Chapter 1423: Blacksmithing and Alchemy Competetion (2)
Looking out over the elders of the sect who were slowly starting to show up for the competition along with the people who had managed to qualify during the preliminary competition Elder Song had arrange for those not part of the Star Shattering Sect, Xuan Hao slowly focused his attention on everyone present as he began looking over the people not part of the Star Shattering Sect to see if there happened to be anyone especially talented among them that could potentially become a sixth disciple.
Unfortunately, even though there were a few who were rather talented and would definitely qualify for the Star Shattering Sect and were worth recruiting, he didn’t find anyone near the level of his five disciples.
With that in mind, Xuan Hao slowly turned his attention away from the newly arriving people and began noting down anyone with decent talent for Elder Song to recruit after the competition came to an end. Not just to keep up the image that they were crafting regarding the sect, but also because those people were truly qualified to join the Star Shattering Sect.
As for whether or not they were spies or people with malicious intentions towards the Star Shattering Sect? That would be for Elder Song to figure when he got his hands on them.
Given the current strength of the Star Shattering Sect and how much its intelligence network had managed to grow over the past few years, it should be rather simple to figure out if anyone with bad intentions were trying to enter the sect.
Maybe only the Blue Sea Empire would be capable of sending someone who could hide themselves and sneak inside the Star Shattering Sect, but… Considering that they likely viewed the Star Shattering Sect with extreme cation at the moment, he doubted they would take such drastic actions, as being found out could result in them falling out with a potential ancient hidden sect.
No matter how much the people of the Blue Sea Empire might doubt the status of the Star Shattering Sect, it had been far too short a period of time for them to start doing something like that to try and get more information on the Star Shattering Sect.
Only after they had some idea about the capabilities of the Star Shattering Sect would they begin thinking about trying to infiltrate it.
After all, doing so before they had any information on the sect, or its strength would simply be reckless and a waste of talent on their side.
Meaning… The only ones who should be thinking about trying to infiltrate the Star Shattering Sect at the moment would be the surrounding powers who didn’t really have much of an idea about what an ancient hidden sect was or what it implied.
Of course, if they just wanted to send their younger generation to train inside the Star Shattering Sect, Xuan Hao and Elder Song wouldn’t really mind, as it could be considered a show of goodwill for the other side to send their younger generation to train in the Star Shattering Sect.
Not to mention, there wouldn’t be much for them to learn about the Star Shattering Sect if they were just juniors at the earlier stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm.
The real threat came from the senior figures participating in the competition, as most of them had at least reached the Nascent Soul Realm, with Xuan Hao even spotting a few who had managed to reach the Domain Lord Realm.
…
At the same time as the start of the competition was moving closer, a large number of younger cultivators suddenly arrived at the entrance of Falling Star City. All of them having amazing looks on their faces as they gazed at the bustling scene of cultivators rushing in the direction of the competition grounds to get a good seat for the competition.
“So, this is the Star Shattering Sect’s main city…”
“Indeed… Although not as big as some of the main cities I have seen, it’s clear that it has only been constructed for a few years, yet… It somehow managed to grow to such a size!”
“I can’t wait to see the tournament! I’m really excited to see just what is so special about this Star Shattering Sect that even causes the people from the Blue Sea Empire to avoid their territory.”
As the group of young cultivators chatted among each other, it didn’t take them long before they joined the rest of the cultivators moving towards the competition grounds. Clearly also having come for the purpose of watching the upcoming competition.
Although… Different from the rest of the cultivators moving towards the competition grounds filled with excitement, there was still a level of restraint among the group of youths. Signifying that they had seen such scenes before and weren’t the slightest bit intimidated by the large number of cultivators present far above their own cultivation realm.
Whoosh~
The reason for their confidence when facing the surrounding cultivators also soon appeared, as a group of cloaked figures silently followed behind the group. Preventing any sneaky cultivators who tried to steal or take advantage of the clearly wealthy group of young and weak cultivators between the Foundation Establishment Realm and the Core Formation Realm.
From a glance, it was obvious that these youths were the talents from some of the stronger powers located close to the Star Shattering Sect who had decided to come out and witness the competition that the Star Shattering Sect was arranging after they had found out about it.
Not just that, but it was also because they were genuinely curious about this mysterious power that suddenly seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Especially considering that even the terrifying Blue Sea Empire that none of them had even dared dream of officially becoming a part of in the past had somehow decided to avoid this sect and its territory. Clearly afraid of accidentally provoking it.
The powers behind these young people also wanted to know more about the Star Shattering Sect and it was for that reason that they had allowed this group of youngsters to make a trip there to take a look.
The reason why they themselves didn’t come to check out the situation of the Star Shattering Sect was rather simple…
The Blue Sea Empire didn’t even dare move around inside the territory of the Star Shattering Sect, then how in the world could they, with their strength, dare to carelessly enter the territory of the Star Shattering Sect?
At the very least, considering the younger generation were just out to gain some experience and the competition was open to all who wanted to join or watch, it wouldn’t be considered overstepping their boundaries to send them into the Star Shattering Sect’s territory to take a look around in the process.
The strength of the people guarding them had also been restricted to only be within the Domain Lord Realm, as they deemed sending someone in the Soul Ascension Realm to defend these youngsters would be no different from them just directly going to the Star Shattering Sect to investigate it.
At the very least, with the youngsters out and about in the Star Shattering Sect’s territory and considering the current danger caused by the demonic cultivators, it was reasonable for a few Domain Lord Realm cultivators to be guarding their younger generation!
So, with that in mind, the group of young people and secret guardians made their way towards the competition grounds-
“Ah! Look at that over there! Let’s go take a look there first!”
“No, let’s check that shop first.”
“Hungry… Something to eat is needed when watching a competition…”
Or that would at least have been the case if the youngsters hadn’t ended up being distracted by the countless shops and food stalls that had sprung up along the streets of the city over the past year following the surge in cultivators entering the city after the announcement of the competition.
If not for the fact that the competition was still some time off actually starting, the guardians silently following behind these easily distracted youngsters would definitely have gone in to hurry them up a bit. Even if it would inevitably end up exposing their intentions of observing the Star Shattering Sect.
In the end, to ensure that they would at least be able to get somewhere to watch the competition when the youngsters finally finished up, one of the guardians decided to move ahead of the rest and secure a spot for them to sit.
Considering that there was no lack of wandering Domain Lord Realm cultivators having shown up inside the Falling Star City at this point in time, it was a rather challenging feat to secure a large enough area in the competitive space for everyone, but it was ultimately solved with the help of a rather large number of spirit stones and gifts to the elders in charge of managing the competition itself.
