The ancient forest had not changed much compared to how it was in the Core Formation area, outside of more spirit herbs growing there and the demon beasts being stronger.
Xuan Hao cautiously made his way through the ancient forest as he searched for the small palace. Hoping that the treasure hunter had not lied to him about its existence…
A bestial roar echoed out from the area in front of him followed by the loud howls from what Xuan Hao presumed was a group of wolf demon beasts. Most likely in the process of hunting a bigger demon beast together or maybe they just accidentally entered the wrong territory…
Xuan Hao did not really pay any mind to this as there were several fights happening all over the place in the ancient forest at the moment.
The demon beast who had just gotten unsealed were currently in the process of establishing their own territories inside the ancient forest and this had in turn caused them to fight with each other as they attempted to either expand or defend their newly established territories.
With all the fighting happening all over the place, Xuan Hao would have a higher chance at not attracting the surrounding demon beasts over if he ended up fighting a demon beast. After all, they would be too preoccupied with defending or attacking each other to come over.
Not like the Burning Mountain Range where the different demon beast's territories had already been established and they had more than enough spare time to come over whenever someone began fighting!
This was also one of the main reasons that the Burning Mountain Range was so dangerous, even Domain Lords didn't dare to enter the deeper areas in fear of being ganged up on by the Domain Lord demon beasts hidden inside!
"This should be it…" Searching through the area surrounding the border area, Xuan Hao finally managed to find something after half an hour of searching.
The thing in question was a small stone lamp post.
Waving his hand, Xuan Hao caused a gentle wind to sweep through the area around the small stone lamp post removing the overgrown foliage around it and a path gradually began appearing leading in a direction further away from the border and the other closer to the border.
Xuan Hao did not stand around waiting for long before he began moving towards the location of the path that led further away from the border. Reasoning that the past owners of the secret realm should not have built anything just beside the formation pillars…
All he could hope now was that he was walking in the right direction so he wouldn't have to make the shameful walk back to the stone lamp post and follow the other direction of the path leading to an area closer to the border…
As Xuan Hao had finished his cultivation at the stone monument earlier, Chi Hu and the treasure hunter had made it to the entrance of the secret realm as the two were about to leave.
"So, where are we going? I heard you talking about returning with me to the sect for now, but I don't really know what sect you were talking about, is it perhaps a local sect from the Heavenly Sky Kingdom or perhaps one of the nearby kingdoms?" The treasure hunter had a curious look on his face as he asked Chi Hu. No matter what, the treasure hunter already believed that he should be safe at this point.
After all, if they wanted to kill him off, they would have already done it by now…
"We are going to the Flying Sword Sect; it should only be a few days travel away from the entrance of the secret realm." Not planning to hide it as the treasure hunter would find out about it at some point in the future anyway, Chi Hu directly answered him without hiding anything.
"The Flying Sword Set… I see, that sounds great!" The treasure hunter thought about it for a moment before he remembered some information regarding the Flying Sword Sect of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom.
All in all, the Flying Sword Sect had a good reputation as a relatively neutral sect keeping to itself most of the time. Only really skirmishing with the Raging Flame Sect from time to time over a past feud, but nothing too serious like a large-scale fight had happened.
The treasure hunter felt even more safe when he heard that it was the Flying Sword Sect and even began to chat more enthusiastically with Chi Hu as the two made their way out of the secret realm.
"Hm?" The moment both of them made their way outside of the secret realm, a market of sorts had sprung up with cultivators trading all sorts of spirit herbs and other materials found inside the secret realm as they joined up in different groups to enter the secret realm together.
"Leave this area immediately or face the consequences!" As Chi Hu and the treasure hunter were about to leave the secret realms entrance, a cold and oppressive voice shook the surroundings and caused them to look up into the sky where a giant flying ship floated with the banner of the Sky Empire proudly swaying above it.
The person who called out before was standing in the air a few meters away from the floating ship as he coldly looked down on the crowd below.
Both Chi Hu and the treasure hunter felt the pressure excluded by this person far surpassing the Nascent Soul Realm as both of them clearly understood the person in question was someone in the Domain Lord Realm!
"General… If you supress all of them like that, they won't be able to leave…" An old voice could faintly be heard from inside the floating ship as the person floating above smiled awkwardly before retracting his aura. Allowing Chi Hu and the treasure hunter to breath freely again.
"The Sky Empire arrived already!?" Both Chi Hu felt worried upon realizing what this meant for Xuan Hao still inside the secret realm, while the treasure hunter also began to worry about how things would work out for him if Xuan Hao did not come back from the secret realm alive…