Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

As the old remnant soul began to earnestly guide the four youths and started to reach them in earnest, Xuan Hao felt his admiration towards the old remnant soul growing by the minute because of how profound the other party’s understanding of the Dao of Alchemy was. Even with him essentially only going through the basics, the new insights and ideas he brought even helped him progress significantly in the Dao of Alchemy. Making it clear to him just how far this remnant soul had gone back when he had been alive. For all he knew, he might even have surpassed the Origin Realm in the Dao of Alchemy and reached some completely unknown realm to him.

After all, from what he had observed so far about this remnant soul, it belonged to someone who was far from ordinary even at the Venerable Realm, as just from what little the other party had shown, he had displayed a terrifying mastery of not just the Dao of Alchemy, but also the Dao of Formations and the Dao of Space. Showing that he had at the very least reached the Origin Realm in all three Daos.

More surprising than that was the fact that he also began distinctively sensing that the other party had also comprehended the Dao of Time to some extent- and not just to the Elementary Realm, but above what he had currently achieved when it came to the Dao of Time.

If possible, he really wanted to have a conversation with this old man and learn from him personally. Understanding that if he could get the help of such a senior figure, he would be able to make immense progress in all aspects of his cultivation and might even directly break through to the Origin Realm in the Dao of Space with his guidance.

But... Even though he understood this, he didn’t dare to reveal himself before the other party. Knowing that he would have the strength to easily get rid of him with the assistance of countless still active formations covering and guarding the small tower.

The fear he felt about the other party attacking him upon noticing his presence wasn’t without reason, as during the explanation of the ancient times before the fragmented continent had ended up in its current state, the old remnant soul had explained that their world had clashed with other large worlds within the void and... The description of some of these invaders from other worlds sounded an awfully lot, like cultivators from his world following the traditional immortal cultivation path.

Of course, that alone was far from enough to make him conclude that cultivators from his world had once been taking advantage of the world that the fragmented continent had once been a part of as he wasn’t exactly knowledgeable about what cultivators who reached the Venerable Realm looked like nor what them fighting looked like. Not to mention, the descriptions of those clashes given by the old remnant soul wasn’t exactly helpful and was a cluttered mess that made it difficult for him to properly get a grasp over what those battles had looked like and more so looked like an embellishment from the remnant soul to try and make himself seem stronger and more powerful in their eyes.

The thing that did end up convincing him that it was his world and the fact that the worlds within the ascension realm tower might exist out in the void to some extent if they hadn’t ended up being swallowed by the ascension realm tower when it had been created through the system, was the fact that the old remnant soul had pulled out a memento from the wars against outsiders it had once participated in... And that memento just so happened to look exactly like the symbol of a church he had once found himself fighting. The Church of the Plague God, a church he hadn’t ended up facing since his earlier days when the Star Shattering Sect had only just started to take shape.

Not only did this confirm some of his suspicions regarding the worlds found within the ascension realm tower and the fact that they should have existed to some extent out in the void and might even still exist, but it also made him aware that the church of the plague god that he had mostly forgotten about since his earlier clashes with them was far stronger than he had originally suspected.

Although he understood any church with a god behind them was a powerful existence that he still couldn’t afford to offend. From the description of the old remnant soul, it seemed like the enemy from his world that they should have faced in the ancient times wasn’t some large-scale army made up from countless different forces but was instead just the church of the plague god alone along with what he presumed to be a few subordinate forces that existed beneath its sphere of influence back then.

The old remnant soul had made it sound like it was another large world of similar size that was behind the attack, but he understood that it should only have been a single religion that had come to spread faith and take control of the world that the old remnant soul had once been a part of.

Even with this, the only reason why the church of the plague god seemed to have been pushed back wasn’t because they were unable to conquer the world, but instead because something seemed to happen back home that forced their forces to retreat.

And given how the beings spawned through the Dao of Corruption that had ultimately destroyed their world descended shortly after the departure of the church of the plague god, it wasn’t too difficult to understand what might have forced their hand in retreating.

Speaking of which, the world itself wouldn’t have fallen as easily as it had ultimately fallen without the church of the plague god having essentially exhausted most of their resources during their earlier conquest attempt of the world.

If they had faced the church of the plague god with one hundred percent of their strength, then what they had left to face off against the anomalies created by the Dao of Corruption had barely managed to reach thirty percent, they were far too exhausted to fight another long war with an even more abnormal enemy. Especially considering how the church of the plague god had left behind countless terrifying plagues that still ravaged through the land. Killing people and spiritual herbs alike.

In a way, the old remnant soul didn’t consider the reason for their defeat and the ultimate destruction of their world being the doing of those being created through the Dao of Corruption. Instead, he considered it to be entirely because of those outsiders that had invaded their world earlier and torn through their lands. Leaving them defenseless when this second calamity descended upon their world.

Because of this, Xuan Hao didn’t plan on revealing himself to the old remnant soul, as there was a good chance that the other party would attack immediately without allowing him to say a single word. Viewing him as the eternal enemy that had doomed his world to fall.

Although understandable, he couldn’t help feeling annoyed with the church of the plague god that had ended up placing him in this kind of situation. Wondering if he should take out a few of their branches after he got out of the tower to satiate the anger, he felt towards them for ruining this perfectly good opportunity for him.

The one caveat being that he could at least listen secretly through the divine sense he had secretly hidden inside the four youths-

”Okay, now that the introduction is done, I will have you go through a soul cleansing that will not only help strengthen your soul but also ensure you don’t have one of those cursed beings hidden inside of your bodies.”

But as he thought about this, the old remnant soul decided to pour cold water on this one saving grace to the entire situation for no real reason- well there was a reason, but Xuan Hao didn’t really care about it. The only thing he cared about was the fact that the divine sense he had hidden inside the four was bound to be discovered the second this soul cleansing began.

Not because he didn’t hide that bit of divine sense well, but because he understood that there was no way for him to hide that bit of divine sense once those terrifying formations at the Venerable Realm turned their focus towards the four youths and began investigating them in earnest.

In fact, the only reason he had been able to slip inside in the first place was because those formations hadn’t been turned on the four youths because their outwards appearance had been that of locals. Allowing him to slip past them without any problems, something that was now bound to come to an end as the old remnant soul was getting ready to pass on his true legacy and had no intention of taking any kind of risks leaking it to an outsider no matter how low the chance of someone from that outside world still being around was.