1097 First Time Causing a True Spatial Collapse

Roar? 

Seeing Xuan Hao suddenly appearing in front of it, the illusory beast let out a confused roar as it came to a stop before it collided with him. Stopping no more than a hundred meters away from him.

"Huh? This…"

At the same time, the unknown cultivator who had been chasing after the illusory beast also came to a sudden stop as he also discovered Xuan Hao who had suddenly appeared in front of him and the illusory beast without any warning.

Even if he was originally chasing after the illusory beast and had a perfect chance to attack it now that it had come to a stop, he also understood that doing so might open him up to being ambushed to the unfamiliar person that had just popped up in front of him.

No matter how confident he was in his current strength inside the Soul Ascension Realm, he had no intentions of possibly putting his life on the line when there was no reason to do so. Instead, it was far more reasonable to first assess the strength of the person that had suddenly appeared in front of both him and the illusory beast before deciding on what to do.

At the very least, he was certain that Xuan Hao was at least someone close to the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm. After all, without this level of strength, it would have been impossible for him to remain hidden from his and the illusory beast's senses!

"…"

Not aware of the thoughts going through the head of the unknown cultivator and the illusory beast as they both stared at him in surprise, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly to himself as he wondered how to get out of his current predicament.

Considering that neither of the two had attacked him yet, he might be able to use the opportunity to sneak away before they recovered from the shock of his sudden appearance-

Roar!

However, before he had the chance to sneak away, the illusory beast woke up from its surprised state as it let out a loud roar and lunged towards him. Intent on getting rid of the obstacle blocking its path and escape before the unknown cultivator behind it took the chance to attack it.

Whoosh~!

As the illusory beast lunged towards him filled with killing intent, Xuan Hao understood that he wouldn't be able to sneak away from the scene and decided to use his dao domain to forcibly push back against the illusory beast-

Bang!

Roar!?

Colliding with the dao domain, the illusory beast let out a surprised cry before finding itself unable to approach Xuan Hao. Making it painfully obvious that it wouldn't be able to push past Xuan Hao without a proper fight, something that it didn't want considering that there was still the unknown cultivator behind it, who would be more than happy to see it use up all of its remaining energy fighting Xuan Hao.

In the end, the illusory beast continued attacking Xuan Hao's dao domain with the hope that he wouldn't be able to continue resisting for long and had just momentarily increased his strength to fight back. Not using too much power in the process as it was still feeling fearful of the cultivator behind it.

Luckily for the illusory beast, the unknown cultivator had also decided to observe the situation for now and try to first determine Xuan Hao's strength before doing anything that might put him in danger. Giving the illusory beast ample time to attack Xuan Hao's dao domain-

Bang-bang-bang!

Unfortunately for the illusory beast, it did not take long for it to discover that Xuan Hao had not momentarily increased his strength to resist it. Instead, he was indeed strong enough to resist it with his own strength, a worst-case scenario for the illusory beast who was now left with no idea how to escape from its current situation. 

Not only was a powerful cultivator watching it from behind, but its path forward had now also been blocked by a powerful opponent…

What in the world does this illusory beast want!?

At the same time that the illusory beast felt a sense of helplessness over its current situation, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he thought this to himself while looking at the illusory beast relentlessly attacking his dao domain. 

Not understanding why, the illusory beast had decided to continue attacking his dao domain with only the bare minimum strength of someone in the Sixth Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm instead of just escaping in another direction.

After all, the left and right side of the illusory beast were wide open, and it should be able to escape in those directions and didn't have to try and make it straight through him.

Unless the illusory beast already thinks that it won't be able to escape by going around me and thinks it might cause the cultivator behind it to act. Resulting it having to deal with both my dao domain and that person at the same time…

Realizing this, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he looked towards the unknown cultivator a few thousand meters behind the illusory beast.

Up until this point, the unknown cultivator had yet to make a move and was just observing the situation from afar, likely trying to assess his strength and determine whether or not he would be able to kill him and the illusory beast.

How annoying…

Knowing this, Xuan Hao understood that he couldn't continue the stalemate with the illusory beast for too long nor could he fight back against the illusory beast, as both would end up revealing that his current strength was at most comparable to the Sixth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm. Far below the strength of the unknown cultivator-

Whoosh~

For this reason, Xuan Hao decided to take the opportunity to test out the true spatial collapse ability that he had recently acquired after his physique had improved. Instantly causing a small space the size of an apple in front of the illusory beast to start collapsing.

Roar? 

Seeing the space in front of it starting to collapse, the illusory beast momentarily stopped its attack as it looked at the small collapsing space the size of an apple that had appeared in front of it filled with confusion. Not understanding what Xuan Hao was planning to do.

Rumble~

However, this confusion soon turned into fear as the small collapsing space rapidly expanded-

ROOOOAR?!

And before the illusory beast could react, it felt a terrifying force taking hold of its body before it found itself being dragged into the expanding void that now covered almost everything in its sight.

Roa-

Not a second later, the entirety of the illusory beast was swallowed up by the collapsing space. Erasing it from existence before it could muster a defense. Not that it would have made that much of a difference considering that it had no way to resist the spatial collapse with its Dao of Illusions.

RUUUMBLE-!

Following the illusory beast being swallowed, the spatial collapse continued to expand for a few seconds longer before the laws of the world seemed to kick into action and forcibly suppress it from expanding any further. Forcing it to shrink down to its original size of a small apple where it ended up in a state similar to the collapsed space he had seen back in the mystic realm, a small scar on the world that wouldn't heal for a long time without any outside interference.

"…"

Seeing the sheer power of the true spatial collapse, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine.

Although he had been the one to trigger the true spatial collapse just now, he had also clearly felt that he had no control over the collapse after he had first started it.

If not for the fact that the rules of the world had forcibly suppressed the spatial collapse from growing any larger, it might have ended up swallowing him as well, something he had not really thought about when he had first decided to test out the true spatial collapse on the illusory beast.

Not only that, but the energy consumed by triggering the true spatial collapse had almost completely dried up his dantian. Only leaving behind ten or so percent of his qi. Let alone fighting in his current state, even escaping would become a rather difficult thing if he had to escape for more than a few hours!

At the very least, from looking at the unknown cultivator's terrified expression, he felt that this shouldn't be a problem. Maybe he could even use the opportunity to obtain some more information about the Valley of Illusory Beasts from him.

On a side note, he would have to be extremely careful when using the true spatial collapse in the future. Not only because it used up almost of his qi, but also because it might end up killing him…