With things returning back to a relatively calm state after the cure for the plague started circulating among the common people of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, Xuan Hao and the rest of the Flying Sword Sect happily welcomed the two Wang brothers back from the border.
More than happy to send a few resources and artifacts to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom in return for not needing to have anyone from their side stationed at the new border indefinitely. Waiting until either the Azure Sky Kingdom decided to attack or chose to retreat.
"Maybe I should start participating in more things outside of just cultivating and teaching Qing Yi and Chu Yang every now and then…" Staring down at the two Wang brothers returning under the happy cheers of the surrounding disciples, Xuan Hao could not help but mutter a bit to himself as he thought about his current position within the sect.
For everyone except a few people, Xuan Hao was just a somewhat unknown Core Elder inside the Flying Sword Sect. Most thinking he was someone from the older generation who still upheld his youthful appearance, not believing the rumours that he was only 21 years old.
"I should begin participating more in some of the events Elder Song sets up all the time, I should at least show my face a bit more around the sect…" Smiling to himself as he decided to participate in some of the events set up by Elder Song. Maybe he could even give a few pointers to them and act like a proper elder…
"Hmph?" As Xuan Hao was thinking about spending a bit more time interacting with the other elders and disciples of the Flying Sword Sect, a message appeared on his communication talisman.
"Who? Ah, Chi Hu!" Not knowing who would contact him when he was already at the sect, Xuan Hao was pleasantly surprised when he found out the person in question was Chi Hu. The person who just recently managed to breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm at the Third Star Peak.
Back then, other than inviting him to join the Flying Sword Sect, Xuan Hao had also given him a way to contact him through his communication talisman as he was leaving. This way, he could ask if there was something he wanted to discuss further in regard to becoming a Core Elder of the Flying Sword Sect.
This way, he would also not have to personally come to the Flying Sword Sect and ask. After all, how would Chi Hu know whether the Flying Sword Sect would take kindly to him rejecting the offer to join them or just outright killing him to prevent any of the other sects from gaining another Nascent Soul Realm Expert?𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
"A secret realm!?" Reading through the message that Chi Hu had sent over, Xuan Hao could not help but let out a surprised voice as he read through the message.
Chi Hu noted that he had discovered the entrance to a secret realm when travelling around the Heavenly Sky Kingdom. Other than him, there was another dozen or so Nascent Soul Realm cultivators present, most of them being lone wandering cultivators like himself or from smaller sects inside the Heavenly Sky Kingdom with only one or maybe two Nascent Soul Realm Experts in the earlier stages of the Nascent Soul Realm in them.
The discovery of a secret realm would be something that would alert all the surroundings kingdoms and if not handled correctly, could spell disaster for the Heavenly Sky Kingdom. If the secret realm was powerful enough, it might even alert the Sky Empire into action! But something like that was highly unlikely.
What was a secret realm even in the first place? This question had once been on Xuan Hao's mind when he overheard the Sect Master talking about the appearance of a new secret realm in a kingdom outside the borders of the Sky Empire resulting in the destruction of said kingdom almost overnight.
Back then, Xuan Hao had been curious about why the appearance of a secret realm could cause the destruction of an entire kingdom.
What he found out was quite astonishing, a secret realm was an independent space of sorts created by an extremely powerful Domain Lord close to reaching an even higher realm or in rare cases like the kingdom, someone above the Domain Lord Realm!
The independent space was normally not referred to as a secret realm and was only referred to as a secret realm after the past owner either passed away of left the independent space.
Manipulating space was something all Domain Lords learned about upon reaching the Domain Lord Realm and was a requirement to fly, but opening an independent space was not something any Domain Lord was cable of doing! Only those at the peak of the realm was cable of this and that was without considering the large quantity of rare and precious resources required to set up an independent space in the first place being large enough to even cause large empires like the Sky Empire to feel pain.
What miraculous use did an independent space have that made these Pinnacle Experts want to spend the time, effort and resource to set up one in the first place? This was something Xuan Hao did not know, as the few books he read never mentioned anything about the use an independent space would bring to a cultivator.
All the things written about secret realms was mostly about the countless treasures and opportunities hidden within, along with the many dangers. Ranging from traps and deadly formations to demon beasts that had lived in there for countless years.
Thinking about both the danger and opportunity that the secret realm could bring; Xuan Hao felt a bit troubled on how to deal with it.
On one hand, part of him wanted to go and explore the secret realm that Chi Hu had found, and the other part felt that it would be too dangerous and staying back at the sect to quietly cultivate would be a way better option for him.
"Hah… I can't keep just sitting around quietly all the time, I have to at least take some risk from time to time or I won't ever be able to truly reach the peak in the future without any form of struggle…" Coming to a decision, Xuan Hao informed his two disciples about him leaving for a few days before using his sword to fly in direction of the secret realm mentioned by Chi Hu.