Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having dealt with the small tree and stored away anything useful from it, Xuan Hao didn’t linger around the already solidified red soil that had returned to normal following the small tree being uprooted and taken away by him. Soon enough, he found himself searching through the blood mist for the blood devouring formation that he needed to find to proceed to the next floor of the ascension realm tower.

The problem was, even though he wanted to finish things up and move on to the next floor of the tower, he had no real way to speed up his exploration of the nineteenth floor. The blood mist limiting his divine sense so severely that he could only slowly make his way through the place while keeping an eye out for any disturbances like the one that had been caused by the small tree absorbing the blood mist all the way from the spiral staircase.

The only positive was that he at least had the ability to use his Dao of Space to return to anywhere he had been before. Allowing him to return to the spiral staircase again any time he wanted and something he made sure to do to check if he could feel any similar pulls to the blood mist like earlier and potentially follow them.

Unfortunately, he didn’t find any pull like the one from the small tree and was ultimately forced to slowly explore the nineteenth floor.

Like this, time began to pass, as Xuan Hao found himself wandering aimlessly through the thick blood mist for a little over three days before he finally managed to locate the blood devouring formation by chance. Wasting no time in rushing forward to destroy the formation and kill the strange fleshy abomination guarding it.

The fleshy abomination in question being a little stronger than the other creatures he had encountered so far on the nineteenth floor of the tower over the past three days, being somewhere between the Early and Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm with strength that could pose a challenge even to someone in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

But in the end, the difference in strength rendered the struggle of the fleshy abomination useless, as Xuan Hao didn’t give it much of a chance to fight back when he encountered. Not planning to give it a chance to pull out a deadly trump card like the small tree he had encountered in the past had ended up doing.

Because of this, the overall battle itself was rather lackluster and far less challenging compared to the small tree that had at least been allowed some time to struggle in vain.

Although part of Xuan Hao might have wanted to spend a bit more time exploring the blood mist on the nineteenth floor of the tower, he honestly didn’t want to spent any more time on the nineteenth floor of the tower and planned to leave whatever treasures and mysterious he might have missed for the sect elders and disciples who would explore the floor after him in the future. Even if that future was still some way off considering how the general cultivation realm required to explore this floor of the tower was the Celestial Immortal Realm or the Profound Immortal Realm.

Of course, given the difficulty of the floor before the nineteenth, there would still be some who would end up exploring the nineteenth floor before reaching either of those two realms… And for these bold individuals, they would most likely have a difficult time exploring the place considering even the weakest creature he had encountered so far had reached the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm… And though not all of them were aggressive and even passive without being attacked, like the small flower tree, it was a minority.

So far, he had encountered a grand total of 37 creatures on the nineteenth floor of the tower excluding the ones that had been guarding the blood devouring formation. Among them, only three had been passive and didn’t attack unless provoked, while the rest had essentially all attacked on sight despite the difference in strength.

But even this could be his own misunderstanding, as those who hadn’t actively attacked him might not have done so because they were passive and didn’t attack unless provoked, but instead because they had somehow managed to sense the massive difference in strength and therefore didn’t dare attack him.

No matter what it was, it wouldn’t be him who would have to find out, as a few lucky individuals from the sect would be the ones to experience and learn more about this floor in the future.

With that in mind, after a quick glance around the desolate area surrounding the spiral staircase, Xuan Hao didn’t hesitate as he began ascending the staircase to the twentieth floor of the tower. Feeling somewhat curious about whether this twentieth floor would be like the tenth floor. Providing a place for him to relax and meet up with others from the sect.

Ascending to the twentieth floor of the tower, he wasn’t met with just another resting floor similar to the tenth floor but entered another part of the tenth floor that existed above the earlier tenth floor.

Looking around, the place was a large plaza situated in the clouds above the tenth floor with several locations to rest and chat with others who had managed to successfully pass the nineteenth floor of the tower, while looking down at the people below.

Not just that, but he spotted several small shops lined up around the plaza filled with anything from unique artifacts to food and drinks that could be bought for a few ascension coins and enjoyed in one of the scenic locations close to the edge of the cloud plaza. Allowing someone to enjoy the scenic view of the tenth floor from above.

Overall, this extension to the resting area of the ascension realm tower was welcome, but also made him increasingly curious about the existence of more unique locations on the resting floor that were currently unavailable to him.

Going by the logic of a new area unlocked every ten floors, he would have to wait until he reached the thirtieth floor of the tower to find out if there was another section of the resting area hidden from his view.

For now, he decided to first check on the virtual panel that had appeared in front of him after he stepped onto the twentieth floor of the tower or the extension to the original tenth floor. Curious about the shops he had already noticed in the distance.

[Welcome to the Twentieth Floor]

[Current Floor: 20]

[The twentieth floor is a resting floor; no demon beasts or other creatures appear on this floor. The passage to the twenty first floor is open. The twentieth floor is an extension of the tenth floor and exists in the clouds above the tenth floor. Only those who clear the nineteenth floor can ascend above the clouds into the cloud plaza on the twentieth floor, while those able to reach the cloud plaza are able to freely descend to the lower part of the resting area.

Special items can be bought for ascension coins in the cloud plaza that are not available in the shop on the ground floor of the tower. Use this opportunity to buy unique items, rest or find others to team up with, as it will become increasingly difficult to advance alone.]

Indeed… Those shop were something unique to this part of the resting area and looking closely, the things sold there, outside the food and drink, were of decently quality even to someone like himself.

If not for the fact that he was currently in the process of saving up for the ascension secret realm, he might have felt tempted to get one or two of the artifacts for sale. The problem was, though the artifacts there were great, they were expensive and definitely not something he could afford for now.

But in the future, he would undoubtedly be able to get his hands on a few artifacts suitable for his cultivation realm. Avoiding having to fight without any artifacts like he had gotten used to.

After all, even though the silver sword Yi Min had given him was of high quality for its grade, it served as nothing more than a tool to make himself look better when using the Dao of the Sword.

Shaking his head as he thought about this to himself, Xuan Hao soon enough found himself feeling a bit curious about who in the sect had managed to reach the tenth floor of the tower so far. After all, it had been around four days since the tower had opened to the sect’s elders and disciples, so there should be some who had reached the tenth floor. Even if it would take others far longer than him to clear the floors without having mastered the Dao of Space.