Not paying any attention to the expansion of the sect, Xuan Hao instead focused all of his attention on training his four disciples. Among whom, Mui was the one that ended up benefiting the most. Progressing from the Fifth Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm all the way to the Foundation Establishment Realm in a short month.
Bai Ning on the other, hand had been focusing most of his attention on improving his blacksmithing at the start of the month but had soon returned to the palace to learn from his mater and attempt to teach his new junior sister the art of blacksmithing, something which unfortunately ended up as a failure.
On the positive side, the failure had not deterred Bai Ning and only caused him to work harder. In the end resulting in him finally breaking through from the Peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Core Formation Realm.
Chu Yang and Qing Yi did not lack behind either, as Xuan Hao also made sure to train both of them whenever he wasn't training Mui. Allowing Chu Yang to finally break through from the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm to the Second Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, while Qing Yi managed to fully stabilize her cultivation base at the Peak of the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.
Even if their cultivation base had not managed to improve at the same level as Mui had, both of them had grown far stronger compared to a month ago and were more than capable of fighting against someone in the Sixth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm by working together. Even if they encountered someone in the Seventh Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, they would at least have the strength to escape alive with their current strength, something that none of the other Nascent Soul Realm Experts around the same level in the sect could do.
At this point, both of them had finished making all the preparations to enter the mystic realm and were excitedly waiting for their master to send them off-
"It's great to see that both of you are excited about entering the mystic realm… But can you wait until I finish my lesson with Mui…?"
Maybe a bit too excited about it, as they were currently disturbing their master's lesson with their newest junior sister…
Luckily for both of them, they didn't have to wait for more than a few hours before their master finished his lesson and officially sent them off towards the entrance to the mystic realm that was located below his pavilion in the Flying Sword Sect, that had now been transformed into the biggest branch of the Star Shattering Sect over the past few years. Only the former main sect of the Spring Flower Sect being comparable to it.
The entrance to the mystic realm itself had been sealed off by Xuan Hao in the past, so as to prevent anyone from accidentally entering it by mistake like his disciples had done in the past. Other than this, the current elder in charge of the Flying Sword Sect, made sure that no one wandered up to the now abandoned pavilion.
As for any other entrances to the mystic realm? Xuan Hao had no idea where they were located nor if there really were any other entrances beside the one located below his pavilion. The only possible entrance to the mystic realm that he could think of, was the weird secret realm that Bai Ning had accidently entered together with another disciple from the sect during his time hunting down demonic cultivator.
Unfortunately, when he had gone to investigate this weird secret realm over the past month, the entrance that Bai Ning had mentioned, was nowhere to be found. Even using his domain to scan the mountain cave that the entrance was located inside of proved to be of no use. In the end, he could only give up on searching for the entrance and concluded that it had collapsed after Bai Ning and the other disciple that had gone in together with him, had left…
"Now that both Chu Yang and Qing Yi have left and I finished teaching Mui the basics, it should be time for me to go back and fully explore the Main Star Peak and find out just what it is that is hiding inside the rundown temple…" Muttering this to himself as he watched Chu Yang and Qing Yi enter the mystic realm before disappearing from sight, Xuan Hao soon turned around and made his way back towards the Star Shattering Sect. No, it would be more accurate to say that he made his way towards the Main star Peak.
Not only was it to figure out who the person located inside the rundown temple was and what kind of secrets were hidden inside of the temple itself, but it was also to complete the main quest and figure out what had caused the death of the blue deer's father.
After all, he had left the main quest alone for such a long time now and had a feeling that the system would not be issuing him any new quests before he completed it. Of course, this was not the only reason he wanted to complete the main quest; the main reason was that he was also curious about what had happened to the blue deer's father… And more than that, the reward from the main quest!
Even if he had no idea what the [Sky Watcher's forgotten notes relating celestial bodies], was about, he still understood that it should be something important. Especially considering how dangerous it had been for him to look into the death of the blue deer's father so far.
…
"Hm… It looks exactly the same as the last time I was here…"
Arriving at the ravine where the temple was located, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he looked towards the temple still standing tall with the same terrifying aura surrounding it as before. Even the damage that had been done during his struggle to escape with the blue deer back then was still visible.
The main difference when compared to back then, was that with his current cultivation in the Initial Dao Domain Lord Realm, he could clearly feel that the strength behind the terrifying aura was around the earlier stages of the Soul Ascension Realm. Not something he would have been able to fight against if he had really made his way inside the temple back then.
Whoosh-!
Knowing that the other party was not stronger than himself, Xuan Hao didn't bother restraining his divine sense, as he used it to search for the origin of the terrifying aura and the person who had attacked him and the blue deer back then-
"Hm? What in the world is this!?"
However, when his divine sense reached the top of the temple where he thought the person in question should be located, he was shocked to discover that instead of a person, there was a large floating gem the size of a large ball.
The terrifying aura originated from this large gem and without needing to investigate any further, it also became obvious that the thing that had attacked him and the blue deer back then was none other than the large gem… Or to be more precise, it was the consciousness stored inside the large gem that had attacked them.
This realization made Xuan Hao feel a shiver run down his spine as he fully understood how powerful someone would have to be for just a remnant consciousness to have the strength of a Soul Ascension Realm Expert in the earlier stages of the realm.
Even without having to investigate it any further, it became obvious that the remnant consciousness belonged to an expert that had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm!
For there to be such a powerful remnant consciousness, I will have to be careful when entering the temple. Even if I'm stronger than the remnant consciousness, I have no idea what kind of weird and powerful methods an expert surpassing the Soul Ascension Realm has, there might even be some kind of possession method that allows the remnant consciousness to forcibly take control of my body!
Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help cautiously looking up towards the top of the rundown temple where the large gem containing the remnant consciousness was located.
Hesitating for a short moment as he thought about what to do in case the remnant tried to take control of his body or some other weird and obscure techniques that it might have learnt, Xuan Hao took a step forward and entered the rundown temple.
Rumble~!
Not a second later, the remnant consciousness located at the top of the temple discovered his appearance.
Swish-!
Not wasting a single second before sending an attack down towards him!