722 Empty Plains

Whoosh~

After leaving the Thousand Wind Mountain safely, Xuan Hao decided to stop for a short moment as he began observing his surroundings.

According to the maps of the Sky Empire he had looked at, the current side of the Thousand Wind Mountains that he found himself on should be a large empty plain with a few demon beasts ranging from somewhere between the Qi Condensation Realm and the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Hm?"

However, different from this, Xuan Hao discovered several small settlement spread all over the plain that should have been empty outside of a few demon beasts that roamed the place.

The settlements were all new and had at least one person in the Nascent Soul Realm watching over it to prevent the demon beasts roaming the empty plains from destroying them. Not only that, but all of these settlements had the same symbol engraved into their walls, flags and armour. Even the Nascent Soul Realm Experts were no different as their armour also carried the same symbol.

Is it perhaps a nearby kingdom expanding into this empty plain? But then again, there should not be any kingdoms nearby as this large empty plain should be surrounded by different dangerous special areas from all sides...

Did a precious natural artifact or spiritual herb perhaps appear... But if this was the case, there would be no need to bring along so many people and set up settlements in this place...

Narrowing his eyes as he thought about this, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that something was odd about so many settlements appearing in such a place.

Not to mention the fact that there wasn't anything of interest on the empty plain, the sheer difficulty of moving so many people through one of the special areas that surrounded the plain was more than enough to stop any ordinary Domain Lord Realm Expert. After all, the special areas surrounding the empty plain all posed a certain level of danger to Domain Lord Realm Expert.

For someone to transport so many people through such a dangerous environment. Even if it was through the safest route, it would still have to be someone at the later stages of the Domain Lord Realm!

Swish~

Feeling curious, Xuan Hao approached the closest settlement before appearing inside the main building of the settlement where the Nascent Soul Realm Expert was quietly cultivating by himself without making a single sound-

Whoosh-!

Not even a second later, Xuan Hao used his domain to forcefully wake up the meditating Nascent Soul Realm Expert, while at the same time isolating the meditation room from the outside world so he wouldn't get noticed by anyone outside.

Given that the current settlement he was inside of only had the Nascent Soul Realm Expert in front of him watching over it, it was obvious that no one would dare barge in without getting permission and with his domain, they wouldn't even have a clue that something was happening inside the building in the first place!

"Ah!?"

Having been forcefully awakened by Xuan Hao from his meditation, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert looked around himself filled with killing intent before freezing in place the next second after realizing that both his divine sense and cultivation had been completely sealed without him noticing.

"Hello, mind if I ask you a few questions?"

Hearing Xuan Hao's voice, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert started shaking with fear as he turned towards Xuan Hao who was standing a few meters away from him.

A Domain Lord!

Even with no way to perceive Xuan Hao's cultivation base, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert understood very well that the only person who would be able to supress him so easily and seal both his cultivation base and divine sense without him noticing would be someone in the Domain Lord Realm.

For this reason alone, the Nascent Soul Realm Expert was extremely fearful for his life. The only thing that allowed him to still remain somewhat calm, was the fact that the Domain Lord in front of him did not seem to have any intention of killing him. The fact that he asked for him to answer a few questions further solidified this in the mind of the Nascent Soul Realm Expert.

"W-what might I-I be able to help your e-excellency with?"

Even then, he still ended up stumbling over his words as he said this while trying his absolute best to remain calm and respectful in front of Xuan Hao. Not forgetting to pray that the question he would be asked was something he could answer...

"Not something difficult, I'm just curious about the settlements around here and why they are here. After all, this place is not easy to reach..."

"Hah... I... Hah... This... Hah..."

Saying this as he looked kindly towards the Nascent Soul Realm Expert, Xuan Hao could not help raising an eyebrow upon seeing the Nascent Soul Realm Expert was starting to grasp for air while looking like he was about to faint at any moment.

The question should not be that hard to answer, is there perhaps- Oh... I forgot that my domain is still pressuring him...

Realizing why the Nascent Soul Realm Expert looked like he was about to faint, Xuan Hao silently removed the pressure of his domain that he had accidently used on the Nascent Soul Realm Expert-

"Haaaaaa!"

Allowing him to breath properly again.

"Your excellency, the reason for the different settlements here is due to an order from the Earth Dragon Clan! The reasons for the settlements here is due to a large vein of spiritual metal being discovered around here by one of the elders of the Earth Dragon clan!"

"Earth Dragon Clan... One of the noble families of the Sky Empire..." Muttering this to himself as he narrowed his eyes after hearing what the Nascent Soul Realm Expert said, Xuan Hao could not help feeling even more curious about the vein of spiritual metal that had caused this powerful noble family to use so many resources to set up settlements in such a dangerous location...

However, after thinking about it, Xuan Hao decided not to look into it. After all, he was about to enter the capital city of the Sky Empire and he didn't think it would be a good idea to offend one of the most powerful families in that place. Especially considering that there was a good chance that the noble families of the Sky Empire had their own Soul Ascension Realm Experts hidden away.

Even if they did not, they should at the very least have some way to deal with Soul Ascension Realm Experts. If not, there would be no way for them to have stayed in power for such a long time inside the Sky Empire.

Even if the Sky Empire's imperial family was above them and could command them, it did not have full control over them.

The more he learned about the Sky Empire, the more he understood just how powerful the imperial family of the Sky Empire was to remain as the most powerful. Outside of the ancestor of the imperial family and the current emperor of the Sky Empire, there was sure to be other Soul Ascension Realm Experts hidden inside the Sky Empire's imperial family!

"Thank you for your honest answer, but you will have to sleep for a bit..."

"Wha-"

Thump!

Having already learned what he wanted from the Nascent Soul Realm Expert, Xuan Hao decided knock out the Nascent Soul Realm Expert. Putting his soul into a deep slumber that he would take a few years to wake up from. Making sure that it would look like the Nascent Soul Realm Expert had encountered some trouble while cultivating and was forced to enter secluded meditation due to this.

Anyway, by the time the Nascent Soul Realm Expert woke up again, Xuan Hao would already have long since left the capital city of the Sky Empire. Not to mention, losing a few years of his long life sleeping, was not considered a bad thing compared to getting silenced the old-fashioned way...

"Let's just ignore this place and not get involved with the Earth Dragon Clan..."  Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself, Xuan Hao decided to just ignore the settlements all over the empty plains as he made his way towards the special area that he would have to go through next.

However, even if he decided not to get involved with the noble family from the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao was still curious about the spiritual metal that the Earth Dragon Clan had discovered deep down-

Whoosh~

So, he decided to use his divine sense along the way to probe underground and see if he could find anything beneath the settlements along the way.

"This is..."

Doing so, Xuan Hao could not help opening both his eyes in shock after discovering the massive spiritual metal mines located beneath all of the settlements.

Putting all of these mines together, it had already surpassed the spiritual metals Xuan Hao had found beneath the Azure Sky Kingdom's capital and was even close to reaching the same level of the endless mines that covered Yi Min's Iron Sky Kingdom!