Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Knowing this, Xuan Hao felt a bit relieved, as it would be rather dangerous for these younger disciples to enter a place where sect elders would go to pass their heavenly tribulations in the future. After all, the location of the ascension secret realm was in a rather public space that made it possible for younger disciples to potentially enter by accident if there wasn’t a formation in place to prevent something like from happening, something that would have been fine under normal circumstances, as a formation could be set up to prevent the disciples from entering somewhere they shouldn’t. The problem was, there was no way to set up a formation inside the ascension realm tower, thus this restriction was a lifesaver for the potentially reckless younger disciples who might have tried to enter the ascension secret realm.

Knowing that these disciples had no way to enter the ascension secret realm with their current strength and thus wouldn’t have to face the potential danger that was associated with unknowingly approaching someone in the process of undergoing a heavenly tribulation or other dangers that might be lurking inside the ascension secret realm, Xuan Hao used his domain to hide his presence as he slipped past the over eager disciples surrounding the wooden gate and pushed it open. Stepping inside the ascension secret realm to the surprise of the younger disciples who had been surrounding the gate on all sides before closing it the next.

Not because he wanted to prevent these younger disciples from looking inside, but more so because their over eager eyes and constant clamoring would get rather annoying to constantly listen to in the distance while looking around the ascension secret realm.

Even then, looking around the secret realm now that he had closed the door and avoided the scrutiny of the over eager younger disciples, he found out that the secret realm itself wasn’t exactly what he had been expecting.

Instead of a secret realm with different buildings or platforms designed for undergoing tribulations like he had been expecting to see, he was instead met with the sight of a barren flat landscape compromised of nothing but rocks and the occasional boulder. Far from a magical secret realm capable of helping someone more easily go through a heavenly tribulation, the place seemed like the simplest kind of secret realm that could be constructed with little to no resources, something that he would be able to create himself with ease in a few days with a few mundane materials like rocks and trees.

No, with his current strength, he would be able to create something far better than the secret realm that he now found himself inside of. Making him awfully curious as to whether he had just ended up wasting a million ascension coins.

After all, though it had seemed rather simple for him to gather that many ascension coins, that was only because of the significant bonus one received for clearing a floor for the first time. If he wanted to get a million ascension coins without relying on the first clear bonus, it would likely take him years if not decades to gather… And that was if he spent his time clearing repeatable tasks on the twenty-fifth floor. For the floor below that, it would take even longer to gather that many ascension coins.

No… There must be something special about this place that I haven’t noticed…

Feeling increasingly worried as he inspected his surroundings, Xuan Hao didn’t linger around the entrance to the secret realm and instead flew into the air before spreading out his divine sense to search through the secret realm. Hoping to find something outside of the rocky terrain that seemingly spread as far as he could see.

Unfortunately, even spreading his divine sense to its limits, there were no changes in the environment, as the secret realm itself was seemingly an endless expanse of rocks.

The only positive he could think of regarding this rather simplistic secret realm, was its sheer size, as it very quickly became clear that the size of the secret realm was far beyond what his divine sense could cover. Making it an ideal place for elders of the sect to take on their heavenly tribulations, as they wouldn’t have to worry about damaging their surroundings in the process.

The problem was, he still couldn’t sense what was so special about this seemingly desolate expanse of rocks that helped improve someone’s chance of overcoming their heavenly tribulation.

But maybe being unable to sense the mysterious power of the place that helped in increasing someone’s chance of overcoming something as mysterious and deadly as a heavenly tribulation made sense.

The only real way he could think of, that could help him figure out if there truly was such a mysterious power present, would be to drag over one of the elders of the sect about to make the breakthrough into the Soul Ascension Realm and have them undergo their tribulation inside the secret realm.

Problem was, he had no idea if there was anyone like that in the sect at the moment, as a lot of preparation had to be put in before someone was ready to take the leap and challenge the first tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Outside of just preparations for the tribulation itself, there was also often preparations for the worst-case scenario in case one didn’t end up making it through the tribulation and instead ended up perishing to it.

In fact, it was this last type of preparation that kept most of the sect elders at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm occupied for the longest.

Not because of fear, but simply because the process of preparing for potentially leaving the world was… Long and painful. Especially when it came to who would end up having what was left behind, though in most cases, the possessions of the sect elders who perished in their tribulations ended up back in the hands of the sect itself.