Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having managed to get a general grasp over the strength of the Void Integration Realm thanks to the city lord who himself had reached the Early Stage of the Void Integration Realm, Xuan Hao felt confident that he wouldn’t lose out to someone in the Void Integration Realm with his current strength even if beating someone at the Peak of the Void Integration Realm that had fully merged their body with the surrounding space was difficult even relying on the inherent advantage brought by his divine void eyes. Escaping shouldn’t be difficult with his current strength.

Not because his Dao of Space was impressive compared to the locals, but instead because he had comprehended other Daos like the Dao of Light that he could use for escaping. After all, useful as the Dao of Space might be for running away under normal circumstances, doing so on the fragmented continent would be nothing short of signing one’s own death certificate.

After all, utilizing the Dao of Space to escape would almost definitely result in landing in the middle of a spatial anomaly or spatial storm given the chaotic spatial environment of the fragmented continent.

It was also for this reason that the locals, even those at the Void Monarch Realm, travelled on foot, as that was by far the safest means of travel.

Flying was of course an option, but it came with its own risks, as the further away from the ground one was, the less protected one would be from the void and while those with high enough cultivation might not be affected by this, wandering too far from the continent also came with an increased risks of running into some kind of spatial anomaly or spatial storm raging just beyond the protective laws and rules that still guarded the fragmented continent from the far more terrifying scene that laid beyond the boundaries of the fragmented continent.

Although he hadn’t originally been able to sense much of the scene beyond the boundaries of the fragmented continent as it was also beyond the boundaries for the twenty ninth floor of the tower that likely didn’t even cover the entirety of the fragmented continent itself. Having now spent some time wandering through the fragmented continent and on his way to the Desolate River City, he sensed that beyond the boundaries of the fragmented continent, a terrifying spatial storm raged, one far beyond any kind of spatial storm he had ever seen before if he could even call it a spatial storm.

Instead, it was more akin to an endless ocean filled with waves made up of terrifying spatial fluctuations that on their own would be more than powerful to easily tear someone like himself apart.

In a sense, it wasn’t wrong to say that the fragmented continent had found itself adrift amidst this terrifying ocean permeating the void. Trapping the beings on the fragmented continent within, while also grinding away at those remnant laws and rules belonging to the world that that the fragmented continent had once been part of.

If the fragmented continent couldn’t escape this ocean, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the fate that awaited it and the countless being surviving on the surface. Even those powerful beings that had reached the Void God Realm and surpassed the Void Integration Realm might have been reduced to a state of helplessness in the face of that seemingly endless ocean trapping the fragmented continent.

Shaking his head as he thought about this while making his way towards the Desolate River City, Xuan Hao couldn’t help feeling a sense of profound relief that he hadn’t ended up in this kind of fragmented world and had instead found himself on the Ewaria Continent.

Even if his home world should be in some kind of shattered state following an ancient war, it was in a far better state compared to the fragmented continent that was left to drift aimlessly through the void trapped within an ocean of spatial waves whose power far exceeded that of the Star Creation Realm.

Still, it did make him curious about the vastness of the void itself, as it was clear that even his world was only a small part of the vast emptiness of the void.

Speaking of the vast emptiness of the void, being unable to rely on the Dao of Space for travel made him realize just how vast the fragmented continent was, as he deduced that it would at least take him a few days to reach Desolate River City relying on his secondary movement technique, Illusory Light Steps.

A journey that he decided to use on observing the different spatial anomalies and spatial storms he passed by along the way. Using the journey to deepen his own insights into the Dao of Space, as there wasn’t anything more productive, he could do while traveling through the mostly desolate valleys and plains of the fragmented continent.

...

Around the same time Xuan Hao began his journey towards the Desolate River City, all the way in the Western Central Region, Chun Hua and Qing Yi had just started their own journey through the Yellow Peak Region before they ended up running into a few wandering cultivators out looking for opportunities to take advantage of the increasingly chaotic region.

Unfortunately for these wandering cultivators, they ended up targeting the two of them just as they had landed on the ground for a quick break while figuring out how to move around a battlefield that had formed a short distance from their current location.

The outcome of these wandering cultivators that lingered around the Core Formation Realm was predictable, as none of them ended up making it out alive after attacking the two.

Although... they did ultimately end up unknowingly helping the two overcome the troublesome situation they had found themselves in thanks to a sketchy looking map left behind by one of the now dead wandering cultivators that detailed a route going around the place where the battlefield between the local power and invading forces were clashing.

Even if the route brought them through a forbidden region that they would originally have attempted to avoid given the danger involved in entering such a region, the path that had been left behind seemed safe, as the two of them guessed that these few wandering cultivators had used that path before they ended up encountering the two of them.

And if the path was safe to a few wandering cultivators at the Core Formation Realm, it wouldn’t pose any danger to someone at the Initial Dao Domain Lord Realm like the two of them.

In the end, it was with this blind confidence in their own strength that the two of them ended up stepping inside a forbidden region that on second thought wasn’t a good idea to enter even if they had managed to get their hands on a seemingly safe path through the forbidden region through a group of now dead wandering cultivators.

At first, the path through the forbidden region was normal and nothing seemed off to the two, but as they continued deeper into the forbidden region following the map, they realized that the route on the map was wrong- or rather, the path they had been following had changed.

By the time they tried to turn around and leave the way they had come from to avoid falling into a dangerous situation, the path behind them had already changed and they couldn’t find their way back out of the forbidden region.

In other words, they were trapped inside an unknown forbidden region without any real clue about why the place was even a forbidden region in the first place.

But luck was on their side, as after wandering around searching for the way back out for a few minutes, they ran into a young monk in the same situation as them. Trapped inside the forbidden region.

Of course, different from the two of them, he hadn’t willingly wandered into the forbidden region. Having instead been chased into the forbidden region by a group of wandering cultivators that had taken advantage of the chaos to loot the temple he was part of.

Because of this, the young monk was far from talkative when he first encountered the two of them and only really began speaking to the two of them after realizing they weren’t wandering cultivators.

But after letting his emotions out about how he had ended up being chased into the forbidden region, he also shared what little he knew about the forbidden region. Referring to it as some kind of ancient spatial formation that trapped all those who accidentally stepped inside it.

What this formation guarded and if it even guarded something was unknown, as the formation hadn’t ever been cracked because of the downright terrifying power of whoever created the formation. Excelling in both the Dao of Formations and the Dao of Space.

The only known path out of the formation was to continue wandering around until one ended up lucky enough to walk out.

Of course, that was easier said than done, as some had been trapped for thousands of years before finding a way out, while most never made it out of the formation once they stepped inside it.