Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Deciding to start searching for another way out of the Valley of Illusory Beasts that didn't involve the two illusory wooden gates, Xuan Hao ended up finding him moving deeper and deeper in the valley with each passing day without finding anything that might point him towards an alternative path out of the Valley of Illusory Beasts.

Instead, the only thing he managed to find so far was the large number of Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts roaming around the place. If not for the fact that there were simply far too many of them around and even a slight mistake would expose him to at least three or more Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts, he would have long since tried to find an Earth Immortal Realm illusory beast to test out his new strength.

Whoosh~

Crossing over the seemingly invisible barrier separating the area where the illusory beast in the Earth Immortal Realm normally roamed and the place where the Peak Soul Ascension Realm and weaker illusory beasts could be found after close to a week of searching for the way out, Xuan Hao was happily surprised to discover than the power of his Dao of Space had only been blocked for a short time before becoming available again.

Different from his expectations of it being impossible for him to utilize the Dao of Space in the deeper parts of the valley due to the progressively harder to manipulate space the deeper one went; it turned out that he was wrong. Instead of it becoming increasingly harder to manipulate the Dao of Space, there was instead some kind of barrier separating the two parts of the valley.

The barrier in question was not really a barrier in the sense of one created by a formation but was instead a large swath of land stretching across the Valley of Illusory beasts. Separating the weaker and stronger illusory beasts from each other. 

Although he thought it might have been artificially created by some powerful expert in the Dao of Space at first, he quickly ended up throwing this thought away after personally examining the strange state of the space around and inside the swath of land.

The land covered was simply far too large, while the power that stabilized the space and made it impossible to manipulate seemed to be related to the strange space that the Valley of Illusory Beasts, Ephemeral Forest, and Sea of Mist was located inside of.

If something like that had been made by an expert in the Dao of Space, the existence would be far beyond anything he had encountered so far, likely even surpassing the old experts of the Blue Sea Empire standing above the Earth Immortal Realm.

"Huh? What is that…"

Searching around the place where the Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts should have been confined, it did not take long before Xuan Hao discovered something that made him pause with a look of surprise plastered all over his face.

"A pillar…?" Muttering this to himself as he stared up at what could only be described as a large pillar, Xuan Hao was rendered speechless as he had no idea what such an object would be doing inside the Valley of Illusory Beasts.

The only thing he could think of was that it should somehow be related to the illusion that was now blocking his path out of the Valley of Illusory Beasts or the thing that was responsible for restraining the Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts.

But… No matter what its use is, it's clear that it used up all of the energy stored inside of it and is in the process of absorbing the qi around itself to recover…

Spotting the small crystal-like object floating above the pillar absorbing qi from the air around the pillar at a speed that almost caused an energy storm similar to when he had broken through to the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao did not take long to realize the current state of the pillar.

Whoosh~!

Deciding to investigate more closely with his divine sense, Xuan Hao soon discovered that there were countless ancient formation symbols floating around inside the crystal-like object floating above the pillar.

The formation symbols all absorbed the abundant qi that entered the crystal-like object before they began growing brighter and bright when-

Whish~

One of the ancient formation symbols seemed to have been filled with qi as it seeped out of the crystal-like object and fell down onto the pillar below before merging together with it. In the process of this, the crystal-like object also seemed to shrink ever-so slightly.

The pillar didn't show any clear change that was observable to him, but Xuan Hao still felt like something had changed after the ancient formation symbol merged together with it, it was just that he couldn't tell just what this was.

"Hm… If the pillar is related to the restriction of the Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts, does it perhaps mean that when it has finished recharging, the path leading back out of the Valley of Illusory Beasts will be opened?" Muttering this to himself as he focused his attention on the crystal-like object floating above the pillar, Xuan Hao could not help silently frowning to himself.

If his guess was correct and the pillar was indeed connected to the restriction of the illusory beasts in the Earth Immortal Realm, he might have to wait until the pillar finished recharging before he could leave the Valley of Illusory Beasts.

Although it might not sound too bad at first, he guessed that for the pillar to fully recover, it had to absorb all of the ancient formation symbols floating in the crystal-like object above it… And from his quick observation of the speed at which the ancient formation symbols were charged up and released back into the pillar, this process would at least take thirty years at the current speed.

Even if the qi absorption speed was far above anything Xuan Hao had seen before his breakthrough to the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, it was also obvious that restraining so many illusory beasts in the Earth Immortal Realm was not an easy thing to accomplish. After all, restraining and killing were two completely different concepts.

But… For what reason would someone go through the trouble of constructing something like this just for the sole purpose of restraining the illusory beasts in the Earth Immortal Realm? Is there perhaps some other use for the illusory beasts that I don't know about?

Gazing up at the pillar with an increasingly curious expression on his face, Xuan Hao wondered if the illusory beasts had some other magical effect other than increasing one's comprehension of the Dao of Illusions after they managed to reach the Earth Immortal Realm.

Wait, no, it's not time for this! I have to find another way to leave this place. If I really stay in here for the next thirty years waiting to see if the path out will open, the Star Shattering Sect and my disciples might have already perished.

Feeling like his train of thought was starting to drift away from his main objective of finding a way to leave the Valley of Illusory Beasts, Xuan Hao got into the air before continuing his search across the valley for anything that might be able to help accomplish his goal. Leaving behind the strange pillar to continue absorbing qi on its own.

…

As days passed and turned into weeks, Xuan Hao continued searching through the valley with no success.

Outside of the large pillar he had encountered back when he had first crossed into the deeper part of the valley where the Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts normally resided, Xuan Hao did not encounter anything. 

Not even a single Earth Immortal Realm illusory beast ran through the area covered by his divine sense. Making him believe that all of them should have already left the place to go to the outer part of the valley.

This realization made Xuan Hao wonder just what these Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts were up to. After all, they weren't as dumb as the illusory beasts who normally wandered the outer part of the valley.

Given they had at least some level of intelligence, they should be trying to find a way to leave the Valley of Illusory Beasts while the pillar was not there to restrain them and given that the two wooden gates had been blocked off-

"They should be trying to find some other way to leave the valley…" Finishing his own train of thought as he was flying through a large empty field, Xuan Hao could not help could not help freezing on the spot-

Why didn't I think about that before!

Swish-!

And without wasting a single second, he turned around and headed straight towards the outer part of the valley where the Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts should be searching for an escape path in.