Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Arriving at the Sea of a Thousand Furnaces shortly after leaving the palace together with Bai Ning, Xuan Hao didn't hold back as he began teaching Bai Ning about the Master Realm just as he had promised him before leaving for the Blue Shore Kingdom. Helping him take the first step towards comprehending the Dao of Blacksmithing.

At the same time, he also ended up demonstrating for him by crafting a few artifacts with the help of his comprehension of the Dao of Blacksmithing.

Although the artifacts crafted were nowhere near the level that would normally be done by someone in the Grandmaster Realm, let alone the Pseudo Saint Realm, they were more than enough to display the level for someone in the Master Realm.

Of course, the main reason for this lack of skill when it came to crafting was because Xuan Hao had comprehended the Dao of Blacksmithing but had never really used it in practice before.

Even then, this issue was just temporary and could be fixed with a few months of practice if he really wanted to start crafting higher level artifacts.

Then again, Xuan Hao didn't really plan to start crafting artifacts any time soon and mostly just wanted to increase his comprehension of the Dao of Blacksmithing to the point where he could still teach Bai Ning. Only if it required him to be able to craft higher level artifacts would he spend the time required to get his crafting skills on par with his comprehension.

Part of him was also hoping that he would gain a reward from the system similar to what he had gotten with his alchemy skills, as that gave him not only the knowledge, but also the skill of someone in that realm. Allowing him to concoct pills, potions and elixirs befitting someone in the Artisan Realm…

"Thank you for your guidance master!"

Unaware of this, Bai Ning was smiling from ear to ear as he felt even more awed at his master's understanding of blacksmithing compared to the past. After all, in his eyes, he clearly felt that his master should be far above the Master Realm for him to be capable of so effortlessly guiding him into how to reach the Master Realm. Making him feel confident in surpassing the Master Realm in the future, his master guiding him whenever any doubts came up.

"No problem, if there is anything else in the future, you can always find me, as I don't have any plans of leaving the sect over the next few years." Seeing the overjoyed expression on Bai Ning's face as he looked like he couldn't wait to try and take the final step and enter the Master Realm, Xuan Hao smiled happily as he decided to leave him to take the final step on his own.

Rustle~

Nodding his head eagerly upon hearing what his master said, Bai Ning didn't waste any time as he turned around to find a few spiritual metals lying around in his forge before getting prepared to solidify what he had learnt through using it in crafting. Hoping that this would allow him to take the step needed to create the blacksmithing domain that his master had mentioned and enter the Master Realm.

Whoosh~

Knowing that there wasn't anything else for him to help Bai Ning with for now, Xuan Hao turned and left the forge while Bai Ning did this. Intending to keep an eye on him with his divine sense to ensure that he would be able to safely reach the Master Realm and not end up trying to do something beyond his own capabilities.

After all, even if the pressure put on the soul by a blacksmithing domain was weaker than a normal domain, Bai Ning was only in the Core Formation Realm at the moment and Xuan Hao didn't know if he would be able to handle it yet.

If he really couldn't handle a blacksmithing domain yet, he could intervene before his disciple had time to fully form the domain and interrupt the process before it ended up permanently damaging his soul- or in worst case, killing him.

Even if this would end up being a blow to Bai Ning's confidence, he could only blame himself for not focusing enough on his cultivation. After all, he had made sure to remind him about the fact that a blacksmithing domain would put a certain pressure on his soul that he might be unable to endure because of his low cultivation realm.

"Haaa… I hope everything works out…" Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao decided to head over to the Combat Hall to check up on his second disciple, who, from what he could gather about him from the different disciples and elders, pretty much lived in the Combat Hall at this point in time.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao went to catch up with Chu Yang, Elder Song was looking down at the communication talisman on the table in front of him with a surprised look in his eyes.

Just a few seconds earlier, he had been informed by one of the elders who was currently in the Iron Sky Kingdom to continue the conversation regarding the Iron Sky Kingdom joining the Star Shattering Sect, that the Iron Sky Kingdom had agreed to join the Star Shattering Sect.

Not only that, but he had also learnt that the reason for this sudden agreement was a conversation that had taken place between Yi Min, the ruler of the Iron Sky Kingdom and Xuan Hao, someone he had no idea was in the iron Sky Kingdom, let alone carrying out a negotiation on behalf of the sect to convince the Iron Sky Kingdom to join the Star Shattering Sect.

"To think Xuan Hao would convince the Iron Sky Kingdom to join the sect, but now that the Iron Sky Kingdom is a part of the Star Shattering Sect, I can think about future expansion into the core region of the Sky Empire. Although… Considering that the war between the Sky Empire and the surrounding empires is still taking place, it would still be best to continue the earlier expansion plan and avoid getting involved with any of the empires for now…" Muttering this to himself as he went over the possible expansion plans that could be implemented now that the Star Shattering Sect had a border with the core region of the Sky Empire, Elder Song ultimately ended up deciding to still go with the expansion into the nearby outer region.

Even if the Star Shattering Sect was more than strong enough to expand into the core region of the Sky Empire without suffering too much at the hands of the different empires now that the sect had multiple Soul Ascension Realm Experts and even an Earth Immortal Realm Expert brought in by Xuan Hao, he also understood that the size of the Star Shattering Sect was far from large enough to manage such a large territory. Especially the core region of the Sky Empire where the demon beasts and cultivators were stronger.

After all, he didn't just want the Star Shattering Sect to only control small parts of the area like the Sky Empire was doing, but instead wanted to control the entire area and build it up to be the future core of the Star Shattering Sect's territory, something that would require thousands- if not tens of thousands of Domain Lord Realm Experts…

Given the current strength of the Star Shattering Sect, this was of course still something far off in the future, but Elder Song felt that it would happen at some point in the future given how fast the Star Shattering Sect was growing.

For example, although the number of Domain Lord Realm Experts in the Star Shattering Sect at the moment could be counted on a single hand, it would only be a matter of time before the number of Domain Lord Ream Experts exploded due to the rich cultivation environment in the Shattered Star Peaks.

Even now, the number of Nascent Soul Realm Experts in the Star Shattering Sect had already grown far beyond what it had been in the past and almost every week, a new elder who had been stuck at the Core Formation Realm would breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm.

Thinking about this as he continued to look down at the communication talisman on his table, Elder Song could not help silently sighing to himself. Even if he had been promoted to the position of Vice Sect Master after breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm, he had a feeling that he would have to reach the Domain Lord Realm in the future if he wanted to continue staying in his current position, something that he had no idea if he could do.

The main reason for this was that he became increasingly aware of the damage that his soul had suffered during the time he had used the demonic method to help Song Jia as his strength increased. Even if it didn't affect him much at the moment, he understood that it would come back to bite him again after he reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm and started thinking about trying to break through to the Domain Lord Realm…