"There really are way more ruins around here than I expected…" As he was travelling along the ground this time around instead of flying high above the ancient forest, Xuan Hao managed to encounter several ancient ruins.
But this also made Xuan Hao start doubting whether this ancient forest was truly a testing ground in the first place or something different.
After all, why would they place so many random buildings inside of the ancient forest if it was just for testing disciples in the first place? Perhaps it was for something other than just testing?
Thinking about this, Xuan Hao realized that the different ruins he had found so far included a temple, a pagoda with cultivation techniques and mantras and several living quarters so to speak.
At this point, Xuan Hao felt that the secret realm seemed more like a part of the ancient sect that controlled the secret realm compared to a testing ground for disciples to come…
"Hah… I really don't understand…" Shaking his head a bit as he thought about this, Xuan Hao suddenly turned his head around as he sensed a large group of people a little farther away locked in combat.
"Hm…? Seems like there is another ruin over there as well…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao did his best to conceal himself with the help of his pseudo sword domain helping him blend into the surroundings before moving over in the direction where he had sensed the large group of people fighting.
The concealment from his pseudo sword domain was something he only found out about recently when playing around with it as he made his way back towards the secret realms entrance and was something anyone with a pseudo domain could do.
It was useful for concealing oneself from those without a pseudo domain yet but was completely useless if someone else had a pseudo domain or a real domain already.
So, with his new concealment technique, Xuan Hao slowly made his way towards the large group of people. Praying that there was not anybody there that could spot him in case he was viewed as an enemy of sorts…
…
Boom!
A little farther away from Xuan Hao, a large explosion suddenly echoed out through the surroundings as a few figures could be seen flying through the air before crashing into a large ancient tree besides a small ruin of what looked like a house.
"H-how? W-why are the people from the Fire Blood Gang here…?" One of the figures who crashed into the ancient tree struggled to stand up again as he fearfully looked over at the person responsible for his and his teammates current state.
The person in question was a beautiful young lady in her early twenties dressed in a pure white robe, or at least she looked like that… Her true age was most likely far from being some young lad…
After all, female cultivators tended to enjoy their young looks and went through all sorts of different techniques to make sure they appeared young and beautiful for as long as possible.
This had led to quite an interesting development when it came to dao couples where most of the females forced their partners to take on a youthful look like themselves, as it would look a bit out of place for someone looking like she was twenty or so walking together with a kind looking grandpa…
"Hmph! I didn't think a beautiful lady from the Flowing Cloud Sect would show up here, hehe!" Licking his lips with a lewd smile on his lips, the leader of the group made his way forward towards the weak looking young lady just as Xuan Hao arrived at the scene to see this.
What the hell did I just walk into…? Where is the hero saving the damsel in distress?
Watching the leader of the Fire Blood Gang making his way towards the clearly weakened lady from the Flowing Cloud Sect, Xuan Hao decided to observe the situation for now as he had clearly sensed a familiar presence among the group that were thrown back earlier together with the young lady.
Sitting back and preparing to watch a show, Xuan Hao recalled what little he could about the Flowing Cloud Sect and the Fire Blood Gang.
Both of them belonged to the Cloud Sky Kingdom located quite a distance away from here, but the Fire Blood Gang was a well-known bandit group with several Nascent Soul Realm Experts in it that terrorized a lot of kingdoms close by as they often went outside the Cloud Sky Kingdom to either rob someone or recruit new people.
All in all, Xuan Hao was not that surprised about their appearance in the Secret Realm, but the lady from the Flowing Cloud Sect.
No matter what, she should not have appeared so far away from the Cloud Sky Kingdom but here she was…
"You will have to pass through me if you want to lay your hands on the young lady!" Just as Xuan Hao was lost in thought, a familiar voice echoed out as Xuan Hao immediately turned to look at the person that appeared in front of the young lady.
"Old Ji!" The young lady exclaimed the moment the person appeared to block the bandit leader from moving any further.
"Heh, so you want to block me? Let's see what you got then, don't go flying like last time! Haha!" Bursting in loud laughter along with the rest of the bandits. The leader had an amused look on his face as he walked forward with a huge double headed axe in hand.
"Old Ji, hurry and run away! You can still escape if I buy some time!" The lady pleaded with the elderly man standing in front of her as she desperately pleaded for him to leave her behind and leave.
"No, I will stay my lady. Get ready to run away when we start fighting!" Saying this, Old Ji prepared to face the bandit leader as he ignored the pleading voice of the young lady behind him.