Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Hearing what the old man said and seeing the ancient looking book that he handed him; Xuan Hao could not help freezing for a short moment before starting to look through it to determine whether or not the old man told him the truth.

This...

Reading through the ancient book, it did not take long before a shocked expression made its way onto his face.

What the old man said was indeed true, the ancient book did contain information on the Celestial Immortal Realm and had part of it written in an unknown language that reminded Xuan Hao of some of the other ancient texts he had encountered from the past.

However, the thing that caught his interest was neither of these two but was instead a detailed explanation of the Earth Immortal Realm that was written at the start of the book. The explanation was detailed and finally gave him an opportunity to understand the mysterious Earth Immortal Realm that had seemed to elude him over the past few years.

From what was written in the ancient book, Xuan Hao realized that after someone managed to overcome the Immortal Soul Tribulation and break through to the Earth Immortal Realm, the soul of the cultivator would undergo a fundamental change. The change would cause the soul itself to transform into the shape of a closed lotus, with the Dao that the cultivator had comprehended forming a protective layer around the soul. The lotus became known as a Dao Lotus because of this connection to the dao comprehended by the cultivator.

Depending on the cultivators comprehension of the dao, more layers could be formed around the lotus flower, with the Small Success Realm being able to form a single layer and the Large Success Realm able to form 3 layers, there was also the Perfection Realm beyond that, but reaching this level of comprehension in a Dao before reaching the Earth Immortal Realm was rare even during the ancient time that the book was written in.

Other than that, it was also noted that reaching the Large Success Realm was a core requirement for breaking through to the Earth Immortal Realm, as without at least forming three layers around the lotus flower, the soul might end up being too weak to handle the power of the Earth Immortal Realm, thus causing it to collapse, killing the cultivator.

For this reason, most Earth Immortal Realm cultivators would enter secluded cultivation after breaking through to the Earth Immortal Realm. Only coming out after they had successfully managed to form three layers around their soul.

Although, it was not out of question for someone to successfully reach the Earth Immortal Realm without comprehending a Dao to the Large Success Realm, though exceptions like this was rare according to the ancient book and could only happen with the help of a special physique that could offset the burden placed on the body by the power of the Earth Immortal Realm.

So… How did I manage to give birth to a Dao Lotus without breaking through to the Earth Immortal Realm?

As he finished going over the introduction to the Earth Immortal Realm, Xuan Hao could not help wondering about the Dao Lotus inside his dantian. According to the ancient book, it would only form after reaching the Earth Immortal Realm. Not only that, but according to the system, although his Dao Lotus had six layers, his strength was only comparable to an Earth Immortal who had just broken through and finished stabilizing their strength.

Maybe the Dao Lotus created through the Dao Domain Lord Realm is different from the one created by breaking through to the Earth Immortal Realm?

Thinking about this to himself, Xuan Hao could only shake his head before turning his attention back towards the ancient book. Hoping that it might be able to help clear up some of his doubts. Although, given that the ancient book didn't mention anything about the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he highly doubted this to happen.

At least he hoped to find out how to add more layers to the Dao Lotus, as his Dao of Illusions had already reached the Large Success Realm and could be used to make another two layers. Hopefully increasing his strength in the process…

Continuing to read through the ancient book, it did not take long before Xuan Hao found the method to create more layers around his Dao Lotus. In a sense, it was a rather simple process and just required him to spend some time condensing the layer around his Dao Lotus, the real difficulty in creating more layers didn't come from actually creating them, but from comprehending the dao.

To create more layers around the Dao Lotus, one would either have to break through to the Perfection Realm in the Dao used to reach the Earth Immortal Realm or find a way to comprehend a brand new dao, both of which were difficult tasks that could take hundreds if not thousands of years to accomplish.

Of course, with the Earth Immortal Realm having the word immortal in the realm, the lifespan of someone in the Earth Immortal Realm far exceeded that of anyone below the Earth Immortal Realm. Although not truly immortal, someone in the Earth Immortal Realm added fifty thousand years to their lifespan after breaking through, with the stronger ones being able to live for over a hundred thousand years.

However, the main difference when it came to lifespan that Xuan Hao learnt about in the ancient book was the fact that some Earth Immortal Realm Experts would be able to forcibly seal themselves and slow down the speed at which their lifespan ran out.

Even if doing this would prevent them from continuing to comprehend the dao and increase their strength, essentially giving up on reaching the Celestial Immortal Realm, it did allow them to continue guarding their families for a far longer period of time than they would normally have been able to do.

Reading about this, Xuan Hao could not help wondering if a powerful Empire like the Blue Sea Empire had a method to seal away their powerful seniors when their cultivation was about to run out.

Although the methods to seal away someone was incredibly rare even in the ancient time and cost a lot of resources to maintain, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that a powerful empire like the Blue Sea Empire that had stood strong for a long time might have been able to get their hands on this kind of technique.

In the end, learning about the existence of a method to seal away powerful ancestors when they were about to pass away so they could continue protecting the power they were from made him feel far more careful about offending powers like the Blue Sea Empire.

Who knew, given the age of the Blue Sea Empire, they might have some old founding ancestor from the ancient past who had surpassed the Celestial Immortal Realm sealed away somewhere inside their ancestral palaces…

Haaa… I don't need to worry about this for now, I'm not enemies with the Blue Sea Empire and I doubt the Heavenly Dragon Temple will find out about the Star Shattering Sect before my strength reaches a level comparable to the Celestial Immortal Realm…

Shaking his head as he thought about this to himself, Xuan Hao focused his attention back on the ancient book and finally reached the part that described the division in the Earth Immortal Realm.

From forming the first three layers to the eighth layer around the Dao Lotus, one would be known as an ordinary Earth Immortal Realm Expert, the most common Earth Immortal.

After forming the ninth layer around the Dao Lotus, one would be able to be considered someone strong in the Earth Immortal Realm and could be considered an expert across the entire continent.

After forming eighteen layers around the Dao Lotus, one would reach the stage known as Half Bloom, where the Dao Lotus already began showing signs of blooming. At this stage, one could begin to attempt breaking through to the Celestial Immortal Realm.

However, this was not the end, there was another stage above the Half Bloom Stage, known as the Radiant Bloom Stage!

Upon reaching the Radiant Bloom Stage, one would naturally break through to the celestial Immortal Realm, causing a unique natural phenomenon in the process.

Of course, the difficulty of reaching the Radiant Bloom Stage was terrifying. Requiring one to form 36 layers around the Dao Lotus, a feat that was considered close to impossible even in the ancient past.

Those successful in reaching the Radiant Bloom Stage would all have a smooth journey through the Celestial Immortal Realm.

"…"

Reading through all of this, Xuan Hao could not help turning his attention back towards the Dao Lotus that had formed inside his dantian, was the purpose of the Dao Domain Lord Realm perhaps in preparation for reaching the Radiant Bloom Stage after breaking through to the Earth Immortal Realm. Directly breakthrough to the Celestial Immortal Realm in one step?