Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Following the information that had been shared by Mui and Song Jia to the group of Soul Ascension Realm Elders through sheer coincidence, it didn’t take long for this group of seniors to find a way to make full use of the knowledge that they had gained. Successfully managing to get through the first part of the tasks on the twelfth floor of the tower before finding themselves facing the final tribulations that they ultimately managed to make it through after a few weeks of struggle… And along with their success in clearing the twelfth floor of the tower, it didn’t take them long to spread the information and knowledge they had obtained from the twelfth floor of the tower to their friends and other elders. Ultimately, resulting in a large chunk of the sect elders who had been stuck on the twelfth floor of the tower making it through to the thirteenth floor.

But different from the twelfth floor of the tower where the strongest creature they encountered had at most reached the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, the strength of the normal creatures and demon beasts on the thirteenth floor of the tower reached all the way up to the Third Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, while the strongest demon beast on the thirteenth floor had reached the Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. Posing an impossible challenge for the sect elders who had managed to barely make it through the twelfth floor of the tower.

After all, the difference between a demon beast in the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm and the Third Tribulation was already vast, let alone a demon beast at the Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. Already standing close to the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm.

For the foreseeable future, it was unlikely that the sect elders who had managed to pass make it through the twelfth floor of the tower without any significant improvement to their strength.

Still, the sect elders who had made it through the twelfth floor and found themselves unable to progress any further weren’t too distraught about this outcome, as the ascension coins they could earn from taking on repeated tasks on the twelfth floor was far higher compared to the eleventh floor of the tower.

The only ones who were still in the process of trying to progress any further by this point were the few elders of the sect who had managed to reach the Dao Seed Realm and Chu Yang, who had progressed significantly over the past seven years.

Although his strength had not broken through to the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm and was still at the Initial Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, his comprehension of the Dao of the Spear had broken through from the Elementary Realm to the Small Success Realm during this time. Allowing his strength to improve to the point where he could now hold his own in the face of someone at the Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm and even fight someone at the Sixth Tribulation or Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm for some time without losing ground.

But… The problem he found himself encountering was the fact that the Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts on the thirteenth floor he had to kill weren’t on their own and whenever he might get lucky enough to kill one of the three demon beasts he needed to kill to progress to the next floor, the other two would be alerted before he could reach them and gather all of their follows.

Meaning… If he wanted to get to them, he would have to face off against over a dozen other Soul Ascension Realm primitive cultivators at the same time.

Strong as he was, it was impossible for him to hold his own in the face of so many Soul Ascension Realm cultivators. Ultimately causing him to fail repeatedly on the thirteenth floor of the tower. Reaching the point where he attempted to team up with someone else but doing that only ended up making the floor itself expand to accommodate more primitive cultivators he would have to get through. Making him give up on the idea of teaming up with others to clear the thirteenth floor rather quickly.

After all, though it might have been fine if everyone was around his level of strength. The reality was that most of the sect’s Soul Ascension Realm Elders lingered between the First and Third Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, with the number of people above the Third Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm counted on one hand.

In the end, he decided to continue challenging the thirteenth floor on his own. Using the opportunity to refine his Dao of the Spear, while at the same time honing his Dao of Blood. Knowing that when his Dao of Blood managed to break through to the Small Success Realm and reach a level like his Dao of the Spear, his overall strength would take another leap forward… And though he might not reach the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he felt confident that his strength would at least break through to the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. Giving him far more confidence in clearing the thirteenth floor of the tower.

As for his Dao of Earth… It hadn’t progressed much over the past seven years and had only really managed to advance from the pseudo domain lord level to the domain lord level. Not even having reached the Elementary Realm, though that mostly had to do with his focus these past seven years being on advancing his Dao of the Spear and the Dao of Blood.

Maybe after his Dao of Blood reached the Small Success Realm, he could put some focus on trying to reach the Elementary Realm in the Dao of Earth before setting his sights on advancing his Dao of the Spear far enough to break through to the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

Outside of Chu Yang essentially slamming his head into a wall repeatedly trying to force his way through the thirteenth floor of the tower by using it to rapidly improve his own comprehension of the Dao of Blood through direct combat and Mui who had retreated from the ascension realm tower to focus on creating a new friend for Baobao together with Song Jia, the rest of Xuan Hao’s disciples had also shown a certain level of interest in the ascension realm tower.

Qing Yi and Chun Hua were both moving together and had also reached the thirteenth floor of the tower and similarly found themselves unable to progress any further, while Bai Ning had advanced to the twelfth floor of the tower before he stopped advancing any further.

Although… The reason why Bai Ning didn’t advance beyond the twelfth floor didn’t have that much to do with the strength of the slimes being too much for him to handle, as he could refine an artifact like the one Mui had crafted to focus on their weak points. Instead, the reason why Bai Ning didn’t progress beyond the twelfth floor was because he discovered that the nine mountains where one would have to undergo the tribulations to progress to the next floor of the tower were a treasure trove of rare and unique spiritual metal difficult to find outside the ascension realm tower.

In short, Bai Ning essentially remained on the twelfth floor of the tower for the sole purpose of continuing to mine out the precious spiritual metal without the slightest care about advancing up to the thirteenth floor of the tower. Knowing from what his two seniors had told him that he wouldn’t be able to clear the thirteenth floor of the tower with his current strength… And maybe most important, the resources that could be found on the thirteenth floor of the tower weren’t spiritual metal, but instead spiritual herbs, something that made him far less interested in exploring the thirteenth floor of the tower.

For the foreseeable future, Bai Ning just wanted to hunt down a few slimes, mine for spiritual metals and craft artifacts to continue improving his Dao of Blacksmithing. His goal after much discussion with Gong Cheng and his master over the past seven years being to become a Saint Realm Blacksmith instead of following the traditional cultivation path.

Not just because he felt it was more suitable for himself, but also because he realized that he was starting to lack behind when it came to traditional cultivation compared to the rest of his master’s disciples.

Chu Yang already close to reaching the Peak of the Initial Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, while both Qing Yi and Chun Hua had similarly advanced to the Dao Domain Lord Realm over the past seven years, with Mui mostly lacking behind and still being in the Domain Lord Realm due to her focus being elsewhere over the past seven years.

Still, Mui had already reached the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, while he himself had only advanced from the Third Stage of the Domain Lord Realm to the Fifth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm over the past seven years.

But it was not without benefits, as his comprehension of the Dao of Blacksmithing had already broken through to the Small Success Realm. Placing his overall comprehension far above what was normal for someone in the Domain Lord Realm and allowing him to ascend from a Junior Grandmaster Realm Blacksmith to a Senior Grandmaster Realm Blacksmith.