Examining the branch of the Heavens Faith Sect positioned at the border to the core of the small world, Xuan Hao found himself somewhat taken aback. Not because the people from the Heavens Faith Sect were far stronger than expected, but instead because there was nothing special about them outside of the fact that they were official members of the Heavens Faith Sect. If he really had to mention a difference compared to the countless other so-called branch sects he had encountered so far while travelling through the small world, it would be the fact that these people were far more dedicated towards their god with over half of the branch being a vast temple complex dedicated to honoring and praying to this god.

But to say they were religious fanatics would be wrong, as outside some older members of the branch sect at the Celestial Immortal Realm deep in prayer within the depths of the massive temple complex, the rest of the sect members were no different from those other branch sects with the exception of a few mandatory breaks reserved for praying.

However, through his divine sense, he was able to easily sense that the faith of these ordinary members below the Celestial Immortal Realm was nowhere near as devout as those within the depths of the temple.

In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the faith of these people was even lower than that of the ones from the other not official branch sects under the Heavens Faith Sect, a situation that was deeply bewildering considering they should have been the ones with the strongest faith given the fact that they were a true branch sect of the Heavens Faith Sect.

Guess I will have to investigate the situation of this sect closer before making a move... Maybe I won’t even need to deal with these branch sects after I take out the main sect. After all, the faith of these people shouldn’t be enough to hold them together once the anchor of their faith disappears. The only truly zealous individuals might have to deal with are those at the Celestial Immortal Realm.

Narrowing his eyes as he thought this to himself while examining the state of the branch sect in front of him, Xuan Hao realized that it might turn out to be far easier than he had originally anticipated to get rid of the Heavens Faith Sect.

Deeply entrenched as this religious sect might be, once the main sect was destroyed and the anchor for the faith was erased, it would start to dissolve on its own without him having to step forward to do anything on his own outside of waiting for those countless branches that existed beneath the Heavens Faith Sect to rise up and seize the opportunity to rise.

Even though the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators within a branch sect like the one he found himself facing might be troublesome. Faced with the countless Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators that existed beneath, they wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight when those Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators came to seize territory within the core of the small world.

After all, the main reason why the Heavens Faith Sect had managed to establish its current dominant position likely had to do with the fact that it was the only power with cultivators at the Celestial Lord Realm. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Although he hadn’t seen any of these Celestial Lord Realm cultivators so far, he could infer that they existed from the fact that this was the twenty seventh floor of the ascension realm tower and such existences were a given, or else the floor wouldn’t pose a challenge to someone at the Land Creation Realm like himself.

Of course, keeping a low profile and not making a move didn’t mean he was just going to ignore the very real branch of the Heavens Faith Sect in front of him and move past it without doing anything. Instead, it meant he wouldn’t do something that might draw the attention of the main sect behind this branch sect... And the simplest way for him to do this was to avoid interfering with the day-to-day operations of this branch sect and instead target the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators within the depths of the temple complex that seemed to have no interaction with the outside world.

Even if they ended up disappearing, it would take some time before it was discovered and by that time, he would have already made his move against the main sect of the Heavens Faith Sect.

As for the formations guarding this branch sect along with the chambers of these seniors at the Celestial Immortal Realm? He didn’t place them in his sight, with his comprehension at the Dao of Formations having reached the Perfection Realm, he could essentially come and go as he pleased without the formation ever detecting anything out the ordinary.

Not to say that the formation was bad, it just wasn’t created by someone with anywhere near his level in the Dao of Formations. Allowing him to easily bypass after his divine sense swept through it and gained a general understanding of the formation layout.

Because of this, after having made up his mind to make use of the few Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators inside the branch sect to gain more information on the Heavens Faith sect, he didn’t hesitate for a second as he slipped through the guardian formation undetected before arriving at the very heart of the temple complex where these Celestial Immortal Realm seniors were located. Using his divine sense to locate a weaker one who had only reached the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm before silently slipping into his secluded chambers. Emerging behind the other party as he had his knees on the ground and was in the process of praying.

Whoosh~

"Huh? Who are yo-"

And without caring the slightest bit about being discovered, he reached his hand out and directly sealed the space around the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from the Heavens Faith Sect before he even had the chance to react. Only able to stare fearfully towards him after the space had fully solidified and prevented any kind of movement, be it his physical body or his soul. Every part had been instantly sealed. Preventing him from sending out messages or warning others.

The ability to do something like this to someone at the Celestial immortal Realm was more than enough to horrify this senior cultivator of the Heavens Faith Sect and he wanted to know what this kind of terrifying cultivator might want from him, but Xuan Hao didn’t bother asking the other party as he directly employed a demonic cultivation technique that most people ended up learning even if they weren’t demonic cultivators due to its convenience in certain situation, a technique known as soul search. Allowing him to rapidly sort through the memories of the cultivator from the Heavens Faith Sect and get the information he wanted without having to go through some cumbersome interrogation that might end up with him getting false information.

As for why a technique to search through the soul of someone was considered demonic while there were countless other techniques that directly harmed the soul in a far more gruesome manner upon use? He had no real idea, but guessed it might have to do with the low cultivation requirement for using the skill, as one only needed to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm to start using the skill, while other techniques related to the soul or harming the soul could normally only be found at the Nascent Soul Realm and onwards.

That and recklessly using the skill without a strong enough soul could cause a backlash from the massive influx of information. Absorbing hundreds if not thousands of years of memories had no effect on someone like him, even the tens of thousands of years of memories that Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator before him contained hardly caused a ripple, but for someone at the Foundation Establishment Realm or even the Core Formation Realm, it might cause a sudden change in personality or at worst, shatter their soul...

Shaking his head as he thought about this to himself, his powerful soul soon enough finished sorting through the vast quantity of memories. Learning that the younger senior of the Heavens Faith Sect in front of him was 117.892 years old. The youngest Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator present at the branch sect, while also being the weakest. Having officially broken through to the Celestial Immortal Realm a little over forty thousand years ago.

That aside, the information he found on the Heavens Faith Sect through the memories of this senior member of the Heavens Faith Sect was strange to say the least, as he felt that he would have to reevaluate the strength of the Heavens Faith Sect and the existence of the god standing behind this religious sect.

The reason being that the god they were praying towards wasn’t like the nonexistent gods of the churches on the Ewaria Continent, but was very much involved in the operation of the Heavens Faith Sect...