Continuing to move deeper into the ancient battlefield, more and more phantoms began appearing. Even the more aggressive kind that started fighting with other phantoms started to become more common. Not only limited to phantoms of demon beasts, but also started to include human shaped ones.
Luckily for Xuan Hao, it looked like the aggressive phantoms were far too busy fighting with the non-aggressive phantoms to care about him. Allowing him to travel through the ancient battlefield relatively easily by avoiding the locations where the phantoms were fighting.
During this time, he also managed to gain a better understanding of the phantom fighting with each other. Realizing that the non-aggressive side that would ignore him even if he walked right next to them belonged to one of the sides who had participated in the battle that had taken place on the ancient battlefield in the past, while the aggressive phantoms made up from both demon beasts and human like figures belonged to the other side.
Other than this, he also found out that the aggressive phantoms were far more numerous when compared to the non-aggressive ones, who in turn were stronger than the aggressive phantoms on average. Making the overall fight between the different phantoms equal and without a clear winner. Resulting in every single battle he had witnessed so far ending with both parties exhausting their strength and dissipating into a cloud of energy that soon disappeared from the ancient battlefield.
However, after having seen this happen over a dozen times, Xuan Hao realized that the phantoms didn't die after this and instead seemed to hide away in some unknown location to recover the energy they had lost before coming out to fight again in future. Repeating the cycle of fighting, recovering and going back to fighting over and over again.
Thinking about it, this constant cycle of fighting was most likely the main thing that had prevented the ancient forest that had once covered the ancient battlefield from recovering again. Ensuring that only a few trees were able to stand around the outer edge of the ancient battlefield where the fighting didn't take place as often as the deeper parts of the ancient battlefield where most of the powerful experts had perished in the past.
Boom-boom-boom!
Just at this moment, the familiar sound of fighting sounded out from behind him, causing Xuan Hao to turn around-
BOOOOM-!
However different from the fight between two phantoms that he had imagined, he was instead met with the sight of two massive demon beast phantoms overwhelming one of the non-aggressive phantoms. Destroying it through one of the demon beast phantoms sacrificing itself to let its companion land a deadly blow on the non-aggressive phantom. Leaving behind one of the two demon beast phantoms that soon turned around and looked directly at Xuan Hao who had watched the entire ordeal play out filled with killing intent.
This… Looks like it's time for me to leave…
Whoosh-!
Understanding very well that he stood no chance against the phantom demon beast even when it had been significantly weakened, Xuan Hao didn't waste a single second before turning around and escaping.
ROOOOAR-!
Roaring loudly filled with killing intent after seeing that Xuan Hao had decided to escape, the demon beast didn't waste a single second before it used all of its power to chase after the escaping Xuan Hao. Showing no care for the fact that it was rapidly using up what little energy it had left. Only caring about catching up to Xuan Hao as quickly as possible so it could kill him.
Swish-!
As it caught up to Xuan Hao in less than a second, it gathered all of its remaining power into its large claws the size of normal human before swiping down towards him in a simple yet powerful attack. The power of the attack instantly locking on to him, while at the same time sealing the space all around him. Preventing him from dodging the attack and forcing him to face it head on.
This damnable demon beast… Is it trying to use all of its remaining energy to launch a final all-out attack to kill me before dissipating!?
Cursing silently to himself as he saw this, Xuan Hao gathered the power of his dao domain in an attempt to resist the claws heading down towards him-
WHOOSH-!
"Ah!? My Domain!?"
Just at this moment, he was rudely reminded of the fact that his dao domain was useless on the ancient battlefield, being forcibly suppressed the moment he attempted to use it to defend himself from the deadly attack of the phantom demon beast. Leaving him only capable of using the Dao of Corruption to defend himself against the attack… Something that would not end up well considering that even with his full strength, his chances of surviving would still be abysmal.
Crack~!
And as he expected, the claw attack of the phantom demon beast managed to almost instantly destroy the meager defenses he had formed with the Dao of Corruption. Leaving his only hope of survival up to the phoenix imprint-
BANG-!
However, just before the claws of the demon beast managed to hit him, a simple spear appeared out of nowhere and directly blocked the claw of the phantom demon beast before turning to stab straight through it.
ROAR!?
Killing it on the spot within the next instant… Or at least making it forcefully dissipate for now.
"Huh?"
Leaving Xuan Hao in a state of bewilderment over what had just taken place. Only capable of staring towards the small cloud of energy representing the phantom demon beast slowly disappearing.
Swish-!
Not waiting for him to respond, the phantom charged into the distance where another demon beast phantom had appeared.
Boom-boom-boom!
Soon enough, the sound of fighting could be heard from the distance, as the phantom with the spear clashed with the demon beast phantom.
I should just continue to move deeper inside the ancient battlefield and finish the main quest before leaving this place…
Not knowing what to say, Xuan Hao decided not to think about it as he just turned around and continued making his way towards the center of the ancient battlefield, while also deciding to not carelessly approach the phantoms. Instead deciding to get as far away as possible if he spotted any of the aggressive phantoms. No longer feeling as excited as before about learning more about them…
Whoosh~!
Like this, Xuan Hao slowly continued moving deeper and deeper into the ancient battlefield. Finding the phantoms appearing more often and stronger than before, while at the same time also feeling the suppression from the restrictive power starting to affect his strength and in turn also the speed that he could travel.
In the end, Xuan Hao was just about to give up and make his way back towards the spatial corridor, when he suddenly spotted something different from the war-ravaged terrain appearing on the ancient battlefield.
In the middle of a crater spanning close to a dozen kilometers, a large construct easily the size of a small mountain was laying down in the middle of the large crater. Almost like it had entered a state of deep sleep or simply just run out of energy to continue operating… But what was even more shocking than this, was that the origin of the strange restrictive power seemed to originate from somewhere inside the colossal construct!
"Look like I won't have to turn around and leave the main quest for a later time!" Smiling to himself as he said this, Xuan Hao entered the massive crater before slowly starting to make his way towards the colossal construct.
In the process, he didn't notice that the phantoms that had almost always been visible and fighting around him had completely disappeared from sight at this point in time. The few that could still be heard fighting in the distance were all far away from the large crater, with none of them getting within a certain distance of the crater itself.
…
"This thing is really amazing… Really leaves one wondering just how powerful this thing was back when it fought, was it in the realm above the Soul Ascension Realm or maybe even stronger than that? How powerful would someone have to be to have the ability to create something like this?"
Arriving at the foot of the colossal construct, Xuan Hao could not help whispering this to himself with a look of awe on his face. Feeling a sense of admiration towards the person who had managed to build the colossal construct in the past. Feeling that the person should have reached a realm far beyond his current understanding.
Standing around and observing the construct for a few minutes to try and comprehend some of the intricate inscriptions still visible on it, Xuan Hao could only give up after realizing that he had no way to understand any of the inscriptions left on it.
Turning his attention away from the feet of the construct and instead focusing his attention on the rest of its massive body. Trying to search for a way inside.