Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having managed to successfully escape the five Sea Formation Realm demon beast that his battle with the demon beast at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm ultimately ended up attracting after the battle dragged on for a little over an hour, Xuan Hao could not help reflecting on the battle.

From start to finish, he hadn’t held anything back and should have been able to easily overcome the demon beast, but things didn’t go as planned, as the demon beast proved to be far more difficult to kill than he had originally anticipated. Able to somehow draw on a unique power from the desert that made up the twenty fifth floor. Partially merging itself with the desert in the process, something that essentially made the demon beast immortal.

Even then, he hadn’t given up and continued his battle trying to look for a weakness until the battle ended up attracting other demon beasts, something that had inevitably forced him on the run.

Overall, the battle itself might not have allowed him to make any progress towards completing the task he had been given after stepping onto the twenty fifth floor, but it gave him a wealth of new combat experience when it came to fighting a seemingly immortal demon beast that didn’t care the slightest bit about any injuries it received as it focused everything on attacking.

Speaking of the task he had received when first stepping onto the twenty fifth floor of the tower, Xuan Hao used one of the functions granted by the ascension realm tower to call forth a simple virtual panel that could be used to check the progress of one’s task.

[Current Floor: 25]

[Task 1: Kill 5 Late Stage Sea Formation Realm Demon Beasts]

[Progress: 0/5]

[Task 2: Find the Heart of the Desert]

[Progress: 0/1]

[Reward: 1.000.000 Ascension Coin, The Passage to the Twenty Sixth Floor reveals itself]

Looking through the tasks, he needed to complete before he could move on to the next floor of the tower, Xuan Hao could not help quietly letting out a somewhat depressed sigh.

Originally, he had believed that the most difficult part of the tasks given would be finding the heart of the desert, but now that he had faced a demon beast in the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, he realized that the demon beast on this floor were simply impossible to kill without finding a way to prevent them from partially merging together with the desert that made up the twenty fifth floor of the tower.

After all, though he had only seriously clashed with one demon beast at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, he had realized during his escape that the rest of the demon beasts chasing him could also partially merge with the desert. Meaning that even a demon beast barely at the Early Stage of the Sea Formation Realm would be impossible for him to kill without finding a way to stop them from borrowing the power of the desert to become immortal.

And the only real way he could think of was the heart of the desert he had to find.

Well… It wasn’t exactly the only way to deal with this immortality of the demon beasts. If he was powerful enough, he would have been able to brute force his way through the situation by destroying the entire desert.

When the desert itself was gone, there would be nowhere for these demon beasts to borrow power and become immortal. Solving the issue of their immortality.

The problem with this was of course that he was nowhere strong enough to do something like that, as the sheer size of the desert that made up the twenty fifth floor of the tower was potentially comparable to a quarter of the territory of a major power like the Blue Sea Empire. Maybe even larger than that, as he had not yet found out where the edge of the twenty fifth floor was located.

Leaving him with finding the heart of the desert as his only option for now. At least, different from the nineteenth floor of the tower where his divine sense and ability to use the Dao of Space had been somewhat restricted by the blood mist, he wasn’t limited in any way on the twenty fifth floor. Allowing him to search through large chunks of the desert in a short time with his divine sense.

Accidentally disturbing any demon beasts along the way with his divine sense wasn’t really a problem either, as he would use the Dao of Space to leave before those monsters even had the chance to realize what had happened.

Though he might not be able to fight them while they were able to partially merge with the desert, they weren’t able to do much to him either. So, with that, Xuan Hao began what would be several rather boring weeks of journeying through a vast, mostly empty desert. The dull search for the heart of the desert only being broken by the occasional demon beast encounter or even rarer find of a special spiritual herb.

…

”I can’t take it anymore! Those slimes are relentless!”

”You don’t say… I have been stuck on that floor for weeks already. Unable to advance. Always finding myself beaten to death by one of those damnable slimes…”

”True! I barely took a step off the stairs before some random yellow slime popped up behind me and knocked me into a group of slimes in all kinds of colors. Last thing I saw were those damnable bouncing blobs triumphant jumping on top my body before finding myself back at the ground floor.”

”Same here… That yellow slime seems to have started waiting around for me as well. The second I step off the stairs, it’s there. Waiting to throw me to my death…”

At the same time Xuan Hao was in the process of searching through the desert on the twenty fifth floor. Back on the tenth floor or the lower section of the resting area, a group of sect elders between the First and Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm had gathered to complain about the twelfth floor of the tower- or more specifically the slimes that were proving to be extremely challenging to overcome.

”Maybe we should ask Elder Song if he could get Senior Xuan to change the demon beasts on the twelfth floor?” In the end, one of them could not help suggesting to go ask Elder Song for help in having Xuan Hao replace the monster on the twelfth floor, or at the very least make them a bit easier and more reasonable to deal with.

”Don’t bother, Elder Song is still busy with the sudden lack of sect mission from the over enthusiastic disciples who ended up wasting their one free attempt to enter the ascension realm tower. Unlike us who are taking full advantage of it to stay as long as possible.” But not a second later, another shot the suggestion down, while also complaining about the younger disciples not cherishing the free opportunity that had been given to them.

”I think you are forgetting that most of them still need to eat and can’t just rely of the ambient qi between heaven and earth to survive like us…” A sentiment that was quickly shot down in a similar manner, as another decided to chime in. Reminding his friend that the younger disciples hadn’t yet reached a cultivation realm that allowed them to function without eating or ample rest.

”Well… They could always prepare something to eat in their interspatial rings before entering the-”

”Most of them are either in the Qi Condensation Realm or Foundation Establishment Realm, where would they get the contribution points or spirit stones to afford an interspatial ring?”

”That…”

As the conversation came to an end with the one complaining ultimately throwing in the towel, the group continued quietly sipping their tea while still grumbling internally about the slimes that had caused them to feel so depressed.

”Oh? Isn’t that Senior Xuan’s disciple? What was her name… Mui?” However, just at this moment, one of the depressed elders noticed Mui walking past them in the direction of a small pavilion next to theirs, causing the others to look up from their tea towards Mui, who was walking alongside Song Jia.

”Haha, that twelfth floor was easy! I never imagined you would come up with such a unique artifact. Able to instantly pierce the cores of those slimes!”

”They were rather weak and all I really needed to do was hit that core of theirs and they died. The impressive one is you, without your help, I wouldn’t have been able to make something to get us through those tribulations at the end.”

”Hehe~ No need to praise me, without you, I would have never been able to reach the thirteenth floor with my current strength.”

”””…”””

Listening to the conversation of the two young women walking past them, the strongest among them still in the Domain Lord Realm, while the weaker one was in the Nascent Soul Realm, the group of elders who had just been complaining about the slimes on the twelfth floor of the tower could not help freezing on the spot-

Swish-! Swish-! Swish-!

And without the slightest bit of hesitation, the group of five rushed off their seats in the direction of the spiral staircase in the distance. Startling both Mui and Song Jia in the process, who had no idea what these elders were up to. Rushing out so suddenly that both almost ended up being toppled over when they flew past them.