Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Seeing the large claws once again descending towards him, Xuan Hao grabbed the hilt of his nascent sword soul and slashed up towards the incoming claws-

Swish-!

And without any suspense or terrifying clash, the nascent sword soul smoothly cut through the claws of the illusory dragon before continuing forward with a seemingly unstoppable momentum. Almost like the claws had never even existed in the first place.

Roar!?

Caught off guard by the terrifying nascent sword soul that had just cut through its claws with seemingly no effort, the illusory dragon acted in instinct as it felt a threat to its life-

Swoosh-!

Dodging the nascent sword soul before rapidly retreating far away from Xuan Hao where it began to examine him in far more detail compared to the first time when it had discovered that he had been cable of defending against its claw attacks.

After all, when everything was said and done, there was a stark difference between being able to survive an attack that takes zero effort to preform on the side of an Earh Immortal Realm Expert and someone having the ability to threaten the life of someone in the Earth Immortal Realm.

The first could be considered a genius in the Soul Ascension Realm who would eventually reach the Earth Immortal Realm in the future, while the other was someone who already had the ability to kill someone in the Earth Immortal Realm…

As the illusory dragon once again entered a state of deep thought as it focused all its energy towards trying to figure out how someone who should only be in the Soul Ascension Realm had managed to accomplish something like that, the person in question didn't want to stay around for a second longer as he directly used the Drifting Cloud Steps to run away again.

The only difference this time around was that the illusory dragon didn't chase after him. Having seemingly concluded that it would be too dangerous to continue chasing him. Above all, it wasn't the only Earth Immortal Realm illusory beast around, while at the same time being nowhere near the strongest.

Even if it let Xuan Hao escape, it understood that he wouldn't be escaping for too long before he ran into another Earth Immortal Realm illusory beast… And considering that he didn't really have anything of value to it in him, it didn't want to possibly risk its life fighting with him for no reason.

Indeed, compared to the ordinary illusory beasts between the Domain Lord Realm and the Soul Ascension Realm, the illusory beasts in the Earth Immortal Realm had finally gained some semblance of sentience- Although, the level of sentience was still limited.

…

"Haaa… Looks like … Haaa… It's not chasing after me…" Collapsing in a small forest clearing after escaping for three hours straight, Xuan Hao only muttered this to himself before beginning to recover the energy that had been sapped from his soul after utilizing the nascent sword soul in battle against the illusory dragon.

Although it didn't look like it consumed a lot of energy due to him just taking the nascent sword soul out from his dantian before swinging it towards the claws of the illusory dragon, the main consumption of energy stemmed from the fact that the nascent sword soul was directly linked to his soul… And from the experience just now, he realized that it would forcibly drain the strength of his soul when used.

Even though this might not have too much of an effect if he was facing someone in the Soul Ascension Realm, the same could not be said when his nascent sword soul had to face off against an illusory beast in the Earth Immortal Realm. The power required was more than enough to render him exhausted to the point of fainting, something that would almost certainly spell the end for him with the illusory dragon around.

In the future, it would be best to limit the usage of the nascent sword soul to fighting people around his own strength or those below him. Not only because using it at a stronger opponent would potentially cause him to faint, but also because the drain on his soul might end up permanently scaring his soul.

The only reason why he had been able to escape unscratched from the clash with the illusory dragon was because his nascent sword soul only hit and cut through the claws!

If he had ended up accidentally cutting into the body of the illusory dragon, he might have all the power inside his soul sucked up by the nascent sword soul before he could even cut halfway through it…

If he had ended up using the nascent sword soul on a more powerful opponent in the future without knowing about the drawbacks, it was easy to imagine the surprise on his opponent's face when he ended up just falling dead on the ground after using it.

How terrifying… Nascent sword soul… A double-edged sword in the truest sense of the word. If I'm not careful, I might end up killing myself when using it…

Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he thought about this while recovering, Xuan Hao could not help feeling grateful that he had managed to escape without any permanent damage to his soul…

As a day came and went like this, Xuan Hao slowly opened his eyes after recovering from the battle with the illusory dragon at the Earth Immortal Realm before turning to look in the direction of the two wooden gates that had turned illusory during his battle with the illusory dragon.

Although he had no idea what had happened to them, he had clearly sensed that his divine sense couldn't approach them, being blocked by some kind of strange power that made it impossible to get any closer to them.

It was also because of this strange power that he hadn't decided to try and escape through the illusory wooden gates. Having instinctively understood that the power wouldn't just stop his divine sense but would also prevent him from approaching the wooden gates.

Maybe I can examine them in more detail now that I don't have to worry about the illusory dragon, it should have left by now… 

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao wasted no time in jumping into the air and flying towards the location of the wooden gates. Intending to examine the illusory gates up close to hopefully find out if he could still leave the Valley of Illusory Beasts.

Even if he couldn't leave, he at the very least wanted to figure out if there was some kind of limit until the wooden gates returned to normal or if his current situation wasn't something that had happened before and that he would be trapped inside the Valley of Illusory Beasts for an unknown period of time.

If that really ended up happening, he would need to find a way to break through the illusory wooden gates, something that would undoubtedly require a power far beyond what he had at the moment. Maybe another option existed, which was increasing his comprehension of the Dao of Space and mastering the long distance teleportation technique.

If he mastered the long distance teleportation technique, he wouldn't have to worry about getting stuck so easily in the future, as he would be able to easily leave any trap or space that didn't have a proper spatial seal on top of it.

"But… Mastering the long distance teleportation technique to such a realm will undoubtedly take far longer that reaching the Large Succes in the Dao of Space or the Dao of Illusions for that matter… And that is not mentioning the fact that the Star Shattering Sect won't be able to survive for such a long time without me.

Even if the Earth Immortal Realm Expert from the Heavenly Dragon Temple doesn't show up for some reason, the current chaotic situation in Frozen Wastelands might end up resulting in a demon just as powerful emerging in the Sky Empire…" Muttering this to himself as he flew towards the illusory wooden gates, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly as he realized just how bad things might get for the Star Shattering Sect without him present.

Even if the current Star Shattering Sect could be considered powerful in the Sky Empire, that was only considering that he was still around. Not to mention when compared to the powers above the Sky Empire, like the Blue Sea Empire.

In the grand scheme of things, the Star Shattering Sect was still weak and had no real power on the Ewaria Continent… And there were still other continents outside of the Ewaria Continent, some of which might be far more powerful than the Ewaria Continent.

No use thinking about all of this, the Star Shattering Sect still has time to grow, with time, it will become a top power on Ewaria and with my help, even beyond the borders of the Ewaria Continent...