Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

[Main Quest: Any disciple reaches the Core Formation realm. (Complete)]

[Reward: Cultivation increase of 2 minor realms (redeem within 48 hours), 5 low-grade Qi Springs, 1 mid-grade Qi Spring.]

[Redeem: Y/N]

"Hm?"

Riding through one of the few forests inside the Iron Sky Kingdom on top of a demon beast a short distance from the border of the Iron Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao who had been spending most of his time during their journey so far cultivating. Focused intently on the system prompt that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

After such a long time, he had finally completed a main quest!

From the looks of it, it seemed like Chu Yang had managed to breakthrough to the Core Formation Realm during the time that he and Qing Yi had been to the Iron Sky Kingdom for the Alchemy Competition…

"Hehe."

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help but chuckle a bit to himself as he looked over towards Qing Yi, he really looked forward to seeing the little girl's reaction when she realized that Chu Yang had already reached the Core Formation Realm.

Now… The rewards for the main quest…

Cultivation realms was something he had already expected, but the Qi Springs were not something he had seen before.

Feeling increasingly curious about what the Qi Springs were, Xuan Hao could only stop himself from taking out one of them after a small warning from the system. Telling him that the Qi Spring would have to be fixed to a permanent location by him before being redeemed…

Given that he was not even back at the Flying Sword Sect yet and the fact that the sect would soon move to another location, Xuan Hao realized that he would most likely not see the Qi Springs in action.

At the very least they did not have a time limit in which he needed to redeem them like the cultivation increase part of the reward…

"Did anything happen master?"

"No, I was just thinking about something funny and accidently laughed as a result."

"I see…"

Seeing Qing Yi move her demon beasts closer to him before coming over to ask this, Xuan Hao quickly came up with an excuse. In the end, Qing Yi could only glance suspiciously at her master before focusing back on riding her demon beast.

Compared to Xuan Hao's demon beast that had been thoroughly intimidated to follow behind some the other elders from the Flying Sword Sect riding just in front of him, Qing Yi still needed to focus some of her attention towards controlling her demon beast.

It was not that Xuan Hao had not tried to intimidate Qing Yi's demon beast into listening, it was just that her demon beast was… Special… As only a few minutes after he had intimidated it, it seemed to forget all about it and became unruly again.

After going through this for a dozen or so times already, he gave up trying to scare Qing Yi's demon beast into just following the others without Qing Yi having to control it…

"The border is up ahead!"

Hearing the voice from one of the Flying Sword Sect Elders in front of the group call out, both Xuan Hao and Qing Yi turned their attention towards the path ahead, where the large towers surrounding the Iron Sky Kingdom slowly started to become visible as the forest came to an end.

Even though it had only been a little over a week since he had seen the large towers located at the border of the Iron Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao still felt impressed upon seeing them.

The towers were not only to spot incoming enemies but were also a part of some kind of defensive formation that Yi Min should have spent quite a large quantity of resources to set up.

Thinking about the fact that the large formation should be covering the entire Iron Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao could not help thinking back to the attack that had taken place just a day ago.

Maybe the formation was not completed yet…

After all, if it had been completed, it should have encompassed the entire Iron Sky Kingdom and would be far more powerful than the formation covering the capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom! At that point in time, there would not be any way for General Guan or his friends to cause any trouble in front of the capital!

Coming to this conclusion, Xuan Hao could not help wondering just what level a formation that covered an entire kingdom had reached.

Maybe it had reached the level of being able to contend against someone in the Soul Formation Realm…?

This thought alone caused Xuan Hao to feel a shiver run down his spine, as he realized just how scary the Renowned Master Blacksmith Yi Min was and it also seemed like she was a formation master on top of that…

At this point, Xuan Hao no longer felt bad joining Yi Min's side and establishing a friendly relation with her.

…

During the next few hours, Xuan Hao, Qing Yi, and the rest of the group crossed the border of the Iron Sky Kingdom and officially left territory of the Iron Sky Kingdom. Signalling an end to their mostly peaceful journey so far.

From this point onwards, they would have to deal with bandits coming to rob them and demon beasts jumping at the opportunity to devour them.

Not to mention that they would have a way harder time passing through the many kingdoms on their way back to the Flying Sword Sect.

At least that would be the case if they did not have someone in the Domain Lord Realm around, who could sense said troublemakers approaching from miles away. Easily dealing with them before any others even had a clue that somebody had planned to attack them just moments ago…

As for having a harder time passing through the kingdoms on the way back to the Flying Sword Sect?

Well… Xuan Hao just had to show his cultivation realm and they would be more than willing to let them pass through!