Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Having its strength reduced down to the Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, even if the illusory beast had managed to stabilize its situation and fight back against Xuan Hao it had no way to gain an advantage and was even losing out in its fight against Xuan Hao.

If things continued at its current pace, it was obvious that it was going to get overwhelmed and killed by Xuan Hao over the next few minutes. Maybe not even lasting that long considering that Xuan Hao's strength with the help of his dao domain bordered on the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Roar!

Realizing just this, the illusory beast began to grow more desperate-

Boom-boom-boom!

However, no matter what it tried to throw at Xuan Hao, it didn't work. Instead, it just caused its situation to grow even worse. Especially so after it gathered a large part of its remaining strength into trying to destroy his soul through different soul attacks which ended up being destroyed by the nascent sword soul present inside his dantian. Not even needing the assistance of the dao domain to fend off against the soul attack.

ROOOAR!

Not wanting to go down just like that, the illusory beast something Xuan Hao had never seen an illusory beast do since he had entered the Valley of Illusory Beasts, it escaped- Or at least tried to do so, his dao domain didn't really give it much of a chance to escape after it had first been engulfed by it.

The only way that the illusory beast would be able to escape in the current situation was if it somehow managed to first break through his dao domain, something that was close to impossible for it to accomplish in its current state. Not to mention, there was no way Xuan Hao was willing to give it a chance to run away after he had used so much energy trying to kill it.

Other than that, there was also the fact that the illusory beast escaping might end up attracting the attention of another nearby Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast. Even if it didn't, it would undoubtedly draw more attention to the place they were fighting.

Although there shouldn't be any Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beasts too close to the hill, there was quite a few Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast with no lack of those in the Fourth and Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm!

Whoosh-!

Catching up to the illusory beast, Xuan Hao directly used the Dao of Ice to create a small vortex of sword qi around the illusory beast-

BOOOOM!

Not a second after its creation, the vortex exploded violently, causing the sword qi inside of it to pierce into the illusory beast before it could put up a proper defense-

Swish-!

Ptsh!

Giving Xuan Hao the time needed to land a fatal blow on the illusory beast. Killing it before it had the time to recover and try to escape again. Not even giving it the chance to let out a single sound as its body fell to the ground as it began the process of disappearing.

The main difference between the body of this illusory beast and other illusory beasts being that it took far longer to disappear. Even when compared to the illusory beast in the Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm that he had killed in the past, there was a clear difference between the time and process between the two.

Whoosh~!

Knowing that this was an opportunity to potentially have his Dao of Illusions reach the peak of the Elementary Realm and possibly break through to the Small Success Realm, Xuan Hao wasted no time in sitting down beside the body of the illusory beast and focus his full attention on comprehending the Dao of Illusions.

Rooar!

Roar!

Even with the occasional roars from illusory beasts close to the hill that had picked up on the commotion, Xuan Hao didn't plan to pay any attention to them unless they decided to attack him. After all, the body of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast would only be around for so long and any time wasted on fighting other illusory beasts would reduce the time he could use to improve his Dao of Illusions.

…

As time passed, Xuan Hao found himself being fully immersed in the Dao of Illusions beside the slowly disappearing body of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast.

Luckily for him, most of the powerful illusory beasts didn't dare to approach the hill. The main cause of this being the terrifying energy from the battle between him and the Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast that still lingered in the air around the hill.

Even if the illusory beasts could be considered less smart that ordinary demon beast, they at the very least still had a survival instinct that told them approaching the hill was a bad idea…

Roar!

Of course, not all of illusory beast were intimidated and some still made their way to the base of the hill where the body of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast and Xuan Hao were located-

Ptsh-!

Unfortunately for them, they were at most in the Domain Lord Realm and ended up being almost instantaneously killed by Xuan Hao's dao domain.

Although his dao domain was only passively defending without him doing anything, it was more than enough to kill anyone below the Soul Ascension Realm… And in case some of the illusory beasts in the Soul Ascension Realm decided to show up, it would at least provide him with a few extra seconds to leave his current state of comprehension and prepare to face off against them.

However, the few illusory beasts in the Soul Ascension that had cautiously followed after the Domain Lord Realm illusory beasts were almost instantly scared off after witnessing the quick death of the Domain Lord Realm illusory beast. Not daring to make a move on Xuan Hao. Giving him all the time, he needed to fully focus on comprehending the Dao of Illusions.

…

After spending close to half an hour beside the slowly dispersing body of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast, Xuan Hao opened both of his eyes with a hint of regret. 

"Almost there… Haaa… To think the illusory beast decides to fully disperse now of all times…" Muttering this to himself as he looked at the last motes of light that had once been a part of the illusory beast disappearing, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a hint of sadness over his current situation.

Even though the body of the illusory beast had been around for half an hour before disappearing, he had only managed to reach the Peak of the Elementary Realm in the Dao of Illusions, a single step away from breaking through to the Small Success Realm.

The worst part of the entire thing was that he could clearly sense that breaking through to the Small Success Realm would at least require him to find another Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast or comprehending the realm on his own. The weaker illusory beasts simply wouldn't provide the last bit of insight required to break through the barrier between the Elementary Realm and the Small Success Realm.

How long that would take to do it on his own was not something he had any idea about; it might take a few days, or it might end up taking months to break through to the Small Success Realm.

As for killing another Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast… That was not really something he thought would be as easy. Mainly because the Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast that he had chosen was by far the weakest among the ones he had sensed inside the valley so far.

If he tried to ambush another Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast, he might not end up succeeding. Not to mention, escaping would be harder the further inside the valley he went.

The reason for this was not just because the illusory beasts grew stronger the deeper, he went, but also because he had sensed that the space inside the valley became tougher and harder to manipulate the deeper inside the valley he went.

Although this was not enough to affect him during his fight with the Peak Soul Ascension Realm illusory beast, he doubted things would stay like that if he went further inside the valley.

All things considered, the safest option for him was to break through to the Small Success Realm on his own.

Now came another problem… The Valley of Illusory beasts, although perfect for increasing comprehension of the Dao of Illusions when killing illusory beasts, it didn't provide any other benefits now that he was stuck at the Peak of the Elementary Realm and killing weaker illusory beasts didn't help his breakthrough.

"Maybe I should try the Ephemeral Forest… The Dao of Mirages is after all connected to the Dao of Illusions…" Muttering this to himself as he remembered the only part of the secret location he hadn't been to, Xuan Hao could not help glancing towards the wooden gate he had come out from- Or to be more specific, a similar wooden gate located no more than a few meters away from the one he had entered the valley from.

The gate in question led directly to the Ephemeral Forest, connecting the valley and the forest without him needing to go back through the Sea of Mist. Not that it mattered that much any way considering there wasn't really anything dangerous in the Sea of Mist…

Swish-!

Not thinking too much about it, Xuan Hao got up and made his way back to the wooden gates before heading into the one connected to the Ephemeral Forest. Not bothering to head back into the Sea of Mist just to make his journey longer for no reason.