Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having slowed down significantly the distance that would normally have taken him a few seconds to cover ended up taking over twenty minutes, as he kept an eye out for any powerful demon beasts that potentially had the strength to threaten him while at the same time clearing up any demon beasts he encountered along the way. Not forgetting to destroy the underwater flowers that were giving birth to the demon beasts after failing to store them inside his interspatial ring.

Although dangerous, if he could bring those flowers out, they could potentially become a source of demon beasts useful for the training of the sect’s elders and disciple when they became strong enough. Unfortunately, his attempts to take them away had been unsuccessful, as the underwater flower withered the second he pulled them out of the ground.

Even dragging along a large portion of the ground that they were rooted in didn’t seem to help, as what kept them around was something special about the core of the holy lake itself that he didn’t understand.

Giving up on taking out the underwater flowers, he just focused on destroying them alongside the demon beasts as he made his way deeper into the holy lake. Observing as the strength of the demon beast he encountered seemed to slowly increase before it was difficult for him to encounter any demon beast below the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm in terms of strength.

Still… Even with the strength of all the demon beast reaching the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, he didn’t encounter one above that, as Peak Celestial Immortal Realm demon beasts were seemingly nonexistent or had all moved towards the deepest part of the holy lake like he had guessed earlier.

Hm? This is…

And, indeed, as he continued moving deeper into the holy lake towards the location where the ancient residence that had once been home to the Noble Li Clan Branch, he soon enough encountered another formation blocking his vision of what laid on the other side. Not much different from the formation that surrounded the core of the holy lake.

The only real difference between the formation surrounding the core of the holy lake and the one in front of him being the fact that the formation in front of him wasn’t hidden and could be seen even by someone without any cultivation base. Not to mention, the formation wasn’t different from the formation surrounding the core of the holy lake so to speak but was more so an extension of the formation.

”Oh? You arrived faster than expected, but I guess those little ones aren’t much of a challenge for someone at the Land Creation Realm.” And unsurprisingly, the formation spirit that had vanished earlier remerged as it nodded its small head in approval. ”Ah! Before I forget it, please get rid of all those damnable flowers before passing through the formation here, as it will be difficult to return once you step through it.” Only to suddenly remember something as it reminded him not to enter the true core of the holy lake before clearing out the underwater flowers capable of spawning demon beasts endlessly.

”I get it, but would you mind me asking something before you leave again?” Knowing that the formation spirit was already about to leave again after having finished saying what it wanted, Xuan Hao quickly stopped it. Hoping to at least be able to ask one question before it decides to pull off another vanishing act.

”Huh? Sure~ What do you want to ask?”

”About the demon beasts on the other side of this formation, how strong are they? And the ancient residence of the Noble Li Clan Branch, where is it?”

”How strong and the location of the ancient residence? Sure, the ancient residence isn’t hidden somewhere specific and is at the very core of the lake, those demon beasts on the other side are currently in the process of trying to force their way through the formation guarding the ancient residence to devour the formation core inside of it.

As for the strength of those demon beasts… Though they aren’t worth mentioning under normal circumstances for a formation of my quality, they are still a bit troublesome with the weakest of them being around the Celestial Lord Relam or the Land Creation Realm if you compare it against the Profound Immortal Realm. For the strongest among them, though not at the Venerable Realm, it isn’t that far off and has already surpassed the Celestial Lord Realm or Star Creation Realm to some extent. Ah! I need to go, that damnable broken guardian formation seems to have noticed my presence missing!”

Whoosh~

Answering his question in a few short seconds, speaking so fast that it would have been difficult to understand for anyone without a strong enough cultivation to process the words, the formation spirit seemed to have been alerted by something happening, as it vanished. Leaving behind a rather confused Xuan Hao, who soon enough felt a shiver running down his spine as he went over the information shared by the formation spirit.

The weakest demon beast on the other side of the formation was comparable to the Land Creation Real while the strongest was close to the Venerable Realm.

Even knowing that the defensive power of these demon beasts was significantly weaker than that of someone who had truly reached that level of power, the fact that one or more of the demon beasts on the other side of the formation had reached a level close to the Venerable Realm was more than enough to make him hesitate. Understanding that he would stand no chance in the face of that kind of terrifying power with his current strength only recently having broken through to the Early Stage of the Land Creation Realm.

The only way for him to take out these powerful demon beasts and reach the ancient residence that they seemed to be attacking and in the process complete the side quest that had been given to him by a system that now looked like I wanted him to throw away his life, would be for him to act fast enough and kill the powerful demon beasts before they had the chance to notice him. After all, the second they attacked, he would be doomed. Especially in the face of the demon beasts that were close to the Venerable Realm.

Problem was… He had no idea how wide an area these demon beasts could potentially sense him over. Only knowing from his limited interaction with these unique demon beasts that they didn’t seem to be that capable when it came to noticing his presence in time to defend themselves.

Not to mention, there was also the fact that the formation spirit had told him that he wouldn’t be able to leave easily once he stepped through the formation. Meaning he would have to prepare himself for the potentially deadly situation ahead of time if he wanted to come out on top.

But… Before any of that, he still had to complete the task that had been given to him by the formation spirit and clear out the remaining demon beasts and underwater demon beast breeding flowers around the core of the holy lake, something that would at least be simple enough to accomplish now that he was certain that there wouldn’t be any demon beasts beyond the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm around as long as he didn’t cross through the formation at the core.

The real difficulty in getting rid of the demon beasts and those underwater flowers capable of endlessly spawning demon beasts being the fact that core of the holy lake was far larger than he had originally anticipated before entering the place himself. Truly a small world on its own like the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator had described.

Even going all out, it would still take him a day or two to clear out the place of demon beasts and the underwater flowers capable of spawning those demon beasts. Mainly because it took some serious effort to get rid of the underwater flowers, as they would spread in places where he had already cleared them out if he wasn’t thorough enough.

Outside of that, the seemingly endless sea of flowers that fed the demon beasts and allowed them to rapidly increase their strength through the unique sap they produced also had to be cleared out, as they seemed capable of evolving into the demon beast spawning flowers if all the surrounding ones had already been cleared out.

Something that turned the originally rather simple job of clearing out flowers and demon beasts into a true challenge that required him to directly dig up the earth itself and flip it over to get rid of everything. Leaving nothing behind in the process. Funnily enough, becoming a perfect opportunity to practice the Dao of Fire underwater, as conjuring up seas of dao fire to purge both demon beasts and flowers alike turned out to be the fastest and simplest way to accomplish his goal of getting rid of everything…