Continuing his journey through the ancient forest, Xuan Hao was not elated over the fact that he had become an Artisan Alchemist and was instead a bit depressed as his only use would be teaching his disciple with the knowledge that he acquired about alchemy from the system.
"How depressing… If I have some time in the future, I should learn some more useful alchemy recipes…" Lamenting over his misfortune, Xuan Hao shook his head and decided not to think about it anymore.
After all, he had learned all those different recipes and even acquired the knowledge and skill of what could be considered a peak Artisan Alchemist.
All he needed to do was set aside the time to learn a few recipes… It should not take too much time; he was after all an Artisan Alchemist now…
"Hm?" Thinking it over for a few minutes as he made his way through the forest at a leisure pace, Xuan Hao soon felt something different as he suddenly came to a stop below a relatively smaller ancient tree with bright green leaves fluttering above as the wind passed by and shook the thin branches.
"My Nascent Soul… Feels stronger…?" Xuan Hao had a confused expression on his face as he slowly sat down below the smaller tree and began to inspect his Nascent Soul in depth.
Inspecting his Nascent Soul, Xuan Hao discovered that it had indeed increased in strength. The strength increase to his Nascent Soul was close to negligible, but it was still there.
This left Xuan Hao wondering as he thought about what had ended up causing his Nascent Soul to suddenly grow stronger all of a sudden.
"Was it because I became an Artisan Alchemist?" Thinking about it, Xuan Hao thought that this was a plausible reason.
But why had he never heard about an Alchemist having their Soul strengthened upon reaching the Artisan Realm?
Xuan Hao felt that it was unlikely that something like that would not be widespread, as even a tiny increase in strength to the Nascent Soul would allow for a cultivator in the Nascent Soul Realm to increase his chances at breaking through to the next realm.
Nascent Soul Realm Experts stuck at a bottleneck would most likely be lining up to become alchemists if they knew that their Nascent Soul would be strengthened upon reaching the Artisan Realm!
What Xuan Hao didn't consider when thinking about this, was the fact that becoming an Artisan Alchemist was not just something anyone could do and it took dozens, if not hundreds of years for an Alchemist to reach the Artisan Realm… Reaching the Artisan realm before the age of one hundred would earn one the title of genius across the Ewaria Continent!
This was also the reason why some alchemist even bothered cultivating in the first place, as their lifespan would simply be too short if they did not…
If news about Xuan Hao reaching the Artisan Realm at his age got out, it would surely cause an uproar in the alchemy community!
A normal Nascent Soul Realm cultivator would normally be able to live up to 2000 years if nothing unexpected happened to them and dedicating what would normally be 500 up to 1000 years on alchemy for a tiny increase of strength to the Nascent Soul, was simply not worth it…
But Xuan Hao did not think about this as he had no idea about the countless struggles that his peers had to go through to increase the strength of their Nascent Soul…
Rustle~
A gentle wind blew through the area and caused a few of the leaves to fall off and land in front of Xuan Hao as he blinked both his eyes before turning to look at the small tree with curious expression on his face.
Those leaves from earlier had clearly landed right in front of him on purpose… The only question that remained, was why and how…
With this in mind, Xuan Hao began to focus his attention on the smaller ancient tree and soon found several odd things about the tree.
From its oddly green and vibrant leaves that was almost glowing, to the weird patterns that seemed to have naturally formed on its trunk.
But this was not the oddest thing about the small tree…
"A hole…"
Indeed, there was a small hole hidden away at the base of the tree as its roots covered it completely. Making it hard for Xuan Hao to spot if he was not looking for it.
Even more odd, when his divine sense swept over it, he never felt anything odd about it.
Like the hole was not even there in the first place…
"Well, this is not suspicious at all, let's just enter the hole beneath the not so suspicious tree without knowing what could be waiting beneath it…" Xuan Hao rolled his eyes as he said this before quickly moving away from the small tree.
"Hm?" Having moved a few dozen meters away from the small tree, Xuan Hao suddenly felt that something was holding onto his left leg.
Whoosh!
Ching~
Cutting down at the thing holding onto his left leg with all his might, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of metal meeting metal as the thing holding onto his leg did not seem to flinch even the slightest under the sword attack along with his pseudo sword domain constantly attacking from the moment that Xuan Hao discovered it.
"C-can we talk about this…?" Seeing that he would not be able to escape, Xuan Hao looked down at the thing holding unto his left leg and smiled wryly.
The thing in question was a long tree root, that looked oddly similar to the roots that were covering the hole beneath the small ancient tree.
Rustle~
The leaves on the small tree a few dozen meters shook slightly in response and Xuan Hao suddenly felt himself being dragged into the hole by the tree root before it let go, causing Xuan Hao to fall into a giant space located beneath the small tree as the hole was quickly covered up by even more roots as Xuan Hao passed through it.
"I guess I can't get out that way… Hah… What is this? Forcing people to go and explore against their will? Was it because I didn't willingly enter the suspicious hole?" Stabilizing himself on top of his sword as he floated inside of the large open space, Xuan Hao felt like crying as he looked at the hole slowly closing up as the roots of the small tree covered it up.
Throwing a few sword attacks towards the tree roots, Xuan Hao soon gave up as he was clearly not able to breakthrough the roots of the small tree and even worse, the other parts of the large open space he now found himself in, was covered in roots as well…
Meaning he would not be able to dig himself out…
"Now… Where in the world am I…?" Inspecting his new surroundings outside of just the root covered ceiling, Xuan Hao discovered that there were a few light sources similar to the ones that he had found in the cave with the small palace.
Other than that, Xuan Hao could only tell that he was in a giant underground cave that seemed to go on endlessly in all direction, as Xuan Hao even felt like it might even cover most of the secret realm!
"Hah… Guess I will just have to look for a way out…" Sighing to himself as he looked at the large underground world spreading out before him, Xuan Hao did not feel the slightest bit happy as he began making his way in the direction where the entrance of the secret realm should be located.
At least this way he should not suddenly run into strong demon beasts at the Domain Lord Realm…
…
While Xuan Hao was making his way through the underground world of the secret realm, the Sky Empire had finally established a base outside the secret realm as they had begun to send their people inside to explore the area surrounding the entrance before determining where the secret realm was from.
After all, compared to the Nascent Soul Realm Experts like Xuan Hao, who entered the secret realm without any prior knowledge at all. The Sky Empire had a large amount of knowledge when it came to the different secret realms that existed out there and what power it might have belonged to in the past.
"So, you are saying that it might be a secret realm set up by a disciple from that sect in the past!?" A loud yell could be heard echoing out as the general that had appeared earlier on to chase away the cultivators setting up camp outside the secret realm looked towards and elderly man with a shocked expression on his face.
"Calm down general, I will contact his majesty first before we do anything. Don't enter the secret realm for now and prepare for when those people show up…" Smiling kindly in an attempt to calm down the general, the elderly man soon stood up and left the room as a communication talisman appeared in his hands, as terrifying killing intent leaked out from the elderly man upon reaching the last part of his sentence…
Forcing the poor general behind him to shiver in fear even though the killing intent was not directed towards him, as he looked at the back of the elderly man with reverence in his eyes as he disappeared out of the room they were currently inside.
"Hah, I will have to prepare before the fight begins…" Standing up after the elderly man was gone, the general once again looked like a general as he made his out of the room to order the soldiers under him to prepare for the inevitable fight that would happen.