?
As Chu Yang and Qing Yi were wondering why the number of high-level demon beasts that they were running into were increasing, Xuan Hao was still standing in front of the head of the construct. Inspecting the hole from a distance for any possible signs of dangerous demon beasts that might be lurking inside of it.
Unfortunately, even if he tried his best to search for any possible signs of demon beasts or other creatures that might be hidden inside the construct, he couldn't analyze it fully because he couldn't see more than a dozen or so meters inside the construct because of the weird plants from the Dao of Corruption blocking his line of sight.
The only thing that gave him some confidence that there wouldn't be any dangerous demon beasts or other creatures waiting to attack him the moment he entered, was the fact that he had noticed that none of the phantoms or phantom demon beasts that had been fighting all around him had appeared during the time he had been inspecting the construct.
Since he had always been able to see some of the phantoms either fighting or wandering around aimlessly during his journey to the core of the ancient battlefield, where he was now, it was rather odd that no phantoms had appeared during this period of time. Only the sound of their fighting in the distance could barely be picked up due to his powerful cultivation base.
"Haaa… Even if I encounter something dangerous, the blue divine energy left inside the feather imprint should still be strong enough to keep my life safe one more time…" Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself while touching the location between his eyebrows where the feather imprint was located, Xuan Hao began to slowly make his way towards the massive hole in the head of the construct in front of him. Not too worried about his own safety, as he had already personally witnessed just how strong the blue divine energy inside his feather imprint was!
On the other hand, part of him was hoping that he would encounter a dangerous situation that would reduce the amount of blue divine energy inside the feather imprint even further. After all, even if it had saved him once and helped improve his strength, he didn't feel too comfortable knowing that such a powerful energy was inside his body without him having any control over it…
Rustle~
Stepping inside the head of the construct, Xuan Hao pushed aside some of the weird tentacle like plants before slowly feeling the suppression of the restrictive force reach its limit. Directly rendering his Dao of Corruption useless and no different from any of the other Daos he had comprehended. Making the use of his dao domain impossible.
At least, his strength did not directly end up falling to the same level as that of a Nascent Soul Realm Expert, as the strength of his physical body remained together with the special abilities that came along with his special physique. Allowing his current strength to be somewhere around the Third Stage of the Domain Lord Realm to the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm by only relying on his physical body alone, something that would have been impossible for any other Domain Lord that didn't have some kind of special physique or divine body.
Not thinking about this for too long, Xuan Hao began making his way through the weird tentacle like plants that had been blocking his view from outside. Making sure to keep an eye on the weird plants in case they had the ability to attack. Not ruling anything out, as they were still something that had been given birth to through the Dao of Corruption.
However, in the end, he managed to pass through the weird tentacle like plants without any problems and soon passed through what should have been the throat of the colossal construct before reaching what was the core body of the construct where the stomach, heart and other organs would be located inside a human.
Of course, considering that he was not inside a large human body, these organs should not be present-
Thump-! Thump-! Thump-!
"This- A heart…?"
At least that was what Xuan Hao had expected until he saw a massive heart the size of a large demon beast. Not only that, but the heart was still beating as large black veins filled with some sort of purple liquid in the process of being pumped around the body of the construct-
Wait… Black veins, purple colored liquid…
Suddenly realizing something was off about the large heart located inside the body of the construct, Xuan Hao recovered from his earlier shock before starting to examine the heart in detail.
The heart that was easily the size of the winged tiger in its large form, was pitch black with a large number of veins containing some sort of purple liquid inside of them… But that was not the most important thing. Instead, it was the fact that he clearly felt that the restrictive power that had suppressed his strength originated from the large black heart in front of him!
Looking even closer, he got the feeling that the large black heart was not originally a part of the colossal construct but was more like some kind of parasite that was trying to take control of the body of the construct that had already been defeated in the battle that had taken place in past.
Thinking about it for a bit longer, Xuan Hao could not help looking back towards the direction that he had entered the construct's body.
For some reason, he got the feeling the size of the black heart was around the same size as the hole in the head of the construct. Not to mention, the path from the hole and into the body of the construct from the hole in the head just so happened to end at the location where the black heart was located… And if that was not enough to determine that the black heart was not originally a part of the construct, there was also the fact that the black heart was clear aura belonging to the Dao of Corruption around the black heart.
Something odd considering that the construct should have been defeated by an attack using the Dao of Corruption from what little information he had managed to gather from observing the hole in the head of the construct…
RUMBLE-!
Just at this moment, as Xuan Hao had become certain that the black heart was indeed not related to the construct and instead some parasite that should have been placed inside of it in the past during the battle that had taken place on the ancient battlefield, the space around him began trembling violently, as he suddenly felt himself slipping down towards the black heart-
"Wha-!?"
Taken aback by this sudden change, Xuan Hao took a few seconds before moving towards a small half broken stone platform to prevent himself from falling into the black heart-
Bang-!
Only just reaching it in time before it would have been too late.
"That was close…" Muttering this to himself as he looked over the edge of the half broken stone platform down towards the black heart that was not located below him, Xuan Hao definitely did not like the feeling of not being able to fly because of the restrictive force rendering his domain unusable.
"But what just happened? How come the black heart is suddenly below m-" Freezing on spot unable to finish his sentence as he was looking down towards the black heart, Xuan Hao suddenly realized what it meant for the black heart to now be located below him- The construct was not laying on the ground any longer, but was now standing up!
This realization caused a shiver to run down his spine as he now understood why none of the of the phantoms had dared to approach the crater- The parasite in the shape of a large black heart was not in the process of taking control of the colossal construct but had already been successful in taking control of the constructs body!
How much of the construct that the black heart had managed to control did not matter, as Xuan Hao understood very well that even a fraction of its power would be more than enough to kill him!
The only thing that made him feel some degree of safety at the moment was the fact that he had not felt like the black heart had noticed him and should still be in the process of trying to gain full control of the construct. Meaning that he still had a chance to escape without being found!
Hm? But how do I leave the body of the construct without the ability to use my domain to fly out…?
Suddenly realizing his current situation as he looked up towards the throat that was now located a few hundred meters above him, the hope of escaping without being noticed quickly disappeared.