Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

As large number of people from the ancient secret realm began streaming through the ancient spatial passages in an attempt to escape before their world collapsed and at the same time to seek out a better place to further their own cultivation, Xuan Hao found himself remaining sitting in front of the expanding battlefield between the spatial storm and the ancient guardian formation. Feeling his senses already covering the entirety of the ancient secret realm, as a large portion of his strength had been dedicated to stabilizing and ensuring that the countless ancient spatial passages remained open and didn’t abruptly collapse.

After all, though the ancient spatial passages didn’t take much strength to open individually, the sheer number of spatial passages still placed a certain burden on him and his spiritual qi reserves. Pushing his dantian to the limit, as the burden of keeping those spatial passages open also came with him having to bear some of the pressure that these spatial passages faced by cutting through the spatial storm outside with his own body.

Normally, he wouldn’t have noticed this pressure, but with it stacking up as the number of spatial passages he kept open reached into the tens of thousands, the small bit of pressure pushed onto him from forcing open those spatial passages turned into a burden that even he found difficult to handle for an extended period of time.

If not for the fact that he had just broken through to the Middle Stage of the Land Creation Realm and had thus ended up not just elevating his strength to a new realm but also transformed his dantian into an inner world ahead of time. Allowing him to carry some aspects unique to Late Stage Land Creation Realm cultivators while only being at the Middle Stage of the Land Creation Realm, it would have been impossible to withstand this kind of pressure.

After all, the uniqueness he had managed to inherit ahead of time from forming an inner world was the ability to resist this kind of external pressure with far more ease by relying on the foundation of his inner world.

Of course, difficult and exhausting as it was to keep those spatial passages open throughout the ancient secret realm, it wasn’t entirely without benefits, as keeping so many spatial passages open at the same time along with facing the pressure of the spatial storm raging outside, did allow his understanding of the Dao of Space to deepen at a terrifying speed that made him believe reaching the Origin Realm would be possible if he could keep such a profound state active for a few weeks.

Unfortunately for him, he knew that this kind of unique state wouldn’t last for more than a few days, as the ancient secret realm was already collapsing.

Still, the unique state he entered allowed him to lay down a proper foundation for reaching the Origin Realm in the Dao of Space in the future. Allowing him to seamlessly reach the realm if he had enough time. How long it would take exactly, he had no idea, but a good guess was that he should be able to reach the Origin Realm within the next ten or so years

Although not a short time, it wasn’t long either and given the crisis that was brewing behind the ancient dao seals not too far from the Star Shattering Sect, he knew that he would have to reach the Venerable Realm within the next hundred years to ensure that nothing happened to the sect. Taking ten years to reach the origin Realm in the Dao of Space, while not short was acceptable, as he personally hoped that he would be able to reach the Peak of the Land Creation Realm within those ten years and dedicate the remaining years before the crisis emerged to reach the Star Creation Realm and hopefully the Venerable Realm beyond that.

Of course, unrealistic as this kind of progress was even to someone like himself, he also felt some hope that he would be able to delay the collapse of the ancient dao seals and buy himself more time to reach the Venerable Realm in the future. In a way, his focus on the Dao of Formations was also partly because of this, as he hoped that he would be able to reach the Origin Realm in the Dao of Formations and potentially find some way to strengthen the ancient dao seals.

Even if he knew the chance of this happening was low considering someone had already stepped forward and strengthened those seals, he still felt somewhat hopeful that he would be able to also lend a hand in strengthening those ancient dao seals. Allowing them to hold on for at least another hundred years. Even just another fifty years would give him far more confidence in reaching the Venerable Realm in time.

Of course, reaching the Venerable Realm from the Land Creation Realm in a little over a hundred years was already something that would leave everyone else on the Ewaria Continent shaking their heads in disbelief, but given how fast he had progressed through his cultivation, Xuan Hao felt confident that he would be able to accomplish this.

With so many Star Creation Realm cultivators, someone should have broken through to the Venerable Realm over the years, but none had appeared, even rumors about a realm beyond the Star Creation Realm barely existed, let alone a name for the realm beyond it.

To this day, the only way he had learnt about the Venerable Realm was through ancient ruins or what had been left behind from the past, he hadn’t found any signs of anyone reaching the Venerable Realm after the great cataclysm in the past that had ultimately shattered the ancient divine continent.

This was the main thing that worried him about reaching the Venerable Realm in the future, as he feared that the path to the realm might have been blocked or something happened whenever someone broke through to the Venerable Realm causing them to vanish into thin air, thus not giving the ones breaking through any time to spread word about having broken through.

As his thoughts wandered in this direction, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about another such situation that had appeared whenever someone comprehended the Dao of Time. In that situation, they also seemed to disappear after comprehending the Dao of Time to a certain extent.

Although he had also comprehended the Dao of Time, he hadn’t gone that far as he also felt a bit worried about this, but different from the Venerable Realm where no news existed. At least some spares news of the Dao of time did exist… And through this news, he did get a feeling that the disappearance of the Venerable Realm and those who practiced the Dao of Time wasn’t the same.

In fact, with his current comprehension of the Dao of Time, he could somewhat guess what had happened to those who had dwelled too deeply into the Dao of Time, as they could have easily found themselves sinking into the river of time unknowingly while focused on comprehending the Dao of Time. Finding out too late and finding themselves too weak to fight back against the current as they were pulled down and lost.

This seemed like a good explanation for how those cultivating the Dao of Time might have suddenly vanished, but he still felt this description might be wrong, as anyone who comprehended the Dao of Time to the Elementary Realm should know the danger of comprehending the Dao of Time and sensing the river of time, so they should keep their distance and avoid taking unnecessary risks.

Unless… The river of time one could sense through comprehending the Dao of Time wasn’t always peaceful, but like rivers, sometime became more turbulent. Making it far more dangerous to exist within.

Speaking of this, Xuan Hao did feel a bit worried, as although he didn’t actively comprehend the Dao of Time, having actively sensed the river of time in the past, he could still constantly sense it ever-present around him.

In other words, should any waves rise, he would still be affected to some extent, giving him a far greater idea of how those who comprehended the Dao of Time might have disappeared.

Taking this train of thought on step further, it would be understandable if someone who broke through to the Venerable Realm either perceived the river of time or affected it to some extent with their powerful presence, causing waves to rise within the river of time.

If these waves were too much, it might also be the ones that were the culprit behind the seemingly elusive existence of Venerable Realm cultivators, as they too might have been swept away by the river of time during their breakthrough.

In fact, as he thought more about this, he felt that the breakthrough to the Venerable Realm might indeed involve the river of time to some extent, it was only that his cultivation was currently too low to fully grasp what breaking through to the Venerable Realm fully entailed.