Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Leaving behind the small city ruin that had been occupied by the Domain Lord Realm demon beast without the demon beast even realizing the danger it had been in, Xuan Hao traversed deeper into the small world following the route provided by the small map towards the nearest city to the ruins. Not taking long before finding himself within the ruins of another third-tier city. The main difference this time around being that there wasn’t much left for him to search through, as the city itself had been turned into a giant pit with only a few ruins around the edge of the pit making it clear that this had indeed been the location of a city in the past.

This kind of destruction also made it clear that whoever had destroyed this city was different from the ones that had destroyed the earlier city, as this kind of destruction wasn’t something that could accomplished if the enemy this city had faced was a group of Soul Ascension Realm cultivators or demon beasts. Especially with the guardian formation that should once have guarded this city.

If he wasn’t wrong, the one who left behind this pit in the ground should have been someone at the Dao Seed Realm. Showing that the so-called inner wilderness was indeed deadlier than the outer wilderness that he had found himself in not long ago.

Of course, though it was more dangerous, it hadn’t yet reached the point where it was enough for someone like himself to take things more seriously, as the strongest demon beast within the coverage of his divine sense had only reached the Soul Ascension Realm. Not exactly strong enough for him to care about.

Still, as he continued following the ancient map and visited one city after another, he soon realized that finding a city anywhere near as intact as the one he had first encountered was far more difficult than he had originally thought.

Be it the third-tier cities of the second-tier cities. Every single one of them had been so thoroughly destroyed that there was nothing for him to get by searching through them outside of a sense of increasing unease in the face of the ones behind the destruction of these cities that had once been spread throughout the inner wilderness.

The main reason being that compared to the third-tier cities, the second-tier cities weren’t weak by any means, and the remnants of their guardian formations alone made it clear that the power they could resist was already at the Profound Immortal Realm.

Maybe pitying his unlucky streak of only encountering a few ruins at the edges of these old cities that had barely survived the aftermath of the battle that had destroyed them, as he reached the last second-tier city on the ancient map that had been recorded, he not only found the city to be in a far more intact state compared to any of the other cities, but it was also clear that the place had been evacuated before it could fall. A stark difference compared to any of the other cities he had run into so far, as it was almost clear that these cities had all fallen almost immediately after they were attacked.

As for why this second-tier city had survived while others did not? It didn’t take long to find the reason, as the guardian formation for this city was far stronger than the others.

If the other guardian formation could fend off someone at the Breaking Dawn Realm of the Profound Immortal Realm or the Early to Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, the formation guarding this city was strong enough to contend with someone at the Sea Formation Realm or the Late to Peak Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm. A difference in power that had given the inhabitants of the city enough time to react and muster up an escape that had then carried the battle far into the distance where battle scars of the retreat were still clearly visible. Giving him a path to follow even if he didn’t find any map inside the somewhat intact city.

”Hmph? How curious... No map, but there is something like this hidden in here?” And as he effortlessly dismantled what remained of the defensive formation and descended into the very heart of the second-tier city, he couldn’t help complaining a bit to himself as his divine sense swept through the manor at the very heart of the city.

The fact that the map had disappeared wasn’t too odd given how the lord of the city might have taken it when escaping, but what had truly taken him aback was the fact that within the depths of this city, he actually found an earthly treasure planted in the garden of the manor at the heart of the city.

The presence of this earthly treasure having been concealed entirely by the guardian formation that had remained active since the fall of the city. Not alerting any of the surrounding demon beasts, whose strength had already reached the Dao Seed Realm.

As for the earthly treasure being discovered by accident by these local demon beasts? That was pretty much impossible, as while the defensive formation had been significantly weakened and was in a state of disrepair, it still wasn’t something a demon beast at the Dao Seed Realm could go up against.

If anything, the few dead demon beast bones around the city made it clear that a few demon beasts had indeed attempted to break through the formation in the past only to end up dead, something that had undoubtedly caused the surrounding demon beasts to avoid this city out of fear learning from the example of these predecessors.

Still, it was deeply confusing to him why the escaping city lord hadn’t taken this earthly treasure when escaping but had somehow decided to take the map along when escaping. The only reason he could think of was that this earthly treasure hadn’t yet transformed into an earthly treasure and simply hadn’t been registered by the escaping city lord as being important enough for him to pick up and escape with during the chaos.

And while the earthly treasure itself could be considered one of the lowest ones in terms of quality he had encountered so far, it was ultimately still an earthly treasure that from what he could tell was aligned with the Dao of Earth and he had no plans of simply ignoring it. Happily grabbing it before placing it inside one of his interspatial rings before doing a quick sweep through the rest of the city to see if there was anything else of value that had been left behind during the escape.

Surprisingly, outside of the earthly treasure, he also found a few other cultivation resources and spirit stones scattered throughout the city that he wasted no time stuffing into his interspatial ring before he thoroughly swept up anything of value and left the city to follow the path of escape that the inhabitants of the city had once taken in the past.

Luckily for him, given the terrifying strength of both the attacker and the city lord’s side being firmly within the Profound Immortal Realm with a least a dozen such figures participating in the battle, it wasn’t exactly difficult for him to follow the traces that had been left behind during the rapid retreat, as the destruction caused by beings of this level alerted the very environment around them with a mere raise of their hand, let alone when engaged in a deadly escape where one didn’t have the mind to care about the destruction caused during the escape.

However, one thing that became clear from the battle scars was the fact that the retreating side was under increasing pressure during the retreat, as new enemies kept showing up to cut off their retreat.

Still, from the battle, it also became clear that this city lord was far from an ordinary figure, as the city lord shouldn’t just have reached the Sea Formation Realm, but should have been someone at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm.

But faced with an overwhelming number of enemies, the fate of this city lord also became clear- or that was at least what he had wanted to say before he noticed a very clear shift in the battle scars he had been following.

”So... The city lord somehow forcefully broke through to the Land Creation Realm in the middle of the desperate escape...” Sensing the very clear change in the battle scars that had been left behind, as it became clear to him that the city lord had somehow managed to forcibly break through to the Land Creation Realm in the middle of battle.

This kind of breakthrough, while possible, would inevitably lead to an incredibly unstable foundation that could collapse at any time. The only reason why this city lord had even survived this kind of reckless breakthrough from what he could see had to do with him not just reaching the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, but also him relying on the assistance of something unknown to forcibly stabilize the landmass within his dantian.

Be it a special artifact, a heavenly or earthly treasure or maybe something completely different, he had no idea, but what he could tell was that this city lord who had been struggling for life and death amidst the siege of countless enemies had been able to rely on this increase in strength to break through the deadly predicament and successfully carve out an escape path.