Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

However, just as he felt like his soul wouldn’t be able to hold on any longer, his surroundings twisted briefly as the time he had inside the system’s dao enlightenment space for the Dao of Space finally ran out. Not even giving him a chance to react before he found himself back inside the mystic realm. Far away from the terrifying void that had almost ended up killing him due to his curiosity towards the strange dread he had felt upon first arriving at the enlightenment space for the Dao of Space.

In the end, he had managed to find the origin of the terrifying dread that had almost consumed him when he had first arrived at the enlightenment space for the Dao of Space, but in the process of doing so, he had almost ended up getting himself killed. Only barely being saved by the system at the last minute before his soul suffered any permanent damage or ended up being fully erased.

”But… Even if I managed to get out alive, my soul isn’t really in an optimal state…” Shaking his head with a sense of regret as he examined the current state of his soul after recovering from the shock of what had just happened, it was clear to him that it would take some time for him to fully recover from the encounter he just had.

Even though his soul didn’t suffer any permanent damage, it was still in an extremely weakened state and would take a long time to recover. Not just a few weeks, but potentially months or years.

No matter what, he understood that he wouldn’t be in his most optimal state for the foreseeable future, even affecting his combat strength to some extent.

”It’s almost like the breakthrough to the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm never happened…” Finished accessing his current situation and the strength he could wield, he ultimately concluded that the strength he could assert had reverted to what he had when he had still been at the Early Stage of the Sea Formation Realm.

Although this decrease in strength was temporary and would likely only last a few weeks, it was still not a nice feeling to suddenly have his strength plummet back down to the Early Stage of the Sea Formation Realm almost directly after breaking through to the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm.

Then again… Compared to dying, it was a good outcome, though it did leave him wondering what kind of creature the eye he had seen in the empty void belonged to. For it to have the ability to directly cause his soul to start collapsing from a mere glance.

That level of strength completely exceeded anything he had encountered so far, even the existence sealed by the four ancient dao seals seemed harmless in comparison.

A Holy Lord level existence? Or maybe beyond that?

Left wondering with his limited knowledge of the realms above the Profound Immortal Realm and the strength of individuals in those realms, he could only guess that the existence he had encountered had either reached the Holy Lord level or exceeded it.

The reason why he didn’t believe that it was an existence at the Venerable Realm was rather simple, as he had already had some interactions with an existence at that level of strength, the giant from the celestial trial.

Although he couldn’t be sure about the exact strength of this existence, he could at least distinguish the fact that it had been nowhere near the level of strength possessed by the one he had barely caught a glimpse of in the system’s enlightenment space for the Dao of Space.

If it had that kind of power, he should have already been dead…

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao decided not to think too much about his encounter with the terrifying eye and instead focused his attention on recovering to the point where his weakened soul wouldn’t cause any serious problems in case he ended up in a battle, a process that ended up taking a little over a week.

Essentially, his strength was fully stable at the Early Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, while he could partially wield strength at the Middel Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, though it was somewhat shaky to do so because of his weakened soul.

Of course, in the process of recovering his soul strength, he also discovered that the strength of his soul seemed to have gone through a metamorphosis of sorts after almost being erased from existence.

If he had to describe it, it would be that his soul had undergone some kind of ’refinement’ and in turn become stronger than it had been in the past. Leaving him uncertain about how to feel regarding what had happened.

Part of him feeling uncomfortable with the sense of weakness that had washed over him following his soul being almost extinguished, while another felt grateful for the clear improvement in strength his soul would experience when it fully recovered in the future.

”Momentary weakness for a fundamental improvement in my soul strength…” Muttering this to himself as he voiced out the basis of his situation in simple terms, Xuan Hao felt that it was worth it when put in this way.

Although he would be weakened for some time, he wasn’t reduced to a normal mortal without any cultivation, his strength was still in the Sea Formation Realm. Far stronger than when he had stepped inside the mystic realm to complete the main quest.

Having dealt with the few doubts still left in his mind and having recovered enough strength to confidently move around again without worrying about his soul’s condition worsening, Xuan Hao decided that it was time for him to return to the sect again now that he had managed to succeed in his breakthrough to the Profound Immortal Realm.

The only thing he did before that was do a quick check at the Tower of Secrets to see how many celestial coins he had managed to gather after he had completed the tenth celestial trial.

After all, he still clearly remembered how he had increased the difficulty of the trial two times, something that should have also increased the reward for completing the celestial trial…

[Tier Two Trial Participant, Temporary Elder Status]

[Strength: Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, Former Dao Domain Lord]

[Celestial Coins: 579]

[Normal Trials Completed: 9]

[Special Trials Completed: 1]

However, when he got his status from the preservation golem guarding the Tower of Secrets, he was shocked to discover that his status had changed far more than he had originally anticipated.

Not only had the number of celestial coins shot up by over 400, but his overall status had also changed from a tier three trial participant to a tier two trial participant.

The reason for this was rather easy to spot, as he found out that the tenth celestial trial he had gone through ended up counting as a special trial. Qualifying him for promoting to a tier two trial participant.

With his temporary elder status around, his increase in status didn’t really grant him any extra benefits inside the Tower of Secrets that would have normally only emerged after becoming a tier two trial participant, but it did make curious about whether or not the rest of the trials he had gone through could also be turned into special trials through some similar hidden means as the two he had unknowingly activated during his tenth celestial trial.

If he had done all the celestial trials in this kind of manner, would he have been able to gather over four thousand celestial coins by now…?

Feeling like he had missed out on thousands of celestial coins all of a sudden, Xuan Hao couldn’t help feeling a bit regretful that he hadn’t taken more time to careful go through some of the celestial trials he completed in the past.

Of course, the regret only lasted for a split second, as he understood deep down just how dangerous it would be for him to increase the difficulty of the celestial trials he had gone through back then. Especially the mushroom on, which he doubted he would have been able to survive if it had been any harder.

Then again, he felt that there might not have been a way to make that celestial trial any more difficult than it had already been. Making him guess that not every celestial trial might have a way to change into a special trial.

In the end, he didn’t think too hard about this as he had already partly settled on the goal of taking away the entire Tower of Secrets and the information inside of it away when he became strong enough to do so.

For this reason, he decided to use his remaining celestial coins to exchange for all kinds of information that would be helpful for the development of the Star Shattering Sect before he left the mystic realm and made his way back to the sect.