Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Looks like I'm about out of time…

Sensing the golden barrier created by the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator huddled up inside the small temple getting within a few meters of the core of the trapping formation, Xuan Hao reluctantly glanced at the countless formation symbols scattered throughout the underground space before ultimately turning around to lock on to the spatial coordinates that Huo Fen had escaped towards together with his disciple.

"Hm? This is… Right outside the city…?"

But when he began to focus on trying to figure out where the spatial coordinates led, he couldn't help showing a somewhat confused expression on his face after realizing that the coordinates led to a destination that was no more than a little over a dozen kilometers away from the city, he currently found himself inside of.

Not to mention using long distance teleportation, he wouldn't even need to use short distance teleportation to reach that location, as a normal movement technique would allow him to reach the location within a few seconds- No, even without a movement technique, he would be able to reach that location in such a short time.

In a sense, the short distance could almost be considered meaningless in the face of anyone who reached the Celestial Immortal Realm.

Heck, not just the Celestial Immortal Realm, but anyone above the Nascent Soul Realm with the ability to fly would consider such a short distance meaningless. Only for someone in the Nascent Soul Realm would it take some time to travel such distance.

Why Huo Fen had decided to teleport to a location so close to the city, he had no idea and could only speculate that it might have to do with him finding some kind of ancient teleportation formation in that location that would be able to take him and his disciple extremely far away from the Western Central Region. Allowing him to cross a far greater distance than might have been possible with the help of the spatial artifact in his hands.

The teleportation artifact would essentially not serve as a primary escape tool, but instead something to get himself and his disciple out of immediate danger so they could access a preplanned escape route outside the city.

Given just how prepared Huo Fen had been for the auction, even setting up a Saint Grade Formation capable of holding back the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators who would target him, Xuan Hao did not find this kind of thing to be unrealistic. Instead, he felt that it was something very possible.

And because of that, he already had a way to trace them in case they ended up using an ancient teleportation formation.

After all, different from the spatial artifact that would only leave behind a few spatial fluctuations that would disappear shortly after usage, a teleportation formation would contain the general spatial information on where it connected to inside the formation symbols of the formation. Meaning, if they didn't destroy the formation on both sides, he would be able to trace down a general direction they had gone in and where they might end up.

Of course, there were clear exceptions to something like this, as if the teleportation formation far exceeded his own understanding of both the Dao of Space and the Dao of Formations, it would be impossible for him to extract this kind of information from it.

But… With his current comprehension of the Dao of Space and the Dao of Formations, he felt confident that he would be able to handle the situation.

More importantly, outside of that, an ancient teleportation formation would also provide him with a clear opportunity to not only increase his comprehension of two Daos, but also a chance to potentially further improve the teleportation formations of the Star Shattering Sect.

Even if he couldn't stay behind to comprehend the ancient teleportation formation for now, he could always throw it into his interspatial ring for future inspection.

"Huh? No… No ancient teleportation formation!?"

For this reason, the disappointment was immeasurable when he arrived at the location of the expected ancient teleportation, only to find that there was no ancient teleportation formation around for him to pick apart at a latter date. Instead, all he was left with was a trail left behind by Huo Fen, who had escaped from the location just a few minutes before he showed up.

Maybe… Maybe the ancient teleportation formation was not here, but close by and the two of them rushed there after getting out of the city safely?

Thinking this to himself, he still held onto some hope of finding an ancient teleportation formation now that he had started looking forward to encountering one.

Not wasting any time, he didn't linger around the original location that Huo Fen and Meng Jie had ended up in after they had used the spatial artifact for longer than necessary. Rushing off in the direction that the two of them had left in-

Whoosh~

Or that was at least what he wanted to do, but the overwhelming divine sense from what should be a Late or Peak Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator made him pause. Not out of fear, but because he could clearly sense something unique about the divine sense of this individual. Making him uncertain whether he could safely pass through the area covered by this divine sense even by using the Dao of Space without being discovered.

Wait… Why do I even care if I'm discovered? Even if I'm found, what can this person even do about it? Try and chase me down like the spiritual tree?

Stopping himself as he was about to turn around to avoid this individual who should have come to deal with the situation behind him, Xuan Hao realized that he really didn't have to care much about this person discovering him… And so, with that in mind, he didn't bother making his way around the other party and instead just rushed forward straight through their divine sense like he had originally intended to do-

Whoosh-!

And… Indeed, as he had expected, the divine sense of this individual did notice him even though he was moving through the Dao of Space. Locking on to his position.

Swish-!

But in a similarly expected situation, he was far too fast for this person to even send out a message through his divine sense before he disappeared completely from his or her senses. For that person, it would essentially be nothing more than a short blip that would pop up somewhere in their divine sense before disappearing as fast as it had appeared.

He had been discovered, but whether the other could catch him was an entirely different matter.

The only ones capable of posing any real threat to him at his current cultivation realm would be someone in the Land Creation Realm or the still rather mysterious realm that came after the Celestial Immortal Realm.

Speaking of which, he had encountered more Land Creation Realm cultivators than cultivators from whatever the realm beyond the Celestial Immortal Realm was called, something rather shocking considering just how much more widespread Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators were compared to Profound Immortal Realm cultivators.

Then again, maybe this was why the ones in power tended to be those in the profound Immortal Realm, as it might be easier to reach the Land Creation Realm compared to whatever realm came after the Celestial Immortal Realm.

No… He was certain that it was easier to reach the Land Creation Realm, as just reaching the realm didn't really require that much effort and even he himself could break through to the Land Creation Realm now if he wanted to, it was just that advancing further in the Land Creation Realm or going beyond the Land Creation Realm would be difficult if not impossible if he did something like that.

"Hm? Spatial fluctuations? And… Familiar- Ah! The spatial artifact! They are using it again!?"

However, just as he was thinking about the realm that came after the Celestial Immortal Realm, he found himself being surprised again, as he sensed the spatial artifact worn by Meng Jie being used again just a dozen or so kilometers away from his current location… And indeed, by extending his divine sense to the location where the spatial fluctuations came from, he just barely managed to see Huo Fen and Meng Jie before they disappeared into a spatial rift once again. Leaving him confused as to just what it was, these two were planning and where they were going.

Rumble~!

But as he felt the trapping formation behind him collapsing in the distance and countless powerful presences rushing in his direction not just from behind, but also ahead of him, likely from one of the other major powers who had their Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators trapped inside the city by the trapping formation, he didn't dare stay behind and quickly tracked the direction of Huo Fen and Meng Jie through the lingering spatial fluctuations before using his long distance teleportation to chase after the two of them as it seemed like the locations this time around wasn't right next to the city.