Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Leaving behind the devil forest without bothering the cultivators from the cultivator alliance who were busy clashing with the demon beasts from the devil forest, it didn’t take long before Xuan Hao found himself at the center of the small world where the four major regions that made up the small world intersected. An area that was unsurprisingly a desolate wasteland, as it had been the center of the war that had played out a few hundred years earlier with only what looked like the ruins of a once massive city remaining scattered throughout the desolate wasteland. In the middle of which, the staircase leading upwards towards the twenty ninth floor of the tower could be standing all on its own.

If not for the war that had destroyed the once massive city that should have been located at the center of the small world where the spiritual qi concentration was the highest, this spiral staircase piercing the sky above before seemingly vanishing somewhere outside the boundaries of the small world, would have been at the very center of the city. Not much different from the location of the spiral staircase leading upwards within the now shattered small world that was the twenty seventh floor of the tower.

Feeling a bit curious about whether the twenty eighth floor would change in a similar manner after he left or just return to the previous state like the floors before had done, Xuan Hao didn’t linger around within the ruins and made his way up the spiral staircase leading up to the next floor of the tower. Soon enough standing at the intersection between the unique corridor that would undoubtedly take him at least a week to traverse through to reach the next floor and the small world of the twenty eighth floor.

And in this final moment before takin a step forward to officially leave the small world, he took the opportunity to observe the small world from above. Barely glimpsing the battle between the cultivators of the cultivator alliance and the demon beasts in the distance. Seeing how these cultivators had clearly already sensed the fall of the lord of the devil forest and were currently in the process of desperately retreating from the now seemingly enraged demon beasts who showed no signs of letting go. Chasing them out of the devil forest.

However, to him, this wasn’t the reason why he had stopped at the final step. Instead, what he wanted to do was investigate the state beyond the world borders of the small world to try and understand why the parasitic mushroom colony had been so intent on destroying the world barrier.

Given how he wasn’t destroying the world barrier and only wanted to look outside, this wasn’t something difficult for him to accomplish. Especially given his current comprehension of the Dao of Space at the Perfection Realm, making him somewhat specialized when it came to peering into the void that resided beyond the world barrier.

But what he ended up seeing beyond the world barrier was confusing to say the least. ”More mushrooms?” Confusing enough to make him quietly voice his confusion out loud, as what he ended up seeing was indeed more mushrooms.

But different from the parasitic mushroom colony that had at its peak covered half the back of the silverback gorilla demon beast the size of a small mountain, the mushrooms outside were far larger in size, as even one of them seemed to dwarf the parasitic mushroom colony by comparison. Standing more than a thousand meters tall as they floated around within the void outside the small world.

Or maybe it was more accurate to say that the towering mushrooms floating around outside the small world had already formed a mushroom forest of unimaginable size that encompassed the entirety of the small world and stretched far beyond it. Potentially swallowing up more than just this one small world he currently found himself in.

To be honest, he couldn’t say for certain, as his divine sense was limited and couldn’t even fully cover the small world, let alone touch the edges of this seemingly boundless mushroom forest growing within the void.

Then again, interesting as this boundless mushroom forest was, he didn’t want to leave the safety of the small world to explore it. Even if there wasn’t a clear restriction from the ascension tower that prevented him from leaving the small world. After all, outside of grasping the sheer size of the mushroom forest lurking beyond the borders of the small world, he also sensed the strength of these towering mushrooms outside.

From the larger ones to the smaller ones, every single one of the countless mushrooms outside the small world could be considered to have reached the Profound Immortal Realm in terms of strength, with some of the larger ones even reaching a level of strength comparable to that of the silverback gorilla demon beast when it had still been alive.

Not to mention, even deeper inside the mushroom forest, he could clearly sense a presence exceeding that. Forcibly solidifying the very void that the mushroom forest existed within with its presence alone. Allowing the mushroom forest to drift through the void without worrying about a sudden spatial storm uprooting it and tearing apart the forest itself.

Even if he couldn’t fully grasp or understand this presence, it wasn’t too difficult for him to understand that it should belong to the master of this mushroom forest, a being that had undoubtedly already transcended the Profound Immortal Realm and stepped into the Venerable Realm... And not just that, but from the terrifying control over the void, it was likely someone with a terrifying comprehension of the Dao of Space that exceeded his own.

A being like that would be more than capable of forcibly tearing apart the world barrier of the small world he currently resided within from the outside, but the other party seemed to not care about the small world- no, not just this powerful master of the mushroom forest, but even those countless powerful mushrooms outside that surrounded the small world on all sides didn’t seem to care about the small world as it drifted through this boundless mushroom forest.

In a sense, he already began drawing a conclusion on what had caused the parasitic mushroom colony to try and break apart the world barrier to reach the void outside after quickly retracting his divine sense to avoid drawing any unnecessary attention to the small world.

From what he guessed, the parasitic mushroom colony should have been created by a spore released by one of those towering mushrooms outside that had ultimately landed within the small world before the mushroom forest drifting through the void outside had reached it... And by the time the parasitic mushroom colony had been born and grown up, the mushroom forest outside should have already reached the small world. After which, the small world, sensing the outside threat, had directly sealed itself off completely. Preventing anyone from leaving the small world without a deep enough comprehension in the Dao of Space to forcibly overcome those restrictions placed by the small world as it had essentially sealed itself shut.

Left with no other choice and wanting to join the mushroom forest drifting by in the void outside before it was too late, the parasitic mushroom colony had begun doing everything in its power to destroy the world barrier from the inside to force its way through the restrictions that the small world had put up to defend itself. Even if it would ultimately mean that the small world would end up devoured or destroyed in the process...

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao couldn’t help feeling a growing sense of interest in the face of this seemingly boundless mushroom forest drifting through the void. Wondering if there was a chance he would run into it again in the future. Already planning to try and see if he could see this boundless mushroom forest outside after reaching the next floor of the tower.

Not just that, but part of him also felt curious about the state of precious floors and wondered if they had similarly been engulfed by this boundless mushroom forest.

Unfortunately, when it came to observing the state outside the area designated by the ascension tower, it was almost always impossible outside a situation where the entire floor was a small world, as the area dictated by the ascension tower wasn’t just the small world itself, but even part of the void outside the small world. In that sense, what he had seen through his divine sense was still within the boundaries of the twenty eighth floor of the tower.

A fact that seemed to hint at the very real possibility that future tasks within the tower wouldn’t be limited to just a single small world but might require moving between several small worlds.

In fact, if another small world had been close enough, there might have been a very real chance that the task on the twenty eighth floor would have been one such task...