Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Moving up along the path up the central spire of the cathedral, it didn’t take long before Xuan Hao found himself facing off against the fourth holy guardian... And like he had suspected, the strength of this guardian had already reached the Land Creation Realm in strength. The only surprising fact was that it wasn’t at the late or peak stage of the realm. Instead, it was at the Middle Stage of the Land Creation Realm. Weaker than he had expected and simple enough to deal with given his current strength at the Late Stage of the Land Creation Realm that far surpassed others at the Late Stage of the Land Creation Realm.

Still, though the holy guardian only had strength comparable to that of the Middle Stage of the Land Creation Realm, it turned out to be far from simple to deal with, as it turned out to be capable of utilizing a unique domain that directly engulfed and expanded the small face before the gate leading further up the central spire of the ancient cathedral, causing the space to expand and the very fabric of the space itself to change. Falling under the complete dominion of the holy guardian.

This kind of domination over space was so direct and powerful that even he, with his comprehension at the Peak of the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space, had no way to properly utilize the Dao of Space. Making it an absolute nightmare for the locals of the fragmented continent to face off against. After all, faced with this kind of domination over space, the locals would essentially be left with no way to fight back. For those who had started merging with the surrounding space but couldn’t resist the spatial dominion of the holy guardian, it would be even worse, as they wouldn’t even be able to fight back and would just get torn apart on the spot.

Luckily, the holy guardian he faced off against was still an enemy that seemed to have specialized everything it had in dealing with the locals of the fragmented continent and those proficient in the Dao of Space. For an anomaly like him, it didn’t seem like that difficult of an enemy to deal with. If anything, it was a far easier enemy compared to an ordinary Middle Stage Land Creation Realm cultivator after he got used to its unique abilities. Allowing him to deal with the holy guardian in a relatively short time before moving on towards the next and potentially final holy guardian of this ancient structure.

Knowing about the special abilities and the specialization of this holy guardian and the stronger version he might end up finding himself facing off against soon, Xuan Hao had already unsheathed flowing silver, his new sword, and planned on relying entirely on the Dao of the Sword and the Dao of Ice for the upcoming battle. Not because they were the only available Daos he had, but because the two Daos were ones he was used to using during combat. The Dao of the Sword for offensive and the Dao of Ice for defensive.

With this, he felt confident in facing off against the holy guardian that awaited him and had almost definitely reached the Star Creation Realm.

As for the rewards that awaited him after he cleared this holy guardian comparable to the Middle Stage of the Land Creation Realm... They were disappointing to say the least, as there were no cultivation techniques or other things he could use to learn more about the unique cultivation path of the fragmented continent. Instead, the only thing of value was a few spiritual treasures that he quickly stored away.

The thing that was the most abundant was a unique kind of crystal that he had learnt from the locals and through the different records that he had ended up going through so far on his journey through the ancient city center was used for someone below the Void Monarch Realm to reach the Void Monarch Realm.

Precious as this kind of crystal sounded on the surface, it wasn’t exactly practical and came with several hidden dangers that meant future progress through the Void Monarch Realm would be close to impossible with little chance of reaching the Void Integration Realm in the future unless one encountered a similar higher-ranking treasure for the Void Integration Realm that would leave behind similar flaws.

Of course, compared to the crystal before him that would most often limit someone to the Void Monarch Realm. People were more than happy to take one that would limit one to the Void Integration Realm. After all, even if one would only ever reach the Early Stage of the Void Integration Realm, one would still be considered a pinnacle level powerhouse throughout the fragmented continent.

Not to mention, it wasn’t that people were unwilling to use the unique crystal that would allow someone to reach the Void Monarch Realm, it was just the fact that these kind of treasures that essentially cut off future progress was of little interest to Xuan Hao and outside taking a few of them for future research, he left most of them behind. Planning to use the few he brought with him to see if these crystals might be useful for something different in the future.

The only real use case he could think of at the moment being that the crystals might be used to serve as a core of a powerful puppet of some kind but given the fact that he hadn’t even reached the Elementary Realm in the Dao of Puppetry, he couldn’t say for certain and needed to consult some of the sect’s experts on the subject in the future.

Speaking of which, he was far more interested in the higher quality version of these crystals that might exist behind the upcoming holy guardian whose strength should have reached the Star Creation Realm.

After all, if they could be used to create puppets or even golems similar to the holy guardians, the higher quality version of these crystals might be useful in the creation of puppets or golems at the Land Creation Realm.

This kind of puppet or golem was undoubtedly of immense value and something he hadn’t even seen before outside of the corrupted golem from the ancient battlefield. Making it obvious just how difficult and expensive this kind of golem or puppet was to create.

Whoosh~

With this in mind and feeling a growing excitement thinking about what he might find if he could successfully get past the Star Creation Realm holy guardian that awaited him above, Xuan Hao left the devasted floor behind and continued up the central spire stairs that waited for him on the other side of the gate that the holy guardian had been guarding.

Rustle~

And just in time, as only a few seconds after he had left, the group of inexperienced cultivators who had bravely pushed forward behind him arrived on the fourth floor of the central spire, a look of both exhaustion and excitement plastered all over their young faces.

Excitement because of what they might find once they got to the end of the stairs and exhaustion because climbing the stairs was far from simple. The stairs themselves carrying an ancient pressure that someone at Xuan Hao’s cultivation level or even someone at the Void Monarch Realm might be able to shrug off, but for these weaker juniors whose strength was only around the Domain Lord Realm, it was like a mountain was crushing them from above as they continued up the stairs of the central spire. Slowing them down significantly on their climb.

If not for this terrifying pressure, they would have long since been able to catch up with Xuan Hao and would have been able to reach the fourth floor before his battle with the holy guardian came to an end.

Unfortunately- or maybe fortunately for them, by the time they stepped into the fourth floor, Xuan Hao was already gone. Leaving behind the devastating scene of the battle that had taken place. One that was far more brutal and took far longer compared to the previous battles, as ice and sword marks could be seen everywhere throughout the floor.

Even the holy guardian itself was in a far worse state compared to the previous ones that had perished in a single hit, with countless sword marks covering its body and towering spears of ice having pierced directly through its chest, causing ice and frost to spread out centered around it.

The battle scene itself should have made this group aware that things weren’t simply the decay of time taking out the guardians that had blocked their path so far.

”Look! An ascension crystal!”

Unfortunately, something different ended up taking all of their attention away from the devasting battlefield and broken down guardian, as all their focus shifted towards the five or so massive crystals Xuan Hao had left behind after seeing little value in bringing them along.