625 Ancient Temple

"Hm?"

Lost in thought thinking about whether or not to follow the faint aura left behind, Xuan Hao was caught slightly off guard, as the blue deer now spotting a few scales and a small pair of antlers appeared in front of him.

"Is there perhaps something you want to say to me?" Not knowing what else to say as the blue deer that had just lost its father was starring directly at him with what he could only assume was a pair of serious eyes, Xuan Hao had a feeling that the blue deer might be able to help him with completing his main quest... And at the same time find out what had happened to its father!

Swish~ Rustle!

Seeing that it had his attention, the blue deer did not stand still for even a second as it dashed into the nearby foliage of the forest and soon disappeared from Xuan Hao's vision.

"You want me to follow you...?" Muttering this to himself as he had already guessed what the intention of the blue deer was, Xuan Hao only thought about it for a short moment before deciding to follow the blue deer.

The main reason why he decided to follow the blue deer was not because he trusted it, but was because the direction that the blue deer was running was the same as the indiscernible aura left behind led towards.

Even he could barely sense this small trace of aura, so there was no way the small blue deer that was only in the Core Formation Realm had any way to sense it... With this in mind, the fact that the blue deer was following the trace aura left behind almost flawlessly could only mean one thing...

The blue deer knew something about what might have happened to its father!

...

Following the blue deer for what felt like hours, Xuan Hao finally noticed that the fait aura that the blue deer had been steadily travelling alongside without knowing about its existence, was slowly getting stronger and stronger.

Although he could still not sense the strength of the person who had left the aura behind, he could at the very least tell that he and the blue deer were getting close to the one responsible for the death of the blue deer's father.

It was at this moment that the blue deer suddenly came to a stop in front of a canyon with a calm river running through.

However, the thing that caught Xuan Hao off guard about this canyon, was the fact that the ruins of a massive ancient temple  could be seen covering the canyon.

Old, moss-covered buildings could be seen built into the side of the canyon, while even larger and more destroyed buildings could be seen atop the canyon, as several hundred stone bridges in both good and bad conditions connected the two sides of the canyon with each other. At the centre of all this, a massive temple could be seen still standing tall as it gave off an extremely terrifying aura far surpassing anything Xuan Hao had ever felt before.

This massive ancient temple that had once been the home to a what had most likely been a powerful ancient religion, was now just a massive ruin...

"But... Why can't I see this place through my divine sense?" Muttering this to himself as he looked towards the massive temple and the buildings built all around it, Xuan Hao could not help frowning.

When he had seen the massive temple along with the countless buildings all around it in different states of decay and ruin,  Xuan Hao was caught completely off guard by the appearance of the ancient temple because he had not been able to 'see' it with his divine sense.

Even when he tried to thoroughly inspect the ancient ruins in front of him again after having personally seen them now, he could still not see any of the ancient ruins through his divine sense. Almost like something was covering the entire ancient city in some sort of veil that made him unable to see the ruins hidden beneath.

Glancing up towards the top of the ancient temple located at the centre of all the ruined buildings, paths, bridges, and everything else still left intact, Xuan Hao could clearly feel that the reason behind all of this should be located at the top of the ancient temple stretching at least a few hundred meters into the sky.

Not only that, but Xuan Hao could also tell that the aura belonging to the murder of the blue deer's father seemed to be leading towards the massive ancient temple standing tall just next to the canyon.

"Haaa... Why does this feel like I'm about to walk into some sort of trap...?" Letting out a sigh as this thought occurred to him, Xuan Hao could not help taking out the sword he had been given by Yi Min, as he prepared himself for combat. Even if his worries were for nothing, it would not hurt to be cautious when going up the ancient temple-

Thump!

Just as Xuan Hao was about to make his way up the ancient temple, the blue deer stomped both of its feet on the ground.

Whoosh~

The stomp from the blue deer instantly caused a small golden mist to appear in front of it before floating towards Xuan Hao before being unintentionally sucked in by Xuan Hao .

"Hm!?"

Not expecting something like this to happen, Xuan Hao thought the blue deer had poisoned him for a short moment before feeling a clear and calming sensation spreading through his soul, as he felt his entire being calm down.

"This..."

It was only at this moment that Xuan Hao realized that the blue deer was not intending to poison him and had instead helped him, as after the calming down and feeling his mind clear up, he realized that his mind had somehow been influenced without him even knowing about it!

Just a second ago, he was about to make his way up to the peak of the ancient temple where an entity that was at least in the Domain Lord Realm and maybe even above that was waiting.

No... Given that the other party did not outright kill, it should not be someone in the Soul Ascension Realm!

With that in mind, there should be some sort of formation in place at the peak of the ancient temple that had in all likelihood belonged to the people that had once inhabited the Main Star Peak...

At that point in time, even if the other party was only in the Domain Lord Realm, it would not be hard to kill him with the help of a powerful formation belonging to the Soul Ascension Realm or beyond!

Thinking about all of this, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine.

If not for the help of the blue deer, he had no idea how things would have ended up if he went up to the peak of the ancient temple to investigate...

Knowing that the blue deer might have saved his life, Xuan Hao looked toward the blue deer with a grateful expression on his face.

Thump Thump~

Bang~

Stomping the ground happily after seeing Xuan Hao had returned to his former self and was no longer looking towards the peak of the ancient temple with an odd expression on his face like he had unknowingly done before, the blue deer suddenly collapsed on the ground.

"Are you okay!?"

Feeling worried about the blue deer suddenly collapsing on the ground, Xuan Hao quickly rushed over as he used his divine sense to check up on the blue deer.

"Looks like the little one just collapsed from exhaustion..."

Only after making sure that it had just collapsed due to exhaustion did he let out a sigh of relief as he gently placed the blue deer on a patch of especially soft grass on the ground not too far away from their current location.

No matter what happened, he would make sure to take good care of the blue deer in the future as thanks for its help, there was no way he would just allow it to die after saving him!

"But... Now that I know that this is definitely some sort of trap intended for me... The question becomes... How does that existence even know about me in the first place? Did it perhaps find out about me when I fought the winged tiger beast back then? After all, the fight did cause quite a commotion on the Main Star Peak.

Other than that, why did it end up killing the father of the blue deer and was it also the one behind the death of the blue deer's mother?"

Feeling more and more questions appearing as he found out more about what had happened to the blue deer's small family, Xuan Hao could not help frowning as he narrowed his eyes while looking up towards the peak of the ancient temple.

For some reason, he had a feeling that someone... Or something, was watching him...