Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Moving through the desert in search of the remaining four demon beasts at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, Xuan Hao didn’t spend more than a few hours before he found another demon beast at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm that luckily wasn’t too different from the lion demon beast from earlier in terms of strength.

However, the third demon beast he ended up encountering was the exact opposite with a spiritual sea larger than his own. If not for the fact that the demon beast had seemingly suffered some kind of injury before he ended up facing off against it, it would undoubtedly have been difficult to deal even with his mastery of the Dao of Space and Dao of the Sword.

Still, even in an injured state, the demon beast was already infinitely close to the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm and with its massive body and robust vitality, it still proved to be a challenge to defeat and ended up taking over a day to kill.

But the thing that stayed with him wasn’t the strength of the demon beast close to the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm, but instead the fact that it had been in an injured state when he encountered it, something that shouldn’t have been possible considering that the demon beasts he had encountered so far throughout the desert didn’t attack each other but would instead peacefully coexist whenever he wasn’t around.

Not to mention, whatever it was that had ended up injuring the third demon beast had managed to do so within the short time of him getting his hands on the heart of the desert, as before that, it would have been close to impossible to do any real damage- or maybe more accurately, anyone who could do any real damage to the demon beasts before their ability to merge with the desert disappeared would be far above the Sea Formation Realm. Potentially even above the Star Creation Realm.

For another demon beast or creature to do that much damage in such a short time to a demon beast that powerful, Xuan Hao knew that the strength of this culprit had very likely reached the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm or at the very least possessed a powerful combat technique like his Void Sword Art.

In either case, it would be a challenging opponent to deal with and if possible, he wanted to find this demon beast or creature. After all, one of the reasons for him entering the tower, outside of the ascension secret realm that he had already managed to gather enough ascension coins for, was to test out his own strength and get real combat experience against someone at his own cultivation realm.

Knowing that it would be difficult to do so outside of the ascension realm tower without potentially going to war with one of the major powers in the Northern Core Region, something the current Star Shattering Sect wasn’t ready for, as the only real major power that stood in the way of future expansion of the Star Shattering Sect was the Blue Sea Empire.

Maybe if it was a weaker major power, he might have been more than happy to allow the sect to start subtly expanding into this major power, but for a powerful major power like the Blue Sea Empire, he had no intention of fighting them. Especially now that they were already busy with the demon cultivators trying to invade their territory.

In this kind of situation, he preferred to sit on the fence and watch from the side. After all, though the Star Shattering Sect would need to expand into the Northern Core Region at some point in time, there was still a lot of territory within the former Sky Empire that was still not under the sect.

So at least for now, the focus of the sect remained on expanding in this territory and a few of the weaker kingdoms and empires that were already falling to demonic cultivators and didn’t have any support from a major power in the Northern Core Region.

The situation of the sect aside, Xuan Hao continued flying through the desert while keeping an eye out for the mysterious demon beast or creature that had injured the third demon beast, but even as he killed the final fifth demon beast at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, there was no sign of this mysterious being. Forcing him to head back to the spiral staircase, as he didn’t exactly intend on lingering around the twenty-fifth floor any longer now that he had officially cleared the tasks that had been assigned to him by the ascension realm tower.

Not just because he wanted to leave this floor of the tower that had held him the longest out of any floor, but also because he wanted to rush down to the ground floor of the tower to get his hands on the ascension secret realm. Solving the problems that came from everyone ascending to the Soul Ascension Realm within the Shattered Star Peaks.

After all, though there was the chaotic qi formation to assist with preventing the aftermath of these tribulations from reaching the main sect on the Seventh Star Peak and anywhere else within the Shattered Star Peaks, the Fourth Star Peak that turned into the location where everyone went through their tribulation was still affected by the constant bombardment of heavenly lightning and other unique tribulations that descended on top of it.

Vegetation that was once far more abundant at its peak had been blasted apart so many times that only the most resilient that had managed to develop some special attributes suitable for survival in that kind of hellish environment managed to survive,

Not to mention the clear crater that had formed around the place most popular amongst the sect elders going there to go through their tribulations.

The only thing that could solve this problem and prevent the Fourth Star Peak that had not yet been given an official purpose outside of temporarily being the place for going through tribulations in the Soul Ascension Realm, from being destroyed by accident.

Tough and resilient as the materials that made up the Star Peaks were, even having reached the point where it to this day was still impossible for Xuan Hao himself to do any real damage to those mountains outside of the superficial exterior that wasn’t that different from that of a normal mountain, the heavenly tribulation carried with them a type of power that transcended the norm. Making it capable of easily shattering the rocks that even someone like Xuan Hao’s would find difficult to even scratch.

Thinking of this as he moved back in the direction of the spiral staircase at a speed that would have left any of the five demon beasts he had just killed in awe, Xuan Hao found himself freezing on the spot just as he was about to take the final step forward that would have ultimately placed him right next to the spiral staircase.

The reason for this wasn’t that he sensed some powerful demon beast guarding the spiral staircase he needed to leave. Instead, it was because he clearly sensed that some kind of formation had been set up to lock down the space around the spiral staircase.

Making it impossible to reach in the short term, as he could clearly sense that the strength of the formation that had been set up reached the Third Heaven of the Saint Realm and had the support of several other equally powerful formations. One of them even being a Saint Grade Concealment Formation that would have made it difficult for him to notice the abnormality around the spiral staircase without having comprehended the Dao of Formations to the Perfection Realm.

”How curious…” Narrowing his eyes at the sight of this rather obvious ambush, Xuan Hao operated his dao domain at full strength while his spiritual sea rapidly manifested above him before merging with his dao domain to create a complete safe zone a thousand meters around himself.

Fully alert and knowing that he was facing an opponent far more intelligent than the demon beasts he had been facing off against so far, Xuan Hao didn’t dare lower his guard as he closely examined his surroundings for any sign of the one behind this little assassination attempt.

Though… He already had a feeling that it should be the same demon beast or creature behind the injury suffered by the third demon beast at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm that he had killed, he still had no idea just how strong this being was. Only knowing from the one injury and the trap now in front of him, that this being possessed a strength beyond that of the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm and a profound understanding of the Dao of Formations that had at least reached the Perfection Realm.

Undoubtedly a troublesome opponent to deal with…