Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Taking the final step forward and officially leaving behind the twenty ninth floor of the tower after one last look at the mushroom forest drifting by in the void outside the small world, Xuan Hao once again found himself faced with the seemingly endless staircase in the middle of space surrounded by what looked like increasingly like small stars drifting through the empty space with something massive moving between these points of light. Still, limited to only a hundred meters around the staircase itself, it was essentially impossible for him to get anywhere close to the things moving around within the empty void filled with stars.

Even using his divine sense, it was impossible to get close enough to see what laid beneath the bright exterior of those seemingly small stars, let alone see what it was that was moving around within the darkness. After all, wide as the area covered by his divine sense was, compared to the vast emptiness between him and the closest star, it was akin to a drop in the ocean, as even at the Late Stage of the Land Creation Realm his divine sense barely covered a single percentage of the way to the closest star within the darkness.

Putting aside his growing interest in the space that existed between the different floors of the ascension tower, Xuan Hao began his weeklong journey up the staircase connected to the twenty ninth floor. Feeling happy that he wouldn’t have to travel this kind of distance every time he entered the ascension tower and only had to do it once to reach a new floor.

If one really needed to travel this kind of distance every time one challenged a new floor of the tower, he seriously doubted the disciples and elders would be so enthusiastic about the ascension tower as they were.

...

While Xuan Hao began his weeklong journey up the staircase leading to the twenty ninth floor of the ascension tower, back in the Star Shattering Sect, the heavenly river created by Mui had become a familiar sight to the elders and disciples of the sect with no small number of both seeking to reach the heavenly river floating above.

Something that for obvious reasons was difficult for most disciples to accomplish, as the general strength of most disciples except a few rare cases were below the Domain Lord Realm and didn’t possess any magical artifacts capable of flight.

Not that the sect lacked such treasures, it was just that the disciples of the sect hadn’t originally seen much reason in using their hard earnt contribution points on something like a flying artifact when it could be used for things that directly helped grow their strength, like the ascension tower or precious cultivation resources.

Of course, there were still a fair number that had given in to the temptation of flight and got their hands on a flying artifact, but unfortunately for them, the heavenly river wasn’t exactly easy for most to approach because of the pressure it exuded on anyone trying to approach it without a deep enough comprehension of the Dao of Water. Increasing visibly with the growth of the four branching rivers expanding out from the circular heavenly river that existed above the Seventh Star Peak.

Still, with the little time the heavenly river had been around, it was still nowhere close to powerful enough to prevent most elders from finding a place on the surface of the water to comprehend the Dao of Water hidden within the heavenly river up close.

Not just the heavenly river, but even Mui found herself being swarmed by these elders specializing in the Dao of Water after she had created the heavenly river.

All for the simple reason that these elders believed that only someone with a deep understanding of the Dao of Water would be able to create something like the heavenly river hanging above the Seventh Star Peak.

Unfortunately for them, they were bound to end up disappointed, as Mui’s comprehension of the Dao of Water had nothing to do with the creation of the heavenly river. In fact, her insights into the Dao of Water that she happily shared with these eager elders bringing her gifts to seek her assistance ended up almost causing a dozen of these elders to go into qi deviation, something that scared off any other elders from seeking out her assistance in the Dao of Water ever again.

Normal as her comprehension of the Dao of Water that had officially reached the Elementary Realm looked on the surface, Mui was still herself and any kind of brilliant insights she had was bound to have some kind of problem- or at the very least, it would be problematic to anyone other than her if they attempted to try and understand her logic and understanding of the Dao of Water and placed it in the same realm as other cultivators who had reached the Elementary Realm in the Dao of Water.

Aside from the disaster that Mui had almost caused with her insights into the Dao of Water, the person herself had ended up benefiting significantly from the elders that had come to seek her guidance as she now had enough resources on hand to begin on the next part of the plan for the heavenly river now hanging above the Seventh Star Peak alongside her beloved blind friend Song Jia, who didn’t have any of the problems she had in the past when it came to navigating around the sect after her divine sense grew strong enough. Allowing her to use her divine sense like a second pair of eyes.

Of course, it wasn’t that Elder Song and even Xuan Hao hadn’t attempted to help her recover her sight, but the conclusion Xuan Hao had come to after spending a significant amount of time looking for a solution was the fact that her eyes weren’t injured in any way. Instead, they were in their most natural state. Meaning even if he or someone else wanted to help her recover, there was simply nothing for her to recover from in the first place.

Not to mention, divine sense was the lens which most cultivators saw the world, Xuan Hao included, as normal vision could only go so far compared to the all-encompassing divine sense. One clear exclusion being special eyes like the ones Song Jia had, which could see things divine sense couldn’t or have effects useful for combat like Xuan Hao’s own divine void eyes.

As for what plan Mui had enlisted her friend’s help for this time around... It was obviously the creation of more unique little beings like Baobao- or more accurately the expansion of the unique little blob race whose home was the heavenly river floating above the Seventh Star Peak.

Even though the part of the heavenly river taken up by Baobao for now was only a small part of it near the sky spring that supplied the heavenly river with a constant stream of new pure spiritual water that was being used to grow the heavenly river, Mui had already foreseen the future when the main circular part of the heavenly river that made up most of the heavenly river for now became a sanctuary for Baobao and the countless other Baobaos that would soon join Baobao at the circular heavenly river.

The growing pressure from the heavenly river itself would be a natural deterrent to anyone approaching Baobao and other Baobaos in the future.

As for how Baobao and others like Baobao would avoid this pressure? That was simple enough as she had specifically designed the heavenly river so it wouldn’t affect Baobao or others like Baobao.

In fact, that was the main reason why Baobao could so easily move around on the heavenly river without any kind of cultivation nor comprehension of the Dao of Water to alleviate the pressure from the heavenly river itself.

To describe how this was possible was impossible, as Mui had attempted to describe some of her insights to a few of the elders who had come to her seeking guidance... And unsurprisingly, those were the exact few elders who had almost ended up going into qi deviation. Scaring away any other elders who might have originally wanted to seek her out for help. Hampering her easy resource collection through these elders.

Still, she had at least managed to gather enough resources to create another few Baobaos, though the increasing number of Baobaos in the near future made her realize that it might be time for her to give Baobao’s race a proper name instead of constantly referring to other beings like Baobao as Baobaos.

Unless... She named the race Baobao?

Given how she had created the race herself, it made sense she would be the one naming it... And there wasn’t really anything stopping her from just naming the race Baobao outside of the strange looks she might get in the future when disciples and elders learnt about what she had named the race of floating blobs on the heavenly river...