Looking around inside the ruins of the cottage, Xuan Hao could not see anything of interest. Even after looking through the entire place with his divine sense and pseudo sword domain!
"Guess I should just find own my way out of here…!" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao took out his sword and began floating up into the air to get a better view of his surroundings and hopefully spot a path out of the underground garden.
In front of him, there were all sorts of plants everywhere covering the ground beneath him. In the area close to the gate leading into the secret realm, there was a lake as clear as a mirror reflecting the surrounding greenery under the illuminating light of the crystals above.
On the shore of the lake, a large area surrounded in a stone fence that had long since broken down with the passage of time was barely standing as the surrounding vines and other foliage had begun to take over.
Seeing this, Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes as he focused on a place inside of the area surrounded by the broken-down stone fence where the plants and foliage had not yet spread to.
Leaving it completely empty outside of a small shrine that did not show any sign of decay like the rest of the buildings in the underground garden.𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
Looking closer, Xuan Hao discovered that it was not that the surrounding plants and other foliage did not spread to the area around the small shrine but was instead because they couldn't. Almost like an invisible force of sorts had prevented them from growing any closer to it.
Whoosh~
Feeling curious, Xuan Hao flew over to the lake and reached the place with the small shrine.
"Small is most likely not the right word to use…" Standing in front of the shrine, Xuan Hao discovered that the shrine was not small at all and was at least a few dozen meters tall!
"But what is so special about it…" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao observed the shrine that was in a blue colour oddly similar to the phoenix that he had already seen on the painting in the underground part of the temple along with the mural of the main palace.
Walking up to the entrance of the shrine, Xuan Hao felt like he already knew what he would find inside before proceeding to enter.
The inside of the shrine was almost completely empty outside of the blue pillars following the theme of the outside holding up the structure of the temple itself.
On the sides of the shrine wall, Xuan Hao saw yet another gathering of paintings of the blue phoenix.
The difference was that this time around, it did not show off any kind of epic war like the last two places had done.
Instead, it showed the blue phoenix among different humans and demon beasts peacefully coexisting as they went on with their life.
The change compared to the other depictions he had seen of the blue phoenix being sealed away and fighting against the coalition of both humans, demon beasts and other mythical creatures like dragons and phoenixes was enough to cause Xuan Hao to stop for a moment to observe the paintings a second time before moving deeper into the shrine.
"So, three different depictions of the blue phoenix… One peacefully coexisting with everyone, one locked in a war against different forces and finally the blue phoenix being sealed away…
But why do I feel like I'm missing something…?" Speaking to himself in a low, barely audible voice, Xuan Hao had a confused look on his face.
Honestly, Xuan Hao did not fully understand anything about the different stories being told of the blue phoenix, but he felt like part of the story was missing.
Like, how did it go from peaceful to being at war with all those different powers and races all of a sudden? The shift was a bit too drastic…
"Another blue phoenix statue… Hah…" Staring at the familiar phoenix statue in front of him, Xuan Hao saw another blue feather similar to the first one that he had found in the underground part of the temple.
"Maybe someone already took away the blue feather that was located inside of the main palace…" Thinking about this as he picked the blue feather up and put it into his interspatial ring where the other feather was, Xuan Hao remembered the fact that the secret realm was most likely attacked by someone in the past…
Perhaps the people who attacked the secret realm in the past was after the blue feather… But why…?
Xuan Hao did not know why, but he suddenly felt a shiver go down his spine as he thought about something.
Those people would attack a secret realm for one blue feather… Would that not mean that they would also come after him in the future…?
"Ah! No use thinking about this! It's not even certain that the people who attacked the secret realm are still alive in this world. Let alone know that I have the two blue feathers!" Calming himself down, Xuan Hao decided to not think about it anymore, he would wait until he grew stronger before looking into where the blue feathers came from.
For now, he just needed to get back to the Flying Sword Sect and help both his disciples grow stronger while also increasing his strength along the way!
Roar!
"Ah!"
"Help!"
About to check the system quest that he had completed after leaving the secret realm, Xuan Hao was suddenly alerted by a loud roar in the distance as a scream of fear soon followed closely behind the roar.
"There are demon beasts down here? And a human as well!?" Showing a surprised expression on his face, Xuan Hao soon located the rough direction that the scream came from before jumping on top of his sword before quickly flying towards it.
Not daring to be too slow in case the demon beast managed to catch up and make a meal out of the person screaming for help.
Also preparing himself in case it was a trap to lure in people and ambush them…
After all, screaming so loudly in the middle of the underground garden was sure to attract more demon beasts…
The only reason Xuan Hao could see for someone to scream like that was to lure in someone and ambush them, or if they had entered the underground garden together with other people and were calling out for their help…