Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

"Why I wanted the Stardusk Essence…?" Muttering this to himself in a somewhat confused voice upon hearing the question from Xuan Hao, Huo Fen could not help feeling a bit bewildered at the question that was posed. Not knowing what to say when faced with such an unexpected question.

Although part of him had already guessed that the reason why Xuan Hao had grown interested in him and his disciple had to be somewhat related to the Stardusk Essence and what had ended up transpiring during their escape from the city, he had honestly not thought it would just be a simple question regarding what he planned to use the Stardusk Essence for.

In fact, he had felt that it would have been a far more likely scenario that Xuan Hao would ask him about how he had managed to get his hands of the elixirs he had ended up selling at the auction to afford to join the bid against the several Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators present. After all, for him to get his hands on so many Saint Grade Elixirs, it was almost certain he had managed to stumble into some kind of ancient ruins related to a powerful alchemist or maybe even an ancient sect specialized in alchemy.

Given his strength, it was almost certain that he had been unable to fully explore those ruins. Meaning that there was likely still a lot left in the location he had picked up the Saint Grade Elixirs, something that would be tempting to anyone and the main thing Huo Fen felt someone like Xuan Hao might be curious about and wanted to learn about.

Even if he might not have been interested in the location that he managed to find the Saint Grade Elixirs in, the spatial artifact he had used to escape or the Saint Grade Formation that had been used to escape from the city should have been far more interesting than what he planned on using the Stardusk Essence on.

To be honest, the Stardusk Essence was the last thing he thought Xuan Hao might be interested in after seeing his obvious disregard for it when the one from the Explorer Union had come to deliver it.

"Master, you are spacing out."

"Huh? Ah! S-sorry…" Feeling a slight nudge from his disciple as his thoughts began wandering after hearing Xuan Hao's question, Huo Fen gave a quick apology before focusing back on the matter at hand.

"No worries, I understand that it might not have been the question that you expected to hear." Smiling with a somewhat amused expression on his face after seeing Huo Fen blanking out for a few seconds after hearing his question, Xuan Hao didn't mind the blank stare he was given. Finding it more amusing than anything else.

After all, he understood that this kind of question was far from what Huo Fen had been expecting. Especially given that he had clearly saved the two of them and now didn't want anything other than to seemingly satiate his curiosity when he could have easily demanded anything from the Stardusk Essence to the location of the place that they had managed to find the Saint Grade Elixirs.

"Indeed, I did expect a demand of some kind rather than a simple question… As for the answer to the question, I do have a use for the Stardusk Essence that does not have anything to do with trying to break through to the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

The use in question being one I found in the same place as the Saint Grade Elixirs I sold at the auction to afford the Stardusk Essence in the first place, a way to turn the Stardusk Essence into a special kind of soul medicine that can be used by anyone who has successfully drawn qi into their dantian and stepped onto the path of cultivation."

"Soul medicine? Using the Stardusk Essence to repair the soul?" Narrowing his eyes slightly upon hearing that Huo Fen wanted to use the Stardusk Essence for some kind of soul medicine that was usable even by someone who had reached the Qi Condensation Realm, he guessed that either he or his disciple had some problem with their soul and required the soul medicine refined from the Stardusk Essence to recover, but…

"The power inherent in the Stardusk Essence is far too strong for anyone below the Celestial Immortal Realm to handle. Even if you have a way to delude it into forming this soul medicine, you will still need to have the ability to handle the inherent power of the Stardusk Essence to do so."

"This… I understand and have already prepared. The location where I found the Saint Grade Elixirs is a small hidden realm or secret realm that once belonged to an ancient alchemy sect, and they have several specialized alchemy artifacts that will assist in the refining process of soul medicine. By making use of them, I should be capable of refining the soul medicine even with my lacking strength and understanding of the Dao of Alchemy!"

"An ancient alchemy sect… Artifacts capable of assisting in the refining of alchemical products…" Listening to what Huo Fen said, outside of feeling that it would be increasingly difficult to get him to just hand over the Stardusk Essence, he also felt far more interested in the alchemy sect that Huo Fen was talking about.

After all, outside of the Saint Grade Elixirs that Huo Fen and his disciple had managed to get their hands on from this ancient alchemy sect, there was now also several artifacts capable of helping even someone with no understanding of the Dao of Alchemy refine something as rare as a soul-related alchemical product from something as potent as Stardusk Essence.

Outside of the Stardusk Essence that would prove to be beneficial to himself and help him break through to the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, Xuan Hao also felt that the importance of the alchemy sect mentioned by Huo Fen couldn't be understated. Not just because of how useful it would be for the development of the Star Shattering Sect and its Alchemy Hall if he could get his hands on the inheritance of an alchemy sect, but also because he realized that the alchemy sect Huo Fen and Meng Jie had discovered was entirely unexplored.

If even they, with their rather lacking cultivation, could gain over a dozen Saint Grade Elixirs and even a way to use something as precious as Stardusk Essence and turn it into a soul medicine, he could get his hands on far more if he had the opportunity to visit this ancient alchemy sect.

More than that, given that they had recipes on soul medicine that required something like Stardusk Essence, there was a very real possibility that they had a supply of Stardusk Essence located somewhere in the sect.

If he could find this storage, he might not be able to just reach the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm but secure a supply large enough to smoothly reach the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm in the future!

At that point, he wouldn't have to worry about wasting time accumulating spiritual qi to grow his spiritual sea and could focus entirely on stabilizing his spiritual sea through increasing his comprehension of the Dao!

"S-senior…?" Seeing how he had suddenly gone silent, Huo Fen could not help cautiously calling out from the side. Feeling a bit worried knowing that the senior might be tempted by the ancient alchemy sect.

"Hm? No worries, I was just taken aback by what you said and found myself rather interested in this ancient alchemy sect you mentioned. From what I know, it should be an unexplored sect ruin… Outside of what little you two have managed to scrape up so far."

"Indeed… Is senior perhaps interested in this ancient alchemy sect…?" Hearing what Xuan Hao said, Huo Fen could not help feeling even more nervous as he asked with a bit of apprehension in his voice. Clearly feeling uneasy about the growing interest from Xuan Hao.

"Yes, you might not know about this, but I am an alchemist myself. The ancient alchemy sect ruins are sure to contain an alchemy inheritance of the sect, something I'm really interested in getting my hands on, as it might be able to help me break through to the Saint Realm myself."

Not bothering to hide any of his desires, Xuan Hao just stated them outright. Of course, keeping anything related to the potential Stardusk Essence hidden inside the ancient alchemy sect ruins to himself and instead focusing on his interest in the place as an alchemist himself.

"Alchemist!? I see, so that is why… If you want, you are more than welcome to follow the two of us when we get out of this place. All I ask for is that you allow me and my disciple to make the soul medicine."

"Sure, I'm only interested in the alchemy inheritance of the place and won't interrupt the two of you."

"Thank you…"

Given how straightforward he was in stating his goals along with the fact that he could easily force him to hand over the information, Huo Fen visibly began relaxing as the tension that had unknowingly been building earlier dissipated into thin air.