Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

As Huo Fen continued discreetly scattering around the talismans papers while also setting up the last few preparations for the formation he had laid down throughout the small city months in advance, the Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from the Southern Central Region, who had been the one to first discover the talisman paper he was discreetly dropping while moving around the auction house, observed one of the talisman papers with a look of confusion on his face.

"These talismans… Just what in the world is he planning on using them for? Although lining them up together throughout the auction house should be able to form a rudimentary formation, it shouldn't be a teleportation formation from the lack of spatial fluctuations.

But… If not, a spatial formation that can be used to escape, what in the world is this person planning on doing? Fight us? A Dao Seed Realm cultivator fighting a group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators?"

Voicing his thoughts out loud while he remained seated inside his private room without showing any sign of getting up to investigate the situation more in-depth, the powerful Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from the Southern Central Region curiously fiddled with one of the talismans papers he had discreetly removed from the ground and brought over for closer inspection without Huo Fen or the other Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators noticing anything in the process.

Although he wasn't exactly someone skilled in the Dao of Formations, the Dao of Space or the Dao of Talismans, he could at the very least tell that Huo Fen wasn't constructing something that could threaten him. Not that he believed that someone in the Dao Seed Realm could even threaten him in the first place.

Maybe because of this, he didn't really take Huo Fen's little escape attempt seriously and didn't bother investigating it any further beyond picking up one of the talismans he had discreetly attached to the floor of the auction house.

No matter what, Huo Fen was only someone in the Dao Seed Realm and had at most another five minutes left before the one from the Explorer Union left and the protection that had kept him and the other Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators from making a move to try and seize the Stardusk Essence.

In his eyes, there was nothing Huo Fen could do to escape without the help of a teleportation talisman or something similar… And if Huo Fen used something like that, he and the other Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators would step in to prevent him from escaping by destabilizing the space around the auction house. Doing so, they would not just stop him from being able to teleport away, but would also avoid offending the Explorer Union, as they could destabilize space without causing any damage to the Explorer Union and its people nor any of the people who had participated in the auction.

In a sense, this was a workaround of the Explorer Union's rules that stronger cultivators had come up with to prevent weaker cultivators from buying something far beyond their capabilities before escaping with it through a teleportation talisman when the auction came to an end.

Of course, it didn't work at every auction that was hosted by the Explorer Union, as the more official auction sites of the Explorer Union wouldn't tolerate something like that.

However, the city they were in was luckily not such a place. Meaning that the Explorer Union wouldn't bother interfering in case something like that happened if it didn't involve any participants of the auction while they were still around.

Because of this, not just the powerful one from the Southern Central Region, but everyone else also felt confident that Huo Fen wouldn't be able to escape from his current situation. The talismans papers that were slowly uncovered and discovered by some of the other Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators ended up as nothing more than a vain attempt to escape from a certain death situation.

The only thing that made them all a bit more cautious than they would have normally been in this kind of situation was the reason behind their current situation, the Stardusk Essence.

No matter how hard they all thought about it, they simply couldn't understand why someone at the Middle Stage of the Dao Seed Realm would throw his life away for something he couldn't even use with his current cultivation realm.

Preparation for the future was an option, but it seemed rather unlikely given his low cultivation realm that was still far away from reaching the Celestial Immortal Realm, let alone the Peak of the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm where the Stardusk Essence would start to show its worth.

But at the end of the day, none of this mattered much to them, as their sole objective was to get their hands on the Stardusk Essence themselves. None of them really cared what Huo Fen might have planned to use the Stardusk Essence for…

Everything is working out as expected, a total of 32 out of the 57 talisman papers I scattered so far has either been picked up or destroyed by those Celestial Immortals, while not a single one of the formation symbols has been touched.

While the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators were silently mocking his vain escape attempt, Huo Fen was silently sensing the state of the talisman papers that had been used as a distraction and the formation symbols that served as the core of his escape plan.

Although he had long since expected things to work out, he had not anticipated that none of the formation symbols had been discovered by now.

Even though this should be something positive as it meant his plan was working far better than originally anticipated, Huo Fen could not help feeling a bit offended. Understanding that, the main reason why his plan was working better than expected had nothing to do with his ability to avoid the detection of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators being stronger but instead had to do with the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators not believing he had any way to escape from them.

Haaa… Although it doesn't feel good to be underestimated this much, it will at least make it far more satisfying when escaping later…

Shaking his head as he thought this to himself while he finished engraving the last required formation symbol into the wooden floor of the auction, Huo Fen decided that the best revenge against these overly confident Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators would be for him to escape right under their noses without them even getting the chance to stop him.

Now, all that was left to do was wait until the one from the Explorer Union left and the protection that existed around the auction house disappeared.

After all, like the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, he also didn't want to make enemies with the Explorer Union… And the massive formation he was planning on using to trap the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators targeting him wasn't exactly within his control. All he could do was avoid getting himself and his disciple caught up inside the formation. Anything beyond that was out of his control.

For this reason, outside of the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators who were the main target of the formation, everyone else inside the city would also end up being trapped inside the formation.

Because of this, he could only wait for the important figure from the Explorer Union to leave before throwing down the final formation symbol that would activate the formation.

As for the new friend who was still inside the private box with his disciple… He could only apologize in advance for trapping him. Not that he believed he would be in danger after being trapped considering how the one from the Explorer Union had treated him.

Rumble~

Just as he was a bit lost in his own thoughts thinking about Xuan Hao and how he felt sorry for how he was about to trap him along with everyone else inside the city, Huo Fen suddenly felt a terrifying spatial fluctuation coming from the direction of the Explorer Union branch before disappearing shortly after-

He left!

Swish-!

And without a single shred of hesitation, he immediately began engraving a small formation symbol on the wooden floor beneath his feet without bothering to hide it from the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators who were keeping an eye on his every move.

"A formation symbol…?"

"Formation symbol… Talismans… Damnit! Those talismans were a distraction!?"

"To think I fell for this kind of simple trick…"

Almost at the same time as he did this, the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators who had only been secretly observing so far all understood that they had been fooled by him… And considering that the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from the Explorer Union had just left, they no longer bothered holding back any longer as all of them soon rushed towards the seemingly helpless Huo Fen. Intent on not just seizing the Stardusk Essence from him, but also planning to tear him apart on the spot for making a fool out of them-

Rumble~

But before any of them could reach him, he finished engraving the small formation symbol on the wooden floor of the auction house. Instantly causing a massive chain reaction to take place, as the formation that had been hidden beneath the massive city slowly began to come to life…