956 Scroll of Trials and a rather Unique Dao...



Deciding to land on one of the nearby cliffs instead of going back on the ground again after his brief encounter with the sand worm, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he spotted something in the distance.

Hidden by several large cliffs which blocked his view from the ground, a large structure could be seen on the other side.

The structure itself was a massive sandstone tower that was partially buried in the shifting sands of the desert. Even if he could only get a general outline of the structure at his current distance, it was still possible to see some of the worn-out carvings and symbol etched into the surface of the tower.

Swish~!

Seeing this sandstone tower, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time before making his way over to investigate it. After all, it was the only structure that he had encountered so far in the desert and might contain a clue as to what the trial of the third celestial gate was about. 

Hopefully, the trial would not require him to hunt down a certain number of sandworms…

"Hm? The Scroll of Trials?"

Reaching the sandstone tower, Xuan Hao was surprised and relieved to find the familiar stone pedestal present at the top of the tower.

Given that he had not found the stone pedestal after such a long time, he had thought that there wouldn't be any scroll of trials present inside the third celestial gate, but from the looks of things, it was just a little harder to find this time around.

Whoosh~

Examining the top of the sandstone tower for any traps with his divine sense, Xuan Hao slowly descended before landing on top of the sandstone tower beside the stone pedestal after making sure that there weren't any traps or anything else guarding the scroll of trials.

"Trial of the Great Sandworm? Defeat the guardian of the desert to pass the trial…" Reading through the scroll of trial, Xuan Hao felt like one of his fears had been confirmed, as he did indeed have to defeat a sandworm. The only positive thing about it was the fact that he would only have to defeat a single one like the first trial he had gone through.

Then again, he didn't have over a dozen Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts entering the celestial gate together with him this time around. Meaning that the difficulty of the trial should at the very least be easier to accomplish compared to the trial of the second celestial gate.

If not for the fact that he had managed to take advantage of the fight between the emerald serpents and the demon beasts, he doubted he would have ever been able to complete the trial of the second celestial gate with his current strength…

Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao focused his attention back on the scroll of trials again. Looking for any clues as to where the guardian of the desert was located and hopefully also a few weaknesses that he would be able to take advantage of while fighting the guardian.

"Ah, there is something here!" Finding a part that listed the different Daos that the guardian was weak against, Xuan Hao could not help feeling his head start hurting after seeing the endless list of Daos that he had never heard about before appearing in front of him.

"Dao of Curses, Dao of Seals, Dao of Illusions… Why is this sandworm weak to so many different Daos!?" Muttering this to himself as he continued reading through the long list of Daos that the sandworm was weak against, Xuan Hao could not help lamenting to himself over just how many different Daos existed in the world.

Among these different Daos, the weirdest one was a Dao called the Dao of Beast Riding. For some reason, it made him think about the beast tamers back in the Star Shattering Sect. Maybe the path that they were going would result in them comprehending a Dao like this in the future…?

Reading through the long list filled with countless Daos also made him feel amazed at the sheer number of Daos that the power who had constructed the celestial gates were knowledgeable about. Maybe only the empires located at the center of the continent would come anywhere near this level of knowledge on different Daos… And this was not even mentioning the fact that the list in front of him was only Daos that the sandworm was weak against…

"Hm? Dao of Ice? Ah!? It's weak to the Dao of Ice!" Mindlessly reading through the long list for what felt like hours as the scroll seemed to magically expand whenever he reached the end, Xuan Hao could not help exclaiming when the Dao of Ice suddenly appeared on the list of Daos that the sandworm guardian was weak against.

Not only was he filled with excitement learning that the guardian was weak to the Dao of Ice, but it also gave him a boost in confidence when it came to fighting the guardian of the desert. 

Now, the only thing he needed to find out about was where this guardian was located. After all, given how large the desert was, it would take him a long time to search through it by himself. Especially considering that he still had no clue about just how large the desert was in the first place.

So far, the only thing he knew about the desert other than the fact that it was inhabited by giant sandworms living beneath the desert itself. Outside of that, he had no idea just how big this desert was nor if there were other living creatures inside the desert.

To find out about this, he could only continue reading through the scroll of trials-

"Hm?"

However, a problem soon occurred, as the list of Daos that the guardian of the desert was weak to came to a sudden end without there being any information on the location of the guardian in question…