The path towards the main palace located at the centre of the ancient palace complex was a large path that cut straight through the complex.
Earlier on, Xuan Hao had not entered through what was the entrance to the palace complex, but instead just entered the palace complex from the side as he entered through a palace located on the edge close to the barrier.
Looking over in the direction of what could be considered the official entrance to the palace complex, Xuan Hao could not help but sigh in amazement as he felt the fear towards what was waiting for him inside of the main palace lessen ever so slightly.
The entrance was of the palace complex was a majestic and beautiful arch at least a dozen meters tall and around a hundred meters wide easily showing how huge the path leading to the main palace was.
"Hm? What is that…?" As he was observing the large arch that was the entrance of the palace complex, Xuan Hao caught sight of a certain group from earlier standing in front of the barrier only a few meters away from the arch.
"Could they have found a way inside?!" Suddenly feeling a wave of worry wash over him, Xuan Hao inspected the group of four as he quickly hid away behind a nearby building. Letting out a sigh of relief when he saw they had not spotted him earlier, too busy with something else.
Looking closer Xuan Hao discovered that one of the four was holding a weird object of sorts in one of his hands as he held it up against the barrier of the ancient palace complex.
"What are they doing…?" Watching the small object as it was placed against the barrier, Xuan Hao soon saw the barrier begin to shake violently as it began weaking in a small area around the place that the object was held up to.
Soon a small circle big enough for a person to fit through began to form as the barrier began to grow weaker and weaker around the area in question.
Xuan Hao felt shocked when he saw this and quickly turned around before making his way towards the main palace of the ancient palace complex without any of his former hesitation.
If he was not fast enough, the group of four would get inside and at that point, Xuan Hao doubted he would be able to get away easily…
…
"How long will it take before we can get inside!?" Standing outside the barrier, the Imperial Teacher was impatiently asking as he looked down at General Zhang holding up a weird object shaped like pillow made of a rare kind of spiritual metal up to the barrier of the ancient palace complex.
"It should not be much longer… From what the writing said, we should be able to get inside in another few minutes!" Focusing on holding the pillow shaped object up to the barrier, General Zhang hurriedly answered before focusing back on the barrier.
The pillow shaped object was something they had found earlier in an underground ruin close to the entrance of the ancient palace complex.
The pillow shaped object was in fact not shaped by someone to look like a pillow in the first place but was a rare spiritual metal that could weaken barriers that it came into contact with and allow someone to pass through.
At least that was what was mentioned in the little writing they found beside the pillow shaped spiritual metal…
Only when the group saw the effects of the pillow did they begin to believe in its effect. Now all they could do was wait as the pillow created a path through the barrier and into the ancient palace complex.
This of course did not stop the Imperial Teacher from wanting to enter the ancient palace complex as quickly as possible.
After all, the more time they wasted, the higher the chances of someone other than the Sky Empire and the Onyx Empire showing up was…
Luckily for both of them, the secret realm was located close to the border between the two empires and there was not really any other powerful force close by and the different religions never interfered in things like secret realms as it was useless for them given the fact, they followed a different system compared to cultivators.
Demonic cultivators and normal cultivators were the only people interested in secret realms. At least given the fact that they did not know much about the secret realm…
The Imperial Teacher and Ancestor Bi Sheng were both sure that the different religions in both their empires would very likely be interested if they knew who the secret realm belonged to…
…
Entering the main palace of the ancient palace complex, Xuan Hao was amazed at the sheer size of everything in front of him.
Even the main gate leading into the palace itself was several dozen meters tall!
From here, Xuan Hao could also see how big the underground part of the secret realm had gotten.
Compared to where he first entered where the gate of the main palace alone could easily reach the ceiling filled with roots. Here Xuan Hao had to look closely to see the ceiling several thousand meters above him.
"Hm?" Looking up, Xuan Hao discovered something interesting as a giant pillar similar to the formation pillars from earlier had pierced directly down through the barrier of the palace complex and into what Xuan Hao assumed was the core area of the main palace!
"But how come I didn't see it earlier…" Wondering this, Xuan Hao closely observed the pillar many times bigger than its counterparts and discovered that it was located around the same area that the entrance of the secret realm was above the ground.
"Is it connected to the entrance of the secret realm…? But why would the entrance of the secret realm pierce into the palace complex underground? Surely, they didn't want to destroy their own palaces…" Looking at the roots covering only a small part of the giant pillar as they seemed unable to hold it back like the past pillars, Xuan Hao felt that the formation pillars might not have been set up by the owner of the secret realm but was instead from someone who might have attacked the secret realm in the past!
Thinking about it in this way, Xuan Hao felt a little confused when he thought about all the different ruins he had seen above ground.
Maybe it was indeed a training ground in the past, but it most likely looked completely different from the ancient forest that he had seen above…
Xuan Hao could not make sense of the different ruins he had seen above like the small underground palace and the temple; both did not really seem to fit in if it was indeed a training ground for younger disciples in the past…
All in all, Xuan Hao decided not to think about it anymore as he began making his way inside of the main palace through the giant gate. The fear he had earlier was completely replaced by curiosity as he was interested in finding out what had happened in the secret realm in the past.
A foreign power invading one of the training grounds of the sect that the secret realm belonged to in an attempt to kill of their younger generation and weaken their future power?
Maybe the owner of the secret realm had betrayed the sect he belonged to in the past and was therefore destroyed as a result?
Or it could be a simple result of offending the religions on the continent… They seemed to have a history of banding together whenever someone tried to take away their faith and begin to gather followers of their own…
The temple in the ancient forest above ground could be related to this…
"Hah… I will never know if I just let my imagination run wild!" Shaking his head as he thought about all the different reason as to what had happened in the secret realm in the past, Xuan Hao made his way into the main palace of the palace complex.
…
"Hah… I will definitely not return without finding out what is hiding in here!" At the same time that Xuan Hao entered the main palace of the ancient palace complex and the group of four was close to breaking through the barrier and entering the palace complex as well, a certain wanderer appeared in the area close to the ancient palace complex as he looked over towards it with a passionate expression on his face.
"With this artifact I will be able to enter even with those four around!" Thinking this to himself, the wanderer made his way over towards the group of four as a small artifact in the shape of a belt was firmly sitting around his waist as it produced a weird mist around him that kept him completely hidden from the outside world.
The giant lizard demon beast was only a few hundred meters away as it kept its gaze focused on the group of four that it had fought earlier.
Completely oblivious to the wanderer that had just appeared beside it a moment ago.
All it saw was just a small mist that passed by and drifted over towards the direction of the four people it kept its eyes locked on. Nothing unusual…