Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Stepping onto the immortal ascension staircase, the older woman first moved at a brisk and confident pace before slowing down once she crossed the hundredth step. Continuing forward with an increasingly pained expression that soon enough developed into one of fear as she came to a complete halt just before the two hundredth step. Unable to take a single step forward as she remained in place with a fearful expression on her face staring into what seemed to be empty air.

Of course, though it seemed like there was nothing before her at the moment, he guessed she might be experiencing some kind of illusion tribulation or trial imposed on her by the immortal ascension staircase and only pushing through and conquering the illusion would she be able to proceed upwards and ultimately ascend to the immortal realm.

Although… Looking at her current state, he doubted she would be able to succeed. Not just because she had already come to a stop, but also because he could clearly sense her state deteriorating from afar, her once vast spiritual qi and powerful strength rapidly seeping away shortly after she had come to a stop on the staircase. A warning for himself that one couldn’t stop walking upwards once one stepped onto the immortal ascension staircase, as that would only result in one’s strength being sapped away by the staircase until one turned into an empty husk without any cultivation and lifespan.

The best one could hope for in that kind of state was a short moment of clarity before passing away and turning to dust.

But given the fact he understood something like this just from a casual observation of someone challenging the immortal ascension staircase, the older woman who was a local that had long since prepared for the immortal ascension staircase would of course understand this as well… And so, after remaining in place in front of the two hundredth step for a few minutes, she forced herself to go beyond her own limits and crossed the threshold.

Unfortunately, though she had reached the two hundredth step, there were tens of thousands of steps to the top of the immortal ascension staircase, so she still had a long way to go if she wanted to successfully ascend to the immortal realm.

However, even knowing this, the older woman continued pushing forward even as her body protested under an unknown pressure that only she could sense and feel. Forcing herself upwards from the two hundredth step that Xuan Hao and the rest of the people who watched her challenge thought would be her end, all the way to the middle of the immortal ascension staircase. Finding herself on the 5837 step out of a grand total of 11.674 steps after a little over four hours.

Exceeding all expectations, Xuan Hao’s included, as she drew a far larger crowd, the second she had officially crossed over a thousand steps. Not because of word of mouth, but instead because she had become visible from afar at that height. Making it impossible for people to miss her whenever they looked in the direction of the immortal ascension staircase.

Turning what should originally have been a warmup period before those with a good chance to ascend the immortal ascension staircase arrived for the ascension ceremony into the main event.

After all, someone capable of reaching the halfway point. No matter what their cultivation realm was, they had a very real chance of successfully ascending to the immortal realm.

Xuan Hao also felt a sense of anticipation watching the older woman as she continued upwards despite the clear pain, she was in. hoping that she would be able to successfully ascend to the immortal realm, as it might give him a chance to peek into said immortal realm when she ascended.

Feeling confident that he would be able to rely on his comprehension in the Dao of Space to pick up any kind of spatial anomaly that might take place when she reached the point for ascending to the immortal realm and use it to peek at where she ended up.

But for any of that to be possible, she had to successfully ascend to the immortal realm… And while he had originally doubted her only to gain some hope after she crossed the halfway point, it became increasingly clear as she forced herself forward that she was about to reach her limit.

Thud~

And in the end, she had barely crossed the eighth thousandth step before her legs gave in and she collapsed from exhaustion, her powerful cultivation and vitality rapidly draining away before her body was seemingly assimilated by the immortal ascension staircase. Leaving behind not a single trace of her having ever existed in the first place. Leaving the place where she had collapsed spotless like she hadn’t just died there a second earlier.

Disappointing as this was to him, he also understood that it was expected. After all, it was rare for even a single person to ascend within a period of ten thousand years, the fact that this older woman only at the Breaking Dawn Realm had managed to make it so far in the first place was an amazing achievement on its own.

Outside of his disappointment and that of the crowd of spectators, he also very clearly noticed the look of relief on the faces of the people from the different established major powers gathered around to watch the spectacle. Understanding from a glance that these people truly didn’t want to see the emergence of another major power, as that would mean the already limited resources of the small world would be divided even further.

Normal cultivation resources might not mean much, but the earthly and heavenly treasures from the desolate world was directly tied to their continued growth and their own chances of making it up the immortal ascension staircase when their lifespan approached the limit, something none of them wanted to give up on if possible as no one wanted to slow down their own cultivation speed and strength accumulation.