Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Making his way through the empty wasteland with only a few charred remnants of the most powerful of the trees sticking up from the barren landscape, Xuan Hao discovered that other than the empty void created by the true spatial collapse, the celestial gates that should have been visible now that the forest had been burnt down had also disappeared. Leaving behind no traces of them being there in the first place.

However, given how powerful the celestial gates were, Xuan Hao doubted that they had been destroyed by the clash between the cloud demon beast and the guardian formation of the mystic realm like the rest of the forest. Instead, he felt that there should be some other reason for their sudden disappearance after the forest was burnt down.

The only problem was that he had no idea what the reason for their disappearance might be, nor did he plan to remain inside the mountain range and try to potentially find out where the celestial gates had disappeared to. After all, he had already entered all of them and wouldn't be able to gain anything from them even if he found them.

For this reason, it didn't take Xuan Hao more than a few hours before he reached the small valley nestled in between several large mountains located just next to the mist that shielded the mountain range from the rest of the mystic realm.

"Hm?"

However, different from the area behind him that had been destroyed by the powerful clash, the small forest and the demon beasts living inside the valley seemed to have been unaffected by it. Not even a single part of the valley had been affected and looked exactly the same as when he had wandered through it in the past.

Is it perhaps because the mountains shielded the area from the effects of the clash?

Turning to look up towards the towering mountains that encircled the entire valley, Xuan Hao felt that this was possible.

Of course, if he knew what kind of effect the battle between the guardian formation and the cloud demon beast had on the area outside the mountain range, he would have been able to realize that there was something else to the small valley than it just being protected by the towering mountains…

Unaware of this, Xuan Hao didn't think too much about how the valley had managed to survive, as he didn't plan to stay inside of it and just wanted to leave the fog covered mountain range and make his way back out of the mystic realm.

The main reason for this being that he feared that the winged lion might end up eating all of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts before he had a chance to return.

Although, a part of him already felt might be too late considering the winged lion demon beast's sudden increase in strength…

In the end, Xuan Hao soon made his way to the fog that separated the mountain range from the rest of the mystic realm. Making him come to a sudden stop, as he discovered the effects of the spatial anomaly had finally stopped affecting him.

"Finally…"

Feeling the restrictions brought upon by the spatial anomaly that now covered most of the fog covered mountain range disappearing, Xuan Hao could not stop himself from smiling as he tested out his movement technique and made sure that he was really outside the range of the spatial anomaly.

Roar!

However, just as Xuan Hao was feeling elated at finally being able to use his movement technique and other space related techniques, a loud roar echoed out from the fog in front of him. Reminding him of the strange creatures lurking inside the fog in front of him.

Frowning visibly as he realized this, Xuan Hao was just about to begin figuring out how to sneak past the hostile strange creatures inside and make his way back out of the fog, when he realized that he didn't have to do any of this.

Without the spatial anomaly around and given the fact that he was no longer unaware of what was on the other side of the fog, like he had been when he had tried to pass through it and enter the mountain range to complete the quest given by the system, there was no reason for him to try and sneak past the hostile strange creatures.

Not wasting any time after realizing this, Xuan Hao directly used the Drifting Cloud Steps for the first time after absorbing the starlight essence to increase both his cultivation and comprehension of the Dao of Space-

Swish-!

Resulting in a single step taking him several thousand meters into the fog.

"This…" Feeling a sense of profound shock at just how far he had managed to travel with only a single step Xuan Hao froze for a short moment before examining the qi used to perform the single step.

"No difference, its actually the same as before!?"

Only to end up even more shocked after discovering that there was no difference in consumption when compared to when he had used the Drifting Cloud Steps in the past.

Roar!?

Roar?

During the process of Xuan Hao examining the impact of using the Drifting Cloud Steps with his newfound comprehension of the Dao of Space, a startled group of demon beasts who had been in the process of devouring the decomposing body of a much larger demon beast were all panicking at the sudden appearance of Xuan Hao, who had essentially appeared out of thin air and was now hovering directly above the decomposing body.

Rumble~

Fearing that Xuan Hao was a powerful demon beast, all of the scavenger demon beasts who had been munching away happily at the decomposing body rapidly began retreating far away from Xuan hao. Only coming to a stop after realizing that Xuan Hao did not chase after them and instead just remained hovering in the air above the decomposing body without moving.

Roar?

Having retreated away from Xuan Hao, one of the leading demon beasts, unaware of the that Xuan Hao was just in the process of comprehending his usage of the Drifting Cloud Steps, misunderstood Xuan Hao's silent appearance hovering above the body without moving, as him wanting to snatch away the body from them and take it for himself.

ROOOOOAR!

Feeling like it was being looked down upon and unable to let go of such a large prey to what it now perceived as a single scavenger like themselves, the leading demon beast let out a loud roar filled with killing intent. Informing the rest of the demon beasts about what it perceived to be the truth of the matter.

After all, if Xuan Hao was really a powerful demon beast like it had first thought, he should have already attacked them or begun devouring the large demon beast on the ground below him.

Roar!

Roooar!

Rooar!

Filled with a similar anger after hearing this, the rest of the scavenger demon beasts, who had run away in fear after the appearance of Xuan Hao, all turned around before charging back towards Xuan Hao filled with killing intent. Not willing to lose such a large and powerful demon beast body, as it would be extremely helpful in increasing their own strength.

Whoosh~

Having completely ignored the group of demon beasts when he first arrived above the decomposing body of what should be a Domain Lord Realm demon beast due to their strength only being around the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao finally used his divine sense to scan the approaching demon beasts.

Huh? Demon beasts? How come there are demon beasts here? Where are the strange creatures I encountered last time I went through the fog?

However, he was shocked to discover that the group of demon beasts charging towards him were not the strange creatures that he had encountered when first making his way through the mist.

Did they perhaps end up being forced to enter the fog during the clash between the cloud demon beast and the guardian formation of the mystic realm?

Feeling that this made sense, as even the weakest creature he encountered inside the fog back then had reached the Soul Ascension Realm, Xuan Hao began to wonder how this group of Nascent Soul Realm demon beast had even managed to survive inside the fog.

Given the noise they made and how they didn't attempt to conceal themselves in the slightest, it should have been easy for the hostile creatures living inside the fog to spot them and kill them, but none of this happened.

Did something perhaps happen to the creatures living inside the fog?

Only now realizing that he couldn't sense any of the strange creatures, hostile or not, nearby, Xuan Hao didn't bother glancing towards the approaching demon beasts as he merely waved his hand in their direction.

Whoosh-!

Sending a wave of cold air containing the power of the Dao of Ice towards them before increasing the area covered by his divine sense, curious to see if he could find any of the strange creatures that had seemingly disappeared into thin.

Roar?

Unaware of the danger approaching them, the leading demon beast only let out a somewhat confused roar upon seeing the cold air approaching them before being turned into an ice sculpture by the cold air the next second.

Roa-

The rest of the demon beasts who were following behind it didn't even have time to react before they met the same fate under the terrifying cold air that turned all of them into ice sculptures in less than a second.