Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Knowing just how long it had taken him to absorb the heavenly treasure that he had obtained from the Heavens Faith Sect, he understood that he wouldn’t have the time to absorb even one of the earthly treasures he had obtained from the Endless Treasure Hall this time around. Still, though he wouldn’t be able to consume any of them, he wasn’t too worried about the immortal ascension staircase. Feeling confident that he would be able to clear it with his current strength that had somewhat improved since he had cleared the twenty seventh floor thanks to the heavenly treasure he had absorbed.

Not to mention, another piece of information he had learnt from the disciples and elders challenging the ascension realm tower was the fact that the repeatable task one was handed after clearing a floor was relatively easier to accomplish compared to the original challenge. Meaning it shouldn’t be that difficult for him to clear the twenty seventh floor of the tower.

Still, to ensure he would have the best chance of getting those three earthly treasures that very well could help push him to the Late Stage of the Land Creation Realm out, he decided to use the time remaining to learn as much as possible about the immortal ascension staircase.

Luckily, because the immortal ascension staircase had been around for a long time and was well known, it wasn’t that difficult to find out information on the immortal ascension staircase and the ascension ceremony that had been mentioned in the time limit of the task.

Learning that the ascension ceremony mentioned was a special event held once every ten thousand years where the people of the small world gathered to watch people from across the world challenge the immortal ascension staircase. The event in question was also an opportunity for the seniors of the different major powers to come together and discuss the management of the desolate world hidden within the collapsed space.

The reason why this was generally the time when people who wanted to ascend the immortal ascension staircase chose to do so, was because one would get an opportunity to learn from the insights that had been left behind by some of the seniors who had managed to successfully ascend to the immortal realm.

Knowledge like this normally being something that had been completely restricted by the different major powers with seniors who successfully ascended.

Of course, there was a price for this information according to what he learnt… And that was the fact that anyone who wanted to learn this kind of information had to step onto the immortal ascension staircase.

In other words, one had to ascend the immortal ascension staircase upon learning the information.

Why this was the case, Xuan Hao had no idea, but he guessed it might be some kind of restriction around the information that would force those who learnt it to ascend. After all, it had been made very clear to him that the information wasn’t learnt through divine sense or spoken but instead came through a special jade that one would have to access with divine sense.

Curious as this was, he guessed that he would ultimately find out when he challenged the immortal ascension staircase. After all, though the ascension ceremony would only officially start in two days when his time limit ran out, it was already possible for people to start ascending the immortal ascension staircase as the different major powers had already subtly started their discussions ahead of time.

The reason why he hadn’t realized this was not because he hadn’t seen the immortal ascension staircase yet, but instead because the few people who had officially challenged it so far had barely taken a few steps before perishing. None of them managed to get more than a few hundred steps up.

Making it clear that the real challengers whom the residents of the city believed had a chance to successfully ascend this time around hadn’t yet made their move and stepped onto the staircase. All of them were waiting for the official start of the ascension ceremony before they took the difficult and life-threatening challenge that was the immortal ascension staircase.

Of course, none of this mattered much to Xuan Hao, as the only thing he cared about was the fact that he would be able to get his hands on the information on the immortal ascension staircase left behind by those who ascended in the past. Hopefully, making the challenge a bit easier and ensuring that he would be able to take the three earthly treasures out of the twenty seventh floor.

With that in mind, he didn’t linger around the city for much longer after learning what he wanted. Setting out for the immortal ascension staircase. Soon enough, finding himself standing in front of that familiar spiral staircase that looked no different from when he had ascended it in the past.

The only difference, so to speak, was the area around the staircase, as he now noted that there were not only a lot of people gathered around, but also several shops joining in on the festivities that had already begun ahead of time.

Not just that, but he even noticed a small crowd gathering around the small entrance to the somewhat sealed off area around the spiral staircase. ”Hm? Looks like someone is about to challenge the immortal ascension staircase.” And looking closer, he realized that it was because someone was about to attempt ascending the spiral staircase. The person in question being an older woman who had reached the Peak of the Breaking Dawn Realm.

Weak as this was compared to the strength of those who was going to challenge the immortal ascension staircase later on, he didn’t think too much of it, as the immortal ascension staircase didn’t make it impossible for someone who had only reached the Breaking Dawn Realm to successfully ascend it, as some had indeed succeeded in ascending at the Breaking Dawn Realm.

Of course, though it was possible, it was clear that it was far more difficult for someone in the Breaking Dawn Realm to ascend. Especially considering the older woman shouldn’t be someone incredibly talented, but instead someone who had been unable to reach the Sea Formation Realm and had decided to challenge the immortal ascension realm before her lifespan ran out.

Well… Not exactly her lifespan running out, as someone at the Profound Immortal Realm wouldn’t die from running out of lifespan like those below the Profound Immortal Realm or the Celestial Immortal Realm for that matter. Instead, one would have to face something called a longevity tribulation upon reaching a million years of age. Surviving it bought another hundred thousand years of life before one would have to face another stronger longevity tribulation, while failure meant death.

Generally, from what he knew about this longevity tribulation that only existed within the small world, someone at the Breaking Dawn Realm could survive up to 9 such tribulation, while Sea Formation could endure 19, Land Creation 29 and Star Creation 39.

In other words, the general lifespan of someone in the Profound Immortal Realm was somewhere between a million and just below five million years.

Ultimately, this kind of lifespan was terrifying to say the least compared to the Dao Seed Realm that came before it, but one could still not be considered fully immortal, as one still had to face the increasingly deadly longevity tribulation until one either perished or ascended to the immortal realm.

Although this longevity tribulation didn’t exist for him outside the small world and the lifespan of those in the Celestial Immortal Realm or the Profound Immortal Realm was capped at five million years, he had a feeling that the longevity tribulation that the people of the small world found themselves facing was related to the Venerable Realm. Potentially even being similar to the Soul Ascension Realm, where they faced part of the tribulation ahead of time and progressively passed through it instead of facing it head on like you would if you chose to follow the Dao Domain Lord Realm path.

Unfortunately, his knowledge on the Venerable Realm was lacking, so he had no way to tell if this was the case, as though these people might be facing part of the tribulation to the Venerable Realm ahead of time, it didn’t make them any stronger than someone who had not faced the tribulation. If anything, part of it also felt like some kind of deliberate restriction that might have been set up by the so-called immortal realm to ensure the people from the small world challenged the immortal ascension staircase.

For now, he just decided to observe the older woman in the distance as she officially stepped onto the immortal ascension staircase and began her ascend after spending a few minutes going through the information from the small jade that had been placed by the different major powers next to the start of the spiral staircase. Sealed off by a powerful formation that prevented anyone from peeking at the content inside the jade without stepping onto the spiral staircase.