Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

"This should be the start of the ancient ruins that the system quest mentioned…" Having travelled over the plain of poisonous grass, Xuan Hao could not help opening both of his eyes wide as he looked at the majestic buildings appearing in the distance.

Although a long time had passed since the ancient sect had been destroyed, the buildings still remained intact with minimal damage over the long passage of time. Looking even closer, a faint yet powerful ancient aura lingered around these ancient buildings.

Even if he could only see a small part of this once majestic ancient sect through the miasma, it was obvious that the size of the sect itself should cover an area far larger than that of the Great Poison Swamp itself!

After all, the area that the ancient sect ruins covered on a map was close to fifty times larger than the Great Poison Swamp that was located beside it! Even if most of this large territory was used for cultivation of spiritual herbs like the poisonous spiritual grass he had just flown over, the sect itself should not cover an area smaller than the area covered by the Great Poison Swamp!

Putting it into another perspective, the area covered by the Great Poison Swamp was around the same as the past Heavenly Sky Kingdom and the Azure Sky Kingdom combined!

It was easy to imagine just how many disciples and how powerful a sect that large would be…

Looking at the majestic buildings in front of him as he was slowly approaching this massive ancient sect that should have once been far more powerful than he could even begin to imagine, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes as he prepared himself.

No matter what, after the fall of such a terrifying sect, it was obvious that the area around the sect itself had become an incredibly dangerous due to the many formations covering this place master and the myriad of other defensive mechanisms no longer having any master still being active to some degree even to this day.

Thinking about it more closely, the miasma that covered both the ruins of the ancient sect and the Great Poison Swamp should be one of these formations that had gone out of control after the fall of this ancient sect in the past!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

"Hm?"

Just as he was at this moment when Xuan Hao had started to observe the miasma all around him more closely, three powerful auras appeared from the ancient sect ruins in front of him before three large shadows flew out and floated in the air a few hundred meters away from where he was standing.

Different from him who was still restricted by the strange power present inside the miasma, the three large shadows that had come to a stop could freely fly in the air without any difficulties. Allowing Xuan Hao to understand that the three shadows floating in the air in front of him should be part of some sort of defensive mechanism of the ancient sect.

More snakes!?

Inspecting the shadows that had come to a stop mid-air, Xuan Hao could not help frowning after realizing that the three shadows were similar to the shadowy figure he had encountered after filling up one of his interspatial rings with Purple Poison Grass.

However, different from the shadow figure that he had encountered at that time the three shadows floating in the air only a few hundred meters away from him gave off a far more powerful aura than the shadowy figure. Even Xuan Hao could not help frowning after feeling the power contained after the massive ball of snakes hidden inside the shadows had combined together.

"Even if they have not yet reached the Soul Ascension Realm, their strength should not be that far away from it… Facing three of these shadows filled with snakes, even a Soul Ascension Realm Expert would have a hard time!"

Rumble~!

Floating in the air in front of the air for a few short seconds, a terrifying aura exploded from the three shadows before all their auras combined together and formed thousands upon thousands of small green needles that all flew in the direction of Xuan Hao who was standing on the ground below!

Swoosh-!

Swoosh-!

Swoosh-!

Listening to the sound of the green needle piercing through the air as they flew towards him, Xuan Hao unsheathed his sword before gathering the power of his domain on his silver sword.

Not daring to hold back when faced with the combined attack of the three shadows in the shape of three large balls filled to the brim with snakes floating in the air above him, Xuan Hao directly executed the Earth Splitting Sword-

RUMBLE-!

As his attack met with the endless number of green needles, a loud rumbling sound followed by a terrifying shockwave instantly spread out in all directions.

Hissss!

Hissss!

Hissss!

With no way to defend themselves from the terrifying shockwave, the countless Nascent Soul Realm snakes hidden beneath the Purple Poison Grass were instantly killed by the shockwave.

BANG!

The ancient sect buildings on the other hand were not even scratched by the shockwave, the faint ancient aura still lingering around the majestic sect buildings completely negating it!

Whoosh-!

On the other hand, Xuan Hao and the three large shadows floating in the air were completely unaffected by the clash just now!

Looks like I will have to use something stronger than the Earth Splitting Sword if I want to defeat them!

Seeing that the Earth Splitting Sword had actually not managed to even reach the three shadows floating in the air above him, Xuan Hao understood that the combined strength of the three shadows should have already reached the Soul Ascension Realm. Maybe they were even a bit stronger when compared to the person who had been fighting back inside the core of the Thousand Wind Mountains!

Because of this, the only thing Xuan Hao could think of that would allow him to fight with them was his Descend of the Ice God's Sword. Although he did not know exactly how strong it was, it was stronger than the Earth Splitting Sword and should be able to at least allow him to land a hit on one of the three shadows filled with snakes… As long as he could deal with one of them, their strength should weaken, and it would be far easier for him to deal with the other two!

Boom!

Boom!

Just as he was about to try and use Descend of the Ice God's Sword, two terrifying auras similar to the three shadows floating in the air above him appeared from inside the ancient sect before rushing towards his direction.

Not good! If more of them show up and combine together, they will likely grow far too strong for me to fight!

Understanding that he would have no chance of winning if more balls of shadows filled with snakes showed up and combined together, Xuan Hao's eyes was filled with killing intent, as he looked towards the two shadows that appeared at the edge of his divine sense.

Swish-!

Not wasting a single second, Xuan Hao used all his strength to charge past the three shadows in the air just above the entrance to the ancient sect before arriving directly in front of the two shadows filled with snakes that were flying towards the three floating in the air above the entrance to the ancient sect.

BOOM-!

BOOM-!

Using all his strength, Xuan Hao managed to directly pierce through the black miasma and destroy all of the snakes inside before they had managed to put forth any defences! Having destroyed the two balls of snakes, he would now only have to deal with the remaining three floating above the entrance to the sect-

Wait, why didn't those three balls of snakes move…?

Feeling something was weird, Xuan Hao quickly turned towards the three balls of snakes hidden away by an eerie black miasma.

This!? When did three new shadows appear?!

However, when he turned his attention back towards them, Xuan Hao was horrified to discover that there was no longer only three balls of snakes covered in the eerie black miasma. Instead, there was now six of them!

Even worse, Xuan Hao could clearly feel that after their strength had combined together, they had already surpassed the strength of the Soul Ascension Realm Expert that had attacked him before he had managed to escape through the ancient teleportation artifact.

Although not on the same level as the spear made from dark blue light that had been thrown after him back then, Xuan Hao understood very well that it would only be a matter of time before that happened.

BOOM-!

BOOM-!

BOOM-!

The reason for this thought was simple, as Xuan Hao could now feel hundreds of auras similar to the shadows floating above the entrance to the ancient sect appearing from several all over the ancient sect that he could only see a small part of at this point in time!

"No wonder even those Soul Ascension Realm fear this place…"

Barely whispering these words to himself as he looked towards the six shadows floating above the entrance to the ancient sect, Xuan Hao no longer had any thought of fighting with them…