By this reckoning, of the nearly seven hundred Nascent Soul cultivators, more than half had perished in the Yaotai Gathering! Far exceeding the losses of previous Yaotai Gatherings. As for the Golden Core cultivators, their fate was even more miserable. Basically none below Golden Core Mid-stage had survived, while only forty percent of the late Golden Core cultivators remained. These Golden Core cultivators did not dare venture through the formations on their own; they all followed Nascent Soul cultivators and did not dare stray even a single step! Now, these Golden Core cultivators had but one wish in their hearts: to bring this damned Yaotai Gathering to an end as quickly as possible! The instant the Dragon Gate opened, they would surely be the first to charge out at all costs. Never again would they come to Yaotai Mountain! They would not come even if beaten to death!!
Although the Daoist sect cultivators had indeed suffered grievously, this still fell far short of what Kong Hongwu had envisioned. The Nascent Souls of these fallen Nascent Soul cultivators alone did not quite match the Immortal Palace's enormous investment.
The reason so many Daoist sect cultivators had survived was largely due to Xiao Hua. Setting aside how Xiao Hua had restrained the Star Lord Palace, how he had slain three Star Lords, and how he had personally rescued so many Nascent Soul and Golden Core cultivators, merely the fact that his "heart that followed the Dao" had moved Xunkong Shangren and Zhang Daoran was already an act of boundless goodness! That influence had seeped in silently, like spring winds turning into rain. It had led Xunkong Shangren and Zhang Daoran from hostility and suspicion to mutual recognition, then to joining hands in cooperation. Not only had the two of them avoided perishing,