Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Hearing the voice coming from behind the throne followed by an unfamiliar person suddenly walking out from behind the king, both Hong Xuan and Sheng Mei tensed up. Even going as far as to grab their weapons after feeling the dense killing intent that now permeated the entire throne room.

Although they were still inside the throne room where such a thing was not permitted under normal circumstances, there was no way any of them cared about this with the sudden turn of events. Especially Hong Xuan who was closest to the throne and felt the most threatened by the sudden appearance of someone he had never seen before behind the king.

Not only that, but the sudden appearance of this person also made both of them understand that whatever had happened to the king that and caused him to enter his current emotionless state where he was barely moving his head around to look at them from his throne should be related to this person.

"You, what do you mean by that and what did you do to his majesty!?" Being the first to start talking as he noticed the unknown man slowly walking towards him, Hong Xuan unconsciously began taking a few steps back to keep the distance between them. 

"Hehe, I didn't do much to him, he did this to himself- No… I think it would be better to say that he was encouraged by his ancestors to do this, and I mean what I said earlier, you are truly stupid. Didn't you notice that you entered my formation already?

The reason why I said your friend over there was at least a little smarter than you, is because she at least noticed the formation and didn't mindlessly step inside of it like you did."

"Huh!?" 

Hearing what the unknown man said as he was chuckling to himself, Hong Xuan felt a shiver run down his spine before he slowly began to use his divine sense to scan his surroundings… And sure enough, he quickly noticed the formation markings covering the floor and pillars surrounding the throne. All of them stopped just a few meters in front of Sheng Mei who was standing behind him.

This is bad!

Thinking this to himself, Hong Xuan didn't bother trying to fight the unknown man as he directly turned around and tried to escape the throne room. Understanding very well that he had walked directly into a trap and would likely not be able to win against the other party. Not only that, but he would likely not be able to escape if the formation had time to activate and trap him inside.

Whoosh-!

However, it was too late to think about this now, as the formation activated just before he could leave-

Bang!

Causing him to crash headfirst into the transparent barrier that now separated him from the outside world.

"Wha-"

Standing back up with an expression of disbelief plastered all over his face, Hong Xuan realized that he had been too slow and had no way to escape from the throne room without first destroying the formation in front of him.

The only problem with this was that he could clearly sense that it would at least take him half an hour to an hour to forcibly break through the formation in front of him… And considering that the unknown man was approaching him with a very clear killing intent, he didn't have the luxury of breaking out of the formation.

Looks like my only choice is to fight-

Rumble~!

Just as Hong Xuan was coming to terms with his current situation and was about to get ready to fight the unknown man, a terrifying aura belonging to the Domain Lord Realm suddenly erupted from the unknown man. Destroying any hope that Hong Xuan had of fighting back.

"Domain Lord Realm!?" 

Feeling the powerful Domain Lord Realm aura that suddenly erupted from the unknown man, Sheng Mei could not help feeling a shiver run down her spine as she tightly gripped the token given to her by Elder Song.

Only now did she understand why the unknown man had said that there wouldn't be any way for her to escape…

"Hehe, seems like both of you understand your situation better now!" Smiling sinisterly as he relished in the terrified expression on Hong Xuan and Sheng Mei's faces, the unknown man deliberately slowed his speed as he watched Hong Xuan start to desperately try and claw his way through the formation to no avail.

Swish-!

Also understanding that staying inside the throne room for any longer was a bad idea, Sheng Mei didn't waste a second after she calmed down enough to regain movement of her body before rushing back out of the throne room before the unknown man in the Domain Lord Realm could catch her.

Whoosh~

At the same time that she was escaping, she quickly pulled out a communication talisman that had been given to her by Elder Song in case of an emergency and used it to inform him about her current situation whilst not forgetting to ask for help.

In her eyes, the fate of Hong Xuan had already been sealed and there was no way for her to help him in the current situation. If he was lucky, he would not be killed instantly by the unknown Domain Lord Realm Expert and would instead end up in a similar state to the king-

Crack~!

"Aaaaaah-!"

However, this thought was quickly proven wrong, as the painful scream of Hong Xuan echoed out behind her just after a loud cracking sound that sounded like bones being broken. Even if the king had been kept alive for some unknown reason, it looked like the unknown Domain Lord didn't have the same plans for them.

"I have to at least stay alive until one of the Domain Lords from the Star Shattering Sect shows up." Silently muttering this to herself as she calculated the distance between the capital of the Flame Sky Kingdom and the Star Shattering Sect in her head, Sheng Mei could not help growing a bit dispirited.

The Flame Sky Kingdom could essentially be considered to be located at the edge of the territory that the Star Shattering Sect had planned to expand into. Even with her current strength at the Eighth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, it would at least take her half a week to reach the Star Shattering Sect.

Even if someone in the Domain Lord Realm could fly and would be far faster than her, it should at least take a few hours before someone from the Star Shattering Sect appeared… And given that the person chasing after her was someone in the Domain Lord Realm, her chances of evading capture during this period of time were close to none.

If she wanted to survive long enough for help to show up, she had to find another way to avoid the Domain Lord Realm Expert chasing after her. The only problem was… The senses of a Domain Lord Realm Expert were far sharper than someone in the Nascent Soul Realm. Making it close to impossible for her to hide unless she found a special way to hide her aura.

Hm!? Wait a second, can't this thing be used to hide my aura…

 Suddenly thinking about something as she turned her attention to the small token she had been tightly holding in her hand since entering the throne room, Sheng Mei quickly contacted Elder Song and found out that she could indeed use the token to hide her aura from someone in the Domain Lord Realm for a few hours.

Whoosh~!

Not a second later, she injected some of her qi into the token. Instantly activating it before guiding the terrifying power stored inside of it to cover her body and seal it off from the outside world. Hiding her presence completely in the process.

"I hope this will be enough…" Muttering this to herself as she felt the terrifying power covering her entire body, isolating her aura completely, Sheng Mei didn't waste a second as she rushed out of the capital and into a large forest beside the capital to hide herself while waiting for help to show up.

Deciding to not try and escape too far away as it might end up causing flaws to appear in the cover formed by the token if she moved too fast and caused the power to run out faster as it repaired these flaws.

…

"To think a Domain Lord Realm Expert appeared in the Flame Sky Kingdom and got rid of the royal family before we had the chance… Haaa… Maybe it's the mysterious force behind that secret technique finally showing themselves?

Luckily for that Sheng Mei, the token created by Shu Yao should be able to keep her hidden for an hour or two."

Back in the Star Shattering Sect, Elder Song looked down at the communication talisman that Sheng Mei had just contacted him through filled with interest as he said this to himself.

"Now, who should I ask to go, Feng Chen or Shu Yao…?"