Chapter 2233: Investigation

Before he even managed to make it back to the rest of the seniors still in deep discussions regarding the situation inside the mystic realm, Su Han found himself being sent off to investigate the Star Shattering Sect in more detail by the elder belonging to the Heavenly Dragon Temple.

Of course, he could refuse such a request, but given how the rest of the senior members from the different temples had also grown curious about the Star Shattering Sect and the fact that returning would just mean him getting dragged into another long never ending discussion that would do nothing more than waste his time, Su Han ultimately agreed with the request from Heavenly Dragon Temple Elder and set off towards the Northern Central Region to find out more about the Star Shattering Sect.

But...

To make sure he didn’t end up accidentally sparking some kind of hostile conflict with the Star Shattering Sect, he made sure to first gather some more information about the Star Shattering Sect to gauge how to approach the situation. Knowing that there was no lack of ancient hidden sects who would annihilate you the second you overstepped their underlying boundaries no matter what your background was.

Not just the temples of the Central Western Region and the different major powers from the Southern Central Region had suffered from this but so had the nine core faiths reigning supreme at the center of the continent. In fact, it was the simple fact that even the nine core faiths hadn’t dared to retaliate after such an incident in the past that had allowed ancient hidden sects to reach their current status throughout the continent with few daring to approach them under normal circumstances.

Of course, whatever had ended up happening back then was a mystery to anyone but the involved parties, but it was a fact that the ancient hidden sect that had killed off someone from one of the nine core faiths was still around to this day.

Another reason for ancient hidden sects ability to keep their terrifying status also had to do with how little territory and resources they took up. Making it better to just treat their territories like small forbidden zones scattered throughout the world instead of having to deal with them.

The only exceptions to this being the more outwardly friendly ancient hidden sects who interacted more with the outside world because of how their main purpose had nothing to do with them running out of some specific cultivation resources that required them to surface, but instead the fact that they needed to recruit new disciples to fill their ranks.

Unsurprisingly, these ancient hidden sects were also the strongest, as they had no lack of cultivation resources and senior figures hidden away within them and their inheritance was also the most complete.

And... As Su Han began investigating the Star Shattering Sect, it didn’t exactly take long for him to realize that the Star Shattering Sect was this kind of ancient hidden sect.

Good news because it also meant interacting with the Star Shattering Sect would be easier.

Bad news because whatever expansionist goals the Heavenly Dragon Temple had would likely not come to fruition with this kind of ancient hidden sect emerging within the Northern Region.

Even worse, with the demonic cultivators having already claimed part of the Northern Central Region, it became rather obvious that trying to conquer the Northern Central Region didn’t just mean potentially having to confront a powerful ancient hidden sect like the Star shattering Sect but also meant one would potentially have to also deal with the demonic cultivators from the Frozen Wastelands.

And while the major powers from the Northern Central Region might be ignorant when it came to the true strength of those demonic cultivators, the monks of the Western Central Region weren’t. Understanding full well, just how terrifying these demonic cultivators were along with the power they had kept hidden so far from the rest of the world.

After all, in a sense, these demonic cultivators weren’t that different from him and the rest of the monks in the Western Central Region. Knowing that the instant they showed what they had kept hidden so far, the nine core faiths would move in tandem with one another to exterminate them and eliminate them.

Maybe because of this, an unspoken alliance had already been formed between the monks and the demonic cultivators.

Both knew to some extent about what the other was keeping hidden but decided against revealing it to those from the Southern Central Region. Wanting to use the strength of each other to stand a better chance at landing a deadly blow on those nine core faiths at the core of the continent in the future.

In a way, this might also be the reason why the different ancient hidden sects scattered throughout the continent kept themselves hidden so deeply, as they were similarly preparing to strike at the nine core faiths alongside them.

Of course, matters of the ancient hidden sects were far harder to figure out, let alone the strength they were keeping hidden, as they were far better at concealing themselves from scrutiny compared to the monks like him or the demonic cultivators.

Even knowing the clearly hostile relationship between the sects and the nine core faiths, it wasn’t even clear that they were planning anything with how deeply they concealed themselves.

"Whatever... They should inevitably reveal themselves at some point in the future. Staying sealed off like that won’t work forever and they should be aware of this as well..." Muttering this to himself as he flew through the air of the Western Central Region, Su Han glanced in the direction of an ancient hidden sect located within the borders of the Western Central Region.

Having previously interacted with the members of this ancient hidden sect, he had some awareness of the problems they faced, as sealing themselves off for millions of years like most of these ancient hidden sects had done put an immense strain on their foundation.

Sure, they were from the ancient era where cultivation resources were far more abundant and were sects that had already been around for even longer than they had been sealed, but with few new cultivation resources coming in outside of a few secret realms and mystic realms under their control, they would inevitably start finding it difficult to cultivate stronger cultivators at the Profound Immortal Realm.

Not to mention, the Profound Immortal Realm wasn’t the goal of these ancient hidden sects, as what they truly wanted to see was the emergence of a new Venerable Realm cultivator, but the attempts to cultivate someone like that with their already strained resources was difficult to say the least.

The ancient hidden sect he had visited had emerged precisely because of this. Having run out of crucial cultivation resources that they needed to cultivate a Venerable Seed who had already managed to reach the very limit of the Star Creation Realm.

Remembering meeting that Venerable Seed himself when trading off some of the cultivation resources that person required for something his temple needed that had gone extinct in the current era, Su Han couldn’t help silently shivering as he remembered just how terrifying that person had been.

Standing at the very pinnacle of the Star Creation Realm with the ancient inheritance of an ancient hidden sect to back him up along with having been someone born before the end of the ancient era, he had felt completely different from any Star Creation Realm cultivator he had encountered in the past.

Even another senior figure at the Peak of the Star Creation Realm he had met in the past felt like a small firefly compared to the bright moon in the sky, a completely different level of existence that made him realize just how far the current state of cultivation had fallen.

Also making him understand why the Traditional Immortal Cultivation Path was considered the strongest path, as the different profound immortals and celestial immortals of the current era had made him think those were just something his seniors from the past had made up to justify their path not being the mainstream during the ancient era.

Only after encountering this ancient figure, did he realize how na?ve he had been and just how far behind the current day Profound Immortals and Celestial Immortals were compared to their ancient counterparts.

At the same time, it also made him realize why the nine core faiths feared the sects to the point where they would stamp them out the second they attempted to expand their influence beyond what was allowed.

And their reason for not just exterminating the ancient hidden sects also became clear, as the nine core faiths feared a potential all out retaliation from these decaying old sects and were more than happy to just silently watch from the side as they died out. Showing a certain level of confidence in them, not being able to produce someone at the Venerable Realm in the process.