Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

As the battle reached a new peak, Xuan Hao found it increasingly difficult to keep up with his opponent without having to rely on the Drifting Cloud Steps, as even though his own comprehension of the Dao of the Sword far surpassed that of his opponent, he couldn’t entirely keep up with the greatsword due to his limited cultivation.

Something that only became more difficult as his opponent’s comprehension of the Dao of the Sword neared the Perfection Realm. Making it obvious that continuing the current pace of the battle would end up with him losing the second, his opponent broke through to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of the Sword.

Although there was a chance that his opponent failed to break through to the Perfection Realm, he didn’t believe that the chance of this was high after personally feeling his opponent’s deep foundation in the Dao of the Sword during their battle. In a sense, the current battle not only allowed him to see a clear path to the Perfection Realm but also gave him an opportunity to fully unleash the insights he had accumulated over the years. Allowing them to add fuel to the fire and aid his rapid ascension through the Large Success realm towards the Perfection Realm.

It wasn’t wrong to say that his overall foundation in the Dao of the Sword far surpassed someone like Xuan Hao, who hadn’t spent thousands of years stuck in the Large Success Realm slowly accumulating insights into the Dao of the Sword to break through the bottleneck that he had found himself stuck in for so long.

Of course, this didn’t mean his comprehension of the Dao of the Sword surpassed Xuan Hao in any way, just that his accumulation and foundation in the Dao was more stable compared to Xuan Hao when he had been at the Large Success Realm himself.

Accumulation that now allowed him to breeze through the Large Success Realm with ease and reach the very peak of the realm in a relatively short period of time. By the time Xuan Hao decided to stop exchanging simple blows with the greatsword wielding Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator, he had already gone from someone stuck at the earlier stages of the Large Success Realm to having reached the very pinnacle of the Large Success Realm, only a single step away from reaching the Perfection Realm.

As for what Xuan Hao decided to change about the exchange that had been immensely beneficial to his disciple watching the battle playing out from afar... That was the sword art he used, changing from the more traditional sword arts that only relied on the Dao of the Sword to the far more terrifying Void Sword Art that incorporated both the Dao of the Sword and the Dao of Space.

Ruuuumble~!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

”Ah!?”

In turn, the terrifying power of the Void Sword Art combined with the mobility provided by the Drifting Cloud Steps, the greatsword wielding Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator almost instantly found himself being pushed back, as Xuan Hao had switched from his relatively relaxed stance to a far more aggressive one that instantly increased the pressure several times. Forcing the greatsword wielding Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator into a purely defensive stance to keep himself alive in the face of the terrifying onslaught.

Although this switch was partly due to Xuan Hao wanting to end the battle before his opponent could break through to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of the Sword as it would make him more difficult to deal with, it was also because he understood that time was starting to run out and he had to end this little practical lesson before any of the stronger cultivators appeared.

After all, with his current strength limited to the Early Stage of the Dao Seed Realm, there was no way for him to face off against someone in the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm or above, the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm was the limit of what he could handle in his current state.

Not to mention, even though he should be able to keep himself and his disciple safe by relying on his comprehension of the Dao of Space, he worried that the quest given by the system wouldn’t be completed unless he dealt with the two Celestial immortal Realm cultivators still left. Meaning, it would end up as failure if he ended up running away when the more powerful cultivators showed up.

Unwilling to see something like that happen, he decided to go all out before this Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator in front of him ended up becoming even more troublesome to deal with.

”You... You have been holding back!?” Feeling the increased pressure from Xuan Hao as powerful sword strikes began raining down on him from all around that made it difficult for him to counter, the greatsword wielding Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator could not help panicking as he felt his spiritual qi rapidly depleting under the endless flurry of attacks that left him with no choice but to utilize an artifact to protect himself.

The sheer amount of qi required to utilize this artifact that could also guard against attacks with a spatial attribute that could normally penetrate most barriers was enough to even leave a Late Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator drained, let alone someone at the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

In a relatively short period of time, the equal battle between the two had completely turned into one-sided bullying by Xuan Hao, as he relied entirely on his Drifting Cloud Steps to avoid having to face his opponent head on any longer.

Even with his opponent using spatial disruption talismans to try and stop this, it did little to help, as Xuan Hao would just briefly retreat to avoid having to clash directly and potentially help his opponent break through to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of the Sword before returning a few seconds later when the effect of the spatial disruption talisman disappeared. After all, his goal wasn’t to escape, so the spatial disruption talisman didn’t have much use if his opponent couldn’t catch up to him.

As for how he kept his distance even after his Drifting Cloud Steps had been rendered useless? That was rather simple, as he still had the Illusory Light Steps, a movement technique that incorporated the far more elusive Dao of Time.

Although it was far less useful in battle compared to the Drifting Cloud Steps that allowed him to easily avoid any direct confrontation with his opponent, it was more than enough to ensure that he wouldn’t have to clash directly with his opponent and potentially aid him in comprehending the Dao of the Sword.

Like this, the battle between the two of them turned into a cat and mouse game, as Xuan Hao would attack from an unpredictable location utilizing the Dao of Space. Depleting his opponent’s qi, while the other party would then use a spatial disruption talisman to try and catch him before being left chasing a ball of light that he had no way to reach before repeating the entire process.

To say this was a frustrating battle would be an understatement, as the greatsword wielding Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator finally began to understand why all his seniors and friends never wanted to face someone proficient in the Dao of Space.

Not only were they almost impossible to catch, but when it came to fighting, they were by far one of the most frustrating opponents to face off against, as they could appear from any direction to launch an attack. Even more so when the attack they were using was also connected to the Dao of Space and was similarly unpredictable and hard to defend against.

Everything was working out perfectly in Xuan Hao’s favor and the qi of his opponent was rapidly depleted. Soon enough reaching the point where he had no way to continue the battle without having to rely on his long saved up trump cards, but doing so in this kind of situation where he had no way to get his hands on what was hidden in the treasury below was simply not worth it.

Whoosh~!

So, without any hesitation, he decided to just leave the place using a precious teleportation talisman capable of taking him out of the ancient alchemy sect ruins by following one of the passages that connected the ancient alchemy sect ruins with the outside world after knowing that continuing a fight with Xuan Hao was useless.

Even if he wanted to use him to refine himself and breakthrough to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of the Sword, it was all useless if he couldn’t catch his opponent in the first place.

Instead of that, leaving and using what was still left of the source crystal he had consumed to consolidate his comprehension and lay down a solid foundation for breaking through to the Perfection Realm on his own in the future was a far better option.

After all, even if he couldn’t break through to the Perfection Realm immediately, he had already seen a clear path to the Perfection Realm of the Dao of the Sword and with enough time, he would be able to breakthrough.