Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Fully guarded against any potential ambush, Xuan Hao slowed down his speed ever so slightly as he began approaching the thing that was pulling in the blood mist that permeated the entire nineteenth floor. Not taking long to notice the red colored soil beneath his feet becoming increasingly fluid, causing his feet to slowly sink into the soil. Forcing him to push off the ground and fly instead of walking.

No matter how curious he might be about the sudden change to the soil, he didn’t plan to go down into it to explore before he had found out what it was that was pulling on the blood mist. Especially so after seeing how the red colored soil below him slowly began to liquify even further before turning into a bright red liquid that gave off a dangerous feeling even to someone like himself.

Although he had no idea where this dangerous feeling came from, it made him even more steadfast in his plan of not recklessly exploring the red liquid and the things that might be hidden below the surface.

Not that he had no plans of checking it out, just that these plans were put on hold until after he finished the task given by the ascension realm tower. After all, he wouldn’t be thrown out of a floor the second he completed a task and was still free to move around the place and explore on his own.

In fact, the main benefit of the ascension realm tower was the ability to continue freely moving around the different floors even after the floor in question had been cleared, either to take on new unique tasks or search for rare and unique cultivation resources that might not be easy to find outside the ascension realm tower.

In a sense, the ascension realm tower did somewhat replace the need for the sect’s younger disciples to go out and explore the world on their own when they reached the Foundation Establishment Realm or Core Formation Realm, as they would now be able to explore a wide world far more safely through the ascension realm tower.

Of course, some aspects like interactions with local cultivators and so on would still be lacking, but at least when it came to combat experience, the ascension realm tower was perfect for these younger disciples to train themselves.

No… Maybe it wasn’t the most important to the younger disciples of the sect, but more so the sect’s elders, as it did become increasingly difficult for someone like them to find somewhere to train themselves in combat.

The demonic cultivators did work for now, but they wouldn’t be around forever, and the sect would ultimately need somewhere else for these senior cultivators to train… And the ascension realm tower was a perfect solution to this problem.

After all, though the enemies he himself had faced were of little challenge and barely had much time to resist, there were countless unique enemies that would pose a challenge even beyond their cultivation realm.

Thinking this to himself as he continued floating above the sea of red that soon enough took over everything around him, Xuan Hao was soon forced to return his attention to the situation at hand, as something appeared at the edge of his divine sense… A crape myrtle, covered in brilliant red flowers blooming with a bright red color had appeared. The small tree, standing only a little over three meters tall, looked completely out of place anchored in the red liquid soil beneath it.

Thinking this to himself as he continued floating above the sea of red that soon enough took over everything around him, Xuan Hao was soon forced to return his attention to the situation at hand, as something appeared at the edge of his divine sense… A crape myrtle, covered in brilliant red flowers blooming with a bright red color had appeared. The small tree, standing only a little over three meters tall, looked completely out of place anchored in the red liquid soil beneath it.

But it was when his sense turned to try and gauge the situation below the surface that caused him to momentarily pause. ”What… Is that…?” Only able to mutter a few words of surprise as his divine sense observed the intricate web of roots that had grown far beyond what should have been possible. Not just stretching beyond the range of his divine sense into the unknown depths of the red soil but also covering an area more than a thousand meters around the small tree that barely made up a fraction of the overall mass of the entity that was the flowering crape myrtle.

It was only upon realizing just how massive the root network of this small tree was, that Xuan Hao at the same time realized that the blood mist was being pulled into this small tree through the blooming flowers that covered its canopy.

The origin of the strange pull that the blood mist experienced was none other than this small flower tree. Not just that, but the sense of danger he had felt earlier when gazing down at the red soil that had now taken on a liquid quality, had come from the roots of this small tree- or more specifically, it had come from roots that were so far down that he hadn’t been able to sense their presence earlier. Only now putting things together after sensing the overall presence of the small flower tree in person.

But… Even if this was a rather interesting development, it wasn’t the blood devouring formation that he had originally been hoping to encounter. Meaning that he might have wasted his time so far following the pull that this small tree had on the blood mist as it actively absorbed and refined said blood mist before sending it downwards into its massive root system.

The blood devouring formation remained elusive, while he only had a small flowering tree to keep him company. Disappointing as this turn of events was, he didn’t immediately leave after realizing that he hadn’t been able to find the blood devouring formation. Instead, he began to more actively use his divine sense to observe this small yet at the same time massive tree.

Not just because he was genuinely curious about what he presumed to be the first creature outside those barely alive trees he had encountered so far, but also because he wondered whether or not this small tree was some kind of unique spiritual tree that he could potentially take out of the ascension realm tower for the sect to use in the future… And if that was not possible. Maybe use it for some high-quality spiritual wood.

”How is the grade of this spiritual wood so low? Barely even reaching Mystic Grade…”

But as he observed the small tree in depth along with its roots, he was disappointed to discover that it barely qualified as Mystic Grade… And that was only when considering its uniqueness.

Over all, though it could indeed produce some rare spiritual wood, the size of the small tree itself made it hardly worth, while the roots themselves were far too contaminated by the majority of the blood mist being concentrated in them to be of any real use for anything outside of demonic cultivation that might be able to make use of the dense blood mist stored in the roots.

Maybe I could use it to trade with the demonic cultivators of the Frozen Wasteland or give some to Xuan Gui? No matter… Even if mostly useless to me and the sect for now, it might be useful in the future…

Shaking his head as he thought about this while examining the use of the small spiritual tree along with its roots, Xuan Hao barely wasted a single second before using his vast spiritual sea to manifest a towering spiritual hand that directly grabbed hold of the small tree before pulling it out of the ground-

Rumble~!

The sudden pull caused the liquid soil to churn violently, as the tree barely managed to keep itself rooted in place for more than a second before it was overwhelmed and forcibly pulled out of the liquid soil that seemed to have suddenly solidified to try and hold the small tree in place-

RUUUMBLE-!

Unfortunately, this attempt to secure itself in place was in vain, as it only slowed down the speed at which it was pulled out of the ground by a bit before Xuan Hao decided to increase the strength at which he was pulling out the small tree. Rendering this small struggle useless in the face of absolute power.

Even as the roots themselves began to come alive and tried to strike at him, Xuan Hao barely registered this attack that barely reached the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm in terms of strength, as whatever roots approached him were seamlessly cut down by a seemingly invisible field of sword qi that surrounded him.

Struggle as it did, it was all useless in the face of Xuan Hao, who had long since expected this little tree to be sentient to some extent.

In fact, the crape myrtle and its helpless struggle wasn’t even on Xuan Hao’s mind, as he was instead far more focused on danger he had felt earlier when he first attempted to observe the slowly liquifying red soil.

The reason for this being that he could clearly feel that danger from below getting closer the more he pulled on the small tree and soon enough, it would enter the range of his divine sense…