Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Getting his hands on the Stardusk Essence from Huo Fen after reassuring him that he would repay him after they got out of the Verdant Abyss, Xuan Hao didn’t waste any time as he sat back down and absorbed the Stardusk Essence directly into his dantian. Allowing it to seamlessly fall into his spiritual sea, where it was slowly absorbed and turned into a massive quantity of spiritual qi that soon enough caused his already massive spiritual sea to slowly expand.

From the original 85-kilometer circumference, it soon reached 86... 87... 90... 95... And finally, 99. Reaching the very peak of what was considered the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm before it encountered a bottleneck that stopped any further expansion.

Rumble~

Instead, the spiritual sea that had remained calm so far even under the rapid expansion began growing more turbulent, as the massive amount of spiritual qi from the Stardusk Essence had nowhere to go-

RUMBLE-!

And before long, the turbulent state of the spiritual sea seemed to reach a breaking point, as a loud shattering sound echoed out throughout his dantian. Followed by the spiritual sea that had remained in a state of unrest, starting to rapidly expand again. Breaking past the 100-kilometer mark that served as the benchmark for the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm.

Everything went smoothly, as the remaining spiritual qi from the Stardusk Essence was used to expand his spiritual sea all the way from the original 85 kilometers to 126 kilometers. Placing him firmly in the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm.

Although... As he observed his spiritual sea, he noticed that even though the state of his spiritual sea had calmed down significantly from when he was breaking through the bottleneck to the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, the restless state of his spiritual sea didn’t show any signs of calming down completely like it had done in the past. Instead, the somewhat restless state of his spiritual sea seemed to be a new permanent fixture that he couldn’t fix for now.

Name: Xuan Hao

Daos: Perfection (Space, Sword, Ice), Large Success (Illusions, Formations, Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Corruption, Yin), Small Success (Fire, Light), Elementary Realm (Life)

Sword Intent: Sword Soul Realm (Sword Refinement Realm, 1 Refinement)

Talent: ????

Bloodline: Three Immortals Bloodline (Half-Awakened), requirements for full awakening met.

Physique: Stellar Dao Body (99% Awakened)

Realm: Late Stage Sea Formation Realm Profound Immortal (Wild Sea)

Professions: Alchemist (Pinnacle Grandmaster), Formation Master (Pinnacle Grandmaster), Blacksmithing (Senior Grandmaster (Pseudo Saint))

Looking through his status to confirm the state of his spiritual sea, he found that outside his realm changing from the Middle Stage to the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, the state of his spiritual sea next to it had also changed from Calm Sea to Wild Sea.

Although this wasn’t exactly surprising considering that one would normally reach this state after breaking through to the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, it was still a bit surprising, as it indicated that his comprehension was no longer enough to fully suppress his spiritual sea.

Meaning he would have to further increase his comprehension to ensure that the state of his spiritual sea returned to its former calm state before trying to break through to the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm in the future.

After all, even though the current state of his spiritual sea wouldn’t affect his combat strength or overall control, the same couldn’t be said if his spiritual sea ended up becoming even more violent and reached the Turbulent Sea state or worse, the Chaotic Sea state.

But then again, that wasn’t exactly something he had to worry about for now, as the most important matter at hand was still to get out of the Verdant Abyss safely before making his way to the ancient alchemy sect ruins with Hup Fen and Meng Jie, as without getting his hands on a large supply of Stardusk Essence, there was no way for him to improve his strength fast enough that he would have to worry about his comprehension speed being unable to catch up.

Speaking of which, I still have that source crystal I planned to use together with the time stone to comprehend the Dao of Time. Although I haven’t yet reached the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm and I’m still far from attempting a breakthrough to the Land Creation Realm, it might be a good idea to comprehend the Dao of time before attempting to leave the Verdant Abyss.

Recalling the time stone and source crystal that was still sitting inside his interspatial ring for him to use when he was preferably preparing to break through to the Land Creation Realm and his soul and in turn, comprehension ability was at its strongest so he could awaken his physique at the same time he broke through to the Land Creation Realm and potentially use the awakening to further deepen his foundation, Xuan Hao could not help thinking about using it now instead of waiting for later.

After all, his current situation wasn’t one he could guarantee he would be able to get out of alive.

If he could comprehend the Dao of Time, he would not just help further stabilize his spiritual sea, but would also gain access to some degree of time manipulation... And although he doubted it would be of that much use in direct combat without reaching a higher realm, he felt confident that it should be able to serve as an auxiliary technique to increase his own speed beyond what it had been in the past.

In fact, he had already had some ideas on how to potentially merge the Dao of Time together with his Illusory Light Steps to further increase the speed of this technique.

Of course, ideas were just ideas and without comprehending the Dao of Time, there was no way for him to test or implement any of these ideas.

But... The thought that he might be able to increase his chance of getting out of the Verdant Abyss safely was more than enough for him to decide to use the time stone and the source crystal.

Not just because it might potentially be able to help him improve his Illusory Light Steps, but also because of the simple fact that he hoped comprehending the Dao of Time would be able to fully stabilize his spiritual sea and return it to its previous calm state.

Even if there was no direct negative impact from his spiritual sea’s wild state, it was still uncomfortable to have his spiritual sea constantly causing a ruckus inside his dantian.

If anything, the distraction it caused was more than enough for him to consider it as a negative, as it could potentially cause some problems during battles where he thought something might have happened to his dantian, but it turned out to just be his spiritual sea.

Normally, he wouldn’t worry about anything harming his spiritual sea, as there weren’t really many on the continent who would even be capable of doing something like that, but... In the core region of the Verdant Abyss that he would have to break through to leave the Verdant Abyss, there were countless powerful demon beasts more than capable of doing something like that.

With all of that in mind, Xuan Hao ultimately decided to use the time stone and the source crystal he had been given by the system in the past, now.

Whoosh~!

And so, under the surprised look of both Huo Fen and Meng Jie, Xuan Hao pulled the time stone and source crystal out of his interspatial ring.

”A source crystal... And... Hm? Something... Related to Dao comprehension...?” Muttering this to himself as he at least recognized one of the two objects that had been pulled out by Xuan Hao, Huo Fen could only guess the use of the second item based off the first. Guessing that Xuan Hao was planning to comprehend some kind of Dao to increase their chances of leaving the Verdant Abyss alive.

Of course, considering that he had already given up the Stardusk Essence, he couldn’t help feeling a bit relieved that Xuan Hao was also taking out some of his own treasures to try and increase his strength as much as possible.

After all, he was very clear about just how dangerous it would be for the three of them to make it through the core region of the Verdant Abyss.

Outside of Land Creation level demon beasts, there were also the far more dangerous Star Creation Realm demon beasts.

No matter what, the stronger Xuan Hao was, the better it was for them, as it would make it safer for them.

So, with that in mind, Huo Fen watched with anticipation as Xuan Hao swallowed both the source crystal and time stone together. Hoping that he would be able to breakthrough the potential bottleneck in comprehension he was attempting to overcome with the help of the strange stone and the source crystal...