Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

"If we accidentally ends up destroying the capital city of a low tier empire, the imperial family will definitely find trouble with us…" Muttering this to himself as he looked back at the capital city of the Sky Empire, Senior Peng could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine when remembering a certain agreement that had been made between the different large powers at the core of the continent.

Although he was not fully clear on the reason behind this agreement, he understood that it prevented the stronger empires and other powers at the core of the continent from attacking the lower tier and weaker empires located at the edges of the continent. 

The only people who dared to go against this, was the different religions, who had somehow managed to avoid any trouble by not sending anyone too powerful to the edges of the continent. Resulting in most of the low tier empires forming a relationship with these religions, existing together with them in a way similar to the Sky Empire and the three major religions.

If anyone else was found in violation of this, the different large powers would band together to attack the offending party. Most notably, this had once led to the destruction of one of the largest and strongest empires at the center of the continent.

With this in mind, it was likely that the Blue Sea Empire would deal with them before any of the other major powers learnt about some of their experts accidentally destroying the capital city of a low tier empire. Even if they would not be killed due to their strength and position, it was likely that they would be locked up for a few thousand years until the rest of the major powers forgot about the matter…

Whoosh~

Not wanting to end up in such a situation, Senior Peng didn't waste a single second as he dedicated part of his power to create a protective barrier around the capital city of the Sky Empire. Preventing the already crumbling guardian formation from breaking at the last possible moment.

ROOOOAR!

Sensing the grip of Senior Peng weakened as he protected the capital city of the Sky Empire, the snake demon beast let out a bestial roar filled with power, as it used all of its strength to forcibly free itself before diving into the river in the direction of the ocean.

"Don't let it get away!" Seeing the snake demon beast taking advantage of the opportunity to escape, the tall woman yelled to Senior Peng before diving into the water to chase after the snake demon beast.

This- Ah! If not for that damnable agreement, I-

Feeling like he had made a mistake earlier when protecting the capital city of the Sky Empire, Senior Peng could not help silently cursing to himself as he became visibly annoyed at the fact that the snake demon beast had managed to escape.

"Hmph!"

Because of this, he let out his anger on the already collapsing formation of the capital city-

CRAAAAAACK-!

BOOOM-!

Destroying it before jumping into the water to chase after his companion and the snake demon beast.

Ptsh~!

Much to the surprise of the old ancestor who was still bound together with the formation, causing him to receive a backlash after its sudden destruction that made him throw up a large mouthful of blood.

"Huh? This is- Aaaaah!"

However, before he could comprehend what had just happened, a terrifying power belonging to the Earth Immortal Realm suddenly found its way into his body before his connection to the guardian formation disappeared. Resulting in his strength to momentarily falling down to the Third Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Not only that, but it also ended up injuring the old ancestor's soul, causing him to blackout before falling towards the palace of the imperial family below him.

"Father!"

Not having left like his father had told him to do, the current emperor of the Sky Empire saw his father suddenly throw up blood before losing consciousness and falling towards the ground.

Swish-!

So, before anyone else had a chance to attack the old ancestor or do anything to him, the emperor rushed out and grabbed the old ancestor before rushing back into the imperial palace with him-

Whoosh~!

Not wasting any time before using the secret teleportation formation to take them away from the capital city. Knowing very well that the three religions or the new Soul Ascension Realm Expert from the noble families might take advantage of the old ancestor's state to overthrow the imperial family and take control of the Sky Empire.

Although doing this would still end up damaging the Sky Empire and gave a chance for these different powers to wither away the imperial family's power, it would still leave a chance for the imperial family to return after the old ancestor woke up again and recovered from his injuries.

The only real threat in the eyes of the emperor was if any of the nearby empires took advantage of the situation to start expanding into the Sky Empire during this period of absence. The most likely one being the Onyx Empire who was already on bad terms with the Sky Empire and was constantly probing the borders for any sign of weakness.

Despite the fact that the Domain Lord Realm Experts guarding the border wouldn't move after the disappearance of the imperial family, as none of the powers inside the Sky Empire wanted to see an outside party show up, the situation would only remain stable for as long as the information regarding the disappearance of the imperial family remained hidden from the outside world.

Unfortunately, with things like communication talismans being widely available because of the Explorer Union, what happened in the capital city would not remain hidden for long. The only hope of all the larger powers in the Sky Empire, was that none of the spies inside the capital city had access to communication talismans powerful enough to transfer information all the way back to their own empires.

Of course, this was nothing more than an empty hope. Even if the spies inside the capital city didn't have access to a communication talisman powerful enough to transfer information all the way back to their own respective empires, they would undoubtedly be able to contact a secret outpost located somewhere inside the Sky Empire that would then be capable of sending the information back home.

Although this would delay the speed at which the information was transferred back, it would at most be by a day or two.

After which, these empires would undoubtedly begin preparations to invade the Sky Empire before it had a chance to recover. Especially after learning how the guardian formation of the capital city had been broken and was no longer around to act as a deterrent for anyone trying to take on the Sky Empire.

…

Knowing how dire the situation was, the Soul Ascension Realm Experts from the capital had gathered together to come up with a solution on how to deal with the impending invasion from the surrounding empires looking to take advantage of the imperial family's absence.

"We have to find a way to keep out those empires… I suggest that we band together for now and deal with them before splitting up the Sky Empire accordingly. If the imperial family ends up returning in the future, we can band up again to deal with them!"

Among the group of people gathered, the first one to step forward was none other than the old master of the Hollow Thunder Family who had just recently broken through to the Soul Ascension Realm.

"Band together? Do you really think something like that will work? Those empires already expect something like that to happen. If we want to stand a chance of keeping those opportunistic empires at bay, we have to come up with something different." Not at all convinced by the old master from the Hollow Thunder Family, an old man dressed in a luxurious crafted from the finest silk with all sorts of gemstones carefully woven into it, scoffed disdainfully as he shot down his suggestion.

"You-"

"Now, now, no need to start fighting, the ancestor of the Earth Dragon Clan is correct, we need to do something more than just band together to fight those empires off. The main problem is that without the protection of the guardian formation, we won't be able to safely do anything without having to worry about someone suddenly showing up to destroy our homes."

"And how are we supposed to do that!?"

"This… Maybe we could…"

As more people chimed in to join the conversation, the old master from the Hollow Thunder Family could not help letting out a sigh filled with sadness.

"Haaa… How ironic, we finally got rid of that damnable imperial family, but we can't properly defend the land now that we don't have their guardian formation around to ensure our families safety…" Muttering this to himself, the old master could not help silently hoping that the imperial family would return again…