Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

If the Dao Domain Lord Realm is really in preparation for reaching the Radiant Bloom Stage. Doesn't that mean I will have to grow the layers around my Dao Lotus Flower to 36 before I can breakthrough to the Earth Immortal Realm?

Narrowing both of his eyes as he thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help wanting to find the old elder from the Mirage Sect to get more information about the Dao Domain Lord Realm from him. Unfortunately, the old man had already perished together with the collapse of the trial ground. If he wanted to find out more about the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he would have to return to the mystic realm and find more of the celestial trials left behind by the Mirage Sect. Only in these celestial trials did he feel like he had a chance at finding out more about the Dao Domain Lord Realm. Maybe he might even be lucky enough to encounter another elder from the Mirage Sect and get information directly from him.

Outside of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he also wanted to try and find out more about the Three Immortals Bloodline. After all, the elder from the Mirage Sect had clearly noticed it and trusted him more because of it.

Although he still to this day had no clue about what the Three Immortals Bloodline was, he knew that it should be related to his past, the only problem was that the only thing he remembered from before reaching the Flying Sword Sect was the fact that he had been fleeing from something terrifying beyond his imagination.

Even after his strength had reached the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm and should have full control over his own memories from birth to now, he still couldn't recall anything more than fleeing from something terrifying for years before he ended up at the Flying Sword Sect.

At first, he had thought it was just because it had traumatized him enough that the memories had been forcibly suppressed, but upon reaching the Domain Lord Realm, he began thinking that his memories had been sealed away by someone. After all, a suppressed memory due to a childhood trauma was not something that should exist inside someone who had reached the Domain Lord Realm, it would have become an internal demon that would be impossible for him to not detect when he broke through.

Following the information about the Three Immortals Bloodline coming to light, he felt that the memory being sealed was more likely.

The only problem with this line of thought was… Who sealed his memories? Given his current strength being comparable to someone in the Earth Immortal Realm and his soul being far stronger than that of a normal Earth Immortal Realm Expert, it made no sense for him to not even be able to feel any seal placed inside his soul.

Even if the other party was in the Celestial Immortal Realm, Xuan Hao felt that it would be impossible for him to not notice… And… From this line of thought came another idea, the idea that part of his soul storing the memories of his childhood and escape had been destroyed when he had transmigrated, and the two different souls had merged together.

During the short merging process of the two different souls, although a new stronger soul emerged in the end, did end up damaging the memories of his time on earth to some extent.

With that in mind, it wouldn't be weird for the same thing to have happened with his memories of his childhood before the Flying Sword Sect-

"S-senior…"

Just at this moment as Xuan Hao felt his thoughts wandering towards his past before the Flying Sword Sect, the old man who had been standing patiently waiting in front of him while he read through the ancient book for the past hour could not help calling out to him. Feeling worried that staying at the same spot just outside the borders of the Blue Sea Empire might end up causing them problems if one of the border guards carrying the special artifact used to identify outsiders and people wanted by the empire happened to pass by close enough for it to pick up his aura.

Hm?

Being rudely awoken from his thoughts as he was in the process of trying to figure out his past, Xuan Hao could not help frowning slightly as he turned to look towards the old man in front of him.

"I think we should leave this place for now. Although it's outside the borders of the Blue Sea Empire, it's still relatively close to the border and if a border guard happens to pass by…"

Hearing what the old man said, Xuan Hao realized that they were indeed rather close to the border of the Blue Sea Empire, close enough that he could sense a border crossing at the edge of his divine sense. "I understand, let's move a bit farther away from the border. After I finish reading through the ancient book, I will give my answer to your request."

"Thank yo-"

Whoosh~!

Before the old man could even thank him, Xuan Hao used his domain to grab him before flying in the opposite direction of the Blue Sea Empire's border.

Even though he had no idea about where he was at the moment and only knew that it should be close the Sky Empire, he understood that no matter where he had ended up, it would almost certainly be safer than staying close to the borders of the Blue Sea Empire.

As for finding his way back to the Sky Empire, that could always wait until after he finished reading through the ancient book and decided on whether or not to take in the old man.

After all, even though he had indeed helped him out a lot when it came to understanding the Earth Immortal Realm with the ancient book, he also felt more on edge against the Blue Sea Empire after learning about the existence of a method to slow down one's death by forcibly being sealed away.

If the Blue Sea Empire wasn't around or he had a way to guarantee that they wouldn't show up in the Sky Empire in the next 50 or so years, he wouldn't have hesitated to take in the old man. Unfortunately, that was not the case and he had to chose between losing an Earth Immortal Realm Expert and potentially becoming enemies with the Blue Sea Empire before he had the strength to fight them…

At least I should look through the rest of the ancient book before coming to a decision on what to do.

Thinking this to himself as he arrived at a desolate mountain range after travelling for over half an hour, Xuan Hao put down the old man before focusing his attention back to the ancient book. Skipping past the part about the Earth Immortal Realm that he had already finished and instead turning his attention towards the part about the Celestial Immortal Realm that the old man had been hopeful would be what made him agree to take him in.

"Huh?"

However, after starting to read through the first part that was about breaking through from the Earth Immortal Realm to the Celestial Immortal Realm, Xuan Hao could not help frowning to himself as he noticed a very clear disclaimer at the top of the page.

[This method is only suitable for those following the ??? path and is unsuitable for those who didn't break through the Soul Ascension Realm.]

Although the disclaimer on the top was written in ancient language, he could somewhat decipher what it said and although it didn't specifically mention the Dao Domain Lord Realm, it felt like it was referring to the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

After all, he didn't know about any other path that skipped over the Soul Ascension Realm, but that could just be because he still hadn't learnt much about other cultivation paths.

For example, the path used by the followers of different gods could also be included in this disclaimer, as they didn't follow the same path as cultivators did.

From what he knew, their power was derived from the divine power granted by their god. For this reason, they didn't have to go through a tribulation and would just have to gather enough faith for their god and be rewarded with more strength.

Of course, there was a major drawback to something like this and that was one couldn't really improve on their own and had to rely on the power of the god behind them to improve. Meaning they would never be able to surpass the god above them and might forever be stuck upon reaching a certain realm.

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly as he decided to skip past the part on breaking through to the Celestial Immortal Realm that the old man hopped would help convince him to take him in…