Following the envoy from the Onyx Empire and his senior returning to the territory of the Onyx Empire, the surrounding empires soon realized that something had happened to their people. Not inside the Star Shattering Sect like they had expected, but instead on their way back from the Star Shattering Sect.
Given the information from the tracking formation inside the interspatial rings that their people had been using, it was obvious that they had been attacked shortly after they had left the Star Shattering Sect and had their things taken away.
Although they had no idea if any of their people had managed to survive, the different empires felt that this was highly unlikely considering that the people behind the attack seemed to be the Onyx Empire… And as if to solidify this reasoning, they also learnt that one of the Peak Domain Lord Realm Experts from the Onyx Empire had left his original position at the border between the Onyx Empire and the Sky Empire during this period of time.
"This damnable Onyx Empire, I swear I will make them pay in the future!"
"How low of them to utilize such a powerful expert just to deal with those few people!" "Hmph! Just they wait, after the Sky Empire is destroyed and divided, the Onyx Empire will be next!"
In the end, the different emperors, and high-ranking people behind the collaborative effort to investigate the Star Shattering Sect could only curse at the Onyx Empire for their shameless behavior of sending two powerful Domain Lord Realm Experts to deal with a few people in the Nascent Soul Realm and five in the First Stage of the Domain Lord Relam.
However, the main reason why they were so mad was not because of the death of these people, but instead because the dead people in question hadn't managed to send back any of the information that they had managed to gather of the Star Shattering Sect. Leaving them with the choice of sending another group and risk the nearby Onyx Empire once again intercepting them, or ′leaving the Star Shattering Sect alone for now and investigating them at a later time when they didn't have to worry about the Onyx Empire killing their people.
In the end, the positive news sent back by their envoys ended up persuading them to not send another group, as it became clear from their envoys that the Star Shattering Sect would be more than willing to cooperate with them if they were willing to pay the price.
In the eyes of these empires, a power that could be bought was far easier to deal with compared to one that didn't want to involve itself in outside affairs. At the same time, some of the empires close to the territory of the Star Shattering Sect also felt like they might have a chance at integrating the Star Shattering Sect into their empires.
Because of this, the situation around the Star Shattering Sect quickly calmed down again, as the different empires focused their attention back on figuring out how to deal with the remaining Soul Ascension Realm Experts huddled together in the capital of the Sky Empire.
The only difference being that the Onyx Empire had been excluded from joining in on the conversation between the invading empires now that they were also being viewed as a possible target for them to expand into in the near future. Leaving the Onyx Empire with no choice but to retreat from the area surrounding the capital of the Sky Empire and begin the process of preparing itself for a possible attack by the other empires.
…
As the situation in the core of the Sky Empire became more dangerous and the different invading empires were began the process of sealing off the place in anticipation of launching a finally deadly attack to deal with the Soul Ascension Realm Experts in the capital city without the chance of any of them escaping and returning to get revenge later, Xuan Hao was moving deeper and deeper into the primeval forest.
Considering that the primeval forest itself covered an area several times that of the Blue Sea Empire or any other empire on the continent for that matter, there was no lack of powerful demon beasts. Even forcing him to slow down on several occasions as powerful demon beast at the Dao Seed Realm were engaged in deadly battles over territory.
If there had been one saving grace during his journey so far, it was the fact that he hadn't been unlucky enough to run into a Celestial Immortal Realm demon beast.
Although demon beasts at the Celestial Immortal Realm were undoubtedly far more uncommon than human cultivators at the Celestial Immortal Realm on the human dominated Ewaria Continent, the primeval forest was definitely one of the rare places where one could run into one.
With this in mind, Xuan Hao constantly kept his eye out for anything that might point towards a Celestial Immortal Realm demon beast being in the area, causing him to take the long way around certain locations that felt like they were dangerous. Not intending to take any unneeded risks.
At the same time, as he continued travelling through the primeval forest, Xuan Hao could not help wondering what Chun Hua had gone through over the years since he had last seen her.
Given that she was only in the Nascent Soul Realm back then, he wondered about how she had managed to safely travel through the primeval forest without losing her life.
"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she isn't human…" Muttering this to himself as he remembered the special abilities she had to hide herself from him back during their first encounter. If she could blend in with the natural environment of the primeval jungle, it might not be impossible for her to avoid those powerful demon beasts in the Dao Seed Realm that he had encountered so far.
Of course, there is always a chance that those demon beasts simply aren't interested given her weak strength, thus allowing her to safely pass through their territory without being attacked by them.
"Hm? Why does the jungle seem to be thinning out? I should still be far away from the border of the nearest empire…"
Suddenly noticing that the dense jungle all around him began to thin out all of a sudden, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing both his eyes as he felt something was wrong.
Whoosh~
Not feeling anything dangerous ahead, Xuan Hao decided to continue forward until he suddenly found himself outside the dense jungle with a large open plain as far as he could see. In the distance a large city standing alone on the plain was barely visible.
"What is this place…?" Not able to stop himself from saying this as he looked towards the city in the distance with a weird expression on his face, Xuan Hao could not help feeling uneasy as his divine sense rapidly spread out all around him together with his dao domain.
According to what little he knew about the primeval jungle; it was a dense jungle covering an area several times the largest empire on the continent and there shouldn't be any areas of the jungle like the plain in front of him.
Not to mention, he could clearly feel the presence of humans in the city up ahead.
Although the strongest among the humans he could sense had barely reached the Domain Lord Realm, he didn't dare to let his guard down given the strange circumstances of the plain in the middle of the dense jungle.
In the end, he remained stationary like this without moving for a good thirty minutes as his divine sense and dao domain combed through everything around him. Looking for any sign of danger on the vast yet empty plain in front of him, while at the same time also listening in on the conversation between the cultivators in the city to learn more about what kind of place the plain was.
"So… This plain was left behind from a past battle…?" Muttering this to himself as he went over the information, he had learnt from listening to the conversation between the different cultivators in the city and on the plain, Xuan Hao could not help showing a somewhat amazed expression on his face.
According to the information he had managed to learn, the plain was once the site of a battle between two powerful demon beasts in the Celestial Immortal Realm and two human cultivators of equal strength.
The battle had drawn on for over a dozen years and in the end a large part of the primeval jungle had been destroyed and later replaced by the empty plain that now spread out before him… And later down the line, humans arrived at the large plain and set up different city states.
The reason why no empire or kingdom could be established being that the frequent appearance of powerful demon beasts prevented anyone from leaving the heavily fortified cities scattered around the plain…
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on fre(e)webnov(l).com