Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Looking through the information on the Sea Formation Realm for a second time to make sure that he hadn’t missed anything, he made sure that the Sea Formation Realm was indeed divided into the Calm, Wild, Turbulent and Chaotic Sea. No mention of the barrier he had just broken through not too long ago

Name: Xuan Hao

Daos: Perfection (3), Large Success (6), Small Success (2), Elementary Realm (1)

Spiritual Sea: 37 kilometers circumference

Realm: Middle Stage Sea Formation Realm

Sect: Star Shattering Sect

Status: Ancestor of the Star Shattering Sect

Disciples: Qing Yi, Chu Yang, Bai Ning, Mui, Chun Hua

Pet: Lazy Winged Lion (Early Stage of the Dao Seed Realm), Rabbit Demon Beast (Early Stage of the Dao Seed Realm)

Pulling up a simplified version of his status through the system to make sure that he wasn’t just imagining things, he did indeed confirm that he had broken through to the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm just now.

Not just that, but he also noticed a new line of text indicating the current size of his spiritual sea, while there was no mention of the state of his spiritual sea according to the realm division that he had learnt about from the Tower of Secrets.

The only real connection he could draw between the two was the state his spiritual sea was in after his breakthrough to the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, as that really would fit in with the Wild Sea state that had been associated with the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm.

”Ah… Maybe the states described refers to the optimal state of the spiritual sea when breaking through? If the spiritual sea would be in a worse state, it would be a sign that my foundation wasn’t strong enough and going any further might be difficult.” Muttering this to himself as he silently inspected the state of his spiritual sea, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of relief at having potentially figured out the doubt that had emerged after his sudden breakthrough to the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm.

Although he had felt confident that nothing would go wrong given his strong foundation, it was still a bit surprising when he broke through earlier.

But… It did leave him wondering why there was no mention of this clear barrier he had encountered before breaking through to the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm. Especially when there had been such a vague outline for the realm in the shape of the state of the spiritual sea.

Part of him wondered if this was because he was unique, but this thought didn’t last long, as there would certainly have been others who had broken through to the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm in ancient past.

If not, how could they have records on the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm and how to break through to the realm?

Shaking his head as he thought about this, the best guess he could make regarding the Sea Formation Realm’s strange division was that one would break through to the Middle Stage of the realm at different moments depending on the strength of their foundation, some before the 10-kilometer mark where he had broken through, while some might have broken through later.

The only question left on his mind was why there wouldn’t be any information on this inside the information he had bought from the Tower of Secrets, but given that he still wanted to redeem his last reward from the main quest and find a way to get back to his normal size, he decided to not think too deeply about this matter for now. Leaving it for later.

After all, it could always be that this information was related to some more expensive information that wasn’t deemed meaningful to be included in the information he had obtained.

In any case, he could always pay a visit to the Tower of Secrets after he returned to normal before leaving the mystic realm…

[Would you like to redeem the reward?]

[Y/N]

Yes!

Wasting no time after feeling that his spiritual sea had calmed down a bit compared to when he had just broken through to the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, Xuan Hao directly chose to receive the final reward from the main quest. Planning to hopefully increase his comprehension of the Dao of Space is enough for him to figure out a way to return to normal, as he really didn’t want to return to the sect in his current state.

Whoosh~

As a few seconds flew by with nothing happening following his redemption of the reward, a gentle wind brushed against him in the independent space where no such wind should have existed-

”Wha-!? This…!”

And before he knew it, he found himself standing on top of a floating island no more than a few meters wide in the middle of a pitch-black void that stretched on endlessly in all directions.

The only thing separating him and the small floating island from that endless void being a familiar thin barrier that he recognized as belonging to the enlightenment space of the system that he had visited a few times in the past.

[Dao of Space, Enlightenment Space: 23 hours, 59 minutes]

Sure enough, after he pulled up the system, he soon saw the familiar countdown. Only, it was far longer than the ones he had seen in the past.

Although, it did slightly disappoint him that the reward had ended up deceiving him into believing that his comprehension of the Dao of Space would increase in a similar way as to how his cultivation had just gone from the Early Stage of the Sea Formation Realm to the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm with the help of the main quest reward.

Then again, this might be better, as an entire day inside the enlightenment space of the system was sure to bring enormous benefits beyond just helping him comprehend a way to return to his normal size again.

Even then… Looking out at the empty void outside his small bubble, he could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine.

The eerie silence and the endless darkness only broken by the gentle light that protected him from whatever might be lurking out in there

The gentle ripples on the surface of the barrier as something unseen collided with it to get inside.

Everything brough about a very real sense of existential dread from the depth of his soul, a feeling that he had only ever experienced after dying before waking up back in the Flying Sword Sect.

This sudden sense of dread that washed over him was so intense that his entire body and thought process froze for a few seconds before starting to calm down after barely managing to force his eyes shut.

If something like that had happened during a fight, it would have been more than enough for an opponent to easily kill him. Luckily, that wasn’t the case, and he was all by himself in the middle of the empty void that the system referred to as an enlightenment space for the Dao of Space.

Dao of Space… This really doesn’t feel like the Dao of Space at all!

Taking a few minutes to calm himself down, Xuan Hao used the time to go over what had happened.

But… No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out where that sense of dread from earlier had come from. Only that the only way to stop it was by keeping his eyes shut.

Perhaps… The empty void outside isn’t empty…

Feeling a shiver running down his spine as he thought about this, he couldn’t help recalling the strange creatures that had been present during his time in the enlightenment space for the Dao of Corruption.

Given that the enlightenment space for the Dao of Corruption could give birth to those strange creatures, it was reasonable to think that the enlightenment space of the Dao of Space could also give birth to… ’Something’… As for what that ’something’ was, he didn’t want to find out and just hoped that whatever it might be, wouldn’t discover him. After all, as confident as he was in the barrier provided by the system, the terror he had felt made him feel uncertain…

[Dao of Space, Enlightenment Space: 23 hours, 37 minutes]

Using his mind to glance over at the system interface indicating that almost half an hour had passed since his arrival at the enlightenment space for the Dao of Space, Xuan Hao ultimately couldn’t just linger around doing nothing inside the enlightenment space.

Whoosh~

And so, he cautiously poked a tiny fraction of his divine sense outside the protective barrier guarding him from the endless void outside before slowly starting to perceive the state of the endless void outside in an attempt to figure out just how beneficial it would be for him to comprehend the Dao of Space in this kind of environment.