards the Star Shattering Sect like his father.

Making it rather obvious to anyone watching that he had no idea about the strength of the Star Shattering Sect nor the simple fact that those who forcibly broke through to the Domain Lord Realm would only barely be comparable to the weakest First stage Domain Lord Realm Expert for a short period of time.

Instead thinking that the large kingdoms had the strength to fight against the Star Shattering Sect…

"Fight against the Star Shattering Sect!? How dumb are you, son!? Do you really think those large kingdoms can compare to a sect like the Star Shattering Sect with several Domain Lord Realm Experts in it just because of some forbidden technique!? Have you perhaps also forgotten that winged lion demon beast that showed up on the side of one of the Domain Lord Realm Elders of the Star Shattering Sect and how it easily tore apart that ancestor who had forcibly broken through to the Domain Lord realm!?"

Hearing what his son said, the king could not help losing his temper as he angrily reprimanded him, as images of the terrifying figure of the winged lion popped up in his head.

Although he had only seen it once during a visit to one of the large kingdoms, the scene of the winged lion tearing apart one of the ancestors from the large kingdom who had forcibly broken through to the Domain Lord Realm, was still vivid.

Even if he himself reached the Domain Lord Realm, he would not dare to go and fight with the Star shattering Sect knowing that they had such a terrifying guardian demon beast around. Not to mention the even more terrifying implications of the Star Shattering Sect having such a terrifying guardian demon beast around!

"Father-"

"Go back to your room and contemplate your mistakes, I will come up with a decision on what is best for our family and kingdom in the meantime!"

"Yes… Father…" Frowning unhappily as he said this, the crown prince reluctantly left the throne room and made his way back towards his palace located a short distance away from the main palace. Not feeling the slightest bit convinced about the large kingdoms losing against a single sect.

As for the terrifying demon beast that had appeared to kill one of the ancestors of a large kingdom that had forcibly broken through to the Domain Lord Realm? He merely blamed this on the fact that the ancestor in question had not managed to fully utilize the forbidden technique and had actually still been in the Nascent Soul Realm.

At least this would help explaining how easily he had died. After all, everyone knew just how much more powerful someone in the Domain Lord Realm was compared to someone in the Nascent Soul Realm. Especially when it came to demon beasts, as they were more often than not, stronger than normal Domain Lord Realm Experts when they broke through!

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"Father has really gone senile after his encounter with the guardian demon beast of the star Shattering Sect…" Muttering this to himself as he made his way out of the large main palace, the crown prince could not help frowning with an unsatisfied expression on his face. Not the slightest bit happy with the inaction of his father.

"Hm? That is…" Just at this moment, the crown prince froze on the spot as he spotted a tall man standing at the entrance gate to the wall surrounding the main palace.

Although his appearance was covered by a large cloak that made it impossible to discern his true appearance, his presence alone was more than enough to intimidate any of the servants passing by from approaching. Even making the guards standing guard at the entrance gate look the other way, as they were similarly intimidated by the tall man.

Noticing the crown prince at the same time that the crown prince saw him, a small smile made its way onto the face of the tall man before he began making his way towards the crown prince. "Your highness it's good to see you again."

"Greetings elder, it's great to see you again." Not caring about his identity, the crown prince respectfully bowed his head to the tall man with a respectful expression on his face. Allowing everyone watching the interaction from afar to understand just how important the tall man, while at the same time making them curious about who the tall man and where he came from.

After all, the crown prince was the most influential person in the entire kingdom and outside of the king, no one could make him bow his head in the kingdom. Meaning that the tall man who had just made the crown prince respectfully bow his head, should be a powerful person from one of the larger kingdoms!

"Your highness let's go somewhere more secluded where we can talk more privately. "Glancing around at the servants and guards observing them as he said this, the tall man signaled for the crown prince to follow him out of the main palace.

"Of course! We can go to my palace, there won't be anyone to disturb us there." Nodding his head obediently as he said this, the crown prince quickly jumped ahead of the tall man to lead the way to his palace, something that the tall man tactically agreed with, as both of them soon made their way out of the main palace and into the smaller palace belonging to the crown prince.

"So, have you come to a decision regarding the thing we talked about last time we met?" Coming to a stop inside a small, isolated room of the crown prince's palace, the tall man directly asked this with a serious expression on his face, causing the crown prince who to momentarily freeze on the spot.

"This… Is it really necessary for me to get rid of my father…?" Hesitating for a moment before he turned around and asked this, the crown prince quickly looked around himself with a nervous expression on his face after realizing what he had just said. Only relaxing again after making sure that there wasn't anyone secretly spying on him.

"Hmph! You think that father of yours would agree to go against the Star Shattering Sect? His weak mindset will inevitably end up ruining this kingdom and you know that as well. Only by displaying your strength and standing up against the Star Shattering Sect together with the large kingdoms, will you and your kingdom have a chance to rise up in this world!" Sneering disdainfully as he said this, the tall man looked directly at the crown prince for a response.

His terrifying aura made it clear that he would not accept anything other than a straightforward answer. Not wanting to give the crown prince a chance to delay the answer like he had done the last time they met up.

If father really doesn't want to fight back against the Star Shattering Sect and ensure the kingdom's prosperity and continued existence, it might be time for me to step up in his place and ensure that the kingdom remains strong. Maybe even growing strong enough to contend with the large kingdoms. Possibly even stronger than that!

Feeling like his ambitions to lead his kingdom to greater heights had been ignited, the crown prince turned to look towards the tall man, still hidden beneath a large cloak, with a determined look in his eyes.

"Oh? Have you come to a decision?" Not able to stop himself from smiling after noticing the determination of the crown, the tall man chuckled silently to himself as he asked this question. Even if he already knew the answer to the question.

"Yes! I will do what you said and lead my kingdom to fight against the Star Shattering Sect!"

"Hehe, great! I will be informing my master about this development so he can prepare the necessary things required for your kingdom to have the strength to fight against the Star Shattering Sect. Although… I hope you will have taken care of your father and become the king by the time I return. If not… My master will be forced to intervene and put someone other than you in the position of king!"

Whoosh-!

Disappearing from the room after he finished saying this, the mysterious tall man didn't leave any traces of him being there behind.

As for the crown prince… He was looking back in the direction of the main palace was located with a difficult expression on face. Although the man had not outright told him to kill his father, the crown prince understood that there would be no other way than this if he wanted to become the king.

After all, he understood his father very well and there was no way that his father would just hand over his position to him and make him the new king. Especially considering the current chaotic situation that was taking place due to the Star Shattering Sect starting to expand into the larger kingdoms that had previously been left alone for a short period of time.

"Haa… Father, I hope you will make the correct decision…" Muttering this to himself as he looked towards the large palace at the center of the capital where his father was staying, the crown prince turned around before making his way out of capital to make the required preparations for taking the position away from his father by force!

…

Not too long after the short encounter between the crown prince and the mysterious tall man, the citizen of the small kingdom, woke up to news of the king being poisoned to death by one of the factions that had been defeated by the king in the past when he ascended the throne.

Luckily, the crown prince was around at the time of the poisoning and managed to catch the culprit before he had a chance to escape. Executing him on the spot.

The heroic actions of the crown prince killing the assassin quickly spread through the kingdom and all the citizen and nobles gave their support to the crown prince as he smoothly ascended the throne without any problems.

Not a single person thought that the crown prince might have been behind the death of his father. The reason for this being that the crown prince was the only legitimate heir of the kingdom and would inevitably take over the kingdom in the future, there was no need for him to kill his father only to ascend the throne a few years earlier!

Like this, the small kingdom located in between three large kingdoms smoothly changed owners without anyone noticing anything odd about it. Even the people from the large kingdoms who had been friends with the now former crown prince's father did not think there was anything odd about his death…

…

"Hm? The small kingdom just next to the kingdom we took control of changed owners?"

At the same time that the information of the small kingdom started to spread out beyond the borders of the small kingdom itself, Elder Song who was currently focusing a large part of his attention on that specific area due to the large kingdom that had just entered the control of the Star Shattering Sect being located there, inevitably learnt about it.

"Yes, from the looks of it, it should be one of the factions that had been fighting against the now dead king when he first ascended the throne. The person in charge of the kingdom now is the crown prince, who would originally have ascended the throne in another five to ten years."

"Killing the current king who is already getting close to death, but not his child? How weird… Looks like there is something more to the death of that king…" Narrowing his eyes as he muttered this to himself, Elder Song did not waste any time in contacting the servant quarters to have them gather more information on the crown prince who had taken control of the small kingdom.

Part of him feeling that everything about what had happened in the small kingdom felt odd…

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Not paying any attention to the expansion of the sect, Xuan Hao instead focused all of his attention on training his four disciples. Among whom, Mui was the one that ended up benefiting the most. Progressing from the Fifth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm all the way to the Foundation Establishment Realm in a short month.

Bai Ning on the other, hand had been focusing most of his attention on improving his blacksmithing at the start of the month but had soon returned to the palace to learn from his mater and attempt to teach his new junior sister the art of blacksmithing, something which unfortunately ended up as a failure.

On the positive side, the failure had not deterred Bai Ning and only caused him to work harder. In the end resulting in him finally breaking through from the Peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Core Formation Realm.

Chu Yang and Qing Yi did not lack behind either, as Xuan Hao also made sure to train both of them whenever he wasn't training Mui. Allowing Chu Yang to finally break through from the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm to the Second Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, while Qing Yi managed to fully stabilize her cultivation base at the Peak of the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

Even if their cultivation base had not managed to improve at the same level as Mui had, both of them had grown far stronger compared to a month ago and were more than capable of fighting against someone in the Sixth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm by working together. Even if they encountered someone in the Seventh Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, they would at least have the strength to escape alive with their current strength, something that none of the other Nascent Soul Realm Experts around the same level in the sect could do.

At this point, both of them had finished making all the preparations to enter the mystic realm and were excitedly waiting for their master to send them off-

"It's great to see that both of you are excited about entering the mystic realm… But can you wait until I finish my lesson with Mui…?"

Maybe a bit too excited about it, as they were currently disturbing their master's lesson with their newest junior sister…

Luckily for both of them, they didn't have to wait for more than a few hours before their master finished his lesson and officially sent them off towards the entrance to the mystic realm that was located below his pavilion in the Flying Sword Sect, that had now been transformed into the biggest branch of the Star Shattering Sect over the past few years. Only the former main sect of the Spring Flower Sect being comparable to it.

The entrance to the mystic realm itself had been sealed off by Xuan Hao in the past, so as to prevent anyone from accidentally entering it by mistake like his disciples had done in the past. Other than this, the current elder in charge of the Flying Sword Sect, made sure that no one wandered up to the now abandoned pavilion.

As for any other entrances to the mystic realm? Xuan Hao had no idea where they were located nor if there really were any other entrances beside the one located below his pavilion. The only possible entrance to the mystic realm that he could think of, was the weird secret realm that Bai Ning had accidently entered together with another disciple from the sect during his time hunting down demonic cultivator.

Unfortunately, when he had gone to investigate this weird secret realm over the past month, the entrance that Bai Ning had mentioned, was nowhere to be found. Even using his domain to scan the mountain cave that the entrance was located inside of proved to be of no use. In the end, he could only give up on searching for the entrance and concluded that it had collapsed after Bai Ning and the other disciple that had gone in together with him, had left…

"Now that both Chu Yang and Qing Yi have left and I finished teaching Mui the basics, it should be time for me to go back and fully explore the Main Star Peak and find out just what it is that is hiding inside the rundown temple…" Muttering this to himself as he watched Chu Yang and Qing Yi enter the mystic realm before disappearing from sight, Xuan Hao soon turned around and made his way back towards the Star Shattering Sect. No, it would be more accurate to say that he made his way towards the Main star Peak.

Not only was it to figure out who the person located inside the rundown temple was and what kind of secrets were hidden inside of the temple itself, but it was also to complete the main quest and figure out what had caused the death of the blue deer's father.

After all, he had left the main quest alone for such a long time now and had a feeling that the system would not be issuing him any new quests before he completed it. Of course, this was not the only reason he wanted to complete the main quest; the main reason was that he was also curious about what had happened to the blue deer's father… And more than that, the reward from the main quest!

Even if he had no idea what the [Sky Watcher's forgotten notes relating celestial bodies, was about, he still understood that it should be something important. Especially considering how dangerous it had been for him to look into the death of the blue deer's father so far.

…

"Hm… It looks exactly the same as the last time I was here…"

Arriving at the ravine where the temple was located, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he looked towards the temple still standing tall with the same terrifying aura surrounding it as before. Even the damage that had been done during his struggle to escape with the blue deer back then was still visible.

The main difference when compared to back then, was that with his current cultivation in the Initial Dao Domain Lord Realm, he could clearly feel that the strength behind the terrifying aura was around the earlier stages of the Soul Ascension Realm. Not something he would have been able to fight against if he had really made his way inside the temple back then.

Whoosh-!

Knowing that the other party was not stronger than himself, Xuan Hao didn't bother restraining his divine sense, as he used it to search for the origin of the terrifying aura and the person who had attacked him and the blue deer back then-

"Hm? What in the world is this!?"

However, when his divine sense reached the top of the temple where he thought the person in question should be located, he was shocked to discover that instead of a person, there was a large floating gem the size of a large ball.

The terrifying aura originated from this large gem and without needing to investigate any further, it also became obvious that the thing that had attacked him and the blue deer back then was none other than the large gem… Or to be more precise, it was the consciousness stored inside the large gem that had attacked them.

This realization made Xuan Hao feel a shiver run down his spine as he fully understood how powerful someone would have to be for just a remnant consciousness to have the strength of a Soul Ascension Realm Expert in the earlier stages of the realm.

Even without having to investigate it any further, it became obvious that the remnant consciousness belonged to an expert that had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm!

For there to be such a powerful remnant consciousness, I will have to be careful when entering the temple. Even if I'm stronger than the remnant consciousness, I have no idea what kind of weird and powerful methods an expert surpassing the Soul Ascension Realm has, there might even be some kind of possession method that allows the remnant consciousness to forcibly take control of my body!

Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help cautiously looking up towards the top of the rundown temple where the large gem containing the remnant consciousness was located.

Hesitating for a short moment as he thought about what to do in case the remnant tried to take control of his body or some other weird and obscure techniques that it might have learnt, Xuan Hao took a step forward and entered the rundown temple.

Rumble~!

Not a second later, the remnant consciousness located at the top of the temple discovered his appearance.

Swish-!

Not wasting a single second before sending an attack down towards him!

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Seeing the incoming attack, Xuan Hao causally waved his hand as his domain swept out and formed a massive ice barrier in front of him-

Bang!

Blocking the attack of the remnant consciousness before it even had a chance to reach him!

Rumble~!

However, before he had a chance to counterattack, the large pillars holding up the temple started collapsing before transforming into large stone chains that hovered in the air as several intangible golden inscriptions appeared all over them. Even without personally inspecting the large stone chains with his divine sense, Xuan Hao could still feel a sense of danger from them that far exceeded the danger he had felt from any attack done by the remnant consciousness so far!

Whoosh!

Not planning to give him too long to try and analyze the large stone chains covered in golden inscriptions, the remnant consciousness divine sense spread out before covering the stone chains-

Swish-!

And not a second later, the newly formed stone chains all flew towards Xuan Hao, their presence alone sealing off the space around the entire temple. Making escape through spatial movement impossible!

"Looks like the remnant consciousness does indeed have a few things prepared…" Muttering this to himself, as he saw the stone chains covered in golden inscriptions flying towards him, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes as he fully unleashed his domain without holding back.

RUMBLE-!

As his Dao Domain clashed together with the stone chains, the chains changed their form of attack and instead of heading towards him, they curled around his domain before it had a chance to fully expand towards the large gem with the remnant consciousness located at the top of the temple. Forcibly restraining it from expanding any further and possibly threatening the remnant consciousness… But at the same time, this also resulted in the chains being unable to get any closer to Xuan Hao. Making the two sides enter a momentary standstill, as neither the dao domain nor the chains showed any signs of being stronger than the other.

These chains… They aren't made from some kind of special spiritual metal or stones, but actually still have the power to forcibly restrain my dao domain! Is it perhaps because of the golden inscriptions…?

Not feeling nervous about his current situation as he had already expected for the remnant consciousness to have a way to fight back against him even with its limited strength, Xuan Hao was instead more curious about the golden inscriptions that had allowed the chains made from rather ordinary stones to resist his dao domain.

After all, it had to be known, his current dao domain was more than strong enough to kill someone in the earlier stages of the Soul Ascension Realm. For a few chains made from ordinary stone to restrain it without showing any signs of budging… The power of these chains had to be far stronger than that of a Soul Ascension Realm Expert who had undergone the First or Second Tribulation.

What's more, after observing the stone chains more closely, Xuan Hao discovered that the golden inscriptions on them were already in a state of decay and weren't capable of showing off their true power. If not for this, Xuan Hao was certain that his dao domain would not have stood a chance against these stone chains!

But then again… This dao domain is far from the only form of attack I have!

Swish-!

Having finished observing the golden inscriptions on the stone chains, Xuan Hao pulled out the silver sword before directly using the sword attack, he had invented back at the border between the Sky Empire and the Frozen Wastelands, Descend of the Ice God's Sword!

BOOOOM-!

Not able to resist both the dao domain and the ice sword at the same time, the stone chains were directly forced back as the ice sword and dao domain combined together into a single attack heading directly towards the top of the temple where the large gem with the remnant consciousness was located. Knowing that the faster he managed to finish the battle, the less time there would be for the remnant consciousness to prepare another attack.

For example, he had already lost a good opportunity to attack when the pillars of the temple had collapsed and formed into large chains covered in golden inscriptions. If he hadn't been taken aback for a short moment back then, he might have had a chance to destroy the large gem and the remnant consciousness inside of it!

Whoosh-!

However, just as he was about to reach the large gem where the remnant consciousness was residing, a phantom whose appearance was impossible to discern appeared in front of the large gem.

Swish-!

Casually waving its hand, the ice sword and dao domain that had been used to enhance the strength of the ice sword directly dispersed without any resistance, while at the same time causing Xuan Hao to freeze on the spot without being able to move a single muscle.

What is this!? Is this the power of someone who surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm and overcame the Immortal Soul Tribulation…

Already feeling shocked after seeing how his attack had been dealt with, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of powerlessness that he had never felt after losing control of his body.

At this point in time, he realized that the existence in front of him was not an existence in the Soul Ascension Realm, but instead someone who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm!

Even if it was just a small remnant consciousness left behind by this expert, he was still completely powerless to resist after the remnant consciousness had awoken…

"You, you are the one who awoke me? Hm? This is… Why is there a Dao Domain Lord in this fragment!?"

Hearing the phantom floating in front of the large gem suddenly talking, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine after hearing it mention the fact that he was a Dao Domain Lord. So far, other than some information he had acquired through the system, this was the first time he had ever heard anyone mention the Dao Domain Lord Realm. Making it even more obvious that the phantom floating in front of him was not someone from the current era.

"Oh? Don't want to answer me? Oh well, I should be able to recover part of my true soul by absorbing your dao domain!"

Not caring about the thoughts running through Xuan Hao's head, the phantom casually waved its hand again-

Crack~!

Following which, Xuan Hao suddenly felt a terrifying force pressing down on him from all directions. Seeking to directly squash him to death.

Fwoosh-!

It was at this moment, as Xuan Hao was about to be crushed by the phantom, that the small phoenix imprint that had remained hidden without doing anything since the last time he had absorbed a phoenix feather lit up before a beautiful blue flame covered Xuan Hao's entire body. Preventing the terrifying force from crushing his body.

Seeing the feather imprint that had appeared between Xuan Hao's eyebrows, the phantom didn't even care about the fact that his power had been forced back. Instead, he was far more focused on feather imprint itself.

"This- T-the mark of that phoenix-!? No… This should be impossible! We clearly saw her dying back then! How is it possible for her to still be around!?" Screaming this in an unwilling tone filled with both fear and killing intent, the phantom that had seemed arrogant and above everything a short moment ago, was reduced to a terrified mess.

FWOOSH-!

Not caring about the reaction of the phantom, the blue flame that had engulfed Xuan hao and protected him, started expanding rapidly. Soon reaching the phantom-

BOOOM-!

As the flames got close to the phantom, it quickly recovered from its terrifying state before a terrifying power far above that of the Soul Ascension Realm erupted from it in an attempt to resist the blue flames.

Rumble-!

As the power of the phantom clashed with the blue flames, it instantly became obvious that it was no match for the blue flames. Instead, the power released by the phantom ended up serving as fuel for the blue flame. Making it stronger and stronger with each passing second before it managed to reach the phantom itself.

"Aaaaaah-! No! I don't want to die like this! I spent such a long time trying to recover! DAMN YOU-"

The moment that the flames started burning the phantom, the phantom let out an unwilling scream as it was soon reduced to nothing. Only leaving behind the large gem that it had once used to hide and recover inside of.

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Following the death of the phantom, the blue flames quickly retreated back inside the feather imprint between Xuan Hao's brows before disappearing, like it had never appeared in the first place.

As for Xuan Hao, he could barely keep himself conscious. Fainting a few seconds after the blue flames disappeared.

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Waking up after his body had managed to recover from the sudden drain that the appearance of the blue flames had put on it, Xuan Hao found himself in the middle of the temple. No, it would be more accurate to say what remained of the temple. The only thing that had been left in an intact state, was the large gem that had once housed the remnant consciousness of the expert who had been killed off by the blue flames.

"What in the world was that blue flame from earlier…" Getting up from the ground as he unconsciously placed his hand on top of the location where the phoenix imprint was hidden, Xuan Hao could not help trying to use his divine sense to examine the condition of the blue divine energy that had been absorbed into the feather imprint.

Even though he could not fully examine it due to it automatically destroying his divine sense if he got too close to the blue divine energy stored inside, he was still able to figure out that the amount of blue divine energy stored inside the feather imprint had decreased after the feather imprint had activated to destroy the phantom. In the end, the total amount of blue divine energy stored inside the feather imprint had decreased by around 30 percent.

Although, when thinking about how it had been used to destroy the remnant consciousness left behind by someone who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm, it could not be considered that much of a loss. Especially considering that the blue divine energy stored inside the feather imprint was not something he had any way to use. On the other hand, it made him rather uneasy knowing how powerful the blue divine energy was and the fact that it was stored somewhere inside his body.

If the blue divine energy suddenly erupted and targeted him instead, he understood that he would have no way to resist it with his current strength. Even if he surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm in the future, it looked like it would still not be easy to resist the blue divine energy when it was used to attack.

At the very least, the blue divine energy inside the feather imprint had only ever reacted when he was in danger. Never really showing any sort of intelligence nor malicious intent towards him… But then again, one could never be too careful.

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao turned his attention towards the large gem that had once housed the remnant consciousness of the expert who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm. Out of everything in the temple, it had been the only thing to survive even when exposed to the blue flames made from the blue divine energy. From this alone it was obvious that it was far more durable than he had first expected.

Thinking about it, his original plan to destroy the large gem and destroy the remnant conscious inside of it seemed rather stupid now. After all, if the blue flames capable of destroying the remnant consciousness belonging to an expert who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm could not destroy it, how in the world would he be able to destroy it with his current strength?

Now that everything was already over, Xuan Hao realized just how reckless he had been to enter the temple without any proper preparations or knowledge of his opponent.

"Well… Everything is already done, and I ended up coming out with only a few injuries that should have recovered in a day or two. Now… To figure out what this gem that the remnant consciousness used is about…" Muttering this to himself as he walked towards the large gem on the ground, Xuan Hao made sure to use both his domain and divine sense to ensure that there weren't some weird traps placed on the gem before he slowly picked it up and started to examine it.

Inspecting the gem, Xuan Hao soon found out that there was a small space the size of a small room located inside the gem. However, unlike an interspatial ring, he found out that he could enter the small space himself without any problems.

Not only that, but the gem also automatically absorbed qi from the outside world and transferred it into the small space. Allowing one to stay hidden inside without having to leave. In a sense, the space inside the gem could be considered a miniature secret realm that could be moved around!

Whoosh~

As he was busy trying to figure out if there was something left behind inside the small room of the gem that might be of use to him, Xuan Hao suddenly discovered another function of the gem, as he felt a slight tugging sensation stemming from the gem on his soul.

"Hm? Is this another function? A soul-based attack… But why is it so weak?"

Examining the function more closely, Xuan Hao could not help feeling bewildered over how weak the barely noticeable tugging force on his soul was. The gem was clearly a rather high-level artifact, so it made no sense for its soul-based attack function to be so weak…

Swish~

Deciding to test out what the function that soul-based attack function was trying to do, Xuan Hao left the ruined temple before finding a small frog demon beast that had only barely reached the Qi Condensation Realm.

Whoosh~

Using the soul-based attack function on the Qi Condensation Realm frog demon beast, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes as he saw the soul of the weak demon beast getting sucked out of its body before floating towards the large gem in his hands before being absorbed by it.

Only a short time after the soul of the weak frog demon beast had been absorbed, Xuan Hao watched in shock as the soul of the frog appeared inside the small space of the gem-

Whoosh-!

And not a second later, a weird power engulfed the small frog soul. Transforming it into a pure form of yin qi.

This is not a soul-based attack, but a soul absorption function!? Looks like the remnant consciousness from earlier should have belonged to a powerful demonic cultivator!

Understanding this, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine upon imagining what would have happened to him if he had not been saved by the feather imprint back then.

"Wait… The gem has the ability to absorb souls and it should have been used like this by that demonic cultivator before I showed up. Does that not mean that the fate of the blue deers father…" Muttering this to himself as he suddenly realized what had happened to the blue deer's father, Xuan Hao was greeted by the all too familiar appearance of the system as it appeared in front of him.

[Main Quest: Investigate what caused the death of the blue deer's father. (Complete)]

[Description: Investigate what could have caused the sudden death of the blue deer's father.]

[Reward: Sky Watcher's forgotten notes relating to celestial bodies.]

[Would you like to redeem the reward?]

[Y/N]

Reading through the system panel that appeared in front of him, Xuan Hao could not stop himself from smiling as he felt a sense of happiness, he had not felt in a long time because of how little he had seen the system over the past few years.

Outside of the repeatable quests that he could do again and again for a small reward, it had truly entered a state of hibernation ever since the Star Shattering Sect had been established… Or maybe this was just the system's way to show that it was unsatisfied with the fact that he had not taken in any more disciples.

Indeed, when compared to the other elders of the sect like Elder Song or Feng Chen, he had not had a lot of disciples. Even when compared to someone like Zu Fei who most of the disciples tended to avoid, he still had six or so less disciples than her.

Considering that he was also the strongest expert in the sect, he should be thinking about taking in a few more disciples in the future. Not only because it would strengthen the sect, but also because it might make the system give him more rewards and be a bit more active than it was now.

"Haa… No use thinking about that for now, I should first check out what this Sky Watcher's forgotten notes are all about." Throwing the thought of accepting more disciples to the back of his mind for now, Xuan hao redeemed the reward from the system, as a small book appeared in his hand.

The book in question did not have anything extraordinary about it and looked like an ordinary book that could be found in a normal mortal's home, but Xuan Hao understood that this did not mean it was ordinary by any means. Not allowing this to stop him from slowly opening the book.

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"W-what in the world is this mess?!" Not able to stop himself from exclaiming as he was met with what could only be described as a mess, Xuan Hao suddenly understood why something called the Sky Watcher's notes had come in the form of a book instead of a large stack of notes.

Given that he had already expected the book to be difficult to understand, Xuan Hao had already prepared himself for the extended period of time that would be required to understand it… But when he looked down on the first page of the book, he understood that he would be spending far longer than he had first expected if he wanted to understand it...

From the first page, it was rather obvious that the book was not something that the Sky Watcher had made to gather his notes together in a single place. Instead, it was a mess made from stuffing all of the Sky Watcher's notes together into a single book without any order to them!

Even if he could understand the language in the book itself, it might as well have been written in a different language with how messed up the different notes were. First of all, it looked like he would have to spend some time sorting out the notes after returning to the sect.

"Haaa… I really hope there is something useful in this book…" Knowing that he would not be able to gain anything from the book containing the messed-up notes of the Sky Watcher in the short term, Xuan Hao carefully put it away in his interspatial ring together with large gem before jumping into the air in the direction of the temple ruins that were located a short distance away from his current location.

Although a part of him really wanted to read through the book containing the notes of the Sky Watcher, he also understood that it was something that could wait. For now, his objective was to properly explore the Main Star Peak and figure out if there was anything dangerous like the temple still hiding somewhere on it…

Not long after, Xuan Hao arrived back at the ruins of the temple. Nothing changed and the only thing that came into view was the rubble of what had once been the temple itself and the surrounding buildings. Any of the artifacts or other precious treasures that might have been hidden inside having already been destroyed by the clash between the blue flame formed by the blue divine energy and the remnant consciousness.

Whoosh~!

However, just to make sure he didn't end up missing something, Xuan Hao still decided to thoroughly search the ruins of the temple with his divine sense.

"Nothing survived…"

However, after searching through the ruins for close to an hour, he could only let out a regretful sigh and conclude that nothing of value had managed to survive the clash between the two powers above the Soul Ascension Realm.

In a sense, it was already good that he could get his hands on the gem that the remnant soul had used to hide inside of. Even if it was a demonic artifact that could produce pure yin qi and wouldn't have much use for himself, he never knew if he would end up getting a disciple that could make use of it.

"Well… before that, I will first have to start accepting more disciples…" Shaking his head as he realized this, Xuan Hao soon left the temple ruins to continue exploring the Main Star Peak. Not intending to leave before he had managed to explore the entire Main Star Peak.

…

Over the next few days Xuan Hao searched through the rest of the Main Star Peak without encountering anything of interest. At most he had managed to encounter a Domain Lord Realm demon beast that was hiding inside a small pond when he had tried to explore it. Outside of this, he did not encounter anything that could even come close to the same level as the remnant consciousness hidden inside the temple.

As for spiritual herbs and artifacts? He did not manage to encounter anything special outside of a sword that had been hidden beneath a large stone in a corner of the Main Star Peak, but… Even if the sword was a decent artifact, it was still inferior to the silver sword he had been given by Yi Min…

"Looks like there is only one place left for me to explore…"

Coming to a stop in front of what could only be described as a hole in the ground, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing both of his eyes as he stared down into the hole leading straight down.

Outside of the temple with the remnant consciousness hiding inside of it, the hole in front of him was by far the most mysterious thing he had encountered on the Main Star Peak. Not because of the fact that it was the only path leading into the mountain that he had found so far, but because his divine sense disappeared for some unknown reason the moment it entered the hole.

Even with his current cultivation base in the Initial Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he had no way to properly gauge just what was hidden inside the mysterious hole in the ground. Making him hesitate on whether to enter the hole and explore it or not.

Just at this moment as he was hesitating on whether to enter the mysterious hole in the ground or not, the system panel appeared in front of him with a brand-new main quest-

[Main Quest: Enter the Mysterious Hole on the Main Star Peak and find out what it's hiding]

[Description: There is a mysterious hole on the Main Star Peak that renders divine sense useless, enter it and find out what might be hiding away inside it.]

[Reward: Organization of the book containing the Sky Watcher's notes]

But after looking through the new main quest, Xuan Hao could not help silently cursing at the system. For some reason, he felt that the system was deliberately annoying him with the reward this time around.

"Whatever, I was planning to enter the hole anyway. At least this will save me few months of trying to sort out the notes by myself…" Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao didn't bother complaining too much as he dove headfirst into the mysterious hole in the ground. Prepared to fight in case there was some kind of demon beast or other threat inside.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao made his way down into the mysterious hole on the Main Star Peak, Chu Yang and Qing Yi had finally managed to make it through the underground cave part of the mystic realm that they had ended up in after entering the mystic realm through the entrance located beneath their master's old pavilion in the Flying Sword Sect.

"So, this is the what the mystic realm looks like outside of that cave… To be honest, if not for the fact that I know we are inside a mystic realm, I would have thought we were still in the outside world!"

"Indeed, this is amazing, I never thought a mystic realm would look the same as the world outside…"

What appeared in front of them was a large and expansive world with no end in sight. Even the sun hanging in the sky above them looked the same as the one they had seen outside the mystic realm. Making them doubt whether they were still inside a mystic realm.

ROOOOOAAARRR-!

However, this only lasted for a moment before the loud roaring sound of demon beast echoed out in the distance.

"Indeed, a mystic realm is filled with demon beast, just like master told us… And from the looks of it, they are far stronger than the few Foundation Establishment Realm and Qi Condensation Realm demon beast we encountered so far…" Letting out a sigh filled with amazement as she said this, Qing Yi could not help feeling a sense of awe when looking at the massive forest that covered most of what they could see of the mystic realm.

"Yeah… It looks like we will have to be more careful from now on. Not to mention stronger, I already sensed a demon beast above the Third Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm not too far away from our current location!" Nodding his head in agreement with what Qing Yi said, Chu Yang pointed towards a large snake demon beast lazily sleeping on a stone no more than a few hundred meters away from their current location.

"Ah… Indeed, it looks like we will have to be far more carful from now on…" Seeing the snake demon beast Chu Yang pointed towards, Qing Yi could not help feeling shocked that such a powerful demon beast was right next to them.

"Yes… From now on, our exploration of the mystic realm will truly begin!" Smiling excitedly as he said this, Chu Yang didn't bother waiting for Qing Yi-

Swish-!

"Ah! Wait up!"NvεlB¡n: Where Every Word Sparks Wonder.

As he directly dashed towards the snake demon beast.

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Unaware of the fact that his two disciples had just engaged in their first real battle inside the mystic realm against a snake demon beast in the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao had all his attention focused on the pitch-black darkness below him as he slowly descended down the mysterious hole. Not daring to go too fast because of his limited ability to see what was in front of him with his divine sense.

Other than this, there was also the simple that he did not want to accidentally enter some kind of trapping formation like the first time he had carelessly wandered around the Main Star Peak…

Whoosh-!

Continuing down the hole for what felt like hours, Xuan Hao soon came to an abrupt stop.

"Looks like I finally reached the bottom…" Looking at the ground that was no more than half a meter away from him, Xuan Hao did not immediately land on the ground. Instead deciding to first examine it and make sure there wasn't any sort of hidden formation or powerful demon beast lurking just around the corner.

Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, his divine sense was still severely restricted by the weird power that seemed to permeate throughout the small underground space that he now found himself inside of… And after trying to search for any possible threats that might be lurking around the corner, he quickly discovered that the restriction on his divine sense had become far stronger now that he had reached the bottom of the hole.

If he could still cover a distance of around 10 to 20 meters before, his divine sense had now been restricted down to around 5 meters. Making it far harder for him to react in case he was attacked.

As for using his dao domain to search through his surroundings?

Xuan Hao had already tried doing this but found out that it had been similarly limited like his divine sense…

With this in mind, he could only slowly move around the small underground space that he now found himself inside of, as he tried his best to try and figure out what it was that had even caused the restriction on his divine sense and domain in the first place.

It was just at this moment while looking through his surroundings, that Xuan Hao suddenly discovered that the ground below him was covered in some sort of weird purplish substance-

"Wait! Isn't this purplish ground related to the Dao of Corruption!?" Not able to stop himself from exclaiming loudly after realizing this, Xuan Hao began examining the purplish colored ground below him in more detail before making sure that it was indeed similar to the ground, he had seen during his other encounters with the Dao of Corruption so far.

The only clear difference between this time and the other times was that he could not feel the presence of the Dao of Corruption.

Hm? Maybe if I use my domain through the bit of the Dao of Corruption that I have comprehended so far, I might be able to use it without it getting restricted by the weird power restricting my domain and divine sense at the moment. Even if my domain will be far weaker, it should at the very least allow me to get a proper look at my surroundings and figure out where the weird restrictive power is coming from.

Suddenly realizing that he might be able to use his little comprehension of the Dao of Corruption for the first time, Xuan Hao did not waste a single second before spreading out his domain only by using the power stemming from the Dao of Corruption.

Whoosh~!

As his domain began spreading out, Xuan Hao was excited to discover that the restrictive power did not affect his domain now that it only had the presence of the Dao of Corruption in it.

Other than feeling relieved at the fact that he would now get a chance to properly investigate his surroundings, Xuan Hao also felt a sense of unease at the fact that the restrictive power ignored his domain after it only carried the presence of the Dao of Corruption, as this made it rather obvious that the restrictive power had come from something related to the Dao of Corruption… And from what he had learnt about the Dao of Corruption so far, Xuan Hao did not feel the slightest bit excited about this new knowledge.

"What is that…?"

Just at this moment, Xuan Hao realized that there was something only a short distance from him. To be more precise, the thing in question was a rather large corpse of what he thought to be some sort of large demon beast.

Observing it more closely, Xuan Hao discovered that it had a faint and almost impossible to detect presence, belonging to the Dao of Corruption. Meaning that when it had been alive, the demon beast should have comprehended the Dao of Corruption. Not too different from the giant squid-like demon beast he had encountered inside the ruins of the ancient sect located next to the Great Poison Swamp.

The only clear difference between the two demon beast corpses being the fact that the large squid-like demon beast the size of a small mountain, was obviously far stronger than the dead demon beast in front of him now.

At the very least, he could to some degree estimate the strength of the dead demon beast in front of him now to be somewhere around the later stages of the Soul Ascension Realm, while he had absolutely no idea how strong the squid-like demon beast was. Only understanding that it should have far surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm.

"Hm? Is it just me, or is there something hidden beneath the dead body of the demon beast?"

Just at this moment, as he was analyzing the dead body of the demon beast, Xuan Hao realized that there was something hidden beneath the body of the demon beast.

Looking closer, it did not take long before he realized that the thing hidden beneath the dead demon beast was a small door that looked like nothing out of the ordinary.

Of course, that was only considering that the seemingly ordinary door was placed in the door frame of a normal mortal house. Not below the corpse of a powerful demon beast that had reached the later stages of the Soul Ascension Realm… And that was not mentioning the fact that it to some extent looked like the demon beast had died trying to ensure that the door stayed closed. Even going as far as throwing its own body on top of it!

Is it a fixed spatial passage leader to somewhere? Maybe the entrance to an ancient secret realm?

Feeling his head filling out with all sorts of thoughts as he began wondering what the door might be, Xuan Hao slowly began approaching the dead body of the demon beast that blocked him from examining the door in detail.

Thump-!

Using his domain to push aside the dead body of the demon beast after ensuring that it was indeed dead and not just pretending to take him by surprise, Xuan Hao began closely examining the ordinary looking door.

It was only after doing this that Xuan Hao realized that the ordinary looking door was not made from ordinary wood but had instead been made from some kind of spiritual wood that he had never seen or heard of before. Not only that, but there were also a few small and almost impossible to spot carvings of small birds all around the edge of the door, with what should have been the centerpiece in the middle of the door missing.

Outside of this, Xuan Hao also found out that the door was indeed some sort of spatial passage like he had first expected! The Restrictive power he could feel limiting his divine sense also came from behind the door…

Now… The only question that remained… Was where the spatial passage led to!

Would it be somewhere different on the Ewaria Continent or maybe a secret realm? No matter what it was, it would without a doubt be dangerous to enter the door and pass through the spatial passage.

After all, he had no idea if there might be a powerful demon beast like the one now laying dead on the ground beside him on the other side. Not to mention, there was always the chance of the other side of the spatial passage having degraded to the degree that entering the spatial passage would just end up sending him to somewhere random on the Ewaria Continent.

At that point in time, it would be no different from him using the talisman that the system had given to him…

"Hm? I completed the new main quest!?" Just as he was wondering what to do next, the system panel suddenly appeared in front of him. Alerting him to the fact that he had already found out what the hole in the ground was hiding.

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Feeling curious about what the notes would look like after they had been organized, Xuan Hao directly redeemed the reward from the system, causing the book containing the Sky Watcher's notes inside his interspatial ring to be covered by a golden light for a few seconds before returning to normal again like nothing had happened.

Did the notes really get organized…?

Not knowing whether the notes had been sorted by the golden light or not, Xuan Hao could not help taking the small book out of his interspatial ring before starting to look through it.

"This- Is this really the same notes as the ones from earlier!?"

However, the moment he opened the book again, Xuan Hao could not help showing a shocked expression on his face, as he discovered that the content of the book had been completely changed.

If what he had seen before was a disorganized mess with different notes jumbled together that would have been impossible to understand without months of hard work organizing them and making sure what was what, it was now fully organized and easier to understand.

Even if the notes themselves were still incredibly difficult and hard to comprehend, he would at the very least be capable of starting to understand them now. Although… Given how difficult it was to even understand the first page, it looked like it would still have to be something that had to wait until he returned to sect again-

Whoosh~!

However, before he could even think about leaving behind the weird and mysterious door, the system showed up with a brand-new main quest…

[Main Quest: Pass through the mysterious door, Part 1]

[Description: You see a mysterious door in front of you that might lead to somewhere filled with danger. Pass through it and find out just how dangerous it is on the other side.]

[Reward: Unlock next part of the quest]

Looking at the new main quest that had appeared in front of him at some unknown period of time, Xuan Hao slowly returned the book containing the Sky Watcher's notes to his interspatial ring before turning to look towards the mysterious door leading to somewhere unknown.

Even if it had not been obvious before, the new main quest pretty much gave away the fact that the system had wanted him to enter the hole and go through the mysterious door from the start!

As for why the system wanted this… Xuan Hao could only think that it should be related to him encountering a really talented potential disciple or something that would help him increase the strength of his disciples. No matter what it was, Xuan Hao at least felt a bit more confident about going through the mysterious door.

At least he didn't think he didn't think that the system would issue him a quest that would kill him the moment he passed through the door. Even if he did find out that it was far more dangerous than he could handle with his current strength, he should be more than capable of escaping back through the spatial corridor that the door in front of him was connected to and return at a later time. Similar to what he had done when he realized that the remnant soul hiding inside the temple had been far too strong for him to handle back then.

Swish~

Deciding to take the risk and check out what was on the other side of the mysterious door, Xuan Hao stepped forward and opened the door before stepping through it. Entering the spatial corridor that had been created between it and somewhere unknown.

…

As the sun dipped below the horizon in an unknown location far away from the Shattered Star Peaks, a spatial distortion appeared in the air, and a rippling corridor materialized.

Stepping out of the corridor, Xuan Hao appeared as he hovered in the air just outside the spatial corridor before starting to use his power to stabilize the spatial corridor. Ensuring that it wouldn't just suddenly collapse and close out his only path of escape.

Whoosh-!

As the spatial corridor was locked in place for at least the next few days, Xuan Hao began to survey the desolate landscape that spread out all around him-

"Hm? An ancient battlefield…?

Not having to take more than a simple look to notice the remnants of a terrifying battle from the past that stretched out in all directions around him. The air itself was still crackling with residual energy that had been left behind during the battle. Allowing Xuan Hao to understand just how powerful the people who had participated in the battle had been, with the weakest energy having reached the Domain Lord Realm and the strongest having reached the Soul Ascension Realm.

Then again, he was still on the outer edges of the battlefield at the moment, if he entered the core of the battlefield where the most powerful experts would have fought each other, he didn't doubt that there would be residual energy left behind by experts above the Soul Ascension Realm present!

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help remembering the ancient battle he had once seen through the golden book from his trip through the Thousand Wind Mountain. Maybe the battlefield he was on at the moment was the same as the one he had seen back then. If not, there might still be a chance it was a battlefield that had been related to the conflict that had taken place back then…

Feeling that the possibility of this being rather high, Xuan Hao could not help examining his surroundings more closely than before. Looking for any clue that might point towards the ancient battlefield, he now found himself on, being related to the battlefield he had seen through the golden book.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

The once large and serene forest that should have covered the place in the past before the battle, had been reduced to nothing more than a wasteland. Only a few parts of ancient spirit trees leaving behind traces of the once great forest that had existed where there was now only a wasteland. Everything else related to the natural terrain of the ancient battlefield having been completely destroyed during the battle back then.

Scattered throughout the ancient battlefield, Xuan Hao could also see the remnants of shattered weapons and armor, half-buried in the earth or draped over the skeletal remains of fallen cultivators who had once participated in the ancient battle. The metallic gleam of the now useless broken artifacts, silently passing on the feelings of despair that their owners had felt in their last moments before ultimately falling.

"…"

As his gaze swept over the decimated landscape and remains of the once powerful cultivators that had once fought there, Xuan Hao felt his heart filling with a mixture of awe and trepidation. The aftermath of the battle that had take place around him was simply not something he could comprehend with his current strength and understanding of the world… But even then, he still understood that the battle should have had some kind of great importance for the world. Having left its own unique mark upon history.

Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, he still couldn't determine whether the battlefield really was the one he had seen back then or not. No matter what it was, he still prepared himself for the challenges that lay ahead, as he got reader to unravel the secret concealed within this ancient battlefield and perhaps uncover some more information about what had happened in the past. Maybe even uncovering some forgotten treasures in the process…

As for why he had decided to enter the ancient battlefield and explore it… That was because it would be a good opportunity for him to try and learn from some of the remnant power left behind by the powerful experts that had once fought in this place.

More importantly than this, he did not find anything dangerous that could threaten him, and the system had once again appeared to issue the next part of the main quest just after he had passed through the spatial corridor and reached the ancient battlefield.

[Main Quest: Explore the Core of the Ancient Battlefield, Part 2]

[Description: Explore the Core of the Ancient Battlefield and find out what secrets are hiding there.]

[Reward: Strengthen Dao Domain]

To be honest, with the new main quest reward being a direct increase in strength, Xuan Hao really did not want to give up on it if he had a chance to complete it. Especially considering how long it had been since he had actually gotten a direct increase in strength as a reward from the system.

While a part of him had thought he would not get any more direct increase in strength with his cultivation realm having reached the Initial Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, it looked like that had been a needless worry.

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao began making his way towards the core of the ancient battlefield.

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Travelling through the ancient battlefield, Xuan Hao also felt that the restrictive power had grown stronger and had started to forcibly supress his power. Luckily it did not take him long before he discovered that he could use the Dao of Corruption to negate this suppression.

The only problem was that it would be harder to negate the stronger the suppression grew. Although he could keep it from affecting his strength for now, he also understood that if the restrictive power continued to grow stronger, he would not be able to stop it from negatively affecting his strength!

At the very least, the ancient battlefield was devoid of life, and he didn't have to worry about having to fight any demon beasts. The only real thing he had to look out for so far, was the remnant energy left behind by the powerful cultivators who had once fought on the ancient battlefield.

The remnant energy left behind by a Domain Lord Realm Expert or Soul Ascension Realm Expert might not be so threatening given how much they had weakened over the years and the fact that he was in the Initial Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm… But the same could not be said about the remnant energy belonging to cultivators above the Soul Ascension Realm!

Although he had only encountered the remnant energy of cultivators above the Soul Ascension Realm twice so far and it had been far away from him and hadn't really posed any threat, Xuan Hao still managed to feel just how terrifying the power still left after thousands upon thousands of years had passed.

Even if his strength was above that of a normal Soul Ascension Realm Expert, he still understood that he would stand no chance of resisting that remnant energy. The most he would be able to do if it targeted him, was try his best to escape as fast as possible…

"Hm? That is-!?"

Lost in his own thoughts as he was slowly making his way towards the core of the ancient battlefield, Xuan Hao could not help freezing on the spot as he suddenly noticed a figure moving in the distance. Not daring to move a single muscle as he inspected the lone figure moving in the distance.

"Another phantom!?" Not able to stop a shiver from running down his spine as he realized that the lone figure in the distance was a phantom like the one belonging to the demonic cultivator he had encountered in the temple, Xuan Hao tensed up as he prepared to escape back towards the spatial corridor in case the phantom started moving in his direction.

"It's not doing anything…?"

However, after noticing that the phantom didn't do anything over the next five minutes and just wandered around aimlessly without any clear goal in mind, Xuan Hao began relaxing his expression as his earlier fear of possibly encountering another life and death situation, turned into one filled with curiosity.

Given that his knowledge about these kinds of phantoms formed by remnant souls of powerful experts was extremely limited, Xuan Hao wanted to know more about them. Not only because it would help him come up with ways to fight them, but also because it might give clues as to what the realm above the Soul Ascension Realm was and maybe even help him in reaching that realm.

After all, the only thing he understood about the phantoms, was the fact that they had been constructed by the remnant souls of a powerful experts above the Soul Ascension Realm. Other than this, he had no idea them.

For this reason, Xuan Hao could not stop himself as he slowly approached the phantom aimlessly wandering around not more than a few thousand meters away from where he was standing. Making sure that he didn't approach too fast as he still wanted to be able to escape in case the phantom suddenly decided to attack him.

ROOOOAR-!

Just at this moment as Xuan Hao had managed to get within a hundred meters of the phantom aimlessly moving around in front of him, a loud roar echoed through the ancient battlefield. Shattering the silence that had been ever-present before.

"What in the world is that…" Turning towards the origin of the loud roar, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine as he had clearly felt the terrifying power behind the roar not being the slightest bit inferior to the phantom, he had been slowly approaching in the hope of learning more about it.

Not only this, but when Xuan Hao turned to look towards the phantom, he discovered that the roar had caused it to similarly stop and turn to look in the direction that the roar had come from. The only difference was that instead of the slight fear present in his own eyes at the possibility of encountering an opponent above the Soul Ascension Realm, the only thing present in the eyes of the phantom was a deep and terrifying killing intent.

"This is… Looks like I have to get out of here before the owner of the roar from earlier shows up…" Discovering the look in the eyes of the phantom while also feeling a terrifying aura rapidly approaching his current location, Xuan Hao understood that it would be best of him to leave the place before the phantom and the owner of the roar started fighting with each other… And given that the owner of the roar appeared from the outer part of the ancient battlefield, Xuan Hao could only proceed deeper inside the ancient battlefield as he doubted the owner of the roar would leave him alone like the phantom had done.

Not to mention, the roar had clearly come from a demon beast. Meaning that he would soon see the first real living being ever since stepping foot on the ancient battlefield, something that both excited and terrified him at the same time, as it would mean he would have to be far more careful when exploring the deeper part of the ancient battlefield where some of these powerful demon beast might have decided to set up nest due to the higher concentration of qi on the ancient battlefield, that only increased the closer to the core one got.

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"This should be far enough away…"

Having made it on to a small hill that had been cut in half by a giant sword whose remains still littered the ground around the hill, Xuan Hao came to a stop before turning to look back towards the phantom that remained frozen on the spot while staring in the opposite direction of him filled with killing intent.

ROOOOAR-!

Not a second later, a large demon beast the size of the small hill he was standing on top of, came charging towards the phantom filled with killing intent.

"Another phantom…?" However, when he saw the demon beast, Xuan Hao discovered that it was also a phantom and not a real living demon beast like he had expected after hearing the loud roar earlier.

Swish-!

Not wasting a single second after spotting the phantom demon beast, the humanoid demon beast that had been standing silently ever since hearing the roar charged forward as an almost invisible weapon made from pure energy manifested in its hands.

BOOOM-!

Following this, the two phantoms, one humanoid and one demon beast violently clashed with each other, causing even Xuan Hao standing far away to get forced down to the ground by the terrifying shockwave created from the two clashing with each other!

How powerful… And to think this is only the power left behind by a small remnant soul…

Watching as the two fought with each other, Xuan Hao could not help feeling amazed once again over just how powerful those above the Soul Ascension Realm were. Even if he had yet to meet a single person that was still alive and above the Soul Ascension Realm, the little interaction he had with the remnant souls of these powerful experts was more than enough to understand that he still had a long way to go if he wanted to be strong enough to keep himself and his sect safe in the future.

At least by observing the two phantoms fighting with each other, Xuan Hao managed to gain a deeper understanding of the power of someone above the Soul Ascension Realm.

Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, the battle did not last for long, as the two phantoms ended up exhausting what little energy they had-

Whoosh-!

Resulting in both of them losing their form and turning into clouds of energy that soon faded away like they had never been there in the first place. Only leaving behind the aftermath of their fight as a testament to what had happened.

In the end, Xuan Hao could only watch as everything on the ancient battlefield grew quiet once again. The only change to the battlefield being a few more battle scars that would end up indistinguishable from the rest of the battlefield in another few years.

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