Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

At the same time Chu Yang began his now far safer journey through the chaotic Fleeting Cloud Empire, far away in the Verdant Abyss, Xuan Hao found himself in a rather troubling situation a short distance away from the edge of the Verdant Abyss.

The trouble in question had nothing to do with the Land Creation Realm cultivator or equally powerful demon beast he had tricked into fighting each other, but instead had to do with a completely different group of people blocking his path-

"Hand over your interspatial rings and nobody will get hurt! Don't try anything funny, my brothers already set up a trapping formation in this place. Escaping won't be an option. Unless you want to use a teleportation talisman to throw yourself into the core of this place."

"Yeah, don't bother and just hand over the interspatial rings."

The group in question was a group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators who were acting no different than a bunch of highway robbers as the leader reached out his hand indicating for him and the master disciple pair to throw their interspatial rings over.

Along with all four of the bandits having reached the Celestial Immortal Realm, one of them, presumably the leader, having reached the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, it made sense for them to be so confident.

Although he wasn't deliberately hiding his cultivation realm this time around, he wasn't expressly showing it off either. Making it difficult for the group of bandits to discern his true strength, or maybe more importantly, causing them to mistake his strength for something far lower than it was.

After all, if the group of bandits composing of three in the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm and one who should have just broken through to the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, knew that they were facing someone in the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, they would undoubtedly have run away.

The main thing that had saved this group of bandits lives so far was the trapping formation that currently held Xuan Hao, Huo Fen and Meng Jie.

Not because it was extremely powerful and capable of holding him back, but instead because Xuan Hao had been completely caught off guard by the formation and ended up trapped inside of it before he even had a chance to realize what had happened, something that showed just how great the concealment skills of the formation master who laid down the formation was, as it should have only been laid down a few hours earlier.

Compared to the ancient formation that had been forcibly laid down by Huo Fen and relied on the terrifying skill of the long dead formation master who had created the formation disk that was used to forcibly lay down that Saint Grade Formation, the one currently trapping them wasn't a Saint Grade Formation, but had an inbuilt concealment method not inferior to one, something Xuan Hao wanted to try and learn from to further improve his own understanding of the Dao of Formations.

And thus… The group of bandits managed to unknowingly survive longer than they would have under normal circumstances, as Xuan Hao found himself feeling somewhat reluctant when it came to destroying the formation that was trapping him.

"S-Should we hand over our interspatial rings…?" Unaware of Xuan Hao's thoughts and the reason why he had seemingly frozen up after they were trapped by a formation spring up directly below them, Huo Fen could not help somewhat nervously asking this while keeping his gaze fearfully on the group of bandits that had all surpassed him in strength.

Normally, he would be considered a powerful existence having reached the Middle Stage of the Dao Seed Realm, but over the past few days, it seemed like he had been reduced to a normal mortal without any cultivation. Leaving him unable to deal with any of the powerful demon beasts of cultivator he ended up facing along the way…

"Hand over our interspatial rings…?" Hearing what Huo Fen asked him, Xuan Hao could not help freezing for a few seconds before he realized what the old man was asking about before he glanced over at the bandit who was eagerly reaching out his hands with a pleased expression on his face after hearing the fearful question from Huo Fen.

From a glance, it was clear that the earlier question from Huo Fen had seemingly confirmed that they weren't much of a threat and would likely end up giving up their interspatial rings to avoid a conflict.

This… I'm being looked down on not just by Huo Fen, but also these bandits…?

Feeling a bit speechless as he realized that not only Huo Fen doubted he could deal with these bandits who were far from as powerful as the demon beasts he had dealt with so far while keeping Huo Fen and his little disciple safe inside the Verdant Abyss, but the bandits themselves also seemed to be gloating and celebrating an easy job before the interspatial rings had left them and landed in their hands.

I guess this will be a good place as any to show off my strength to Huo Fen and his little disciple. After all, even if they think I'm strong, all they have seen from me so far is my fast movement speed. Not really anything related to combat strength. Resulting in the current state of things…

Shaking his head as he thought about this to himself while observing Hou Fen nervously fiddling with one of his interspatial rings while secretly stashing away a second interspatial ring that undoubtedly contained the Stardusk Essence and his other treasure, Xuan Hao returned his focus to the four bandits.

Whoosh~!

Narrowing his eyes slightly as his divine sense swept out and did an in-depth examination of the four bandits before any of them had the time to register what was happening. Allowing him to instantly pick up the weakest link in the form of the bandit who had been arrogant stretching out his hand to receive the interspatial rings-

Swish~

Striking with a speed that rendered the trapping formation completely useless, as it couldn't restrain him in time before a bright purple sword descended and cut into the bandit, a direct manifestation of the purest form of the void sword art that brought with it a destructive power that a mere Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator couldn't realistically resist against when it also carried with it the weight of a spiritual sea…

PTSH-!

"Aaaaah!?"

As a result, the Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm bandit screamed out in pain and surprise, as he suddenly found a terrifying power coursing through his body. Obliterating him from the inside out starting from where the purple sword had slashed him just now. Even though he attempted to try and use his own qi to resist, it was to no avail, as the destructive force continued rapidly spreading throughout his body before it finally reached his dantian, whereupon it began directly breaking apart his dantian along with his soul hidden inside.

Even though things seemed like they took a long time, everything happened in an instant… And by the time the other three realized what had happened, it was already too late, as the bandit hit by the Void Sword Art had lost the battle with the destructive force tearing through his body. Dying without being able to utter more than a simple cry of pain when the purple-colored sword had first cut into him.

As for why Xuan Hao hadn't directly jumped to a second bandit after killing off the first one so easily…

Boom! Boom! Boom!

That mainly had to do with the fact that he had been forced to contend with the trapping formation just after his attack had reached the first bandit. Preventing him from taking out any more of the bandit before the rest had time to react.

But…

Craaack~

Although the trapping formation proved to be far more difficult to deal with than he had first expected, it was ultimately not a Saint Grade Formation and had just been strengthened by layering several formations together to form a single powerful formation that could in some respects contend with a Sain Grade Formation but still fell short in others…

BOOOM!

And so, in the time it took the other bandits to realize what had happened, he managed to successfully break the trapping formation. Allowing him to stare directly at the now fearful bandits who seemed to have realized they had made a mistake.

"Profound Immortal… Sea Formation Realm!? R-r-run!"

"You don't have to say that twice!"

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Along with this realization, they also finally managed to discern Xuan Hao's cultivation realm. At which point none of the three remaining bandits hesitated before turning around to escape. None of them intended to stay behind and try to fight things out to avenge their fallen brother.

At the end of the day, they valued their own lives far more than trying to avenge their fallen brother by facing off someone at the Sea Formation…