Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Listening to Elder Song as he began explaining what Feng Chen had managed to find back in the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao could not help slightly opening his mouth in disbelief. Not only did he manage to find information on the founder of the Flying Sword Sect, something that had remained a complete mystery to him and the rest of the sect so far, but he had also found detailed information on the Dao Domain Lord Realm. Including techniques for stepping onto the singular path of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.
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However, the thing that was most surprising was not the information on the Dao Domain Lord Realm but the information on the nine core faiths in the Southern Central Region. Referring to them as a sealed ancient power and having strength beyond the Profound Immortal Realm.

Though he had no idea if it was referring to all of them collectively or individually, it was clear to him that it would be for the best to avoid the nine core faiths even after he broke through to the Profound Immortal Realm in the future. At least in that regard, the sealed part was a bit reassuring, as it meant that they likely wouldn't be able to extend their power beyond their current territories.

In a sense, as he thought about it, it made sense that those nine core faiths were sealed and unable to expand. After all, every other religious organization he encountered so far seemed to be trying their best to spread their faith to as many people as possible.

For the nine core faiths hailed as one of the strongest powers on the continent to not spread their faith? That was odd and only now started to make sense to him after Elder Song told him about the information Feng Chen had found in the founder's old cultivation chambers back in the Flying Sword Sect.

Although… It still didn't fully answer all the questions that he had regarding the nine core faiths, as he still wondered how they could keep interacting with the outside world even though they were supposedly sealed off. Making him believe that the seal mentioned shouldn't affect most members of these nine core faiths and should work in some mysterious way that made it impossible for them to spread their faith.

It could also be that they sealed themselves off to complete some kind of goal or hide away from something. After all, the hidden ancient sects also seem to limit their scope of their operation whenever they do emerge even though they are clearly far stronger than any of the major powers present on the continent…

Going through different ideas in his mind while Elder Song explained the estimated strength of different major powers throughout the continent in the background, Xuan Hao felt like he had just stumbled on something important that he couldn't see clearly from his current position. Feeling certain that there was indeed something preventing ancient powers from rising again. Making them hide away and not dare to expand their influence beyond the area around the core of their power.

The only problem was that even if he knew that there should be something preventing these ancient powers from reemerging, there was nothing he could do about it as it was clearly far too dangerous to try and investigate it with his current strength. Even reaching the Profound Immortal Realm in the future might not be enough considering that the nine core faiths, with strength beyond the Profound Immortal Realm according to the old founder of the Flying Sword Sect, had still decided to remain hidden and not expand their influence beyond a small bit of territory at what was considered the true core of the continent.

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao turned his attention back towards Elder Song, who was still earnestly listing the strength of the different major powers throughout the continent.

During the explanation, he wasn't too surprised by the strength of the Blue Sea Empire but was a bit surprised by the strength of their rival, the Wei Empire. Different from the Blue Sea Empire, the Wei Empire also had at least three ancestors in the Profound Immortal Realm.

However, the strongest person in the Wei Empire had only reached the Sea Formation Realm. Nowhere near comparable to the Blue Sea Empire who had an Ancestor at the Land Creation Realm.

On the other hand, this might be the reason why the Blue Sea Empire was considered one of the three strongest empires on the continent, while the Wei Empire was not.

Speaking of the three strongest empires on the continent, they were the Blue Sea Empire in the Northern Central Region, Dynasty of the Crimson Sun in the Southern Central Region and Nirvana Ascendancy in the Western Central Region.

Among the three, the Blue Sea Empire was one that he already knew quite a bit about, but the other two he had only really heard in name, with both being rather special.

The Dynasty of the Crimson Sun was in the Southern Central Region, but not really at the same time. Instead, existing in a special ancient realm that had its location fixed to different locations throughout the continent.

The main reason why it was normally seen as being in the Southern Central Region being because most of the empire's power was focused there, with it only having a miniscule territory outside the Southern Central Region.

The overall strength of this empire, according to the notes left behind by the old founder, was even stronger than that of the Blue Sea Empire. Having at least 5 people in the Profound Immortal Realm with at least one person in the Land Creation Realm. Hinting that the true power of the Dynasty of the Crimson Son being far stronger than it seemed on the surface due to their ability to hide inside their realm.

According to what Elder Song told him about information on this empire, the founder apparently didn't want to bother breaking into special ancient realm, as it would end up causing a commotion and draw unwanted attention for no real reason.

The information he had gathered on them was just surface level, so the Dynasty of the Crimson Sun might be far stronger than the information indicated.

Next up was the Nirvana Ascendancy, a Buddhist empire located in the Western Central Region.

Overall, there wasn't anything special about this empire and it could be considered the weakest among the three strongest on the continent. Only having a single person in the Profound Immortal Realm who had reached the Sea Formation Realm and three people in the Celestial Immortal Realm.

The main reason why the Nirvana Ascendancy was able to keep its place as one of the three strongest empires was solely due to its alignment with the Heavenly Dragon Temple that had essentially turned it into a subordinate power under it. Using it to spread the teachings of Buddhism among the mortals of the Western Central Region.

So, when talking about the power of the Nirvana Ascendancy, one had to consider the Heavenly Dragon Temple that was the de facto hegemon of the Western Central Region.

Speaking of the Heavenly Dragon Temple, Xuan Hao felt curious about how strong it was, but unfortunately, there wasn't any information on it among the notes left by the old founder. Not that surprising considering that according to Elder Song, only around half of the major powers were accounted for in the notes after he had finished thoroughly looking through them and comparing them with the number of major powers currently around.

Feng Chen, who had first believed it to contain information on all the different major powers was left rather embarrassed at this realization, as he had just casually skimmed through the notes before handing them over to Elder Song for further analysis.

Even then, it did give them a good idea about the overall strength of the powers on the continent. Even if it was rather unfortunate that there wasn't information on some major powers like the Heavenly Dragon Temple, Crimson Dragon Empire and others.

On that topic, there was also a lack of information on the more mysterious powers throughout the continent, like the Explorer Union, Shadow Lotus Sect and most importantly the hidden ancient sects.

Though they knew about their existence, the information on these ancient sects was sorely lacking and the information found from their old founder didn't help them in the slightest with learning more about these ancient hidden sects.

In the end, Xuan Hao continued talking with Elder Song after he finished explaining all the information that had been gathered by Feng Chen for another few hours before the two of them dived into the discussion regarding the wandering cultivators who had ended up joining the sect. Helping make up for the Star Shattering Sect's current lack of Soul Ascension Realm cultivators and giving their Domain Lord Realm Elders an opportunity to experience a period of rapid growth with the teaching of so many Soul Ascension Realm cultivators.

Speaking of which, the conversation wasn't focused on the wandering cultivators in the Soul Ascension Realm, but instead those in the Dao Seed Realm, as they were far more difficult to handle for someone like Elder Song.

Not that it was easy for someone in the Nascent Soul Realm to manage so many Soul Ascension Realm cultivators, but Elder Song had somehow managed to accomplish it, something that Xuan Hao had no idea what to think about, as he had expected him to struggle more with integrating a group of wandering cultivators in the Soul Ascension Realm into the sect…