Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Arriving at the illusory wooden gates after travelling through the valley for a little over a day, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of relief washing over him. Even though he didn't end up encountering any Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts during his journey back to the illusory wooden gates, he never let down his guard and was always watching out for any of them appearing inside the area covered by his divine sense.

Avoiding them was not an option, as his encounter with the illusory dragon had clearly shown him that it could sense his presence before he had sensed it. 

In the end, this meant that area covered by an Earth Immortal Realm illusory beast exceeded his own divine sense or in more simple terms, it meant that he would always be found first and could only react to them attacking him when they entered the range of his divine sense.

The only thing he could do to try and reduce the risk of being attacked was lower the strength of his presence from what normally felt like someone in the Soul Ascension Realm to the illusory beasts to that of an ordinary Domain Lord Realm Expert. Any lower than this would just end up drawing more attention due to the fact that even the weakest illusory beast had reached the Domain Lord Realm, something weaker than that would not be able to stay alive inside the Valley of Illusory Beasts.

Well… Even if I was spotted by an Earth Immortal Realm illusory beast, it might have just ignored me because of my weak strength-

Thump~

"Ah?!"

Lost in his own thoughts as he was approaching the illusory wooden gates, Xuan Hao suddenly found himself colliding headfirst with a seemingly unmovable invisible wall. Even if it didn't injurie him, the surprise of suddenly crashing into a wall while flying was not a good experience and reminded him of the time he had been trapped in the formation back at the Main Star Peak.

"This is… the barrier that stopped my divine sense?" Almost instantly realizing that the thing in front of him should be the barrier that had stopped his divine sense before he could examine the illusory wooden gates, Xuan Hao could not help himself from poking it out of curiosity as he began trying to examine it in more detail through the combination of his dao domain and divine sense.

Bang!

Unfortunately, even with this and being up close, he couldn't examine the invisible barrier with his divine sense or dao domain. Instead, it just crashed into the invisible barrier before being forcibly dispersed by the invisible barrier.

"This-!?"

Although it might not be so surprising for the barrier to disperse his divine sense upon contact, it was different for his dao domain. After all, for it to have the ability to do this, meant the power of the barrier itself likely exceeded the strength of the illusory dragon he had encountered a day earlier.

Then again. If the barrier wasn't strong enough, the Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts who had managed to gain some semblance of intelligence and weren't just mindless beasts might have already left the valley of Illusory Beasts.

But even if that was the case, why didn't they try to escape by weaking the barrier over time. After all, no matter how strong it was, it would be worn down over time if constantly attacked by a large number of Earth Immortal Realm illusory beast… Unless… Something was forcing the illusory beasts to return to the deeper parts of the valley. Not giving them the needed time to try and break out of the valley.

Of course, these were only some thoughts he got after seeing the wooden gates being blocked off with the emergence of the Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts. Reality might be different. Especially considering that he hadn't seen a single Earth Immortal Realm illusory beast anywhere near the wooden gates, outside of the illusory dragon and the illusory dragon didn't stay around after he had run away.

"What in the… It's not a barrier…?" 

Continuing to examine the invisible barrier blocking his path to the two illusory wooden gates, Xuan Hao soon discovered that when his dao domain hit the invisible barrier, it didn't disperse like he had first thought. Instead, he realized after careful observation that there was some kind of powerful illusion in place that made it seem like the dao domain dispersed.

The reason why he didn't pick up on the illusion the first time around was not because he didn't see it, but because the illusion had spread through his dao domain and ended up affecting him as a result. Making him think that his dao domain had really dispersed, thus causing him to retract his dao domain in fear that it would also affect the rest of his dao domain.

However, even with this, it wouldn't be enough for him to have fallen for the illusion. The real reason why it had fooled him was because he indeed couldn't sense what was on the other side of the invisible barrier that now turned out to be the border of some kind of illusion.

Not to mention, the illusion had indeed blocked his path forward- Or did it?

"Don't tell me I wasn't blocked by the illusion but just affected by it without noticing…" Muttering this to himself as he looked at the two illusory wooden gates no more than a few hundred meters away from where he was, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine.

If not for the fact that the illusions in place around the two wooden gates weren't intended to kill and merely had the effect of blocking anyone from leaving, he would have been killed without even knowing how…

Looking at it in a positive light. The creator of the illusion should have already reached the Large Success Realm in the Dao of Illusions and possibly even beyond that. If I study such a complex illusion, I won't have to worry about my progress in the Dao of Illusions slowing down. Maybe it will be a chance for me to reach the Large Success Realm!

Narrowing his eyes as he thought about this, Xuan Hao felt excited at the prospect of reaching the Large Success Realm in the Dao of Illusions. Outside of the fact that he had to worry about encountering another illusory beast in the Earth Immortal Realm and the fact that he might be trapped inside the valley of Illusory Beasts, things didn't seem that bad.

If he really was trapped, he could use the time to break through to the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm and try to find a way out after that. At least he wouldn't have to worry about the Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts after breaking through the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

Whoosh~

Having come to a decision on what to do, Xuan Hao found a spot on the grass covered ground not too far away from the two wooden doors before starting to comprehend the Dao of Illusions through observation of the illusion blocking his path out of the Valley of Illusory Beasts.

Swish~!

Using his dao domain to cause a movement in the illusion every now and then so he could personally experience it while also observing how it worked from afar.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao immersed himself in comprehending the Dao of Illusions in front of the two illusory wooden gates, at the other side of one of the wooden gates, a fierce confrontation was taking place between the rabbit demon beast and Chu Li…

"Hey little fellow, how are you doing, your master asked me to look after you two, so why don't you come over here and play with me as well? Don't worry, I will make sure to include your little friend as well, we can all have fun together while waiting for things to become safe back in the Valley of Illusory Beasts. 

No need to feel shy, I used to take care of the cute little demon beasts of the noble ladies from the capital back when I was younger!"

SQUEAK!

Well… It might have been a fierce confrontation in the eyes of the rabbit demon beast, but in the eyes of Chu Li, the little rabbit demon beast was just feeling shy after having met a stranger. Nothing out of the ordinary and he knew just how to deal with it-

Whoosh!

Squeak!?

Dashing forward and picking up the small rabbit demon beast before it had any time to react with his superior speed before starting to gently pat its fluffy head with a smile on his face.

"It's fine, there, there little one."

Squ…

"Hm? Do you want to say something little one?"

SQUEEAAAAAAK!

Not knowing how to deal with this kind of humiliation that was being administered to its royal body, the rabbit demon beast could only let out a pitiful scream of agony as it prayed for its master to return as fast as possible...