Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Booooing~!

Bang-!

Ending the tenth greenish purple slime, Xuan Hao found himself returning to the spiral staircase once again, as he arrived just in time to see the marking on the ground light up completely before the lines of the strange marking began to twist and squirm like it was a living thing before finally stopping after taking on a far more complex form that was…

”A slime…” Seeing the familiar creature that had been formed by the twisting and squirming of the originally solemn looking ancient marking that he viewed as profound to some extent, Xuan Hao froze for a bit. Not knowing what to do as he just stared down at it.

It was very detailed and seemed to have been made by a master carver, but… It was not at all what he had expected.

Only after staring blankly at the shiny slim that was carved into the ground for a few seconds, did he finally recover before leaving in the direction the mountain that the shiny slime on the ground seemed to be pointing towards. Not just curious about what might have changed, but also genuinely worried that the mountain might have turned into a giant slime shaped mountain when he got there…

But why was he worried about this if he could see the mountain all the way from the spiral staircase before? Simple, he couldn’t see the mountain any longer, as a greenish purple mist had completely hidden the former towering mountain. Leaving only the faint looming shadow of a giant slime visible within said mist, a shadow that made him increasingly certain that the towering mountain had somehow ended up turning into a towering slime shaped mountain.

Odd as this was, he didn’t let it stop him from continuing forward, as he soon enough found himself flying straight into the greenish purple mist-

”Huh?”

 An action he came to regret only a second later, as he felt his ability to fly being restricted before finding himself plummeting towards the ground below-

BANG!

Crashing into it the next second, as he created a rather nice looking human-shaped crater on the ground.

”Is the tribulation perhaps not some kind of lightning tribulation but another kind of tribulation that restricts flying?” Slowly pulling himself out of the small crater he had created when plummeting to the ground, it wasn’t too hard for Xuan Hao to guess that his current situation might be related to the tribulation that had been mentioned in the task.

A tribulation that prevents flying…

Odd as it was, Xuan Hao didn’t think too hard about it as he continued wandering through the thick greenish purple mist in the direction of the mountain. Not because he wanted to walk, but because he also realized that his ability to use the Dao of Space or any other Dao for that matter had been restricted.

The journey that would normally have taken him less than a second to traverse had suddenly turned into an hour-long journey through the mist before he finally reached the base of the mountain.

Why he had to go through that little journey, he had no idea, as there weren’t any slimes ambushing him along the way nor was there anything happening around him that he might have to comprehend and understand to complete the tribulation that had likely already begun.

But what was the tribulation itself? Walk through the mist and reach the slime shaped mountain?

”Hm?” Feeling his thoughts wandering on their own to kill time as he continued casually moving through the thick mist without any real sense of danger given how the strength of this floor was still limited to the Soul Ascension Realm , Xuan Hao suddenly froze on spot as he sensed something that shouldn’t have been possible in a floor limited to the Soul Ascension Realm as far as he was aware.

A presence that far exceeded the Soul Ascension Realm.

Rumble~

And that was when he saw it.

Not a slime shaped mountain, but a mountain sized slime. The soul stirring presence of this enormous being not just above the Soul Ascension Realm, but even beyond the Profound Immortal Realm.

Is this a slime immortal…? Only able to think this somewhat ridiculous thought to himself in the face of the mountain sized slime that seemed to give off an indescribable presence that he had never felt before, Xuan Hao found himself almost instinctively kneeling towards this towering slime. Barely stopping himself.

Not because he had anything against kneeling at this moment outside of it not being a very pleasant experience, but instead because he sensed something off about the presence that was pressing down on him.

It wasn’t weak or nonexistent, but it felt wrong.

The exact feeling was hard to describe, but it was a prevailing feeling of wrongness about everything that was happening.

The presence he felt was above anything he had ever felt before, but he had already encountered a being that should have surpassed the Profound Immortal Realm in the past inside the mystic realm.

Yet… The sense of dread he felt in the face of the towering slime in front of him was nowhere near the same level. Instead, it might be more accurate to say that one felt like a feather falling on top of him while gently pushing down, while the other had felt like a mountain had been thrown on top of his head.

Is it perhaps a heart tribulation that test willpower or something similar…?

Feeling like he should be accurate in this thought, Xuan Hao decided to test things out by taking a step forward in the direction of towering slime-

Booooing~!

And unsurprisingly, the mountain sized slime suddenly shrank in size when he got within a hundred meters of it before turning into a normal shaped slime. Only difference being that it seemed to be in some kind of enhanced state. Not a floor boss so to speak, but stronger than the average slime on the twelfth floor even with its cultivation stuck at the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Unable to properly utilize the Daos he had comprehended, this enhanced slime would prove to be a challenge for anyone who was unlucky enough to encounter it, that was, if his body wasn’t the same.

Bang!

B… Boooing…

His ability to use the Dao might have been restricted, but his spiritual sea was still around, and his body on its own was by no means weak.

A single slap and the enhanced slime got sent straight into reincarnation.

Whooosh~!

With that, the mist cleared and the surroundings returned to normal like nothing had ever happened in the first place. The only sign of what had happened being the remnants of the slime that had just challenged him now splattered all the rocky surroundings.

Returning to the spiral staircase and checking the overall status of the task, he confirmed that he had indeed completed one of the nine tribulations, and he suddenly found himself not so excited about the remaining eight tribulations. Especially if the rest of them also ended up forcing him to slowly walk through thick mist for an hour before he could take on the tribulation in question.

A worry that would soon enough be proven to be correct, as Xuan Hao found out the hard way that every single one of these tribulations started in the same way, even if the tribulations in themselves differed wildly, one of them even being the traditional lightning tribulation he had expected all of them to be originally.

Overall, the tribulations themselves weren’t really a challenge but more so an annoyance to him, but for someone at the Soul Ascension Realm, he could see how useful these tribulations were for honing not just one’s willpower through the rather unique tribulations, but also just generally a mindset that prepared one for the unexpected.

After all, there might be situations where the usage of any Dao was impossible or more realistically, one’s primary Dao had been restricted to some extent. Learning to fight without was good.

So far, Xuan Hao had the feeling that the one who was going to be the most excited about this floor would be none other than Elder Song, the problem was, the old man had not yet reached the Soul Ascension Realm and would undoubtedly struggle to reach the twelfth floor of the tower.

And even when he got to the twelfth floor, he might not get to experience any of the tribulations for a long time.

Speaking of tribulations, he had hoped this floor might present something that would help regarding the problem with the Domain Lord Realm cultivators breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm or the Soul Ascension Realm cultivators advancing a minor realm.

Unfortunately, it looked like he would have to put his hopes towards the thirteenth floor potentially having something that would be of assistance- or at the very least him completing the twelfth or thirteenth floor would place something in the shop on the ground floor that could be used to deal with this problem.

Breaking through inside the ascension realm tower might be an option, but it might also come with severe consequences…