Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Examining the ancient valley that had been left alone for an unknown number of years alongside the remnants of the ancient gate with his divine sense after placing the unique stone with the spatial coordinates still stored within it into his interspatial ring, he found that there wasn’t anything left of interest within the ancient valley.

Even if the remnants of the ancient gate had been made up of unique and precious stones and other spiritual resources that would be considered difficult if not impossible even for someone like himself to get his hands on under normal circumstances, they had unfortunately decayed or been destroyed to the point where they had lost any usefulness they might have originally possessed. Leaving him with little interest in taking them with him after he had already taken the most valuable thing left in the valley.

As for the intact corpse of the Land Creation Realm cultivator… Though it did interest him to some extent, he realized at a second glance that the inherent strength lingering in the dead body had long since faded, while the interspatial ring on the hand had already broken down. Spilling out the content around the body. Most of which had similarly decayed or were just a few useless spirit stones or broken artifacts that held no value to him nor much to the Star Shattering Sect in case he brought it back.

For this reason, he didn’t linger around any longer than necessary and directly tore open a spatial rift and left following the spatial coordinates he had gleamed from the unique little stone that had managed to survive all this time. Curious if the spatial coordinates would truly be able to lead him to the secret realm, mystic realm or small world that the ancient gate had once been connected to.

After all, he had long since realized that without something like a gate or a natural passage to anchor a secret realm or mystic realm, their position could shift and change over time. Meaning there was a very real chance that the spatial coordinates he had obtained would lead to nowhere in case the passage created through the gate had been severed for a long time and no other such passages existed to connect the world on the other side to the larger world that he lived in.

”Huh? He left…?” Unaware of why Xuan Hao had left, the city lord, a Domain Lord Realm cultivator, was the first to open his mouth after seeing how Xuan Hao had seemingly left after picking up what looked like an ordinary stone from his point of view. Not knowing if it was safe for him to start moving into the ancient valley that had existed beneath the city he had governed for the past few hundred years without his knowledge.

Surprisingly, though he should have felt afraid with the appearance of an unknown cultivator far stronger than himself. The simple fact that the difference in strength had been so great that even single look might have killed him, had made this city lord fearless, as he understood that the other party didn’t care the slightest bit about him.

After all, with the other party’s strength, there was no way he would have been left alive in case the other party had ever intended to kill him.

Rustle~

Because of this, after hesitating for a bit around the edge of the ancient valley that had existed beneath his city, he inevitably began flying down to check out the situation on his own while the rest of the cultivators and mortals close to the edge of the massive hole that had formed at the center of the city all gathered around to watch him nervously. None of them daring to follow behind him, as they still feared that there might be some deadly traps left behind in the valley that the powerful senior from earlier hadn’t dealt with.

A thought that was also shared by the city lord himself, as he cautiously descended while keeping an eye out for any deadly formations that might remain.

But… As he descended into the valley and stepped onto the soft mossy ground near the remnants of the ancient gate, he didn’t encounter any hidden deadly formations along the way. Making it the entire way down safely.

”Huh? A… Corpse…?”

However, as he was about to step forward to examine the ancient remnants that had drawn Xuan Hao’s attention earlier, he suddenly noticed a corpse on the ground not too far away from the ancient remnants of the gate that he hadn’t noticed before.

Originally, he wanted to ignore the corpse and continue investigating the ancient gate remnants, but as he was about to do so, he felt the heart palpitating presence lingering around the corpse. So powerful that even if there wasn’t any real power or strength behind the presence itself outside of a single corpse that had long since lost any power that might have originally lingered, it was enough to make a Domain Lord Realm cultivator like himself freeze on the spot not much different from how he had felt earlier when the terrifying divine sense had swept over him.

Only this time around, the sense of fear he felt was far more profound, as the origin of said fear was directly in front of him.

This standstill lasted for an entire five minutes under the nervous looks from the spectators above alongside his own subordinates before he managed to finally regain movement of his own body again. Main difference being that he no longer dared to look at the corpse directly, as he understood doing so would amplify the feeling of terror to the point where he couldn’t move once again and he would enter another struggle of trying to free himself and regain movement again.

In the process, he didn’t just manage to free himself from the pressure, but also spotted the countless treasures scattered around the corpse itself that had seemingly been ignored by the powerful figure from earlier.

Even if many of them were either destroyed or in a bad state, it was clear that they were valuable. Incredibly valuable to a Domain Lord Realm cultivator like himself.

The problem was… As he approached those treasures scattered around the corpse, he realized that the pressure he was subjected to increased even without looking directly at the corpse.

By the time he reached the first treasure, an artifact that had lost most of its original power though still seemed capable of helping increase the strength of a little Domain Lord Realm cultivator like himself, the pressure he felt was almost unbearable. Making it clear to him that it would almost certainly be impossible to reach the treasures lying right next to the corpse itself.

Unfortunate as this might be under normal circumstances, the Domain Lord Realm city lord didn’t feel that much regret about the current situation, as after thirty minutes of pushing forward until he reached his limit, he managed to obtain a jade slip that directly transferred a vast quantity of information into his head before crumbling.

The information in question being the cultivation insights of the dead cultivator that he now learnt was someone that had been a powerhouse close to the peak of a cultivation realm he had never heard about before today.

From someone who originally thought he was rather powerful standing at the Domain Lord Realm; he realized that he was insignificant in the grand scheme of things and still far from the peak.

The one positive about all of this was the fact that he now had a clear path to follow to the Land Creation Realm.

All because the jade slip in question didn’t show any signs of being extraordinary or containing any information and had looked broken to Xuan Hao when his divine sense had swept over it earlier. Miraculously, it had one use left in it before it ended up crumbling to dust.

As for gaining anything more than he had already gained… The city lord understood that it was unlikely, as he had already informed his seniors about the situation and a Soul Ascension Realm Ancestor was already on the way.

Even the artifact he had claimed might end up being forcibly taken away by the ancestor showing up, but… He didn’t feel the slightest bit of unhappiness knowing this, as the information he had managed to obtain couldn’t be taken away. Even more so, considering that no one other than himself knew about the information he had managed to obtain…

And around the same time the city lord managed to obtain what could be considered an opportunity to change his future, Xuan Hao reached the location of the spatial coordinates that had been stored inside the unique little stone that had managed to survive intact to the current day without losing any of its special qualities in the process.

”Hm… This should be the place…”

But unsurprisingly, there was nothing but empty space in front of him…