Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Huddled together, the large number of illusory beasts seemed to have undergone some kind of metamorphosis as they seemed to momentarily merge together for short periods of time to launch attacks towards the barrier. From time to time, some of the illusory beasts would be too exhausted to merge together and would separate from the mass and leave to recover while another illusory beast took its place to keep up the attack on the barrier.

"…"

To describe it in more simple terms, all of the illusory beasts became a single large illusory beast for a short period of time and used this giant form to attack the barrier. Repeating this process over what should be at least a year at this point in time, the barrier that kept them from leaving the valley had weakened to the degree that it looked like it was about to break at any moment.

Because of this, it looked like the exhausted illusory beasts didn't wander too far away to recover and had instead gathered together not too far away.

At the same time, the illusory beasts who had left to recover had made their way back in preparation for the barrier breaking. After all, even if they managed to break through the barrier, it worked on the same principles as the normal structure of a world barrier and would end up recovering shortly after being broken.

Of course, the short period that the barrier was broken would be more than enough for all of these illusory beasts to escape from the valley and make their way into the outside world, or more specifically, the Blue Sea Empire.

Wait… If all of these Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts escape, won't the Blue Sea Empire be in for a rather troublesome situation considering that they seem to attack anyone other than illusory beasts upon spotting them?

Suddenly realizing this as he looked at the large number of illusory beasts working together to break the barrier, Xuan Hao could not help silently mourning for the inevitable destruction that the illusory beasts were going to cause in the Blue Sea Empire.

However, even if he knew about this, there was not really anything he could do about it with his current strength. 

Just the number of illusory beasts in the Earth Immortal Realm had already exceeded a hundred and that was not even mentioning the fact that their power should have surpassed the Earth Immortal Realm after combining together to attack the barrier.

Outside of the fact that he was too weak to fight against the large number of illusory beasts, he didn't really have a reason to help out the Blue Sea Empire in the first place. On the other hand, the chaos the illusory beasts were going to cause in the Blue Sea Empire might end up being beneficial for the Star Shattering Sect in the future.

Other than all of this, he would very much like for the illusory beast to break the barrier and create a path out of the valley, as he didn't really want to be stuck inside the valley until the weird pillar in the deeper part of the valley recovered enough to restrain the illusory beasts…

BOOOOOOOOOOOM-!

Just at this moment, the illusory beasts managed to land a perfect hit of the already weakened barrier. Blowing it wide open. 

Rumble-!

Following the barrier being blown open, a path leading out of the Valley of Illusory Beasts and directly into the Blue Sea Empire was carved by the remnant power of the massive illusory beast that the illusory beasts had combined into.

Roar!

Roar~!

Rooooar-!

Seeing the path to freedom appearing, the illusory beasts all let out overjoyed roars as they all rushed forward. None of them wasted any time as they used all of their strength to escape before the barrier recovered and closed again.

R-roar-!

Even the weakened illusory beasts who had just used all of their energy rushed forward as they burned up part of their soul to momentarily recover their strength to escape from the valley.

Whoosh-!

Seeing the path to the outside world already starting to shrink as the barrier recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye, Xuan Hao didn't dare stand around and watch, as he also rushed forward into the path that had been created by the illusory beasts.

Given the chaotic nature of the tunnel, he could not use the Dao of Space inside the tunnel and was forced to fly normally.

Roar?

Roar!?

Even though a few of the illusory beasts managed to spot him because of this, they were far too busy trying to escape themselves to care about him. 

In front of possibly being able to escape from the Valley of Illusory Beasts nothing else mattered…

RUMBLE-!

Not even halfway through the tunnel, a loud rumbling sound echoed out at the back of the tunnel as the barrier of the valley repaired itself- 

CRACK!

What followed was a loud cracking sound as the tunnel began collapsing in on itself, starting from where it had been connected to the Valley of Illusory Beasts before working its way up towards where the tunnel was connected to the Blue Sea Empire.

Roar!?

Roa-

All of this happened in less than a second, as a few of the slowest illusory beasts had no time to react before being swallowed up by the collapsing tunnel, their fate unknown.

Whoosh-!

Not saying anything as he saw the chaotic tunnel around him growing increasingly unstable as the collapse grew closer to where he was, Xuan Hao wasted no time and used all of his strength to rush towards the end of the tunnel connected to the Blue Sea Empire. No longer caring about hiding himself from the rest of the illusory beasts.

If they ended up ganging up on him after leaving the tunnel, he would have to deal it at that time. For now, the most important thing was escaping from the chaotic tunnel and returning to the Blue Sea Empire before getting swallowed up like the increasing number of illusory beasts behind him had experienced.

Even if he couldn't see what happened to the illusory beasts being swallowed up by the collapsing chaotic tunnel, given the chaotic spatial storm that seemed to form in the place where the tunnel collapsed, it was hard to imagine that they had somehow managed to survive. After all, a spatial storm was something terrifying, capable of tearing everything apart, something he had only ever witnessed when travelling to the ancient battlefield where the ancient golem and Dao of Corruption Heart were located. 

Given his current understanding of the Dao of Space, he suspected that a spatial storm was essential what would happen if a true spatial collapse was done on a much larger scale.

Roar!?

At the same time Xuan Hao rushed ahead of the illusory beasts and revealed himself, somewhere not too far behind him, the illusory dragon let out a surprised roar before its expression filled with killing intent. Even if a year had passed, it still remembered how Xuan Hao had cut off its claws… And even if the rest of the illusory beasts had no time to think about Xuan Hao's presence due to the collapsing spatial tunnel, the illusory dragon was not the same as it rushed towards Xuan Hao.

In the eyes of the illusory dragon, Xuan Hao was still someone in the Soul Ascension Realm and shouldn't be able to block it given the chaotic space in the tunnel. Even if he had a powerful attack, it felt it would be able to dodge it now that it was prepared.

"Huh?"

Sensing the illusory dragon rushing towards him from behind, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as a hint of confusion flashed through them.

Even if he was confident in fighting the illusory dragon now that he had broken through to the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he understood very well that even a single second wasted on fighting inside the collapsing tunnel might end up costing him his life.

Does it perhaps want to drag me down with it or something? But it should be more than strong enough to escape from the tunnel if it put all of its power into escaping…

Not able to understand the actions of the illusory dragon now only a few hundred meters away from him, Xuan Hao was forced to stop and respond to it.

Rumble-!

Knowing that even a single second could end up costing him his life, Xuan Hao didn't hold back in the slightest as he utilized all of his power to launch a single devasting sword attack towards the illusory dragon before turning around and continuing to rush up towards the end of the tunnel.

Roar?

BOOOM-!

Suddenly faced with the terrifying sword attack, the illusory dragon could only let out a confused roar before it was forced to use all of its strength to block the attack.

ROOOAR-!

Booom!

Struggling for a short time, the illusory dragon managed to forcefully resist the attack-

RUMBLE-!

However, before it had time to celebrate, the chaotic tunnel around it collapsed and the spatial storm created by the collapse instantly swallowed the triumphant illusory dragon…