Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Feeling a change taking place the second he stepped inside the forest domain of the spiritual tree and gave it a chance to sense his presence, Xuan Hao understood that he would only have a short time to get his hands on the spiritual fruits before the spiritual tree would be capable of retaliating against him. This retaliation most likely being in the form of some kind of suppression that would make it far more difficult for him to leave through the Dao of Space like he was planning to do. Potentially even resulting in him having to defend himself against at least one attack from the spiritual tree, something he wanted to avoid if possible.

Whoosh~

For this reason, he didn’t care the slightest bit about the reactions of the four Dao Seed Realm cultivators in the process of using all their strength to escape from their current deadly situation. Reaching the side of the Middle Stage Dao Seed Realm cultivator before taking away the five spiritual fruits.

Given the sheer difference in strength between the two of them, by the time he noticed the spiritual fruits were missing, the perpetrator in question had already turned around with the spiritual fruits in hand and was already half a step outside the forest domain of the spiritual tree. Not facing the same restriction that the four Dao Seed Realm cultivators were experiencing.

Though... That was to be expected...

Rumble~!

But even then, he wasn’t fast enough to get out of the forest domain before the spiritual tree fully awakened without any regard for the loss of progress it ended up suffering because of this instant awakening when Xuan Hao had finally decided to step inside its forest domain.

All for the simple reason that Xuan Hao posed a very real threat with his strength in the Middle Stage of the Sea Formation Realm. Essentially forcing out a response, as remaining inactive could not just pose a deadly threat in case Xuan Hao decided to try and kill it, but also because those five spiritual fruits it had nurtured over thousands of years was now at the very real risk of being lost for good, something that was unacceptable to the spiritual tree.

Looks like I will have to force my way out in the end...

Staring directly at the massive tree root that had emerged from the ground to block him before he could escape from the tree domain of the spiritual tree, Xuan Hao could not help sighting reluctantly to himself while also looking at the boundary line of the spiritual tree’s forest domain that was located just behind the massive tree root that now blocked his path forward.

As for why he didn’t just use the Dao of Space to leave from inside the forest domain? That was rather simple, as the space inside the forest domain was far too solid for him to do so in a short time.

Even if he could do it in the end, the effort required would be far more and he would also have to deal with the angered Land Creation Realm spiritual tree. Injured as it might be, it was still an existence that had forced the ruler of the Frozen Wasteland to reveal some of the Frozen Wastelands hidden strength while being in a worse stat than it currently was in.

Fwooosh-!

Knowing that time was of the essence and the spiritual tree’s true body was behind him, Xuan Hao decided to use the Dao of Fire to quickly create an escape path out of the forest domain and through the massive root blocking his path.

Although his comprehension of the Dao of Fire could be considered mediocre at best. Having only reached the Small Success Relam. Enhanced by his spiritual sea, it still caried a terrifying might fit for someone in the Sea Formation Realm. Turning into a sea of fire that spread rapidly with him at the center. Burning down the surrounding trees and foliage before the flames formed together into a spear of fire that surged forward towards the massive tree root blocking his path-

BOOOM-!

And along with a terrifying explosion of light, the tree root and spear of fire collided with each other, causing the four Dao Seed Realm cultivators still suppressed by the forest domain to get sent flying backwards until they were lucky enough to collide with one of the countless trees that surrounded them.

As for the damage taken by the tree root that had faced this kind of attack head-on... It was... Completely unscathed. Only a few visible burn marks indicating that it had even been attacked in the first.

No matter how expected this was considered the difference in strength between himself and the spiritual tree, Xuan Hao couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed upon seeing this, as he only now understood just how terrifying someone in the Land Creation Realm was.

Whoosh~

But he really didn’t have the time to think about any of this for now, as he was now in a similar situation to the four Dao Seed Real cultivators and wanted to escape from the spiritual tree as fast as possible.

The attack just now had never been intended to do any real harm to the spiritual tree and had just been to buy himself a bit more time by using the sea of fire to burn through the forest domain and in turn stun the tree root blocking his path for a moment. Making it far simpler for him to slip past the tree root that continued to block his path by making use of the Drifting Cloud Steps.

After all, with his current strength, he didn’t really have a way to realistically knock the root blocking his path out of the way before the rest of the spiritual tree showed up to deal with him.

Because of this, he had ended up settling on the far simpler solution of weakening the forest domain just enough for him to stun the tree root for a short instance, just enough for him to slip past it. Leaving the forest domain of the spiritual tree and thus allowing him to easily leave the place through the use a simple long-distance teleportation.

Considering that he was currently in the Eastern Central Region, he honestly did not care about what the spiritual tree would do after he left.

Well... Almost didn’t care, as there was still Chu Yang still in meditation by himself in the Eastern Central Region, but he could always be grabbed in case the situation ended up turning out bad...

Shaking his head as he thought about his disciple still focused on his meditation without any clue about what kind of chaos his master had just unleashed upon the Eastern Central Region, Xuan Hao was already long gone from the location of the spiritual tree.

Everything had worked like he had intended it to do and the danger he had felt from facing off against a Land Creation Realm being in a fight for the first time almost seemed like a joke.

Far from being dangerous, the entire situation had played out with such ease that he almost forgot how useless his attack had been against the tree root that had blocked his escape path.

Even then, he didn’t dare linger around for even a second, as he understood full well that the main reason why everything had played out in his favor was because the spiritual tree had not fully woken up yet and was merely acting on instinct to block him from escaping with one of its tree roots.

If he really ended up facing the full might of the spiritual tree, he was almost certain that he would have been unable to escape, as there would have been no way for him to damage the forest domain as easily as he had done. Not to mention stunning the tree root in the process and buying himself a precious opportunity to slip past it.

All things considered, he was just grateful that everything had worked out from start to finish. Allowing him to escape before the spiritual tree had the chance to fully wake up from its in-depth recovery.

Although... He couldn’t help wondering what would happen to those four Dao Seed Realm cultivators he had left behind to fend for themselves against an angered Land Creation Realm spiritual tree.

No matter how he looked at their situation, they should have already been killed off by the spiritual tree, but... Part of him couldn’t help feeling like there still was a chance that those four somehow managed to survive this ordeal if the spiritual tree decided to completely ignore the four of them and instead focus its full attention on chasing after him the second it woke up.

Terrifying as it was to have a Land Creation Realm spiritual tree chase after him, Xuan Hao didn’t really believe it would be able to catch up with his current understanding of the Dao of Space.

Unless... It had some way to track him...