?
Travelling through the ancient battlefield, Xuan Hao also felt that the restrictive power had grown stronger and had started to forcibly supress his power. Luckily it did not take him long before he discovered that he could use the Dao of Corruption to negate this suppression.
The only problem was that it would be harder to negate the stronger the suppression grew. Although he could keep it from affecting his strength for now, he also understood that if the restrictive power continued to grow stronger, he would not be able to stop it from negatively affecting his strength!
At the very least, the ancient battlefield was devoid of life, and he didn't have to worry about having to fight any demon beasts. The only real thing he had to look out for so far, was the remnant energy left behind by the powerful cultivators who had once fought on the ancient battlefield.
The remnant energy left behind by a Domain Lord Realm Expert or Soul Ascension Realm Expert might not be so threatening given how much they had weakened over the years and the fact that he was in the Initial Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm… But the same could not be said about the remnant energy belonging to cultivators above the Soul Ascension Realm!
Although he had only encountered the remnant energy of cultivators above the Soul Ascension Realm twice so far and it had been far away from him and hadn't really posed any threat, Xuan Hao still managed to feel just how terrifying the power still left after thousands upon thousands of years had passed.
Even if his strength was above that of a normal Soul Ascension Realm Expert, he still understood that he would stand no chance of resisting that remnant energy. The most he would be able to do if it targeted him, was try his best to escape as fast as possible…
"Hm? That is-!?"
Lost in his own thoughts as he was slowly making his way towards the core of the ancient battlefield, Xuan Hao could not help freezing on the spot as he suddenly noticed a figure moving in the distance. Not daring to move a single muscle as he inspected the lone figure moving in the distance.
"Another phantom!?" Not able to stop a shiver from running down his spine as he realized that the lone figure in the distance was a phantom like the one belonging to the demonic cultivator he had encountered in the temple, Xuan Hao tensed up as he prepared to escape back towards the spatial corridor in case the phantom started moving in his direction.
"It's not doing anything…?"
However, after noticing that the phantom didn't do anything over the next five minutes and just wandered around aimlessly without any clear goal in mind, Xuan Hao began relaxing his expression as his earlier fear of possibly encountering another life and death situation, turned into one filled with curiosity.
Given that his knowledge about these kinds of phantoms formed by remnant souls of powerful experts was extremely limited, Xuan Hao wanted to know more about them. Not only because it would help him come up with ways to fight them, but also because it might give clues as to what the realm above the Soul Ascension Realm was and maybe even help him in reaching that realm.
After all, the only thing he understood about the phantoms, was the fact that they had been constructed by the remnant souls of a powerful experts above the Soul Ascension Realm. Other than this, he had no idea them.
For this reason, Xuan Hao could not stop himself as he slowly approached the phantom aimlessly wandering around not more than a few thousand meters away from where he was standing. Making sure that he didn't approach too fast as he still wanted to be able to escape in case the phantom suddenly decided to attack him.
ROOOOAR-!
Just at this moment as Xuan Hao had managed to get within a hundred meters of the phantom aimlessly moving around in front of him, a loud roar echoed through the ancient battlefield. Shattering the silence that had been ever-present before.
"What in the world is that…" Turning towards the origin of the loud roar, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine as he had clearly felt the terrifying power behind the roar not being the slightest bit inferior to the phantom, he had been slowly approaching in the hope of learning more about it.
Not only this, but when Xuan Hao turned to look towards the phantom, he discovered that the roar had caused it to similarly stop and turn to look in the direction that the roar had come from. The only difference was that instead of the slight fear present in his own eyes at the possibility of encountering an opponent above the Soul Ascension Realm, the only thing present in the eyes of the phantom was a deep and terrifying killing intent.
"This is… Looks like I have to get out of here before the owner of the roar from earlier shows up…" Discovering the look in the eyes of the phantom while also feeling a terrifying aura rapidly approaching his current location, Xuan Hao understood that it would be best of him to leave the place before the phantom and the owner of the roar started fighting with each other… And given that the owner of the roar appeared from the outer part of the ancient battlefield, Xuan Hao could only proceed deeper inside the ancient battlefield as he doubted the owner of the roar would leave him alone like the phantom had done.
Not to mention, the roar had clearly come from a demon beast. Meaning that he would soon see the first real living being ever since stepping foot on the ancient battlefield, something that both excited and terrified him at the same time, as it would mean he would have to be far more careful when exploring the deeper part of the ancient battlefield where some of these powerful demon beast might have decided to set up nest due to the higher concentration of qi on the ancient battlefield, that only increased the closer to the core one got.
…
"This should be far enough away…"
Having made it on to a small hill that had been cut in half by a giant sword whose remains still littered the ground around the hill, Xuan Hao came to a stop before turning to look back towards the phantom that remained frozen on the spot while staring in the opposite direction of him filled with killing intent.
ROOOOAR-!
Not a second later, a large demon beast the size of the small hill he was standing on top of, came charging towards the phantom filled with killing intent.
"Another phantom…?" However, when he saw the demon beast, Xuan Hao discovered that it was also a phantom and not a real living demon beast like he had expected after hearing the loud roar earlier.
Swish-!
Not wasting a single second after spotting the phantom demon beast, the humanoid demon beast that had been standing silently ever since hearing the roar charged forward as an almost invisible weapon made from pure energy manifested in its hands.
BOOOM-!
Following this, the two phantoms, one humanoid and one demon beast violently clashed with each other, causing even Xuan Hao standing far away to get forced down to the ground by the terrifying shockwave created from the two clashing with each other!
How powerful… And to think this is only the power left behind by a small remnant soul…
Watching as the two fought with each other, Xuan Hao could not help feeling amazed once again over just how powerful those above the Soul Ascension Realm were. Even if he had yet to meet a single person that was still alive and above the Soul Ascension Realm, the little interaction he had with the remnant souls of these powerful experts was more than enough to understand that he still had a long way to go if he wanted to be strong enough to keep himself and his sect safe in the future.
At least by observing the two phantoms fighting with each other, Xuan Hao managed to gain a deeper understanding of the power of someone above the Soul Ascension Realm.
Unfortunately for Xuan Hao, the battle did not last for long, as the two phantoms ended up exhausting what little energy they had-
Whoosh-!
Resulting in both of them losing their form and turning into clouds of energy that soon faded away like they had never been there in the first place. Only leaving behind the aftermath of their fight as a testament to what had happened.
In the end, Xuan Hao could only watch as everything on the ancient battlefield grew quiet once again. The only change to the battlefield being a few more battle scars that would end up indistinguishable from the rest of the battlefield in another few years.