Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Knowing that he had already wasted a lot of time both fighting and searching through the celestial trial space, Xuan Hao didn’t dare waste any more time as he directly rushed into the sky before entering the turbulent sea of lightning above. Soon enough, coming to a stop, as he discovered that the sea of lightning had become far more dangerous since his last visit during his escape from the winged lightning serpent and the three-headed turtle.

Not only did he spot a total of seven ferocious beasts after stepping inside the sea of lightning, but he also realized that the strength of these ferocious beasts had grown far stronger compared to before.

Two of them having reached the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, while the remaining seven were between the Early and Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Relam, though, the majority were in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm. A stark contrast compared to the first time he had entered the sea of lightning and only spotted a single ferocious beast in the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

If things continued like this and the ferocious beasts became stronger, it wouldn’t be long before a ferocious beast at the Peak of the Celestial Immortal Realm appeared… And at that point in time, he would really be in trouble, as he doubted that he would have the ability to hide himself properly against a demon beast that powerful.

After all, the Peak of the Celestial Immortal Realm was considered more powerful than his Early Sea Formation Realm cultivation base. Not to mention, the senses of a ferocious beast was nothing to scoff at and to be on the safe side, he still had to do his best to avoid any of the Late Stage Celestial Immortal Realm ferocious beasts if he wanted to avoid being swarmed by the ferocious beasts that seemed to grow in number by the second inside the sea of lightning.

At this point, the eighth celestial trial was no longer about him bravely fighting his way through the sea of lightning to reach the core. Instead, it had more so turned into a stealth game of him trying his best to sneak past ferocious beasts.

Although it wasn’t something he felt proud about doing considering how he had confidently faced off against a group of Celestial Immortal Relam ferocious beasts when he had first arrived in the trial space, it was the only viable path he saw for completing the celestial trial at its current state. The ferocious beasts around him were simply too numerous for him to have any other thoughts.

Just looking at his current situation after sneaking past the first two ferocious beasts at the Late Stage Celestial Immortal Realm, Xuan Hao found himself surrounded by at least thirty ferocious beasts in the Celestial Immortal Realm.

Should his presence be known by them, he would instantly be swarmed and attacked by all of them and no matter how confident he was in his own strength and ability to avoid attacks, he also understood that there wouldn’t be anywhere for him to dodge in the face of thirty ferocious beasts attacking him at the same time from all directions…

Whoosh~With this in the back of his mind, Xuan Hao continued sneaking past ferocious beasts. Doing his best to stay undetected as he followed the flow of lightning that seemed to originate from the depths of the seemingly endless sea of lightning.

At the very least, the core of the sea of lightning became clearer with each passing second as the power of the sea of lightning increased visibly. Pulsating out from what he guessed to be the core of the sea of lightning. Allowing him to trace it, while at the same time also getting the opportunity to witness how the ferocious beasts managed to grow so powerful so quickly.

In simple terms, as the power of the lightning increased, it poured into the ferocious beasts roaming the sea of lightning. Resulting in them either rapidly growing stronger or-

Boom!

Exploding into a gory mess like a rather unfortunate Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm ferocious beast that he had just passed by.

In another way, the rapid progress caused by the endless lightning qi flowing into their bodies did make them stronger, but at the same time also put them on a path of no return.

Either they had to keep absorbing the lightning and continue growing stronger, or the lightning qi inside them would grow unstable and blow up.

No matter what path they followed, they would inevitably all blow up at some point, just a few of them managing to last a bit longer than others.

But… What about that three-headed turtle? It didn’t seem to be a lightning related ferocious beast like the rest and didn’t seem like it had been absorbing the lightning qi from the sea of lightning to rapidly increase its strength… Did it perhaps emerge from the demon beasts wandering the mountain range below the sea of lightning…?

As he suddenly thought about the three-headed turtle again, Xuan Hao could not help wondering about its origin. After all, it was clear that it shouldn’t be related to the ferocious beasts in the sea of lightning. Meaning that it was instead a demon beast that had cultivated on its own from a normal turtle demon beast that had roamed the endless mountains below in the past.

The only problem was that the demon beast that should be far smarter than a ferocious beast, seemed to be far dumber than one.

Perhaps this was a case of growing up under the bad influence of ferocious beasts? The already not too smart ferocious beasts had passed on their intelligence to the three-headed turtle and made it dumber than a normal demon beast. Even reaching the point of becoming a genius in that regard, surpassing even ferocious beasts in terms of its intelligence…

Shaking his head as he suddenly recalled the three-headed turtle and how it had essentially spent the entire battle just charging at him headfirst while randomly spewing out fire along the way, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit of pity towards it.

If it had been outside the celestial trial space and the mystic realm, it might have turned into a splendid demon beast with its terrifyingly powerful physique that even rendered someone like himself helpless.

Unfortunately, it had been born in a celestial trial space and was brought up by ferocious beasts. Leading to the worst possible outcome, as even if part of him wanted to take it out of the celestial trial and raise it to be sect guardian beast, he couldn’t do so.

Not just because he was too weak to overwhelm it, but also because he didn’t believe he could take any of the demon beasts found inside celestial trials along with him when leaving as far as he was aware.

Speak of the devil…

ROOOOAR-!

The three-headed turtle emerged from a nearby cluster of dark clouds. Roaring loudly as it chomped down on a large spirit stone that had naturally formed in the extreme environment of the sea of lightning.

RAWR-!

Not just the three-headed turtle, but the winged lightning serpent also emerged following close behind. The main difference compared to before was that the winged lightning serpent was no longer in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm but had instead reached the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t really have affected him in the slightest-

Roar?

Rawr?

”…”

However, it just so happened that the cluster of dark clouds that the two ferocious beasts emerged from was right next to him. Giving him no chance to dodge out of the way or avoid confrontation, as the three of them all froze on the spot staring at each other.

”Hi… I… I will be taking my leave…”

Swish-!

Following a short greeting to the still frozen ferocious beasts, Xuan Hao dropped all attempts of trying to stay hidden as he used his full strength to rush into the depths of the sea of lightning. Understanding that staying hidden any longer would be useless now that he had been discovered.

ROOOOOOOOOOOAR-!

RAAAAAWR-!

And only a second after he had disappeared, the ferocious beast and the demon beast realized what had happened, as both roared loudly before turning around to chase after him, both fully intent on getting revenge from their earlier battle.

RUMBLE-!

Roooar!?

Screeech!!?

Rooaaaar!

In turn, the commotion soon drew the attention of surrounding ferocious beasts, as they also soon became aware of Xuan Hao’s presence. Wasting no time as they joined in on chasing after him.

Even worse, it became clear that using the Dao of Space inside the sea of lightning wasn’t doable due to the chaotic environment. Forcing him to stay with the Illusory Light Steps during the chase.

It was not that the movement technique was bad in any way, it was just that… It wasn’t discreet in the slightest. Painting a bright trial of light through the sea of lightning. Giving any nearby ferocious beasts a clear target to follow…