Chapter 679: Dao of...

As his surroundings began changing, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time as he got to work on healing his damaged dantian.

Whoosh~!

Only after feeling the now familiar sensation of something capable of killing him just outside the greyish barrier formed by the system, Xuan Hao slowly opened his eyes to inspect the new environment that he found himself inside of.

Wiggle~

"A... Tentacle growing from the ground...?"

By far, the thing that caught Xuan Hao's attention the moment he opened his eyes, was a weird tentacle like plant sticking out from the ground just outside the greyish barrier formed by the system...

Wiggle~ Wiggle~

No... Not only did it stick out from the ground and wiggle around weirdly, but it was also very clearly poking the greyish barrier trying to get to him!

Not knowing what to say when he saw the tentacle continuing to try and get inside the greyish barrier and reach him to no avail, Xuan Hao decided to ignore the tentacle like plant wiggling around just a few meters away from him as he began inspecting the environment outside.

"This... What kind of dao is this enlightenment space for...?" Not able to stop himself from showing a horrified and at the same time curious expression upon looking around himself, Xuan Hao had no idea how to feel after witnessing the environment he found himself in the middle of.

The ground had a dark purplish hue and almost seemed alive, while at the same time looking like it was decaying into some sort of black mass in several different locations. At the same time, countless weird tentacles, similar to the one just beside where he was sitting, moved around in all sorts of weird ways.

However, this was not the only weird thing about the current enlightenment space he found himself inside of... Instead... The truly horrifying thing was the countless deformed, twisted, grotesque, ugly bizarre creatures aimlessly wandering the endless, decaying, tentacle infested, plane!

Even if he had seen many different demon beasts through his divine sense after having travelled around by himself and with his disciples, Xuan Hao felt that he could not even begin to describe the appearance of these horrifying creatures... Words were simply far from enough to describe the horrifying appearance of these seemingly mindless creatures wandering around the purple tentacle infested planes!

"So... It's the Dao of Corruption..."

[Dao of Corruption, Enlightenment Space: 20 Minutes Left]

Reading the words on the screen made by the system presented to him, Xuan Hao could only turn to look around himself with a confused expression plastered all over his face.

Why had the system brought him to an enlightenment space for the Dao of Corruption?

Was it perhaps because he didn't comprehend more than two different paths of the dao so far and he had as a result ended up in a random enlightenment space... Or perhaps, he was connected to the Dao of Corruption in a way that he had yet to discover himself...

No matter what it is... Learning about a new dao should not be a bad thing. Even if the dao in question seems a bit... special...

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao put the injuries inside his dantian aside for the moment as he sat down and closed his eyes to focus on trying to comprehend the Dao of Corruption.

Hoping to at the very least gain some sort of rudimentary understanding of it so he could at the very least get some idea about what the environment and horrifying creatures wandering around outside the greyish barrier of the system were about.

Like this, Xuan Hao ended up spending the next twenty minutes fully absorbed in the Dao of Corruption. Doing his absolute best trying to grasp this new dao.

...

"In the end, I could only barely start understanding a few basic things related to the Dao of Corruption..." Muttering this to himself as he opened his eyes and looked up towards the screen formed by the system slowly counting down the last few seconds, he had left inside the enlightenment space, Xuan Hao could not help feeling disappointed that he would not be able to stay for longer.

The few basic things he had managed to comprehend from the Dao of Corruption so far, did not only help him gain a better understanding into several other Daos that were connected to the Dao of Corruption like the Dao of Decay and the Dao of Death... But he also noticed that his soul had grown a tiny bit stronger after comprehending a small part of the Dao of Corruption.

In a way, comprehending the Dao should be another way to increase the strength of one's soul... Although, it was a far slower way to do so.

Even after spending twenty minutes comprehending the Dao of Corruption inside the enlightenment space, the improvement and increase in strength brought to his soul was negligible when compared to the qualitive change brought to his soul after he condensed his nascent sword soul and connected it together with his soul.

However, even with all of this in mind, comprehending the different Daos would be something that he could continue doing, while he could only condense one nascent sword soul...

Whoosh-!

As Xuan Hao was lost in thought thinking about the sudden increase in strength his soul had experienced, the environment once again began shifting around him as the horrifying creatures and the decaying purple environment of the enlightenment space belonging to the Dao of Corruption disappeared.

Not even a second passed before the familiar soft sensation of the pillow he would normally sit on during cultivation could be felt beneath him.

Yes... Xuan Hao used a very fluffy and comfortable pillow made of extremely high-grade materials when cultivating. After all, who would choose to sit on some cold and hard bamboo mat for weeks if not months, if they could choose not to...

"I'm back..."

Making sure that he had indeed returned back to his cultivation room, Xuan Hao could not help letting out a sigh of relief.

Although entering the enlightenment space had indeed been very beneficial to him. Allowing him to both merge his two domains together and at the same time breakthrough to the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, it also ended up putting his life in danger!

Even if he did not end up getting too seriously injured, it would still take weeks if not months for him to recover the damage that the merger between his two domains had caused to his dantian...

"Hopefully I should be able to stabilize my cultivation, while at the same time repairing most of my dantian by the time I will have to leave for the Sky Empire..." Muttering this to himself as he thought about his slowly approaching trip to the capital city of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit nervous.

Even though he had already managed to merge his two domains together and reached the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, he had no idea how he would compare to someone who had reached the Soul Ascension Realm.

"Hah... For now, I should focus on repairing my dantian..."

Knowing that it would not make any difference to try and guess how he would compare to a Soul Ascension Realm Expert when he had never had the chance to encounter one before, Xuan Hao decided to not think too much about it and instead to dedicate his time towards repairing his dantian.

Even if his dantian could not fully recover in time for the journey to the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao wanted to at the very least have the strength to fight someone in the Domain Lord Realm.

After all, travelling to the core of the Sky Empire was not safe for someone who had yet to reach the Domain Lord Realm.

The Sky Empire could still keep order in certain places, like the core of their empire... But the different kingdoms that were under them were not the same...

Not to mention that there would be all sorts of powerful demon beasts along the way, there would also be all sorts of cultivators looking for an easy target to rob for cultivation resources to increase their own strength!

For Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, the journey to the capital of the Sky Empire from the border region of the Sky Empire was an extremely dangerous journey that could take months if not years to complete!

This was also one of the main reasons why the Sky Empire had given a three-year notice to the sects that would be a part of the sect alliance... Most of these sects did not have anyone in the Domain Lord Realm and the strongest person would in most cases be someone in the Half Step Domain Lord Realm or someone at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm!

For sects like this... Even three years might not be enough time for them to reach the capital of the Sky Empire!