Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

At the same time that the King of the Azure Sky Kingdom arrived inside of the army camp, on a small hilltop located a short distance away from the battlefield, Shu Yao curiously popped her head up and gazed over in the direction of the King.

"Hm... Never expected that the Azure Sky Kingdom would have some at the Half-Step Domain Lord Realm like me. Looks like the Heavenly Sky Kingdom is going to end soon! Maybe I should ask if Elder Xuan could come over just to be safe in case that guy gets any funny ideas..."

Muttering this to herself as she felt the divine sense of the Half-Step Domain Lord in question lock onto her, Shu Yao debated whether to contact Xuan Hao.

The fall of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom would have a large effect on both the Spring Flower Sect, the Flying Sword Sect and the Seven Fates Sect.

Brining both an opportunity for further expanding their territory and at the same time bringing forth possible dangers in case the Azure Sky Kingdom decides to not keep up on their promise to leave after the destruction of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom.

Overall, Shu Yao felt that Xuan Hao should be present, just in case...

Other than that, Shu Yao had a nagging feeling that there was a reason why the Azure Sky Kingdom had gone ahead and launched a full-on war to destroy the Heavenly Sky Kingdom. Outside of just destroying an old rival kingdom...

After all, it made no sense for the Azure Sky Kingdom to put forth so much effort to destroy the Heavenly Sky Kingdom without any benefits.

At the same time, she had heard from a few friends that the neighbouring kingdoms around the Azure Sky Kingdom had begun moving to invade them while they were busy taking down the Heavenly Sky Kingdom...

No matter how she looked at it, Shu Yao could not see a reason why the Azure Sky Kingdom would want to destroy the Heavenly Sky Kingdom so badly unless there was something they wanted from them.

But what...?

Shu Yao had no idea and planned to find out what the king from the Azure Sky Kingdom wanted so badly that he left his kingdom wide open to attacks from the neighbouring kingdoms...

Thinking about all of this, Shu Yao took out her communication talisman and contacted Xuan Hao.

At least with him around, Shu Yao was sure that the king of the Azure Sky Kingdom wouldn't be able to sneakily hide away the thing he was invading the Heavenly Sky Kingdom for!

At this point in time, Shu Yao had already convinced herself that there must be something important hidden inside of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom that the king of the Azure Sky Kingdom was after...

...

Back at the Flying Sword Sect, the night slowly passed with Xuan Hao cultivating peacefully.

"Hm? Who is it?"

Picking up his communication talisman, Xuan Hao was surprised to hear Shu Yao on the other side as she explained that she was currently observing what would be the final battlefield between the Azure Sky Kingdom and the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and that the king of the Azure Sky Kingdom had shown up.

"So, why did you contact me...?"

Still not understanding why she would contact him over the battle between the two kingdoms, Xuan Hao clearly remembered that they would remain neutral in the fight...

In the first place, how come Shu Yao was even there...?

"I felt that something was wrong with the Azure Sky Kingdoms attack on the Heavenly Sky Kingdom. No matter how much of a rival they are, they have already taken a large part of their territory away with close to no risk and continuing until they completely destroy the Heavenly Sky Kingdom would result in the neighbouring kingdoms taking advantage of it to take over part of the Azure Sky Kingdom's land!

From a few of my friends outside the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, I already know at least three other kingdoms working together to launch an attack and take over a large chunk of land away from the Azure Sky Kingdom this morning!"

"Indeed... It makes no sense for them to continue until they completely destroy the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, especially so if they are not even planning to take over their territory in the first place... At this point they will only end up losing territory overall..."

Listening to what Shu Yao said, Xuan Hao could not help but agree with her as it was indeed weird for the Azure Sky Kingdom to continue their attack on the Heavenly Sky Kingdom without any benefits.

"So, what do you think their reason for this is...?"

Not understanding why, the Azure Sky Kingdom would do something so stupid, Xuan Hao could not help but ask Shu Yao trough his communication talisman.

"I think that the king of the Azure Sky Kingdom found out about something precious in the possession of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and want to take it away for himself. An ancient artifact or maybe a precious herb of some kind, I really have no idea, but that is the only real reason I can think of..."

Following a short silence from the other side, Shu Yao explained what she believed to be the reason for the Azure Sky Kingdoms continued aggression towards the Heavenly Sky Kingdom.

"I see... That would indeed explain why they would continue their attack on the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, especially if the thing in question is something that would help the king of the Azure Sky Kingdom breakthrough into the Domain Lord Realm..."

Nodding his head in agreement while saying this, Xuan Hao could not help but remember the source crystal that he had consumed back when breaking through into the Domain Lord Realm.

A big enough source crystal would most definitely be more than enough to help someone at the Half-Step Domain Lord Realm take the final step into the Domain Lord Realm!

Other than that, Xuan Hao did not know about any other way to help someone reach the Domain Lord Realm. Perhaps a pill similar to the purification pill he had gotten from the system, but Xuan Hao highly doubted that, as the ancestor of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom would definitely have consumed it by now.

The purification pill fundamentally strengthens the soul and the earlier it could be consumed the better, there would be no reason for the ancestor to just keep it around and wait until he reached the Half-Step Domain Lord Realm...

A source crystal on the other hand, would increase the comprehension of a cultivator during a certain period of time. The effect growing longer and stronger the bigger the source crystal was.

The ancestor of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom would definitely not use such a precious resource before reaching the Half-Step Domain Lord Realm!

All in all, Xuan Hao could be wrong and the thing in question could be something completely different, like a powerful artifact or an ancient cultivation mantra of some sort...

"So... I wanted to ask if you were free and wanted to come over, just to keep an eye on the king of the Azure Sky Kingdom and find out the reason he wants to destroy the Heavenly Sky Kingdom so badly!"

Hearing Xuan Hao agree with her that there was something suspicious about the Azure Sky Kingdom's attack, Shu Yao decided to ask whether he wanted to come over and watch the situation unfold.

"Sure, I will be there in a few hours!"

Not seeing any reason to refuse Shu Yao outside of the fact that he might waste a day or two, Xuan Hao quickly made his way towards several libraries across the Flying Sword Sect before finding over a dozen different books suitable for him to learn for his quest during his short travel outside to watch the fall of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom.

Finished packing away the dozens of books in his interspatial ring, Xuan Hao did not forget to help out his newest disciple Bai Ning with his cultivation.

Guiding him on how to improve his cultivation in the Qi Condensation for half an hour before finally leaving the Flying Sword Sect after informing Elder Song about his outing.

...

Flying through the air, Xuan Hao soon passed by the territory of the River Sect where his two disciples were adventuring about and with a quick sweep of his divine sense, Xuan Hao soon found their location.

Currently, both of them were heading over towards a large mountain ridge in the distance together with someone from the River Sect guiding them along the way.

"Hm... That should be the Red Flower Ridge, if I'm not wrong, they were going to deal with some bandits there?"

Muttering this to himself as he floated in the air above his two disciples, Xuan Hao smiled a bit to himself when he thought about something.

The quest only mentioned that the time limit was until my two disciples returned from their sect mission... So, why don't it a little more difficult to find those bandits...?

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao could not help but smile cheekily as he disappeared from the location above his two disciples and reappeared directly above the cave leading towards the bandit base.

Fwoosh!

Covering the entire bandit base along with all the bandits in his domain, Xuan Hao directly knocked out all of them before changing the surrounding environment of the base to be more hidden before they woke up again.

"This should do!" Looking at the entrance to the bandit base now completely hidden from view, Xuan Hao nodded to himself before disappearing from the Red Flower Ridge.

He hoped that hiding the bandit base would at least buy him another few hours of time. Maybe even a day if he was lucky!