Chapter 1297 Undamaged Celestial Gate

Continuing to slowly make his way up the mountain, Xuan Hao didn't pay much attention to his surroundings as he focused on comprehending the Dao of Formations.

Soon enough, a few days flew by peacefully as he followed the already established path up the mountain and all the way to the summit where the cave containing the fourth celestial gate was located.

"So, this is the fourth celestial gate…" Finding himself wandering inside the cave before coming to a stop in front of the fourth celestial gate, Xuan Hao could not help muttering this to himself as he looked up at the majestic celestial gate.

Although he had already seen it through his divine sense earlier, the feeling of being directly in front of the celestial gate was different, as he could feel the majestic and terrifying presence of the gate bearing down on him.

Not just that, but he could also clearly sense that the celestial gate in front of him was different from the other three celestial gates he had encountered so far.

Different in the sense that the other three celestial gates had been damaged, while the one in front of him didn't seem to have suffered any damage from the attack that had taken place in the past, something he didn't expect considering the fact that the battle back then seemed to have been rather one sided.

But then again, it could also just be that what he had seen so far was just the result of a first strike advantage catching the Mirage Sect and their elders off guard.

From then onwards the advantage of having the first strike would decrease and it would be harder to kill the elders from the Mirage Sect. Giving them an opportunity to fight back and save some of the celestial gates before they could be damaged.

Even if he had no idea why they would do something like this, he still felt appreciative of the Mirage Sect for doing so, as it would be much safer for him to undergo the celestial trial with an undamaged celestial gate compared to a damaged one where he ran the risk of ending up inside a spatial storm.

"Hm? Considering that the celestial gate is intact and doesn't have any sign of damage. Perhaps the elder of the Mirage Sect in charge of this celestial gate might have survived…" Suddenly realizing that there was a very real chance that he might encounter someone from the Mirage Sect by entering the celestial gate, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit nervous as he stopped himself just before entering the celestial gate.

Although his interactions with the Mirage Sect so far had been positive and there shouldn't be any danger if he encountered someone from the Mirage Sect, he couldn't help feeling uneasy at the prospect of encountering another elder from the Mirage Sect.

After all, from what he had managed to learn so far, an elder from the Mirage Sect should at least be someone at the Peak of the Profound Immortal Realm and possibly even beyond that. Meaning that he would stand no chance to resist if the other party turned out to be hostile.

Following these thoughts, the more rational part of his brain also jumped in and reassured him that it would be impossible to encounter an elder from the Mirage Sect unless he or she was in a similar state as the elder he had already encountered.

Considering how long it had been, if an elder or someone different from the Mirage Sect had managed to survive the battle back then by hiding inside of the fourth celestial gate in front of him, they should have long since left the place, either to seek revenge or rebuild the Mirage Sect.

Thinking about it, they might have already tried to rebuild the Mirage Sect inside of the mystic realm once, as that might have been the reason why the guardian formation of the mystic realm had somehow managed to still remain operational after a devastating attack on the mystic realm in the past.

However, for unknown reasons, they had given up on rebuilding the Mirage Sect inside the mystic realm and had left the place.

Not just that, but outside of the guardian formation that should have been repaired by the remnants of the Mirage Sect that had survived the attack back then, it didn't seem like they had done much with the celestial gates, as everything inside of them remained completely untouched from back when they had been attacked.

Unless… The celestial gates had some kind of safety measure built into them that directly closed the celestial gate and prevented anyone from entering.

Considering that he had only seen the gate in an open state where all the spatial passages were connected, it seemed insane to forcibly seal the countless spatial channels connected to a single celestial gate, but considering the power of the celestial gates themselves far surpassing his current understanding, he couldn't count it out…

No matter what happened, there was no way for him to figure it out by standing motionlessly in front of the fourth celestial gate-

Whoosh~

So, without wasting any more time with his own thoughts, Xuan Hao threw aside his hesitation and stepped inside the fourth celestial gate.

In the end, even if there were some risks to entering the fourth celestial gate, he would ultimately still have to go through the celestial trial to obtain the celestial coins needed for him to get his hands on the scroll containing information on the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao began making his way up the mountain a few days earlier, Mui, who had been running rampant inside the forest close to the edge of the mystic realm stood triumphantly in front of a large demon beast at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Waaahahaha! Finally got you!" Laughing happily as she looked down at the demon beast that had already been knocked to a state where it couldn't fight back any longer, Mui decisively manipulated one of her artifacts to deliver the killing blow-

Bang!

Ending the life of the powerful demon beast that could be considered one of the strongest demon beasts still left inside the forest.

"Hehe, now I should have killed off most of the demon beast in the Nascent Soul Realm. If I want to continue training, I will have to leave the forest and go deeper inside the mystic realm!" Saying this to herself as both her eyes started shining, her eyes soon started dimming again as she remembered what her master had told her about the dangers present in the deeper parts of the mystic realm.

Although she felt confident in her current strength now that she had grown accustomed to fighting demon beasts and was far more skilled in using her artifacts, she had no real way to face a Domain Lord Realm demon beast outside of using the things that her master had left behind for her.

Even then, with her cultivation already being close to breaking through to the Sixth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm and her current strength making her confident in facing Half-Step Domain Lord Realm demon beasts if she encountered another once again, Mui didn't feel fearful of moving deeper inside the mystic realm.

All things considered, she had to move deeper into the mystic realm if she wanted to continue on with her training and increasing her own strength, as the demon beasts still left in the forest were far too weak for her to train with.

Most of them only being in the Core Formation Realm or the Foundation Establishment Realm, with any in the Nascent Soul Realm already having been killed off by her during the past few weeks.

"Let's do it! Maybe I will even be able to find that Half Step Domain Lord Realm demon beast from back then and get my revenge now that I'm stronger!"

In the end, Mui ultimately decided to leave the forest and head deeper inside the mystic realm.

For traveling, she decided to use one of her artifacts for flying, as normal travel through the forest would at least take her a few weeks to reach the other side of it.

Normally, it would have taken her far longer to clear the forest of any Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts, but it was precisely because of this Xuan Hao had felt at ease leaving Mui there while he himself went deeper into the mystic realm by himself.

Never would he have expected that she had somehow managed to turn her artifacts into flying artifacts.

Not just that, but the spiritual qi consumption that should have been massive for something like that, had somehow been negated by her, as she had used different spiritual metals she found over the past few weeks to improve on the artifact in question and turn it into a real flying artifact, something Xuan Hao hadn't thought about when he had left her alone in the forest to train by herself…