Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Curious and cautious at the same time, Xuan Hao began to slowly approach the location where he had seen the demonic cultivator disappear from his divine sense for a split second before reappearing again.

Although he was confident in his own strength, he also understood that a Saint Rank Formation wasn't something that was easy to overcome. Even if his strength had reached the Celestial Immortal Realm. Especially so if the strength of the formation surpassed that of the Saint Rank Formations he had encountered so far.

Not to mention, he had not confirmed that it was a Saint Rank Formation but had only guessed that it was a Saint Rank Formation based on his own experience and knowledge of the Frozen Wastelands. For what he knew, it might turn out to be some extremely dangerous location that had been deliberately hidden by a powerful cultivator who had comprehended the Dao of Space to the Origin Realm.

If that really was the case, his current strength would mean nothing, as an existence of that level would have been able to easily kill him off.

For this reason, he remained cautious in his approach of the hidden location, subtly using his divine sense in tandem with his Dao of Illusions to confuse a few nearby demonic cultivators into wandering into the hidden location to probe it and figure out how dangerous it was.

At the very least in that regard, the demonic cultivators that he guided inside the hidden location all emerged without any injuries. Only looking a bit confused over what had happened to them and how they had wandered so far off their original location.

"It should be safe to enter, or at the very least safe to linger around the outer edge of that hidden location without encountering any dangers. Although… I subtly guided those demonic cultivators to try and probe deeper, but all of them emerged a few seconds after disappearing. Only the one close to the True Demon Realm managed to last a little over a minute before reappearing.

Perhaps there is some kind of mechanism in place that prevents them from dwelling deeper into that location or it could be some kind of trail space that have been left behind by an ancient demonic cultivator searching for a worthy inheritor- or more realistically a host for it to reemerge."

Muttering this to himself as he looked towards the hidden location that remained completely obscured from his divine sense, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit hesitant.

If it was really the inheritance ground of an ancient demonic cultivator looking for a body to take over, entering would come with a significant risk, as although the ancient demonic cultivator should only have a remnant consciousness left intact, it was still likely in control of a Saint Rank Formation. Making it a difficult opponent to handle.

But more importantly than it being a difficult opponent to handle, the battle would undoubtedly draw the attention of the powerful demonic cultivators of the Frozen Wastelands, a situation that he wanted to avoid.

"…"

Hesitating in front of the location where all the demonic cultivators had disappeared before reemerging a few seconds later, Xuan Hao's dao domain and divine sense were both continuously sweeping over the location without any success.

If there really was some kind of Saint Rank Formation hidden in that location, he was almost certain that it far surpassed any formation he had encountered so far. After all, hiding from his divine sense was one thing, but also being able to hide from the combined might of his dao domain and divine sense was something completely different.

"Haaa… If I don't take a risk, I doubt I will be able to break through to the Perfection Realm in the Dao of Ice within the next five years…!" Narrowing both his eyes as he quietly said this to himself, Xuan Hao took a step forward into the area where he had seen all those demonic cultivators disappearing over the past few minutes.

"Hm?" However, it was different from what he had expected to happen. Nothing changed and he just found himself stepping into the snow with no clear indication of his surroundings changing.

No Saint Rank Formation activating. No warping of space teleporting him to some different location. No change to his surroundings at all. Everything remained the same, as his divine sense sensed nothing out of place compared to when he had taken that step forward… And that was with him being fully alert and looking out for even the subtlest of changes within the scope of his divine sense.

Filled with confusion over what was happening, Xuan Hao frowned slightly as he reached out with his divine sense before grabbing hold of a nearby demonic cultivator-

Whoosh-!

"Huh? Wha-What is happening!?"

Not bothering to explain anything to the demonic cultivator, Xuan Hao dragged him over to the location he was standing and where he had seen demonic cultivators disappearing seconds earlier-

Whoosh~

And sure enough, the moment the demonic cultivator reached the area, he disappeared into thin air. Only to reemerge a few seconds later with a still confused expression on his face. Not understanding what had happened to him.

Ptsh-!

Of course, Xuan Hao didn't intend to let the demonic cultivator go after he had revealed himself to the other party, as he directly killed him off after confirming that there was nothing wrong with the strange short disappearance of demonic cultivators.

The short test just now allowed him to confirm that there wasn't something wrong with the thing that caused the demonic cultivators to briefly disappear. Instead, the problem was him.

More specifically, he guessed that only demonic cultivators would be affected by the strange thing that caused them to disappear for a short time. Normal cultivators like himself were completely unaffected- or the thing in question was simply filtering them out. Only showing an interest in demonic cultivators.

If this was really the inheritance left behind by an ancient demonic cultivator, this didn't make much sense, as a normal cultivator not yet affected by the corroding yin qi would be better for attempted resurrection.

Meaning that the strange thing that caused demonic cultivators to disappear for a few seconds shouldn't be the inheritance ground of an ancient demonic cultivator, but instead something different.

While this was reassuring to some extent, it also left behind new questions, as he wondered what else it could be. Especially now that he realized that he couldn't sense even the slightest fluctuation when the demonic cultivator had disappeared. Even when standing right next to him.

"Maybe I could try and mask myself as a demonic cultivator and see if that would allow me to activate the thing that makes them disappear briefly, but… Masking myself as a demonic cultivator… How on earth do I do something like that…?" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao only now realized that he had absolutely no idea how to mask himself as demonic cultivator.

So far, his main disguise came from the fact that he was a Dao Domain Lord Realm cultivator and had the ability to mask himself as someone in the Domain Lord Realm. Anything beyond that had simply never crossed his mind.

Masking himself as a demonic cultivator… That was difficult, as the yin qi flowing through them made it hard to disguise oneself as one without first comprehending the Dao of Yin, but that was easier said than done, as the Dao of Yin was essentially a dao on the same level as the Dao of Space in terms of difficulty.

Even if he might have a slight advantage when it came to comprehending the Dao of Yin, as the Dao of Ice could ultimately be considered a dao beneath the Dao of Yin, it would still be difficult to comprehend.

Not to mention, comprehending the Dao of Yin would accelerate the growth of his dao seed. Ultimately reducing the time, he would have to comprehend the Dao of Ice to the Perfection Realm.

Unless absolutely necessary, he didn't want to comprehend a new dao before his breakthrough to the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

So, with that in mind, even if he felt unwilling, he could only give up on exploring the strange disappearance of demonic cultivators and continue his search for locations rich in the Dao of Ice.

Of course, he had made sure to note down the location for the future, as he fully intended to return after he had finished his breakthrough to the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm. After all, the strange disappearance of demonic cultivators was clearly related to some kind of power that far exceeded his current realm, something that made him unwilling to just give up on exploring it further, as it could be helpful for his future progress through the Profound Immortal Realm. Especially so if it was something related to the past that could give him a better understanding of the Profound Immortal Realm and what came after it…