Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Deciding to slowly approach the giant mushroom and find out whether or not it was a monster he would have to defeat to complete the fourth celestial trial, Xuan Hao did his best to hide his own presence before starting to move closer. Making sure to not accidentally get noticed by any of the mushroom monsters along the way by moving on the mushroom caps above.

Although this would make him a bit easier to spot considering that he was rather easy to differentiate from the normal color of the mushroom caps, it wasn't that much easier considering that he was using his dao domain to hide himself.

Unless the senses of the giant mushroom turned towards him and focused on the place he was standing, he doubted that it would be able to notice him as long as it wasn't hadn't reached the Profound Immortal Realm, something he deemed impossible considering that this was still a challenge for someone in the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

The main reason for this being that the massive difference between someone in the Profound Immortal Realm and Dao Seed Realm would turn the celestial trial into an impossible to complete challenge if there was any monster or demon beasts in the Profound Immortal Realm around.

Just their powerful divine sense alone would mean that they would spot him far before he even noticed them and in turn kill him without even giving him the time to react… And considering that this had not happened yet, he could at least conclude that the giant mushroom should be below the Profound Immortal Realm.

Thump~

Landing on a mushroom right next to the giant mushroom that still seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he was there, Xuan Hao carefully began to inspect the giant moving mushroom. Not taking long to conclude that the strength of the giant mushroom wasn't anywhere near his own strength. Only barely being comparable to someone that had just broken through to the Dao Seed Realm.

Whoosh-!

With that in mind, Xuan Hao didn't bother hiding himself as his divine sense swept out and covered the giant mushroom. Scanning every inch of it for anything helpful in him learning more about the mushroom forest.

Rumble~

As a result of this, the giant mushroom that had been moving around 10 meters a minute, came to an abrupt stop before a strange energy began rising up from the surrounding mushrooms before gathering towards the giant mushroom.

"Hm? This energy…" Seeing the strange energy gathering towards the large mushroom the moment the strange energy appeared, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he focused his divine sense on trying to figure out what the giant mushroom was up to.

Hm… The strange energy from the surrounding mushrooms seems to be strengthening it at a rather terrifying rate, but… To reach a level comparable to the Middle Stage of the Dao Seed Realm, it would still at least need to continue absorbing the strange energy without interruptions for ten or so hours…

Shaking his head as he realized that it would at least take another ten hours for the giant mushroom to strengthen to a level where it would threaten him, Xuan Hao didn't pay more attention to it and instead took a step forward and arrived on top of the mushroom monster to kill it before it had a chance to become a threat-

"Huh?"

However, just as he was about to deliver a killing blow, he realized that there was a small stone slate located on top of a primitive altar at the center of the giant mushroom monster's cap… And given that he couldn't sense it with his divine sense, Xuan Hao already had some idea what that stone slab was the moment he noticed it-

"The Scroll of Trials!"

Swish~

And so, casting aside the thought of killing the mushroom monster for now, Xuan Hao dashed forward and arrived in front of the stone slab with an excited expression on his face.

[Scroll of Trials Fragment, Part 3 of 4]

However, the happiness soon disappeared when he read through the few words written on top of the stone slab.

The scroll of trials is actually split into four parts…

Not knowing what to say as he just looked down at the stone slab in disappointment, Xuan Hao still continued to read through what was written on the stone slab. Soon finding the coordinates of the other three parts of the scroll of trials on it and a simple description of how to combine the four stone slabs to form the scroll of trials.

Outside of that, there was also a simple warning written on the bottom of the stone slab about the giant mushroom that he was currently standing on top of.

Immortal below the Profound Immortal Realm.

A few simple words, but terrifying nonetheless, as it essentially meant he would have no way to kill the giant mushroom with his current strength according to what was written on the stone slab.

Of course, Xuan Hao didn't plan on just leaving in search of the other stone slabs after reading that it was impossible for him to kill the giant mushroom, as he intended to first put it to the test and see how accurate it was-

Whoosh-!

So, not holding anything back, Xuan Hao distanced himself from the giant mushroom before using his strongest move currently available on the giant mushroom. Empty Void, the ability inherent to his Divine Void Eyes that had been awakened through his Stellar Dao Body.

Rumble-!

Soon enough, the air around the giant mushroom began to distort before being torn apart as space itself began collapsing in towards the giant mushroom within a fraction of a second, causing everything inside the section of the mushroom forest affected by the spatial collapse to disintegrate.

Smaller mushroom monsters, tree sized mushrooms and rocks on the ground. Everything was torn apart and absorbed into the growing void that soon swallowed the giant mushroom busy absorbing the strange energy to increase its strength.

RUMBLE-!

However, just as the giant mushroom was enveloped by the True Spatial Collapse created by Xuan Hao, the formation that kept the space of the celestial trial intact kicked into action, as it forcibly reversed the spatial collapse and repaired the space that had been destroyed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"This…"

Seeing this, Xuan Hao could not help opening his eyes wide with a look of shock plastered all over his face.

Destroying space through True Spatial Collapse was different from the partial spatial collapse that didn't fully destroy the space. The difference being that the destruction caused by True Spatial Collapse was a real collapse of space, something that would take tens of thousands of years for a world to normally recover from at the scale that he had just used it, while a partial spatial collapse didn't fully collapse space.

Repairing the damage he had caused with True Spatial Collapse would be difficult to accomplish even if his comprehension of the Dao of Space managed to reach the Large Success Realm. Recovering it at a speed visible to the naked eye was something he doubted would be possible even if he reached the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Space!

After all, compared to collapsing space, repairing it was far more difficult to accomplish.

Even with his current understanding of the Dao of Space having reached the Peak of the Small Success Realm about to reach the Large Success Realm, it was almost impossible for him to repair a partially collapsed space larger than a few meters wide.

Repair space that had been through a true spatial collapse? That wasn't something he could do with his current understanding of the Dao of Space no matter how small the area in question might be…

For this reason, Xuan Hao was rendered speechless as he just looked on as the space in front of him was repaired by the formation that governed the celestial trial he was currently inside of.

Not just because he wanted to use the opportunity to try and comprehend the Dao of Space through watching how space was reconstructed by the celestial trial formation, but also because he wanted to see if the giant mushroom had managed to survive the terrifying attack.

Rumble~

Unfortunately, as the space was reconstructed again and he no longer had the chance to observe the delicate workings of the formation as it reconstructed the space of the trial space, Xuan Hao was met with the sight of the completely undamaged giant mushroom.

Outside of its strange energy absorption being briefly interrupted by the attack. Nothing had happened to it and it was still peacefully growing stronger without retaliating against him.

It was also at this moment that Xuan Hao realized the real danger of the trial, the giant mushroom.

Before it reached a level of strength comparable to the Middle Stage of the Dao Seed Realm or beyond that, he had to complete the challenge of the fourth celestial trial!