Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Looks like those four couldn’t deal with the spiritual tree in the end...

Realizing that the spiritual tree was once again chasing after him again after a little over half a day passed, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit disappointed as he thought this to himself while looking back towards the space that had begun to once again slightly tremble behind him before a familiar looking branch began to emerge.

Under normal circumstances, the spiritual tree would have had no way to catch up to him given the massive gap he had managed to create while it had been busy dealing with the four Land Creation Realm cultivators who had ambushed it, but due to his forced early escape just after consuming the fourth spiritual fruit, his state had been less than optimal and he had been forced to spend some time recovering instead of just solely focusing on increasing the distance between himself and the spiritual tree.

After all, he would need to recover before he could consume the final fifth spiritual fruit, something he had already done and was the main reason behind the spiritual tree now having caught up with him. His spiritual sea in his dantian growing because of this.

Going from a circumference of 77 kilometers to 82 kilometers, increasing by a total of 5, one less than after consuming the fourth spiritual fruit, but still bringing about a similar increase in strength no different from any of the other spiritual fruits he had consumed.

If anything, the only difference he could sense compared to the other four spiritual fruits upon consuming the fifth spiritual fruit, was the fact that the spiritual sea itself ended up taking longer to calm down compared to before.

But... This wasn’t entirely unexpected, as he already knew that a larger spiritual sea would be harder to control.

More importantly, the reason why his spiritual sea had become tumultuous had nothing to do with him reaching his limit and having to focus on further strengthening his foundation when it came to his comprehension of the Dao. Instead, it had to do with how rapidly he was expanding his spiritual sea with the help of the spiritual fruits.

Without the spiritual fruits around to rapidly increase the expansion speed of his spiritual sea, he would most likely have been able to slowly expand his spiritual sea at a normal rate without running into any of the problems that came with such rapid expansion of his spiritual sea.

Rumble~

Feeling the spiritual tree about to emerge as his thoughts briefly wandered elsewhere, there wasn’t the slightest bit of hesitation on his face as he turned around and ripped open space to leave like he had already done hundreds of times by now. Having long since grown used to the process and at the same time also far more proficient in using the long-distance teleportation technique that he hadn’t had the opportunity to use that often before this chase began a few days earlier.

In a sense, outside of the spiritual fruits that had helped him draw close to the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, the chase had also allowed him to deepen his understanding of the Dao of Space. Allowing his overall comprehension of the Dao of Space to benefit far more than he had expected over the past few days of almost exclusively relying on the Dao of Space to stay alive and avoid a direct confrontation with the spiritual tree.

Thinking about it, he couldn’t help feeling a bit reluctant as he once again disappeared before the spiritual tree had the chance to emerge. Understanding that this might be the last time he saw the spiritual tree in a long time.

After all, now that he had consumed all five of the spiritual fruits, it shouldn’t have a way to track him. Unless, of course, it had some kind of spatial artifact capable of tracking him, something he found unlikely.

Then again, even if he felt reluctant to part ways with the spiritual tree after having realized how much his comprehension of the Dao of Space had benefited from this chase, he hoped with all his heart that the spiritual tree didn’t have such an artifact. Understanding that there would be no way for him to shake off the spiritual tree if it really did possess that kind of terrifying spatial artifact.

At the very least, he would have to break through to the Origin Realm in the Dao of Space of find a way to destroy the artifact in question, both of which were extremely unlikely to happen. The first being a breakthrough that he was still far away from, while the latter involved him somehow snatching a spatial artifact that was highly likely stored away in some kind of spatial storage device like an interspatial ring- or worse, some kind of internal storage space inside the spiritual tree itself.

No matter what, a spatial artifact tracking him wouldn’t be anything he could deal with in his current state...

Whoosh

~

Catching a glimpse of the branch of the spiritual tree reaching out towards him just as he disappeared, he officially disappeared once again before the spiritual tree had the chance to catch him, something that would undoubtedly end with anyone too close to the location he had just left dying to the rampage of the spiritual tree.

As for why the spiritual tree wasn’t just chasing after him immediately after arriving? That wasn’t too difficult to guess, as it should be using the time while rampaging to lock on to his path, either through tracking the spiritual fruits or through some kind of spatial artifact that he sincerely hoped didn’t exist.

...

RUUUMBLE-!

Only a few seconds after Xuan Hao had left and disappeared, the branch that had reached out trying to catch him managed to rip open a passage large enough for the rest of the spiritual tree to pass through, as it landed on the ground with a loud rumbling sound.

However, different from the rampage it had gone on in the past whenever it was unable to catch him, this time around, the spiritual tree remained silent, as it just stood there quietly without moving.

”That- The demon tree!”

”R-Run!”

”I can’t die here, I’m sorry old friends, everyone is on their own!”

But even though the spiritual tree didn’t do anything, its appearance still ended up causing widespread panic among the different cultivators who happened to be close enough to spot its towering form from a distance. All of them were wasting no time as they used all the escape methods at their disposal to get away as fast as possible.

The main reason for such a quick and decisive action being that information about the spiritual tree and its rampage over the past few days has long since spread throughout the entire Eastern Central Region by now. The only ones left in the unknown about the existence of the terrifying spiritual tree, now referred to as the demon tree, by most wandering cultivators in the Eastern Central Region, were the ones who were in secluded cultivation and hadn’t interacted with anyone else during the past few days.

One such example being none other than Chu Yang, who was still in secluded cultivation. Focusing on comprehending the Dao of the Spear alongside the Dao of Blood to further enhance his strength.

Not just the Eastern Central Region, but even cultivators in the Northern and Western Central Region had learnt about what was happening.

After all, it not only involved an existence in the Land Creation Realm that had made itself famous in the Northern Central Region not long ago, but also someone who had managed to reach the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space according to what little information had been shared by the four Land Creation Realm cultivators from the Eastern Central Region in their attempt to identify the person being chased by the spiritual tree.

With all of this, it was understandable that some people became more curious about the person being chased by the spiritual tree and tried to investigate as well.

Unfortunately, much like the four that had attempted to do so before them, they were unable to figure out who this person being chased by the spiritual tree was, someone that had reached the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space was simply far too difficult to find when they tried to hide themselves or were in the process of running away...

Rustle~

As the few cultivators who had noticed the towering spiritual tree emerging escaped, none of them daring to linger around to figure out what the spiritual tree was up to, the spiritual tree that had remained completely silent so far finally began to move, causing its leaves to rustle gently in the wind as the thick and sturdy branches forming the tree’s crown shifted ever so slightly. Forming a small opening, from which a small circular disk emerged floating in the air for a few seconds before ascending into the sky where it hovered briefly for a few minutes spinning in seemingly random directions before coming to a stop.

Swish~

After which the disk floated back down into opening in the tree crown. Disappearing completely from view, as the spiritual tree once again moved.

Riiip-!

However, this time around, it directly tore open the space in front of itself and left through the opening a second later. Not bothering to rampage like it had done in the past during its chase through the Eastern Central Region. Allowing the few cultivators nearby, who were too weak to even sense it appearing in the first place, to stay alive. Unknowingly escaping what would have been a certain death...