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

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Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough #Chapter 885 Core Of The Ancient Battlefield - Read Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough Chapter 885 Core Of The Ancient Battlefield Online - All Page - Novel Bin

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Continuing to move deeper into the ancient battlefield, more and more phantoms began appearing. Even the more aggressive kind that started fighting with other phantoms started to become more common. Not only limited to phantoms of demon beasts, but also started to include human shaped ones.

Luckily for Xuan Hao, it looked like the aggressive phantoms were far too busy fighting with the non-aggressive phantoms to care about him. Allowing him to travel through the ancient battlefield relatively easily by avoiding the locations where the phantoms were fighting.

During this time, he also managed to gain a better understanding of the phantom fighting with each other. Realizing that the non-aggressive side that would ignore him even if he walked right next to them belonged to one of the sides who had participated in the battle that had taken place on the ancient battlefield in the past, while the aggressive phantoms made up from both demon beasts and human like figures belonged to the other side.

Other than this, he also found out that the aggressive phantoms were far more numerous when compared to the non-aggressive ones, who in turn were stronger than the aggressive phantoms on average. Making the overall fight between the different phantoms equal and without a clear winner. Resulting in every single battle he had witnessed so far ending with both parties exhausting their strength and dissipating into a cloud of energy that soon disappeared from the ancient battlefield.

However, after having seen this happen over a dozen times, Xuan Hao realized that the phantoms didn't die after this and instead seemed to hide away in some unknown location to recover the energy they had lost before coming out to fight again in future. Repeating the cycle of fighting, recovering and going back to fighting over and over again.

Thinking about it, this constant cycle of fighting was most likely the main thing that had prevented the ancient forest that had once covered the ancient battlefield from recovering again. Ensuring that only a few trees were able to stand around the outer edge of the ancient battlefield where the fighting didn't take place as often as the deeper parts of the ancient battlefield where most of the powerful experts had perished in the past.

Boom-boom-boom!

Just at this moment, the familiar sound of fighting sounded out from behind him, causing Xuan Hao to turn around-

BOOOOM-!

However different from the fight between two phantoms that he had imagined, he was instead met with the sight of two massive demon beast phantoms overwhelming one of the non-aggressive phantoms. Destroying it through one of the demon beast phantoms sacrificing itself to let its companion land a deadly blow on the non-aggressive phantom. Leaving behind one of the two demon beast phantoms that soon turned around and looked directly at Xuan Hao who had watched the entire ordeal play out filled with killing intent.

This… Looks like it's time for me to leave…

Whoosh-!

Understanding very well that he stood no chance against the phantom demon beast even when it had been significantly weakened, Xuan Hao didn't waste a single second before turning around and escaping.

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ROOOOAR-!

Roaring loudly filled with killing intent after seeing that Xuan Hao had decided to escape, the demon beast didn't waste a single second before it used all of its power to chase after the escaping Xuan Hao. Showing no care for the fact that it was rapidly using up what little energy it had left. Only caring about catching up to Xuan Hao as quickly as possible so it could kill him.

Swish-!

As it caught up to Xuan Hao in less than a second, it gathered all of its remaining power into its large claws the size of normal human before swiping down towards him in a simple yet powerful attack. The power of the attack instantly locking on to him, while at the same time sealing the space all around him. Preventing him from dodging the attack and forcing him to face it head on.

This damnable demon beast… Is it trying to use all of its remaining energy to launch a final all-out attack to kill me before dissipating!?

Cursing silently to himself as he saw this, Xuan Hao gathered the power of his dao domain in an attempt to resist the claws heading down towards him-

WHOOSH-!

"Ah!? My Domain!?"

Just at this moment, he was rudely reminded of the fact that his dao domain was useless on the ancient battlefield, being forcibly suppressed the moment he attempted to use it to defend himself from the deadly attack of the phantom demon beast. Leaving him only capable of using the Dao of Corruption to defend himself against the attack… Something that would not end up well considering that even with his full strength, his chances of surviving would still be abysmal.

Crack~!

And as he expected, the claw attack of the phantom demon beast managed to almost instantly destroy the meager defenses he had formed with the Dao of Corruption. Leaving his only hope of survival up to the phoenix imprint-

BANG-!

However, just before the claws of the demon beast managed to hit him, a simple spear appeared out of nowhere and directly blocked the claw of the phantom demon beast before turning to stab straight through it.

ROAR!?

Killing it on the spot within the next instant… Or at least making it forcefully dissipate for now.

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"Huh?"

Leaving Xuan Hao in a state of bewilderment over what had just taken place. Only capable of staring towards the small cloud of energy representing the phantom demon beast slowly disappearing.

Swish-!

Not waiting for him to respond, the phantom charged into the distance where another demon beast phantom had appeared.

Boom-boom-boom!

Soon enough, the sound of fighting could be heard from the distance, as the phantom with the spear clashed with the demon beast phantom.

I should just continue to move deeper inside the ancient battlefield and finish the main quest before leaving this place…

Not knowing what to say, Xuan Hao decided not to think about it as he just turned around and continued making his way towards the center of the ancient battlefield, while also deciding to not carelessly approach the phantoms. Instead deciding to get as far away as possible if he spotted any of the aggressive phantoms. No longer feeling as excited as before about learning more about them…

Whoosh~!

Like this, Xuan Hao slowly continued moving deeper and deeper into the ancient battlefield. Finding the phantoms appearing more often and stronger than before, while at the same time also feeling the suppression from the restrictive power starting to affect his strength and in turn also the speed that he could travel.

In the end, Xuan Hao was just about to give up and make his way back towards the spatial corridor, when he suddenly spotted something different from the war-ravaged terrain appearing on the ancient battlefield.

In the middle of a crater spanning close to a dozen kilometers, a large construct easily the size of a small mountain was laying down in the middle of the large crater. Almost like it had entered a state of deep sleep or simply just run out of energy to continue operating… But what was even more shocking than this, was that the origin of the strange restrictive power seemed to originate from somewhere inside the colossal construct!

"Look like I won't have to turn around and leave the main quest for a later time!" Smiling to himself as he said this, Xuan Hao entered the massive crater before slowly starting to make his way towards the colossal construct.

In the process, he didn't notice that the phantoms that had almost always been visible and fighting around him had completely disappeared from sight at this point in time. The few that could still be heard fighting in the distance were all far away from the large crater, with none of them getting within a certain distance of the crater itself.

…

"This thing is really amazing… Really leaves one wondering just how powerful this thing was back when it fought, was it in the realm above the Soul Ascension Realm or maybe even stronger than that? How powerful would someone have to be to have the ability to create something like this?"

Arriving at the foot of the colossal construct, Xuan Hao could not help whispering this to himself with a look of awe on his face. Feeling a sense of admiration towards the person who had managed to build the colossal construct in the past. Feeling that the person should have reached a realm far beyond his current understanding.

Standing around and observing the construct for a few minutes to try and comprehend some of the intricate inscriptions still visible on it, Xuan Hao could only give up after realizing that he had no way to understand any of the inscriptions left on it.

Turning his attention away from the feet of the construct and instead focusing his attention on the rest of its massive body. Trying to search for a way inside.

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Moving along the massive body of the construct in search of a way inside of it, Xuan Hao was left speechless over just how little it had been damaged. Even the inevitable decay caused by the passage of time had not done much to the colossal construct, a testament to the powerful materials that had been used in its construction.

As he continued moving along the side of the massive construct and got closer to the place where the head was located, Xuan Hao soon noticed that the ground beneath him had changed to a familiar purplish colour. Indicating that there was something related to the Dao of Corruption nearby.

Knowing this, Xuan Hao became more cautious than before, as he approached the place where the head of the construct was located. Making sure to also keep an eye on the ground beneath him to track if he was getting closer or further away from the thing that had caused the ground to become corrupted.

Reaching the place where the head of the construct was located walking like this for a little over 10 minutes, Xuan Hao could not help being taken aback by what he saw.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

Not only was there a massive hole in the head of the construct, but the Dao of Corruption had affected the area around the hole in the head to such a degree that some kind of weird tentacle like plants had started growing around the hole itself. Almost instantly reminding him of the ones he had seen during the time he had comprehended the Dao of Corruption.

"Hm? My strength is getting weaker the closer I am to the hole in the head of the construct?!" As he was inspecting the massive hole in the head of the construct while unconsciously moving closer to it at the same time, Xuan Hao suddenly noticed that the strength he could use had begun to rapidly decrease. Even using the Dao of Corruption became harder, let alone the rest of the things he had comprehended…

Understanding that his strength would soon be reduced to a level similar to a Nascent Soul Realm Expert due to the restrictive power, Xuan hao stopped approaching the hole in the head of the construct. Instead deciding to observe it from a distance to avoid any dangers he might encounter if he ended up getting attacked by a phantom demon beast while his strength was only at the level of a Nascent Soul Realm Expert.

Hm… From the looks of it, if I want to complete the main quest given by the system and find out what the origin of the restrictive power is, I will have to enter the construct… But given the power of the restrictive power, I won't be able to protect myself if I end up encountering any danger inside. Even escaping would be close to impossible and I would only be able to rely on the feather imprint saving me.

Then again, even if I had my full strength, I doubt I would be able to do much if I really ended up encountering a phantom demon beast inside the construct…

Lost in thought as he thought about whether to enter the construct or leave it be for the future, Xuan Hao realized that the feather imprint, was only thing he would be able to rely on for safety. Even if he did not get weakened by the restrictive power, he would stand no chance against the powerful phantom demon beasts in a fight.

Standing silently in front of the head of the construct the size of a mountain for what felt like hours, Xuan Hao finally narrowed his eyes looking into the hole in the head of the construct and the weird plants of the Dao of Corruption that covered everything inside. Making it hard for him to see more than a dozen meters inside the hole itself.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao had just reached the construct located in the middle of the giant crater at the center of the ancient battlefield, Chu Yang and Qing Yi were both running through a dense forest, a large demon beast in the shape of an oversized chicken chasing after them from behind.

The demon beast in question was a powerful demon beast that had reached the Eighth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm and even if it just looked like an oversized chicken, it was terrifying enough to even contend against Ninth Stage Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts. The only demerit it had being its speed only being slightly better than that of a normal Nascent Soul Realm Expert in the earlier stages of the realm.

In turn, this was what had allowed Chu Yang and Qing Yi to escape from the demon beast so far.

As for how they had ended up being chased by such a powerful demon beast in the first place-

"I told you not to randomly attack demon beasts without knowing how strong they are! Why did you have to go and attack that chicken when its clearly far stronger than you!?"

"Wha- There is no way I'm weaker than that oversized chicken!"

The reason was none other than Chu Yang, who had mistakenly challenged the oversized chicken demon beast. Having believed it would be weak and easy to deal with. In the end, he had beaten up by it without a chance to fight back and had only barely managed to escape with his life before finding Qing Yi, who had been searching for spiritual herbs not too far away… Thus, resulting in their current situation of escaping through the forest with an oversized chicken chasing after them from behind.

"If you didn't lose to that chicken that is really the case, why don't you turn around and face it?!" Rolling her eyes after hearing Chu Yang's response, Qing Yi pointed back towards the chicken as she said this. Given him every opportunity in the world to prove that he was not weaker than the oversized chicken.

"This- I happen to have had an accident during the fight earlier and can't fight it at the moment!" Unable to answer for a short moment as a hint of fear appeared on his face after recalling how he had been beaten up just a few minutes earlier, Chu Yang quickly came up with an excuse as to why fighting with the chicken at the moment was impossible.

"You- Haaa… Let's just get out of here before it catches up to us…" Knowing very well that Chu Yang didn't want to admit defeat to the oversized chicken, Qing Yi decided to not pursue the matter any longer and instead focusing on trying to find a way to escape the oversized chicken.

All things considered, she understood that Chu Yang did not mean to provoke a demon beast much stronger than himself and in turn cause it to chase after both of them.

"Indeed, we should look for a way to escape for now. After that, we should look for an opportunity to kill off this oversized chicken!"

"…"

Not even bothering to say anything upon hearing what Chu Yang said, Qing Yi just let out a silent sigh as she lamented over the fact that she was not strong enough to explore the mystic realm by herself.

Over the past few days, other than the few times Chu Yang had caused trouble by accidently attacking a powerful demon beast that they had no ability to deal with, like now, she had learnt just how good it was to adventure together with someone that could help in finding spiritual herbs, fight demon beast that would be too strong for her to deal with on her own and most importantly, guard her when she was recovering from a battle!

If she truly had to explore the mystic realm by herself, she doubted she would be able to last for more than a day or two inside of it. Making her understand why their master had told them to explore the mystic realm together instead of letting them explore it by themselves.

Like Qing Yi, Chu Yang was also grateful that he had Qing Yi around while exploring the mystic realm. Although the reason why he was happy about her presence differed from Qing Yi.

The main difference being the sheer wealth of knowledge regarding spiritual herbs she had. If not for her being around, Chu Yang didn't doubt that he would have ended up walking past several precious spiritual herbs that would be hard to come by outside of the mystic realm.

Outside of this, the most important reason why he was happy to have Qing Yi around, was that she helped him escape whenever he ended up accidently offending a demon beast that was too powerful for him to fight with his current strength-

"Follow me, we will hide in here, the chicken is far too large to follow after us!"

Just like now, where she found a small opening in a cliff appearing in front of them.

Cluck Cluck!

Allowing both of them to squeeze inside and escape from the oversized chicken demon beast.

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"That was a close call…"

Watching as the oversized chicken tried to squeeze in through the opening in the cliff to no avail, Chu Yang could not help letting out a sigh of relief. Understanding that they should be safe inside the small opening of the cliff for now.

Rustle~

However, just at this moment, a distinct sound of something moving could be heard from behind them, causing both Qing Yi and Chu Yang to turn away from the oversized chicken trying to force its way through the gap in the cliff and instead turn towards the source of the sound they had just heard.

"This- I-I think it will be better for us to leave this place and fight with the chicken…" Turning around to see what had caused the sound, Qing Yi did her best to stop herself from shivering as she said this with a fearful expression on her face.

"Indeed… I think its best for us to face the chicken…" Not disagreeing with Qing Yi's proposal to leave the place and face off against the Eighth Stage Nascent Soul Realm demon beast in the shape of a giant chicken, Chu Yang didn't have to say anything more-

Swish-!

As Qing Yi directly used her movement technique to slide below the head of the oversized chicken that had gotten itself stuck enough that it didn't have time to stop her.

"Ah! Wait for me!"

Swish!

Realizing that Qing Yi had already escaped, Chu Yang didn't waste a single second before similarly sliding under the head of the oversized chicken before starting to escape from the cliff together with Qing Yi. Not one of them daring to slow down in the slightest during the entire process. Having been too scared by what they had seen hidden inside the small crevices of the cliff.

Cluck?

Not knowing why its prey had suddenly escaped from the relatively safe place inside the cliff, the oversized chicken could not help letting out a confused clucking sound as it wondered what exactly had caused them to do something so dumb. After all, it was a Nascent Soul Realm demon beast and was far smarter than a normal animal. Understanding very well that the two stood less of a chance of surviving outside the hole, as it would be able to catch up to them eventually.

Rustle~

It was just at this moment, as the oversized chicken was about to pull out its head to chase after Chu Yang and Qing Yi, that the rustling sound that had ended up causing them to escape in the first case, could be heard by the oversized chicken.

Cluck…? CLUUUCK!

Turning to look in the direction of the rustling sound, the oversized chicken had a confused expression on its face at first before suddenly starting to violently thrash around to get its head loose from the cliff opening.

The reason for this was simple, as in front of it, close to a hundred spiders the size of human heads were slowly making their way towards it. Each of them having at least reached the Core Formation Realm, while the stronger ones among them had reached the Nascent Soul Realm.

Even if they were weaker than the oversized chicken, the chicken understood very well that it stood no chance when facing such a large number of spiders. Especially so if its head remained stuck and they were allowed to attack it without it having a chance to fight back.

Crack-

BANG!

Manging to free itself just before the spiders could reach it, the oversized chicken didn't waste a single second before escaping. Only now understanding why Qing Yi and Chu Yang left without attacking it while it was completely defenceless.

No matter how much dumber the chicken was compared to a normal human, it was obvious that they wanted to use it as bait for the spiders!

CLUCK-!

Realizing this, the oversized chicken let out an angry clucking sound before changing its escape direction to be the same as Qing Yi and Chu Yang.

Even if it had been used as bait by others, there was no way it was going to just allow them to get away for free, it would make sure that they would have to deal with the spiders themselves!

…

"This should be good enough… That oversized chicken should have discovered the spiders and escaped with them following behind…" Coming to a stop beside a large lake located in the middle of a large opening in the forest, Chu Yang grinned happily at the fact that they had managed to escape from two dangerous situation that could have easily killed them if they were not careful.

"Indeed… But we should still stay moving just in case the chicken decide to chase after us together with the spiders!" Not feeling as relaxed as Chu Yang about their current situation, Qing Yi could not help saying this before getting ready to continue escaping.

"Relax, What's the worst that could happen? Let's stay here for a few minutes and recover before continuing to escape-"

RUMBLE-!

Just as Chu Yang waved for Qing Yi to come and sit down to recover from all the running they had done over the past few hours, a loud rumbling sounded out from the outer edge of the opening that they had just come from-

CLUCK CLUUUUCK!

Not a second later, the angry clucking sound of the oversized chicken could be heard before the chicken in question crashed through the trees at the edge of the opening!

"This- Run!"

Understanding what the appearance of the oversized chicken signified, Qing Yi pulled Chu Yang up from the ground before escaping in the opposite direction of the oversized chicken, causing Chu Yang who was momentarily left in a stunned state by the sudden appearance of the oversized chicken, to start running on his own instead of getting carried by Qing Yi.

Rustle~!

Only a few seconds after the oversized chicken's appearance, what looked like a black wave made up of spiders appeared before washing over any of the weaker demon beasts in the Foundation Establishment and Core Formation Realm that happened to be present around the lake.

ROOOOAR!

To make matters worse, Qing Yi and Chu Yang just barely made it out of the opening in time before coming face to face with another terrifying demon beast that had reached the Later Stages of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Whoosh~!

However, ignoring the terrifying demon beast, both Qing Yi and Chu Yang ran straight past it before it had time to react. Leaving the demon beast wondering why the two clearly weaker creatures had not been frozen in fear after seeing it.

RUMBLE-!

Unfortunately for the demon beast in the Later Stages of the Nascent Soul Realm, it did not take long before it found the answer to its question, as it saw the oversized chicken getting chased by the spiders numbering in the thousands by now.

R-Roar!

Knowing that it would end up dead if it didn't escape, the demon beast only barely managed to recover from shock in time to run alongside the oversized chicken. Soon causing the two powerful demon beasts to escape beside each other, both growing increasingly frustrated at the fact that the spiders behind them didn't show any signs of slowing down.

Even worse, they noticed that as more time passed, more and more spiders seemed to join the black wave of spiders behind them. Making it more and more scary.

What might have been even more surprising, was the fact that other than more spiders joining in, there also seemed to be a constant stream of strong demon beast escaping from the black wave of spiders joining them in escaping.

ROOOAR!

ROAR!

ROOOAR!

CLUCK!

In the end, all these demon beasts had one thing in common… And that was the fact that all of them had ended up encountering Qing Yi and Chu Yang before ending up in their current situation!

For this reason, all of them had come to a tactic understanding of moving in the same direction that Chu Yang and Qing Yi were escaping in. None of them wanting them to escape. Instead, it would be more accurate to say that all the powerful demon beasts had come together with the simple goal of making sure that Qing Yi and Chu Yang ended up dead for causing them to end up in their current situation.

In the end, the leader of this weird alliance between powerful Nascent Soul Realm demon beast wanting nothing more than to kill Chu Yang and Qing Yi, ended up becoming the oversized chicken that had been the first demon beast to chase after the two of them.

…

"Why are there so many high-level demon beasts!? Can't we just escape without the constant stream of dangerous demon beasts blocking our path!?" At the same time, Qing Yi and Chu Yang were also struggling, as it was becoming increasingly hard for them to run past the demon beast that seemed to block their path more and more often.

Unkowingly, they had been moving deeper and deeper inside the mystic realm while escaping from the oversized chicken and the spiders...

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As Chu Yang and Qing Yi were wondering why the number of high-level demon beasts that they were running into were increasing, Xuan Hao was still standing in front of the head of the construct. Inspecting the hole from a distance for any possible signs of dangerous demon beasts that might be lurking inside of it.

Unfortunately, even if he tried his best to search for any possible signs of demon beasts or other creatures that might be hidden inside the construct, he couldn't analyze it fully because he couldn't see more than a dozen or so meters inside the construct because of the weird plants from the Dao of Corruption blocking his line of sight.

The only thing that gave him some confidence that there wouldn't be any dangerous demon beasts or other creatures waiting to attack him the moment he entered, was the fact that he had noticed that none of the phantoms or phantom demon beasts that had been fighting all around him had appeared during the time he had been inspecting the construct.

Since he had always been able to see some of the phantoms either fighting or wandering around aimlessly during his journey to the core of the ancient battlefield, where he was now, it was rather odd that no phantoms had appeared during this period of time. Only the sound of their fighting in the distance could barely be picked up due to his powerful cultivation base.

"Haaa… Even if I encounter something dangerous, the blue divine energy left inside the feather imprint should still be strong enough to keep my life safe one more time…" Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself while touching the location between his eyebrows where the feather imprint was located, Xuan Hao began to slowly make his way towards the massive hole in the head of the construct in front of him. Not too worried about his own safety, as he had already personally witnessed just how strong the blue divine energy inside his feather imprint was!

On the other hand, part of him was hoping that he would encounter a dangerous situation that would reduce the amount of blue divine energy inside the feather imprint even further. After all, even if it had saved him once and helped improve his strength, he didn't feel too comfortable knowing that such a powerful energy was inside his body without him having any control over it…

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Stepping inside the head of the construct, Xuan Hao pushed aside some of the weird tentacle like plants before slowly feeling the suppression of the restrictive force reach its limit. Directly rendering his Dao of Corruption useless and no different from any of the other Daos he had comprehended. Making the use of his dao domain impossible.

At least, his strength did not directly end up falling to the same level as that of a Nascent Soul Realm Expert, as the strength of his physical body remained together with the special abilities that came along with his special physique. Allowing his current strength to be somewhere around the Third Stage of the Domain Lord Realm to the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm by only relying on his physical body alone, something that would have been impossible for any other Domain Lord that didn't have some kind of special physique or divine body.

Not thinking about this for too long, Xuan Hao began making his way through the weird tentacle like plants that had been blocking his view from outside. Making sure to keep an eye on the weird plants in case they had the ability to attack. Not ruling anything out, as they were still something that had been given birth to through the Dao of Corruption.

However, in the end, he managed to pass through the weird tentacle like plants without any problems and soon passed through what should have been the throat of the colossal construct before reaching what was the core body of the construct where the stomach, heart and other organs would be located inside a human.

Of course, considering that he was not inside a large human body, these organs should not be present-

Thump-! Thump-! Thump-!

"This- A heart…?"

At least that was what Xuan Hao had expected until he saw a massive heart the size of a large demon beast. Not only that, but the heart was still beating as large black veins filled with some sort of purple liquid in the process of being pumped around the body of the construct-

Wait… Black veins, purple colored liquid…

Suddenly realizing something was off about the large heart located inside the body of the construct, Xuan Hao recovered from his earlier shock before starting to examine the heart in detail.

The heart that was easily the size of the winged tiger in its large form, was pitch black with a large number of veins containing some sort of purple liquid inside of them… But that was not the most important thing. Instead, it was the fact that he clearly felt that the restrictive power that had suppressed his strength originated from the large black heart in front of him!

Looking even closer, he got the feeling that the large black heart was not originally a part of the colossal construct but was more like some kind of parasite that was trying to take control of the body of the construct that had already been defeated in the battle that had taken place in past.

Thinking about it for a bit longer, Xuan Hao could not help looking back towards the direction that he had entered the construct's body.

For some reason, he got the feeling the size of the black heart was around the same size as the hole in the head of the construct. Not to mention, the path from the hole and into the body of the construct from the hole in the head just so happened to end at the location where the black heart was located… And if that was not enough to determine that the black heart was not originally a part of the construct, there was also the fact that the black heart was clear aura belonging to the Dao of Corruption around the black heart.

Something odd considering that the construct should have been defeated by an attack using the Dao of Corruption from what little information he had managed to gather from observing the hole in the head of the construct…

RUMBLE-!

Just at this moment, as Xuan Hao had become certain that the black heart was indeed not related to the construct and instead some parasite that should have been placed inside of it in the past during the battle that had taken place on the ancient battlefield, the space around him began trembling violently, as he suddenly felt himself slipping down towards the black heart-

"Wha-!?"

Taken aback by this sudden change, Xuan Hao took a few seconds before moving towards a small half broken stone platform to prevent himself from falling into the black heart-

Bang-!

Only just reaching it in time before it would have been too late.

"That was close…" Muttering this to himself as he looked over the edge of the half broken stone platform down towards the black heart that was not located below him, Xuan Hao definitely did not like the feeling of not being able to fly because of the restrictive force rendering his domain unusable.

"But what just happened? How come the black heart is suddenly below m-" Freezing on spot unable to finish his sentence as he was looking down towards the black heart, Xuan Hao suddenly realized what it meant for the black heart to now be located below him- The construct was not laying on the ground any longer, but was now standing up!

This realization caused a shiver to run down his spine as he now understood why none of the of the phantoms had dared to approach the crater- The parasite in the shape of a large black heart was not in the process of taking control of the colossal construct but had already been successful in taking control of the constructs body!

How much of the construct that the black heart had managed to control did not matter, as Xuan Hao understood very well that even a fraction of its power would be more than enough to kill him!

The only thing that made him feel some degree of safety at the moment was the fact that he had not felt like the black heart had noticed him and should still be in the process of trying to gain full control of the construct. Meaning that he still had a chance to escape without being found!

Hm? But how do I leave the body of the construct without the ability to use my domain to fly out…?

Suddenly realizing his current situation as he looked up towards the throat that was now located a few hundred meters above him, the hope of escaping without being noticed quickly disappeared.

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Understanding that he had no way out of his current situation, Xuan Hao decided to remain quiet as he leaned over the edge of the half-broken platform to look down towards the black heart. Curious about what it was planning to do after getting the colossal construct to stand up. Hoping that it was just testing how to move around and would lay down on the ground again so he would be able to leave without it finding out.

Rumble~!

Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, the construct didn't get down again and was instead shaking violently as the black heart seemed to be in the middle of a battle trying to get it to move. Making Xuan only capable of waiting for things to calm down.

As for attacking the black heart and trying to overpower it while it was struggling to gain control of the construct? Xuan Hao didn't even dare think about this.

Not to mention the fact that his strength was currently reduced because of the restrictive power, he also doubted that he would be able to do any damage to the black heart in the first place. After all, there had to be a reason why the phantoms formed by the remnant souls of powerful cultivators who once participated in the ancient battle didn't dare approach the fallen construct and the black heart.

Hm? Observing the black heart actually makes it easier to comprehend the Dao of Corruption!?

It was only after having half seriously observed the black heart for a few minutes, that Xuan Hao suddenly realized that it was far easier for him to comprehend the Dao of Corruption by observing the black heart!

Well… I should at least take advantage of this opportunity to deepen my understanding of the Dao of Corruption. Maybe if I'm lucky, I will be able to improve enough to remove the restriction enough to fly out of here without getting discovered.

Having nothing better to do, Xuan Hao sat down and closed his eyes to comprehend the Dao of Corruption. Only leaning over the edge of the platform to observe the black heart when he felt his comprehension speed slowing down.

Unknowingly, time slowly began flowing as he fully immersed himself in comprehending the Dao of Corruption. The rumbling sounds of the colossal construct disappearing amidst the passage of time, yet this didn't stop Xuan Hao as he had entered a state of comprehension. No longer paying any attention to his surroundings as he was only focused on comprehending the insights regarding the Dao of Corruption that he had managed to grasp on to through observing the black heart while it had been trying to take control of the construct.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao had entered a state of comprehension and was fully focused on comprehending the Dao of Corruption, his two disciples were escaping from the tide of both demon beasts and spiders that had formed behind them. Still not having managed to lose them over the last few hours of using all the tricks they could think of in an attempt to stop them from following them.

"Let's go in here and hide!"

Not deterred by this fact, Qing Yi called out to Chu Yang running beside her as she pointed towards a small cave where they could hide while the terrifying demon beasts and spiders behind them passed by.

Swish-!

Swish-!

Not having to say this twice, Chu Yang nodded his head in response before both of them entered the small cave to hide away from the terrifying spiders and demon beasts chasing them from behind-

ROOOAR!NvεlB¡n: Your Escape into Infinite Tales.

However, the moment they entered the cave, a roar filled with killing intent echoed out from deeper inside the cave, as a large bear demon beast in the Ninth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm appeared in front of them.

"Bad cave! Let's leave!"

Not wasting a single second after seeing the bear demon beast, Chu Yang and Qing Yi acted like they had practiced how to respond in such a situation, both dashing back out of the small cave before the bear demon beast had a chance to reach them.

Roar?

As a result, causing the bear demon beast to let out a confused roar before sticking its head out of its cave to look in the direction that Chu Yang and Qing Yi were escaping in. Not understanding how they had managed to run away so fast.

RUMBLE-!

It was just at this moment, that the bear demon beast suddenly heard a loud rumbling sound from behind and felt the entire forest around it start shaking violently, causing it to turn around to see what had caused this-

ROAR!?

However, after turning around, the bear demon beast's eyes went wide with fear as it saw the tsunami of spiders and demon beast moving towards it. Not wasting a single second to rush out of its small cave before escaping. Ending up as one of the few demon beasts that Chu Yang and Qing Yi had encountered, who was strong enough to escape in time before the spiders had a chance to lock on to it.

…

"Why are the number of demon beasts still increasing? More importantly, they are getting stronger and stronger, this is already the fifth demon beast in the Ninth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm that we have encountered so far! Won't we end up encountering Domain Lord Realm Demon beast soon at this rate!?"

Having escaped from the small cave before the bear demon beast had a chance to attack them, Chu Yang could not stop himself from saying this as he grew frustrated over how they seemed to have no way to escape from their current situation.

If things continued to develop like this, wouldn't they end up getting forced to use the limited talismans that their master had given to them before they had entered the mystic realm?!

"Indeed… We can't continue escaping like this, I'm already starting to feel the effects of continuously using my movement technique for such a long period of time. Even if my qi does not run out, my body won't be able to hold on for much longer escaping at this speed…"

Feeling a similar sense of frustration over their current situation as Chu Yang did, Qing Yi nodded her head as she said this, while also informing Chu Yang about the fact that she soon wouldn't be able to keep escaping any longer due to strain put on her body from using her movement technique far beyond what she was capable of with her current strength to make sure that she wouldn't fall behind and get caught by the spiders and demon beasts behind them.

All things considered, both Chu Yang and Qing Yi understood that they would have to find a way to escape from the demon beasts and spiders chasing behind them if they wanted to get out of their current situation alive.

After all, even if their master had left some talismans that could save their lives in a dangerous situation, they had no idea if the talismans that their master had left for them would be able to deal with the sheer number of demon beasts and spiders chasing after them.

Considering how strong the demon beasts and spiders were, if even a few were left alive, they would still not be able to escape with their own strength… And that is not even mentioning the fact that when they used the talisman left behind by their master, they would end up catching the attention of the more powerful demon beasts above the Nascent Soul Realm lurking deeper inside the mystic realm and would have to hide for a long time before things calmed down again.

Other than all of this, there was also the fact that exploring the mystic realm would become incredibly dangerous after using the talismans that their master had given them, as they would no longer have any way to deal with a Domain Lord Realm demon beast in case, they ended up running in to one. Forcing them to stay away from the deeper parts of the mystic realm where most of the opportunities and precious spiritual herbs were located.

If possible, they both wanted to avoid something like this happening. This was also the reason why they had not directly used the talismans left by their master and had instead chosen to escape. Something that in hindsight might have been a bad idea, as dealing with the oversized chicken would at most have taken a single talismans left by their master to deal with, while the wave of demon beasts and spiders chasing after them now might require everything they had to deal with.

"Let's try one more hiding spot, if things don't work out, we will use the lifesaving talisman left by master to deal with the demon beasts and spiders!"

"…"

Knowing that they did not have any other choice, Chu Yang silently nodded his head with a reluctant expression on his face after hearing Qing Yi's suggestion as both of them began looking around themselves for any place they might be able to hide.

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Searching through their surroundings while escaping, it did not take long before a large ravine appeared in front of them. Even better, the ravine was filled with hundreds of small crevices that they could hide inside of!

"Let's try and hide here…"

Swoosh~!

Not wasting any time after discovering the ravine, Qing Yi and Chu Yang both came to a quick decision before rushing towards the ravine and hiding inside one of the hundreds of small crevices.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

Roar!

However, not even a second after entering the small crevice, a loud roar could be heard from deeper inside, causing them to panic for a short moment while turning to look at the owner of the angry roar-

"Only Peak Foundation Establishment Realm…?"

"Haaa… Looks like we finally found a place where we can hide!"

Luckily, as they turned around to see the demon beast that had made the angry roar earlier, it turned out to be nothing more than a weak demon beast that had only barely reached the Peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm, something that they were more than capable of dealing with!

R-Roar…!

Suddenly realizing something was wrong after seeing the Qing Yi and Chu Yang was not scared of it, the demon beast let out another roar as it threateningly barred its fangs at them-

"Hm? What is this thing doing…?"

"I don't know… Maybe it wants to play or something?"

Unfortunately for the demon beast, it did not get the reaction it had wanted and was instead met with the ridiculing words of the two creatures that had dared to enter its home without permission!

ROOOAR!

Swish-!

Not intending to play nice anymore, the demon beast let out a far more powerful roar filled with killing intent before charging towards Chu Yang, who was standing closest to it-

Ptsh-!

However, before the demon beast had any chance to react a spear had suddenly pierced through its body. Killing it instantly!

Thump~

"How weird, I for sure thought that it wanted to play with us just a moment ago…" Muttering this to herself with a confused expression on her face after seeing how the demon beast had suddenly launched an attack towards them, Qing Yi looked down at the dead body of the demon beast with a hint of pity in her eyes.

Even if she had only known the demon beast for a few seconds, it was still rather cute and was in the shape of a rabbit. Reminding her of some of the wild rabbits that could be seen roaming around the land outside the sect. The only difference being that it was slightly larger than that of a normal rabbit and had a pair of large and dangerous looking claws and fangs.

"Qing Yi… It's a wild demon beast. Not a tamed one like the demon beasts in the sect…" Not knowing what to say after hearing what his junior sister said, Chu Yang could only remind her that it was a wild demon beast and not like the tamed demon beasts in the sect.

Rumble-!

"They are here! We have to block the entrance to prevent getting found!" Hearing the all too familiar loud rumbling sound from the large number of demon beasts and spiders that had been chasing after them for the last few hours, Qing Yi turned her attention away from the dead rabbit demon beast before pointing towards the small opening that they had used to enter the crevice.

"I'm on it!"

Understanding that Qing Yi was too weak at the moment, Chu Yang moved past her before using his spear to dislodge some stones located around the opening, they had entered the small crevice through-

Bang!

Causing the stones to fall down and block their path back out of the crevice, while at the same time also making everything around them dark now that the sunlight from outside had been blocked from entering.

As for how to get out again… This was not something they worried about for now, as escaping from the powerful demon beasts and endless number of spiders chasing after them was far more important. Not to mention, it shouldn't be too hard for them to break a few stones to make a path outside after they had recovered their strength.

All things considered; they were still in the Nascent Soul Realm. If they could not even break a few stones, they would probably be considered the weakest Nascent Soul Realm Experts out there…

RUMBLE-!

At this point, the shaking all around them grew more intense than before, as both Qing Yi and Chu Yang could feel the hundreds of terrifying auras rushing past above them. Soon being followed by the endless wave of spiders chasing from behind.

""…""

Not daring to say a single word as they felt them passing by above them, Chu yang and Qing Yi silently prayed that they wouldn't get discovered and the demon beasts and spiders would pass by them without noticing the fact that they had hidden right below them.

Rumble~

For what felt like hours, Chu Yang and Qing Yi waited nervously below the ground before the ground stopped shaking and the sound of the demon beasts and spiders grew distant. Allowing them to finally let out a sigh of relief. Having managed to successfully escape from the powerful demon beasts and endless swarm of spiders without having to use any of the talismans that their master had given them.

Even with this, Chu Yang and Qing Yi decided to remain quiet without saying anything before finding a small open space inside the crevice where they could sit down and recover some of the energy, they had used during their escape earlier. Not wanting to leave the crevice only to end up in another dangerous situation with no energy left to fight or run away.

Like this, time slowly passed inside the small dark space inside the crevice without any of them knowing what had happened to the demon beasts or the spiders who had been chasing after them.

…

Finally managed to fully recover! Hm… Given the state of Qing Yi, it should still take her another half hour before she recovers fully…

Being the first to fully recover between the two of them, Chu Yang got up before turning to look towards Qing Yi who was still deep in meditation. Even without knowing what she was thinking about, it was still obvious that she was focusing all of her attention towards recovering as fast as possible.

"Hm? I didn't expect the crevice to be so deep…" Looking away from Qing Yi and instead turning his attention towards inspecting the rather large crevice that they now found themselves inside of, Chu Yang could not help showing a somewhat surprised expression on his face after looking down and discovering that outside of the entrance part of the crevice where they had been staying so far, the crevice made a straight drop down a few dozen meters further inside.

Not only that, but Chu Yang also noticed that he was not able to see the end of the crevice that seemed to continue deeper inside the earth than his divine sense could see. Even starting to expand. Making it look more like an underground ravine than a small crevice in the side of a ravine.

"Wait… What is that…"

Suddenly noticing something deeper inside the crevice… Or now underground ravine, Chu Yang could not help narrowing his eyes as he tried to make out what he had seen… But no matter how hard he tried; he could not make out anything outside of the fact that there was something deeper inside the ravine.

As for finding out what it was… Chu Yang did not want to take the risk to figure it out while Qing Yi was still in the process of recovering. Especially considering how much trouble he had ended up getting them into since entering the mystic realm.

At least this time around, he was going to wait for Qing Yi's opinion on the matter instead of letting his curiosity get the better of him and recklessly charge forward to find out what was hiding deeper inside the underground ravine.

Remembering how he had almost ended up getting both of them killed with the oversized chicken a short time ago, Chu Yang could not help feeling ashamed of his reckless behavior.

Rustle~

However, just as he was fully set on staying and waiting for Qing Yi to finish recovering, he caught sight of something moving inside the underground ravine-

"Hm!? Did something just move?! Don't tell me… Is there a demon beast hiding deeper inside the underground ravine…?"

Causing him to feel an all too familiar curiosity welling up inside him as he did his absolute best to stop himself from trying to head inside the underground ravine to figure out what it was.

Like this, Chu Yang remained quietly standing beside Qing Yi, while never looking away from the underground ravine. Doing his best to try and figure out if there really was a demon beast hiding inside.

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After Chu Yang had barely managed to stop himself from exploring the underground ravine for a little over half an hour, Qing Yi finally opened her eyes before standing up with a relieved expression on her face. Only now understanding the fact that they had managed to escape from the spiders and demon beasts on their own.

Even if they had both managed to learn more about just how dangerous the mystic realm was and she could even feel that her comprehension of her movement technique had improved to a level that would normally have taken her months to reach, Qing Yi would personally have preferred that they did not encounter such a situation again in the future. Especially considering that there was no guarantee that they would get lucky enough to escape again.

"Qing Yi, are you fully recovered?"

As she was feeling thankful for escaping the life and death situation that they had ended up in, Chu Yang asked her if she was fine. Resulting in her nodding her head in agreement, while thinking about how they were going to make their way back towards the outer edges where things were safer, now that they had ended up getting chased into deeper parts of the mystic realm's forest.

"Great! There is an underground ravine up ahead. Let's go and explore. Although, I think there is some kind of demon beast hiding in there, so we have to be careful!"

"…"

However, the next words from Chu Yang made her doubt whether or not he had learnt anything from their life and death situation earlier, while at the same time also being surprised at the fact that the small crevice that they had hidden inside of happened to be the entrance to an underground ravine.

"Senior sister, I don't think the underground ravine is too dangerous. Even if there really is a demon beast hidden inside of it, its strength should not be that strong considering that the rabbit demon beast from earlier had managed to live in here before we showed up!"

Seeing that Qing Yi did not answer and was looking towards him with a judgmental look in her eyes, Chu Yang didn't waste a second before explaining why he thought exploring the underground ravine was safe… And more importantly say this before Qing Yi ended up thinking that he just wanted to explore the underground ravine without thinking about the dangers that might be lurking inside of it.

"This is… Reasonable…"

Hesitating for a short moment after hearing what Chu Yang said before saying this, Qing Yi used her divine sense to look through as much of the underground ravine as she could with the current strength of her divine sense.

Whoosh~

Only after having swept over what should be around half of the underground ravine without discovering anything dangerous or being faced with the divine sense of a powerful demon beast, did Qing Yi start relaxing. Understanding that if there really was some dangerous demon beast hidden inside the underground ravine, it should have noticed her divine sense and made itself known.

Everything made it seem like there was nothing wrong with the underground ravine, she had even managed to spot a few more of the rabbit demon beasts nesting inside the underground ravine. Making her almost certain that the true identity of the underground ravine, was some kind of nesting location for the rabbit demon beasts, a place where they could safely reproduce without having to worry about the powerful demon beast wandering the forest above them.

"So, can we explore the underground ravine…?"

"Fine… We will explore it, but be careful and if anything happens, we will escape immediately!"

"Yes!"

Getting Qing Yi's agreement, Chu Yang smiled happily before starting to slowly make his way inside the underground ravine. Keeping Qing Yi's words to mind as he did his best to be careful and not disturb the remaining rabbit demon beast nesting inside the underground ravine.

"…"

Seeing how careful Chu Yang was acting compared to how he would usually do things, Qing Yi could not help feeling a sense of relief as she soon followed behind him inside the underground ravine with a somewhat curious glint in her eyes.

Even if she didn't say it outright, she was also curious about just what was hidden inside the underground ravine. Would it be filled with nests of rabbit demon beasts? Or would there be something more exciting hidden in the deepest part of the underground ravine…?

Continuing inside the underground ravine with this thought in mind, Qing Yi moved forward while making sure to keep an eye on the rabbit demon beasts and her surroundings while moving deeper inside the underground ravine together with Chu Yang.

"This is…"

As his divine sense was more powerful than hers, Chu Yang was the first to fully see the entirety of the underground ravine… And of course, also what had been hiding in the deepest part of the ravine.

"What is it? A spiritual herb or a powerful artifact? Maybe… A powerful sleeping demon beast!?" Seeing how he had suddenly frozen on the spot without saying anything more than a short exclamation, Qing Yi could not help growing impatient as she asked this. Curious about what he had seen, while at the same time also getting ready to escape in case it was something dangerous like a powerful demon beast that had been sleeping and just so happened to start the process of waking up due to the foreign divine sense of Chu Yang sweeping over it.

"No, its not anything like that… The only thing inside this underground ravine other than the rabbit demon beasts, is a single tree with some weird blue leaves…" Shaking his head as he said this, a disappointed expression appeared on Chu Yang's face. Clearly having expected to encounter something different from a random tree.

"A tree with blue leaves…? Maybe a spiritual tree?" Not feeling disappointed like Chu Yang, Qing Yi didn't give up hope on the tree possibly being some sort of spiritual tree, as she continued moving deeper inside the underground ravine to see the tree for herself.

"I already said its nothing valuable…" Muttering this to himself as he watched Qing Yi moving deeper inside the underground ravine, Chu Yang shook his head before following after her.

In any case, it would not be good for them to split up inside the mystic realm. Even if it was for a short moment. None of them had any idea when a dangerous situation would emerge-

Rumble-!

"Wha- The ceiling is collapsing!?"

BOOOOM-!

As the ceiling above them suddenly started collapsing, Chu Yang and Qing Yi were forced to move deeper inside the underground ravine towards the small tree with the blue colored leaves.

ROAR-!

ROOOOOAR-!

ROAAAR-!

It was only after things had calmed down a bit that the familiar roars of demon beasts coming from the now collapsed part of the underground ravine allowed them to understand who was behind the sudden collapse of over half of the underground ravine.

"The demon beasts from earlier… They didn't give up chasing after us…" After Chu Yang said this, both Qing Yi and Chu Yang felt a shiver run down their spine when thinking about what might have happened to them if they had decided to leave the crevice and make their way back to the forest above ground. Would they not have ended up in exactly the same situation they had been in before entering the crevice to hide…?

"Hm? But… what happened to the spiders-"N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

RUSTLE~!

Just as Qing Yi was about to voice her doubt over what had happened to the spiders that had been chasing behind the demon beasts, the familiar sound of thousands upon thousands of small legs skittering along the ground could be heard.

R-ROAR!

R-R-ROOOOAR!

ROAR!?

Soon being followed by the panicked roars of the demon beast as they quickly escaped in the opposite direction that the spiders came from. Moving towards what should be the outer edge of the mystic realm where they had first entered the mystic realm.

Thinking about it, it shouldn't be possible for the demon beasts inside the mystic realm to leave the mystic realm… Right?

Feeling a hint of surprise as this thought appeared, Qing Yi realized that she had absolutely no idea whether or not the demon beasts inside the mystic realm could leave the mystic realm.

If they really had the ability to leave the mystic realm, it was easy to imagine what would happen to the old Flying Sword Sect that only had a few elders in the Nascent Soul Realm present at the moment to make sure it could still function as a branch sect.

If those demon beasts and spiders really have the ability to leave the mystic realm, I can only hope that master is close enough to deal with the situation before those demon beasts and spiders cause any damage to the sect…

Realizing that thinking about this wouldn't help, Qing Yi focused her attention on the small blue leaf tree that Chu Yang had mentioned earlier.

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"Hm?" Having turned to inspect the weird small tree with blue leaves, Qing Yi could not help letting out a surprised sound, as she discovered that the small tree that Chu Yang had described to her was far bigger than a normal tree. Almost standing a full fifty meters tall, while also filling out most of the space in the underground ravine. Only leaving a few small spaces empty where the rabbit demon beasts were nesting.

Didn't Chu Yang say that it was just a small tree with blue leaves? How is this in any way considered to be a small tree?

Feeling doubtful about Chu Yang's earlier explanation of the tree, Qing Yi turned to look towards him with a confused expression on her face. Clearly not understanding how he could have mistaken a tree that filled out almost all the available space of what was left after the collapse of a large part of the underground ravine.

"Why is it so big!? I could swear that it was far smaller when I saw it through my divine sense earlier!" Similarly taken aback by the sheer size of the tree, Chu Yang looked up at the large tree filled with disbelief. Making it obvious to Qing Yi, that he was also taken aback by the size of the tree.

But… He should have already known about the size of the tree after investigating it with his divine sense earlier…

Narrowing both as she thought about this, Qing Yi's gaze became even more intense than before, as she grew more curious about why Chu Yang had been unable to see the true size of the tree through his divine sense.

"Senior sister… I really have no idea how the tree suddenly became so big! Earlier when I saw it through my divine sense, it looked no different from an ordinary tree. Expect the blue colored leaves." Feeling the intense look Qing Yi was giving him, Chu Yang understood that she wanted to find out how he had managed to make a mistake. Unfortunately, he also had no idea why his divine sense had not managed to grasp to true scale of the tree with blue colored leaves.

"Haaa… I guessed as much from your earlier reaction." Shaking her head as she said this with a somewhat disappointed expression on her face, Qing Yi soon turned her attention back towards the large tree with a hint of fear in her eyes. "For now, we should find out whether or not the tree is dangerous. Don't trust what you see through your divine sense, as the tree clearly has some sort of effect on it…"

"Indeed, for it to be able to mess with my divine sense without me discovering anything, it might be something dangerous. Maybe even one of those demonic spiritual trees that I read about…" Nodding his head in agreement with what Qing Yi said, Chu Yang could not help being reminded of the more dangerous type of demonic spiritual trees that devoured the blood and soul of cultivators to increase their own strength.

If they really had encountered a demonic spiritual tree that had the ability to mess with his divine sense without him realizing anything was wrong, Chu Yang understood that they were in an incredibly dangerous situation, as messing with someone's divine sense required far greater strength than the other party. Given his own strength, Chu Yang understood that only someone in the Domain Lord Realm would have the ability to do something like this.

For this reason, he had already taken out one of the talismans that had been given to him by their master. Ready to use it the moment that he discovered something off about the tree that indicated that it was a demonic spiritual tree.

Whoosh~

As both Qing Yi and Chu Yang were cautiously looking towards the large tree. Waiting to see if it was going to do something, a gentle breeze swept through the underground ravine before reaching the tree, causing the blue leaves to gently move in the wind.

Rumble~!

"Wha-!?"

"This…"

Already starting to tense up even more than before after feeling the weird breeze that had suddenly emerged out of nowhere, Chu Yang and Qing Yi could not stop themselves from letting out a shocked sound, as the ground beneath the large tree where the roots were located suddenly rose up by a few meters before forming a small hill that the large tree now stood on top of.

However, this was not the most shocking thing. Instead, it was the fact that a well decorated stone door had appeared on the side of the hill that was facing them!

"Well… This is not suspicious at all… Does that tree demon really think it can fool us into walking into what is a disguised version of its mouth?! Hmph! Let's see if you will continue hiding your true appearance if I start attacking you!" Having fully settled on the conclusion that the large tree was some sort of demonic spiritual tree after seeing the small hill with the small, decorated stone door appearing, Chu Yang was readied his spear and got ready to launch an attack on the large tree-

"Stop! It's not a demonic spiritual tree!"The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

However, before he had a chance to attack, Qing Yi jumped in and stopped him at the last second.

"Hm? What do you mean? Did you figure out what kind of tree this is…?" Knowing that Qing Yi would not stop him without a good reason, Chu Yang calmed down and put down his spear before asking this.

"Yes, I think I have an idea about what kind of spiritual tree this is. Although, the information on it was extremely limited and only came from a few ancient records that I managed to find while looking through the sect's records on mystic realms. If I'm not wrong, the spiritual tree in front of us should be a passage tree!"

"A passage tree…?" Hearing what Qing Yi said, Chu Yang could not help showing a confused expression on his face. Not understanding what kind of spiritual tree, the passage tree was.

"Yes, a passage tree. From the little information I found about mystic realms. If I'm not wrong, passage trees are a special kind of spiritual tree that are used by powerful cultivators who wanted to develop a mystic realm and use it.

As for what purpose these spiritual trees serve in helping develop a mystic realm, I have no idea, the only information about them other than this, is that the passage trees are also used as some sort of gateways between different parts of the mystic realm." Shaking her head as she said this with a look of amazement on her face, Qing Yi could not help gazing towards the large passage tree in front of them with a sense of awe in her voice.

"Gateway between different parts of the mystic realm… Serving as a way to help powerful cultivators develop a mystic realm… Qing Yi… You mean to tell me that this mystic realm was once developed and used by some kind of powerful cultivator…?"

"Ah… I didn't think about that…"

Suddenly realizing the implications of her earlier words after hearing what chu Yang said, Qing Yi could not help freezing on the spot.

"This… it looks like the mystic realm that master send us into is more amazing than we first thought… But, if the mystic realm really was developed by a powerful cultivator in the past, this also means there are a lot of opportunities for us if we are lucky enough to find some of the ruins left behind by this powerful cultivator! More importantly than this, it means that the tree in front of us is not some kind of demonic spiritual tree!" Filled with a similar sense of amazement and awe as he said this, Chu Yang also began fantasizing about the different powerful artifacts or other things that they might be able to find if they could encounter the ruins left behind by the powerful expert that had once developed the mystic realm.

"Indeed… it should also be safe for us to go through the stone door. The only problem is whether the place on the other side of the door is dangerous and filled with powerful demon beasts-"

RUMBLE-!

ROOOAR!

ROOAR!

Just as Qing Yi had started talking, the familiar rumbling sound followed by demon beasts suddenly sounded out from somewhere above them. Getting louder and louder with each passing second.

"Well… Even if it's dangerous on the other side, I doubt it will be more dangerous to stay behind and face those demon beasts… I doubt they will be kind enough to let us escape again. Not to mention, I think they will find us this time around."

"That… Is true…"

Whoosh-!

Understanding that it was not a good idea for them to stay behind, both Qing Yi and Chu Yang charged towards the stone door.

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Bang!

Just as they were about to reach the stone door, the ceiling of the underground ravine collapsed, as the familiar oversized chicken demon beast could be seen looking down towards them filled with killing intent.

Roar!

ROOOAR!

Not too far behind the oversized chicken that was the first to make its way inside the underground ravine, close to a dozen demon beasts no weaker than the oversized chicken appeared. All filled with killing intent as they looked down towards Chu Yang and Qing Yi, who had just reached the stone door at the same time that they entered the underground ravine.

"I hope this door isn't locked…" Reaching towards the handle of the stone door with one hand while grasping on to the talisman that had been given to him by his master with the other, Chu Yang silently prayed for the stone door to not have been locked before trying to push it open-

Creak~

Luckily for both of them, the stone door opened without any problem. Showing a wide and beautifully decorated stone tunnel on the other side.

Whoosh-!

BANG!

However, Chu Yang and Qing Yi didn't have any time to admire the beautiful architecture of the tunnel. Not wasting any time before closing the door and rushing forward. One oversized chicken was already terrifying enough, let alone over a dozen demon beasts with similar strength, there was no way they were going to stay behind and risk having to face off against them just to admire the beautiful decorations of the tunnel!

Unknown to them as they were rushing through the tunnel, trying to get as far away from the demon beast that had been chasing after them, they had failed to realize that the demon beasts chasing after them were far too big to enter the stone door, as it was only barely big enough to fir a normal human, let alone a demon beast the size of a small house…

ROOAR!

ROAAAR-!

Although they did try to force their way through the stone door and into the tunnel, they soon found out that no matter what they did, they could not leave a single scratch on the stone door or the big tree that was placed on top of it-

Rustle~

Even worse, the familiar sound of small legs skittering across the ground above, made the demon beasts start panicking as they all charged back out of the almost completely collapsed underground ravine. Not daring to stay for a second longer, as they all understood that their chances of survival would be close to zero if they had to face the endless swarm of spiders inside a small underground space.

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Not a second later, all of the demon beasts gave up on getting revenge on Chu Yang and Qing Yi and after reaching the surface, it did not take long before they began escaping in all directions.

Unfortunately for the demon beasts, they soon discovered that escaping from the spiders like this was not possible. The number of spiders had grown by far too much during their chase so far. Making them more than capable of splitting up to chase after them individually. In the end, the demon beasts soon ended up together in a single group once again. The main difference this time around being that they had no way to escape from the swarm of spiders chasing them. Forcing them to once again try and make their way towards the outer edges of the mystic realm.

The fact that they had spent such a long time trying to chase after Qing Yi and Chu Yang had inevitably come back to haunt them.

…

At the same time his two disciples had once again just barely managed to avoid the demon beasts that had been chasing after them, Xuan Hao slowly opened his eyes after having remained motionless on top of the small collapsing platform above the black heart for an unknown period of time.

Even if he was not clear about how much his comprehension of the Dao of Corruption had managed to increase, he could still clearly feel that it had taken another step forward compared to before. Enough for it to allow him to once again use his domain like he had done before making his way inside the body of the construct. The only negative being that flying would be far more taxing on his energy than it had been before.

"I wonder how much my strength increased since the last time I viewed my status… And when will that main quest be completed. Do I perhaps have to find out what the black heart is before it is considered to be completed?" Muttering this to himself as he looked down towards the black heart, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that the main quest might be far too difficult for him to complete with his current strength.

"For now, I should check my status before making a decision about continuing to try and find out more about the black heart or leaving." Shaking his head as he said this to himself, Xuan Hao turned his attention away from the black heart before using the system to view his status for the first time in what felt like forever.

Name: Xuan Hao

Dao Domain: Dao of Ice (Small Success), Dao of the Sword (Small Success), Dao of Corruption (Small Success)

Sword Intent: Nascent Sword Soul Realm

Talent: ???

Physique: ??? (25% Awakened)

Realm: Initial Stage Dao Domain Lord (comparable people who just broke through to the Soul Ascension Realm)

Professions: Alchemist (Artisan), Formation Master (Expert), Blacksmithing (Expert)

Sect: Star Shattering Sect

Status: Grand Elder of the Star Shattering Sect

Disciples: Qing Yi, Chu Yang, Bai Ning, Mui

Pet: Lazy Winged Lion (Eighth Stage Domain Lord Realm)

Looking through his status, it did not take long before Xuan Hao to find out what had changed since the last time, he had looked through his tatus.

"The description beside the Dao of Corruption changed from Elementary to Small Success… But what is the difference between Elementary and Small Success?" Muttering this to himself as he looked over the Dao Domain part of his status where the different Daos that he had comprehended were located, Xuan Hao could not help wondering just what meaning the words beside the different Daos meant.

A realm of some sort? Maybe just a name to indicate one's progress in a specific dao? Or maybe something completely different…

In the end, Xuan Hao could only give up on trying to figure out what it was, as he once again understood just how little he knew about the Dao Domain Lord Realm and the things associated with it. Even if he wanted to find out more about the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he had no idea where he would be able to find information on it, as it seemed like the Dao Domain Lord Realm had completely disappeared from the world.

The only places where he could find anything on the Dao Domain Lord Realm in the current world being the ruins of the ancient era that had existed long before the current order of the world had been established… Something easier said than done. Especially when considering how dangerous ancient ruins like this were. Not to mention, his only real encounter with someone who knew anything about the Dao Domain Lord Realm had tried to kill him…

"For now, the most important thing is figuring out what the main quest means with secrets hiding in the core of the ancient battlefield. Is it really something that requires me to find out more about the black heart, or something different…?" Muttering this to himself as he looked over the main quest that had not yet been completed even after he had entered the body of the colossal construct and found the black heart inside of it, Xuan Hao wanted to see if he had missed something when he had first read through the main quest.NvεlB¡n: Inspiring Minds, Illuminating Souls.

[Main Quest: Explore the Core of the Ancient Battlefield, Part 2]

[Progress: 3/4 Secrets Discovered]

[1: Find the crater at the center of the ancient battlefield (complete)]

[2: Find the colossal construct at the center of the crater (complete)]

[3: Enter the construct and find the black heart trying to take control of the construct (complete)]

[4: Move past the black heart and find the trying to resist the black heart (incomplete)]

[Description: Explore the Core of the Ancient Battlefield and find out what secrets are hiding there.]

[Reward: Strengthen Dao Domain]

"…"

Seeing that there had actually been a change to the main quest at some unknown period in time, Xuan Hao had no idea what to say, as it looked like the last thing, he needed to find out about to complete the main quest was hidden behind the black heart.

Now… Only one tiny little problem remained for him to complete the main quest… And that was the fact that the thing he needed to find out about, was located behind the black heart…

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Looking down towards the black heart that he would have to move past if he wanted to complete the main quest, Xuan Hao could not help hesitating. Even if he had not seen the black heart attack, he did not doubt that it had the ability to do this. After all, if it didn't have any ability to protect itself outside of the restrictive power, there was no way that the phantoms roaming the ancient battlefield would have left it alone.

But… The reward from the main quest was far too tempting for him to just let go without and given that the black heart had still not managed to notice him at this point in time, he felt confident that he should be able to sneak past it without getting discovered and find the last secret mentioned by the system before leaving.

In the first place, he didn't need to fight against the black heart or take anything away…

"Hm… I will try approaching the black heart for now. If it shows any signs of attacking or does anything suspicious, I will escape immediately." Muttering this to himself as he came to a decision, Xuan Hao looked around himself in search of a safe path that he could use to move past the black heart without getting discovered.

Luckily for Xuan Hao, there was a long stone structure attached to the sides of the construct's insides located no more than a few meters away from the collapsed platform that he was on top of going right past the black heart. Although he had no idea what kind of purpose the stone structure had served in the past, he was certain that it would be his best shot at moving past the black heart without getting discovered.

Whoosh~!

Not wasting any time after having come to a decision, Xuan Hao silently flew towards the large stone structure before starting to slowly descend down towards the black heart. Not daring to descend too fast, as it might end up revealing his presence.

Thumb~ Thumb~ Thumb~

Getting closer to the black heart, Xuan Hao could clearly hear it beating in a slow and powerful rhythm, as the purplish liquid from inside the black heart was pumped into the construct. Almost like it was trying to transform the construct from something made of stone and metal, into something made of flesh and blood.

What was more shocking, was that Xuan Hao could actually see this happening in the area around the place where the black heart was located, as the surrounding stones had turned into some sort of grotesque mess of blood and flesh. Making Xuan Hao even more certain that the black heart was indeed still in the process of taking control of the construct and had still not managed to succeed.

After all, if it had succeeded and was in control over the construct, it would no longer be a construct made of stone, but would instead be some sort of abomination made of blood and flesh. Not something he would have dared enter no matter what kind of reward the system would offer him!

Trying his best to ignore everything about the black heart as he slowly made his way past it, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face after discovering what was hidden behind the black heart.

"A flame?"

Indeed, behind the black heart, completely surrounded by the weird messy flesh that had grown from the black heart, a tiny flame could barely be seen burning gently without showing any signs of being affected by the flesh all around it.

On the contrary, it was the messy flesh that had grown from the black heart that was affected by the tiny flame, as the flesh surrounding the tiny flame would burst into flames from time to time. Sending some of the flames back towards the black heart, where the black heart would then have to use all of its strength in an attempt to resist the flames from destroying it.

From the looks of it, the reason why the black heart had not attacked him was not because it did not notice him, but instead because it was far too busy dealing with the tiny flame and simply didn't have any energy to spare to attack him.

Now knowing that he should be safe from the black heart attacking him as long as the tiny flame was around, Xuan Hao was not in a hurry to leave the construct any longer as he began observing the tiny flame that was preventing the black heart from expanding and gaining more control over the construct.

"What is that flame?" Seeing how the black heart was using all of its strength trying to suppress the tiny flame, Xuan Hao could not help wondering just what the flame was and how it was related to the construct.

[Main Quest: Explore the Core of the Ancient Battlefield, Part 2 (complete)]

[Progress: 4/4 Secrets Discovered (complete)] N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

[Reward: Strengthen Dao Domain]

"Hm? The main quest was completed?"

Just at this moment, a system panel appeared in front of him. Signaling that he had completed the main quest, while also confirming that the thing resisting the black heart was indeed the tiny flame in front of him.

Wait… Did the description for the fourth secret change…?

Remembering how the system had given him a simple description of the different secrets when he had viewed the main quest just a short time earlier, Xuan Hao did not waste a second before expanding the text below the progress part of the quest. Showing him the simple description of the four secrets again.

"First secret, find the crater- Second find construct- Third-" Looking through the four simple descriptions, it did not take long before he found the fourth one at the bottom.

[4: Move past the black heart and find the tiny ember of phoenix fire resisting the black hearts attempt to take control of the construct and transform it into it an abomination of the Dao of Corruption.]

It did indeed change! But… A tiny ember of phoenix fire? The tiny flame is actually only the embers of phoenix fire? Just how powerful would the fire be if it was not just a few embers barely keeping the black heart at bay…?

Seeing the new description that had been added about the tiny flame in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help showing a look of awe on his face as he looked towards the tiny flame that was resisting the black heart without a single problem.

Just at this moment, as Xuan Hao was looking towards the tiny flame filled with awe at just how powerful it was, the tiny flame suddenly flared up-

FWOOOSH-!

The tiny flame that had only been the size of a small apple, suddenly grew at a speed visible to the naked eye. Instantly reducing the messy flesh and veins carrying the purplish liquid from the black heart into the rest of the construct's body. Not leaving anything behind, as everything was reduced to ashes. Only the black heart remained, as it was doing its best to just barely resist the tiny flame that had suddenly burnt down all of its hard work and engulfed it completely with the clear goal of destroying it.

As a result of the black heart losing what little control over the construct that it had managed to build up over a period of thousands upon thousands of years, the construct that was currently standing up under the support of the black heart-

RUMBLE-!

Lost its support and fell towards the ground!

"Whaaaa-!"

Taking Xuan Hao by surprise, as he could only let out a surprised scream upon suddenly feeling himself plumet down towards the ground together with the construct.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM-!

Not a second later, the construct crashed into the ground. Sending the black heart that was no longer attached to the construct through the veins and other flesh tumbling around the large space inside the body of the construct. The tiny flame still engulfed it completely during all of this. Continuing to burn through the black heart, causing its size to noticeably decrease compared to the first time Xuan Hao had seen it.

"Hm? The restrictive power disappeared!?" Watching all of this unfold as he stabilized himself a few centimeters above the ground, Xuan Hao suddenly realized that the restrictive power that had restricted him before had completely disappeared at some point during the battle between the tiny flame and the black heart. Allowing him to use his dao domain and divine sense once again. Even then, Xuan Hao had no intention of staying behind to watch the battle between the two unfold. Understanding very well that it would be dangerous, and more importantly, he wouldn't really gain anything from staying behind…

Swish-!

With this in mind, Xuan Hao began ascending towards the head of the construct where the way out was located-

Whoosh~!

However, just as Xuan Hao began making his way towards the hole in the head of the construct that he had used to enter it, the tiny flame that had expanded to engulf the black hear separated from it before returning to its original size.

Seeing this, Xuan Hao had at first thought that the tiny flame had been exhausted by the black heart-

"Ha? AH!?"

But this thought quickly turned into fear, as he realized that the tiny flame was heading straight for him!

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Not able to do anything other than do his best to use all of his strength to rush in the direction of the head where the exit out of the construct was located, Xuan Hao could not help silently cursing to himself as he discovered that he had no way to fully use his movement technique due to some sort of restriction on the space inside the construct.

In the end, this meant that he could only helplessly watch the tiny flame getting closer and closer to him. Not something he felt the slightest bit excited about. Especially when considering how he had just witnessed the tiny flame did to the black heart a moment ago.

Whoosh-!

Unable to escape the tiny flame as it caught up with him, just as he was about to reach the head of the construct, Xuan Hao got ready to resist it with all hist strength. Not having any plans of sitting back and just allowing the tiny flame to burn him like it had done to the black heart-

Whoosh~!

Using the power, he had just managed to recover after the black heart had been attacked by the tiny flame, Xuan Hao channeled his energy through his dao domain, creating a massive ice barrier to resist the tiny flame that was now only less than a hundred meters away from him.

At the same time, he also used his sword to launch several attacks towards the tiny flame in an attempt to hopefully slow it down, so he had more time to escape from the inside of the construct. Something that would hopefully allow him to make full use of his movement technique to escape back towards the spatial channel he had entered the ancient battlefield through.

Bang!

Despite all of this, the tiny flame easily brushed off the sword attacks, that were more than strong enough to kill off someone in the Soul Ascension Realm. Soon arriving directly in front of his ice barrier before colliding with it-

Fwoosh~

Easily burning through it, like it was burning through a simple piece of paper. Not even slowing down in the process as it kept moving towards him with the same speed as before. Making Xuan Hao feel the same level of helplessness that the black heart should have felt when engulfed by the tiny flame earlier without any chance to fight back.

Boom-boom-boom!

Of course, he still continued to attack the tiny flame in an attempt to slow it down… but it was all useless, as the tiny flame easily burnt through any attack of defensive technique he used-

"Wha-!?"

Unable to stop the tiny flame and thinking it was about to start burning him alive like it had done to the black heart earlier, Xuan Hao watched with a mix of astonishment and fear, as the tiny flame came to a stop in front of him for a short second before directly entering the feather imprint between his brows.

As the tiny flame enters the mark between Xuan hao's brows, a profound transformation begins to take place inside the space where the blue divine energy was stored and soon spreads to the rest of his body-

"Ah-!"

Triggering a violent reaction from Xuan Hao, who barely managed to make his way out of the construct before landing a few hundred meters away. Not wasting a second before sitting down in a lotus position and closing his eyes. Focusing all of his attention towards the changes that had started to take place inside his body after the tiny flame had begun to change the hidden space of the feather imprint.

First, the tiny flame's heat spread throughout his body, permeating every cell and meridian. Second, the heat transformed into a scorching energy that was then infused into his muscles and bones, causing them to pulsate and glow with an ethereal flame surrounding them. Almost like they were being reforged… And in a sense, this was exactly what happened!

Xuan Hao could clearly feel that his physical form was being strengthened by the scorching energy coming from the hidden space between his brows. Making it more resilient and stronger with each passing second… But this did not make him relax. Instead, it made him more nervous, as the rate at which the scorching energy entered his body did not decrease with time, but instead seemed to increase.

Whoosh~

As the scorching energy coursing through his meridians increased, it started to stimulate the flow of qi inside them, causing the qi to surge with increased vigor and power.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

At the same time, this also forced his meridian to expand and become more expansive to accommodate both his qi and the scorching energy that was now flowing through them. Releasing some of the pressure that the sudden growth in strength was putting on his body, while at the same time giving Xuan Hao some much needed control over the scorching energy coursing through his body.

Although this control did not allow him to forcible push the scorching energy out of his body to prevent it from killing him, it still allowed him to move it away from the places that had already been strengthened and wouldn't make it through another transformation by the scorching energy.

The first place that he redirected the scorching energy towards, was his internal organs-

"Mhm! This is far more painful than I expected...!" Feeling the scorching energy start refining his internal organs, Xuan Hao could not help exclaiming this to himself with a painful expression on his face. Even if he had already expected it to be painful, the pain of his organs being refined was far more painful than he had first expected.

However, he managed to bite the pain in him and continued. Soon seeing small impurities that he had never even known were present being purged by the scorching flame.

Slowly, his organs were strengthened in a far lengthier process than compared to the rest of his body, but when it was done, Xuan Hao felt a clear change in his strength compared to before. His heart absorbed the essence of the scorching energy, pumping with a fiery vitality, while his lungs were fully purified. Allowing him to easily absorb the qi between heaven and earth.

In the end, his entire body started harmonizing with the scorching energy. Allowing him to pick up the subtle fluctuations of the Dao of Fire hidden deep inside the scorching energy.

The crackling sound that could be picked up from the scorching energy transforming his body slowly became a symphony to his ears, guiding him closer to the Dao of Fire.

Unbeknownst to Xuan Hao, his appearance began to undergo subtle changes. His eyes taking on a fiery hue, reflecting the intensity of the scorching energy within. Wisps of ethereal flames started dancing around his body before gathering together on the feather imprint, causing it to change from a feather to a small flame with an even smaller phoenix inside it.

With each passing moment, Xuan Hao's connection to the Dao of Fire grew stronger and his comprehension of the Dao of fire itself deepened with the support of the endless supply of scorching energy.

Hm?

It was just at this point that Xuan Hao suddenly opened his eyes with a somewhat confused expression on his face. For some reason, he felt like he hit some kind of barrier, causing him to be forcibly pulled out of the wonderful state he had just entered.

A bottleneck?

As this thought occurred to him, Xuan Hao did not think about what to do for more than a few seconds before closing his eyes again to attack the barrier that had suddenly appeared in front of him and blocked him from improving.

If this had happened under normal circumstances, he might have tried to understand the bottleneck more and how to safely break through it… But considering that the scorching energy was still entering his body without any signs of stopping, Xuan Hao understood that he would end up dead if he could not find a use for this constant flow of energy-

Rumble-!

For this reason, Xuan Hao did the most obvious thing and prepared all of the scorching energy inside his body to attack the bottleneck with all his might.

[Redeem Reward: Strengthen Dao Domain?]

Yes!

Not forgetting to redeem the reward from the system, Xuan Hao soon felt the strength of his dao domain start subtly increasing… But this was more than enough to loosen the bottleneck that had appeared in front of him. Giving him a perfect chance to attack the bottleneck head on!

Boom-boom-boom!

As the scorching energy bombarded the barrier blocking his path forward for a few minutes without progress, cracks soon started appearing before a loud cracking sound could be heard throughout his entire body before-

BOOOM-!

The barrier shattered under the constant flow of scorching energy. Not a second later, Xuan Hao felt his comprehension of the Dao of Fire start improving again before being integrated into his dao domain-

Whoosh-!

As a result of this, the core of his dao domain and soul started improving at a speed visible to the naked eye, Xuan Hao could even feel that that his dao domain covered had already doubled and looked like it was still expanding without showing any signs of stopping!

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As the strength of both his dao domain and soul was rapidly increasing after breaking through the bottleneck, Xuan Hao felt the scorching energy inside his body being redirected towards his dao domain. Acting as fuel for it to continue expanding even when he had already used up all the energy that had been stored inside his dantian. Allowing his dao domain to reach a size around 5 times what it had been previously before the constant flow of scorching energy slowed down and disappeared a short time later.

"Haaa… I wish there was more of the scorching energy…" Muttering this to himself as he felt a hint of sadness over the disappearance of the scorching energy that had been close to killing him just a short time earlier, Xuan Hao started stabilizing his cultivation base after the sudden increase in strength. Understanding very well that not doing so, could result in his foundation growing unstable and lead to problems the next time he tried to break through a bottleneck or worse, it could come back to fight him during a fight.

As for how much his strength had increased, he would inspect that after he had finished stabilizing his cultivation base. After all, he was still inside an ancient battleground, and he didn't dare risk moving around while his foundation was still unstable. Already able to imagine how his movement technique would end up failing while trying to escape from one of the many phantoms roaming the ancient battlefield.

Even if it was still not safe for him to stay around the construct, as the black heart should not have been killed yet, it was still far safer than trying to make it through the ancient battlefield in his current state. Not to mention, the black heart had already been reduced to a state where it could barely move, so Xuan Hao didn't think that it would be able to recover before he finished stabilizing his foundation and left the ancient battlefield and destroyed the spatial corridor leading to the ancient battlefield to prevent it from possibly finding its way to the Shattered Star Peaks.

…

Unbeknownst to Xuan Hao, the moment the tiny flame had entered the feather imprint between his brows, and he escaped from the body of the construct, the black heart rolled back to its original location in the middle of the constructs body before large veins filled with purple colored liquid spread out towards all the limbs of the construct.

Now, without the tiny flame to hold it back, the inside of the construct started rapidly transforming at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Outside of the fact that its size was now smaller compared to before, the black heart seemed to have been completely unaffected by the attack of the tiny flame.

Rumble~

In a short period of time, the construct that had fallen to the ground once again showed signs of moving again. The main difference this time around being that it didn't look like it was just going to stand up without moving around. No, it looked like the black heart had finally managed to gain full control over the construct now that the tiny flame was gone.

…

"Finally stabilized my foundation…" Standing up with a satisfied smile on his lips after a little over a week, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of satisfaction after having successfully managed to stabilize his foundation in such a short time. Especially considering how he had expected it to take at least a month or longer with just how much his strength had managed to increase.

The reason why he had managed to stabilize his foundation so quickly was because the Dao of Fire not only increased the strength of his dao domain but had also made its foundation stronger. Making the stabilization of his strength far easier than it would have originally been if he had broken through the bottleneck without the help of the Dao of Fire that he had comprehended.

Hm… I wonder how much my status has changed after this…

As he was about to leave and make his way back towards the spatial corridor leading back to the Main Star Peak, Xuan Hao could not help wondering about this, as he soon used the system interface to view his status. Curious about what had changed following his recent breakthrough.

Name: Xuan Hao

Dao Domain: Dao of Ice (Small Success), Dao of the Sword (Small Success), Dao of Corruption (Small Success), Dao of Fire (Small Success)

Sword Intent: Nascent Sword Soul Realm

Talent: ???

Physique: ??? (40% Awakened)

Realm: Intermediate Stage Dao Domain Lord

Professions: Alchemist (Artisan), Formation Master (Expert), Blacksmithing (Expert)

Sect: Star Shattering Sect

Status: Grand Elder of the Star Shattering Sect

Disciples: Qing Yi, Chu Yang, Bai Ning, Mui

Pet: Lazy Winged Lion (Eighth Stage Domain Lord Realm)

"My comprehension of the Dao of Fire directly skipped past the elementary realm and directly reached the level of small success!? Not to mention, I actually managed to break through to the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm!" Muttering this to himself with a sense of disbelief on his face, Xuan Hao could not believe that he had actually managed to improve by so much-

Wait! My physique also improved! Going from 25 percent awakened to 40 percent!

Even taking a few seconds to calm down before discovering that the awakening progress of his physic had also taken a massive leap forward. Most likely due to the fact that the scorching energy had refined his entire body and improved it far beyond what it had been before.

The scorching energy could be said to have been a blessing in disguise. The only problem was that he still did not have a clear idea about what had happened to the tiny flame after it disappeared into the space where the blue divine energy was stored. Even more worrying, the feather imprint had changed into a small flame with a tiny phoenix inside it.

Although it did not do anything different from before, he could clearly feel that the space used to accommodate the blue divine energy had grown in size compared to before.

However, even if he wanted to find out more about what was going on inside the space of the blue divine energy, he had no way to do so with his current strength. Even the divine sense of an Intermediate Dao Domain Lord, was instantly destroyed by the blue divine energy the moment he came into contact with it. No different from the last time he had tried to use his divine sense to investigate the space that the blue divine energy was stored inside, he didn't even last longer…

Rumble-!N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

"Hm? What was that?" Just as Xuan Hao retracted his divine sense before the blue divine energy had a chance to cause any more damage, a loud rumbling sound could be heard echoing across the entire ancient battlefield.

Wait… Didn't that come from behind me…?

Suddenly realizing where the loud sound had come from, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine as a terrifying premonition appeared in his head.

I think its about time for me to leave this pla-

BANG-!

About to jump into the air and run away, Xuan Hao suddenly froze on the spot as the giant hand of the construct smashed into the ground just a few meters beside him.

RUUUUUMBLE-!

Not a second later, Xuan Hao watched as the colossal construct on the ground behind him slowly used its hands to push itself up from the ground before finally standing up. Towering thousands of meters into the sky, it's head now covered in the familiar tentacle like plants that were related to the Dao of Corruption. Making it obvious that the black heart was the one currently in control of the colossal construct.

"This- The black heart managed to recover faster than I expected… And it even managed to restore and improve its control over the construct!" Filled with fear as he looked up at the colossal construct, Xuan Hao could not help regretting the fact that he had not taken the risk and tried to leave the ancient battleground earlier.

Even if he might have to risk some damage to his foundation. At least he would not have to be faced with something like the construct currently standing in front of him!

Swish-!

Having regained movement over his body again, Xuan Hao didn't bother staying around to observe what the construct was going to do, as he made his way back towards the location of the spatial corridor that he had entered the ancient battlefield through.

Boom-!

However, just as he was about to leave the crater and once again enter the rest of the battlefield where the different phantoms could be seen fighting with each other, the colossal construct suddenly took a step forward. Instantly crossing a distance of several thousand meters… And it just so happened that the direction of the construct was the same as him!

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Bang!

Craaack-!

Watching as the ground shattered the moment the massive foot of the construct landed on the ground, Xuan Hao could not help feeling the sense of happiness from his earlier breakthrough disappear completely.

Even if he did not know how strong the ground of the ancient battlefield was, he had still seen how the phantoms with strength above the Soul Ascension Realm had only barely been able to leave a few marks in it!

Rumble~

Still in a state of disbelief due to the sudden movement of the construct that, Xuan Hao was woken up by the loud rumbling sound coming from the construct preparing to take another step forward… And it just so happened that he was in the path of the massive foot that had started descending down towards him with an overwhelming sense of power.

Swish-!

BANG!

Using his movement technique to dodge the descending foot of the construct just in time, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine as he looked towards the stone like foot of the construct that was no more than a few centimeters away from him.

Given the sheer power of the construct, even if he had reached the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he doubted that he would be able to survive being crushed by the foot of the construct. After all, the different inscriptions and other symbols that had started gently shinning on the surface of the construct was not just for show and would have all kind of effects that would enhance the simple looking foot of the construct and turn it into a terrifying attack!

Whoosh-!

As he was feeling a sense of relief having dodged the massive foot of the construct in time, Xuan Hao suddenly felt a terrifying killing intent locking on to him-

Hm? Is… Is it looking at me…?

And this killing intent just so happened to originate from the giant construct that had been about to step on him a moment ago!

Don't tell me… Is it because the tiny flame merged together with the feather imprint!? I have to get out of here as fast as possible before the black heart manages to get more control of the construct!

Swish-!

Not taking more than a few seconds to understand that the black heart controlling the construct should have targeted him because of the tiny flame that was now hiding somewhere inside the space between his brows where the blue divine energy was stored, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time before using his movement technique to the limit as he escaped in the direction of the spatial corridor that he had used to enter the ancient battlefield.

As for staying behind to test out his new strength against the colossal construct and try to get rid of the black heart? There was no way he was going to do something that stupid, the strength of the construct at its peak should have surpassed the realm above the Soul Ascension Realm and even if it was weakened to the extreme, it was still not something that he would ever be capable of fighting against with his current strength.

Maybe if his strength had reached the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he might have tried fighting it… But there was still a long way to go before he could reach that realm. Not to mention, the Dao Domain Lord Realm was not a simple realm like the Soul Ascension Realm that required one to slowly overcome one tribulation at a time before finally overcoming the Immortal Soul Tribulation and stepping into the next major realm.

The Dao Domain Lord Realm would allow one to directly start ascending the Immortal Soul Tribulation at any moment… And after reaching the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao could also clearly feel that he could initiate the Immortal Soul Tribulation at any moment. Of course, with his current strength, this would be no different from suicide…

However, given what little information he knew about the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he could still understand the strength of the four minor realms to some extent.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

The most crucial piece of information that the system had provided about the realm being that most Dao domain Lord Realm Experts chose to ascend when they reached the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

This information was more than enough for Xuan Hao to understand that someone in the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm should be in the later stages of the Soul Ascension Realm… And for them to be capable of transcending the Immortal Soul Tribulation, a Peak Intermediate Stage Dao Domain Lord should have reached a strength comparable to someone at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm!

Although he had no idea how strong he himself was at the moment, it was obvious that the strength of someone who had reached the Peak of the Dao Domain Lord Realm should have surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm in strength and should be more than strong enough to face off against the construct in its current weakened state.

Lost in his own thoughts while escaping from the construct controlled by the black heart that had just recently learnt to walk, Xuan Hao was not too worried about being caught by it at the moment. At the very least, it would still be some time before the black heart managed to get familiar with moving as the construct.

During this period of time that the black heart was still adapting to its new body, Xuan Hao planned to pass through the most dangerous part of the ancient battlefield where most of the phantoms were gathered together fighting with each other.

Even if he had managed to pass through this place once already, he also understood that he had far more time to slowly move forward and wait for the different battles between the phantoms to move away back then. Not something he had the luxury of doing with the construct behind him.

For now, could only pray that he wouldn't end up encountering a group of phantoms fighting with each other. Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, that was exactly what he encountered after travelling for no more than a few minutes…

Boom-boom-boom!

One, two, three, four, five- Agh! Why are there so many phantoms here!?

Listening to the loud explosions and sound of metal clashing in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help silently cursing to himself as he gazed towards the over ten phantoms that were violently clashing with each other in front of him.

What should I do? Do I risk it and charge through them in hopes of not getting targeted or do I take the long way around and give the construct more time to catch up with me!?

Not knowing what to do, Xuan Hao was left floating midair with a hesitant look on his face. Unable to decide on what the best option was-

Rumble~!

Bang!

Even worse, he could clearly hear the sound of the construct behind him getting closer and closer with each second, he wasted hesitating on what to do.

"Ah! Damn it all! Even if going straight through the battlefield is risky, I should still be able to survive an attack or two of these phantoms with my current strength!"

Swish-!

Feeling the increasingly thick killing intent from the construct that was approaching him from behind, Xuan Hao forced his fear of the phantoms down before dashing forward into the massive combat zone that had been created by them.

No matter what happened, he had a feeling that he might not be able to escape from the ancient battlefield if he decided to take the long way around the large area where the over ten phantoms were clashing with each other… And that was not mentioning that there would always be the risk of there being another similar battle at the edge of the combat zone of the ten or so phantoms, there was also the simple risk of the phantoms moving in the same direction that he was moving in…

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

The moment he made his way into the combat zone of the phantoms, Xuan Hao instantly felt several terrifying divine senses lock on to him before quickly turning away before focusing on something else.

Even without any ability to track where the divine senses had come from, it was still obvious to Xuan Hao who the owners of the different terrifying divine senses had been… And from the looks of it, none of them had taken an interest in him. Making it clear that they had no energy to spare on someone weak like him, as they were far more concentrated on defeating their opponents.

Or well… Almost everyone…

It just so happened that one of the phantoms in the shape of a demon beast had taken an interest in him… And it was not the friendly kind of interest!

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Roar-!

As the phantom demon beast let out a roar before charging towards him, Xuan Hao continued to move through the battle zone of the phantoms.

The phantom fighting with the phantom demon beast should not let go of such a good chance to attack…

Thinking about this as he turned to look towards one of the phantoms that had just lost his opponent, Xuan Hao decided to ignore the approaching phantom demon beast. Instead focusing all of his attention on dodging the powerful attacks of the other phantoms that happened to fly in his direction from time to time.

Roar?

Boom!

Just like he had expected, a loud explosion soon echoed out behind him, as the phantom that had just lost his opponent, had taken advantage of the phantom demon beast ignoring him to launch a powerful ball of fire that had instantly evaporated the phantom demon beast. Reducing it to nothing more than a barely visible mist that slowly drifted away before disappearing into the distance.

Not too long after this, the two sides that had been equal with each other just a moment ago, suddenly ended up becoming one-sided. The side that had lost to the phantom demon beast getting killed off one by one before only a single phantom remained helplessly fighting against six phantoms by the point Xuan Hao reached the edge of the battle zone established when the phantoms had first started fighting with each other.

RUMBLE-!

However, just as the last phantom was about to get destroyed by the combined might of the six remaining phantoms on the other side, the ground beneath them suddenly shook, as the construct appeared at the edge of the battle zone where the remaining phantom were gathered.

Turning around to see the construct that had just appeared within his vision, Xuan Hao froze for a short moment before continuing to escape in the opposite direction of the construct.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

I didn't expect for it to change so much…

Remembering the appearance of the construct at the edge of the battle zone as he used all of his strength to increase his speed, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine.

Compared to the time when the black heart had just managed to take control of the construct, the construct that had appeared at the edge of the battle zone established by the phantoms, was completely different!

Not only was the entire head of the construct covered in all sorts of tentacle like plants that had come together to form some sort of mouth at the hole that he had entered the body of the construct not too long ago, but the rest of the construct's body had also started cracking apart, as several familiar tentacle-like plants could be seen growing from the cracks.

It had indeed started transforming into some kind of abomination of the Dao of Corruption. Similar to the one's he had seen when he had first comprehended the Dao of Corruption. The only difference being that the construct was far larger than them!

As he was only focused on escaping before the construct could catch up to him, Xuan Hao didn't stay to witness what was going to happen to the phantoms that were now standing directly in front of the construct.

But if he had stayed behind to witness what was happening, he would be met with the single horrifying image of the colossal construct grabbing all of them before swallowing them through the opening on top of its head. Not giving them any chance to resist as they all disappeared inside the body of the construct.

Even the small mist that would normally escape after the phantoms died, did not appear. Signifying that the phantoms that had been swallowed by the construct, were all dead without any chance of recovering!

…

Over the next few days, Xuan Hao crossed through dangerous locations where phantoms were fighting with each other more than a dozen times. Even if he did not always manage to get out unharmed, with his current strength, he was still more than capable of taking a few attacks from the phantoms without dying.

During all of this, he had also managed to get an approximate estimate of his current strength by comparing it to the different Soul Ascension Realm Experts he had seen in the past. In the end placing his strength somewhere around the Fourth Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Although this was not the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm, he was still happy knowing that his strength had now reached a level where even the old ancestor from the Sky Empire wouldn't be able to easily deal with him. Unless he fought inside the capital city of the Sky Empire, that protection formation was simply far too terrifying when it was used by a powerful Soul Ascension Realm Expert like the old ancestor of the Sky Empire…

Rumble~!

"It's here again…" Hearing the familiar sound of something large hitting the ground, Xuan Hao turned back to see the construct that had now been almost completely covered in the tentacle-like plants.

Over the past few days, he had already grown familiar with the sight of it and his fear had drastically decreased after realizing that its speed did not increase any more.

At this point in time, he understood that he would be safe from the tentacle covered construct as long as its speed remained what it was now, and he didn't slow down any further. Something that was unlikely to happen considering that he had already reached the outer edge of the ancient battlefield where phantoms were far harder to encounter.

Boom-boom-boom!

For this reason, Xuan Hao could not help starting to panic a bit when he discovered that a large number of phantoms were fighting each other in front of him. Even worse, the location where they were fighting just so happened to be the same place that the spatial corridor leading out of the ancient battlefield was located!

"Wha- M-my spatial corridor!"

Making Xuan Hao freeze on the spot with a look of horror on his face. Understanding very well that there was close to no chance that the spatial corridor could survive in the middle of such a large fight for long. Not to mention, looking at how exhausting the different phantoms fighting were, it was obvious that the fight had been ongoing for a long time and was just about to conclude. Giving the spatial corridor an even smaller chance of survival.

RUMBLE-!

I can't continue wasting time like this, I can only hope that the spatial corridor managed to survive…

Hearing the sound of the construct getting closer and closer with each second, he wasted without moving, Xuan Hao could only suppress the feeling of helplessness that had appeared inside him the moment he spotted the large number of phantoms fighting in the area where the spatial corridor was located.

Not even bothering to try and find out why so many phantoms had even appeared at the border region to start fighting each other in the first place.

…

Boom-!

Bang-bang-bang!

As he approached the battlefield of the phantoms, Xuan Hao could not help coming to a stop, as he realized that the phantoms had close to no distance between each other. Making it close to impossible for him to dodge their attacks if he tried pass by them… But even more terrifying than this was the fact that all of the phantoms were fighting with each other without any clear opponent.

Different from the other phantoms he had seen fighting before, there were no two sides fighting with each other. Instead, they were all fighting each other in a massive free for all. Making it even more dangerous for him to enter the battlefield they had created. After all, with there being no clear sides, there was a chance of one of the phantoms targeting him without any of the other phantoms jumping in to help him out like had happened the other times he was forced to move through one of the phantoms battles.

What is the reason for this? Did something cause them to act like this…?

Not able to ignore the odd behavior of the phantoms after realizing that his chance of reaching the possibly destroyed spatial corridor had reached close to zero, Xuan Hao could not help scanning the battlefield of the phantoms with his divine sense as he did his best to avoid accidently hitting any of them in the process.

"This is- The spatial corridor is still there! But… From the looks of it, the phantoms are deliberately avoiding the spatial corridor- Ah! Could it be that they want to use the spatial corridor to leave the ancient battlefield as well… But then why did they all start fighting with each other in this manner?"

First feeling relieved at the appearance of the intact spatial corridor, Xuan Hao soon became confused again. Still not understanding what had caused the phantoms to fight with each other in such a chaotic manner.

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The weird behavior of the phantoms protecting the spatial corridor was odd to say the least, but the more worrying thing was that they might try and prevent him from approaching the spatial corridor… And with how strong the phantoms were, he would stand no chance of reaching the spatial corridor with his current strength.

Rumble-!

As he remained frozen just barely out of range from the battlefield of the phantoms, the sound of the construct taking a step forward once again echoed out across the ancient battlefield. The only difference this time around being that it was close enough to affect the area where the phantoms were fighting with each other.

Resulting in some of the phantoms fighting on the ground missing their target, ending up with their opponent taking advantage of this to attack them instead.

Boom-boom-boom!

All of a sudden, more than five phantoms were reduced to nothing more than a small mist that soon drifted off into the distance before disappearing because of this.

Whoosh~!

The sudden death of so many phantoms at the same time did not go unnoticed by the rest of the phantoms. Instantly causing the rest of the phantoms fighting with each other to come to an abrupt stop before looking in the direction of the colossal construct that had ended up being the main culprit behind the death of the five phantoms.

Are they planning to attack the construct…?

Seeing how all of the phantoms had suddenly come to a stop before focusing all of their attention towards the construct, both of Xuan Hao's eyes started shining as he thought this to himself.

Out of everything that could happen, the best-case scenario would be for the phantoms and the construct to start fighting with each other. This way, he would be able to easily reach the spatial corridor and escape from the ancient battlefield without having to risk his life in the process.

Swish-!

Boom-!

However, just as he was looking hopefully towards the phantoms, one of them decided to launch an attack towards one of the other phantoms still focused on the construct in the distance. Instantly reducing it to a small mist as a result.

Boom-boom-boom!

Soon enough, the phantoms returned to fighting with each other like they had done before. Completely ignoring the construct that was slowly getting closer to them… Well… Almost completely ignoring it, they had moved all of their fighting above the ground and into the air now.

Of course, things would not be that easy…

Smiling wryly as he watched the phantoms resume their chaotic fight like nothing had happened, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of helplessness wash over him. From the looks of it, the phantoms were going to ignore the construct for now. At least until it reached their battlefield and started getting closer to the spatial corridor, they wouldn't bother with it.

In the end, Xuan Hao was left with the exact same problem as before and would have to somehow figure out a way to approach the spatial corridor without getting killed by the phantoms in the process-

Wait… Isn't the area that the phantoms are fighting rather small…

Suddenly realizing that the area where the phantoms were fighting was not that big due to how close they were to each other, a plan slowly started taking shape inside his head.

If I can make use of the construct, I might be able to draw away the phantoms guarding the area around the spatial corridor!

Not wasting a second after this thought had appeared in his head, Xuan Hao made his way around to the other side of the small battlefield. Making sure to not accidentally enter the crossfire of any of the phantoms busy fighting, while at the same time making it so that the construct would have to pass through the phantoms if it wanted to reach him.

Rumble-!

As the colossal construct got closer and closer, Xuan Hao could not help feeling nervous as he watched the ground starting to crack apart under the terrifying weight of the construct. Even the phantoms that had ignored the construct at first, had now started to fight in a more restrained manner. Some of them would even turn towards the approaching construct from time to time.

"It's here…"

Not long after, the construct reached the location that the phantoms were fighting. Instantly making all of the phantoms stop what they were doing, as they focused all their attention on the construct-

Roar-!

Roar!

Some of the demon beast phantoms were a little more impatient and directly charged forward to attack the construct. Not caring about the fact that it was clearly far stronger than them. Only caring about stopping the construct from getting any closer to the spatial corridor.

Whoosh~!

As a result, the phantom demon beasts were soon faced with the numerous tentacles that had grown all over the phantom. However, different from the first encounter the construct had with phantoms, the demon beast phantoms this time around were not so easy to deal with. All of them narrowly managing to dodge the tentacle like plants trying to grab hold of them before using their teeth and claws to rip apart the tentacle like plants.

Not only that, but also working together to save each other in case the tentacle plants managed to get hold of one of them. Acting completely different compared to the chaotic mess of a fight that had taken place before. Making it obvious that the construct was seen as a common enemy. At least to the phantom demon beasts, the humanoid phantoms had not yet moved and were still cautiously observing the construct fighting against the phantom demon beasts.

Why are they not moving? If things continue like this, the phantom demon beast won't be able to last for long!

Watching the humanoid phantoms remaining motionless while one of the phantom demon beasts ended up being swallowed by the construct after not being able to escape in time, Xuan Hao could not help growing nervous as he watched the construct getting closer and closer to the spatial corridor located at the center of the small battlefield.

If the phantoms didn't do anything soon, the construct might end up walking straight through the spatial corridor. Something that would definitely end up destroying the spatial corridor. Meaning that his only way out of the ancient battlefield would be gone.

No, I can't allow this to happen!

Swish!

Knowing that he would not be able to survive if he ended up stuck inside the ancient battleground, Xuan Hao decided to take a risk and made his way towards the spatial corridor. Although this had attracted the attention of the phantoms, he quickly found out that they didn't care much about him. Instead focusing most of their attention on the colossal construct that already killed off three phantom demon beasts at this point in time.

Of course, this didn't mean that he was able to get close enough to the spatial corridor to ignore the phantoms and make a dash for it. Even if the phantoms were only paying a little attention to him, they would still attack him if he got too close. For this reason, Xuan Hao decided to get as close as possible before nervously turning his attention back towards the approaching construct.

Because of the inaction of the humanoid phantoms, his plan had changed from allowing the phantoms and construct to fight each other before using this as an opportunity to go through the spatial corridor would not work any longer. Instead, he had to come up with a new, far riskier, plan.

The plan was relatively simple, if the humanoid phantoms decided to attack the construct, make use of that to escape… But if they didn't do anything soon, he would be forced to take the risk of charging through the large number of phantoms.

Even if his chance of survival was going to be low in that case, he would at the very least have a chance at survival, something he doubted he would have if he ended up staying inside the ancient battlefield together with the construct wanting to kill him.

RUMBLE-!

BANG!

Just as he decided on the new plan for hopefully making it through the spatial corridor, the last phantom demon beast was hit by the enormous fist of the construct that had suddenly started moving for first time. Indicating that the black heart had managed to increase its control over the construct.

Not taking long before it once again began moving towards him. Not only that, but Xuan Hao also realized that it was moving faster than it had done before. Signaling that the construct's speed had now surpassed his own-

Whoosh-!NvεlB¡n: Inspiring Minds, Illuminating Souls.

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

But at the same time, the humanoid phantoms that had remained unmoving so far. Only observing the construct without doing anything. finally made a move. Giving Xuan Hao the opportunity he had been waiting for!

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Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

As the humanoid phantoms moved in a single group towards the colossal construct, Xuan Hao saw his opportunity to escape from the ancient battleground. Not wasting a single second before charging towards the spatial corridor.

Swish-!

However, before he could reach the spatial corridor, a powerful hammer made out of qi appeared a few meters above him-

BANG-!

Crack!

Before directly smashing into his body into the ground. Not giving him any chance to defend himself with anything more than a simple barrier formed by his dao domain that had been set up at the last moment before the hammer hit him.

"This- Who attacked me!?"

Feeling like his entire body was about to crack apart due to the hammer that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere before smashing him into the ground, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a combination of both fear and confusion. If not for the fact that he broke through to the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he might have ended up dead from the attack just now!

Whoosh~!

Knowing his current precarious situation, Xuan Hao used his divine sense and dao domain to search for the person that had managed to sneak attack him-

One of the phantoms!? Didn't all of them leave to attack the construct? To think one of them actually remained hidden around the spatial corridor!NvεlB¡n: Inspiring Minds, Illuminating Souls.

Not taking long before spotting a nearly invisible humanoid phantom floating in the air not too far away from the spatial corridor. Given the large hammer made of spiritual qi floating beside the humanoid phantom, it was not hard to figure out who had attacked him just now.

"It's just one phantom… If I use all my strength, I should be able to bypass it without getting too heavily injured in the process. Not to mention, from the strength of the attack just now, it should be one of the weaker phantoms. Even with my current strength, I should still be able to take two or three more hits from it without dying…"

Narrowing both his eyes as he muttered this to himself while looking towards the phantom and the hammer floating beside the spatial corridor, Xuan hao understood that although it would be harder to escape, it was still not impossible. Especially when considering that the phantom was weaker than normal, while at the same time also being exhausted from the chaotic fighting earlier.

Boom-boom-boom!

As he was trying to figure out the best way to approach the situation and make it past the phantom guarding the spatial corridor, the loud sounds of the fight between the rest of the humanoid phantoms and the colossal construct suddenly echoed out across the ancient battleground. Signaling the official start of their battle, while at the same time signaling the fact that he didn't have much time left to leave the ancient battleground.

After all, just looking once towards the place where the humanoid phantoms and the construct were fighting, it became obvious that the phantoms stood no chance against the construct.

Even if they had come up with some sort of ancient battle formation to fight somewhat equally against the construct, it would only be a matter of time before their energy ran out… And at that point in time, they would all be caught by the tentacle-like plants growing all over the constructs body.

Before all of this happened, he had to make good use of his time and find a way to bypass the phantom blocking his path, pass through the spatial corridor and of course, close the spatial corridor after reaching the other side.

He might not believe something the size of the construct would be able to pass through a spatial corridor only a little bigger than its hand, but one could never be too certain.

Swish-!

Knowing that his time was running out, Xuan Hao ended up deciding on the simplest tactic to make it through the phantom blocking his path. Forcing his way past it and trying to avoid any form of confrontation that might end up losing him precious time.

As a result of this, Xuan Hao was once again attacked by the hammer of the phantom-

BANG!

However, this time around, he did not end up getting smashed into the ground, forming another crater. Instead, he made use of his recently strengthened physical body and dao domain to forcibly resist the first hammer attack of the phantom and continue moving towards the spatial corridor.

Whoosh-!

Seeing this, the phantom emotionlessly waved its hand as a new hammer made of spiritual qi appeared above him while the one behind him turned into mist that quickly dispersed into the air.

Hm!? Isn't this hammer stronger than before?

Instantly noticing something different about the new hammer that had formed above his head, Xuan Hao felt a shiver run down his spine as he watched it rapidly descending down towards him. Even if he had felt that he should be able to handle one or two more attacks from the phantom. For some reason, he had a feeling that if he allowed the new hammer to hit him, he would not be able to make it out of the ancient battleground…

No! I can't allow it to hit!

Feeling increasingly desperate as he watched the hammer getting closer and closer, Xuan Hao tried to forcibly increase the speed of his movement technique to no avail. The space of the ancient battleground being far too stable for him to fully use his movement technique to teleport a short distance forward and avoid the attack.

Hm? The dao of space here is far more stable… Does this not mean that the dao of space in this place is far more perfected than the dao of space outside the ancient battleground!?

Looking around at the spatial plane that could be seen all around him, covering everything and anything on the ancient battleground, Xuan Hao suddenly saw the small spatial nodes located everywhere around him. From reading the Drifting Cloud Steps, he understood that these spatial nodes were what he would use when teleporting forward thousands of meters with a single step.

Although he could feel these spatial nodes to some degree, he had never been able to fully see them. At least… Not before now!

Rumble~

Feeling his understanding of the Dao of Space suddenly take a massive leap forward, Xuan Hao ignored the hammer above. Instead focusing all of his attention on a spatial node located just beside the spatial corridor before taking a step forward in accordance with the Drifting Cloud Steps-

Swish!

BAAAANG!

Instantly teleporting just beside the spatial corridor, while at the same time avoiding the terrifying hammer of the phantom just in time.

"Haha! To think my Drifting Cloud Steps actually managed to break through! Not only that, but I also feel that my comprehension over the Dao of Space has taken a significant step forward after this!"

Not able to stop himself from laughing happily as he felt all sorts of new profound ways to use the Dao of Space appearing in his head, Xuan Hao took a step forward into the spatial corridor. Not turning to look back towards the phantom that was looking towards him with a hint of confusion present in its eyes.

ROOOOAR-!

However, just as he took this step forward and felt himself getting drawn into the spatial corridor, an earth-shattering roar echoed out across the ancient battleground.

Whoosh-!

Bringing with it, the all too familiar feeling of suppression that he felt even before going through the spatial corridor.

The black heart!

Instantly realizing that the black heart had grown even stronger, Xuan Hao forcibly used his strength to break free from the suppression of the black heart and fully enter the spatial corridor, but… This was not the end!

Rumble-!

The construct completely ignored the humanoid phantoms attacking it. Charging towards the spatial corridor that had already started closing after Xuan Hao had entered it and undid the things, he had done to prevent it from closing earlier.

Even if Xuan Hao wanted to close it faster and prevent the construct from following him, there was nothing he could do about the speed at which the spatial corridor was closing. Going out of the spatial corridor and closing it manually was not really an option.

I have to close the spatial corridor the moment I reach the other side!

With this in mind, Xuan Hao left the ancient battleground under the power of the spatial corridor. Soon only able to see the entrance of the spatial corridor that connected to the ancient battleground shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye-

Rumble-!

Just at this moment, as the entrance was about to fully close to the ancient battleground, a part of the constructs arm forcibly entered the spatial corridor before reaching towards him-

Riiiip~!

However, the spatial corridor soon closed, severing the part of the arm that was already inside the spatial corridor in the process. Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, he soon discovered that the severed arm of the construct was not dead and was still chasing after him!

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Appearing back inside the underground space of the Main Star Peak, Xuan Hao did not waste a single second before turning around to forcibly destroy the spatial corridor he had just come out from. Not wanting to give the arm under the control of the black heart any chance of reaching him and possibly endangering the Star Shattering Sect.

Whoosh~

Following the destruction of the spatial corridor, Xuan Hao let out a sigh of relief, as he saw the arm of the construct chasing after him disappear in the spatial turbulence caused by the sudden destruction of the spatial corridor.

Now that both sides of the spatial corridor were destroyed, there would be no way for the arm to escape the chaotic spatial turbulence and it would most likely end up drifting along in space until it got destroyed or was teleported somewhere random by the chaotic flow of space.

No matter what happened to the arm, Xuan Hao understood that there was nothing more he could do about it. For now, he would just hope that the arm didn't end up getting teleported to a location close to the Star Shattering Sect. The best-case scenario being that it became lost in the chaotic flow of space and was destroyed by it.

"I should get out of here for now…" Muttering this to himself as he took one last look around the underground space without finding anything of value, Xuan Hao turned around and made his way back outside the hole.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao was making his way back outside the hole and began exploring the Main Star Peak for more similar dangerous things like the spatial corridor, the arm of the construct was aimlessly floating around in the chaotic space that the spatial corridor had been located in.

Crack~!

Even with the terrifying strength of the construct's arm, it still started cracking apart almost the moment it lost the protection of the spatial corridor and came into contact with the chaotic space outside. A testament to the terrifying location that the ancient battleground was located in, while also showing just how many flaws were present inside the arm of the construct after the countless years it had been laying on the ground without being repaired.

In a sense, the plants related to the Dao of Corruption that had been growing through some of these small cracks and other defects, ended up weakening the arm of the construct even more than it had already been-

CRACK-!

As a result, it did not take long before the most densely covered location of the arm broke off and was almost instantly ripped apart by the currents of the chaotic space. Not standing any chance of survival without the protection of the different talismans and formations carved into the arm of the construct.

From the looks of how quickly the arm was starting to break apart, it looked like it wouldn't get a chance to survive for long enough to get a chance to leave the chaotic space-

Rumble~

However, just as the arm looked like it was about to fully crack apart and get lost in the chaotic space, a small whirlpool appeared beneath it as a portal just big enough for it to pass through opened up. The only problem being that it looked like it was about to shatter at any moment after having come into existence, the terrifying spatial storms of the chaotic space clearly being far too much for it to handle.

Whoosh-!

Not wasting a second, the arm that still seemed to be under the control of the black heart, moved directly towards the small whirlpool. Understanding very well that it was the only chance of escape that it had before getting destroyed… And from the looks of it, the black heart had no plans of losing even a single part of the constructs body.

Not even bothering to observe what was on the other side of the small whirlpool, the arm of the construct successfully managed to leave the chaotic space.

RUMBLE-!

Reaching the other side of the whirlpool just before the whirlpool shattered due to the terrifying spatial storms of the chaotic space, the arm of the construct found itself hovering in the air above a large altar filled with blood of tens of thousands of people. The blood on the altar flowing together into some sort of formation that had been concentrated together and used to forcibly distort the laws of space, which had ended up connecting to the chaotic space that the arm of the construct had been floating in.

Not too far away from the altar, a large gathering of people could be seen looking awestruck towards the giant hand that had appeared out from the whirlpool in the sky just before it had shattered. The leader of the large gathering, an old woman with a large ceremonial robe on, standing on a small, raised platform in front of the large altar. From a glance, it was obvious that the old woman was already in her twilight years and didn't have long to live, what's more, her strength had only barely reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm. No different from a normal mortal in the eyes of the giant arm hovering above.

"Oh, Great Arm of God, please save these humble servants of yours. Bless us with your divine might and banish the evil tyrant!"

Before the arm floating in the air had chance to kill the people below like it had done to the phantoms that it had encountered earlier, the old woman in the ceremonial robe suddenly knelt down on the ground before saying this.

"The Arm of God? Praise be to the Arm of God!"

Following behind what the old woman did, a middle-aged man who had been standing beside her, also knelt on the ground before saying a simple prayer filled with awe and excitement.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

"""Praise be to the Arm of God!"""

Not too long after these too knelt down, the rest of the people gathered around the altar quickly knelt down before repeating the praise of the middle-aged man. All of them filled with excitement and happiness at the appearance of what they believed to be the arm of their god.

Rumble~

Not caring about any of this and just wanting to kill off the mortals below and absorb their life essence and cultivation assist it in recovering from the damage it had taken earlier in the chaotic space, the arm of the construct began to descend towards the humans below-

Whoosh~

But just as it was about to squish the old woman in the ceremonial robe, it froze on spot, as a small stream of foreign energy drifted into it and began slowly repairing the damage that had been caused to it by the chaotic space. Not only that, but it could also feel that the inherent issues and hidden flaws that had been built up over countless years were slowly being mended by this foreign energy.

The most surprising part of all this, was that the origin of this foreign energy was none other than the old woman in the ceremonial robe!

Although this change was extremely miniscule, it still symbolized a very important thing to the arm- No, the black heart back in the ancient battleground. The inherent flaws of the construct that had caused its strength to drastically fall could be repaired!

For this reason alone, the black heart did not want to kill the old woman.

As for the rest of the humans gathered around, the black heart didn't want to kill them either, as it could also feel more of the foreign energy from earlier emerging from them before entering its body and starting to repair it. Even if the quantity was far smaller, the large number of humans still managed to generate a lot of foreign energy.

More importantly than all of this, it actually discovered that the foreign energy from the humans praying to its hand, appeared all the way back in the ancient battleground where its main body was located!

A thin connection had been formed between itself and the people in front of the large altar…

Given this situation, the black heart back in the ancient battleground remembered the whirlpool from earlier.

If it could make use of this thin connection that had formed, strengthen it, and make a far larger sacrificial ceremony, it might have a chance to leave the ancient battleground and make it to the place where its arm was currently located.

At that point in time, it would also be able to make full use of the foreign power and use it to fully repair the construct it now resided inside of. Maybe even strengthen it even further…

But for all of this to happen, it had to increase the number of humans praying to it, otherwise, not to mention leaving the ancient battleground, it would most likely take thousands of years for its arm to fully recover given how little foreign energy the humans provided at the moment…

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At the same time that the black heart began preparing to expand its sphere of influence and gather more of the foreign power in the place where its arm had landed, Xuan Hao found yet another strange structure hidden away on the Main Star Peak.

The structure was nothing like anything he had ever seen before, and the material of the structure itself made it invisible to his divine sense. If not for the fact that he happened to land in the small, forested area it was hidden due to a rather peculiar demon beast catching his interest, he might not have found it in the first place.

Inspecting the structure that weaved together into some sort of strange-looking tree, Xuan Hao soon realized that there wasn't anything hidden inside or around the strange tree. The only thing of interest he found was the remnant of what should have been incense sticks.

"Is it perhaps a shrine of some sort? Is it perhaps related to the people who lived on the Main star Peak before the Star Peaks were shattered?" Not able to think of anything else, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious about the people who had once lived on the Main Star Peak.

Other than the old temple with the demonic cultivator, the pagoda at the center of the Main Star Peak that the winged lion had been guarding and a few other ruins, he had not really managed to find a lot of things left behind. The overall state of the Main Star Peak was empty and desolate, with nothing more than a few demon beasts and forested areas sprinkled around the almost flat mountain peak.

No, the reason why there aren't much left behind of the people who once lived here, should be due to the person in control of the blue divine energy…

Narrowing his eyes as he realized this, Xuan Hao could not help thinking back to the large number of rocks filled with blue divine energy on the Second Star Peak and the large rock filled to the brim with blue divine energy on the Main Star Peak.

The large gathering of smaller rocks filled with divine energy was already scary enough if it was used for an attack… But the blue divine energy gathered together in the large rock on the Main Star Peak was far scarier. Even the colossal construct under the control of the black heart was nowhere near the same level of the power contained inside that rock.

Maybe even if the construct managed to recover, it might not be able to resist the terrifying blue divine power inside that rock…

Even the presence of the rock alone was enough to keep the chaotic qi outside from entering the area around the peak and ensured that even someone without cultivation would be able to move around without any problem.

Faced with a power like that, it was rather obvious that the people originally living on the Main Star Peak had no chance to resist and were thoroughly annihilated as a result. Leaving only a few traces of their existence behind!

"I wonder just who the owner of the blue divine energy is… And what happened back then to cause the destruction of this place." Muttering this to himself as he gazed over towards the strange tree in the middle of the small, forested area, Xuan Hao did not stay around for long before leaving after not finding anything of us around the strange tree.

However, instead of returning to the Star Shattering Sect like he had planned to do after finishing his exploration of the Main Star Peak, Xuan Hao instead decided to go through some of the locations that he had already been to in the past.

Intending to try and see if he could find anything similar to the strange tree that could not be seen through his divine sense.

Whoosh~

Like this, Xuan Hao ended up searching through some of the different locations he had already been to in the past. However, due to the fact that he was not using his divine sense to search, it also meant that the speed at which he could search the Main Star Peak had reduced by several orders of magnitude.

If he could search through the entire Main Star Peak in a little over a week in the past, now he would have to spent at least a few years- maybe even a decade before he could search the entire Main Star Peak without his divine sense… And that was also considering that he didn't use any time on resting and instead used all available time searching through the Main Star Peak.

Of course, even with all of this, there was always a chance that he might miss something because of how large the peak of the Main Star Peak was.

Luckily for Xuan Hao, it did not take more than a few days of searching before Xuan Hao managed to find another structure like the strange tree.

Thump!

"Another strange looking tree… Looks like there are indeed other structures that are invisible to divine sense." Landing in front of what looked like a replica of the strange tree structure from earlier, Xuan Hao did not show any disappointment on his face. Instead, a faint smile appeared on his lips after seeing the strange tree.

The reason for the smile was simple, the appearance of another structure that he couldn't see through his divine sense had confirmed his earlier suspicion about there being more structure like the strange tree hidden on the Main star Peak.

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Although it was a replica of the same thing, it still carried some uniqueness to it, as instead of remnants left behind by incense, there were instead several bones and skulls lined up around the strange tree. Making it clear to anyone passing by that a sacrifice of some sort had been made to the strange-looking tree structure. Confirming that the strange tree was indeed some kind of shrine of sorts.

As for what kind of god the strange tree represented, he had no idea. Maybe it was not even a god, but something different. After all, the sculptures of gods that he had seen so far were humanoid and would at most have a few unique characteristics, like wings, horns, tails, or something along that line. None of them being in the shape of a demon beast, let alone a tree…

Of course, this could just be because the gods of the past had died out or disappeared after the cataclysm that had taken place in the ancient era and no longer existed in the Ewaria continent. Maybe outside the continent, non-human gods would be more common.

Not to mention this, one would also have to consider the fact that the only race found on the Ewaria continent was the human race!

Even if the demon beasts did have a bit of control over the continent, the territory that they controlled was negligible when compared to the human race. Not to mention, demon beasts was not a single race, but a gathering of all sorts of different races…

Thinking about all of this, Xuan Hao could not help shaking his head. Whether or not the sculpture of the strange tree really represented some sort of ancient god that had once existed in the world didn't matter.

After all, it was nothing more than a slowly decaying structure that would no longer be remembered for what it had once represented. The only thing that was left in Xuan Hao's eyes was nothing more than a strange structure that happened to be invisible to his divine sense.

"Is this perhaps what will happen to the Star Shattering Sect in the future…?" Not able to stop himself from muttering this to himself as he turned to look back in the direction of the Star Shattering Sect, Xuan Hao felt a strange sense of melancholy as he looked back at the strange tree that seemed to have started an extremely slow process of decay.

Even if it could survive for the next thousand years, what about ten thousand years? A Hundred thousand years? One million years? No matter how durable it seemed, it would inevitably disappear in the long river of time.

The Star Shattering Sect was starting to enter period of rapid growth and would soon cement itself as the most powerful sect inside the Sky Empire… But Xuan Hao could not help wondering about something after seeing the strange tree.

How long would the Star Shattering Sect last? Would he be capable of continuing to support the sect and help it grow stronger, or would he end up reaching a bottleneck at some point that he would not be able to overcome, doomed to remain stuck as the river of time slowly erased him from history like it had done the strange tree….

Whoosh~

As Xuan Hao was standing in front of the strange tree with a helpless expression on his face, a gentle mist began to flow out from the strange tree, slowly moving towards his body.

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As the mist got closer to his body, it slowly started changing from being gentle and almost invisible, to a thick tree demonic looking tree root that seemed to be connected to the strange tree structure.

During all of this happening, Xuan Hao did not notice the large root that had suddenly appeared in front of him and was instead still staring towards the strange tree structure with an increasingly helpless expression on his face.

Ten meters, five meters, three meters, slowly the tree root closed the distance and was soon no more than two meters away from reaching him!

However, just at this moment, the small flame symbol located between his brows suddenly lit up. Followed by this, a blue flame covered his entire body-

"Hm? Ah!?"

Swish-!

Instantly waking him up from the state of helplessness that he had been trapped in. Allowing him to just barely escape from the tree root before it could reach him. Even if he had no clue what the tree root was, he had still instinctively felt the danger of it touching him, thus resulting in the almost instantaneous escape the moment he had recovered.

Whoosh~

Following Xuan Hao escaping into the distance, the tree root that had manifested from the gentle mist dispersed back into gentle mist that was soon absorbed into the strange tree structure. Returning everything back to normal, like nothing had happened in the first place.

"…"

Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he looked back towards the strange tree structure in the distance, Xuan Hao felt could felt a sense of fear that he had never experienced before. The feeling of being trapped in the feeling of helplessness without even realizing that he had been trapped, was not something he wanted to experience again.

If not for the fact that the small flame imprint had suddenly activated and freed him from the weird trance he had entered, he would not even have realized that he had been trapped and would be at the mercy of the tree root!

"What was that just now…?" Muttering this to himself as he slowly calmed down, Xuan Hao could not help wondering just what the strange tree had done to him.

A soul-based attack?

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao realized that this would be the only thing that made sense. After all, for something to affect his emotions, it would first have to be something that was targeted at his soul. The only problem was that he had never sensed something happening to his soul, let alone being affected by some sort of attack!

From this alone, it became clear that the strange tree structure was far more terrifying than just a simple shrine left behind by the people who had once lived on the Main Star Peak in the past.

As for what would have happened to him if the tree root had managed to reach him, Xuan Hao didn't dare think about this, but… From ancient records and other historical texts that he had gone through in the past, the most logical conclusion would be some sort of ancient spirit killing his soul and taking control of his body!

However, techniques like this had a critical flaw… And that was the fact that it would be close to impossible to succeed if the opponent was already aware of what was happening, as the other party would be able to keep an eye on their own emotions and notice any abnormality that might occur.

Of course, to do this in the first place, it was still required for someone to at least have reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm, as having developed a divine sense was the minimum requirement.

Knowing this, Xuan Hao cautiously began to approach the strange tree structure to see if the strange mist and the tree root was going to appear again. Ready to react the moment he felt a change in his emotions.

"Nothing…?"

However, to his disappointment and relief, the strange tree root did not appear to try and attack him again. Instead, the strange tree remained quiet without anything happening. Even when he felt his confidence increase and tried to touch the strange tree, nothing happened.

If not for the fact that he had personally witnessed the strange mist and tree root, he would have thought there was nothing wrong with the strange structure, outside of the fact that it was invisible to his divine sense.

Did it get scared off by the flame imprint?

Knowing that there had to be a reason for the strange mist hiding away and not daring to attack him again, Xuan Hao could not help touching the flame imprint between his brows. From the looks of it, other than saving him earlier, it had also ended up scaring the strange tree from attacking him again.

Ching~

Boom-!

Trying to launch an attack to see if he could force the strange tree to act, Xuan Hao was left speechless after seeing his sword attack bounce off the strange tree before flying into the distance and destroying a small hill a few thousand meters away.

"This…"

Even if he had not used all of his strength in the attack just now, it would have been more than enough to kill someone who had undergone a single tribulation in the Soul Ascension Realm!

Maybe I should just leave it alone for now. My strength is clearly too weak to do anything to it at the moment…

Knowing that he would not be able to force the strange mist from earlier to appear, Xuan Hao could only give up on trying to find out more about the strange tree for now and explore the rest of the Main Star Peak. Maybe, if he was lucky, he might have a chance to encounter a strange tree that was in a far more damaged state than the two he had encountered so far. At the very least, this way, he should be able to properly examine it and figure out more about the strange mist from earlier.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao resumed searching through the Main Star Peak without the use of his divine sense, Chu Yang and Qing Yi were hiding beneath a large mushroom more than a dozen meters tall.

""…""

Both of them did not dare to say a single word as they looked fearfully towards a large mouse demon beast busy searching for something beneath a similarly large mushroom. No, they were not looking towards the large mouse demon beast, but instead the large shadow that had appeared on top the large mushroom in the distance.

Even if they could not clearly sense the strength of the large shadowy figure on top of the mushroom, they had still instinctively felt how dangerous it was. In the end, this was what had caused both of them to immediately hide.

Squeeeak!

Havin found what it was searching for, the mouse demon beast excitedly jumped around filled with joy, completely oblivious to the large shadow that had slowly started descending down towards it from the top of the mushroom cap.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

"A Transcendent Grade Spirit Shroom Root!?"

However, just as the large shadowy figure was about to reach the unsuspecting mouse demon beast below, Qing Yi ended up exclaiming loudly with a shocked expression on her face. Having discovered how precious the spiritual herb that the mouse demon beast had found was.

Not to mention the Star Shattering Sect, even when considering the Sky Empire, Transcendent Grade Spiritual Herbs were nowhere to be found. The only reason Qing Yi recognized the Spirit Shroom Root, was because it was a common spiritual herb that could be found in different grades, all the way down to the Mortal Grade that was considered one of the most common spiritual herbs used for practicing beginner alchemy potions and pill.

For this reason, Qing Yi could not stop help herself from showing a shocked expression on her face after realizing that the spiritual her that the mouse demon beast had dug up was actually a legendary transcendent grade spiritual herb.

Squeak!? Squeaaaak-!

However, the sudden exclamation from Qing Yi, allowed the mouse demon beast to realize that there were others around-

Swish-!

Thud~

Allowing it to just narrowly avoid the fangs of the shadowy figure that had been preparing to ambush it. Resulting in the fangs penetrating the rocky ground instead of the mouse.

Following the shadowy figure landing on the ground, this allowed both Chu Yang and Qing Yi to see the true form of the shadow figure.

"This-"

"A spider!?"

Indeed, the identity of the shadowy figure lurking above was a giant spider demon beast, that was easily the size of the large mushroom caps of the trees around them!

What's more… It seemed like the earlier exclamation from Qing Yi, that had ended up scaring the mouse demon beast into running away, had caught the attention of the large spider demon beast...

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"Qing Yi... I think it's best for us to leave before the spider decides to attack us." Looking towards Qing Yi who had pretty much ignored the spider after seeing it and instead fully focusing her attention on the spiritual herb sticking up from the ground beneath it, Chu Yang could not help nudging her shoulder gently before saying this.

No matter how precious a Transcendent Grade Spiritual Herb was, there was no way they would be able to get their hands on it with the spider demon beast around. Especially when considering that the spider demon beast had at least reached the Seventh Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm and should be far more powerful than the oversized chicken from earlier.

Even if the oversized chicken had reached the Eighth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, it was not really that strong for an Eighth Stage Nascent Soul Realm demon beast. Thinking about the oversized chicken, Chu Yang could not help wondering just how such a demon beast had even managed to survive inside the jungle and reach the Eighth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm…

"Leave!? But what about the spiritual herb? Even if the spider demon beast is strong, it should still be possible for you to hold it back for a short period of time. During which, I can snatch the spiritual herb." Shaking her head with an unwilling expression on her face as she said this, Qing Yi clearly did not want to give up on the Transcendent Grade Spiritual Herb. After all, this was something that even Domain Lord Realm Experts would start risk their lives over, let alone someone in the Nascent Soul Realm.

Not to mention, she was not too worried about the spider demon beast with Chu Yang around. Feeling that he should be more than strong enough to hold it back alone for a short period of time. buying enough time for her to grab the spiritual herb. Completely forgetting how she had scolded Chu Yang not too long ago about attacking a demon beast far stronger than himself.

Well… In a sense, it was understandable why she would act like this. After all, a Transcendent Grade Spiritual Herb was far too precious and was more than worth it for them to take a risk. Not to mention, they still had the talismans given to them by their master in case things got too dangerous.

"…"

At the same time Qing Yi was coming up with all sorts of reasons why it would be a good idea for them to attack the spider demon beast and try to snatch away the spiritual herb, Chu Yang could not help wondering whether or not to do as his senior sister said.

On one side, it would be dangerous to engage with the spider demon beast considering how much stronger than him that it was. Not to mention they had already experienced just how dangerous it was to have a powerful demon beast chasing after them for an extended period of time above ground, something that would almost certainly be more dangerous in the limited underground space that they now found themselves inside of.

But on the other hand, he really wanted to fight with the spider demon beast and try and see if he could use some of the things, he had learnt from fighting against the oversized chicken. Even if most of what he had learnt would not be of that much use, considering that a spider and chicken were two completely different demon beasts. The experience of fighting a much stronger opponent would still be useful and could be further honed by fighting against the spider demon beast.

"Fine, I will be holding the spider back while you get the spiritual herb." Nodding his head in response to Qing Yi's suggestion after having thought it through, Chu Yang gazed towards the spider demon beast in the distance.

Although it had already spotted them, it didn't bother looking towards them for more than a few seconds before focusing all of its attention on the spiritual herb partially out of the ground below it. From the looks of it, it seemed like the spider had some idea that the spiritual herb was incredibly precious.

"Yes~!" Smiling happily after having heard that Chu Yang agreed with her plan of snatching the Spirit Shroom Root, Qing Yi's expression also started becoming a little worried after noticing that the spider demon beast had started digging into the ground around the Spirit Shroom Root. "But it looks like we will have to start immediately, or the spider will end up eating the Spirit Shroom Root. Considering how useful it is for demon beasts, the spider might end up directly breaking through to the Domain Lord Realm after eating it!"

"Indeed… Then, I will go first!"

Swoosh~!

Understanding that they could not waste any time after seeing that the spider demon beast had almost finished digging the Spirit Shroom Root out of the ground, Chu Yang took out his spear before charging towards the spider.

Raising its head from the ground the moment Chu Yang moved, the spider demon beast made close to no sound as its large legs moved away from the Spirit Shroom Root and instead got into an attack posture. The only sound generated being the fine hairs on its legs gently brushing against the rocks on the ground. Showing just why it was the perfect assassin for the underground world that Chu Yang and Qing Yi now found themselves inside of after their escape from the large number of powerful demon beasts above ground.

Ching~

Soon, the sound of Chu Yang's spear clashing with the small claws at the end of its long legs echoed throughout the underground space. Attracting the attention of a few small demon beasts that had been hunting or sleeping nearby.

Swish-!

At the same time the small demon beasts began showing up to see what was happening, Chu Yang narrowly managed to avoid one of the spider's other legs that came flying towards him the moment his spear was blocked by the small claws of the first leg with ease. Making it once again clear that the spider was indeed far stronger than him-

"Huh?"

Something that only became more obvious after he realized that he could not pull back his spear again, the two small claws at the end of the spider leg perfectly grabbing hold of it.

CHiiii-!

In the end, he could only use a spear technique to forcibly overcome the powerful grip of the two small claws before being able to free himself.

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…

"Looks like it's now or never…" Muttering this to herself as the fight between Chu Yang and the spider began to move away from the location of the Spirit Shroom Root, Qing Yi slowly began approaching the Spirit Shroom Root. Making sure to not move too fast, as it might end up catching the attention of the spider demon beast.

After all, even if it was a demon beast, it still instinctivly understood that the Spirit Shroom Root was something good that would increase its strength if eaten.

With this in mind, there was no way it would allow her to just approach it and take it away without doing anything.

For now, the main plan was to get the spider as far away as possible before she began digging out and taking away the Spirit Shroom Root, while Chu Yang would do his best to keep the spider demon beast away during this period of time. After this, they would then work together to escape from the spider demon beast, or, if it was weaker than expected, kill it.

The plan was great, but, there was just one little problem with it-

ROAR!

And that was the fact that they didn't account for any other powerful demon beasts showing up during the short timeframe that it would take to carry out the plan…

For this reason, the large mouse demon beast at least double the size of the spider demon beast appearing just as she managed to free the Spirit Shroom Root from the ground, was not within their expectations of how things would turn out. Especially the fact that the large mouse demon beast was also in the Seventh Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Dealing with one such demon beast with their current strength was fine, but two? This was not something they could deal with, even if they worked together!

"Run!"

"Right behind you!"

Swoosh-!

Swoosh-!

Because of this, Chu Yang and Qing Yi didn't waste a single second before escaping in the same direction. None of them wanting to repeat the same chase that they had experienced above ground.

All things considered, they had still managed to get their hands of the Spirit Shroom Root, but… They had also managed to get two angry- no, greedy would be more appropriate considering their main target being the Spirit Shroom Root, demon beasts chasing after them.

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Not aware of the dangerous situation that his disciples had once again found themselves in, Xuan Hao continued exploring the Main Star Peak without the use of his divine. Finding more of the strange tree structures scattered all across the Main Star Peak, each with their own unique offering placed beside them.

However, even after finding more of the strange tree structures, Xuan Hao still did not manage to find any that had been damaged enough for him to try and grasp the interior situation of the strange trees. All he could do was observe the blank outer shell that remained completely immune to any attack he tried to use.

Even when he had tried to attack a practically large crack on the most damaged one among the structures, he still did not manage to do any damage to the strange tree. On the other hand, he ended up getting hit by part of the attack that was reflected by the strange tree.

Although he could block most of the damage from the attack, it had still resulted in him not using his full strength to test out the strange tree structures. After all, his full-strength attack was more than enough to injure himself.

"Should I just leave the Main Star Peak alone for now?" Muttering this to himself as he gazed down towards the decaying pieces of talismans paper located beneath yet another strange tree, Xuan Hao felt that he would be better off leaving the exploration of the Main Star Peak for later. The main reason behind this being the fact that he had still not managed to find anything other than the strange trees… And given how big the Main Star Peak was, Xuan Hao did not really feel like dedicating the next five or ten years to fully searching it for the possibility of encountering a strange tree that had been damaged to a degree that he would be able to break it apart.

On the other hand, it would be far more effective to use this time to increase his strength. Maybe returning after he managed to reach the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm to see if he would be able to find out more about the strange trees was the best option for now…

Swish~

Turning away from the strange tree with a brand-new kind of offering beneath it, Xuan Hao began making his way back towards the Star Shattering Sect.

All things considered; he had managed to get a lot out of his trip to the Main Star Peak this time around. Not only did he manage to break through to the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, but he had also managed to comprehend a brand new dao, the Dao of Fire. Allowing his dao domain to grow more stable with the addition of an additional dao.

Outside of this, he had of course also managed to gain a deeper understanding of just how rare the Dao Domain Lord Realm was from the reaction of the remnant soul of the demonic cultivator. If his guess was not wrong, the Dao Domain Lord Realm should not be a realm that existed in the current era.

Instead, it looked more like there was only the Soul Ascension Realm. Of course, outside of this, there still existed the True Demon Realm for demonic cultivators and a similar realm for the followers of the different gods.

The main difference between the two and the Soul Ascension Realm being that Xuan Hao still didn't know how they would surpass their respective realms and ascend to the realm above the Soul Ascension Realm.

Would they have to go through the immortal soul tribulation like those in the Soul Ascension Realm? Or would they have to go through something completely different?

No matter what the answer was, Xuan Hao was certain that it should not be any less dangerous than the immortal soul tribulation.

After all, if it was easy to accomplish, there would be far more powerful demonic cultivators and followers of the different gods… But at the moment, it seemed like normal cultivators following the path of transcending the immortal soul tribulation was far more common.

Whoosh~

Lost in his own thoughts thinking about the three different cultivation paths, Xuan Hao arrived back at the Star Shattering Sect just in time to see a large group of elders gathered at the entrance of the sect. Looking like they were about to leave at any moment.

The main thing that caught Xuan Hao's attention about these elders was the number of elders. Not to mention Peak Core Formation Realm Elders, just the number of Nascent Soul Realm Elders present exceeded twenty.

If it was just when the Star Shattering Sect had settled down on the Shattered Star Peak, this could be considered all of their Nascent Soul Realm Experts. Even if things had changed from back then, the number of Nascent Soul Realm Experts present still made up over a third and close to half of the total Nascent Soul Realm Experts present in the entire Star Shattering Sect!

Hm? Isn't that Elder Song and the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race?

Spotting the familiar figure of Elder Song talking to none other than the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race not too far away from where the large group of elders were gathered, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly to himself. Understanding that all of this had something to do with Elder Song.

As for what it was about, Xuan Hao decided to descend down towards the base of the Ninth Star Peak where the main entrance of the sect was located, and the large number of elders had gathered together.NvεlB¡n: Inspiring Minds, Illuminating Souls.

Swish~

"Hm? Who is- Ah!? G-Grand Elder!?"

"It's Grand Elder Xuan!"

"Why is he here?"

"Maybe he is also going to join in on the offensive against those major kingdoms?"

"No way, Elder Song would not have gathered so many of us if that was the case…"

Following Xuan Hao's sudden appearance, the elders all focused their attention on him as they began excitedly talking with each other about why he had suddenly shown up.

"Greetings, Elder Song, Grand Elder, it's been some time since we last met. How are you doing in the sect?" Ignoring the elders excitedly looking towards him while chatting with each other, Xuan Hao directly went over to greet Elder Song and the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race.

"Xuan Hao! It's great to see you, Song Jia has been asking about you since she knew you returned to the sect a few weeks ago. How about taking a few hours to teach her together with your disciples before leaving again? I'm sure that would make her happy."

The first to respond to his greeting was not the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race that his question had been directed towards, but instead Elder Song, who happily told him about how Song Jia had been asking about her spending more time together with him and his disciples.

"Sure, I will make some time and also ensure that my disciples take care of her when I'm gone. My newest disciple is also new to the sect and should be more than happy to make a new friend." Considering that Song Jia likely did not have any other friends in the sect outside of his disciples, Xuan Hao agreed with Elder Song's request. In the first place, he would not really lose anything by doing this and it would also be a good way to help Mui get adjusted to the sect through someone other than just his disciples.

"Greetings, Grand Elder Xuan. It's been some time since our last meeting, I have been doing quite well in the sect and so has the rest of the people from my sect, I even feel like reaching the Domain Lord Realm is now within reach!" Not following too far behind, the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race showed a grateful smile as he said this.

Since entering the Star Shattering Sect, the Half Spirit Race had indeed been doing well, a lot of their members experiencing a massive increase in strength, some of their Nascent Soul Realm Experts even breaking through a minor realm or two over the past few years. A speed that had been impossible before they left their small, isolated valley and entered the Star Shattering Sect.

Hm? Looks like the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race is indeed close to reaching the Domain Lord Realm!

Using his divine sense to analyze the current state of the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race following what he said, Xuan Hao could not help showing an approving smile on his lips.

Even if the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race had not yet reached the Half Step Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao still managed to sense that a pseudo domain had already started forming!

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Following the discovery that the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race was about to form a pseudo domain; Xuan Hao gave him a few pointers to help make the process of forming his domain easier.

Whoosh~

Not wasting any time, the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit found a place to sit down before fully immersing himself in comprehending the pointers Xuan Hao had given him. Understanding how valuable the pointers of an expert in the Domain Lord Realm were for someone like himself.

"Elder Xuan, is there perhaps something you want to ask about?" Seeing how Xuan Hao had specifically given the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race a few pointers, Elder Song did not take more than a few seconds to realize that he had done this to make the other party leave.

Although, even if the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit Race knew about this, he would not be the slightest bit mad. After all, the pointers Xuan Hao had given him on the Domain Lord Realm were real and would help him in reaching the Domain Lord Realm in the future.

"Hehe, can't hide anything from you Elder Song, I only wanted to ask about why so many of the sect's elders have been gathered here. As far as I know, nothing major should have happened during the few weeks I was gone." Chuckling to himself as he said this, Xuan Hao felt that Elder Song was indeed the smartest person among the elders of the sect. Nothing could elude his sharp senses.

If not for the fact that he was only in the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao would have been more than happy to have him take on the mantle of Sect Master. Feng Chen would most likely also have be more than happy if someone skillful like Elder Song could take his place as Sect Master and allow him to focus all of his attention towards increasing his cultivation.

Although the strength of the Sect Master did not matter too much in the grand scheme of things, as the main power of a sect always resided in the ancestors and powerful elders who had long since stepped aside to focus all their attention on cultivation or training a select few skilled disciples. The strength of the Sect Master could still not be too low, as it would at least have to be within the upper echelons of the sect.

N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

Something that had now changed from the Nascent Soul Realm to the Domain Lord Realm since the Flying Sword Sect and Spring Flower Sect became the Star Shattering Sect…

"Gathering of elders? You want to know about the plans I have for the sect's expansion?"

"Sect's expansion? Sure, I'm curious about what you were up to."

"Hehe, that is great!" Realizing that Xuan Hao wanted to know more about his plans, Elder Song's eyes started shining for a brief moment before he started talking.

"The reason I gathered so many elders here is because I was planning to begin the next phase of the sect's expansion into the major kingdoms. Considering how much stronger and larger those kingdoms are compared to the rest of the kingdoms we have set up branches in so far, the number of elders present here is only barely enough to establish a foothold for now.

In the future when the sect grows stronger and we get more Nascent Soul Realm Experts, I was planning to send out a few more to stabilize the new territory and ensure that the sect can hold on to its new territory without it developing into a chaotic mess where outlaws gather.

Other than this, I also planned to establish a few trading sections in the new branch sects that are going to be established to ensure a stable flow of resources and-"

Listening to Elder Song as he continued talking about all the different things he had planned when it came to the different branch sects, future trade routes between sects, disciple recruiting, management of the different minor powers under the major kingdoms and so on, Xuan Hao could not help sighing in amazement over just how detailed Elder Song's plan was.

Not to mention the fact that it involved over a thousand different minor powers that would be managed by the Star Shattering Sect in the future, Elder Song had even included the different mortal villages and cities in his plans.

Although most sects and kingdoms would neglect these mortals, Elder Song understood just how important they were for the continuation of the sect. After all, most of the sect's future disciples would come from these different mortal cities and villages. For this reason alone, Elder Song had seen it as vital to make sure that they would do well.

"Looks like you have already thought things through…" Knowing that Elder Song was not going to stop talking on his own any time soon, Xuan Hao decided to interrupt him before he ended up delaying the group of elders from leaving today. Even now, he could feel all of them looking towards him and Elder Song.

"Hm?"

Stopping his very in-depth explanation of how he planned to establish a new group of elders in the Star Shattering Sect that would be in charge of recruiting new disciples from all across the sect's large territory. Sending the most talented to the main sect, while the rest would go to the closest branch sect.

"Look at how the time flies; the sun has already started going down. Hehe, Xuan Hao, if you will excuse me, I have something to attend to." Letting out an awkward laugh upon realizing that the sun had started going down, symbolizing the fact that he had spent over half a day talking, Elder Song quickly returned to the large group of elders behind him. Not wasting a second before starting to give out instructions to them like nothing had happened.

"""…"""

The group of elders in question could only silently cry to themselves at the fact that they had been ignored, as they were soon sent off by Elder Song. All heading towards the location where they would be in charge of establishing a new branch sect over the next few years.

As for Xuan Hao, he quickly left the Ninth Star Peak and made his way back towards the Seventh Star Peak where the sect was located. Preparing to keep his promise with Elder Song and have Song Jia join one of his teaching sessions with Mui.

…

"Hong Xuan… Does he really want to fight it out with Star Shattering Sect even after finding out about that terrifying guardian demon beast? Even if one of the old ancestors really reached the Domain Lord Realm, I doubt it will make any difference." At the same time that the Star Shattering Sect was about to move against the different major kingdoms, Elder Sheng Mei, one of the two most influential elders of the Flame Sky Kingdom was quietly cursing the other most influential elder of the Flame Sky Kingdom.

The reason why she was so annoyed at Elder Hong Xuan was because she had just recently found out that he had made a visit to the ancestors of the royal family and somehow managed to convince them to leave seclusion to side with him on the matter. Instantly destroying any sort of influence in favor of joining under the Star Shattering Sect that she had managed to build up over the past few years.

No matter how much influence she had as an elder, she was still nothing when faced with the old ancestors who were only a single step away from the Domain Lord Realm.

Although they were only separated by a single minor realm, this minor realm was like the difference between heaven and earth. An Eighth Stage Nascent Soul Realm Expert like her simply did not stand a single chance in the face of a Peak Nascent Soul Realm Expert with a pseudo domain!

"But… What on earth did that fellow use to convince them to leave seclusion and take his side on this matter? No matter how little they know about the outside world due to focusing all their attention towards reaching the Domain Lord Realm, they should at the very least be aware of just how strong the Star Shattering Sect is… And more importantly, how terrifying that guardian demon beast is.

Even I can tell that it should at least have reached the Third Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, maybe even the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!" Feeling a shiver run down her spine as she recalled the terrifying guardian demon beast, Elder Sheng Mei could not understand what had caused these ancestors to have the confidence in going against the Star Shattering Sect.

"Hm? Wait… There seems to be something that might explain it, what if they managed to get their hands on that powerful forbidden technique that some of the other resisting kingdoms got their hands on- No, maybe the person behind this forbidden technique was the one to convince them to follow the word of Hong Xuan!" Freezing on the spot as she suddenly realized this, Elder Sheng Mei could not help feeling something was wrong.

Even she knew the side effects of the forbidden technique, so the ancestors would know them as well. Considering the attitude of doing anything to reach the Domain Lord Realm, she doubted that these old ancestors would willingly use such a forbidden technique that would essentially kill them.

In the end, what had caused them to still go forward with resisting the Star Shattering Sect?

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Following the group of elders from the Star Shattering Sect starting to make their way towards the location Elder Song had told them to establish a new branch sect, one particular elder who had just recently managed to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm, arrived outside a small town at the edge of the Flame Sky Kingdom territory.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

"So, this is the place where Elder Song wants me to establish a new branch sect? Haaa… Even if the spiritual qi on the mountain range a bit further away from this place is decent, it is nowhere near the same level of the Shattered Star Peaks…" Muttering this to himself as he glanced over the small town filled with mortals before turning towards the small mountain range located a few thousand meters away from the town, the elder of the Star Shattering Sect could not help lamenting over how bad the current environment was compared to the Shattered Star Peaks.

"If I just didn't participate in that meeting back then, I would have been able to stay in the main sect and continue enjo- working hard to increase my cultivation." Shaking his head as he said this to himself, the elder slowly began making his way towards the small town.

Even if his job was to establish a branch sect of the Star Shattering Sect, he would of course not be the person building the sect up from scratch all alone. Instead, his main job was to first scout out any potentially strong cultivators that might be lurking around before making sure to take care of any hostile forces around.

After all of this, he would then contact the sect and have them send over people and materials to begin constructing the branch sect under his protection.

Given the fact that his location in specific was one of the places furthest away from the Star Shattering Sect, he would also be one of the people who would be required to stay for longer.

Ahhh, why didn't I get chosen for one of those nearby branch sect locations!? If I did, I would at most have to spent two or three years before I could return to the main sect again…

Lamenting over this fact, the elder from the Star Shattering Sect arrived at the entrance to the small town.

Given the fact that the small town was at the edge of the Flame Sky Kingdom and did not have any real strategic value to the Flame Sky Kingdom, the strongest person present in the town had only barely reached the Foundation Establishment.

Although this might be a powerful existence in the eyes of the mortals without any cultivation. In the eyes of the elder from the Star Shattering Sect who had reached the Nascent Soul Realm, this person was no different from these mortals in terms of strength.

Not to mention, the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator in the small town was not someone young and talented but was instead an old man who at most had a few years left to live.

"Stop! You can't enter the town unless you are someone from the Flame Sky Kingdom!"

Just as he was about to make his way inside the town to see it firsthand and get more familiar with the town that would most likely end up developing rapidly as a result of the new branch sect he was going to establish in the mountain range a few thousand meters away, a burly guard who had been half asleep in front of the small entrance to the town suddenly jumped up and stopped him from entering the town.

Even from a glance, it was obvious that this guard wanted to get this over with quickly and return to slacking off.

"Hm? What is this about? Aren't the borders of the Flame Sky Kingdom open to anyone passing by?" Not affected by the rude behavior of the guard in front of him, the elder of the Star Shattering Sect was far more curious about why he had been stopped, as he asked this with a curious expression on his face. Wanting to figure out anything important that might have taken place in the area he would be in charge of over the next few years.

After all, although every single elder had been given a description of the current situation in the kingdom they were sent to, the situation could easily change during the weeks- or in his case months, that was used to travel to the location given to them by Elder Song.

"Open borders? Your information is outdated, the Flame Sky Kingdom closed its border one week ago. Only those who can prove their identity as a citizen of the Flame Sky Kingdom are allowed to enter!" Snickering towards the elder as he said this, the guard clearly did not hold any respect for this stranger who had appeared and disturbed his sleep.

"Closed borders to everyone not a citizen of the Flame Sky Kingdom? What is the reason for taking such a drastic measure to stop people from entering the kingdom?" Not at all affected by the behavior of the guard, the elder just continued asking about the situation of the Flame Sky Kingdom.

In a sense, the reason why he was being looked down upon by this guard most likely had to do with the fact that he had disguised himself as an ordinary wanderer instead of using the elder robe of the sect. Knowing that using it would end up catching far too much attention and possibly result in the Flame Sky Kingdom sending a Nascent Soul Realm Expert to prevent him from entering the Flame Sky Kingdom in the first place.

All things considered; he knew that his own strength was far from enough to resist the attack of the Flame Sky Kingdom. In his eyes, it was far better to leave something like this to the more powerful elders who had similarly gone to the Flame Sky Kingdom to establish a branch sect like him. Especially the Grand Elder of the Half Spirit, when he started building a branch sect close to the capital of the Flame Sky Kingdom, there was no way they would have the time to pay attention to someone like him at the border of their territory.

"You- How would I know about something like that!? It's probably something related to that new sect, I think it was called the Star Shattering Sect, starting to expand into the territory of the Flame Sky Kingdom. Now that I answered your questions, scram, I still have some important work to do!" Not bothering to pay any more attention to the elder from the Star Shattering Sect after this, the angry guard returned to his seat at the entrance to the small town before closing his eyes and returning to his half-asleep state. Only barely keeping himself awake enough to pay attention to anyone trying to enter the town.

"So, the other elders have already started moving… If that is the case, there shouldn't be any problem with me beginning the construction of a branch sect here…" Muttering this to himself as a sense of relief washed over him after hearing what the guard said, the elder of the Star Shattering Sect felt much more at ease knowing that the Flame Sky Kingdom would be busy trying to stop the other elders of the Star Shattering Sect.

With this in mind, he did not waste a second and directly changed out of his disguse and into the robe representing his status as an elder of the Star Shattering Sect before confidently making his way inside the town. No longer worried that his appearance would end up attracting a powerful Nascent Soul Realm Expert from the Flame Sky Kingdom.

Realizing that the person he had just stopped was about to enter the town, the guard who had once again been woken up, angrily yelled as he prepared to draw the small sword at his waist to stop him. "Hm? Ah! Hey, I told you that you can't enter unless-"

Of course, his anger soon turned into fear when he realized the new robe and the striking symbol of the Star Shattering Sect beautifully embroidered on it. Even if he was only a random guard from the Flame Sky Kingdom who had barely managed to reach the Qi Condensation Realm, he still recognized the symbol of the Star Shattering Sect.

"T-this- The Star Shattering Sect!" Feeling a profound sense of fear welling up inside him as he remembered how he had treated this elder just a few seconds earlier, the guard collapsed on the ground. Fainting as a result of the overwhelming fear that suddenly overwhelmed him.

"What the… Ehm… Whatever, I will just continue exploring this town…"

Whoosh~

Not knowing what to say after seeing the guard collapsing on the ground before a small puddle of liquid formed around his lower region, the elder of the Star Shattering Sect quickly made his way inside the small town. Making sure to avoid the unconscious guard.

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At the same time that the elder of the Star Shattering Sect was making his way into the town at the border of the Flame Sky Kingdom, similar situations were happening across all the major kingdoms around the Star Shattering Sect. Soon causing all of the major kingdoms to start panicking at the sudden realization that the Star Shattering Sect began expanding into their territory.

In the eyes of these major kingdoms, most of them had thought they would still have fifty to a hundred years left before the Star Shattering Sect stabilized their new territory and began expanding into their territory.

However, this thought was proven wrong with the Star Shattering Sect resuming their expansion after only a few years after taking control of the smaller kingdoms around them. By the point these major kingdoms realized what was happening, the Star Shattering Sect had already started building a branch sect in their territory.

In a sense, the Flame Sky Kingdom could be considered one of the kingdoms who had been impacted the least by the expansion of the Star Shattering Sect so far due to being located at the edge. Resulting in them having more time to prepare for the inevitable arrival of the Star Shattering Sect.

Of course, they were not able to fully prevent the Star Shattering Sect from entering their territory and could at most delay the construction of the different branch sects. After all, no matter how eager the Flame Sky Kingdom was to be independent from the Star Shattering Sect, they also understood how devastating a war with the Star Shattering Sect would be for them. Especially when considering that none of the other major kingdoms had started fighting back against the Star Shattering Sect yet.

At least they had the advantage of being one of the kingdoms farthest away from the Star Shattering Sect, so they had not yet been as affected as some of the major kingdoms located right next to the star Shattering Sect.

For now, the choice of the Flame Sky Kingdom and some of the other major kingdoms located far away from the Star Shattering Sect, was to wait for one of the more affected major kingdoms located close to the Star Shattering Sect couldn't endure any longer and decided to retaliate against the Star Shattering Sect.

It was in this tense situation between the different major kingdoms that something unexpected happened…

"What!? The Cloud Sky Kingdom gave up?!"

"Yes… News is that they didn't even fight back and just gave up after an envoy from the Star Shattering Sect showed up at their capital!"

"Hmph! You guys know nothing! Apparently, the main reason they surrendered was not due to the Star Shattering Sect showing up, but because the Flowing Cloud Sect and the rest of the sects in the Cloud Sky Kingdom already reached an agreement with the Star Shattering Sect!"

"Flowing Cloud Sect? No wonder then, that sect is almost as strong as the royal family of the Cloud Sky Kingdom. Facing both the internal pressure Cloud Sect and external pressure of the Star Shattering Sect, its no wonder they decided to give up without fighting."

"Indeed, at least this way, they can still keep themselves alive…"

The Cloud Sky Kingdom, the major kingdom located the closest to the Star Shattering Sect among the many different major kingdoms and also the main kingdom that the rest of the major kingdoms were expecting to start fighting back against the Star Shattering Sect, surrendered!

This unexpected turn of events instantly caused the major kingdoms looking towards the Cloud Sky Kingdom to panic. Not just because of the surrender of the Cloud Sky Kingdom, but because they understood that the Star Shattering Sect had also reached some sort of agreement with the Explorer Union located in the Cloud Sky Kingdom.

After all, the main people in charge of the Cloud Sky Kingdom were not only the royal family, but also the Explorer Union, who had one of their biggest branches in the border region of the Sky Empire in the Cloud Sky Kingdom.

For them to agree to the Star Shattering Sect taking control of the Cloud Sky Kingdom was a huge blow to these major kingdoms due to the fact that it meant the Explorer Union acknowledged the strength of the Star Shattering Sect. Something that had never happened in the border region of the Sky Empire before!

In the end, the major kingdoms were forced to rethink their plans of fighting the Star Shattering Sect, as they now not only faced the retaliation of the Star Shattering Sect, but also the possible retaliation of the Explorer Union.

No matter what, there was no way these major kingdoms dared to take a chance and possibly provoke the Explorer Union. After all, it was quite well known on the Ewaria Continent just how terrifying the Explorer Union was.

Not to mention these major kingdoms, even an empire like the Sky Empire did not dare provoke the Explorer Union!

Because of this, all of the major kingdoms focused their attention on trying to find out what had caused the Explorer Union to agree with the Star Shattering Sect taking over the Cloud Sky Kingdom that they had been settled in for the past thousands of years.

…

At the same time that the major kingdoms stopped thinking about attacking the Star Shattering Sect's elders that had entered their territory, Elder Song was reading through a report about how these major kingdoms had all sent their people to the Cloud Sky Kingdom in an attempt to figure out the relationship between the Star Shattering Sect and the Explorer Union.

"Hehe, looks like everything is working out perfectly! Now the elders should at least have a year or two to work on establishing the branch sects without worrying about the retaliation from any of the major kingdoms!" Chuckling to himself as he said this, Elder Song could not help remembering what had happened a month ago when Xuan Hao had returned to the sect from exploring the Main Star Peak.

Back then, he had gone to find Song Jia after having sent off the elders and ended up finding her at Xuan Hao's place. In the end, he ended up talking about something that was troubling him, the Cloud Sky Kingdom.

Although the kingdom was not the strongest, it had a major branch of the Explorer Union in the middle of its capital. Meaning that the kingdom was to some degree under the protection of the Explorer Union and it was because of this, he could not think of any way to take over the territory of the Cloud Sky Kingdom without possibly offending the Explorer Union as a result.

For this reason, he had only decided to have some of the elders establish a few small branches around the edges of the Cloud Sky Kingdom for now. Not daring to place one close to the capital. Fearful that it might end up drawing the ire of the Explorer Union. No matter how strong the current Star Shattering Sect was, Elder Song understood very well that there was no way for them to compare with a terrifying organization spanning the entire continent.

Unexpectedly, when he was talking about this, he managed to find out that Xuan Hao was friends with one of the elders from the Flowing Cloud Sect, a sect that had grown to become the most powerful sect in the Cloud Sky Kingdom over the past few years due to the emergence of a new and powerful elder.

Hearing about this, he was excited. The main reason for this was because the Flowing Cloud Sect was no less powerful than the royal family of the Cloud Sky Kingdom and even looked like they were about to topple them and take control of the Cloud Sky Kingdom. Becoming an independent sect similar to the Star Shattering Sect.

However, the most important thing was not this, but the fact that the Explorer Union did not interfere in this struggle for power. Most likely just seeing it as some sort of internal struggle instead of an external one… Or maybe the Explorer Union did not care as much about the Cloud Sky Kingdom as he and the surrounding kingdoms thought. No matter what the answer was, no one was willing to test it out themselves.

Not thinking too much about the Explorer Union, Elder Song decided to ask Xuan Hao to contact this friend of his. Soon resulting in him meeting with an elder of the Flowing Cloud Sect called Ji Yichuan.

Following this, he spent the next month cooperating with this Ji Yichuan to find out more about the royal family and their relationship between the Cloud Sky Kingdom and the Explorer Union. In the end, it did not take long before he found out that the Explorer Union had absolutely nothing to do with this royal family and wouldn't care whether they lived or died if nothing happened to their branch in the capital. The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

The rest was history, as Elder Song came to an agreement with the Flowing Cloud Sect before forcing the royal family to surrender with the assistance of the Flowing Cloud Sect and the different sects under them. Something that the royal family had no way to resist without the guise of the Explorer Union supporting them to hide behind.

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Chapter 909 Shu Yao Accidentally Damages Infrastructure...

Having watched how Elder Song managed to come to an agreement with the Flowing Cloud Sect through a connection Ji Yichuan had managed to form between himself and the sect master of the Flowing Cloud Sect, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit surprised after finding out how much Ji Yichuan had changed from their last meeting.

Not only did he gain a lot of power in the Flowing Cloud Sect, but his own strength had also increased. Having already broken through to the Fourth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Firmly placing him in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, a realm that was unattainable for most Nascent Soul Realm Experts in the Cloud Sky Kingdom.

As for how Ji Yichuan had even managed to get so close to the sect master of the Flowing Cloud Sect and managed to convince her to ally with the Star Shattering Sect in taking down the royal family of the Cloud Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao understood that this should be related to him reaching the Fourth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Even if the Middle Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, consisting of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, was not considered anything amazing in the current Star Shattering Sect, the same could not be said for a smaller sect like the Flowing Cloud Sect.

Thinking about it like this, it was reasonable for Ji Yichuan to have enough influence in the Flowing Cloud Sect to help Elder Song convince the sect master about joining the Star Shattering Sect.

"Looks like it's better to just let Elder Song do his thing…" Knowing that there was no need for his help in the establishment of the different branch sects, Xuan Hao focused all his attention on Mui and Bai Ning, while also teaching Song Jia every now and then.

Considering how things were going, he did not think it would take more than a few years before Elder Song officially began the process of taking away control from the different major kingdoms through the use of the many branch sects currently in the process of being built. Until that time, there shouldn't be much resistance from the different major kingdoms, as they would be too worried about the link between the Star Shattering Sect and the Explorer Union to do anything about the branch sects being constructed in their territory.

Although they all understood what the Star Shattering Sect wanted to do, they were helpless to do anything about, one of smallest and weakest among the major kingdoms even ended up directly surrendering after realizing how hopeless it would be to struggle against the Star Shattering Sect. Hoping to retain some form of power by willingly throwing in the towel and surrendering to the Star Shattering Sect before even attempting to fight them. Drawing almost unanimous condemnation from the remaining major kingdoms, who still very much wanted to keep their territory and power intact as a result.

In the end, this matter caused some of the major kingdoms to start secretly launching attacks against this smaller and weaker major kingdom. Not daring to attack openly in fear of having to deal with the retaliation of the Star Shattering Sect.

Of course, there was no way for the Star Shattering Sect to just stand by and do nothing when what had essentially just become part of their territory was constantly being attack, with several large spirit stone mines and spiritual herb fields being sabotaged or outright destroyed.

In the end, Shu Yao personally ended up going to that major kingdom to calm down the situation… And with calm down meaning annihilating any of the people secretly sent over by those major kingdoms!

Even if doing this did cause quite a bit of damage to some of the spirit stone mines and spiritual herb fields, it did result in none of those major kingdoms daring to send any more people over. Understanding very well that the Star Shattering Sect cared little about maintaining the spiritual herb fields and spirit stone mines when fighting them.

Not to mention the damage done by the people secretly sent over by the different major kingdoms, even if those major kingdoms all invaded, it was doubtful if they would even be able to cause the same level of destruction that Shu Yao had done during her purge of those secret spies from the different major kingdoms.

One example would be a spirit stone mine where one of the spies from a major kingdom had been about to sabotage the crane used to lift the spirit stones out of the mine and up to the surface.

To get rid of that one spy, Shu Yao had ended up using her domain to pull out all of the miners before sending an attack down in the spirit stone mine to kill the spy. Instantly causing the death of the spy, but at the same time causing the entire spirit stone mine to collapse a short time after she left due to the structural damage caused by her attack. Forcing the miners on the surface to rebuild their mine from scratch.

Shu Yao did not intend for something like this to happen and only intended to kill the spy, but because her strength was far too much for the fragile wooden beams holding up the spirit stone mine to endure. Even if they had been strengthened by different talismans to make them stronger. It had ended with the spirit stone mine collapsing a few minutes after she had left.

Unknowingly to Shu Yao, her lack of control over her own strength had ended up causing a disaster. The main reason for this being a lack of experience when it came to fighting in the Domain Lord Realm.

After all, even if she had managed to break through to the Domain Lord Realm, she had not really had any real fighting experience with other Domain Lords outside of the fake Domain Lord from the Feather Kingdom. Not someone that really served as anything more than a punching bag.

Elder Song, who learnt about the damaged caused by Shu Yao after she had left the area where the spies were located, almost instantly informed her, and told her to stop, but… It was already too late at that point in time.

The damage had already been done and all of the spies exterminated, all Shu Yao could do was go back and help out with the damage she had ended up causing.

At least now that she understood just how bad her control over her own strength was, she was planning to seek out Feng Chen. Knowing that it would be far more effective for her to fight with Feng Chen and figure out things by herself compared to seeking out Xuan Hao. Understanding that the difference in strength between them would end up making things far more difficult.

…

"Shu Yao… To think she ended up causing so much damage trying to kill off the spies from the different major kingdoms, why didn't she just use her domain to restrain and kill them instead of sending down her attack into an enclosed space like a spirit stone mine? Did she perhaps forget about the existence of her domain?" Not knowing what to say after learning about what Shu Yao had done, Xuan Hao could only shake his head and laugh to himself at just how ridiculous the entire matter was. N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

Different from someone like Elder Song who still didn't know too much about the Domain Lord Realm, he understood very well that no matter how little control over her strength Shu Yao had, she would still have the ability to use her domain to forcibly restrain the spies and kill them without causing any damage to her surroundings.

Just the fact that she had pulled out the miners from the different spirit stone mines she visited was more than enough to show that she had no problem with controlling her domain.

In the end, Xuan Hao could only blame it on her being a little too focused on getting rid of the different spies. Forgetting that there was a far more effective way to kill them without also causing damage to the different places that she was protecting from the spies.

All things considered, with Shu Yao helping out, it would not take more than a few months before the different spirit stone mines and spiritual herb fields she had destroyed got up and running again.

On the other hand, considering that Shu Yao was also experienced in formations, Xuan Hao thought that this might end up being a positive thing for the weaker major kingdom, as the formations set up by Shu Yao was sure to improve their spiritual herb fields and spirit stone mines in the future.

It was also for this reason that Elder Song did not get too angry about the damage she had caused after learning that she would be staying behind to help rebuilt some of the things she had ended up destroying.

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Rumble~!

At the same time that Shu Yao was busy rebuilding the different spirit stone mines and spiritual herb fields that she had ended up destroying and Xuan Hao was busy teaching Mui, a loud rumbling sound suddenly echoed out across the entire Flying Sword Sect-

"What in the world is happening!? Is there someone fighting close to the sect?"

Instantly alerting the elder who had been put in charge of the Flying Sword Sect after it had been transformed into a branch sect of the Star Shattering Sect, who did not waste a second before trying to find out where the loud rumbling sound had come from.

"Huh? The origin of the rumbling sound seems to be… Grand Elder Xuan's old mountain peak!?"

Taking no more than a few minutes to find the origin of the rumbling sound, the elder froze on the spot after realizing that it was the old mountain peak that Grand Elder Xuan had lived on before the establishment of the Star Shattering Sect. Even if he was a Nascent Soul Realm Elder of the sect, he understood that climbing the mountain without prior approval from the Grand Elder would be a bad idea.

Whoosh~

For this reason, the elder decided to take out his communication talisman to try and contact Xuan Hao. Making sure to keep an eye on the mountain peak in case something other than the increasingly loud rumbling sounds, that could now be heard by everyone in the sect, took place.

Meanwhile, in the Star Shattering Sect, Xuan Hao suddenly discovered someone trying to contact him through his communication talisman.

"Song Jia, Mui, it looks like someone is trying to contact me, can I leave you two on your own?"

"Yes! I will make sure to keep an eye on Mui!"

"Ye- Huh? An eye on me?"

Not bothering to stay behind to listen to the two girls' conversation after hearing that they would be fine by themselves, Xuan Hao made his way into his mediation room before answering his communication talisman-

"What!? Something happened to my mountain peak back at the Flying Sword Sect!? No, don't approach it for now, I will be there shortly!"

Learning about the weird rumbling sound coming from his old mountain peak, Xuan Hao didn't take long to put two and two together. Almost instantly realizing that the loud rumbling sound that the elder in charge of the Flying Sword Sect had heard should have come from the entrance to the mystic realm, that was located beneath his old pavilion.

Did those two disciples of mine do something?

Not having forgotten the fact that Chu Yang and Qing Yi were currently inside the mystic realm, Xuan Hao could not help thinking that his two disciples might have done something that had ended up causing the loud rumbling sound heard by the elder in charge of the Flying Sword Sect.

Even if it was unlikely considering that his disciples were still in the Nascent Soul Realm and should have no way to cause any meaningful damage to a formation that he had no way of damaging, Xuan Hao didn't dare underestimate their ability to cause trouble.

Although their strength might be lacking, there should be no lack of ancient formations and powerful demon beasts inside the mystic realm. Accidently activating one of those ancient formations or awakening a powerful demon beast might have a certain effect on the stability of the mystic realm's entrance.

The only thing that allowed him to be relatively calm after learning about the change that seemed to have taken place inside the mystic realm, was the fact that he could still feel the different protective measures left with his disciples. Meaning that they were either not related to the change that had taken place in the mystic realm, or that they had not encountered something dangerous enough that they were unable to handle it by themselves.

Even if all of this was reassuring Xuan Hao still did not want to waste too much time knowing that there was something wrong with the mystic realm entrance-

Whoosh~!

Directly using the Drifting Cloud Steps to almost instantaneously teleport to the Flying Sword Sect located almost right next to the Star Shattering Sect. Although he had not been able to directly move to the Flying Sword Sect in a single step, it would have looked no different from actual teleportation in the eyes of someone in the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm. Something that had only been possible due to his recent improvement in the Dao of Space.

"G-Grand Elder Xuan!?"

In turn also working well in scaring the elder who had just contacted him about the anomaly on his old mountain peak, who had just put down the communication talisman before the person he had just been talking to showed up in front of him.

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"Hm… I see, there is indeed a rather interesting rumbling sound originating from my mountain peak…" Not bothering too much with the shocked elder beside him, Xuan Hao instead narrowed both of his eyes as he focused all of his attention towards the entrance to the mystic realm hidden away beneath his old pavilion.

A simple scan with his divine sense was more than enough to reveal that rumbling sound that he had begun to hear after arriving at the Flying Sword Sect did indeed originate from the entrance to the mystic realm.

"Grand Elder Xuan, is there anything I can help with?" Having calmed down and seeing how Xuan Hao had suddenly narrowed both his eyes while looking up towards the peak of the mountain with a visible frown on his face, the elder beside him mustered all the courage he could before asking this. Knowing that, getting the attention of a powerful Grand Elder like Xuan Hao might help him return back to the main sect and hand over the job of watching over the Flying Sword Sect to someone else.

After all, even if it was an honor to watch over the Flying Sword Sect, one of the two original sects that made up the Star Shattering Sect, the cultivation environment of the Flying Sword Sect was far worse than the Shattered Star Peaks.

Not to mention the fact that he had to spend most of his time managing the sect, having little time to focus on cultivating…

"Help? No, there isn't. If you can, I think it would be best to ensure that no elders or disciples approach the area around my old mountain peak for a few days." Not at all aware of the inner thoughts of the elder beside him, Xuan Hao casually brushed off his attempt to butter up to him and soon refocused his attention back on the entrance to the mystic realm.

During this period of time, his divine sense had managed to detect some unusual changes in the formation guarding the entrance to the mystic realm.

The changes in question were small and almost undetectable, but it had allowed Xuan Hao to spot some flaws in the ancient formation. Allowing him to see a possibility of ignoring the cultivation limit placed on the entrance and sneaking inside the mystic realm himself.

But in the end, this only lasted for a short moment, as the ancient formation automatically repaired the flaws before he could properly understand and make use of them.

Indeed, a terrifying formation, even after reaching the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, I am at most able to spot a few minor flaws. Breaking the formation is still something impossible with my current strength. At most I might get a chance to sneak past it with the help of the abnormality taking place inside the mystic realm…

Swoosh~

Knowing that it would be easier for him to investigate and keep and eye on the changes taking place inside the mystic realm next to the entrance, as he could only see the inside with his own eyes due to the formation blocking his divine sense from entering, Xuan Hao made his way up the mountain.

Not aware of the helpless and sad expression on the face of the elder who had been thoroughly ignored after Xuan Hao had noticed the abnormality at the entrance to the mystic realm.

"No need for my help…" Muttering this to himself as he gazed up the mountain where Xuan Hao had disappeared, the elder who had been hoping for an easy way out of his current job of watching over the Flying Sword Sect, understood that he would not be able to return to the main sect any time soon.

Even worse, considering what Xuan Hao had said about not allowing anyone close to his mountain peak over the next few days, it meant he would have to drive away some of the branch elders and disciples living in the mountain peaks located right next to it.

Something that would inevitably draw the attention of the rest of the branch elders and disciples in the sect…

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Arriving in front of the entrance located below his old pavilion, it did not take long before Xuan Hao noticed the large number of demon beasts on the other side of the entrance to the mystic realm. Although most of these demon beasts were no stronger than the Foundation Establishment, it was obvious that they were all filled with fear as they looked in the opposite direction of the entrance to the mystic realm. Making it rather obvious that some kind of powerful demon beast should have made its way inside the underground space.

Given that the loud rumbling sound that he had heard from the moment he arrived at the Flying Sword Sect also seemed to originate from the direction that the group of demon beasts were looking towards filled with fear, it became rather obvious that the loud rumbling sound should have originated from the thing these demon beasts had been fleeing from… And given just how loud the rumbling sound was, Xuan Hao expected there to be more than just a single powerful demon beast.

ROAR!

As if on cue, a loud roar echoed throughout the entire underground space located below the entrance before a large demon beast the size of a small house appeared in the distance. Even from a glance, Xuan Hao could tell that this giant demon beast had already reached the Later Stages of the Nascent Soul Realm. Even showing signs of reaching the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm!N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

ROAR-!

ROOOOAR!

Not long after the first Nascent Soul Realm demon beast showed up, it did not take long before more demon beasts began showing up one after the other. All having at least reached the Nascent Soul Realm.

As a result, the weaker demon beast who had been fearful shivering since the arrival of the first Nascent Soul Realm demon beast, had gathered together in a corner at the edge of the cliff leading up towards the entrance, or in their case, exit to the mystic realm. Not daring to make a single sound. Fearful that it might end up attracting the attention of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts who had been ignoring them so far.

However, the continuous arrival of new demon beast soon caused the space beneath the cliff to start getting crowded, causing some of Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts to swallow up some of the weaker Foundation Establishment or Qi Condensation Realm demon beast to make more space for themselves beneath the cliff.

From the perspective of Xuan Hao who was looking down on these demon beasts from above, all of this seemed rather odd. After all, they had not done anything after arriving at the bottom of the cliff.

Even if it was understandable for the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment Realm demon beast to not have the ability to climb up the cliff with their strength and rather large bodies unsuitable for climbing, the same could not be said for the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast.

After all, with their current strength, they should have more than enough strength to simply jump up the cliff with the use of their powerful physical strength, let alone scaling the cliff!

The fact that none of them had even tried doing this was rather odd, making Xuan Hao believe that the entrance to the mystic realm had some kind of concealing effect that hid it from the different demon beasts living inside the mystic realm. Other than this, he could not think of any other reason as to why the demon beasts would crowd together beneath the cliff instead of just climbing up towards the exit located directly above them. Of course, it could also be that they had already tried this before and knew that there was some kind of formation in place to stop them from leaving.

No matter what it was, it did not make Xuan Hao any less curious about what was taking place in the underground space below him. After all, from the behavior of these demon beasts that seemed to have been the origin of the loud rumbling sound, it looked like their state was no different from the weaker Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment Realm demon beast. All looking in the direction they had just come from filled with fear.

Rustle~

It did not take long before the culprits behind the fearful Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts showed themselves, as what looked like a special kind of spider demon beasts began filling up the underground space. Leaving no place for the demon beasts to escape.

Although most of the spiders had not reached the Nascent Soul Realm and were at most in the Core Formation or Foundation Establishment Realm, with the majority only having reached the Qi Condensation Realm. The sheer number of spiders present was more than enough to make up for the lack of strength.

Not to mention these Nascent Soul Realm demon beast, Xuan Hao even doubted someone in the First stage of the Domain Lord Realm would be able to kill all of these spiders before running out of strength and being overwhelmed by them. Something that was easier said than done considering just how easy it would be for someone in the Domain Lord Realm to kill a large number of these spiders through the use of a domain…

"Hm? One of them is actually trying to climb up the cliff?"

Observing how the spiders were getting closer and closer to the fearful Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts who had realized that there was no path for them to escape, Xuan Hao suddenly noticed one of the more agile demon beasts in the Foundation Establishment Realm trying to climb up the cliff in an attempt to escape form both the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts and the incoming swarm of spiders. Having come to the realization that climbing to the top of the cliff and finding a crack to hide inside might be the only chance to escape its current precarious situation alive.

Will it be able to leave the mystic realm? Or will it be stopped by the formation before it can leave?

Narrowing his eyes as he thought about this, Xuan Hao ignored the fighting that started to take place between the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts and the endless swarm of spiders. Feeling far more interested in whether or not the demon beasts inside the mystic realm had the ability to leave the mystic realm.

After all, if they really did have the ability to leave the mystic realm, it meant he would have to set up some kind of formation of his own to prevent the demon beasts inside from suddenly appearing in the middle of the Flying Star Sect and start causing problems.

Although this would not be hard for him to set up a formation that would stop anyone in the Nascent Soul Realm, it would also depend on whether or not the strength of the demon beasts leaving the mystic realm were also limited to the Nascent Soul Realm…

If the limit was still in place for these demon beasts, everything would be fine, but… If the limit did not work on the demon beasts, it would be difficult for him to set up a powerful enough formation to prevent Domain Lord Realm demon beasts from passing through with his current skill in the art of formations.

Even if he could get the help of the elder from the Spring Flower Sect who was skilled in formations and make a formation strong enough to stop anyone in the Domain Lord Realm from forcibly making it through and into the Flying Sword Sect, it would be impossible to make a formation strong enough to stop a demon beast in the Soul Ascension Realm.

Whilst the chance of a Soul Ascension Realm demon beast appearing inside the mystic realm was low, Xuan Hao did not think it would be impossible. Especially considering that the person who had laid down the formation preventing him from entering the mystic realm should be someone above the Soul Ascension Realm.

Whoosh~

Roar!

Lost in his own thoughts as he looked at the ancient formation symbols that were faintly visible in the air that separated him and the mystic realm, an exhausted roar filled with happiness suddenly sounded out beside him, as the weak Foundation Establishment Realm demon beast managed to ascend the cliff before using all of its strength to push through the last part. Directly passing through the barrier separating the mystic realm and the Flying Sword Sect.

Roar-

Swish~

Suddenly realizing that it was not alone, the demon beast barely managed to let out a surprised roar before it was reduced to a bloody mist. Having been instantly killed by Xuan Hao's domain after it had managed to pass through the formation.

"So, demon beasts from the mystic realm can pass through the formation, but… It seems like the formation also weakens for a short moment when a demon beast from inside passes through it..." Muttering this to himself as he ignored the bloody mist that slowly drifted away before disappearing in the wind, Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes as he focused his attention on the large number of demon beast below the cliff.

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Following the Foundation Establishment demon beast disappearing, it did not take long for one of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts to notice the fact that it had disappeared without a trace. Making it realize that there might be another path out of the underground space, that did not involve fighting with the swarm of spiders that was blocking the path it and the rest of the demon beasts had used to enter the underground space.

Swish-!

Not wasting a second after realizing this, the demon beasts did not bother informing the other demon beasts. Instead choosing to use all of its strength to climb up the cliff towards the place where the weak Foundation Establishment Realm demon beast had disappeared just moments earlier. Knowing very well that it might lose this chance to escape in time if any of the more powerful demon beasts present discovered that there was a way out.

After all, its strength was only around the earlier stages of the Nascent Soul Realm and could in no way compare with some of the more powerful demon beasts present, who had reached the Later Stages or even the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm!

ROOOAR!

Even then, it did not take long for the rest of the demon beasts below to discover it climbing up the cliff. Not taking long to realize what had happened before they also started rapidly making their way up the cliff, some of the more powerful ones even directly using their strength to jump all the way to the top before mysteriously disappearing like the Foundation Establishment Realm demon beast from earlier had. Looking like they had moved through solid rock in the eyes of the rest of the demon beasts below.

Rumble~

Before long, these demon beasts who had been prepared to fight it out with the spiders all began climbing up the cliff. Leaving behind the weaker demon beasts who were far too weak to try and climb up the cliff with all the powerful demon beasts around. Resulting in them having to face the terrifying spiders all by themselves.

Although the demon beasts had no idea what would meet them after climbing up the cliff, none of them thought it would be worse than staying behind having to face the endless swarm of spider demon beasts.

…

"It didn't take them long to notice…" Muttering this to himself as he saw the first demon beast in the Nascent Soul Realm make its way through the entrance to the mystic realm before appearing directly in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes focused on the formation that trembled for a short moment after the demon beast passed through it.

Although the slight trembling was far from enough to give him an opportunity to slip past and enter the mystic realm, it was still more than enough to confirm that the demon beasts from inside the mystic realm leaving did have some kind of weakening effect on the formation. Not only that, but the effect caused by stronger demon beast in the Nascent Soul Realm leaving, was obviously far stronger than the effect of a Foundation Establishment Realm demon beasts.

The main difference being that the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast leaving had actually caused the formation to tremble, something that he couldn't even do with his current strength in the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm!

Different from Xuan Hao who did not pay too much attention to the demon beast after he confirmed that the demon beast from the mystic realm had the ability to momentarily weaken the formation by passing through it, the demon beast who had just managed to pass through the formation and leave the mystic realm was filled with confusion as it suddenly found itself on top of a strange mountain.

However, the most important part was not this, but the fact that it was unable to move no matter what it did. Even trying to use the qi flowing through its body was impossible, as it seemed like it had been completely sealed up.

This strange situation was more than enough to cause the demon beast to start panicking as it looked around itself filled with fear.

Roar!?

Spotting Xuan Hao standing only a short distance away from it, the demon beast suddenly felt a shiver run down its spine. Understanding at a single glance just how terrifying the person standing in front of it was. Even if it had not personally witnessed the other party to anything, it instinctively understood that the reason why it couldn't move and had its strength sealed was because of this person!

As for what this person wanted to do with it…? It could only lay down submissively on the ground and pray that the other party didn't want to eat it!

Rumble-!

Only a short time following the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast accepting its uncertain fate, the rest of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts started emerging from the mystic realm one after the other before getting stuck in a similar fashion without being able to move. Soon filling out the entire mountain peak with all sorts of unique demon beasts that could not move a single muscle. Only capable of looking towards Xuan Hao who was standing beside the entrance to the mystic realm filled with fear.

Crack~!

It was at this moment, a cracking sound echoed out across the entire mountain.

"A chance!"

Whoosh~!N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

Hearing the cracking sound and seeing the small crack that had formed on the formation blocking his path into the mystic realm, Xuan Hao directly used his domain to forcibly keep it open before the formation had a chance to repair it.

Allowing him to momentarily establish a small passage leading into the mystic realm without having to pass through the formation-

Rumble-!

Although, from the fact that the formation was still trying its best to repair the crack he was forcibly keeping open, he doubted he would have more than a few minutes to enter before the chance to enter the mystic realm would be gone.

"…"

Glancing over the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts who were all fearfully looking towards him, Xuan Hao soon pulled out his communication talismans before contacting his lovely pet, the winged lion.

ROOOOAR-!

No more than a minute later, the excited roar of the winged lion echoed through the entire Flying Sword Sect-

"W-what is that!?"

"A-a-a giant lion! A-and it has wings!"

"Are we under attack!?"

Instantly scaring the elders and disciples present in the sect. The only people capable of keeping themselves calm in the face of the giant winged lion that suddenly appeared, being the elders who had already been to the main sect and had a chance to see this lion lazing around somewhere.

Although, the unquestionable majesty and power exuded by the winged lion made them doubt it was the same lazy winged lion they had seen lazing around in the Shattered Star Peaks…

Roar!

Ignoring all of the elders and disciples who had stopped what they were doing and looked up towards it filled with both awe and fear, the winged lion landed a few meters away from Xuan Hao before letting out a small greeting roar before turning to curiously look at all the demon beasts covering the entire mountain peak.

Although it had been called over by Xuan Hao, it had no idea what it had been called over for and could only guess that it should have something to do with the demon beasts around it.

Could it be all of these demon beasts are for me to eat!?

As this thought ultimately emerged in the head of the winged lion, its gaze towards the demon beasts on the mountain peak slowly changed.

Making all of the demon beasts start shivering in fear.

Even though they might not have understood Xuan Hao and why he had captured them, they understood full well the gaze of a fellow demon beast. Especially when said demon beasts started salivating while looking towards them!

Bang!

"They are not for you to eat!" Slapping the large paw of the winged lion as it was about to grab a large horned sheep demon beast, Xuan Hao stopped the winged lion before it started getting any more ideas. "The reason I called you is to watch over these demon beasts, I plan for them to become part of the sect. After all, the sect has been lacking in stronger demon beasts with its current rapid growth."

ROAAAR!

Hearing that the demon beasts were not for eating, the winged lion let out an unwilling roar as it looked towards the horned sheep demon beast filled with regret.

"Don't look like that, if you do a good job in watching over them while I'm gone, I will let you take a demon beast of your choosing when I return." Knowing that there would be no way for the winged lion to do a proper job without a reward, Xuan Hao decided to give up one of the demon beasts in exchange for it watching over them. In the first place, it was not like he was lacking Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts…

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Roar~

Hearing that it would be able to keep one of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts after watching over them, the winged lion let out a happy roar before turning to look back towards the horned sheep filled with anticipation. Even without it saying anything, it was obvious that the winged lion had already chosen what demon beast it was going to eat in the future.

Something that caused the horned sheep demon beast to start shivering violently.

Outside of the immediate problem of possibly being eaten by the terrifying winged lion demon beast, it had also managed to learn what Xuan Hao wanted to do with it and the rest of the demon beasts. The most important thing being that the terrifying winged lion demon beast looking at it with the clear intent of eating it in the future, could only chose one demon beast to eat!

During the unknown period of time that Xuan Hao would be gone, its only chance of survival was to get the terrifying winged lion more interested in some of the other demon beasts. Not that hard considering that it had already spotted a few demon beasts who were both stronger and larger than itself.

Unfortunately, it looked like these demon beasts had also overheard what Xuan Hao had said to the winged lion, causing them to try their best to use their limited strength and movement to shrink their size or make themselves look less appetizing.

One decided to shed parts of its fur in an attempt to look less appetizing, while another decided to shrink itself to a smaller size with less meat for the winged lion to eat.

For the bigger ones who could not shrink themselves, they decided to go for more extreme measures to ensure their own safety. For example, one of the more talented demon beasts the size of a small hill, used its limited movement to roll around in what looked like its own… Excrement... Truly sacrificing any and all respect it might have had with the other demon beasts around…

"This… I will be leaving for now, make sure none of them leaves this mountain. In case some of them do end up escaping, you can do whatever you want with them." Seeing the demon beasts starting to frolic around the mountain after he had silent removed some of their movement restrictions, Xuan Hao gave some instructions to the winged lion demon beast before rushing towards the crack in the formation leading into the mystic realm-

Whoosh~!

Just barely making it through the crack in the formation before it closed up. Soon coming face to face with the last remaining demon beasts trying their best to escape and the endless swarm of spider demon beasts chasing after them from behind.

Roar?

Seeing someone appearing in front of them, the demon beasts about to leave the mystic realm let out confused roars as they looked up towards Xuan Hao filled with confusion. None of them understood where this weird looking demon beast had appeared from.

As for the fact that he was not even a demon beast to begin with… This was something that these weaker demon beasts in the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment Realm had never thought about. After all, all they had ever seen of living things had been demon beasts. The reason why the more powerful demon beats in the Nascent Soul Realm had known that Xuan Hao was different, was due to a combination of their increased intelligence and their instincts.

"So many spiders…" Not caring about these weaker demon beasts as he was sure the winged lion would be taking care of them after they left the mystic realm, Xuan Hao instead focused his attention on the endless swarm of spiders in front of him.

Although he had thought that their number should have been just barely enough to deal with someone in the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, he changed his opinion after being able to use his divine sense to find out just how strong they were and the overall number of spiders.

However, he soon ran into a problem after using his divine sense to investigate these spiders-

"This… My divine sense is not big enough to cover all of the spiders!?"

And that was the fact that his divine sense was not large enough to cover all of the spider swarm!

Instead, the only thing interesting he managed to find was a First Stage Domain Lord Realm spider located somewhere at the edge of his divine sense.

Finding this Domain Lord Realm spider demon beast not only meant that the strength of the spider swarm had far exceeded his initial impression.

At the very least, considering that the Domain Lord Realm spider he found should be male and didn't seem to be the one in charge of the swarm itself, there should at the very least be a queen spider who was above the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes as he looked towards the approaching swarm of spiders. Understanding that he would not be able to leave this place before he dealt with the swarm of spiders all heading towards the direction of the formation leading outside the mystic realm.

Even if the winged lion might be capable of taking care of these spiders with time, it would not be easy considering their number and the fact that he had no idea if there were more Domain Lord Realm spiders present in the swarm.

If the winged lion ended up stuck in a fight with these Domain Lord Realm spiders, it was easy to imagine what would happen to the rest of the Flying Sword Sect without the support of the winged lion. Especially considering that the Flying Sword Sect did not have a powerful formation like the one at the Shattered Star Peaks…

Fwoosh~

As the endless swarm of spiders encroached on him, Xuan Hao's eyes ignited with an infernal blaze, reflecting the profound power belonging to the Dao of Fire. The Dao he had just recently managed to comprehend and what had allowed him to break through from the Initial Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm and reach the Intermediate stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

With a flick of his wrist, Xuan Hao conjured a sea of fire, pure and filled with a power far exceeding that of the Domain Lord Realm.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

Fwoosh-!

As the sea of fire danced and swirled in the air in front of him. The spiders, sensing the scorching heat of the flames, hesitated for a moment-

Rustle~

But their fear when faced with the sea of fire did not last for long, as their instinctual hunger drove them towards the weaker demon beasts who had taken advantage of this opportunity to try and climb up the cliff.

"They are… Ignoring me?" Not having expected the spiders to just ignore him, Xuan Hao didn't know what to feel as he watched the swarm of spiders continue charging towards the fleeing demon beasts below him.

"Hmph! I would like to see if you can ignore this!"

Swish-!

Swish-!

Swish-!

Feeling somewhat offended after being ignored by the swarm of spiders who had at most reached the Nascent Soul Realm without counting the one Domain Lord Realm spider, Xuan Hao thrust his hands forward, causing the sea of fire in front of him to condense into a torrent of scorching fireballs that hurtled towards the swarm of spiders below.

Rumble~!

FWOOOOOSH-!

As the fireballs smashed into the ground, they soon reformed into a large inferno that rapidly grew in size as it swallowed up the swarm of spiders without showing any signs of stopping its expansion.

Screeeech-!

The spiders caught in the inferno could only screech and writhe in pain as the flames of the inferno consumed them before they had a chance to fight back.

But the spiders somehow still managed to persist, their sheer numbers seemingly never ending as new spiders would soon replace the ones that had been swallowed by the fiery inferno. Soon, the spiders entered some sort of weird state where they merged their power together into a single entity that momentarily stopped the inferno.

"Hm? A natural formation?"

Seeing how the spiders had come together and stopped his flames, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face. Not having expected the spiders to actually have the ability to merge together and form some kind of unique natural formation.

From the fact that they had the ability to stop the inferno he had created, it meant that their strength should at least have reached a level comparable to that of a First Tribulation Soul Ascension Realm cultivator!

This alone was more than enough to make Xuan Hao stop for a short moment as he felt a renewed sense of respect towards the spiders. Even if they had ignored him earlier, it should have been because they had been confident in dealing with any possible danger, they might encounter by using this powerful natural formation.

If it had been before reaching the Intermediate stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, it would have been difficult for me to deal with these spiders. Especially considering that they can easily replace any of the spiders that are killed. Making it close to impossible for someone in the early stage of the Soul Ascension Realm to break through the natural formation formed by them… Unfortunately for them, I'm not someone in the earlier stages of the Soul Ascension Realm!

Shaking his head as he thought this to himself, Xuan Hao raised his hand and made a grabbing motion towards the inferno below-

Whoosh~!

This simple action caused the ragging inferno constantly smashing into the swarm of spiders to suddenly stop before turning into stream of fire that gathered together inside the palm of his hand.

"Hm… I never really got a chance to try out how strong the Dao of Fire is, this should be the perfect opportunity!" Looking at the small ball of fire that had gathered inside the palm of his hand, Xuan Hao used one of his fingers to make a small swirling motion in the ball of fire. Creating a small swirling vortex of flames in the palm of his hand before letting it fall down towards the spiders that had already reached the bottom of the cliff.

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As Xuan Hao dropped the small swirling vortex of fire down towards the spider swarm below, it seemed like some sort of restriction had been removed, causing the fire vortex to rapidly expand in all directions. By the time that the swirling vortex reached the swarm below, it had already grown enough to cover half of the spiders present inside the underground space.

FWOOSH-!

Not even stopping for a single second when faced with the natural formation of the spiders, the fire vortex directly burned through it like a hot knife through butter. Soon engulfing the spiders below, reducing them to nothing more than cinders that soon crumbled and became one with the ground below.

SCREEECH!

Even the Domain Lord Realm spider didn't stand a chance when faced with the fire vortex that had by now turned into an unstoppable fire cyclone that swept through anything living inside the underground space. Soon consuming the rest of the spiders that had been unable to make their way inside the underground space.

Whoosh~

Together with the last spider being reduced to nothing more than ash that soon drifted away in the strong wind created by the fire cyclone, an eerie silence soon overtook the underground space as the fire cyclone dispersed. The only sound outside of the faint crackling embers of what remained from the powerful Domain Lord Realm spider being the hastened breathing of the terrified weaker demon beasts clinging on to the side of the cliff with all their strength.

None of them dared to move even a single muscle, as they all looked down towards Xuan Hao who was standing amidst the molten rocks of what had once been the rocky ground of the cave system that they had spent their entire life inside of.

All of them understood that the only reason they were still alive was because that person had ignored them. If not, they would have ended up like the spider swarm below!

For this reason, all of these weaker demon beasts silently prayed that Xuan Hao would just leave without caring about them.

"Even without the use of a technique to strengthen it, the Dao of Fire is actually so powerful!" Not aware of the thoughts going through the heads of the weaker demon beasts motionlessly looking down at him from the cliff, Xuan Hao muttered this to himself while taking in the damage caused by the fire cyclone. Astonished over just how powerful the Dao of Fire was when used for attacking.

Even the Dao of Ice, that he had invented and learnt several techniques for, was nowhere near as strong as the Dao of Fire. Only the Dao of the Sword came anywhere close to the Dao of Fire when comparing the power and destruction it could cause.

In that sense, the Dao of Ice was more of a supportive type of Dao that weakened his enemy and helped enhance the strength of his other Daos, like Descend of the Ice God's Sword, a technique that combined both the Dao of the Sword and the Dao of Ice into a single powerful attack.

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help wondering if he would be able to create a similarly powerful technique by combing the Dao of Ice and the Dao of Fire, but… Thinking about it for a few more seconds, it would probably make more sense to combine the Dao of Fire and the Dao of the Sword. The only problem he could foresee with this, was that the merger of the two into a single attack might cause some kind of instability due to just how violent the two powers were…

Shaking his head as he decided to put the matter of finding a way to merge the Dao of Fire and the Dao of the Sword together into some sort of attack technique, Xuan Hao began making his way towards the path leading out of the cave system he had found himself inside of after entering the mystic realm.

Bang-bang-bang

Much to the relief of the weaker demon beasts clinging on to the side of the cliff with all the strength left in their bodies, who let go of the cliff side and fell to the ground the moment he left.

Roooaaaar~!

Roar!

Roar~

All of them let out small roars filled with happiness, some of the weakest Qi Condensation Realm demon beasts had even burnt part of their life essence in an attempt to not fall down from the cliff and catch Xuan Hao's attention earlier, their strength and future potential being permanently damaged as a result.

In the end, the demon beasts were just happy to have survived, as they all soon left the area below the cliff before beginning the long process of recovery back in what remained of their home. None of them dared to take the risk and climb up the cliff to find out where the rest of the demon beasts had gone. Fearful that they might encounter another terrifying being like Xuan Hao on the other side.

…This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

Coming out of the cave system that the entrance at the Flying Sword Sect was connected to, Xuan Hao could not help stopping to admire the endless forest that spread out before him. If not for the fact that he knew that he was inside a mystic realm, he would have thought he was still somewhere on the Ewaria Continent.

Looking at the mystic realm in another way, it was no different from a different world. After all, to the demon beasts living inside the mystic realm, they had no idea about the Ewaria Continent that the mystic realm was attached to and would not think that there was a much bigger world out there.

Then again, who was to say that he was different from the demon beasts of the mystic realm? From what he knew, there should still be another three continents out there that he had still not visited. Not to mention there might be even more worlds out there similar to that of the world that the Ewaria Continent and other three continents existed inside of. Maybe there were worlds even larger than that and he just didn't know, similar to the demon beasts who had no idea about the larger Ewaria Continent outside their mystic realm…

Well, even if that is the case, my current strength is far too weak for me to concern myself about the possibilities of larger worlds existing in the void outside…

Understanding that his cultivation was far too weak to start deliberating on these kinds of questions for now, Xuan Hao decided not to think anymore about what might be lurking in the seemingly endless empty void outside the Ewaria Continent. Instead, he decided to focus his attention back on what remained of the spiders on the ground in front of the entrance to the cave system.

"Hm? What in the world…"

In doing so, Xuan Hao suddenly discovered the black ash left behind after the death of these spiders had actually started moving along in the ground in a slow motion that even his divine sense had not managed to pick it up at first due to just how slow the black ash was moving.

Whoosh-!

Knowing that this should be impossible given that he had made sure to kill the spiders earlier, Xuan Hao directly used his dao domain to lift some of the black ash on the ground up into the air before starting to thoroughly inspect it with both his dao domain and divine sense. Not wanting to miss anything.

This… The black ash is actually still connected by the natural formation from earlier!?

Analyzing the black ash with the help of both his dao domain and divine sense, it did not take long for him to discover that the natural formation that the spiders had used to defend against his attack earlier, was still active and the thing behind the slow movement of the black ash.

"But… What is providing the energy to keep the formation active? It doesn't absorb qi from the outside, as I would already have sensed it if that was the case and the spiders that kept the formation active before are all dead!" Muttering this to himself as he felt a sense of confusion he had not felt in a long time, Xuan Hao could not figure out where the energy to keep the formation active came from.

Even if the energy it used at the moment was miniscule when compared to before, it would still be burning through the qi equivalent to the full dantian of a Core Formation Realm Expert every hour to move such a large amount of black ash!

For this reason, there had to be somewhere that the energy was coming from, it was just that he could not see it, something that frustrated Xuan Hao to no end. Especially considering that he should have already killed the other party, but now, what little remained of the other party, suddenly got up and began to leave.

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Not able to find out how the natural formation was still able to stay active even after the death of the spiders had died, Xuan Hao decided to once again use the Dao of Fire to destroy the natural formation that was moving the black ash away from the cave system. Hoping that destroying the natural formation might be able to give him some idea of where the energy fueling the formation was coming from.

Crack~

The natural formation stood no chance against the terrifying flame and soon collapsed, causing the black ash to stop moving. However, this only lasted for a short while before the natural formation reappeared. The black ash resuming journey out of the cave system.

Observing all of this happening, Xuan Hao was not too surprised after seeing how the natural formation had appeared again after he destroyed it. After all, he had already destroyed it once before when killing the spiders earlier, so he had expected it to some extent. Instead, the thing he was surprised about was the source of energy fueling the natural formation.

Although he had only managed to get a brief glance following the formation being reconstructed after he destroyed it just now, he finally located the source of the formation and the thing that kept it from being fully destroyed, a cluster of small floating lights located at the center of the mass of black ash.

The souls of the spiders!? But how are they still alive? Shouldn't they have been killed by the attack earlier…?

Seeing the small cluster of floating lights that appeared at the center of the black ash, acting as fuel for the natural formation, Xuan Hao could not help opening his eyes in surprise after realizing what the cluster of small lights was.

To put it simple, it was indeed the souls of the spiders… But looking at it in another way, the souls of the spiders had already been destroyed and reduced into a form of soul energy that was flowing through the black ash from the cluster of light. Only capable of keeping the natural formation active through the remaining intent of the Domain Lord Realm spider that had been able to keep some level of its consciousness alive through the protection of the soul energy. At the same time also allowing it to escape his detection.

If not for the fact that he had noticed the fact that the black ash had been moving because of the natural formation, he would probably have ended up missing the fact that the Domain Lord Realm spider was still alive. Something that could have caused quite a few problems considering that there was a high chance that it would inform the rest of the nest that it came from about what had happened and how the demon beasts they had been chasing suddenly went missing.

Although it might not be a problem for him to deal with the spiders and the queen spider that was undoubtedly behind the spider swarm. Even if the spider queen had reached a realm comparable with the Soul Ascension Realm, the same could not be said for the Flying Sword Sect that would not have him around to protect it constantly. Not to mention, setting up a formation to stop someone in the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm or above that, was not something he had the ability to do with his current mastery of formations.

All things considered, the most likely outcome if the Domain Lord Realm spider got away and informed the rest of the spider swarm, would be the inevitable destruction of the Flying Sword Sect, as there was no way for him to stay at the Flying Sword Sect all the time to ensure its safety.

Maybe I should try and improve my mastery over formations after returning to the sect- No, I should properly also improve on my alchemy and blacksmithing…

Suddenly realizing that he had been neglecting his professions after having reached the Dao Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao could not help shaking his head awkwardly before turning his attention back towards the floating orbs of light that the remaining consciousness of the Domain Lord Realm spider was hiding inside of.

Although it was hard for him to find these orbs of light containing the souls of the dead spiders at first, now that he had already found them, it would be close to impossible for him to lose sight of them again. Especially considering that the souls didn't have any way to move without the help of the formation, as it seemed like they had been bound together with the black ash that had once been their bodies.

Even the Domain Lord Realm spider's soul was no exception to this, as it was also bound to the mass of black ash through the formation. Likely a side effect of using the souls of the other spiders to protect itself.

Whoosh~!

Waving his hand in the direction of the soul cluster at the center of the large mass of black ash, a silver light streaked through the air before turning into a single sword that soon split up into an endless number of smaller swords, each heading towards one of the countless souls contained inside the cluster of light.

The only exception was the Domain Lord Realm spider's soul, who was instead greeted with close to a thousand of these smaller swords, who soon merged together into a single powerful silver sword. More than powerful enough to deal with a weaker Soul Ascension Realm Expert, let alone the remnant soul of a First Stage Domain Lord Realm demon beast…

Screeech-!

Realizing that it had been discovered and was about to die, the Domain Lord Realm spider let out a terrified screeching sound before trying its best to escape from the large silver sword-

Swish~!

In the end, it had no way to outrun the silver sword given that it was still bound to the black ash, unable to escape as the silver sword pierced through its ethereal body.

Scree-

Not even able to scream in pain before the core of its essence was shattered and its soul began to disintegrate at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Only the brief expression filled with terror as its existence was consumed by the silver sword gave him some idea of the agonizing pain it must have experienced when its soul disintegrated.

At least compared to the Domain Lord Realm spider, the rest of the spider souls had already lost consciousness and were nothing more than empty husks of what they had once been and wouldn't even realize that they had died.

Rumble~

Following the death of the souls, the mass of black ash on the ground trembled for a short moment before it settled on the ground, this time without any small movements outside of the bits outside the cave system getting carried away by the wind every now and then.

"Everything should be fine now…" Muttering this to himself with a sense of uncertainty, Xuan Hao could not help inspecting the black ash on the ground again. Just to make sure that the Domain Lord Realm spider didn't have another special technique up its sleeve. After all, he had been fooled by it not too long ago and was in no way willing to let that happen again.

N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

For this reason alone, Xuan Hao ended up spending far longer than he would normally have on inspecting the remains of the spider swarm. Making extra sure to check the area around the place where the Domain Lord Realm Spider had died, and the cluster of souls had been located… And because of all this, Xuan Hao did end up finding an anomaly around the black ash where the Domain Lord Realm spider had died.

"Don't tell me…"

Not knowing what to say as he focused his attention on the anomaly, Xuan Hao was left speechless at the small fragments of the Domain Lord Realm spider's soul that seemed to have somehow survived his attack once again.

Looking more closely at these small fragments, he even had a feeling that they would be able to gather together again over a long period of time. Allowing the Domain Lord Realm spider to recover at some point in the future.

What in the world is this thing? Its soul is far more tenacious than a Domain Lord- No, even the soul of someone in the Soul Ascension Realm isn't this tenacious…

Feeling a sense of fear when faced with the seemingly undying soul of the spider demon beast, Xuan Hao once again used his sword to destroy all of the fragments before searching through everything around its remains once again.

In the end, he ended up spending far longer than before on searching for any more traces of the spider demon beast without finding anything. However, deep down, Xuan Hao had a feeling that the spider demon beast was still alive somewhere and in the process of recovering.

As for how long it would take for it to recover from its current state? Xuan Hao estimated it to far exceed the lifespan of someone in the Domain Lord Realm!

But then again, the spider demon beast was not really normal, so he did not dare say whether or not it could recover in the future…

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At the same time Xuan Hao officially left the cave system connect with the cliff leading back to the Flying Sword Sect, his two disciples, Chu Yang and Qing Yi, collapsed on the ground beneath a tall mushroom standing more than forty meters tall. If not for the fact that the ceiling of the cave above prevented it from growing any taller, there was no doubt that the mushroom would have been even taller.

As the most exhausted of the two, Qing Yi was the first to show a relieved smile as she laid on the mushy ground beneath the mushroom, happily inspecting the Transcendent Grade Spirit Shroom Root that she had managed to get her hands on while Chu Yang had been distracting the giant spider demon beast.

Although the last few days had been exhausting for both of them, she understood that it had been worth it for the Transcendent Grade Spirit Shroom Root. Especially when considering that they had only ended up exhausted and hadn't been forced to use one of the talismans that their master had left for them.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

Now, all that was left for them before they could begin to try and find a way out of the underground world that they now found themselves inside of, was to recover the energy they had spent escaping from the giant spider demon beast.

Bang!

However, just as they started the process of recovering, a loud sound of something big landing on the ground made them stop what they were doing.

"Please don't be that damnable spider, we just escaped from it…" Fearful that the big thing landing on the ground might have been the giant spider they had spent the last few days escaping from, Qing Yi who had been laying on the ground jumped up before looking in the direction that the sound had come from with a nervous expression on her face.

"…"

Chu Yang had a similar reaction, as he also got up and prepared to face off against the spider demon beast once again. After all, with how exhausted Qing Yi was at the moment, there would be no way for her to help out in the fight against the giant spider. On the other hand, her joining the fight might end up becoming a distraction that could cost both of them their lives.

Thumb~

As they were preparing for the worst possible outcome, a mole several times larger than the demon beast spider appeared at the edge of their divine sense.

"A mole demon beast?"

"Yes… And from the looks of it, its moving in our general direction!"

Processing what they were seeing through their divine sense, it took Qing Yi and Chu Yang a few seconds to comprehend that the big thing that had landed on the ground, was actually a massive demon beast far larger than the spider demon beast that had been chasing after them for the past few days.

Not that the appearance of a far larger demon beast was any better than the spider demon beast. On the contrary, it might be worse considering that the strength of the mole demon beast was far stronger than the spider demon beast. Having reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm from what Chu Yang and Qing Yi could tell so far, but… Both of them highly doubted that the mole's strength had only reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. Even suspecting that its physical body might have already broken through to the Domain Lord Realm. Combined or not. Dealing with such a powerful demon beast was not something they could do with their current strength.

The only positive thing about the sudden appearance of the mole demon beast was the fact that it did not seem to have noticed them. If it had noticed them, it might even be completely uninterested in them due to how weak their current aura and appearance was.

To be honest, with how exhausted both of them were at the moment, it would not be hard to misjudge their strength for someone in the Core Formation Realm.

Luckily for Chu Yang and Qing Yi, it seemed like their current weakened state might have ended up becoming beneficial to them.

Rumble~

"We have to get out of here before the mole gets any closer!" Hearing the loud sound of the mole getting closer to them slowly turning into a small-scale earthquake that made it look like the cave around them could collapse at any moment, Chu Yang called out to Qing Yi who soon nodded her head before both of them made a quick escape before the mole had a chance to reach them.

…

Having moved to a location far away from the scary mole demon beast that had suddenly appeared and interrupted before they had a chance to recover from their earlier chase, Chu Yang and Qing Yi both began to cautiously scan their surroundings for any possible threats. Not wanting to end up finding out that they had actually decided to recover inside some kind of demon beast lair in a few minutes.

"Everything should be fine…"

·ƈθm "Yeah, I don't see anything dangerous around that might indicate that there are any demon beasts nearby."

Looking at each other as both of them let out a sigh of relief at not finding anything dangerous, Chu Yang and Qing Yi did not dare waste a single moment as both of them started meditating. Drawing qi from the world outside into their body to speed up the recovery process.

By now, both of them understood that they couldn't waste any time when they had used up all their qi. Understanding that any second wasted could prove fatal for them inside the mystic realm, as there seemed to be powerful demon beasts waiting for them around every corner.

Even if what they thought was a relatively safe place for them to recover turned out to be a demon beast lair, they would have a better chance of surviving said demon beast attacking them if they had the strength to fight back.

Not to mention, they were still inside a mystic realm and there weren't really that many safe places so to speak. One of the main things they had learnt since entering the mystic realm.

Like this, both Qing Yi and Chu Yang entered a state of silence, as both of them focused all of their attention on recovering. Only using the bare minimum amount of energy on keeping their divine sense active to look out for any demon beasts or other dangerous situations that might need them to escape. After all, the last thing they wanted, was for a demon beast like the mole demon beast to suddenly appear in front of them without noticing it…

"Finally, back to full strength again!" Being the first of the two to recover after spending close to 10 hours meditating, Qing Yi could not help smiling happily as she got up and stretched her half-asleep body.

Compared to Chu Yang who had been the one to fight with the giant spider demon beast and distracting it while she dug out the Spirit Shroom Root, she had managed to escape without any injuries and only needed to recover the energy she had used during the escape.

In contrast to her, Chu Yang had been injured quite a bit from the fight with the giant spider demon beast and took a longer time to recover.

Wait… Haven't I just been doing nothing but cause trouble since we entered the underground space…?

As she thought about this, the initial excitement from having recovered disappeared. Instead, it was replaced by a feeling of embarrassment over how she had ended up relying on Chu Yang to do all the fighting while she had essentially done nothing more than to escape together with him or drag him down due to the fact that she was a bit slower than him when it came to movement technique.

Even worse, the reason why they were in their current situation, was because she wanted the Spirit Shroom Root.

Although a Transcendent Grade Spiritual Herb was indeed something extremely precious, it did not warrant them risking their lives. Especially so when considering the fact that she had no real use for the spiritual herb, and she doubted that it would be of that much use to the sect.

"The situation between us seems to have shifted ever since we entered the underground space. Now I'm the troublesome one…" Muttering this to herself with a visibly sad frown on her face, Qing Yi could not help reflecting over her actions over the past few days.

Not only when it came to the Transcendent Spiritual Herb, but also a few incidents when they were escaping. The most troublesome of these incidents being when she had stopped during their chase whenever a precious spiritual herb appeared, which then ended up resulting in the giant spider demon beast catching up to them…

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