Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Clashing with two Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators at the same time, even if he could rely on his Drifting Cloud Steps to keep up, was difficult when both were trying their best to escape whenever they got the opportunity.

Although he had still been holding back some of his strength earlier when clashing with the injured Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator alone, he couldn’t afford to do so any longer, as doing so would make it impossible for him to clash with two Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators at the same time no matter how injured one of them might be.

In turn, the sudden increase in strength from Xuan Hao almost immediately caught the attention of the rest of the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, as even the two Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators turned to look over with flicker of surprise in the depths of their eyes.

”This strength is... Not just comparable to the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, but the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm!” Slowly, one of the two Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators voiced his conclusion before looking towards his opponent with a complicated expression on his face.

Originally, it had only been the two of them at the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm and the treasury below would almost certainly have fallen into the hands of one of them, but... Now that there was another person with strength in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, this was no longer a certainty.

While the two Middel Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators began to eye Xuan Hao more cautiously as he clashed with the two Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators, the two remaining cultivators vat the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm quietly looked at each other with helpless expressions on their face, seemingly about to give up.

”This... That person was holding back...?!”

”Someone in the Earth Immortal Realm (Dao Seed Realm) surpasses me in strength...? Hehe... Why did I even break through to the Celestial Immortal Realm if I can’t even deal with someone an entire major realm below me...?”

The realization that someone in the Dao Seed Realm had managed to surpass them was far too much for someone who had normally seen themselves as superior and far above those in the Dao Seed Realm in the past.

Xuan Hao barely reaching the Celestial Immortal Realm in terms of strength was still fine to some extent, as they wouldn’t see themselves as inferior, but with his strength having now reached the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, it was far too much for the two originally calm Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators.

Whoosh~

As a result of this, after a quick glance, the two of them silently came to an agreement and stopped their original battle before rushing forth to join in on the battle against Xuan Hao. Not for any other reason than to hopefully mend the damage that had just been done to their dao heart, as Xuan Hao’s overwhelming strength with a much lower cultivation realm had already become a shadow in their hearts that would make further progress in the Celestial Immortal Realm difficult.

Only if they got rid of this psychological shadow that had formed would they be able to continue progressing smoothly in the future-

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Because of this, Xuan Hao, who had originally been doing his best to prevent the injured Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator and the one who had just killed the second injured Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator from escaping, found himself being simultaneously attacked by four Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators at the same time, as the two that had originally been attempting to run away decided to turn around and attack him after getting reinforcement.

Suddenly, the originally one-sided battle in his favor had been turned completely around, as Xuan Hao now found himself being forced into a defensive position, doing his best to avoid being boxed in by the four Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators.

If not for his Drifting Cloud Steps far surpassing the movements of someone in the Celestial Immortal Realm with the assistance of his Perfection Realm comprehension of the Dao of Space, it would have been difficult if not impossible to resist the combined assault of four different Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators with his current strength...

Whoosh~

Spatial disruption talisman!

But this situation did not last for long, as one of the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators decisively pulled out a spatial disruption talisman, causing his Drifting Cloud Steps to fail just as another Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator bore down on him from above. Clutching a large halberd as he swung down with overwhelming force.

Ice lotus!

BAAAANG-!

Forcing him to use his strongest defensive technique just in time to block the attack, though, because of how little time he had to react to the sudden development, he wasn’t able to fully manifest the nine layered ice lotus and was only able to manifest a weaker three layered version that barely had the strength to resist the halberd bearing down on him from above.

Swish-!

As for the sword that came towards him following the halberd?

Craaack! BANG!

It had no chance to resist, as the final layer shattered almost immediately. Giving Xuan Hao little to no time to react as the sword almost brushed against his neck-

Cliiing~

But, at the very last second, he managed to utilize the silver sword that had been given to him by Yi Min in the past to block the sword before it had the opportunity to separate his head from his body. Giving this sword that had mostly been rendered useless after he broke through to the Profound Immortal Realm a chance to shine again, as it could barely hold up against this group of Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators by relying on his sword intent.

”This...!?”

At the same time that Xuan Hao wielded the small silver sword to block the sword strike, the cultivator behind said sword attack was completely bewildered by the sudden development, as he had never expected Xuan Hao to be capable of blocking his attack after seeing his defense being shattered just now-

Swish~!

PTSH!

And this gave Xuan Hao the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the momentary surprise to move the sword at his neck to the side while following its blade towards the neck of his opponent in a single clean motion. Cutting off his head instead before allowing his sword intent to ravage through his body. Not only destroying the physical body but also tearing through the dantian and in turn soul stored inside. Killing the Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator completely this time around. Knowing that there was no real reason for him to hold back now that someone had already died and stronger Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators or potentially even Profound Immortal Realm cultivators were already on their way.

Seeing this, the other three all froze for a second before the two who had originally been trying to escape earlier both turned around and did just that once again-

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

The only difference this time around being that Xuan Hao didn’t step forward to stop the two of them. Not because he didn’t want to stop them, but instead because he now clearly felt that the two cultivators at the Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm weren’t able to ignore the situation any longer.

The reason for this had nothing to do with them wanting to take revenge on Xuan Hao but instead had to do with the fact that he would now only have to face a single Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator after two of the remaining three had escaped. Meaning that he, with strength comparable to the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, only had to face a single cultivator in the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm before he could make his move towards the treasury below.

Obviously, this was something that neither of the two Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm cultivators could allow, as they had now both paused their battle to keep an eye on Xuan Hao, something that Xuan Hao found rather interesting, as he understood full well that it would now be impossible for him to continue fighting without having to clash with these two cultivators in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

Although his current strength had indeed reached the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm in terms of strength, he honestly didn’t have any idea about how well he would fare against someone in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal realm, much less two of them at the same time.

In a way, this could be an incredibly valuable experience for his disciple and his little friends watching this battle playing out from afar, as it would be able to showcase a true struggle that would be far more difficult for him to overcome compared to the battles he had engaged in so far. Especially with the knowledge that taking too long would result in the stronger cultivators that should alerted by the first death earlier showing up.