Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

”This…”

Using his divine sense to see the situation outside the spatial passage he was travelling to, Xuan Hao quickly realized that the situation inside the celestial gate had become far worse compared to when he had entered it a few days earlier. Not only had the massive spatial storm grown more than twice in size, but over a dozen smaller spatial storms had emerged around it and were in the process of further weakening the restraints of the celestial gate.

The restraints in question had now materialized into countless massive golden chains that bound the spatial storms, holding them in place even as countless cracks continued spreading throughout the golden chains that all emitted terrifying, soul shaking pressure.

Even just looking at the situation from afar through his divine sense, he felt a primal fear emerging from the depths of his soul as he looked at those massive golden chains forcefully holding the spatial storms in place for now.

But… The golden chains were not the only thing that caught his attention. Instead, the trial space that he had just emerged from and was rapidly travelling away from soon caught his full attention, as he watched the massive ball of light containing the trial space being ripped apart by the massive spatial storm that the golden chains were unable to fully restrain-

RUMBLE-!

More specifically, he focused on the countless massive roots that emerged from the trial space as it was torn apart by the spatial storm. Not just because those roots were familiar, but more so because the power they contained directly tore apart the massive spatial storm upon emerging.

Indeed, the power of those roots are definitely beyond the Profound Immortal Realm…

Only able to think this to himself as he watched how the relatively small roots in comparison to the spatial storm suddenly grew large enough to directly compete with the spatial storm in terms of size before clashing with it violently, Xuan Hao felt like the spatial storm might be dealt with by the strange roots as he watched the battle between the two sides playing out.

Each clash between the two tearing apart the interior of the celestial gate, as countless trial spaces were torn apart in the process, causing countless demon beasts and other strange creatures to spill out into the space before ultimately being killed as the power of the two sides clashing swept over them.

Be they demon beast at the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm or terrifying strange beings that had surpassed what he could discern with his current strength, all of them perished shortly after they either escaped from or were thrown out of the trial space they had been living in.

The destruction taking place was far beyond anything he had seen before and was not just fear inducing, but also beneficial, as it gave him a chance to observe a battle that existed far beyond his current realm.

Even if he had no clue about the realm of the battle taking place, it allowed his comprehension of the Dao of Space to rapidly increase due to one of the two entities involved in the battle being a spatial storm.

At the same time, given that the other entity involved was some kind of large living root imbued with the Dao of Life, he also managed to rapidly increase his comprehension of the Dao of Life.

Boom~

In the end, because his comprehension of the Dao of Life had not even reached the Elementary Realm before, the brief battle allowed him to directly reach this realm and even make significant progress towards the Small Success Realm!

CRAAAACK-! BANG!

Unfortunately, the good times were not meant to last, as one of the larger golden chains that had been holding the massive spatial storm in place and in turn helped the living root in its battle, broke…

RUUUUUUUUUUUMBLE-!

And at that moment, the spatial storm surged with overwhelming power that directly overwhelmed the rest of the golden chains that had been holding it in place. Allowing it to grow freely without any restraints!

Almost without any suspense, the massive living root that had been contending equally with the spatial storm so far was directly swallowed by the spatial storm. Disappearing inside it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Although the sound of it fighting could still be heard from inside the spatial storm for now, Xuan Hao was certain that the living root had lost.

Even if the spatial storm wasn’t a sentient being, it would only continue to expand and in turn make it more difficult to escape from inside. Not to mention, as it grew, the spatial storm also became more powerful!

Wait… With the restraints of the celestial gate gone and no one left to prevent its growth, will I still be able to get out in time…?

Suddenly realizing that his current situation might not be as safe as he had first assumed, Xuan Hao could not help looking in the direction of the massive spatial storm as it began expanding faster and faster in his direction.

The speed at which he was moving through the spatial passage was already terrifying. Travelling what could be considered a tenth of the entire Northern Central Region every second, but… The spatial storm expanding behind him wasn’t slow either and was rapidly catching up to him following its restraints disappearing.

If such a spatial storm appeared outside the celestial gate, it would likely only take a few minutes to swallow up the entire Ewaria Continent at its current growth speed.

But then again, that was impossible, as the spatial stability of the continent was different from the interior of the celestial gate that was already on the brink of collapse. Making it easy for the spatial storm to continue expanding.

Feeling his thoughts starting to wander as he gazed back at the terrifying spatial storm swallowing up the spatial passage behind him, Xuan Hao quickly pulled out the random teleportation talisman.

If he really couldn’t make it out in time, he would use the random teleportation talisman to escape from the interior of the ninth celestial gate.

Even if this would throw him somewhere far away from the Northern Central Region and it would take him some time to get back, he would at the very least be alive and know that he had managed to successfully complete the ninth celestial trial. Ensuring that completing the main quest inside the mystic realm was still within the scope of possibility.

[Main Quest: The Ten Celestial Trials]

[Description: Having gained the celestial compass, you can now track down the remaining celestial trials inside the mystic realm. Complete all the celestial trials.]

[Celestial Trials Completed: 9/10]

[Reward: Increase comprehension of the Dao of Space, ???]

[Note: If celestial trials are destroyed before completion, other celestial trials outside the mystic realm can be completed.]

To make sure this was the case, he had even checked the quest to be certain that he had really completed the ninth celestial trial…

RUUUMBLE-!

”Looks like I might not be able to get out in time.” Feeling the spatial storm starting to affect the stability of the spatial passage he was travelling through, Xuan Hao let out quiet sigh as he looked down at the random teleportation talisman grasped in his right hand.

”What a pity, I would have rea-”

Rumble~

Just about to activate the random teleportation talisman to escape before the spatial storm could catch up with him, Xuan Hao was suddenly thrown out of his thoughts as he sensed the situation around him stabilizing. Not just that, but he also felt the distance between himself and the spatial storm widening, like his travel speed had suddenly increased several times over-

Whoosh~! Bang!

And before he even realized what had happened, he found himself thrown into the ground outside the ninth celestial gate.

”Wha-What is-”

Whoosh-! BANG!

Turning back towards the celestial gate filled with confusion over what had just happened, he didn’t even have the chance to voice his confusion, as the celestial gate swung closed before vanishing into thin air.

”What in the world was that…. Some kind of emergency protocol?” Unable to comprehend what had just happened, Xuan Hao could only quietly mutter this to himself as he looked at where the ninth celestial gate had been located seconds earlier.

Although he wasn’t exactly clear on what had happened, he still guessed that it should have been some kind of emergency protocol of sorts activating to ensure his safety before the spatial storm could reach him.

The only question left on his mind was why this had not been activated earlier if there was this kind of security measure in place, but, then again, the ninth celestial gate was in an extremely bad state.

Maybe the safety protocol had not been activated earlier due to a malfunction and at the last moment, it had managed to reactivate. Allowing him to safely escape from the ninth celestial gate before… Before it vanished? To be honest, he had no clue what had ended up happening to the ninth celestial gate, as it had seemingly just vanished into thin air…