Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Chapter 2166: Ancient Holy Guardian (2)

Thinking along this line, Xuan Hao could not help how powerful he seemed in the eyes of the ancient holy guardian for it to not even dare make the first move in front of him and instead causing it to enter a submissive state of watching without doing anything unless directly provoked like those five- now four juniors had ended up doing. From his estimate of the strength that this ancient holy guardian wielded, he could tell that in its eyes, his strength had at least reached the Void God Realm and potentially even surpassed it to some extent given how the holy guardian should have been created to deal with beings at that level.

Feeling a bit curious and ignoring the four panicked juniors now scrambling towards the exit leading back down the central spire, Xuan Hao decided to shift all his strength into his divine sense. Bolstering it beyond its normal limits. Allowing it to subtly surpass the Early to Middle Stage of the Star Creation Realm that it hovered around normally and reached a level close to that of the Peak of the Star Creation Realm that even subtly touched the Venerable Realm.

Of course, this kind of terrifying increase in the strength of his divine sense didn’t come without a cost, as he essentially gave up any other form of combat and directly focused everything he had into his divine sense.

This wasn’t any special ability of his, but something everyone whose divine sense reached a level comparable to that of the Dao Seed Realm would be capable of accomplishing. Only... This kind of brute force increase of divine sense wasn’t exactly useful and would leave one in a compromised position, as right now, even someone that had just barely reached the Sea Formation Realm of the Profound Immortal Realm would have the ability to kill him while his divine sense wouldn’t be able to do much to someone in the Sea Formation Realm in time before they could kill him...

Whoosh~

As his divine sense spread out, the four panicked juniors at the Void Monarch Realm all found themselves freezing on the spot faced with this terrifying divine sense that exceeded anything they had encountered in their short lives and before long, the divine sense forcibly empowered by Xuan Hao at the cost of placing himself in a vulnerable position where he couldn’t even take a single step forward without causing fluctuations and the potential collapse of his divine sense, reached the ancient holy guardian.

Thud~

At first, nothing changed about the holy guardian as it remained frozen on the spot, but as Xuan Hao’s divine sense began peering into it and directly analyzed its internal structure to see how this kind of powerful golem functioned, a subtle resistance began to form as a terrifying will erupted from the depths of the golems internal circuits and began resisting the forceful invasion of his divine sense in an attempt to stop it from reaching the core of the ancient holy guardian.

Rumble~

Unfortunately for the ancient holy guardian, though this powerful will was by no means weak and directly comparable to Xuan Hao’s own divine sense before being empowered. In the current state, it didn’t manage to last long before being directly overwhelmed by his empowered divine sense that soon enough broke past the residual will lingering within the depths of the ancient holy guardian... And with him winning the clash, the ancient holy guardian that had been standing up straight guarding the door leading towards what Xuan Hao assumed to be the top of the ancient cathedral’s central spire. Collapsed motionlessly to the ground. Having seemingly lost the will to continue its duty as a guardian.

Huh? What in the world...?

This entire sequence of events caught Xuan Hao himself completely off guard, as from what he had managed to gather on this ancient holy guardian so far, it shouldn’t have simply collapsed because that remnant will that didn’t even seem to belong to the ancient holy guardian had been dealt with by him. If anything, it should have become stronger, as it didn’t take long for him to realize that the will itself had only been kept around for so long thanks to relying on the ancient holy guardian.

Without it, the holy guardian had essentially freed up a large portion of energy and strength that had previously been dedicated to ensuring the continued existence of that ancient will that had seemingly attempted to push him out once his divine sense forcibly pierced through the outer shell of the ancient holy guardian.

Driven by curiosity, Xuan Hao decided to try a dwell deeper into the internal workings of the ancient holy guardian that had seemingly lost any ability to fight back following the collapse of that ancient will lingering within it. Soon enough discovering that the ancient will itself had done far more than just redirect parts of the ancient holy guardian’s internal circuits and functions to sustain itself. Instead, it had directly torn apart most of the internal workings that kept the ancient holy guardian running and had essentially placed itself at the very core of the ancient holy guardian, something that had resulted in the holy guardian he found himself facing being far weaker than it was before these internal changes.

If he wasn’t wrong, the ancient will that had surged forth the second his divine sense attempted to force its way inside should have belonged to some ancient cultivator that had reached the Void God Realm and in the past faced off against the ancient holy guardian and ended up losing, but in the process of losing, the other party had directly managed to separate part of their will and merge together with the ancient holy guardian. Slowly taking control before gaining the ability to redirect most of the internal energy and power within the ancient holy guardian towards sustaining itself and continuing its seemingly hopeless existence.

In turn, this not only meant the holy guardian was far weaker than it should have been, but also severely limited the movement of the ancient holy guardian.

What he originally thought was cation born from his powerful divine sense, was in fact not cation, but instead a limitation that the ancient will had placed on the ancient holy guardian that prevented it from redirecting energy elsewhere, as even a small lack of energy supply could result in the ancient will perishing.

The death of the junior at the Void Monarch Realm had truly been unjust, as from what he could tell, the instructions carved into every part of the ancient holy guardian had just barely won and made it kill that junior against the will of the ancient will that had long since taken control of its body.

The collapse itself had only happened because the ancient holy guardian itself had long since perished and what was left was nothing more than an ancient will of a long forgotten ancient Void God controlling the dead husk of the ancient holy guardian.

What should have been a life and death battle with little chance of him making it out alive turned out to be a far simpler battle than he had originally anticipated. Wasting no time, he quickly recalled his powerful divine sense and spent a few seconds restoring his state back to what it had been before and making sure that no lasting effects were left behind from forcibly enhancing the strength of his divine sense just now.

Whoosh~

And of course, faced with the invaluable ancient holy guardian, he didn’t hesitate for a second to place it inside his interspatial ring, as different from the previous holy guardians that had essentially turned into scrap metal after he was done with them, this one still held immense value. Not just because it might be possible to restore it in the future, but also because the intricate formation symbols and runes carved into it were of immense research value to himself and the rest of the Star Shattering Sect. The only unfortunate part was the fact that the core of this ancient golem had already been twisted beyond recognition and been destroyed alongside the ancient will. Making it impossible to figure out how it worked when it was still around.

Still, things were far better than he had originally anticipated with something like the ancient holy guardian on hand and made him leave the twenty ninth floor of the dungeon instead of proceeding forward towards what might be certain death.

After all, while he wouldn’t lose things directly bought through the tower like his new sword, he would lose everything else he had brought along with him along with anything he obtained on the twenty ninth floor of the tower.

But... After hesitating for a good few minutes before the door leading up towards the top of the central spire, Xuan Hao still ultimately continued forward towards the unknown. Curiosity overcoming the sense of danger he felt towards what awaited him on the other side.