Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

”W-what just happened...?” Disappearing behind the door leading up towards the assumed top of the central spire of the ancient cathedral, the four remaining youths who had been frozen in place about to run away when his divine sense had rolled over them finally regained the ability to move again as the one standing the closest to their now dead friend silently voiced out the thought on everyone’s mind.

But the response he got in return was nothing but silence. His three still alive friends, not daring to say anything. Only able to stare in the direction of the now open door that the ancient holy guardian had been guarding and the stairs that had been revealed on the other side leading upwards.

The four of them might have only been weak juniors far below the void Monarch Realm before their lucky encounter within the ancient cathedral that had just claimed one of them, but they were still from a Void Monarch Realm family that had been entrenched in Desolate River City for a long time and had the opportunity to encounter to see several seniors at the Void Integration Realm from a distance in the past.

Because of this, the four could also tell that the terrifying divine sense that had swept over them just now and seemingly easily crushed the golem capable of instantly killing their friend at the Void Monarch Realm was not someone in the Void Integration Realm. On the contrary, the divine sense of the Void Integration Realm cultivators they had encountered in the past that had left them trembling in fear back then was like a small firefly compared to the brilliance of the sun. Simply incomparable.

”Void God Realm...” With that in mind, the thoughts of one of the four unconsciously slipped out, as the cultivation realm of the person they had just run into became clear. Only this figure having reached this terrifying and legendary realm would explain the difference in strength compared to the Void Integration Realm cultivators they had encountered in the past. At the same time, it also gave the group of four an idea of just how vast the difference between someone in the Void God Realm and someone in the Void Integration Realm truly was.

”Let’s leave... I don’t think it would be a good idea for us to continue lingering around here any longer...”

”True... With someone at this level getting involved, I doubt even the city lord can control the situation.”

”Yeah, we can also use this as an explanation for Chong’s family. Say we encountered some dangerous situation and was saved by this powerful figure passing by.”

”Indeed, we can also use this to explain our breakthrough to the Void Monarch Realm. Say we followed behind the path that figure moved for a bit before obtaining a chance to reach the Void Monarch Realm.”

As another discussion broke out amongst the remaining four friends, it didn’t take them long to come to a decision on howe to handle their current situation and the sudden death of their friend. Not wasting any time to stay after coming to a decision as they quickly began making their way back down the central spire. None of them daring to follow behind a senior at the Void God Realm as they now wanted nothing more than to get back to their families and tell them about what had happened with some slight modifications as to the death of their friend so as to make themselves seem a bit more heroic than the rather pathetic death that had taken place and their cowardly reaction to the sudden turn of events.

...

The group of four leaving didn’t escape Xuan Hao’s divine sense; it was just that he didn’t care about them leaving and thus allowed the little group of friends to successfully escape with their lives.

In his eyes, even if they ended up spreading news that someone in the Void God Realm had appeared within the ancient city center, he doubted it would be much of a surprise to those stronger figures within Desolate River City, as they should have already realized someone powerful had appeared once the entrance to the city center had been discovered. Potentially having already guessed that it might be someone in the Void God Realm.

The weaker figures at the Void Monarch Realm learning about the potential presence of someone in the Void God Realm wouldn’t change much, as those figures that had already reached the Void God Realm should already be learning about the situation that had taken place within Desolate River City by the time this news had a chance to spread out beyond Desolate River City. The Reason being that information wasn’t anywhere near as easy to spread around compared to back on the Ewaria Continent. Requiring the use of expensive and difficult to operate formations or word of mouth to spread.

And given just how expensive formation connecting different places throughout the fragmented continent was to operate, the only ones truly capable of utilizing such formations would be those Void Integration Realm cultivators and ironically, they wouldn’t want this kind of information to spread fast. Knowing that once Desolate River City was swarmed by those terrifying figures at the Void God Realm and countless people at the Peak of the Void Integration Realm looking for a chance to reach the Void God Realm, they would stand little chance competing for the opportunities hidden within the ancient city center.

A fact that was easy to see from how the city lord of Desolate River City had tried his best to drag things on to avoid the other Void Integration Realm cultivators that had shown up so far from discovering the opportunity he was still in the process of consuming himself. Only throwing caution to the wind upon realizing someone else might also soon end up competing with him for said opportunity...

Continuing up the stairs of the central spire, his attention shifted away from the group of youths rapidly trying to escape from the ancient cathedral after the terrifying experience they had just gone through while helping him get a better understanding of the terrifying ancient holy guardian that had ultimately been dealt with in a simple and swift manner that left him somewhat disappointed in the end.

But disappointing as the battle might have been, it was nowhere near as disappointing as the fact that there were no rewards waiting for him after he had successfully cleared away this barrier and proceeded forward. Unfortunately, it looked like the ancient will that had managed to wrestle over control of the ancient holy guardian had once been in a far better shape than when he had run into it and had already consumed everything of value on this section of the central spire. Leaving behind nothing for him once he finished it off.

Why the other party hadn’t left when they had been in a good enough state to control the holy guardian to consume those treasures was a mystery, but he suspected the ancient holy guardian might have some kind of restrictions placed deep inside it that prevented it from leaving its designated area and even after taking control of it, these restrictions had remained in place. Preventing the ancient will now in control of the holy guardian from leaving.

”Oh? A spatial passage?” But as he found himself reaching what should have been the top of the central spire belonging to the ancient cathedral, he couldn’t help showing a somewhat surprised look on his face as he found himself face to face with a spatial passage.

The surprise itself didn’t come from the spatial passage itself but the simple fact that it existed. After all, with the current state of the fragmented continent, even just travelling through the void using the Dao of Space was seen as deadly, let alone establishing an anchored spatial passage like the one in front of him that should have existed for countless years.

Because of this, though the spatial passage itself looked harmless on the surface, he didn’t dare enter it. Knowing that what awaited him might be some passage that had been twisted beyond recognition over the long years that would directly throw him out of the fragmented continent and into the terrifying sea of spatial currents outside, a fate that would leave him no chance to put up even the slightest struggle before being sent back to the ground floor of the ascension tower.

Luckily, there was a rather simple way to find out if the passage was safe to pass through-

”Huh?! Wha-what happened!? W-where are we now...?”

”A trap! We might have accidentally entered some kind of formation by accident while descending the spire.”

”A formation... That spatial passage... Is that perhaps the way out?”

”Obviously, that passage is the only way out, the other paths are sealed off... I think it’s a test of some kind we need to conquer to pass through the formation!”

And that was by dragging the group of four he had allowed to leave earlier back up without any of them realizing what had happened while silently trapping them inside a formation that made the spatial passage seem like the only way out of their current situation...