Cultivating Disciples To Breakthrough

by Stayrr

Within a quiet pavilion on top of a lonely mountain peak, Xuan Hao slowly opened his eyes with a bewildered look on his face, he had transmigrated into a cultivation world as an elder of the Flying Sword Sect. He was even an expert at the Nascent Soul Realm, who had the power to easily destory an entire city with a wave of his hand. Most importantly, he had a system that allowed h

21. 693

Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough #Chapter 693 Jungle Inside the Mountain - Read Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough Chapter 693 Jungle Inside the Mountain Online - All Page - Novel Bin

693 Jungle Inside the Mountain

"This is the elder from the Flame Sky Kingdom?"

Reaching the base of the Ninth Star Peak where the entrance to the Star Shattering Sect was located, Elder Song could not help showing a surprised expression on his face when he spotted Sheng Mei patiently sitting on a nearby rock waiting.

Even from a distance, he could clearly sense that she was indeed someone who had at least reached the Seventh Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Not that he had doubted Elder Playing Ghost, but Elder Song really did not expect for the person sent over by the Flame Sky Kingdom to be so powerful. After all, an expert who had at least reached the Seventh Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm should be among the most powerful people of the Flame Sky Kingdom, there was no reason for the Flame Sky Kingdom to sent over someone that powerful!

"Ah! Greetings elder! I'm Sheng Mei, an elder from the Flame Sky Kingdom."

Spotting Elder Song almost the moment he arrived, Sheng Mei stepped forward before respectful introducing herself in a polite tone.

"Hello, Sheng Mei, I'm the current Vice Sect Master of the Star Shattering Sect, you can just call me Elder Song... Now, might I ask why someone like yourself came all the way here?"

Introducing himself, Elder Song directly asked Sheng Mei why she had come.

"This... Elder Song, I think it would be best to find another place to discuss this. After all, it pertains the future of my Flame Sky Kingdom..."

"I understand, follow me and we will discuss it in more details inside."

Nodding his head as he understood what Sheng Mei was trying to say, Elder Song motioned for her to follow him as both of them soon made their way up the Ninth Star Peak. Making their way towards the Seventh Star Peak where the main part of the Star Shattering Sect was located.

As for the danger that came along with letting someone as powerful as Sheng Mei inside the core part of the sect... Elder Song was not the slightest bit worried about this!

After all, not only did the Star Shattering Sect have the Chaotic Qi Formation in place... But Feng Chen who had reached the Domain Lord Realm was also present on the Seventh Star Peak together with Shu Yao who had similarly reached the Domain Lord Realm.

If Sheng Mei really tried anything, Feng Chen and Shu Yao would be able to catch her before she could do anything!

...

As Elder Song and Sheng Mei were about to discuss the matter of the Flame Sky Kingdom back in the Star Shattering Sect, Bai Ning and Hui Ying had both come to a stop in front of a massive opening leading inside a large mountain.

"Are you sure this is the place where the so-called sacred spiritual herb you are looking for is located?"

"Yes! I'm certain of it... Just remember to keep your promise! Okay?!"

Rolling his eyes as he saw the dangerous look in Hui Ying's eyes after she mentioned the promise they had made before coming to the mountain where the sacred spiritual herb she was looking for was located, Bai Ning could not help remembering how she had ended up revealing her reason for joining the demonic cultivator hunt in the Azure Sky Kingdom.

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Well... It was not really her revealing her secret and was more like him asking her about the spiritual herb she was searching for after they had hunted down a demonic cultivator.

Following him mentioning it... It did not take long for the panicked Hui Ying to reveal everything with a both embarrassed and threatening expression on her face...

"What is that supposed to mean? Sure, the spiritual herb is all yours... But just as we promised, the spiritual metals you said would be present in the area around where the spiritual herb grows are mine."

Chuckling a bit as he saw the increasingly threatening look from Hui Ying after he remained silent for a short time without hearing him answer, Bai Ning could not help teasing her before answering her.

"You-!"

Not knowing what to say after being made fun of by Bai Ning, Hui Ying pouted angrily before increasing her speed towards the opening in the mountain without waiting for Bai Ning.

Step~ Step~

Seeing Hui Ying almost running towards the opening in the side of the mountain, Bai Ning did not intend to get left behind, as he soon increased his own speed to catch up with Hui Ying. However, this only ended up causing Hui Ying to move even faster than before-

Swish-!

Not one to be left behind, Bai Ning similarly increased his speed to match her.

In the end, both of them soon reached the opening of the mountain and after a quick break to go over what little knowledge Hui Ying had gathered about the sacred spiritual herb she was looking for and the dangers that might be present, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying made their way into the mountain.

...

Entering the mountain through the large opening, Bai Ning could not help showing a surprised expression on his face after they made it a few dozen meters inside the mountain.

"How weird... The inside of this mountain is filled with all sorts of plants I have never seen before, it's almost like they are completely foreign to this place..."

Although he already had some clue about the environment inside the mountain from what little information Hui Ying had managed to gather about the so-called sacred spiritual herb that she was aiming for, Bai Ning was still surprised after seeing the normal rocky cave walls get covered with all sorts of weird plants he had never seen before.

Even after learning about all sorts of different spiritual plants and normal plants from his senior sister Qing Yi, he still had no idea about the origin or name of the plants all around him.

This was also one of the reasons why he ended up concluding that the plants were foreign to the place where the Star Shattering Sect was located- No, it would be more accurate to say that the plants that had started covering the cave walls were completely foreign to the border of the Sky Empire!

Feeling both amazed and worried after seeing all these brand-new plants, Bai Ning made sure to have his guard up.

The main thing Hui Ying had mentioned about the sacred spiritual herb she was looking for, was the fact that it grew inside a jungle located at the centre of a massive mountain and was surrounded by a special kind of spiritual metal.

At first, Bai Ning did not really believe it. After all, a jungle inside a mountain? He had never heard about something like that before. Not to mention, for a mountain to contain a jungle inside of it, just how big would that mountain have to be?The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

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Even if he was slowly getting convinced that Hui Ying was telling the truth regarding a jungle inside a mountain, he was still doubtful. After all, the mountain they were making their way inside of was far too small to contain a jungle inside it, a small forest covering a few hundred meters would be the be the limit of what was possible!

Not to mention, they had already been walking for close to five minutes at this point in time!

"How long will it take to reach the so-called jungle inside the mountain? At this point we will reach the other side of the mountain before we-!"

Roar!

Before Bai Ning managed to finish what, he was saying a loud roar echoed out not too far away from where they were standing. Shocking both Bai Ning and Hui Ying as both of them cautiously looked towards the direction that the sound had come from.

"Nothing..."

"Indeed..."

Not seeing anything, both of them came to an agreement before both of them slowly began moving towards the direction of the roar with their weapons ready.

Step~ Step~

As both of them moved towards the origin of the roar, the cave covered in weird plants suddenly came to an end and what appeared before them was not the other side of the mountain that Bai Ning had expected to see. Instead, it was-

"The jungle inside the mountain! We finally reached it!"

"How does this even make sense... How can there be such a huge jungle inside such a small mountain?!"

Indeed, what appeared in front of Bai Ning and Hui Ying was a dense jungle filled with all sorts of unique trees that Bai Ning had never seen before.

Not to mention that a jungle had actually appeared inside the mountain, what made Bai Ning far more surprised was the fact that he could not see the end of the jungle!

Given the size of the mountain they had entered, it should be impossible for such a large jungle to fit inside!

Not to mention the sun and clouds floating in the air above them...

Did we enter one of the secret realms that my master mentioned...?

According to his master, even someone in the Nascent Soul Realm might not be able to guarantee their own safety inside a secret realm, let alone someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm like himself!

Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he guessed this, Bai Ning could look towards the dense jungle in front of him with fear.

"Hui Ying, I don't thin this place is safe for us to explore, we should- Hui Ying?!"

About to inform Hui Ying about his thoughts and wanting to leave the place he suspected to be a secret realm, Bai Ning could not help showing a shocked expression as he realized Hui Ying had already entered the dense jungle in front of them without any hesitation!

"This damnable girl!"

Swish-!

Cursing silently to himself as he watched Hui Ying disappearing inside the jungle, Bai Ning hesitated for a short moment before dashing after her.

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694 Bai Ning and Hui Ying in Danger!

Rustle~

Following behind Hui Ying, Bai Ning could not help feeling nervous as he kept looking around himself for any possible dangers along the way.

From what little he had heard his master explain about secret realms, he understood that they were incredibly dangerous for someone like himself who had only reached the Foundation Establishment Realm.

If he was unlucky enough, he might end up encountering a Core Formation Realm demon beast and in the worst case, a demon beast that had reached the Nascent Soul Realm... Maybe even the Domain Lord Realm!

"Hui Ying!"

Knowing just how dangerous it was for them to stay in a place like this, Bai Ning called out to Hui Ying the moment he managed to catch up with her.

"Hm? Bai Ning? Is something wrong?"

Not understanding why Bai Ning had called out to her with a worried expression on his face looking like he had just faced a life and death battle, Hui Ying tilted her head to the side with a confused expression plastered all over her face.

"This... We have to get out of here as quickly as possible!"

"Why?! The scared spiritual herb is definitely somewhere in here, there is no way we can just give up and leave now that we have made it this far!"

Not understanding why Bai Ning had suddenly started insisting on leaving after they had just entered the jungle where the sacred spiritual herb, she was looking for was located, Hui Ying looked towards Bai Ning for an explanation.

"If I'm not wrong, this place should be a secret realm, a really dangerous place with strong demon beasts surpassing the Core Formation Realm and-"

ROOOAR-!

Trying his best to give a quick explanation of a secret realm to make Hui Ying understand how dangerous a secret realm was, Bai Ning was cut short as a loud roar echoed out only a few dozen meters behind them.

Roar!

Roar!

As even more roars began sounding out from behind them getting closer and closer to their current location, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying turned around to see what was happening behind them

Bang!

Just as they turned around, a loud sound of fighting could be heard, as both Bai Ning and Hui Ying saw two massive demon beasts clashing violently with each other only a few dozen meters away from where they were standing.

Roar!

Crack!

"This- Let's leave before they notice anything..."

Seeing the demon beast had not noticed them yet and were busy fighting each other, Bai Ning looked towards Hui Ying before whispering to her while signalling for towards an area covered in dense jungle foliage where they should be able to easily escape without the demon beasts noticing them.

"Y-yes!"

Nodding her head filled with fear as she said this, Hui Ying moved closer to Bai Ning before both of them slowly began moving away from where they were standing. Doing their absolute best to not make any sounds that might catch the attention of the two demon beasts busy fighting with each other.

The main reason why both of them did not dare thinking about fighting the two demon beasts clashing with each other in front of them was rather simple... The two demon beasts had both reached the Core Formation Realm!

Not to mention that they had reached the Core Formation Realm, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying could clearly feel that the two demon beasts were had not simply reached the earlier stages of the Core Formation Realm... But should instead have reached the later stages of the Core Formation Realm!

If not for the fact that they were busy fighting with each other, it was doubtful whether they would even have a chance to escape to begin with given their current strength-

Crack~

Just as they were about to reach the area with dense jungle foliage where they should be able to hide themselves better and increase their speed, the sound of a random twig being stepped on echoed out during the short silence after the two demon beasts had separated from each other to contemplate their next move...

Roar?

Roar?

""...""

Not to anyone's surprise, the two demon beasts both turned towards the origin of the sound and soon made eye contact with Bai Ning and Hui Ying who now awkwardly stood frozen a few meters away from the dense jungle foliage from where they would have been able to use their movement techniques to escape without being noticed by the two demon beasts.

"RUN!"

Not daring to waste any time after seeing that the two demon beasts had spotted them, Bai Ning grabbed hold of Hui Ying before using his movement technique to its limit and dashing towards the dense jungle foliage.

"Wah-"

Caught off guard by Bai Ning suddenly pulling her along, Hui Ying could only let out a weird scream as both of them soon disappeared into the dense jungle foliage before the demon beasts did anything.

ROOAR!

ROOOOAR!

Realizing that Bai Ning and Hui Ying had run away, the two demon beasts seemed to have forgotten about their earlier life and death fight-

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

As both of them charged after the two escaping humans who had suddenly appeared in front of them.

...This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

Flying high above the ground on top of a Nascent Soul Realm demon beast at the same time that his disciple was desperately escaping for his life, Xuan Hao had taken a short break from repairing his dantian, as he decided to take some time to watch the scenery below him.

"Hm... I wonder how Bai Ning is doing in the Azure Sky Kingdom with that little friend of his. Now that I think about it, he did improve quite a bit over the past few weeks..." Muttering this to himself as he flew over a small battle taking place between a group of demonic cultivators and normal cultivator, Xuan Hao casually unleashed a stream of sword light towards the demonic cultivators.

Swish~!

Before they even had a chance to react, all the demonic cultivator who had all reached the Higher Demon Realm were all reduced to dust without even knowing what had killed them. Much to the surprise of the cultivators fighting them, who soon fell to the ground and began thanking him.

Well... They couldn't really see him with how high up he was and the fact that he had hidden himself by using his domain power to create a small cloud below him, but at least they had some clue that some expert had passed by and had helped them.

As for why he was using a cloud he had condensed to hide himself instead of using his domain directly, it was rather simple, he had no way to keep his domain active all the time to hide himself before his dantian had fully recovered.

Not to mention, using a cloud was far easier. Although... It looked rather weird from below if one paid attention, as the cloud moved far too fast to be considered a normal cloud. At least it would be less obvious compared to the flying demon beast flying past, it was far easier to spot compared to a fast cloud speeding across the sky high up in the sky that could only be spotted if someone with powerful enough strength happened to look up.

"Hm? That is... Rather odd..."

Suddenly turning his attention away from the people prostrating towards the sky on the ground, Xuan Hao looked towards a weird cloud flying in his direction.

For some reason... This cloud... Looks similar to the one I made-

Whoosh~

Before Xuan Hao had any chance to finish his thoughts, the odd cloud in question passed by him and as he got a chance to see it up close, he noticed that someone was similarly sitting on top of a flying demon beast while also using a cloud to not get noticed by anyone below like him.

"..."

"..."

As they passed by each other, Xuan Hao and the person who did the exact same as him to hide their presence from prying eyes below, silently made eye contact for a short moment.

The person in question was a young woman who had reached the Nascent Soul Realm and the flying demon beast below her had similarly reached the Nascent Soul Realm and was even slightly stronger than her. Giving away the fact that she was someone with a rather high status to get her hands on such a powerful flying demon beast.

Whoosh-!

Not a second later, the young woman disappeared in the distance without them talking to each other.

Looking a bit surprised in the direction that the young woman was heading, Xuan Hao could not help wondering why someone like her would go towards the border region.

Perhaps she is someone from the Sky Empire and is there to check up on the recent surge of demonic cultivators from the Frozen Wastelands?

Whoosh-!

Not thinking too much about the young woman after she disappeared, Xuan Hao signalled for the flying demon beast below him to increase in speed as he resumed his journey towards the capital of the Sky Empire.

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695 Lost~

Whoosh~!

Using his movement technique to its limits, Bai Ning dashed through the dense jungle together with Hui Ying who was dragged along with him during the fast escape-

Roar!

Roar!

Behind them, the roars of the two demon beasts echoed out as they got closer and closer with each passing second.

"H-how can we escape from them!? They are far stronger than us and will catch up to us soon!" Looking back towards the approaching demon beasts that were getting closer and closer to them, Hui Ying, who was carried by Bai Ning due to him being far faster than her in terms of speed, could not help exclaiming in a worried tone.

Even if the demon beasts were slowed down due to the dense jungle foliage and trees blocking their path, it did not take a genius to figure out that the demon beasts would soon be able to catch up to them. After all, they were Core Formation Realm demon beast!

"…"

Understanding that they would indeed get caught by the two demon beasts if they could not find a way to lose the two demon beasts any time soon, Bai Ning remained quiet after hearing what Hui Ying said. Focusing his attention on trying to think of a way to escape from the two demon beasts in the Core Formation Realm chasing after them.

"Ah! Bai Ning! Over there!"

Just at this moment, Hui Ying called out in an excited tone as she pointed towards somewhere in the distance.

"Hm?"

Wondering what had suddenly gotten her so excited in their current bad situation, Bai Ning quickly turned towards the place where she was pointing.

"This is… More demon beasts!?"

Indeed, the place Hui Ying was pointing, a large group of demon beasts ranging from somewhere in the earlier stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Core Formation Realm could be seen lazing around a small lake in the middle of an opening in the jungle. Counting them, there were at least fifty demon beasts!

Whoosh~!

Knowing why Hui Ying had become so excited after seeing the group of demon beasts, Bai Ning was similarly excited as he turned towards the group of demon beasts before using all his strength to rush towards them.

The large group of demon beasts could serve as a great distraction for them and help them escape from the two powerful demon beasts chasing after them… But at the same time, it would also be dangerous for them as the large group of demon beasts consisted of at least four Core Formation Realm demon beast that could kill them just as easily as the demon beasts chasing after them!

"Let's hope those Core Formation demon beasts in front of us focus on the two Core Formation Realm demon beasts chasing after us…" Muttering this to himself as he kept his attention focused on the four especially powerful demon beast from the group of demon beasts in front of him, Bai Ning could not stop himself from getting nervous.

The plan of using the group of demon beasts in front of them as a distraction was not without any risks!

If the four Core Formation Realm demon beasts decided to attack them instead of dealing with the two demon beasts chasing after them, they would properly not be able to escape…

Roar? ROOAR!

As they approached the opening in the jungle, one of the Core Formation Realm demon beasts lazing around the small lake noticed them before alerting the rest of the demon beasts lazing around.

Roar!

Roar!

Roar!

Not a second later, countless roars could be heard as the close to fifty demon beasts relaxing around the small lake jumped up and roared threatening towards Bai Ning and Hui Ying approaching them.

Looks like they are not as aggressive as the other two demon beast, we should be fine as long as we don't get too close to them…

Letting out a sigh of relief after seeing that the demon beasts only roared threatening at them without getting up to chase after them, Bai Ning dashed forward before going around the opening in the jungle without getting too close to group of demon beasts roaring threateningly at them from the side.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

Whoosh~!

Not long after Bai Ning and Hui Ying made it to the other side of the opening of the jungle by going around the group of demon beasts, the two demon beasts chasing after them showed up.

ROAAAR!

Not showing the slightest bit of care towards the group of demon beasts, the two powerful Core Formation Realm demon beasts entered the opening and were about to make their way straight through it to where Hui Ying and Bai Ning were located-

ROOOOOOAR!

Roar!

Roar!

Roar!

However, entering the opening in the jungle was seen as a blatant provocation and threat by the group of demon beasts located around the small lake, as the Core Formation Realm demon beasts among them charged forward to protect the weaker once from what they viewed as a very clear attack.

Swish-!

Bang!

ROOOOOAR!

Not a second later, the two demon beasts that had been chasing after Bai Ning and Hui Ying began clashing with the group of demon beasts in the opening of the jungle.

"Let's get away before the fighting here ends…"

Knowing that the fight was not going to last for long, Bai Ning put Hui Ying down before both of them quickly escaped in the opposite direction of the fighting.

Going around and making their way back towards the place where they had entered the jungle through was far too risky, as the two demon beasts chasing after them would be able to easily spot them and attack them.

Although escaping into the deeper part of the jungle was risky, it was a far better choice compared to having to face off against to powerful Core Formation Realm demon beasts!

…

"Hah… We should have… Hah… Escaped from them by now…"

Collapsing down on the soft grass that covered the ground beneath them, Bai Ning collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.

"Indeed…" In a similarly exhausted state from having used her movement technique for an extended period of time, Hui Ying also laid down on the soft grass beside Bai Ning.

During the past half hour after the group of demon beasts beside the small lake started fighting with the two demon beats that had been chasing after them, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying had not dared slowing down as they used their movement techniques to escape as far away as possible before the fighting between the demon beasts stopped.

Rustle~

Resting on the ground as they recovered from their exhausted states, Hui Ying suddenly thought of something as she turned towards Bai Ning with a somewhat nervous expression on her face.

"By the way… How are we supposed to find our way back out of the jungle again…?"

During their escape, they had ventured deep into the jungle and had turned in all sorts of different directions to avoid the demon beasts chasing them. Now that they needed to find their way back out again… It would indeed be rather difficult…

"That is… A good question… I will try and use the communication talisman and see if we can contact any of the elders."

Knowing that they were not likely to find their way out on their own without bumping into another Core Formation Realm demon beast, Bai Ning took out a communication talisman from his interspatial ring that the elders of the sect had given to them in case they ended up in a situation they couldn't handle.

Bzzz~

"Indeed… It's of no use… Looks like we are indeed inside a secret realm…"

Not having expected for the communication talisman to work in the first place as he remembered how his master had told him that such things did not work inside a secret realm, Bai Ning let out a sigh as he put the useless communication talisman back inside his interspatial ring.

"Let's try the one master gave me…"

Not having too much hope that the communication talisman his master gave him would be any different, Bai Ning took out a far more high-quality communication talisman that his master had given him.

Bzzz~

"Also useless…" Muttering this to himself as he also watched the high-quality communication talisman given by his master not working, Bai Ning could not help feeling a wave of helplessness wash over him.

Given their current circumstances, they did not have a high chance of making it out alive by themselves and at the same time, they could not rely on someone coming to help them out.

"Bai Ning…"

"It's fine, we will just have to find a way back on our own and avoid the stronger demon beasts along the way. Maybe we can even find the sacred spiritual herb you are looking for along the way!" Seeing Hui Ying nervously looking towards him after the two communication talismans failed, Bai Ning quickly cheered her up.

Even if their current situation was bad, it was not totally helpless!

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696 Soul Contract

At the same time Bai Ning and Hui Ying were trying to figure out what to do to safely find their way out of the massive jungle filled with all sorts of dangerous demon beasts that they now found themselves inside of, Elder song and Sheng Mei sat together inside a small, isolated pavilion.

Looking at them from a distance, it was obvious that a frown had appeared on Elder Song's face as he stared towards Sheng Mei sitting across from him.

"Are you sure what you said is correct!?"

"Yes, without me, I'm sure that the Flame Sky Kingdom will end up taking a stance against your Star Shattering Sect when you start expanding inside their territory!"

Hearing Sheng Mei say this, Elder Song frowned even more than before.

From their conversation so far, he had managed to understand that Sheng Mei sitting across from him should be the leader of one of the two factions of elders that existed inside the Flame Sky Kingdom.

One of the groups wanted to wait for one of their ancestors to reach the Domain Lord Realm so they could stay independent from the Star Shattering Sect.

If one of the ancestors could not reach the Domain Lord Realm before the Star Shattering Sect started expanding into their territory, they wanted to retreat into the capital city that was protected by an ancient formation that had been created by a long dead ancestor of the Flame Sky Kingdom that had reached the Domain Lord Realm.

The faction of elders Sheng Mei belonged to wanted to join under the Star Shattering Sect and strive for the benefits that could be obtained by working under a powerful sect with more than one Domain Lord Realm Expert in it.

Other than this, Sheng Mei's faction also wanted to gain the protection of the Star Shattering Sect by being under them.

In the end, both of the factions had their own polar opposite goals.

One wanting to join the Star Shattering Sect, the other wanting to stay independent and rely on their ancestors.

The king and the ancestors had not yet taken a stance to fully support one of the two factions, but they were currently leaning towards the side that wanted to remain independent from the Star Shattering Sect.

The reason why Sheng Mei had made the journey all the way to the Star Shattering Sect, was because she understood that her faction would end up losing if things continued like they were...

"So... You want my sect to help you out in growing your faction's power inside the Flame Sky Kingdom?"

"Yes! This way, it will be far easier for the Star Shattering Sect to take control of the Flame Sky Kingdom when the time comes... Not to mention, you will be able to avoid having to start war to take over the Flame Sky Kingdom this way!"

Nodding her head with a serious expression on her face, Sheng Mei didn't hide her reason for coming to the Star Shattering Sect.

"Indeed..."

Not denying what Sheng Mei said as it would indeed to a great thing if the Flame Sky Kingdom willingly joined them without any resistance, Elder Song silently thought about.

Soon, an eerie silence descended upon the small, isolated pavilion.

"..."

Looking at Elder Song with a nervous expression on her face, Sheng Mei could not help feeling like every second passing lasted for hours.

Given that Elder Song's decision on whether or not to support her and her faction of elders inside the Flame Sky Kingdom would decide her future actions and the fate of the entire Flame Sky Kingdom in the long run, it was not odd for Sheng Mei to feel nervous as she waited for Elder Song to come to a decision on whether or not he would let the Star Shattering Sect support her and her faction in growing their influence inside the Flame Sky Kingdom.

"Hm... Supporting you and your faction gain more power in the Flame Sky Kingdom is something that will help my sect... But that is only considering the fact that you don't just end up running away after being-"

"I can sign a soul contract! With a Domain Lord Realm Expert in your sect writing the soul contract. Even if I reach the Domain Lord Realm in the Future, I would not be able to break it easily!"

Interrupting Elder Song as she felt like he was going to refuse helping her, Sheng Mei quickly brought up using a soul contract.

"A soul contract..."

Showing a surprised expression after hearing what Sheng Mei said, Elder Song could not help looking a bit more closely at Sheng Mei.

A soul contract was not something that could be done casually, as it was to some extend a demonic technique and the price for breaking a soul contract was in most circumstances the destruction of one's soul!

The strength required to break a soul contract without dying depended on the cultivator who set up the contract in the first place... If like Sheng Mei had suggested, a Domain Lord Realm Expert of the Star Shattering Sect set up the soul contract. Even if she reached the Domain Lord Realm in the future, she would not be able to escape the soul contract without heavily injuring her soul.

Not to mention... That was only if she reached the Domain Lord Realm!

Given that she was still in the Nascent Soul Realm, there was no way for her to break the soul contract unless she happened to get the help of a powerful expert that was proficient in the art of soul manipulation.

"Hah... I understand that you indeed are willing to help us out with absorbing the Flame Sky Kingdom, I just wonder why you are willing to go so far for this...!"

Narrowing his eyes towards the end, Elder Song scrutinized Sheng Mei even more deeply than before.

Elder Song was not born yesterday, he understood very well that there had to be some kind of reason for Sheng Mei to go so far when it came to getting the Star Shattering Sect's support in absorbing the kingdom she was from.

"..."

Realizing that she might have been a bit too overzealous in gaining the assistance of the Star Shattering Sect, Sheng Mei froze as she smiled wryly. Not knowing what to say when meeting the suspicious gaze of Elder Song examining her from top to bottom.

"Actually I-"

"No need, I understand that you should have your own reasons for going this far, as long as you sign a soul contract and don't do anything that harms the Star Shattering Sect, I'm more than willing to secretly support you and your faction in gaining more power inside the Flame Sky Kingdom!"

Interrupting Sheng Mei before she had a chance to speak, Elder Song agreed to help her in the Flame Sky Kingdom.

"I... Thank you!"

"No need to say this, you can stay here for now, I will be back with the soul contract shortly."

Whoosh~

Standing up, Elder Song directly left the small, isolated pavilion.

Given his many years of experience, he very well understood that trying to get Sheng Mei to tell him the reason why she was so adamant about getting the Star Shattering Sect's support and helping her kingdom join under the Star Shattering Sect was impossible.

Rather than wasting a few hours, it would be far more useful to just draft a good soul contract that would make it impossible for her to hurt the Star Shattering Sect.

As long as that could be done, supporting her in faction inside the Flame Sky Kingdom would not be a bad idea!

"Ah..."Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Suddenly realizing something as he was about to reach the sect master's cultivation room, Elder Song momentarily came to a stop as an awkward smile appeared on his face.

"I forgot how expensive it is to make such a high-level soul contract..."

Indeed... Crafting a soul contract was not cheap and the higher level it was, the more high-quality materials would be needed...

A soul contract made by a Domain Lord Realm Expert... The price of such a soul contract was something that even the current Star Shattering Sect would feel...

"I hope that Sheng Mei will be useful... Oh well, I will just lower the budget for the beast tamers, they still have to pay back for all the spirit stones they wasted over the years! Hehe~"

Chuckling to himself as he found out where he would get the resources required for the Domain Lord Realm level soul contract, Elder Song relaxed as he made his way inside the sect master's cultivation room where Feng Chen was already waiting for him.

...

Roar?!

Having moved to the base of the Seventh Star Peak to laze around on a large rock located in the perfect spot for the sun to shine down on it, the winged lion demon beast suddenly felt a shiver run down its spine.

For some reason, it had a feeling that someone was threatening its food supply...

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697 Hidden Path

"Thank you so much for your help! I will make sure to uphold my part of the deal!"

"That is fine with me, some people will transport the different resources you need to increase the power of your faction to the Flame Sky Kingdom… If you need anything more, you can contact me through this communication talisman."

"Thank you! I will make sure to contact you in the future if something comes up!"

Swish-!

Seeing Sheng Mei leaving with a happy expression on her face after their discussion had ended and she signed the soul contract, Elder Song could not hep shaking his head as he made his way back up the Ninth Star Peak on the path leading back to the Seventh Star Peak where the main part of the sect was located.

From beginning to end, he had no clue why Sheng Mei had been so overly adamant on helping her kingdom join his sect.

"In the end, it does not matter now that she signed a soul contract. Not to mention, the resources she needs to strength her faction are not too outrages. At most I will take a little more from the beast tamers…"

Not bothering to think too much about what had caused Sheng Mei to come and get the support of his sect, Elder Song threw the thought to the back of his mind as he instead focused his attention towards other more pressing matters.

The most important of which was how he was going to convince the beast tamers to "willingly" give up a few more of their resources for the future of the sect.

…

Rustle~

Zing-!

Ptsh!

"Hah… To think there were so many demon beasts around here-"

Bang!

Letting out an exhausted breath as she pierced through the head of a demon beasts, Hui Ying barely managed to react in time as she blocked the claw of another demon beast that had taken the opportunity to attack her when she had pierced through the head of the demon beast.

If not for the fact that she had already been aware of the other demon beast's presence, she might not have been fast enough to block the claw attack…

"Bai Ning, we need to leave before we end up getting overrun by these demon beasts!"

Holding back the demon beast that had attacked her, Hui Ying called out to Bai Ning who was dealing with two demon beasts in the later stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm on his own at the moment.

"I understand that much-"

BANG!

"-But we will first have to find a way to kill them before we can think about leaving!"

Having a difficult time fending off against two powerful Foundation Establishment demon beasts on his own, Bai Ning barely managed to say this before he was forced to put his full attention on dealing with the two demon beasts teaming up on him.

Swish~!

Ptsh!

Understanding that there was not much Bai Ning could do in his current situation, Hui Ying used all her strength to quickly kill off the demon beast that had ambushed her before dashing towards Bai Ning to help him out.

Even if she could not help too much when it came to the demonic cultivator that had reached the High Demon Realm back then, the same could not be said for the two demon beasts that were still in the Foundation Establishment Realm!

Roar!

Following Hui Ying joining forces with Bai Ning, the two demon beasts were quickly pushed back-

Crack~!

And soon enough, the first of the two demon beasts got crushed under one of Bai Ning's artifacts.

ROOOOAR!

Swish-!

Knowing that it would not be able to fight against Bai Ning and Hui Ying alone, the last demon beast gave up fighting and decided to run away before it ended up dead.

"Finally…"

Sitting down on the ground exhausted after the fight while Bai Ning was cleaned up the artifact he had used to crush the head of one of the two demon beasts.

The group of demon beasts that had attacked them had come out of the blue and had caught both her and Bai Ning off guard when they were trying to think of ways to leave the jungle without encountering any powerful demon beasts.

This attack allowed both of them to understand just how dangerous the jungle was with their current strength!

Roar!

Roar!

Roar!

Just at this moment when she had barely sat down to recover her strength, Hui Ying could not help frowning as several loud roars echoed out in the distance getting closer and closer to their current location.

"Let's get going before more demon beasts show up…"

"Yes!"

Hearing Bai Ning call out to her as he looked towards the direction of the roars with a frown on his face, Hui Ying got up and soon enough, both of them silently decided to head in a direction moving away from the sound of demon beast roars behind them.

Deep down, both of them were hoping that the direction they were moving in would lead them closer to the exit of the jungle and not somewhere even more dangerous!

…

Whoosh~!

Making their way through the jungle, Bai Ning suddenly came to a stop after noticing something on the ground.

"Hm? What is it- Ah! Is it a-another demon beast?!"

Not knowing why Bai Ning had suddenly stopped all of a sudden, Hui Ying could not help fearing that they had ended up running into a powerful demon beast.

Only after looking in the same direction as Bai Ning and not seeing a demon beast did she let out a sigh of relief and calm down… But just at this moment, she noticed what Bai Ning was looking at.NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

"A stone…?"

Indeed, what Bai Ning was focused on was a small stone lying beside a large tree towering more than a hundred meters into the sky.

"Not just a stone! Look more closely!"

"A stone with a weird face?"

Listening to what Bai Ning said, Hui Ying looked more closely at the stone and discovered that a small face was carved into it. However, even then, she did not get why Bai Ning looked so closely at the small stone with a face.

Was it perhaps because it's a sign other people have been here before us?

Realizing this, Hui Ying could not help inspecting her surroundings more closely than before. Trying her best to see if there were any buildings or ruins nearby that might be able to help them find a way to leave the jungle.

"…"

Not knowing what to say after seeing Hui Ying only looking at the stone once before beginning to carefully look around herself seemingly looking for something, Bai Ning walked up to the small stone with a face carved into it and pushed both his fingers into the empty eye sockets at the same time before injecting a small amount of qi into them.

Creak~!

Following the small amount of qi being injected through his fingers into the eye socket of the small stone, a loud creaking noise echoed out from below before a door sized hole opened up in the large tree that the small stone was lying beside.

"The small stone is an artifact that, as you can see, opens a secret path!"

Given how much time he spent around artifacts on a normal day before being forced to go to the Azure Sky Kingdom, it was only a given that he would be able to see through a hidden artifact like the small stone.

If not for the fact that he was around, Bai Ning did not doubt that any other cultivator passing by would have acted like Hui Ying and just ignored the small stone after glancing over it for a few seconds!

"…"

Seeing Hui Ying's speechless face after seeing a door sized entrance appearing in the side of the tree all of a sudden, Bai Ning could not help feeling a bit smug at his ability to easily recognize the fact that the small stone with a face was an artifact and at the same time figure out how to operate it.

"Ahm-! Now… Should we check out where this secret path leads? Maybe it will lead us to a way out of this jungle!"

"Hm? Sure, but we should be careful, as the people who set up this place could have set up traps inside. Not to mention, there might even be demon beasts hiding inside!"

Ignoring the fake chough from Hui Ying, Bai Ning nodded his head as he reminded her of the dangers that might be lurking on the other side of where the secret door led them.

Even if the secret path that the door that had appeared on the side of the tree might have a path leading out of the jungle, there was no way that there was no dangers lurking around in there!

Inside the jungle, there was no safe place for them to stay for more than a minutes at a time… The underground network that the secret path connected to would likely be the same!

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698 Nascent Soul Realm Demon Beast!

Making their way through the door sized opening that appeared in the side of the tree after Bai Ning activate the small artifact in the shape of a small stone, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying were taken aback by the beautiful spiral staircase on the other side leading down below the surface of the jungle.

Not to mention the fact that spiral staircase was still perfectly intact after what had most likely been hundreds if not thousands of years going unattended, the fact that such a beautiful staircase was even there in the first place made both of them wonder just what might be waiting for them at the bottom of it.

At the same time, it also made both of them more careful when proceeding down the spiral staircase.

…

"To think there was something like this below the surface of the jungle…"

"Indeed… So many precious spiritual herbs…"

Reaching the bottom of the spiral staircase inside the large tree, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying could not help exclaiming in surprise, as they found themselves inside a small room decorated with all sorts of rare material.

Even after most of the things inside the small room had succumbed to the long passage of time, the few things that had survived were all precious spiritual herbs or metals.

Swoosh~!

Not wanting to leave any of the precious spiritual herbs or metals behind, Bai Ning carefully picked up all of them and placed them into his interspatial ring after having made sure that there weren't any traps around them.

"…"

Watching Bai Ning take away all the precious spiritual herbs and spiritual metals, Hui Ying did not say anything and just remained silent without saying anything.

Given that their current situation was her fault because she had just carelessly rushed into the jungle without listening to what Bai Ning said before having him come and safe her, Hui Ying felt that it was only fair that he took the spiritual herbs and spiritual metals…

"A pity that all the books and scroll in here has long since decayed and are no longer readable in any way…"

Putting away the last few spiritual herbs and metals, Bai Ning did could not help feeling a hint of pity as he looked over the many long since destroyed books and scrolls everywhere around the small hideout.

All of them had long since destroyed due to the passage of time. The material they had been written on was simply not of a high enough quality to withstand the passing of hundreds if not thousands of years in an underground room…

"Ah! There is something over here!"

"Hm?"

Just as he was feeling great sadness looking over the many destroyed books and scrolls that possible contained information on how to get out of the jungle they were currently stuck inside of, Hui Ying called out as she pointed towards a small opening hidden beneath the spiral staircase.

"This is…"

Arriving beside Hui Ying before he looked through the small opening beneath the spiral staircase, Bai Ning could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine as he felt like something was looking back up at him.

"A demon beast…?"

Understanding that the feeling of something looking back at him had most likely come from some sort of demon beast, Bai Ning had a feeling that entering would not be any less dangerous than moving around the jungle above them!

ROOOOAR!

BANG!

Just as Bai Ning was wondering whether or not to enter through the opening beneath the spiral staircase leading to an underground cave network below them, a loud roar echoed out above them before the sound of something massive crashing into the tree that functioned as the entrance to the small hideout shook violently.

Fwoosh-!

In response to what both Bai Ning and Hui Ying guessed to be a massive demon beast crashing into the tree serving as the entrance point to the hideout they were currently inside of, several dim runes lit up on the walls all around them before a terrifying pressure far above the Core Formation Realm demon beasts they had faced earlier appeared.

"Nascent Soul Realm…" Muttering this to himself as he clearly understood the realm that the pressure belonged to, Bai Ning could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine.

If he had made a mistake when activating the entrance to the hideout earlier, the formation that had currently activated to fight off against the demon beast outside would have activated to attack them!

Given that they were both only in the Foundation Establishment, Bai Ning understood very well that neither of them had any chance to resist the attack from a Nascent Soul Realm formation. Even with all his defensive artifacts put together, he would not have any way to defend against it!

ROOOOOAR!

However, the demon beast outside did not seem afraid of this formation and only seemed to be filled with even more killing intent compared to before. Allowing both Bai Ning and Hui Ying to understand that the demon beast had most likely reached the Nascent Soul Realm…

A Nascent Soul Realm demon beast!

With their current strength, there was absolutely no way for them to face such a powerful demon beast!

BANG!

CRACK-!

Feeling everything around them shaking as the demon beast outside attack the already decaying Nascent Soul Realm formation that protected the hideout, Bai Ning and Hui Ying could not help feeling a shiver run down their spine as they saw a large number of the symbols and runes covering the walls of the hideout start cracking apart.

Given a few more attacks by the demon beast outside the already decaying formation would be broken down!

""…""

Knowing very well that they had no way to face off against a demon beast that had reached the Nascent Soul Realm, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying inevitably looked towards the small opening beneath the spiral staircase leading down into an underground cave network beneath the jungle.

Even if they understood that entering might end up being more dangerous than travelling along the surface of the jungle, they did not really have a better option with the powerful Nascent Soul Realm demon beast just outside…

"Let's leave this place before the formation breaks!"

"Yes!"

Swish-!

For this reason, neither Bai Ning nor Hui Ying hesitated in squeezing their way through the small opening beneath the spiral staircase before escaping as quickly as possible to get as far away from the underground hideout as possible before the formation broke.

Roar!

Roar!

Roar!

The few demon beasts that had been observing them just earlier attempted to attack them, but to both Bai Ning and Hui Ying's luck, these demon beasts had only reached the Qi Condensation Realm and were of no threat to them-

Ptsh-!

Allowing both of them to easily deal with them before continuing to escape in one of the many tunnels that branched off the underground cave network that they now found themselves inside of.

Even if this might not be the smartest thing to do as they might end up running into a deadend this way, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying were far too occupied with getting as far away as possible before the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast broke through the formation and entered the small hideout.

After all, a demon beast in the Nascent Soul Realm had already developed a divine sense similar to human cultivators!

If they were within the range of the demon beast's divine sense when it broke through the formation, they would have no way to escape if it wanted to chase after them!

…NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

BOOOOOM-!

Only a short time after Bai Ning and Hui Ying had escaped through the small opening beneath the spiral staircase, the formation that had been protecting the small underground hideout broke, as a terrifying aura belonging to a Nascent Soul Realm demon beast spread through the now completely destroyed underground hideout.

ROOOOAR!

RUMBLE-!

Along with a loud roar, the massive tree that served as the entrance to the underground hideout was forcefully pulled out from the ground together with the spiral staircase that had been connected to it.

In the end, a massive hole leading all the way up to the surface appeared. Not only leading straight down into the small hideout, but also leading down into the underground network that was located below it!

Thump~

Slowly, a large ball of what could only be described as hair rolled into the underground hideout. Almost completely filling up the entire space with its sheer size.

Not able to properly move around with its massive size, a gentle light soon covered the massive ball shaped demon beast.

Fwoosh~!

Following the gentle light disappearing, the massive ball shaped demon beast disappeared from sight. Instead, being replaced by a small cute looking rabbit.

If Xuan Hao was around, he would have realized that the rabbit was none other than the Nascent Soul Realm rabbit demon beast skilled at illusion techniques that he had encountered during his time in the Burning Mountain Range!

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699 Encounter

At the same time that Bai Ning and Hui Ying had begun to explore the underground cave network of the jungle for a way out, Xuan Hao was taking a short break as he laid on top of the large flying demon beast while admiring the vast and beautiful landscape below.

The speed of a Nascent Soul Realm flying demon beast should be comparable to the speed of an ordinary Domain Lord if I didn't slow it down for me to fully recover by the point, I have to pass through the more dangerous locations of the Sky Empire!This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

Even then, I should still be able to reach the Iron Sky Kingdom in another day or two with my current speed...

Thinking this to himself Xuan Hao remembered the different things about the core region that had been written down in the book that Yi Ming had given to him during his time in the Iron Sky Kingdom.

Even if the core region of the Sky Empire sounded like a more peaceful place due to the core of the Sky Empire being located there, this was simply not the case.

From what information he could get his hands on through the book Yi Ming had given to him and what little he could learn from different records he had come across; the border of the Sky Empire was a far safer place compared to the core region of the Sky Empire.

The main reason for this, was that almost all Domain Lord Realm Experts in the border region were from the Sky Empire and were stationed there to keep a watch on anyone trying to enter the Sky Empire. Few of them had any faction in the border region of the Sky Empire.

For this reason, the scale of conflicts taking place in the border region of the Sky Empire was limited to fights between Nascent Soul Realm Experts and although a Nascent Soul Realm Expert could cause quite a lot of destruction, it was nowhere near the level of destruction a Domain Lord Realm Expert could cause!

Not to mention this, most Domain Lord Realm Experts that appeared in the border region of the Sky Empire would normally move to the core region shortly after due to the environment in the core region being far richer in resources and normally, it would not be easy for a Domain Lord Realm Expert to improve his cultivation realm without going to the core region.

In the core region, there were far more resources that could help improve the strength of a Domain Lord Realm Expert, while at the same time, there were also older Domain Lord Realm experts that might get a chance to ask whenever one encountered a bottleneck.

A case of a sect like the Star Shattering Sect appearing in the border region was an oddity that had never really happened before...

Given how the core region was the place where the top experts of the Sky Empire gathered, there were of course several special locations filled with both opportunities and life-threatening dangers, some of which were life threatening even to experts that had reached the Domain Lord Realm!

During his journey to the capital of the Sky Empire, he would inevitably have to pass through a few of these special locations, some of which were dangerous even to Domain Lord Realm Experts!

Of course, to the current Xuan Hao, he didn't really think that going through any of these places would pose any threat to him. Especially considering that he planned to fully recover before reaching any of them...

"Hm?"

Just as he was deep in thought thinking about the different places he would have to pass through later on when he reached the core region of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he sensed a large group of people approaching him from afar on top of flying demon beast.

Even from afar, Xuan Hao could clearly sense that all of the flying demon beasts had reached the Nascent Soul Realm!

Using his divine sense to investigate this group of people more closely, Xuan Hao could not help feeling surprised after realizing that there was close to twenty Nascent Soul Realm flying demon beasts, each with a Late Stage or Peak Nascent Soul Realm Expert on top of it!

Not only this, but there was also three people who had reached the Domain Lord Realm among the group of Nascent Soul Realm Expert!

Looks like it should be a group of people from the Sky Empire or one of the three religious orders... I wonder what caused them to come to the border region...

Not able to think about any other force inside the Sky Empire that would be able to amass such a powerful force outside of those, Xuan Hao could not help wondering why they had suddenly sent such a powerful force towards the border region.

Looks like they also discovered me...

Whoosh~!

Feeling three different divine senses sweep over him just shortly after he finished inspecting the group, Xuan Hao decided to release his aura belonging to the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Swish~!

Not a second later, the three different divine senses that had come from the group of people approaching his direction quickly retreated in a panic.

From the reaction alone, it was obvious that they had not expected to encounter someone in the Domain Lord Realm at the border region... Let alone someone who had reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm!

Hm? Looks like one of them is coming over here...

Noticing that the group of people came to a stop before one of the Domain Lord Realm Experts began approaching him, Xuan Hao decided to wait and see what they wanted...

"Greetings senior!"

Hearing the polite greeting from the Domain Lord Realm Expert that had arrived in front of him from the group now waiting in the distance, Xuan Hao could not help curiously examining him.

Not only was he a Domain Lord Realm Expert in the Third Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, but he was also covered in precious artifacts from head to toe!

Even without knowing where the other party was from yet, it was obvious that it was a large power given how many artifacts he was powerful artifacts he was covered in...

"Greetings, I'm a Grand Elder of the Star Shattering Sect. Might I ask where you are from...?"

Deciding to introduce himself first before asking about where the man floating in front of him was from, Xuan Hao could not help secretly chuckling after seeing the puzzled appearances that appeared on the man's face after he mentioned that he was from the Star Shattering Sect.

It was obvious that although the Star Shattering Sect had started to gain fame in the border region of the Sky Empire, it was still not well known in the core region of the Sky Empire. Not something surprising given that the Star Shattering Sect had only been around for a few years at this point in time and had not been involved in the core region of the Sky Empire.

"I'm a member of the Sky Empire's Imperial Guard! Senior... I do not seem to have heard about the Star Shattering Sect before... Is it perhaps a new sect?"

"Yes! It was just recently established and is located close to the border between the Sky Empire and the Frozen Wastelands!"

"Close to the border between the Frozen Wastelands and the Sky Empire...?"

"Yes!"

Seeing the imperial guard showing an even more puzzled expression after hearing that the Ninth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert in front of him claimed to be from a sect located in the border region, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly.

Indeed, considering that most of Domain Lords from the Sky Empire chose to build their factions in the core region where resources were the most abundant, it was indeed rather weird to hear about a new sect with a powerful Domain Lord Realm Expert behind it being established in the border region of the Sky Empire where resources were far harder to find...

"Ahm-! Excuse my surprise... It's my first time hearing about a senior of such high realm establishing a sect in such a desolate place..."

"No problem at all! By the way... I was wondering why all of you have come all the way out here to the border region."

Having already found out that the group of powerful cultivators belonged to the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao could not help asking why they had come to the border region.

Although he understood that there was a chance that he might not get an answer, Xuan Hao still decided to ask.

After all, for so many powerful cultivators to suddenly appear, something had definitely happened in the border region-

Ah... The demonic cultivators... They are here because of the recent surge in demonic cultivators-

"Sure, we are here to help deal with the recent surge in demonic cultivator in the border kingdoms close to the Frozen Wasteland!"

Interrupting Xuan Hao's train of thought, the imperial guard happily explained the reason why he and the rest of the people waiting a short distance away had come to the border region.

Not to anyone's surprise, they had come due to the recent surge in demonic cultivators...

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700 Stuck Underground

"Ah... If you are here to deal with the demonic cultivators, can you leave the Azure Sky Kingdom alone? My sect is currently already in the process of cleaning that place up at the moment and using it to train some of our younger disciples at the same time."

Hearing that they had indeed come to deal with the demonic cultivators, Xuan Hao decided to ask them to leave the Azure Sky Kingdom alone.

Not only was his sect already dealing with the demonic cultivators in the Azure Sky Kingdom, but Xuan Hao was also afraid that the Domain Lord Realm Experts among them might find out about the rich deposits filled with spiritual metal located below the capital of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

If they really ended up discovering them, it might be difficult for the Star Shattering Sect to claim them as their own before the Sky Empire came over to take a piece of the spiritual metals below the Azure Sky Kingdom...

"Hm? Leave the Azure Sky Kingdom alone? Sure, we will be more than happy to do that! After all, we are already far too few people to handle the many kingdoms that have recently been overrun with demonic cultivators over the past few weeks, your sect taking care of one kingdom for us is a more than welcome thing. Makes it easier for us!"

Showing a happy expression on his face after hearing Xuan Hao mentioning that his sect was already dealing with the demonic cultivators in the Azure Sky Kingdom, the imperial guard happily agreed to leave the Azure Sky Kingdom alone.

Given the fact that Xuan Hao was someone who had reached the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, the imperial guard did not doubt that his sect would be able to deal with the surge of demonic cultivators in a small kingdom.

"That's great... Well then, I won't hold you up any longer."

"Farewell senior!"

Whoosh~

Taking his leave after having made sure that the group of people from the Sky Empire would not be entering the Azure Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao resumed his journey.

"The senior just now is from a sect located in the border region and his sect is already taking care of the Azure Sky Kingdom, so we will ignore that kingdom and focus on the other kingdoms bordering the Frozen Wasteland!"

Informing the rest of the imperial guards that had been silently waiting from afar about his short conversation, the imperial guards all showed happy expressions on their faces after hearing that one of the kingdoms they were supposed to clean up had already been dealt with by the sect of the mysterious senior they had just encountered.

"That senior just now... I wonder what his name is..."

"Indeed and what sect is he from? Maybe we should check it out after we finish our job..."

"For such a powerful senior to be unknown, I think he might be someone from another empire that fled to the Sky Empire and decided to settle down here!"

"Hm... That does indeed seem plausible, but-"

"Everyone! Let's get going before things end up getting even worse in those kingdoms!"

Seeing the rest of the imperial guards start chatting with each other full of curiosity about the identity of Xuan Hao and his sect, the imperial guard that had just chatted with Xuan Hao quickly interrupted them and informed them about what they were here for.

""YES!""

Hearing what their leader said, the rest of the imperial guards tensed up for a moment before all of them continued their journey towards the border between the Sky Empire and the Frozen Wasteland.

"Hey, who was that just now?"

"Yeah, and what sect is he from?"

The two other Domain Lord Realm Experts did not say anything up till now quickly used the opportunity when the rest of the imperial guards were controlling their demon beasts to start asking the imperial guard that had been chatting with Xuan Hao.

"Hah..."

Knowing that he would not be able to satiate the curiosity of the two other Domain Lords due to him not getting much information about Xuan Hao, the imperial guard could not help letting out an exhausted sigh as he silently prayed that they would reach the border faster.

...

"No matter what direction we move, we always end up running into a group of Qi Condensation Realm demon beasts! Just how many demon beasts are hidden down here and where are the stronger demon beasts!?"

Having walked through the underground cave network of the jungle for close to an hour at this point in time, Hui Ying could not help complaining after seeing a group of demon beasts appearing in front of them.

After they had escaped from the underground hideout and dealt with the small group of Qi Condensation Realm demon beasts, it did not take long before they encountered another group of Qi Condensation Realm demon and after dealing with that group of demon beasts, another group of Qi Condensation Realm demon beasts appeared...

The group of demon beasts in front of them that looked like a group of oversized rats was the seventh group of Qi Condensation Realm demon beasts they had encountered after entering the underground cave network!

Even if they had no trouble dealing with the Qi condensation Realm demon beasts, Hui Ying could still not help feeling a bit annoyed when she saw another group of Qi Condensation Realm demon beasts appear in front of her...

"Indeed... It's rather weird that we have encountered so many Qi Condensation Realm demon beasts after entering the underground part of the jungle, while we have yet to encounter a single demon beast in the Foundation Establishment Realm or above."

Nodding his head as he agreed with what Hui Ying said, Bai Ning also felt that it was weird that they had only encountered Qi Condensation Realm demon beasts so far.

The only reason he could think of, was that the weaker demon beasts had hidden underground to safely grow and would leave after they broke through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The only problem with this, was that they had yet to find any paths leading back up to the surface.

"Hah..."

Letting out a sigh as he thought about this, Bai Ning felt his head hurt as he turned his attention towards the group of Qi Condensation Realm demon beasts-

Roar!

Roar!

Roar!

"Weird rats, how can you even roar in the first place?"

ROAR!

"Fine! If you want to fight, come!"

Swish~!

BANG!

"..."

From the looks of it, Hui Ying had decided to deal with the demon beasts by herself...

Looking away from the one sided massacre that was taking place as Hui Ying easily beat up all of the oversized rats, Bai Ning instead began inspecting the cave that they were currently inside.

Compared to the other places they had been in so far, the current cave was actually lit up by some sort of crystals that had been exposed in the caves walls and ceiling.

Allowing Bai Ning and Hui Ying to see their surroundings far more clearly compared to when they were forced to use their qi to enhance their eyesight to see in the darkness.

Because of this, Bai Ning managed to see the cave they were inside far more clearly compared to any before-

"Wha-!?"

And it was at this moment that he realized that not only was the cave they were inside of was far larger than he had expected, but he could also see the ruins of what had once been larger structures deeper inside the cave.

"Follow me, we might be able to find a way out of here!"

Calling out to Hui Ying with a serious expression on his face, Bai Ning understood just how important these ruins might be to them in their quest to find a way out of the jungle!

Swoosh~

Not waiting for Hui Ying, he cautiously began approaching the ruins in the distance.

"What?! O-okay!"

Bang!

R-roar!

Not knowing what had caused Bai Ning to become so serious all of a sudden, Hui Ying quickly dealt with the last remaining oversized rat demon beast before quickly running after Bai Ning.

"Ruins!? Are they perhaps related to the hideout we found earlier...?"The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

Only after catching up with Bai Ning did she spot the ruins deeper inside the cave and realized why Bai Ning had suddenly become so serious.

The ruins were far larger than the small hideout that they had found before and the chance of them finding something that could lead them out of the jungle in there was far larger compared to if they had found another small hideout.

After all, even if there might not be any spiritual herbs or metals inside, there was a high chance that there was some scrolls or books that had managed to remain intact inside.

Given that the demon beasts inside the underground cave network did not really care about books and scrolls, they should still be fine inside the ruins if they had managed to remain intact over the years!

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701 Returning to the Iron Sky Kingdom

"This ruin… Is far larger than it looked from afar…"

Standing in front of what could only be described as the ruins of a massive tower like structure towering all the way up to the ceiling of the cave a few hundred meters above them, Hui Ying almost whispered this to herself as she slowly began approaching the still somewhat intact entrance of the tower like structure.

Rustle~

"This is-!?"

"So many books…"Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Entering the ruined tower while making sure to keep an eye out for any dangerous traps or demon beasts that might be lurking around inside, Bai Ning and Hui Ying were both taken aback by the rows of bookshelves towering more than a dozen meters tall that were covering everything inside the tower ruins.

Even if they didn't have a very clear what purpose the tower had once served, both of them had a feeling that the tower should have been a library of some sort. If not that, it might even have been a place to store ancient records!

No matter what purpose the tower ruins had served in the past, Bai Ning and Hui Ying both understood that their chances of finding a way out of the jungle had just increased by several times!

"Let's start searching for a book that can help us find a way out of the jungle. However, given how many books there are here, I have a feeling we might be here for some time…"

"Ah…"

Calming down as the excitement of possible finding a way out of the jungle died down, it did not take long before the two of them realized just how long it would take them to search through all the books inside the ruined tower.

Not to mention the fact that there should at least be ten thousand or more intact books on the bookshelves in front of them, there was still a floor above the one they were current on… And another floor after that…

Given the sheer size of the ruined tower, there should be more than a hundred thousand intact books left!

As this realization set in, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying could not help feeling depressed when looking at the countless still intact books in front of them.

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing if the number of books and scrolls that survived inside the tower were a bit lower.

…

At the same time Bai Ning and Hui Ying were lamenting over the many ancient scrolls and books they would have to read through to only get a chance of finding a way out, Xuan Hao reached the borders of the Iron Sky Kingdom only two days after his encounter with the imperial guards of the Sky Empire.

Whoosh~!

Standing up from the back of the flying demon beast that had been carrying him so far, Xuan Hao could not help smiling after flying by himself once again.

Chirp~?

Not understanding why Xuan Hao had suddenly gotten off all of a sudden, the flying demon beast in the shape of a massive bird could not help tilting its head in confusion.

"You can go back to the sect. Continuing any longer with your current strength will only end up endangering you…"

Understanding that the road ahead would get far more dangerous after he passed through the Iron Sky Kingdom and entered the core of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao had already decided to sent the flying demon beast back.

All things considered, he had almost finished repairing his dantian from the damage it had suffered back in the enlightenment space when he merged ice and sword domain together into a single domain.

Other than the fact that he would not be able to focus his full attention towards cultivating, there was not any reason for him to keep the Nascent Soul Realm flying demon beast around. Especially considering that he might not be able to keep it safe when travelling through some of the more dangerous places he planned to visit on his way to the capital city of the Sky Empire.

Chirp!?

Feeling heartbroken that it would not be able to travel together with Xuan Hao any more, the large bird demon beast looked towards Xuan Hao like a puppy being abandoned.

"Why are you looking at me like that? You just want the mix of spiritual herbs and spirit stones I have been feeding you over the last week!"

C-chirp…

"Hah… You can find your way back to the sect on your own."

Swish-!

Rolling his eyes after seeing the large bird avoiding its eyes after being called out, Xuan Hao turned around and left in the direction of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

Even without him around, a demon beast in the Nascent Soul Realm like the large bird, was more than intelligent enough to find its way back to the Star Shattering Sect on its own!

Chirp…

Watching Xuan Hao leaving, the large bird demon beast let out a reluctant chirping noise.

Even if it had just been for a week, the spirit stones and spiritual herbs Xuan Hao had given it to eat was far higher quality compared to anything it would be able to get from the beast tamers back in the Star Shattering Sect. Especially over the last few months, where the quality of the food had decreased rapidly!

Whoosh~!

Remaining almost completely still in the air just outside the border of the Iron Sky Kingdom for the next few minutes after Xuan Hao left, the large bird inevitably gave up and turned around to start its journey back to the Star Shattering Sect.

Although the quality of food that it had been given was not considered good when compared to what Xuan Hao had given it, it was still far better than anything it could find outside the Star Shattering Sect.

Maybe it could ask to increase the quality of its food after returning to the Star Shattering Sect!

After all, it had just recently reached the Nascent Soul Realm and felt that it deserved better food than the Core Formation Realm demon beasts!

Chirp~

Having come up with such a brilliant plan to increase the quality of its food, the large bird demon beast happily began making its way back towards the Star Shattering Sect. Unaware of the fact that although the quality of its food would be changing soon, it would not be in the direction that the large bird demon beast was hoping for.

…

Whoosh~

Having left behind the large bird at the borders of the Iron Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao soon arrived in front of the capital city of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

Different from the last time, the walls surrounding the capital city looked far more pristine compared to before. Not only that, but Xuan Hao could clearly feeling a terrifying power lurking beneath the surface.

"From the looks of it, Yi Min finished repair the formation around her capital and if I'm not wrong, it should be even stronger than before…" Muttering this to himself as he finished inspecting the pristine walls surrounding the capital city of the Iron Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao could not help wondering just how strong the formation was now.

Given that it had the strength to resist someone in the Soul Ascension Realm if it reached its full potential before, Xuan Hao felt a shiver run down his spine thinking about how strong the current formation protecting the capital city of the Iron Sky Kingdom.

"Hah… I wonder just how many treasures and artifacts were used for this…"

Knowing full well that Yi Min used a countless number of artifacts together with spiritual treasures to create the formation, Xuan Hao could not help lamenting over the wealth of a Master Blacksmith.

The construction of the formation protecting her capital city was more than enough to bankrupt a dozen ordinary Peak Stage Domain Lord and that was only in case that they could actually get their hands on the different natural treasures used in its construction. After all, some of the natural treasures used in the construction process were tempting even to Soul Ascension Realm Experts!

Even a Half-Step Soul Ascension Realm Expert would properly not be able to get his hands on some of the materials used in the construction of the formation…

The only reason Yi Min could get her hands on some of the more precious natural treasures, was due to her identity as a Master Blacksmith!

"Hm… It's been a few years since I last visited the Iron Sky Kingdom together with Qing Yi, I wonder how Yi Min is doing…"

Whoosh~

Feeling curious about what Yi Min had been up to and at the same time wanting to ask her if she had any information about the dangerous places he would be going through on his way to the capital of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao decided to pay her a visit before continuing his journey into the core region of the Sky Empire.

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702 The Name of a Great Sect~

"So, you wanted to ask me about those places since you plan to visit them on your way to the capital of the Sky Empire? Not to mention the fact that those locations are dangerous to someone in the Domain Lord Realm. Even with your current strength at the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, some of the more dangerous things hidden in those places would still be life threatening to you!"

Having told Yi Min about the different locations he planned to visit on his way to the capital city of the Sky Empire only shortly after they had started talking with each, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit worried after hearing what Yi Min said.

Obviously, the different locations that he had planned to go through were far more dangerous than he had first expected given the little information he had been able to gather through the book Yi Min had given him

Even if it noted down anything important happening in the Sky Empire along with several famous locations and the different experts that existed inside the Sky Empire, it was still not fully capable of describing just how dangerous some of the locations were due to just how rare it would be for someone to truly explore those locations.

After all, all things considered, a location that was dangerous even to a Domain Lord Realm Expert would rarely get fully explored by someone in the Domain Lord Realm due to danger involved in doing something like that.

Given that not all of the dangerous location located across the core region of the Sky Empire had any precious spiritual herbs or other natural treasures inside of them, it was obvious that Domain Lord Realm Experts would not dare risking their lives to enter these locations.

As for those below the Domain Lord Realm that decided to still enter… Well… Most of them would end up dead, while the few who made it out alive would at most have travelled through the less dangerous outer region of those places…

"Hah… Not to mention the fact that some of the places you mentioned are far more dangerous than is noted down in the book I gave you due to it not being public information, some of the locations can even pose a threat to someone in the Soul Ascension Realm!"

"…"

If he really ended up going through one of those places without knowing about the danger he might encounter…

Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he thought about just how dangerous it would be, Xuan Hao could not help feeling happy that he had decided to visit Yi Min before entering the core region of the Sky Empire.

…

"Then, I will be taking my leave. Thank you for your help!"

"Haha, no problem! Have a safe journey- Ah! Wait a minute!"

Having spent half a day talking with Yi Min about the different locations that would be safe to pass through or visit and which places to avoid in the core region of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao was just about to leave when Yi Min suddenly seemed to remember something.

"What is it?"

Seeing Yi Min suddenly stopping him before he left, Xuan Hao looked towards Yi Min with a curious expression on his face.

"I forgot to say this earlier, but you have to remember to avoid the seventh prince's faction when you reach the capital city in the future! The general who attacked me together with someone from a demonic sect are both related to the seventh prince and his faction… Aaaaand… Given what happened back then, I have a feeling that the seventh prince might try something if he gets the chance!"

"I guess I have to thank a certain someone for getting me involved with this seventh prince…"

"…"

Rolling his eyes as he saw the guilty expression on Yi Min's face after hearing what he said, Xuan Hao chuckled a bit to himself.

Although a prince of the Sky Empire was not something an ordinary Domain Lord Realm Expert could deal with, he had already reached the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm and could be considered to be one of the top powerhouses inside the Sky Empire outside of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts.

Unless it was the crown prince of the Sky Empire, there was no way that the Sky Empire's imperial family would do anything to him. Not to mention, with his current strength, he didn't fear the Soul Ascension Realm Experts of the Sky Empire.

Actually… A part of him wanted to fight with one of these Soul Ascension Realm Experts to test out the strength of his new domain!

"I will make sure to be careful."

Whoosh~

Banishing the dangerous thoughts of fighting against a Soul Ascension realm Expert, Xuan Hao took his leave after realizing that Yi Min didn't have anything more to say.

After entering the core region of the Sky Empire, his journey would get far more complicated.

The main reason for this, was that he would have to make sure he avoided any of the extremely dangerous locations mentioned by Yi Min.

As a result of having to avoid these dangerous locations, the time of around two months that he originally expected for it to take him to reach the capital of the Sky Empire increased to three months!

Although this did not sound like a big deal, the establishment of the sect alliance would take place in another two and a half months!

Originally, Xuan Hao had thought he would end up reaching the capital city two weeks before the establishment of the sect alliance… But instead, he would end up reaching the capital city of the Sky Empire two weeks too late if he ended up spending time exploring the different locations he had originally planned to explore on his way to the capital city of the Sky Empire.

If he wanted to at least have some time to explore the different special and famous places along his path to the capital city of the Sky Empire, it looked like he would have to increase his speed!

Swish-!

With this thought in mind, Xuan Hao rapidly increased his speed after leaving the Iron Sky Kingdom.

…

Both laying down on a pile of books, Bai Ning and Hui Ying were looking at each other with expressions of despair as they were both trying their best to read through a book written in some sort of ancient language.

Swish-!

"Not to mention a map, there I can't even understand- Ah!"

Roll~

Bang!Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Throwing away the book he had been reading, Bai Ning ended up losing his balance as he ended up rolling down the small mountain of books he had been laying on top of.

"What happened- Pft-!"

Curiously peering over the edge of the small mountain of books she was laying on top of, Hui Ying barely managed to hold in her laughter after seeing half of Bai Ning's body covered in books that had fallen down after he rolled down.

"Ah! Enough, let's go to the second floor of this damnable book tower! I can't spend another day in here reading looking through these ancient books written in some language we don't understand! Even if there are a few understandable ones, they are still only barely readable! Are you coming with me Hui Ying?"

Not able to stop himself from yelling this in an angry voice after having spent the last few days looking through countless ancient books, Bai Ning stood back up as he looked towards Hui Ying waiting for her response.

"Yes! This place is so boring! The only information we even managed to get was that this place was supposedly managed by some sort of ancient sect in the past… Hm… What was its name... The Marriage Sect…?"

"No, it was the Great Divorce Sect, a place that only took in middle-aged men going through a midlife crisis after their wife left them, as their disciples."

"Really?!"

Not knowing what to say after seeing Hui Ying suddenly become all excited, Bai Ning could not help rolling his eyes. Did she really believe there was a sect named the Great Divorce Sect?

"Of course not! The name of the ancient sect that managed this sect was the Mirage Sect."

"Ah… I see…"

Seeing Hui Ying getting all disappointed after hearing that there was no such thing as the Great Divorce Sect, Bai Ning had no idea what to say.

Hopefully the Star Shattering Sect would not end up getting some sort of weirdly named branch sect in the future if Hui Ying ended up becoming an elder strong enough to manage a branch sect by herself...

"Let's get going, we can also check up the rest of the floors in this tower before we continue trying to read through any more books!"

Shaking his head as he didn't dare think about a future where one of the Star Shattering Sect's branches ended up with a weird name, Bai Ning began making his way towards the still intact spiral staircase leading up to the second floor of the tower.

"Wait for me!"

Seeing Bai Ning leaving, Hui Ying quickly dashed after him as both of them made their way up to the second floor of the tower.

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Making their way up to the second floor of the tower, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying frowned upon seeing that the second floor of the tower was similarly filled with still intact books.

If the rest of the floors in the tower were in a similar condition, it would likely take them months, if not years, to fully look through all of the books inside of the tower… And even then, they might not be able to find a map or something similar that could get them out of the jungle safely!

"Let's go to the next floor and see if there is something different up there…" Scanning over the second floor of the tower, Bai Ning quickly began making his way up the spiral staircase towards the third floor of the tower after seeing that there was nothing other than books on the second floor of the tower.

"Yeah…"

Following closely behind Bai Ning as he made his way up the spiral staircase towards the third floor of the tower, Hui Ying could not help feeling a headache after looking over the books that filled up the second floor of the tower.

If possible, she wanted to avoid having to read through all of these books. Especially after spending the last few days reading through these ancient books which were mostly written in some kind of ancient language, she didn't understand.

For this reason, Hui Ying sincerely hoped that they would be able to find something that would be able to find something like a large still intact map of the jungle on of the remaining floors of the tower that were still intact…

Not much different from the first and second floor of the tower, the third floor was also filled with books. The only difference was that there was a large hole in the side of the tower from where they could see the outside the tower. At the same time, there was also a massive hole in the ceiling of the third floor. Allowing them to see up into the fourth floor above them, which was similarly only filled with books without anything of interest like a still intact map.

The Fifth floor… Sixth floor… Seventh, eighth and ninth floor were the same!

"There is only one floor left…"

As Bai Ning and Hui Ying slowly started losing hope in finding something that would be useful for them when it came to finding a way out of the jungle without having to spend the next few months looking through the books and hoping to find something inside them that would be of help, they both began making their way up towards the final tenth floor of the tower.

If they could really not find anything on the last floor of the tower, they would be forced to either look through the books still intact inside the tower, something that would likely end up taking them months… Of course, this was only considering that they would be able to survive for that long.

After all, although they could survive for a longer period without food and water compared to normal mortals, they could still not completely survive off the qi between heaven and earth as someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm!

…

"A door!?"

Walking up the spiral staircase towards the tenth floor of the tower, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying were taken aback upon seeing that their path forward was blocked by a door.

However, this surprise only lasted for a short moment before both of them grew excited.

This was the first floor inside the tower that was different compared to the rest of the floors they had visited so far. For this reason alone, Bai Ning and Hui Ying grew excited as they felt hopeful of finding something that would be able to get them out of their current predicament.

Creak~

Slowly opening the old door leading into the tenth floor of the tower, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying held their breath as they nervously looked inside. Hoping that they would not be met with the familiar scene of a room filled with only ancient books and nothing more...Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

"A MAP! There really is a map in here!"

Being the first to react, Hui Ying could not help exclaiming loudly as she was the first to spot a large map hanging on the wall not too far away from the door leading into the tenth floor of the tower.

Hearing Hui Ying's exclamation, Bai Ning also focused his full attention on the massive map on the wall of the tenth floor.

"Indeed… And from the looks of it, the map seems to cover not only the underground part of the jungle that we are currently inside of, but it also covers the jungle above!" Inspecting the map more closely, Bai Ning could not help smiling as he felt a wave of relief wash over him.

With the map of not only the underground of the jungle, but also the surface, Bai Ning understood that they would not have to waste the next few months looking through the hundreds of thousands of books inside the tower for a way out of the jungle.

Although they had still ended up wasting a few days looking through the books without gaining anything more than the name of the ancient sect that should have constructed the tower in the past, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying did not care about this.

Even if they had wasted a bit of the little food they had on them due to this, it was nothing to worry about now that they had a map that could be used to find a way out of the jungle and back to the territory of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

"Let's see if we can find out where we are first."

Calming down, Bai Ning took the lead as he stepped inside the tenth floor of the tower before making his way towards the map to inspect it more closely to find out where they were and if there were any exits noted down on the map itself.

"This… Might be a bit harder to understand than I first thought…" Muttering this to himself as he looked over the map, Bai Ning could not help frowning while looking over the different ancient looking letters on the map. The map itself and the locations on the map were all written in the same ancient language as the books, a language that both Bai Ning and Hui Ying could not understand…

However, even if what was written on the map was not something that Bai Ning and Hui Ying could understand, they were lucky enough that there were also different symbols beneath the different ancient words. Allowing them to at least make a guess as to what the different locations might be hiding.

For example, it did not take them long to find what they thought to be the tower on the map, being the only place symbolized by a small tower and a book on the underground part of the map.

…

"The exits out of this place should be the different portal like things on the map…"

Having spent the last few hours trying their best to understand the map, Bai Ning and Hui Ying ended up determining that the small portals that were placed all over the map should be ways out of the jungle… And at the same time they also managed to determine which of the different portals they should have entered the jungle through.

The only problem… Was that there was no way out of the underground part of the jungle that was anywhere close to the portal that they had originally entered the jungle through.

In the end, this left them with two choices…

One, try to make their way back towards the portal they had originally entered the jungle through or… Second, try to make their way towards the closest of the portals to get out of the dangerous jungle as quickly as possible!

No matter what choice they took, they each had their own benefits and drawbacks.

Going to the closest of the portals could get them out faster, but they might end up in a far more dangerous location after passing through the unknown portal.

The place they had originally entered the jungle through on the other hand was far safer, the danger with going to that place, was that they would have to spend a longer period of time inside the jungle.

Given just how dangerous the jungle was, they would end up increasing their chances of encountering another demon beast in the Core Formation Realm during the journey back towards they had originally entered the jungle through.

"Hah… Let's not think about this for now, we should first make our way towards the closest path out of this underground cave network…"

Shaking his head as he understood the risks involved in both of the options, Bai Ning carefully stored the massive map away inside his storage ring before both him and Hui Ying began making their way out of the tower.

Outside of taking a few of the books from each of the ten floors with them to hand over to the sect when they returned, there wasn't really anything else of value inside the large tower.

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Given how far away the closest path leading to the surface is, it should at least take us two days before we reach it…

Thinking this to himself after leaving the tower that they had been staying inside of for the last few days, Bai Ning could not help feeling a little nervous as he looked over the large empty cave that they were currently inside of.

Even if they had not encountered any demon beasts outside of a few that had reached the Qi Condensation Realm after entering the underground part of the jungle, Bai Ning still felt that there should be some more powerful demon beasts lurking around inside the underground cave network!

"Let's get going! Hopefully we will be able to leave this jungle in less than a week if we are lucky!"

Not knowing what Bai Ning was thinking about, Hui Ying was still filled with excitement after they had gotten their hands on the map, as she happily took the lead and made her way in the direction of the exit leading out of the underground cave network.

"…"

Smiling a bit wryly after seeing Hui Ying dashing forward, Bai Ning shook his head before following after her.

If there really were more powerful demon beasts hidden somewhere in the underground cave network, there was nothing much they could do other than trying their best to avoid them if they had the chance to.

Swish~!

Like this, Bai Ning and Hui Ying began their journey towards the closest path in the underground cave network leading back up to the surface.

As for going back up through the same way they had entered… Neither Bai Ning nor Hui Ying dared thinking about taking that risk with a Nascent Soul Realm demon beast possibly lurking around in the area ready to pounce on them the moment they tried to make their way back to the surface.

…

"So, this is the core region of the Sky Empire… The qi here is indeed denser and the people living here are also far stronger compared to the border region. Not only that, but the demon beasts roaming around the place are also far stronger, a few of them even reached the Nascent Soul Realm! No wonder it is so dangerous for someone in the Nascent Soul Realm to travel through the core region of the Sky Empire!"

Having only just entered the core region of the Sky Empire for a few hours, Xuan Hao could not help feeling amazed at what he saw so far. Even the weakest city that he had encountered so far had someone in the Nascent Soul Realm guarding it!

Well… Considering that he had also encountered quite a few Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts roaming around below him, it was obvious that a city without a Nascent Soul Realm Expert guarding it would not be able to survive inside the core region of the Sky Empire!

The outside of these cities and the small area around them that they protected, housed most of the people inside the core region of the Sky Empire. The rest of the core region was a dangerous place that would be almost impossible to traverse for anyone below the Nascent Soul Realm.

For this reason, the people living in the core region of the Sky Empire were doing their best trying to increase their strength so they could explore the outside world and have the opportunity to visit other places without having to pay a hefty sum of money to join a powerful caravan that traversed between cities.

The sects and kingdoms that controlled these different cities were not much better, as from what Xuan Hao could see, most of them were only in control of a small area of land that they could barely hold on to.

The only difference, was the sects and kingdoms with a Domain Lord Realm Expert behind them!

These kingdoms and sects could be considered the peak power of the Sky Empire and each of them controlled massive swaths of land. Keeping these massive territories safe from the demon beasts roaming around outside was not simple and could only be done through constructing large barriers and having dozens of Nascent Soul Realm Experts standing guard.

Without the support of a Domain Lord Realm Expert, it was impossible to control a proper territory inside the core region of the Sky Empire!

"I wonder… Is the dangerous environment the reason why the Sky Empire has not been able to fully control their territory and has instead allowed different independent sects and kingdoms do it as long as they are loyal to them?" Muttering this to himself as he flew over the first kingdom that was very clearly backed by a Domain Lord Realm Expert, Xuan Hao felt that he managed to understand why the Sky Empire allowed the different kingdoms and sects inside its borders to operate on their own without any supervision.

In a sense, the Sky Empire didn't have enough power to control their territory by themselves and needed these different kingdoms and sects… Of course, that was not mentioning that some of the different powers that had been allowed to grown independently might have ended up giving birth to experts who had reached the Soul Ascension Realm!

If that was the case, the current Sky Empire might not have absolute authority and control inside the Sky Empire like he had first thought…

Even then, for them to still hold on to their current position, the imperial family of the Sky Empire should not be weak in any way and should still be the strongest force inside the Sky Empire!

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao unconsciously looked in the direction of the Sky Empire with a curious expression of his face.

"If the core region of the Sky Empire is already this dangerous, I wonder what the core region of the continent is like…"

Shaking his head as he said this to himself, Xuan Hao could not help feeling both scared and excited thinking about the fact that there should be experts who surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm inside the core region of the continent itself.

Even if he was close to reaching the Soul Ascension Realm and only needed an opportunity to breakthrough after having merged his two domains together, he was still far away from the mysterious realm that came after the Soul Ascension Realm.

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Suddenly sensing a powerful divine sense belonging to someone in the Second Stage of the Domain Lord Realm locking on to him as he was about to pass over the capital city of the kingdom which had the support of someone in the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao frowned for a short moment before realizing that the divine sense originated from somewhere inside the capital city of the kingdom below him.

Knowing that the other party should have sensed him coming over and was just trying to find out who he was and if he was hostile or not, Xuan Hao decided to just ignore the other party as he continued on his way.

Whoosh~!

However, just in case the other party might want to stop him, he decided to release a bit of his aura. Allowing the other party to identify his strength as someone in the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Whoosh-!

Not too long after he released a bit of his power, the divine sense that had come over from the capital city of the kingdom below quickly retreated at a speed that far surpassed what Xuan Hao thought was possible for someone in the Second Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Looks like it worked out~

Chuckling to himself after seeing that the other party escaped the moment, he released a bit of his aura, Xuan Hao no longer paid any attention to the kingdom or capital city below as he continued on his way towards the capital city of the Sky Empire.

In the first place, he was already short on time and had no time to waste on any kingdom with a Domain Lord Realm Expert that he happened to pass through.

…

"W-what was that!? Where did such a powerful expert come from!?" At the same time Xuan Hao passed over the capital city of the unknown kingdom, an old man covered in sweat from head to toe could not help exclaiming as he fearfully looked up towards the sky where Xuan Hao was.

"Ancestor!? Did something happen!?"

"Ancestor, is a powerful demon beast approaching again!? Didn't we just recently fend off that Domain Lord Realm Snake from the Thousand Poison Valley?!"

At the same time the old man exclaimed in disbelief as he looked up towards the sky filled with fear, two powerful looking guards standing at the side not too far away quickly rushed over with worry plastered all over their faces.

Both of them had reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, so it was obvious that they had not been able to sense Xuan Hao flying past above them.

For this reason, they thought that some powerful demon beast might be approaching to attack their kingdom.

"Both of you, quiet down! I… I need to contact a few friends…" Still not able to calm down after having come in contact with Xuan Hao's aura, the old man that was referred to as ancestor by the two Peak Nascent Soul Realm Expert angrily yelled at the two of them before taking out a communication talisman.

At the moment, the old ancestor wanted to inform his friends about what had happened and try to see if he could find out who the powerful expert just now was!

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Passing over the kingdom with the Domain Lord Realm Expert inside of it, Xuan Hao did manage to see what was taking place between the Domain Lord Realm Expert and his subordinates through his divine sense.

However, Xuan Hao did not go down to stop the Domain Lord Realm Expert from using his communication talisman to inform his friends and peers about what he had just been through.

In the first place, Xuan Hao already understood that it was inevitable that his appearance would end up shocking the different powers of the core region of the Sky Empire, whether it happened earlier or later did not matter much to him.

The only thing that worried him a bit, was that some of those different powers might decide to go and investigate the Star Shattering Sect while he was not there to protect it.

Although the main sect was protected by the Chaotic Qi Formation and both Feng Chen and Shu Yao were there to keep the different branches outside safe, Xuan Hao could still not help worrying about something happening while he was gone.

At the very least, Shu Yao and Feng Chen should be able to deal with most of the people that might show up during his time in the capital of the Sky Empire. As for the stronger experts that might show up... The winged lion demon beast should be able to deal with them.

All things considered; the winged lion demon beast was still a powerful demon beast that had reached the later stages of the Domain Lord Realm. The number of people that would be able to fight equally with it inside the Sky Empire was limited. Let alone people who actually had a chance to beat it!

Whoosh~

Continuing past the unknown kingdom with the Domain Lord Realm Expert in it, Xuan Hao soon reached the first special location that he planned to visit on his way to the capital city of the Sky Empire.

The place in question was called the Thousand Wind Mountains.

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As the name implied, the Thousand Wind Mountains was a large mountain range stretching on for thousands of miles with no end in sight.

Although the Thousand Wind Mountains was a dangerous place that could even be dangerous to Domain Lord Realm Experts in some places, it did not have any powerful demon beast living inside of it.

The reason for this, was the terrifying wind that swept through the place. Not only was the wind dangerous even to Domain Lord Realm Experts in some cases, but it also made it impossible for demon beasts to live in the Thousand Wind Mountains.

The few demon beasts that did live there however, were mostly hidden away in small caves they had dug into the sides of the mountains where they would hide from the terrifying wind outside.

For this reason, the Thousand Wind Mountain ended up becoming a hotspot for special spiritual herbs related to the dao of wind, which could now grow in abundance under the protection of the terrifying wind that constantly swept through the Thousand Wind Mountains.

However, the fact that the Thousand Wind Mountains could produce a lot of high quality spiritual herbs was not an unknown fact... For this reason alone, many Nascent Soul Realm Experts and even Domain Lord Realm Experts ended up visiting the Thousand Wind Mountain every year. Each of them hoping to get their hands on the spiritual herbs growing on the mountains.

Of course, given how deadly the winds inside the Thousand Wind Mountains were, the number of people who ended up dying there every year was staggering and from what Yi Min had told him, there was even a Third Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert who ended up dying in the deeper parts of the Thousand Wind Mountains just a few years ago!

Even if the Thousand Wind Mountains did not have any dangerous demon beasts inside of it, it was obvious that it was still an extremely dangerous place!

WHOOSH-!

Reaching the first mountain, Xuan Hao could not help feeling amazed as he felt the terrifying winds circling around the mountain up close. Even if the wind could not harm him, he could clearly tell that it was more than powerful enough to kill someone at the Core Formation Realm. Even someone who reached the Nascent Soul Realm would have some difficulty defending against the wind there without getting injured... And this was only the outer parts of the Thousand Wind Mountains!

If the outer part was already this dangerous, Xuan Hao could easily imagine just how dangerous the core of the Thousand Wind Mountains would be. After all, a Domain Lord Realm Expert had died in there!

"Hm? The power of this wind is rather erratic... Looks like it should grow weaker in another few minutes... Hm... It should take a few hours after that before it regains its past strength. This should be how those weaker cultivators below the Nascent Soul Realm are able to explore the Thousand Wind Mountains!"

Examining the wind surrounding the mountain in front of him more closely, Xuan Hao did not take long to understand the pattern in which the wind would grow stronger and weaker over different periods of time.

"With this in mind... As long as a Core Formation Realm Expert can enter at the weakest moment, he should be able to explore some of the mountains in the outer region of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

At the same time, someone in the Nascent Soul Realm might have a chance to explore the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains where the most precious spiritual herbs are located!"

Muttering this to himself as he looked over the wind in front of him slowly weakening, Xuan Hao suddenly felt like he managed to understand why so many Nascent Soul Realm Experts and Core Formation Realm Experts died at the Thousand Wind Mountains every year even though there was no danger from demon beasts in there.

If he was not wrong, most of the deaths should have come from people spotting a really precious spiritual herb when entering a normally deadly location inside the Thousand Wind Mountains and trying to get their hands on it before inevitably ending up dead when the strength of the wind currents increase...

Of course, he could also be wrong and there was a different reason why so many Nascent Soul Realm and Core Formation Realm Experts died inside the Thousand Wind Mountains that he still did not know about.

All things considered, it was still a dangerous location that had caused the death of several Domain Lord Realm Experts over the years. Even if it was one of the more explored dangerous places inside the core region of the Sky Empire, it was far from being fully explored and understood. Especially the deeper parts that was dangerous to Domain Lord Realm Experts...

Well, I should check out the outer regions first to get a deeper understanding of this place before heading to the more dangerous core of the Thousand Wind Mountains. At least I will save quite a bit of time by passing through the Thousand Wind Mountains compared to going around it...

Swish~!

As this thought passed through his head, Xuan Hao glanced over the large mountain in front of him along with the countless other mountains that made up the Thousand Wind Mountains before finally stepping forward to enter the Thousand Wind Mountains.

...

"Everyone, let's enter before the wind grows strong again!"

"Indeed, if we are any slower, we might lose our chance to get our hands on the Windbloom Flower!"

"Stop talking you two and move!"

At the same time Xuan Hao made his way inside the Thousand Wind Mountains. Not too far away from where he had entered, a large group of people belonging to different powers were all rushing towards a large mountain where the wind had similarly weakened.

The people here were almost exclusively made up of cultivators in the Core Formation Realm. Only a handful of people had reached the earlier stages of the Nascent Soul realm.

The reason why all of these people from different powers had suddenly gathered together and were about to risk their life, was for a chance to get their hands on single spiritual herb, the Windbloom Flower.

The Windbloom Flower was a spiritual herb that was unique to the Thousand Wind Mountains and the reason why so many people had gathered together and were willing to risk their lives to get their hands on the Windbloom Flower had something to do with this-

"As long as I can get my hands on the Windbloom Flower, I will be able to enter the deeper parts of the Thousand Wind Mountains and harvest the precious spiritual herbs in there without having to worry about anything other than the core area!"

"Hah! Keep dreaming! How can someone in the Third Stage of the Core Formation Realm get their hand of a precious spiritual herb like the Windbloom Flower!?"

"Hmph! You are one to talk? You are also in the Third Stage of the Core Formation Realm!"

"You-!"

Indeed, the Windbloom Flower could protect one against the dangerous wind that was ever-present inside the Thousand Wind Mountains!

All of the people here understood just how much it would mean to get their hands on this flower. After all, if not for the fact that news about it had only recently come out and had only spread among the few nearby cities, they were all certain that a Domain Lord Realm Expert would have long since come over to take the Windbloom Flower for themselves!

Even if it could not negate the most powerful wind in the deepest part of the Thousand Wind Mountains, it would still make it far easier to explore!

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Entering the Thousand Wind Mountains, Xuan Hao did not take long to spot the massive group of people that were all rushing towards a mountain located at the edges of the outer region of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

"Windbloom Flower...? How interesting..."

Listening in on the conversations talking place between the different people who were all from different powers, Xuan Hao did not take long to understand why all of them were rushing deeper inside the Thousand Wind Mountains.

Given how precious the Windbloom Flower was, it was understandable why these Core Formation Realm and early stage Nascent Soul Realm Experts were all risking their lives to get their hands on it.

"But... Unfortunately for them, I'm here and I'm also quite interested in this Windbloom Flower!"

Whoosh-!

Not intending to let something like the Windbloom Flower just get into someone else's hands when it could be useful for exploring the core of the Thousand Wind Mountains, Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes before flying in the direction of the mountain that the large group of cultivators were moving towards.

...

Not aware of the fact that Xuan Hao had already decided to get his hands on the Windbloom Flower. The different factions were getting more and more anxious the closer they got to the mountain where the Windbloom Flower was located.

"No matter what, we have to get our hands on the Windbloom Flower! It's the only opportunity our family has to recover our former glory!"

"Family Head, with you around, I'm sure we will be able to get the Windbloom Flower. After all, Family Head is the only person in the Third Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!"

Among these different factions, the Wind Sword Family was the most confident. Having the strongest expert present, an ancestor at the Third Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!

Even if there were still other Nascent Soul Realm Experts present, they were only in the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. From this alone it was obvious why the people from the Wind Sword Family felt confident in being able to get their hands on the Windbloom Flower.

With the strongest expert on their side, they already felt that the Windbloom Flower was in their hands...!

Whoosh-!

"Looks like it will take a few more minutes before those people reach this place..."

Reaching the mountain with the Windbloom Flower before any of the Core Formation Realm and Nascent Soul Realm Experts could even get close, Xuan Hao curiously began looking through the entire mountain with his divine sense.

Even if the wind had weakened, it was still more than strong enough to kill someone in the Core Formation Realm if they were even the slightest bit careless.

To be honest, Xuan Hao felt that there was no reason for the Core Formation Realm Experts to go so far inside the Thousand Wind Mountains. Not to mention the fact that they might not be able to escape in time before the wind grew strong again, their chances of getting their hands on the Windbloom Flower was close to none.

Even without him there, they would still have to get through the Nascent Soul Realm Experts...

"Well, with me around none of them will be able to get the Windbloom Flower." Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao turned to look up towards the peak of the mountain.

From a distance, a small flower with pure white petals could barely be seen gently moving as the terrifying wind covering the mountain was slowly absorbed by it.

"That should be the Windbloom Flower..."

Swish~

Moving up the mountain, Xuan Hao carefully looked over the small flower.

Outside of its small size and the fact that it was slowly absorbing the terrifying wind that was ever-present inside the Thousand Wind Mountains, the Windbloom Flower just looked an ordinary white flower.

How can such a small flower help resist the wind in this place...

"Hm?"

About to pick up the Windbloom Flower, Xuan Hao suddenly stopped himself as he rapidly moved away from the small flower with a serious expression on his face. Even if it was just for an instant, he clearly felt a terrifying intent lingering on the Windbloom Flower that he was just about to pick up and take away.

"Looks like this Windbloom Flower is more special than I first thought. Maybe I should allow one of those people to pick it and see what happens..." Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao turned around and looked towards the large number of people rapidly approaching the mountain before looking back down at the small innocent looking flower.

After feeling the terrifying intent lingering on the small flower, Xuan Hao hesitated in picking it up by himself.

Although the intent that was there should just be a remnant intent left behind on the Windbloom Flower by some expert above the Domain Lord Realm in the past and he should be able to erase it before anything could happen, Xuan Hao still felt both cautious and curious about why such a powerful expert would attach their intent to a Windbloom Flower instead of just taking it away.

Even if he had no idea why yet, it was obvious that the expert who had left behind the intent on the flower instead of taking it away had some kind of plan for it. Maybe the fact that no Domain Lord Realm Experts had shown up also had something to do with this!

"..."

Understanding that he might have accidentally messed up the carefully thought out plan of some powerful expert above the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao quickly did his best to hide himself as he waited for the group of Core Formation Realm and the few Nascent Soul Realm Experts among them to approach.

If he was lucky, the expert hiding behind the scenes had not managed to discover him as he should be focused on the group of people rushing over…

Whoosh~!

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Not daring to stay around on the mountain with the Windbloom Flower on top of it as the expert in question would likely be paying attention to the place when the group of Core Formation Realm and the few Nascent Soul Realm Experts showed, Xuan Hao moved to one of the mountains not too far away where he could keep an eye on the situation and see what would be happening after someone got their hands of the Windbloom Flower.

Given that the expert hidden somewhere nearby should be waiting for that to happen, Xuan Hao was more than happy to sit on the side and wait to find out what this expert was planning.

At least when considering the effects of the Windbloom Flower, it was obvious that whatever this expert was planning had something to do with the deeper parts of the Thousand Wind Mountains!

With this in mind, Xuan Hao focused his attention on the few Nascent Soul Realm Experts that were present.

As long as nothing unexpected happened, one of them should get their hands on the Windbloom Flower on top of the mountain!

…

Fwoosh-!

Getting closer and closer to the mountain where the Windbloom Flower was located, three of the First Stage Nascent Soul Realm Experts worked together as they launched a combined attack against the old ancestor from the Wind Sword Family.

BOOM-!

"Damn all of you!? You dare work together against me!?"

Cursing loudly as he was forced to stop and defend against the combined attack of the three First Stage Nascent Soul Realm Experts, the old ancestor from the Wind Sword Family was filled with killing intent.

Whoosh-!

Not caring about the reaction of the old ancestor, the three First Stage Nascent Soul Realm Experts all charged towards the mountain with the Windbloom Flower on it after having knocked the old ancestor back.

All of them understood very well that there would be no way for them to get their hands of the Windbloom Flower with a powerful old expert like the ancestor of the Wind Sword Family around.

Even if they had a chance to fight him by combining their forces, this would likely not help if the old ancestor got his hands on the Windbloom Flower first and decided to use it to escape into the deeper regions of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

Boom-!

Boom-!

Boom-!

However, the three First Stage Nascent Soul Realm Experts did not get to move for long before the remaining Nascent Soul Realm Experts who had been left behind at the start attacked them to prevent them from getting their hands on the Windbloom Flower before anyone else.

Boom-boom-boom!

Not long after, the different Nascent Soul Realm Experts all began fighting with each other to prevent anyone from getting to the Windbloom Flower first, as the other party was likely to just escape into the deeper regions of the Thousand Wind Mountains after getting his or her hands on it.

"Looks like we still have a chance to get the Windbloom Flower!"

Of course, with the Nascent Soul Realm Experts all busy fighting with each other, the Core Formation Realm Experts were all brimming with excitement as they charged towards the mountain with the flower. All of them understood that they would have a chance to get their hands on the Windbloom Flower, as long as the Nascent Soul Realm Experts continued fighting with each other!

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As the Nascent Soul Realm Experts had started fighting with each other, the Core Formation Realm Experts who had been left alone were all filled with happiness as they rushed towards the mountain with the Windbloom Flower on top of it.

If they had originally just showed up for the chance to fish in troubled waters and try to get any benefits they could from the people who would inevitably end up dying during the struggle for the Windbloom Flower. Now, they saw a real chance to get their hands on the Windbloom flower themselves.

However, among the Core Formation Realm Experts that were happily rushing towards the mountain with the Windbloom Flower on top of it, there were still a few who were not so happy about what was happening-

"Damn it! Those three! Do they want to fight it out with our Wind Sword Family after this is finished!? Do they think they will be able to resist the ancestor without working together!?"

The group of Core Formation Realm Experts belonging to the Wind Sword Family were obviously the ones who were the most furious upon seeing their ancestor getting teamed up on by three different Nascent Soul Realm Experts.

Originally, they had already thought of the Windbloom Flower as their own... But now, this was no longer the case!

At the moment, the few Core Formation Realm Experts from the Wind Sword Family all started rushing towards the mountain with the Windbloom Flower on top of it with their fastest speed possible. The only thing on their mind was to get the Windbloom Flower and hand it over to their ancestor so he could keep it safe.

After all, even if their ancestor was currently getting teamed up on by a group of different Nascent Soul Realm Experts every time he tried advancing towards the mountain with the flower on top of it, the ancestor was still someone in Third Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

With the strength of the rest of the people present, there was no way for them to kill, let alone prevent him from escaping after he got his hand on the Windbloom Flower and got the ability to resist the terrifying wind!

The only reason why they could stop him from moving forward at the moment, was due to the terrifying wind only having weakened in an almost straight line towards the mountain with the Windbloom Flower on top of it, which allowed them to form a barrier of people to prevent the ancestor in the Third Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm from passing through them and reaching the Windbloom Flower... And because of this, all the Nascent Soul Realms ended up not moving towards the location of the flower.

...

"Looks like none of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts fighting will be the first to get their hands on the Windbloom Flower..." Watching from the side as the first Core Formation Realm Expert reached the mountain and began making his way up towards the flower, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes.

No matter how he looked at it, the winds only weakening in an almost straight line towards the mountain with the flower on top of it, the Nascent Soul Realm Experts giving the Core Formation Realm Experts a chance to get their hands on the flower... All of it felt like it was planned from the start!

Now... The only question left, was why...

After all, given that the expert who should have set this entire thing up was most likely someone who had surpassed the Domain Lord Realm and reached the Soul Ascension Realm, Xuan Hao could really not understand why such a person would go so far to set this entire thing up.

If that person just wanted a Core Formation Realm Expert to be the one to get his or her hands on the Windbloom Flower, it would be far easier to just secretly help them obtain it without attracting so many people...

"I really can't understand what that person would want from this..."

Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao turned his attention back towards the Core Formation Realm Experts who were slowly starting to arrive at the base of the mountain before charging towards the peak with all their strength.

Boom-boom-boom!

Not too surprisingly, the Core Formation Realm Experts also began fighting with increased energy the closer they got to the peak. The clear difference between them fighting and the Nascent Soul Realm Experts, was the fact that the Core Formation Realm Experts actually managed to get closer and closer to the Windbloom Flower. Although... A bit slower than if they didn't fight each other along the way.

Whoosh~!

"Haha! I got it!"

Not even a few minutes later after the Core Formation Realm Experts reached the mountain, a Peak Core Formation Realm Expert that had managed to sneak his way through the people fighting managed to reach the peak before anyone and pick up the Windbloom Flower before using all his strength to rush down the mountain towards the deeper regions of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

"Hm? AH! Someone is already at the peak!"

Discovering the Peak Core Formation Realm Expert, the moment he took the flower and was about to escape, the close to one hundred Core Formation Realm Experts present on the mountain all stopped fighting as they turned their attention towards him.

"He got the flower! Everyone, stop him!"

"If he makes it to the deeper regions where the wind is still in full power... We can't let him get away!"

"Let's kill him!"

"""KILL!"""

Feeling the killing intent of the close to one hundred Core Formation Realm Experts lock on to him, the Peak Core Formation Realm Expert that managed to get his hands on the Windbloom Flower could not help shivering as he directly used a forbidden technique that burned his lifespan to increase his speed to make it down the mountain and escape into the deeper regions of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

As long as he could make it to the deeper regions filled with all sorts of spiritual herbs, he would not care about losing a few dozen years of his lifespan. Especially considering he might get a chance to break through the Nascent Soul Realm and increase his lifespan even further.

At that point in time, sacrificing a few dozen years was nothing!

Swish~

Ptsh-!

However, before the Peak Core Formation Realm Expert had a chance to move more than a few dozen meters down the mountain, a large axe swung down and decapitated him. Killing him on the spot before he even had a chance to react.

"Hehe, thanks for delivering me the flower." Chuckling to himself as he picked up the flower from the now dead Core Formation Realm Expert, a bulky man with a massive axe standing more than two meters tall slowly looked at the surrounding Core Formation Realm Experts that were about to attack him with a disdainful expression on his face.

"He got the flower! Let's kill him!"

"There is no way for him to escape, we already-

FWOOSH-!

Before any of the surrounding Core Formation Realm Experts had the chance to react, the aura around the bulky man with the axe exploded as they were all violently thrown back while throwing up blood.

"T-this-!? N-Nascent Soul Realm... A Nascent Soul Realm Expert hid among us?!"

Being the first to understand what was happening, one of the Core Formation Realm Experts standing a little farther away that had not gotten injured, exclaimed loudly with a fearful expression on his face.

It had to be known that the only reason why he and the rest of the Core Formation Realm Experts were daring enough to try getting their hands on the Windbloom Flower was due to the Nascent Soul Realm Experts all fighting with each other and not having time to interfere with what they were doing.

Now that a Nascent Soul Realm Expert showed up and took the Windbloom Flower, all of the Core Formation Realm Experts understood that they would no longer have a chance to get their hands on it!

...

"Hm!? A Nascent Soul Realm Expert actually hid among the Core Formation Realm Expert... And I couldn't sense him..."

Showing a surprised expression on his face as he saw the bulky man with the axe erupting with a powerful aura belonging to the Second Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao soon used his divine sense to scan the man from head to toe. Wanting to find out how he had been able to hide from his divine sense.

"Hm? Looks like there should be some sort of will or treasure attached to his body that prevents my divine sense from properly determining his strength..."Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Not taking long to get an idea on what might be behind him not being able to see through the other party's strength, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about the man's identity. Perhaps he might even be related to the mysterious expert that was hiding behind the scenes...!

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"What!? Someone actually managed to sneak through us!?"

At the same time that Xuan Hao was curiously observing the Nascent Soul Realm Expert that had managed to get his hands of the Windbloom Flower, one of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts who had all been busy fighting since the start, exclaimed in surprise.

"To think someone actually managed to hide among the Core Formation Realm Experts without any of us sensing him- We can't let him escape with the Windbloom Flower!"

Realizing what was happening, the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts soon stopped fighting before all of them began rushing towards the bulky Nascent Soul Realm Expert that had managed to get his hands on the Windbloom Flower. All equally desperate to stop him from escaping into the deeper regions of the Thousand Wind Mountains where they couldn't follow him.

"Damnit! The flower should have been my family's chance to recover our past strength!"

Not reaction any different compared to the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts discovered that someone had actually managed to sneak through and get his hands on the Windbloom Flower, the ancestor from the Wind Sword Family that had reached the Third Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm also rushed towards the bulky man with the axe.

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

All of a sudden, the Nascent Soul Realm Experts that had been stuck fighting with each other united together, as they all wanted to prevent the bulky man with the axe from escaping with the Windbloom Flower.

After all, they all understood that without the Windbloom Flower around, they would have wasted their time coming to the Thousand Wind Mountains... And some of them had even ended up offending the ancestor of the Wind Sword Family that had reached the Third Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!

For these Nascent Soul Realm Experts, only getting their hands on the Windbloom Flower would allow them to stay safe from the inevitable attack of the old ancestor from the Sword Wind Family after everything was over!

"Hmph! Think you can catch me?"

Swish-!

Not one to just wait around for the close to dozen Nascent Soul Realm Experts to surround and attack him together, the bulky man with the Windbloom Flower sneered disdainfully before using a movement technique to rush down the mountain before charging towards the deeper regions of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

"STOP HIM!"

Seeing this, the ancestor from the Sword Wind Family yelled loudly filled with killing intent as he could only watch the bulky man disdainfully smiling at him before disappearing behind a mountain where the wind had not weakened in the slightest!

"..."

Understanding that he would not be able to catch up to the other party, the ancestor of the Wind Sword Family was filled with killing intent.

If only no one had stopped him, he would be the one with the Windbloom Flower...!

Fwoosh!

Knowing that he would not be able to get his hands on the Windbloom Flower, the ancestor of the Wind Sword Family slowly turned around before staring directly at the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts rushing over. Specifically focusing on three of them...

"R-Run!"

Whoosh~!

Understanding what the ancestor of the Flying Sword Family was about to do, one of the three Nascent Soul Realm Experts that had helped in preventing the ancestor from reaching the mountain with the Windbloom Flower on top of it earlier yelled loudly before escaping in the opposite direction.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Not taking more than a few second, the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts all showed a panicked expression on their faces before escaping as well.

"Hehehe~ All of you wanted to work together to stop me from getting my hands on the Windbloom Flower just a moment ago, yet now all of you are trying to run away~? Hehe, don't think I will let all of you escape that easily!"

Having seemingly gone slightly mad after having lost the chance to get his hands on the Windbloom Flower that he had already taken as his own, the ancestor of the Sword Wind Family laughed loudly before chasing after the escaping Nascent Soul Realm Experts.

"""..."""

Watching the entire thing take place, the Core Formation Realm Experts remained silent. Not daring to make a single sound. Fearing that the ancestor of the Wind Sword Family would end up taking his anger out on them.

Even the Core Formation Realm Experts from the Wind Sword Family were no different, as they also decided that it would be best not to say anything...

WHOOOSH~!

"AH-!"

Breaking the silence of the Core Formation Realm Experts only a short time after the Nascent Soul Realm Experts had all disappeared in the distance, a terrifying sound of something being cut apart followed by a horrified scream echoed out.

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Turning towards the origin of the sound, all of the Core Formation Realm Experts discovered to their horror that the strength of the wind had started increasing. The scream earlier had come from a Fourth Stage Core Formation Realm getting cut apart by the wind having suddenly increased in strength around the area he was standing.

"This- The wind is starting to recover?! But... It has only been a few minutes! We should at least have an hour or more left!"

"Maybe it was just a coincidence? We still have some time to look for other spiritual herbs before having to leave-"

"Ah-!

Not even having the time to finish speaking with each other about what had just happened, another scream echoed out as another Core Formation Realm Expert suddenly got cut into pieces and died on the spot without any chance to resist.

"Screw this! I'm getting out of here!"

Whoosh-!

Seeing this, one of the weaker Core Formation Realm Experts turned around and began rushing towards the location he and the rest of the people around him had entered the Thousand Wind Mountains Through.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Seeing the first person escaping, most of the remaining Core Formation Realm Experts also decided to escape. Not wanting to risk their life any more than they already had.

In the end, only a few people who felt unsatisfied with not getting anything from entering the Thousand Wind Mountains remained.

...

Not caring too much about what the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts and Core Formation Realm Experts that had come were doing, Xuan Hao focused his full attention on the bulky man with the axe who had taken the Windbloom Flower before heading towards the deeper regions of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

"Hm?"

Following the man very closely, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he watched him not decreasing his speed in the slightest after getting to a place where none of the Nascent Soul Realm Expert would be able to follow him, but instead increased his speed even further.

Looks like he might know something is wrong with the Windbloom Flower... Or perhaps he is trying to get somewhere inside the Thousand Wind Mountains...

Thinking this to himself as he did his best to hide himself with his domain before following after the bulky man from a distance, Xuan Hao felt even more curious about the identity of the bulky man and the person who had seemingly set up this entire thing for the bulky man to get his hands on the Windbloom Flower.

Even if he still did not know what they reason was, he at least got a few clues that pointed towards a possible reason after seeing the bulky man ignore several spiritual herbs along his path and just continuing deeper into the Thousand Wind Mountains without stopping.-

The man should know about some sort of secret location inside the Thousand Wind Mountains that the person hidden behind the scenes also wants to learn about...

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a hint of pity towards the bulky man who was desperately rushing towards the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

Even if the man might have some idea about the entire thing being a set up and he wanted to resist the other party, he had no idea just how strong his opponent was.

After all, even Xuan Hao who had reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm would be able to easily kill him, let alone the unknown expert behind the scenes who had very likely reached the Soul Ascension Realm!

"Well... Even if he is doomed to die, I will at least be able to get a chance to see how strong a Soul Ascension Realm Expert is compared to someone in the Domain Lord Realm..." Muttering this to himself as he looked towards the bulky man with pity, Xuan Hao did his best to keep a distance as he waited in anticipation of the master mind of the entire thing showing up.

[Ding~!]

However, just at this moment, the familiar sound of the system rang out. Signifying the fact that a new quest had appeared...

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[Limited Time Quest: Find out what is hidden at the centre of the Thousand Wind Mountains.]

[Time limit: 2 Hours]

[Reward: Records of a Thousand Winds.]

Looking over the new side quest that had just appeared, Xuan Hao could not help frowning upon seeing the time limit of only two hours.

Given the sheer size of the Thousand Wind Mountains along with the dangerous winds that could even kill Domain Lord Realm Experts, two hours was far from enough to search through the entire core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains and find whatever was hidden in there… And this was not taking into account the fact that the thing he would be searching for might be hidden by some kind of formation!

Without anything to act as a guide inside the massive Thousand Wind Mountains, there would be no way for him to complete the quest in time-

"…"

Suddenly realizing something, Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes as he looked towards the bulky man with the Windbloom Flower in his hands moving deeper and deeper inside the Thousand Wind Mountains.

Is the reason for the appearance of a new quest related to the place that man is going…?

Thinking this to himself Xuan Hao could not help frowning. Even if it was not related, he didn't really have any other clue on how to complete the quest before the time limit was up. Two hours was simply far too short a time for him to even search a fraction of the area covered by the Thousand Wind Mountains…

"I should just continue following him and see where he is going…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao shook his head before following behind the bulky man as he began making his way deeper inside the Thousand Wind Mountains.

At the very least this way, even if he didn't manage to complete the quest issued by the system, he should still get a chance to see the mysterious expert that was the one to set up the Windbloom Flower!

Whoosh~

At the same time Xuan Hao was going over his new quest, the bulky man with the axe who had gotten his hands on the Windbloom Flower was anxiously making his way towards the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

From a distance, a gentle almost transparent barrier covered his body. Protecting him from the terrifying wind that was ever-present inside the Thousand Wind Mountains.

"I should not be too far away from crossing the border between the inner and core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains… Hopefully this Windbloom Flower won't disappoint me…" Muttering this to himself as he tightly grasped on to the small flower in his hands, the man nervously looked at the transparent barrier surrounding him.

Even if he had heard about the Windbloom Flowers ability to protect someone from the terrifying winds of the Thousand Wind Mountains, he could not fully trust what he had heard. After all, it was well known that the winds in the deeper regions of the Thousand Wind Mountains had the ability to kill Domain Lord Realm Experts!

For him to believe that a small flower could protect him from the terrifying winds that could kill a Domain Lord Realm Expert… This was a little difficult for a Nascent Soul Realm Expert without any significant background like himself…

If not for the fact that he already knew that Domain Lords died fighting over the Windbloom Flower in the past and the fact that it was by far one of the most expensive spiritual herbs found in the Sky Empire, he would have never believed that the small flower currently in his grasp had the ability to protect him from something that could even kill a Domain Lord Realm Expert!

…

Travelling for a little under an hour at his fastest speed possible, the bulky man came to a stop as he fearfully gazed up at the massive mountains towering high above the clouds blocking out his vision.

WHOOOSH-!

"This should be the start of the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains…"

Even without the ear piercing sound of the wind, it was not hard for him to understand that what lay in front of him was the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains, a place where Domain Lord Realm Experts had perished and would spell certain death for anyone below that realm foolish enough to enter!

"If I'm not wrong… That place should be somewhere even deeper inside the Thousand Wind Mountains…"

Remembering his reason for coming to the Thousand Wind Mountains and risking his life in the first, the bulky man gently caressed a small simple looking pendant hanging around his neck before a determined expression appeared on his face.Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Swish-!

Not hesitating anymore, the bulky man stepped forward and officially entered the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains-

WHOOOOSH-!

Not even a second later, the sound of the wind outside became far louder than before. The almost transparent barrier protecting him also began violently shaking as if it was about to collapse at any moment. Even taking a single step forward also became a challenge as his speed rapidly reduced.

"…"

Not saying a single word as the almost transparent barrier around him began shaking violent like it was about to collapse, the bulky man only stopped for a short moment before continuing deeper into the Thousand Wind Mountains after discovering that the barrier created by the Windbloom Flower did not collapse or show any cracks.

…

"That is… A more dangerous place than I expected…" Watching this entire thing from afar, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he inspected the especially strong winds inside the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

Even with his current strength, resisting the wind would take some effort and his speed would be far slower compared to normal. Fighting in such an environment would be bad. Not to mention escaping from a fight would be close to impossible unless one used a movement technique related to spatial manipulation…!

The power of the winds alone was more than enough to kill an unprepared First Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert… But still far from enough from killing someone in the Third Stage of the Domain Lord Realm like the one that had recently died inside the Thousand Wind Mountains according to what Yi Min had told him…

Thinking about this as he carefully observed the howling winds in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help looking towards the deeper parts of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

Given that a Third Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert had ended up dying, he was certain that the winds would get even stronger deeper inside. The only thing that worried him, was that the barrier created by the Windbloom Flower looked like it was about to start breaking apart at any moment after having to protect the Second Stage Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the winds outside and the mastermind had yet to show up.

If things continued like this, the barrier created by the Windbloom Flower would most likely end up shattering when the strength of the winds increased a bit more. At that point in time, with the bulky man's strength, there was no way for him to survive inside the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains!

"At that point in time, the mastermind should appear to make sure that little one survives until he reaches his destination…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao could not help focusing his attention towards the almost transparent barrier protecting the bulky man from the wind outside.

Even if the mastermind was not going to show up in person to safe him when the barrier was about to break, Xuan Hao was not expecting something like that to happen before the bulky man reached the location he was searching for.

Instead, the main thing Xuan Hao was looking out for, was the trace of power and aura that the other party would inevitably end up revealing when secretly protecting the bulky man!

Even if the other party would only release a trace amount of power, it would be more than enough for Xuan Hao to determine the other party's strength as long as that person's realm was not too far beyond his own… And after merging together his sword and ice domain, he felt more than confident in being able to at the very least detect someone in the First Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm!

Whoosh~!

Seeing that the bulky man was already making his way past the first of the massive mountains inside the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains, Xuan Hao did not dare to wait around at the border for too long, as he used his domain to shield himself before entering the core region of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

As his dantian was already fully functional again at this point in time, this was not too difficult for the current Xuan Hao. At most, he was moving a bit slower compared to normal due to the strong winds.

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Continuing deeper inside the Thousand Wind Mountains, the environment shifted away from mountains covering ever place in sight and was instead replaced by a large plain filled with small hills where the strength of the wind once again increased.

Whoosh~!

Not hesitating for more than a few seconds when faced with the wind that was far stronger than before, the bulky man tightly clenched the Windbloom Flower in his hands before stepping foot onto the vast yet empty plain.

Crack~!

Not long after, the Windbloom Flower in his hands shook violently for a moment as the almost transparent barrier protecting him rapidly began cracking apart at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"This-?!" Not having any time to react to the barrier suddenly starting to crack apart around him, fear filled the eyes of the bulky man as gripped onto the Windbloom Flower even tighter than before while injecting his qi into it in hopes of helping strengthen the barrier around him.

Fwoosh~

Having closed his eyes not caring about his surroundings as he was using all his strength to try and help the Windbloom Flower resist the now far more terrifying winds all around him to no avail, the bulky man didn't notice a small string carefully approaching without being noticed before attaching itself to the Windbloom Flower.

BOOM-!

Not even a second after the string had connected itself to the Windbloom Flower, the flower seemed to suddenly have evolved, its strength reaching a brand new level as the almost transparent barrier protecting the bulky man quickly stabilized. Allowing the bulky man to stop pouring his qi into the flower.

"Did it evolve after I injected my qi into it!? This... It does seem like the connection has deepened and the power of the barrier is also far stronger compared to before... Looks like injecting my qi into it did indeed end up causing some qualitative change that allowed it to evolve!"

Not knowing what had suddenly happened for the Windbloom Flower to rapidly increase in strength after he injected his qi into it, the bulky man presumed that it was him injecting his qi into it that had ended up causing it to evolve and ultimately increase its strength enough to resist the wind outside.

The main reason why he thought that this was the case and not due to some external factor, was that his connection with the Windbloom Flower had deepened compared to before. Allowing him to not only use its power to protect himself more easily, but also allowing him to sense the different wind currents all around him.

In a sense, his connection to the Dao of Wind had deepened unknowingly and if he reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm in the future, he would not have any difficulty reaching the Domain Lord Realm with enough time!

...

"So powerful..." Different from the bulky man that didn't notice the thin thread filled with power connecting to the Windbloom Flower before disappearing, Xuan Hao saw everything as he sucked in a cold breath of air.

Even if it was just for an instant, he had managed to get a grasp over the power behind the small thread connecting to the Windbloom Flower... And he was sure that the person who had been secretly following behind the bulky man like him was someone above the Domain Lord Realm.

Not only was the quality of the qi that was infused into the Windbloom Flower through the thin thread of a completely different level compared to his own, but the small glimpse he had managed to catch of the other party's true strength was more than enough to confirm that the person in question had indeed surpassed the Domain Lord Realm!

"..."

Continuing to look towards the location that he had sensed the person in question should be hiding for the next few minutes, Xuan Hao remained silent without moving and using his divine sense in an attempt to get a better understanding of just how strong he or she was. Knowing very well that it would be best not to move before the bulky man recovered and began moving, while at the same time understanding that he would get found out the moment he used his divine sense to try and find out the strength of the other party...

As a total of fifteen minutes passed by slowly and the time limit of the quest given by the system also reduced to less than an hour, the bulky man seemed to have fully recovered as he once again stood up before continuing deeper inside the Thousand Wind Mountains. Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Whoosh~!

Different from the past however, the bulky man seemed to understand the different wind currents passing through the empty yet massive plain of the Thousand Wind Mountains. Allowing him to move far faster compared to the past by avoiding the more powerful wind currents that would end up slowing down his speed.

At the same time, Xuan Hao who was following behind the bulky man as he made his way deeper and deeper inside the Thousand Wind Mountains could not help frowning when feeling the winds outside colliding with his domain.

Even if it was still not anywhere near being able to pose a threat to him, the strength of the wind outside had already become comparable to the attack of a Fourth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert!

Under such conditions, even a stronger Seventh Stage Domain Lord Realm might end up dying!

After all, even if a Seventh Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert might have the ability to easily defend against someone in the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, the wind constantly crashing against his domain was like constant stream of attacks launched by someone in the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Even if the Seventh Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert could withstand it for a short period of time, there was no way to continuously enduring such a powerful and consistent stream of attacks!

If not for the fact that the strength of his domain had increased by an unfathomable degree after it had been formed by his sword and ice domain merging together, Xuan Hao would not have been able to ignore the wind outside like he was currently doing...

"Hm? Looks like there is finally something different in this place... Is this perhaps the place that the bulky man was searching for?"

Just at this moment, Xuan Hao discovered something different from the mountains and seemingly endless hilly plains of the Thousand Wind Mountains appearing in the distance on top of a small hill. In an instant, his entire body tensed up as he prepared himself-

Understanding very well that he might encounter a dangerous situation if the place the bulky man was moving towards was connected to the thing hidden inside the Thousand Wind Mountains from his quest.

...

"Finally, I reached this place...!" Coming to a stop in front of a small hill that looked the same as any of the other hills present on the large plains, the bulky man brimmed with joy as he looked towards the only identity on the small hill, a small, yet inconspicuous bird shaped statue no more than a dozen centimeters tall on top of the hill.

If not for the fact that he had a way to track down the location of the small bird statue, there would be no way for someone like himself to ever find it inside the large plains of the Thousand Wind Mountains. Especially considering the fact that he could not use his divine sense due to the strong winds ripping it apart the moment he tried to use it outside the barrier created by the Windbloom Flower.

"Now... All I have to do is offer some of my blood and use the secret technique from those ancient texts. After that, I should be able to open a path to the Thousand Wind Palace, the cultivation abode of an ancient cultivator!" Muttering this to himself as he gazed towards the statue of the small bird like creature on top of the hill, the bulky man was filled with excitement as he slowly began making his way up the hill. Soon finding himself directly in front of the small bird statue.

Ptsh~

Taking out his large axe, the bulky man did not show the slightest bit of hesitation as he cut a large opening in his arm, causing a large amount of blood to spill out and onto the small statue of the bird like creature.

"Next is the technique for opening the passage to the Thousand Wind Palace..."

Filled with determination as he saw the entire statue covered in his blood, the bulky man slowly began reciting some kind of ancient ritual in an ancient language that Xuan Hao watching from a distance had no way to understand.

At most he could tell that it was related to the ancient language he himself was still in the process of researching... Just... Older and far more complex...

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Following the bulky man reciting something in some kind of ancient language, the blood that had formed a small pool around the statue of the bird like creature slowly started absorbing the blood before a human sized portal opened up in the air just above the small statue of the bird like creature.

"The path leading to the Thousand Wind Palace is open!"

Listening to what the bulky man was muttering to himself while he absentmindedly stared at the portal that had opened up in front of him, Xuan Hao's entire body tensed up as he prepared for what was about to happen.

Given that a portal had already been opened up, Xuan Hao understood that there was no more value in the mastermind keeping the bulky man alive for any longer-

Crack~

Not even a second after this thought occurred to Xuan Hao, the almost transparent barrier protecting the bulky man started cracking apart at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Wha-!?"

Not expecting for the barrier that had been protecting him all this time to suddenly start cracking apart all of a sudden, the bulky man could not help panicking as he looked at the terrifying wind outside. Even without having touched the wind outside first hand, he understood very well that doing so with his current strength would instantly kill him…

At the end of the day, the only reason why he had been able to survive so deep inside the Thousand Wind Mountains was due to the protection of the Windbloom Flower, without it, he would undoubtably die!

Swish-!

Understanding this very well, the bulky man did not try and infuse his qi into the Windbloom Flower like last time in hopes of it evolving again and growing even stronger than before, but instead rushed towards the portal that he had just opened above the small statue of the bird like creature.

Even if it might end up costing him his life, he didn't hesitate in the slightest as he jumped towards the portal with all his strength-

"Hmph!"

Thump-!

However, just as he was about to pass through the portal, a loud contemptuous snicker echoed out from above as a terrifying aura descended towards the bulky man who was just about to enter through the portal. Forcibly pinning him to the ground before he could pass through the portal and escape.

"…"

Not able to make a single sound as he suddenly felt himself pinned to the ground, the bulky man could do nothing but watch as the almost transparent barrier protecting him grew weaker and weaker with each passing second. Not having any idea about who the person pinning him to the ground and making him unable to move wa.

However, different from the bulky man who could only stare blankly around himself as the barrier created by the Windbloom Flower was disappearing around him, Xuan Hao could clearly see the person who was supressing the bulky man and preventing him from escaping through the portal he had just opened.

From the first glance, Xuan Hao could not help sucking in a cold breath of air as he carefully examined the man who had appeared in the air a short distance away from the hill where the bulky man was helplessly pinned to the ground as the barrier around him was disappearing at an increasingly fast speed.

Even if he could not examine the other party's features due a blood red mist hiding most of the party's features, Xuan Hao could at the very least tell that the other person was a man from his body figure and tone of voice.

Well… He could always be wrong… But Xuan Hao highly doubted that the other party would go through such effort to disguise his gender. Especially considering that the other party still seemed to have no idea about his presence and only thought it was himself and the bulky man who was about to die…

Examining the man more closely without using his divine sense, Xuan Hao discovered that the strength of the other party was indeed above the Domain Lord Realm like he had guessed. Not only that, but Xuan Hao could clearly feel the qualitive difference in strength between himself and the man currently floating in the air above the bulky man.

Is this the Soul Ascension Realm? How strong is this person compared to other Soul Ascension Realm Experts? Is he at the earlier stages of the realm or the later stages of it…?

Thinking this to himself as he continued examining the man, Xuan Hao could not help feeling excited as he quietly waited without making any sudden movements that might end up alerting the other party.

Even if he was confident in being able to fight the other party with the help of his domain, Xuan Hao didn't want to risk it if he didn't have to… On the other hand, he was far more interested in finding out about what might be hidden on the other side of the portal that the bulky man had created.

Especially considering that it had caused an expert at the Soul Ascension Realm Expert work so hard to make sure that the portal was created in the first place.

Even without having to see the thing that was on the other side, Xuan Hao understood that it should be something incredibly precious. Maybe even something that would be able to help him when it came to breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm in the future!

CRACK-!

Not aware of Xuan Hao watching from the side and only able to barely move his eyes around to see the barrier protecting him about to fully crack apart, the bulky man barely managed to muster enough strength to turn his head towards the statue of the bird like creature by breaking his own neck in the process.

Although he had reached the Nascent Soul Realm and could heal from such an injurie as long as his nascent soul was still intact, the pain brought along by breaking his own neck was by no means something that a normal person could easily endure… Yet, the bulky man barely said a sound as gazed directly into the small eyes of the small statue.

Fwoosh-!

Before long a gentle blood red aura suddenly appeared around small statue of the bird like creature before it extended out and covered the body of the bulky man-

"HOW DARE YOU! DIE!"

Thinking that the bulky man was just trying to kill himself to end things quickly instead of getting torn apart by the winds outside, the man floating in the air above did not have any time to react when he realized that this was not the case-

Swish-!

And just before he managed to land an attack on where the bulky man had been laying, the gentle blood red aura engulfing the bulky man forcibly dragged his body into the small portal above the small statue.

BOOOOOM-!This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

In the end, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert could do nothing but watch as his attack landed on top of the small hill without meeting its target.

"Hm?"

However, different from his expectations of the hill getting obliterated by his attack, the small statue and the hill remained completely intact after the attack had landed-

WHOOOOSH-!

WHOOOOSH-!

WHOOOOSH-!

Not only that, but the winds all over the Thousand Wind Mountains started gathering towards the small hill with the statue on top of it before merging together to attack the Soul Ascension Realm Expert along with anything in the vicinity.

"…"

Being one of those things in the vicinity, Xuan Hao did not know whether to laugh or cry as he felt his domain being put under tremendous pressure from the winds that were gathering from all over the Thousand Wind Mountains.

Not even a few seconds had passed, but the pressure he was under was already about to break his domain!

If the winds from all over the Thousand Wind Mountains really ended up gathering together in a single location, let alone someone in the Domain Lord Realm. Even someone in the Soul Ascension Realm would get torn apart and killed on the spot!

"Ah-! WHY IS THE WIND OF THIS DAMNED PLACE GATHERING TOWARDS ME!?"

Just looking up at how the man who was the focus point of the wind all over the Thousand Wind Mountains was doing, was more than enough to understand this…

Swish-!

Not wanting to end up dead by standing around and waiting for all the wind of the Thousand Wind Mountains to truly gather together in one place, Xuan Hao decided to rush towards the human sized portal that was still present on top of the small hill with the statue of the bird like creature on top of it.

Even if he had no idea where it might lead him, he understood very well that his chances of leaving the Thousand Wind Mountains with all the winds gathering towards his current location, was close to impossible.

Especially considering the fact that the winds themselves had begun to affect the stability of the space inside the Thousand Wind Mountains. Making it far harder to use his movement technique to move around…

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Whoosh~!

Entering the portal without any trouble, Xuan Hao felt his vision go dark for a short moment before he found himself at the base of a large mountain that rivalled the height of the Main Peak from the Shattered Star Peaks.

Different from the Main Peak of the Shattered Star Peaks however, there was a beautiful path made from some kind of spiritual stone leading towards the top of the mountain. Even without having any cultivation base, it would not be hard for a mortal without any cultivation to reach the peak of the mountain given enough time. At least that was considering there was no dangers lurking that he had yet to discover at this point in time…

"Hm? He is still alive…"Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Noticing the bulky man laying on the ground not too far away from where he was, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a surprised that he was still alive.

Not to mention the fact that he should have been without the protection of the Windbloom Flower for a short moment when the gentle blood red light carried his body through the portal, the residual energy of the Soul Ascension Realm Expert from when he had pinned him to the ground just a moment ago should have killed him the moment the gentle blood red energy stopped protecting him.

"Looks like the blood red energy didn't just protect him for a short moment, but also removed the threat of the residual energy left behind by that Soul Ascension Realm Expert!" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao decided to leave the bulky man alone. Not wanting to accidently end up offending the gentle blood red energy like the Soul Ascension Realm Expert had ended up doing…

Having turned his attention away from the mountain and the bulky man who was lying unconscious on the ground, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face after realizing that the small independent space he had been transported to contained nothing other the mountain itself.

In a sense, it could not even be considered an independent space, but was more like an incomplete secret realm that had not been finished yet. The only thing that had been made so far, was the mountain that had likely been intended as the core of this incomplete secret realm.

Outside of the small space that the mountain was inside of, there was nothing other than the empty void. Even if his strength had increased since he had first seen the void outside the world, Xuan Hao didn't dare thinking about entering it with his current strength.

Even when constructing a secret realm also known as an independent space outside of the world, the space in question would still be anchored to the main world and could in a sense be considered an extension of that world!

To truly construct a completely new and independent world in the void was something far more difficult, as doing so would no longer allow one to rely on the protection of the main world.

Not only would the void grow more dangers the farther away from the main world one went, according to what little information Xuan Hao had managed to get his hands on so far about the void, but one would also have to deal with the inherent dangers that existed in the void between worlds.

Just what this danger was and what it entailed; Xuan Hao had no idea… But whatever it was, it was more than enough to cause even Soul Ascension Realm Experts to not dare venture into the void!

Thinking about it. Maybe even experts who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm didn't dare venture into the void either. Not to mention, actually entering the void itself was not something simple. Even with his current cultivation realm, Xuan Hao still had no way to enter the void between worlds outside of using the different secret realms and independent spaces he had encountered so far.

The main reason for this, was that to leave the main world and enter the void between worlds, his comprehension of the laws of space would have to be high enough for him to create a passage through the worlds natural barrier into the void outside.

Even if this sounded like something simple to do, it was actually something extremely complicated that only the most experienced Domain Lords could attempt with enough preparations.

Not to mention, the only reason why it was even possible to do this without getting attacked by the world itself, was due to several different things. The most important of which was the fact that the person creating the passage to the void was someone native to the world itself.

Given that Xuan Hao himself was in essence not a native of the world itself due to him having transmigrated over, he didn't even dare think of creating a passage to the void outside the world if he had the ability to do so.

Not to mention, the original Xuan Hao before the merger between two different souls might not have been from the world that the Ewaria Continent was located inside of in the first place…

No matter what it was, Xuan Hao did not plan to try and create a passage through the world barrier to the void outside himself. Not wanting to risk the laws of the world starting to attack him.

After all, even if he surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm in the future, he doubted that he would have any ability to resist the power of an entire world…

"Hah… No use thinking about any of this for now…" Shaking his head as he turned his attention back towards the mountain at the centre of the small independent space, Xuan Hao realized that the quest he had gotten from the system was completed.

[Side Quest: Find out what is hidden at the centre of the Thousand Wind Mountains. (Complete)]

[Reward: Records of a Thousand Winds.]

"So this place is located somewhere around the centre of the Thousand Wind Mountains…?" Muttering this to himself as he decided to redeem the reward from the quest, Xuan Hao was not too surprised when a large book materialized in front of him.

At this point in time, he had already gotten used to the system just materializing things in front of him whenever he redeemed a reward, as for how it was done… He had no idea…

Swish~

Deciding not to go up the mountain for now, Xuan Hao decided to open the book he had gotten from the system, curious about what the book was about.

"This is-!?"

Only turning the first page, Xuan Hao could not help feeling shocked as he realized that the first few pages were describing the history of the Thousand Wind Mountains!

Not only that, but there a short description of the creator of the Thousand Wind Mountains was also present!

Knowing that he might be able to find out more about what kind of dangers might be hidden on top of the mountain that was in front of him, Xuan Hao avidly began reading…

According to the Records of a Thousand Winds, the Thousand Wind Mountains was originally the cultivation abode of a wandering cultivator known as the Lord of a Thousand Winds, a cultivator that had passed through the Soul Ascension Realm and reached an even higher realm!

In the past, when this powerful wandering cultivator had begun establishing his abode just outside the main world, he accidently connected his still nascent independent space to an ancient mystic realm… The consequences of this were terrifying, as the two smaller worlds ended up forcibly colliding with each other!

In the end, the Lord of a Thousand Winds tried his best to stabilize the situation, but he had ended up miscalculating… The mystic realm he had accidently chanced upon was far larger and stronger than he could handle and when he tried to forcibly separate his still nascent independent space and the mystic realm, he ended up getting crushed between the two…!

After the death of the wandering cultivator, the still nascent independent space created by him had no way to resist the large mystic realm and ended up shattering apart with most of the nascent independent space merging together with the large mystic realm, while the rest either drifted off into the void or fell back into the main world to form the Thousand Wind Mountains.

At the end, the only thing that remained was the core of the Nascent independent space that had been protected by the Thousand Wind Palace.

All that remained of the once legendary wandering cultivator, Lord of a Thousand Winds, was the gentle wind currents sweeping through the Thousand Wind Mountains…

Not knowing what to say after he finished reading through it, Xuan Hao could not help wondering what the mystic realm being referred to had gone after the collision, while at the same time wondering just how strong the Lord of a Thousand Winds had been.

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Having spent a few minutes reading through the Records of a Thousand Winds and inspecting what little remained of the nascent independent space that the Lord of a Thousand Winds had created, Xuan Hao had ignored the bulky man who had just remained unconscious on the ground.

"Mhm~"

However, just at this moment, the bulky man began moving. Showing signs of waking up at any moment.

"Hm? Looks like he is about to wake up…"

Noticing this, Xuan Hao looked away from the Records of a Thousand Winds and focused his attention on the bulky man who was about to wake up for a short moment before focusing on the massive mountain at the core of the small independent space.

Swish~

Not wanting to wait around for the bulky man to wake up, Xuan Hao decided to make his way up the mountain to find out what was hidden on top of it.

Even if there was not anything precious on top of the mountain, Xuan Hao at the very least hoped that there would be a way out of the small independent space, as the portal he had originally entered through had already closed by itself at this point in time.

As for what had ended up happing to the Soul Ascension Realm Expert that was stuck outside, Xuan Hao had no idea and to be honest, he didn't plan to stay around for too long in case the Soul Ascension Realm Expert managed to find a way into the small independent space after escaping from the wind currents outside.

After all, even if the wind had the strength to kill someone in the Soul Ascension Realm, Xuan Hao doubted that the Soul Ascension Realm Expert would just wait around for this to happen. No matter what, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert would definitely try to escape if things got too dangerous!

Thump~

Throwing these thoughts to the back of his mind as he came to a stop just a short distance from the top of the mountain, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he looked up at the almost transparent mist that engulfed the entire peak of the mountain.

Although the mist was almost transparent and it should have been easy to see through. For some reason, there was some kind of power present in the mist that prevented him from looking through it. Even using his divine sense did not work, as the mist covering the peak of the mountain prevented it from entering.

Knowing that there was definitely something wrong with the mist that hid the peak of the mountain from view, Xuan Hao decided to slowly approach and see if he could examine the mist more closely. Not wanting to enter it before he was sure that it would not be dangerous to him.

Whoosh~

Approaching the mist, the sound of the wind could clearly be heard from the other side. However, different from the wind outside, it was obvious that the wind on top of the mountain was much calmer than the wind back in the Thousand Wind Mountains.

"It doesn't look like its harmful in any way…"

Turning his attention towards the mist that covered the mountain peak, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes. Even when standing directly in front of it, he could not see through… But he still managed to understand that the mist was not dangerous in any way and only seemed to be a natural formation of some sort that prevented someone from looking through it.

In a sense, the mist was an incredibly powerful formation when it came to hiding. After all, even Xuan Hao did not sense or see it before he was close to the Peak of the mountain.

At least the mist should be completely harmless…

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao looked towards the mist for a few seconds before taking a step forward into the mist.

…

"Wah-!"

Crawling out from a small hole in the ground beneath a large tree inside a massive jungle, Hui Ying was about to say something after getting out, when she suddenly tripped over one of the large tree's roots and began rolling down the small hill the tree sat on top of.

Thump!

"Ouch!"

Letting out a painful sound as she rolled into a rather large stone at the bottom of the small hill the tree was located on top of, Hui Ying was just about to start cursing at the tree when she suddenly seemed to remember where she currently was.

"So much for getting out without making a commotion…"

Crawling out from the hole in the ground beneath the tree, Bai Ning could not help shaking his head as he muttered this to himself while closely observing his surroundings for any demon beasts that might have been attracted to the sound Hui Ying had made.

"…"

Understanding what Bai Ning meant, Hui Ying could not help feeling a bit embarrassed before she also quietly began observing her surroundings for any demon beasts that might attack them.

Given that they had spent most of the time inside the jungle being chased by demon beasts, she understood very well how dangerous it was if there really was any demon beasts around to hear her little commotion earlier.

Even if it was only some weaker demon beasts in the Foundation Establishment Realm, their fight with them might end up attracting even stronger demon beasts. Maybe they would even end up attracting a Core Formation Realm demon beast if they were unlucky enough!

"Haaa… Looks like we got lucky that there weren't any demon beasts around…"

Spending the next few minutes just quietly watching their surroundings, both Hui Ying and Bai Ning let out a breath of relief after no demon beasts appeared to attack them.

Compared to their journey below the ground where the strongest demon beast they had to deal with was in the Qi Condensation Realm, the dangers above the ground was on a totally different level.

Just the slightest bit of carelessness and they might end up dead!

"Let's get going, its best to get moving as quickly as possible."NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

"Yes…"

Not wasting any time after they were sure that there weren't any demon beasts around, Bai Ning and Hui Ying began their journey towards the closest exit out of the jungle.

During their two-day long journey underground, they had ended up deciding to go towards the exit closest to them. Even if they ended up risking ending up in a more dangerous situation by passing through an exit that they had no idea about what was on the other side, they still felt that it would be a better choice than having to pass through the area with two Core Formation Realm demon beasts roaming through it.

After all, if they encountered the two Core Formation Realm demon beasts again, they might not get lucky enough to escape again!

Not to mention this, Bai Ning and Hui Ying were also afraid of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast that they had encountered when they first entered the underground part of the jungle through the small secret hideout.

Thinking about it, the main thing they were afraid of encountering was not really the Core Formation Realm demon beasts, they still felt confident in escaping as long as they could get close enough to the place they had entered the jungle through… The Nascent Soul Realm demon beast on the other hand, that was something both of them feared deeply!

Even if the place should not be too close to the path leading back towards the place, they had originally entered the jungle through, both of them understood very well how large of an area the divine sense of a Nascent Soul Realm Expert could cover… Just getting within a few thousand meters of the demon beast in the Nascent Soul Realm would be more than enough for it to lock on to them.

Given the difference in strength between the Foundation Establishment Realm and the Nascent Soul Realm, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying understood that the moment the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast locked on to them, they would be dead.

Considering they had already met several elders from the sect that had reached the Nascent Soul Realm and in Bai Ning's case, he had even fought with Chu Yang who had reached the Nascent Soul Realm.

No matter what they did, there would be no way for them to escape a Nascent Soul Realm demon beast, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying understood this deep down…

"This is-!?"

"N-Nascent Soul Realm…!?"

For this reason, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying could not help freezing on the spot when they suddenly came face to face with two demon beasts in the Nascent Soul Realm facing off against each other only a short distance away from the place they had left the underground part of the jungle.

The only positive about their current dangerous situation, was that the two powerful demon beasts did not seem to care about them and were instead fully focused on each other…

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Roar!

Not daring to make the slightest movement as they watched one of the two Nascent Soul Realm demon beast roaring threateningly towards the other, Bai Ning and Hui Ying both turned to look at each other for a short movement before slowly starting to back away from the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts and moving towards the entrances to the underground part of the jungle they had just come from.

Given that both of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast were busy with each other at the moment, they hoped that they would be ignored and could sneak away before they decided to either start fighting with each other or worse, attack them.

ROAR

Causing both Hui Ying and Bai Ning to freeze on the spot once again, the demon beast that had roared earlier let out an even more terrifying roar. The difference being this time around-

Swish-!

It didn't wait for a response and directly attacked!

Boom-!

What followed was a loud explosive sound followed by a shockwave that knocked down both Bai Ning and Hui Ying who were standing not too far away from where the two Nascent Soul Realm Demon Beasts had clashed with each other.

"We need to get out of here!"

Understanding very well how dangerous it was for them to be nearby while two Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts were fighting each other, Bai Ning got up before quickly pulling Hui Ying who was still on the ground with him.

Wasting even a single second at this point in time would put their life at risk, Hui Ying also understood this, as she let Bai Ning pull her towards the entrance to the underground part of the jungle that they had just come out of a few minutes earlier.

Swish-!

Luckily for both of them, the entrance to the underground part of the jungle was not too far away and they managed to reach it only a few minutes after they escaped from the place where the two Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts were fighting with each other.

"You should enter first, I will- Waaaah-!"

Crack~

Seeing Hui Ying slow down as she stopped in front of the hole to say something, Bai Ning ignored what she said and pushed her into the hole leading down into the underground part of the jungle. Not having the time to care about the few tree roots that she ended up breaking on the way down.

Bang!

"Time for me to enter…"

Hearing the sound of Hui Ying hitting the ground, Bai Ning quickly jumped into the small hole without any hesitation-

BOOOOM-!

And not a second too late, as a massive explosion rang out from above them. Not only that, but both Bai Ning and Hui Ying could clearly feel everything shaking, as the cave the small cave that they were currently inside of started to show signs of collapsing.

""…""

Not having to say anything, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying got up and made their way out of the small cave.

RUMBLE-!

Just in time, as another powerful shockwave from the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts fighting reached the small hill that the cave was connected to. Instantly causing the small cave to collapse.

"This is… Looks like we will have to look for another way up to the surface…"

"Well… At least we are safe…"

Not knowing what to say as their way up to the surface got blocked, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying decided to move a bit farther away before looking of the map from the large tower… Or book tower, as they had decided to name it.

"Haaa… Looks like the closest way out is at least three days of walk away and the way out of the jungle we will have to use will also be different, but we don't have another choice at this point in time…"

"Indeed, we are about to run out of food and won't be able to reach any of the other exits in time and… Eating the fruits or other things growing inside this jungle without knowing what is edible and what is poisonous, is a bad idea."

As both of them looked down at the map Bai Ning had taken out from his interspatial ring together, they understood that they would not be leaving the jungle any time soon. Especially considering that even after they reached the closest exit out of the underground cave network below the jungle, they still had four days of travel through the jungle ahead of them.

Considering what they had encountered so far every time they tried moving around inside the jungle, neither Bai Ning nor Hui Ying were looking forward to spending four days walking through the jungle.

Together with the fact that they were also running out of food and wouldn't be able to turn back again and head towards another exit out of the jungle in case their path forward was blocked, like what had happened just a few minutes earlier with the two Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts, both Bai Ning and Hui Ying were even more nervous about their upcoming four day journey through the jungle above ground!

"We should get going…"

"Yeah…"

Not wanting to waste any time knowing that their food supply was dwindling, Bai Ning and Hui Ying both began their journey towards the closest way out of the underground tunnel network below the jungle.

…

"How amazing…"

Back at the mountain inside the small independent space, Xuan Hao stepped through the mist and was met by the sight of a massive palace covering the entire peak of the mountain. The mist that was now behind him seemed to have formed a large dome shaped barrier around the entire mountain peak. Not only helping obscure the palace from view, but also giving it a magical backdrop.

"This should be the abode of the wandering cultivator who created this place…" Muttering this to himself as he looked up at the massive palace in awe, Xuan Hao could not help getting cautious after seeing the completely intact palace.

Given that the history of the Thousand Wind Mountains dated back hundreds of thousands of years, it was obvious that the palace in front of him should have long been broken down by the passage of time-

"Hm?"

Swish~

Just at this moment, Xuan Hao noticed something off the corner of his eye as he quickly flew over to a small lamppost on the path leading up to the palace on top of the mountain peak.

Swoosh~

"This is… Mist?!"

Trying to touch the lamppost, Xuan Hao could not help exclaiming in surprise as his hand passed right through it, causing part of the lamppost to turn into mist before quickly reforming seconds later.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

"So, everything here is made up from the mist?"

Looking back up towards the majestic palace in the distance, Xuan Hao realized why the palace had managed to stay in a pristine condition over such a long passage of time.

But at the same time, Xuan Hao also grew curious as to what had caused the mist in this place to form such a real looking palace.

If not for the fact that he was someone in the Domain Lord Realm and was currently using both his domain and his divine sense to observe his surroundings, it would have been impossible to detect that his surroundings was made up from some kind of special mist and he might have continued thinking that it was a real palace in front of him!

"This kind of formation or technique is simply too terrifying, I guess I'm lucky that this is not some sort of killing formation…"

Shaking his head as he grew even more curious about the Lord of a Thousand Winds who had made this place in the past, Xuan Hao began making his way towards the palace.

Even if he already knew that the entire palace and everything inside of it should be made from the special mist, he still wanted to see if he could find something inside of it that hadn't disappeared after the long passage of time.

At the same time, he also wanted to find out more about the strange mist that made up this place. After all, even if he could only scratch the surface of it, he still understood that the mist should be related to a combination of the Dao of Wind and the Dao of Water!

For Xuan Hao, this was the first time ever that he had encountered a technique of formation that combined two different Daos together to form something.

Not to mention, the profound usage of the Dao of Water in the mist itself, was more than enough reason for Xuan Hao to enter the palace and explore more and see if he could use it to deepen his understanding of the Dao of Ice… Or even better, comprehend the Dao of Water directly!

As different thoughts passed through his head, Xuan Hao soon found himself directly in front of the massive palace of mist.

A few large engravings on top of the gate leading inside spelling out…

[Thousand Wind Palace]

Looking up at the large engravings above the gate leading into the large palace of mist called the Thousand Wind Palace, Xuan Hao could not help sucking in a breath of cold air as he felt a shiver run down his spine.

Even if the engravings above the gate were only made out of mist and should be nowhere near the original engravings when the Thousand Wind Palace had still been around, the remnant intent from the original engravings had carried over and had attached to the new engravings.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

From the remnant intent alone, Xuan Hao could clearly feel how powerful the creator of the Thousand Wind Palace had been when he was still alive!

Compared to the Soul Ascension Realm Expert he had encountered outside… The creator of the Thousand Wind Palace was on a completely different level!

Looking over the engravings for a few more seconds, Xuan Hao stepped forward and entered the Thousand Wind Palace.

Whoosh~

Given that the entire place was made of mist, it was not too surprising that it was rather easy to enter the Thousand Wind Palace. At most he had to use his domain to forcefully scatter the mist around him for a short moment as he passed through the gate. Nothing difficult with his current strength.

However, the same could not be said for anyone below the Domain Lord Realm, as it would be quite difficult to pass through the mist that made up the Thousand Wind Palace.

The Main reason for this being that the mist that made up the Thousand Wind Palace had been strengthened by the remanent intent of its creator. Making it far more difficult for someone to scatter the mist and make their way inside the Thousand Wind Palace.

"Well… I guess that Nascent Soul Realm Expert will end up rather disappointed after he reaches this place…" Muttering this to himself as he shook his head with a hint of pity towards the unfortunate Nascent Soul Realm Expert at the base of the mountain, who had ended up getting used by the Soul Ascension Realm Expert, Xuan Hao soon began examining the interior of the Thousand Wind Palace for any possible threats.

Different from any palace he had been to before, there were no decorations anywhere in sight. Likely due to the mist only having taken up the shape of the palace itself. Not the different decorations that had been inside it.

Together with how much time had passed, the entire palace interior ended up completely empty. Devoid of anything other than the few art pieces that were carved into the palace itself.

As for threats… There weren't really any that Xuan Hao could feel. In the end, it looked like the Thousand Wind Palace was just a large empty palace without anything of interest inside of it…

Whoosh-!

Feeling that there shouldn't be any powerful ancient demon beast or something dangerous lurking around inside the palace Xuan Hao spread out his divine sense to cover the entirety of the Thousand Wind Palace's interior.

The main thing that he was looking for, was something not made of mist and most importantly, the core of the natural mist formation!

"I found it."

Feeling his lips curling up slightly as saw a small ball of condensed mist at the centre of what he assumed to be the throne room of the Thousand Wind Palace, Xuan Hao took a step forward and disappeared from his original position before arriving directly in front of the small ball of condensed mist inside the throne room of the Thousand Wind Palace.

"Ah!?"

About to reach forward to grab the ball of condensed mist that acted as the core of the mist formation the engulfed the entire peak of the mountain, Xuan hao abruptly stopped himself as a terrified expression appeared on his face.

What is with this thing? When I reached forward to grab it for a closer inspection earlier, I clearly felt like I would die the moment I did so… Is this perhaps a warning left behind by the Lord of a Thousand Winds before his untimely demise?

Not knowing what to do as he thought this to himself, Xuan Hao decided to not touch the ball of condensed mist at the centre of the throne room.

In any case, he was not about to test his luck and see if the Lord of a Thousand Winds still had some safety measures in place on the ball of condensed mist.

Even if hundreds of thousands of years had passed since his death, the Lord of a Thousand Winds was an expert that had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm!

No matter how confident Xuan Hao was in surviving against a Soul Ascension Realm Expert after he had merged his ice and sword domain together, the same could not be said about an expert that had already surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm.

For such a powerful cultivator, a single attack would be more than enough to kill him…

After carefully determining that it was not worth risking his life for a random ball of condensed mist that he didn't understand, Xuan Hao quickly left the throne room before appearing inside a different room of the Thousand Wind Palace.

During his earlier scan of the Thousand Wind Palace's interior, the condensed ball of mist inside the throne room was not the only thing that managed to catch his attention… But there was also something different located in the deepest part of the Thousand Wind palace that caught his attention.

Standing in front of it, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit excited, while at the same time hoping deep down that he would not end up encountering the same feeling of death he had when he was about to pick up the condensed ball of mist inside the throne room…

"A book…"

To be precise, it was a book that was not made from mist… Meaning, that the book in front of him had managed to survive for over a hundred thousand years without decaying!

Over such a long period of time. Even jade slips, the best way Xuan Hao knew about when it came to storing information for in a long period of time, would have become unreadable without proper maintenance.

Yet… The book in front of him looked as good as new. Almost like it had been written just a few days earlier!

Whoosh~

Picking up the book without feeling any threat to his life, Xuan Hao could not help feeling even more excited as he slowly opened the book.

"Of course… Its written in that ancient language…"

Feeling like a bucket of ice water had been thrown on him, Xuan Hao felt all his excitement from earlier disappear as he skimmed through the book with far less enthusiasm than before.

Whoosh-!

However, upon turning the final page of the book, Xuan Hao suddenly felt himself losing consciousness for a brief moment before waking up again.

The fact that he had been knocked unconscious meant that his soul had been affected!

Feeling a wave of fear wash over him as he woke up again, Xuan Hao understood very well how strong his opponent was to be able to knock him unconscious-

"This… Where am I…?"

But the moment Xuan Hao looked around himself to find out what had happened, he discovered that he was no longer inside the Thousand Wind Palace. Instead, he found himself floating in the air above what could only be described as a massive battlefield that stretched as far as he could see!

Boom-boom-boom!

"This is-

Listening to the constant fighting going on below him, Xuan Hao tried to look closer at the people fighting. Discovering that not only was he far higher up in the sky than he had even ventured before due to his strength not being able to withstand the chaotic qi at his current height, but all the people fighting below had at least reached the Domain Lord Realm!

Among them, there was also no small number of Soul Ascension Realm Experts that brought devastation that he had never imagined before. In front of these Soul Ascension Realm Experts, the one he had seen in the Thousand Wind Mountains was nothing more than a candle being compared to the power of the sun.

Even among the Domain Lord Realm Experts fighting, Xuan Hao could clearly see several powerful ones that were not the slightest bit weaker than himself and there were also a few that were stronger than him!

Outside of this, there were also a few people far stronger than the Soul Ascension Realm Experts... But the most shocking thing was not the Experts that had likely surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm or the many Soul Ascension Realm Experts present. Instead, it was what they were fighting!

"Aren't these… The same creatures I encountered back in the enlightenment space of the Dao of Corruption?"

Although the creatures on the ground looked different and were far bigger and more powerful compared to the ones he had seen, Xuan Hao was still certain that they should be the same as the ones he had seen during his time in the enlightenment space!

Their grotesques and warped appearance was not really something easy to replicate…

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Now that I think about it, what happened to me and how did I appear here all of a sudden? Did the book perhaps have some sort of ancient teleportation formation inside of it that activated the moment I was knocked unconscious?

Observing everything that was happening below him, Xuan Hao could not help thinking about how he had ended up in his current situation.

"Hm? What happened to my body!?"

Beginning to observe his body due to this thought appearing, Xuan Hao was shocked to discover that his entire body had almost become completely transparent. Even when he tried his best, he was only barely able to make out the shape of his body-

Whoosh~

But when trying to touch his arm, he ended up passing right through it!

Ah... Perhaps I did not get teleported anywhere by the book and is instead experiencing the events written down in the book?

As this thought appeared, Xuan Hao felt that his current situation made a bit more sense. At the very least it would explain how he was able to survive at his current height and the fact that no one on the battlefield below had spotted him yet.

After all, even if the Domain Lord Realm Experts might not be able to spot him given how far up into the sky he was, they were the weakest among the people fighting below... And Xuan Hao highly doubted that the experts who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm would not be able to sense his presence...

"I just when this battle happened... Given the age of the Thousand Wind Palace and the fact that the book has just stayed there for the past hundreds of thousands of years, this battle might have taken place even longer ago!"

Not feeling anymore fear from the terrifying battle taking place below him after determining that everything around him should just be a scene of the past that the ancient book he had found inside the Thousand Wind Palace was showing him, Xuan Hao began observing everything around him with a far more curious and excited expression on his face.

Not only was this a great opportunity for him to observe how strong Soul Ascension Realm Experts and those above the Soul Ascension Realm were, but it was also a good opportunity for him to examine the different Domain Lord Realm Experts below and learn from them.

As long as he had enough time, Xuan Hao was certain that he would be able to figure out how to increase the strengthen his domain even further, while at the same time getting a better understanding of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Having turned his full attention towards the battle taking place below between cultivators belonging to all sorts of different races, Xuan Hao noticed that there seemed to be three different major powers fighting on the massive battlefield below.

One belonged to the grotesque creatures he had seen during his time comprehending the Dao of Corruption in the enlightenment space.

Another belonged to an alliance of several large powers from different races that had allied together.

"Hm? This is... Interesting..."

Looking over two largest of the three major powers on the battlefield below, Xuan Hao seemed to notice something when turning his attention towards the third and smallest faction fighting on the battlefield below... They were clearly being targeted by the other two major powers!

At first, Xuan Hao had thought that all the different races below had united together to fight off against the creatures created by the Dao of Corruption... But upon closer inspection, the creatures of the Dao of Corruption were working together with the large number of powers from different races to supress the third major power!

However, even when being outnumbered, the third major power held on!

The main reason for this was quite easy to figure out, they had far more experts who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm. Only when the creatures from the Dao of Corruption and the alliance of the large powers from the different races combined could they barely supress them-

BOOOOOOM-!

"Hm?"

Just at this moment, a massive explosion could be heard below him as something rapidly flew into the air towards his current location and before he had any time to react, a man covered in blood standing close to four meters tall, stopped mid-air only a dozen meters away from where he was.

This... Is an expert that has surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm...?

Observing the tall and majestic looking man covered in blood, Xuan Hao could not help shivering as he clearly felt the soul tearing killing intent shaking the very space around him-

Crack-!

Not having any time to observe the tall and majestic looking man any further, the space a few hundred meters away was torn open before a handsome man with green hair and pointy ears stepped out from the crack in space.

Even without knowing who the other party was, it was easy to determine that he was an enemy of the tall man from the sinister smile plastered all over his face when looking towards the tall man.

"You escape very quickly, or did I hit you a little too hard earlier? No matter, after this battle, there will be no place in the divine realm for you and your sect!"

Hearing the pointy eared man speaking, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a wave of excitement rushing over him.

He understood what the other party was saying!

Even if it was spoken in some sort of ancient language, he could very clearly understand what the pointy eared man was saying!

Is it the book? Did it help me understand the ancient language? Anyways, this is a great thing. Maybe I will be able to get an idea about what happened here... Now, all I need is for them to not fight and instead continue talking!

Filled with excitement from the little information he had already gotten from the pointy eared man just now, Xuan Hao curiously turned towards the tall man. Hoping that he would continue the conversation so he could get more information.

"Hmph!"

"..."

However, to Xuan Hao's disappointment, the tall man did not say a word. Instead just continuing to look towards pointy ears filled with killing intent. If not for the fact that he was gravely wounded, Xuan Hao was almost certain that he would have already jumped forward to kill pointy ears the moment he appeared...

"Hehe, as silent as always, I would have loved for us to chat for a bit longer about the past, but I still have to get back and deal with your companions..."The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

Chuckling to himself as he shook his head while saying this, pointy ears directly attacked-

RUMBLE~!

Before Xuan Hao had any time to comprehend what was happening, the space around himself and the tall man shattered as a terrifying aura engulfed the entire area.

Ptsh!

Not a second later the space rapidly healed up. Allowing Xuan Hao to see the fight taking place between the tall man and the pointy eared man.

At this point in time, the pointy eared one had a triumphant smirk on his face as a countless number of large lush vines with all kinds of exotic flowers blooming on them snaked their way around the bloodied tall man.

Crack~!'

Even from a distance, Xuan Hao could clearly hear as the tall man's bones were broken by the vines, while all kinds of exotic poisons from the flowers on the vines themselves were weakening him even further by attacking his soul.

Everything had happened far too quickly for Xuan Hao to even grasp what had just happened and he could only watch with amazement as the vines slowly squeezed the life out of the tall man, while the poisonous flowers were doing their best to destroy his soul.

"Hehe, bye bye old friend, I waited a long time to get a chance to do thi-"

SCREEEEEEECH-!

However just as the pointed eared man was about to end the life of the tall man, a loud screeching sound belonging to some kind of bird like creature echoing out across the entire battlefield. Instantly causing him to freeze on the spot as a look of horror appeared on his face before turning to look in the direction of the screeching sound.

Looking at the battlefield below, Xuan Hao realized that almost everyone had stopped fighting as they were also similarly looking towards the origin of the voice filled with fear.

Among the people below, the only ones that didn't stop fighting were the creatures from the Dao of Corruption that had already surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm and the people they were fighting.

From this, it was obvious that the screech just now seemed to have suppressed everyone that had yet to surpass the Soul Ascension Realm!

"Haha! Her excellency is back!"

Different from the fearful reaction of the pointy eared man, the tall man was filled with happiness as he exclaimed loudly.

"How... How is this possible!? My master and the rest clearly went to fight her... How did she return!?"

"Haha, of course those old ghosts are no match for the sect master. Even if you get the help of that thing from the abyss!"

"You...!"

Listening to the two experts talking, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about who the person they were talking about was as he similarly looked into the distance filled with anticipation.

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RUUUUUUMBLE-!

Looking towards the same direction as the two powerful cultivators floating only a short distance away from him, Xuan Hao didn't manage to see anything before a loud rumbling sound echoed out across the entire battlefield. Instantly causing everyone who were looking into the distance filled with both fear and excitement to observe the ground beneath them with surprised expressions on their faces.

"This…"

"Wha-What in the world is this!?"

Similarly shocked like the people on the ground below, the two people floating in the air not too far away from Xuan Hao were also looking down towards the ground to examine what was happening.NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Floating in the air still in his almost transparent state, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about what had suddenly caused these to experts to act in such a panicked state as he similarly began looking towards the ground below.

RUMBLE-!

At this point in time, the ground had started shaking even more violently than before, as massive cracks had formed leading down into the depths of the world. Even from his current height, Xuan Hao could clearly see the blinding light that came from the bottom of the cracks in the ground!

"This is… The core of the Divine Realm! But what are those ice crystals forming all over the core…?"

"Hm? Those ice crystals you mentioned, I think someone is trying to-"

CRAAAACK-!

Before the pointy eared man had any time to respond to the doubts of the tall man, a loud cracking sound echoed out across the battlefield. Followed by a massive crack going across the entire battlefield opening up. Swallowing a large number of unsuspecting cultivators on the surface above, as they suddenly found themselves being pulled towards the blinding light at the bottom against their will.

BOOOOOOOOM-!

Not a second later, the blinding light that the tall man had referred to as the core of the Divine Realm erupted violently with a power far above anything Xuan Hao had ever seen before.

The Domain Lord Realm Experts, the Soul Ascension Realm Experts and even the experts who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm. All of them were erased from existence the moment they came in contact with the power erupting from the deepest parts of the world.

Even the two powerful experts floating next to him were directly reduced to dust before completely disappearing. Leaving only Xuan Hao behind to watch as the powerful experts beneath him disappeared.

"…"

Everything had happened in an instant. Killing everyone present on the battlefield below. Even those above the Soul Ascension Realm had no way to escape!

FWOOOSH-!

As the only one left, Xuan Hao could only watch, as the core of the divine realm below the surface was slowly engulfed in ice before being covered up.

CRAAACK-!

Following the crack being covered up, the two large masses of land that were torn apart slowly started getting pulled apart.

During this, Xuan Hao slowly felt his vision get darker as he felt his spiritual body getting dimmer and dimmer.

"So… I'm about to get pulled back into my own body…"

Understanding what was happening the moment he felt the spiritual body he was inside of disappearing, Xuan Hao decided watch as the large masses of land were getting pulled further and further away.

Whoosh~!

During his last moment before everything went dark and he lost consciousness again, Xuan Hao barely managed to see an ancient painting of a large continent filled with ice surrounded by an endless ocean in all directions appearing in front of him.

…

"What was the last thing I saw before losing consciousness…?"

Opening both of his eyes Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he remembered the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness.

Whoosh~

"Ah! Here it is!"

Skimming through the ancient book again, Xuan Hao found a small drawing of the ancient painting he had seen before losing his consciousness on the last page of the book.

Even if he could not see the ancient painting clearly on the small drawing on the last painting, Xuan Hao was clear that it was the same as the one he had seen before he lost his consciousness.

"Hm? The book…!"

Just at this moment, Xuan Hao was shocked to discover as the ancient book was covered in a layer of gentle golden light before getting dissolved into small motes of golden light that soon disappeared from existence.

Like this, without leaving a single trace behind, the ancient book that had taken him to see a scene from the ancient past… Had completely disappeared!

"Guess whatever power kept the book intact was used up when allowing me to see the scene from earlier…" Muttering this to himself as he shook his head, Xuan Hao understood that there was nothing he could do.

Whoosh~!

Extending his divine sense out again to cover the interior of the Thousand Wind Palace, Xuan Hao saw that nothing had changed from before he had lost consciousness. Even the ball of mist located at the centre of the throne room had not changed in the slightest from when he last saw it.

"…"

To be honest, part of Xuan Hao was expecting for the ball of mist in the throne room to be missing after he regained consciousness and returned to his own body again… But then again, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert that had come to the small independent space with him, was far too weak to enter the Thousand Wind Palace.

Even if he tried his best, he would never be able to enter the Thousand Wind Palace unless he reached the Domain Lord Realm-

WHOOOSH-!

Interrupting Xuan Hao's train of thought, a loud sound of the wind could be heard all across the Thousand Wind Palace as the large gates made of mist scattered in all directions.

"Haha! It really worked! I managed to enter!"

"…"

Hearing the laughter belonging to none other than the Nascent Soul Realm Expert that he had just stated had no way inside the Thousand Wind Palace echoing out across the empty interior of the palace, Xuan Hao could not help frowning.

For some reason, he could not help feeling like the small Nascent Soul Realm Expert had just slapped him in the face…

"I should see how that person managed to get inside with his current strength!"

Whoosh~

Shaking his head after calming down again, Xuan Hao quietly moved towards the Nascent Soul Realm Expert. Wanting to find out just how he had managed to enter the Thousand Wind Palace with his current strength.

…

"This place… Where is this?"

A short time earlier during the time Xuan Hao had lost consciousness and was sent to see a battle belonging to the long forgotten ancient past, the bulky looking Nascent Soul Realm Expert who had opened the portal leading to the independent space slowly woke up as he cautiously began looking around himself for any danger.

Even if it had been only for a short time, he clearly remember how he had been supressed and knocked to the ground by some powerful cultivator after opening the portal.

"That's right… I used the ancient sacrificial technique before losing consciousness. Haha! From the looks of it, I managed to successfully use it and enter the portal before getting killed! I'm sure that person from earlier is still stuck outside trying his best to survive!"

Erupting in laughter as he realized he had actually managed to escape alive from an opponent that far surpassed anything he had ever encountered before, the bulky man was filled with happiness as he just laid on the ground for the next few minutes to recover enough strength to actually get up and move.

After all, the sacrificial technique he had used did not come without cost…

Not only did he lose a large part of his lifespan, but all strength in his body had disappeared. Even his cultivation realm had regressed from the Second Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm to the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!

But even then, the bulky man was not the slightest bit depressed over just how much he had lost. Instead he looked up towards the peak of the mountain that was in front of him filled with confidence and desire.

"The Core of the Thousand Wind Mountains… According to what I read in the ruins back then, the inheritance of an expert surpassing the Soul Ascension Realm can be found atop the mountain at the core of the Thousand Wind Mountains!"

Almost whispering this to himself as he went over the things he had learnt when exploring some ancient ruins that had ultimately led him to his current situation, the bulky man could not help feeling even more excited as he gazed up towards the peak of the mountain.

The inheritance of an expert that had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm!

No matter what, the bulky man understood just how precious an inheritance like that was. Especially considering that he had only ever heard about Soul Ascension Realm Experts before, but had never heard about anyone who was above the Soul Ascension Realm!

"I should get going!"

Whoosh~!

Having recovered part of his strength, the bulky man got up from the ground before starting his journey up the tall mountain stretching far above the clouds!

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Having reached the peak of the mountain and passed through the wall of mist covering the Thousand Wind Palace, the bulky man in the Nascent Soul Realm helplessly stared at the large palace gates.

Even after spending close to five minutes trying to enter the Thousand Wind Palace, he could not find a way inside the Thousand Wind Palace.

As for trying to enter through a window or another way, this did not work either, as the small gaps and windows leading into the Thousand Wind Palace were all covered up with mist…

"How… How do I get inside- Wait! Maybe I missed something from the ancient texts I found in those ruins!" Muttering this to himself, the bulky man quickly took out a stack of ancient papers from a small interspatial ring on his left hand.

Swish~

Not a second later, the sound of paper being turned could be heard as the bulky man rapidly skimmed through the ancient papers on the ground with his divine sense. Looking for anything important that could point to a way inside the Thousand Wind Palace that he might have missed when first reading through them.

"Ah! This is it!"

Whoosh~!

Having found something among the ancient paper, the bulky man quickly put away everything before dashing towards a small inconspicuous lamppost lined up alongside the path leading to the castle gate.

Ding~!

Knocking on the lamppost that caused a small ringing sound to echo out, the bulky man's face lit up before he used his qi to form a small wave like symbol that merged together with the inconspicuous lamppost.

Fwoosh!

Reacting to the small symbol, a chain reaction seemed to take place as all the lamppost lined up along the path leading to the palace gate lit up simultaneously.

Followed by this, a terrifying wind similar to the wind he had encounter just outside the gate leading to the core of the Thousand Wind Mountains, began circulating throughout the mountain peak.

Whoosh-!

As the wind was simply far too powerful for the mist to resist, the wall of mist around the Thousand Wind Palace was almost instantly blown away by this wind. The only thing made of mist on top of the mountain peak that managed to remain intact under the influence of this powerful wind was the Thousand Wind Palace and the lampposts leading up to it.

"This… Is far more powerful than I imagined!"

Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he could clearly feel the terrifying wind barely not hitting him, the bulky man could not help feeling happy when he watched the wind slowly gathering together before heading towards the gate of the Thousand Wind Palace with all its might.

WHOOOSH-!

"Haha! It really worked! I managed to enter!"

Watching as the wind blew apart the gate made of mist before disappearing, the bulky man could not help laughing out happily before entering the Thousand Wind Palace filled with excitement.

Given what he had read about the Thousand Wind Palace, the bulky man already knew that there wouldn't be anything inside the palace itself outside of the inheritance mentioned to be located at the core of the palace.

For this reason, he was not the slightest bit surprised when seeing the empty interior of the palace and instead just ignored it as he excitedly made his way deeper inside the Thousand Wind Palace.

"The throne room… The inheritance should be in here according to the ancient texts…"

Arriving in front of the throne room only a short time after entering the Thousand Wind Palace, the bulky man still filled with excitement, entered the throne room of the Thousand Wind Palace with no hesitation.

"The inheritance!"

Seeing the ball of mist floating at the centre of the throne room, the bulky man became even more exited as he rushed towards the ball of mist.

…

Having watched the bulky Nascent Soul Realm cultivator from the moment he had stepped foot inside the Thousand Mist Palace, Xuan Hao could not help showing a confused expression on his face after hearing him talking to himself about the ball of mist being some kind of inheritance that had been left behind by the creator of the Thousand Wind Palace.

"Inheritance…? The ball of mist is the inheritance of the Lord of a Thousand Winds!?"

Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao could not help curiously looking towards the bulky Nascent Soul Realm Expert as he rushed towards the ball of mist located at the centre of the throne room.

Even if he felt certain that the ball of mist should be a natural formation core that kept the Thousand Wind Palace and the mist wall outside to manifest, he could never be truly certain about this as he had never examined the ball of condensed mist due to the terrifying feeling he had gotten the moment he tried grabbing it just a few minutes earlier.

"Well… Even it doesn't matter if it's an inheritance or not. At least this way, I will be able to see what will happen when someone grabs on to the ball of condensed mist…"

Not moving to stop the bulky Nascent Soul Realm Expert from grabbing the condensed ball of mist, Xuan Hao decided to watch and see what would happen.

In the first place, he didn't really think that there would be any way for the bulky Nascent Soul Realm Expert to escape from him. Especially considering that he still didn't know about his presence and thought that he was alone inside the Thousand Wind Palace!

…

"Haha, with this, I will surely be able to reach the Domain Lord Realm- No, The Soul Ascension Realm!"

Not aware of the fact that he was being watched by Xuan Hao, the bulky Nascent Soul Realm Expert reached towards the condensed ball of mist filled with excitement when thinking about how powerful he would get after receiving the inheritance of an expert that had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm.

Even if his talent was mediocre and he couldn't surpass that Soul Ascension Realm like the senior who had made the Thousand Wind Palace, the bulky Nascent Soul Realm Expert still felt confident in being able to reach the Soul Ascension Realm with the help from such a powerful experts inheritance!

Grabbing on to the condensed ball of mist, the bulky man froze on the spot as the condensed ball of mist pulsed gently-

Boom!

Not even having any time to react, an explosion of information rushed into his head with no warning. Brining with it a soul tearing pain that instantly caused him collapse on to the ground.

"…"

Wanting to scream, the bulky man discovered to his horror that he could not say a single word as all parts of his body had become unable to move. Even his divine sense and vocal cords were cut off completely!

As for the information that was filling up his nascent soul forcing it to grow stronger with each passing second.

Of course, the bulky man could not care the slightest bit about how the strength of his nascent soul was increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye, as the pain had already started overwhelming him.

Even if he was at the Nascent Soul Realm, the pain brought by the seemingly endless information being stuffed into his nascent soul and in turn forcing it to grow stronger, was far too much for him to handle!NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Crack~!

As time passed and the information flowing in from the dense ball of mist showed no signs of stopping, the nascent soul of the bulky Nascent Soul Realm cultivator could no longer keep up with the constant increase in strength, as cracks started forming all across it.

In the span of only a short minute, the strength of his nascent soul had already far exceed the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm and had climbed all the way to the Seventh Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Only a short distance away from reaching the Eighth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!

The growth speed was far too fast and there was no time for the bulky man to lay down a proper foundation, let alone prevent the cracks appearing all over his nascent soul from rapidly increasing in size with each passing second.

If not for the fact that a small stream of energy was flowing over from the condensed ball of mist to make sure his nascent soul didn't directly explode. The bulky man who was barely conscious at this point in time, was sure that he would already be dead.

After all, his strength had increased far too quickly!

WHOOOSH-!

As the connection between himself and the ball of condensed mist finally cut off just as his nascent soul was about to blow up, the bulky man could not help letting out a sigh of relief before closing his eyes and focusing all his attention at trying to stabilize his cultivation base and build a proper foundation with the energy left behind in his body by the condensed ball of mist.

If he succeeded, he would be able to directly become a Peak Nascent Soul Realm Expert at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, but if he failed to stabilize his cultivation and build a proper foundation for his now powerful nascent soul… He would die!

Going from the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm to the Ninth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm in a matter of a few minutes did not come without any risks… And the bulky man understood very well how important it was for him to grasp this opportunity to increase his strength… Or die trying!

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Watching as the bulky Nascent Soul Realm cultivator's strength increased from the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm to the Ninth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he felt that something was wrong.

Under normal circumstances, the bulky Nascent Soul Realm cultivator would have already died… But instead, he was still sitting down in front of the condensed ball of mist without showing any signs of exploding due to the sudden massive increase in strength his nascent soul had just experienced.

No matter what, increasing once cultivation was not something that could be done quickly and had to be done step by step. Even if the bulky man had the help of some powerful cultivator, he would not be able to directly skip over most of the Nascent Soul Realm and reach the peak of the realm in one step without properly taking some time to lay down a foundation and stabilize his cultivation base after each breakthrough!

All though he could sense the weird power that had come over from the condensed ball of mist, Xuan Hao couldn't see through how it was able to make sure that the cultivation base of the bulky man didn't end up getting destroyed.

From his point of view, all he could see was the weird power that had flowed over from the condensed ball of mist slowly spreading throughout the body of the bulky man before it started merging together with him.

The stabilization of the bulky man's cultivation base could be said to be a side effect of this weird power slowly merging together with him…

"Is it some kind of possession?"

Not able to understand what was happening, he could not help thinking about the possibility of the Lord of a Thousand Winds having left behind a wisp of his soul inside the condensed ball of mist to look for a path to get reborn again after his untimely death.

Even if hundreds of thousands of years had passed since then, Xuan Hao didn't dare underestimate a powerhouse who had exceed the Soul Ascension Realm, as such an expert should have means at their disposal that he could never even begin to imagine with his current limited view.

At least that would explain the dreadful feeling I felt earlier when I was about to touch the ball of condensed mist…

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes as he carefully observed the changes taking place in the bulky man.

If it was truly a wisp of the ancient cultivator Lord of a Thousand Winds soul possessing the body of the bulky man, he couldn't act carelessly, as even the smallest mistake might end up resulting in his death!

The difference between an expert that had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm and someone in the Soul Ascension Realm was far too large, Xuan Hao had seen this first hand through the scene shown to him by the ancient book.

On that ancient battlefield, Soul Ascension Realm could be seen dying the moment they came too close to a battle between the experts that had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm.

Let alone resisting, they didn't even have a way to fight back and would be dead the moment the residual energy from these powerful experts hit them!

…

Observing as the bulky man's cultivation base slowly started getting more and more stable over the next half hour, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he realized that a pseudo domain had already started developing around the bulky man. Showing that he had already taken the first step towards the Domain Lord Realm!

Something is wrong…

Narrowing his eyes as he observed the newly constructed pseudo domain that covered the area around the bulky man, Xuan Hao could clearly feel that there was something wrong with the current state of the bulky man.

Having his nascent soul rapidly increase in strength was one thing… But suddenly establishing a pseudo domain was something completely different!

A pseudo domain was something that a cultivator had to comprehend on their own and was something that would shape the future path of the cultivator. Even if the bulky man had the help of powerful cultivator that would him comprehend a dao more easily, there was no way that it would allow the bulky man to establish a pseudo domain in less than thirty minutes… And that was not mentioning the fact that his cultivation base was still unstable after he had just gone from the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm to the Ninth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!

Is he going to break through to the Domain Lord Realm…?

Observing as the domain around the bulky man increased rapidly in strength after having been established, Xuan Hao could not help thinking this to himself as he looked towards the bulky man with killing intent.

If it truly was the Lord of a Thousand Winds possessing the body of the bulky man, there was a very good chance that he would kill him after his strength had recovered and he had finished taking over the body of the bulky man.

For this reason alone, Xuan Hao could not help thinking about whether or not he should attack the bulky man and kill him before the possession was completed.

At the very least this way, he would have a higher chance of making it out alive before the strength of the bulky man increased even further-

BOOOM-!

Just as Xuan Hao was about to make a move and attack the bulky man quietly sitting inside the throne room fully absorbed in increasing his strength, a loud explosion echoed out across the entire independent space before a terrifying aura swept over the place.

Looks like I won't have to do anything myself…

Feeling the terrifying aura spreading through the small independent space, Xuan Hao could not help smiling to himself before quickly hiding his presence and leaving the Thousand Wind Palace.

Fwoosh-!

Almost at the same time Xuan Hao left the Thousand Wind Palace, the aura of a Domain Lord erupted from the throne room as the bulky man had directly broken through from the Nascent Soul Realm to the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!

Whoosh~

Not even a second after the bulky man had broken through to the Domain Lord Realm did the Soul Ascension Realm Expert from earlier appear at the top of the mountain that now had no wall of mist around it to hide it from view.

"This palace!? Perhaps that damnable insect is in there…" Muttering this to himself as he looked down towards the Thousand Wind Palace, a clear look of greed appeared on his face before quickly being replaced with one of killing intent upon thinking about the bulky man who had entered earlier than him.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

Given that he could not sense the bulky man anywhere else inside the small independent space when sweeping through the place with his divine sense just a few seconds earlier, it was obvious to him that he should be hiding inside the Thousand Wind Palace, as that was the only place his divine sense could not penetrate.

Swish-!

Thinking about how that person might already be consuming the inheritance all by himself and wasting precious spiritual herbs that might be part of the inheritance, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert didn't waste any time as he rushed inside the Thousand Wind Palace before locking on to the bulky man sitting at the centre of the throne room.

"This- How did that insect reach the Domain Lord Realm… Did he already consume the inheritance by himself!?" Not thinking too much about how the bulky man had managed to reach the Domain Lord Realm so quickly, the Soul Ascension Realm expert was filled with killing intent after the thought of the inheritance already being used up appeared in his head.

As for the condensed ball of mist still present inside the throne room, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert didn't think too much about it as he didn't think that something like that would be the only thing left behind by an expert that had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm.

In his eyes, the bulky man had already consumed the entire inheritance a put away anything precious still left inside the Thousand Wind Palace in his interspatial ring.

Swish-!

For this reason, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert didn't hesitate in the slightest as he gathered his power and launched an attack towards the bulky man who remained sitting in front of the condensed ball of mist as his cultivation was rapidly increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

BOOOOOOOOM-!

As the attack of the Soul Ascension Realm Expert landed on the bulky man, the top of the mountain together with the Thousand Wind Palace made of mist, was instantly destroyed by the powerful attack.

"Wha-"

However, different from what the Soul Ascension Realm Expert expected, the bulky man did not die after being faced with his attack. Instead, he now floated in the air above what remained of the tall mountain, quietly gazing towards the Soul Ascension Realm Expert. The condensed ball of mist quietly floating a few inches above his palm, as a fine mist flew out from it and surrounded him to form a thin barrier of mist.

"This… WHO ARE YOU!?"

Clearly feeling something was wrong, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert narrowed his eyes before yelling this towards the bulky man. Understanding very well that the person floating in the air in front of him was not the same as the person he had been scheming against for the past few weeks!

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Swish-!

Not giving any response to the Soul Ascension Realm Expert's question, the bulky man floating above the half-destroyed mountain waved his hand as a gentle mist flowed out from the condensed ball of mist before rapidly expanding to engulf the Soul Ascension Realm cultivator.

"What in the world is this mist!?"

Trying his best to blow the mist surrounding him from all sides away, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert could not help frowning upon discovering that the mist surrounding him only disappeared for an instant before once again surrounding him from all sides. Not only that, but he also discovered that the mist was slowly draining his strength!

It should be the doing of that weird ball of mist…

Whoosh-!

Not taking long to pinpoint the origin of the mist that was slowly draining his strength, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert used a movement technique and appeared directly in front of the bulky man before the mist had enough time to surround him again!

"Hmph! In the end you are still only in the Domain Lord Realm!"

Bang!

Knocking the bulky man to the ground before grabbing towards the condensed ball of mist, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert was taken aback upon discovering that the condensed ball of mist flew down towards the bulky man and merge together with him.

BOOOOM-!

Not even a second later the aura around the bulky man grew extremely chaotic, as his cultivation base rapidly rose at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Second Stage of the Domain Lord Realm… Fifth stage of the Domain Lord Realm… Eighth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm-

BOOOOOM-!

Only when reaching the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm did the strength of the bulky man finally stop increasing any more. However, this sudden rapid increase in strength was more than enough to terrify the Soul Ascension Realm Expert, while at the same time also confirming that the bulky man was indeed being possessed by some powerful cultivator.

After all, without something like that happening, there was no way for the cultivation base of the bulky man to go from the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm to the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm in less than an hour!

"Is it perhaps a remnant soul of this place's creator or someone who happened to enter this place before…? To think that someone actually sealed part of his cultivation base and soul inside the ball of condensed mist without caring about the consequences…" Narrowing his eyes as he felt the terrifying strength from the bulky man below him, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert could not help frowning as he realized what was happening.

Part of a powerful expert's cultivation base and soul had been sealed inside the ball of mist as a backup plan in case he encountered some sort calamity that would result in his death.

Now, the bulky man had ended up coming in contact with the condensed ball of mist and had ended up activating the hidden formations on it that would begin the process of taking over the body of the bulky man. Allowing that ancient expert to get reborn again!

Of course, doing something like forcefully sealing part of one's own soul and cultivation base, was not without cost and would permanently reduce the strength of the cultivator doing so.

Even if it could give that person another chance at life, it would deeply wound the soul to a degree that even the Soul Ascension Realm Expert felt a shiver run down his spine imagining.

Underestimating such a powerful existence that was so insane as to do something like that to himself, was not a wise decision. Especially considering that he had still not fully recovered from being attacked by the powerful winds at the entrance to the small independent space!

If that is really what is happening, I should kill this person before he manages to fully recover his strength!

Whoosh-!

Knowing very well that he would stand no chance against the other party if he had enough time to fully recover his strength back to his peak, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert's eyes filled with killing intent as he used all his strength to attack the bulky man below-

BOOOOOM-!

Crack~

Not caring the slightest bit about the fact that the small independent space was slowly starting to show signs of breaking, as it had no way to withstand the full might of a Soul Ascension Realm cultivator in its current incomplete state.

"…"

Still remaining silent in the face of the increasingly powerful attacks from the Soul Ascension Realm Expert, the bulky man who now looked completely devoid of emotions casual waved his hands as several mist-like shields manifested in front of him to protect against the attacks of the Soul Ascension Realm Expert.

Whoosh~

At the same time, a thin mist instantly spread out and covered most of the small independent space. Instantly clashing against the domain of the Soul Ascension Realm Expert that was bearing down at him from above.

Boom-boom-boom!

At no point during the fight did he attack the Soul Ascension Realm Expert. Instead, he focused all his attention on defending, as the aura surrounding him slowly began growing closer and closer to the Soul Ascension Realm!

"You! AH! I will kill you!"

BOOOOOOOOM-!

Understanding very well what was happening, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert went all out in trying to break through the mist-like shields to no avail. Growing more and more anxious the closer the bulky man got to the Soul Ascension Realm.Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Even if the bulky man had not attacked him yet, the Soul Ascension Realm Expert understood that things would be different once the bulky man had broken through to the Soul Ascension Realm!

Given the difference between himself and the person possessing the body of the bulky man, it was obvious who would win if they fought each other at the same realm…!

…

This is… To think that man is actually getting possessed by someone. Good thing I didn't touch that ball of mist earlier!

Watching the fight taking place between the bulky man and the Soul Ascension Realm Expert from the edge of the independent space hidden by his domain, Xuan Hao could not help letting out a sigh of relief after realizing that the bulky man had been possessed by some kind of ancient cultivator that had left behind part of their cultivation base and soul inside the small, condensed ball of mist.

Now… What should I do? Escape this place before it collapses or help kill the possessed bulky man to avoid future problems…?

Glancing around the small independent space and seeing the massive cracks that had formed all over the place due to the fight between the possessed bulky man and the Soul Ascension Realm Expert, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he looked towards the fight taking place in the air above where the mountain had once been.

Part of him wanted to escape from the place through the portal that the Soul Ascension Realm Expert had opened up when entering the small independent space, but he also understood that allowing the possessed bulky man to leave alive was not a good idea.

Given that the person had left behind something to get reborn by possessing the body of someone else, Xuan Hao was certain that the person in control of the bulky man's body was not a good person and was highly likely a demonic cultivator… And Xuan Hao didn't really want a demonic cultivator who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm running around the Sky Empire.

Even if some powerful cultivators from the core of the Ewaria Continent would come and deal with this powerful demonic cultivator, there was a good chance that there would no longer be any Sky Empire left at that point in time!

"Haaa… Looks like I will have to help out…" Letting out a sigh as he thought about this, Xuan Hao slowly began moving closer to the place where the battle was taking place.

Boom-boom-boom!

At this point in time, the upper part of the independent space had already collapsed as the void between worlds outside was clearly visible to the naked eye.

Not only that, but both the Soul Ascension Realm Expert and the possessed bulky man were both showing signs of exhaustion after already having exchanged tens of thousands of moves in the short span of a minute or two. Even the possessed bulky man had changed from his expressionless expression and could be seen frowning after one of his arms had been cut off by the Soul Ascension Realm Expert!

In a sense, this was the best time for Xuan Hao to strike now that both parties were exhausted and had no time to pay attention to their surroundings!

Whoosh~!

Understanding very well that he would only be able to successfully attack one of the two, Xuan Hao drew his sword before using his movement technique to close the distance between himself and the possessed bulky man.

"Wha-!?"

Only when he had already reached within a few dozen meters of him did the possessed bulky man let out a surprised sound as he sensed his appearance-

BOOOOM-!

But at this time, it was already too late, as Xuan Hao's domain exploded around him to destroy the mist domain.

Zhing~!

Not a second later, Xuan Hao's sword, empowered by his domain, slashed down towards the possessed bulky man who could only look at him filled with shock.

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Swish-!

As the sword slashed down towards the possessed bulky man, it did not explode with power or destroy the surroundings. Instead, it silently cut through the air before arriving in front of the possessed bulky man-

Ptsh-!

Barely managing to set up some last-minute defensive measures, the possessed bulky man had no way to block Xuan Hao's sword, as his body was directly cut in half!The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

"Aaaaah-!"

Even the remnant soul of the powerful cultivator taking over the body of the bulky man hidden inside the body could not escape and was similarly cut in half, causing a loud banshee like scream to echo out across the already collapsing small independent space.

The reason for the painful scream was that other than the remnant soul also getting cut in half by Xuan Hao's sword, what remained of the small remnant soul of a once powerful expert was directly destroyed by the sword intent that had managed to enter it the moment it was cut in half.

The pain caused by Xuan Hao's sword intent ramping around inside the remnant soul was no laughing matter. Even for an existence that had once surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm during their peak…

Whoosh-!

Having already made sure that the remnant soul possessing the body of the bulky man had been dealt with, Xuan Hao didn't remain inside the collapsing independent space as he dashed towards the portal that had been opened by the Soul Ascension Realm Expert after the one opened by the bulky man had closed.

As for fighting the Soul Ascension Realm Expert… he had no reason to do so. Not to mention, he would not be able to sneak attack the other party after having revealed himself. Even if he could win due to the injuries that the Soul Ascension Realm Expert had sustained during his time resisting the powerful winds of the Thousand Wind Mountains and the battle with the possessed bulky man, it would still take a long time to do so.

Considering that half of the independent space had already collapsed before being consumed by the void in between worlds outside it, he did not really think it would be a good idea to fight it out with the Soul Ascension Realm Expert.

Other than this, he also had no idea how to navigate the void between world. Not to mention finding a way back to the Ewaria Continent again, he had no clue if he could even survive in the void between worlds with his current strength!

For all he knew, he could die the moment he came into contact with the void due to not having some special characteristic only obtainable after reaching a certain cultivation realm…

With all of this in mind, Xuan Hao completely ignored the shocked Soul Ascension Realm Expert looking towards the now dead possessed bulky man-

Swish~

Silently entering the portal before the Soul Ascension Realm recovered from his shock and comprehended what had just happened. The main reason it took him so long being that Xuan Hao made sure not affect him with his strength during his earlier sneak attack.

After all, if he had sensed a threat to his life, there was no way for a Soul Ascension Realm Expert to remain shocked for such a long period of time. To be honest, even the second or so it took the Soul Ascension Realm Expert to recover from Xuan Hao killing the possessed bulky man was considered out of the ordinary and was only due to his current wounded and weakened state.

If he was still at his peak, Xuan Hao would have had no way to leave the independent space without the other party stopping him. Let alone escape without the Soul Ascension Realm Expert having a chance to remember his domain, aura, or appearance…

WHOOOOSH-!

Feeling the terrifying wind all around him the moment he left the collapsing independent space, Xuan Hao could not help frowning after realizing that the wind had grown even stronger than before.

At this point in time, it would not be surprising for this to start attracting the attention of other Soul Ascension Realm Experts…

"I should leave this place to avoid any problems…"

Not wanting to be caught up in something so troublesome, Xuan Hao quickly left the portal and made his way towards the opposite direction that he had entered the Thousand Wind Mountains.

In the first place, he entered the Thousand Wind Mountains to not only explore it, but also to cross over it and reduce the time he would take to reach the capital city of the Sky Empire by a few days.

Even if he had spent some time following the bulky man and exploring the independent space, the time used on this far less compared to if he had decided to go around the Thousand Wind Mountains. Not to mention, he ended up gaining a lot of useful information that would help him with not only strengthening his domain even further, but also reaching the Soul Ascension Realm in the future!

Compared to him saving a few days of travel time, this was far more valuable!

"I can't wait for the other special locations along the way…"

Flying through the terrifying winds while protecting himself with his domain, Xuan Hao could not help muttering this to himself as he started looking forward to what he might find in the other special locations of the Sky Empire along the way to the capital city.

Even if it was nowhere near what the value of the information, he had discovered in the Thousand Wind Mountains, he would be more than happy as long as it was something that would be able to help him increase the strength of his domain!

…

"-and things in the Azure Sky Kingdom are proceeding rather well with the support of the Ascendant Frost Hall. Other than this, a few disciples went missing during the hunt for demonic cultivators…"

Back in the Star Shattering Sect, one of the elders who had gone to the Azure Sky Kingdom to watch over the disciple and also begin the initial steps of absorbing the territory of the Azure Sky Kingdom under the Star Shattering Sect, stood in front of Elder Song as he told him about everything that had happened. Frowning ever so slightly upon mentioning the disciples that had gone missing.

"Hah… It was expected for a few disciples to end up going missing. After all, there is no way to make sure to keep them absolutely safe… Though, some of them like encountered a fortuitous opportunity in some long forgotten ancient ruins or something similar and the elders just couldn't sense their presence…"

Shaking his head as he said this, Elder Song was not too bothered about the missing disciples. After all, death was always around the corner, and they couldn't always watch over the disciples of the sect after they left the territory of the Star Shattering Sect to train in the future.

If they really did that, there would be no way for the disciples to grow and encounter their own fortunate opportunities.

Elder Song understood this very well, as the only reason he had even managed to reach the Core Formation Realm in the first place, was due to him encountering a certain ancient inheritance when he was still only in the Seventh Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Back then, the inheritance had allowed him who was already close to the end of his lifespan to breakthrough to the Core Formation and gain another chance at life.

Without the encounter back then, he would have never reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm, let alone reaching his current realm!

"Elder Song, should we proceed with fully absorbing the territory of the Azure Sky Kingdom into the sect…?" Seeing reminiscing expression, the elder standing at the side lowered his voice as he asked this.

"Ah? Ah! Yes, we have to proceed now to get the best effect. Remember to get the help of the Ascendant Frost Hall, as they should be far more familiar with the power structure of the Azure Sky Kingdom and how to best set up a proper power structure there."

Blinking his eyes for a short moment as he stopped reminiscing about his past, Elder Song quickly sent off the elder before narrowing his eyes and looking in the direction of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

"After today, the territory of the Azure Sky Kingdom will officially become a part of the Star Shattering Sect!" Muttering this to himself as he continued looking into the distance, Elder Song silently prepared himself.

With the Star Shattering Sect officially taking over the territory of the Azure Sky Kingdom, it would signal that the Star Shattering Sect had finally finished getting their internal matters sorted and was ready to start expanding their territory.

The different kingdoms and sects surrounding the Star Shattering Sect would soon be forced to make a choice between giving away their territory and becoming a subordinate power under the Star Shattering Sect… Or becoming their enemies!

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Whoosh~

After leaving the Thousand Wind Mountain safely, Xuan Hao decided to stop for a short moment as he began observing his surroundings.

According to the maps of the Sky Empire he had looked at, the current side of the Thousand Wind Mountains that he found himself on should be a large empty plain with a few demon beasts ranging from somewhere between the Qi Condensation Realm and the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Hm?"

However, different from this, Xuan Hao discovered several small settlement spread all over the plain that should have been empty outside of a few demon beasts that roamed the place.

The settlements were all new and had at least one person in the Nascent Soul Realm watching over it to prevent the demon beasts roaming the empty plains from destroying them. Not only that, but all of these settlements had the same symbol engraved into their walls, flags and armour. Even the Nascent Soul Realm Experts were no different as their armour also carried the same symbol.

Is it perhaps a nearby kingdom expanding into this empty plain? But then again, there should not be any kingdoms nearby as this large empty plain should be surrounded by different dangerous special areas from all sides...

Did a precious natural artifact or spiritual herb perhaps appear... But if this was the case, there would be no need to bring along so many people and set up settlements in this place...

Narrowing his eyes as he thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that something was odd about so many settlements appearing in such a place.

Not to mention the fact that there wasn't anything of interest on the empty plain, the sheer difficulty of moving so many people through one of the special areas that surrounded the plain was more than enough to stop any ordinary Domain Lord Realm Expert. After all, the special areas surrounding the empty plain all posed a certain level of danger to Domain Lord Realm Expert.

For someone to transport so many people through such a dangerous environment. Even if it was through the safest route, it would still have to be someone at the later stages of the Domain Lord Realm!This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

Swish~

Feeling curious, Xuan Hao approached the closest settlement before appearing inside the main building of the settlement where the Nascent Soul Realm Expert was quietly cultivating by himself without making a single sound-

Whoosh-!

Not even a second later, Xuan Hao used his domain to forcefully wake up the meditating Nascent Soul Realm Expert, while at the same time isolating the meditation room from the outside world so he wouldn't get noticed by anyone outside.

Given that the current settlement he was inside of only had the Nascent Soul Realm Expert in front of him watching over it, it was obvious that no one would dare barge in without getting permission and with his domain, they wouldn't even have a clue that something was happening inside the building in the first place!

"Ah!?"

Having been forcefully awakened by Xuan Hao from his meditation, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert looked around himself filled with killing intent before freezing in place the next second after realizing that both his divine sense and cultivation had been completely sealed without him noticing.

"Hello, mind if I ask you a few questions?"

Hearing Xuan Hao's voice, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert started shaking with fear as he turned towards Xuan Hao who was standing a few meters away from him.

A Domain Lord!

Even with no way to perceive Xuan Hao's cultivation base, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert understood very well that the only person who would be able to supress him so easily and seal both his cultivation base and divine sense without him noticing would be someone in the Domain Lord Realm.

For this reason alone, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert was extremely fearful for his life. The only thing that allowed him to still remain somewhat calm, was the fact that the Domain Lord in front of him did not seem to have any intention of killing him. The fact that he asked for him to answer a few questions further solidified this in the mind of the Nascent Soul Realm Expert.

"W-what might I-I be able to help your e-excellency with?"

Even then, he still ended up stumbling over his words as he said this while trying his absolute best to remain calm and respectful in front of Xuan Hao. Not forgetting to pray that the question he would be asked was something he could answer...

"Not something difficult, I'm just curious about the settlements around here and why they are here. After all, this place is not easy to reach..."

"Hah... I... Hah... This... Hah..."

Saying this as he looked kindly towards the Nascent Soul Realm Expert, Xuan Hao could not help raising an eyebrow upon seeing the Nascent Soul Realm Expert was starting to grasp for air while looking like he was about to faint at any moment.

The question should not be that hard to answer, is there perhaps- Oh... I forgot that my domain is still pressuring him...

Realizing why the Nascent Soul Realm Expert looked like he was about to faint, Xuan Hao silently removed the pressure of his domain that he had accidently used on the Nascent Soul Realm Expert-

"Haaaaaa!"

Allowing him to breath properly again.

"Your excellency, the reason for the different settlements here is due to an order from the Earth Dragon Clan! The reasons for the settlements here is due to a large vein of spiritual metal being discovered around here by one of the elders of the Earth Dragon clan!"

"Earth Dragon Clan... One of the noble families of the Sky Empire..." Muttering this to himself as he narrowed his eyes after hearing what the Nascent Soul Realm Expert said, Xuan Hao could not help feeling even more curious about the vein of spiritual metal that had caused this powerful noble family to use so many resources to set up settlements in such a dangerous location...

However, after thinking about it, Xuan Hao decided not to look into it. After all, he was about to enter the capital city of the Sky Empire and he didn't think it would be a good idea to offend one of the most powerful families in that place. Especially considering that there was a good chance that the noble families of the Sky Empire had their own Soul Ascension Realm Experts hidden away.

Even if they did not, they should at the very least have some way to deal with Soul Ascension Realm Experts. If not, there would be no way for them to have stayed in power for such a long time inside the Sky Empire.

Even if the Sky Empire's imperial family was above them and could command them, it did not have full control over them.

The more he learned about the Sky Empire, the more he understood just how powerful the imperial family of the Sky Empire was to remain as the most powerful. Outside of the ancestor of the imperial family and the current emperor of the Sky Empire, there was sure to be other Soul Ascension Realm Experts hidden inside the Sky Empire's imperial family!

"Thank you for your honest answer, but you will have to sleep for a bit..."

"Wha-"

Thump!

Having already learned what he wanted from the Nascent Soul Realm Expert, Xuan Hao decided knock out the Nascent Soul Realm Expert. Putting his soul into a deep slumber that he would take a few years to wake up from. Making sure that it would look like the Nascent Soul Realm Expert had encountered some trouble while cultivating and was forced to enter secluded meditation due to this.

Anyway, by the time the Nascent Soul Realm Expert woke up again, Xuan Hao would already have long since left the capital city of the Sky Empire. Not to mention, losing a few years of his long life sleeping, was not considered a bad thing compared to getting silenced the old-fashioned way...

"Let's just ignore this place and not get involved with the Earth Dragon Clan..." Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao decided to just ignore the settlements all over the empty plains as he made his way towards the special area that he would have to go through next.

However, even if he decided not to get involved with the noble family from the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao was still curious about the spiritual metal that the Earth Dragon Clan had discovered deep down-

Whoosh~

So, he decided to use his divine sense along the way to probe underground and see if he could find anything beneath the settlements along the way.

"This is..."

Doing so, Xuan Hao could not help opening both his eyes in shock after discovering the massive spiritual metal mines located beneath all of the settlements.

Putting all of these mines together, it had already surpassed the spiritual metals Xuan Hao had found beneath the Azure Sky Kingdom's capital and was even close to reaching the same level of the endless mines that covered Yi Min's Iron Sky Kingdom!

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Stopping for a short moment as he looked down towards the different settlements spread all over the empty plains, Xuan Hao began to understand why the Earth Dragon Clan had decided to put so much effort into setting up the different settlements.

Not to mention that the Earth Dragon Clan's strength and wealth would increase by a lot due to getting their hands on such a large complex of spiritual metal veins, but it would also allow them to no longer have to buy their spiritual metals from other powerful experts like who already controlled massive spiritual metal mines and supplied most of the spiritual metals in circulation inside the Sky Empire.

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao continued on his way through the empty plains towards the next special area he would have to pass through to reach the capital city of the Sky Empire.

The special area in question was called the Great Poison Swamp. Although not as dangerous as the Thousand Wind Mountain, the number of Domain Lord Realm Experts that had perished inside the Great Poison Swamp far exceeded that of the Thousand Wind Mountains.

The main culprit of this, was the myriad of exotic and extremely poisonous insects and demon beasts that were present inside the Great Poison Swamp… And these poisonous insects and demon beasts were far harder to predict compared to the wind currents of the Thousand Wind Mountains, some of them even having the ability to threaten the life of some weaker Domain Lords!

At first Xuan Hao thought about going through one of the other special areas that surrounded the empty plains after learning about the Great Poison Swamp and the many terrifying poisonous creatures that could be found inside the Great Poison Swamp, but he quickly changed his mind after finding out the other special areas were far worse to go through.

The one located next to the Great Poison Swamp was even a place that Yi Min had told him the Soul Ascension Realm Experts of the Sky Empire feared and didn't dare enter… Although he didn't know a lot about this dangerous place next to the Great Poison Swamp other than the fact that it was the main sect of an ancient sect that had long since been forgotten according to Yi Min, Xuan Hao didn't plan on entering the place after finding out that it was a place that even the Soul Ascension Realm Experts of the Sky Empire didn't dare enter!

Even without knowing anymore about the place, it was obvious that entering the place would almost certainly put him in a dangerous situation. Possibly even killing him!

As for the remaining special areas, they were far less dangerous compared to that place, but still possessed a far greater threat to someone in the Domain Lord Realm compared to the Great Poison Swamp.

After all, most of the poisonous creatures in the Great Poison Swamp did not have a strong enough poison to affect someone in the Domain Lord Realm and those that did were extremely hard to come by. Not to mention, poisonous creatures that had strong enough poison to kill someone in the Domain Lord Realm were incredibly precious.

Considering that most of these poisonous creatures were extremely weak outside of their potent poison, the Great Poison Swamp became one of the most lively special areas in the entire Sky Empire, with hordes of cultivators entering the place in search of poisonous creatures.

The massive number of people entering the Great Poison Swamp was also one of the reasons why the death toll in the place was so much higher than most other special areas except for a few with similar special environments like the Great Poison Swamp.

Thinking about all of this, the Great Poison Swamp and its poisonous creatures didn't seem that bad. Maybe it could even be a chance to find a few of the poisonous spiritual herbs that would thrive in a place filled with poisonous creatures.

Whoosh~!

Not wasting any time, Xuan Hao soon saw the Great Poison Swamp appearing in the distance.

However even if he already heard about the place from Yi Min before, Xuan Hao could not help frowning when standing in front of the massive swamp that was covered in a thick poisonous miasma while stretching on for as far as he could see.

"According to what Yi Min said, this miasma is not only deadly to anyone below the Core Formation Realm, but it also carries some sort of restriction that prevents anyone from flying over the Great Poison Swamp. Even Soul Ascension Realm Experts are no exception and will be forced to go through the Great Poison Swamp on foot…" Muttering this to himself as he began observing the poisonous miasma covering the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about the restriction hidden inside of it mentioned by Yi Min.

After all, there was a chance that the restriction hidden inside the poisonous miasma was not a natural one, but instead one that had been set up by a powerful cultivator proficient in formations in the past!

Considering that the special area located right next to the Great Poison Swamp was the ruins of a long forgotten ancient sect that even Soul Ascension Realm Experts were fearful of, it would make sense that the restriction covering the Great Poison Swamp was set up by a powerful expert from that sect in the past… Maybe the person who had set up the restriction was even someone who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm!

Standing in front of the Great Poison Swamp as he thought about this, Xuan Hao felt even more curious about the place where the main sect of a powerful ancient sect had been located. However, he still understood his limits and decided against going to that place.

After all, the ancient sect ruins had been known for a long time, yet none of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts in the Sky Empire or the surrounding empires had managed to come back after entering that place according to what Yi Min had heard.

Maybe someone had already managed to that place and had returned alive, it was just that it was not something someone in the Domain Lord Realm would be privy to and was only something that those in the Soul Ascension Realm had an understanding of.

No matter what it was, it was obvious that the place had been deemed far too dangerous even for those in the Soul Ascension Realm to enter in the end.

"Maybe I will get a chance to explore the place when I reach the Soul Ascension Realm in the future…" Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao landed in front of the Great Poison Swamp before taking a step forward.

Whoosh~

Feeling the poisonous mist trying to enter his body, Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes slightly.

At the same time that the poisonous mist covered his body and tried to enter it, a strange power hidden inside of the poisonous mist began pressing down on him. Although the pressure exerted by this strange power was close to non-existent, it still carried with it a terrifying presence that could only be felt by someone who had reached the Domain Lord Realm!Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Whoosh-!

Deciding to try and fly to test things out for himself, Xuan Hao did not manage to move more than a few meters into the air before the pressure exerted by the strange power suddenly increased to a degree that even someone like Xuan Hao who had already reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm could not resist-

BANG!

In the end, Xuan Hao crashed into the muddy swampland below the next second!

"…"

Covered in mud from head to toe now, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly as he felt the terrifying pressure he had felt just a second ago disappear the moment he crashed into the mud.

Whoosh~

Using his power to clean himself and his clothes, Xuan Hao thought about how he might have ended up if he flew over the Great Poison Swamp when the restriction took action. Even if he was someone in the Domain Lord Realm, enduring the terrifying pressure for even a few seconds longer was sure to cause some injuries.

Thinking about it, anyone trying to fly inside the Great Poison Swamp would end up in a similar situation as him. Cover in mud from head to toe.

"Pft~!"

Thinking about the different Domain Lords and Soul Ascension Realm Experts standing at the peak of the Sky Empire ending up covered in mud upon trying to fly inside the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao could not stop a small chuckle from escaping.

After all, different from him, these people were likely to enter the Great Poison Swamp together with other people and would not be able to clean themselves without anyone seeing them covered in mud.

It would be even worse if these bigshots had decided to enter the Great Poison Swamp together with their descendants to train them…

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Turning his attention back towards the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao observed a few different poisonous insects that were hiding in the trees and mud around the edges of the Great Poison Swamp.

Even if these poisonous insects were far too weak to pose a threat to him and the strongest among them could at most kill someone in the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Observing them still allowed Xuan Hao to get a better idea about which places would be best to avoid when he had to pass through the more dangerous parts of the Great Poison Swamp.

After all, the powerful poisonous insects that had poison strong enough to threaten someone in the Domain Lord Realm did not grow more intelligent after their poison had reached such a terrifying level. Instead, they behaved just like the poisonous insects with weaker poisons!

The only exception to this, was if the poisonous insect's cultivation realm had also increased like the strength of its poison. Although insects had an extremely low chance of getting more intelligent after their strength increased, the chance still existed!

However, considering that insects that managed to develop that level of intelligence was extremely rare to the degree that the number of such insects appearing inside the Great Poison Swamp over the years the years had not exceed ten, Xuan Hao was not really worried about encountering that kind of poisonous insect during his journey through the Great Poison Swamp.

Instead… The main thing he worried about, was the poisonous demon beasts that could be found inside the Great Poison Swamp!

Different from the poisonous insects that were far easier to predict and go around, the poisonous demon beasts inside the Great Poison Swamp did not only have extremely potent poison, but also had a cultivation base that made them deadly even without their poison!

In the deeper parts of the Great Poison Swamp, poisonous demon beasts reaching the Domain Lord Realm could be found… And if he wanted to pass through the Great Poison Swamp, he would inevitably have to pass through the deeper parts of the Great Poison Swamp.

At the very least, the strongest of the Domain Lord Realm poisonous demon beasts should only have reached the first few stages of the realm from what Yi Min had told him.

Of course this did not mean that stronger poisonous demon beasts didn't exist inside the deeper parts of the Great Poison Swamp, it just meant that they were extremely rare and hard to encounter.

"Well… With my current strength, I should be fine even if I encountered the more powerful poisonous insects or demon beasts…" Muttering this to himself as he gazed towards a small insect no bigger than a centimetre in length crawling up a small tree branch, Xuan Hao used his domain to catch the small insect before closely inspecting.

Ptsh!

Extracting the poison inside the small insects body. Killing the small insect in the process, Xuan Hao could not help looking towards the small drop of poison floating in front of him.

How can a tiny bit of this drop of poison kill someone in the Nascent Soul Realm? The poisonous insects of the Great Poison Swamp really are amazing in their own way, but… I wonder what would happen if I refined this drop of poison with alchemy…

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao took out a small cauldron he had been carrying with him in his interspatial ring before throwing the drop of poison inside of it. Not wanting to risk the drop of poison exploding during the refinement process and ending up on him.

Even if there was a good chance his domain would be able to stop it before this happened, Xuan Hao saw no need to take such a risk… And the small cauldron also had an effect that would help it more smoothly process poisonous materials like the drop of poison he had just extracted from the poisonous insect…

Fwoosh~

Carefully igniting a small flame, Xuan Hao carefully began to refine the drop of poison inside the caldron by slowly burning away the inherent impurities that were present inside of it.

The process of refining the poison and removing the impurities inside was an extremely precise process that would be hard for someone below the Artisan Alchemist Realm to do. Even Xuan Hao who was already an Artisan Alchemist found it hard to precisely burn away all the impurities inside of the drop of poison without accidentally destroying it or causing it to explode.

Whoosh!

"Success!"

Spending the next few minutes carefully removing the impurities from the drop of poison extracted from one of the poisonous insects, Xuan Hao could not help smiling upon seeing that he had successfully managed to remove the impurities from the drop of poison without causing any accidents or destroying the drop of poison in the process.

Well… Even if he ended up accidently ruining the drop of poison, there were more than enough poisonous insects around to get more poison from…

"I wonder how strong this poison is now…"

Carefully controlling the poison and having it float out from the cauldron so he could inspect it more closely, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face the next second.

"This… It's actually strong enough to kill someone in the Fourth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!?"

Feeling shocked as he muttered this to himself while looking at the drop of poison that only had the ability to kill someone in the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm before the impurities inside of it was removed, Xuan Hao began to understand why so many people came to the Great Poison Swamp for the numerous poisonous insects that could be found inside of it.

For an alchemist focused on poisons, the insect from the Great Poison Swamp would allow them to increase the level of the poisons they made. Not to mention, the process of removing the impurities was a good way for an alchemist to train his or her control of fire.

I should take a few drops of poison from different insects back with me for Qing Yi to train with…

Thinking this to himself as he put away the drop of poison he had finished refining into a small glass vial before throwing it into his interspatial ring to end up forgotten in a few hours, Xuan Hao extracted the poison from a few dozen poisonous insects around him before gathering it in different glass vials and similarly throwing them into his interspatial ring.

Whoosh~

Not having anything more to do and already having a decent grasp over the behaviour of the poisonous insects roaming around inside the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao used a different movement technique he had picked up over the years called Earth Shrinking Steps.

Although it was far inferior to the Drifting Cloud Steps that he normally used, the Drifting Cloud Steps were not really usable inside the Great Poison Swamp. After all, the last thing he wanted to do was make a mistake and accidently teleport into the air and get pressed into the mud below by the restriction covering the Great Poison Swamp!

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…

"Senior Brother… Are you sure it's a good idea to follow Elder Proud Bear around…?"

"Are you still thinking about what happened earlier when we first entered the Great Poison Swamp? Don't worry about it, it happens to everyone who tries to fly inside the Great Poison Swamp… To be honest, I even heard that the great ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom once came here with his grandson and ended up in a similar situation…"

"Really!?"

"Yes! What senior brother said is true, my aunt was around when it happened and she personally saw how the great ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom crashed down into the mud after trying to fly inside the Great Poison Swamp. Haha, she even told me that the old ancestor originally wanted to kill everyone around to stop what happened from leaking out, but one of the Sky Empire's generals was also around, so that old ancestor could only give up on this!"

"Haha, if it even happened to someone like the great ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom, it's no wonder Elder Proud Bear who only reached the Domain Lord Realm a few years ago ended up in such a situation. Although… It makes one wonder why he even tried to fly in the first place even after knowing the outcome…"

At the same time Xuan Hao began making his journey to cross the Great Poison Swamp, a group of three youths were also making their way inside the Great Poison Swamp while happily chatting with each other without any worry on their faces.

The main reason for this, was the old man standing not too far away watching over them.

From their conversation alone, it was obvious that this old man should be the Elder Proud Bear they were talking about, a Domain Lord Realm Expert!

For them to have such a powerful cultivator watching over them, it was obvious that these three youths did not have a simple identity…

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