Hovering in midair as he gazed up towards the staircase leading to the twenty seventh floor of the tower, Xuan Hao found his gaze shifting downwards towards the formerly desolate landscape that had turned into a poisonous wasteland filled with a thick green colored miasma that was difficult to see through even for someone at the Profound Immortal Realm.

Although unintentionally, it was clear from a single glance just how devastating the battle between the two had been to their surroundings and made Xuan Hao feel a sense of profound relief that he hadn’t ended up in this kind of deadly battle anywhere near the Star Shattering Sect. After all, even if he ended up winning in the end, the devastation left behind would take a long time to clean up. Not to mention the vast number of casualties such a large-scale battle would cause if it really happened close to the Star Shattering Sect’s territory.

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao also realized there was nothing much he could do about preventing this kind of situation for now outside of hoping that the intimidation he had established would be enough to make anyone who thought about causing trouble for the Star Shattering Sect think twice.

Intimidation that should be working just fine on the different major powers from the Northern Central Region and the demonic cultivators from the Frozen Wasteland. The problem was other forces not from the Northern Central Region like the two powerful cultivators who had decided to test out the Star Shattering Sect from afar not too long ago.

At the very least when it came to those two already dead troublemakers, the ones behind them should have concluded that the Star Shattering Sect wasn’t that easy to mess with, but he couldn’t be entirely sure this was the case and still had to keep an eye out for any other potential attacks against the sect.

Feeling somewhat annoyed at the thought of the two random strangers who had suddenly decided to pop their head up out of nowhere to cause trouble when he had been in the process of recruiting Lu Dongli as his seventh disciple, his attention that had been focused on the miasma filled wasteland below shifted back up towards the spiral staircase leading to the twenty seventh floor of the tower. Going over the completed task and the over two million ascension coins he had obtained after completing the task.

Put together with the ascension coins he had left after he had purchased the ascension secret realm and other things for the sect; he had a little over three million ascension coins.

Large as this number of ascension coins was, it was still a bit short of the ascension coins needed for him to purchase a fitting weapon through the ascension realm tower, something he had already set his mind on obtaining during this trip to the ascension realm tower. Planning on finally getting a weapon that wasn’t the silver sword given to him by Yi Min long ago.

Not that it was a bad weapon, so to say, it just wasn’t anything more than a decorative piece that only served to enhance his image when he used his sword arts during combat. Providing no substantial boost to his strength.

Of course, he could have always requested a new and stronger weapon or even made one himself, but the level of weapon he could get his hands on in this way would barely reach Saint Grade and while useful, it wouldn’t provide him with much in terms of combat power.

Instead of that, he felt it was much better to go through the ascension realm tower that could provide him with far better weapons that also didn’t require him to go out searching for materials to craft a weapon of his own. The only limitation being he needed enough ascension coins to buy a weapon through the ascension realm tower.

Originally, this wouldn’t have been a problem, as the cheapest weapon that had caught his eye was only around four million ascension coins and clearing two new floors would be more than enough for him to get enough funds to get his hands on it.

But... The difficulty of the twenty sixth floor of the tower made him realize that it might not be as simple as he had originally believed to clear the twenty-seventh floor of the tower that now stood before him. Meaning there was a very real chance that he might have to repeatably take on tasks on the twenty sixth floor to save up enough ascension coins in case he failed to clear the twenty seventh floor of the tower...

Narrowing his eyes somewhat as he thought about having to face off against the troublesome mountain sized demon beast again in the future, he felt a sense of determination to clear the twenty seventh floor of the tower-

Swoosh~

Not lingering around any longer than necessary on the twenty sixth floor as he made his way up the spiral staircase that had been left floating midair following the collapse of the floating platform it had originally been connected to.

Spending the next few hours climbing up the spiral staircase that seemed far longer than before due to the restriction on space from the twenty sixth floor extending to cover the passage between the twenty sixth and twenty seventh floor.

Annoying as this prolonged travel time between the two different floors was, it did give him some time to go over the last few battles he had gone through and consolidate what he had learnt through those battles. Especially the last one, as he seemed to have gained some insight into the Dao of Poison. Not to the point of reaching the Elementary Realm in the Dao of Poison in a single step, but an entry point that would be able to serve as a foundation for stepping into the Elementary Realm in the future. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Outside the Dao of Poison that was the main Dao of the snake demon beast, the battle also allowed him to deepen his understanding of the Dao of Cloud Formation, Dao of Water and Dao of Fire, as the snake demon beast had used these three Daos alongside the Dao of Poison in a unique way that gave him some inspiration into improving his own usage of the two Daos in the future.

There were also a few other Daos that he was still unfamiliar with that the snake demon beast had made use of, like the Dao of Miasma and other unknown Daos that he hadn’t been able to grasp because of his lack of understanding in those Daos.

At the very least when it came to the Dao of Poison, outside of how much the demon beast had used it, he also had the Dao of Alchemy to lean on when it came to having laid an initial foundation for understanding the Dao of Poison...

Deep in thought as he continued moving forward trying to grasp onto the Dao of Poison, Xuan Hao found himself almost tripping over the last step up the spiral staircase as he reached the entrance to the twenty seventh floor of the tower. Freezing for a brief instant as he took in the scenery before him with a somewhat surprised look on his face.

Different from expectations, the first thing he saw upon reaching the twenty seventh floor wasn’t some desolate landscape or bloody miasma. Instead, it was a normal dirt road with a caravan travelling a bit further away heading in his direction.

From a simple sweep of his divine sense, he immediately saw through the strength of the humans who made up this simple caravan made up of a few carriages filled with goods- or rather, he realized that none of them had the slightest bit of cultivation. All of them were mortals who hadn’t stepped onto the path of cultivation.

Odd as this was, he guessed it might just be the theme of the floor changing to more properly resemble the world outside the ascension realm tower. After all, outside of the caravan filled with mortals heading his way, he also sensed the spatial restrictions that had been in place on the previous floor, disappearing the second he stepped through and officially entered the world of the twenty seventh floor.

As for cultivators and demon beasts, he did sense a few around, though their strength was nowhere close to strong enough to pose a threat to him. The strongest having only reached the Dao Seed Realm.

Of course, this was only within the relatively small area covered by a preliminary sweep of his divine sense, he doubted there weren’t any stronger beings hidden on the twenty seventh floor. In fact, not wanting to accidentally alert these powerful beings ahead of time was one of the reasons why he had decided to restrict how far he spread out his divine sense after stepping through to the twenty seventh floor. Only really using his divine sense to ensure the safety of his surroundings before his attention shifted towards the task he would have to complete for the twenty seventh floor of the tower...