Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Whoosh~

"This should be far enough..." Appearing inside a small secluded forest located at the edge of the valley, Xuan Hao looked back in the direction he had come from with a worried expression on his face. Even if he felt that his earlier performance should have convinced Chu Li, he didn't plan to stay around for long enough to find out.

To make sure that he didn't end up running into Chu Li the moment he stepped out of the small, secluded forest and resumed hunting down Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beasts, Xuan Hao decided to spend the next week quietly meditating on the Dao of Illusions on his own without leaving the small forest.

His comprehension speed of the Dao of Illusions might have slowed down due to this, but at least he would be sure that he didn't end up getting caught in a troublesome situation. Not to mention, he also decided to use some of the time to go over the attack Chu Li had used to demonstrate his comprehension of the Dao of Illusions.

Although Chu Li should not have reached the Large Success Realm in the Dao of Illusions, he had gone further than him and should only be a single step away from reaching the Large Success Realm in the Dao of Illusions. If he could grasp anything from his attack back then, it would undoubtedly end up saving him a lot of time in the future.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao hid away in a corner of the Valley of Illusory Beasts, back in the Sea of Mist, the old man who had remained stuck in the same position for a year without moving, opened both his eyes as he stared towards the entrance to the Sea of Mist, he had passed through a year ago.

"It seems like those people still haven't given up and are still lingering around the entrance. If I try to leave, they will undoubtedly notice me the moment I appear…" Muttering this to himself as he used his divine sense to connect to some of the formations he had laid down outside the Sea of Mist, the old man shook his head helplessly as he looked around the empty Sea of Mist.

Even though an entire year had passed, nothing had changed inside the Sea of Mist, and everything remained exactly the same as it had been when he had first entered the Sea of Mist. The only thing different was the fact that the squirrel, who had accidentally wandered into the Sea of Mist, was nowhere to be seen.

However, glancing towards the two wooden gates hidden deeper inside the mist, it was not difficult to guess that the squirrel had managed to reach one of the two wooden gates during the past year. If it hadn't managed to do this, he should have already spotted its remains if it hadn't been able to step into the path of cultivation and become a demon beast.

Thinking about the two wooden gates that should be connected to some other part of the special independent space that he now found himself inside of, the old man could not help feeling a hint of curiosity about what might be lurking on the other side of the two wooden gates. 

Given his knowledge about these kinds of independent spaces, it might be an ancient spiritual herb garden filled to the brim with ancient spiritual herbs that could help him recover from his current state, or it might be a deadly hell scape filled with all kinds of terrifying demons wanting nothing more than to kill him… And considering his current state, he could not risk going to such a place before he at least managed to recover his strength to the Soul Ascension Realm.

Given the fact that his current strength had just barely managed to recover back up to a level comparable to the Domain Lord Realm, he didn't dare think about entering the two wooden gates any time soon.

"But… I should have recovered enough to move around a bit…" Almost whispering this to himself as he felt a need to move around after spending over a year in the same position, the old man slowly got up after stretching his rigid body. Soon beginning to aimlessly wander around the Sea of Mist to stretch out his legs after such a long time sitting in the lotus position on the ground.

For once in his life, the once powerful Earth Immortal Realm Expert, felt like an ordinary old man out on a normal walk as he wandered around the empty Sea of Mist…

"Huh?"

After a little over two hours passed peacefully like this and the old man was preparing to get back to recovering and sit down for another year, he found himself standing directly in front of one of the two wooden gates. Having unconsciously moved towards the closest of the two wooden gates during his small walk around the Sea of Mist. 

Well… A single peek never hurt anyone before. Not to mention, I should be able to retreat safely in case something really does end up happening…

Convincing himself that it would be fine to just take a little peak on the other side of the wooden gate in front of him, the old man slowly leaned forward as he stuck his head through the wooden gate. Having already tried and failed to penetrate it with his divine sense earlier.

However, the sight on the other side of the wooden gate was nothing like what he expected to see, as he found himself face to face with a small, cute looking rabbit demon beast-

"Soul Ascension Realm…!?"

Even more shocking was the fact that he discovered that the small, cute looking rabbit demon beast had actually reached the Soul Ascension Realm. Having far exceeded anything he could deal with in his current state.

Squeak?

Noticing the old man at the same time that the old man noticed it, the rabbit demon beast tilted its head in confusion at the aged face that had suddenly popped out from the wooden gate a few meters away from where it was training the squirrel.

Whoosh-!

Reacting fast, the old man took advantage of this confusion to rapidly pull his head back out from the wooden gate. Leaving the rabbit demon beast in an even more confused state as it wondered if what it had just witnessed had been a mirage created by the Ephemeral Forest.

If not for the fact that it didn't dare to leave the Ephemeral Forest in case its master returned and found out it was missing, it would have followed after the weird floating head to investigate whether or not it had just been tricked by a mirage created by the powerful presence of the Dao of Mirages in the Ephemeral Forest.

Squeak…?

Not having seen the weird floating head that appeared in the wooden gate just now, the squirrel let out a confused squeaking sound upon seeing the weird state of the rabbit demon beast. Feeling curious about what had caused its strict and almost sadistic teacher to give it a rare break during a highly intensive physical training session-

Squeak!

However, this did not last for long, as the rabbit demon beast sprung back into action the moment it heard the curious squeaking from the squirrel. Giving it no time to rest as it increased the intensity of the training even further.

Although this terrifying training was beneficial to it, the squirrel could not help letting out a painful sound as it began regretting the fact that it didn't just remain quiet and use the precious time when the rabbit demon beast was distracted to get some rest…

"How terrifying!"

At the same time that the rabbit demon beast returned to training the squirrel, the old man who had appeared as a floating head to the rabbit demon beast was looking towards the wooden gate filled with fear.

"Even a small and cute rabbit that would at most be in the Qi Condensation Realm managed to reach the Soul Ascension Realm. If I'm not wrong, I should have been rather lucky to not have ended up face to face with an Earth Immortal Realm demon beast earlier.

Indeed, it's far too dangerous for me to explore the other side of the wooden gates in my current state. Even recovering my strength back to the Soul Ascension Realm is far from enough to explore those places…" Muttering this to himself as he let his imagination run wild about what other things might be hidden on the other side of the wooden gate, the old man made his way back to the spot he had been spending all his time over the past year.

"For now, I should focus on recovering my strength before doing anything else…" Closing his eyes as he said this to himself, the old man didn't bother continue his walk around the Sea of Mist and instead sat back down on the ground before continuing to cultivate like nothing had happened.