Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Finding a place next to the small mountain with the thin layer of qi protecting it, Xuan Hao sat down and began the process of slowly analyzing the mysterious formation protecting the small mountain. Intending to find out if it would cause him any harm by entering the formation or if it was just designed to protect the mountain itself from being harmed.

At least from what he had seen so far, he guessed that there shouldn't be any problems with entering the formation, but just to be sure he wanted to make sure that this was the case. Not to mention, it wasn't like he didn't gain anything from studying the formation, as it helped him increase his comprehension of the Dao of Formations.

At the same time, it also gave him insight into the ancient formations used in the past during the time that the Mirage Sect was around. Giving him an easier time when encountered similar formations in the future, as he would have some knowledge about the different formation symbols, they used and what purpose they served.

For example, if he had prior knowledge of the ancient formation symbols that were just barely visible on the surface of the thin layer of qi covering the small mountain range, he would have been able to figure out the purpose of the formation without having to spend a few days studying it.

"If I continue encountering formations like this whenever I encounter a celestial gate in the future, I might end up reaching the Large Success Realm in the Dao of Formations before doing so in the Dao of Space…" Chuckling to himself as he muttered this while looking at the thin layer of qi that formed some kind of complicated formation that he couldn't see through, Xuan Hao closed both of his eyes as his divine sense and dao domain both spread out began probing the thin layer of qi from all directions.

Although the ancient formation hidden in the thin layer of qi was hard to notice and impossible to sense without at least having comprehended the Dao of Formations to the Small Success Realm, it wasn't that difficult to analyze after finding it.

In the end, all Xuan Hao needed was time and he should be able to fully understand the principles behind the mysterious formation.

Of course, his goal wasn't to fully understand the formation, but instead just to figure out if it was safe for him to enter the formation.

After all, to fully understand such a complicated formation, it would take him over a dozen years with his current comprehension of the Dao of Formations… And Xuan Hao had no plans of staying around for so long inside the mystic realm to analyze a single ancient formation.

Maybe in the future when he ran out of things to do, he could come back to the mystic realm and try to understand the different ancient formations scattered around inside the mystic realm, but for now, he was fully set on reaching the fourth celestial gate on the small mountain and get the remaining two celestial coins he needed for the scroll with information on the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao sat down and began to analyze the mysterious formation covering the small mountain, the situation back in the Star Shattering Sect had begun to rapidly change.

The reason for this was that the first group of cultivators from the Blue Sea Empire arrived in the devasted Onyx Empire. Engaging in a devasting fight with the True Demon Realm demon cultivators that had caused the destruction of the Onyx Empire.

The battle itself didn't just affect the Onyx Empire, but also started affecting the neighboring powers that happened to border the Onyx Empire, as the terrifying battle between the Soul Ascension realm cultivators from the Blue Sea Empire and True Demon Realm demonic cultivators from the Frozen Wasteland pushed out any of the weaker demonic cultivators into the surrounding territories.

In the end, Feng Chen and Shu Yao were both forced to go to the Star Shattering Sect's border with the Onyx Empire to defend against the large influx of demonic cultivators, while a large number of elders and disciples followed them. Leaving the Star Shattering Sect mostly empty outside of a few essential elders and the weaker disciple who weren't strong enough to participate in the battle with the demonic cultivators.

As for the winged lion demon beast that had been guarding the border, it still remained in place as it focused on consolidating its strength after the countless battles it had with Su Wuhan. Only planning to act in case a demonic cultivator in the True Demon Realm appeared.

Surprisingly, although the Star Shattering Sect ended up mobilizing most of their strength and the strength of the independent sects to deal with the influx of demonic cultivators, they couldn't stop all of them from getting through.

At the end of the day, there were simply far too many demonic cultivators and there was no way to fully defend the massive border that they shared with the Onyx Empire. Especially so when most of the Domain Lord Realm Experts ended up busy dealing with the stronger demonic cultivators and didn't have time to kill off the weaker demonic cultivators.

Even though the weaker elders and disciples of the Star Shattering Sect and independent sects did their best trying to kill as many as possible, it didn't take long before the few demonic cultivators that managed to make it through started causing chaos inside the territory of the Star Shattering Sect.

It was at this moment that the different smaller forces that had escaped to the Star Shattering Sect from the Onyx Empire when the demonic cultivators overwhelmed the Onyx Empire's border with the Frozen Wasteland, finally had a chance to shine, as they worked in tandem with Elder Dust Fairy and the extensive information network she had laid down inside the territory of the Star Shattering Sect to track down and kill these demonic cultivators.

All things considered, the damage that the Star Shattering Sect ended up suffering because of the demonic cultivators was relatively minimal, as most of them were taken care of before they could end up becoming a big problem.

Of course, this didn't mean that there wasn't any demonic cultivator that ended up causing serious damage to the Star Shattering Sect, as some of them ended up taking advantage of the relatively weak powers that existed under the protection of the Star Shattering Sect to rapidly devour a large number of weaker cultivators to rapidly increase their own strength.

An example of such a situation that caused Chu Yang to leave to the sect, was when a demonic cultivator managed to find a weak aristocrat family that had fled from the Onyx Empire where the strongest person was only around the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm.

In the end, the demonic cultivator devoured the entire aristocratic family. Reaching a realm comparable to someone in the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm before Elder Dust Fairy had learnt about him.

However, by the time Chu Yang arrived to kill the demonic cultivator before it could cause any more damage, it had already destroyed close to a dozen small forces around the aristocratic family.

But more important than that, it had ended up destroying one of the Star Shattering Sect's recently established branches in the region. Killing all the elders and disciples that had been staying at the branch.

Although there weren't more than four elders and a little more than a few hundred disciples in the branch due to its recent construction, it was still devasting news for the sect, as it could be considered the first time that the Star Shattering Sect had experienced such a large number of deaths in such a short period of time.

Even at the border between the sect and the Onyx Empire where demonic cultivators kept appearing in endless numbers, the number of elders and disciples dying were minimal due to the protection of the more powerful cultivators at the Domain Lord Realm preventing any powerful demonic cultivator from running amok among the weaker elders and disciples, something that didn't happen outside the border.

Outside of the devasting loss of a branch, the different independent sects under the Star Shattering Sect also suffered their fair share of disasters, as they ended up losing more than the Star Shattering Sect. Mainly due to the fact that Elder Dust Fairy had focused the full power of the information network towards ensuring the safety of the Star Shattering Sect and its branches after the loss of one branch.

In the end, resulting in the information around the territory of the different independent sects being a bit slower and less accurate than usual, as most of the talented people under Elder Dust Fairy relocated to places close to the different branches of the sect.