Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Deciding not to think too much about the future path of his second disciple, Xuan Hao turned his attention towards the status of his third disciple, Bai Ning. Although he already had some idea what path he would be following, he was still curious to see if there was something unexpected.

Name: Third Disciple, Bai Ning

Race: Human, Heavenly Sky Serpent

Talent: 34 Dao: Dao of Blacksmithing (Pseudo Domain)

Potential Dao: Dao of Metal, Dao of Fire, Dao of Formations, Dao of Wind

Bloodline: Heavenly Sky Serpent (Dormant)

Realm: Sixth Stage of the Core Formation Realm

Profession: Blacksmithing (Master Realm)

Cultivation Mantra: Unformed Mantra

"Huh…?"

Once again, looking through the status of another of his disciples, Xuan Hao could not help freezing at the spot with a look of disbelief plastered all over his face. Not because of the fact that Bai Ning had managed to reach the Master Realm in blacksmithing nor the fact that he had an affinity for the Dao of Formations and the Dao of Wind, but instead the fact that he just found that his third disciple wasn't entirely human…

Looking through his status one more time just to make sure everything was correct, and he didn't end up imagining things.

"So… My third disciple isn't only talented in the Dao of Blacksmithing, but also the Dao of Formations. Not only that, but he also has some kind of bloodline dormant in his body… And from the fact that his race isn't entirely human, it should have been inherited from one of his predecessors." Not knowing what to say as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao couldn't help feeling curious about Bai Ning's family from before he became an orphan.

Even though everything seemed normal on the surface with how many orphans were left behind everywhere in the world, either due to the parents being too poor to care of the children or some powerful cultivators that happened to be fighting nearby and accidentally leveled a nearby mortal village or two, Xuan Hao had a feeling there was more to the story of Bai Ning with the recent realization.

Not to mention, a family that had a bloodline powerful enough to enter the eyes of the system should by no means be weak and had to have a certain level of strength.

With this in mind, Xuan Hao could not help thinking up all kinds of scenarios that might have led to Bai Ning ending up as an orphan. From his family encountering a powerful enemy that they had no way of escaping or fighting back against to being thrown out of the main family by a jealous concubine of his father who wanted her child to take his place.

No matter what it was, Xuan Hao felt curious about Bai Ning's background. After all, a heavenly sky serpent was definitely a demon beast of some kind. Meaning for the family bloodline to exist, certain things would have to have taken place that would be close to impossible without the demon beast in question at least reaching a strong enough cultivation realm to transform into a human.

If it didn't reach a strong enough cultivation realm… Bai Ning's family would be far more… Unique… Compared to what he first thought…

"Haaa… Let's not think about that for now…" Deciding to purge his mind of anything regarding how Bai Ning's bloodline might have come about, Xuan Hao closed his third disciple's status before pulling up the status of his fourth and latest disciple.

Name: Fourth Disciple, Mui

Race: Human

Talent: 78 Potential Dao: Dao of Water, Dao of Darkness, Dao of Ice, Dao of Space, Dao of Chaos

Physique: Desolate Ancient Moon Physique (Dormant)

Realm: Eighth Stage of the Core Formation Realm

Profession: Blacksmithing (Abysmal), Formation Master (Abysmal)

Cultivation Mantra: Myriad Water Art

Looking through the status of his fourth disciple, Xuan Hao could only shake his head helplessly. Although he was surprised at the fact that she had a still dormant physique and seemed to have an aptitude for some unexpected Daos, he didn't really find it too shocking considering he had been given some of the artifacts she had created.

If anything, the Dao of space and the Dao of Darkness were the only two he found surprising so to speak. After all, she already showed signs of being skilled in the Dao of Water through the cultivation mantra she was using to cultivate, while the Dao of Ice was to some extent related to the Dao of Water. The Dao of Chaos on the other hand had reminded him of some of the interesting things she had created through blacksmithing.

Her physique on the other hand was understandable given how high her talent was, it would be more surprising if she didn't have some kind of special physique.

"But… What is the abysmal rank mentioned by the-"

[Abysmal: A rank only archived by those with an inherent aptitude for the Dao of Chaos. The person who reaches this rank can create abysmal quality artifacts, potions, formations and so on. Abysmal quality things are not bound by normal system of categorization. An abysmal quality artifact may be too weak to kill a fly or may hold the power to sink continents.]

"…"

Looking through the new screen that appeared in front of him as if to answer his question, Xuan Hao had no idea what to say and could only remain silent. Only now figuring out why the things created by his youngest disciple were so weird and hard to understand from the perspective of a normal blacksmith.

After all, no matter who it was, no blacksmith would be capable of creating some of the slag metal balls that Mui created. Even if they had the exact same things to work with!

"Haaa… Looks like I will have to pay more attention to what she ends up creating in the future…" Letting out a slightly exhausted sigh as he could already foresee a scene of Mui creating something that ended up blowing up half the sect in the future, Xuan Hao closed her status as he turned to look back towards the primeval jungle in the distance.

Although it had taken him a few days longer to finish absorbing the reward from the system and he had yet to condense new layers around his dao lotu- dao seed in his dantian, he had no intention of returning to the sect before he picked up this potential fifth disciple.

Whoosh~!

With this in mind, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time as he jumped into the air and headed towards the direction of the mark, he had left inside Chun Hua's soul before she left to return to her family.

Even though a part of him felt a bit worried about the trouble that her family was in and the fact that he would likely have to help her deal with it before she would agree to become his disciple, Xuan Hao felt rather confident that things would work out.

The confidence came from the simple fact that his current strength was more than enough for him to go wherever he wanted on the continent without being in any sort of danger.

Of course, excluding some dangerous areas controlled by demon beasts and demonic cultivators, and the core regions of the different major powers of the Ewaria Continent.

Outside of that, he could pretty much go anywhere he wanted on the Ewaria Continent with his current strength. Possibly also the core region of the different major powers as long as he kept a low profile and avoided their Celestial Immortals.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao began his journey through the primeval jungle in search of his fifth disciple, back in the Star Shattering Sect, Elder Song was happily expanding the territory of the Star Shattering Sect.

Given that the war was about to reach its climax and the different empires had begun preparing for a final battle with the Soul Ascension Realm Experts still protecting the core region of the Sky Empire where the capital was located, Elder Song had even begun to expand into the region that was under the control of the Onyx Empire without any pushback.

The main reason for this being that the Onyx Empire didn't want to fight with the Star Shattering Sect at this point in time. After all, it was rather powerful considering that they had two Soul Ascension Realm Experts in the eyes of the outside world.

Even if an empire like the Onyx Empire felt like they could deal with them, they had no intention of falling out with them given the current state of the war. Especially considering that they had just recently lost three of their own Soul Ascension Realm Experts and one of their elite armies.

Although they still had no clue what had happened to them, one of the soldiers had managed to send back a message before his death. Stating that they were attacked by a powerful demon beast. Outside of that, the Onyx Empire had no idea what happened to them…