Chapter 2201: Mui’s Breakthrough

With the group from the Myriad Treasure Hall settled down and Elder Song taking advantage of the situation to befriend this group of cultivators from the Myriad Treasure Hall to deepen his understanding of the world and also find ways to expand the influence of the Star Shattering Sect in the future, the entire sect entered a state a quiet expansion and cultivation with no major events interfering with the general development of the sect.

The same could be said for Xuan Hao’s disciples, with his two newest disciples becoming more used to the sect and slowly starting to fit in while his older disciples went about like normal with the only change being that their master had gone off into seclusion and couldn’t even use the clone, he had been using so far to help them whenever they encountered any problems during their cultivation. In a way, this was both a good and bad thing, as it ended up making these older disciples seek out answers on their own, some finding fellow disciples or elders to discuss with, while other, like Chu Yang, ended up throwing himself entirely into combat inside the ascension realm tower or the sect’s combat hall.

The only one who didn’t realize their master had entered seclusion was surprisingly enough Mui, the one who had been seeking him out the most out of the bunch.

The reason behind this being that, much like her master attempting to carve a dao rune into his dao lotus and breakthrough to the Star Creation Realm, she had also entered seclusion to breakthrough as well.

Main difference being that she wasn’t attempting to breakthrough to the Star Creation Realm like her master and was instead attempting to overcome the bottleneck at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm, a bottleneck that shouldn’t have been difficult for her to overcome no matter what path she ultimately ended up choosing, be it the Dao Domain Lord Realm path her fellow disciples had chosen or the Soul Ascension Realm path that was most commonly followed.

If her master had been around to watch over her during this seclusion of hers, he would have discovered that there was something odd about her presence as she began getting closer to breaking through the bottleneck.

In fact, had anyone seen her, they would have been able to understand something strange was happening, as the presence around her had subtly shifted and changed from what should be the presence of someone in the Domain Lord Realm. Becoming something unrecognizable, that was neither the calamitous presence of someone in the Soul Ascension Realm nor the profound presence of someone in the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

Instead, it was a presence that didn’t evoke any sense of power that would normally be present no matter what path one chose. Strange was truly the only word that could describe the presence that now surrounded Mui as she continued pushing forward.

For the longest seclusion she had ever engaged in and the most peaceful period the Star Shattering Sect had experienced since she had been accepted as Xuan Hao’s fourth disciple, Mui transformed from head to toe as she successfully broke through to a new higher realm that was completely different.

The changes not only affected her outwards appearance, even her internal state had changed to the point that it was completely unrecognizable compared to before her breakthrough-

"Huh!? I-I grew taller!"

Though, to the person in question, the clear increase in strength and the mysterious changes that had taken place inside her dantian was far less important to her compared to the fact that the breakthrough had ended up causing her height to surge upwards another five centimeters.

Only after calming down from her initial excitement over the sudden surge in height following her breakthrough, did she take the time to calm down and properly examine her internal situation following her breakthrough. Not taking long to discover that her current state was completely different from the Soul Ascension Realm and the Dao Domain Lord Realm she had learnt about before attempting her breakthrough-

RUUUMBLE-!

Although, one thing became clear as tribulation clouds gathered above, she still had to go through the immortal soul tribulation like the others. Following the same path as those who broke through to the Soul Ascension Realm instead of the path of facing the entire tribulation head on like those following the Dao Domain Lord Realm path.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

But as the first tribulation of the immortal soul tribulation descended upon her in the form of lightning, the tribulation of fire, she didn’t have to do anything to resist the tribulation. Dissolving on its own after it entered the strange domain that had formed around her following her breakthrough, with some of the lightning turning into a gentle light that helped temper her body, while other parts of the lightning shifted into all sorts of strange things.

One lightning ball dissolved into a normal mortal frog that hoped around in a confused manner, while another lightning ball turned into a small berry bush that the mortal frog happily hoped over towards before starting to feast on the sweet berries.

However, this was far from the strangest, as one lightning ball directly transformed into a small pagoda a little over a dozen meters tall.

From start to finish, there was no rhyme or reason behind the strange shapes the lightning took once it entered the strange domain surrounding Mui; the only certainty was that part of the lightning would always transform into the gentle light that helped temper her physical body.

"What in the world..."

"Huh... Is this a breakthrough to the Soul Ascension Realm...? Why does it look so... Strange?"

"Who knows, this one has always been strange. Never expected her tribulation to be just as odd..."

Of course, with her tribulation descending, while she had ended up finding somewhere isolated to breakthrough inside the ascension secret realm, she still ended up attracting a few nearby cultivators from the sect who weren’t deep in meditation attempting their own breakthrough. Having come over to see if there was something they could learn from observing someone else breaking through. Only to be met with that kind of strange scene that left them questioning their own eyes.

From start to finish, the few cultivators drawn over could only watch in awe as Mui successfully completed her tribulation before slowly closing her eyes to stabilize her cultivation base following the increase in strength she had obtained from both her breakthrough and the tribulation.

No matter how curious these cultivators were about what they had just seen, they knew better than to interrupt someone stabilizing their cultivation after an important breakthrough and decided to quietly wait a short distance away from her. Curious about what they had seen and wondering if Mui might have some unique trick for breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm.

After all, to them, it looked like a normal Mui situation where she had used some strange trick to seemingly breeze through the tribulation of fire.

And... If they could learn this trick as well and successfully pass the tribulation of fire, it would have been more than worth it to wait around for a few weeks until she stabilized her cultivation base and had time to talk with them about her breakthrough.

As for the frog, berry bush, pagoda and other strange things that had formed inside the strange domain that resisted the heavenly tribulation? They had all seemingly dissolved after the tribulation came to an end. Vanishing alongside the tribulation cloud above.

...

"Hm? A notification...?" All the way back in his own cultivation chamber, Xuan Hao had already been in seclusion for a little over two years and had by now carved out close to sixty or so percent of his first dao rune, when a sudden unexpected notification jumped out at him. Catching him completely off guard, as he soon enough paused what he was doing and focused on the notification that had decided to make itself known. Knowing that it would either be some new quest or another hidden quest related to his disciples.

Of which, he really didn’t want to do take on a new quest before he finished his breakthrough to the Star Creation Realm...

[Hidden Main Quest: Have a disciple successfully establish a new dao path.]

[Reward: Book of A Hundred Arts (Saint Realm), Stellar Dao Fragment (Increases Comprehension of the Dao of Stars, Celestial Bodies, Space and other related Daos)]

"Huh? Dao Path...?"

But the information on the notification caught him completely off guard, as he was faced with a term he hadn’t encountered before.

Dao Path.

Even if he didn’t understand the meaning behind this term, the rewards below made it clear that it was something significant. One of the rewards being of immense value to the future development of the sect, while the other would be of immense value to him even without him personally inspecting the two unique rewards.