Walking through the main gate of the palace, Xuan Hao soon found himself in an overgrown garden with the nearby trees and foliage having overgrown the path forward completely.
In the past it would most likely have been a beautiful path filled with lush trees and plants on the side, but by this point they had all overgrown the entrance of the palace. Making it stand out from the rest of the ancient palace complex as Xuan Hao felt like he had returned to the ancient forest above once again.
The sheer contrast caught Xuan Hao a little of guard as he quickly began to take in his surroundings before following along the original path into the main palace of the ancient palace complex. Finding the beautiful architecture of the place eye opening and amazing at the same time. After all, it showed no sign of the passage of time outside of the overgrown plants and trees over the years.
"This should be the main part of the palace…" Walking through the path covered in foliage and trees, Xuan Hao soon arrived in front of hall leading into the main area of the palace.
The entrance was even more majestic compared to the entrance of the palace complex, with different phoenixes and dragons being carved into the door as they seemingly roared each other while engaged in some sort of battle for power.
Xuan Hao almost felt like they were alive as he placed his hand on the big door leading into the main hallway of the palace and pushed it open with no resistance. Not being able to stop himself from looking at the beautiful carvings of phoenixes and dragons on the door one more time before continuing deeper into the palace.
"How large…" Entering the hallway, Xuan Hao could not help but let out a sound of disbelief as he stared at the ceiling several hundred meters above him.
A giant mural covering both the sides and the ceiling of the hallway spread out before him as Xuan Hao could not help but feel the sheer dedication of whoever painted such a large mural in the past.
Observing the mural, Xuan Hao soon discovered that it was describing an epic battle between all sorts of heroic figures and mythical creature fighting with each other over long forgotten feuds.
Trying his best to grasp the story told by the mural on the walls of the hallway. Xuan Hao could only shake his head and give up as the story told was not something he was familiar with, nor was it something he knew anything about in the first place. All he could grasp was the fact that an epic fight had happened in the past and the owner of the secret realm might have even been a part of it…
Maybe that was the reason why the secret realm had been attacked in the past…? Something to do with the war depicted by the mural in the hallway…
Thinking about it, Xuan Hao felt like it made sense and continued slowly walking through the hallway as he tried his best to remember the different figures on the mural. Hoping he might be able to find out something in the future if he happened to find a historical record of one of the people on the mural…
"This is!?" Coming to the end of the hallway, Xuan Hao saw a large door leading into what could only be the throne room of the palace, but this was not what caused Xuan Hao's surprise.
"The blue phoenix from the temple…?" Indeed, at the end of the hallway, the mural showed the giant blue phoenix that he had seen earlier on the painting inside the temple flapping its wings as a wave of ice froze the surrounding dragons, phoenixes and humans on the spot.
Compared to the painting where the blue phoenix being sealed away, the mural showed the blue phoenix defeating its opponents as it majestically looked down on the battlefield from above, causing the surrounding dragons, phoenixes and humans to be filled with fear as they looked up towards it.
This was a stark contrast compared to the painting he had seen in the temple where the blue phoenix was sealed away by the combined alliance of humans, phoenixes and dragons…
Perhaps the war on the mural in the hallway happened at an earlier date before the blue phoenix was sealed or perhaps one of the two were wrong…
Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao knew that it was no use for him to ponder about these things for now. First, he would have to become stronger, or he might have an unfortunate end looking into things he shouldn't…
After all, there had to be a reason why such an epic war was unknown by most and Xuan Hao felt that it did not have to do with the passing of time…
Creak~
Pushing open the door to the throne room, Xuan Hao opened his eyes wide as he saw a rather familiar tree rooted firmly in the middle of the throne room.
The thing that shocked Xuan Hao however was not this and was instead the giant pillar that descended from above and into the main palace through the ceiling of the throne room and stabbed directly into the ancient tree, breaking the tree in half.
Xuan Hao could easily see the fact that the ancient tree was in the process of dying and had been in that state for a long time.
It was also at this point that Xuan Hao became certain that the formation pillars were indeed part of an attack on the owner of the secret realm in the past…
In that case, the entrance to the secret realm that he had used to enter, was most likely not the real entrance but instead one created by the attacking party when trying to invade the secret realm in the past!
"If that is the case, then…" Looking around the throne room, Xuan Hao soon discovered a large gate of sorts that remained shut located at the place where the throne would normally be.
The main palace was the place where the real entrance of the secret realm was located!
Seeing the real entrance to the secret realm, Xuan Hao began to understand things a bit more as the palace complex was most likely a city of sorts where the different people under the past owner of the secret realm had lived…
Rustle~
As he was beginning to put things together about what he had seen in the secret realm so far, Xuan Hao was suddenly brought back to the real world again upon hearing the familiar rustling sound of the ancient tree that had thrown him down into the underground part of the secret realm in the first place.
"You… Why did you want me to come here…?" Staring over at the ancient tree as he said this, Xuan Hao had already understood that there was a reason for the ancient tree to get him to come here in the first place.
After all, given its strength, Xuan Hao did not doubt that even injured and close to death, it would still be able to kill him without too much effort. The fact that it could easily beat him and throw him into the underground world with no trouble at all only strengthened this belief.
Rustle~𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦
The tree waved its branches in answer as Xuan Hao suddenly felt himself freeze.
How would he understand what the tree was saying to him...? He did not speak tree…
As Xuan Hao was thinking about how to understand what the ancient tree was trying to tell him, it suddenly waved its branches more aggressively as they began to shine with a gentle green colour as a wisp of qi drifted off it and floated in front of Xuan Hao.
Swoosh~
At the same time, the blue feather inside of his interspatial ring flew out by itself and absorbed the wisp of qi from the ancient tree before shining in a gentle light blue colour before returning to its former state and landing in Xuan Hao's hands.
"W-what just happened!?" Looking at the blue feather still gently glowing in his hands, Xuan Hao inspected it without finding anything and could only reluctantly put it back in his interspatial ring before focusing back on the ancient tree again.
From the looks of things, there was indeed more to the blue feather from the temple…
Crack~
"You got to be kidding me…" Looking back at the ancient tree, Xuan Hao felt that whatever it had just done exhausted it completely and it could no longer hold back against the giant pillar as it slowly began to descend down through the ancient tree.
Bang!
A loud sound echoed through the entire underground world as the pillar split the ancient tree in half and pierced into the ground below.
[Side Quest: Find the core of the Secret Realm Formation(complete)]
[Reward: Continue side quest]
[Would you like to continue the side quest?]: [Y/N]
Feeling the entire underground world shaking violently after the death of the ancient tree, Xuan Hao heard the familiar sound of the system.
Even an idiot would realize that the giant pillar at the centre of the secret realm supressing the ancient tree would be the core of the giant formation!