"To start off with, to reach the Soul Ascension Realm, one will first have to go through a tribulation. However different from the Cloud Tribulation one would have to pass through to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, the tribulation one will have to go through to reach the Soul Ascension Realm is far more terrifying!
The tribulation one will face when breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm is the first of seven tribulations that one will have to endure all seven tribulations to surpass the Soul Ascension Realm. From what I know, together, the seven tribulations are referred to as the Immortal Soul Tribulation!
Not only that, but one will only have a limited time to prepare between each tribulation! From what I know, the time one can delay between each tribulation can be no more than five thousand years!"
"The Immortal Soul Tribulation…"
Listening to what Xu Bao said, Xuan Hao could not help feeling surprised. Even if he had already expected for the Soul Ascension Realm to include some kind of tribulation from what little knowledge about the realm that he had managed to gather so far, he had never expected that it would be like that.
Having to face a deadly tribulation to break through a single minor realm was already hard enough, but one would also be forced to break through after staying at the same realm for five thousand years or die in the process!
But then again… Five thousand years was a long period of time. Especially for someone like Xuan Hao who was barely around thirty years old at this point in time.
Even if others might be worried about having enough time to prepare for the different tribulations, Xuan Hao was not the slightest bit worried about this with his current cultivation speed.
Now that I think about it, can't you directly skip past the Soul Ascension Realm if you are strong enough? Perhaps the ancient geniuses who could fight and kill Soul Ascension Realm Experts I saw during the vision shown by the book in the Thousand Wind Palace were preparing to directly ascend the Immortal Soul Tribulation in a single step…
Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about this as he looked towards Xu Bao patiently waiting for him after seeing that he was deep in thought.
"For the Immortal Soul Tribulation, what is the fastest speed you have heard of someone ascending the tribulation before?"
"The fastest speed at which someone passed through the Immortal Soul Tribulation…? Hm… From what I know, there is a few ancient records in my sect that mention something about the geniuses of the ancient era being capable of directly transcending the tribulation in a single step without having to prepare themselves between each of the seven tribulations… But heavenly geniuses like that have never appeared since the ancient era…
Outside of these heavenly geniuses, the fastest person I have heard about that passed through the Immortal Soul Tribulation is someone know as the Eternal Empress of Slumber that managed to ascend the Immortal Soul Tribulation at the age of one thousand… But that was already before I was born. Even the Sky Empire wasn't around when that figure rose to power!"
Hearing what Xu Bao said, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he heard the name of the person who had the record of surpassing the Immortal Soul Tribulation the fastest in the current era.
Eternal Empress of Slumber... Why do I have a feeling that I have heard about this person before?
Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao instead turned his attention towards the more important part of the information that Xu Bao had given him.
During the ancient era, the powerful geniuses had indeed managed to pass through the Immortal Soul Tribulation in a single step without waiting between each of the different tribulations!
But… Given that those powerful geniuses of the ancient era had the strength to kill Soul Ascension Realm Experts in the Domain Lord Realm and had still not chosen to pass through the Immortal Soul Tribulation, Xuan Hao understood that he would definitely not be able to pass through the entire tribulation with his current strength.
Not to mention, the Soul Ascension Realm Experts that those powerful Domain Lords fought were clearly far stronger than the Soul Ascension Realm he had encountered so far. Even the demonic cultivator from earlier was far weaker than them. Only the power from the guardian formation of the capital seemed to have reached the level of strength that those Soul Ascension Realm Experts fighting with those top geniuses of the ancient era had!
"…"
Thinking that he would need to get strong enough to deal with something as powerful as the guardian formation of the Sky Empire's capital city in the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that he still had some way to go before he could reach break through to the next realm.
At the very least, if he followed the same path as those ancient geniuses, he would be able to directly skip past the Soul Ascension Realm and reach an even higher realm!
"Elder Xu… Do you perhaps know how those ancient geniuses from the ancient era managed to get strong enough to directly ascend the Immortal Soul Tribulation in a single step?"
"No… If I did, I would be using whatever methods they were using to improve my own strength. If I had to guess, I would think that they continued strengthening their domain after reaching the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm instead of breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm, as for how they would continue strengthening their domain… I have no idea…"
Seeing Elder Xu shaking his head helplessly as he said this, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly to himself.
Indeed, if Elder Xu knew how those ancient geniuses managed to increase their strength to such a terrifying level that they would be able to directly skip past the Soul Ascension Realm, he would certainly be using them to increase his own strength!
From the looks of it, he would have to look for those methods himself in the future. For now, the only way he had to increase his strength further was to increase the strength of his domain by comprehending the different Daos that had been integrated into his domain…