Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

"It looks like they can indeed see me..." Closely observing the tentacles around the cocoon, Xuan Hao could not help but wonder how the tentacles had managed to find him only when he had left the cave connected to the mineshaft.

The tentacles are connected to the cocoon... Perhaps the reason they spotted me has to do with the cocoon?

Thinking this to himself, while observing the cocoon and seeing that each and every single one of the tentacles were connected to it, Xuan Hao guessed that the reason the tentacles had managed to spot him. Even when he had used his domain to conceal himself, had something to do with the cocoon located at the bottom of the mineshaft.

Looking at it like this, the countless tentacles that filled out the bottom of the mineshaft were part of the giant cocoon located down there...

Gazing directly at the giant cocoon, Xuan Hao used his divine sense to probe it and see if he could find out what kind of creature it was and what was hidden inside of the giant cocoon.

"Hm?" As his divine sense descended down upon the giant cocoon, Xuan Hao easily pierced through the outer shell made of flesh and saw the inside of the cocoon.

"Nothing?"

Indeed, there was nothing inside of the cocoon. Just an empty space the size of a small house...

Perhaps its deceiving my divine sense into thinking that there is nothing inside? No... If that was the case, why would it show me that there is nothing inside the cocoon? That would only cause me to doubt what I'm seeing...

Lost in thought as he tried figuring out what kind of creature the weird cocoon with countless tentacles was, Xuan Hao soon shook his head. Giving up trying to figure out just what kind of creature it was.

"The thieves have already left the mineshaft... I should be able to deal with this thing before they run too far..." Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao descended down towards the cocoon at the bottom of the mineshaft.

In the first place, he had never planned to just leave something like that alone. From the fact that it was latterly draining the life out of a few people before absorbing it for itself, Xuan Hao had already realized that whatever creature the cocoon was, it was not kind in the slightest.

More importantly, it reminded him quite a bit about the life draining technique he had seen the person from the Black Rose Sect use back when he went to Bright Sun City together with Qing Yi for a youth competition between the young people of Bright Sun City.

Maybe the Black Rose Sect's demonic skills were related to this creature in some way?

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao really wanted to find out just where the weird tentacle cocoon had come from...

Wriggle~

Feeling Xuan Hao slowly coming descending down towards it, the tentacles at the bottom of the mineshaft slowly began growing restless as a large part of them began wrapping around the cocoon for protection.

"Well... Let's see how strong you are!"

Whoosh!

Having his qi take on the shape of a sword, Xuan Hao directly brandished the newly created sword before slashing down towards the tentacle cocoon just below. Making sure not to use too much strength in case he ended up alerting the Domain Lord of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

The main reason for this, was because he had no idea if the one behind the tentacle cocoon was the Domain Lord of the Iron Sky Kingdom, while he did not know why the formation that protected the entire capital did not seem to be present around the weird tentacle cocoon, Xuan Hao felt that it could be something that the ruler of the Iron Sky Kingdom had arrange and preferred being on the careful side.

After all, the tentacle cocoon could not move and was stuck at the bottom of an abandoned mineshaft...

From the fact that it had clearly been devouring the life of at least a dozen or so people when he arrived together with the thief group, Xuan Hao realized that someone had likely been feeding the tentacle cocoon!

At this point, Xuan Hao was just hoping that the effects of the battle between him and the tentacle cocoon would be limited within the mineshaft. Not leaking out into the capital where people and more importantly, the Domain Lord of the Iron Sky Kingdom, would notice-

Swish!

Watching as his attack slashed through the tentacles blocking his its path towards the cocoon with ease before hitting the cocoon without losing any power, Xuan Hao was even more surprised after seeing how easily it went through the cocoon itself.

"Something is wrong..." Seeing how easily things went, Xuan Hao closely observed the tentacle cocoon and just as he watched his attack slash through the bottom part of the tentacle cocoon, Xuan Hao felt a profound sense of danger as his sword attack went moved towards a thin layer of the cocoon that covered the entire bottom part of it.

Only when he focused on it, did he manage to realize that the layer was even there! But he could still not see just what that layer was, as it completely blocked his divine sense from fully seeing it.

BOOM!

Knowing that something was wrong, Xuan Hao rapidly began retreating out of the abandoned mineshaft and just as he made his way out the moment his attack slashed through the small layer at the bottom of the tentacle cocoon.

Instantly killing the weird tentacle cocoon and at the same time causing whatever was hidden inside small layer to activate.

BOOM!

Rumble~

Without even a single second to spare, a terrifying explosion occurred inside of the abandoned mineshaft.

Not only that, but the explosion did not stop there as it violently moved upwards and directly caused the formation around the capital to active.

Whoosh!

Along with the activation of the formation, Xuan Hao was left speechless as he watched the explosion that had more than enough strength to gravely wound him, be supressed within a few seconds before everything calmed down.

The only thing left to remind anyone of what had just happened, was the now collapsed abandoned mineshaft...

"Just what in the world happened..." Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao could not help but try and comprehend just what had happened.

The attack he had used against the tentacle cocoon, could only be considered a normal attack of someone in the early stages of the Domain Lord Realm...

From the fact that the tentacle cocoon had managed to spot him, Xuan Hao had expected for it to have also reached the Domain Lord Realm and be able to block his attack. Allowing him to gauge its strength...

But looking over towards the collapsed mineshaft where the tentacle cocoon had violently exploded just seconds ago, Xuan Hao could not help but rethink his earlier thoughts about the tentacle cocoon's strength.

More so than the weak strength of the tentacle cocoon, Xuan Hao was more surprised by the explosion that it had caused after he killed it. If not for the fact that the tentacle cocoon was located inside the mineshaft and he had managed to retreat in time, Xuan Hao was sure that he would have ended up getting gravely injured by the explosion!

Not only that, given the strength of the explosion a large part of the Iron Sky Kingdom's capital would likely have ended up being affected before the formation could activate by itself to supress it...

"I should get out of here before the Domain Lord from the Iron Sky Kingdom comes..." Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao quickly left and made his way over towards the thieves he had been following before fighting with the tentacle cocoon.

...

"What in the world is happening? Are we under attack!?"

"The guardian formation laid down by the king activated!"

"Did you guys hear that giant explosion earlier!? Do you think someone is attacking us?"

At the same time Xuan Hao was running away from the scene of the crime, the people inside the capital were all surprised at the large explosion followed by the guardian formation of the Iron Sky Kingdom activating.

Some panicking over potentially being caught in the middle of a fight against Domain Lords, while others tried to find out what happened .

Soon the formation began disappearing, as it became invisible to the naked eye once again.

The capital of the Iron Sky Kingdom was by no means a safe haven without any dangers, but it was still among one of the more peaceful places in the Sky Empire due to the fact that the formation deterred anyone at the Nascent Soul Realm from fighting.

Along with the guards that patrolled most of the capital outside parts of the eastern area, it was a safe place to live. Even for someone without any cultivation realm.

The explosion earlier was far from normal and had immediately caused everyone inside the capital to ask about it.. In the end, the ones who suffered the most were the guards, as the people curious about the explosion all swarmed towards any guards they spotted. Asking them about the earlier explosion...