Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

"You are saying the Fleeting Cloud Empire ended up losing both their Profound Immortal Realm Ancestor and Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm Grand Elder during the spiritual tree incident and now only has two Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm elders left?!

"Yes, I confirmed this just a few hours ago when I happened to pass through one of the Fleeting Cloud Empire's cities where a few of their Earth Immortal Realm Elders were talking about defecting before others learnt about this and decided to jump on the opportunity to devour the territory and resources of the Fleeting Cloud Empire."

"This… If what you are saying is true, those people aren't wrong, this is too great of an opportunity to give up on! I will inform the ancestor immediately and have him decide!"

Indeed, like Chu Yang had expected, even with the recent chaos and destruction that had been caused throughout the Eastern Central Region not being done by any of the major powers from the Eastern Central Region, the Bright Cloud Empire, a major power that could be considered in the middle among the major powers of the region, had already set its sights on the Fleeting Cloud Empire after learning about the major losses they had suffered during the rampage of the spiritual tree when it had been chasing after Xuan Hao.

After all, outside of the four major powers who could be considered the strongest throughout the Eastern Central Region, the other major powers had also suffered catastrophic losses, some far more damaging than the four major powers who had suffered the most overall damage from the chase that had taken place.

Among all the smaller major powers, the one that had ended up the most unfortunate was undoubtedly the Fleeting Cloud Empire, who had not only ended up losing their Profound Immortal Realm Ancestor, but had also ended up losing the secondary supporting pillar who would be capable of holding things together in case something happened to the Profound Immortal Realm Ancestor, the Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm Grand Elder.

In the end, the Fleeting Cloud Empire that could already be considered among the bottom three of the seventeen major power in the Eastern Central Region was directly thrown to the bottom, as without the support of a Profound Immortal Realm Ancestor or someone above the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm to hold things together, they weren't considered a major power in the eyes of the rest of the continent. Instantly turning them into fat sheep ready to be slaughtered in the eyes of the Bright Cloud Empire who had been lucky enough to be the first to find out about the Fleeting Cloud Empire's precarious situation.

Of course, the Fleeting Cloud Empire was still a major power, and had a strong foundation that wasn't easily broken through with two Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators holding down the core of the empire, but… The goal of the Bright Cloud Empire wasn't the main base of the Fleeting Cloud Empire, but instead the vast resources and territory under their control.

After all, while they might still be able to rely on their foundation to defend their capital city and the area around it, there was no way for them to defend the reaming ninety-nine percent of their territory. Leaving it open for a major power like the Bright Cloud Empire to conquer and seize control of.

Knowing this as well, it was clear that the Fleeting Cloud Empire had already prepared to retreat completely and enter a state of hibernation as they waited for another Profound Immortal Realm cultivator to emerge, but… This kind of hibernation came with countless limitations that would make it difficult for anyone to progress.

For this reason, those who had once been loyal to the Fleeting Cloud Empire began to have second thoughts about continuing to stay loyal. After all, there was a reason why only ancient sects that far surpassed the different major powers on the continent during their prime were known to have a strong enough foundation to go into hibernation and continue operating normally.

In a sense, though the Fleeting Cloud Empire, as a major power, had a vast supply of resources and a strong foundation, they wouldn't be able to enter hibernation for more than a few thousand years before their consumption would force them out again. Nowhere near ancient hidden sect who had the ability to remain in a state of hibernation for hundreds of thousands of years without interacting with the outside world.

Although it wasn't known how they did this, it was widely speculated that they had some kinds of resources producing secret realms or mystic realms under their control or teleportation arrays that connected to completely hidden resource locations outside their sect. Hidden from view through ancient formations that far surpassed the current age's formation masters.

These speculations aside, the trouble the Fleeting Cloud Empire found itself in wasn't something that could be hidden for long and as the Bright Cloud Empire jumped at the opportunity to cease several important spiritual metal mines under the control of the Fleeting Cloud Empire without much resistance, it didn't take long for other major powers to learn about what was happening, as they soon jumped at the opportunity to take their piece of pie.

In the short time of three short days, the vast Fleeting Cloud Empire that was more than ten times larger than the territory currently under the control of the Star Shattering Sect was devoured by the surrounding major powers. Leaving behind the central part of the empire that was no more than a third the size of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, a territory that was only slightly larger than what had been under the control of the Star Shattering Sect when it had still been the Flying Sword Sect, a sect where the strongest cultivator had only reached the Nascent Soul Realm.

As for what Chu Yang was up to over the past three days…? He found himself jumping from one location to the next trying to avoid being dragged into one battle after the other, as his path back to the Northern Central Region unfortunately had him going straight through the Fleeting Cloud Empire.

Worse yet, though the Fleeting Cloud Empire had roughly been divided over those three days, conflict had not ceased, as the different major powers began fighting with each other to claim as much of the Fleeting Cloud Empire's territory for themselves as possible. Placing Chu Yang in an even more dangerous position travelling through the chaotic Fleeting Cloud Empire…