Roar-!
As the phantom demon beast let out a roar before charging towards him, Xuan Hao continued to move through the battle zone of the phantoms.
The phantom fighting with the phantom demon beast should not let go of such a good chance to attack…
Thinking about this as he turned to look towards one of the phantoms that had just lost his opponent, Xuan Hao decided to ignore the approaching phantom demon beast. Instead focusing all of his attention on dodging the powerful attacks of the other phantoms that happened to fly in his direction from time to time.
Roar?
Boom!
Just like he had expected, a loud explosion soon echoed out behind him, as the phantom that had just lost his opponent, had taken advantage of the phantom demon beast ignoring him to launch a powerful ball of fire that had instantly evaporated the phantom demon beast. Reducing it to nothing more than a barely visible mist that slowly drifted away before disappearing into the distance.
Not too long after this, the two sides that had been equal with each other just a moment ago, suddenly ended up becoming one-sided. The side that had lost to the phantom demon beast getting killed off one by one before only a single phantom remained helplessly fighting against six phantoms by the point Xuan Hao reached the edge of the battle zone established when the phantoms had first started fighting with each other.
RUMBLE-!
However, just as the last phantom was about to get destroyed by the combined might of the six remaining phantoms on the other side, the ground beneath them suddenly shook, as the construct appeared at the edge of the battle zone where the remaining phantom were gathered.
Turning around to see the construct that had just appeared within his vision, Xuan Hao froze for a short moment before continuing to escape in the opposite direction of the construct.
I didn't expect for it to change so much…
Remembering the appearance of the construct at the edge of the battle zone as he used all of his strength to increase his speed, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine.
Compared to the time when the black heart had just managed to take control of the construct, the construct that had appeared at the edge of the battle zone established by the phantoms, was completely different!
Not only was the entire head of the construct covered in all sorts of tentacle like plants that had come together to form some sort of mouth at the hole that he had entered the body of the construct not too long ago, but the rest of the construct's body had also started cracking apart, as several familiar tentacle-like plants could be seen growing from the cracks.
It had indeed started transforming into some kind of abomination of the Dao of Corruption. Similar to the one's he had seen when he had first comprehended the Dao of Corruption. The only difference being that the construct was far larger than them!
As he was only focused on escaping before the construct could catch up to him, Xuan Hao didn't stay to witness what was going to happen to the phantoms that were now standing directly in front of the construct.
But if he had stayed behind to witness what was happening, he would be met with the single horrifying image of the colossal construct grabbing all of them before swallowing them through the opening on top of its head. Not giving them any chance to resist as they all disappeared inside the body of the construct.
Even the small mist that would normally escape after the phantoms died, did not appear. Signifying that the phantoms that had been swallowed by the construct, were all dead without any chance of recovering!
…
Over the next few days, Xuan Hao crossed through dangerous locations where phantoms were fighting with each other more than a dozen times. Even if he did not always manage to get out unharmed, with his current strength, he was still more than capable of taking a few attacks from the phantoms without dying.
During all of this, he had also managed to get an approximate estimate of his current strength by comparing it to the different Soul Ascension Realm Experts he had seen in the past. In the end placing his strength somewhere around the Fourth Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm.
Although this was not the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm, he was still happy knowing that his strength had now reached a level where even the old ancestor from the Sky Empire wouldn't be able to easily deal with him. Unless he fought inside the capital city of the Sky Empire, that protection formation was simply far too terrifying when it was used by a powerful Soul Ascension Realm Expert like the old ancestor of the Sky Empire…
Rumble~!
"It's here again…" Hearing the familiar sound of something large hitting the ground, Xuan Hao turned back to see the construct that had now been almost completely covered in the tentacle-like plants.
Over the past few days, he had already grown familiar with the sight of it and his fear had drastically decreased after realizing that its speed did not increase any more.
At this point in time, he understood that he would be safe from the tentacle covered construct as long as its speed remained what it was now, and he didn't slow down any further. Something that was unlikely to happen considering that he had already reached the outer edge of the ancient battlefield where phantoms were far harder to encounter.
Boom-boom-boom!
For this reason, Xuan Hao could not help starting to panic a bit when he discovered that a large number of phantoms were fighting each other in front of him. Even worse, the location where they were fighting just so happened to be the same place that the spatial corridor leading out of the ancient battlefield was located!
"Wha- M-my spatial corridor!"
Making Xuan Hao freeze on the spot with a look of horror on his face. Understanding very well that there was close to no chance that the spatial corridor could survive in the middle of such a large fight for long. Not to mention, looking at how exhausting the different phantoms fighting were, it was obvious that the fight had been ongoing for a long time and was just about to conclude. Giving the spatial corridor an even smaller chance of survival.
RUMBLE-!
I can't continue wasting time like this, I can only hope that the spatial corridor managed to survive…
Hearing the sound of the construct getting closer and closer with each second, he wasted without moving, Xuan Hao could only suppress the feeling of helplessness that had appeared inside him the moment he spotted the large number of phantoms fighting in the area where the spatial corridor was located.
Not even bothering to try and find out why so many phantoms had even appeared at the border region to start fighting each other in the first place.
…
Boom-!
Bang-bang-bang!
As he approached the battlefield of the phantoms, Xuan Hao could not help coming to a stop, as he realized that the phantoms had close to no distance between each other. Making it close to impossible for him to dodge their attacks if he tried pass by them… But even more terrifying than this was the fact that all of the phantoms were fighting with each other without any clear opponent.
Different from the other phantoms he had seen fighting before, there were no two sides fighting with each other. Instead, they were all fighting each other in a massive free for all. Making it even more dangerous for him to enter the battlefield they had created. After all, with there being no clear sides, there was a chance of one of the phantoms targeting him without any of the other phantoms jumping in to help him out like had happened the other times he was forced to move through one of the phantoms battles.
What is the reason for this? Did something cause them to act like this…?
Not able to ignore the odd behavior of the phantoms after realizing that his chance of reaching the possibly destroyed spatial corridor had reached close to zero, Xuan Hao could not help scanning the battlefield of the phantoms with his divine sense as he did his best to avoid accidently hitting any of them in the process.
"This is- The spatial corridor is still there! But… From the looks of it, the phantoms are deliberately avoiding the spatial corridor- Ah! Could it be that they want to use the spatial corridor to leave the ancient battlefield as well… But then why did they all start fighting with each other in this manner?"
First feeling relieved at the appearance of the intact spatial corridor, Xuan Hao soon became confused again. Still not understanding what had caused the phantoms to fight with each other in such a chaotic manner.