?
"Great, it looks like you understand. Guess this is it for me then, I hope you will remember the help I gave you in the future junior. If you encounter anyone from the Mirage Sect, I hope you will help them as well, as I doubt, they will be in a good position considering the current state of the celestial trials…"
Whoosh~
As the voice of the remnant consciousness echoed out inside his head for what would be the last time, the body of the elder from the Mirage Sect suddenly turned into dust before disappearing from the world. Leaving the celestial robe to gently land on the stone floor inside the smaller formation that had protected the elder of the Mirage Sect for the past thousands of years.
Rumble~
Shortly after this happened, the entire room started violently trembling as the formation core located in the middle of the room began breaking down at a speed visible to the naked eye-
Bang!
And before Xuan Hao had managed to recover from the fact that the elder from the Mirage Sect had disappeared from the world, one of the large jade pillars surrounding the crystal sphere on top of the golden pedestal shattered.
Bang! Bang!
Following closely behind the first jade pillar, the rest of the jade pillars started shattering one by one.
Realizing what was happening, Xuan Hao nervously turned to look at the formation that surrounded the place where the elder from the Mirage Sect had been sitting only a moment ago. Focusing all of his attention on the celestial robe laying in the middle of this small formation.
Even with more than half of the jade pillars shattering, the small formation protecting the celestial robe left behind by the elder of the Mirage Sect was still functioning and didn't show any signs of weakening. On the other hand, it looked like the smaller formation was drawing more power from the formation core to sustain itself in case its connection to the formation core was cut off.
This… How am I supposed to get the celestial robe if this small formation ends up holding on for longer than the core formation!?
Seeing what the smaller formation was doing, Xuan Hao could not help panicking as he realized just how dangerous his current situation was. If the smaller formation didn't break before the formation core like the elder from the Mirage Sect had told him, he would end up getting killed by the collapse of the formation core. Even if he ended up miraculously surviving, he would end up trapped inside the trial space with no way out.
WHOOSH-!
However, just at this moment, the formation core seemed to have noticed the smaller formation trying to siphon away energy, as it violently reacted by reversing the process. Forcefully sucking out all the energy from the smaller formation that had no way to resist the might of the core formation-
Crack!
And without any energy to keep itself running any longer, the smaller formation instantly collapsed.
Swish-!
Knowing that he was already running out of time, Xuan Hao dashed forward the moment the formation broke before grabbing the celestial robe and putting it on like the elder from the Mirage Sect had told him to do.
Whoosh~
Putting on the celestial robe, Xuan Hao was shocked to discover that the robe melted away the robe he had been wearing before neatly fitting on to his body-
SQUEAK!?
Taking the rabbit demon beast who had been sleeping inside a small hidden pocket of the robe by surprise, as it suddenly found itself falling to the ground. Only barely managing to grab hold of the celestial robe before it hit the ground.
Swish-!
Not giving the rabbit demon beast any time to comprehend what was happening, Xuan Hao used his dao domain to keep it in place before rushing towards the gate that materialized in front of the empty wall the moment he put on the celestial robe. Not daring to waste a single second, as the jade pillars keeping the formation core safe had almost completely disappeared at this point in time. Only three of them were still left standing-
Bang!
Only two of them were left standing, keeping the formation core from growing unstable.
Squeaaaaaak-!
Having no clue about the current dangerous situation it found itself in, the rabbit demon beast now forced to remain in place by Xuan Hao's dao domain could not help letting out an unwilling scream as it looked at the ground rapidly moving below it.
Even with all of this, it didn't try to fight against Xuan Hao's dao domain, as part of it had still sensed the dangerous aura that had slowly started to leak out from the core formation that was rapidly breaking down behind them.
Clank!
Shing~
"Greetings elder, the gate is active. The current coordinates are locked on to the southern spring garden, would you like to change the co-"
Swish~!
Reaching the gate and seeing a small golem suddenly pop up from the ground, Xuan Hao wasted no time talking to the strange small golem as he jumped through the gate before it even had time to finish what it was saying.
No matter how dangerous the southern spring garden mentioned by the small golem was, he doubted that it would be any worse than staying inside the Exchange Hall.
Not a second later, Xuan Hao felt himself travelling an enormous distance in a short span of time as the space around him twisted violently before everything came to a stop.
"Hm?"
Looking around himself, Xuan Hao discovered that he was standing on top of the foundation of what should have once been a large pagoda that had now long since decayed to the point where only the foundation and a small part of the pagoda itself remained.
The area around him on the other hand, was made up of countless terraced pools of crystal-clear water that seemed to stretch on for several kilometers. Taken together, the formations of these terraced pools almost looked like a huge dragon snaking its way through the surrounding mountains.