Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Continuing his search through the desolate desert of the twenty-fifth floor while avoiding any unnecessary battles with the immortal demon beasts that he currently couldn’t kill because of their ability to merge with the massive desert, Xuan Hao was fully intent on searching through the entirety of the desert if he had to. Having already invested far too much time to give up on his exploration of the twenty-fifth floor.

Not to mention, it was becoming increasingly unlikely for him to continue his unlucky streak of not finding any clues about the heart of the desert. After all, the floor should have been designed for someone in the Sea Formation Realm to clear it.

Even if the heart of the desert had some ability to avoid his divine sense, there should at least be some clues for him to follow like there had been on the nineteenth floor of the tower where his divine sense had been restricted and vision limited by the blood mist.

However, as another two days flew by and he found himself unknowingly returning to the very center of the twenty-fifth floor where the spiral staircase was located, he couldn’t help freezing on the spot.

Not because some powerful demon beast had appeared while he had been gone, but instead because he saw something appearing far away in the opposite direction of the one, he had originally moved in after entering the desert.

Setting off to investigate the thing in question, he realized that it was a massive ruin that almost screamed at him that the heart of the desert he had been looking for was hidden somewhere inside of it.

The sole reason why he hadn’t noticed this massive ruin when first stepping onto the twenty-fifth floor being because the ruins themselves had been outside the range of his divine sese, while the ruins themselves had been out of view due to a sand dune when he had first observed his surroundings. After which he had unfortunately ended up moving in the wrong direction to explore the twenty-fifth floor. Missing the ruins.

Not knowing what to say in this kind of situation, Xuan Hao just decided to stay silent as he flew towards the ruins. Soon enough, entering an ancient chapel at the very core of the ruins.

The heart of the desert he had been searching for over the past few weeks appeared at a small altar towards the back. Completely unguarded by demon beasts or ancient formations. Allowing him to simply step forward and pick up the heart of the desert that was essentially a large red gemstone in the shape of a heart.

[Current Floor: 25]

[Task 1: Kill 5 Late Stage Sea Formation Realm Demon Beasts]

[Progress: 0/5]

[Task 2: Find the Heart of the Desert]

[Progress: 1/1 (Complete)]

[Reward: 1.000.000 Ascension Coin, The Passage to the Twenty Sixth Floor reveals itself]

”…”

Looking through the progress of the tasks for the twenty-fifth floor after picking up the heart shaped heart of the desert, Xuan Hao could not help taking a deep breath. Calming himself down from the turmoil that began bubbling up inside after the realization that he had essentially ended up wasting the past few weeks travelling through the desolate desert searching for something that was located right next to the spiral staircase.

At the very least, now that he had the heart of the desert, he should be able to take out some of the anger he was feeling on the local demon beasts he had been unable to do anything to in the past. Sensing the strange power that saturated the desert and allowed the different demon beasts living in the desert to merge with it and essentially turn immortal, dispersing after he had picked up the heart of the desert.

Roooar-!

And as if on schedule, the second he stepped outside the chapel at the core of the ruins, he found himself face to face with a demon beast at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm. One he was already familiar with, as he had run into it several times over the past few weeks of journeying across the desolate desert in search of the heart of the desert.

”Time to test out if the ability to merge with the desert is really gone…” Silently whispering this to himself as he stared up at the towering demon beast in the shape of a large lion, Xuan Hao wasted no time in manifesting his spiritual sea before directly clashing with the towering lion demon beast. Already familiar with its attack after having faced it in the past. Allowing him to easily slip past its initial defenses and land a few hits that in turn allowed him to confirm that the ability of the lion demon beast to merge with the desert was gone.

Well… Not entirely gone, but severely weakened to the point where he now stood a chance at killing the lion demon beast-

Roar!?

Something that the demon beast in question only realized after his first attack landed, as it had clearly not expected to get hurt from his attack, a mentality that its fighting style had also clearly adopted.

”Great~ It really does work.” Smiling happily at the sight of the injurie, Xuan Hao didn’t intend to give the demon beast any time to adapt to the sudden change and rushed forward to finish it off before it had a chance to retreat. Knowing that this was his best opportunity to take down this demon beast at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, as it simply didn’t have any way to defend itself. Only able to continue trying to attack him and break through his defense-

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Something that ended up backfiring, as Xuan Hao was more than capable of using his Dao of Ice in combination with the Dao of Formations to defend, while utilizing the Void Sword Art. Combining the Dao of Space and the Dao of the Sword. For offense.

ROOOOAR-!

In only a few short minutes, the demon beast that had boldly charged at him filled with confidence was reduced to a bloodied mess. Standing no chance without the assistance of the pseudo immortality that it had been capable of using to ignore placing any effort on defense in the past…

Ptsh-!

And with a final decisive slash, Xuan Hao managed to cut down the demon beast at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm. Killing it with relative ease.

The main difficulty of the twenty-fifth floor had never been the fact that he had to kill five demon beasts at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm. Instead, it had been the damnable immortality that these demon beasts had been capable of.

Without access to the immortality that they had been capable of in the past. Clearing the twenty-fifth floor no longer seemed like a difficult task to accomplish.

After all, though both he and the demon beasts he needed to kill were in the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, there was a significant difference between someone with a spiritual sea that had only barely stepped into the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm and someone close to reaching the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm- And that was without counting the different Daos he had comprehended.

Although there were some stronger demon beasts at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm he had run into over the past few weeks and decisively decided against fighting, the general level of the Late Stage Sea Formation Realm demon beasts were far from the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm. Meaning that they were of little threat to him.

The only thing he felt truly worried about now that he had managed to get rid of the immortal state that the demon beasts of the twenty-fifth floor could activate, was the presence of a floor boss.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell if a floor boss would appear on this floor before he completed the task he had been assigned, so without lingering around the dead body of the lion demon beast that had already crashed into the ground and turned into a small hill that managed to still tower over the ruins buried in the sand, Xuan Hao set off to search for another four demon beasts at the Late Stage of the Sea Formation Realm to complete the final task and either find himself moving on to the twenty-sixth floor of the tower or facing off against a floor boss.

A Boss that could very well have reached the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm. In which case, it might be difficult for him to kill it with his current strength. Understanding just how terrifying the spiritual sea of someone at the Peak of the Sea Formation Realm would be from personal experience… And that was without mentioning the deep comprehension of the Dao or powerful body required to support such a vast spiritual sea in the first place…