Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Rumble~

At the same time Xuan Hao had his first encounter with the illusory beasts inside the Valley of Illusory Beasts, the old man who had managed to escape from the encirclement of over fifty Soul Ascension Realm Experts with the help of a special pill arrived above the small town he had been inside of only half a day earlier.

"This should be far enough for now. Even if those juniors want to catch up to me, it will at least take them a few days." Muttering this to himself as he glanced at the small town below him, the old man's face relaxed slightly after seeing that the strongest person present was only in the Domain Lord Realm.

Even if he couldn't keep up his current state for long and his strength had already started decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye, it would still be impossible for someone in the Domain Lord Realm to discover him.

Whoosh~

Knowing this, the old man lowered his guard a bit as he began using his divine sense to search for somewhere to hide and recover from the terrifying injuries, he had received during the battle earlier.

Although he understood that it would be impossible to fully recover his strength without some kind of heavenly treasure, it wouldn't be impossible for him to recover his strength back up to the lowest level of the Earth Immortal Realm. At least that would be enough for him to safely leave the Blue Sea Empire.

Unfortunately, he also understood that it was unlikely for him to find a place where he could spend the next few years recovering without any disturbances. The fifty or so Soul Ascension Realm Experts were bound to find him if he didn't find some kind of abandoned secret realm or special space to hide inside of…

"Hm?"

Just at this moment, a slight fluctuation appeared at the edge of his divine sense. Not an ordinary fluctuation from two cultivators fighting with each other. Instead, it was an all too familiar spatial fluctuation from a spatial gate of sorts being activated!

"This, an abandoned secret realm!?" Feeling a sense of excitement as he looked in the direction that the fluctuation had come from, the old man who was about to revert back to his half dead state wasted no time in rushing towards the direction that the spatial fluctuation had come-

Swish-!

Soon arriving directly in front of the wooden gate that Xuan Hao had passed through only half a day earlier.

"Indeed… It looks like it's an abandoned secret realm." Smiling happily to himself as he said this, the old man quickly used most of his remaining strength to put down a few simple formations to hide the appearance of the wooden gate and prevent any of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts chasing after him from noticing it.

Although the formations wouldn't work if any of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts entered the cave that the wooden gate was located inside of, it would at least make it harder for them to discover the cave, while at the same time preventing any random animals from wandering inside the gate and possibly alerting any nearby Soul Ascension Realm cultivators to its existence.

Whoosh~

Having done everything he could to ensure his safety, the old man stepped through the wooden gate and made his way inside what he assumed to be an abandoned secret realm-

"Huh? Th-this is… Special space abundant in the Dao of Mist!?"

Only after stepping through the wooden gate did, he realize that it was not a secret realm and was instead a special space that was abundant in the Dao of Mist, a heaven on earth for anyone adapt in the Dao of Mist to cultivate in.

After calming down a bit, the old man quickly began to scan his surroundings while he still had some strength left. After all, places where a certain dao was abundant would always have some kind of danger present inside of it.

Whoosh~

As his divine sense swept through the Sea of Mist, the old man could not help letting out a sigh of relief to himself upon realizing that there weren't any dangerous creatures hidden inside of the mist. The only thing inside the mist were the two wooden gates similar to the one he had just passed through.

Looks like everything is safe, outside of those two wooden gates further inside the sea of mist. For now, I should avoid those two places before I recover my strength…

Thinking this to himself, the old man sat down on the ground and focused all of his attention on recovering his strength.

Ignoring the small squirrel that was sitting confused on the ground not too far away from him. Having already concluded that it must have been the culprit behind the spatial fluctuation he had felt earlier.

Even if the squirrel wanted to leave, it was impossible after the old man had finished laying down the different formations on the wooden gate earlier… And in the end, the squirrel ended up stumbling through the mist for a few days before stumbling into the Ephemeral Forest. The abundant qi present in the space keeping it from starving to death.

…

At the same time that the old man in the Earth Immortal Realm settled down in the Sea of Mist, Xuan Hao was busy fighting an illusory beast in the Soul Ascension Realm- Or to be more specific, an illusory beast in Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Even if he had not originally intended to try and fight any of the stronger illusory beasts before ensuring that they were alone, and a battle wouldn't end up attracting even more powerful illusory beasts… The illusory beast in front of him happened to spot him just as he had finished going over his gains from killing the small group of illusory beasts. 

Giving him no time to react before it angrily pounced on him without a second thought…

Boom-boom-boom!

As the illusory beast used all kinds of soul attacks that sought to destroy his soul and deadly illusory constructs seeking to kill him, Xuan Hao had a revelation.

Observing the different attacks used by the illusory beast allowed him to increase his understanding of the Dao of Illusions. Not just increasing his comprehension, but also giving him insights as to how to utilize the Dao of Illusions in combat.

In a sense, the illusory beasts were truly the best tool for anyone who wanted to increase both their understanding and utilization of the Dao of Illusions, a pity that the place was so far away from the Star Shattering Sect, and he couldn't take it back with him and use it to train his disciples and the rest of the people from the sect…

Roooar!

Having realized that it couldn't land a single attack on him and that its soul attacks were rendered useless due to Xuan Hao's soul being far stronger than a normal Fifth Tribulation Soul Ascension Realm cultivator, the illusory beast let out a roar filled with anger before starting to rapidly absorb the white and almost cloudlike qi that permeated the entire valley.

Rumble-!

"Looks like I won't be able to make use of it any longer…" Noticing what the illusory beast was doing and feeling how its strength was starting to increase at a speed visible to the naked eye, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of regret as he understood that he wouldn't be able to make use of the illusory beast any longer.

But this feeling didn't last for long as he remembered that there were still countless other illusory beasts present in the valley.

"Haaa…"

Taking a deep breath, Xuan Hao gathered his qi-

Swish!

And with a swift motion, he drew his sword and lunged towards the illusory beast!

Roar!

Having already expected this, the illusory beast stopped absorbing the white qi and changed its original cloud-like lion shape into that of a large illusory serpent. Moving with an otherworldly grace to dodge Xuan Hao's sudden attack. 

Bang!

However, Xuan Hao continued to press onwards and ultimately ended up landing a series of precise strikes on the illusory serpent-

Rooar!

In turn, the illusory serpent stopped dodging and instead met Xuan Hao head on.

Ching~!

Even though it had been interrupted and didn't get a lot of time to absorb the white qi, its strength had still increased to a certain degree. Putting its current strength infinitely close to the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. Giving it more than enough strength to meet Xuan Hao's sword head on.

Boom-boom-boom!

As a result, the clash between Xuan Hao and the illusory beast became more intense as neither party had the upper hand. The illusory serpent beast constantly using everything it had, while Xuan Hao's sword unleashed waves of terrifying sword qi that cut through its illusions and dispelled its illusory constructs before they had a chance to do anything.

Of course, at this point in time, Xuan Hao had only been using his Sword Dao to fight against the illusory beast…