Standing in front of the snake as he watched it threateningly hiss at him from the underground lake, Xuan Hao knew that he would not have a chance to sneak past it as he took out his sword from his interspatial ring and prepared to fight it.
"Hiss!"
Hearing the snake let out yet another threatening hiss, Xuan Hao used the opportunity to make a move, as his pseudo sword domain quickly spread out around him and soon covered the snake in an attempt to supress it while Xuan Hao went directly for the Source Crystal at the centre of the underground lake.
"HISS!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The snake was not easy to supress as Xuan Hao pseudo sword domain was easily swept away by the snake as a bright yellow qi began swirling around it followed by Xuan Hao suddenly feeling an enormous pressure weighing down on him.
"An earth domain!" Xuan Hao instantly knew what the yellow qi and sudden heavy feeling he felt was the domain of the snake bearing down on him.
Even with his pseudo sword domain, Xuan Hao could not attack in the slightest with his own pseudo domain and was instead forced to use his pseudo sword domain to defend against the earth domain of the snake bearing down on him!
The snake was way stronger than he had expected and for the first time, Xuan Hao felt the difference between someone in the Nascent Soul Realm and the Domain Lord Realm!
Facing a fully fledged domain head on was not something anyone in the Nascent Soul Realm could do without a pseudo domain of their own to set aside some of the pressure brought by a domain.
Xuan Hao knew that without his pseudo domain taking the pressure from the snake's domain off him, he would not even be able to move at the moment and instead just stand still waiting for the snake to attack him.
"Hiss! Hiss~?" Not expecting for Xuan Hao to still move after it had used its domain to supress him, the snake gave off a few confused hissing noises.
Xuan Hao used the short time of confusion to quickly close the distance between himself and the Source Crystal before quickly grabbing it and storing it away in his interspatial ring.
Bang!
Xuan Hao did not wait for the snake's reaction as he used his sword to attack the cave ceiling above to forceful dig his way up towards the surface and escape the snake below him.
The snake recovered from its confusion as it watched the Source Crystal in the middle of the underground lake being taken away before the thief in question suddenly crashed straight into the ceiling above as he soon disappeared, leaving only a small hole behind.
"HISS!"
The snake hissed once again, but this time, it was filled with madness as the snakes formerly blue eyes became blood red as it was filled with killing intent as it jumped out of the water and dug into the ceiling as it followed after Xuan Hao.
There was no way it was just going to let him escape!
Rumble!
The cave with the underground lake inside it soon collapsed as the snake's earth domain had momentarily gone out of control and destroyed the surroundings when it watched a certain thief taking the Source Crystal before running away.
…
Bang!
Xuan Hao erupted from the ground and found himself in the middle of a barley field located a few thousand meters outside the city where Bai Ning should currently be located in on the opposite side of where the forest with the underground base was located.
"Hiss!"
Xuan Hao did not manage to take in the beautiful barely field ready for harvest before an angry hissing sound came from beneath him as a giant snake head popped out from the ground and bit towards him filled with killing intent!
Whoosh!
Not daring to meet the sharp teeth of the snake that was made from some kind of precious metal head on, Xuan Hao barely manged to dodge to the side as he swung down his sword down towards the snake while executing a sword technique as he had moved to the side dodging it.
Ching~
A crisp sound of metal colliding with metal could be heard as the sword in Xuan Hao's hand bounced back after hitting the rock like body of the snake.
The snake did not seem to be affected by his attack at all as it simple shrugged it off as it crashed into the ground a few dozen meters away. Ruining the formerly good looking barely field in the process.
At least one farmer and his family would not have a good day tomorrow…
Thinking this, Xuan Hao shook his head and tried to think of a way to damage the rock like snake in front of him, as his attack earlier did not seem to do the slightest bit of damage to the snake.
Whoosh! Bang!
Xuan Hao suddenly moved and dodged the snake once again before being caught off guard as he was hit by the tail of the snake. Sending him flying for a few hundred meters before he landed in a small stream just beside the barley field.
"Maybe I could try to find a weak point in its body and-"
"Hiss!"
Before Xuan Hao managed to go over his next plan of action, the snake showed up as it quickly slithered towards him as the surrounding barley field was completely flattened under its enormous weight. Leaving behind a trail of destruction.
Not panicking upon seeing the snake coming over to attack him again, Xuan Hao attacked it head on as he used his Rain Sword Technique to attack.
Boom!
A shockwave spread out with Xuan Hao and the snake at the centre as Xuan Hao began to clash with the snake.
Using his Rain Sword Technique for both attacking and defending while trying to look for any weak spot on the snake that he could take advantage of to injure the snake.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As both parties clashed with each other, the surroundings were devastated as the nearby barely field ended up completely destroyed under the aftershock of Xuan Hao and the snake's battle.
"W-what is happening?!"
"Is the world coming to an end…?"
"M-my barley field! How am I supposed to make a living like this!?"
The battle was easily discovered by the city and few farmers living close by as everyone wore and expression of shock on their face as they looked towards the source of the large disturbance with both fear and awe on their faces.
Bai Ning was the same as he looked out of the window from his room in the inn where he was patiently waiting for Xuan Hao to return.
"I-is that Elder Xuan!?" Feeling the familiar aura coming from the distance every time the sound of an attack could be heard and felt, Bai Ning had no idea how he could even sense the aura so far away as he did not pay attention to this and was instead focused on the large fight happening in the distance.
For a short moment, a weird aura appeared around Bai Ning as he looked towards the battle happening in the distance before quickly disappearing before Bai Ning managed to discover anything.
…
"Pah! I didn't expect for them to suddenly cause the entire cave to collapse on us!" Spitting out some dirt that had gotten into her mouth, Xuefeng angrily looked down towards the place where the entrance of the secret underground was supposed to be.
"Hah, I really did not expect for that to happen as well… If I knew, I would have just killed off that Saber Lord when I had the chance!" Standing up from the ground as she cleaned her clothes, Elder Meng sighed regretfully as she remembered how the Saber Lord had used the opportunity where the cave was collapsing to quickly dash towards a tunnel before causing it to collapse behind him. Blocking both of them from chasing after him.
Originally, Elder Meng and Xuefeng wanted to escape through the entrance but after the Saber Lord escaped, he had also triggered something that caused the entrance to collapse.
With no choice left, Xuefeng and Elder Meng could only prepare themselves as they were buried alive. Only able to dig their way back out to the surface afterwards.
"But what were they doing down there in the first place and what was the weird blue crystal that those people were transporting…?" Hearing what Elder Meng said, Xuefeng could not help but ask as she looked towards Elder Meng.
"I have no idea, but it surely isn't something good, when we get back to the sect, I will inform the other about this and send a group over here to try and dig this place out and see if they find something-"
Boom!
Just as Elder Meng finished talking, a large shockwave suddenly swept over both of them from the distance.
"W-w-what was that!?" Xuefeng hurried over beside Elder Meng as she asked in a fearful voice while looking in the direction of the shockwave.
"I-I don't know, but it looks like someone is fighting… Let's go and check it out first!" Shivering a bit herself when she felt the remnant power left behind in the shockwave, Elder Meng answered Xuefeng before both of them rushed back towards the city where the rest of the people who came with them from the Spring Flower Sect were currently waiting for them.