"This is…!" Entering the main hall of the small underground palace, Xuan Hao was taken aback as he saw the surrounding environment suddenly shift to a livelier one filled with all sorts of extravagant decorations. Making the past few rooms and halls look like they did not belong to the same palace in the first place.
Xuan felt it was weird as he observed the staircase at the end of the main hall leading into what he could only assume was the throne room of the underground palace.
Walking forward, Xuan Hao did not spend too much time in the main hall as he walked up the staircase and entered the throne room of the underground palace. Only to be met with an almost empty room outside of a small stone pedestal located towards the end of the throne room where the throne would normally be located.
The room itself did not seem like anything special and was not even close to being as beautifully decorated as the main hall was. Making Xuan Hao doubt whether he had truly entered the throne room of the underground palace or maybe taken a wrong turn…
Slowly moving forward, Xuan Hao soon arrived in front of the stone pedestal as he discovered a small wooden box with a beautiful phoenix engraved into it.
"Hm?" Picking up the wooden box, Xuan Hao tried to open it, but soon found out that the small wooden box did not react in the slightest and remained closed. Even when he tried to put all his strength into it, the small wooden box did not budge in the slightest and remained closed.
"What is this?! Is it perhaps the ancient artifact mentioned by the treasure hunter?" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao decided to ask the treasure hunter about it after returning to the Flying Sword Sect.
For now, he but the small wooden box away in his interspatial ring as he began exploring the rest of the underground palace.
This however only ended in disappointment, with nothing of value appearing outside of the wooden box found in the throne room of the underground palace.
"Hah… Looks like there isn't anything other than the wooden box in this palace…" Sighing with a disappointed look on his face, Xuan Hao left the underground palace and made his way over towards the hanging bridge connecting the underground palace with the entrance of the cave.
"Hm?" Just as Xuan Hao was about to step onto the hanging bridge, the other part of the hanging bridge connected to where the entrance was snapped as the hanging bridge crashed down into the chasm surrounding the underground palace.
This was not much of a problem as Xuan Hao could just jump on his sword and fly over to the other side of the chasm, what truly caught him off guard was the giant furry hand that suddenly appeared from the chasm as another hand soon appeared along with the rest of the demon beast's body appeared.
Towering several dozen meters tall, a giant demon ape crawled out of the chasm as it let out a heaven shaking roar before turning to look in the direction of Xuan Hao filled with a clear killing intent.
"Well… This was unexpected…" Observing the demon ape on the other side of the chasm as it stared back at him filled with killing intent, Xuan Hao tilted his head to the side as he examined the cultivation of the demon ape.
"Of course, its half a step into the Domain Lord Realm…" Taking out his sword from his interspatial ring, Xuan Hao narrowed his eyes as he prepared for anything that the demon ape might do.
Seeing Xuan Hao drawing his sword, the demon ape reacted cautiously as instead of jumping over the chasm to fight him, it instead retreated out through the entrance to the cave as Xuan Hao was left alone in the cave.
"Looks like it is planning to ambush me the moment I exit the cave… Not that I have any other way out… Maybe I could wait for it to get impatient?" Jumping up on his sword, Xuan Hao gently floated over to the other side as he landed and went over his options.
Just as Xuan Hao was planning to stay inside the cave and wait for the demon ape to grow impatient outside. Another somewhat muffled roar could be heard from the chasm behind him as the entire cave began shaking violently.
"There are more demon beasts sealed down in the chasm?!" Feeling the increasingly growing demonic aura of several demon beasts in the chasm as they were in the process of breaking their seal and regaining freedom just like the demon ape had, Xuan Hao felt his option of waiting around in the cave was no longer viable unless he wanted to fight multiple demon beasts like the demon ape at once…
Not hesitating anymore, Xuan Hao decisively charged out of the cave entrance. Ready to deal with any ambush set up by the demon ape as he prepared to unleash his pseudo sword domain the moment the demon ape attacked him.
The demon ape did not disappoint him in the slightest, as it had indeed waited outside the entrance of the cave.
Swinging down its huge fist filled with a destructive qi as Xuan Hao used his pseudo sword domain to block the torrent of destructive qi that the giant fist of the demon ape unleashed.
A large explosion occurred the moment the destructive qi of the demon apes fist made contact with Xuan Hao's pseudo sword domain.
Instantly causing the entrance of the cave behind Xuan Hao to collapse together with the stone platform both of them were standing on.
The stone platform crashed into the river below running through the gorge, as Xuan Hao and the demon ape both moved up from the gorge and into the ancient forest above.
The sound of a sword hitting a metal surface echoed out in the surroundings as Xuan Hao's used the moment that both of them made their way out of the gorge to launch a sneak attack at the demon ape.
Sadly, it was easily blocked by the thick fur of the demon ape as it let out an angry roar and closed the distance on Xuan Hao before once again swinging down its huge fists in an attempt to kill Xuan Hao.
"Looks like it won't be easy to pierce through the thick fur of this one, I should try out the Sword Shadow technique from the Untold Swords Mantra now that my pseudo sword domain have gotten stronger, I should be able to more easily control it without using up too much of my qi reserves…" Muttering this to himself as he wanted to see how strong the Sword Shadow technique had gotten after the strength of his pseudo sword domain grew, Xuan Hao decided that the giant demon ape would be the best possible candidate to try it out on.
And given how he needed to end things quickly before the other demon beasts in the chasm managed to break free from the seal and come to join in on the fight, Xuan Hao watched as the giant fists from the demon ape closed in on him as he used the Rain Sword's first move, Misty Rain, to block the two giant fists from the demon ape.
The first move from the Rain Sword was a defensive sword move and compared to the Cloudburst from the Rain Sword technique that was the strongest move in the Rain Sword technique, the Misty Rain Sword was way more suited for dealing with the attack from the demon ape!
The giant fists of the demon ape were about to land at the place Xuan Hao was standing as a bright blue light erupted around Xuan Hao's sword forming a thin transparent blue barrier around Xuan Hao as he remained in place facing the two giant fists of the demon ape without trying to dodge to the side.
The attack of the demon ape landed on the thin blue barrier surrounding Xuan Hao as a shockwave spread out with him as the centre.
Instantly levelling the surrounding ancient trees within 500 meters. Leaving behind only a barren wasteland where the ancient forest had once stood.
"Roar?" The demon ape began feeling something was wrong as it slowly lifted both its fist to see the situation of its opponent. Only to be left with a shocked expression as Xuan Hao was completely fine, with the blue barrier only showing a few cracks in the place where the two fists of the demon ape made impact.
"Hah… It seems that Misty Rain is way stronger when it is strengthened by my pseudo sword domain!" Xuan Hao let out a satisfied smile as he did not expect for his pseudo sword domain to strengthen his sword techniques by such a large margin.
"Hehe, seems like it is my turn now!" Chuckling a bit to himself as he felt the power of his pseudo sword domain, Xuan Hao stopped using the Misty Rain sword move and prepared to attack the demon ape.
"R-roar…?" The demon ape saw the human who had survived its earlier attack suddenly preparing to attack and suddenly felt a shiver run down its back…