Boom!
A large explosion once again hit the giant lizard as the Imperial Teacher immediately fell back and dodged the incoming claw that was thrown out in retaliation before resuming his attacks together with Bi Sheng.
Roar!
This continued as the group made their way deeper into the underground world of the secret realm before the giant lizard suddenly froze where it stood and hurriedly turned around to run away.
The Imperial Teacher and Bi Sheng both stopped attacking when they saw this and allowed for the giant lizard to retreat as it came to a stop a few hundred meters away where it began roaring intimidatingly towards them like it had done back at the entrance to the underground world.
"Why did it suddenly retreat…?" The Imperial Teacher wondered as he still cautiously kept an eye on the giant lizard in case it launched another attack towards them when their guard was down.
"I-Imperial Teacher… I think that is the reason!" The voice of General Liu sounded out as both the Imperial Teacher and Bi Sheng turned around to look at the place where General Liu was pointing and soon froze in shock as they stared at the giant underground palace complex spreading out in front of them.
How did we even miss seeing this earlier…? Were we too absorbed fighting that damn lizard?
Thinking about this, the Imperial Teacher quickly shook his head before he ordered General Liu to follow him towards the underground palace complex, while Bi Sheng from the Onyx Empire's side did the same and had General Zhang follow him down towards the giant underground palace complex.
"Now… How do we get in…?" Standing before the giant barrier covering the entire palace complex, the Imperial Teacher helplessly put his hand on the barrier and felt himself being repelled.
"…"
The rest of the four did not have answer and for now they decided to inspect the area around the giant palace complex. Hoping to find a way inside…
…
At the same time, Xuan Hao had just managed to make it inside the palace complex and sneakily looked down at the group of four from inside without being spotted.
The reason for him doing this was because he felt his divine sense being restrained the moment he made his way inside, so he did not really feel like it would be too dangerous to stay and see who the people following behind him were.
"They can't enter…?" Xuan Hao was both happy and scared when he saw the group not being able to enter through the barrier like him.
Happy because he would not have to worry about dealing with a group of Domain Lords. Scared because he felt like he was about to be in a dangerous situation. The fact that he was forced down into the underground part of the secret realm did not really help much either…
At this point, Xuan Hao was certain that there was a reason why he was forced down into the underground part of the secret realm and was able to enter through the barrier of the giant ancient palace complex…
But he was still not clear about why… Was it perhaps because he was talented for his age and was selected to inherit an awesome legacy of a long forgotten overpowered sect that once ruled the world…?
"Hah… No way that is true!" Shaking his head as he banished his wishful thoughts, Xuan Hao cast one last look at the group of four searching the area outside the barrier before he made his way deeper into the ancient palace complex.
Walking through the palace complex, Xuan Hao did not dare to lower his guard in the slightest as he had no idea what kinds of dangerous awaited inside.
Like this, Xuan Hao soon came upon a pavilion located inside of the ancient palace complex.
[Calm Pond Pavilion]
The small letters on top of the entrance clearly hinted that the pavilion was once used as a leisure spot of some sort in the past and Xuan Hao could not help but look over at the small pond located beside the pavilion as a few fish were happily swimming around without minding the outside world.
"Fish…?" Xuan Hao suddenly grew a bit curious as he inspected the few fishes swimming around in the pond beside the pavilion and soon discovered the fishes were not alive, they were not even fish in the first place!
Xuan Hao tried to think but could not come up with anything to describe what the fishes in the pond were in the first place, they were made up of pure qi and were not living in the first place…
Calling them a construct of the formation covering the small pond would most likely be enough to describe the small fishes made up of qi.
Walking over to the side of the pond, Xuan Hao quickly crouched down and tried picking up one of the small fished made of pure qi and immediately felt his body grow excited as it attempted to absorb the pure qi fish on its own.
"How curious… Looks like the fishes here are useful for my cultivation…" Smiling happily to himself, Xuan Hao absorbed the small fish in his hand as a wave of pure qi entered his body and directly made it to his dantian before he felt his cultivation growing stronger and improving by a tiny amount.
"If I absorb all these pure qi fish, I should be able to reach the Eighth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!" Looking over at the few hundred pure qi fish swimming around in the pond in front of him, Xuan Hao felt a wave of excitement wash over him as he waved his hand and caused all the small pure qi fish to float towards him before quickly storing them away in his interspatial ring for now.
Breaking through to the eighth stage of the Nascent Soul Realm would definitely take at least a few hours, so Xuan Hao decided to wait until he made it back to the Flying Sword Sect again. At least he would not be interrupted there and if he broke through inside the ancient palace complex, he would also have to worry about the group of four Domain Lords outside finding a way inside and finding trouble with him.
No matter what, leaving the secret realm was his top priority for now!
Thinking about this, Xuan Hao quickly turned away from the now empty pond and made his way inside of the Calm Pond Pavilion.
Seeing as there were such precious pure qi fish in the pond, Xuan Hao expected for there to be something good? inside of the pavilion as well, but this initial excitement after getting his hands on the pure qi fish did not last for long as he soon left the pavilion with a disappointed look on his face.
Like the rest of the luxurious palaces and other buildings inside of the ancient palace complex, it was completely empty!
All that was left were a few chairs and tables…
Of course, these chairs and tables were all made of precious spiritual trees, so Xuan Hao decided to take a few with him on his way out… Just to fill up his pavilion back at the Flying Sword Sect so it wouldn't look so empty anymore.
He also had two disciples so he would have to bring back some good furniture for them to fill up their rooms when he got back… All they had currently were just the standard furniture that was already filled in before Xuan Hao was given the pavilion in the first place and many of the rooms in the pavilion were empty as well.
He would have to at least fill them up for when he got more disciples in the future…
Convincing himself with this, Xuan Hao would not dare to admit the reason for him stealing away the chairs from the pavilion was due to how comfortable they were to sit in…
The tables on the other hand looked sturdy enough to endure the passage of time without a single sign of decay! Even if he cultivated for a few hundred years, he would not have to think about replacing his furniture in the future! How great was that!
Xuan Hao already knew that most of the Nascent Soul Realm Experts in the Flying Sword Sect were a few hundred years old by now and they had to replace everything in their pavilions at least a few times over as they did not want to waste things like precious metals and wood for common things like furniture when they could be used to craft powerful artifacts!
Only if they had an abundance of resources would one be able to do something like this!
Xuan Hao also felt like whoever owned the ancient palace complex in the past clearly did not care about things that the Flying Sword Sect would consider precious materials and even used it to make common furniture like tables and chairs…
Over the next few hours, Xuan Hao quickly explored the entire ancient palace complex except for the giant palace located at the centre without finding anything too precious outside of a few more pure qi fish.
"Looks like I can only go to one place if I want to find a way out…" Xuan Hao muttered this to himself as he looked towards the centre of the ancient palace complex with a hesitant look on his face.
Compared to the rest of the ancient palace complex that was empty and without any real danger, Xuan Hao clearly felt a sense of deep fear whenever he looked over at the giant palace at the centre of the palace complex.
But at this point, he did not have any other place left to explore inside the ancient palace complex!
Shing~
Drawing his sword, Xuan Hao cautiously began approaching the giant palace as the feeling of danger grew more and more intense with each step.