Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Entering the tower beneath the lake that had remained relatively intact thanks to the surviving formations preserving it, he soon enough found a few books and simple records scattered throughout the place. Ranging anywhere from a few historically significant events that had taken place within the ancient secret realm, to techniques specifically for those following the path of body cultivation. Most of which seemed to have been written in the ancient post collapse language that later developed into the language currently used throughout the Ewaria Continent.

Although this would have been troublesome under normal circumstances, he had dedicated some time to researching and learning this ancient language over the years and could generally understand it by now. The one thing that did still elude him being the ancient language before the collapse, as it was far more complicated and difficult to comprehend compared to the post collapse ancient language.

In a way, he would have to learn the post collapse ancient language before he could even begin trying to gain a better understanding of the ancient language that had been dominant before the collapse of the ancient divine continent.

That aside, as he could read most of the texts that had been preserved within the ancient tower, he managed to gain a lot of useful information not just on the ancient secret realm itself, but also the path of body cultivation.

The most valuable out of everything he obtained being a body refining method that led all the way to the World Bearing Saint Realm, a cultivation realm that he could tell from a glance was comparable to the Profound Immortal Realm. Meaning that the Star Shattering Sect would be more than capable of introducing the body refining path to the disciples and could allow them to walk this path in the future.

With a way to reach a realm comparable to the Profound Immortal Realm, it was more than enough to ensure that the disciples of the sect wouldn’t end up wasting their talents following a dead path. After all, the traditional immortal cultivation path of the sect also stopped at the Profound Immortal Realm, with no clear path leading to the Venerable Realm that came after the Profound Immortal Realm.

Even if this could be considered a flaw in the current inheritance of the sect, Xuan Hao didn’t worry too much about it given the overall strength of the sect elders and disciples was nowhere near reaching the Peak of the Profound Immortal Realm where an inheritance on how to reach the Venerable Realm would be needed. Not to mention, he felt confident that he himself would be able to reach the Venerable Realm far before such a need arose within the sect. Allowing him to create a path for others to follow.

As for finding an inheritance beyond the Profound Immortal Realm or rather World Bearing Saint Realm in the future… That could be left up to whoever ended up becoming the first within the sect to reach the World Bearing Saint Realm in the future.

All things considered, he managed to gain far more than he had expected from the ancient tower, as among the bits of information contained within the ancient tower, he did find some texts about the invasion that had taken place and ultimately reduced the ancient secret realm to its current state. Learning that the invasion was indeed related to some kind of force utilizing the Dao of Corruption, but at the same time also that the invasion that had ultimately ended up forcing the people living within the ancient secret realm to flee through the heavenly gates later wasn’t the first such invasion.

In fact, the ancient secret realm had faced over a dozen similar invasions in the past, dating back to the pre collapse era, when the ancient secret realm had served as a core realm under the Li Clan, whose strength far surpassed any power on the current Ewaria Continent, as it had several figures at the Venerable Realm.

Even then, the Li Clan itself was only considered part of a much larger power that was only ever referred to as some kind of divine empire that carried a status equal to that of a Holy Land. Giving him a glimpse into just how powerful a holy land might have been, as it became clearer than ever that Holy Lord level figures existed in a realm beyond the Venerable Realm.

Unfortunately, the intact historical records he could decipher didn’t contain any information on the realm or realms beyond the Venerable Realm and didn’t touch upon the Venerable Realm either. Only ever using it as title in a respectful manner when mentioning certain senior figures within the Li Clan or the divine empire.

Not just information on the Venerable Realm, but most of the information was about the ancient secret realm and past invasion from beings corrupted by the Dao of Corruption that the inhabitants had to face off against under the leadership of a core branch of the Li Clan.

According to the detailed records on the invasion attempts of the ancient secret realm. At first, it had been simple enough to hold out against the invasions, as the guardian formation of the ancient secret realm took on the first seven invasions without any need for assistance, but after the seventh, the collapse of the divine continent took place and the ancient secret realm found itself cut off from the outside world facing an invasion that couldn’t be held back with the guardian formation alone. Forcing the Li Clan Branch within the ancient secret realm to step up and take charge in fending off the invaders.

Following this, the invasion became deadlier and began happening on far shorter intervals, giving the inhabitants of the ancient secret realm little time to prepare. Starting out, it happened once every ten thousand years before ultimately happening once every hundred years by the last recorded invasion within the ancient tower.

Originally, this kind of terrifying attack happening again and again would have been enough to break the ancient secret realm, but during one of the earlier invasions after the ancient secret realm had been cut off from the outside world, the head of the Li Clan Branch who was originally at the Pinnacle of the World Bearing Saint Realm broke through and reached a realm comparable to the Venerable Realm. Ensuring the continued existence of the ancient secret realm.

Still… With invasion never stopping and happening with increasing frequency, though the branch head was powerful, he couldn’t stop the slow decline of the ancient secret realm, as the once vast realm shrunk with each invasion.

By the end of the records that existed within the ancient tower, there was a clear sense of despair at the situation that they were facing, as the originally vast ancient secret realm that had once been a core part of the Li Clan, had shrunk to less than a thousand times its original size.

Although there was no information on the heavenly gates that should have appeared after the ancient tower had been forced underground during one of the countless invasions attempts of the ancient secret realm, some information within the records did point towards where these heavenly gates might have come from.

Originally, the ancient secret realm was a central part of the Li Clan and connected to countless other small secret realms alongside other locations on the divine continent under the Li Clan and could be considered an important hub for resources harvested and created across within these smaller realms and unique resource locations to gather before being moved to the central branch of the Li Clan.

The countless heavenly gates that had appeared should have been those countless sealed passages leading to the bases under the Li Clan reopening again. Allowing the inhabitants who had been trapped within the ancient secret realm to leave and escape back to the divine continent that by that point had been shattered.

One thing that did seem odd was the fact that he had no real clue why the Li Clan and other subordinate forces remaining within the ancient secret realm would leave in what clearly seemed to have been hurry, but nothing devastating had ended up taking place within the ancient secret realm over the years. Even the seemingly endless invasions had come to a stop following the disappearance of the Li Clan and the forces under them. Making their fast escape from the ancient secret realm and reluctance to return even more confusing.

After all, he had already confirmed himself that it wasn’t too difficult to charter a path to the secret realm with the spatial coordinates in hand.

Not to mention, there were still formation discs around capable of creating passages leading back to the ancient secret realm. Allowing even someone without any comprehension of the Dao of Space to make their way to the ancient secret realm… And he doubted that the ones who had left the ancient secret realm in the past didn’t have any such formation discs on hand. After all, even a small part of the Li Clan branch that had ended up in the outer regions of the Ewaria Continent had one.