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

23. 757

Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough #Chapter 757 Hidden Sect And... System Malfunction...? - Read Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough Chapter 757 Hidden Sect And... System Malfunction...? Online - All Page - Novel Bin

"Haha, now that we have the support of a powerful expert in the Seventh Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, we won't have to worry about the meeting!"

"That is true… We might even be lucky enough to get more than one position. After all, outside of those three leeches, the rest of the sects don't even have someone in the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm supporting them!"

"Hehe, indeed, it looks like we really might end up getting more than one leader position during the meeting. At that point in time, all of our sects are sure to benefit from the resources that the Sky Empire will allocate to the sect alliance to help increase its strength enough to pose a threat to those religious organisations…!"

After Xuan Hao left the remote inn, it did not take long for the Nascent Soul Realm Experts waiting in the front of the inn to find out what happened as all of them happily began celebrating after learning that they would have the support of a powerful expert in the Seventh Stage of the Domain Lord Realm during the upcoming meeting about the establishment of the sect alliance.

"Elder Xuan… Star Shattering Sect…"

The only person who remained silent not celebrating at this moment, was the old man in the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm who was instead standing in a corner of the inn quietly muttering to himself with a frown on his face.

Different from the rest of the people present, he very clearly understood that Xuan Hao was not someone in the Seventh Stage of the Domain Lord Realm but someone even stronger than that!

But where did someone that strong come from all of a sudden? Not to mention, I have never heard about the Star Shattering Sect before… Could it be one of those legendary hidden sects left behind from the ancient era!?

Deep in thought as he tried figuring out Xuan Hao's identity and if he had ever heard of the Star Shattering Sect before, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm could not come up with anything about Xuan Hao or the Star Shattering Sect.

In the end, he remembered an ancient tale that his master had once told him when he was still around.

Originally, his sect was not an independent sect that existed under the Sky Empire. Instead it had once been the branch of an ancient sect that had hidden itself after a calamity that had taken place towards the end of the ancient era according to his master.

At first his sect had still been in contact with this main sect and had been visited on different occasions… But the visits grew more and more rare as the years passed.

From a visit once every year, to a visit every ten years, until it became rare for someone from the main sect to visit even once every thousand years!

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As the visits from the main sect decreased, the branch sect slowly transformed from a branch sect into an independent sect that operated on its own.

According to what his master had told him back then, the last visit from the main sect that had hidden away had happened when his master was still young elite of the sect who was working hard to become the sect master.

"If I'm not wrong, master said that the person who came to visit from the main sect back then was covered in blood all over and only stayed for a few seconds before leaving again…"

Muttering this to himself, the old man let out a sigh as he thought about his master. Other than informing him about the fact that his sect had originally been a branch sect before becoming an independent sect, his master had also told him that their main sect was not the only sect that had gone into hiding back then and that he should be careful not to carelessly offend any sects that had existed for tens of thousands of years or sects that weirdly appeared out of seemingly thin air…

It was because of these words from his master that the old man in the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm began suspecting that the Star Shattering Sect Xuan Hao belonged to was actually one of these ancient sect that had decided to start extending their power back into the world!

"Even if he is not from one of those hidden sects, the sect of such a powerful expert should not be weak in any way. Especially considering that he only introduced himself as a grand elder! If the grand elder is already so powerful, how strong is the sect master and the ancestors…?"

Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he quietly said this, the old man understood that it would be best to remain friends with Xuan Hao in the future.

Bang!

Hearing a loud noise behind him, the old man quickly turned around to see what was happening-

"This… Can you people act like elders for a second!?"

Seeing one of the old men in the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm having collapsed drunk on the ground after having allowed the alcohol to take effect, the old man could not help flaring up at the shameful display.

Not to mention just him, the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts were the same as they happily celebrated. Even a few of the Domain Lords had joined in on the celebration, Elder Scarlet Flame among them!

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What would their juniors think if they saw their elders acting like this!?

"""…"""

Waking up from their happy mood the moment they felt the old man's powerful aura washing over them. Everyone inside the inn froze on the spot before awkwardly smiling towards the old man with embarrassed expressions on their faces.

"Hah… You people… Don't make too much noise, I will go rest…"

Understanding that he would not be able to supress this group of old people due to quite a few of the Domain Lords present had also joined in on the celebration, the old man just shook his head before making his way up to an isolated room at the second floor of the inn before starting to cultivate.

…

"Hm… Should I investigate the core of the capital where the imperial palace is located or try to find out more about the noble families that only exist inside the capital city…?"

At the same time that the old man at the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm felt troubled with the behaviour of the old people in his group, Xuan Hao was once again standing in front of the gate leading inside the capital city as he wondered where to go first.Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

On one side, he really wanted to find out more about the imperial palace and what kind of power that the imperial family might be hiding… But on the other side, he also felt curious about the noble families that only existed inside the capital city yet had a terrifying influence across the Sky Empire that almost rivalled that of the three big religious organisations!

"Everyone out of the way! The young master of the Hollow Thunder Family is coming through!"

Hearing a loud voice yelling out all of a sudden interrupting his train of thought, Xuan Hao could not help showing a shocked expression on his face as he suddenly saw a large carriage charging through the busy streets of the capital city. Almost hitting close to a dozen people within the span of only a few second!

If not for the fact that pretty much everyone here had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, it was obvious that they would not have had enough time to jump out of the way as the carriage was far faster than the ones used by mortals… And that is not mentioning the demon beast in front pulling the carriage forward.

[Side Quest: A Wild Young Master Appears!]

[Description: The young master of the Hollow Thunder Family that is enemies with you friend Yi Min suddenly appeared in front of you and seems to be in a hurry... How suspicious… Investigate what caused the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family to act this way.]

[Reward: ???]

What kind of… Did the system malfunction due to none of his disciples using one of its functions and it instead decided to use it on him instead…?

Not knowing what to say when he suddenly saw the quest that had appeared in front of him, Xuan Hao could only shake his head with a bewildered expression on his face before using his domain to hide himself and follow after the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family who was quickly making his way towards the noble district of the capital city where the different noble families stayed.

Even if the sudden quest from the system was rather unexpected, Xuan Hao did not plan to ignore it. Even if it felt like the system trying its best to make use of the existence of a random young master…

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Following behind the young master from the hollow Thunder Family as he made his way through the busy streets, Xuan Hao could not help feeling admiring the people standing in the way of the carriage who always somehow managed to jump out of the way just in time before the demon beast in front of the carriage hit them.

Given his current cultivation base, it was easy for Xuan Hao to see the situation of the carriage that the third young master of the Hollow Thunder Family was inside of.

However even with this in mind, he could not see anything out of place and only saw a young boy in the Foundation Establishment Realm anxiously looking all over the place as if he was about to face a life and death situation.

How odd...

Seeing the situation of the young boy anxiously pacing around inside the carriage that was moving through the busy streets of the capital, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious as to just what it was that had caused the system to issue a quest to him...

Keeping an eye on the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family to see if he did anything, Xuan Hao kept following the carriage for close to half an hour before it finally came to a stop in front of a large gate with two guards at the Nascent Soul Realm standing in front of it.

Not a second later, the young boy that had been anxiously pacing around inside the carriage made his way outside before showing off a small token to the guards suspiciously inspecting him as he approached them.

"Hollow Thunder Family!? Hm? I didn't expect to see a young master of the Hollow Thunder Family at the southern gate! Is there perhaps anything I can help w-"

"Don't waste my time and just open the gate, I'm in a hurry!"

"Ah? Ah! Yes, of course young master!"

Hearing the aggressive tone of the young boy, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert narrowed both of his eyes for a short moment after being treated so badly before quickly showing a smile and signalling for the other guard to open the gate.

From an outside perspective, it was very clear that this guard was not the slightest bit pleased with the behaviour of the young master... But in the end, there was nothing he could do about it.

Not only was the Hollow Thunder Family a noble family, but it was also one of the most powerful noble families in the Sky Empire. The patriarch of the Hollow Thunder Family was even rumoured to be close to reaching the Soul Ascension Realm!

With his strength having reached the Seventh Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, there was no way for him to offend such a terrifying power. All he could do was push down his displeasure after being disrespected by a little boy who only reached the Foundation Establishment Realm and hope that the little boy would not end up finding trouble for him in the future...

Creak~

As the large gate slowly began opening and showing the pristine buildings on the other side, Xuan Hao watching the scene from the side could not help showing a surprised expression on his face after feeling the very clear difference in the quality of the qi between heaven and earth on the other side of the gate.

A qi gathering formation!?

Encountering a qi gathering formation for the first time outside of the one he himself had made with the help of the system, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious as he began using his divine sense to examine to formation from afar.

Hm... Although the qi gathering formation is far smaller than the one, I made for covering a part of the Shattered Star Peaks, its effectiveness should not fall too far behind before it got upgraded to the chaotic qi formation by the system...

Narrowing both of his eyes as he examined the qi gathering formation covering the noble district, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a hint of admiration for the formation master who set up the qi gathering formation.

Although the formation was of worse quality compared to the one he had been given by the system, the formation itself was still something that Xuan Hao had no way to make with his current understanding of formations.

Even if the area covered was smaller and the formation itself looked far less stable, Xuan Hao still understood just how hard it was to construct a qi gathering formation. The only reason he had been able to set up a qi gathering formation in first place, was due to the help of the system!

Without it, there would have been no way for him to set up a qi gathering formation like the one in front of him. Not to mention the more complicated one that the system had given him...

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao turned his attention back towards the carriage with the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family.

"Let's go! We can't waste any more time here!"

After the gate had opened up, the young master poked his head out of the side window of the carriage before hurrying the person controlling the carriage to start moving.

"Yes, young master!"

Hearing what his young master said, the person only nodded his head respectfully before the carriage soon started moving inside the noble district.

The only difference was that the carriage was moving far slower compared to before.

Obviously, the carriage driver understood that the people inside the noble district were not people that could be easily ignored like the people walking the busy streets outside.

Creak~!

Not even a few seconds had passed since the carriage entered the noble district before the large gate separating the noble district from the rest of the capital slowly began closing.

Seeing this, Xuan Hao didn't wait around and directly used his movement technique as he rushed past the two guards and entered the noble district.

Bang!

Not aware of the fact that someone had just passed them and entered the noble district, the two guards continued closing the gate as it slammed shut with a loud bang before both of them returned to what they were doing before. Unaware of Xuan Hao who had slipped past them.

...

This was far easier than I expected...

Entering the noble district, Xuan Hao could not help feeling surprised at how easily he had managed to enter.

Not to mention the fact that there wasn't anyone at the Domain Lord Realm guarding the entrance with their domain to prevent anyone in the Domain Lord Realm from entering, there wasn't any other formation outside of the qi gathering formation set up around the noble district.

Because of this, anyone with a cultivation in the Domain Lord Realm would be able to easily enter the noble district without being discovered by the guards who were only in the Nascent Soul Realm!

Feeling that this was rather odd, Xuan Hao soon discovered why this was the case as he saw a large estate located not too far away from the gate.

Not only was the estate surrounded by a large wall that made it hard to look at what was happening inside, but Xuan Hao also discovered that the estate had a dozens of different formations protecting it from anyone entering.

Even Xuan Hao with his current cultivation base would properly not be able to enter it without getting discovered by one of the formations covering the large estate!

The rest of the estates and buildings inside the noble district were the same, as all of them were guarded by their own formations, the larger estates and buildings owned by powerful noble families were covered in far better formations, while the weaker noble families barely had one or two defensive formations protecting their buildings...

From this, it was obvious that the noble families did not cooperate as much as the qi gathering formation covering the noble district had first suggested...

"Ah! I have to catch up before that young master disappears!"

Realizing that the carriage with the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family had almost disappeared from his sight as he had stopped to inspect his surroundings, Xuan Hao quickly turned his attention away from the countless small formations that could be seen all over the noble district covering the many different buildings before following after the carriage that made its way towards the core of the noble district.

Given that he was inside the noble district of the Sky Empire and that there should be quite a few powerful experts at the Domain Lord Realm present, Xuan Hao didn't dare to carelessly release his divine sense to keep an eye on the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family. Especially considering what he had experienced after he released his divine sense after having entered the capital city...Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

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Making his way deeper inside the noble district following after the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family, Xuan Hao soon came to a stop after the carriage with the young master inside of it entered a large estate.

Narrowing both of his eyes looking towards the estate that the young master had disappeared inside of, Xuan Hao could not help silently cursing to himself after discovering that the formations guarding the estate were more than powerful enough to discover him.

Even if he could still easily break them and forcefully make his way inside the estate, doing so would definitely end up alerting the people inside... And more importantly, the experts of the Hollow Thunder Family!

"Hm?"

Observing the large estate that the young master of the hollow Thunder Family had entered, Xuan Hao's eyes shone for a short moment as he saw a group of servants entering the estate through a backdoor not too far away from the main entrance that the young master had entered through.

The important thing about these servants was not the fact that they were entering through a backdoor... But instead, the fact that all of them carried a small token with them that allowed them to pass through the formation guarding the estate without triggering its defensive mechanisms.

Whoosh~!

Seeing this, Xuan Hao didn't waste a single second, as he dashed over and secretly took away one of the servants tokens before entering the large estate through the backdoor.

Although there was indeed someone guarding the back entrance and checking all of the servants, this person was only someone in the Nascent Soul Realm and had no way to discover Xuan Hao after he had used his domain to hide himself.

Bang!

"Ouch-!"

A short time after Xuan Hao had entered the large estate with the stolen token in hand, the little servant girl that he had stolen the token from crashed headfirst into a barrier formed by the formation.

"Huh!? Why did the formation activate- Ah!? Where is my token!?"

Filled with confusion over what happened, the little servant girl quickly realized that her token was missing.

Rustle~

Beginning to look around for the token thinking that she had dropped it on the ground with a panicked expression on her face, the little servant girl suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Little Yue... Did you forget your token again...?"

Hearing the voice of the guard from behind, the little servant girl called Yue could not help blushing in embarrassment as she turned towards the guard not knowing what to say.

Okay, she might have forgotten her token the past few times, but she could have sworn she had brought it with her today!

"Little Yue... Hah... Don't worry about it, take this token for now and don't throw it away!"

"Thank you, uncle guard!"

Feeling even more embarrassment washing over her as the guard gave her a new token thinking that she might have thrown the other one away, the little servant girl could only bow her head and thank the guard before rushing inside the large estate. Not wanting to embarrass herself any further.

"Hah... These new servants still have quite a bit to learn before they can be sent to the main estate..."

Not too bothered about the missing token, the guard just said this to himself before he returned to watching over the back entrance of the estate.

All things considered, the estate he was guarding was not an important place to the Hollow Thunder Family and had no important people staying inside of it outside a few of the family's young master and ladies from time to time.

With this in mind, the guard was not the slightest bit worried about the missing token of the little servant girl.

...

Unaware of the fact that he had ended up embarrassing a young servant girl after stealing away her token, Xuan Hao began searching through the large estate for the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family without using his divine sense.

All things considered, even if he got his hand on a token that would allow him to move around the large estate without triggering the defensive mechanism of the formations guarding the place, he still did not dare carelessly release his divine sense. After all, he had no idea if there were any Domain Lord Realm Expert present inside the large estate.

If there really was a Domain Lord Realm Expert present, he or she was likely to discover him the moment he used his divine sense. For this reason, Xuan Hao could only search through the large estate room by room until he found the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family that he was searching for-Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

"Are you sure it's the seventh young master? As far as I know, the seventh young master should be out adventuring at the moment..."

"Yes, I'm certain! I saw him enter inner garden just a few minutes ago together with the Nascent Soul Realm elder in charge of this estate!"

"Awesome! This should be a good opportunity to enter the main estate! Hehe, I really didn't expect one of the young masters to show up only a few weeks after we began working for the Hollow Thunder Family..."

"Indeed, this should be a great chance for us to infiltrate the core of the Hollow Thunder Family. Let's get going and see if we can catch the young master before he leaves!"

Before Xuan Hao even had a chance to start searching through the estate on his own, two servant girls happily talked with each other about their plans to infiltrate the main estate of the Hollow Thunder Family by using the seventh young master without a care in the world.

"..."

Not knowing what to say when he saw these too careless servant girls who were obviously spies from another noble family, Xuan Hao decided not to say anything as he slowly followed them as they made their way through the many corridors of the large estate.

Observing these two servant girls as they walked in front of him, Xuan Hao discovered that both of them had a cultivation base in the later stages of the Nascent Soul Realm that had been hidden by some kind of artifact.

If not for the fact that he had been paying close attention to the two servant girls, it would have been close to impossible for even someone like himself to discover the cultivation base of the two servant girls!

For them to have an artifact that even he had a hard time seeing through... Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious as to where these two spies had come from.

Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, although they did talk a lot about the Hollow Thunder Family and even mentioned that the strength of the elder in charge of the large estate was only someone in the Eighth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, they never talked about the power that had sent them to spy on the Hollow Thunder Family.

From the looks of it, even if they were rather careless when walking around by themselves, they still didn't mention anything that would give away where they were from...

"Shh... Be quiet, we are reaching the inner garden. Even if that elder in charge of this place is only in the Nascent Soul Realm, his senses are far above that of a Nascent Soul Realm Expert. If we are not cautious, he might find out about us!"

As one of the two servant girls said this before coming to a stop, the other quickly stopped talking as she looked towards the glass door not too far away from them the led into a large garden complex.

"Let's act normally and just say that we were assigned by the old head servant to take care of the young master during his stay here. From what I know, the old head servant won't be back to work again for another week. During this time, we should be able to win over the young master and have him take us with him into the main estate!"

"Good idea! That little boy stands no chance against us two! Hehe, let's go!"

Creak~

As the two servant girls confidently made their way into the inner garden putting on the act of perfect servants, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly after witnessing the complete change in the two servant girls' behaviour after they stepped inside the inner garden.

Ignoring the two servant girls as they made their way towards the centre of the garden, Xuan Hao turned his attention towards the two people talking with each other at the centre of the garden.

One of them was the Eighth Stage Nascent Soul Realm Elder that the two servant girls had talked about, while the other was the young master he had been searching for!

"Hm?"

However, after seeing the young master he was looking for, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face after discovering that the cultivation base of the young master had changed from the earlier stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Core Formation Realm!

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How did his cultivation base suddenly go from the Foundation Establishment Realm to the Core Formation Realm? Did he perhaps use an artifact similar to those two servant girls…?

Not understanding how the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family had suddenly managed to improve his cultivation base from the earlier stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm all the way up to the Core Formation Realm within the short period of a few minutes since he had entered the large estate, the only reason Xuan Hao could come up with was that the young master had used some sort of artifact to hide his cultivation base.

Even then, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that there was some other reason for the change in the young master's cultivation base. After all, the chances of the Hollow Thunder Family having an artifact that had the ability to fool someone who was in the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm should not be that high.

Even if the Hollow Thunder Family really did have such an artifact, there would not be any reason for a young master to be in possession of such a precious artifact!

I guess I should just wait and see what happens. Maybe this is related to the quest given by the system…

Feeling that everything around this young master was indeed suspicious like the system quest had said, Xuan Hao decided to wait and see if he could find out what was happening with this young master.

""We greet the noble Seventh Young Master and Elder!""

Luckily for Xuan Hao, the two spies he had followed to the inner garden showed up-

"Hm? Who is this?!"

"Servants… How come two servants showed up…?"

Catching the attention of both the young master and the elder in the Eighth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, who were both surprised at the sight of these two servants that had suddenly shown up out of nowhere to interrupt their conversation.

"Didn't I order for no one to enter this place!? Tell me, why did you two come here?"

"The head servant ordered us to come over and serve the seventh young master during his stay in the estate, we were not informed about not entering this place… If elder want us to, we can leave…"

Seeing that the elder was frowning and looking towards both of them with a suspicious expression on his face, one of the two servant girls acted quickly and didn't show any hesitation as she stepped forward and promptly answered the elder's question before starting to slowly leave while dragging the other servant girl along with her.

"No need for that, both of you can stay and serve the young master, we are already finished with our conversation. Hah, looks like I will have to pay a visit to those guards I placed in charge of stopping anyone from entering this place… I will see you later young master!"

Stopping the two servant girls before they had a chance to leave, the elder soon let out a sigh before disappearing from the inner garden.

"Hah.."

As the elder disappeared, the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family could not help showing an annoyed expression on his face as he looked towards the two servant girls that had been assigned to take care of him by the head servant.

"You two, don't bother me and leave! Tell the head servant I don't need anyone to serve me!"

Swish-!

Not bothering to say anything more than this, the young master directly used a movement technique to leave the inner garden without giving the two servant girls a chance to say anything to him before he had already left.

""…""

Standing all alone in the middle of the inner garden, the two servant girls looked at each other with a surprised expression on their faces. Clearly, they did not expect that they would be dismissed so easily the moment the elder had left. Especially considering that the seventh young master had a rather bad reputation when it came to women!

"This brat! How dare he! I think we sisters should teach him a lesson!"

"Sister… We can't give away our identity because of this…"

"But… We can't let this little brat get away with dismissing us like this! We have to-"

Swish~

Not bothering to stay around and listen to what the two spies disguised as servant girls were talking about after being dismissed so ruthlessly by the young master, Xuan Hao gave chase to the young master who had already left the inner garden.

"…"

Why does it always have to be somewhere underground…?

Watching as the young master he was following behind entered a hidden passageway concealed by a formation before making his way down a spiral staircase at the end of the hidden passageway leading to somewhere below the large estate, Xuan Hao could not help complaining that he always seemed to end up somewhere underground no matter where he went. Even the capital city of the Sky Empire was no different…

"Hah…"

Hesitating in front of the spiral staircase for a short moment, Xuan Hao made his way down the spiral staircase.

…

How annoying, how come so many things showed up to delay me ever since I returned to the capital- Don't tell me… Did one of my brothers figure out what I'm doing!?

Different from Xuan Hao who was lamenting over having to go somewhere underground once again, the young master he was following behind had something completely different on mind as he made his way down the secret staircase.

Rumble~!

Reaching the bottom of the spiral staircase, the young master's aura suddenly began fluctuating violently for a short moment before his cultivation base rapidly increased. Instantly going from the Core Formation Realm all the way up to the Nascent Soul Realm without a single bottleneck.

"Looks like my body is already reaching its limit…"

Contrary to his strong aura and cultivation base, several cracks had appeared all over the body of the young master following the sudden rapid increase in strength that defied logic.

Bang!

Collapsing on the ground as the cracks all over his body began increasing in both size and number, the young master desperately pulled out a pill bottle from his interspatial ring before swallowing more than half of the pills inside the bottle.

"Hah… My body should be able to hold on for another few minutes with this…"

Having swallowed the pills, the cracks that had started spreading across his body stopped expanding any further. Allowing the young master to muster enough strength to start walking along the small passage located at the bottom of the spiral staircase.

Whoosh~!

Just at this moment, a shadowy figure appeared in front of the young master before respectfully bowing down to him.

"Master, everything is ready for your transformation!"Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

Not showing any surprise at the sudden appearance of the shadowy figure, the young master just nodded his head before continuing making his way towards the underground room that had become visible at the end of the underground passage.

"Master, do you need any help? I can carry you if needed-"

"No, I will walk on my own. If you want to do anything, you can make sure that nothing is missing for my transformation and check if any of my brothers happen to be up to anything!"

Brushing the shadowy figure aside as it tried to get closer and help him, the young master clearly did not enjoy the other party's helpful attitude as he said this to get rid of the other party.

"I understand…"

Freezing for a short moment, the shadowy figure swayed gently under the dim light given off by the close to non-existent light from the few torches present in the underground passage before disappearing in the direction that the young master was moving in.

"Damnable abomination! If not for the fact that the great master sent you to keep me safe, I would have long gotten rid of you…" Muttering this to himself as the shadowy figure disappeared, the young master showed a hint of disgust in his eyes for a short moment before focusing back on the difficult task of dragging his already weak body into the room located at the end of the secret underground passage.

…

To think that the young master would suddenly break through to the Nascent Soul Realm... And that shadowy figure… If I'm not wrong, it should have been some kind of artificial creature!

Because of this it should not have any divine sense or domain. Even then it's strength should still have reached somewhere around the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm from what I can see. This really makes me curious as to just what is up with this young master...

How did he suddenly reach the Nascent Soul Realm without having to face the Cloud Tribulation, where did the artificial creature guarding him come from, what is the transformation mentioned that he is about to go through about?

More importantly than all of this, who is the great master that the young master mentioned? The head of the Hollow Thunder Family… Or perhaps someone different…

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Watching the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family slowly dragging his weak body towards a large pair of doors at the end of the underground passage that had been opened by the shadowy figure just a few seconds earlier, Xuan Hao could not help wishing that the shadowy figure would return and help carry the young master. After all, with the young master's current speed, it would at least take him half an hour to make it to the end of the unground passage... And that is not considering whether or not his body would be able to survive for that long...

I really don't want to waste that much time watching this young master...

As the thought of watching the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family for the next half hour as he slowly made his way towards the large pair of open doors, Xuan Hao inevitably turned to look towards the large pair of open doors that the young master was making his way towards.

The quest given by the system is only about finding out about what the young master is up to. Not following him around... If I'm not wrong, the so-called transformation he wants to go through should be the thing that the quest wants me to find out about!

Swish~

Deciding to ignore the young master after realizing he had no need to follow him around any longer, Xuan Hao silently moved around the young master before reaching the large pair of open doors that the shadowy figure had disappeared inside of just a few seconds earlier.

"This... A formation? No... A demonic formation!?"

Standing in front of the large pair of doors, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face after seeing a demonic formation on the other side of the large pair of doors.

Even if he already knew that some people inside the Sky Empire like General Guan, dared cooperate with a demonic sect, he didn't expect for the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family to do this.

Not only was he cooperating with a demonic sect, but he had even gone as far as to hide a demonic formation inside the capital city of the Sky Empire!

Cooperating with a demonic sect in secret outside the capital was one thing, building a demonic formation inside the capital city of the Sky Empire was another.

No matter how high a mighty an old noble family like the Hollow Thunder Family was, Xuan Hao did not doubt that the imperial family would take action against them the moment they found out what the seventh young master was doing!

Is the transformation that the young master talked about earlier perhaps using this formation to turn himself into a demonic cultivator...?

Feeling like he was getting closer to understanding what the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family was planning, Xuan Hao began to carefully inspecting the formation that covered ever part of the underground room. Ignoring the shadowy figure motionlessly standing in a corner of the room looking towards the entrance.

At the very least, the shadowy figure had no way to find him. Even if its strength had reached somewhere around the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm according to Xuan Hao's quick inspection, it was still just an artificial puppet that had no divine sense or domain to support it.

Whoosh~!

Knowing that there weren't anyone inside the large estate that would be able to sense his divine sense after seeing that only the shadowy figure was inside the room on the other side of the large pair of doors, Xuan Hao decided to partially release his divine sense to cover the entire estate.

"Hm?"

Covering the entire estate with his divine sense, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he looked towards the demonic formation that had been carved into the floor, walls and ceiling of the underground room in front of him.

At first he had just thought that the demonic formation would be used to help the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family to transition from a normal cultivator to a demonic cultivator... But after his divine sense engulfed the entire estate, he discovered that there was another three similar underground rooms with similar demonic formations inside of them.

Not only did the other three underground rooms also have an artificial puppet similar to the shadowy figure guarding it, but there were also three other people in a similar state as the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family slowly making their way towards the demonic formation at the end of the secret underground passage that they were inside of!

"I see... The demonic formations are all connected together forming a single large demonic formation! If I'm not wrong, after the four demonic formations are activated, they will drain the cultivation base of the people activating it to serve as energy for activating the larger demonic formation!" Muttering this to himself as he observed the situation through his divine sense, Xuan Hao could not help looking back towards the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family.

From what he could understand with his limited understanding of formations, the 'transformation' that the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family talked about, should be him becoming a human shaped energy source for the larger demonic formation.Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

With this in mind, the constant break through in strength that the young master was experiencing together with three other unfortunate souls, should be to have them store as much energy as possible before they in the end would get turned into human shaped energy batteries to fuel the activation of the larger demonic formation.

Thinking about it like this, the artificial puppets standing guard at each of the four smaller demonic formations were likely not only there to defend the demonic formations, but were also there to make sure the human shaped energy batteries didn't escape after finding out what was happening to them!

Even if the artificial puppets would not fare well in combat against a normal Domain Lord who could use a domain to fight, they would be more than strong enough to keep any of the human shaped batteries from leaving...

[Side Quest: A Wild Young Master Appears! (Complete)]

[Description: The young master of the Hollow Thunder Family that is enemies with you friend Yi Min suddenly appeared in front of you and seems to be in a hurry... How suspicious... Investigate what caused the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family to act this way.]

[Reward: Divine Will Scripture]

"Ah!?"

Just as the thought about the fate of the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family and the rest of the unfortunate souls that were in the process of transforming into an optional state for helping activate the larger demonic formation appeared in his head, the quest from the system appeared in front of him. Showing that he had been correct when it came to the sad fate of the young master of the Hollow Thunder Family and the three other unfortunate souls.

Even if he could not understand what the larger demonic formation would do after it activated with his current understanding of formations, this did not matter when it came to the quest. After all the goal for his quest was not to find out about the large demonic formation hidden beneath one of the Hollow Thunder Family's estates. Instead, it was to find out about what the seventh young master of the Hollow Thunder Family was up to...

"Hehe, as long as I complete the transformation, I will no longer be left behind by my older brothers and I will finally have chance to become the next head of the family!"

"..."

Listening to the ramblings of the young master as he got closer and closer to the demonic formation, Xuan Hao could not help shaking his head. Already imagining the despair that young master would go through after finding out that he had been turned into a human shaped energy battery.

Even if he wanted to help him, there was nothing he could do with his current strength.

Increasing the capacity of someone's dantian that had the ability to carry the energy of an early-stage Foundation Establishment Realm Expert to suddenly having to carry the energy comparable to someone in the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm was not without consequences!

Be it the young master's dantian, body or soul. All three of them were on the verge of collapse and could not be saved without the help of some godly expert!

Other than this, the demonic formation that the young master was walking towards would also be able to artificially keep him alive as it drained the energy out of his body in an extremely painful manner over the period of a few minutes...

No matter what, they young master was not going to survive, something that was certain to end up alerting the Hollow Thunder Family!

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I should leave this place and find a good place to observe what is going to happen next before things start getting troublesome…

Not wanting planning to interfere with the demonic formation that was about to activate, Xuan Hao decided to leave the underground room with the demonic formation and the seventh young master of the Hollow Thunder Family inside of it.

In the first place, it was not his problem to deal with the demonic formation and he didn't really want to give away his identity to mess with a powerful demonic cultivator that dared to set up a demonic formation in the backyard of the imperial family.

Whoosh~

Silently making his way out of the large estate before finding a good place to observe the situation from afar, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he thought about what kind of reason a demonic cultivator would have to set up such a large scale demonic formation inside the imperial capital of the Sky Empire.

Even if most of the large demonic formation and the four smaller ones had been constructed by others, the core of the large demonic formation would still have to be made by the demonic cultivator who was behind the entire thing… Entering the Sky Empire to do something like this, the demonic cultivator had essentially put his life on the line to set up the demonic formation!

After all, even if the other party might be a powerful True Demon Realm demon cultivator, Xuan Hao doubted that the other party would be able to escape alive if he got trapped by the terrifying formation that guarded the capital city of the Sky Empire… And that was not mentioning the Soul Ascension Realm Experts present in the capital city…

"Still setting up a demonic formation with this risk… Just what is the goal of this formation… Harvesting the life force of the powerful cultivators residing in the noble district?" Muttering this to himself as he was left completely bewildered about the true purpose of the demonic formation, Xuan Hao could only shake his head and continuing keeping an eye on the large estate waiting for the demonic formation to activate.

All things considered; Xuan Hao doubted that the purpose of the formation was to harvest the life force of the powerful cultivators in the noble district. After all, for something like that to be possible, the demonic cultivator behind the formation had to be present to absorb the life force himself…

RUMBLE-!

Waiting around for what felt like an eternity watching the large estate of the Hollow Thunder Family, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing both of his eyes as the entire noble district began shaking violently like it had just experienced a massive earthquake.

"Wha-what is happening!? An earthquake!?"

"Ah-! T-the formation is actually showing signs of breaking!"

"Is the capital under attack!?"

Watching as the nobles and servants moving around the noble district all began panicking as everything around him lit up as countless formations activated to protect the different buildings, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit surprised as some of the formations guarding the different buildings of the noble district began breaking apart under the violent earthquake.

Normally, it would be hard for something simple like an earthquake to destroy a formation… But after investigating what had happened with his divine sense, he discovered that most of these formations were nothing more than a good light show. Only there to intimidate others and show off.

As for him using his divine sense inside the noble district now, Xuan Hao wasn't the slightest bit worried about doing this now. After all, at this moment, hundreds of different divine senses belonging to different experts swept over from all directions of the capital city the moment the earthquake took place to find out what had happened.

RUUUUMBLE-!

As the different divine senses began to investigate the earthquake that had taken place and trying to find the source, another more violent earthquake hit the noble district-Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

"W-why is the earth shaking…?"

"What is this- is the capital under attack!?"

Bang~

"Ah-! Where did that brick fall from!?"

However, different from the first earthquake caused by the demonic formation, this earthquake spread beyond the noble district and affected the area surrounding!

WHOOOSH-!

The moment the earthquake started affecting the area outside the noble district, a terrifying will suddenly descended upon the noble district before locking on to the large estate that was hiding the demonic formation below it.

This is the current emperor of the Sky Empire… Or perhaps the rumoured ancestor who already surpassed the first minor realm of the Soul Ascension Realm…?

Feeling the terrifying will descending before it locked on to the demonic formation in an instant, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine before retracting his divine sense to not get noticed by the other party.

Even if he was confident that the he would not get noticed due to the sheer number of people that had already begun showing up inside the noble district after the first earthquake took place, Xuan Hao didn't want to take any risks. Especially considering that the other party was someone who had reached the Soul Ascension Realm!

FWOOOSH-!

Not wasting any time after locating the demonic formation, the terrifying will that had descended gathered together into a sea of flames that directly descended towards the large estate that the demonic formation was hidden below.

"Ah-! M-mercy!"

"D-don't kill me!"

"Nooooo-!"

The people inside the large estate who had just managed to regain some sense of awareness after the two large earthquakes, could only scream in fear and beg for mercy as the sea of flames descend from above without giving them any chance to escape.

Given the sheer power of the sea of flames, everyone inside the estate were reduced to ash the moment they came in contact with it-

"Why is this happening!? Ahhh-!" "I should have taken another missio-"

The only two people who managed to stay alive for a little over a second inside the sea of flames, were the two spies who had both used a talisman that allowed them to form a shield strong enough to defend against an all-out attack of a Fourth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert.

Shortly after burning through the large estate and the people inside of it, the sea of flames came into contact with the demonic formation located below it before starting to slowly burn through the protective barrier that had been created by the formation to protect itself from the descending sea of flames trying to destroy it

RUUUUMBLE-!

As the two clashed with each other, the entire capital city and the area around it began shaking violently.

If not for the fact that the formation guarding the capital city had already activated to some degree and helped stabilize the situation to prevent the capital from suffering any more damage than it already had, it was obvious that the clash between the sea of flames and the demonic formation would have ended up reducing the entire capital city to rubble!

After all, this was a clash between two powers that had reached the Soul Ascension Realm…

"This… What in the world is the idea behind this demonic formation…"

Watching this scene taking place from afar, Xuan Hao could not help feeling confused as he watched the sea of flames slowly starting to break through the barrier that had been formed by the demonic formation.

Considering how difficult it had been to set up the demonic formation in the first place, it made no sense for it to just cause a few earthquakes before forming a defensive barrier to defend itself against the inevitable response it would get from the top experts of the Sky Empire…

Don't tell me… Is this perhaps a distraction…?

As this thought occurred to him, Xuan Hao quickly shook his head and dispelled this thought.

The demonic formation being a distraction did not make any sense. After all, it only caused a single Soul Ascension Realm Expert to act. Not to mention, there was far easier ways to cause a distraction that did not involve the demonic cultivator behind this matter risking his life to set up a formation inside the capital city!

"But… If it's not a distraction… Then what is the use of this formation other than wasting the time of one of the Sky Empire's Soul Ascension Realm Experts?"

Feeling that the formation had not fully been activated yet and it had another purpose outside of wasting the time of one of the Sky Empire's Soul Ascension Realm Experts, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes as he focused his attention towards the large hole in the ground that had appeared in the place where the large estate had been seconds ago.

The sea of flames were simply far too terrifying, the large estate of the Hollow Thunder Family had been directly reduced to a hole in the ground in the span of a few seconds…

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FWOOSH-!

As the sea of flames continued burning away the protective barrier around the demonic formation, the different experts from all over the Sky Empire below the Soul Ascension Realm had already started showing up to watch the spectacle in person. Hoping that they would be able to gain some insight and improve their own cultivation from watching the mystical techniques of a Soul Ascension Realm Expert.

Not focusing his attention on the sea of flames like the rest of the cultivators present, Xuan Hao instead focused all his attention on the demonic formation. Wanting to figure out if all the demonic formation could do was create a defensive barrier to resist a Soul Ascension Realm Expert for a short duration.

Hm? The demonic formation seems to be changing…

Because of this, Xuan Hao was the first to notice that the demonic formation been hidden away below the sea of flames had rearranged itself during the short time since the sea of flames had descended from above to destroy it.

"This… "

Observing the demonic looking formation symbols below the barrier rearranging themselves, Xuan Hao barely managed to get a glimpse of a faint connection established between the demonic formation and four other locations around the noble district.

The demonic formation below the estate of the Hollow Thunder Family is only a part of an even larger formation!? I have to get away from here!

Swish-!

Realizing that the demonic formation with power enough to resist a Soul Ascension Realm Expert was part of an even larger formation that seemed to cover the entire noble district, Xuan Hao felt a shiver run down his spine before deciding to leave the noble district without any hesitation-

RUMBLE-!

However, before he could leave the noble district, the four other demonic formations linked together with the demonic formation about to get destroyed by the sea of flames.

WHOOSH-!

As the five large demonic formations linked together into a single massive demonic formation, the sea of flames that had descended was easily repelled by the now far more powerful barrier that protected the demonic formation.

Whoosh~

Following the sea of flames being repelled, a figure made of flames manifested in the air above the demonic formation before turning into a burly man standing more than three meters tall.

"A Soul Sacrifice Formation? You actually want to sacrifice me to increase your own cultivation? From the looks of it, you are quite desperate to actually do something like this in the capital."

Frowning visibly after seeing the large formation that had already isolated the entire noble district from the rest of the capital city, the more than three meter tall man smiled disdainfully towards the centre of the massive formation where an normal looking old man had appeared at some point in time after the noble district had been isolated by the Soul Sacrifice Formation.

"Hehe, can you blame me? My lifespan is about to run out and you people won't ever leave the capital for more than a few hours at most… So… I can only come here personally…"

"Hmph! You think you can kill me before this Soul Sacrifice is broken!? Haha! How laughable! Even if your strength is above mine, there is no way for you to kill me in such a short period of time!"

Laughing disdainfully as he said this in response to the old man who had appeared out of thin air at the centre of the massive demonic formation, the actions of the Soul Ascension Realm Expert that had been caught inside the Soul Sacrifice Formation spoke a different story as he covered himself in a divine armour and crushed several different talismans to form all kinds of protective barriers around himself.

No matter how confident the Soul Ascension Realm Expert was, it was obvious that he did not dare be the slightest bit careless against the old man.

After all, other than the fact that the old man should be stronger than him, the other party was also close to death due to his lifespan running out.

Out of all the opponents one could end up facing, someone who's lifespan was about to run out, was by far one of the worst!

…

"This is… A Soul Sacrifice Formation!? Just what demonic cultivator is bold enough to set up such a formation in the middle of the capital!?"

"I have no idea… But given the strength of this formation, its impossible for us to escape…"

"You don't say… But from what those two said, the old man should be even stronger than the Cardinal…"

As the old man and Soul Ascension Realm Expert were both talking with each other, the people watching this scene from afar all began fearfully talking to each other as they realized just how dangerous their current situation was.

"…"N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

Listening to the different conversation taking place between the different Domain Lord Realm Experts that had showed up, Xuan Hao managed to learn that the more than three-meter-tall man floating in the air above the hole in the ground that had once been an estate of the Hollow Thunder Family was none other than the current cardinal from the religious order following the god of fire also know as the Follower of the Fire God.

Not only that, but he also managed to learn about the Soul Sacrifice Formation that he was currently caught inside of.

According to what little information he could gather from the more knowledgeable Domain Lords present, the Soul Sacrifice Formation was a terrifying demonic formation that was used by some demonic cultivators in the True Demon Realm to increase their strength.

Using it, the Soul Sacrifice Formation could increase the strength of a True Demon Realm Expert by absorbing the souls of powerful cultivators and refining them into a pure form of soul energy that could then be used by the True Demon Realm Expert to increase his or her strength.

The demonic cultivator who had appeared in the capital and set up the Soul Sacrifice Formation had very clearly done so to refine the Cardinal and use the massive soul energy from this to break through to a higher realm and increase his lifespan!

"Hm?"

Just at this moment, the demonic symbols all over the dome shaped barrier formed by the Soul Sacrifice Formation began shinning with a demonic red light-

BOOOOOOOOM-!

Not even a second later, a terrifying explosion that sent a shiver down the spine of Xuan Hao could be heard from outside the dome shaped barrier covering the noble district as the strong looking barrier looked like it was about to break apart at any moment.

"Wha-!? What is happening!?"

"What kind of power is this…?"

"Look! The Soul Sacrifice Formation! It's getting attacked from the outside!"

"Haha! It looks like the capital's guardian formation has already been activated! Even if this barrier formed by the Soul Sacrifice Formation is powerful, there is no way it will be able to resist the attack of the capital's guardian formation for more than a few minutes!"

Feeling first-hand the terrifying might of the guardian formation protecting the capital of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao understood that he would have no way to resist it with his current strength!

"Ha… The guardian formation laid down by the ancestor of the Sky Empire truly lives up to its fame. Even this Soul Sacrifice Formation I spent over a hundred years secretly laying down will at most last a few minutes… Looks like I won't be able to chat with you anymore little fire boy. Hehe~"

The moment the Soul Sacrifice Formation got attacked, the old man standing at the centre of the massive demonic formation let out a sigh as he said this with a look of awe on his face when mentioning the guardian formation.

Crack~

As a loud cracking sound echoed out across the entire noble district, the old man standing at the centre of the Soul Sacrifice Formation changed from a normal looking old man to a demon.

In the end, when he finished his transformation, a demon standing more than 20 meters tall had replaced the old man who had been standing at the centre of the Soul Sacrifice Formation just a second earlier.

From the massive pair of bat like wings that had sprouted from his back, to the large pair of demonic horns that had emerged from his head. The old man had become a true demon without any human features remaining!

ROOOOAR-!

Swish-!

Letting out a loud roar filled with killing intent after his transformation had ended, the terrifying demon took out a giant axe from its interspatial ring before charging towards the cardinal floating in the air close to the centre of the noble district.

BOOOOM-!

Not even a second later, the massive demon and the cardinal clashed with each other.

"Ahh-!"

"H-how can we survive this…?"

"E-escape! Everyone, run to the edge of the noble district!"

As the demon and cardinal began fighting, the people of the noble district all began panicking before escaping towards the edge of the noble district to avoid getting caught up in the fight between these two powerful experts.

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Boom-boom-boom!

As most of the people present in the noble district all began escaping towards the edge of the Soul Sacrifice Formation to get as far away as possible from the battle between the cardinal and the demonic cultivator, the only people left behind to watch the fight were a few of the more powerful Domain Lord Realm Experts that didn't escape to the edge and instead kept their attention on the fight taking place.

"If there is a chance, we should all try our best to lend the cardinal a hand in dealing with this demonic cultivator!"

"""…"""

As this suggestion was made by a Domain Lord who had entered the Seventh Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, the rest of the Domain Lord's all looked at each other for a short moment before nodding in agreement to what the Seventh Stage Domain Lord said.

Deep down, all of these people understood that their chances of survival would be close to zero if the demonic cultivator won and successfully managed to use the Soul Sacrifice Formation to break through to a higher realm.

After all, there was no way that the demonic cultivator would let all of them go after breaking through. Especially considering that he had a Soul Sacrifice Formation around…

For this reason, all of the Domain Lords present agreed that they should take action to help the cardinal if a chance presented itself.

…

Looks like everyone here is ready to join the fight the moment the opportunity presents itself…

Watching the group of Domain Lords who remained close to the place that the fight was taking place, Xuan Hao could not help turning his attention towards the cardinal and the demonic cultivator fighting at the centre of the noble district.

At this point in time, the centre of the noble district that had once been filled with all sorts of estates and other buildings had already been reduced to rubble. The only few buildings and estate that remained standing were the largest ones that were protected by powerful formations strong enough to withstand the battle between the two existences above the Domain Lord Realm.

Those should be the main estates of those large noble families like the Hollow Thunder Family and the Earth Dragon Clan…

Narrowing his eyes as he thought about this while looking towards the few remaining buildings at the centre of the noble district, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about just how strong these noble families were.

Not to mention the fact that no one from any of these large noble families had appeared to help the cardinal, Xuan Hao had a feeling that they were related to the appearances of the demonic cultivator inside the capital city.

After all, no matter how strong the demonic cultivator was, Xuan Hao didn't think that he would have the ability to lay down the Soul Sacrifice Formation over more than a hundred years without getting discovered by the large noble families who essentially had estates located directly above the locations of the different parts of the formation. Especially considering how easy it had been for him to discover the demonic formation hidden beneath the large estate belonging to the Hollow Thunder Family!

Even if they might not have discovered the demonic formation at the start, they would have surely found out about it after more than a hundred years.

"Ha… Looks like I ended up getting caught in a rather troublesome situation by following after that young master from the Hollow Thunder Family…" Muttering this to himself as he realized that the different large noble families were involved in the construction of the Soul Sacrifice Formation, Xuan Hao could not help regretting that he had followed after the young master from the Hollow Thunder Family.

BANG!

As the sound of the cardinal getting smashed into the ground echoed out from afar, Xuan Hao and the rest of the Domain Lords present all got a clear look of the current state of the cardinal.

From head to toe, the more than three meter tall man was covered in blood with one of his arms missing. Even if it was not possible to discern the current state of a Soul Ascension Realm Expert from physical injuries alone, it was obvious to everyone present that the cardinal was already close to loosing against the demonic cultivator… And this was only after a little more than 20 seconds of fighting!

At this point, it was obvious how big the difference in strength between the cardinal and demonic cultivator was. Even if the Soul Sacrifice Formation was not likely to last more than a minute under the constant attack of the capitals guardian formation, the cardinal was not even likely to survive for another 30 seconds in his current state…

Whoosh-!N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

As everyone were feeling a wave of despair wash over them after seeing the state of the cardinal, the demonic cultivator directly swung his massive axe down towards the cardinal inside the crater that had formed around him after he had smashed into the ground-

Swish-!

BANG-!

However, before the axe of the demonic cultivator could reach the cardinal who had yet to recover from the impact, a small silver sword appeared out of thin air beside the massive axe descending towards the cardinal before striking it with a power that caused the already surprised demonic cultivator to momentarily lose control of the axe as it ended up not hitting the cardinal.

Whoosh-!

Understanding that he had been given another chance at life, the cardinal quickly jumped out of the crater before distancing himself from the demonic cultivator while recovering his injured body at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"WHO!?"

Different from the cardinal who was filled with happiness after having escaped a certain death situation, the demonic cultivator was filled with killing intent as a terrifying divine sense swept through the entire noble district trying to locate the person who had made a move just now.

However, no matter how hard he searched for the person responsible for the attack just now, he could not find the other party. The most he could find was the silver sword that had attacked him having been discarded on the ground after the sneak attack just now.

This… Just who is it that made a move? The only people present outside the cardinal that have some ability to interfere in the fight are those insects in the Domain Lord Realm… But… The strength behind that sword was clearly above the Domain Lord Realm! Don't tell me… Was it one of those noble families that decided to save the cardinal!? Hmph, I knew trusting them was not a good idea!

Narrowing his large pair of blood red eyes, the demonic cultivator turned his attention towards the only remaining buildings left inside the centre of the noble district.

Obviously, the strength of a Domain Lord was far too weak to have stopped his attack in time just now, the only people with the ability to stop him were the people from the large noble families!

Whoosh~

Transforming back into a normal looking old man, the demonic cultivator understood that he would not be able to kill the cardinal in time before the Soul Sacrifice Formation was broken by the capital's guardian formation.

Even if he was confident in killing the cardinal who had only broken through to the Soul Ascension Realm just recently before the Soul Sacrifice Formation could be broken, the same could not be said if he had to deal with another Soul Ascension Realm Expert who was hiding in the shadows.

Riiiiiiiip-!

Taking out a mystical scroll that gave of an aura that made the void around it shake, the demonic cultivator ripped the mystical scroll in half before the space around him ripped apart and formed a stable spatial tunnel that easily by passed the capitals guardian formation.

"Hmph! Good! Even if I only have a few hundred years left, I will be sure to remember what happened today!"

Not wasting any more time after that, the demonic cultivator entered the spatial tunnel before disappearing from the noble district filled with an unbearable killing intent that made some of the weaker Domain Lords close to the battle collapse on the ground shaking in fear.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM-!

Having lost the support of the demonic cultivator, the Soul Sacrifice Formation that now only operated with the help of the small energy batteries that had been used to activate it and bait over the cardinal broke apart almost instantaneously under the attack of the capital's guardian formation.

"Everyone, out of the way!"

"Haha! Freedom! I actually survived!"

"I will never return to the noble district again! It's far more dangerous compared to the rest of the capital!"

As the Soul Sacrifice Formation covering the noble district broke apart. The people who had escaped to the edge of the formation did not waste a single second as all of them tried their best to get as far away as possible from the noble district.

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

Looks like everything worked out...

Looking at the Soul Sacrifice Formation breaking apart under the tyrannical power of the capital city's guardian formation, Xuan Hao could not help letting out a sigh of relief as he glanced towards the cardinal who was still in the process of recovering the arm he had lost during the fight with the demonic cultivator.

Whoosh~!

Using the time when no one were paying attention, Xuan Hao used his divine sense together with a small string of qi to pull the silver sword that had been buried beneath some rubble from a nearby building that had collapsed on top of it after the collapse of the Soul Sacrifice Formation.

Just a few seconds earlier, he had decided to make a gamble and help out the cardinal by stopping the demonic cultivator from killing him. Hoping that doing so would allow him to continue hiding his identity and strength... And from the way that the cardinal sometimes glanced towards the large estates belonging the large noble families and the way that the few people who had emerged from those large noble families were looking suspiciously at each other, it was obvious that they all thought that the person responsible for saving the cardinal belonged to one of their noble families...

In the end, it looked like his plan to save the cardinal without anyone figuring out who was behind the attack and the cardinal at the last moment, was perfect!

Swish~

Knowing that it would no be a good idea to stay inside the noble district any longer, Xuan Hao decided to quietly blend together with the large number of people trying to leave the noble district now that the Soul Sacrifice Formation had been destroyed.

Together with the fact that his strength was still only in the Domain Lord Realm, he managed to leave the noble district without any issues... Of course, it was also due to the fact that most of the Domain Lords who had observed the battle just now were doing the same as him.

Although... Their reason for leaving quickly was not so much about getting away from the noble district and was more about them returning back home so they could enter seclusion and try to comprehend something from the fight they had just witnessed.

After, a fight between a Soul Ascension Realm Expert and a True Demon Realm Expert was incredibly useful to someone in the Domain Lord Realm. Especially those who did not have a way to come into contact with the Soul Ascension Realm and had a hard improving after reaching a bottleneck.

Even if these kind of people might not be able to directly break through a minor realm due to witnessing the fight. At the very least, they would be able to increase the strength of their foundation and lay the groundwork for a smooth breakthrough in the future.

...

Shortly after Xuan Hao left the noble district, a handsome middle-aged man covered in a regal armour appeared floating above the noble district as he scanned the place where the battle had taken place just a short time ago with his divine sense.

"Hmph... To think a demonic cultivator managed to sneak inside the capital and even managed to set up a Soul Sacrifice Formation without being noticed. At least it looks like one of those half dead people decided to help out..." Muttering this to himself as he narrowed both his eyes while looking towards the only remaining buildings left standing at the core of the noble district, the handsome middle-aged man soon disappeared before reappearing beside the more than three meter tall cardinal who was still in the process of recovering from the battle that had just taken place.

"Y-your excellency!?"

Seeing the handsome middle-aged man, the cardinal showed a shocked expression on his face followed by a fearful one that quickly disappeared in less than a second. However, from this alone, it was obvious that the cardinal was scared of the man who had appeared.

"Tell me everything that happened since you arrived at the noble district, I don't want you to leave out a single detail!"

"Yes!"

Hearing what the man said, the cardinal didn't hesitate as he told him everything that had happened since his arrival in the noble district to deal with the demonic formation that had appeared out of thin air. From the appearance of the demonic cultivator to the mystical scroll he had used to escape, the cardinal didn't leave out a single detail in his explanation to the mysterious man!

The reason for this, was that the man standing in front of him was none other than the ancestor of the Sky Empire, an existence that had already surpassed the first minor realm of the Soul Ascension Realm!

Even if the three religious organisation were all trying to take away power from the imperial family, they still did not dare to truly fall out with them... And the main reason for this was the ancestor of the imperial family currently standing in front of him!

The difference in strength between even a single minor realm in the Soul Ascension Realm was massive and it could be seen from how easily the cardinal had been beaten up by the True Demon Realm Expert just a few seconds earlier...

"For a True Demon Realm Expert of this level to enter the capital... Even if he had help from the inside and his lifespan was about to run out, he should not have the courage to enter the capital. Hah... It looks like something is really wrong at the Frozen Wasteland... And from the looks of it, it should not just be some old True Demon Realm Expert awakening like most of the rumours state..."

Frowning visibly as he said this to himself with a worried expression on his face after listening to what the cardinal said, the ancestor of the imperial family did not believe that the only reason that the demonic cultivator attacked the capital was to kill a Soul Ascension Realm Expert and use the soul energy refined from a Soul Ascension Realm Expert to break through and increase his lifespan.

If that demonic cultivator wanted to do something like that, it would be far easier for him to target those Soul Ascension Realm Experts wandering around by themselves instead of targeting one in the capital of the Sky Empire that was protected by the guardian formation that had the ability to trap and kill him.

"That scroll he used to create a spatial tunnel and escape, it had the ability to ignore the spatial lock of the guardian formation without me even noticing it... The person who made that scroll should at least be someone skilled in spatial manipulation who crossed the Third Tribulation...

Cardinal, I have something important to do, I will take my leave now. Recover your strength as quickly as possible... In case something happens..."

Swish-!

Before the cardinal had any time to respond, the ancestor of the imperial family had already disappeared after leaving those ominous words behind.

"..."

Leaving the cardinal to stare out into empty space as he wondered just what kind of disaster the ancestor of the imperial family had foreseen.

"Your excellency! Are you alright!? "

Only after hearing the familiar voice of his right-hand man and most trusted subordinate did he manage to somewhat recover again-

"Ah! Your arm! Your excellency, why does your arm look like a baby arm!? What happened- Don't tell me, is this a curse left behind by that demonic cultivator!? Oh, what horror! To embarrass his excellency like this, what a despicable demon!"

Bang!

However, after hearing what his dear subordinate said next, the cardinal could not help himself from sending him flying with a faint killing intent flickering through his eyes for a split second.

Baby arm!? What do you know! My arm needs to regrow in some way!

Swish-!

Not waiting for his subordinate who had ended up buried beneath some of the rubble belonging to the different already ruined buildings he had crashed into along the way, the cardinal jumped into the air before making his way back towards the main church belonging to the Followers of the Fire God.

For now, the most important thing was to figure out what the ancestor of the imperial family had meant with what he had said before leaving in a hurry.

Even if the cardinal did not feel that the attack of the demonic cultivator was odd considering how close the other party was to running out of lifespan, he still decided to take what the ancestor of the imperial family said to heart.

After all, the other party was far older and more experienced compared to him and also had a far better understanding of the Frozen Wasteland and the demonic cultivators that settled the inhospitable land of the Frozen Wasteland.

Maybe I should contact another branch and see if they have any information about what is happening in the Frozen Wasteland...

Thinking this to himself, the cardinal increased his speed further. Wanting to find out just what the ancestor of the imperial family was worried about.

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Leaving the noble district, Xuan Hao decided to find somewhere to keep a low profile for a few hours before starting to move around the capital again.

Even if he was sure that no one had spotted him when he took action from the reaction of both the cardinal and the demonic cultivator, he could not count out the fact that the people from the large noble families who had hidden away during the fight had noticed him.

After all, even if they did not observe the outside through their divine sense during the fight, they should at the very least be aware of each other's strength to some degree and understand that it was any of them that took action to save the cardinal but someone different.

The reason they didn't come out to clarify things should be due to the simple fact that the cardinal would not die before the Soul Sacrifice Formation broke like they had originally planned. Not to mention, doing so would pretty much be the same as them admitting to working together with the demonic cultivator to kill the cardinal!

Even if they ended up helping out the demonic cultivator, there would be no way for them to kill the cardinal in time at that point in time. Not to mention the fact that there was also an unknown Soul Ascension Realm Expert hidden somewhere inside the Soul Sacrifice Formation. No matter what, the best option for these noble families at that point in time was to stay quite and not clarify that it wasn't them stopped the axe of the demonic cultivator.

All things considered, at most they would have to stay quiet inside the capital for a few hundred years and wait for the lifespan of the demonic cultivator to run out...

"But... Even if they keep a low profile and stays inside the capital city for the next few hundred years, I'm sure they will try and find out the identity of the person who ruined their plan to kill the cardinal of that fire god religion..." Muttering this to himself as he looked back towards the noble district that was surrounded by a large number of experts at the moment, Xuan Hao couldn't help feeling curious as to what had caused these large noble families to work together with a demonic cultivator and risk getting wiped out by the imperial family of the Sky Empire.

No matter what reason they had for doing this, it was certain that it should have been something incredibly precious. Maybe even to the point that it could help improve the strength of the peak experts in those noble families... But from the reaction of the demonic cultivator when I attacked, the experts from those noble families should also have reached the Soul Ascension Realm...

"Something that can help a Soul Ascension Realm Expert increase his strength..."

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao realized that he still knew far too little about the Soul Ascension Realm. Maybe while waiting for things to calm down, he could try and ask those people from the independent sects if they had any information about the Soul Ascension Realm.

Whoosh~!

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao began making his way back towards the small inn that he had left just a few hours earlier. Considering how much he was going to help them out during the upcoming meeting, he was certain that they would not refuse this simple request. After all, it was not like he would be asking about their sect's foundational cultivation technique or anything like that.

...

A little before the Soul Sacrifice Formation had been broken by the guardian formation of the capital city, the group of experts happily celebrating the fact that they got a powerful expert in the Late Stage of the Domain Lord Realm to help them out for the upcoming meeting all froze upon feeling the large earthquakes followed by a terrifying demonic aura enveloping the entire capital city.

"W-what in the world is happening in the capital!? Did a demonic cultivator infiltrate the capital!?

"Not only that... But from the strength of this aura, it should at the very least be a demonic cultivator in the True Demon Realm!

"True Demon Realm... Why did such a powerful demonic cultivator enter the capital city? Does he perhaps have a death wish?"

"Who knows... Looks, the guardian formation is already activating!"

WHOOOOSH-!

As the group of experts quickly used their power to sober up before discussing the origin of the terrifying demonic aura, it did not take long for them to turn their attention towards the massive formation that was activating above the capital city.

The formation that had been the main defence for the Sky Empire against any outside forces, a formation that had caused the death of multiple Soul Ascension Realm Experts back during the time when the ancestor of the Sky Empire had first established the Sky Empire!

Even if the demonic aura was terrifying, compared to the guardian formation of the capital city, it was insignificant...

"So, this is the guardian formation... To think I managed to see it in action today..."

"Indeed... Even someone in the Soul Ascension Realm would die the moment they are caught up in this formation, let alone someone at the Domain Lord Realm like us two..."

"Hah... Truly worthy of its reputation as the Sky Empire's strongest protection against outside attacks. The Ancestor's reputation as a Grandmaster Formation Master is indeed valid...

Whoosh~

As everyone in the small inn felt awed by the massive formation that drowned out the demonic aura almost instantaneously, millions of golden arrows formed in the air above the noble district that had been covered by the Soul Sacrifice Formation.

"Hm? Everyone! Looks over there! The guardian formation is attacking the source of the demonic aura!"

Even from where they were standing, one of the Domain Lords inside the small inn still managed to notice the massive cluster of golden arrows that had formed in the air above the noble district located towards the centre of the capital city-

BOOOOOOOOM-!

Before everyone present in the inn had enough time to turn around to see the arrows that the Domain Lord Expert had mentioned, the sound of countless arrows piercing through the air followed by a loud explosion echoed out across the entire capital city.

"""..."""

Feeling the power behind the explosion just now as it tried to destroy the source of the demonic aura, everyone inside the inn felt a shiver run down their spine as they looked at each other in horror.

The power behind the explosion caused by the millions of golden arrows just now was something far beyond their level of comprehension. Even the Domain Lord Realm Experts present felt insignificant in front of that power. Knowing that in front of the power just now, they would be no different from a random mortal. Having no power to even put up the slightest bit of resistance as they would only be able to wait to die.

Even when they felt the terrifying demonic aura just now, they didn't feel this sense of helplessness or despair.

"The ancestor of the imperial family... Truly worthy of his reputation..."

Among the group, the only one who barely managed to say something as the golden arrows reformed above the source of the demonic aura before launching another attack was the Sixth Stage Domain Lord that had just come outside after having felt the terrifying demonic aura and the guardian formation activating.

Compared to the rest of the people present, he had already come into contact with people in the Soul Ascension Realm before and didn't feel the same level of despair as the rest of the people present.

But... Even then, he still felt shaken to the core upon realizing just how weak he was compared to the formation that had been set up by the ancestor of the imperial family.

If the formation is already this strong, how strong is the ancestor, has he perhaps already surpassed the third tribulation... Maybe even the fourth...?Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

According to most rumours and information that was out there about the ancestor of the imperial family, the ancestor should be someone who had surpassed the second tribulation and reached the second minor realm of the Soul Ascension Realm... But from what he saw made him certain that the ancestor of the imperial family was not just someone who had surpassed the first two tribulations of the Soul Ascension Realm!

Thinking about this as he observed the formation continuously launching attacks that would be able to easily kill off some weaker Soul Ascension Realm Experts, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord who had just emerged from the inn could not feel a shiver run down his spine.

BOOOOOOOM-!

BOOOOOOOM-!

BOOOOOOOM-!

As the terrifying attacks continued descending towards the demonic aura that had appeared inside the capital. The entire capital grew quiet as everyone looked in the direction of the noble district filled with fear, awe, respect, terror and many other emotions.

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Making his way towards the inn that the group of experts from the different independent sects were located, Xuan Hao decided to walk along the busy streets of the capital instead of using a movement technique to reach the inn as quickly as possible.

After all, rushing away from the noble district like that, might end up catching the attention of some of the experts from the Sky Empire that had begun to show up around the noble district. Especially considering that he was the only person in the Domain Lord Realm heading towards the outer part of the capital...

Well, I can at least use this time to read through the Divine Will Scripture. Even if I can't use my domain inside the capital city without gathering unwanted attention, I should at the very least still be able to cover the book in my hands without any problems...

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao secretly took out the Divine Will Scripture he had gotten from completing the side quest that ended up trapping him inside the Soul Sacrifice Formation.

Whoosh~!

Using his domain to hide the book in his hands from any prying eyes, Xuan Hao opened the Divine Will Scripture with a curious glint flashing past his eyes.

Even if he had gotten the Divine Will Scripture from the system, he had absoloutly no idea what the Divine Will Scripture was about, it could be powerful cultivation mantra that could help him on his path towards reaching the Soul Ascension Realm or simply end up as some kind of weird religious text...

No matter what it was, Xuan Hao felt that it shouldn't be anything bad considering the dangerous situation that the system had ended up putting him.

Even if the matter of the demonic cultivator did not seem that dangerous on the surface due to the Soul Sacrifice Formation only being able to hold on for a little over a minute, had he ended up revealing his identity and presence by fighting the demonic cultivator.

Not only would he have to worry about the large noble families who were cooperating with it taking revenge in the future if this happened... But he would also have to worry about the ancestor of the imperial family possibly viewing him as a threat and deciding to just eliminate him on the spot to prevent future problems!

At the very least, everyone seemed to believe that it was someone from one of the large noble families that had decided to save the cardinal at the last moment, something Xuan Hao was more than happy to see happen considering that the last thing he wanted at the moment was to fall out with the different major powers inside the capital of the Sky Empire...

"Hm? This is... A divine sense technique...?"

Feeling a hint of surprise after opening the first page of the Divine Will Scripture and reading through the introduction of it, Xuan Hao could not help unintentionally whispering this to himself with a shocked expression on his face.

A divine sense technique... To be honest, Xuan Hao had never heard about a divine sense technique before and had never imagined that there would actually be techniques that could be used through one's divine sense...

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao forgot about the matter of visiting the inn with the experts from the different independent sects to ask about the Soul Ascension Realm and instead found a quiet place to sit down inside one of the many public parks that could be found all over the capital city to read through the Divine Will Scripture.

...

As Xuan Hao started to read through the Divine Will Scripture, the sun in the sky disappeared before being replaced by the moon. However even when it had already grown late at night, Xuan Hao simply ignored his surroundings as he was fully absorbed in the Divine Will Scripture. Allowing night to turn into day as time flowed peacefully with no one coming to interrupt him during this period of time.

"How amazing... To think something like this existed..."

The sun already high in the sky above the capital, Xuan Hao only looked away from the Divine Will Scripture after spending close to an entire day reading through the small book no more than a few pages thick.

Even then, Xuan Hao had still not manged to comprehend the technique record inside the Divine Will Scripture and had only barely managed to read through it over this period of time. The main reason for this being that the Divine Will Scripture was written in a mix between the ancient language and the current language in use across the Ewaria Continent.

Luckily for Xuan Hao, his comprehension of the ancient language had already improved enough for him to read through the Divine Will Scripture without any issues. Although... It did take him far longer compared to if the Divine Will Scripture had been written in the current language of the Ewaria Continent.

At least he had also managed to increase his proficiency in the ancient language in this way. Making him feel like the time when he was able to fully understand the ancient language that had once been used during the ancient era was growing closer.

Back to the divine sense technique that he had discovered inside the Divine Will Scripture...

Divine Will... Indeed, a fitting name for a technique found inside a book called the Divine Will Scripture...

Shaking his head as he thought this to himself, Xuan Hao recalled the information about the Divine Will technique written about in the Divine Will Scripture.

Divine Will, a divine sense technique that allows the user to condense his divine sense together into a powerful will that can be used to directly attack the soul of others. The strength of the technique does not depend on the cultivation of the user, but instead draws its power from the soul. The stronger the soul, the more powerful the Divine Will created will be!

The description of the divine will technique was rather simple and it was not something hard to learn. From what Xuan Hao had managed to analyse about it so far, the divine sense technique did not really have any requirements on cultivation realm and even someone in the Qi Condensation Realm would be able to comprehend it if their comprehension was strong enough.Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

Although the technique itself would not really be useful before a cultivator managed to reach the Peak of the Core Formation Realm where a cultivator would start give birth to divine sense.

In simple terms, divine sense was an extension of a cultivators soul and allowed them to see the world around them in far more detail compared to normal mortals. The divine will technique made use of this extension of soul power and gathered it together to form a single brute attack that could be used to attack someone's soul directly.

Even if the divine will technique would not be able to kill opponents who were at the same level, it would still be able to force them to use their energy to defend their soul. In a battle, this would easily end up spelling the end for someone as they were now forced to focus a large part of their energy towards defending their soul.

"Although it's not a good killing technique, it's a great auxiliary technique that will be useful for fighting... Hm... I should give this to the Elder Song when I get back..." Muttering this to himself as he put away the Divine Will Scripture, Xuan Hao understood very well how important something like the Divine Will Scripture would be for the Star Shattering Sect.

If all the elders in the Nascent Soul Realm and above could learn this technique, the Star Shattering Sect's strength would increase by another level. Not to mention, Xuan Hao had also discovered that by condensing one's divine sense together into a divine will, one would also inevitably end up increasing the strength of one's soul!

Not only would the strength of the elders in the Nascent Soul Realm and above increase by training this divine sense technique, but their cultivation speed would also increase!

Together with the qi rich environment of the Shattered Star Peaks, it would only be a matter of time before more Domain Lord Realm Experts emerged inside the Star Shattering Sect!

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help smiling to himself as he thought about how much the Star Shattering Sect had improved over the past few years, he could not help looking forward to how the Star Shattering Sect would change after he handed the divine sense technique over to Elder Song and allowed him to teach it to the rest of the elders from the sect.

But before all of that, I will have to reach the Soul Ascension Realm to ensure the safety of the Star Shattering Sect...

Narrowing both of his eyes as he thought about the strength displayed by the ancestor of the imperial family, Xuan Hao understood that the Star Shattering Sect would not be able to start truly expanding its influence without someone powerful in the Soul Ascension Realm backing it up.

After all, even if he could fight someone in the Soul Ascension Realm with his current strength, there was still a difference between himself and someone who had reached the Soul Ascension Realm...

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Feeling even more determined to reach the Soul Ascension Realm after having finished reading through the Divine Will Scripture, Xuan Hao stood up from the small bench he had been sitting on for the last day before making his way towards the remote inn where the group of experts from the different independent sects across the Sky Empire had gathered together.

If he really wanted to start breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm, the most important thing was to first gather as much information he could about the realm. After all, currently, his information on the Soul Ascension Realm was extremely limited.

Even to this day, he still had no clear idea about the different minor realms of the Soul Ascension Realm and only understood that the Soul Ascension Realm was split into 6 minor realms. Different from the usual nine minor realms that were present in the rest of the major cultivation realms so far.

"Hm?"

Reaching the remote inn within a short period of time, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit surprised when he discovered that the group were all sitting outside the inn chatting happily with each other.

Considering that they were trying to not get seen by anyone from the large kingdoms controlling most of the sects inside the Sky Empire and have them take action against them before the start of the sect alliance meeting, it was quite surprising to see all of them carelessly sitting together in small groups outside the inn chatting with each other.

Well... Considering that I'm helping them now, they should not care too much about any retaliations from those large kingdoms of the Sky Empire.

After all, no matter how powerful those kingdoms are, the strongest person inside them would have only reached the Late Stage of the Domain Lord Realm... And there is no way they would be willing to carelessly offend another Late Stage Domain Lord. Especially if that Domain Lord was actually someone above the Seventh Stage of the Domain Lord Realm...

Thinking about this to himself as he made his way towards the remote inn, Xuan Hao avoided the group of people sitting outside and directly entered the inn before heading towards the strongest person among the group of experts from the independent sect that was currently inside a room somewhere at the second floor of the inn, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert!

No matter what, Xuan Hao had a feeling that it would be best for him to seek out the strongest expert present if he wanted to find out something about the Soul Ascension Realm.

"Hey... Isn't that-"

"Yeah... It's that senior..."

"He already returned... Does he perhaps have something to ask the other seniors at the Domain Lord Realm before the meeting?"

As Xuan Hao made his way inside the remote inn before heading up the stairs towards the room where the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert was located, the group of experts sitting in front of the inn and inside of it all began eagerly chatting with each other as they looked in Xuan Hao's direction filled with curiosity.

""...""

Of course, the other Domain Lord Realm Experts who were present also noticed Xuan Hao... But after seeing that he was heading up towards the second floor of the inn without greeting them, they decided to keep quiet.

"What do you think the senior is here for?"

"Hm... If I'm not wrong, he should be here to talk with that old man about something, I just have no idea what it could be he want to ask him about."

"Maybe something related to the upcoming meeting? After all, the senior did leave without hearing about our plans for the meeting, he could have returned this time to get a clear picture of our plans before the meeting officially starts."

"Indeed... That sounds reasonable..."

As the Domain Lords quietly chatted with each other about what reason Xuan Hao might have to show up now, Xuan Hao arrived in front of a rundown wooden door. Even without using his divine sense to see what was on the other side of the door, Xuan Hao could still feel the powerful aura belonging to a Peak Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert leaking out from the other side as the person behind the door had not fully restrained his cultivation base due to him being in the process of cultivating.

Knock-

"Come in."

Barely manging to knock on the door, Xuan Hao felt the aura belonging to a Peak Sixth Stage Domain Lord disappear before a voice echoed out from the other side of the door before the door in question slowly opened. Showing a small room with only a simple bed and a small table inside it, the old man who was the leader of the group of independent sects could be seen sitting in the middle of this small, dilapidated inn room.

Even from a glance, it was obvious that the old man had not expected to see him from the surprised look that flashed past his eyes for an instant after seeing him.

"Greetings Senior Xuan, my name is Xu Bao, but most people just refer to me as Elder Xu. If you have any questions regarding the meeting, you can feel free to ask away, I don't really have much to do before the meeting..."

"Greetings Elder Xu, I'm indeed here to ask you about something, but it's not about the meeting... Instead, it's about the Soul Ascension Realm!"

"Information on the Soul Ascension Realm...?"

"Yes!"

Seeing the confused expression on Elder Xu's face as he tried comprehending why Xuan Hao had asked him about the Soul Ascension Realm, Xuan Hao found a simple chair hidden away in the corner of the mostly empty inn room before sitting down and waiting for Elder Xu to respond to him.

"The Soul Ascension Realm... I really don't know much about the Soul Ascension Realm, but I can tell you what I know, Is that fine?"

"Yes, I just want to know about the Soul Ascension Realm.

"Okay..."

Having already formed the idea of Xuan Hao being from one of the sects from the ancient era that had hidden away, he could not understand why someone like that would ask him about the Soul Ascension Realm.

In the end, he concluded that the reason should be that Xuan Hao was testing him to see if he was also someone from a hidden sect. After all, if he could guess Xuan Hao was from a hidden sect, the other party would also be able to guess that he was from a hidden sect.

Given how much information he had about the Soul Ascension Realm compared to an ordinary person in the Domain Lord Realm. Even exceeding that of an ordinary Soul Ascension Realm Expert from an empire like the Sky Empire, it would be quite easy for Xuan Hao to tell that he should also be someone from a hidden sect!Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Maybe this would even be a chance for his sect to connect back with their original main sect again with the help from another hidden sect!

Showing a determined expression on his face after understanding this, Elder Xu was fully prepared to show off his understand of the Soul Ascension Realm to this senior!

"..."

What on earth is with this expression? Why does he look like he is about to enter a life and death battle?

Sitting on the chair watching the constantly changing expression of Elder Xu, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit confused over what was happening inside the head of the old man.

Even without knowing what he was thinking about, Xuan Hao felt certain that the other party should have misunderstood something...

Maybe I should ask him to make sure he has no misunderstanding about-

"Senior! Do you want me to start from the process of reaching the first stage to face the first tribulation or just a direct explanation of the six minor realms and the six tribulations!?"

Interrupting Xuan Hao's train of thought, Elder Xu excitedly moved forward as he said this with a passionate expression on his face.

"..."

Not knowing what to say when Elder Xu suddenly came at him with such an excited expression, Xuan Hao almost felt certain that the old man had misunderstood something. The only problem was that he had no idea what he had misunderstood. After all, he was clearly talking about the Soul Ascension Realm and asking him what he wanted an explanation on regarding the Soul Ascension Realm...

"You can just start from the beginning, you can start with how a Domain Lord reaches the Soul Ascension Realm."

"Yes! Starting from the begging is indeed better, this would also make it easier for me to give a proper description of the Soul Ascension Realm!"

Could I have misunderstood, and this old man is just excited to talk about the Soul Ascension Realm?

Deciding not to think too much about it, Xuan Hao decided to just listen to Elder Xu for now...

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"To start off with, to reach the Soul Ascension Realm, one will first have to go through a tribulation. However different from the Cloud Tribulation one would have to pass through to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, the tribulation one will have to go through to reach the Soul Ascension Realm is far more terrifying!

The tribulation one will face when breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm is the first of seven tribulations that one will have to endure all seven tribulations to surpass the Soul Ascension Realm. From what I know, together, the seven tribulations are referred to as the Immortal Soul Tribulation!

Not only that, but one will only have a limited time to prepare between each tribulation! From what I know, the time one can delay between each tribulation can be no more than five thousand years!"

"The Immortal Soul Tribulation…"

Listening to what Xu Bao said, Xuan Hao could not help feeling surprised. Even if he had already expected for the Soul Ascension Realm to include some kind of tribulation from what little knowledge about the realm that he had managed to gather so far, he had never expected that it would be like that.

Having to face a deadly tribulation to break through a single minor realm was already hard enough, but one would also be forced to break through after staying at the same realm for five thousand years or die in the process!

But then again… Five thousand years was a long period of time. Especially for someone like Xuan Hao who was barely around thirty years old at this point in time.

Even if others might be worried about having enough time to prepare for the different tribulations, Xuan Hao was not the slightest bit worried about this with his current cultivation speed.

Now that I think about it, can't you directly skip past the Soul Ascension Realm if you are strong enough? Perhaps the ancient geniuses who could fight and kill Soul Ascension Realm Experts I saw during the vision shown by the book in the Thousand Wind Palace were preparing to directly ascend the Immortal Soul Tribulation in a single step…

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about this as he looked towards Xu Bao patiently waiting for him after seeing that he was deep in thought.

"For the Immortal Soul Tribulation, what is the fastest speed you have heard of someone ascending the tribulation before?"

"The fastest speed at which someone passed through the Immortal Soul Tribulation…? Hm… From what I know, there is a few ancient records in my sect that mention something about the geniuses of the ancient era being capable of directly transcending the tribulation in a single step without having to prepare themselves between each of the seven tribulations… But heavenly geniuses like that have never appeared since the ancient era…

Outside of these heavenly geniuses, the fastest person I have heard about that passed through the Immortal Soul Tribulation is someone know as the Eternal Empress of Slumber that managed to ascend the Immortal Soul Tribulation at the age of one thousand… But that was already before I was born. Even the Sky Empire wasn't around when that figure rose to power!"

Hearing what Xu Bao said, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he heard the name of the person who had the record of surpassing the Immortal Soul Tribulation the fastest in the current era.

Eternal Empress of Slumber... Why do I have a feeling that I have heard about this person before?

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao instead turned his attention towards the more important part of the information that Xu Bao had given him.Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

During the ancient era, the powerful geniuses had indeed managed to pass through the Immortal Soul Tribulation in a single step without waiting between each of the different tribulations!

But… Given that those powerful geniuses of the ancient era had the strength to kill Soul Ascension Realm Experts in the Domain Lord Realm and had still not chosen to pass through the Immortal Soul Tribulation, Xuan Hao understood that he would definitely not be able to pass through the entire tribulation with his current strength.

Not to mention, the Soul Ascension Realm Experts that those powerful Domain Lords fought were clearly far stronger than the Soul Ascension Realm he had encountered so far. Even the demonic cultivator from earlier was far weaker than them. Only the power from the guardian formation of the capital seemed to have reached the level of strength that those Soul Ascension Realm Experts fighting with those top geniuses of the ancient era had!

"…"

Thinking that he would need to get strong enough to deal with something as powerful as the guardian formation of the Sky Empire's capital city in the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that he still had some way to go before he could reach break through to the next realm.

At the very least, if he followed the same path as those ancient geniuses, he would be able to directly skip past the Soul Ascension Realm and reach an even higher realm!

"Elder Xu… Do you perhaps know how those ancient geniuses from the ancient era managed to get strong enough to directly ascend the Immortal Soul Tribulation in a single step?"

"No… If I did, I would be using whatever methods they were using to improve my own strength. If I had to guess, I would think that they continued strengthening their domain after reaching the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm instead of breaking through to the Soul Ascension Realm, as for how they would continue strengthening their domain… I have no idea…"

Seeing Elder Xu shaking his head helplessly as he said this, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly to himself.

Indeed, if Elder Xu knew how those ancient geniuses managed to increase their strength to such a terrifying level that they would be able to directly skip past the Soul Ascension Realm, he would certainly be using them to increase his own strength!

From the looks of it, he would have to look for those methods himself in the future. For now, the only way he had to increase his strength further was to increase the strength of his domain by comprehending the different Daos that had been integrated into his domain…

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"Is there anything else I can help with senior…?"

Seeing that Xuan Hao had been standing deep in thought for a few minutes without saying anything after hearing what he said, Xu Bao could not help growing nervous. Thinking that he might have messed up and caused the senior to doubt his identity as someone from a hidden sect

"No, there is nothing more than this, you were a great help to me! I will see you again in a few days during the meeting for the sect alliance."

"Yes senior! I will be waiting eagerly for that day!"

Hearing what Xuan Hao said, Xu Bao could not help breathing out a sigh of relief before he eagerly escorted Xuan Hao all the way out of the inn under the confused expressions of the experts from the different independent sects who were all nervously waiting downstairs.

"Brother Xu… Did the senior request something easy for us to accomplish?"

"Elder Xu, what did the senior ask us for in return for his assistance?"

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"Elder-"

Following Xuan Hao leaving the inn, the different Domain Lords present all rushed towards Elder Xu who had just returned back inside the inn with curious expressions plastered all over the faces.

"This-"

Looks like this is going to take some time to explain…

Not expecting for him to get surrounded the moment he stepped back inside the inn, Xu Bao had no idea what to say as he could only helplessly look at the curious Domain Lords surrounding him together with the eager Nascent Soul Realm Experts looking towards him from a distance with the same level of curiosity as the Domain Lords.

If not for the fact that these people were only in the Nascent Soul Realm and didn't dare rush up to him like the Domain Lords, Xu Bao was almost certain that he would have ended up getting squashed to death by this large group of eager people.

…

Leaving the inn after getting a better idea of what the Soul Ascension Realm was, Xuan Hao did not go anywhere specific and instead began aimlessly walking around the capital as he thought about how he was going to increase his strength enough for him to have the ability to directly pass through the Immortal Soul Tribulation.

Even if he could continue increasing his strength by comprehending the different Daos that he had already integrated into his domain, he also understood that this process was extremely slow and would take a long time.

Even with his current cultivation speed being far faster than others, he would still need at least a few thousand years before he could reach a level where he would have the ability to deal with a powerful defensive formation like the guardian formation of the capital!

Although this speed was still incredibly fast when compared to others, to Xuan Hao who was still under a hundred years old at the moment, the prospect of him spending over a thousand years stuck in the same Domain Lord Realm was not something he was looking forward to doing. Not to mention, it might not be something he had the luxury of doing…

He still had to inspect the ancient seal below the ruins of the Raging Flame Sect after he returned from capital. Depending on whether or not the seal was damaged and how much, he might not have a thousand years to reach a level strong enough for him to pass through the Immortal Soul Tribulation!

The ancient seal was by far the thing that Xuan Hao was the most worried about. Especially after he found out that the creature sealed by the seal was actually related to the Dao of Corruption…

"Have you heard? Apparently the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom is going to give a public lecture at the square in front of the Black Mist auction house!"

"Black Mist auction house? Isn't that the auction house under the Sky Mist Kingdom…? Are you sure this is not just a way to attract more customers for his auction house?"

"Yes! I heard that he is indeed going to hold a public lecture! Even if it won't last for an hour, a lecture from someone in the Domain Lord Realm is something hard to come by. Especially for people like us…"

"Indeed… Guess we will postpone the job for today and check out the lecture. Hopefully we will be able to improve our strength after the lecture."

"Haha! I knew I could count on you! Let's go!"

Swish~

A public lecture by a Domain Lord? Maybe I should go and take a look…

Overhearing the conversation between two young men talking with each other, Xuan Hao could not help stopping for a moment as he looked in the direction that the two of them were running with a curious expression on his face.

Ever since he had reached the Nascent Soul Realm, he had never gone to any of the lectures held by the elders of the sect.

Considering that it had been a long time since he had gone to one and he was not getting any closer to solving his problem of how to improve his strength by just walking around, Xuan Hao thought about it for a few seconds before ultimately deciding to join the public lecture that was going to be held in front of the Black Mist auction house.

All things considered, it would also be a good opportunity for him to get a better understanding of another Domain Lord's comprehension of the Domain Lord Realm and how he had managed to progress.

If he was lucky, he might even be able to make some progress on how he could increase his strength further… Well… One could always dream…

Swoosh~

Not waiting around after having come to a decision, Xuan Hao turned around before following after the two young men who were eagerly making their way towards Black Mist auction house while happily chatting with each other along the way.

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Following behind the two young men as they made their way through the busy crowd of people, it did not take more than a few minutes before the Black Mist auction house appeared in the distance together with a large gathering of people who were eagerly waiting in front of the auction house. Most of these people being of the younger generation with only a few older people waiting around.Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

They should be waiting for the Domain Lord from the Sky Mist Kingdom to show up and begin the lecture…

Understanding at a glance why this group of young people were waiting in front of the auction house, Xuan Hao decided to find a place to wait until the Domain Lord in question showed up. After all, he did not really want to stand in front of the crowded entrance to the auction house waiting for the Domain Lord to show.

No matter how much he wanted to join in on the public lecture of this Domain Lord, there was no way he would ever act like the group of young people who had all huddled together excitedly in front of the entrance to the auction house while they were waiting to see the Domain Lord from the Sky Mist Kingdom…

"Hm? Looks like something is finally happening…"

Waiting for around ten minutes at a nearby cafe as the group of people huddling together in front of the auction house didn't show the slightest sign of moving, Xuan Hao suddenly noticed that the group of people that had remained immovable in front of the auction house started moving.

"Everyone, look! The supreme elder is here!"

"Wah!? It's really him…"

"Everyone, back up and make space for senior!"

Listening to the loud voices of the group of people that had gathered to wait in front of the auction house, it did not take more than a few seconds for Xuan Hao and the rest of the people waiting for the public lecture to start to realize what was happening.

Swish~

Following a path going straight through the group of people towards the centre of the square opening up, Xuan Hao narrowed both his eyes as he watched a kind looking old man making his way through the crowd of people with a confident expression on his face.

From a glance, it was obvious that this old man was the supreme elder from the Sky Mist Kingdom that everyone here had been waiting for… What's more Xuan Hao realized that this old man was actually someone in the Fifth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!

Although Domain Lord Realm Experts inside the Sky Empire were far more common and easier to be found, most of the Domain Lords present in the Sky Empire were between the first and third stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Anyone above that were an expert with influence spanning the entire Sky Empire and could even be considered someone that ordinary Domain Lords would have to look up to. For the person doing the public lecture to be someone like this in the Fifth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao really didn't expect someone this powerful to do something like this for people that weren't a part of his own kingdom or power…

Maybe he wants to promote his auction house or something along that line?

Curiously looking towards the old man as he made his way towards the centre of the square before coming to a stop, Xuan Hao turned to look towards the Black Mist auction house that the old man had walked out of.

Indeed, if he wanted to promote his auction house, doing something like this should be a good idea. After all, it was certain that the people who joined the public lecture would spread the word of it and where it had been held. In turn, word of the auction house would quickly start circulating inside the capital.

Although this method was not as effective as putting a precious spiritual herb or powerful artifact up for auction to attract attention, it was definitely a far cheaper method to do things. Especially considering that the lecture would not last more than an hour…

"Hello everyone! I'm the current supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom and the current head of the newly opened Black Mist auction house. The lecture today will be hosted by me in hopes that all of you here will help me out in return by spreading the word of my auction hall and maybe take a look around inside after the lecture ends!"

"Of course senior, it's the least we can do!"

"Haha, supreme elder, don't worry! I will make sure to tell everyone I know about the Black Mist auction house after today!"

"I will make sure to visit the Black Mist auction house after the lecture and buy some pills! Better to support a senior who is willing to give a lecture for us juniors than those greedy alchemist shops!"

Listening to the old man as he directly stated his attentions followed by the large gathering of people all happily agreeing to help out, Xuan Hao had no idea what to say as he could only watch the group of people who had come to listen to the lecture start praising the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Sect for a straight ten minutes.

Even worse was the fact that the elder showed no intentions of stopping the people praising him as he just happily smiled while listening to the group of people praising him.

"""…"""

Having realized that the old man showed no signs of starting the lecture after over 15 minutes of restless praising and bootlicking had been done, the group of people slowly stopped what they were doing.

At this point in time, all of them realized that the supreme elder from the Sky Mist Kingdom would not be the one to stop them from continuing and they had to do so on their own if they wanted to hear an actual lecture before the sun started going down…

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"Ahm... Let's get this lecture started now that everyone is ready!" Feeling the countless pairs of eyes locking on to him as he heard the people praising him quite down, the supreme elder from the Sky Mist Kingdom smiled awkwardly for a split second before calmly announcing the start of the lecture without caring about the few people who rolled their eyes upon hearing him say this.

"To start off with, in today's lecture, I will do a brief description of the Qi Condensation Realm, Foundation Establishment Realm. Following this, I will do a more in-depth explanation of the Core Formation Realm and the Nascent Soul Realm and explain to you about my experience when going through those two major realms. At the end, I will allow all of you to see my domain as I will recount my breakthrough to the Domain Lord Realm.

Now, to start of with, the Qi Condensation Realm-"

Understanding that it would be best not to delay the lecture any more than he already had, the supreme elder from the Sky Mist Kingdom gave a brief introduction to what he would be talking about before officially starting the lecture.

In turn, this caused the unsatisfied people waiting for the lecture to forget about their dissatisfaction. All of them taking no more than a few seconds to sit down and listen to the lecture.

All things considered, even if the old man had dragged out things for a little over fifteen minutes listening to people praising him, he was still someone in the Domain Lord Realm. Even if they were dissatisfied, they could not word out their displeasure. Especially considering that this was a public lecture that the senior had set up on his own!

...

Listening to the lecture while sitting in a small cafe not too far away from the centre of the square that the public lecture was being held, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face as he continued listening to the old man's explanation of the different cultivation realms.Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

"This... Is worse than I expected..." Glancing away from the lecture taking place and instead focusing back down at the cup of tea in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help shaking his head as he said this with a disappointed expression on his face.

Just from listening to the Domain Lord's explanation of the Qi Condensation Realm and the Foundation Establishment Realm so far, Xuan Hao could tell that his understanding of the two realms were far below that of himself!

If it was already like this at the earlier cultivation realms, how much worse would this person's understanding of the Nascent Soul Realm and the Domain Lord Realm be compared to him?

Now that I'm already here, I should see if his comprehension of the Domain Lord Realm will be of any use-

"Hello! Is there anything I can help with?"

"Yeah, I want this, this and this!"

Feeling like he might have ended up wasting time coming to listen to the public lecture given by the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit sad as he decided to order three different slices of cake to enjoy while waiting for the old man to reach the end of his lecture and start talking about the Domain Lord Realm and how he had reached the Domain Lord Realm.

"Here you are~"

"Thank you."

Chomp~!

Hm? This is better than I thought... Maybe it's because I haven't eaten anything for the past few months?

Biting into the first slice of cake that arrived, Xuan Hao's eyes could not help sparkling for a short moment before he consumed the first slice of cake in a matter of seconds.

Chomp~! Chomp~!

Not long passed before the remaining two slices of cake similarly disappeared into thin air, causing the few people sitting on the table beside him to look over with a surprised expression on their faces.

"Ah... Can I get another three slices...?"

Xuan Hao paid these people no mind and instead called out to the server who had just taken a new order after having given him the three slices of cake walked past him again.

"Another three slices- Ah! Y-you are already done!? Ahm... I mean, Of course I will!"

Understanding that Xuan Hao should be a possible gold mine for their small cafe, the server quickly nodded her head with a happy expression on her face before running off to the kitchen before returning with more cake for Xuan Hao.

Unknowingly, time slowly began passing as Xuan Hao enjoyed all the different cakes that the cafe had to offer. The server who had at first looked at Xuan Hao as a possible gold mine had also started looking at him as some kind of monster, as she wondered where all the cake, he was eating disappeared to...

"Now, the lecture is about to reach an end... But before that, I will do a quick demonstration of my domain and talk briefly about my experience when reaching the Domain Lord Realm!" As time had flown by with Xuan Hao enjoying all sorts of delicacies, the lecture was also slowly coming to an end with the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom saying this with a proud expression on his face.

"Finally... Reaching the important part..."

Having not really paid too much attention to the lecture due to just how inferior the other parties understanding of the Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation and Nascent Soul Realm was compared to himself, Xuan Hao could not help showing a happy expression on his face after hearing that the supreme elder would finally start talking about some of his experiences in the Domain Lord Realm.

"..."

Standing at the side of Xuan Hao's table waiting for another order to come her, the server could not help showing a surprised expression on her face upon noticing that Xuan Hao was not ordering anything.

I-is it finally over...?

The server could not help exclaiming happily inside her head after this thought appeared. Even if she had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, it was still exhausting for her to constantly run back and forth with new dishes and desserts for Xuan Hao all the time without a single second of rest.

Although Xuan Hao was definitely a customer that would bring in a lot of profits to the small cafe, the server could not help wishing for it to end so she could take a break...

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Whoosh-!

"Wah!? What is happening!?" As the server was still happily celebrating over the fact that Xuan Hao had stopped ordering, she was suddenly caught off guard when the powerful aura of the domain belonging to the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom began spreading out to cover more than half of the square before coming to a stop only a short distance away from the small cafÃ.

Of course, this was not the limit of the supreme elder's domain, but he didn't want to spread out his domain too much and offend someone by accident, he had only used his domain as a demonstration for the people listening to his lecture in the middle of the square to get a clear feeling over just how powerful his domain.

Part of him doing this was because he wanted to large group of people to start praising him, while the other part of him wanted to genuinely allow these still weak cultivators to come into contact with his domain to get a clearer understanding of what a domain was so they would have an easier time establishing their own pseudo domain in the future.

After all, if they really did, they were sure to remember this favour in the future and help spread the name of the Black Mist auction house! Even better if his teachings ended up helping one of them reach the Domain Lord Realm, as he would end up with one more friend in the Domain Lord Realm!

No matter what, there was only benefits to him doing something like this... And this was also the reason why he was showing off his domain without holding back as he began giving a brief explanation of how he reached the Domain Lord Realm and what kind of domain he had. Even going as far as informing them how he would cultivate to increase the strength of his domain.

In the first place, the way he cultivated would not really be of any use to anyone other than those who cultivated a similar domain as him... And even if they did end up copying him from what he said today, he made sure to keep out the more important parts!

"How interesting..."

Looking at the domain that covered the centre of the square in an ethereal mist, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face after he realized that he could not see the supreme elder or the people that had been in the middle of the square any long.

Without the help of his divine sense or domain, there would be no way for him to see the situation taking place inside the domain!

"A mist domain, derived from the Dao of Mist..." Muttering this to himself as he observed the domain in close detail without alerting the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom inside, Xuan Hao could not help feeling amazed at the mist domain's ability to hide people.

Even if its combat strength should be weaker compared to a more combat oriented domain like a fire domain or a sword domain, the mist domain made it close to impossible for someone in the same realm to kill the other party if he wanted to hide by merging together with the mist domain.

As for what the supreme elder was talking about, Xuan Hao and the rest of the people outside the mist domain could still hear him clearly due to the domain not isolating the sounds coming from inside the mist domain.

When the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom started explaining how he would cultivate to increase his strength to the group of people sitting in front of him filled with admiration listening to everything he said, Xuan Hao was also listening with an interested expression on his.

Compared to the way he had cultivated during the Domain Lord Realm by comprehending the different Daos that his domain had been derived from, the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Empire was different from him!

Instead of comprehending the Dao of Mist that his domain was derived from, he had instead decided to comprehend the different Daos that were related to the Dao of Mist and combine his new understanding of these related Daos together with his domain of mist to strengthen it and allow it to grow closer to the Dao of Water that the Dao of Mist existed under.This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Hearing about this, Xuan Hao began inspecting the domain of mist in front of him more closely and did indeed discover a different dao present inside the domain outside of the Dao of Mist. The Dao of Rainwater!

Although the presence of the Dao of Rainwater was faint, it formed a perfect cycle inside the domain that allowed it to constantly increase in strength, while at the same time strengthening the Dao of Mist present inside the domain. Inevitably causing the strength of the domain to grow and the cultivation realm of the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom to rise!

"..."

Seeing just how smart this elder was, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that his current domain was rather lacking.

Compared to the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom whose domain would continually increase in strength by itself, Xuan Hao had to constantly comprehend the different Daos that had been integrated into his domain to increase in strength.

For the first time in quite some time, Xuan Hao felt like an inexperienced junior when he compared his own domain with the mist domain of the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom.

Even if he was far stronger than the other party, Xuan Hao did not feel embarrassed to say that his domain was lacking when compared to the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom.

To be honest, given the constant increase in strength that the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom's domain was going through, Xuan Hao would not be surprised if the other party ended up reaching the Soul Ascension Realm in the future... Or even beyond that!

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"Ehm... Excuse me..."

"Hm?"

Hearing someone nervously asking him from the side, Xuan Hao turned around before coming face to face with the nervous server who had been standing beside him for the last five minutes wondering whether or not he was going to order something new or leave.

"Ah! I forgot to pay... Here you go!"

Thinking that the server was just there for payment, Xuan Hao had no idea what the cake and other delicacies he ate cost, so he ended up casually taking out a dozen or so spirit stones before handing them over to the server who froze on the spot after seeing the spirit stones, she had been given.

"Well then, I will get going."

Swish-!

As Xuan Hao left the small cafe after paying, the server could only speechlessly stare down at the dozen or so spirit stones Xuan Hao had given her.

Even if low grade spirit stones were not rare in the capital city of the Sky Empire, the one's Xuan Hao had handed over were far above the level of low grade spirit stones!

T-this... This is far too much!Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Not knowing what to do with the sudden windfall, the server looked around herself and saw that no one were looking as she quickly hid half the spirit stones she had been given before making her way back towards the kitchen.

Even if she did not have anything against the owner of the cafÃ, there was no way she was going to just let that person enjoy all of these spirit stones by himself. Especially considering that the other party was the one who had forced her to work without break for the past few hours!

Hmph! This is what you get for taking away my break!

Thinking this to herself, the server was filled with smiles as she handed over the remaining spirit stones to the owner who happily took away the spirit stones before dashing away to put them in a more secure location.

...

Leaving the small cafÃ, Xuan Hao didn't immediately leave the square. Instead, he began walking toward the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom who was making his way back into the Black Mist auction house with a crowd of people following after him.

From a glance, it was obvious that the old man's method of holding a public lecture to attract more attention towards his recently opened auction house had worked... And he didn't even have to find some sort of precious artifact or spiritual herb to do this. All it cost him was an hour time!

Even if it was a less useful method, it was obvious that he was more than pleased with the result or it could be that he just enjoyed being praised by the people who were eagerly following behind him with smiles on their faces...

Entering the Black Mist auction house, Xuan Hao ignored the different artifacts and spiritual herbs that were put in display all around the auction house and gently pushed aside the crowd of people that had gathered around the supreme elder from the Sky Mist Kingdom as he made his way towards the old man.

"Hm? You are..."

Noticing Xuan Hao the moment he used his domain, the happy smile on the supreme elder's face froze as both his eyes narrowed before looking towards Xuan Hao who had approached him.

"You can just call me Bright Sword; I just have a few things I want to ask you about regarding the lecture you held just a few moments ago... If you don't mind it of course."

"Bright Sword, I don't think I heard about you before... Are you perhaps new to the Sky Empire?"

"Yes, I'm from the Explorer Union and just came here recently."

Not intending to reveal his identity, Xuan Hao just used the name he had used back when he had first registered with the Explorer Union to get the location of the spiritual herb needed to awaken Qing Yi's special physique. Although the name didn't really provide much in terms of identity due to Bright Sword not really having much of a reputation, it could at least help him with the fact that he was a completely unknown Domain Lord.

After all, the Explorer Union was spread out across the entire continent and had thousands of different Domain Lord Realm Experts under it that roamed across the continent in search of different ruins and other special locations that could help improve their strength and serve as a way to increase their status inside the Explorer Union.

"I see, you can just call me Elder Meng, should we move somewhere more private to talk?"

"Sure."

Nodding his head in understanding after hearing that Xuan Hao was someone from the Explorer Union, the supreme elder of the Sky Mist Kingdom who introduced himself as Elder Meng waved the group of people around him away before signalling for a few people ensuring the safety of the auction house to help make sure no more people ran over to praise him.

The main reason why he was not suspicious of Xuan Hao was the fact that he could clearly feel that the other party was far stronger than him.

Although it was normal for some weaker Domain Lords to be unknown, it was close to impossible for the more powerful Domain Lords to remain unknown for a long period of time. After all, it took hundreds if not thousands of years to reach their current realm and for them to improve took even longer.

For them to remain unknown for such a long period of time, they would have to isolate themselves from the world!

In any case, getting to know another Domain Lord and possible making a new friend that was stronger than himself, was something Elder Meng was more than happy to do. Even if it ended up delaying the opening ceremony he had planned to further increase the reputation of his auction house, it could always wait until later. At most he would have to do another public lecture...

"..."

Not expecting for Elder Meng to just accept his identity so easily, Xuan Hao was a bit taken aback as he followed him inside a large luxurious room that was isolated from the rest of the auction house.

"So... What is it you wanted to ask me about? Hm... Let me guess, you are new to the Sky Empire and want to ask a local like me about the current power structure of the place and which forces would be best to avoid? Right?"

Feeling a bit taken aback by what Elder Meng said, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit taken aback for a moment as he realized that there would not really be any other reason for a Domain Lord from the Explorer Union who had just recently entered the Sky Empire to seek out an unknown Domain Lord from the Sky Empire...

"Yes... That and something different..."

Given that he was currently using this identity, he could only give a wry smile to Elder Meng, who quickly showed a triumphant smile after hearing Xuan Hao saying this.

All things considered, Xuan Hao did indeed feel a bit curious about the current power structure of the Sky Empire. After all, the only thing he knew about it so far, was the imperial family at the top. Followed by the three religious organisations and the different noble families from the noble district.

Outside of these three major powers, he didn't really know anything about the other powers that existed inside the Sky Empire.

To be honest, even though there were tens of thousands of different kingdoms in the Sky Empire, with hundreds of them having a Domain Lord leading them, he still had no real idea about the different kingdoms of the Sky Empire nor did he have an idea what the strongest kingdom under the Sky Empire was...

The only thing he knew something about, was the different experts recorded in the book Yi Min had given him... But considering that none of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts were recorded inside of it, he would not find it surprising if some of the more powerful experts with more influence in the Sky Empire had erased their name from the book entirely. Even then, there were still a few powerful kingdoms that had been mentioned in the description of a few of the more powerful Domain Lords...

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao turned his attention back towards Elder Meng who was similarly thinking about something-

"Ah! Sorry for that my friend, I was a little lost in thought there for a second, I guess you would also want to know about the different ancient ruins and other interesting locations in the Sky Empire for exploration later... Well then, should we start with the more powerful forces that would mean certain death for Domain Lords like us to offend?"

"Sure... That would be a good place to start..."

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"To start off with. Avoiding the three large religious organisations, the imperial family and the large noble families are all a good idea, as all of them are supported by someone in the Soul Ascension Realm!

Outside of this, there are countless smaller forces inside the Sky Empire, the most important of which are the current three strongest kingdoms of the Empire, the Dark Sky Kingdom, the Blood Sky Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Sky God.

All three of them are under one of the three religions, with the Kingdom of the Sky God having lost a lot of territory over the last few years due to the Archbishop from the Order of the Sky God in charge of the kingdom suddenly disappearing. If not for the fact that the Church of the Plague God suddenly appeared and took control of over a dozen kingdoms, it was likely that the Kingdom of the Sky God would have ceased to exist…"

"Church of the Plague God? They took control of over a dozen kingdoms!? How did those three large religions allow something like this to happen?"

Hearing about the Church of the Plague God after a long time, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit surprised when he suddenly learnt that they had taken control of over a dozen kingdoms close to the border between the core and border region of the Sky Empire.

At the very least he now understood why the Church of the plague God had disappeared from the Azure Sky Kingdom and the surrounding kingdoms that had been trying their best to deal with their sudden intrusion.

From the looks of it, the Church of the Plague God should have moved all their people over to these kingdoms to resist the attack of the three religions that had already taken control over most of the faith inside the Sky Empire…

"Yeah, I also just learnt about this a few months ago. Apparently, a few years ago, the Church of the Plague God tried to take over several kingdoms all around the border of the Sky Empire but had no real success.

Because of this, the three religions stopped paying any attention to them and only sent their Archbishops to check up on the matter ever few months if they managed to take control of a small kingdom.

However, after a few years of things being like this, one of the Archbishops from the Order of the Sky God went missing. Not a long time after that, one of their strongest experts at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm was killed by the Cardinal due to him being a spy from the Church of the Plague God!

Hah… Out of all the religions, the one who had it the worst is the Order of the Sky God that ended up losing two of its Archbishops in a short period of time. Especially after the two other religions took advantage of this weakness to take away territory from the Kingdom of the Sky God and some of the other kingdoms under the Order of the Sky God. Forgetting about the threat of the Church of the Plague God. In the end allowing them to take advantage of this lack of attention to take control of a rather large kingdom before rapidly extending their control to the surrounding kingdoms before the other religions even had a chance to respond and stop them before they managed to successfully establish themselves inside the Sky Empire…!

Now… On to the different powers that exist below these Soul Ascension level powers-"

Listening to what Elder Meng said, Xuan Hao had no idea what to say upon hearing how the Church of the Plague God had managed to successfully establish themselves inside the Sky Empire.

Even if he had expected for the Church of the Plague God to be strong, he had not expected for them to directly take control of over a dozen kingdoms located just around the border to the core region of the Sky Empire without the other three religions even having a chance to respond in time to stop them.

From the looks of it, among the three- now four religions of the Sky Empire, the Church of the Plague God should be the most difficult to deal with in the future…

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao focused his attention on what Elder Meng who was in the process of explaining the countless different powers that existed inside the Sky Empire that would be a good idea to avoid.

…

"Given that your strength should at least be in the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm from what I can tell, there aren't that many other forces that you will have to be worried about inside the Sky Empire.

Even if there are a few independent forces with Peak Domain Lord Realm Experts like the Iron Sky Kingdom in control of most of the spiritual metal circulating through the Sky Empire, you should be able to easily avoid them."

After spending close to half a day explaining the different weaker powers existing below the one's currently in control of the Sky Empire, Elder Meng finally finished his long and detailed explanation of the different powers inside the Sky Empire and some of the special places that would be a good idea to visit. Allowing Xuan Hao to gain a far better understanding of the Sky Empire compared to what he had learnt before and also giving him a few locations that would be a good idea to visit of his way back to the sect after everything in the capital had finished up.

No matter how useful the book Yi Min had given him and how many records he had managed to read through about the Sky Empire, it was all inferior when compared to the detailed description of the current power structure that Elder Meng had given him.

Not to mention gaining a better understanding of the different powers he had already learnt about beforehand, he also managed to learn who were allied with and if there were rumours of them having reached a higher realm than the one recorded in the book Yi Min had given him.

Even without having talked much with Elder Meng, it was obvious to Xuan Hao that this old man was a rather special person. Not only did he have an extensive understanding of the Sky Empire, but he had also come up with a way for his domain to increase in strength by itself!

"Hm? Is there something else you want to ask? I still have some time if there is anything more you are curious about…"

Seeing Xuan Hao not saying anything after he had finished talking, Elder Meng could not help saying this as he curiously looked towards him. Wondering if there was anything more Xuan Hao wanted to know about the Sky Empire that he might have forgotten to talk about earlier during his extensive explanation of the different powers and more special locations inside the Sky Empire.

"Ah? Ah! Yeah, there was actually something I wanted to know something about, but it's not related to the Sky Empire. The thing I want to know more about is your domain... Or to be more specific, your way of integrating a different domain into it."

Realizing that he had remained silent for a good five minutes going over the information that Elder Meng had given him, Xuan Hao could not help being taken aback for a short moment before asking the question that had been on his mind ever since he had seen Elder Meng first show off his domain in the public square outside the Black Mist auction house.

Even if he had managed to examine the domain from afar and had some ideas about how he had done things, he could never be certain about it, as he had never used his divine sense to observe the domain in detail.

Not to mention, Xuan Hao already understood just how difficult it was for someone to integrate two domains together into a single domain after he had integrated his sword domain and ice domain into a single domain.

The stress put on the soul was simply not something a Fifth Stage Domain Lord like Elder Meng could endure!

Of course, this just resulted in Xuan Hao being far more interested in finding out how he had done it. After all, standing in front of him in person, he could clearly feel that Elder Meng's soul should not be any stronger than an ordinary Domain Lord Realm Expert at his cultivation realm!

With this in mind, how had he managed to successfully integrated the weaker rainwater domain together with the far more powerful mist domain without any problems?

"This… Sure, I don't mind telling you, it's not really anything special like you might be expecting…"

Hearing what Xuan Hao said, Elder Meng showed a surprised expression for a short moment before saying this with a somewhat sad expression on his face.Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

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Hm? Is there perhaps something wrong with what I asked...?

Seeing the sad expression that appeared on Elder Meng's face after he asked him about his domain, Xuan Hao could not help feeling even more interested in how he had managed to integrate a domain derived from the Dao of Rainwater into his mist domain.

"Hah... You should already know that after stepping into the Domain Lord Realm, if your talent is strong enough, you can comprehend and create more than just a single domain... But as you know, there are not many people who do this. Even if someone is talented enough, they will avoid creating another domain if possible. The main reason for this, is that to break through to the Soul Ascension Realm, one will be forced to merge these domains together into a single domain.

The act of merging one's domains together is something that even someone at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm are unable to handle due to the terrifying pressure brought along to the soul by the newly formed domain..."

"Yes, I know about this... And this is also the reason that I'm curious about the current state of your domain. Clearly you should just be in the Fifth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, but you are doing something that would easily kill someone in the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm! Ever weirder is how weak your domain is even with two domains having fused together..."

Nodding his head as he said this in response to what Elder Meng said, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he remembered the domain of Elder Meng.

Even though his domain was the merger between two different domains, its strength was nowhere the same level of his domain after his ice and sword domain merged together and could even be considered to be weaker than an ordinary Fifth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert's domain!

Considering just how much one's domain would increase in strength after they merged together. Even if Elder Meng had merged them together when he was only in the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, his domain should still have been far more powerful compared to now!

"Indeed... My domain should be far stronger than it currently is and I should be dead considering how strong my domain would be compared to the strength of my soul... But as you can see, it's strength is even weaker than the domain of an ordinary Fifth Stage Domain Lord..."

"Why is that?"

"I think it's better for you to see it yourself to understand it..."

Whoosh-!

Following Xuan Hao urging him to continue, Elder Meng went quiet for a short moment before his domain spread out and enveloped the small room they were inside of.

"Try to focus on the mist part of my domain with your divine sense..."

As the domain of Elder Meng enveloped both of them, Xuan Hao heard Elder Meng's somewhat sad voice say this to him before he went quiet while waiting for him to inspect his domain with his divine sense.

Whoosh~

Not knowing why Elder Meng had suddenly become sad again, Xuan Hao decided not to say anything as he used his divine sense to inspect Elder Meng's domain in-depth.

Compared to what he had been able to do before where he had been watching from a distance without using his divine sense. Only barely capable of sensing the different Daos present inside the domain, this time around, he could get a clear understanding of the exact strength of Elder Meng's domain and how far his comprehension of the Dao of Mist and Dao of Rainwater had progressed.

"Hm? This is... Your comprehension of the Dao of Mist is actually this strong!?"

Because of this, Xuan Hao was now able to clearly sense that the strength of the Dao of Mist inside the domain was not only far stronger than the Dao of Rainwater. Even if it was weak at the moment, the essence of the Dao of Mist present in the domain had actually managed to exceed the Domain Lord Realm!

As for the Dao of Rainwater... The essence of the Dao of Rainwater present in the domain had only reached the level of an ordinary Second Stage Domain Lord.

Although this would normally not be a problem, Xuan Hao did not take long to realize that the cycle formed between the two different Daos had resulted in the strength of the Dao of Mist being reduced to speed up the progress of the Dao of Rainwater advanced and bring it up to the same level as the Dao of Mist... And with the two of them reaching the same level, the cycle formed would begin showing its true power and help Elder Meng improve by leaps and bounds.

But... Before all of this, the reduction in power of the Dao of Mist had resulted in the cultivation base of Elder Meng being forcefully reduced to its current state.

Given the strength of the Dao of Mist present in the Domain, Xuan Hao realized that before he merged the rainwater domain into his mist domain, Elder Meng should have been someone who had reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm. Maybe even someone who had reached the limits of the Domain Lord Realm and were preparing to undergo the first of the seven tribulations from the Immortal Soul Tribulation!

For him to be able to bear the terrifying rebound of merging two domains together, it was obvious that his soul had been more powerful than normal. Even then, it should still have been injured to some degree. Resulting in Xuan Hao not having the ability to accurately sense the strength of his soul.

The fact that his soul was a bit weaker than someone in the Fifth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm was likely due to the damage his soul had suffered when merging the two domains together...

Elder Meng forming a cycle between the two Daos present in his domain, was most likely a last ditch measure to save himself by reducing the strength of his domain to a level where it wouldn't end up killing him...

"So it's like this... I never expected for Elder Meng to have experienced something like this..." Muttering this to himself as he understood why Elder Meng had showed such a sad expression whenever his domain was brought up, Xuan Hao could not help feeling bad for the old man.Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

Elder Meng had once been someone just a single step away from the Soul Ascension Realm, yet in an attempt to increase the strength of his domain, he had ended up being forced back to the Fifth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm again.

Even if he had a chance to recover again in the future, Xuan Hao understood very well that for someone like Elder Meng who had once reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm at the cusp of reaching the Soul Ascension Realm, the main thing holding them back would not be a bottleneck... But time!

Considering just how badly Elder Meng's condition was, it would likely take at least another thousands or two thousand years for him to recover back to his peak again and be ready to face the first tribulation and attempt to reach the Soul Ascension Realm.

But... Someone like Elder Meng who had once reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm and spent an unknown number of years trying to recover his strength already, should be close to the limit of his lifespan.

Even if a Domain Lord could live for thousands of years and a much longer time than someone in the Nascent Soul Realm, it was agreed that the natural lifespan of a Domain Lord was around ten thousand years with only a few exceptions who could live a few thousand years longer due to having a special physique or encountering a godly spiritual herb that could help extend their life beyond this point.

As he thought about all of this, Xuan Hao could not help turning his attention towards Elder Meng who was quietly sitting in front of him with closed eyes as he patiently waited for him to examine his domain.

"Elder Meng... If you don't mind me asking... How old are you?"

Interrupting the silence that had fallen over the small room, Xuan Hao's sudden question caused Elder Meng to open his eyes with a surprised light flashing through them.

"I didn't expect for you to see through it so quickly, looks like you are not just someone in the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm... Oh well... To answer your question, I'm not as old as you think. Actually, I just became three thousand years old a few decades ago!

Back then, I reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm when I was two thousand years old and could be considered a geniuses! Later after my strength fell, I left my home and decided to settle down here until I recovered again..."

Listening to what Elder Meng said, Xuan Hao could not help once again being surprised by the old man.

Reaching the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm at only two thousand years old! Even across the entire Ewaria Continent, such a feat could be considered close to unheard of!

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Hearing that Elder Meng was actually only a little over three thousand years old, Xuan Hao understood that it would only be a matter of time before he managed to recover back to his former peak and broke through to the Soul Ascension Realm.

Other than this, Xuan Hao also caught on to the fact that Elder Meng was not originally someone from the Sky Empire but had only come to the Sky Empire after his strength had regressed to the Fifth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Given how little he knew about the surrounding Empires and the situation outside the Sky Empire, he could only guess that it was due to the place he was from being in a rather chaotic state where even Domain Lords were at the risk of dying if they did not have enough strength.

Not to mention this, it could also be because he feared some of his enemies would take advantage of his weakness to kill him now that his strength had fallen by so much. After all, there was no way someone in the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm had no enemies to worry about. Even if there was, there would definitely always be someone who would be interested in the precious artifacts and other resources possessed by a Peak Domain Lord...

"Now... Do you have any other questions to ask? I will be more than happy to answer them, as having another friend in this place is always welcome. Especially considering that most of the Domain Lords present here are not really that happy about my presence here..."

Hearing what Elder Meng said, Xuan Hao understood that the old man was trying to befriend him, something he was more than happy about considering how talented the old man was. Even if he did not know much about Elder Meng at the moment, he did not look like someone troublesome or bad from what he had seen so far.

"I don't have any other questions to ask other than this, the main thing I was interested in was the state of your domain. Now that I know how it ended up in such a condition, I already got an answer to the main thing I was curious about... And I will be more than happy to be your friend."

Taking out his communication talisman as he said this, Xuan Hao saw Elder Meng happily taking out his own as they soon established a connection between the two talismans so they could contact each other in the future through them.

"Haha, thanks, if there is anything you need help with or want to understand about the Sky Empire in the future, you can always contact me. Even if I haven't been in this empire for more than a thousand years at this point in time, my understanding of this place should far exceed most people below the Soul Ascension Realm!" Smiling happily after seeing that Xuan Hao had agreed to become his friend, Elder Meng quickly put away his communication talisman again before saying this.

In Elder Meng's eyes, he already considered Xuan Hao to be a Domain Lord from the Explorer Union that was unfamiliar to the Sky Empire and was also not part of any of the different powers inside the Sky Empire that was against him.

Because of this, Elder Meng only saw it as something positive to befriend a Domain Lord like Xuan Hao who should at the very least have reached the Late Stage of the Domain Lord Realm according to what he had seen so far.

"No problem at all. Having a friend who knows this empire will also be helpful to me. Well then, I will see you later."

"Farewell, I hope we can meet up again like this in the future."

Finishing his conversation with Elder Meng, Xuan Hao left the room before making his way out of the Black Mist auction house.

Although Elder Meng was not someone he knew before now, the information he had given him about the Sky Empire was far more useful and in-depth compared to what Yi Min had given to him.

From this alone, it was obvious to see just how good Elder Meng's information network was compared to other Domain Lords... Well... Comparing the information a Domain Lord staying in the capital city of the Sky Empire had of the empire to a Domain Lord that was well known for never moving out of her kingdom, was not really fair...

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao decided to continue looking around the capital city and see if there were any more public lectures done by other Domain Lords.

Even if they would not be someone like Elder Meng who had once been at the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm and had allowed him to see how he could potentially increase the strength of his domain in the future, Xuan Hao at the very least hoped that seeing the domain of other Domain Lords together with them explaining their progress in the Domain Lord Realm might be able to help him gaining a better understanding of the realm and how to further improve the strength of his domain in preparation to overcome the Immortal Soul tribulation in the future.

...

Wandering around the city and trying to find out if there were any other Domain Lords holding a public lecture like Elder Meng had done, Xuan Hao was currently walking past a large restaurant when a large group of guards suddenly marched in his direction before coming to a stop only a dozen or so meters away from him.

Are they here for me? Did an expert for one of those noble family perhaps see me before I escaped and informed the imperial family about me? No... They shouldn't have done something like that as it could give away the fact that they had not done anything to deal with the demonic cultivator... But what is it then? Did the cardinal I saved see me or-

"Look over there! The city guards are here again... Do you think it's related to what happened in the noble district?"

"How would I know? The guards have all been coming here once every three or so hours ever since that happened! To be honest, it's quite a bother as they keep scaring the customers away..."

As Xuan Hao was preparing for the worst case scenario while looking towards the large group of guards that had come to a stop in front of him, the voice of two people sitting by a small table in front of the large restaurant chatting together allowed him to let out a sigh of relief as he understood that the guards were not after him due to someone discovering his involvement in dealing with the demonic cultivator that had caused the destruction of close to everything inside the noble district.

But if they are not here for me, why did so many guards gather here in first place? And from what those two just said, it seems like they have already come here several time ever since what happened in the noble district...

Deciding to slowly move to the side as he thought about this, Xuan Hao quickly blended in with the small crowd of people that had started gathering together to see what the large group of guards were up to.Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

"Captain... Are you really sure this is the place? This is already the tenth time we have come here, isn't it about time to give up and look somewhere else...?"

"No! I'm certain that thing is here! His imperial majesty also said that the crack in the formation that the demonic cultivator used to enter the capital without alerting the formation is around here!"

"But... We have already combed through this place several times without finding anything. Looking again will not help-"

Swish-!

"And you are not listening to me again..."

Listening to the conversation between the captain of the guards that had showed up and the Vice Captain, Xuan Hao felt surprised that they were actually looking for a crack in the formation that the powerful True Demon Realm demonic cultivator had used to enter the capital and avoid the guardian formations detection.

Considering that the guardian formation would react to anyone above the Domain Lord Realm entering it, it was obvious that the demonic cultivator had to find a way to enter the capital city without alerting it... But he just never expected for this method of entering the capital city to be through a crack in the guardian formation!

Not to mention how difficult it would be to hide a crack in the formation, Xuan Hao had already seen the spatial tunnel that the demonic cultivator had created and used to escape from the capital city.

Although he didn't know much about the creation of spatial tunnels like the one the demonic cultivator had used to avoid getting blocked by the guardian formation, Xuan Hao had expected for the demonic cultivator to have used a similar method when entering the capital city by bypassing the guardian formation through some sort spatial tunnel.

Never did he expect for him to use a method similar to the one that the demonic cultivators targeting Yi Min had used when entering her kingdom's capital city...

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"Hah… Why do I have to follow this guy…?"

Watching as the captain disappeared into the restaurant before he began to search through the entire place with all his energy, the vice-captain of the group of guard could not help letting out a sigh before she signalled for the other guards to follow their captain inside the restaurant and look for anything that might help them find out where the crack in the formation was located.

Even if she didn't want to look through the area around the restaurant where the crack was supposed to be located for the eleventh time, she did not have the ability to stop her captain.

At most she could complain to him about how ridiculous it was for them to continue searching the same location again and again without finding anything…

"Ah? Guards! W-why are there guards here!?"

Unfortunately for the restaurant owner who was sitting in front of the restaurant together with a friend, the people who were dinning inside the restaurant were soon chased out by the guards as they all came up with their own guesses as to why the guards had suddenly showed up all of a sudden

"Perhaps the restaurant owner did something bad and they are here for him! Let's leave this place immediately!"

"Good idea, I'm sure he evaded taxes or how else would he be able to afford so much expensive stuff to decorate his restaurant?"

If I just didn't built right next to the city wall, everything would have been fine… But the price of land here is so much cheaper…

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Listening to the different reasons that his customers came up with to explain the sudden appearance of the guards, the restaurant owner could not help laying down on the small table in front of his restaurant with a dead look in his eyes upon understanding that he had once again lost over a dozen customers due to the guards.

Although this would not be enough to put him out of business, the reputation of his restaurant would decrease even further than it already had over the past few days. Not to mention, even if he might not go out of business for now, the same could not be said if the guards continued showing up and scaring away his customers.

"Should I go and complain? Would that even work when they are clearly here to search for something…?" Muttering this to himself as he laid dead on the small table while looking at the stream of guards entering his restaurant while a stream of customers left it at the same time, the owner could not come up with any way to make the guards leave.

In the end, all he could do was pray that the guards managed to find what they were looking for and left his restaurant alone.

…

Watching all of this from the side as he learnt more about just how many times the guards had shown up over the past few days, Xuan Hao could not help growing more interested in the crack in the formation that they were looking for.

Compared to the crack in Yi Min's formation that had been easy to spot at a glance, it was obvious that the crack in the guardian formation of the capital city was not something that would be as easy to find. After all, if it had been easy to find, there would have been no way for the crack in the formation to have remained unknown for over a hundred years…

From the conversations of the people observing the situation together with him from the side, Xuan Hao also managed to learn that the restaurant that the guards had entered to search for the crack had only been established for a little over fifty years at this point in time. Meaning that the restaurant had been constructed at the location of the crack in the formation without anyone even finding out about the crack being there in the first place!

Or it could also be that the restaurant had been constructed as a way to hide the formation by the noble families as the owner of the restaurant had been sponsored by a noble family when first setting up the restaurant according to a few people standing beside him as they talked about the owner of the restaurant possibly asking this noble family for help dealing with the guards.

Considering the fact that both the captain and vice-captain of the guards were in the Domain Lord Realm and them having been dispatched by the imperial family, Xuan Hao did not expect a noble family to be able to stop them from doing what they were doing.

Even if they could, they would most likely not want to risk getting attention from the imperial family just after a demonic cultivator had infiltrated the capital city. Especially if the thing they stopped the guards from doing was investigating how the demonic cultivator had entered the capital city in the first place!

All things considered, the restaurant owner had no way to stop the guards and could only helplessly sit on the side and watch the guards chase away his customers as they began searching through his restaurant without leaving a single stone unturned.

The only positive thing for the restaurant owner was that he had never done anything shady like avoiding taxes like some other business owners did, something he felt eternally gracefully for when the guards had first showed up to search through his restaurant.

Shaking his head as he thought about the sad predicament of the restaurant owner, Xuan Hao slowly began moving closer to the restaurant that the guards were currently in the process of searching through.

Although… From what he could see, the only person among the guards that was really searching through the place with all of his energy was the guard captain. The rest of the guards were obviously not too happy about the fact that they were now back to searching through the same place they had already looked through ten times before.

Even if they still did it due to it being their captains orders, it did not mean they would put in all of their energy to look through the place…

"Hm?"

Walking up beside the restaurant owner who was still sitting in front of the restaurant watching as the guards were running all over the place inside the restaurant, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he sensed something off about the person sitting together with the restaurant owner.

Although he was just sitting down with a sad expression on his face watching the guards trashing a good part of his restaurant, Xuan Hao could see in the restaurant owners eyes that he did not really care about the matter and was more like the bystanders watching the thing from the side without really caring what was happening to the restaurant itself.

Considering that the restaurant was his friend's livelihood, this kind of look was rather odd in Xuan Hao's eyes and made the restaurant owner's friend quite suspicious.

Is he perhaps someone arranged by the noble families to look after the crack in the guardian formation and ensure that it does not get discovered by the guards… But if that is really the case, why would they attach themselves to the restaurant and not just secretly fund it instead of openly doing so? It's obvious that funding the restaurant openly will cause a backlash when the crack is inevitably found and the restaurant owner's friend's involvement in the matter is discovered…

Feeling that the entire matter did not really make much sense from the perspective of the noble families, as they did not have any reason to connect themselves to the matter of the crack in the wall like they had ended up doing by funding the restaurant located where the crack in the guardian formation was located, Xuan Hao curiously began inspecting the person sitting beside the restaurant owner.

Dressed in ordinary clothes and looking like any random person that could be found on the streets of the capital city, a middle-aged man around his late forties sat beside the restaurant owner as he coldly looked towards the interior of the restaurant where the guards were located.

However, this was not the main thing that caught Xuan Hao's attention…

I can't sense his cultivation realm!?

Instead, it was the fact that he couldn't sense the other party's cultivation base!

It had to be known that everyone inside the capital city had at least reached the Qi Condensation Realm, with most ordinary people being around the Foundation Establishment Realm.

For Xuan Hao to not be able to sense the other party's cultivation base without using his divine sense to investigate more in-depth only meant one thing-

The other party had at least reached the Domain Lord Realm!

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he quickly distanced himself from the restaurant once again.

Given that he could figure out how odd the friend of the restaurant owner was, Xuan Hao was certain that guard captain would also be able to find out about it. Maybe that was the reason why he had kept coming back to the restaurant after not finding anything during the last ten times!

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Understanding this, Xuan Hao turned his attention towards the guard captain still busy looking around inside the restaurant for the crack in the guardian formation. Even if he did not find anything no matter how hard he was looking around for the crack in the formation that he was searching for, the guard captain still showed no signs of stopping as he continued his search through the restaurant.

I wonder what he is up to-

Swish-!

Caught off guard as both the guard captain and the vice-captain moved at the same time and charged towards the person sitting beside the restaurant owner, Xuan Hao didn't manage to finish his train of thought before both of the Domain Lord's exploded with power as their two domains descended and sealed the area around them. Not wanting to give the person sitting beside the restaurant owner any chance to escape!

"Wha-!? They saw through my Hidden Shadow Technique!? I have to get out of here before more guards show up…!"

Filled with surprise as the two Domain Lord Realm Guards were charging towards him, the person sitting beside the restaurant owner panicked before his own domain spread out and crashed into the domain of the guard captain and the vice-guard captain.

BOOM-!

As the three domains collided with each other, the area a few hundred meters around them were reduced to rubble in an instant. If not for the fact that the guardian formation was reinforcing the surrounding buildings and limiting the area that their fight could be affect, the damage caused by three domains clashing with each other would easily have covered half of the massive capital city and killed millions!

"Ah-! Everyone, out of the way!"

"Th-There are Domain Lords fighting… And it's actually someone bold enough to fight with the guards inside the capital!

"Let's leave quickly, this is getting far too dangerous…"

As the three Domain Lords began fighting, one trying to escape, while the other two tried to restrain him, the people spectating all understood how dangerous things had gotten as they all began moving away from the restaurant where the battle was taking place… Well… What was left of the restaurant now that it had become the centre of a battle between three Domain Lords…

"The guardian formation is restricting the area affected by their battle… But a few dozen people together with the restaurant owner were still caught up in the initial clash of the formation before having a chance to escape…"

Observing the battle from a distance together with the spectators who were bold enough to still stay around to observe the battle, Xuan Hao's gaze remained locked on the person who had been friends with the now dead restaurant owner.

From the clash between the three domains just now, Xuan Hao could clearly tell the strength of all three people involved in the fight.

The Captain of the guards had reached the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm and the vice-captain had reached the Second Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, while the person who had hidden beside the restaurant owner as his friend was actually someone in the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!

Normally the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert would win the fight against the two Domain Lord Realm Expert guards… But he was not trying to fight back and was instead trying his best to escape as quickly as possible.This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Even if he had the ability to win the fight, it would at least take him half an hour or more to do so!

Although there shouldn't be any Soul Ascension Realm Experts showing up to deal with a matter involving Domain Lord Realm Experts, the Domain Lord Realm Experts in charge of keeping the capital city safe was sure to show up.

At that point in time, even if it was only those First or Second Stage Domain Lord Realm Experts that showed up, he would still get encircled and supressed by the overwhelming number of Domain Lords.

After all, the guards in charge of keeping the safety of the capital was by far one of the most powerful entities inside the capital and was directly managed by the imperial family. Not to mention the many Domain Lords among the guards, a Peak Domain Lord Realm Expert had also been assigned to manage the guards!

Swish~!

Dodging the attack of the two Domain Lord Realm Experts trying to prevent him from leaving, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert could not help frowning as several half transparent chains shot up from the ground below him before forcefully chaining him to the ground.

"Hmph! Think you can stop me from leaving with this!?"

Crack~

BOOOM-!

Using his strength to forcibly breaking the chains that had chained him to the ground, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord did not waste any time as he launched an attack towards the vice-captain who was about to attack him while he had been chained to the ground.

"Wha-!?"

Not expecting for him to break through the chains created by her captain's domain to seal his movement, the vice-captain was caught off-guard as she could only take out a small talisman and crush it to form a small barrier in front of herself to protect against the sudden attack!

Crack-!

However, even the barrier she had created by using one of her life saving treasures was not enough to stop the full powered attack of a Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert-

Bang!

Even if she did not die, she was still sent flying with more than half of her body having been destroyed by the attack.

Although she was someone in the Domain Lord Realm, losing more than half of her body rendered her unable to join the fight again.

"You! You dare!?"

Seeing his vice-captain almost getting killed by the attack of the Sixth Stage Domain Lord, the captain's eyes was filled with killing intent as he charged towards him before he had the chance to escape.

Boom-boom-boom!

As the captain went all out, the destruction caused by their fight also began increasing as the restriction caused by the guardian formation's inactive state could only resist a certain level of power without the formation having to be fully activated.

"Ah-! They are coming over here! Let's leave before we end up like those unfortunate people from earlier!"

"Good idea… Even if it's a good opportunity to watch a fight behind Domain Lord Realm Experts up close, its not worth it if we end up dying…"

Whoosh~

Whoosh~

Whoosh~

As the destruction increased and the area affected by the fight grew wider, the spectators who were standing beside Xuan Hao who were mostly people in the Core Formation Realm or the Nascent Soul Realm at this point in time quickly turned to leave before they ended getting affected by the battle.

Even if they could gain a lot by watching a fight between Domain Lord Realm Experts up close, they also understood how dangerous it would be. Especially when they remembered the fate of the people who had been too close to the Domain Lords when the battle first started… Other than the group of guards who had evacuated safely in time, those people had all ended up dying without even knowing how!

Swish~

Watching as the fight grew more and more intense after the vice-captain had been knocked out of the battle, Xuan Hao decided to move forward while everyone was distracted and entered the now empty ruins of the restaurant where the crack in the guardian formation should be located according to what he had heard from the conversation between the guard captain and his vice-captain.

Swoosh~!

"So, the crack is indeed hidden here… Although it's a little different than I expected…"

Using his divine sense to cover the ruins of the restaurant without caring about the fighting taking place outside moving further and further away from him, Xuan Hao could not help smiling happily after he discovered a small formation in the shape of a small door hidden a few hundred meters below the restaurant.

Although the formation in the shape of a small door was not what Xuan Hao had expected the crack in the guardian formation to look like, he soon understood it as the formation in the shape of a door acted like a part of the guardian formation when closed.

Becoming impossible for the one in control of the guardian formation to sense it, unless the guardian formation was activated at the moment that the door shaped formation was opened to allow someone from outside to sneak inside the capital city!

Whoosh~!

Passing through the ground before arriving in front of the door shaped formation, Xuan Hao did not hesitate to use his domain to forcefully cover the door shaped formation before dismantling it.

Even if the door shaped formation did not seem that special outside of its function to hide from the guardian formation when closed, the natural treasure acting as the core of the door shaped formation should at least be a Transcendent Grade Natural Treasure!

Considering everyone was busy above ground, Xuan Hao decided to take a chance to search for the crack and see if he could take away the treasures that had been used to make the crack in the guardian formation of the capital city while no one paid any attention to the ruins of the restaurant…

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Looking at the small necklace made out of some kind of unknown metal floating in the space that was left behind after he had dismantled the door shaped formation, Xuan Hao could not help feeling excited after feeling the unique aura of a natural treasure given off by the small necklace.

Even if he had only encountered a few natural treasures before, he could still tell that the small necklace floating in the space where the door shaped formation had once been located was a natural treasure. Not only that, but from the aura alone, it had reached the Transcendent Grade!

"There really was a Transcendent Grade Natural Treasure…"

Not having really expected for the door shaped formation to have a Transcendent Grade Natural Treasure as the core, Xuan Hao was looked towards the necklace for a few seconds as he muttered this to himself inside the quiet underground space where the door shaped formation and the crack in the guardian formation was located.

Whoosh~

Not wasting any time after seeing the natural treasure floating in the air in front of him, Xuan Hao grabbed it before putting it away and making his way back towards the surface.

Now that he had dismantled the door shaped formation that had been used to hide the crack in the guardian formation, it would not take long before the Domain Lords currently in the process of fighting above ground discovered the abnormality below.

Even worse, looking at just how large the crack was after he had dismantled the door shaped formation, Xuan Hao understood that there was a good chance that the abnormality might attract the attention of one of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts from the imperial family.

After all, given the size of the crack in the guardian formation, it was not something someone in the Domain Lord Realm would have the ability to fix!

Boom-boom-boom!

Reaching the surface only a few seconds after putting away the Transcendent Grade Natural Treasure, the sound of battle that had been moving further and further away when he had gone underground to check out the crack in the guardian formation had somehow moved back towards the site of the restaurant where he was.

How odd, the strength of the captain should not be enough to prevent that person from leaving for more than a few seconds, let alone force him back to this place… Even though the captain was supposed to be the weaker one, he had somehow managed to gain an advantage…

Nothing had changed compared to before and there were no new people who had showed up to lend the captain a hand in dealing with the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert that was trying his best to escape.

Narrowing both of his eyes as he thought about this, Xuan Hao looked towards the two figures clashing with each other in the sky not too far away.

Closely observing the two Domain Lords fighting in the air above the capital city, Xuan Hao discovered that whenever one of the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert's attacks was about to land, a weird and almost invisible barrier appeared around the captain and stopped the attack before it could reach the captain.

A defensive artifact? For it to completely negate the attacks of a Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert, it should be high level artifact as well…

Not taking more than a few seconds to see through the origin of the barrier that was protecting the captain whenever he was about to get injured, Xuan Hao could not help feeling bad for the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert that was trying his best to escape.

Originally, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert would be able to look for a chance to escape from the captain when he was forced back and had to defend himself with his domain… But given that the captain could fully focus on attacking and leave defence to his defensive artifact, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert had no way to escape.

After all, even though he was stronger than the captain, the distance between both of them was not big enough for him to easily deal knock the captain flying like he had done with the vice-captain.

Boom-!

Because of this, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord grew more and more desperate as time passed. Understanding very well that with each passing second he wasted fighting the captain, he would get close to getting caught by the more powerful experts from the capital guards!

Even if he had reached the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, there was no way he would be deluded enough to think that he would be able to escape after the more powerful experts started showing up.

The only lucky thing for him, was the fact that the destruction caused by his fight had been limited by the power of the guardian formation.

If not, the entire capital city would have already noticed it when he first clashed with the captain in front of him. At that point in time, the entire capital guard would have mobilized and he would have been surrounded in seconds without a chance to escape.

Another thing was also the fact that the captain in front of him had not contacted the rest of the guards in the capital city before attacking him… But that was not really luck and more due to the fact that the guard captain was not cautious enough due to this being inside the capital city.

"Hm? Looks like the rest of the guards are finally showing up…"

Observing the fight as the Sixth Stage Domain Lord was pushed even further back by the captain, Xuan Hao suddenly raised his head and looked into the distance where several powerful auras all reaching the Domain Lord Realm appeared as they charged towards his current location… Or to be more precise, the location where the Sixth Stage Domain Lord and the captain of the guards were fighting!

"I should also get out of here before I end up getting caught up in this fight…"

Swish~!

Not wanting to get involved in the fight as it might end up attracting the attention of a Soul Ascension Realm Expert, Xuan Hao quickly used his movement technique to leave the ruins of the restaurant before the two people fighting in the sky above had any time to notice him.

Given that he had already managed to get his hand on a Transcendent Grade Natural Treasure for free, Xuan Hao was quite happy at the moment and didn't really care how the fight above ended.

In the first place, this was related to the internal fight of the Sky Empire and did not have anything to do with him. For all he cared, it would be best if the different forces of the Sky Empire started fighting with each other and created a chaotic situation.

At least this way, the Star Shattering Sect would be able to expand their territory more easily without having to worry about the large forces of the Sky Empire who would have their hands full with dealing with each other.

"Haha! Looks like you won't be able to escape any longer!"

"T-this is-!?"

Not too long after Xuan Hao left the ruins of the restaurant below the place where the Sixth Stage Domain Lord and the guard captain were fighting each other, the two of them both felt the different powerful auras approaching in the distance. All of them having at least reached the Domain Lord Realm, with one of them even having reached the Seventh Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!

No, I can't get captured by these people… If I really get captured, that person will definitely not allow me to stay alive! Do I really have to use that…?

As all sorts of thoughts passed through the mind of the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert in an instant, a desperate light soon flashed through his eyes before he turned towards the guard captain filled with killing intent.

"DAMNIT! YOU FORCED ME TO DO THIS!"Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Swish-!

Before the guard captain had any time to react, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord took out a small blood red crystal a threw it towards him before dashing towards the restaurant ruins. Clearly intending to use the crack in the guardian formation to escape before the Domain Lords in the distance had time to catch up to him.

"You-"

BOOOOOOOOOM-!

About to chase after the Sixth Stage Domain Lord, the guard captain was caught off-guard as the blood red crystal flying towards him suddenly erupted with a terrifying power far above that the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Whoosh~

Bang-!

Even with the help of the powerful defensive artifact that had rendered the attacks of a Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert useless, the power of the blood red crystal still managed to gravely wound the guard captain and send him crashing into the ground a few hundred meters away!

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BOOOOOM-!

Whoosh~!

Using the opportunity when the guard captain was forced back by the blood red crystal exploding in front of him, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert dashed back towards the ruins of the restaurant that directly below him.

Even if the blood red crystal could buy him a second of two, it would not be enough for him to escape from guard captain. After all, even if he had managed to injure the other party, he would soon be able to recover and resume his earlier attack before he could leave.

With this in mind, the only thing that the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert could do with the small window of time he had bought himself, was head towards the crack in the guardian formation located below the ruins of the restaurant that had been destroyed after the first clash between him and the guard captain.

"To think I will have to risk going through the crack in the guardian formation…" Narrowing both his eyes as he thought about the crack in the guardian formation, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert did not feel the slightest bit happy about having to go through the crack in the guardian formation.

Not to mention the fact that the formation might be closely watched by the ancestor of the imperial family at the moment, the crack in the guardian formation was created through an extremely unstable spatial channel that connected to a location far away from the capital city itself.

Only someone in the Soul Ascension Realm would be able to pass through the unstable spatial channel without any issues, a Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert like himself would risk his life by going through such an unstable spatial channel, something he would never dream of doing unless his life was on the line!

"Hm!? This is- What happened to the formation stabilizing the spatial channel and the crack in the guardian formation!?"

However after reaching the small underground space where the crack in the guardian formation had been hidden away, the face of the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert went pale as he discovered that the formation that had not only kept the crack in the guardian formation hidden, but also helped stabilize the chaotic spatial channel had disappeared!

"…"

Looking into the chaotic mess in front of him that was the deadly spatial channel leading out of the capital city, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert understood that his plan of escaping through the spatial channel was gone.

The only chance of him staying alive at this point in time was if the guards of the capital city set him free and allowed him to live. Not something he expected would happen considering how much destruction he had caused in the capital city and the fact that he was related to the matter of the demonic cultivator sneaking inside the capital city.

Considering that one of the cardinals from one of the powerful religions had almost died to the demonic cultivator that had entered the capital city. Even if the guards somehow allowed him to leave with his life, the Followers of the Fire God and their cardinal was sure to come after him…

"Looks like I can only take the chance and hope the goddess of fortune is on my side…" Muttering this to himself as he looked toward the chaotic spatial channel leading out of the capital city that seemed to grow more and more unstable with each passing second, the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert pushed down his fear as he entered the spatial channel with a determined look on his face.

Either he died in the spatial channel or made it out alive, there was no way he would let others be the one to decide his fate for him!

Whoosh~!

As the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert disappeared inside the spatial channel, the guard captain and a few other Domain Lords appeared inside the underground space where the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert had been standing only a second ago.

"Looks like he escaped… But at least we managed to find the crack in the guardian formation that the demonic cultivator used to sneak inside."

"Indeed… But from the looks of it, that person dismantled the formation and took away anything precious before leaving. Even the spatial channel has been messed up to prevent us from following. To think this guy planned out everything so well as to not leave a single clue behind as to who he was or what power he was from… Truly a master!"

"Yeah, he knows what he is doing… Let's hope we don't encounter someone like that again in the future…"

Inspecting their surroundings, the group of Domain Lords together with the guard captain could not help feeling shocked as they talked amongst themselves.

In their eyes, everything from the lack of a formation to conceal the crack in the guardian formation to the already chaotic spatial channel was all something that had been planned out by the Sixth Stage Domain Lord Realm Expert for his escape from the capital.

The fact that he had not only escaped, but also dismantled the formation and taken everything with him before preventing them from following after him was worthy of praise. Even if he was their enemy!

"Let's go back and report this so the crack in the guardian formation can get fixed as quickly as possible… Two people should remain behind to guard this place in case something happens."NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

Seeing that they wouldn't be able to catch the person that had caused trouble, one of the older experts present spoke up as he soon turned to leave together with most of the other Domain Lords, two powerful Domain Lords who had reached the Sixth Stage and Fifth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm staying behind.

The matter that took place today was sure to cause waves in the already turbulent capital that had yet to calm down after the matter with the demonic cultivator that had only taken place a few days earlier.

…

"I wonder what use this necklace has…"

Not caring about what happened after he had dismantled the formation used to hide the crack in the guardian formation and had gotten his hands on the natural treasure that was acting as the core of said formation, Xuan Hao curiously inspected the Transcendent Grade Natural Treasure in the shape of a necklace in a small deserted part of the capital with no people around to disturb him.

Inspecting the small necklace shaped natural treasure for the next few minutes, Xuan Hao soon discovered the use of the natural treasure as he injected a part of his qi into it.

Whoosh~

The moment he injected his qi into the necklace, Xuan Hao felt a faint and almost untraceable energy gushing out from the small necklace before it covered him and hid his presence to a degree where even someone in the Domain Lord Realm would find it hard to find him unless the other party was standing right next to him!

"A natural treasure for concealment… Not unexpected considering what it was originally used for, but still a bit disappointing…" Shaking his head as he found out the use of the natural treasure, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit disappointed as he looked at the small necklace.

Even though he had already expected for the use of the natural treasure be something related to concealment, he was still disappointed when he found out that the only use of the natural treasure was to conceal his presence.

Although the concealment ability of the small necklace might even be strong enough to hide him from someone in the Soul Ascension Realm, Xuan Hao would have been far more happy with an offensive type natural treasure he could have used for fighting or an auxiliary one he could have used to improve his strength…

"Hm?"

Just as he was about to put away the necklace, Xuan Hao discovered that other than hiding his presence and concealing him, the necklace also had another use-

"It can actually change my aura and the presence of my domain… Won't I be able to easily hide my identity with this…?"

Feeling shocked as he discovered this, Xuan Hao could not help taking back his earlier dissatisfaction with the necklace. Even if it would not be useful for improving his strength or for combat, it had the ability to completely change him into someone completely different and allowed him to perfectly hide his identity from others!

Doing something like this after the Domain Lord Realm was close to impossible due to everyone having a unique domain that had its own unique and recognizable aura.

After the upcoming meeting, Xuan Hao had thought about returning back to the sect after everything was over and just quietly cultivate without interacting with any of the Domain Lords from the Sky Empire… But now it looked like there was no need for that with the help of the necklace shaped natural treasure!

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Understanding how great the natural treasure would be for the upcoming meeting, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time as he quickly started familiarizing himself with its power by walking around the capital city while trying to hide himself as different people.

Sometime he would be an ordinary resident who had only reached the Foundation Establishment, while other time a foreign Domain Lord Realm Expert that had only recently made his way to the capital city.

Testing all kinds of different identities over the next few days against the different Domain Lord Realm Experts that could easily be found inside the capital city, Xuan Hao slowly mastered the power of the necklace. Allowing him to perfectly disguise himself and avoid getting recognized by anyone in the Domain Lord.

However, even if he could hide himself from someone in the Domain Lord Realm, he had no idea how well it would go when he was faced with someone in the Soul Ascension Realm. Unfortunately, he did not have the opportunity to encounter any Soul Ascension Realm Experts while walking around the capital city to test it out on. Not that he would have actually tried to deceive a Soul Ascension Realm Expert, as the risk of doing so was not something Xuan Hao felt willing to take at the moment.

In the end, the most important thing for the upcoming meeting was not so much to hide himself from the Soul Ascension Realm experts of the Sky Empire, as he doubted any of them would even be present in the first place from the information he had managed to gather about the meeting from different Domain Lord Realm Experts he had met while walking around the capital city practising with the necklace.

According to that information, the person that would be in charge of the meeting and oversee the establishment of the Sect Alliance, was one of the core elders of the Sky Empire, a Peak Domain Lord Realm Expert that was rumoured to be close to reaching the Soul Ascension Realm!

Even if this elder was powerful, Xuan Hao still delt confident in being able to hide himself from the other party, as he was still ultimately in the Domain Lord Realm no matter how close to the Soul Ascension Realm he was…

If any Soul Ascension Realm Experts really did show up, it would almost certainly be related to the three religious organisations causing some sort of problem during the meeting itself. Not a situation where they would be able to pay much attention to the Domain Lord Realm Experts from the different sects that had shown up.

"Hm… I should hide my strength as someone at the Seventh Stage of the Domain Lord Realm during the meeting and try my best to hide away from the spotlight in case something really does end up happening…" Muttering this to himself as he came to decision on how to proceed with the meeting that was going to take place in less than a day at this point in time, Xuan Hao began making his way towards the small inn where the Domain Lords and other experts from the different independent sects had gathered.

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

…

At the same time Xuan Hao was trying his best to master the concealment function of the necklace shaped natural treasure, Chu Yang and Qing Yi were sitting together inside the small training space of their master's palace.

"Chu Yang… Are you sure this is it…?"

"Yes, you only need to stabilize your foundation and you should be ready to undergo the Cloud Tribulation and step into the Nascent Soul Realm!"

"To think I'm really about to reach the Nascent Soul Realm… Thank you so much for you help over the past few weeks!"

During the time that Xuan Hao had left, both of them had managed to grow closer due to Chu Yang helping Qing Yi whenever she had any question regarding her foundation and how she should go about overcoming the Cloud Tribulation.

For the first time since both of them had been taken in under Xuan Hao as his disciples, the two finally seemed like actual disciples under the same master…

"No problem, I just hope you will keep your promise from yesterday and help me train some of my combat techniques after you reach the Nascent Soul Realm. After all, the elders always seem busy whenever I ask them for help for some reason… Hah… I guess Elder Song is really over working the elders now that the sect has been expanding so much."

"This… Of course, I will be more than happy to help you with practicing your combat techniques after I reach the Nascent Soul Realm!" Hearing what Chu Yang said, Qing Yi could not help but freeze for a short moment before saying this.

For some reason, she could not help feeling that something was wrong after hearing Chu Yang say that none of the elders had time to join him and help him practice his combat techniques.

Even if the elders had been more busy than usual due to the sect expanding and gaining a lot of new territory, they should not be so busy that they would always have something to do whenever Chu Yang found them…

Whatever it is, there is no use for me to worry about this before I reach the Nascent Soul Realm…

Shaking her head as she thought about this, Qing Yi got back up before she left the small training room and made her way back towards her cultivation room with a determined expression on her face.

After entering her cultivation room this time around, she would not leave before she had managed to perfect her foundation and was ready to breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm!

…

"Senior! We have been waiting for you, the rest are all inside the inn preparing for the meeting tomorrow!"

Reaching the inn after a short walk, Xuan Hao was greeted by Elder Scarlet Flame, the self-proclaimed husband of the Sunfire Sect's Sect Master.

"…"

Giving a simple nod in response to Elder Scarlet flame, both of them made their way inside the inn where Xuan Hao was met with a far more solemn atmosphere compared to the first and second time he had visited the inn. From a glance, it was obvious how nervous everyone had become as the day of the meeting and establishment of the Sect Alliance grew closer.

"Who- Ah! It's senior!"

"Senior? Oh! Senior is here!"

"Senior showed up, it looks like we will be discussing the sect alliance meeting now…"

As Xuan Hao stepped inside the inn together with Elder Scarlet Flame, the people sitting inside the small inn all turned their attention towards him filled with expectations. Dispersing the solemn atmosphere that had settled inside the inn in an instant.

"Senior, I didn't expect for you to show up so early… Do you want to join in on our discussion of the meeting?"

"Yes, I also wanted to gain a better understanding of the meeting and more importantly if there are any sects that I should look out for outside of those large ones supported by the large kingdoms."

Seeing that Xu Bao who had been the strongest person among the independent sects before his appearance was the first person to step forward, Xuan Hao responded in kind as he said this.

Like Xu Bao had asked him, his reason for showing up at the inn the day before the start of the meeting was indeed to gain a better understanding of the meeting and what sects he should look out for during the meeting.

After all, considering the fact that the independent sects were not really considered a real part of the power structure of the Sky Empire, it was obvious that some of them would take an opportunity to supress them. This was also one of the main reasons that all of the independent sects that had been invited to the meeting had gathered together with only a few like the Seven Fates Sect missing.

"Any sects that you should look out for? Hm… Outside of the sects that are supported by the large kingdoms, there are also some sects that belong to smaller kingdoms that are not openly supported by any larger power, but in turn receive the support of some noble families.

Even if these sects do not seem that strong outside, the more powerful among these sects have power to rival even the strongest sects nurtured by the powerful kingdoms. The best example of such a sect would be the Dark Net Sect that whose Sect Master is rumoured to have to be at the Peak of the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!

Not only that, but the sects supported by the different noble families are always trying their best to take control of our sects or recruit us at any opportunity they see…"

"I see, looks like the sects controlled by the different noble families are rather troublesome to deal with…"

"Indeed…"

As Xu Bao let out an exhausted sigh upon mentioning the sects controlled by the different noble families, Xuan Hao felt like these sects would be the most annoying ones during the upcoming meeting…

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Other than the different sects that were controlled by the noble families, Xu Bao also taught him about a few other sects that spent most of their time trying their best to harass the different independent sects whenever they had the chance to do so for no real reason other than weakening the independent sects.

Although these sects only belonged to some small kingdom and didn't really seem to have anyone behind them, Xu Bao was convinced that there was someone more powerful secretly supporting these sects into harassing the different independent sects.

This was also the reason why Xu Bao and the more powerful independent sects with Domain Lord Realm Experts in them had decided not to destroy these sects that were constantly annoying them and even out right attacking the weaker sects who had yet to give birth to an expert in the Domain Lord Realm.

Looks like there will be quite a few annoying people during the meeting. At the very least, I hope they won't do anything with me around…

Not knowing what to say after he learnt about the many different sects that were acting against the independent sects to either weaken or outright destroy them at any opportunity they got, Xuan Hao felt like he understood why there were only around thirty or so independent sects strong enough to join the meeting for the sect alliance inside the Sky Empire.

Considering just how hard it was for them to survive alone, it was also a given that they would be working together with each other for the upcoming meeting and even outside the meeting without any problems.

"Senior… Do you have any other question about the meeting? If you want, I will be more than happy to share our plans for what we intend to do after we get one of the leader positions in the Sect Alliance, we are just about to start our discussion and-"

"No need, you can continue what you were doing before, I will be staying here for the night and we can make our way to the meeting together tomorrow."

Not intending to be a part of their discussions on what they planned to do with one of the leader positions in the Sect Alliance, Xuan Hao made his way up the half-broken stairs of the inn and found an empty room to settle down and cultivate until the time of the meeting.

After all, the only thing that Xuan Hao really wanted out of the Sect Alliance was for it to hopefully cause more chaos inside the Sky Empire and draw attention away from the border region of the Sky Empire and hopefully prevent the imperial family and the other major powers in the Sky Empire from finding out too much about the newly established Star Shattering Sect!

"""…"""

Because of Xuan Hao's quick exit, Xu Bao did not have time to say anything as he could only stare towards the upper floor of the inn for a short moment. The rest of the people who had been observing the conversation between both of them were the same as they all wondered why Xuan Hao had just decided to leave without hearing what they were planning to do with the power of a leader position in the Sect Alliance.

"Ahm! Let's continue where we left off earlier now that senior went to rest before the start of the meeting…"

Making a rather awkward coughing sound in that situation, Elder Scarlet Flame woke everyone up from their momentary state of silence before restarting the discussion they had before the arrival of Xuan Hao.

Although, now that Xuan Hao had showed up and even said he would be staying in the inn until the start of the meeting, everyone present were far more enthusiastic compared to before about the discussion and what they would do after they got a leader position in the Sect Alliance.

However, among the things they talked about, the most important was for them to find a way to keep themselves safe inside the Sky Empire without having to worry about getting supressed all the time.

Even if the Sect Alliance would still mainly be controlled by the different sects under the different major powers of the Sky Empire, it was still a chance for these independent sects to get real influence inside the Sky Empire.

…

"Elder Song! I have something important to report!"

At the same time that Xuan Hao was getting ready for the meeting about the establishment of the Sect Alliance, Elder Song wa quietly going through a mountain of documents related to the recent expansion of the sect when he was suddenly interrupted by an elder who had just recently reached the Nascent Soul Realm bursting through his door into his office space.

"Hm? What is it?" Understanding that the other party would not do something like this unless something urgent had happened, Elder Song kept calm as he said this while inspecting the elder who had burst into his room.

Although it was not obvious at first glance, Elder Song still managed to see that the elder had almost completely drained all of the qi present in his dantian. An obvious sign that he had been using his movement technique non-stop for hours on end to reach the sect at the fastest speed possible.

"The demonic cultivators from the Frozen Wasteland have almost managed to take over the kingdom located beside the Azure Sky Kingdom that also has a border with the Frozen Wasteland! Not only that, but it has become a gathering spot for the different demonic cultivators who are trying their best to leave the Frozen Wasteland!"

"Hm? What about the Domain Lord Realm Expert that was sent over by the Sky Empire? What happened to him?" Hearing what the elder said, Elder Song could not help frowning as he asked this.

"From the people placed to keep an eye on the situation, the Domain Lord Realm Expert and other Nascent Soul Realm Experts that came together with him are currently fighting it out with a group of powerful demonic cultivators. The demonic cultivators in question should be from one of the more powerful demonic sects in the Frozen Wasteland that decided to leave the Frozen Wasteland for some reason…

Because of this, the people sent by the Sky Empire have no time to top the weaker demonic cultivators from crossing the border, when we found out, it was only because some demonic cultivators had started crossing the borders between that kingdom and the Azure Sky Kingdom…"

"This is… Troublesome… You can leave for now, I will take care of this matter for now and inform the Sect Master!"

"Yes, Elder Song!"

Whoosh~

Watching as the exhausted elder dashed out of the room, Elder Song's expression could not help deteriorating as a deep frown slowly made its way on to his face.

Considering that the kingdom that had was about to fall and get taken over by the demonic cultivators was located right next to the Azure Sky Kingdom that had now fallen under the Star Shattering Sect, it was obvious that it would only be a matter of time before the demonic cultivators started crossing the borders and started causing trouble- No, some weaker demonic cultivators had already started entering the Azure Sky Kingdom according to what the elder just now said.

No matter what, there was no way the Star Shattering Sect could allow the Azure Sky Kingdom that was now under their control to get invaded by demonic cultivators!

"And here I was expecting for us to be able to leave this matter to the Sky Empire. Looks like they underestimated the surge in demonic cultivators trying to leave the Frozen Wasteland and didn't send enough people over." Muttering this to himself as he looked out the window located right beside him, Elder Song got up from his desk before making his way out of his room to look for Feng Chen to inform him about this.

Even if the Sky Empire was sure to send over more people after they found out about the fact that the demonic cultivators trying to leave the Frozen Wasteland and enter their territory was far stronger than expected, it would definitely take weeks- If not months for them to show up.

During this period of time, the demonic cultivators would be able to take over the kingdom that they had entered and start swarming into the Azure Sky Kingdom.Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Because of this, Elder Song understood that they would have to send over some of their elders to stop the demonic cultivators from entering the Azure Sky Kingdom.

As most of the elders in the sect were currently focused on either training the disciples or helping expand the sect, this was not something Elder Song wanted to do if he could avoid it… Well… At the very least he could make use of the demonic cultivators and allow some of the older disciples to get a chance to fight…

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"-And that is what the elder who informed me about this matter told me, I think it would be a good idea for us to send over a group of elders immediately so we can stabilize the situation and prevent any of those demonic cultivators from causing damage to our new territory."

Standing in front of Feng Chen as he finished explaining what had happed to the kingdom located next to the Azure Sky Kingdom and the people from the Sky Empire trying their best to hold back a group of powerful demonic cultivators, Elder Song watched as Feng Chen showed a similar frown to the one, he had when he had first learnt about it.

"The demonic cultivators really managed to avoid the people from the Sky Empire and entered the kingdom bordering the Azure Sky Kingdom!?"

"Yes…"

"Hah… To think the Sky Empire would not send over enough people to deal with the matter… Elder Song, you can take a group of elders and assign them to guard our border at the Azure Sky Kingdom. For now, I will go and check out the matter personally in case any of the powerful demonic cultivators manage to pass through the people from the Sky Empire!

As for the matter about disciples joining in on the matter to gain some real combat experience against the demonic cultivators, I think we should wait with that until we make sure the situation is stable and no powerful demonic cultivator ends up appearing."

"Yes! I will get it done immediately!"

Whoosh~!

Getting Feng Chen's approval to deal with the matter, Elder Song solemnly nodded his head before quickly leaving to gather a group of elders.

No matter what, considering that demonic cultivators had already started passing over the border and into the Azure Sky Kingdom, Elder Song understood that it would be best to deal with this matter as quickly as possible.

"I hope Feng Chen can help stabilize the situation and prevent any powerful demonic cultivators from approaching the Azure Sky Kingdom…" Muttering this to himself as he swiftly moved through the sect, Elder Song unconsciously turned to look up into the air as he saw Feng Chen standing on top of his flying sword as he soon disappeared in the direction of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

Given the speed of a Domain Lord Realm Expert like Feng Chen, it should not take long for him to reach the Azure Sky Kingdom and prevent the demonic cultivators from causing any damage!

…

At the same time Elder Song and Feng Chen had come to a decision on what to do about the demonic cultivators that were likely going to start entering the Azure Sky Kingdom now that the experts from the Sky Empire had been held up by a group of powerful demonic cultivators, a group of elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall were just about to return to the sect when they had heard about demonic cultivators showing up along the border of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

"This should be the place where- Hm? Looks like there is indeed quite a few demonic cultivators here…"

Having decided to investigate the matter, the group of elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall could not help freezing on the spot upon seeing close to a thousand demonic cultivators in the process of massacring the few unfortunate villages located next to the border of the Azure Sky Kingdom.

Even if two of the elders in the group of close to ten elders had already reached the Nascent Soul Realm, the sheer number of demonic cultivators was not something they would be able to deal with. Especially considering that a few of the demonic cultivators present gave off a very clear aura that was comparable to the two elders in the Nascent Soul Realm!

"Not just a few, there are at least a few hundred- Maybe even a thousand of them! Not to mention that some of them should have reached a realm comparable to the Nascent Soul Realm!"

"Indeed, this is not something we can deal with; we should contact the Star Shattering Sect and get them to send help!"

Understanding very well that there would be no way for them to deal with the large number of demonic cultivators, the group of elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall did not waste a second before they all turned around to leave, one of the elders even took out a communication talisman to immediately inform the Ascendant Frost Hall and have them contact the Star Shattering Sect.

"Aaaahhh-!"

However, before they had a chance to run away, one of the demonic cultivators that had just completed the first demonic transformation after devouring an entire village by himself, let out a painful yell as his entire body began deforming at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"This- Did the demonic cultivator fail his breakthrough and suffered a backlash as a result…?"

Unconsciously stopping after hearing the painful scream of the demonic cultivator as all the elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall turned to see what was happening, one of the Nascent Soul Realm Elders could not help saying this as he together with the rest looked on in disbelief as the body of the demonic cultivator morphed into that of a massive demonic creature more than 10 meters tall.

Even if these elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall did not have a clear understanding of demonic cultivators, they still understood that someone who had just managed to complete the first demonic transformation should not be able to fully transform into a demonic being.

Only the demonic cultivators that had reached the Peak of the Demonic Transformation Realm that had strength equal to the Domain Lord Realm would have the ability to fully turn into a demon!

ROOOOAR-!

Hearing the loud bestial roar from the demonic cultivator that had transformed into a more than 10 meters tall demon, the group of elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall could not help trembling in fear.

Among the group of elders, the most fearful ones were not the Core Formation Realm Elders, but instead the Nascent Soul Realm Experts!

Compared to the Core Formation Realm Experts, these two Nascent Soul Realm Experts could clearly sense that the giant demon standing no more than a few miles away from them had surpassed the Nascent Soul Realm, something they could feel from the primal fear that they had experienced through their nascent souls after being hit head on with the aura from the demonic cultivator that had morphed into a more than 10 meter tall demon.

"This is not a failed breakthrough…"

Knowing that the demonic cultivator had not failed to breakthrough and had instead taken a step beyond the Nascent Soul Realm and reached a realm equal to the Domain Lord Realm, one of the two Nascent Soul Realm Elders could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine as he quietly muttered this to himself.

"What-!? It's not a failed breakthrough!? Doesn't this mean…"

Hearing what the Nascent Soul Realm Elder said, one of the Core Formation Realm elders could not help exclaiming in surprise. Instantly catching the attention of the rest of the elders who remained spellbound by the massive demon more than 10 meters tall standing in the distance.

"Quiet! We have to leave this place. Now!"

Knowing that they would not be able to escape if the demonic cultivator that had just managed to breakthrough to the Third Demonic Transformation Realm spotted them, the other Nascent Soul Realm elder quickly made everyone quiet down before taking the lead in escaping from the border region.Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

"""…"""

Not saying anything after hearing this, the rest of the elders did not waste a single second as they began following after the elder who had begun leaving.

Given how powerful the demonic cultivator was, they would need the help of the Star Shattering Sect. After all, they had no way to deal with a demonic cultivator that had reached a realm equal to the Domain Lord Realm!

At the very least, the elder who had contacted the higher ups in the Ascendant Frost Hall had already informed them about everything they had seen so far.

Given the speed of a Domain Lord Realm Expert, it should not take too long before one of the Domain Lord Realm Experts from the Star Shattering Sect would show up to take care of the terrifying demonic cultivator that had managed to sneak past the experts from the Sky Empire and enter the Azure Sky Kingdom without them noticing.

ROOOOOOAR-!

However, just as the group of elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall began relaxing after having made some distance between themselves and the demonic cultivator, a terrifying roar echoed out behind them.

"I-it discovered us…"

As one of the elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall turned around, she could not help shaking in fear upon making eye contact with the more than 10 meter tall demon in the distance.

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ROAAAR-!

As the demonic cultivator who ha broken through to the Third Demonic Transformation Realm looked towards them, the group of elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall all understood how dangerous their current situation was.

Not to mention the fact that the demonic cultivator had managed to find them before they had a chance to escape, the rest of the demonic cultivators who had passed over the border also turned their attention towards them as a large number of them directly began charging towards them filled with killing intent.

Even if the terrifying demonic cultivator who had transformed into a more than 10 meter tall demon had not made a move and was still in the process of stabilizing his cultivation realm after having just broken through, the elders of the Ascendant Frost Hall all understood that it would only be a matter of time before the demonic cultivator finished stabilizing his cultivation base and took action.

"Let's keep moving, we should be fine as long as we don't get caught before the people from the Star Shattering Sect shows up… "

Understanding that it would bad for them if they ended up stuck in a fight with the demonic cultivators currently rushing towards them, one of the Ascendant Frost Hall elders took the lead as she said this.

"Indeed, we should get going…"

As the rest of the elders agreed with this, the group of elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall began leaving once again.

However, just at this moment, the more powerful demonic cultivators chasing after them rapidly increased their speed for a short moment-

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Allowing three demonic cultivators with a strength similar to the two Nascent Soul Realm elders of the Ascendant Frost Hall to catch up to them. Forcing the group to come to a stop as one of the demonic cultivators directly blocked their path forward with a small smile filled with greed on his face.

"Haha, look at these local cultivators! I'm sure consuming their life essence will be able to help me increase my strength!"

Boom-!

Not wasting even a single second after saying this, the demonic cultivator that had stepped in front of them to block their escape path directly launched an attack towards one of the two Nascent Soul Realm elders.

Bang!

Getting caught off-guard by the sudden attack, the Nascent Soul Realm elder only barely managed to defend himself against the attack as he was sent flying into a forest located next to where they were standing.

"This- Die you demon!"

Not expecting for the elder who had been right beside him to suddenly get sent flying, the remaining Nascent Soul Realm elder from the Ascendant Frost Hall froze for a split second before he attacked the demonic cultivator filled with killing intent-

Boom!

His aura belonging to a Fifth Stage Nascent Soul Realm Expert spread out as all of his strength gathered together and smashed into the demonic cultivator.

"Aaaahh-!"

BOOOM-!

As the elder from the Ascendant Frost Hall began violently beating up the demonic cultivator, the two remaining demonic cultivator watching from the side could not help freezing on the spot as they looked towards the elder from the Ascendant Frost Hall with fear.

Clearly, they did not expect that they group of people they had moved to intercept had someone above the earlier stages of Nascent Soul Realm… What's more someone who had reached the Sixth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!

"Help me! Don't forget the lord is still around, we only have to stop them from escaping!"

As the two demonic cultivators were considering whether or not to join the fight and help the demonic cultivator in the process of getting beaten up by the powerful Nascent Soul Realm elder from the Ascendant Frost Hall, the desperate roar of the demonic cultivator in question echoed out just before he was once again sent smashing into the ground.

""…""

Looking at each other for a short moment after hearing what the demonic cultivator said, the remaining two demonic cultivator didn't hesitate any longer as both of them jumped in to help dealing with the powerful elder from the Ascendant Frost Hall.

Even if the other party was stronger than them, they did not believe that the other party had the ability to kill them before their lord managed to finish stabilizing his cultivation base and came to help them.

After all, even if they were weaker than the other party, demonic cultivators were well known for their powerful physical bodies and ability to survive a far bigger beating compared to normal cultivators not of the demonic path!

Bang-bang-bang!

"Wh-what is this…?"

By the time that the Nascent Soul Realm elder who had been sent flying returned, the three demonic cultivators were all in the process of getting beaten up as they tried their best to prevent the powerful elder at the Sixth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm from leaving together with the Core Formation Realm elders who could only stand around and watch from the side.

Whoosh~

Knowing that things were getting desperate as the aura of the terrifying demonic cultivator in the distance started growing more stable and powerful with each passing second, the elder didn't waste any time after seeing this as he jumped in to help dealing with the three demonic cultivators.

"Everyone, leave now!"

As a result of the three demonic cultivators falling into a disadvantageous position, the Core Formation Realm elders finally saw an opportunity as they all used this opportunity to leave the area affected by the fight and escape in the opposite direction of the terrifying demonic cultivator in the distance.

"Haha, looks like we still have a chance to leave!"

"Indeed, let's try to move away from here while keeping these three away from the rest of the elders…"

Seeing that the Core Formation Realm elders were no longer at risk of getting killed by the demonic cultivators, the two Nascent Soul Realm elders worked together to stop the three demonic cultivators from chasing after them as they slowly moved further and further away from the terrifying demonic cultivator.

BOOOOOOM-!

However, just as the elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall were starting to once again relax and feel that they were out of danger, a terrifying aura filled with killing intent exploded from the distance before locking on to every single one of them.

"This is- The demonic cultivator already finished stabilizing his cultivation base!?"

As the most powerful person among the people present, the Sixth Stage Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the Ascendant Frost Hall was the first to realize what was happening as he turned to look in the direction of the terrifying demonic cultivator filled with fear.

"Looks like we won't be able to escape this place alive…" Muttering this to himself as the terrifying demonic cultivator in the distance slowly turned to look towards them again, the Sixth Stage Nascent Soul Realm elder felt his entire body freeze up as he felt like an ancient demon beast was looking at him.

"""…"""

Hearing what the powerful Nascent Soul Realm Elder said, everyone turned to look towards the more than 10 meter tall demon in the distance filled with fear. The demonic cultivators included.

Faced with a demonic cultivator that had reached a realm similar to that of the Domain Lord Realm, they all felt a primal fear welling up in them as they understood that they stood no chance against the other party. Even the thought of resistance completely disappeared when confronted with the sheer difference in power between the Nascent Soul Realm and someone in the Domain Lord Realm.

Bang!

Crack~!

Followed by the sound of the ground shattering, the terrifying demonic cultivator that had become a more than 10-meter-tall demon took a step forward and instantly crossed half the distance between them-

BANG-!

With another step, the terrifying demonic cultivator had already arrived in front of them!

Even if the demonic cultivators didn't stop of us, there would be no way for us to escape in time against this speed…

Understanding that there had never been a chance for them to escape in the first place, the Sixth Stage Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the Ascendant Frost Hall could not help feeling a sense of despair welling up inside of him upon realizing just how large the distance between himself and someone in the Domain Lord Realm was.

ROAR!

Not saying anything in a human voice, the terrifying demonic cultivator only let out a single roar before his massive hands filled with demonic claws grabbed down towards the group of elders who had lost any will to resist the demonic cultivator at this point in time-

Swish-!

However, just before the demonic hand could reach them, a sword light swept over from the distance before cutting through the arm of the demonic cultivator-

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Bang!

Directly severing it before the demonic cultivator had any time to respond to the sudden attack!

ROOOOOOOOOOOAR-!

Only able to let out a painfilled roar as it looked towards the direction that the sword light had come from.

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Understanding just how powerful the demonic cultivator was, none of them had expected for the arm of the terrifying demonic cultivator to suddenly get severed just as it was about to reach them.

"Wha-what was that!?"

Because of this, all the elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall froze on the spot before they turned to look in the direction that the sword light had come from filled with both curiosity and fear. After all, the person responsible for the sword light should at the very least someone in the Domain Lord Realm!

However, after turning around to see where the sword light had come from did they realize that the person responsible was none other than the current sect master of the Star Shattering Sect, Feng Chen!

Although they had never met him in person before, they had still managed to see some paintings of him after the Ascendant Frost Hall came under the control of the Star Shattering Sect. After all, it would be bad if they ended up encountering the sect master of Star Shattering Sect at some point in the future and ended up not recognizing the other party!

As for the rest of the important people from the Star Shattering Sect, these elders did not know a lot about them- Of course, this was not considering Xuan Hao who had once saved their sect from a powerful demonic cultivator who they had managed to see first-hand before.

Whoosh~

Seeing Feng Chen slowly descend down towards them as he kept his attention focused on the demonic cultivator that had retreated after being ambushed, the elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall all bowed their heads respectfully.

"""We Greet the Sect Master of the Star Shattering Sect!"""

"No need for this, I think it would be best for all of you to get out of here as fast as possible."

Ignoring the respectful greeting from the group of elders that bowed down to him as he landed in front of them, Feng Chen instead remained fully focused on the demonic cultivator in the distance as he urged the elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall to leave as quickly as possible.

"We will leave immediately! Thanks for your help senior, we will forever be indebted to you for this!"

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Knowing that they would only serve as a burden for Feng Chen to protect when he started fighting the demonic cultivator, the Sixth Stage Nascent Soul Realm Expert among the elders quickly said this before dragging the rest of the elders along with him to leave.

In a battle between experts at the level of Domain Lords, the remnant energy alone would be more than enough to kill someone at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, let alone the elders present who had only reached the Core Formation Realm!

…

"I really didn't expect to encounter a group of elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall here. At least I managed to show up before the demonic cultivator had time to kill… But, to think the demonic cultivator actually reached the Third Demonic Transformation Realm. Even with my strength, this will be hard to deal with…" Muttering this to himself as he kept an eye on the demonic cultivator as the elders from the Ascendant Frost Hall were escaping with all they got, Feng Chen silently got ready to face the demonic cultivator.

Ever since he had reached the Domain Lord Realm, he had never had a real chance to fight with anyone at the same level. Outside of a few friendly battles with Shu Yao back in the sect.

All things considered; this would be his first real Domain Lord level fight.

The only good thing about this, was the fact that the demonic cultivator in front of him was in a similar situation and had just recently broken through.

With this in mind, he should at the very least have the upper hand as he had long since gotten used to his strength!

ROOOOAR-!

Not wanting to wait around for any longer, the demonic cultivator who had been quietly observing Feng Chen ever since it had been ambushed by him, charged forward filled with killing intent!

Swish-!

BANG!

"This- Is far stronger than I expected…"

Even if Feng Chen had already been prepared for the terrifying physical strength of the demonic cultivator who had taken on a demon form, he was still taken aback when he gathered together the power of his domain to block the incoming attack.

Although he was in the Second Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, he was still pushed back by the powerful strength of the demonic cultivator.

From this alone, it was obvious that even if a demon cultivator had just broken through to the Third Demonic Transformation Realm, they would be far stronger than a normal Nascent Soul Realm Expert who had just reached the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm… No… If he had really been in the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, Feng Chen doubted he would even be able to fight with the demonic cultivator in front of him!

Ching~

Feeling that the demonic cultivator showed no signs of stopping his attack as the claws of the demonic cultivator pressed down towards him trying to break through his sword domain, Feng Chen could not help frowning as he narrowed both of his eyes.

"Hmph! Think it will be that easy to deal with me!?"

Understanding that the demonic cultivator wanted to directly supress and kill him in a single attack, Feng Chen's eyes filled with killing intent as the power of his sword domain gathered together into a single point in front of the demonic claw-

Swish~

As the power of Feng Chen's sword domain that had gathered together into a single point swept towards the demonic cultivator, the demonic cultivator rapidly retreated after feeling the terrifying power that had gathered in front of Feng Chen. Clearly, the demonic cultivator had not forgotten the fact that Feng Chen had managed to pierce through his skin and directly cut off one of his arms not too long ago.

Even if he had not been prepared to defend himself back then, the demonic cultivator still understood just how terrifying the attack power of Feng Chen was after that short exchange. This was also one of the main reasons why it had tried to do a single all-out attack to finish up things before Feng Chen got another chance to attack again.

Unfortunately for the demonic cultivator, he had underestimated the defensive power of Feng Chen's domain and was unable to kill him in a single move and because of this, the demonic cultivator was forced to face the sword attack of Feng Chen head on-

BOOOOM-!

ROOOAR!

Even if a demonic cultivator's physical strength was far stronger than a normal cultivators physical strength, the demonic cultivator was still unable to fully block the sword attack from Feng Chen and as a result ended up letting out a loud roar filled with pain as several bloody wounds appeared all over his massive body.

Although it might not have looked like it, Feng Chen had used all of his strength for the attack just now.

Not only that, but he didn't just stand around after launching the attack towards the demonic cultivator and instead followed closely behind with sword in hand as he began using all kinds of mystical sword techniques to attack the demonic cultivator who was already starting to lose ground after the powerful sword attack.Ñ00vl--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

Boom-boom-boom!

Although the follow up sword attacks were not nearly as powerful as the first one, they were like a constant stream of attacks that were raining down on him without pause. Not allowing the demonic cultivator even a single second of time to recover and launch a counter attack.

ROOAR-!

Knowing that he had fallen into a disadvantageous position against Feng Chen, the demonic cultivator could not help letting out a roar filled with not only killing intent but also a hint of desperation.

Resisting the constant stream of sword attacks of Feng Chen, the demonic cultivator had clearly realized that it was losing. Not only that, but if things continued like they were, it would only be a matter of time before it was exhausted and killed by Feng Chen!

Considering that it had just broken through to the Third Demonic Transformation Realm, the demonic cultivator was not the slightest bit willing to die just after it had managed to break through!

BOOOOOM-!

Swish-!

Because of this, the demonic cultivator gathered most of its power together and launched a powerful attack towards Feng Chen before escaping into the distance. Hoping that his attack would be able to buy enough time for him to escape out of the Azure Sky Kingdom and back towards the Frozen Wasteland where the situation was far safer for him to recover and sneak back into the Sky Empire at a later date.

"Hmph! Think I will just let you go!?"

Swish-!

Blocking the powerful attack of the demonic cultivator before seeing that the demonic cultivator was trying to escape, Feng Chen could not help frowning before a sword appeared beneath his feet as he rapidly chased after the escaping demonic cultivator that was heading back towards the border of the Azure Sky Kingdom before going in the direction of the Frozen Wasteland.

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"I never expected for these demonic cultivators to be this strong… Hah… Looks like we won't be able to do much about the weaker demonic cultivators below before the reinforcements from the capital arrives. At least I hope they won't be able to cause too much damage during this time…"

At the same time Feng Chen was facing off against the demonic cultivator who had just recently broken through to the Third Demonic Transformation Realm after devouring one of the villages located at the border of the Azure Sky Kingdom, the leader of the three Domain Lord Realm Experts and the rest of the people from the Sky Empire who had come to deal with the recent surge of demonic cultivators, could not help muttering this to himself as he looked towards the endless wave of demonic cultivators that were risking their lives to escape from the Frozen Wastelands and make their way inside the territory of the Sky Empire.

Even if he was someone in the Domain Lord Realm, there was no way for him to stop this massive flood of demonic cultivators from passing through him and his people. Not to mention, he did not only have to deal with these weak demonic cultivators who were at most around the Foundation Establishment Realm or the Core Formation Realm…

Roar-!

BOOOM-!

As a roar echoed out in the distance, the leader of the imperial guards could not help letting out an exhausted sigh as he saw a massive demonic creature charging towards him from inside the Frozen Wasteland. Bloody wounds covered the creatures entire body, but it didn't seem to care the slightest about any of this, as it remained fully focused on him filled to the brim with killing intent.

"Hah… Looks like this guy is back again…" Muttering this to himself as a large halberd more than two meters tall appeared in his hands, the leader of the imperial guards didn't bother looking towards the demonic cultivators below as he charged towards the demonic creature.

Boom-boom-boom!

In a similar situation as himself, the two other Domain Lords that had come together with him were also busy dealing with a similar demonic creature that was the demon form of powerful Third Demonic Transformation Realm demonic cultivators.

With all of this in mind, the weaker demonic cultivators didn't have to worry about these powerful Domain Lords blocking their path into the Sky Empire.

"Don't let any of them pass! If it really comes to it, make sure to prevent any demonic cultivators above the Core Formation Realm can't pass us!"

"Commander, we can't hold them back!"

"There are far too many of them, one close to the Nascent Soul Realm made it through!"

"A demonic cultivator in the Nascent Soul Realm managed to make it through!"

In the end, only a small group of Nascent Soul Realm Experts were left to deal with the endless wave of demonic cultivators.

Even if they were far stronger than them overall, there was absolutely no way for them to prevent all of these demonic cultivators from making it past them and enter the small kingdom that was located behind them.

At most they could try their best to stop the more powerful demonic cultivators who were above the Core Formation Realm.

…

"How come this guy is so fast all of a sudden!?"

Chasing after the demonic cultivator who was escaping towards the Frozen Wasteland, Feng Chen could not help frowning as he felt the distance between both of them not getting any smaller.

Considering that he was using his sword intent and flying sword together with his Domain Lord Realm cultivation base to increase his speed above that of a normal Domain Lord, it was rather surprising to Feng Chen that the demonic cultivator was able to keep a distance between both of them while escaping. Especially considering the demonic cultivator should have exhausted a large part of his strength after having used the powerful attack that allowed him a chance to escape in the first place…

Is he perhaps burning his lifespan?

Not knowing what other method the demonic cultivator could be using to increase his speed at this point in time, Feng Chen could only guess that the other party had gone as far as to burn his own lifespan for a short burst in speed that would allow him to safely make his way back to the Frozen Wasteland.

Given that the demonic cultivator had just managed to break through a major realm and increased his lifespan by a lot, it was not weird for him to burn some of it to make sure he could stay alive.

"Looks like I will also have to do something or he will be able to escape…" Muttering this to himself as he observed the large number of demonic cultivators that could be seen on the ground below, Feng Chen understood that he would have to do something soon before the demonic cultivator reached the Frozen Wasteland.

After all, if the demonic cultivator reached the Frozen Wasteland, he would not only have to deal with a single demonic cultivator but would most likely also have to deal with other powerful demonic cultivators who might jump in to help prevent the death of one of their own.

Even if something was unlikely under normal circumstances, it would not be odd now that the demonic cultivators were working together to break through the barrier formed by the powerful Domain Lords from the Sky Empire and make their way inside the territory of the Sky Empire.

When one also took into account that the time they had to do this before the more powerful experts from the Sky Empire showed up, the chances of this happening increased by a large margin.

Swish-!

Deciding to forcefully raise his speed by another level, Feng Chen instantly started closing the short distance between himself and the demonic cultivator.

Although this did not come without any costs, the cost was negligible as long as he could catch up to the demonic cultivator in the short term.

ROOOOAR-!Immerse Yourself in the Storyverse: NvεlB¡n.

Feeling Feng Chen chasing after him suddenly rapidly increase his speed as he was closing the distance between them, the demonic cultivator could not help letting out a slightly desperate roar as he tried increasing his speed to no avail.

Shing~

Not even a second later, the terrifying sound of a sword cutting through the air echoed out as the demonic cultivator had no choice but to come to a stop and defend against the approaching sword attack.

BOOOM-!

As the defensive barrier formed by the demonic cultivator collided with Feng Chen's sword strike, the demonic cultivator didn't have any time to let out a painful roar before he was sent flying in the direction of the Frozen Wasteland. Only a small part of his body still left intact after the impact!

"I should finish things up quickly…"

Knowing that the demonic cultivator would not be able to hold on for much longer and had only been able to survive due to his terrifying physical strength as a demonic cultivator, Feng Chen didn't waste a single second as he chased after the demonic cultivator who had been knocked flying in the direction of the Frozen Wasteland.

…

Boom-boom-boom!

At the same time this was happening, a violent battle was taking place just outside the border of the Frozen Wastelands as the leader of the imperial guards gathered his strength together and forcefully crushed the arm of the large demonic creature in front of him without showing the slightest bit of mercy.

Whoosh~

Watching as the arm he had just crushed recover the instant he let go of it, the leader of the imperial guards could not help frowning as he swung down his halberd and directly severed the arm of the demonic creature. Only to watch it grow back in less than a second.

"This damnable thing really won't die!"

Lamenting over the powerful regenerative power of the demonic cultivator in front of him that had been transformed into a demonic creature more than 30 meters tall, the leader of the imperial guards could not help feeling a little helpless as he understood that he did not have the ability to fully kill off the other party.

Boom-boom-boom!

Glancing towards the two other Domain Lords from the imperial guard fighting in the distance, the leader of the imperial guards could not help showing an even bigger frown after realizing that his subordinates were in a similar situation as himself.

Without any help, there was no way for them to deal with demonic cultivators in front of them while also having to make sure to defend themselves against the constant attack of the demonic cultivators in question-

Whoosh-!

"Hm…?"

BAAAANG-!

Just at this moment as the leader of the imperial guards was lost in thought trying to come up with a way to deal with the demonic cultivators that had been holding them down and preventing them from dealing with the countless demonic cultivators trying their best to enter the territory of the Sky Empire, a massive body flew past him and landed on the ground a few miles away from where he was fighting.

"Another demonic cultivator…?"

Seeing that the body actually belonged to another demonic cultivator after a quick inspection, the leader of the imperial guards was just about to start cursing to himself at the prospect of having to deal with a fourth demonic cultivator at the Third Demonic Transformation Realm when a terrifying sword intent suddenly pierced through the air and headed directly towards the demonic cultivator that had landed on the ground not too far away from him.

"DIE-!"

ROOOOOAA-

BOOOOOOOM-!

Followed by a loud roar filled with killing intent echoing out across the battlefield, the leader of the imperial guards barely had enough time to see a terrifying sword light descending towards the demonic cultivator who had landed not too far away from him before directly killing the other party!

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Even if it was only for a short moment, the leader of the imperial guard had clearly sensed that the demonic cultivator that had just landed not too far away from him was in the Third Demonic Transformation Realm.

Although he could not be certain about just how strong this demonic cultivator was among Third Demonic Transformation Realm demonic cultivators, he was sure that another one showing up would not be a good thing considering his current situation-

Swish-!

BOOOM!

But before he had a chance to do anything the demonic cultivator that had just appeared out of nowhere, was directly killed before it had a chance to do anything, causing the leader of the imperial guards to freeze up on the spot as he could only speechlessly look in the place where there had been a powerful demonic cultivator just a second earlier.

""...""

Not unlike their leader's reaction, the two other Domain Lord Realm Experts present also had a similar expression of shock appear on their faces. However, different from their leader who had been right beside the attack just now, they had no idea that the sword had come from someone different and only thought that their leader had managed to make some kind of breakthrough during the fight and managed to use this sudden increase in strength to catch the new demonic cultivator by surprise and instantly kill off the other party before he had a chance to react.

Roar...?

Different from the leader of the imperial guards and the two other Domain Lord Realm Experts from the Sky Empire, the demonic cultivator who was hovering in the air in front of the leader of the imperial guards let out a panicked roar filled with fear after seeing the death of a demonic cultivator that had reached the Third Demonic Transformation Realm.

Even without having a chance to see who the person responsible for the attack was, the demonic cultivator understood that their current situation had taken a turn for the worse, as another powerful expert from the Sky Empire seemed to have shown up.

As for the death of the demonic cultivator who had just shown up? The demonic cultivator in question didn't really care much about it. The only thing that mattered, was the fact that another powerful human cultivator had shown up to help fight them!

ROOOOOOAR-!

Whoosh~!

Understanding very well there would be no way for them to hold back four Domain Lord Realm Experts with only three people, the demonic cultivator didn't waste a single second before rapidly retreating back into the deeper parts of the Frozen Wasteland after a warning the other two powerful demonic cultivator that had come with him to intercept the three powerful Domain Lord Realm Experts in an attempt for them to enter the Sky Empire.

Roaaar~

ROAR!

Swish-!

Swish-!

Not long after the demonic cultivator facing the leader of the imperial guards began escaping back towards the Frozen Wastelands, the other two Third Demonic Transformation Realm demonic cultivators also began rapidly retreating-

"Wha-!?"

"Why are they retreating... Were they perhaps scared off just now...?"

Not understanding why the two demonic cultivators had directly turned around before escaping back towards the Frozen Wasteland after witnessing the death of the demonic cultivator that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, the two Domain Lord Realm Experts could only look at each other in confusion as they gazed in the direction that the demonic cultivators were escaping in.

Given the fact that they had been caught off guard earlier by their sudden escape and had no way to chase them into the more dangerous parts of the Frozen Wasteland with their current strength, the two Domain Lords quickly made their way towards their leader. Wanting to find out just what had caused these demonic cultivator to escape so quickly...

"Looks like there is no need for me to stay here any longer..."

However, just as they were about to ask their leader about what had happened, an unfamiliar voice echoed above them, causing both the two Domain Lord Realm Experts who were still in a state of confusion and shock, together with their leader, to turn their attention towards the source of the unfamiliar voice.

"You are..."

Being the first to spot the handsome looking older man that had appeared in the air not too far away from them at some point in time, the leader of the imperial guards could not help narrowing both of his eyes as he inspected the other party.

"Greetings Senior!"

Even without sensing his cultivation base, it was obvious that the other party was someone in the Domain Lord Realm... And given the fact that he had been able to easily kill off a demonic cultivator who had reached the Third Demonic Transformation Realm just now, the leader of the imperial guards understood that the person in question should at the very least be someone in the later stages of the Domain Lord Realm. Maybe even someone who had reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm!

For this reason alone, the leader of the imperial guards did not dare peep at the other party's cultivation base and also made sure that the other two Domain Lords would not do something stupid by informing them about everything that had just happened through his divine sense.

After all, there was no way for him to know that the demonic cultivator in question was already at deaths door after having exhausted part of his lifespan and all of his energy just after having broken through to the Third Demonic Transformation Realm...

""Greetings Senior!""

Learning that the person who had appeared was actually a powerful senior Domain Lord who had managed to instantly kill off a Third Demonic Transformation Realm demonic cultivator, the two Domain Lords who had only recently reached the Domain Lord Realm themselves could not help shivering as they quickly retracted their divine sense and stopped themselves before they inspected the other party.

The last thing they wanted right now was to offend this mysterious senior who had suddenly shown up all of a sudden!

"Hm? Greetings to you three as well, you don't have to mind me, I just came here because that demonic cultivator entered the territory of my sect and started causing chaos..."

Not expecting the group of Domain Lords from the Sky Empire to be so polite in front of him and even go as far as to respectfully address him as senior, Feng Chen could not help smiling happily before he said this while imitating Elder Song's usual sage like demeanour.

Hm? Entered the territory of your sect? How come I never heard about such a powerful sect before...?

Hearing what Feng Chen said, the leader of the imperial guards could not help feeling happy before a frown appeared on his face after hearing the last part of what Feng Chen said.

"Your sect...? Senior... If you don't mind me asking, what sect are you from? I don't seem to remember any sect with a Domain Lord Realm in it around this place... Ah! A-are you perhaps from the Star Shattering Sect...?"NvεlB¡n: Unleashing Imagination, One Read at a Time.

"Yes! Have you perhaps heard about us before!?"

"Yes... We all had the opportunity to encounter a Grand Elder of your sect on our way here... Hm... But it doesn't look like we managed to get his name back then..."

"You are talking about Grand Elder Xuan, he should be the only Grand Elder currently outside the sect's territory at the moment! Now that I think about it, how was he doing? Did he perhaps say anything to you when you met him?"

"He was doing fine and didn't seem troubled or anything, as for things he said... he told us to leave the Azure Sky Kingdom alone when we dealt with the demonic cultivators and-"

As the leader of the group of imperial guards started talking with Feng Chen about his encounter from a few weeks earlier with Grand Elder Xuan and a few other things, the leader of the group of imperial guards could not help feeling increasingly shocked as he realized that the Star Shattering Sect was far more powerful than he had first expected.

Outside of the Grand Elder he had already encountered, it also looked like there were far more powerful experts inside the Star Shattering Sect, the Sect Master in front of him had even directly mentioned another Grand Elder in their short conversation!

Even if this Grand Elder was not at the same level as Grand Elder Xuan, the other party should still be close to the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm! Three Peak Domain Lord Realm Experts had suddenly appeared out of nowhere!

Not to mention, when he secretly inquired about the structure of the sect, it seemed like there was a level even above that of a Grand Elder, a sect ancestor!

Given that even the Grand Elder's of the sect had reached the Domain Lord Realm, the leader of the imperial guards could easily imagine how powerful the ancestors of such a powerful sect would be!

At the very least they should be Soul Ascension Realm Experts!

I have to return to his majesty and inform him about this immediately... But I still have to deal with these demonic cultivators... And my high quality communication talisman got destroyed earlier when the demonic cultivator managed to damage my interspatial ring...

"Well then, I will take my leave for now. Good luck dealing with the rest of the demonic cultivators here!"

"Ah! Wai-"

Lost in thought as he was thinking about whether to stay and deal with the demonic cultivators or rush back to the capital, Feng Chen had already finished what he came from and quickly began making his way back towards the Star Shattering Sect now that everything had been dealt with before the leader of the imperial guards could react.

Well... At least it doesn't look like informing his majesty about this is too urgent...

Watching as Feng Chen disappeared in the distance, the leader of the imperial guards let out a silent sigh. Given how kind the sect master of this mysterious sect was, he didn't feel like it was urgent to report this matter before dealing with the demonic cultivators.

At most it would take them a year or two before the matter was finished. Not much would be able to change in such a short period of time...

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