Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Feeling the familiar power engulfing him before feeling his surroundings starting to fade, Xuan Hao could not help throwing one last glance in the direction of the tentacle flower that had by now grown far more powerful after the death of the guardian demon beast. Silently, wondering if it might be able to spread its corruption beyond the trial space and spread through the rest of the celestial trial before other internal spaces inside the celestial gate.

Although he felt like there should be some kind of defensive measure in place for the celestial gate to prevent something like that from happening, he also understood that the celestial gates weren’t in their most optimal state, something that could potentially give the tentacle flower and the Dao of Corruption an opportunity to grow and spread without any resistance.

The only thing that somewhat assured him was that the space inside the celestial gate was vast beyond belief and traversing it without a spatial passage was close to impossible without comprehending the Dao of Space… And even then, it would still take him far longer to travel through the internal space of a celestial gate compared to using the already established spatial passages.

With that in mind, even if the corruption of the tentacle flower ended up spreading to the entirety of the celestial trial he had just been through, devouring everything inside, he doubted that it would be able to find a way to leave the celestial gate itself. After all, it had been proven that at least some safety measures were still in place even though the celestial gates themselves were all damaged to various degrees.

If it really reached a breaking point, he believed that the tenth celestial gate would most likely vanish in a similar way the ninth celestial gate had vanished when it reached a breaking point, though it could also just be a safety measure from the mystic realm activating to expel the celestial gate before it posed any real threat to the mystic realm itself.

Thinking about this, it wouldn’t be hard to guess that there should have been more than just ten celestial gates present inside the mystic realm in the past. Only, they had long since ended up being expelled from the mystic realm or destroyed over the long passage of time.

But… Even I this was the case, it didn’t really matter much, as he had managed to successfully complete the main quest that had been the main driver towards his willingness to enter these deadly celestial trials. If not, he would likely have waited until he was stronger before stepping inside the rest of the celestial trials, something that would likely have resulted in him missing out on some of them and potentially rendering him unable to get his hands on the information stored inside the Tower of Secrets.

All things considered, it had worked out well and he had managed to get everything he wanted from the celestial trials for now.

Any of the more advanced information or techniques he wanted to get his hands on were far too expensive and would have to wait until he either found another way to get his hands on more celestial coins or became strong enough to forcibly take the information away from the Tower of Secrets, something that would undoubtedly require him to not only increase his strength further, but also increase his comprehension of the Dao of Formations.

After all, he couldn’t just brute force his way inside the Tower of Secrets, as there would undoubtedly be some kind of safety measure in place to ensure outsiders didn’t get their hand on the information even if they managed to break the formation and get inside… And from what little knowledge he had about such things, the preventive measure would almost certainly be the erasure of said information.

For this reason, a new long-term goal of his would be to further improve his comprehension of the Dao of Formations was already set in place…

Feeling the streams of space around him as he was lost in his own thoughts travelling through the spatial passage, Xuan Hao’s attention slowly shifted towards the main quest that he had completed after the death of the guardian demon beast.

[Main Quest: The Ten Celestial Trials (complete)]

[Description: Having gained the celestial compass, you can now track down the remaining celestial trials inside the mystic realm. Complete all the celestial trials.]

[Celestial Trials Completed: 10/10 (complete)]

[Reward: Increase comprehension of the Dao of Space, Spiritual Sea Enhancement (Use within 24 hours]

[Note: If celestial trials are destroyed before completion, other celestial trials outside the mystic realm can be completed.]

Looking through the details of the main quest that was now shown as complete, it didn’t take long for him to discover the former question marks following the first reward had changed.

However, the reward that had revealed itself made him feel somewhat bewildered, but also suspicious. The reason for this being how specific the reward was and how it related to his current cultivation realm and the limited time to use the reward.

If he had managed to complete the main quest before breaking through to the Sea Formation Realm, would the reward have been rendered useless? He doubted it, it felt more likely that the reward was designated as something useful for his cultivation and the question marks had most likely just been in place because of the uncertainty of his cultivation realm when completing the quest in question.

With that in mind, he couldn’t help looking forward to the reward from the sect main quest as there were also a few question marks present in the rewards of that quest. Even though a part of him also understood from experience that it was far more likely that the reward was just some hidden spiritual object like the time stone or something different that would be helpful for the development of the sect, he couldn’t help feeling a bit hopeful now that a reward that would directly improve his strength had appeared.

Whoosh~ Thump~!

Feeling himself being thrown out of the celestial gate before landing on the ground just outside it just as he was thinking about the yet to be completed main sect quest that could potentially also increase his strength, Xuan Hao quickly got back up before finding himself looking straight at the celestial gate that had just violently expelled him in a far from gentle manner.

Even then, he couldn’t really complain too much as the celestial gate wasn’t anywhere near as troublesome or deadly as some of the other celestial gates he had ventured inside in the past had been. Most of the danger he encountered mostly had to do with himself ending up unknowingly increasing the difficulty of the celestial trial without properly inspecting the rest of the quiet temple’s library.

If he had just stayed and looked around the library for a few more seconds before recklessly picking up the scroll that had shrunk him back then, he might have been able to complete the celestial trial with far more ease and without needing to rely on the Dao of Corruption. After all, the difficulty increase had not only sealed his Dao of Space but also increased the strength of the guardian of the trial.

Shaking his head as he thought about this, he didn’t forget how dangerous the area just outside the tenth celestial gate was, as he wasted no time in using the Dao of Space to quickly reach the ceiling before digging upwards.

Although he was strong and now knew about the presence of demon beasts lurking throughout the underground space where the tenth celestial gate was located, he was also in an extremely exhausted state after his recent battle with the guardian of the tenth celestial trial.

Even if he was curious about how the demon beasts around the celestial gate had been able to hide themselves from his divine sense, he would have to wait until his strength recovered to investigate the situation in more detail.

Not to mention, he had no plan of ending up in a long, drawn-out battle with a group of demon beasts while the reward from the main quest he had just completed was left unclaimed.

In a worst-case scenario, the battle might even be dragged on for over a day, essentially rendering his reward useless, something that he absolutely could not risk no matter how small the chance was-

Roaar?

Roar…?

Rawr…

And for this reason, the demon beasts lurking around inside the underground cavern of the tenth celestial gate barely managed to catch a glimpse of him before he disappeared from view. Having wasted no time lingering around after leaving the celestial gate. Using all his remaining strength to leave as fast as possible.

At the very least, the seal that had sealed his Dao of Space and shrunk him had been released after the death of the celestial trial guardian.

Well… Almost released, as his size remained small while his use of the Dao of Space was no longer restricted…