Waking up after his body had managed to recover from the sudden drain that the appearance of the blue flames had put on it, Xuan Hao found himself in the middle of the temple. No, it would be more accurate to say what remained of the temple. The only thing that had been left in an intact state, was the large gem that had once housed the remnant consciousness of the expert who had been killed off by the blue flames.
"What in the world was that blue flame from earlier…" Getting up from the ground as he unconsciously placed his hand on top of the location where the phoenix imprint was hidden, Xuan Hao could not help trying to use his divine sense to examine the condition of the blue divine energy that had been absorbed into the feather imprint.
Even though he could not fully examine it due to it automatically destroying his divine sense if he got too close to the blue divine energy stored inside, he was still able to figure out that the amount of blue divine energy stored inside the feather imprint had decreased after the feather imprint had activated to destroy the phantom. In the end, the total amount of blue divine energy stored inside the feather imprint had decreased by around 30 percent.
Although, when thinking about how it had been used to destroy the remnant consciousness left behind by someone who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm, it could not be considered that much of a loss. Especially considering that the blue divine energy stored inside the feather imprint was not something he had any way to use. On the other hand, it made him rather uneasy knowing how powerful the blue divine energy was and the fact that it was stored somewhere inside his body.
If the blue divine energy suddenly erupted and targeted him instead, he understood that he would have no way to resist it with his current strength. Even if he surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm in the future, it looked like it would still not be easy to resist the blue divine energy when it was used to attack.
At the very least, the blue divine energy inside the feather imprint had only ever reacted when he was in danger. Never really showing any sort of intelligence nor malicious intent towards him… But then again, one could never be too careful.
Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao turned his attention towards the large gem that had once housed the remnant consciousness of the expert who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm. Out of everything in the temple, it had been the only thing to survive even when exposed to the blue flames made from the blue divine energy. From this alone it was obvious that it was far more durable than he had first expected.
Thinking about it, his original plan to destroy the large gem and destroy the remnant conscious inside of it seemed rather stupid now. After all, if the blue flames capable of destroying the remnant consciousness belonging to an expert who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm could not destroy it, how in the world would he be able to destroy it with his current strength?
Now that everything was already over, Xuan Hao realized just how reckless he had been to enter the temple without any proper preparations or knowledge of his opponent.
"Well… Everything is already done, and I ended up coming out with only a few injuries that should have recovered in a day or two. Now… To figure out what this gem that the remnant consciousness used is about…" Muttering this to himself as he walked towards the large gem on the ground, Xuan Hao made sure to use both his domain and divine sense to ensure that there weren't some weird traps placed on the gem before he slowly picked it up and started to examine it.
Inspecting the gem, Xuan Hao soon found out that there was a small space the size of a small room located inside the gem. However, unlike an interspatial ring, he found out that he could enter the small space himself without any problems.
Not only that, but the gem also automatically absorbed qi from the outside world and transferred it into the small space. Allowing one to stay hidden inside without having to leave. In a sense, the space inside the gem could be considered a miniature secret realm that could be moved around!
Whoosh~
As he was busy trying to figure out if there was something left behind inside the small room of the gem that might be of use to him, Xuan Hao suddenly discovered another function of the gem, as he felt a slight tugging sensation stemming from the gem on his soul.
"Hm? Is this another function? A soul-based attack… But why is it so weak?"
Examining the function more closely, Xuan Hao could not help feeling bewildered over how weak the barely noticeable tugging force on his soul was. The gem was clearly a rather high-level artifact, so it made no sense for its soul-based attack function to be so weak…
Swish~
Deciding to test out what the function that soul-based attack function was trying to do, Xuan Hao left the ruined temple before finding a small frog demon beast that had only barely reached the Qi Condensation Realm.
Whoosh~
Using the soul-based attack function on the Qi Condensation Realm frog demon beast, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes as he saw the soul of the weak demon beast getting sucked out of its body before floating towards the large gem in his hands before being absorbed by it.
Only a short time after the soul of the weak frog demon beast had been absorbed, Xuan Hao watched in shock as the soul of the frog appeared inside the small space of the gem-
Whoosh-!
And not a second later, a weird power engulfed the small frog soul. Transforming it into a pure form of yin qi.
This is not a soul-based attack, but a soul absorption function!? Looks like the remnant consciousness from earlier should have belonged to a powerful demonic cultivator!
Understanding this, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine upon imagining what would have happened to him if he had not been saved by the feather imprint back then.
"Wait… The gem has the ability to absorb souls and it should have been used like this by that demonic cultivator before I showed up. Does that not mean that the fate of the blue deers father…" Muttering this to himself as he suddenly realized what had happened to the blue deer's father, Xuan Hao was greeted by the all too familiar appearance of the system as it appeared in front of him.
[Main Quest: Investigate what caused the death of the blue deer's father. (Complete)]
[Description: Investigate what could have caused the sudden death of the blue deer's father.]
[Reward: Sky Watcher's forgotten notes relating to celestial bodies.]
[Would you like to redeem the reward?]
[Y/N]
Reading through the system panel that appeared in front of him, Xuan Hao could not stop himself from smiling as he felt a sense of happiness, he had not felt in a long time because of how little he had seen the system over the past few years.
Outside of the repeatable quests that he could do again and again for a small reward, it had truly entered a state of hibernation ever since the Star Shattering Sect had been established… Or maybe this was just the system's way to show that it was unsatisfied with the fact that he had not taken in any more disciples.
Indeed, when compared to the other elders of the sect like Elder Song or Feng Chen, he had not had a lot of disciples. Even when compared to someone like Zu Fei who most of the disciples tended to avoid, he still had six or so less disciples than her.
Considering that he was also the strongest expert in the sect, he should be thinking about taking in a few more disciples in the future. Not only because it would strengthen the sect, but also because it might make the system give him more rewards and be a bit more active than it was now.
"Haa… No use thinking about that for now, I should first check out what this Sky Watcher's forgotten notes are all about." Throwing the thought of accepting more disciples to the back of his mind for now, Xuan hao redeemed the reward from the system, as a small book appeared in his hand.
The book in question did not have anything extraordinary about it and looked like an ordinary book that could be found in a normal mortal's home, but Xuan Hao understood that this did not mean it was ordinary by any means. Not allowing this to stop him from slowly opening the book.