Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

A few minutes earlier, when Huo Fen had just stepped out of the private box to draw the attention of the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators away from his disciple and the spatial artifact, Xuan Hao found himself being fully absorbed in sensing the faint spatial fluctuations coming from the small spatial artifact. Finding out that the creator of the spatial artifact had walked a completely different path from himself when breaking through to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space.

In short, the spatial artifact was far more useful to him than he had first expected. Drawing him in completely, as he didn't bother paying any attention to what Huo Fen was doing any longer and instead focused fully on the spatial artifact in the form of a small bracelet around Meng Jie's wrist.

As for Meng Jie herself, she remained fully focused on the last few spiritual fruits. Not carrying about his rather obvious interest in the spatial artifact around her wrist.

Odd as this was, Xuan Hao didn't mind this in the slightest, as it gave him the opportunity to observe the spatial artifact uninterrupted.

To show his thanks for this opportunity, he even decided to take out a few of the spiritual fruits he had been carrying and had been planning to hand over to Elder Song at some point when he had gathered enough spiritual fruits of that quality that it would make sense to do so. After all the overall quality of the spiritual fruits in question wasn't high and was useless to him outside of being a delicious snack. Giving a few of them to Meng Jie wouldn't hurt and would at the same time also keep her attention focused elsewhere.

As for the Stardust Essenece he was still very much planning to get his hands on? That would have to wait for later.

Not because he would be unable to forcibly take it from Huo Fen but because he still felt extremely curious about what Huo Fen intended to use the Stardusk Essenece for.

Rumble~

"Hm? A formation... And this pressure… A Saint Grade Formation!?"

However just as he was fully focused on comprehending the Dao of Space form the changes taking place around the spatial artifact, a loud rumbling sound suddenly echoed from below. Instantly drawing his attention away from the spatial artifact and towards the massive formation that emerged from seemingly nowhere before engulfing the entire city. Everything happening so fast that not even someone at the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm like himself could react to before it was already too late.

By the time that he assesed his current situation, a dozen bright green vines had already shot up from the stage below and were heading towards him.

Even worse, he clearly felt a terrifying pressure exceeding that of the Sea Formation Realm bearing down on him from above. Making it more difficult to avoid the vines shooting towards him.

However, even though his movement had been limited by the seemingly omnipresent pressure from the formation he now found himself trapped inside of, he wasn't that worried about his current situation, as he had already sensed that the strength of the vines heading towards him was far from enough to pose any real threat-

Boom-!

And just by manifesting his spiritual sea around himself, he could block the vines from even approaching him. Making it clear almost immediately that the Saint Grade Formation he was facing wasn't exactly in an optimal state.

Of course, when he realzied this, he didn't waste any time before he began to examine the overall state of the formation that now covered the entire city, as although his own comprehension of the Dao of Formations was nowhere near comparable to the creator of this kind of formation, it wasn't exactly low either and was more than high enough for him to notice the countless flaws that had been created when the Saint Grade Formation had been set up inside the city.

From a simple glance, it was clear that the one who had set it up had close to no understanding of the Dao of Formations and had thus ended up ruining a large section of the core nodes of the Saint Grade Formation. Weakening it to a point where it was now barely able to opperate at one percent of its original strength, something that was truly saddening even if it allowed him to avoid being caught by the trapping formation.

After all, a Saint Grade Formation like this would be incredibly useful if he could properly examine it and might even help him break through to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Formations in the future.

Unfortuantely, this oppertunity was lost, as he could already sense that the massive trapping formation had already begun to collapse in on itself the second it had activated. Even without any outside interferance, it would inevitably end up fully collapsing on its own in a little over ten minutes.

But… Because the Saint Grade Formation had already entered a state of collapse and could barely support itself while also suppressing close to a dozen Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, it was possible for him to forcibly rewrite part of the Saint Grade Formation. Allowing him to erase himself as a target in the eyes of the formation in a way not much different from how Huo Fen had erased himself and his disciples from becoming targets in the eyes of the formation. The main difference being that doing so while the formation was active was far harder compared to when it was inactivate and essentially had no way to fight back against this kind of meddeling.

As for the fighting back part… Xuan Hao found out that it essentially just meant more vines trying to break through his spiritual sea while he was in the process of rewriting part of the formation. Nothing he couldn't resist, as he soon enough managed to succesfully erase himself from being targeted by the trapping formation, or more acurately wrote himself in as a friendly target not to be attacked.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

And almost the second he did this, the vines that had been trying to reach him but found themselves unable to do so due to the presence of his spiritual sea, turned around and burrowed back underground without wasting a single second lingering around above ground after the foramtion had been forcibly changed. The safety mechanisms that should have been in place to prevent something just like this from happening never appearing, as they had already been broken by accident by Huo Fen when he had attempted to set up the formation that far exceeded his own understanding.

Helpful as a formation disk might have been when it came to transporting this kind of massive formation and setting it up in another locaiton, it still required a certain level of understanding when it came to the dao of Formations.

All of this not even mentioning how the formation disk itself might have decayed over the years depending on where Huo Fen had managed to get it from.

Shaking his head a bit as he thought this to himself, Xuan Hao slowly began to spread his divine sense down below the auction house following after the large number of vines that had retreated after he had changed identity from enemy to friendly in the eyes of the formation. Curious about what had happened to the group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators that he had clearly sensed being dragged down there only a few seconeds after the formation had activated and covered the city.

Hm? This is… The foramtion is actually able to do something like this…?!

In the end, what he saw left him somewhat shaken, as he witnessed how all the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators in the city, outside the one still barricaded inside the small temple, had been completely bound by the softly glowing green vines.

But the thing that shocked him was not this, but instead that the green vines were slowly draining their qi and using it to start repairing the damage that had been caused to the formation due to th shoddy set up from Huo Fen.

"A Saint Grade Formation… Terrifying indeed, if it could hold on to those Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, it might actually be able to stop its collapse and repair itself entirely…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao soon enough shook his head. Understanding that there was no way the trapping formation would be able to last long, as the forces behind the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators were bound to show up within the next few minutes to break the trapping formation and free them.

Still… The realization that even such a damaged Saint Grade Formation had the ability to restore itself from the brink of destruction made him realize just how terrifying a Saint Grade Formaiton could be.

Rustle~

"Huh? You…"

It was at this time, a familiar voice echoed out from the entrance to the private box, as Xuan Hao found himself turning around to face the both horrified and shcoked expression of Huo Fen who clearly wasn't expecting him to still be around after the trapping formation had been activated.