Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

During the time that the Half Spirit Race started to integrate into the Star Shattering Sect, Xuan Hao's disciples didn't slack off, as the one who made the most improvements after moving to the Seventh Star Peak was Chu Yang.

Not one to slack off or focus on any professions on the side like the other two, Chu Yang managed to break through from the Seventh Stage of the Core Formation Realm all the way up to the Ninth Stage of the Core Formation Realm. Allowing him to only be a single step away from the Nascent Soul Realm!

The fact that Chu Yang managed to reach the Peak of the Core Formation Realm did not escape the eyes of Xuan Hao, as Xuan Hao was already looking forward to his first disciple breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Given how the system had operated in the past, he could already guess that he would get some sort of reward from the first disciple breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm!

However, breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm was still something that was dangerous and could end up killing his disciple if he was careless. For this reason, Xuan Hao decided to dedicate most of his time to helping Chu Yang improve and strengthen his foundation before allowing him to break through and face the Cloud Tribulation.

After all, if his foundation was not strong enough, he would only end up facing the Bronze or Silver Cloud Tribulation… And, compared to the Bronze or Silver Cloud Tribulations, the quality change the Golden Cloud Tribulation brought to the soul was far better and would at the same time help increase his chances of reaching the Domain Lord Realm in the future!

The main reason for this, was that it would be relatively hard to improve one's soul more after having reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. At that point in time, the improvement brought to the soul by the Golden Cloud Tribulation might end up being the crucial part that would help one comprehend a pseudo domain and officially take the first step towards the Domain Lord Realm!

Even if he was not really too worried about Chu Yang being able to reach the Domain Lord Realm in the future with his help, it would still be better for him if he could go through the Golden Cloud Tribulation and improve the strength of his soul.

The only thing that somewhat worried him, was the fact that the core inside his disciple's dantian was red instead of the normal golden colour.

Even after investigating the situation with his divine sense in the past, he could not find anything wrong with the core outside of it being far stronger than a normal Peak Core Formation Realm Expert.

However, this time around, he managed to pick up the slight presence of the dao of blood from the blood red core. The presence of the dao of blood was not because Chu Yang had comprehended the dao of blood, but instead seemed to be due to his disciple having absorbed some sort of qi that had either been from an expert that had practiced the dao of blood or a special kind of natural blood qi.

This should also be what had caused his core to be blood red, while at the same time being far stronger than other Peak Core Formation Realm Experts.

In the end, Xuan Hao could not figure out where the presence of the dao of blood attached to the core inside his disciple's dantian had come from and he could only keep an eye on the situation and see how it would develop for now.

At the very least, he could tell that the presence of the dao of blood inside his disciple's dantian did not have any negative effects on him. On the other hand, it would allow him to comprehend the dao of blood more easily in the future…

Comprehending the dao of blood together with the dao of the spear was not a bad thing… But Xuan Hao felt worried that his disciple might end up in a similar situation as him with two domains. Forcing him to merge them together before he would be capable of reaching the Soul Ascension Realm.

For this reason, Xuan Hao not only spent more time to teach Chu Yang so he could reach the Nascent Soul Realm more safely when the time came, but also to keep an eye on the situation inside his dantian.

…

"… And that should be it for today. Hm? do you have any questions?" Ending another lesson in how to strengthen his dantian and the core inside it in preparation for the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao realized Chu Yang looked like he wanted to say something.

"Master, when do you think my foundation will be strong enough for me to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm?" Showing a somewhat nervous expression when saying this, it was clear to Xuan Hao that Chu Yang had been somewhat taken aback by the fact that he had made him stop improving his cultivation realm and instead focus on improving his foundation before increasing his cultivation realm any further.

Thinking about it, this was understandable. Especially given the fact that Chu Yang had spent most of his time trying to improve his cultivation realm. The time he had spent improving his foundation without increasing his cultivation realm at the same time could be considered close to non-existent.

Given how important it would be for one to make sure one's foundation was strong enough before breaking through from the Nascent Soul Realm and onwards, Xuan Hao wanted to make sure that Chu Yang understood the importance of making sure his foundation was stable.

After all, the last thing he wanted was for his disciple to end up improving too fast and end up entering qi deviation…

"Hm… I think you should be able to do so in a year. Maybe faster depending on how hard you work." Answering Chu Yang's question after having thought about what kind of thoughts might be going through his head, Xuan Hao found the shocked expression on Chu Yang's face after hearing this quite funny.

Not to mention an entire year without improving his cultivation realm, Chu Yang had properly not gone half a year without improving his cultivation realm after becoming his disciple!

For this reason, the shock Chu Yang felt after hearing his master say he should focus on his foundation for the next year without breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm was massive. Not to mention, he also felt worried that Qing Yi might catch up to him during this period of time he would have to focus on improving his foundation in preparation to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Even worse, Qing Yi might even break through to the Nascent Soul Realm before him!

No, this can't do! I will have to work extra hard so I can break through to the Nascent Soul Realm faster, I can't let Qing Yi reach the Nascent Soul Realm before me!

"Master, I will work extra hard to quickly improve my foundation and reach the Nascent Soul Realm!" Feeling like a new wave of energy washed over him after thinking about Qing Yi breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm before him, Chu Yang quickly rushed back towards his cultivation room to strengthen his foundation. Not wanting to waste even a single second!

"…"

Not knowing what to see after seeing Chu Yang so fired up about improving his foundation, Xuan Hao could only shake his head before leaving the training ground and making his way towards Bai Ning's forging room a short distance away from the training ground.

Even if he put most of his focus on Chu Yang due to the fact that he was close to reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao didn't neglect his other two disciples, as he made sure they would also improve in both their cultivation and professions.

Because of this, Xuan Hao had even used a large portion of his free time to learn new potion and pills recipes for alchemy that he could teach Qing Yi, while also learning blacksmithing so he could properly teach Bai Ning without having to worry about him asking any questions that he would not be able to answer.

Although his blacksmithing had yet to reach the Artisan Realm like his alchemy, he had still managed to reach the Peak of the Expert Realm and was quite close to becoming an Artisan Blacksmithing.

The main reason he had been able to improve his blacksmithing so quickly and even get close to becoming an Artisan Blacksmith in less than a year, was due to a few quests from the system that had him help Bai Ning in improving his skills as a blacksmith.

Even if the quests didn't directly help him become an Artisan Blacksmith, Xuan Hao was more than happy that he was able to improve so quickly.