955 Underground River and Empty Desert



"Huh?"

Continuing down for what felt like hours, Chu Yang suddenly realized that he was being dragged down by a powerful force. Even if he tried and resist this downwards pull, it was to no avail, as he got dragged down together with Qing Yi.

Rumble~

Soon the faint sound of rushing water could be heard coming from beneath them and before they had any time to react before the hole ended abruptly and they once again found themselves falling-

"Waaaah!? Not again!"

Something Qing Yi was not too thrilled about. Especially after noticing the massive underground river that slowly came into view beneath them.

Splash!

However, she could do nothing but cling onto Chu Yang as they fell into the water and were along with the powerful current. Even if they could fight against it, it would be a hopeless endeavor, as they would end up running out of energy before, they had a chance to escape from the massive underground river. After all, they were still in the Nascent Soul Realm and couldn't fly like someone in the Domain Lord Realm…

All things considered; they could only pray that they didn't end up inside the lair of some powerful demon beast when the currents of the underground river finally calmed down enough for them to make their escape.

…

Not aware of what his disciples were going through due to the clash between the cloud demon beast and the main guardian formation of the mystic realm, Xuan Hao was cautiously making his way through a large desert.

The desert itself was a vast and desolate expanse, stretching as far as he could see. Its golden sands almost like an ocean frozen in time that only moved under the constant power of the wind. Only the towering dunes and large cliffs dotted the barren landscape.

Different from the other two celestial gates he had gone through so far, there was no sign of any stone pedestal or Scroll of Trials that would help him understand what the trial was about. The only thing accompanying him was the scorching sun dominating the empty sky above.

I wonder if the fight between the cloud demon beast and the guardian formation is over…

Having already wandered through the desert for over an hour without finding anything at this point in time, Xuan Hao could not help wondering about what had ended up happening to the cloud demon beast.

Given that the guardian formation was far more powerful than the cloud demon beast from what he had managed to see before escaping, the fight should have ended relatively quickly, but then again, he had no idea how powerful the cloud demon beast really was. After all, the Earth Immortal Realm was still far away from the current him and he could only speculate as to what had ended up happening from the difference in power between the two.

For all he knew, the cloud demon beast could have never displayed its true strength and might have ended up escaping before the formation had a chance to kill it.

As for the cloud demon beast winning against the formation? Xuan Hao never thought about this, as the cloud demon beast was obviously still trapped inside the mystic realm. Meaning that it was too weak to break through the formation and leave.

Hm? Maybe the cloud demon beast was just waiting for an opportunity to strike and took this chance to launch an all-out attack towards the guardian formation to break free from the mystic realm.

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help getting worried about his two disciples who were still inside the mystic realm. Different from him who could resist the aftereffects of the clash between the cloud demon beast and the flames from the sun in the sky of the mystic realm, his two disciples would have no way to resist even a fraction of power from such a powerful attack.

Considering that the talismans containing part of his power had not yet been activated, he could at the very least feel at ease that his disciples shouldn't be anywhere close to where the cloud demon beast and guardian formation were clashing with each other.

However, at the same time, he also understood that things might not always be like this, as the fight between the two might start expanding and affect a larger part of the mystic realm in the process.

For now, he could only hope that his two disciples were far away from the mist covered mountain range and if they happened to be close enough to see the battle taking place from a distance, he hoped they would be smart enough to make their way back towards the exit of the mystic realm. 

If this was not possible, he at the very least hoped they would escape as far away as possible from where the battle was taking place…

Rumble~

"Hm?!"

Whoosh~!

Suddenly feeling a faint shaking from the sand beneath him, Xuan Hao threw the thoughts of his two disciples to the back of his mind as he jumped into the air to avoid any possible ambush from beneath-

Bang!

And this was just in time as a giant mouth broke through the sand beneath the place, he had been standing just a second ago. 

Rumble!

Having missed its target, the large mouth filled with countless teeth lined up in hundreds of rows inside wiggled around for a few seconds in confusion before diving back into the sand again. Giving Xuan Hao a chance to marvel at the massive size of what could only be a giant sandworm.

Even from the short glimpse he managed to get of it above ground, he could easily guess that the sandworm must have reached a length of several kilometers… And the sandworm in front of him had only reached the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!

If the sandworms grew larger the stronger, they were, Xuan Hao could not even imagine how large a Soul Ascension Realm sandworm would be. Even the cloud demon beast and the dead squid like demon beast belonging to the Dao of Corruption wouldn't be anywhere near the size of such a sandworm…