Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Following the appearance of a new passage leading into the ancient city center, the city lord of Desolate River City didn’t rush forward to block the path and establish a new toll system for this new path into the ancient city center like everyone had originally expected him to do. Instead, the city lord only arrived at the height of the chaos along with two other Void Integration Realm cultivators to check out the situation before leaving. No new toll system was established on the new path into ancient city center and even the one that had been in place around the old entrance managed by the city lord no longer required one to pay a price to enter. Earning widespread praise from the countless weaker cultivators and citizens of Desolate River City who wanted to enter the ancient city center in the past but had no opportunity to do so.

This kind of sudden shift might be viewed as great in the eyes of the countless weaker cultivators below the Void Monarch Realm and even a few poorer Void Monarch Realm cultivators, but in the eyes of the more powerful Void Monarch Realm cultivators and those at the Void Integration Realm, it was clear that something was wrong about this sudden turn of events. Even if they had no idea about the fact that the passages were artificially created, as the two Void Integration Realm cultivators that had gone to investigate the situation alongside the city lord began to more closely inspect this new passage that wasn’t under the control of the city lord, it didn’t take them long to realize that this new passage had only recently been created.

At the same time, the two also ended up working together and in the end successfully created a path through the chaotic spatial currents into the ancient city center. Although flawed compared to the paths created by Xuan Hao and the city lord, as they needed one of the two Void Integration Realm cultivators around to maintain the passage and keep it open, it convinced them of the fact that the two passages they had seen so far were indeed artificially created. One having been created by the city lord, while the other should have been created by another powerful figure of unknown strength that should at the very least have reached the Late Stage of the Void Integration Realm, as that would be the minimum requirement for establishing a path into the ancient city center on their own.

But, as this reality hit them, these Void Integration Realm cultivators also realized that the city lord of Desolate River city should have used some other already established passage to enter the ancient city ruins in the past. After all, he had only recently broken through to the Late Stage of the Void Integration Realm after obtaining a precious opportunity from the ancient city center.

In other words, they realized that the city lord had hidden the original path into the city center he had used to obtain the opportunity to break through to the Late Stage of the Void Integration Realm and instead created a new path to fool everyone while he himself was undoubtedly eyeing some even larger opportunity he couldn’t devour immediately that had forced him to do his utmost to delay everyone else while he fully devoured the precious opportunity.

To say these Void Integration Realm cultivators were enraged upon realizing they had been hoodwinked would be an understatement, as only a few hours after the emergence of the new path into the ancient city center, six figures at the Void Integration Relam, four at the early stage and two at the middle stage of the realm, gathered outside the city lord’s mansion and forced their way inside.

Unfortunately, when they successfully tore through the defensive formations around the ancient city lord mansion that had existed for millions of years at the heart of Desolate River City before the emergence of the ancient city center, it was already too late.

In a corner of the isolated garden in the back, they found traces of an ancient gate that had been positioned directly against the now chaotic swirling spatial currents that symbolized the wall between the rest of the city and the ancient city center. Faint spatial fluctuations from what should have once been an ancient passage still present, as it was simple for these powerful figures who all focused on the Dao of Space to tell that an ancient spatial passage had once existed here not long ago. Not just that, but this should have been the entrance into the ancient city center the city lord of Desolate River City had used in the past to obtain the opportunity that had allowed him to leap from the Middle Stage of the Void Integration Realm all the way up to the Late Stage of the Void Integration Realm.

Unsurprisingly, the group wasn’t too surprised about this turn of events and instead felt a sense of growing excitement knowing they had found the place leading to where the precious opportunity of the city lord was obtained.

Rumble~

And using their past experience, two from the group stepped forward and guided the rest of the group into working together to open a spatial passage into the ancient city center using the ancient gate as an anchor to the direction and place to establish this spatial passage-

”Huh? What is this!?”

”Why are the spatial currents so terrifying here!?”

”Impossible! How can’t we open a passage here! I don’t believe it.”

But contrary to their originally gleeful expressions, everyone was soon rendered speechless as they felt a terrifying spatial force resisting their attempt to carve open a passage through the spatial currents, a force far more powerful than any they had encountered before. One that barely allowed a one-centimeter-wide passage to take shape before it was torn apart, and the remnant power bounced back into the bodies of the six and caused all of them to spew out a mouthful of fresh blood.

This kind of terrifying response made it clear to everyone within a short time that they had no way to do anything and wouldn’t be able to chase after the city lord and obtain an opportunity of their own like they had originally wanted to do. If anything, they felt that continuing to try and carve out a passage might result in a far more terrifying response that could potentially even kill them, something that made all of them stop what they were doing. Retreating to recover from the injuries they had just ended up suffering at the hands of that spatial force, rebounding on them.

”This kind of power... I fear no one in the Void Integration will be able to chase after that old man...”

”True. Only those old fossils at the Void God Realm might stand a chance in the face of this kind of terrifying spatial current...”

”So... Should we give up and contact those old fellows and win a bit of reputation and maybe a chance to enter those sacred grounds in the future?”

Understanding that they stood no chance at chasing after the city lord of Desolate River City any longer, it didn’t take long before one of the six directly proposed ratting out the situation to those terrifying figures. Hoping to secure themselves an opportunity to earn a bit of reward for themselves in the process by handing over the information before anyone else could.

”No... We shouldn’t, the rewards within the ancient city center are still very real. If we inform those seniors, I doubt we will be able to get anything at all.”

”Yeah, though the rewards might not be comparable to what the city lord gets, it’s still precious and worth far more than what we might get from telling those old leeches about the situation of Desolate River City.”

”True!”

”I’m for it!”

”Let’s work together, far more rewards and we might be able to climb to the top of one of those terrifying ancient structures!”

As everyone considered what to do, it was ultimately decided that they wouldn’t inform those terrifying beings at the Void God Realm about the situation of Desolate River City. Instead, they were going to take full advantage of the ancient city center and work together with the little trust that had been established just now by working together. Feeling a growing sense of confidence that ascending to the top of one of those ancient structures could very well contain an opportunity to reach the Late Stage of the Void Integration Realm. After all, they had all faced the reality and terror of those large ancient structures and understood it was impossible for them to climb them on their own with their current strength.

Only working together like those seventeen who had broken through to the Void Monarch Realm together not long ago did they stand a chance at going further and potentially accomplishing a similar kind of breakthrough together in the near future.