1118 Following the Illusory Beasts~

Roar-!

Arriving back at the outer part of the Valley of illusory Beasts again, it did not take more than a few minutes before he ran into an illusory beast in the Earth Immortal Realm. Completely different from the empty landscape without a single sign of life that he had encountered in the deeper part of the valley where these powerful illusory beasts had been restrained a year earlier.

Whoosh-!

Not wasting any time after spotting the illusory beast in the Earth Immortal Realm, Xuan Hao rushed forward before starting to follow after it. Hoping to find out just what the Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts were up to and if they really did have a plan for leaving the valley.

However, as the illusory beast got closer to the place where the terrifying illusion guarding the two illusory gates was located, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit confused. After all, as far as he knew, there wasn't any large gathering of Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts near the two wooden gates when he had left the place a few weeks earlier.

If there really had been some illusory beasts working on something nearby, he would have sensed it after breaking through to the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm and had the strength of his divine sense increase far beyond that of the illusory beasts.

Unless its somewhere in the same direction as the two wooden gates, but not exactly at the location of the two wooden gates…

Lost in his own thoughts as he wondered just where the illusory beast in front of him was heading, Xuan Hao soon noticed that several other illusory beasts had appeared at the edges of his divine sense heading in the same direction as the illusory beast in front of him. 

Rooar

Roar

Roooar

As the three illusory beasts noticed each other, they began communicating in their own language before closing the distance between each other to form a small group of three as they continued flying in the same direction. Confirming his earlier suspicion that the illusory beasts were indeed working together.

Not only that, but he also realized that the illusory beasts were smart enough to communicate with each other, a level of intelligence that he hadn't expected after his encounter with the illusory dragon. 

Maybe it was just that the illusory dragon wasn't the smartest among the illusory beasts and just so happened to give him an overall worse impression of how smart the illusory beasts were.

Looks like I will have to reevaluate the intelligence of the illusory beasts. For now, I should keep a constant distance from them in case they discover me, and I have to escape. After all, there is a chance that some of the illusory beasts have the ability to seal space and prevent me from using the Dao of Space to escape…

Narrowing both of his eyes as he thought about this while keeping his attention focused on the three illusory beasts in front of him, Xuan Hao deliberately slowed down his speed to create some distance between himself and the group of illusory beasts.

Just in case they had somehow managed to find out about his existence and were planning an ambush together with the other illusory beasts. Considering that their intelligence was above what he had expected, he decided not to take any chances.

Though his strength had reached a level comparable to someone in the Earth Immortal Realm, he highly doubted that he would be strong enough to fight back against a group of Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts. Even more so when there was a chance of them having some kind of weird ability that might allow them to seal space.

Whoosh-!

Worried about potentially walking into a trap, Xuan ended up deciding to not just follow a single illusory beast and instead swapped to follow another one whenever the chance presented itself and the new illusory beast appeared to be heading in the same direction as the other illusory beasts.

This way, even though his speed had decreased compared to if he had just continued following the single group of illusory beasts, he had at least made sure that he didn't end up walking into a trap-

Roooar-!

Just at this moment, a terrifying roar echoed out in the distance as an all too familiar figure came into view at the edge of his divine sense.

"The illusory dragon…"

Recognizing the figure of the illusory dragon he had fought with during the time that the two wooden gates were sealed off, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he observed the illusory dragon rapidly overtaking the illusory beast he was following behind before passing the area with the two wooden gates. Continuing to head in the direction that should under normal circumstances lead out of the valley.

Of course, given that the valley itself was located in a special space together with the Ephemeral Forest and the Sea of Mist, the direction where the illusory dragon was heading was blocked by the walls created by the different laws of the special space they were inside of at the moment.

Although it was possible to pass through the walls of the special space and go directly to one of the other two spaces that it was connected with without using the wooden gates connecting the three spaces, the strength required to do this was highly dependent on the strength of the space itself… And considering just how many illusory beasts in the Earth Immortal Realm were present inside the Valley of Illusory Beasts, it was easy to imagine just how tough the walls of the space were.

To breakthrough through force, power above the Earth Immortal Realm would likely be required.

Of course, Xuan Hao also knew about another method to pass through the walls of special space, but that involved a higher level of comprehension in the Dao of Space and mastery over the long-distance teleportation technique, something he was still far off at the moment.

With this in mind, Xuan Hao could not help growing curious about what the illusory beasts were up to.

Considering the fact that none of them had surpassed the Earth Immortal Realm, as they would have been able to forcefully leave the Valley of Illusory Beasts if that was the case, Xuan Hao could not help wondering if the illusory beasts had managed to find another way to escape from the Valley of Illusory Beasts that didn't involve the Dao of Space.

Even if it was hard to imagine, it did seem possible considering just how many illusory beasts in the Earth Immortal Realm he had encountered so far. The number of unique Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts he had seen so far already surpassing twenty, a number of Earth Immortal Realm Expert that would make even a powerful empire like the Blue Sea Empire pause.

Swish-!

Ditching the rather slow illusory beast he had been following after for the past five minutes, Xuan Hao couldn't stop himself from chasing after the illusory dragon that had already disappeared in the distance. Making sure to hide his presence from any of the nearby illusory beasts in the process, while also making sure to keep a certain distance from them at the same time.

No matter how confident he was in his own skills when it came to hiding his own presence, the illusory beasts he was trying to hide from had still reached the Earth Immortal Realm and were equipped with a soul far more powerful than ordinary Earth Immortal Realm cultivators due to their special race being centered around a dao related to the soul.

Roar?

Even with all of this in mind, some of the illusory beasts he passed by while chasing after the illusory dragon still managed to pick up on his presence to some extent.

Roar…

Luckily for Xuan Hao, these illusory beasts just looked around themselves in confusion for a short moment before continuing forward like nothing had happened after realizing that there wasn't anyone around. Blaming the odd presence, they had felt on the illusory dragon who had rushed ahead of them and caused quite a bit of havoc along the way due to the terrifying winds generated by the wings whenever they flapped to move the illusory dragon forward at a speed none of the other Earth Immortal Realm illusory beasts could keep up with.

…

Rooooar!

Chasing after the illusory dragon for what felt like hours before it finally came to a stop at the edge of the special space where the Valley of Illusory Beasts was located, Xuan Hao could not help freezing on the spot as he saw what the illusory beasts had been working on for their escape from the Valley of Illusory Beasts.

The only words Xuan Hao could find to describe it was "insane", as he almost instantly realized how the illusory beast planned to overcome the natural barrier that was the walls of the special space that the Valley of Illusory Beasts was inside of.