Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

”This- The spiritual fruits are gone!?” Only a short time after Xuan Hao had made his move and taken away the five spiritual fruits from the Middle Stage Dao Seed Realm cultivator from the Explorer Union, did the person in question realize that his spiritual fruits were missing.

The main reason why he even discovered they were gone in the first place had to do with the sea of fire that suddenly manifested at the edge of the forest before clashing violently with a massive tree root that had just emerged from the ground.

The shockwave created by the clash between the two, sending him flying backwards until he violently collided with one of the trees of the forest that finally stopped him from flying any further backwards... and it was during this process of being sent flying that he had been checking up on the spiritual fruits to ensure their safety. Only to discover that all of them had gone missing at some point in time.

Of course, with Xuan Hao’s speed and cultivation realm, he hadn’t even noticed when he had moved in and taken away the five spiritual fruits that he had carefully hidden on his body.

Even then, with the clash that had just taken place, it wasn’t that hard for him to guess that the one behind the terrifying sea of fire was the most likely suspect behind the missing spiritual fruits. After all, he could clearly sense that the power behind that clash just now had far exceeded the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm and even surpassed that of someone in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

Meaning that the existence that had just clashed with that tree root had at least reached the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm or was a Profound Immortal at the Sea Formation Realm.

No matter which of the two it was, someone like that would have been able to easily take away the few spiritual fruits he had hidden on his body without being discovered in the process.

”I... I was used by someone to pick spiritual fruits from this kind of being...?” Muttering this to himself as he stared up at the massive tree root that reached hundreds of meters into the air swinging around seemingly in search of something, it became clear that he had been used by the one who had stolen away the five spiritual fruits.

Even worse, he would now have to face off against a being that had been left completely unscathed by an attack by someone in the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm or the Sea Formation Realm.

Although there were still three other Dao Seed Realm cultivators around, he understood that they wouldn’t be able to provide much of a distraction when it came to escaping from this kind of powerful existence.

All the other party would need to do was swing that tree root at them and they would all end up dead without any chance to resist.

He might have had some powerful escape methods that would even allow him to escape from someone at the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, but those kind of escape methods would be rendered completely useless in the face of a sentient spiritual tree powerful enough to even make someone at the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm flee without daring to take a single attack from the other party.

”Above the Celestial Immortal Realm or in the legendary Land Creation Realm of the Profound Immortal Realm...” Feeling the hopelessness of his situation washing over him, he didn’t even bother trying to escape. Understanding that there was simply no way for him to escape with his current strength.

”That-!? The spiritual tree is sentient! At least Celestial Immortal Realm!”

”I’m out of here! Forget about those spiritual fruits! Stay alive is the most important!”

”This... With the spiritual fruits in hand, won’t I get targeted by the spiritual tree!?”

However, different from the Middle Stage Dao Seed Realm cultivator who had already given up hope of escaping alive from his current situation, the other three Dao Seed Realm cultivators had no idea about the true strength of the spiritual tree and only believed it to be at the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm. Giving them some hope in escaping from their current situation alive.

Whoosh-!

Among the three of them, the first to act was none other than the one who still believed he had successfully stolen away the five spiritual fruits, as he directly took out a precious long-distance teleportation talisman that he had been unwilling to use before-

Fizzle~

”Huh?” But the talisman that seemed to start twisting the very space soon fizzled out without teleporting the Dao Seed Realm cultivator who had used it away. ”It... It doesn’t work!? Don’t tell... I WAS SCAMMED!?”

Seeing the teleportation talisman that he had viewed as his most prized possession and means of escape turning into dust without serving its purpose of getting him out of his current deadly situation, the first thing on the mind of this Dao Seed Realm wasn’t that the spatial teleportation talisman had been blocked, but instead that he had been scammed when he had bought it in the past.

This was a normal reaction, as blocking a long-distance spatial teleportation talisman was something even someone in the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm would find difficult to do, let alone a spiritual tree that he believed to only be in the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

Of course, along with him, the other two Early Stage Dao Seed Realm cultivators faced similar situations, as all their escape techniques and treasures were rendered completely useless. Rendering them incapable of getting out of their current situation.

But, as all of them failed to escape, it also became clear that there wasn’t something wrong with their escape methods, but instead the environment that they found themselves in that prevented them from escaping like they had been trying to do.

Slowly, they came to the same terrifying realization that the Middle Stage Dao Seed Realm cultivator had already come to before them... And in turn, all of them began to show a look of despair as they all turned to look back towards the towering spiritual tree behind them that had now fully woken up and was staring down at them.

Well... Not staring down at them in the literal sense, as it didn’t have any eyes, but instead that its powerful divine sense was now focused on all of them. Making none of them dare continue to escape out of fear that the spiritual tree might kill them.

”L-Lord Spiritual Tree, I-I didn’t mean to take your spiritual fruits and was just about to return them after seeing this group of thieves stealing them from you!” Acting fast upon seeing the bad situation, the city lord, who had secretly followed the group from the Explorer Union and stolen away the spiritual fruits, stepped forward with what could only be described as the face of an experienced bootlicker. Unaware that the spiritual fruits he was showing off to try and win the favor of the spiritual tree and avoid death, was not the ones that had been stolen, but instead the ones that had been replaced by the Middle Stage Dao Seed Realm cultivator who had been planning to keep all of the spiritual fruits for himself without sharing any of them.

Ptsh-!

However, unsurprisingly, the spiritual tree didn’t believe a single word said by this man, as a spiritual tree emerged below him. Piercing straight through him from below. Killing him without even giving him a chance to fight back. If anything, it might have been a blessing that he didn’t have a chance to fight back, as doing so with a tree root in that kind of place wasn’t the best of experiences.

RUMBLE~!

Luckily for the rest of the Dao Seed Realm cultivators who were all now dreading ending up in a similar situation where they would be pierced from below, didn’t end up dying, as the towering spiritual tree suddenly uprooted itself at a terrifying speed before disappearing from the spot. Leaving behind the three remaining Dao Seed Realm cultivators from the Explorer Union, who could only look at each other with bewildered expressions on their faces.

”That... The spiritual fruits left behind by the thief aren’t the same as the ones I picked up. Maybe the clash that knocked us all flying from earlier came from someone who stole the real spiritual fruits from the thief?” Seeing this situation, the Middle Stage Dao Seed Realm cultivator quickly put two and two together and realized that the spiritual tree should have chased after the one who had stolen the spiritual fruits from him.

Of course, he wouldn’t say that the spiritual fruits had been stolen from him but instead pushed all the blame over at the Dao Seed Realm cultivator who had attempted to steal them from him.

”I see... So that was it...”

”How lucky, guess that thief calling out like that and showing off fake spiritual fruits was what ended up getting him killed in the end...”

Luckily, his two companions didn’t think too much about it and felt that it made sense. After all, they had all seen how the spiritual fruits had been stolen originally and there was no way for someone to discreetly steal the spiritual fruits from the thief they had been chasing unless their strength was far above their own.

Something that only an existence capable of clashing with the spiritual tree would be capable of doing.

Not to mention, it also helped solve the mystery of where and why that sea of fire from earlier had suddenly shown up. After all, different from their senior at the Middle Stage of the Dao Seed Realm, they couldn’t sense the situation of the clash clearly and didn’t know that it was someone clashing with the spiritual tree. Instead, having believed that it might just have been some sort of effect from the spiritual tree’s root emerging from the ground.