Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

The confusion of why the different powers hadn’t ever returned to the ancient secret realm even after the invasions had come to a stop aside, his attention shifted towards the last piece of important information that remained intact within the ancient tower, a large map hung on the very bottom of the ancient tower where the original entrance to the tower should have been located before it had been pushed underground.

Decayed and torn as time had taken its toll, even with the preservation formation still running, a large portion of the map had already been destroyed and turned into a fine powder gathered beneath what remained.

But as luck would have it, the portion that had managed to survive was the very center of the map that not only contained the location of the ancient tower itself but also had the location of the ancient residence belonging to the Li Clan on it.

No… Not just the location of the residence he had been searching for to complete the side quest handed to him by the system, but the entirety of the ancient secret realm could be found on what little remained of the map. Making him even more aware of just how much the ancient secret realm had decayed compared to its peak, as less than a single percent of the map remained intact.

Only reason why he knew about the current size of the ancient secret realm without having explored it nor having had the opportunity to fully utilize his divine sense being because he did have the chance to gauge its size when he first located the ancient secret realm in the void.

”Nothing else of use…” Quietly muttering this to himself as his divine sense swept through the interior of the tower while his gaze shifted away from the ancient map that looked like it would crumble from a single touch, Xuan Hao didn’t linger around any longer than necessary as he took what was useful into his interspatial ring before leaving the ancient tower buried beneath the mud and sand at the bottom of the small lake.

Splash~!

Meeting the confused eyes of a certain hill-sized snapping turtle, who had just decided to jump back into the small lake after having remained motionless on the side of the small lake for a few minutes. Only daring to return to the small lake after making sure that whatever had thrown it out of the small lake was gone.

Splash~ Whoosh~

But contrary to the expected hostile reaction, the snapping turtle demon beast rapidly began retreating upon spotting him.

Even if it couldn’t sense his strength, its intuition remained strong. Screaming to it that the person in front of it was dangerous, causing the rapid retreat and meek behavior that followed.

Good intuition for a Core Formation Realm Demon beast.

Earning a surprised look from Xuan Hao in response before he left. Surprised that the demon beast had been able to sense any danger from him even though his cultivation was hidden.

Splash~ Splash~

As for the demon beast in question, it remained silent for a good half hour after Xuan Hao left before it once again began moving before ultimately settling back on top of its original resting spot. A comfortable expression returning to its face as it returned to the lazy sleeping posture from before it had been thrown out of the small lake.

If Xuan Hao had still been around to see it, he would have realized that the sleeping location of the demon beast wasn’t random, but instead directly on top of the ancient tower. The reason for this being that some of the spiritual qi being drawn up by the formations on the ancient tower from the natural spirit stone mine formed below it, ended up drifting out from different flawed places throughout the ancient formations. Most of which happened to be concentrated towards the top of the ancient tower.

In a way, creating a special kind of cultivation environment on the bottom of the small lake that the snapping turtle demon beast had taken full advantage of over the years to reach its current strength, something that Xuan Hao would have noticed if he had observed the snapping turtle a bit more closely, as instead of following a unique kind of body cultivation path that didn’t rely on spiritual qi like the local inhabitants of the ancient secret realm, the snapping turtle demon beast followed the more traditional path of body strengthening among demon beast using spiritual qi.

Continuing to cultivate like it was doing, there was a true hope of it reaching the Nascent Soul Realm in the future and maybe even the Domain Lord Realm, though the later might not be good to reach inside the ancient secret realm given that there was a good chance that the guardian formation of the ancient secret realm would strike it down.

The future cultivation journey of the snapping turtle demon beast aside, Xuan Hao found himself following the ancient map he had seen at the bottom of the ancient tower. Heading directly towards the location where the residence belonging to the Noble Li Clan was located by using the ancient tower that had been on the map as well as an anchor point for which direction he needed to go alongside a few landmarks like mountains and large bodies of water that didn’t decay or change as easily as other things over the long years since the map had originally been created.

Still, he did run into a few problems, as some places that had originally been home to massive lakes had seemingly turned into fertile valleys for rice cultivation or towering mountains that had been reduced to nothing more than small hills over the years.

Of course, it could also have been the result of some strong cultivator stepping in to change things or ending up destroying them during a battle.

The one landmark that seemed to carry him and ensured that he was moving in the correct direction were the different mountain ranges, as they were far easier to find compared to a single mountain or hill. Erosion and battles had a far harder time changing or erasing them.

Although… Some mountain ranges did seemingly vanish from their original locations, being replaced by a large crater that seemed to form a large circular valley of sorts.

Going by the information on the ancient map, it didn’t take long to realize that the mountain ranges that had all disappeared or vanished mysteriously all housed some kind of sect or smaller subordinate force that had once been part of the ancient secret realm.

The disappearance of their mountain range or destruction of it was almost certainly related to the invasions that had taken place or the survivors of these powers picking up everything to leave once the spatial passages connecting to the ancient secret realm were reconnected.

In the end, as he found himself travelling through the ancient secret realm and compared it against the ancient map he had seen at the bottom of the ancient tower, he realized that traces of the ancient battles that had taken place throughout the ancient secret realm could be found everywhere.

Almost every valley, ravine, lake and even mountain he encountered having formed by the devasting battle that had played out back then.

Looking closer, the scale of the battle itself became far more terrifying, as the canyon stretching on for thousands of kilometers with a large river flowing through it wasn’t just a canyon, but instead a sword strike that had cut through the earth itself. Leaving behind a visible scar in the shape of a massive canyon.

While this did feel him with a sense of awe thinking about the battle that had once taken place throughout the ancient secret realm, it also made him wonder what had happened to the guardian formation of the ancient secret realm.

After all, if the battle had ended up reaching the surface of the ancient secret realm, the guardian formation should have been destroyed in the past, but from what he had personally experienced, the guardian formation was still around.

Not just that, but it had strength that even made someone like himself at the Land Creation Realm dare not fight it head on.

Before entering the ancient secret realm, he might have believed that the guardian formation had somehow recovered over the long years from whatever had happened inside the ancient secret realm in the past by drawing on the resources inside the ancient secret realm, but now that he stood inside the ancient secret realm himself, he understood that this was impossible.

The resources naturally found within the ancient secret realm and the abysmal concentration of spiritual qi that seemed to have been present since the original owners of the ancient secret realm escaped were far from enough to repair this kind of massive guardian formation. Even drawing spiritual qi directly from the void wouldn’t make up for the damage it should have suffered from being breached in the past…