Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

However, compared to the Dao of Ice, there was one major difference and that was the fact that he could clearly feel himself slowly inching closer to the Perfection Realm. Although his progress slowed down to a crawl, he was still progressing.

With enough time, he would be able to overcome the bottleneck and break through to the Perfection Realm. The main problem was that he had no idea how far away he was from breaking through the said bottleneck.

Although he had already reached the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space, it didn’t really give him any indication for how close he was to reaching the Perfection Realm in the Dao of the Sword.

Still, outside of the Dao of Ice and the Dao of the Sword breaking through to the Perfection Realm, I still need another two have another two Daos reach the Large Success Realm if I want to reach the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm…

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao went over the three Daos he currently had at the Small Success Realm.

The Dao of Fire, Dao of Light and the Dao of Corruption.

Among the three, the most obvious choice seemed to be for him to comprehend the Dao of Fire and the Dao of Light to the Large Success Realm, as the Dao of Corruption seemed dangerous from what he had seen from the Dao of Corruption so far. Having a clear tendency of corrupting its user.

Of course, with his current strength and willpower, it had no way of affecting him, but the same couldn’t be said if his understanding of the Dao of Corruption continued to deepen. Part of him fearing that it would take over even though it had shown no inclination of doing so for now.

Because of this kind of irrational fear born from the few instances he had seen the Dao of Corruption in use, Xuan Hao planned on comprehending the Dao of Fire and the Dao of Light or potentially even a brand-new dao before even thinking about deepening his understanding of the Dao of Corruption.

Not that he intended to indefinitely stay away from comprehending the Dao of Corruption, just that he planned on not focusing on it before he could get a better understanding of it and ensure that it would be safe for him to comprehend. After all, he hadn’t missed the fact that he still hadn’t encountered anyone other than himself who had comprehended that Dao of Corruption on the continent.

Not just that, but information on the Dao of Corruption was also nonexistent, being even harder to find than information on the Dao of Time.

One had some traces left behind of its existence, while the other was seemingly completely nonexistent with traces only found inside the remnants of ancient ruins of the past.

In the end, the Dao of Corruption would be put on hold, and he wouldn’t attempt to comprehend it beyond what he had already done before he understood more about, or his strength broke through to the Profound Immortal Realm. After all, the stronger his cultivation, the stronger his soul and in turn will power would be. Meaning that it would be easier for him to resist any potential side effects from comprehending the Dao of Corruption.

”Hm? This is…” As he found himself pondering over the Dao of Corruption, while also going over his most recent comprehension regarding the Dao of the Sword, Xuan Hao suddenly found himself making a rather strange connection between the Dao of Corruption and the Dao of the Sword in his mind.

Drawing upon his profound understanding of the Dao of the Sword to spontaneously create a sword technique utilizing the Dao of Corruption, something that not only helped his understanding of the Dao of the Sword take the final step into the Perfection Realm, but also something that unintentionally ended up elevating his understanding of the Dao of Corruption.

Because of this, Xuan Hao not only felt the overwhelming power that came along with his Dao of the Sword Reaching the Perfection Realm but also felt the corrupting presence of the Dao of Corruption through the sword technique that he had ended up creating through a rather unexpected enlightenment.

”I… I really didn’t expect something like this to happen…” Not knowing if he should feel happy or unhappy at the sudden development, Xuan Hao could only smile wryly at his current situation as he went over the sword technique he had just created.

The sword technique itself was powerful and potential even the strongest sword technique he had available could use for now, but… It came with a fatal flaw, that flaw being that it would corrupt anything it encountered. Essentially carrying the risk of it turning the one hit into some of the corrupted beings he had encountered in the past.

Unless it was a life and death situation, he had no plans of using this kind of technique, as even though it was powerful, it also had the potential to turn a bad situation even worse.

”But… At least I managed to reach the Perfection Realm with the Dao of the Sword, as long as- Ah!?” About to go over his recent breakthrough, Xuan Hao was suddenly caught off guard, as he felt a terrifying sensation like his heart was being squeezed.

W-what is this feeling? Does it have something to do with the Dao of Corruption reaching the Large Success Realm!?

Feeling a sense of panic at the unfamiliar feeling and believing it to be related to the Dao of Corruption reaching the Large Success Realm, Xuan Hao rapidly began inspecting the state of his body looking for the source of the uncomfortable feeling.

”The dao seed…”

However, as his divine sense looked through every part of his body, he soon realized that the source of the problem had nothing to do with the Dao of Corruption, instead it came from the dao seed inside his dantian.

It was only at this moment that he realized that the different layers around his dao seed had already fully integrated into the dao seed, something that would normally indicate him having reached the Peak of the Dao Seed Realm… However, because he was not actually in the Dao Seed Realm, but was instead someone in the Dao Domain Lord Realm, the normal limit of 30 layers had already been exceeded following his recent breakthrough in the Dao of the Sword and the Dao of Corruption.

Because of this, the number of layers that integrated into his dao seed was not 30, but instead 32… And because of this, some kind of transformation had started to take place, as the dao seed began showing an illusion of blooming.

The thing that caused the strange feeling of his heart being squeezed came from the fact that the dao seed was attempting to forcibly bloom and elevate him to the Profound Immortal Realm.

From what he had learnt about the Dao Seed Realm so far, this should be the Radiant Bloom he had heard about, the only difference was that the blooming didn’t take effect at 36 layers, but instead began the moment he crossed over the 30 layer limit of the Dao Seed Realm- or maybe the radiant bloom was something different from the blooming that his dao seed was currently attempting?

No matter what it was, he couldn’t allow his dao seed to bloom for now, as it would not only prevent him from reaching the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm but would also force him into undergoing the Immortal Soul Tribulation and whatever tribulation that would be present when breaking through to the Profound Immortal Realm.

So, with that in mind, he silently used his powerful soul to forcibly suppress the dao seed inside his dantian. Easing the terrifying sensation of having his heart squeezed, while also ensuring that it wouldn’t interfere with the state of his dantian.

Even then, he could clearly feel the resistance from the dao seed inside his dantian growing stronger with each passing minute. Making it harder and harder to suppress.

Of course, with the current strength of his soul, he could still handle it for now, but as things continued, he would be forced to dedicate more and more of his effort towards trying to suppress the dao seed in his dantian.

And… Given the current increase in resistance from the dao seed, he calculated that he would have around five years before it began to interfere with his ability to fight or move around and ten years before he would be forced to focus his full attention on suppressing the dao seed. After which he would at most have a few months before he would be unable to prevent it from blooming.

Meaning that if he wanted to reach the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he would have to do so within the next five years, as the dao seed would also start to interfere with his concentration and in turn his comprehension after five years, severely limiting his comprehension speed…