Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Chapter 2231: Safe Return

Having come to a decision on what to do next and also feeling a sense of relief upon learning that it shouldn’t have been someone from the Southern Central Region that had ended up entering the mystic realm, the monks soon enough resumed their discussions while Su Han, the monk that had informed them about the situation, set off to investigate the identity of this mysterious Star Creation Realm cultivator. Knowing from experience that if he wanted information on an ancient hidden sect, it was best to find the Myriad Treasure Hall, as they were well known throughout the continent for cooperating with hidden ancient sects.

If that Star Creation Realm cultivator was indeed someone from an ancient hidden sect, there was a good chance that they would already know about this person, while at the same time also having somehow established a cooperative agreement with the ancient hidden sect behind him. After all, this was just how the Myriad Treasure Hall worked... And it was doubtful it wouldn’t be cooperating with an ancient hidden sect whose senior figures had even gone so far as to leave the boundaries of their sect.

"I really hope the Myriad Treasure Hall has some information, or it will be far harder to try and investigate that fellows true background..." Muttering this to himself as he set off in the direction of the Myriad Treasure Hall branch that had been established in a corner of the Western Central Region for the express purpose of making communication between them and the temples of the Western Central Region easier, Su Han went over a few simple gift he intended to offer in return for the information.

Understanding that there was no way the Myriad Treasure Hall would just give him information on someone from an ancient hidden sect for free.

And...

At the same time Su Han set off towards the Myriad Treasure Hall branch within the borders of the Western Central Region hoping to learn about Xuan Hao, the person in question had already returned to sect and freed the winged lion demon beast. Allowing it to rush back to one of the small homes it had created throughout the Shattered Star Peaks, where it wasted no time before honestly starting to strive towards reaching the Profound Immortal Realm.

The experience of being chased relentlessly without any ability to fight back had clearly affected it, as it now wanted to catch up with the rabbit demon beast that had already started creating a significant difference in strength between the two of them following its breakthrough to the Profound Immortal Realm.

Speaking of which, the rabbit demon beast hadn’t just become far stronger than the winged lion demon beast, but it had also managed to build up its own faction within the borders of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

Becoming the local overlord in the process, as it didn’t just employ human servants any longer, but had managed to strike some sort of agreement with the elders of the sect. Gaining the ability post certain unique tasks and missions for the disciples to complete within the grand mission pavilion, something that created a few more unique task choices for the disciples who wanted to wander the world outside the boundaries of the sect after their cultivation became strong enough.

In a way, the rabbit demon beast had managed to establish itself and the missions and tasks it provided to the sect as the safe choice for those setting out on a mission or task outside the Shattered Star Peaks for the first time. After all, the main tasks and quests offered by the rabbit demon beast were menial tasks that required someone with a certain cultivation base to accomplish.

Maybe because of this, after going through one or two of these unique tasks, most disciples never returned to do those backbreaking missions that gave little to nothing in return.

Not that the rabbit demon beast cared much, as there were more than enough young disciples to ensure a steady flow of skilled and motivated little workers to help it continue reaping the benefits from cooperating with the sect.

As for its master’s reaction to this turn of events... He didn’t care much as this could be considered a good learning experience for the younger disciples. Teaching them not to carelessly trust others and how to avoid being exploited when they began travelling beyond the boundaries of the Star Shattering Sect’s borders.

At the end of the day, there was no real harm done beyond the disciples wasting a few weeks for low pay, being taught a valuable lesson by the rabbit demon beast in the process.

If not for this simple fact and how important this kind of lesson that couldn’t easily be taught without the disciples themselves experiencing it first hand, there was no way Elder Song would have ever allowed the rabbit demon beast to set up shop and exploit the younger disciples of the sect in this kind of manner.

And while this was happening, the winged lion demon beast that had recently returned to the sect had already entered seclusion attempting to break through to the Profound Immortal Realm.

For Xuan Hao, with the winged lion demon beast back in the sect and having ensured that those powerful monks wouldn’t be able to chase after him, there wasn’t much for him to do beside starting to carve out the second dao rune while also setting aside some time to teach his disciples.

In the process, he also found himself learning about what had happened to that little prince that Chu Yang set off to accept as a disciple. Learning through this second disciple of his that the little prince, Jiang Li, had indeed been accepted as the first disciple of his.

Although he had hoped this would result in him getting some kind of reward from the ever-dormant system, he wasn’t exactly surprised that nothing had ended up happening. Not that he had given up hope, as he had a feeling that this disciple of Chu Yang who was still below the Nascent Soul Realm might be too weak or the number of disciples recruited by his disciples was too low.

Still, seeing Chu Yang accepting a disciple of his own and starting to truly resemble an elder did encourage the rest of his disciples to start looking for disciples of their own whenever they spotted the younger disciples of the sect. Not wanting to be left behind by Chu Yang who had ended up taking the lead in this regard.

The only exception to this being his two newest disciples who were far from strong enough to start thinking about taking on disciples of their own. Alongside Mui, who seemed far more excited about recruiting more lackeys for whatever she was currently scheming.

Funnily enough, though the rest of his disciples had yet to take on disciples of their own, Bai Ning already taught far more disciples than Chu Yang or the rest had ever helped combined thanks to his efforts in promoting blacksmithing among the younger disciples of the sect.

In a way, the one most likely to end up taking on a disciple next was undoubtedly Bai Ning, who already had a few eager younger disciples following him around like eager little chicks following their mother around. Main difference being these younger disciples did so to learn from him while he was forging on his own or teaching.

After all, while Bai Ning would seal himself off from time to time to focus on forging some difficult artifacts that required his full concentration, he would also open his forge while forging some less demanding artifacts. Allowing any disciple or elder curious to come and watch the process.

Creating a perfect learning experience for those watching, something that had even caught Elder Song’s attention in the past, as he had openly promoted this kind of wonderful behavior and made the other blacksmithing elders follow in his footsteps to ensure the continued smooth development of the blacksmithing path within the sect.

Maybe because of this, the Blacksmithing Hall had managed to overtake the Alchemy Hall in terms of popularity over the years and successfully established itself as the strongest profession hall within the sect.

A turn of events the alchemists were less than pleased with, as they followed in the footsteps of the blacksmithing hall when it came to trying to recruit more of the younger disciples to their side.

Unfortunately for both sides, with the addition of the Book of a Hundred Arts, new profession halls began emerging throughout the sect, as younger disciples had far more choices in what path they wanted to follow. Ultimately leading to the overall numbers of younger disciples entering either of the two profession halls decreasing.

Igniting a struggle for young disciples that none of the legacy profession halls had expected they would run into within such a short time since their establishment. Having so many new competitors join the struggle for the already limited number of young disciples...