Unaware of the fact that his two disciples had just engaged in their first real battle inside the mystic realm against a snake demon beast in the Nascent Soul Realm, Xuan Hao had all his attention focused on the pitch-black darkness below him as he slowly descended down the mysterious hole. Not daring to go too fast because of his limited ability to see what was in front of him with his divine sense.
Other than this, there was also the simple that he did not want to accidentally enter some kind of trapping formation like the first time he had carelessly wandered around the Main Star Peak…
Whoosh-!
Continuing down the hole for what felt like hours, Xuan Hao soon came to an abrupt stop.
"Looks like I finally reached the bottom…" Looking at the ground that was no more than half a meter away from him, Xuan Hao did not immediately land on the ground. Instead deciding to first examine it and make sure there wasn't any sort of hidden formation or powerful demon beast lurking just around the corner.
Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, his divine sense was still severely restricted by the weird power that seemed to permeate throughout the small underground space that he now found himself inside of… And after trying to search for any possible threats that might be lurking around the corner, he quickly discovered that the restriction on his divine sense had become far stronger now that he had reached the bottom of the hole.
If he could still cover a distance of around 10 to 20 meters before, his divine sense had now been restricted down to around 5 meters. Making it far harder for him to react in case he was attacked.
As for using his dao domain to search through his surroundings?
Xuan Hao had already tried doing this but found out that it had been similarly limited like his divine sense…
With this in mind, he could only slowly move around the small underground space that he now found himself inside of, as he tried his best to try and figure out what it was that had even caused the restriction on his divine sense and domain in the first place.
It was just at this moment while looking through his surroundings, that Xuan Hao suddenly discovered that the ground below him was covered in some sort of weird purplish substance-
"Wait! Isn't this purplish ground related to the Dao of Corruption!?" Not able to stop himself from exclaiming loudly after realizing this, Xuan Hao began examining the purplish colored ground below him in more detail before making sure that it was indeed similar to the ground, he had seen during his other encounters with the Dao of Corruption so far.
The only clear difference between this time and the other times was that he could not feel the presence of the Dao of Corruption.
Hm? Maybe if I use my domain through the bit of the Dao of Corruption that I have comprehended so far, I might be able to use it without it getting restricted by the weird power restricting my domain and divine sense at the moment. Even if my domain will be far weaker, it should at the very least allow me to get a proper look at my surroundings and figure out where the weird restrictive power is coming from.
Suddenly realizing that he might be able to use his little comprehension of the Dao of Corruption for the first time, Xuan Hao did not waste a single second before spreading out his domain only by using the power stemming from the Dao of Corruption.
Whoosh~!
As his domain began spreading out, Xuan Hao was excited to discover that the restrictive power did not affect his domain now that it only had the presence of the Dao of Corruption in it.
Other than feeling relieved at the fact that he would now get a chance to properly investigate his surroundings, Xuan Hao also felt a sense of unease at the fact that the restrictive power ignored his domain after it only carried the presence of the Dao of Corruption, as this made it rather obvious that the restrictive power had come from something related to the Dao of Corruption… And from what he had learnt about the Dao of Corruption so far, Xuan Hao did not feel the slightest bit excited about this new knowledge.
"What is that…?"
Just at this moment, Xuan Hao realized that there was something only a short distance from him. To be more precise, the thing in question was a rather large corpse of what he thought to be some sort of large demon beast.
Observing it more closely, Xuan Hao discovered that it had a faint and almost impossible to detect presence, belonging to the Dao of Corruption. Meaning that when it had been alive, the demon beast should have comprehended the Dao of Corruption. Not too different from the giant squid-like demon beast he had encountered inside the ruins of the ancient sect located next to the Great Poison Swamp.
The only clear difference between the two demon beast corpses being the fact that the large squid-like demon beast the size of a small mountain, was obviously far stronger than the dead demon beast in front of him now.
At the very least, he could to some degree estimate the strength of the dead demon beast in front of him now to be somewhere around the later stages of the Soul Ascension Realm, while he had absolutely no idea how strong the squid-like demon beast was. Only understanding that it should have far surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm.
"Hm? Is it just me, or is there something hidden beneath the dead body of the demon beast?"
Just at this moment, as he was analyzing the dead body of the demon beast, Xuan Hao realized that there was something hidden beneath the body of the demon beast.
Looking closer, it did not take long before he realized that the thing hidden beneath the dead demon beast was a small door that looked like nothing out of the ordinary.
Of course, that was only considering that the seemingly ordinary door was placed in the door frame of a normal mortal house. Not below the corpse of a powerful demon beast that had reached the later stages of the Soul Ascension Realm… And that was not mentioning the fact that it to some extent looked like the demon beast had died trying to ensure that the door stayed closed. Even going as far as throwing its own body on top of it!
Is it a fixed spatial passage leader to somewhere? Maybe the entrance to an ancient secret realm?
Feeling his head filling out with all sorts of thoughts as he began wondering what the door might be, Xuan Hao slowly began approaching the dead body of the demon beast that blocked him from examining the door in detail.
Thump-!
Using his domain to push aside the dead body of the demon beast after ensuring that it was indeed dead and not just pretending to take him by surprise, Xuan Hao began closely examining the ordinary looking door.
It was only after doing this that Xuan Hao realized that the ordinary looking door was not made from ordinary wood but had instead been made from some kind of spiritual wood that he had never seen or heard of before. Not only that, but there were also a few small and almost impossible to spot carvings of small birds all around the edge of the door, with what should have been the centerpiece in the middle of the door missing.
Outside of this, Xuan Hao also found out that the door was indeed some sort of spatial passage like he had first expected! The Restrictive power he could feel limiting his divine sense also came from behind the door…
Now… The only question that remained… Was where the spatial passage led to!
Would it be somewhere different on the Ewaria Continent or maybe a secret realm? No matter what it was, it would without a doubt be dangerous to enter the door and pass through the spatial passage.
After all, he had no idea if there might be a powerful demon beast like the one now laying dead on the ground beside him on the other side. Not to mention, there was always the chance of the other side of the spatial passage having degraded to the degree that entering the spatial passage would just end up sending him to somewhere random on the Ewaria Continent.
At that point in time, it would be no different from him using the talisman that the system had given to him…
"Hm? I completed the new main quest!?" Just as he was wondering what to do next, the system panel suddenly appeared in front of him. Alerting him to the fact that he had already found out what the hole in the ground was hiding.