Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having made sure that there wouldn’t be any problems with Li Feng and having gained an understanding on how he and the rest had been able to make so much progress in the body refining path within such a short time, Xuan Hao shifted his attention towards the next location of interest within the ancient secret realm that might hide the ancient residence of the Noble Li Clan, the Dread Woods.

Different from the Death Marsh, known for its poisonous insects, demon beasts and miasma, the Dread Woods could be considered far safer in the eyes of the inhabitants of the ancient secret realm and even descriptions of the most dangerous part of the Dread Woods could be found within the ancient records he had looked through.

The reason for his interest in the Dread Woods wasn’t just because it was considered a dangerous location, but because those descriptions on the deepest part of the Dread Woods mentioned ancient ruins. Making it clear that something should have once existed within that place that might be the residence he was looking for.

After all, though the place had been visited in the past, he doubted an ancient cultivation clan’s residence was easy to access.

Feeling a sense of renewed hope that he would be able to find what he was looking for as he thought about the records of the ruins within the depths of the Dread Woods, Xuan Hao soon enough found himself arriving at the edge of the place in question. Showing no hesitation as he dived straight into the monotone forest made up of strange grey looking tree that would normally make anyone hesitate recklessly exploring.

Not taking long before he encountered the spiritual entities or ghosts as the locals referred to them as, that roamed the Dread Woods and made it as dangerous as it was.

Unfortunately for these spiritual entities, they couldn’t attack anything but the soul and while dreadful to others, a few spiritual entities ranging between the Qi Condensation Realm and the Core Formation Realm didn’t exactly have the ability to shake nor damage the soul of someone at the Land Creation Realm.

On the other hand, the second they attempted to attack him, they would be faced with a backlash from his soul. Instantly erasing the small ghosts from existence without him even needing to do anything in the process as he continued making his way deeper into the boring grey forest.

Although, different from the Death Marsh, he encountered a fair few numbers of body cultivators along the way, as it seemed like these local body cultivators were making use of the dread woods to strengthen their soul by enduring the attacks of the local ghost.

Unique as this method of being beaten up to grow stronger was, it didn’t come without risks, as once one engaged in a battle with one of the unique little spiritual entities from the Dread Woods, it was impossible to stop.

Something that had also resulted in the overall strength of the body cultivators that he encountered to be towards the higher end. Generally, it ranged between the Martial Arts Master Realm and the Martial Arts Grandmaster Realm in the outer section of the forest, while the inner section closer to the core even had figures at the Martial Lord Realm.

The sheer quantity of powerful body cultivators within the Dread Woods exceeding that of the ones within the capital city he had visited. Making it clear that there should still be other major powers of similar strength and possible even beyond it within the ancient secret realm.

The reason why he thought there existed powers beyond the level of the dynasty he had visited being because he found two individuals at the Martial King Realm in the very depths of the forest close to the location of the ruins.

Compared to traditional immortal cultivation, the strength of these two individuals was around the Middle Stage of the Core Formation Realm, with one of them even looking like he was about to reach the Late Stage of the Core Formation Realm in terms of strength.

Impressive as this level of strength was within the ancient secret realm, he didn’t have much interest in interacting with those two people, as it also seemed like they themselves were busy dealing with powerful spiritual entities on their own. Clearly making use of the opportunity to strengthen their souls in preparation for reaching the Martial Emperor Realm in the future.

Even if they did possess martial will that was somewhat similar to divine sense when it came to sensing one’s surroundings, they had no way to sense him as he slipped past and reached the very depths of the grey forest.

So… Are these the ruins that were mentioned in those ancient texts? A bit… Disappointing…

But as he laid eyes on the ruins that had been described as once belonging to heavenly palaces that had fallen to the mortal world in those ancient texts, he couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed as the ruins themselves didn’t exactly live up to the standards that had been set by those ancient texts.

Still, though the ruins didn’t live up to the sky-high expectations, it was somewhat expected as a bit of embellishment was understandable from the one who had written those ancient texts and visited the deepest part of the Dread Woods. After all, just to reach this part of the Dread Woods, one would at least need to have reached the Martial King Realm.

Without that kind of strength, the spiritual entities that roamed the place would devour your soul.

Speaking of which… Those spiritual entities were still around, but they had certain degree of intelligence compared to those at the outer section of the Dread Woods and kept a clear distance from him. Not daring to attack like other spiritual entities had.

Shaking his head a bit as he watched those small ghostly entities shivering fearfully in the distance, Xuan Hao could not help chuckling a bit as his attention shifted to the disappointing ruins.

After all, though he was disappointed with the scale of the ruins, they were by no means ordinary as his initial reaction might have suggested. Instead, it was clear to him from a glance that the ruins weren’t something that the locals of the ancient secret realm would be capable of creating.

Not just because the material used was a special kind of spiritual stone that even his sect didn’t dare to use for construction, but also because a few remnant formation symbols were still flickering on those spiritual stones. Invisible to the naked eye and anyone without a strong enough divine sense.

From these formation symbols, he could gauge that the formation they should have once connected to far surpassed anything he himself could construct with his current comprehension of the Dao of Formations. Making it even more obvious that this wasn’t something that the locals could create, while also making him increasingly hopeful that this was the place he had been searching for.

Unfortunately, as he continued wandering around the place looking for anything that might serve as a hidden entrance or potentially a clue that could lead him to the residence of the Noble Li Clan, he found nothing. Only confirming that the ruins weren’t from the ancient residence of the Noble Li Clan because his quest remained incomplete.

Even worse, outside of the ancient formation symbols that had given him some hope about learning more, he didn’t find anything else of value.

Understandable as it was considering that the place had been explored by others in the past and the two just outside had undoubtedly also visited the ancient ruins in the past, he was still disappointed to find nothing even after encountering ruins that so clearly didn’t belong to the current era of the ancient secret realm.

But he felt a bit unwilling to leave empty handed, so, his attention shifted towards the two figures outside at the Martial King Realm.

Considering their strength, they should have a powerful force behind them and given how they had reached the Martial King Realm, that force might possess far more information on the ancient secret realm compared to the dynasty he had visited in the past. Maybe even having some information about what had happened to the people who had ended up escaping from the ancient secret realm.

And more than that, information on the potential location where the beings belonging to the Dao of Corruption had been sealed within the ancient secret realm, as he had a feeling that the place in question would also be the place where the ancient residence of the Noble Li Clan was located.

Of course, he could always search on his own through the ancient secret realm, but that would just be wasting time when he had these two figures around who could help him deal with the situation without him having to do any work beyond asking them.

As for them not cooperating? With his strength, he didn’t worry about any of that…