Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Squeak! 

Not having noticed Xuan Hao opening his eyes and staring at it filled with confusion over just what had happened during his cultivation session, the rabbit demon beast let out a commanding squeak as it looked down at the squirrel, who in turn nodded its head and began gathering the qi present in the air inside the Ephemeral Forest with a look of concentration on its face.

From an outside perspective, it looked like the rabbit demon beast was teaching the squirrel how to cultivate by gathering the qi present in the air around it into its body, where instead of forming a qi cycle, it used the qi to strengthen its body.

"…"

Not knowing what to say after seeing this, Xuan Hao decided to remain silent for now as he went over what he had gained from reaching the Small Success Realm in the Dao of Illusions.

From the fact that he now had the ability to use the Dao of Illusions in combat to either confuse the opponent with different illusions or conjure different illusory construct that could be used to attack the soul, the most important change was that he could clearly feel the strength of his soul had increased after he had broken through to the Small Success Realm.

The increase in power his soul had experienced was almost the same as when he had broken through to the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm. Far from being comparable to the increase in strength his soul had experienced when comprehending any of his other Daos to the Small Success Realm.

Thinking about it, this was most likely related to the fact that the Dao of Illusions was related to the soul and in broader sense, it could even be considered a branch of the Dao of Creation, a Dao that was far more difficult to comprehend than anything he had comprehended so far.

If not for the fact that he had been lucky enough to find a place that was perfectly suitable for comprehending the Dao of Illusions and given that his talent was far above average, he doubted that he would have ever had the chance to comprehend the Dao of Illusions on his own.

Hm… Now that I think about it, it's rather odd for the Blue Sea Empire to willingly give out the information on a place like this for only a few thousand high-quality spirit stones. Just the benefits I managed to gain after a little over two months are more than enough to justify using this amount of spirit stones, let alone if I continue staying here for a longer period of time…

Realizing just how odd it was for the Blue Sea Empire's intelligence department to sell him the information on such a great location for comprehending the Dao of Illusions instead of monopolizing it for themselves and using it to train their younger generation, Xuan Hao could not hep frowning to himself as he glanced over in the direction of the wooden gate leading back to the Sea of Mist where the exit to the special space was located.

Even if he had already visited all of the places inside the space and hadn't found anything that stood out from the information that he had been provided, he had a feeling that there had to be some reason why the Blue Sea Empire had decided to give up on the place and not monopolize it for their own use.

Out of everything, the only thing he could think about was the Valley of Illusory Beasts. Maybe the illusory beasts located in the depths of the valley were far more terrifying than the information given by the intelligence department had said… Well, the information did already state that there should be Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts present, so he had never planned to approach the depths of the valley in the first place...

Wait…

The illusory beasts reappear after they are killed… Does this perhaps also hold true for the illusory beasts in the Earth Immortal Realm? And if that is the case, what in the world is it that makes this possible in the first place…? 

Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he thought about what kind of creature or artifact had the power to create illusory beasts in the Earth Immortal Realm, Xuan Hao had a feeling that he had some idea why the Blue Sea Empire had decided to give up on the place. 

Perhaps the reason was not because they didn't see any use in monopolizing the place, but was instead because they couldn't take control of the place and deemed it far too dangerous for their juniors to train in. Instead deciding to hand it over to the intelligence department as a way for them to at least earn something from selling information on the place to anyone looking for a place to comprehend the Dao of Illusions…

Thinking that this was a reasonable explanation, Xuan Hao could not help feeling himself grow more curious about what it was in the deeper regions of the valley that had scared the seniors of the Blue Sea Empire away.

After all, the Blue Sea Empire had no lack of Earth Immortal Realm Experts and should even have experts exceeding the Earth Immortal Realm. 

For them to decide that the Valley of Illusory Beasts was not worth dealing with, the danger existing in the deeper regions of the valley should be enough to threaten someone above the Earth Immortal Realm- Far more dangerous than the potential presence of an Earth Immortal Realm illusory beast that had been included in the information he had bought from the intelligence department.

No matter what the case was, he also understood that the Valley of Illusory Beasts was incredibly helpful when it came to comprehending the Dao of Illusions.

Even after he had broken through to the Small Success Realm and essentially managed to get what he wanted from the place, he also felt that he should be able to break through to the Large Success Realm far faster in the Dao of Illusions compared to any of his other Daos with the help of the Valley of Illusory Beasts.

Although there would undoubtably be a risk to him doing this, he also understood that nothing in this world ever came without risks and if he wanted to reach the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm before the Earth Immortal Realm Expert from the Heavenly Dragon Temple appeared, he would have to take some risks.

Considering that he had been fine even after two months of killing illusory beasts, Xuan Hao felt that it would be reasonable for him to continue increasing his comprehension of the Dao of Illusions inside the Valley of Illusory Beasts, as long as he didn't venture too far into the valley.

The only problem with this was the fact that he had no idea if there was some powerful existence deep inside the valley that already knew about his presence and just decided to not do anything to him due to the fact that he had only lingered around the outer edges of the valley and hadn't really killed any powerful illusory beasts before the one two weeks earlier where he had left almost immediately afterwards…

Squeak!

Lost in his own thoughts on whether or not to return to the valley and continue killing the illusory beasts to increase his comprehension of the Dao of Illusions, Xuan Hao was suddenly brought back to reality by the loud squeaking sound coming from the rabbit demon beast not too far away from where he was sitting.

"…"

Turning his head to look at just what was happening, Xuan Hao was left speechless as he saw the rabbit demon beast using its paw to press down at the squirrel with a proud expression on its face.

Looking closer, it did not take long to realize that the two had just finished a short fight with the rabbit demon beast emerging victorious. Not at all surprising considering the difference in strength between the two.

If there was anything, Xuan Hao was far more surprised to discover that the squirrel had actually managed to reach the First Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm during the two weeks he had been focused on breaking through to the Small Success Realm in the Dao of Illusions.

Even if demon beasts progressed differently from humans and the current location seemed perfect for the squirrel's cultivation, it was still surprising for it to have improved so much over such a short period of time without any kind of external help in the form of special medicine or spiritual herbs.

Is it perhaps because of the rabbit demon beast? Did it do something to help the squirrel's strength increase?

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao could not help staring towards the rabbit demon beast as he wondered just what had happened during the past two weeks.