Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Pondering over how he would even reactivate and reestablish those ancient spatial passages and give the locals of the ancient secret realm a way out of the dead end they unknowingly found themselves facing, Xuan Hao found himself staring into the spatial storm growing in the distance. Trying to use the chaotic spatial forces swirling around inside the storm to gain some understanding of how a spatial passage was able to safely pass through that kind of chaotic environment.

After all, though those ancient spatial passages were far more impressive than any spatial passage he had ever constructed, the strength behind them wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to forcibly go through a spatial storm like the one that engulfed the ancient secret realm.

If anything, the strength of those ancient spatial passages was weak to the point where even someone at the Domain Lord Realm would be capable of breaking them apart from the inside.

For them to remain stable for some time while moving through something as chaotic and deadly as a spatial storm implied that there was some unknown principle or law related to the Dao of Space surrounding and protecting those spatial passages that he himself didn’t understand.

But…

As his entire attention shifted towards the Dao of Space, he didn’t even manage to sense the existence of whatever it was that guarded those ancient spatial passages. Making it clear to him that whatever it was guarding those ancient spatial passages, it existed in a realm that he couldn’t touch with his current comprehension of the Dao of Space still at the Perfection Realm.

Maybe only if he managed to reach the Origin Realm in the Dao of Space would he be able to understand what it was that allowed those ancient spatial passages to safely hold up within the spatial storm with little to no power behind them, but before that, he could only reluctantly shift his attention back towards deepening his understanding of the Dao of Space while also splitting up part of his attention to comprehend the Dao of Formations.

Although he had already decided to inform the locals of the ancient secret realm about the current state of the secret realm and its fate over the next few hundred years, he wasn’t in a hurry to do so, as there was still a long time left until the battle between the guardian formation and the spatial storm began affecting the rest of the ancient secret realm.

Not because the scale of the battle was small by any means, but instead because the location of the holy lake itself was one of the most remote locations within the ancient secret realm, with only the locals who had gathered to live around the holy lake anywhere near the place- or in other words, they were the only ones affected by the current deadly battle between the spatial storm and the guardian formation of the ancient secret realm.

For this reason, his priority at the moment wasn’t the evacuation of the ancient secret realm, but instead on how to make full use of the opportunity to deepen his own understanding of the Dao of Space and the Dao of Formations before the battle inevitably reached a point where it would be impossible for anyone to get near and observing from a distance using divine sense became just as difficult.

In fact, the battle had already grown to the point where the older lady who had just broken through to the Core Formation Realm was no longer able to observe the terrifying battle with her divine sense, as it was torn apart by the chaotic aftershocks of the two terrifying forces clashing with each other.

In the future, it would also reach a point where his divine sense would get crushed by the aftershocks as the guardian formation inevitably found itself unable to fully restrain the spatial storm, something understandable, as the two forces clashing with each other had surpassed the Profound Immortal Realm from what little he could see and sense. The only reason why observing the battle was even possible in the first place was thanks to the guardian formation, isolating the aftershocks and trying its best to stop any power from the spatial storm from leaking into the ancient secret realm and destroying any divine sense lingering around the expanding battlefield.

Rumble~

But just as things seemed to have entered a relative peaceful state if one looked away from the expanding spatial storm, a loud rumbling sound suddenly echoed out from all corners of the ancient secret realm, as the earth split apart into several large ravines, some cutting directly through large cities and others through towering mountain ranges.

Terrifying on its own, Xuan Hao, who had also dedicated part of his divine sense to keeping an eye on the overall situation of the entirety of the ancient secret realm realized that this was not just some simple aftershocks from the battle in front of him. Instead, it was the secret realm itself starting to buckle and break apart.

Why this was happening, he had no clue, as the battle between the spatial storm and the guardian formation shouldn’t have that kind of effect on the secret realm itself- or at least not yet, as the scale of the battle was still far too limited to affect the entire secret realm.

Instead, it had to be something different, something he hadn’t been able to see when his divine sense had swept through the ancient secret realm earlier and still couldn’t find even as his divine sense actively monitored the entire ancient secret realm.

Wait… Maybe it has something to do with the dark space that the Noble Li Clan Residence was located inside of alongside the formation core and the formation spirit?

Narrowing his eyes as this thought emerged, Xuan Hao suddenly came to the awful realization that there was a very good chance that the guardian formation wasn’t just fighting the one battle in front of him, but was instead also locked in a far more important battle around the dark space whose true location should be somewhere below the surface of the secret realm close to the very heart of the secret realm itself…

RUUUMBLE-! CRAAACK-!

And with an even louder rumbling sound followed by part of the ancient secret realm directly breaking off the edge before disappearing into the void, he essentially confirmed this thought.

Screw the hundreds of years left before the collapse of the ancient secret realm, if things worked out well in his favor, he might be lucky to have a day or two before the entire secret realm broke apart and was swallowed up by the spatial storm waiting just outside the second the protection of the guardian formation disappeared.

For this reason alone, his originally relaxed demeanor shifted into one of utmost seriousness as he directly utilized his divine sense to anchor the different ancient spatial passages still connected to the ancient secret realm to the ground in the shape of massive swirling vortexes of darkness before sending out a simple message to the living beings throughout the ancient secret realm.

The message in question essentially being an imprinted image of the chaotic battle playing out in front of him, as from the view of the inhabitants, it would undoubtedly look like their very world was slowly being devoured by the spatial storm. Not that it was wrong, so to say, just that the thing destroying their world wasn’t the battle he presented, but instead something below their feet.

Still, this should in his opinion be more than enough to convince the local inhabitants of the ancient secret realm about the danger and get them moving before it was too late… And of course, to ensure they didn’t escape in some random direction, he also ensured that the location of the different spatial passages and how long they would be around, was forcibly imprinted in their minds.

Of course, there would always be people who didn’t listen and decided to not take this warning seriously, but with the world around them so clearly breaking apart, it was the minority who decided to ignore the warning.

Although he did have a feeling that one of the main reasons why so many people were so eager to pass through the ancient spiritual passages had to do with the history of the ancient secret realm itself and the fact that gates descending from the heavens leading to what most perceived as a higher realm was a well-known legend and one many believed, as evidence of this having happened was scattered throughout the ancient secret realm itself.

In fact, the most eager to take the chance of leaving the ancient secret realm were the stronger cultivators, who would give anything for a better cultivation environment than the ancient secret realm. After all, they were the most affected by the bad cultivation environment of the ancient secret realm.

As for the potential danger on the other side of these spatial passages? Xuan Hao decided to not say anything, as he understood inviting unnecessary fear into the mix about what one would encounter on the other side of the spatial passage would only lead to more people perishing alongside the ancient secret realm.