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 917 Path Out Of The Underground World - Read Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough Chapter 917 Path Out Of The Underground World Online - All Page - Novel Bin

Spending the next few days watching over Chu Yang as he recovered from the injuries, he had sustained during his fight with spider demon beast, Qing Yi found out that there was no lack of demon beasts passing by them during this time.

"He should be waking up soon…" Muttering this to herself as she looked towards Chu Yang who had been showing signs of waking up at any moment, Qing Yi could not help remembering the many demon beasts she had faced over the past few days.

Although most of the demon beasts passing by during these few days were only in the Foundation Establishment or Core Formation Realm and kept their distance when they sensed her terrifying presence, there was still the many Nascent Soul Realm demon beast that would show up and attack her.

Luckily for her, the strongest demon beast she had faced so far had only reached the Peak of the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, something she was more than capable of dealing with by herself.

Even then, there had still been a few dangerous encounters. From a sneaky snake demon beast trying to ambush her to an innocent looking mouse suddenly transforming into a terrifying abomination trying to kill her. The most dangerous of all of these was when two of these Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts showed up to attack her at the same time. Back then, the two demon beasts teamed up to attack her at the same time. Pushing her to the limit, as she fended off against the two Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts.

If not for the fact that one of her techniques had managed to break through under the stress of the two Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts, she doubted that she would have been able to deal with them alone. After all, it was harder to deal with two First Stage Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts, than a single Third Stage demon beast due to the fact she constantly had to look out for two attackers at the same time… And it did not really help that one of them tried to attack Chu Yang from time to time.

Just at this moment, Chu Yang suddenly opened both of his eyes before surveying his surroundings.

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"Hm? Oh, looks like you did well on your own over the past few days. The number of demon beasts here should be impossible for someone normal in the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm to deal with. Even someone in the Third stage of the Nascent Soul Realm would have a hard time!" Noticing the piles of different demon beasts still present on the ground around him from Qing Yi's battles over the past few days, Chu Yang could not help feeling surprised as a hint of admiration appeared in his eyes while looking towards Qing Yi.

Even if he had sensed the battles that took place through his divine sense, he had not really paid that much attention to it because Qing Yi seemed to have everything under control, it was only after seeing the corpses around him that he realized just how hard it must have been for Qing Yi to deal with all of the demon beasts by herself. After all, other than fighting the different demon beasts, she would have also needed to spend some time to recover after every battle.

In a sense, Qing Yi had been extremely lucky over the past few days, as most of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts showing up to fight her had only appeared after she had already recovered from the last battle…

"Hehe, I made sure to take care of all the precious material from these demon beasts already, so we can leave at any moment." Feeling a bit embarrassed at the sudden praise from Chu Yang, Qing Yi smiled happily before focusing back on their current situation. For now, the most important thing for them was to leave their current location as fast as possible.

The fights that had taken place over the past few days would inevitably end up drawing the attention of more powerful demon beasts. At that point in time, they wouldn't be dealing with the simple First Stage Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts that she had been facing so far.

In the worst-case scenario, they might even end up drawing the attention of the terrifying mole demon beast that they had encountered earlier. At least now that they had recovered their strength, there was a far bigger chance that the mole demon beast would take an interest in eating them…

"Then let's get going. For now, let's try and look for a way back up to the surface." Knowing very well that it would be dangerous for them to continue staying in the same place for an extended period of time, Chu Yang understood what Qing Yi meant and both of them soon left in search of a way out of the underground world that they now found themselves inside of.

After all, even if there wasn't much of a difference between the world above and below ground when it came to danger, they both wanted to be on the surface where they at the very least had a chance to figure out how far away the exit was.

…

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As they were wandering around the underground mushroom forest looking for any tunnel or cave connection that might lead upwards towards the surface, Qing Yi suddenly stopped as she looked up towards the cave ceiling. Her eyes started to shine more with each passing second.

Not knowing what might have happened to his senior sister, Chu Yang could not help looking up towards the naked cave ceiling with a questioning look on his face before turning towards Qing Yi. "Qing Yi? Is something wrong with the cave ceiling?"

·ƈθm "Hm? Ah! Junior brother, I was just thinking about something… If I'm not wrong, given the sound we heard before the mole demon beast appeared within the range of our divine sense, it should have fallen from somewhere high.

If that high place happened to be the ceiling of the cave we are inside of, we might be able to use it to reach the surface. Even if we can't reach all the way to the surface, we should be able to dig out way out if the mole demon beast's tunnel doesn't end too far away from the surface. Because of this, I thought to myself. Can't we use the hole that the mole demon beast created?"

"…"

Hearing what Qing Yi said, Chu Yang had no idea how to respond to her. For some reason, he felt like her ideas were getting more and more dangerous the longer they spent underground.

For example, did she forget the fact that entering the mole demon beast's tunnel might result in them encountering said mole demon beast inside its tunnel? Not to mention, what if there was more than one mole demon beast living in the rocky earth around the underground caves, they now found themselves inside of?

"Ah! You don't have to worry about the mole demon beast. Even if we do encounter it, it should not be that hard to escape from, as we collapse the tunnel on top of it before escaping in the opposite direction. At that point, we should have more than enough time to escape before it can catch up to us and if it does catch up to us, we can just collapse the tunnel behind us again and repeat this until we are out safely!"

Having already expected Chu Yang's questions before he had time to say anything, Qing Yi smiled happily as she told her simple plan for dealing with such a situation.

Simple indeed, but it should work just fine. The only problem would be them running in to a dead end but considering that their divine sense could cover a rather large area, it should not be too hard for them to navigate inside the tunnels of the mole demon beast.

"Fine, we can go with the mole tunnels, but we have to make sure that the mole demon beast is not anywhere near it before entering. Not only that, but if we encounter any other mole demon beast, we should leave immediately, it will be far too difficult to escape from multiple moles at once." Reluctantly nodding his head in agreement to Qing Yi's newest dangerous plan, Chu Yang could not help getting a feeling that they were about to end up in yet another troublesome situation again.

The reason why he had agreed with Qing Yi's idea even with this feeling was because he also had a feeling that staying in the underground world of the mystic realm for too long would be even more dangerous.Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

As for the reason why the underground world was dangerous? Like any wise cultivator would say in his situation, he had absolutely no idea other than a vague feeling of danger…

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At the same time that Qing Yi and Chu Yang began their search for the tunnel that the mole had used to enter the cave, Xuan Hao was making his way deeper inside the mystic realm. Different from his two disciples, he did not have to worry about possibly encountering a Domain Lord Realm demon beast. On the other hand, the demon beast would be the one that had to worry about encountering him…

"Hm?"

As Xuan Hao moved deeper inside the mystic realm, his divine sense soon picked up a mountain range covered in an ethereal mist that blocked his divine sense in the distance.

Whoosh~

Intrigued by the mountain range and the mist that could block his divine sense, Xuan Hao descended down towards a small path located at the bottom of the mist covered mountain range. Deciding not to directly force his way through the mist, as he had no idea what might be present on the other side of the mist. Given that the mist had the ability to block his divine sense, he at least had to show some degree of cautiousness when entering the mist covered mountain range.

Thumb~

Landing on path leading up into the mist covered mountain range, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes after feeling the thick spiritual qi drifting down from the mountain range in front of him. The level of spiritual qi present in the air outside the mountain range was close to the same level as the Shattered Star Peak… And this was only the area outside the mountain range! It was easy to imagine just how thick the spiritual qi in the air inside the mountain range would be…

The only thing that made Xuan Hao pause and not continue forward after sensing the pure spirit qi drifting down from the mountains, was the fact that he had a feeling that something was wrong.

The level of spiritual qi present beneath the mountain range was already this strong, indicating that the level of spiritual qi inside the mountain range covered by the misty veil should have far exceeded that of what should only be a negligible amount of spiritual qi drifting down the mountains.

From his experience in setting up the chaotic qi formation and the fact that it had been upgraded by the system after being completed, Xuan Hao also understood just how hard it would be to gather a large amount of qi in one place and prevent it from leaking out. The difficulty would only increase as the purity of the spiritual qi gathered increased!

With this in mind, Xuan Hao doubted that there was a natural formation powerful enough to surpass the power of the chaotic qi formation covering most of the Shattered Star Peaks-

"Ah!? A new quest!?" Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

However, before Xuan Hao could decide on whether or not to take the risk and explore the mysterious mountain range, the sound of the system followed by the appearance of a new quest took him by surprise.

[Side Quest: Mysterious Mountain Range, Part 1]

[Description: You have stumbled upon a mysterious mountain range hidden by an enchanting veil of mist. Passing through the ethereal veil will undoubtedly come with dangers that will not be easy to resolve, but at the same time, treasures and other mystical rewards would undoubtedly also be present amid the danger hidden behind the veil. Show your unwavering courage and enter the mountain realm to find out what is lurking behind the mysterious veil of mist!]

[Reward: Unlock Part 2]

Reading through the new quest that had appeared in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help looking back up at the mountain range in front of him.

Other than the fact that the quest had mentioned that he needed to go through the mist enter the mysterious mountain range, it had also given him some crucial clues as to what might be hiding on the other side of the mist.

Mentioning both dangers that would be difficult to resolve and treasures.

Although Xuan Hao did feel tempted to just rush up the mountain after getting the quest, he also understood that for the system to specifically mention dangers that were difficult to resolve, it meant that there should at the very least be something dangerous enough to threaten someone in the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm on the other side of the mist. Something that dangerous was not something that would be easy to resolve. Not to mention, he had no idea if it would be something even more dangerous than that!I think you should take a look at

But… There should be no way I will instantly die from entering the mist. If that was the case, I doubt I would get a quest telling me to enter the mist.

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao soon decided to follow the path leading deeper into the mountain range and directly towards the veil of mist that made it impossible to see most of the mountain range hidden beneath.

Following the winding path guiding him through the dense foliage and towering ancient trees at the base of the mountain, Xuan Hao felt a sense of anticipation coursing through his veins as he approached the misty veil that began a few hundred meters up the mountain.

"So, this is the mist stopping my divine sense?" Muttering this to himself as he came to a stop in front of the misty veil, Xuan Hao casually grabbed the mist and tried to investigate it to no avail. Be it his divine sense or dao domain, none of them could penetrate through the thin looking mist. Even after he had separated it from the rest of the mist.

In the end, Xuan Hao could only let go of the mist he had grabbed and watch it slowly fall to the ground before dispersing into the surroundings, like it had never even existed in the first place.

Looks like entering the mist is the only way to find out what is on the other side…

Feeling a bit nervous as he looked at the mysterious mist in front of him, Xuan Hao slowly took a step forward into the mist. Soon, the mist enveloped him, caressing his skin with a cool, ethereal touch and before long his entire body was swallowed up.

…

Having entered the mist, Xuan Hao found himself traversing a series of treacherous cliffs and perilous ravines on a narrow path barely large enough for one person to walk on. If not for the fact that the path had been marked by small stone lampposts gently guiding him through the mist, Xuan Hao was certain that he would have ended up getting lost inside the mist. Especially considering that he could not use his divine sense or dao domain to find his way inside the mist. All he could do was follow the gentle light of the stone lampposts and hope they didn't lead him somewhere dangerous.

After traveling along the narrow path for what felt like days, he finally left the mist and arrived at a serene plateau.

A short distance away stood an awe-inspiring sight— a grand temple, carved into the mountain itself. Its stone pillars reaching towards the sky above, adorned with all sorts of intricate engravings depicting different celestial beings either battling each other or peacefully cultivating.

Approaching the temple's entrance, Xuan Hao could not help feeling awed at the massive wooden doors intricately carved with different mythical creatures, some like the celestial dragons and soaring phoenixes, while others were a complete mystery.

Although he had not encountered any of the dangers that the system had mentioned so far, he had a feeling that the quiet temple was not as harmless as it looked from the outside.

Creak~

Pushing open the large doors of the grand temple, Xuan Hao hesitated for a moment before stepping inside and was greeted by an eerie silene that seemed to echo across the empty hall on the other side of the doors.

The vast hall was in a state of complete darkness. The only source of light coming in through the pair of doors that Xuan Hao had just opened. Only barely illuminated some of the golden scriptures that lined the walls of the vast hall.

"Why is this place so creepy…" Not knowing what to feel when he saw the dark hall filled with nothing more than golden scriptures telling long forgotten stories of the people who had once lived in the grand temple, Xuan Hao could not help felling an unknown sense of discomfort wash over him.

So far, the grand temple was by far one of the creepiest places he had ever been… And the worst part was the fact that the grand temple seemed to go even deeper into the side of the mountain.

At this point in time, Xuan Hao wanted nothing more than for a demon beast or something to show up and dispel the eerie feeling that had managed to engulf him.

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As he walked deeper into the temple, Xuan Hao was soon met with a massive stone tablet, adorned with engravings of mythical creatures, celestial figures and profound symbols that seemed to have been left behind by powerful cultivators with a deep understanding of different Daos.

Just observing the profound symbols on the massive stone tablet from a distance was more than enough for him to feel his comprehension increase by substantial margin.

An artifact able to increase one's comprehension by staying close to it!?

Realizing just how precious the massive tablet in front of him was, Xuan Hao could not help feeling tempted to take it away. Not only would such an artifact be useful when it came to increasing the strength of his Daos, but it would also be able to help the Nascent Soul Realm Elders of the sect in comprehending their own domain.

If he could return to the sect with the tablet in front of him, it would, without a doubt, result in more Domain Lord Realm Experts appearing in the Star Shattering Sect. Not only this, but it would also make the path to the Domain Lord Realm smoother for anyone who happened to reach the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm in the future!

Eager to get his hand on the precious artifact that had appeared in front of him, Xuan Hao did a simple scan of his surroundings before making his way towards the massive stone tablet after having made sure that there wasn't anything dangerous hidden around it.

Approaching the massive stone tablet, Xuan Hao could not help feeling his gaze shift towards a symbol located at the corner of the stone tablet.

"Hm? This symbol… It should have been carved by a powerful cultivator in the Dao of the Sword in the past!" Feeling a sense of awe as he looked at the symbol that radiated a powerful sword intent far surpassing the level of his own. It was a masterpiece displaying the power and grace of the sword cultivator who had carved it in the past.

In a sense, the symbol embodied the essence of the Dao of the Sword!

"How amazing, I wonder what realm the person who carved this symbol had reached… Unfortunately, only a fraction of the original sword intent is still left, and I won't be able to gain much from it in its current incomplete state" Spending the next few minutes observing the sword symbol, Xuan Hao could not help regretfully shaking his head.

Although the sword intent that had been used to carve the symbol on the tablet was still present to some degree, its current state was far from complete. Making it close to impossible for him to try and use it to gain an understanding of what came next after he condensed the nascent sword soul in his dantian.

Looking at the rest of the symbols and engravings present on the stone tablet, Xuan Hao discovered that they were in a similar or worse state than the sword symbol. Meaning that none of them would be able to provide any directions on the different Daos that they represented.

Realizing this, Xuan Hao could not help looking at the massive stone tablet in front of him with a thoughtful expression.

The increase in comprehension provided by the massive stone tablet was most likely the result of all the different symbols carved into it by powerful cultivators in the past merging together to form a unique dao aura around the stone tablet itself that then increased the comprehension of anyone close to the tablet itself.

Thinking along this line, the dao aura created by the ancient engravings and symbols carved into the tablet should be significantly weaker than it was when the tablet had first been created. If it had been before these symbols had decayed to their current state, Xuan Hao did not think that the effect brought by the dao aura of the tablet would only slightly impact his comprehension!

"If I'm not wrong, the tablet should have been used to train the younger generation of these ancient cultivators in the past, the dao aura serving to increase their cultivation while they would comprehend the dao from one of the many symbols and engravings…" Muttering this to himself as he gently touched the sword symbol, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of confusion.

What had happened to the power that had once been in control of this place? Given the power needed to create the stone tablet and the fact that so many different Daos of varying uniqueness had been used in its creation, it was obvious just how strong the power back then had been. Even if he had no clue just how strong the people who left behind an engraving of symbol of their own were, he was certain that they should at least have surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm!

Letting out a quiet sigh as he thought about this mysterious power that had just seemingly evaporated into thin air at some point in time, Xuan Hao picked up the massive tablet easily a dozen meters tall with his domain before putting it into one of his interspatial rings.

Bang! Bang!

Having taken away the stone tablet and stuffed it into one of his interspatial rings, Xuan Hao was taken aback, as a loud banging sound suddenly echoed across the entire temple.

Thumb! Thumb! Thumb!

Only a short time after the loud banging sound, the eerie sound of something large moving soon replaced it.I think you should take a look at

"This…"

Hearing the loud banging followed by the loud footsteps that seemed to be moving in his direction, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine-

Swish-!

Not wasting a single second before turning around and making his way out of the grand temple.

No matter how dumb he might be from time to time, there was no way he was planning to stay behind inside the temple to figure out how strong the large creature moving in his direction was. Considering the power that should have built this grand temple in the past, it was not hard for him to imagine that the strength of the large creature might far exceed his own.

Other than this, he already got his hands on the tablet that could increase the comprehension of those around it, so he did not really have that much interest in exploring the deeper areas further inside the grand temple.

Even more so now that a creature of some sort was wandering around the completely dark halls buried deep inside the mountain…

Whoosh~

"That was close."

Having escaped the moment, he had realized there was something else with him inside the grand temple, Xuan Hao soon came to a stop in the air a short distance away from the gates of the grand temple. Not daring to take his eyes off the entrance in case the creature inside decided to chase him outside.

In his hurry, the doors of the grand temple had been swung wide open. Allowing him a full view into the vast hall on the other side of the gate. Although his vision was somewhat limited by the fact that the light did not reach the farthest part of the hall where he had picked up the tablet. Not daring to directly use his divine sense, as he feared that he might end up drawing the attention of the creature inside the grand temple… And if it was really far stronger than him, he didn't want to get discovered.

Thumb! Thumb! Thumb!

Just at this point, he could once again hear the loud footsteps that he had heard from deeper inside the grand temple after he had taken away the tablet. The only difference this time around was that the creature it belonged to had arrived inside the vast hall!

"…"

Observing the barely visible figure that had appeared at the edge of where the light from outside the grand temple reached, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine when he found out what the creature was.

Standing more five meters tall, the creature looked humanoid in shape, but after a quick inspection it became rather obvious that it was not a human. After all, as far as he knew, humans could not grow over five meters in size. The only people who could do this kind of thing would be those cultivating special techniques that would temporarily increase their size while they were fighting.

Of course, in the case of people like that, they would only be bigger for a short period of time and couldn't last long.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

All of this was not even mentioning the weird eyeball connected to some sort of tentacle like arm that had poked out of the darkness at the end of the vast hall and was staring directly at him-

Wait! It's looking directly at me!?

Realizing that the creature lurking in the darkness had actually spotted him, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine. Preparing to leave the moment the creature showed the slightest sign of chasing after him.

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"Just how long is it going to continue staring at me!?" Having remained frozen on the spot as he waited for the creature to jump out of the shadows and chase after him for what felt like hours, Xuan Hao could not help growing impatient as the creature had showed no signs of moving. The eyeball poking out and the tentacle-like arm connected to it was the only thing that the creature had revealed of its body.

Even then, Xuan Hao had not allowed his curiosity to get the better of him this time around. Not using his divine sense to investigate the creature, as he understood that this might end up provoking the creature into attacking him.

This was not to say that he had not managed to gain any new information about the creature during this, as he had managed to get some idea of the creature's strength by detecting the faint energy waves emanating from the eyeball as it stared at him. Allowing him to guess that its strength should have reached a realm comparable to the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Allowing him to feel grateful that he did not use his divine sense to investigate the creature earlier and risk provoking it in the process. After all, even if his current cultivation was not too far from being comparable to the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension, he had never faced anyone that strong before and felt that it would be best to exercise cation. Not to mention, he had no way to tell if the creature was hiding part of its strength and had just showed him a bit of it to make him lower his guard.

Feeling that it would be a waste to continue his staring competition with the creature that refused to move out of the shadows inside the grand temple, Xuan Hao decided to leave. Although he still made sure to keep an eye on the creature in case it happened to get any ideas.

Rustle~

Moving back through the small shrubs behind him, the eyeball of the creature did not seem affected by his sudden movement and still kept its attention focused on him without showing any signs of leaving the shadows and entering the light that came in from the open doors of the entrance to the grand temple.

Continuing like this until the eyeball finally disappeared behind a few large rocks on the slope of the mountain, Xuan Hao could not help letting out the breath he had unknowingly been holding during his earlier staring competition with the strange creature.

Even if he was still far from being safe from the strange creature lurking inside the grand temple, he could at least begin to use his divine sense again without having to worry about accidentally provoking the strange creature. If the creature was still within his divine sense, it could only mean that it had decided to leave the hall of the grand temple and follow after him!

Feeling a bit nervous as his divine sense spread out and moved back in the direction towards the grand temple, Xuan Hao soon opened both of his eyes in surprise as he discovered that the creature that had been lurking in the darkness had actually moved all the way up to the entrance of the grand temple.

Upon closer inspection, Xuan Hao realized that the creature had more than four arms and was covered in all sorts of weird tentacles with different colored eyeballs attached to them. From a first glance, it looked similar to the abominations created by the Dao of Corruption, the only difference between it and the abominations created through the Dao of Corruption, was that there was no presence of the Dao of Corruption around the strange humanoid creature. Instead, it seemed to be giving off some sort of holy glow that didn't match its current horrifying appearance.

Whoosh~

BANG!

Sensing his divine sense, the strange creature rushed forward and shut the large doors of the grand hall. Instantly causing the part of his divine sense inside the grand temple to be cut off, while at the same time preventing him from looking inside the grand temple again without opening the doors.

During the short moment the creature took to close the door, a faint mist similar to the one he had passed through when entering the mountain range could be seen around one of the eyeballs of the creature as it seemed to try to tell him something.

"What in the world was that…" Not knowing what to say as his divine sense could only linger around the entrance to the grand temple, Xuan Hao could not help wondering just what the strange creature was and what it meant with the strange jiggling of one of its eyeballs. Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

From the little knowledge he had on things related to gods, he could only think that the strange creature should be related to some sort of god given the holy glow that had been present around it, but… Its appearance did not seem to match what one would normally consider a holy beast.

On the contrary, he would have believed it more if its appearance was that of a small bird with a lizard tail twice its own size. At least that seemed to fit the aesthetics of holy beast more.

Shaking his head as he thought this to himself, Xuan Hao turned his attention away from the now closed doors of the grand temple. At the very least it didn't look like the creature was going to leave the temple and chase after him. Only closing the door to block out the light coming in through the doors he had left open when escaping from the temple.I think you should take a look at

No longer worrying about the creature from the grand temple coming out to attack him, Xuan Hao remembered the quest from the system. Although it had only required him to pass through the mist, it had still not been completed even though he was clearly not inside of the mist any longer.

"I wonder if I just missed it because I was too excited about the stone tablet earlier…" Muttering this to himself as he looked through his system quests, Xuan Hao did his best to ignore a certain time limited quest that seemed like it was going to be with him for the rest of his life and instead focused on the side quest.

[Side Quest: Mysterious Mountain Range, Part 1]

[Description: You have stumbled upon a mysterious mountain range hidden by an enchanting veil of mist. Passing through the ethereal veil will undoubtedly come with dangers that will not be easy to resolve, but at the same time, treasures and other mystical rewards would undoubtedly also be present amid the danger hidden behind the veil. Show your unwavering courage and enter the mountain realm to find out what is lurking behind the mysterious veil of mist!]

[Reminder: The mist is not as simple as it seems, passing through it requires more than simply walking through.]

[Extra Reminder: It is recommended not to get trapped in the mist, as it can slowly drain away the life essence of living things if exposed for an extended period of time.]

[Reward: Unlock Part 2]

Hm? Reminders? Why are there suddenly reminders on the quest… And why are they about the mist? Don't tell me-

RUMBLE-!

Suddenly realizing something, Xuan Hao directly used his dao domain to violent rip apart the mountain around him-

Whoosh~

However, before he could do any damage to the mountain around him, his surroundings started twisting like the surface of a lake after a stone had been thrown into it. Soon changing from a peaceful plateau into treacherous cliffs and perilous ravines that were soon covered by the all too familiar mist that he had been traveling through just a short time earlier. The narrow path he had used to traverse also appeared beneath his feet once again.

This- Was I trapped in an illusion created by the mist earlier!?

Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he thought about what had just happened, Xuan Hao quickly looked through his interspatial ring to see if the stone tablet was still there… And to his surprise, it was indeed still there. Meaning that he should not have been trapped in an illusion just now, or it would make no sense for the stone tablet he had picked up in his illusion to still be there.

Unless the illusion only affected what I saw and didn't restrict my movement. Meaning I could have still gone somewhere off the narrow path and found the stone tablet! Now that I think about it, the strange move from the creature before it closed the door to the grand temple, was it perhaps trying to inform me about the fact that I was still inside the mist…?

Remembering what the strange creature had done before closing the door to the grand temple, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that it had indeed been trying to warn him.

Maybe the strange creature looking like some kind of abomination was indeed a holy beast. Not to mention the fact that the appearance of the creature he saw might not even have been the real appearance of the creature.

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Remembering the reminder from the system, Xuan Hao didn't dare waste too much time and quickly began following the narrow path up the mountain once again. Not daring to let his guard down in case he ended up trapped in the weird illusion of the mist again. Not feeling the slightest bit interested in finding out whether or not he would really end up starting to lose his life essence if he stayed inside the mist for long enough.

…

Moving along the narrow path without seeing any end in sight even after walking for close to a day, Xuan Hao could not help starting to get worried that the path he was walking on was not leading him out of the mist and was instead just going in circles around the mountain range. After all, with his current speed, he should have long since made his way through the mist and reached the interior of the mountain range.

Although the path was safe to some degree, considering he had not encountered any problems other problems since escaping from the illusion earlier, it was also obvious that he would not be able to pass through the mist by just following the path.

If he wanted to get out of the mist and reach the mountain range, he would most likely have to leave the path and venture through the treacherous cliffs and other obstacles present outside the narrow path.

In normal circumstances this would not have been a problem considering that he would just be able to fly over everything, but inside the mist, he had to be careful and not attract any unwanted attention to himself.

The earlier encounter with the strange holy creature comparable to a cultivator who had reached the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, was more than enough proof of just how dangerous the area outside the narrow path was. Even if the appearance of the creature might have been altered by the illusion, its strength was not, and neither was the stone tablet securely placed inside his interspatial ring.

Feeling that he had no other choice than to leave the narrow path if he wanted to find out what was hiding inside the mountain range, Xuan Hao looked over the edge of the path and into the ravine right next to it with a hint of hesitation flashing through his eyes. The bottom of the ravine was impossible to see due to the thick mist that was everywhere and there was a chance that a powerful creature similar to the one he had encountered in the illusion was lurking around at the bottom of the ravine.

"I won't make any progress if I just continue to stand around worrying about what might and might not be hiding in the mist." Muttering this to himself as he understood that he could always come up with excuses for not venturing off the narrow path and into the unknown with nothing to guide him through the mist, Xuan Hao stepped forward and slowly began floating over the ravine.

Whilst he did not intend to fly due to risks of exposing himself to possible enemies lurking around inside the mist when using his domain, he did not intend to climb down the ravines and other holes blocking his path. Even if using his domain to gently glide across these ravines and other obstacles might end up risking some of the strange creatures inside the mist attacking him, he felt that it should be far safer than entering those ravines and other things blocking his path.

More importantly, it would also end up saving him a lot of time.

Although he still had no real idea when the mist would start to affect his life essence like the system had told him, he felt that it would be best if he could leave the mist as fast as possible and hopefully not find out how long it would take the mist to kill him.

…

Wandering through the rough and difficult to traverse terrain of the mountain slope, Xuan Hao did not have to walk for more than a few minutes before encountering another strange creature living inside the mist.

Observing the strange creature that did not seem to have noticed him, Xuan Hao managed to get a good look of the strange creature that looked like the combination of a giant rat and a lion with three different tails and two heads as it mindlessly wandered around the edge of a large cave located at tall part of the slope.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøvlß1n platform.

The cave itself was nothing special and there seemed to be no reason for the mindless movement of the strange rat lion creature, almost like it had lost its spirit and could only wander around aimlessly.

Even after making eye contact with him on several occasions, the strange rat lion creature did not seem to care about him and just continued its aimless journey around the cave entrance.

Could it be that the strange creatures living in the mist are not going to attack me?

Thinking back to the strange creature in the grand temple that didn't attack him and instead seemed to have helped him discover that he had been trapped in some sort of illusion, Xuan Hao felt that this made sense.

Maybe I should test it out…

Roughly gauging the strength of the creature to be far weaker than his own, Xuan Hao decided to test out his theory and find out if the creatures in the mist were really harmless. I think you should take a look at

Rustle~

Slowly beginning to make his way towards the rat lion creature that continued to move around like he didn't exist, Xuan Hao gently placed his hand on top of the weird mane on one of the big rat heads.

"Looks like it's really harmless- Hm?"

Suddenly noticing something moving around the jagged stones located around the entrance to the cave as he was touching the mane of the rat lion creature, Xuan Hao felt a shiver run down his spine as he felt something bad was about to happen-

Swish-!

And without caring about the rat lion creature or any other strange creature around discovering him, Xuan Hao jumped backwards before moving in the opposite direction of the rat lion creature and the cave.

RUMBLE-!

Not a second later, a loud rumbling sound echoed out across the silent mountain slope as the large cave that the rat lion creature had been wandering around turned into a giant mouth filled with razor sharp teeth that lunged forward.

Roa-

Not even able to let out more than a half-finished roar, the rat lion creature had no way to fight back before it was swallowed by the giant mouth covering an area a few hundred meters in diameter. More than enough to cover the place that Xuan Hao had been standing just a short time earlier.

Bang!

Rumble~

As the rat lion creature and anything that happened to be within the area covered by the giant mouth was swallowed, Xuan Hao could only watch in shock, as the rest of the body that the mouth belonged to appeared for a short time before it dug back into the ground. Creating a brand-new hole in the process.

"It swallowed a creature comparable to a Second Tribulation Soul Ascension Realm Expert with ease… Good thing that I didn't venture down any of the holes and instead chose to fly over them…" Having managed to discern the strength of the rat lion creature during its last hopeless struggle against the giant mouth that swallowed it without a care, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine.

The memory of his encounter with the giant worm during his time in the core region of the Sky Empire inevitably reappeared as he compared it with the giant worm he had just seen.

Although the worm in the core region of the Sky Empire had been far larger, it should not have been stronger than the worm he had just seen. After all, given its ability to easily devour a creature comparable to the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, it was clear that its strength should have reached the later stages of the Soul Ascension Realm. Maybe it had even reached a realm comparable to the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, putting it at the same level as the creature he had encountered in the grand temple.

The only difference between the two being the fact that he had no idea if the worm would appear again to attack him. For this reason, Xuan Hao decided to not linger around and test his luck-

Swish-!

Leaving the area before the worm finished consuming the creature it had just swallowed.

Only after travelling for over half an hour did, he feel safe enough to slow down and resume travelling in a safer manner. Now feeling even more worried than before about possibly alerting any of the nearby strange creatures and at the same time reevaluating his earlier idea of the strange creatures being harmless…

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Resuming his journey through the mist after having made sure the massive worm wasn't following after him, Xuan Hao did not take long to encounter another strange creature. However, this time around, he didn't approach it and just passed by it without doing anything.

Even if the strange creature seemed to have noticed him, it didn't move an inch and ignored him like the rat lion creature had done.

Like this, Xuan Hao travelled through the mist for close to four hours before abruptly coming to a stop. In front of him, a familiar looking pair of doors could be faintly seen through the mist.

"The grand temple…?" Recognizing the large pair of doors in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help opening his mouth in surprise. Not having expected to stumble upon the grand temple that he had encountered in the illusion.

Not only that, but outside of the surroundings being covered in a thick layer of mist that made it hard to see more than a dozen or so meters around himself, there was no change from the large pair of doors he had seen in the illusion.

Is the strange creature inside perhaps also the same as in the illusion…?

Seeing that the grand temple was exactly the same on the outside as in the illusion, Xuan Hao could not help wondering if the strange creature with a presence similar to that of a holy beast was also the same as in the illusion.

Whoosh~

However, just when he was lost in his own thoughts thinking about the strange creature inside the grand temple, a strong wind appeared out of nowhere. Pushing the mist away for a short moment before it began drifting in from all sides to fill up the gap created by the strong wind.

Witnessing the large passage in the mist that had been created by the strong mist, Xuan Hao could not help opening both of his eyes in surprise as he saw the mountain slope filled with plants and trees located at the end of the passage.

"This… A path out of the mist!" Realizing this, Xuan Hao didn't bother wasting any time on the grand temple that he had already explored once, as he used all of his strength to rush towards the end of the passage that had been created by the strong wind. Not wanting to miss the chance to escape from the mist.

Even if he felt that he was getting closer to leaving the mist on his own, he also understood that there was a chance that the mist might be messing with him. After all, it should not have taken more than a half an hour to one hour to cross the mist… And that was only because he slowed down to try and avoid drawing some powerful strange creature to attack him. If he had used his normal speed, it wouldn't have taken more than a minute or less to cross!

Swish~!

Because of this, Xuan Hao was not too worried about reaching the end of the passage before the mist had a chance to fill it in again. Instead, the thing that worried him, was the possibility of a powerful strange creature would appear and attack him after sensing his movement-

ROAR-!

Almost like it had read his thoughts, a loud roar echoed out across the mist covered mountain slope. Even if he could not see what kind of creature had made the loud roar, he could still feel the terrifying aura belonging to the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm that burst forth together with the loud roar getting closer to him with each passing second.

Other than the strange creature that he had encountered inside the grand temple whose strength was hard to fully grasp, it was by far the strongest creature that he had encountered inside the mist so far!

Something that was especially impressive considering that all of the strange creatures that he had encountered inside the mist had at least reached a realm comparable to the First Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

"It shouldn't be able to catch up to me before I escape from the mist…" Muttering this to himself as he glanced back in the direction of the powerful aura that was getting closer and closer to him before looking towards the end of the passage, Xuan Hao didn't feel too worried about the powerful creature.

Even if he couldn't defeat someone in the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm with his current strength, he should be more than capable of keeping himself alive. For now, the most important thing to Xuan Hao was not how well he would do in a fight against the other party, but whether or not he would be able to escape from the mist before the other party caught up to him.

After all, fighting inside the mist ran the risk of provoking even more of these powerful creatures that might end up joining the fight as a result, something that would undoubtedly result in him being forced to leave the mountain range.

Whoosh~

Not more than a few seconds later, Xuan Hao manages to leave the mist and land on the green ground covered in a thick layer of moss and grass.

"Finally, I'm out…"

Feeling a sense of relief at finally getting out of the mist that he had ended being trapped for over a day inside, Xuan Hao could not help unconsciously relaxing his body.

ROAR!

However, this sense of relaxation was soon interrupted as an enormous demon beast emerged from the dense mist a few meters behind him. Its menacing presence sent tremors through the air, as its claws ripped through the mist down towards where Xuan Hao was standing.

"Hm!?"I think you should take a look at

At that very moment, Xuan Hao's entire body tensed up in response to the sudden attack-

Swish-!

Reacting with lightning-quick reflexes, he used Drifting Cloud Steps to their limit together with spatial manipulation-

BANG!

Narrowly evading the ferocious attack of the demon beast.

Landing gracefully on a nearby boulder, Xuan Hao narrowed both his eyes as his divine sense locked on to the imposing demon beast.

Swish-!Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

Not giving Xuan Hao any time to prepare, the demon beast lunged forward. Its massive claws slashed through the air at a speed that made it appear like they had instantly appeared in front of him. Not planning to give Xuan Hao any chance to dodge this time around!

"Wha-"

Bang!

Despite his best efforts, Xuan Hao found himself unable to resist the full power of the demon beast head on. Getting knocked back before being met with an onslaught of attacks from the demon beast that seemed intent on ending things fast.

Bang! Bang!

Each strike from the demon beast pushed him further back and made it increasingly difficult to block. The impact of the attacks sending shockwaves sweeping through the surroundings.

If not for the fact that his Dao of Ice was specialized for defending and could block the attacks of the demon beast after being strengthened by his dao domain, Xuan Hao would have had no way to defend himself against the powerful attacks of the demon beast.

Looks like I will have to come up with something if I want to continue exploring this place. Maybe it's time to test out how powerful the Dao of Fire is…

Feeling that his current situation was getting worse with each passing second and he had to do something before reaching the point of being forced to escape unless he wanted to die, Xuan Hao dedicated part of his attention towards coming up with a plan that would allow him to land an attack on the demon beast without having to worry about getting killed by the claws of said demon beast in the process.

Although his strength was only two minor realms below the demon beast, this small gap was the difference between someone in the Middle Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm and someone in the Late Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm. Not something that was as easy to overcome as it was in the Nascent Soul Realm…

"Ah! I got it!"

Finding the opportunity, he had been looking for just when the ice barrier he used to block the demon beast was about to break, Xuan Hao willingly allowed the ice barrier to shatter under the attack of the demon beast before using the millions of small ice shards in tandem with his Sword Dao to transform the small ice shard into ice sword that formed a blizzard that surrounded the demon beast.

WHOOOSH-!

Although this ended up preventing the demon beast from attacking him, it put an enormous stress on his dao domain and drained the qi in his dantian at a speed visible to the naked eye. Even with his seemingly endless supply of qi, he would not be able to hold on in his current state for more than a minute. Showing just how powerful the demon beast was.

However, Xuan Hao's goal was not to keep it trapped for as long as he could.

BANG!

ROOAR!

So, not wasting a single precious second, Xuan Hao shattered the small ice swords in the blizzard before gathering them together into a large ice pillar beneath the demon beast that knocked it into the air.

Exposing its vulnerable and unprotected underbelly in the process!

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Seizing the opportunity that he had created for himself; Xuan Hao executed a swift and calculated strike in the form of a concentrated ball of fire that had been created by using all his knowledge of the Dao of Fire and most of the qi still left inside his dantian.

FWOOOSH-!

Roooar-!

As the ball of fire hit the thick hide covering the underbelly of the demon beast and began burning through it at a speed visible to the naked eye before beginning to wreak havoc inside its body, a howl filled with pain soon echoed out across the green mountain slope.

Whoosh~

Followed by the flames now covering the entire body of the demon beast dissipating after close to two minutes of continuous burning, Xuan Hao could not help looking at the massive body still moving after the flames had dissipated in shock. "It's actually still alive…"

Although the light in the eyes of the demon beast visibly dimming down compared to before and its body had been heavily injured by the attack just now, it still stood up and looked like it could fight, a testament to just how powerful the body of a Sixth Tribulation of Soul Ascension Realm demon beast was.

If it had been a normal human cultivator, Xuan Hao doubted that they would have been able to endure the flame containing his insights of the Dao of Fire for more than half a minute…

ROOOOOAR!

Knowing that it had managed to survive the attack, the demon beast let out a proud roar as it looked down towards Xuan Hao filled with killing intent.

Though the flame had not been fatal, it had caused a rather large amount of damage to its body that would take a long time to recover… And that was not even mentioning the fact that there might be other demon beasts or strange creatures in the mist who would want to try and take advantage of its weakened state to devour it!

"…"

Seeing the proud expression of the demon beast as it looked down towards him filled with killing intent, Xuan Hao could not help frowning to himself as he understood that he would not be able to defeat the other party with his current strength.

Even if the demon beast had been weakened by the earlier attack, he was not in a much better situation, as his dantian had almost completely dried up after the last attack.

Do I really have to escape and leave the mountain range?

Understanding that he would not stand a chance against the demon beast in his current state, Xuan Hao could only prepare to escape from the mountain range with the last bit of qi still present in his dantian. Not the slightest bit interested in fighting to the death with the demon beast in front of him when he could guarantee his own safety by running away.

Only someone with something wrong in their head or faced with no other choice would enter a life and death battle. Especially so for cultivators who had lived for a long time!

Roar!

Continuing their short staring contest for another few seconds, Xuan Hao felt his entire body tense up when the demon beast finally let out a short roar.

However, instead of attacking him, the demon beast turned around and escaped back into the mist behind it.

"This…"

Seeing the demon beast suddenly turning around and escaping into the mist, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of relief washing over his body.

From the looks of it, the demon beast had the same thoughts as him and didn't want to take the risk and continue the fight. After all, even if it might win, it should have also understood that it would have ended up in a far worse situation at the end of the battle. Putting it at an even greater risk of being attacked and killed when recovering later.

"For now, I should find a place to recover before another demon beast shows up." Muttering this to himself as he looked back in the direction that the demon beast had disappeared in, Xuan Hao did not linger around the edge of the mist for long before finding a small empty cave not too far away that he could recover inside of.

Whoosh~

Not wasting any time on the quest that had been completed when he passed through the mist, Xuan Hao focused all of his attention on recovering his strength as fast as possible. Even using the spirit stones stored in his interspatial ring to speed up the process.I think you should take a look at This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

After all, he had no idea what might be lurking inside the mountain range. For all he knew, it could be far more dangerous than the mist had been, but… Even then, he still decided to take the risk. Not wanting to leave the mountain range now that he had finally managed to find his way through the mist.

…

Opening his eyes at dawn the next day, Xuan Hao rose from his meditation spot and stretched his limbs, feeling the renewed strength coursing through his veins.

"Finally, back to normal again. Guess its time to check out the side quest and see what the second part of it is about." Smiling to himself as he said this, Xuan Hao glanced towards the system panel that had popped up in front of him.

[Side Quest: Mysterious Mountain Range, Part 1 (complete)]

[Reward: Unlock Part 2]

Reading through the quest and seeing that it had indeed been completed this time around and he wasn't trapped in some sort of illusion created by the mist again, Xuan Hao unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.

If he found out that he was still inside the mist, it would properly be time to leave, as the mountain range would have been far too dangerous for him to explore with his current strength.

Luckily, that was not the case.

"Redeem reward…" Not thinking too much about the, what if scenario, Xuan Hao directly redeemed the reward for the first part of the side quest. Feeling curious as to what the second part of the side quest would be about.

[Side Quest: The Three Celestial Gates, Part 2]

[Description: You have reached the mysterious mountain range hidden behind the mist. To uncover the secrets hidden inside the mountain range, you must find three ancient celestial gates and pass through them.]

[Objective: Seek out the Three Celestial Gates and defeat the guardians within.]

[Reward: Starlight Essence]

"Three Celestial Gates?"

Reading through the new quest that had appeared, Xuan Hao felt himself growing increasingly curious as to what was hiding inside the mountain range and what kind of secrets it might contain. Maybe it contained information on the ancient power that had once controlled the mystic realm in the past, or maybe he would finally be able to find out what came after the Soul Ascension Realm.

After all, since he had reached the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he had yet to encounter any substantial information about the realm that came after the Soul Ascension Realm. Not even able to get a name on the realm itself.

The only clue he had so far about a potential name for the realm was the old soul he had found inside a ring proclaiming itself as a Divine Moon Immortal.

Divine Moon Immortal could be the title for someone who had reached a certain cultivation realm, while it at the same time could also just be the title used to address certain experts inside a powerful empire or sect. In the end, there was no way for him to know what it was…

Thinking back to how he had just ended up throwing the ring away in fear of the old soul trying to snatch away his disciples, Xuan Hao could not help hitting himself over the wasted opportunity to find out more about the cultivation realms above the Soul Ascension Realm, as that old soul should have definitely belonged to an ancient expert above the Soul Ascension Realm.

But then again, he had no way of knowing about this back then and just wanted to ensure his disciples stayed with him. Not wanting to run the risk of his disciples being taken away.

"Haaa… Looks like I should just hope that the Three Celestial Gates have some information on the realm above the Soul Ascension Realm." Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao decided not to think about the old man in the ring that he had thrown away in the past.

As for the Starlight Essence listed as the reward for the quest? Xuan Hao had no clue what it was and understood that it would be useless for him to ponder on its purpose before completing the quest.

For now, Xuan Hao made his way out of the small cave that he had spent the last day inside of before slowly starting to make his way up the mountain in search of the Three Celestial Gates mentioned by the quest.

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Different from the terrain inside the mist that was filled with all sorts of deadly ravines and holes that one could fall into if not careful, the mountain slope was covered in a thin layer of grass and moss with a few trees appearing from time to time. Making it far easier to traverse.

The only thing keeping Xuan Hao from just spreading his divine sense out in all directions around himself to search for the Three Celestials Gates, was the fact that he had no idea if there were any powerful demon beasts lurking around in the small caves he spotted along his way up the mountain. After all, he had already fought with one demon beast at the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm and had no plans to fight another one if he could avoid it!

Slowly ascending the mountain like this, Xuan Hao soon stepped foot on the peak of the mountain without encountering any demon beasts or anything remotely dangerous along the way.

"Nothing…?"

However, after reaching the peak of the mountain, he was met with nothing more thana barren platform made of stone and a few half-broken benches that were overlooking the surrounding mountains.

Although the few benches located on the edge of the stone platform would have been an excellent place to sit down and admire the expansive mountain range from above, it was not what Xuan Hao had been hoping to encounter at the top of the mountain.

"Looks like I won't be able to count on finding some abandoned abode and get some clues about the possible location of the Three Celestial Gates…" Muttering this to himself as he sat down on one of the few benches that had managed to remain intact, Xuan Hao turned to the other mountains of the mountain range.

Empty… Is the Three Celestial Gates perhaps not located on top of one of the mountains?

Realizing that they were in an empty state without anything on top of them or just covered in a simple viewing platform like the one he found himself on top of, Xuan Hao turned to look down towards the small patches of forest located in between the different mountains of the mountain range.

If the Three Celestial Gates were not on top of any of the mountain peaks, they could only be hidden somewhere inside the small forests below, a place that just so happened to also be perfect for any demon beast that might be living inside the mountain range to live.

Hopefully I won't end up encountering any…

Shaking his head as he thought this to himself, Xuan Hao began scaling down the side of the mountain. Heading down towards a small forest that was located in a small valley in between the mountain he was on top of and a few other mountains. Only connected to the rest of the small forests of the mountain range through a small passage located at the base of the two mountains located farthest away from his current location.

Reaching the base at the mountain where the small forest started, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he gazed up at the trees standing more than a hundred meters tall in front of him. The so-called small forest that he had seen from above, was far larger than he had expected.

But this did not deter him, as he soon entered the forest in search of the Three Celestial Gates. Not forgetting to be ready for an ambush at any moment, as the large trees and thick foliage covering the ground would be perfect for any potential ambusher to launch a surprise attack.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao started his search for the Three Celestial Gates, Chu Yang and Qing Yi had already found the hole in the ceiling of the cave that the mole demon beast had fallen through a few days earlier and were currently trying their best to figure out a way to reach the hole in the ceiling.

After all, they were not in the Domain Lord Realm and couldn't fly up to reach the hole in the ceiling and enter the mole demon beast's tunnel this way. Jumping was also out of the question, as the ceiling was too high up for them to reach.

Not to mention, doing any of this also came with the risk of getting noticed by the demon beasts roaming around the underground world. Maybe even resulting in the mole demon beast noticing and following after them!

"Hm?"

As both of them were lost in thought trying to come up with ways that they could actually reach the entrance to the mole beast's tunnel above them, Qing Yi suddenly noticed the large roots sticking out from the cave wall just a short distance away from where the hole was located. "Can we perhaps use the roots over there?" Poking Chu Yang's should as she said this, Qing Yi did not forget to point towards the roots she had spotted.

"Roots?" Hearing what Qing Yi said and feeling her finger poking him in an increasingly energetic manner, Chu Yang turned to look in the direction she was pointing with a confused expression on his face.

"Ah! Of course! Great idea senior sister!"

Seeing the countless roots sticking out from the side of the cave wall, Chu Yang instantly understood what Qing Yi wanted to do and began making his way towards the roots. Not falling too far behind, Qing Yi also made her way over towards the root covered cave wall.

"Hm? The roots are far smaller than they looked from a distance…"

Arriving at the wall filled with roots beside Chu Yang, Qing Yi could not help feeling a sense of unease after realizing that the roots covering the cave wall were far smaller up close.I think you should take a look at

Given their current size and width, would they even be able to hold up their weight without breaking?

"Do you want to go first, or should I have the honor?" Noticing the small frown that had appeared on her face, Chu Yang could not help jokingly asking this.

"You can go first. After all, we still need someone to test if these roots can even hold or weight in the first place" Rolling her eyes upon hearing what Chu Yang said, Qing Yi took the opportunity to let him test out the durability of the roots.

If he really wanted to make fun of her, he should be prepared to take responsibility for his own words!

"…"

Feeling like he had been caught in some kind of elaborate trap, Chu Yang had no idea what to say as he could only stare speechlessly at Qing Yi for a short moment before turning towards the cave wall filled with roots.

Looking at it again, he noticed that the roots sticking out from the cave wall did indeed look small and fragile.

However, the thing that made him pause for a moment, was the roots located at the top that barely connected the cave wall to the hole leading into the mole demon beast's tunnel. Those roots were barely large enough to grab hold of, let alone strong enough to carry his or Qing Yi's weight for more than a second. Maybe not even that long…

Creak~

Grabbing hold of one of the roots before starting to climb up the root covered cave wall the next moment, Chu Yang ignored the creaking sound of the roots that looked like they were about to break apart under his weight at any moment. In any case, even if one of them broke, he would have more than enough roots available to grab on to. Not to mention, with his strength in the Nascent Soul Realm, he was more than capable of sensing if the root he was using to support himself was about to break.

"Looks like the roots are still strong enough to last for a few seconds…" Muttering this to herself as she watched Chu Yang smoothly climb up the small roots without any of them breaking under his weight, Qing Yi soon grabbed hold of a root before starting her climb up the root covered wall. Not wanting to get left behind by Chu Yang who soon reached the top of the cave wall.

Whoosh~

Not wasting a second after having reached the top of the cave wall filled with roots, Chu Yang launching himself off the side of the wall towards one of the small roots hanging down from the ceiling-

Creak~

Whoosh~

Grabbing hold of the small root that only barely fit in one of his hands, Chu Yang launched himself forward in the direction of the next small root on the way towards the hole leading inside the mole demon beast's tunnel before the root had a chance to get pulled out from the cave ceiling.

Whoosh~

Whoosh~

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Continuing this all the way until he finally managed to reach the hole in the ceiling that luckily had a large rock hanging down just inside of it where he could wait for Qing Yi to catch up with him-

"Wah!?"

Bang~

Something that didn't take long, as his senior sister ended up miscalculating her speed. Resulting in her launching herself straight into the rock he was standing on. Needing him to grab her before she ended up falling back into the cave below.

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Creak~

"Hm?"

Feeling the rock that they were now both standing on starting to sink downwards, Chu Yang took a few seconds to comprehend what was happening before he quickly grabbed Qing Yi and carried her deeper into the mole demon beast's tunnel without saying anything. Understanding that the longer they ended up staying on the rock, the faster it would dislodge itself and fall to the ground. Alerting any nearby demon beast below about something falling down from the hole… And in the worst-case scenario, alerting the mole demon beast to the fact that something happened inside its tunnel.

"W-what happened!?" Unaware of this, Qing Yi could only patiently wait before Chu Yang came to a stop before asking with a confused expression on her face. Not understanding why her junior brother had suddenly picked her up before carrying her deeper into the tunnel to a place where they could stand freely without the support of something hanging out from the side of the tunnel.

"Senior sister… Didn't you notice that the rock you flew into earlier was about to fall down into the cave?"

"Ah… This… I didn't notice… Sorry…"

Hearing what Chu Yang said and looking down towards the rock that was slowly starting to free itself from the tunnel wall, Qing Yi quickly realized what had happened, as a small blush made its way to her face. Understanding that she might have caused trouble for both of them once again.Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

"No problem. Let's just get out of here before the rock alerts the demon beasts below and the mole demon beast shows up to investigate the matter…" Knowing that it would be best for them to get going as fast as possible due to the risk of the rock falling alerting the mole demon beast hunting for prey somewhere in the cave below, Chu Yang didn't blame Qing Yi for her blunder of smashing head first into the rock and instead focused on them leaving and finding a way out of the underground world and back to surface again.

In the first place, he understood that it was just an accident that she had smashed headfirst into the rock. Not to mention, the rock was positioned in a rather odd way that made it hard to see from the small roots. Making it easy to not see and accidentally hit when entering the tunnel of the mole demon beast.

"Yes…" Understanding that they should indeed be moving instead of just standing around, Qing Yi nodded her head with a still somewhat embarrassed expression on her face before following Chu Yang deeper into the tunnel of the mole demon beast.

Although the tunnel itself was rather large and should have been easy for them to traverse, its steep incline upwards ended up making it harder for them to travel at their normal speed.

However, this steep incline upwards did not discourage them in the slightest. On the contrary, it made them even more excited, as they understood this meant that they were getting closer to the surface!

Even if they had no idea how far underground, they were at the moment. At least they now had a feeling that they were making progress in getting back up to the surface again, where they would once again have a chance to start exploring the mystic realm.

This time without having to worry about the massive swarm of spiders and a horde of powerful demon beasts chasing after them-

ROOOOOAR-!

Just at this moment as they felt like they had managed to enter the tunnel and wouldn't have to worry about anything for the next few hours or days if they were lucky, a loud roar strengthened by a powerful cultivation base suddenly echoed out behind them.

Rumble~!

Generating a shockwave of sound that caused the entire tunnel and cave beneath them to start shaking violently as a result.

"Did the mole demon beast already return!?"

"Maybe… I can't make out what kind of demon beast the roar came from… "

ROAR!?

As Chu Yang and Qing Yi were nervously looking in the direction of the entrance to the tunnel that had already disappeared from view, another roar filled with pain suddenly came following the loud roar filled with killing intent from earlier.

"This… Maybe the mole demon beast encountered another powerful demon beast and is currently fighting beneath the tunnel entrance…?" Hearing the two roars that sounded like they had come from different demon beasts, Qing Yi could not help drawing her own conclusion from what she had heard.

"Indeed, that would make sense… But if the mole demon beast really is fighting down there, we have to get out of here as fast as possible before the fight ends, and it returns to the tunnel!" Nodding his head as he felt what Qing Yi said made sense, Chu Yang also didn't forget to remind Qing Yi about their current dangerous situation.

"Ah, of course!" Agreeing with what Chu Yang said, both of them soon resumed their journey up the steep tunnel of the mole demon beast, this time moving a little faster than before with the extra motivation from the fight that was taking place below them.I think you should take a look at

…

Unknown to both Chu Yang and Qing Yi, the mole demon beast that they had been worrying about, just so happened to show up beneath the entrance to the tunnel a few seconds after they had left the rock and began following the tunnel upwards towards the surface.

Roar?

Coming to a stop just as it was about to head back up into the tunnel above, it came to a stop before starting to sniff the air around it. Slowly a distinct killing intent spread out from around the mole demon beast, as it picked up the scent trail left behind by Chu Yang and Qing Yi leading directly into its tunnel!

If it had been a normal demon beast that had reached the limits of the Nascent Soul Realm, it might not have been able to pick up the faint scent left behind by Chu Yang and Qing Yi, but it was a mole demon beast with a far more sensitive nose compared to ordinary demon beast!

ROOOOOOOAR-!

Letting out roar filled with all of the anger that had been building up after it first noticed that someone had entered its tunnel, part of the mole demon beast's cultivation base ended up amplifying the loud beastial roar even further-

RUMBLE-!

Making the entire cave around it shake violently and causing all of the nearby demon beasts to escape in fear.

Crack~

Whoosh-!

However, unexpectedly, the roar of the mole demon beast also ended up causing the already loose rock in the side of the tunnel entrance to fully free itself before coming hurtling down towards the angrily roaring mole demon beast below.

Roar?

Noticing the rock falling down towards it the moment it was dislodged; the mole demon beast didn't worry about it. After all, what was a normal rock going to do to a demon beast like itself? It had already experienced its own tunnel collapsing on top of it several times in the past and had come out just fine. For this reason, it felt more than confident in its own strength to resist a small rock.

BANG!

However, the moment the rock landed on its body, an unimaginable pain began spreading throughout its entire body without showing any signs of stopping.

ROAR!?

It was only at this moment that the mole demon beast realized that the rock was not an ordinary rock but was instead a special kind of rock made from a toxic spiritual metal that would poison everything around it the moment it was broken.

Back when it had dug out its tunnel, it had specifically dug around it to ensure that it wouldn't come into contact with the toxic spiritual metal, as the poison released by the spiritual metal when broken, was more than strong enough to kill an existence at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. Even if its physical body had already managed to surpass the Nascent Soul Realm and step into the Domain Lord Realm, it would still be difficult for it to suppress the poison spreading throughout its body in the short term. Not to mention, it would also have to worry about the other Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts in the underground world during this time.

For now, it no longer had the ability to arrogantly walk wherever it pleased in the underground world-

Rumble~

And without wasting a second, the mole demon beast dug into the ground to hide away from any potential demon beasts looking for a chance to devour it in an attempt to increase their own strength. No longer having any energy left to chase after Chu Yang and Qing Yi who had entered its tunnel.

At least until it managed to recover again and fully get rid of the poison that was spreading throughout its entire body at a breakneck speed, Chu Yang and Qing Yi would be able to safely traverse its tunnels without any threats outside of a few earth worms that would accidently dig into its tunnel from time to time…

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Making his way through the valley nestled between a few of the large mountains of the mist covered mountain range, Xuan Hao searched through the entire valley within only a few days. Having first made sure that there weren't any powerful demon beasts around before sweeping through the entire place with his divine sense later.

Although he did not end up finding the Three Celestial Gates that he was looking for, he still managed to find out more about the mountain range from searching through the entire valley. The most shocking being that the demon beasts inside the mountain range were far weaker than the ones hiding inside the mist surrounding the mountain range.

From what he knew about mountain ranges with demon beasts present in them, the strongest demon beasts would always reside at the center of the mountain range where the qi would be thicker, and the spiritual herbs would be more abundant.

But from what he had seen of the mist covered mountain range so far, the strongest demon beast in the valley had only barely reached the Nascent Soul Realm, while the reaming demon beasts roaming around the forest were in the Foundation Establishment or Core Formation Realm. None of them anywhere near the Soul Ascension Realm that all the demon beasts and strange creatures inside the mist had reached!

"The Three Celestial Gates should be somewhere deeper inside the mountain range…" Muttering this to himself as he arrived on the small path leading out of the valley and deeper into the next forest of the mountain range, Xuan Hao gazed back towards the tall trees covering the valley behind him before continuing along the small path leading away from the outer edge of the mountain range and towards the inner parts of the mountain range where he had seen the larger mountains and forests being located from the top of the mountain not too long ago.

Whoosh~!

As Xuan Hao followed the path and stepped into the inner parts of the mountain range, the air grew dense with spiritual energy and the landscape around him transformed. The mountains that had been no taller than the mountains of the Burning Mountain Range next to where the Raging Flame Sect had been in the past, became towering peaks stretching towards the heavens above, their majestic size casting long shadow over the sprawling forests that adorned the slopes and valleys below. The forests themselves also seemingly blending together into one massive forest.

This- Did I perhaps get trapped in an illusion again!?

Seeing the sudden transformation of his surroundings, the first thing Xuan Hao thought about was the fact that he had been trapped in an illusion again. After all, each and every single one of the towering mountain peaks had surpassed the height of the Main Star Peak back in the Star Shattering Sect!

Not wasting a second as he began observing the mountain right next to where he was standing, it did not take long before he discovered something wrong with the mountain and its sudden drastic increase in size.

"It's not an illusion, but… Something different…" Frowning visibly as he muttered this to himself while trying his best to understand just what had happened to cause all of the mountain to suddenly shoot upwards and turn into towering mountains far larger than anything he had ever seen before, Xuan Hao did notice that something was off about the mountains.

The only problem was that he couldn't tell what it was, the only thing he was certain of, was the fact that he had not been trapped in an illusion. Instead, something had happened to the mountains and the surrounding environment…

Using the next few hours earnestly trying his best to inspect and analyze the mountain and forest not too far away, Xuan Hao could only let out a defeated sigh before deciding to turn around and leave the enlarged mountain range in front of him. Understanding that his current strength was far too low for him to understand what had happened and he had spotted a group consisting of at least a dozen Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts lurking around the edges of the massive forest that now looked like they had swallowed up most of the mountain range.

Even if he was confident in his current strength, there was no way he had the ability to face off against a dozen demon beasts in the Soul Ascension Realm!

However, upon turning around and trying to make his way back to the small valley filled with large trees he had searched through earlier-

Bang!

"Ouch!?"

He ended up walking headfirst into an invisible wall that now blocked the path back.

"This… Did I perhaps end up walking into a trap?" Not having even thought about this possibility before now, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine. After all, for him to not even sense the fact that he had entered some kind of trapping formation, the creator of said formation had to at the very least be a skilled formation master at the pinnacle of the Soul Ascension Realm, or someone above the Soul Ascension Realm…I think you should take a look at

Given that he could understand nothing about what had happened and the fact that a lot of Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts had ended up similarly trapped with him, he could easily conclude the creator of the formation to be someone above the Soul Ascension Realm!

BOOOM-!

Attacking the invisible barrier blocking his path, Xuan Hao could only helplessly watch as his absorb was absorbed without causing a single ripple on the invisible barrier. Even using all of his strength, he could not affect the invisible barrier in the slightest!

"…"

As this realization set in, Xuan Hao could not help silently cursing himself for being careless, it should have been rather obvious that something was not right with the mountain range with how the strongest demon beast he encountered had only reached the Nascent Soul Realm. Especially considering how dense the spiritual qi inside was. Even a demon beast without any talent would be able to reach the Domain Lord Realm if they were to spend long enough inside such an environment.

Although their comprehension would be severely lacking, the strength of their physical bodies would still be at the Domain Lord Realm. Far above that of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast he had seen before finding himself in his current situation!

…"Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

Knowing that there would be no way to brute force his way through the invisible barrier, Xuan Hao could only go with the next best option. Searching for weak points in the formation.

Even if said weak points would still have been far too strong for him to make use of with his current strength, the accumulated damage to these weak points over time might give him a chance to break through and escape from the formation.

"Looks like I have no choice but to explore this place…" Muttering this to himself as he gazed in the direction of the Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts roaming around the edges of the massive forest in front of him, Xuan Hao slowly began descending from the mountain pass.

At least the demon beasts he had spotted were hanging around in the vicinity of several large trees. Making it hard for them to spot him while he descended from the mountain pass a few dozen meters above the valley where the forest started.

Of course, this would only be the case if the demon beasts' divine sense hadn't developed to the level of a Soul Ascension Realm Expert and only their physical body had managed to reach this realm.

Thumb~

"Haaa… Looks like they their divine sense isn't on par with their physical bodies…" letting out a relieved sigh the next moment as he managed to bypass the demon beasts without any of them noticing his presence, it became obvious that the demon beasts had only managed to reach the Soul Ascension Realm because of the dense spiritual qi gathered in the mountain range.

Without this spiritual energy, they would most likely not even have reached the Domain Lord Realm. Even now that they had reached the Soul Ascension Realm, their strength should be far worse than normal demon beasts who had reached the Soul Ascension Realm through constant fighting for spiritual herbs that would increase their strength. In this regard, the demon beasts in the mist should be far stronger than these demon beasts!

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao didn't dare to linger around the same place for too long, as he soon began moving deeper into the forest that seemed to cover the entire mountain range.

After all, he had no idea if there were any stronger demon beasts lurking around the core of this massive forest that seemed to go on forever. For all he knew, he could encounter another demon beast at the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm again. Maybe even something stronger!

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Starting to explore the forest with the help of his divine sense now that he had managed to bypass the Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts at the edge of the forest, it did not take long before another demon beast appeared to block his path.

However different from the demon beasts at the edge of the forest, this demon beast had appeared directly in front of him. Making it impossible for him to hide himself in time before getting discovered.

Roar?

"…"

Observing the demon beast that had shown up, Xuan Hao could not help letting out a sigh of relief after noticing that the strength of the demon beast had only reached the Domain Lord Realm.

Swsih-!

Ptsh~

Not giving the demon beast any time to alert the flock of Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts located at the edge of the forest!

Thumb~

Watching the lifeless body of the demon beast falling to the ground, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time before moving deeper into the forest. Not wanting to wait around for the demon beasts living in the forest to be attracted to the smell of blood from the now dead demon beast in front of him.

Even if the corpse of the demon beast had only reached the Domain Lord Realm, consuming its flesh would still be beneficial for demon beasts in the Soul Ascension Realm and without a doubt, the demon beasts on the edge of the forests would soon be attracted to the smell of blood from the now dead demon beast. Even if he used his Dao of Fire to burn it, it would already be too late. Not to mention, using the Dao of Fire would inevitably attract far more attention compared to the Sword Dao…

Ignoring the few loud roars that echoed out behind him from the direction of the demon beast he had killed and assuming that it should just be the demon beasts who had started fighting over the corpse and who got to devour it, Xuan Hao soon came to a small clearing with a stone pedestal in the middle of it.

"…"

Not entering the clearing directly, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that something was wrong with the clearing itself. After all, a lone stone pedestal in the middle of a demon beast infested forest that had somehow managed to survive completely unharmed until now.

Although he could not sense anything with his divine sense or domain from the clearing, outside of a small scroll placed on top of the pedestal, he still couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. Especially considering that the scroll on top of the stone pedestal was completely empty.

Whoosh~

Deciding to test things out by throwing a small rock on the stone pedestal, Xuan Hao watched as the small rock hit the pedestal before being reduced to nothing. Disappearing like it had never even existed in the first place.

Well… This is not suspicious at all…

Having observed the entire ordeal with his divine sense and domain to try and catch anything that might happen, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of awe as he looked towards the stone pedestal.

Although it had only been for a brief moment, he did manage to see a small symbol had flashed on one side of the pedestal before the space around the small rock began violently twisting before collapsing in on itself. Destroying the space around the rock and the rock together with it. Leaving a small scar on the space where the rock had once been for a short moment.

Spatial collapse?!

Seeing this weird and violent twisting of space before it ultimately collapsed in on itself and the target locked inside, the only thing Xuan Hao could think of was the spatial collapse described through the Divine Void Eyes.

It had to be known, even with his current strength, he could at most cause a partial collapse of space by relying on his Divine Void Eyes and his Dao Domain Lord Realm cultivation. Archiving a true collapse of space was something that he had no way to accomplish on his own with his current understanding of the Dao of space.

Not to mention, the strength required to cause a true spatial collapse was something he lacked at the moment. After all shuttling through space with different movement techniques or shattering space and using it to teleport was something completely different from causing space to collapse.

A true spatial collapse was something that would permanently leave a scar on the world itself, that would take thousands- if not tens of thousands of years to heal without the aid of someone skilled in the Dao of Space!

Although the collapse that the stone pedestal had caused was not a true spatial collapse and should instead be a partial spatial collapse, it was still not something he dared to underestimate. Understanding very well that he had no way to fight back if he ended up trapped inside a spatial collapse with his current understanding of the Dao of space, even if it was only a partial collapse of space…

Whoosh~

For this reason, Xuan Hao decided to sit down and throw another rock towards the stone pedestal.I think you should take a look at

Rumble~

Watching closely as the space around the rock began twisting violently before collapsing in on itself, erasing the rock from existence.

Whoosh~

Sitting down before throwing another rock towards the stone pedestal, Xuan Hao observed everything about the space around the rock with his divine sense and domain. Making sure to not miss out on anything as the third rock was soon erased from existence.

"This… Isn't this a perfect place to comprehend the Dao of Space…?" Mumbling this to himself as his eyes remained focused on the stone pedestal in the middle of the clearing, Xuan Hao realized just how precious this stone pedestal was. Not for the empty scroll on top of it, but because of its defensive ability.

As long as he comprehended the Dao of Space that was perfectly demonstrated by this stone pedestal, he would undoubtably be able to take another step forward when it came to the Dao of Space!

…

ROOOAR-!

Not more than a few minutes after leaving the corpse of the demon beast, a loud roar spread throughout the forest before a large demon beast landed on the ground right next to the corpse. The killing intent it exuded spread out in all directions as it searched for the one responsible for the death of the demon beast in front of it.

Roar-!

Rooooar!

Roar!

Following behind this demon beast, close to a dozen other demon beasts appeared around the corpse with excited expressions on their faces as they looked greedily towards the corpse of the demon beast in front of them. No doubt they all wanted to devour the corpse to increase their own strength.

ROOOOOAR!

However, before any of these demon beasts had a chance to jump forward and try to devour the corpse of the Domain Lord Realm demon beast, the demon beast that had been looking around to search for the killer of the dead demon beast let out a terrifying roar that instantly made the approaching demon beasts freeze in place. None of the daring to take a single step forward, let alone attempt to devour the corpse in front of them.

Even if it was only for a split second, all of these demon beasts had sensed the strength inherent in the roar just now far surpassing their own. Making it blatantly obvious that the other party was far stronger than them!

Whoosh~

Whoosh~

Whoosh~

Because of this, these demon beasts that had only come for a possible free meal, did not waste any time before turning around and leaving. The only thing they could think of, was how to run away from the terrifying demon beast that had placed itself beside the corpse as fast as possible. No longer thinking about the possible increase in strength they might experience after devouring the corpse.

Roar…

Different from the large number of demon beasts that had shown up to devour the corpse of the dead Domain Lord Realm demon beast, the powerful demon beast did not have this thought in mind, as it instead just let out a sad roar while looking down at the dead body filled with sadness.

If Xuan Hao had been there, he would have easily found out that the dead demon beast resembled a smaller version of the powerful demon beast that had just managed to scare away the large number of demon beasts.

Drawing the conclusion that these two demon beasts were related with each other from this, was a rather simple task. The only problem with this conclusion, was the fact that it meant he had unintentionally ended up offending a powerful demon beast strong enough to scare away a group of Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts by itself!

ROAR!

Like this, unknown to Xuan Hao, a powerful demon beast began searching for the killer behind the death of the small Domain Lord Realm demon beast…This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

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After days of meditation and observation on the partial spatial collapse caused by the stone pedestal, Xuan Hao found himself at the precipice of a breakthrough. Only a single step away from comprehending the Dao of space and officially reaching the Elementary Realm in the Dao of space.

But this single step was far harder to overcome than he had first expected and slowly, days turned into weeks as he remained completely absorbed in trying to comprehend the Dao of Space.

Shut off to the outside world, as he delved into the mystery of the Dao of space, seeking to find the thing he was missing to realize his breakthrough. The concept of time had completely disappeared.

As he delved into the Dao of Space through the help of the stone pedestal, Xuan Hao felt his consciousness expanding, transcending the boundaries of the material world for a short moment. Allowing him to perceive the intricate web of spatial energies interwoven throughout the world around him and far beyond, like ethereal threads connecting every corner of existence.

It was in this heightened state of awareness devoid of the concept of time, that he began to comprehend the essence of space.

Whoosh~

Soon the space began twisting around him, making his figure unrecognizable as it was twisted in millions of different ways. At the same time, also signaling that he had finally managed to find the missing piece to comprehending the Dao of Space… But Xuan Hao didn't intend to stop things here, as he made use of his current heightened state of awareness far above that of anything he had ever experienced before to further increase his understanding of the Dao of Space.

As the burning sun in the sky disappeared in the horizon and was replaced by the gentle moon, Xuan Hao slowly opened his eyes.

Within the depths of his eyes, stars flickered in and out of existence, nebulae burst forth with radiant colors, while galaxies spiraled around in a grand performance without any set destination. It was as If a microcosm of the universe resided in his eyes, a reflection of the vastness and complexity of the Dao of Space itself.

However, this only lasted for a short instant before disappearing again. After all, he had yet to fully comprehend the Dao of Space and had only just begun to scratch the surface. Even then… Just scratching the surface of the Dao of Space, was more than enough for him to understand just how hard it was to comprehend compared to any of the other Daos he had comprehended so far.

Even if he had only reached the Elementary Realm when it came to comprehension, the strength of the Dao of Space had already reached the same level as his other four Daos!

"Hm?"

Standing back up prepared to experiment with the new things he had managed to comprehend from the Dao of Space, Xuan Hao could not help freezing on the spot, as he looked towards the stone pedestal in the middle of the small opening in the forest.

Different from the empty clearing he had seen before, now that his comprehension of the Dao of Space had increased, he could see an endless number of small threads covering the small opening in the forest. All of which was connected to the stone pedestal.

Even without touching these threads or using an extended period of time to analyze them, it was not hard to guess that these threads were what had triggered the partial spatial collapse when they had come into contact with the stones he had thrown towards the pedestal.

I wonder if I will be able to gain any new insights into the Dao of Space by observing how the threads cause the partial spatial collapse to happen…

Feeling a sense of excitement rush through him as he thought about this, Xuan Hao did not waste a single second before picking up another small rock from the ground before throwing it towards the stone pedestal.

His divine sense and dao domain both focused on the small stone as it hit the threads that almost formed a completely impenetrable wall around the stone pedestal.

Whoosh~

However, as the stone was swallowed up by another partial spatial collapse, Xuan Hao could only watch in confusion as the threads seemed to do nothing when coming into contact with the stone. No fluctuations or transfer of energy back towards the stone pedestal, or maybe it was just because he was still too weak to detect the minute fluctuations that happened when something touched the threads around the stone pedestal.

"I was expecting too much…" Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao gave up on trying to learn more about how the stone pedestal and the weird threads all over the places functioned. Understanding that it was out of reach with his current comprehension of the Dao of Space.

The only useful thing he managed to gain from observing the threads around the stone pedestal was the fact that there seemed to be a small path devoid of threads leading directly up to the pedestal where the empty scroll was located.

I wonder if its really empty or just a spatial distortion that makes it impossible to read from a distance…

After seeing this small path leading up to the empty scroll, Xuan Hao didn't immediately rush forward to get it, but instead began to curiously explore the space around the empty scroll with his divine sense-

"Indeed, the space is distorted to some degree around the empty scroll. Making it impossible to read without removing it from the distorted space!"

Not taking too long to discover the small abnormalities in the space around the empty scroll. I think you should take a look at

Whoosh~

Feeling his curiosity about this strange scroll grow by the second after realizing that it was not empty, Xuan Hao began exploring the path leading through the threads and directly up to the stone pedestal. Making sure that it was safe and there weren't any traps along the path.

After all, even with his current strength and understanding of the Dao of Space, he would not be able to fight back against a partial spatial collapse and might even die if he was trapped in one. Not to mention, he had no idea if the stone pedestal had the ability to trigger a true spatial collapse and he didn't want to find out!

"Looks like everything is safe…" Finished checking the path leading up to the stone pedestal, Xuan Hao slowly began moving along the small passage that cut through the countless threads covering the entire opening. Preparing to escape the moment he sensed any changes in the threads around him or the stone pedestal in front of him.

No more than five minutes later, he arrived in front of the stone pedestal with the empty looking scroll on top of it.

"…"

However, instead of giving into his urges to grab the empty scroll and leave the opening in the forest as fast as possible, Xuan Hao silently began analyzing the stone pedestal in depth. Understanding that it should be some kind of formation created by a powerful formation master with a deep understanding of the Dao of Space.

If he could only grasp a little of the mystery contained inside the ordinary looking stone pedestal, he would be able to improve his understanding of formation by leaps and bounds!

Rumble~!

Lost in his own thoughts, a loud rumbling sound suddenly came from the stone pedestal before thousands of small intricate symbols covered it in its entirety.

Danger!

Not knowing what had triggered this change in the stone pedestal, Xuan Hao only felt a terrifying sense of danger overwhelm him as the threads covering the entire opening in the forest retracted back into the stone pedestal… And that was not even mentioning that fact that the space around the stone pedestal had started violently twisting to a degree that made it look like it was about to collapse at any moment!

Swish-!

Not wasting a single second after realizing how much danger he was in, Xuan Hao picked up the empty scroll before rushing back out of the opening. Not daring to stop before he was sure that he was at a safe distance from the stone pedestal.

RUUUUMBLE-!

Riiiiip-!

The moment he came to a stop at what he thought was a safe distance, the ground shook violently for a short second before a loud ripping sound replaced it. Almost like the very fabric that made up the world was being ripped apart.

Forcing him to the ground as he felt his eardrums rupture and the qi in his dantian going out of control inside his body.

Luckily, all of this lasted for no more than a few seconds before everything went silent again.

"Haaa… W-what was that!?"

Raising his head that was now filled with blood from both his ruptured eardrums and the qi going out of control, Xuan Hao turned to look back towards the opening of the forest with a fearful expression on his face.

Only to be met with an empty void of nothing where the stone pedestal had once stood.Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

"True spatial collapse…"

Allowing him to understand what he was looking at, was the scar left behind by a true spatial collapse…

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As the ringing in his ears subsided, he slowly took a deep breath, Xuan Hao soon felt his tensed-up body starting to calm down as he regained control of his qi and began healing the damage it had ended up causing during the short time that it had gone out of control.Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

Although the damage that had been caused by his qi going out of control was only superficial, it would still take a few minutes to heal. During which he decided to ignore the empty scroll still firmly grasped in his hand and the empty void that had replaced the stone pedestal. Understanding that it was far more important to recover in his current dangerous environment. Especially considering that the loud sound caused by the true spatial collapse, would inevitably end up drawing demon beasts to his current location from all directions. Making it close to impossible for him to leave without encountering a demon beast.

Even if he could have been lucky enough to run away from the scene without encountering any demon beasts, part of him also wanted to stay and comprehend the mysteries of the Dao of Space contained inside the void left behind the true spatial collapse… And with his current strength, he was more than confident in escaping from any Soul Ascension Realm demon beast.

This confidence not only came from his current Intermediate Stage Dao Domain Lord Realm that put his strength on the same level as someone in the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, but also from the fact that he had managed to comprehend the Dao of Space, further enhancing the power of his Drifting Cloud Steps. Allowing them to reach a brand-new level in terms of speed…

Whoosh~

Only a few minutes after having closed his eyes and focused on recovering from the superficial damage caused by being too close to the true spatial collapse, Xuan Hao once again opened both of his eyes as he looked down on the empty scroll that he had taken from the now gone stone pedestal.

"Spatial Shift? Maybe I should…"

Reading the words that had appeared on top of the now not-so-empty scroll, Xuan Hao felt tempted to read through the scroll and immerse himself in learning just what would be written inside a scroll that had to be protected by something like a stone pedestal that had the ability to trigger a true spatial collapse-

No, I should focus on trying to comprehend the Dao of Space from the void left behind by the true spatial collapse while I still can.

But in the end, he stopped himself and instead turned his attention towards the empty void left behind by the true spatial collapse. Understanding that he would always have time to read through the scroll in the future, while the same was not true about the empty void that acted as a scar that even the world itself was unable to heal.

Although his current cultivation base and comprehension was far too low to fully grasp the mysterious hidden inside, it would still be beneficial to try and understand, as it might prove helpful when trying to reach the next realm of comprehension in the Dao of Space.

Not caring too much about this, Xuan Hao dedicated almost all of his attention towards the empty void in the middle of the opening. Only using a small part of his divine sense to keep an eye out for any demon beasts that might end up showing up…

ROAR!

Unfortunately, he did not have to wait for more than a few minutes before the first demon beast showed up. Even worse, the demon beast was not in the Domain Lord Realm, but had instead reached the Soul Ascension Realm. Even if its strength was far below his own, he also understood that fighting with it would only attract more demon beasts to his current location. Not to mention the fact that he wouldn't be able to comprehend the Dao of Space from the empty void while locked in a fight with a Soul Ascension Realm demon beast.

RUMBLE~!

FWOOOSH-!

For this reason, Xuan Hao decided to release his aura of someone in the Intermediate Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, while at the same time using his Dao of Fire to further enhance the strength of his aura in an attempt to scare away the demon beast or at the very least stop it from attacking him-

R-roar!

Luckily the demon beast in question was only in the earlier stages of the Soul Ascension Realm and collapsed into a trembling mess filled with fear after sensing his powerful aura.

Not too surprising considering his Intermediate Dao Domain Lord Realm together with the Dao of Fire gave off a pressure similar to that of someone at the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. An existence that the demon beast that only barely had the strength of someone in the Soul Ascension Realm had no plans of offending. Knowing very well that it would stand no chance fighting against someone that strong.

Ignoring the demon beast after seeing it trembling in the cover of a few trees, Xuan Hao turned his attention back towards the empty void left behind by the spatial collapse.

Following the first demon beast showing up, more and more demon beasts slowly began appearing around the opening in the forest over the next half hour. All of them having at least reached the Domain Lord Realm, while the strongest among them had reached the Third Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

R-r-roar~I think you should take a look at

Roar…

Even then, none of these demon beasts dared approach him after feeling the terrifying aura surrounding him. All of them keenly aware of just how dumb it would be for them to attack without any spiritual herb or similar to fight for.

As for the empty void in the middle of the opening… Although these demon beasts were all interested in it, they also inherently understood that the empty void was something dangerous.

The only reason why they had not decided to leave was because they had also felt that staying around the empty void would be beneficial to them and would improve their strength.

The powerful spatial energy constantly leaking out from the empty void acting as a powerful tonic that helped strengthen the bodies of the demon beasts when they came into contact with it over an extended period of time.

In the future, the empty void that had been created by the spatial collapse was bound to turn into a hotspot for powerful demon beasts to gather and try to claim control over it in a bid to increase their own strength to the next level. Maybe it would even allow some of the more powerful demon beasts already at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm to finally break through to the next major realm!

…

At the same time Xuan Hao was focused on trying to comprehend the Dao of Space from the empty void, a demon beast somewhere deep inside the forest that spread out across the entire mist covered mountain range, opened its large eyes before they filled with confusion before a trace of fear flashed past them.

Roar…

Hesitating for a short moment as it seemed to think about something, the demon beast slowly got up-

Rumble~

Resulting in the surrounding trees collapsing as its body slowly revealed it to be a massive turtle the size of a hill, its shell still having a small forest on top of it following it standing up.

Bang! Bang!

Having already decided on something before getting up, the massive turtle demon beast slowly began making its way in the direction of the empty void where Xuan Hao was currently located. Each step causing the ground beneath it to tremble under its weight.

The aura around it indicating that it had already reached the limit of the Soul Ascension Realm and was only a single step away from breaking through to the realm beyond the Soul Ascension Realm. Even then, it was obvious that this single step had kept the massive turtle demon beast trapped for a long time.

Even now, the only thing that made the turtle wake up was that it sensed the spatial energy leaking out from the empty void and the fact that it had a beneficial effect that allowed its body to start improving again after countless years of stagnation.

No matter how much the turtle demon beast wanted to remain stationary without doing anything, it could not give up a chance to break through after spending such a long time without any progress.

ROOOOOOAR-!

ROOAR!

ROOOOAR!

Similar to the turtle demon beast that had begun making its way towards the empty void created by the spatial collapse, a large number of similarly powerful demon beasts that had remained stuck at the peak of the Soul Ascension Realm for countless years, all began making their way towards the empty void. All of them feeling excited at finally seeing a glimpse of possibility of surpassing the Soul Ascension Realm.

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ROAR-!

Forced to turn his attention away from the empty void after hearing a loud roar filled with killing intent directed towards him, Xuan Hao soon came face to face with a giant demon beast in the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Different from the weaker Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts that had gathered around him so far, it could clearly see through the fact that his strength was not truly at the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

ROOOOAR!

However, before this demon beast had a chance to launch an attack towards him, an even more powerful roar echoed out across the small opening in the forest, as an even larger demon beasts appeared-

Rumble~!

Its presence alone instantly suppressing the demon beast at the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. Making it clear that even if their cultivation realm was the same, it had far surpassed the level of an ordinary Sixth Tribulation Soul Ascension Realm demon beast and had already reached the absolute pinnacle of the Soul Ascension Realm. Only a single step away from surpassing it!

Bang! Bang!

Not even a few seconds, a massive turtle the size of a hill appeared not too far behind it, each of its step causing the earth beneath to tremble under its sheer weight. Signaling the appearance of another Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast!

This is bad… I have to get out of here before they start fighting and end up dragging me into it!

Understanding that his time for comprehending he Dao of Space was up, Xuan Hao didn't dare stay around for a second longer-Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

Swish-!

Deciding to leave before even more Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts appeared, or worse, the two already present started fighting with each other.

Luckily for Xuan Hao, neither one of the two demon beasts cared about him. Instead, they remained focused on the empty void that would be their chance for breaking through their current realm. Not even wanting to waste a second fighting with Xuan Hao.

After all, even if his strength did not reach the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm and was only comparable to the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, they still understood that dealing with him in a short time would not be easy. Not to mention, their opponent might take advantage of them while fighting to launch a sneak attack.

Because of the hesitation from both of the powerful demon beasts to make a move on him, Xuan Hao managed to slip past both of them without any issues before escaping in the opposite direction of the opening with the empty void inside of it.

Even if only two Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts had shown up so far, he understood that more would be showing up before long… And at that point in time, a fight would almost certainly ensue.

For this reason, Xuan Hao wanted to get as far away from the empty void as possible. Maybe even using the opportunity while the powerful demon beasts of the forest were busy fighting with each other, to look for a way out of his current situation.

Hopefully now that his understanding of the Dao of Space had increased, he would have a far easier time looking for flaws in the formation and escaping when he found any.

But before that, I should probably look through the scroll from the stone pedestal…

Thinking this to himself as he got further and further away from the empty void where the powerful demon beasts of the forest were gathering, Xuan Hao took out the scroll with the words [Spatial Shift] written on top of them.I think you should take a look at

"Hm? This… What in the world!? Spatial Shift is actually a technique that allows long distance teleportation!?"

However, after reading the first few lines of the scroll, Xuan Hao froze in shock as he looked down at the scroll in his hands.

Long distance teleportation was something difficult to master and could only be learnt after reaching the Soul Ascension Realm. Although he had long since reached a sufficient cultivation realm after reaching the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he had not managed to get his hands on a long distance teleportation technique so far.

Even if the Star Shattering Sect had developed well over the past few years, it was still far from having the ability to get their hands on such a specialized teleportation technique only usable by those in the Soul Ascension Realm and above. The only people in the Sky Empire who had the ability to get their hands on techniques like that would be from the three religions, who were essentially acting as branches of much larger powers that existed in the core of the continent.

The imperial family might also have a technique like that, considering how powerful the old ancestor was.

As for the rest of the powers in the Sky Empire, none of them should have a long distance teleportation technique.

Thinking about this as he looked at the thin scroll in his hands, Xuan Hao could not help feeling excited. Not only would this scroll help him move around far more easily compared to before. Giving him the ability to reach the capital of the Sky Empire in only a fraction of the time he had used in the past, but it might also help him when it came to escaping his current situation.

Continuing to read through the scroll beneath the two large trees, Xuan Hao managed to gain a better understanding of the spatial shift technique that was recorded on the scroll.

The Spatial Shift technique was divided into five levels, each representing a higher degree of mastery over the Dao of Space.

The first level was a simple teleportation ability that allowed for short distance instant movement. The technique was not complicated and didn't require a lot. Making it possible for even people in the Nascent Soul Realm to comprehend and make use of it. Not too dissimilar from the earlier stages of his Drifting Cloud Steps.

The next level was a form of short distance teleportation. Looking more closely at the explanation of this level, Xuan Hao felt that his movement technique, Drifting Cloud Steps, should have reached this realm of short distance teleportation. Reading through, Xuan Hao even realized that it was far simpler than his Drifting Cloud Steps and should be rather easy for someone in the Domain Lord Realm to learn.

The third level of the technique was where long distance teleportation finally appeared. The first part of this level was about long distance teleportation and was not too hard to understand. Only becoming difficult towards the end where it began going into detail of how to traverse distances on the scale of several Sky Empires in an instant.

However, the most important part was that he should be able to escape from the formation he was currently trapped inside of if he learnt how to perform long distance teleportation. Even if he couldn't, he would at the very least have a far easier time finding a way out of the formation.

As for the fourth and fifth level of the technique… To be honest, Xuan Hao didn't want to think too much about it.

The fourth level was about something called a dimensional leap, that would give one the ability to teleport across dimensions and teleport to different realms. The best he could think of when reading through the incomprehensible description of the fourth level, was that the dimensional leap would give someone the ability to teleport to things like secret realms and mystic realms without the need of an entrance to said realm. Maybe even allowing one to teleport to the three other continents outside of the Ewaria Continent. No matter what it was, it was something far away from the current Xuan Hao.

Well at least it was still understandable to some degree, something that could be said about the fifth level…

To put it simple, would be an incomprehensible mess, the only thing he could make out from the description was the word space folding, as for the rest, it quickly turned into a blur that disappeared the moment he looked away from the scroll.

Not wanting to spend too long looking at the last two levels of the teleportation technique, Xuan Hao turned his attention back towards the first three levels. Even if the third level was still difficult for him to understand, it was not completely incomprehensible like the last two levels of the teleportation technique.

As for moving further away from the gathering of powerful demon beasts that was taking place not too far away from his current location…? Xuan Hao didn't think about any of this, as he completely absorbed himself into studying the complicated teleportation technique in front of him. Knowing that he might be able to escape from the formation after learning the long distance teleportation technique.

Soon the sound of space twisting and turning echoed out around him, as he began practicing the teleportation technique. Starting from the first level that only took him a few minutes to learn before moving on to the second…

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Managing to learn the first and second level of the Spatial Shift Technique after only a few hours, Xuan Hao ultimately ended up hitting a wall when trying to learn the third level involving long distance teleportation. Even with his current understanding of the Dao of Space, it was far too difficult to even learn the most basic parts of the third level within a short span of time, let alone learning it in a few days and using the long distance teleportation to escape from the mist covered mountain range like he had first wanted to do.

At this point in time, it was obvious that he would have to look for another way out if he wanted to escape any time soon.

Boom! Boom!

Not to mention, the fighting of the powerful demon beasts that had begun a few hours earlier, had already started getting dangerously close to his current location. Meaning that even if he wanted to continue practicing the third level of the Spatial Shift Technique, he still had to stop and look for a safer place to practice first.

"Huh?"

As he looked back in the direction of the empty void where the demon beasts had already begun their chaotic fight for control over the empty void and the spatial energy leaking out from it, Xuan Hao who had already decided to put learning the Spatial Shift Technique on hold for now, was shocked to discover that something large was heading in his direction. Even worse, it did not seem like it was a weaker demon beast that had decided to escape from the chaotic fight between the powerful demon beasts-

ROOOOAR!

ROOAR!

Instead, it looked very much like the two powerful demon beasts at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm that he had seen before leaving the empty void, both rolling through the forest floor as they destroyed anything in their path. Even the tall trees standing hundreds of meters tall did not seem to put up any resistance against these demon beasts, as they were directly toppled over before being reduced to nothing more than a few broken pieces of wood.

Even worse, these two powerful demon beasts fully absorbed on killing each other, just so happened to be on direct collision course with the two massive trees he had been practicing beneath for the past few hours… Or in more simple terms, the two demon beasts were heading directly towards him at a speed that made it hard to escape unnoticed… And to make matters even worse than they already were, the large turtle demon beast was forced on to its back by the other demon beast as it was trying its best to attack the less underbelly of the turtle.

Whoosh~

As a result, the giant turtle shell turned into a massive sled that further increased the speed at which the two demon beasts were approaching him, their speed almost making it look like they were teleporting towards him in a similar way as when he was using the Drifting Cloud Steps!

Swish-!

Utilizing his qi to execute a short distance teleportation as the turtle shaped sled with a giant demon beast on top of it was about to hit, Xuan Hao barely managed to avoid getting hit-

ROOAR!

But this did not go unnoticed by the demon beast currently on top of the turtle demon beast, as it jumped off the turtle in the direction he had teleported before opening its massive mouth filled with several rows of razor-sharp teeth in an attempt to swallow him alive.

The reason for this violent attack filled with killing intent was rather simple, to prevent Xuan Hao from sneak attacking it while it was busy fighting with the turtle demon beast. After all, the demon beast was not dumb and understood just how precious its body was to other demon beasts!

Even if it was a demon beast in the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, like it had perceived Xuan Hao to be, consuming its body would allow it to breakthrough to the Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm without any side effects!

This was also the main reason why demon beasts often hunted each other. Even outside the mystic realm, demon beasts would much rather fight with each other over humans, as the qi contained in the body of a human was far less than that of a demon beast that spent all of its energy and time strengthening its body.

The only exception to this were demonic cultivators who similarly focused on strengthening their bodies. In the eyes of demon beasts, these demonic cultivators were just as tempting to consume as their fellow demon beasts.

Of course, consuming the body of a demonic cultivator came with its own difficulties for these demon beasts, as they would still have to deal with the negative effects of the powerful yin qi contained inside the bodies of the demonic cultivator. Not that they had any idea about what yin qi was nor the negative effects it might have on them, as all they would see was a powerful body filled with energy ripe for consumption…

In the end, if they ended up consuming enough bodies of demonic cultivators, they might end up transforming into a yin beast, a powerful demon beast that resembled the demon beast version of a demonic cultivator. The only clear difference being the fact that yin beasts were far rarer than demonic cultivators, with even the weakest yin beast having at least reached the Domain Lord Realm. Weaker than that and the yin qi would end up killing them instead of turning them into yin beasts…I think you should take a look at

Chomp~!

As the mouth of the demon beast closed around him without giving him any chance to avoid, Xuan Hao was not the least bit worried-

Ching~

Using his sword and dao domain to stop the teeth from biting into him before finding himself safe and sound inside the mouth of the demon beast.

I might have overestimated the intelligence of this demon beast…

Floating above the massive tongue of the demon beast, Xuan Hao had no idea what to say after being swallowed alive by the demon beast. Even if the demon beast had underestimated his strength earlier when swallowing him, it should at the very least have done its best to spit him out after discovering that he was still alive.

FWOOSH-!

Knowing that it would only be a matter of time before the three- two brain cells left in the head of this demon beast put two and two together and figured out it would be bad to have someone still alive inside its mouth, Xuan Hao directly used the Dao of Fire to conjure forth a massive ball of fire that he pushed down the throat of the demon beast that had been bold enough to swallow him alive. Even if this would be far from enough to kill a Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast, it would at the very least be seriously injured.

ROOOOAR!

Realizing what was happening the moment it felt something starting to burn it up from the inside, the demon beast used all of its strength to mobilize its massive tongue to push Xuan Hao back outside its body.

"Hmph! Don't think it will be that easy to get rid of me after swallowing me!"

Of course, Xuan Hao didn't intend to just allow himself to get pushed out, as he used his sword to forcefully cut into the massive tongue of the demon beast trying its best to push him out-

Swish~

PTSH-!

In the end, the demon beast only barely managed to push him back out of its mouth at the cost of its tongue becoming a forked tongue that would have a hard time recovering back to its original shape in the future due to the remnant scar left behind by the combined power of the Sword Dao and Dao of Fire.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

ROOOOOOOOOOAR-!

Feeling the pain of having its tongue cut in half and a terrifying flame starting to burn its body up from the inside, the demon beast let out a terrifying roar filled with both agony and a bone deep hatred towards Xuan Hao who had caused it to go through this intense pain.

"Hm… Maybe now is a good time to run away?" Feeling the bone deep hatred and overwhelming killing intent directed towards him at this moment, Xuan Hao could not help muttering this to himself as he looked towards the demon beast whose mouth he had just escaped with a somewhat helpless expression on his face.

Even after the damage he had done to it, this demon beast at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm did not show any signs of weakening. The body of a demon beast at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm was truly terrifying…

Swish~!

Knowing that staying around would only end up with said demon beast attacking him, Xuan Hao didn't waste a second before turning around to try and escape.

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Rumble~!

However, before he had a chance to escape, the turtle demon beast's massive body appeared in front of him. Blocking his path of escape.This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

"So, you don't intend to let me get away after helping you out?" Not feeling too surprised about the behavior of the turtle demon beast, Xuan Hao could still not help feeling a bit disappointed that the turtle demon beast had not just decided to take advantage of its weakened opponent and ignore him.

In the end, both of the demon beasts had reached a similar conclusion and were unwilling to let him leave alive, as it would prove dangerous for both of them if he decided to ambush them later on after their fight had finished. For this reason, the turtle demon beast stopped remaining inactive the moment he was about to run away and went in to block his path of escape.

Whoosh~

Feeling the killing intent of the demon beast behind him and looking towards the turtle demon beast that had blocked his path, Xuan Hao decided to directly use his Drifting Cloud Steps to teleport right past the massive turtle before continuing to escape. Ignoring the turtle demon beast that had only blocked his path and hadn't really attacked him yet, likely feeling vary after seeing what had happened to the other demon beast.

Roar…?

Realizing what had just happened, the turtle demon beast let out a confused roar as it turned and looked in the direction of Xuan Hao filled with confusion. Making it rather obvious that this demon beast had never witnessed teleportation before and had never thought of such a possibility when blocking his path just now.

Considering that the demon beast inside the mist covered mountain range had never encountered any humans before him and most of them were focused on cultivating their physical body instead of comprehending a dao, it made sense that they had never come into contact with something complicated like using spatial manipulation for short distance teleportation.

Swish-!

Not bothering to stay behind and wait for the confused turtle demon beast to recover from the shock of witnessing teleportation for the first time, Xuan Hao used his Drifting Cloud Steps to the limit, as he soon disappeared from the small opening created by the short clash between him and the demon beast that had been bold enough to swallow him alive.

ROOOAR!

Only the reluctant roar of the demon beast filled with killing intent after having its tongue cut and insides burned up, echoed through the forest before the two demon beasts inevitably started fighting again.

Bang! Bang!

The only difference this time around was that neither of them dared to go all out again. Fearing that Xuan Hao might be lurking around somewhere in the forest, waiting to ambush them when they had used all of their energy.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao was escaping from the two Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts as fast as possible, his two disciples were still stuck underground. Having spent the last week wandering through the seemingly endless tunnels that had been dug out by the mole demon beast.

Although they had yet to encounter the mole demon beast, they both understood that this would not last forever and they would inevitably end up running into the mole demon bast if they didn't find a way back to the surface.

The only problem was that they had already tried digging their way up to the surface several times without success. The longest distance they had managed to cover so far, was around a hundred or so meters. In the end, they were forced to return back to the mole demon beast's tunnels, as their own quickly ended up collapsing on top of them after they tried to dig any further.

From this, it was clear that digging a tunnel in the rocky soil of the mystic realm was not as easy as they had first imagined after seeing the countless tunnels of the mole demon beast. Different from them, the mole demon beast seemed to be using some kind of special technique to keep its tunnels from collapsing. Unfortunately for Chu Yang and Qing Yi, neither of them could figure out how to copy this tunnel building technique after wandering through the tunnel of the mole demon beast for the past week.

"Haaa… These damnable tunnels will never end! When was the last time we found a tunnel leading upwards!?" Seeing yet another tunnel leading back down as they continued forward; Qing Yi could not stop herself from complaining as part of her felt increasingly fearful that the mole demon beast would find them before they escaped from the underground world and made it back to the surface.

Even if the surface was dangerous, they at the very least still had an exit to escape to if they ended up getting chased down by demon beasts again. Underground, they had no escape path and would only be able to continue running and hope that the one chasing them would grow tired and stop chasing after them. Not a good plan if the one chasing after them was faster than they were…

"Calm down." I think you should take a look at

Knowing that his senior sister was starting to lose hope of finding a way out, Chu Yang lightly patted her on the shoulder to calm her down before pointing towards a new tunnel that had just appeared in the distance. "There is another tunnel coming up over there… And from the looks of it, its going up instead of down!"

"Really!? Ah! You are right! Finally, another tunnel going up! Maybe we can finally make it to the surface this time around." Hearing what Chu Yang said, Qing Yi quickly calmed down before excitedly exclaiming with a happy smile plastered all over her face after discovering that the new tunnel did indeed lead up.

Not only that, but after both of them reached the tunnel, they discovered that it continued up for hundreds of meters before the rest of the path disappeared behind a large rock that the mole demon beast had maneuvered around when constructing the tunnel.

"This… We might finally have found a path to the surface!"

"Yeah. Even if this path doesn't reach the surface, it should at the very least get us close enough to dig the rest of the way ourselves!"

As both of them were filled with excitement over having finally found a path back to the surface after a week wandering in the dark and seemingly endless tunnels of the mole demon beast, constantly on edge as their divine sense kept scanning their surroundings for the mole demon beast, it happened.

Rumble~

The mole demon beast that both of them had been worried about, emerged from one of the dozen or so tunnels behind them-

ROOOOAR-!

And it didn't look too pleased about the fact that someone had dared barging into its tunnel network without permission, as it directly charged towards them without caring about accidently damaging the structure of the tunnel. Understanding very well that even if the tunnel ended up collapsing as a result of this, it would still be fine, as for Chu Yang and Qing Yi? They would have no way to escape from it if they ended up getting buried alive by the tunnel that had already started collapsing around them.

From the looks of things, the mole demon beast was also planning to collapse the tunnel in an attempt to prevent them from running away. The only difference between the mole demon beast's way of doing things and how Chu Yang and Qing Yi planned to do it, was the fact that the mole demon beast was trying to collapse the entire tunnel. Not just a single part to delay them.

"Run!"

Not daring to waste any time after seeing the mole demon beast, Chu Yang dashed into the tunnel leading upwards with Qing Yi following closely behind him. No matter how much he wanted to try and collapse the tunnel above the mole demon beast to delay it before entering the smaller tunnel leading upwards, he also understood that doing this would run the risk of collapsing the entire tunnel and end up burying both him and Qing Yi beneath the earth. Trapping them in a place where the mole demon beast would be able to easily kill them!

ROOOAR!

Seeing that they entered another tunnel and that it wouldn't be able to archive anything by collapsing the tunnel it was currently inside of, other than buying more time for Chu Yang and Qing Yi to run away, the mole demon beast stopped destroying the tunnel and instead focused all of its energy on chasing after Chu Yang and Qing Yi.

Swoosh-!

Swoosh-!

Escaping through the smaller tunnel leading upwards, Qing Yi and Chu Yang soon reached the stone that the mole demon beast had tunneled around in the past.

"Junior brother! Let's use the rock!" Shouting this before beginning to push the rock that had already been loosened by the tunneling of the mole demon beast, Chu Yang quickly understood what she wanted to do-

ROAR!

RUMBLE~

And the moment the mole demon beast entered the smaller tunnel leading upward, they managed to free the rock and send it tumbling down towards the mole demon beast that had begun rapidly closing the distance between them.

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Seeing the large rock tumbling down towards it, the mole demon beast at first wanted to ignore it and go straight through-

Roar!?

But just as it was about to do this, it realized that the rock was exactly the same poisonous spiritual rock that it had destroyed a week earlier!

Swoosh~

Remembering just how painful the past week had been due to it getting poisoned after destroying one of these special spiritual poisonous rocks, the mole demon beast didn't waste a single second before turning around and escaping out of the small tunnel before the rock had a chance to crash into it.

Although this did end up buying more time for both Chu Yang and Qing Yi to escape, the mole demon beast understood very well that this was a far better outcome compared to getting poisoned again. Especially considering that there was a very real possibility of Chu Yang and Qing Yi taking advantage of its weakened state due to poisoning to kill it!

For this reason, the mole demon beast patiently waited at the entrance to the tunnel for the rock to roll out and into the large tunnel. This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Bang!

RUMBLE-!

Unfortunately for the mole demon beast, the moment the rock in question tumbled out of the tunnel entrance, the force of it smashing into the already weakened wall of the larger tunnel, caused the larger tunnel to start collapsing directly on top of the mole demon beast.

ROAR!?

Not even giving it any chance to react, as it was buried beneath a mountain of rocks and dirt.

Even if this did not kill the mole demon beast, it inevitably ended up giving Chu Yang and Qing Yi even more time to escape up the smaller tunnel towards what they hopped to be an entrance leading to the surface, or at the very least somewhere close enough to the surface that they would be able to dig their way up by themselves…

"Hehe, looks like it didn't expect us to push down the rock. Let's push another rock down if it shows up again!" Smiling happily, unaware of the fact that the rock she had pushed down with the help of Chu Yang was filled with a special kind of poison, Qing Yi motioned towards another rock that had similarly been avoided by the mole demon beast when digging the tunnel appearing a few hundred meters ahead of them.

"Sure…" Feeling that something was off with how desperately the mole demon beast had tried to avoid getting hit by the rock, Chu Yang decided not to think too much about it for now and just agreed to Qing Yi's suggestion.

Just like that, Chu Yang and Qing Yi continued making their way up the small tunnel-

Rumble~

ROOOOAR!

Rolling a rock down towards the mole demon beast the moment it appeared. Not caring about the increasingly thick killing intent that the mole demon beast directed towards them.

In the end, this continued for over half an hour before the end of the tunnel finally came into view. Making both Chu Yang and Qing Yi let out a sigh of relief after continuing up for what felt like forever. Only now realizing just how deep underground they had been transported after going through the stone door in the underground ravine to escape from the horde of demon beasts without having to rely on the talismans that their master had left for them.

If not for the fact that they found this tunnel leading up and they could see a few tree branches sticking in through the tunnel entrance, they would have thought that the end of the tunnel would not lead them back to the surface, but instead into a brand-new tunnel created by the mole demon beast.

"Finally, I was honestly starting to doubt whether or not we had been transported into some kind of world filled with nothing but dirt and rocks…" Reaching the entrance and seeing the forest that spread out in front of her like an endless sea of green and the blue sky above, Qing Yi muttered this with an exhausted expression on her face.

Although she had already reached the Nascent Soul Realm, the last half hour of escaping was by far one of the hardest things she had experienced so far. Not because she had been using her movement technique to the limit over the past half hour, but because she and Chu Yang had been forced to stop dozens of times to push down massive rocks towards the mole demon beast approaching them.

At one point during their escape, she had tried using a little more power to push down one of these rocks, but this soon turned into a disaster, as she found out why the mole demon beast would always try its absolute best to avoid crashing into the rocks. In the end, the small amount of poison that had leaked from the crack she ended up creating cost her close to seventy percent of the qi inside her dantian to rapidly suppress before she could continue escaping.I think you should take a look at

Because of this, she was only left with a little more than ten percent of her qi when reaching the surface…

"First, let's get out of here before starting to relax!"

On the other hand, Chu Yang was in a far more favorable position, as he was still far away from being exhausted like Qing Yi. Taking the initiative to carry the exhausted Qing Yi before escaping into the forest-

RUMBLE-!

Just in time before the mole demon beast emerged from the tunnel behind them filled with a terrifying killing intent that instantly sent any nearby demon beasts running away in terror!

ROOOOOAR!

Seeing that they had already escaped into the forest, the mole demon beast hesitated for a short moment at the entrance before the overwhelming killing intent that had engulfed its mind won over. Understanding very well that if it hesitated for too long, the scent trail of Qing Yi and Chu Yang would end up disappearing. Making it impossible for it to chase after them.

Bang! Bang!

As a result, it's large body soon crashed through the trees of the forest as it chased after Chu Yang and Qing Yi without showing the slightest bit of care towards the fact that doing something like this would inevitably end up alerting the surrounding demon beasts.

After all, in the mind of the mole demon beast that had spent its entire life wandering the underground world where the strongest demon beast it had encountered only reached the Nascent Soul Realm, it was the most powerful and there was no one who could challenge it!

In the end, this confidence made the mole demon beast underestimate the strength of the demon beast on the surface. Thinking that even if they were different, they would still be weaker. Even if it encountered someone it couldn't deal with, it always thought that it would just be able to bury into the ground if need be…

Roar?

Unfortunately for the mole demon beast, its arrogant and loud way of chasing after Chu Yang and Qing Yi, ended up drawing the attention of a particularly powerful demon beast that just so happened to be sleeping in the path that Chu Yang and Qing Yi were escaping in…

"What is tha-"

Spotting the massive body of the demon beast that had just been woken up by the mole demon beast, Chu Yang froze on the spot as he felt the large demon beast looking over him for a short moment before turning to look in the direction of the approaching mole demon beast.

Even if it was only for a few seconds, the look that the demon beast gave him sent a shiver down his spine.

Chu Yang was already familiar with people in the Domain Lord Realm considering that the Star Shattering Sect had a few and his master was also in the Domain Lord Realm. For this reason, he had instantly realized that the large demon beast lazily laying on the ground in front of him was a Domain Lord Realm demon beast.

Not only that, but it was also a Domain Lord Realm demon beast that had comprehended a domain. Making it far more terrifying than an ordinary Domain Lord Realm Expert!

Swish-!

Knowing that the demon beast was not targeting them and was instead looking towards the approaching mole demon beast, Chu Yang didn't dare waste a single second before escaping.

Although he had already taken his master's talisman out and was prepared to use it the moment the Domain Lord Realm demon beast showed any signs of attacking, he still didn't feel fully confident that the talisman of his master had the ability to deal with the demon beast.

After all, even if his master was in the later or middle stages of the Domain Lord Realm from what he knew. Dealing with a Domain Lord Realm demon beast in person and dealing with one through a talisman that had stored part of his power, were two completely different things!

For this reason, he wanted to leave and not take the risk if he had the chance…

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ROOOOAR!

Unfortunately for Chu Yang, the mole demon beast appeared just at this moment and jumped forward to block his path. Not noticing the large demon beast on the ground that was staring directly at it with a hint of interest in its eyes. Curious about why this little mole that had only reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm had dared to start causing trouble inside its territory.

As for Chu Yang and Qing Yi who had been blocked by the mole demon beast? It simply didn't care about them. In the eyes of a Domain Lord Realm demon beast, Chu Yang and Qing Yi 's Early Stage Nascent Soul Realm cultivation base made them no different from ants.

The only positive about this, was the fact that this powerful demon beast would not bother to kill them, as they were simply far too weak to provide it any benefits after consuming them. Especially considering how small their bodies were.

In its eyes, it was far better to let Chu Yang and Qing Yi escape. Allowing them to grow larger and more powerful would be more beneficial to it than killing them now. Not aware of the fact that humans wouldn't grow as large as demon beasts…

Roar!

Still not aware of the fact that a much larger and more powerful demon beast was staring at it with curiosity and a hint of hunger in its eyes, the mole demon beast let out a roar filled with confidence before using the large claws on its front legs to slash down towards Chu Yang and Qing Yi.

Ching~

Using his spear to block the large claws of the mole demon beast, Chu Yang felt his entire body tremble under the enormous power of the mole demon beast. Even if he was confident in dealing with demon beasts stronger than himself, he understood that trying to fight a Peak Nascent Soul Realm demon beast with his current strength was impossible.

Even if the mole demon beast had been weakened by the poison from the rocks, he doubted that it would make much of a difference in a fight where he could only barely use all of his strength to block a single attack!

Roar!?

Seeing how Chu Yang had managed to block its claws before deflecting them away, the mole demon beast was not the slightest bit happy after seeing the blood that ran down the corner of his mouth after having forcefully resisted the attack of someone much stronger than himself.

Instead, the mole demon beast only cared more about the fact that someone who had only reached the Second Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm had somehow managed to resist its attack.

ROOOOAR-!

As a result, the mole demon beast violently rushed in for another attack. Intent on ending things before the ants that had caused it trouble for the last week before they had a chance to run away again.

Rumble~

However, before the mole demon beast had a chance to attack Chu Yang and Qing Yi again, a loud rumbling sound echoed through the forest.

Roar?

Not aware of the fact that there was another demon beast present, the mole demon beast could only stop mid attack, as it finally noticed the massive demon beast at least five times its own size that had suddenly appeared no more than a few hundred meters away from it.

Even without knowing the strength of the large demon beast many times its own size, the mole demon beast's instincts told it that it was far stronger than itself and its only chance of staying alive was escaping back underground as fast as possible.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAR-!

However, just as the mole demon beast was about to run away, a loud roar suddenly erupted from the massive demon beast followed by a terrifying power descending from above and locking it in place. Preventing it from diving into the ground and escaping back into the underground world where it had spent its entire life.This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

All of a sudden, a memory that seemed to have disappeared for a long time appeared in the deepest recesses of the mole demon beast's mind.

Back when it was young and had just reached the Nascent Soul Realm, it had been curious and adventurous. In the end, this caused the young mole demon beast to dig a long tunnel up before finally reaching the surface for the first time in its life.

Exploring this new and mystical world, it did not take long before it stumbled on a rare spiritual herb that helped it breakthrough to the Second Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm on the spot. Unknown to the young mole demon beast back then, the spiritual herb already had an owner!

Not long after consuming the spiritual herb, a large demon beast far bigger and more powerful than itself appeared before beating it half dead. Only through sheer luck had it managed to escape back underground when a similarly powerful demon beast had appeared and challenged the one beating it up.I think you should take a look at

Due to this terrifying encounter during its youth, the mole demon beast had never dared to use its old tunnel leading to the surface. In the end, the memory slowly disappeared with time and the mole demon beast forgot the fear it felt toward the surface. Ultimately resulting in its current situation where its old memory from its youth finally reemerged with the appearance of the powerful demon beast many times its own size.

R-roar!

Only able to let out a terrified roar after feeling its entire body being locked in place, the mole demon beast could only watch helplessly as the large demon beast slowly made its way over towards it. The hungry look in the eyes of the massive demon beast only increased the closer it got to the mole demon beast.

Even to a Domain Lord Realm demon beast, a large demon beast like the mole demon beast who was just about to break through to the Domain Lord Realm was a delicacy that would give it a chance at increasing the strength of its body by a small realm. Something normally only doable by consuming the body of another Domain Lord Realm demon beast!

Swish~

At the same time that the two demon beasts were facing off against each other, Chu Yang took the chance to quietly slip away before the Domain Lord Realm demon beast decided that it would eat them as well. Even if he didn't intend to eat them now, it could always change its mind after eating the mole demon beast.

Luckily for Chu Yang and Qing Yi, the Domain Lord Realm demon beast didn't spare them a single glance as they slowly slipped away. Instead, all of its attention was focused on the mole demon beast fearfully shivering in front of it.

Roar~

Letting out a pleasurable roar as it started salivating at the large body of the mole demon beast, the Domain Lord Realm demon beast opened its large mouth wide before biting down towards the immobile mole demon beast. Intending to take a test bite out of it to check if it was poisonous before eating it.

Rumble!

However, before the Domain Lord Realm demon beast had a chance to bite into the mole demon beast, a loud rumbling sound echoed out from inside the mole demon beast's body-

Crack-!

Not a second later, the domain that had been used to restrain the mole demon beast shattered violently, as a terrifying aura belonging to the Domain Lord Realm erupted around the mole demon beast. Instantly forcing the massive Domain Lord Realm demon beast back.

RUUUUMBLE-!

Followed by the Domain Lord Realm aura appearing around the mole demon beast, a large number of thunder clouds appeared above the mole demon beast.

Roar!?

Understanding just what these thunder clouds symbolized, the demon beast that had already reached the Domain Lord Realm began to rapidly retreat-

Swish-!

Only to be stopped by the mole demon beast that quickly caught up with it and latched itself onto the body of the larger demon beast.

Roar-!

Knowing just how terrifying the thunder clouds above were and feeling that their power seemed to have increased after the mole demon beast grabbed latched itself onto it, the massive demon beast let out a panicked roar as it tried its best to remove the mole demon beast and escape from the thunder clouds.

Unfortunately for the larger demon beast, the body of the mole demon beast that had only been a step away from reaching the Domain Lord Realm, had just managed to break through to the Domain Lord Realm. Making it close to impossible for the larger demon beast to remove in a short period of time, let alone before the Domain Lord Realm tribulation descended!

RUUUMBLE-!

Boom! Boom!

As if planned, the tribulation directly descended on the mole demon beast and the unfortunate demon beast that had been unable to escape in time!

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The power of the tribulation ended up being further enhanced due to the presence of the massive demon beast already in the Domain Lord Realm. Resulting in the strength of the tribulation reaching a level far above something that even a normal Domain Lord Realm Expert would be able to endure-

ROOOOOAR-!

ROOOAR!

For this reason, the painful roars of two demon beasts soon echoed through the entire forest, as the tribulation clouds above continued to send down endless streams of thunder, each more powerful than the last.

In the end culminating in a vortex of thunder gathering above the two demon beasts who had already been reduced to a half dead state under the constant attack from the tribulation above. The power contained inside the vortex far surpassing anything the two demon beasts had ever witnessed before!

A testament as to why one should never try to interfere someone else's in a tribulation…

Crackle~!

As the power of the thunder gathered in the tribulation seemed to have reached the limit of what could be archived by a Domain Lord Realm Tribulation, the thunder vortex rotating menacingly above the two demon beasts, unleashed its devastating power.

RUMBLE-!

Bolts of lightning streaked down, lashing out at the two half-dead demon beasts below. Each strike carried an unimaginable force that would even leave a Peak Domain Lord Realm Expert shivering in fear, as they tore through the demon beasts already wounded forms and shrouding them in an ethereal radiance.

BOOOOOOOOM-!

The unleashed energy reverberated through the forest, causing shockwaves that swept across the land, uprooting everything in their path. Soon reaching the escaping Chu Yang and Qing Yi-

"Ah!?"

"Waaaaa-"

Who were both sent flying by the powerful shockwave with a few minor injuries. Having at the very least managed to escape far enough that the power of the shockwave had weakened significantly by the time that it reached them.

BOOM! BOOM!

ROOOOAR-!

The deafening cacophony of thunder and the agonized cries of the demon beasts that weakened with each passing second continued for another few minutes before the thunder clouds above slowly dispersed. Leaving behind a massive crater thousands of meters wide and a forest that had been reduced to nothing more than ash.

Even if the forest was still around, the scar created by the tribulation cloud of the mole demon beast would forever be present in the forest. Something that could not be said about the mole demon beast, that had completely disappeared from the surface of the earth following the tribulation clouds disappearance…

The only people left alive to have witnessed the entire scene, was Chu Yang and Qing Yi, who had just gotten up again after a rather rough landing.

"Did the mole demon beast and the Domain Lord Realm demon beast… Die?"This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

"I think so…"

As they ignored their injuries for a short time and decided to take in the scene of destruction left behind, Chu Yang and Qing Yi finally realized that they had just witnessed the death of the mole demon beast and a Domain Lord Realm demon beast.

Domain Lord Realm, a realm that was still far away from them at the moment… And now they had actually witnessed the death of such a powerful expert. Not to mention, it was a Domain Lord Realm demon beast that was normally stronger than that of a human Domain Lord Realm Expert!

Other than this, the most important thing was that they had managed to get a chance to witness the tribulation of someone trying to break through to the Domain Lord Realm. Even if the strength of the tribulation had been far stronger than a normal tribulation, it was still a valuable experience that would be able to help them in the future when they were about to go through the Domain Lord Realm Tribulation by themselves. Not to mention, part of the lightning from the tribulation could still be seen flowing through the ground at the center of the crater.

Although the lightning was weak, after observing it with their divine sense, Qing Yi and Chu Yang both felt that their understanding of lightning increased.

ROOOAR!

ROOOOAR!

ROOAR!

However, before they could continue observing the traces of lighting still flowing through the ground around the center crater, several loud roars no weaker than the Domain Lord Realm demon beast that had just died, could be heard coming from all around them.I think you should take a look at

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Not even a second later, two large figures appeared in the air above the crater-

Whoosh-!

Followed by a third, all of which had reached the Domain Lord Realm!

"I think it's time for us to leave."

"Indeed…

Knowing that nothing good would come from staying, both Chu Yang and Qing Yi didn't dare stay for even a second longer, as they ran away as fast as possible before any of the Domain Lord Realm demon beasts happened to notice them.

…

Not aware of the dangerous situation that his disciples had once again found themselves in, Xuan Hao looked behind himself for any signs of the two Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts. Only after making sure that none of the two Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts had chased after him, did he allow himself to relax before starting to examine his surroundings.

Taking in the tranquil stillness that pervaded through the forest and the towering trees, Xuan Hao marveled at the magical scene of the vibrant moss and delicate vines adorning their thick trunks. Only now that he took some time to relax, realizing just how beautiful these large trees covering the entire mountain range were.

"Hm?"

Turning his gaze away from the towering trees and the canopy blocking out most of the light from the sun above, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face after turning his attention towards the forest floor beneath his feet.

Amidst the towering trees, something catches his attention, a faint, meandering path, barely visible in the vibrant carpet of emerald-green moss beneath him.

"A path? Why is there a path like this in a forest filled with demon beasts? Unless…"

Intrigued by the appearance of a path in a place where he had only encountered demon beasts so far, Xuan Hao realized that this might have something to do with the formation that had trapped him and curiously began inspecting the path beneath his feet.

The path itself continued deeper into the forest and with nothing to lose given his current trapped state without learning the long distance teleportation from the third level of the Spatial Shift technique, Xuan Hao decided to follow the path. Making sure to keep his distance from the path just in case it was trapped.

Having already walked on the path inside the mist, Xuan Hao didn't want to end up in a similar situation again. Especially considering that he might end up accidentally walking back in the direction of the empty void where all of the powerful demon beasts were currently gathered if the path was similar to the one in the mist.

Gradually, as he continued walking beside the path deeper into the forest, it slowly transformed from a barely visible path, into a slender trail of downtrodden grass and earth that winded its way around the towering trees in seemingly endless manner without any endpoint in sight.

If not for the fact that the path was constantly changing and becoming more visible, he would have thought that it would be the same as the path in the mist and would end up leading him around in a circle through the entire forest.

"Hm? Looks like the path is coming to an end…"

After walking for what ended up feeling like an hour or two, Xuan Hao let out a sigh of relief as he looked at the path that slowly came to an end a dozen or so meters ahead of him.

To be honest, after an hour of following the path, he had started to think about the possibility that the illusion was more advanced this time around and had the ability to change the path slightly as he moved alongside it. Luckily, it looked like this was not the case, as the path did come to an end.

"A gate…?" Looking at the place that the path ended, a large gate towering above the surrounding trees quietly stood there. Although calling it a simple gate would be doing it a disservice…

Towering high up into the sky, its grand archway carved from luminous spiritual stones that gave off an ethereal radiance. Elaborate patterns, intricate and complex, adorned its surface, telling tales of ancient legends and wonders beyond mortal comprehension.

Whoosh~

Streams of shimmering energy filled with spirituality flowed along its edges, like the entrance to a higher plane of existence. Looking closer, the gate itself almost seemed to possess a sentience of its own, emanating a palpable aura of primordial power.

Compared to a simple gate, a resplendent marvel of divine craftmanship was a more fitting way to describe the gate.

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The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

"One of the Three Celestial Gates...?" Even without knowing if it was true or not, Xuan Hao automatically associated the divine gate in front of him with the three celestial gates that had been mentioned by the system quest.

Wait… If this is one of the Three Celestial Gates, doesn't that mean I might be able to use it to leave the trapping formation after going through it!?

Realizing this, Xuan Hao could not help excitedly looking towards the divine gate in front of him. Even if there was some kind of guardian on the other side of the gate according to the quest from the system, he felt that it would be better than staying inside the massive forest. After all, by staying in the forest, he would risk encountering the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts.

Even if the powerful demon beasts were all busy with the fight for control over the empty void, they would inevitably start leaving to roam around the forest again after the battle came to an end. In there would never be a chance for all of the demon beasts to peacefully absorb the spatial energy leaking out from the empty void together, there simply wasn't enough spatial energy to go around for a single demon beast, let alone all of them…

With this in mind, Xuan Hao cautiously began approaching what he assumed to be one of the Three Celestial Gate before finding himself directly in front of the already wide-open gate. The scene on the other side in a somewhat blurry state that made it impossible to see just what was hiding on the other side of the gate. Even then, Xuan Hao had a feeling that he already knew what was behind the thin ethereal veil that covered the opening.

Whoosh~

Deciding to first use his divine sense to try and explore the other side of the gate in more detail, Xuan Hao was not too surprised to discover that his divine sense could not pass through the thin ethereal veil enveloping the gate.

"Guess I can only explore the other side of the gate by going through it…" Knowing that it was no use to try and get a glimpse of what was on the other side of the gate before passing through it, Xuan Hao slowly took a step forward into the ethereal veil that covered the area a few meters around the gate.

Soon, the feeling of getting dragged forward by a powerful force enveloped his entire body, as he felt himself getting closer to the gate with each passing second.

Even if the force that dragged him towards the gate was not really that strong in the first place and should have been created by the hint of sentience that the celestial gate had given birth to over the many years, Xuan Hao decided to not resist the force and allowed it to drag him through the gate. In the first place, he had already decided to enter the gate, so there was no reason to resist it.

WHOOSH-!

As he passed through the gate, the space around him twisted and turned in all sorts of weird manners that were incomprehensible even with his current understanding of the Dao of Space before finally coming to a stop after an unknown period of time.

By the time that he opened his eyes and took in his new surroundings, he found himself in the middle of a large plaza the size of a smaller mountain range like the Shattered Star Peaks. If not for the fact that he could sense the countless buildings that surrounded the plaza, he would have thought he had been transported on top of some kind of large platform in the middle of nowhere.

The main reason why he would have thought this was because the plaza itself was completely empty without a single sign of life. Even the buildings in the distance did not show any signs of life and only gave off a terrifying aura that made him feel a deep sense of terror that he had never felt before. Especially the large pagoda the size of a small mountain located at the center of this enormous ancient city that he now found himself inside of.

Rumble~

As he was still trying to figure out just where he had now ended up, the ground in front of him suddenly slit open to reveal a small pedestal that soon ascended up through the small hole in the plaza. Looking closer, Xuan Hao discovered that there was a small scroll placed on top of the pedestal that had suddenly emerged from the ground in front of him.

"Scroll of Trials, Trial of the Eternal City?" Reading the words at the top of the scroll, Xuan Hao could not help showing a somewhat confused expression on his face before realizing that the scroll was an introduction to a trial that he had apparently already started the moment he stepped through the celestial gate.I think you should take a look at

From what he had read from the quest, he thought he would just have to defeat some kind of guardian that resided inside the different celestial gates, but from the looks of things, he would also have to go through a trial of some kind inside the celestial gates.

The scroll of trials at the very least mentioned that the difficulty of the trial would be based on the strength of the one taking the trial. Making him at the very least feel a sense of security knowing that he would not end up facing some kind of powerful guardian that had already long since surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm.

After all, if it really turned out that the guardian had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm, he would have been far better staying inside the jungle and use his time searching for another way to escape from the formation. At the very least this way, he would have a better chance of coming out of his current situation alive…

Rumble-!

Just at this moment, as he finished reading through the scroll of trials, the quiet plaza beneath his feet suddenly lit up in all sorts of colors before a complicated array of ancient symbols merged together into a large formation that covered the entire plaza in a thin mist that made it harder for him to use his divine sense. Even if he could still use it to cover the entire plaza, the energy and effort required to do this was not something that was sustainable for more than a few minutes.

Having already read about this scenario in the scroll of trials, Xuan Hao did not panic, but instead turned his attention towards the large pagoda the size of a small mountain. According to the scroll of trials, the guardian, Aria, was currently residing inside the pagoda and would be emerging shortly after the activation of the formation that covered the entire plaza in the thin mist and isolated it from the rest of the enormous city that was now barely visible through the mist.

Swish~

Creaaaak~

Only a few seconds later, the sound of a gentle wind reached his ears before the large gates of the pagoda slowly opened before an otherworldly stillness descended on the plaza, as the formerly active formation seemed to quiet down for a moment. Allowing the soft light passing through the mist to illuminate the surroundings, casting an ethereal shimmer across the empty plaza.

It was within this mystical ambiance that the guardian, Aria, emerged from the pagoda. Her ethereal beauty transcending mortal understanding, while her very form seemed to merge seamlessly with the surrounding mist, as if she was an embodiment of the ethereal realm that now enveloped the plaza. Her figure radiating a soft, gentle luminescence that seemed to come from within.

Opening her eyes before turning to face him, Xuan Hao felt a shiver run down his spine, as he felt the ancient power slumbering deep within those eyes. Even if he understood that her strength should not be too far above his own according to the scroll of trial, he still felt insignificant when faced with those eyes that seemed to contain ancient wisdom far beyond the confines of anything he had ever encountered before.

Whoosh~

As she slowly took a step forward before gliding towards him in a fluid and effortless manner, Xuan Hao discovered that he couldn't move.

Something is wrong!

It was only at this moment that he woke up from the strange trance that he had found himself in. Even when trying to move away to dodge the incoming Aria, he could not move a single muscle. The mist around him seemingly pressing down on his body from all sides with a steadily increasing strength, as if it wanted to crush him to death.

At this point, he was only able to remain frozen in place, staring directly towards Aria, who was slowly getting closer and closer to him with each passing second…

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Boom!

Gathering all of his power together and forcefully exploding it outwards, the mist restricting his movement was momentarily pushed back. Allowing him to regain control over his body again and have his dao domain spread out and prevent the mist from getting close enough to rescript his movement again.

However, his domain did nothing to stop the approaching guardian, who didn't show any signs of being affected by his dao domain, as she rapidly approached him at a speed visible to the naked eye. Treating his dao domain like it wasn't there in the first place.

"This…" Feeling a sense of disbelief and confusion after seeing how the guardian was able to ignore his dao domain, Xuan Hao could not help trying to recall anything from the scroll of trials that might help him understand what is happening before the guardian had a chance to reach him.

Unfortunately, the scroll of trials did not provide a lot of information on the guardian herself. The information inside the scroll instead covered the formation that created the mist and the goal of the trial-

Wait! The goal of the trial mentioned something about the powerful abilities of the guardian being able to bend the very fabric of reality itself to her will. Maybe this is not meant as a way to show off how powerful she was but was instead meant in a way to describe her ability to make use of illusions to bend one's very perception of reality itself!

Realizing this, Xuan Hao turned his attention away from the approaching guardian that was now only a few dozen meters away from him and instead began paying more attention to his surroundings.

There!

It was through this that he managed to spot a small unnoticeable wisp drifting towards him.

The wisp seemed ordinary and look like it had almost merged completely together with the thin mist covering the plaza, but after taking a second glance at the unassuming wisp that was drifting closer to him at a speed no slower than that of the approaching guardian, it did not take long for Xuan Hao to realize that the small wisp was far more dangerous than the guardian that was now only a few steps away from reaching him.

Swish-!

Ignoring the guardian, Xuan Hao turned around and stabbed towards the unassuming wisp with all his power!

Swish~

Not a second later, the figure of the guardian directly passed through him before dissolving into small motes of light that merged together with the thin mist, while the small and unassuming wisp transformed into the beautiful and breathtaking figure of Aria, the guardian of the trial.

BOOOM-!

Just in time to resist his sword attack at the last moment before her figure dissolved into countless small wisps that spread out across the entire plaza. Making it hard for Xuan Hao to figure out which of them was the real guardian.

"How annoying…" Seeing how the guardian had managed to resist his attack before dissolving into countless small wisps, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a headache setting.

The guardian was clearly strong enough to fight him given that she had been able to easily resist his sword attack just now, but instead of doing this, she had instead decided to deal with him through illusion techniques.

Although he now had a feeling that the trial was set up to test him in these aspects, he could still not stop himself from feeling a sense of annoyance after seeing the countless wisps spread out across the massive plaza. Even if his divine sense was strong and superior to that of most Soul Ascension Realm Experts, it had still taken him some time to find the small wisp that had been approaching him from behind.

Not to mention, the only reason he had managed to find it was that there was nothing other than that one wisp and the fake guardian approaching him. Nothing like the countless wisps that now covered the entire plaza…

RUMBLE-!

For this reason, Xuan Hao directly conjured a sea of swords in the air above him through the Sword Dao-

Swoosh~

Swoosh~

Swoosh~I think you should take a look at

Before waving his hand and sending the countless swords gathered in the small sea of sword out towards the countless wisps spread out across the enormous plaza. Knowing that it would take him an eternity if he decided to go through each of the wisps and check them individually with his divine sense… And that was on the assumption that Aria didn't have any method to change her true body to one of the wisps he had already checked!

Because of this, the simplest and easiest way to go about things would be to launch an attack on all of the wisps at once. The wisps that had the ability to defend itself would be the true body of Aria, while the rest would be illusions, simple as that.

Bang! Bang!

"Ah? More than one!?"

Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, things did not work like he had expected, and his swords encountered resistance at more than a hundred of the different wisps. Indicating that the true body of Aria was not a single wisp like the first time but had instead split up into several different wisps!

Hmph, you won't be able to deal with me this easily!

Recovering from the shock of suddenly realizing that Aria had the ability to split her body into a hundred different wisps, Xuan Hao focused the countless swords floating aimlessly around the plaza after having stabbed through the illusory wisps that were not part of Aria's true body, towards the hundred or so wisps that were.

Boom! Boom!This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Not a second later, over a hundred sword streams formed above each of the wisps that were part of Aria's true body before beginning to rain down on the small wisps. Giving them no chance to resist as the constant stream of swords engulfed them completely. Keeping them trapped without any way to escape.

Slowly, the size of the wisps decreased, and their luminescent glow reduced began growing dim. Making Xuan Hao narrow both of his eyes as he prepared for the inevitable counterattack.

Swish-!

However, just at this moment, one of the illusory wisps that he had already deemed as nothing more than a simple harmless illusion, sprung forth with a terrifying power far beyond that of any of the other wisps that he was currently in the process of grinding down with his Sword Dao.

"Huh?" Not at all expecting something like this, Xuan Hao could only let out a somewhat stupid sound before realizing the seriousness of his current situation. Even if he wanted to use his spatial movement technique to move away, the space inside the plaza was far too stable for him to do something like this with his current comprehension of the Dao of Space.

For this reason, Xuan Hao could only do his best to dodge the terrifying wisp heading directly towards him. Not having enough time to do more than put up a basic defense with his dao domain-

Crack~

However, the small and unassuming wisp was far too powerful, as it directly pierced through the ice barrier that had been formed by his dao domain before turning into a sharp ethereal spear that was heading directly towards his head!

Ptsh-!

"Ah-!"

Feeling the spear piercing through his head before continuing into the distance, Xuan Hao could not stop a small scream from escaping what was left of his mouth, as most of his head had been destroyed by the ethereal spear that continued moving into the distance before disappearing beyond the plaza.

Whoosh~

Rapidly consuming the qi in his body, Xuan Hao didn't waste a single second before repairing the rather large hole that had been left in his head by the ethereal spear. Although he was in the Dao Domain Lord Realm and this was far from enough to kill him, the amount of qi required to recover from such an injure was not small. Especially considering that if he didn't recover in time, his body would end up dying and he would be left with nothing more than his soul that would then have to steal a new body that he would have to recultivate or build his own.

No matter which of these two, they both came with all sorts of negatives. Stealing a body from someone would never allow his soul to be in proper sync with the body. Preventing him from continuing to advance on the path of cultivation, while the act of rebuilding his body from scratch was something that could take hundreds, if not thousands of years…

It was also because of this that cultivators would never view abandoning the body as an option for survival. The only people who could do something like this, were the demonic cultivators who had all sorts of ways to recover far faster and continue their cultivation even in a brand-new body that they were not accustomed to.

For powerful demonic cultivators, as long as they had a few powerful bodies stored up, there would be no problem for them to rapidly recover their strength again after abandoning their original body…

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"Hah..." Taking in a deep breath of air after he finished recovering, Xuan Hao could not help looking in the direction of the ethereal spear with a hint of fear present in his eyes.

By far, this was the closest he had been to death. Even the encounter with the remnant soul of the demonic cultivator that had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm didn't come close to him almost having his head blown off.

At the same time, it also made him understand that the trial was not as harmless as he thought at first, there was still a very real chance of him dying, even after the difficulty had been lowered to a level fitting for his current cultivation realm according to what was written in the scroll of trials.

Another idea also appeared in his head at this moment, and that was the idea that the trial itself might have decayed after the long passage of time. Although the celestial gate did not look the slightest bit damaged from the outside, he had no idea about the inner workings of the celestial gate and the formations that kept it active all these years.

No matter if it was a formation that had decayed after a long period of time or the original purpose of the trial. The only thing that mattered was the fact that he now understood that there was a very real chance of him losing his life inside the formation!

Bang! Bang!

Losing his concentration and control over the swords currently suppressing the wisps that were part of Aria's true body for a moment due to the surprise attack of the ethereal spear, the wisps made use of this opportunity to break free from the swords before gathering together into the shape of Aria. The only difference this time around was that the gentle glowing light that came from her skin had turned into a dark green color.

Whoosh~!

Following the transformation of Aria, the ancient symbols of the formation seemed to react to the dark green glow of her skin before the mist covering the plaza suddenly started growing thicker.

"The mist is growing stronger…" Muttering this to himself as a frown appeared on his face, Xuan Hao felt the mist pushing against his dao domain with more power than before. Not only that, but the power that the mist was using to push against his dao domain was steadily increasing with each passing second.

If things continued like this, he would soon be forced to put all of his attention towards making sure that his dao domain didn't end up collapsing under the pressure of the mist. Something that would inevitably force him to turn his attention away from Aria and give her a perfect chance to launch another sneak attack towards him!

Swish-!

Knowing this, Xuan Hao charges towards Aria with an intent to end things before it gets to that point. At the same time, the ethereal mist around him seems to come alive at that moment, as if responding to the threat he poses to the guardian.

Whoosh~

The mist that had remained inactive and only passively pushing against his dao domain so far, morphs into phantom-like shapes, swirling around Xuan Hao with far more power compared to before as his dao domain began shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"…"Dive into Stories, Embrace Enchantment: NvεlB¡n.

Aria's luminous eyes that had been staring out into the air during the entire encounter so far finally had a reaction, as she turned to look at the approaching Xuan Hao. The expression on her face still remains serene, even in the face of the approaching Xuan Hao.

Whoosh~

Raising her delicate hand, a melodic hum started to resonate through the air. Responding to this melodic hum, the mist around Xuan Hao began to pulse with the rhythm of her command, intensifying its assault.

Crack~

Realizing the gravity of his current situation as parts of his dao domain began cracking under the intense assault of the mist, Xuan Hao used his sword in an attempt to push back the mist, but it was rendered useless, as the mist seemed to regenerate almost instantly.

Boom! Boom!

Each breath becomes a battle against the all-encompassing mist, and the strain on his dao domain grows with every passing moment.

As the clash continues, the ethereal energies of the mist seem to become even more unforgiving. Yet, Xuan Hao's determination remained unwavering as he got closer to Aria. Subconsciously, he already understood that his only chance of making it through the trial was if he managed to defeat Aria, and to do this, he mustered up all of his strength and focused his mind on finding a way to do this.

"There!"

In a moment of profound clarity, Xuan Hao found the weakness he had been looking for and crossed the last bit of distance between himself and Aria before the mist had a chance to fully break through his already crumbling dao domain.

Rumble!I think you should take a look at

Channeling his energy into the silver sword with newfound intensity, Xuan Hao unleashed a powerful strike, aiming to sever the ethereal ties that connected Aria with the formation and the plaza beneath him.

BOOM!

As the attack landed, the ethereal mist stopped attacking for a short moment, momentarily disrupted by Xuan Hao's formidable attack.

"…"

Aria's serene expression remained unchanged, but a glimmer of surprise appeared in her empty eyes. As if she had not expected him to find the ethereal strings that bound her together with the plaza and formation. At the same time, a hint of respect could also be seen in her eyes. Acknowledging Xuan Hao's strength and determination.

"HAAAA-!"

BOOOOOOOM-!

With a mighty roar and a final surge of energy, Xuan Hao directly broke through the ethereal strings, causing the phantom-like shapes that had been assaulting his dao domain to dissipate into nothingness together with the rest of the mist. Returning the plaza to the same empty state that he had seen it in when he had first stepped through the celestial gate.

"Finally, its over…" Standing victorious, an exhausted smile made its way to his lips before he looked up Aria floating in the air a few meters away from him.

Her ethereal form remained unscratched, but her demeanor conveyed an air of acceptance. Xuan Hao had proven himself worthy, not just through his combat skills, but also through his resilience and fast decision making. After all, if he had hesitated in launching an attack against her just now, the mist would have overwhelmed him before he had a chance to reach her.

As the confrontation came to an end, the ethereal mist that made up Aria's body began to dissipate like the rest of the mist.

However, before she had a chance to disappear completely, she opened her mouth for the first time since she had appeared.

"You have passed the Trial of the Eternal City. Farewell for now, may you successfully ascend the tribulation and step into the Earth Immortal Realm in the future."

"…"

Watching silently as Aria's figure completely disappeared from the plaza without a trace, Xuan Hao had no idea how to react to the few words she had left behind before dissipating.

Earth Immortal Realm? Was that the realm that came after the Soul Ascension Realm?

Rumble~

"Ah!?"

Feeling like he had been given far too little information and wanting to find out more about the Earth Immortal Realm that he had just learnt about, Xuan Hao could not help jumping in surprise when he suddenly felt the ground beneath him moving.

"Is the trial not over?! Is there perhaps a second part to the trial?!" Not knowing what was happening, Xuan Hao cautiously moved away from the place he had been standing before carefully observing the changes of the ground where he had been standing a few seconds ago.

Even if Aria had told him that the trial had already come to an end, he could never be too sure. Especially after sensing the weird change that was taking place.

"Hm?"

However, after waiting around for a few seconds, Xuan Hao realized that the origin of the strange change was nothing more than a large and familiar looking gate that had emerged from the ground in the middle of the plaza. To be more precise, it was an exact copy of the celestial gate that he had walked through to enter the trial.

"So, it was just the way out of here appearing and scaring me in the process…" Letting out a sigh of relief as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao felt his entire body relax again. If he had to face another opponent like Aria in his current state, he had no idea if he could even last for a minute or two.

After all, the last attack of his had taken all of his energy and he would need at least a few days to recover. Especially from the trauma of having part of his head blown off. Not something he wanted to experience again…

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Standing in front of the celestial gate leading out of the empty city, Xuan Hao decided to not leave for now and instead focused on recovering from the battle he had just gone through. The last thing he wanted was to go back to the demon beast infested forest and encounter a Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast in his current state.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

Although the recovery was going to take a few days, it didn't look like he was going to be forced out of the ancient city. The only unfortunate thing was that the formation that had created the mist was still active to some degree. Preventing him from leaving the plaza and exploring the empty city that surrounded it.

As for destroying the formation and forcing his way through it… Xuan Hao had long since given up on this thought. Not only because the formation itself was far too powerful for him to break through with his current strength, but also because he feared that attacking the formation might result in the formation attacking him in return.

Considering that he had already experienced the terrifying mist generated by the formation just a short moment ago, Xuan Hao was in no rush to face off against it again.

"Guess I can also use this time to see if anything changed about the quest after completing the trial. After all, I still have no idea if this trial was really one of the three trials mentioned by the quest…" Knowing that he would not be leaving the empty plaza for a few days, Xuan Hao decided to also use this time to pull up the quest and see if anything had changed from the last time. Curious about whether or not the trial he had just gone through was really one of the three trials mentioned by the system.

[Side Quest: The Three Celestial Gates, Part 2]

[Description: You have reached the mysterious mountain range hidden behind the mist. To uncover the secrets hidden inside the mountain range, you must find three ancient celestial gates and pass through them. So far, you have successfully passed through the First Celestial Gate, the Gate of the Eternal City.]

[Objective: Seek out the Three Celestial Gates and defeat the guardians within.]

[First Trial: Trial of the Eternal City (Complete)]

[Reward: Starlight Essence]

"Looks like this was indeed one of the three celestial gates…" Feeling relieved that he had indeed happened to go through one of the three celestial gates, Xuan Hao also felt a bit disappointed that the description didn't include any information on how to find the other two celestial gates.

With how dangerous the mist covered mountain range was, it would take a long time for him to find the other two celestial gates if he wanted to ensure his own safety at the same time. Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts were still far too strong for him to face with his current strength.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if anything changed about my status…

Feeling a sudden curiosity towards his current status even though his strength had not really experienced any significant change since the last time he had viewed it, Xuan Hao decided to pull up his status. In the first place, it was not like he had much else to do while recovering.

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), Dao of Space (Elementary)

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 (Ninth Stage Domain Lord Realm)

Looking through his status, Xuan Hao discovered that there had indeed been a few changes since last time, the most obvious of which was the fact that he had now comprehended the Dao of Space and reached the Elementary level in terms of comprehension.I think you should take a look at

However, other than this, there was also an unexpected change when it came to his pet, the winged lion. Different from the past, its cultivation realm had changed from the Eighth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm to the Ninth stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Given that the winged demon beast should still be guarding the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts back at his old mountain peak in the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit confused. Wondering how the winged lion had managed to break through to the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm within such a short period of time.

From what he knew, the winged lion would at least need a dozen or so years to break through to the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm without any form of external assistance-

"Unless…"

Remembering the large number of Nascent Soul Realm demon beast that he had the winged lion watch over before entering the mystic realm, a few black lines appeared on his face as he had a feeling that he already knew what had caused the winged lion's sudden explosive growth in strength.

Hopefully his imagination would be wrong, and the winged lion demon beast had just happened to undergo enlightenment and break through to the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm during his short absence…

"Hah… Who am I fooling, that lazy thing definitely ate a large number of those Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts…" Muttering this to himself with a slightly awkward smile on his lips, Xuan Hao decided to not think about the matter any longer and instead focus his full attention on recovering.

The winged lion would have to wait until he left the mystic realm, but when he left, it better pray that it had broken through to the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm this way through a sudden enlightenment!

…

Roar!?

Unaware of what was happening in the mystic realm, the winged lion demon beast, who was lazily laying on top of its master's old mountain peak suddenly jumped up before looking around itself filled with fear.

Roar?

However, after seeing that there was no one around it other than the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts that its master had left behind for him to watch over, the winged lion's fearful expression turned into one filled with confusion. Just a moment ago, it had clearly felt a shiver run down its spine, like some kind of terrifying existence was staring directly at it, but… Now that feeling had disappeared like it had never been there in the first place. Rendering it confused as to what had just happened.

Thinking that it might have something to do with the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts, the winged lion turned around and looked over the Nascent Soul Realm demon beast who had been obediently laying on the ground without making a single sound after finding out that it was a Domain Lord Realm demon beast.

Outside of the few Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts who had tried to escape just when its master had left and made his way inside the mystic realm, none of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts had dared to move a single muscle, too fearful that they would end up in a similar state as those who tried to run away.

As for what happened to those demon beasts… They had all met the same fate. Gathered together inside a certain demon beast's stomach.

Thinking about how delicious those demon beasts had been and the fact that they had allowed it to surpass the Eighth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm and step into the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, the winged lion could not help turning around and hungrily look towards the remaining Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts gathered at the mountain peak.

Considering that the demon beast that his master had originally intended to hand over as a reward had been among the demon beasts trying to escape earlier, perhaps he would get another chance to choose a reward among the remaining Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts…

Salivating at the thought of this, the winged lion could not help starting to seize up the remaining Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts on the mountain peak. Especially focusing its attention on a few rather large and powerful demon beasts who were now shivering fearfully.

Even if they had no idea what the winged lion was thinking about, they recognized the expression of winged lion to be the exact same as the one it had before it had eaten the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts who had tried to escape earlier!

Whoosh~!

Whoosh~!

Whoosh~!

Filled with an unknown resolve and gaining new enlightenment in the face of a life and death situation, several large demon beasts suddenly managed to comprehend their own profound body manipulation techniques. Instantly using their newfound technique to shrink their own body and make themselves less appetizing in the eyes of the winged lion…

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Over the next two days, Xuan Hao managed to fully recover from his fight with Aria, the guardian of the first celestial gate. At the same time, he also realized that the formation had begun to reproduce the mist from his fight with Aria. The only difference this time around was that the density of the mist increased at a much slower pace compared to how fast it had happened during his fight. Even if after two days, he could still resist the mist with his physical body alone and it would most likely still be another five days before he would be forced to leave the plaza.

Although it seemed like the trial was not forcing him to leave immediately, there was still a time limit for how long he could spend inside. Unless he had enough strength to resist the power of the mist when it reached its full strength.

However, Xuan Hao didn't really care too much about this, as he had already managed to fully recover and had no reason to continue staying inside the trial space. The only thing he could get from staying at this point in time was expand his understanding of formations by observing the formation that was producing the mist and keeping him from leaving the plaza, but… His current strength was far from enough to gain anything useful from observing a complicated formation like that for a few days and that was not even mentioning that his current qualifications as a formation master had only reached the Expert Realm…

Given that an Expert Realm Formation Master was only comparable to the Core Formation Realm in terms of the formations that they could set up, Xuan Hao did indeed feel like he was lacking considering his current cultivation realm. After returning to the sect again, he really needed to spend some time improving on his profession. Not only because it would be useful for him in certain circumstances, but more importantly because he would need to ensure that he didn't fall behind his disciples.

If he really did end up falling behind his disciples when it came to professions, he would no longer be capable of helping them improve in this regard. Although it had been some time since he had been rewarded by the system by an improvement that his disciples had made, he still didn't dare slack off in this regard!

Shaking his head as he decided not to think about this anymore, Xuan Hao got up and turned to look in the direction of the celestial gate that had remained completely unchanged since its appearance two days earlier.

Standing around for few seconds to admire the beauty of the celestial gate, Xuan Hao took a step forward and almost instantaneously crossed the short distance between himself and the celestial gate-

Swish~!

Passing straight through the gate only a moment later. Soon followed by the familiar feeling of space twisting and turning around him in incomprehensible ways before finding himself back on the ground again.

"Huh?"

However, different from the tall trees and demon beast roars in the distance that he had expected, he found himself at the base of a tall mountain piercing straight through the clouds above before disappearing. Even without any knowledge of the mountain that he now found himself at the base of, he was still very clear that this was not the same location that he had entered the celestial gate through two days earlier.

Not just that, but after looking around himself and not just the mountain in front of him, Xuan Hao discovered that the trees of the forest behind him were completely different from the ones he had encountered so far inside the mist covered mountain range. Standing only around a dozen meters tall with normal sized trunks, or in simpler terms, a normal-looking tree that could be found everywhere.

The only slight difference that these trees had from normal trees was their color.

The trunk of the tree was a bluish-green color, while the leaves were a bright red with a subtle glow.

"Hm?" Observing the trees more closely with his divine sense, Xuan Hao also noticed that the weird colored trees also had a subtle aura similar to that of a demon beast around them. Looking even closer, he even noticed that each of the trees had a cultivation base of sorts.

However, different from the cultivation base he had seen in humans, demon beasts or other races like the half spirit race, the trees in front of him seemed to follow a completely different cultivation system!

Thinking about it for a few seconds, this made sense. After all, trees were a bit different from humans or other living things so to speak… And considering that there were several different cultivation systems among humans, like demonic cultivation and the different followers of gods, it only made sense that the trees would have their own unique cultivation system.

"Wait! If the trees have their own unique cultivation path, doesn't that mean that they are sentient to some degree!?" Suddenly realizing what it meant for the trees to have their own unique cultivation system, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing both of his eyes cautiously for a short moment before calming down again the next second.

The reason for this being rather obvious, the trees in question were far too weak. At most the energy contained inside the strongest among the trees had barely reached the threshold of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Far from enough to threaten someone in the Soul Ascension Realm, let alone someone who had already reached a realm comparable to the Fourth Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Rustle~!

Sensing the terrifying power of his divine sense that had momentarily burst forth for a short time, the trees located in front of Xuan Hao all started shivering violently as they began shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye-I think you should take a look at

Fwhoop~

And before Xuan Hao could understand what was happening, the rapidly shrinking trees began disappearing underground. Hiding away from the terrifying existence that they had just sensed. Even though their intelligence had clearly not fully been developed yet, they still had a basic survival instinct and understood when to run away, or in their case, hide underground.

"…"The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

Deciding that it might be best to just ignore the somewhat sentient trees behind him, Xuan Hao focused his attention back on the tall mountain that he had appeared in front of after passing through the celestial gate. For now, he had to find out where on the mist covered mountain range he was and more importantly, if he had managed to escape from the formation.

Whoosh~

Not thinking too much about it, Xuan Hao decided to try the simplest way of figuring out if he was still trapped inside the formation. Go in one direction and see if anything ended up stopping him-

BANG!

Not something that ended up taking more than a few seconds before he gloriously crashed into a seemingly invisible barrier and fell to the ground with a rather painful expression on his face. Although he was strong, it still hurt to some degree when flying at full speed into a solid barrier without any preparation.

"So, I'm still inside the formation…"

At the very least, this short experiment allowed him to understand that he was still very much inside the formation… And from the looks of it, he had been teleported to somewhere completely unknown inside the area covered by the formation.

Luckily, the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts should still be busy fighting over the empty void and the spatial energy that it was slowly producing.

On the not so lucky side of things, he was now in a completely unfamiliar place and had no way to know if there was anything dangerous like the stone pedestal that had created the spatial collapse nearby.

Rustle~

"Hm? The trees are back?"

Just at this moment, the sound of leaves rustling sounded out behind him, inevitably causing Xuan Hao to turn around. Expecting for the scared trees to have popped back up from the ground again.

"This…"

However, what he witnessed was not the expected small trees that had popped up from the ground again. Instead, he came face to face with a giant tree standing close to three hundred meters tall, with countless small vines dangling down from above. In a sense a giant version of the smaller trees.

The problem about this giant version of the smaller, cutter trees, was that the giant tree's cultivation realm was no weaker than that of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts he had encountered during his escape from the collapsed void left behind by the stone pedestal.

RUSTLE-!

And from the looks of things, the giant tree did not look friendly, as its large branches swayed menacingly in the air above him. Not giving him enough time to ask the question about how such a large tree had even managed to sneak up on him in the first place.

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Seeing the branches moving around menacingly above him, Xuan Hao felt a shiver run down his spine as he jumped to the side-

BANG!

Just barely managing to avoid the large branches that came crashing down into the ground where he had been standing only a few seconds earlier. If he had not been fast enough to react, it was easy to imagine how bad his situation would be after being hit by those large branches. Even the ground that was far stronger than in the rest of the mystic realm was easily shattered under the terrifying power of those branches.

Whoosh-!

Not giving him any time to relax, the branches that had smashed into the ground soon came flying towards him at a terrifying speed that made it impossible to avoid in time-

Bang! Bang!

Knowing this, Xuan Hao used his dao domain to create several ice spikes beneath the approaching branches before having the pierce through the branches, slowing them down just enough for him to avoid the attack again.

Swish-!

However, different from the last time, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time before escaping in the opposite direction of the large tree. Knowing very well that his current strength was far from enough to fight against someone who had surpassed the strength of even the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts that he had encountered so far.

Not to mention, during the short clash he had when using his ice spikes to slow down the branches, he had firsthand experienced just how tough the bark of the tree was. Even if he used all of his strength, he doubted that he would be able to do any significant damage to it… And that was not mentioning the fact that he had no idea if there were other similarly strong trees around!

Although it looked like all the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast had been attracted to the empty void created by the spatial collapse. Different creatures like the tree he was currently escaping from, were not as attracted to the spatial energy leaking out from the empty void.

Rustle~

Seeing Xuan Hao escaping, the towering tree standing more than three hundred meters tall shook its large crown in a satisfied manner before shrinking into the ground and disappearing like it had never been there in the first place.

"Hm? It left?"

Of course, Xuan Hao discovered this, but decided to continue moving away from the weirdly colored trees. Understanding that the reason the large tree left should have been because he had also left. If he decided to go back and try to find out more about the weird trees, the large tree would almost definitely return again, and he had no way to know if it would chase after him at that point in time.

Thump~

Coming to a stop after travelling like this for a little over half an hour, Xuan Hao used his divine sense to sweep through his surroundings and make sure that there weren't some powerful demon beasts nearby that would ambush him the moment he stopped paying attention.

In the end, the most powerful demon beast was only a small boar that had just reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. Even if it attacked him without him defending himself, he doubted that it would even be able to leave a scratch with its strength. However, it was unlucky enough to be the sole focus of his divine sense for a short second-

Roar?!

Something that scared it so much that it fell on its back with all its legs in the air before it began showing its defenseless stomach. This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

"Why is a boar demon beast doing this? Isn't this the wrong animal…?" Not really something Xuan Hao had expected to see from a boar demon beast.

No, that doesn't matter, I need to figure out what I'm going to do now!

Shaking his head as he looked away from the unique boar demon beast that he had the joy of meeting, Xuan Hao turned his attention to the important question at hand.

Given that most of the dangerous creatures in the forest were busy fighting for control over the empty void, he should be relatively safe traversing the forest. For this reason, he had two options on how to use this time. The first was to search for a way out of the forest, while the other was to try and find the remaining two celestial gates.

Considering the fact that the first celestial gate had been inside the formation, Xuan Hao had a feeling that the other two would also be inside the formation. The only problem with this was the fact that he had no idea where these two celestial gates were and would have to search through the entire forest. Not like the other option, where he would only have to search around the edges for a weak point in the formation.

"Haaa… Why am I even thinking about this, obviously I will stay inside the formation and try to find the remaining celestial gates…" Muttering this to himself as a wry smile made its way to his lips, Xuan Hao took a step forward and disappeared deeper inside the forest.I think you should take a look at

Roar?

Leaving a terrified boar demon beast shivering in fear not too far away, its small feet and defenseless stomach facing the air for all of the other nearby demon beasts to look on with confused expressions. None of them understood what had happened to the strongest demon beast in their little part of the forest.

…

ROOOOOAR!

At the same time Xuan Hao had decided to search for the remaining two celestial gates, a loud roar echoed out across the battlefield back at the empty void. Following which one of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts fell to the ground without coming back up.

Not too far away, the demon beast responsible for the terrifying roar earlier dashed forward and bit into the throat of the motionless demon beast on the ground. Killing it before it had a chance to mount any form of resistance. Officially marking the first death of a Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast during the struggle for control over the empty void and the spatial energy that it produced. Showing just how important it was for these Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts who had remained stuck at the same realm for thousands of years without any sign of progress.

Outside of just this, the demon beasts present also felt that after breaking through, they would be able to escape from the small forest and finally explore the world outside.

Although most of the demon beasts had been born inside the forest, they still had a certain level of intelligence and had long ago managed to understand that there was a far bigger world outside of their small forest by interrogating the small demon beasts that happened to make their way inside the forest by accident from time to time.

ROOOA-

Ptsh-!

Letting out another roar to assert its dominance over the rest of the demon beast and also state its claim on the empty void with its superior strength, the powerful demon beast that had just managed to kill a Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast didn't have the time to finish its roar before a small and feeble looking rabbit demon beast suddenly appeared behind it and stabbed its hand right through its chest. Instantly killing the unprepared and exhausted demon beast in the process.

Squeak~!

Making a cute squeaking noise after having killed the massive demon beast with the strength to kill a Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast, the small and feeble looking rabbit demon beast established its dominance like the now dead demon beast had tried to do just a second ago.

Unfortunately, the cute squeaking noises of the small rabbit demon beast was far less intimidating and didn't have any effect against the rest of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts.

ROOOAR!

ROOOOOAR!

ROAR!

On the other hand, it seemed like it had a negative effect, as the rest of the demon beast all began charging towards the small rabbit demon beast filled with killing intent. None of them viewed the rabbit demon beast as a threat due to its small size and its strength that had only reached the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.

As for how a small rabbit demon beast in the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm had managed to kill a Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast that had the strength to kill other Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts? They all thought that it was due to the other demon beast having been severely weakened after its battle and not paying attention to its surroundings. Giving the weak rabbit demon beast a chance to launch a sneak attack and kill it!

SQUEAK!?

Having expected that its awesome power and majestic visage would intimidate the rest of the demon beasts into submission, the rabbit demon beast let out a surprised squeak before realizing the danger of its current situation before quickly turning around and escaping.

ROOOAR!

ROOOOOOOOOAR!

ROAR!

Unfortunately for the rabbit demon beast, the rest of the demon beasts present had been thoroughly enraged by its earlier display of arrogance and decided to momentarily put a halt on the fight for the empty void as they all began chasing after the small rabbit demon beast. None of them cared too much about leaving the empty void for a short time. After all, to experience any effect from the spatial energy, they would need to absorb it for at least a few years…

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SQUEAK-!

"Hm? A rabbit?" Searching through the massive forest that seemed to be never ending for close to 10 hours without encountering anything of interest, Xuan Hao could not help showing a confused expression on his face as a small rabbit demon beast suddenly appeared at the edge of his divine sense before heading straight for where he was standing.

If it was just a normal rabbit demon beast that should have been somewhere around the Qi Condensation or Foundation Establishment Realm, he wouldn't have cared too much about it, but the rabbit demon beast that had appeared at the edge of his divine sense had actually managed to reach the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. Even if he was stronger than the rabbit demon beast, it still posed a certain level of danger considering that it had reached the Soul Ascension Realm.

Whoosh~

For this reason, Xuan Hao didn't dare be the slightest bit careless, as his dao domain spread out and blocked the rabbit demon beast before it could get any closer to him.

Squeak!?

Not having expected its path to get blocked, the rabbit demon beast froze on the spot with a confused squeak emerging from its small mouth. Having no idea what it was going to do now that its path forward had suddenly been blocked.

ROOOAR!

However, before Xuan Hao or the rabbit demon beast had a chance to do anything other than stare at each other from the distance, a loud roar echoed out across the forest followed by a large demon beast appearing not too far behind the rabbit demon beast.

"Peak Soul Ascension Realm…" From a single glance, Xuan Hao realized that the demon beast that had just appeared had reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm, a demon beast that he wanted nothing more than to avoid if possible. The only positive thing was the fact that the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast didn't seem to care about him and had its full attention focused on the rabbit demon beast that had come to a stop in front of his dao domain.

At the very least, it looks like I will be able to escape without having to deal with a Peak Soul Ascension-

ROOOAR!

ROAR!

ROOOOOOAAAR!

Not even managing to finish his thoughts, several loud roars suddenly echoed out behind the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast that had just shown up before a large number of similarly powerful demon beasts appeared. All of them staring towards the rabbit demon beast filled with killing intent. Not a single one of them seemed to pay any attention to him and instead completely ignored him.

Realizing that the demon beasts did not care about him and were instead fully focused on the rabbit demon beast in front of him, Xuan Hao felt himself relax a bit as he began feeling curious as to what in the world a small rabbit demon beast had done to anger so many Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast.

Even if he tried his best, he doubted he would be able to get so many Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts to chase after him…

Squeak!

Realizing the danger of its current situation with its enemies having caught up to it and its path forward blocked, the rabbit demon beast started panicking. Only now realizing that it might have made a mistake earlier when it decided to assert its dominance over the other demon beasts.

Roar!

Hearing the roar of one of the demon beasts that had been chasing after it for the past few hours before it slowly began making its way towards it with an arrogant expression on its furry face, the rabbit demon beast could not help feeling an intense sense of anger built up inside of it.

If not for the fact that it was currently trapped with nowhere to escape, it would have taught that arrogant demon beast a lesson!

ROAR!

Not aware of the thoughts going through the head of the rabbit demon beast, the rest of the demon beasts also began to make their way towards the rabbit demon beast. All of them savoring the intense fear and panic spreading across the face of the rabbit demon beast as it realized that it had nowhere to escape from them.

"…"

Watching this entire thing take place, Xuan Hao had no idea what to say. The only thought going through his head being that the high-level demon beasts in front of him were truly unique…I think you should take a look at

Well, I should get going before I end up getting caught up in this.This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Swish-!

Not wanting to end up attracting the attention of the demon beasts after they had finished off the rabbit demon beast, Xuan Hao retracted his dao domain before leaving in the opposite direction of the demon beasts.

In the first place, he still needed to find the two remaining celestial gates. The fact that the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts that he thought would be gathered at the empty void had all appeared at the same time only ended up making him feel like he was running out of time.

For this reason, he didn't realize that he ended up leaving an open path for the rabbit demon beast to escape in when he had retreated his dao domain before the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts had a chance to get their hands on it.

The rabbit demon beast who had been looking for any chance to escape from its current situation on the other hand-

Squeak!?

Swish!

Instantly noticed the escape path and jumped on the opportunity to escape from the demon beasts who were arrogantly approaching it filled with killing intent. Escaping in the exact same direction that Xuan Hao had left in. Not because it wanted to chase after Xuan Hao, but because the other paths had already been blocked out by the demon beasts chasing after it at this point in time.

Roar? ROOOAR!

Seeing the rabbit demon beast that they had finally managed to corner escape again, the demon beasts who had been preparing to torment the arrogant rabbit that had dared to humiliate them, all began roaring violently as even more killing intent appeared in their eyes.

Not to mention the fact that the weak rabbit demon beast had actually managed to escape from them only having passed the Second Tribulation, but they had actually been fooled by it once again.

Roar!

Remembering the person that had blocked its escape path earlier, one of the demon beasts could not help complaining to the rest of the demon beasts. Thinking that Xuan Hao was in on it and had planned all of this out together with the rabbit demon beast to make a fool of them!

Although none of them had any clue if this was really the case, the rest of the demon beasts were soon convinced. In the end, Xuan Hao had unknowingly become the target of this group of Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts without doing anything other than accidentally stand in front of the rabbit demon beast and block its escape path for a short moment.

If he knew this would end up causing him to get targeted by a group of Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts, he would have run away the moment that the rabbit demon beast had appeared in his divine sense instead of remaining in the same location until the group of demon beasts showed up.

…

Squeak!

Having left the rabbit demon beasts and the powerful Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts and continued to move without coming to a stop for over two hours where he happened to find some clues pointing towards a possible path similar to the one that he had found leading to the first celestial gate, Xuan Hao could not help frowning to himself as he turned around and looked at the familiar looking rabbit demon beast that appeared in front of him.

"Why is this thing here again? Did it escape those Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts?" Muttering this to himself as he observed the exhausted looking rabbit demon beast, Xuan Hao could not help secretly admiring the demon beast for having the ability to escape so many Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts with its current cultivation base. Even if it was also in the Soul Ascension Realm, its strength was far below those Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts.

Squeak!

Letting out another squeak after it spotted Xuan Hao, the rabbit demon beast did not stop like last time when it encountered his dao domain, but instead continued straight into it-

"Hm? What does thing little thing want?"

Confusing Xuan Hao who had no idea about what this little thing was up to.

In the end, curiosity got the better of him and he decided to observe and see what it was up to instead of using his dao domain to attack it. After all, with his current strength, he didn't fear that the rabbit demon beast would be able to do anything to him when inside his dao domain.

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Squeak!

Seeing that Xuan Hao did not attack it, the small rabbit demon beast felt its confidence grow as it made its way over to Xuan Hao. Not because it wanted to have him fight off the demon beasts currently chasing after it, but because it felt that following him might give it a better chance at escaping compared to just running around in circles without any set goal in mind like it was currently doing. Not to mention, there was no way that it expected Xuan Hao to have the ability to fight against so many Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts.

"This… Does it want to follow after me? Does it perhaps think I know a way out of this forest?" Muttering this to himself as he watched the rabbit demon beast stop a few meters away from him before obediently waiting for him to move like a normal pet, Xuan Hao was once again left speechless by this weird rabbit demon beast-

ROOOOAR!

And hearing the loud roaring sound growing closer to his current location, he decided to leave and follow the barely visible path in the grass. Deciding to ignore the rabbit demon beast for now and instead focus on finding the second celestial gate.

As for the demon beasts chasing after the rabbit demon beast? With his current strength and comprehension of the Dao of Space, they wouldn't be able to catch up to him if he didn't want them to. Not to mention, if the rabbit demon beast couldn't keep up with him, it wouldn't be able to follow him in the first place!

Continuing deeper into the forest along the path, it did not take long before a large gate similar to the first celestial gate that he had encountered appeared in front of him. Even without inspecting the gate personally, it was easy to conclude that the gate in front of him was one of the two remaining celestial gates that he was looking for.

"Hm!? This is…"

The celestial gate itself was not much different from the first that he had encountered and filled him with the same sense of powerlessness that he had felt back then when first facing the terrifying primordial power dormant inside the first celestial gate. Even if he had already experienced it, the fraction of power leaking out from the celestial gate in front of him was more than enough to cause a shiver to run down his spine.

Although the celestial gate in front of him was similar to the first celestial gate, after calming himself down, he still managed to spot a clear difference between the gate in front of him and the first celestial gate… And that was the fact that the thin mist engulfing the second celestial gate was a bright green color. Filled with a seemingly boundless and inexhaustible vitality.

Thump~

But Xuan Hao didn't end up standing around more for a few seconds to examine the mist before he stepped forward into the bright green mist without the slightest bit of hesitation.

Whoosh-!

Different from the twisting and turning of space that he had observed after stepping through the first celestial gate, the bright green mist began moving around him gently pushed him through a bright green portal before carrying him through the void without any signs of the Dao of space being used in the process. Making Xuan Hao doubt whether or not the Dao of Space was the only way to travel through the void over long distances. However, this thought soon disappeared, as he understood that his current cultivation realm was far too low to even attempt trying to do something like teleporting without the use of the Dao of Space.

The sheer power required for something like that was something that he couldn't even comprehend in his current realm.

Squeak?

Arriving at the celestial gate only a few seconds later, the rabbit demon beast curiously tilted its head as it looked up towards the large gate that had suddenly appeared in front of it. Even when faced with the terrifying primordial power that was leaking out from the gate, it remained completely unaffected. Instead, it was far more focused on the remnants of Xuan Hao's aura that pointed towards him entering the gate-

Squeak!

Swish~

So, not wasting a single second on observing the gate any further, the rabbit demon beast directly jumped into the green mist before disappearing from the forest.

Rustle~

A few minutes later, the first of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts emerged from the thick foliage around the celestial gate-

Roar?!

However, different from the rabbit demon beast, it started shaking violently with a fearful expression on its face. Not even daring to look towards the celestial gate in front of it!

Roar!

Roar!

A few other demon beasts that emerged behind it were in a similar state, as none of them dared to approach the celestial gate. Only capable of observing it from a far with fearful expressions on their faces. Deep down, their instincts told them that death would be the only outcome if they dared to pass through the towering gate in front of them.

Bang! I think you should take a look at

Crack-!

It was at this moment that a large ape demon beast more than a dozen meters tall smashed through a few trees before arriving at the opening where the second celestial gate was located.

ROOOOAR-!

Looking towards the celestial gate, instead of retreating fearfully like the rest of the demon beasts had done, it felt like the primordial power was challenging it and began charging towards the celestial gate filled with killing intent-

Whoosh~

However, before it had a chance to attack the celestial gate, it ended up passing straight through the bright green mist. Disappearing from the forest without even getting a chance to leave the green mist surrounding the entrance of the gate.

Roar?

Seeing this, the surrounding demon beasts who were fearfully quivering in front of the second celestial gate could not help looking up with surprised expressions on their faces. Only now realizing how cowardly they were acting.

If the rabbit demon beast had dared to go though the gate, how could they, as the senior demon beasts, not do the same!?

As the surrounding demon beasts thought about this, a hint of shame appeared on their faces before being replaced by anger-

Whoosh~

Whoosh~

And the next moment, these demon beasts all charged forward into the celestial gate. Suppressing the inherent fear that they felt from the primordial power with the anger they felt towards the rabbit demon beast that had dared to humiliate them. Soon enough, not a single demon beast was left waiting in front of the celestial gate as all of them had decided to charge into it!

…

Unaware of the fact that the rabbit demon beast and all of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts had been fearless enough to follow him inside the celestial gate, Xuan Hao began to curiously inspect his surroundings as he wondered what kind of guardian, he would have to face this time around.

Looking around himself in an attempt to find out more about his new environment, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit baffled when he realized that there was nothing other than grass plains stretching endlessly in all directions around him.

"Hm? Other than being tall, the grass here also has the ability to restrict my divine sense to some degree!?" Discovering that the grass covering the endless plains also had the ability to restrict his divine sense, Xuan Hao understood that this was most likely something that had to do with the guardian of the second celestial gate.

As for what it had to do with the guardian, he could only hope that it wasn't something similar to Aria, who had managed to take control of the mist and use it to attack him.

If the guardian of the second celestial gate really did have the ability to control the endless sea of green and use it to attack him, Xuan Hao really doubted he would be able to face off this kind of guardian with his current strength. After all, from what he could gather from a short look at the grass around him, its toughness was already on par with some demon beasts in the Earlier Stages of the Soul Ascension Realm.

Although it would not be impossible to fight against, it would not be easy in any way. Especially considering how much grass was around him.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if there is another Scroll of Trials somewhere in here as well…

Whoosh-!

Remembering the Scroll of Trials that he had encountered inside the first celestial gate, Xuan Hao did not waste any time before jumping into the air and using his eyes to scan the endless sea of green for anything that stood out now that his divine sense had been rendered close to useless by the tall grass.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

"Found it!"

Not taking too long to spot an odd stone pedestal with a scroll on top of it in the distance, Xuan Hao descended to the ground before making his way towards the stone pedestal.

Squeak!?

Unknown to Xuan Hao, not too far away, a certain rabbit demon beast that had chased him into the celestial gate happened to spot him when he jumped into the air.

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Reaching the pedestal that was barely visible in the tall grass, Xuan Hao examined the scroll on top of it for any hidden traps or other things that might prove dangerous. Even if the first Scroll of Trials that he had encountered did not have any sorts of defenses or traps guarding it, there was no guarantee that it would be the same for the other trials.

Only after finding no traps or hidden defense mechanisms inside or around the pedestal did Xuan Hao pick up the Scroll of Trials for the second celestial gate. Feeling curious about what kind of guardian he would encounter this time around and if there were any weaknesses that he could take advantage of. Maybe more important. Finding out if the guardian had the ability to control the tall grass all around him.

If it really had the ability to control the tall grass, he would have to figure out ways to deal with the seemingly endless sea of green all around him without exhausting himself too much in the process…

"Hm? Trial of the Emerald Serpent? So, the guardian of this trial is a serpent?" Muttering this to himself as he read through the first part of the Scroll of Trials, Xuan Hao could not help glancing towards the tall grass that surrounded him from all sides. For some reason, he had a feeling that he understood why the trial took place on a seemingly endless grassy plain.

Turning his attention back to the Scroll of Trials before reading through the rest of it, Xuan Hao managed to get a general idea about the guardian that he was going to face.

The guardian itself was a special kind of demon beast called an Emerald Serpent, a demon beast that specialized in hunting in environments with tall grass. The environment that he now found himself inside of was one such environment. The only difference being the fact that the tall grass all around him was a special kind of grass called Sense Depravation Grass that reduced the sense of anyone below the Earth Immortal Realm according to the Scroll of Trials.

As for why the Scroll of Trials had been so kind to provide this much information this time around… That was because he didn't just need to face a single Emerald Serpent but had to kill at least three before being able to successfully pass the trial!

Although killing three demon beasts might not sound like a lot, it still had to be known that the weakest Emerald Serpent had at least reached the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, while the stronger ones had reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm.

The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

To make matters even worse, the Emerald Serpents below the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm all hunted in groups of three or more!

A special demon beast that tends to gather in groups when its strength is below the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm… What in the world caused the difficulty of this trial to increase by so much compared to the last!?

Feeling a hint of fear as he finished reading through the Trial of Scrolls, Xuan Hao could not understand why the difficulty of the second trial seemed to have increased by so much compared to the first. Even if he was more than confident enough to kill a demon beast that had reached the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, the same could not be said when there were two other demon beasts with similar strength around.

As for killing a Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast? He had already tried fighting one before and understood very well that killing a demon beast like that was not something that was going to be easy with his current strength. Even if he did succeed in killing one, he still had to think about possible ambushes from other Emerald Serpents.

ROOOAR!

Lost in thought as he thought about why the difficulty of the second trial had suddenly spiked by so much compared to the first trial, a loud roar that sounded nowhere near the hissing sound of a serpent, echoed out across the empty grass plain.

"Hm? I'm sure that was not one of the Emerald Serpents, but what- Ah! The demon beasts who were after the rabbit demon beast! Don't tell me… Did they perhaps enter the celestial gate!?" Turning to look in the direction that the loud roar had emerged from, Xuan Hao could not help showing a shocked expression on his face after spotting a large demon beast the size of a small hill making its way through the tall grass without the slightest bit of cation present on its face.

"The difficulty increases depending on the cultivation base of the one taking the trial." Glancing back down at the Scroll of Trials still in his hands, Xuan Hao could not help repeating the last sentence on the scroll before a hint of realization appeared in his eyes.

The difficulty of the trial increased depending on the cultivation base of the one taking the trial… And given that there was more than one person taking the trial, with most of them having reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm, the trial changed accordingly to fit their cultivation base.

Killing a group of Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts below the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm or a single Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon presented level of difficulty that could almost be considered similar with its own unique challenge. In a sense, the trial was well constructed for someone who had reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm. The only problem was… He was still far away from reaching the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm!I think you should take a look at

"Hah… Maybe I should have just killed that rabbit and prevented it from following me…" Shaking his head as he remembered the rabbit demon beast that should have followed him inside the celestial gate, causing the rest of the demon beasts to also enter the celestial gate, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit regretful that he didn't do anything to prevent the rabbit demon beast from chasing after him.

ROOOOOOAR!

BOOOOM-!

Just at this moment, a similarly loud roar once again echoed out once again before a loud collision of two powerful energies suddenly overtook it. Even without having seen who attacked the hill sized demon beast, he could still tell that both sides had reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm.

"One of the demon beasts from the forest encountered one of the Emerald Serpents." Hiding himself as he poked his head above the tall grass to observe the fight that was taking place, Xuan Hao began to examine the large emerald colored serpent in the process of coiling itself around the massive hill sized demon beast.

Considering that he had to at least kill three Emerald Serpents before being able to complete the trial, he did not plan to give up an opportunity to observe its combat abilities firsthand and see if he could find any weakness that he could take advantage of.

Bang! Bang!

As the two demon beasts violently thrashed around in the tall grass without the slightest bit of care towards possibly attracting more Emerald Serpents and other demon beasts to their location, Xuan Hao got a perfect chance to observe some of the Emerald Serpent's attack patterns, special abilities, and weaknesses. For one, he learnt that the Emerald Serpent had a weak spot on its scaly body located just a few meters below its head on its underbelly. Another would be the Emerald Serpents weird ability to suddenly grow poisonous spikes all over its body and shoot them out in all directions-

Ptsh-!

ROOAR!?

He really needed to thank the hill sized demon beast for its help after the battle ended. If not for the demon beast's help in finding out what kind of abilities the Emerald Serpents had, he would really end up suffering with how many deadly techniques the Emerald Serpent began to show off in its battle against it.

…

ROOOOOAR!

Unaware of the fact that Xuan Hao was watching it getting beaten up by the Emerald Serpent without the slightest chance to fight back against it, the demon beast in question could not help letting out a loud roar filled with both pain and anger before looking towards the Emerald Serpent, that had grown brand-new layer of poisonous spikes all over its body, filled with killing intent.

If not for the fact that the snake in front of it was far too slippery, it would have long since jumped forward to rip it apart. After all, even if both of them had reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm, the Emerald Serpent did not have the same level of defense as the hill sized demon beast who could continue to take a beating without dying.

Comparable to an unkillable giant like this, the Emerald Serpent was rather lacking. Even the single clash from the start had been more than enough to seriously injure it. All things considered, the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast from the forest was stronger than the Emerald Serpent and not by a small margin.

The only thing that kept the Emerald Serpent alive, was the fact that it was extremely slippery and hard to hit…

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The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

As the fight between the two demon beasts continued without any winner appearing, the sound of loud roars began echoing out in the distance before a large number of powerful auras appeared in the distance before rushing towards the direction where the hill sized demon beast and the emerald serpent were fighting. Something that both of these Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts were not the slightest bit excited about, as both of them understood that these demon beasts would only wait on the side until they were exhausted and unable to mount a proper defense.

Although, considering the fact that the emerald serpent's defense was far weaker, it was by far the one who worried the most after sensing five different Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts approaching its current location-

Swoosh~

And without wasting a single second, it disengaged from the large demon beast that it had entangled itself with before disappearing into the tall grass. Not leaving a single trace of its presence behind in the process.

Roar!?

Not expecting its opponent to just run away so quickly, the hill sized demon beast let out a surprised sound before it turned to look in the direction of the approaching demon beasts. Unlike the emerald serpent that had been able to easily slip away, it did not really have the same level of agility and speed. At the very least, it had not sustained any serious injuries during its short fight with the emerald serpent and was more than confident that it would be able to fight back in case any of the approaching demon beasts happened to think that they could take advantage of its current injured state.

ROOOOOAR!

Letting out a loud roar filled with killing intent and its powerful cultivation base, it fully demonstrated that it was more than strong enough to fight back in case any of the five approaching demon beasts had any plans to do so… And the rapid decrease in speed of the five approaching demon beasts who had been using all of their strength to dash towards its current location was more than enough to show that these five demon beasts had indeed been thinking about taking advantage of it during its battle.

Although the demon beasts who had all come from the forest to chase after the rabbit demon beast were more than happy to work together with each other inside an unfamiliar environment, they also wouldn't let go of the chance to get rid of a possible contender for the empty void.

The danger that the grass plain and emerald serpents posed to them was far from enough to make these powerful demon beasts work together without stabbing each other in the back if a chance presented itself. The earlier fear that they had felt towards the celestial gate before entering it had almost completely disappeared after they realized that the strongest creature on the other side had only barely reached a cultivation realm similar to their own. Even if it was still dangerous, this was far from enough to make them feel the same level of fear that they had felt when first facing the celestial gate... Unless there was something even more terrifying lurking in the tall grass.

Watching all of this unfold from the side, Xuan Hao could not help curiously looking in the direction that the emerald serpent had disappeared in. Despite the fact that it had already disappeared from view, it was still possible for him to sense the faint presence of the emerald serpent lurking around in the tall grass around the hill sized demon beast.

Unfortunately for the hill sized demon beast, it didn't look like it had realized this. Instead keeping its attention focused on the approaching demon beasts.

Hm? Did it notice me!?

Feeling a gaze suddenly locking onto him, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes as his dao domain silently began spreading out in the area around him without alerting the large demon beast in the distance.

If the emerald serpent had really noticed him, it would be impossible to avoid alerting the large demon beast not too far away, but… If it hadn't noticed him, he at the very least wanted to make sure that he didn't end up drawing its attention by using his dao domain to prepare himself for a possible attack. Especially considering that using his dao domain like he would do normally, would not only draw the attention of the emerald serpent and the large demon beast, but also the five approaching demon beasts.

No matter how confident he was in his current strength, he did not really feel confident in his odds of surviving a fight with seven Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts…

Squeak!

However, instead of the emerald serpent that he expected to appear in front of him, what appeared was instead the small rabbit demon beast that had followed after him and ended up leading all of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast inside the celestial gate. In the end resulting in the increased difficulty of the second celestial gate's trial.

"…"

Staring at the small rabbit that had caused his current precarious situation, Xuan Hao could not help feeling like he wanted to enjoy some rabbit stew to calm himself down.I think you should take a look at

Squeak~!

Not aware of its current dangerous situation, the small rabbit demon beast let out a happy squeaking sound before walking over to Xuan Hao. After having followed him, the rabbit demon beast had already understood that its best chance of surviving the large number of powerful demon beasts who wanted it dead was to continue following after him.

As for the possible danger that Xuan Hao could pose to it… The rabbit demon beast didn't think too much about this, as it had already witnessed how Xuan Hao had decided to ignore it instead of attacking it like the other demon beasts had done. Making it think that it had finally met someone who had recognized its awesome power.

"This… Does it perhaps want me to take it in?" Not aware of what was going through the head of the small rabbit demon beast, Xuan Hao could only guess what the rabbit demon beast wanted from its behavior… And in his eyes, it looked like the rabbit demon beast was trying its best to have him take it in.

Despite the fact that the rabbit demon beast might not be that strong in his eyes, it was still a demon beast in the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. Even in the entire Sky Empire, it would be hard to find such a powerful demon beast outside of a few forbidden regions. If took it in and made it a guardian demon beast for the Star Shattering Sect, the sect would be far stronger than before and at the same time, it would also serve as an encouragement for a certain lazy lion to improve its strength if it wanted to become the number one demon beast of the sect again.

It was because of this Xuan Hao didn't immediately decide to enact his revenge on the small rabbit in front of him and instead just observed it.

Squeak!

Seeing that Xuan Hao was observing it, the small rabbit proudly squeaked towards him as it thought he wanted to take in its majestic aura before deciding to show off its silky-smooth fur by rolling around on the ground to show off every single part of its beautiful fur with a prideful expression on its face.

"Is this a sign of submission…?" Muttering this to himself as he looked down at the rabbit demon beast who had suddenly begun rolling around on the ground with a somewhat weird expression on its face, Xuan Hao felt that this was a confirmation of his earlier believe that the rabbit demon beast was indeed trying to submit to him and have him take it in.

Well… If it really wants to, I don't mind making it the guardian demon beast of the Star Shattering Sect…

Whoosh~

Thinking about this as he continued observing the weird behavior of the small rabbit, Xuan Hao decided to use his dao domain to draw up a simple blood contract. Although this kind of contract was one closer to that of equals and didn't require any essence blood from the demon beast like the blood pact he signed with the winged lion demon beast, it was one of the most common kinds of contracts between humans and demon beasts.

The content of the blood contract was rather simple, the rabbit demon beast would become a guardian demon beast of the Star Shattering Sect and in return it would get spirit stones and other resources that would help it increase its strength.

As long as he was stronger than the rabbit demon beast, he didn't have to worry about it breaking the contract.

Squeak?

Not understanding the weird floating contract in front of it, the rabbit demon beast thought it was some kind of gift due to the thick spiritual qi gathered inside the blood contract that had been created by Xuan Hao-

Whoosh~

Squeak!

It dashed headfirst into the contract before absorbing it. Unknowingly accepting the blood contract in the process…

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Thump~

Squeak?

Landing on the ground as the blood contract disappeared after being absorbed by it, the rabbit demon beast let out a slightly confused squeaking sound before looking around itself with an even more confused expression on its face. Not understanding where the spiritual energy inside the blood contract had disappeared after it finished absorbing it.

The spiritual energy inside the blood contract was plentiful as it had contained part of Xuan Hao's own power. If not for this, it would have been impossible for the blood contract to work with a powerful demon beast in the Second Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. This was also the reason why the rabbit demon beast had been so tempted to absorb the blood contract in the first place. Of course… Unknown to the rabbit demon beast, this spiritual energy had been used up shortly after the blood contract had been accepted…

Not aware of this fact, the rabbit demon beast thought that it might have accidentally wasted the spiritual energy inside the contract by mistake in its earlier haste to absorb it as quickly as possible-

Squeak~

And not wasting a single second, it turned to look up towards Xuan Hao who had given it the spiritual energy with a sad expression on its small cuddly face. Almost looking like it was begging for more of the delicious spiritual energy that it had only managed to get a small taste of before it had disappeared.

This… Does it perhaps want the spirit stones that were promised according to the agreement of the contract now?

Rustle~

Squeak!

Deciding to take out a few spirit stones in front of the rabbit demon beast to test if this was the case, Xuan Hao watched as the rabbit demon beast happily jumped forward before swallowing the spirit stones in front of it in an instant before happily laying down on the ground to absorb the spiritual energy that it had just devoured. Confirming his suspicion that it did indeed want the spirit stones that was agreed on according to the blood contract.

But… What am I going to do with it now?

Looking down at the rabbit demon beast that was now laying on the ground in front of him, Xuan Hao felt a bit helpless as he remembered the powerful demon beasts who were getting closer to his current location. Even if the hill sized demon beast and the emerald serpent had not managed to detect him yet, it didn't mean that the approaching demon beast wouldn't do so. Especially considering that the emerald serpent and hill sized demon beast were busy fight with each other… And that was not mentioning the rabbit demon beast lying on the ground in front of him without the slightest care about what was happening around it.

Different from him, the rabbit demon beast didn't really have a way to properly hide its presence. On the other hand, it looked more like it was trying to get found with how its cultivation base had started leaking after it had started absorbing the spirit stones.

If not for the fact that he had jumped in and used his dao domain to block the aura of the rabbit demon beast from leaking any further, it would have been impossible for the hill sized demon beast and the emerald serpent to not have noticed its presence.

I should first assess the situation of the demon beasts before I do anything-

"This…"

Deciding to poke his head up above the tall grass to get a better idea of the current situation, Xuan Hao could not help freezing on the spot as he not only realized that the five Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts were far faster than he had expected, but they had also decided to split up and encircle the hill sized demon beast who was looking less than happy at the current situation. Unravel the Unknown, Unleash the Unimaginable: NvεlB¡n.

From the looks of things, the five Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts had all come to the single decision of encircling the hill sized demon beast from all sides.

As for the reason they would do something like this… It was rather obvious that they had come decided to team up and kill the already injured demon beast.

Even if its size and defensive powers were superior to that of an ordinary Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast, it had still been weakened to some degree by the emerald serpent's earlier attack and couldn't make full use of its power. Something that the approaching demon beasts had realized at some point in time and decided to take advantage of.

Normally, all of this would not really have been a problem for Xuan Hao and the rabbit demon beast, as he should be able to keep both of them hidden if he used his dao domain to hide the rabbit demon beast, but… It just so happened that the decision to encircle the hill sized demon beast had resulted in one of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts moving in a straight path towards the location where he and the rabbit demon beast were currently hiding.

Although his dao domain could be considered decent at hiding from others, this would only work at a certain distance if the other party was in the Soul Ascension Realm. Especially if that other party was stronger than him.

Even at their current reduced speed, it would not take more than a few seconds before one of them would be close enough to detect the small rabbit demon beast in front of him through his dao domain before also finding him!

Whoosh-!I think you should take a look at

Knowing that there was not any time to waste with the demon beast growing closer to his current location, Xuan hao decided to pick up the rabbit demon beast who was still fully absorbed in absorbing the spiritual energy of the spirit stones without the slightest care in the world before moving in the opposite direction of the approaching demon beast.

Although this would make him move closer to the hill sized demon beast, he would at the very least buy some more time for himself and the rabbit demon beast. Using the Dao of Space for short distance teleportation was not really an option, as the space around him was like an unmovable rock when he tried using his Drifting Cloud Steps. Even basic forms of spatial manipulation with his current understanding of space were close to impossible, the only thing he could barely perform was the basic flight he learnt after reaching the Domain Lord Realm-

"Hm?"

Suddenly realizing something as he was getting closer and closer to the hill sized demon beast, Xuan Hao came to an abrupt stop.

ROAR!?

Only a second later, the surprised roar of a demon beast sounded out a few hundred meters behind him, as one of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts in the process of encircling the hill sized demon beast, found him and the rabbit demon beast.

Squeak!?

Finally waking up from its spirit stone absorbing power nap, the rabbit demon beast let out a fearful squeak upon realizing that one of the demon beasts who had been chasing after it was now directly in front of it.

ROOOOOAR!

Recognizing the rabbit demon beast, the moment it heard its squeaking, the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast let out a roar filled with killing intent-

ROOOAR!

ROAR!

ROOOAR!

Alerting the other demon beasts at the same time. Instantly saving the hill sized demon beast in the process, as all of the demon beasts now turned their attention towards Xuan Hao and the rabbit demon beast.

After all, the goal of them entering the trial in the first place, was to hunt down the rabbit demon beast. In the end, killing the rabbit demon beast was far more important to them than getting rid of a possible contender for the empty void!

Swish~!

Feeling the killing intent directed towards him and the rabbit demon beast, Xuan Hao did not panic and instead used the opportunity to jump into the air before ascending at a rapid pace. Soon disappearing inside one of the clouds floating above the grass plain.

ROOAR!

Seeing this, the demon beasts on the ground let out roars filled with killing intent before jumping into the air. Intending to follow after him, but-

Bang! Bang! Bang!

All of them soon realized that they had lost their ability of flight and ended up falling back down again after having reached a height of close to a thousand meters.

Different from Xuan Hao who had comprehended the Dao of Space and used his understanding to at the very least retain his ability to fly, the demon beasts now laying on the ground with confused expressions on their faces, did not comprehend the Dao of Space and did therefore not retain their ability to fly.

If it had been a bird demon beast, Xuan Hao would really not have known how to escape, but luckily all of the demon beasts present were land based and did not have a pair of wings that they could use to chase after him…

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Roar!

Roooar!

Only able to let out roars filled with both confusion and panic after discovering that they had lost their ability to fly, the five Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts could only watch as Xuan Hao and the rabbit demon beast as they disappeared inside one of the clouds above.

Swish~

Making full use of the opportunity when the five Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts were distracted, the hill sized demon beast chose to ignore Xuan Hao and the rabbit demon beast and directly ran past the encirclement formed by the five Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast before escaping into the distant. Not daring to slow down and give them the opportunity to encircle it again.

Roar!?

Realizing this too late, the five demon beasts who had hatched a perfect plan to deal with the hill sized demon beast only a few seconds ago, were left with nothing other than a few superficial injuries from their earlier unexpected landing.

…

"That was close…" Muttering this to himself as he looked down towards the demon beasts who were left in a state of confusion after what had just happened, Xuan Hao could not help feeling relieved that he had comprehended the Dao of Space.

If not, he doubted he would have been able to escape from the five Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts together with the rabbit demon beast. Even on the off chance that he would have been able to escape, it would not have come easy.

Rustle~

Poking its small head up to survey the situation at this moment, the rabbit demon beast soon tilted its head in a surprised manner upon spotting the angry group of demon beasts below them. Not understanding what had caused them to stop chasing after them.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

Squeak? Squeak!

Turning towards Xuan Hao who was carrying it, the rabbit demon beast seemed to have thought about something, as its confused expression became one of admiration.

"…"

What in the world is this rabbit thinking about now…

Not understanding what the strange gaze filled with admiration coming from the rabbit demon beast meant, Xuan Hao decided to ignore it and instead focus his attention on the demon beasts below, or more specifically, the emerald serpent that was trying its best to hide among the tall grass next to the five Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast.

Although the tall grass had made it impossible to spot when on the ground, it became rather easy to find when standing in the air high above the tall grass.

"Hm? There are more emerald serpents around?"

However, the discovery of the emerald serpent who had been fighting the hill sized demon beast only a short moment ago, also led to the discovery of other emerald serpents hiding in the tall grass.

Observing these emerald serpents, Xuan Hao discovered that there was at least a dozen of them, with more than half of them having reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm. Unfortunately for the five demon beasts, who were still in the process of comprehending the fact that their plan had failed through angrily roaring in his direction or the direction that the hill sized demon beast had escaped in, these emerald serpents happened to be slowly closing in on them from all directions.

Even without knowing whether or not the emerald serpents were intending to attack the five demon beasts, it was rather obvious that they had also been attracted by the loud fight between the hill sized demon beast and the emerald serpent.

Wait… If the emerald serpents and the demon beasts starts fighting, won't this be a great chance for me to take advantage of the chaos to kill three emerald serpents and pass the trial this way? Considering how dangerous it will be to go and find emerald serpents by myself and the fact that I might accidentally end up getting ambushed by other emerald serpents during a fight, it should be far safer. Not to mention, even if I can fly with the help of my comprehension of the Dao of Space, I can already feel it starting to take a toll on my dantian…

Narrowing his eyes as he thought about this to himself, Xuan Hao took out a small spirit stone from his interspatial before throwing it towards one of the emerald serpents hiding in the tall grass while quietly approaching the five demon beasts who were lost in a state of anger over their failure only seconds earlier.

Whoosh~

Roar?

Even if the spirt stone was small and almost impossible to spot, the demon beast below did not take long to notice it, as they were all left in a state of confusion, wondering just why Xuan Hao had decided to suddenly throw a spirit stone down towards them-

Bang!

Hisss-!

However, as they watched the spirt stone fly straight past them and land on what just looked like an ordinary patch of tall grass, the group of demon beasts were shocked to discover a large serpent head poking up from the tall grass where the small spirit stone landed.

ROOOOAR!

ROOAR!I think you should take a look at

Discovering this, it did not take the demon beasts long to comprehend what had happened, as all of them exploded with killing intent. Someone had actually dared to use their own tactic on them!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-!

Not a second later, all five demon beasts descended on the unlucky emerald serpent who had barely reached the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm-

BOOOOOM-!

Hissss!

Hisssss!

Instantly killing it before any of the other emerald serpents could react in time to assist their unlucky companion. In the end only exposing their own locations in the process.

Swish~!

Bang! Bang!

Having already made their presence known, the emerald serpents no longer bothered hiding, as they all launched an attack on the five demon beasts, who responded in kind. Feeling more than happy at the chance to vent their anger.

Boom-boom-boom!

Soon enough, a massive battle erupted between the demon beasts and the emerald serpents, causing shockwaves powerful enough to kill anyone below the Soul Ascension Realm to spread through the endless grass field.

HISSSS!

ROOOAR!

Something that only ended up alerting more demon beasts and emerald serpents to the battle that was taking place. In the end, causing a large number of powerful demon beasts and emerald serpents to rush towards the location of the battle. Even if the first of them would need at least a few minutes, their arrival would inevitably end up making it far more dangerous for Xuan Hao to try and kill three of the emerald serpents.

But then again, this was the best way to weaken the strength of the emerald serpents enough so that he could swoop in from above and deliver the killing blow. Without this, he had no idea how long it would take him to complete the trial, nor if he could even complete it in the first place with his current strength…

"Hm? Looks like one of the weaker emerald serpents got hit and was forced to retreat." Keeping his full attention on all of the emerald serpents below, Xuan Hao instantly noticed when one of the weaker emerald serpents in the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension was injured and forced to retreat by one of the five Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts.

Swish~

Not wasting any time seeing that an opportunity had appeared, Xuan Hao rapidly descended towards the oblivious emerald serpent who had its full attention focused on the five demon beasts in front of it. Not aware of the danger from above. Only the moment Xuan Hao's sword appeared directly in front of it did it realize that it was being attacked-

Ptsh-!

Unfortunately, it was far too late for the emerald serpent at that point in time, as Xuan Hao's sword flew out from his hand before piercing through its soft underbelly. Killing it before it had any time to resist.

Swish-!

Not wasting any time after killing the emerald serpent, Xuan Hao quickly ascended back into the sky before hiding himself inside one of the clouds to wait for the next opportunity. Not intending to give the other emerald serpents a chance to take revenge for their fallen friend.

Hissss!?

Not knowing how to respond to this and with Xuan Hao already gone, the emerald serpents decided to unleash their anger on the five demon beasts, who in turn ended up being filled with even more killing intent towards Xuan Hao.

At this point in time, it would not be wrong to say that they now cared far more about killing Xuan Hao compared to the rabbit demon beast who had originally caused them to enter the celestial gate against what their instincts were telling them.

Boom-boom-boom!

Although now that they were facing the constant onslaught of the emerald serpents, who were by no means weaker than themselves, they were starting to regret that they had decided to enter the celestial gate in the first place…

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The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøvl-B1n.

Having successfully managed to kill one of the emerald serpents, Xuan Hao did not relax and instead kept his attention fully focused on the battle taking place below. Ready to move the moment one of the emerald serpents retreated from the battle in an injured state. For now, he still had to kill another two emerald serpents before the trial would be considered to have been completed.

Hissss!

Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, it looked like the emerald serpents were no longer as careless before and made sure to take things slow and avoid getting injured by the five demon beasts that they had surrounded. Even if they ended up getting injured, they would not just retreat from the battle like the first emerald serpent had done but would instead linger around the more powerful emerald serpents. Preventing him from reaching them without getting attacked by one of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm emerald serpents.

Even if the emerald serpents were busy dealing with the five demon beasts at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm, they still outnumbered the demon beasts. Not to mention, there was also a large number of emerald serpents approaching their current location, as long as they could just keep the five demon beasts from escaping and exhaust them over time, they would inevitably be able to overwhelm them.

As for the large number of demon beasts also approaching their location? These emerald serpents didn't care too much about this, as they understood that the number of approaching emerald serpents was far higher than the number of approaching demon beasts.

All things considered, the grass field was still the home of the emerald serpents and their numbers had far exceeded that of the demon beasts who had unknowingly walked into this den of serpents…

"I can't continue watching like this, or it will become impossible for me to kill the two remaining emerald serpents!" Also noticing the large number of approaching emerald serpents that slowly started to become visible among the tall grass, Xuan Hao realized that it would become close to impossible to kill any of the emerald serpents if they had a chance to gather together in a single group.

Although the number of approaching demon beasts had grown to a little over twenty at this point, the number of emerald serpents that slithering through the tall grass had already exceeded fifty, with more than half of them having reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm!

Even if he could fly, the burden it put on his dantian was not something he would be able to sustain for an extended period of time. At some point, he would have to land on the ground to recover. Placing him in danger of being attacked by the emerald serpents in an exhausted state, something that he wanted to avoid if possible.

Whoosh~!

Knowing that he was limited on time with the large number of approaching emerald serpents, Xuan Hao decided to take the chance to attack one of the weakened emerald serpents at the same time that one of the five demon beasts launched an attack towards the Peak Soul Ascension Realm emerald serpent watching over the weakened emerald serpent. Hoping that the demon beast would prevent the emerald serpent from stopping his attack.

Ching~!

However just before his attack managed to reach the exposed underbelly of the weakened emerald serpent, the weakened emerald serpent managed to block his attack before it could reach its intended target-

Bang! Bang!

Not letting this stop him, Xuan Hao continued his attack on the weakened emerald serpent. However, compared to the first emerald serpent he had killed, this one had managed to reach the Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm and was not that easy to kill within a short span of time.

Hissss!

Because of this, the remaining emerald serpents who were busy fighting with the five demon beasts quickly took notice before some of them broke off from the chaotic battle with the five demon beasts and instead made their way back to where Xuan Hao and the weakened emerald serpent were fighting. Intending to assist their injured comrade.

I have to finish things fast…

Knowing that he would be forced to run away if he had to face more than a single emerald serpent, Xuan Hao concentrated the power of his dao domain together on his sword before unleashing it in a single graceful swing down towards the weakened emerald serpent.

Fwoosh-!

Considering that the attack was in essence just the concentrated power of his dao domain, it did not stay as a simple sword attack and almost instantly transformed into a blazing sword covered in flames, representing the Dao of Fire, as it descended towards the emerald serpent-

Whoosh-!I think you should take a look at

However, this did not continue for long, as part of the flame suddenly transformed into an icy blizzard, infused with the frigid power belonging to the Dao of Ice, that began clashing violently with the searing flames belonging to the Dao of fire. Even if the power of the attack was weakening rapidly due to the fact that the attack itself had essential begun a process of destroying itself, its power was far stronger than any other attack Xuan Hao would have been able execute within such a short span of time.

Hissss!

Seeing the incoming attack, the weakened emerald serpent could do nothing to escape, as it was soon enveloped by the terrifying blizzard and searing flame. Finding itself in the middle of this violent clash between the Dao of Fire and the Dao of Ice.

Whoosh~

It was at this moment, when the emerald serpent was struggling to defend itself against the combined power of the Dao of Fire and Dao of Ice, that the edge of the blizzard and searing flames suddenly transformed into a dark and sinister purple color, which seeped into the two clashing attacks, imbuing them with a strange power that began sapping away the emerald serpents already weakened life force. Making it far harder for it to resist the constant onslaught of the searing flames and the frigid blizzard.

Swish-!

Understanding that its situation was getting worse, the emerald serpent tried to desperately escape from the area covered by the attack-

Bang!

However, it soon discovered that something had grabbed onto its body at some point in time and ended up crashing back into the ground as a result.

Hisss!?

Not knowing what had stopped it, the emerald serpent turned around to see what it was and was horrified to discover that hundreds of small purple tentacles like plants had emerged from the ground at some unknown point in time and had attached themselves to its body.

At a closer inspection, it discovered that these tentacle plants were actually transformed from the former tall grass. Making breaking them and escaping close to impossible in its current state. After all, the strength of the tall grass made it difficult to break, even for someone in the Soul Ascension Realm. Breaking more than a hundred of them? The emerald serpent understood that something like this would be hard even for some of its seniors at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm!

Hisss…!

Understanding that it would not be able to escape the emerald serpent let out a reluctant hissing sound before it was swallowed up in the clash between the searing flames and frigid blizzard. Marking the death of the second emerald serpent!

Swish-!

Having confirmed that the emerald serpent was dead, Xuan Hao didn't dare stay around for a second longer as he jumped into the sky. Barely avoiding the fangs of one of the emerald serpents who had come to help its comrade.

"Hah… That was a close call…" Only when he was safe back in the sky outside the range of the emerald serpents below did he let out a sigh of relief as he looked back down at the place where the attack containing the concentrated power of his dao domain had landed.

The ground that had been filled with tall grass had transformed into a small forest of the familiar tentacle plants that seemed keen on attacking anything that approached them, the best example of this would be the emerald serpents who had just been about to reach him, who were now struggling to get out of the tentacle plant forest they found themselves inside of.

Even if the power of the attack had already dissipated shortly after the death of the weakened emerald serpent, the power of the Dao of Corruption seemed to have attached itself to the tall grass and was using the powerful life force inside the tall grass to sustain itself and continue existing even after the qi he had supplied for the attack disappeared.

However, the most shocking thing was the fact that Xuan Hao realized that he could control the tentacle plants below. Making them continue their attack on the two emerald serpents caught inside the tentacle plant forest without using more than a miniscule amount of qi to do this.

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