The giant body of the demon ape fell to the ground as it shattered the area that it landed with its weight alone, causing a dust cloud to rise up after the impact.
The demon ape was dead! Riddled with countless small holes all over its large frame from Xuan Hao's finishing move, Cloudburst.
Countless roars could be heard from the gorge just besides the battlefield of Xuan Hao and the demon ape, causing Xuan Hao to quickly use his interspatial ring and store the corpse of the demon ape before making his way up into the sky away from the gorge. Not that keen on the idea of getting ganged up by a group of demon beasts that had just managed to get free from their seal.
"Now what should I do… Stay in the secret realm and try to search for the core of the secret realm formation or leave before things get too dangerous…" Looking over at the formation pillars separating the Nascent Soul Realm area with the Domain Lord Realm area, Xuan Hao felt himself hesitating even though he knew very well that going there would not end up well for him…
Thinking about, Xuan Hao soon shook his head and turned away from the formation pillars and began heading back towards the entrance of the secret realm.
"Hah… No matter what, going to an area filled with Domain Lord Realm demon beasts at my current state would be nothing short of suicide…" Smiling wryly as he extinguished his early ambitious thoughts, Xuan Hao no longer hesitated as he made his way back towards the entrance to the secret realm.
At most he would consider coming back to the secret realm after reaching the Domain Lord Realm if it had not been emptied out at that point in time…
Going to search for the core of the secret realm formation at this point was nothing more than a suicide mission!
He would at least need to reach the Domain Lord Realm before wanting to enter the secret realm again. For now, he should just focus on some of the more doable things for the current him, like helping his disciples reach a higher realm and solving the quest he got related to them…
With this in mind, Xuan Hao no longer thought about the quest from the system as he observed the never changing? ancient forest passing by below him along his way back to the entrance of the secret realm.
Trying to see if he happened to be lucky enough to spot an ancient ruin or some precious herbs along the way.
Though that was easy said than done, as the large crowns of the ancient trees covered up most of the ground below. Not allowing for Xuan Hao to easily stop anything hidden beneath.
"Are you sure there is an ancient ruin located over here? Sure the map you bought from that fellow at the entrance can be trusted in the first place?" Just over the border between the Nascent Soul Realm area and the Core Formation Realm area, a duo of one female and one male were walking through the dense forest as they were arguing with each other.
"I'm sure of it! And would that fellow even dare to lie to me in the first place? Remember, I'm someone in the Nascent Soul Realm! How could that silly little fellow at the Foundation Establishment Realm dare to lie to me?" Saying that, the male of the two proudly puffed up his chest in an attempt to look a bit more reliable.
"Sureee~ Just like the other map that you bought for 100 spirit stone from that child in the Qi Condensation Realm would not dare sell you a fake one~" Hearing the exclamation from her male partner, the female of the two rolled her eyes as she pointed out the map that they had followed earlier.
Back then, both of them had walked into a pack of Nascent Soul Realm wolves and just barely managed to escape back over the border to safety as the map in question had just pointed them into a cave that the pack of Nascent Soul Realm wolves were living in.
"T-that… I'm sure that was just a mistake! This map will surely lead us to a ruin with great treasures in it!" Not knowing what to say, the male tried to deflect as he insisted that the second map was real.
Partly due to the fact that he didn't want to admit the fact that he had wasted close to 1000 spirit stones on it…
"Well, we will find out soon enough…" Not wanting to waste time arguing, the woman just decided to play along and chide him after they walked into yet another den of demon beasts… Not at all worried that they would end up being in danger.
"By the way, I heard that those fellows from the Sky Empire arrived already and blocked off the surrounding area around the secret realm… Do you think that they were nearby or something? They reacted way too fast and one of their skyships even showed up…" Continuing through the ancient forest, the male among the two of them asked as he curiously looked over at his female companion to see her reaction.
"Hmph, who cares what those idiots are doing! But leaving will indeed be more difficult with those people guarding the entrance…" Cursing out the moment she heard the mention of someone from the Sky Empire showing up, the female soon calmed down as she began to analysing the situation before them.
Leaving would indeed be difficult if the Sky Empire blocked the entrance…
Waiting until the other powers showed up and leaving during the turmoil would be their best option, but how long would that take…?
"Ah, the ruin should be just over here!" Seeing his companion's mood growing a bit unstable, the male quickly informed her as he pointed ahead at a cave located a few meters away from them.
"Is that not the same cave from before-" Looking over, the female companion immediately woke up from her train of thought as she recognized the cave from earlier in the day.
"RUN!" A loud wolf howl was heard as she grabbed onto her stupid companion and dashed over in the direction of the border, a large pack of wolves soon came out of the cave as they chased after the duo.
"I swear it was not on purpose!" Being dragged along, the male companion screamed out as he watched the pack of wolves following them all the way back to the border before giving up and returning to the cave once again.