968 Back to the Exchange Hall



Squeak!

Recovering some energy after seeing Xuan Hao sitting next to it, the rabbit demon beast jumped up with what little energy it had left before showing off its new strength. However, it severely overestimated how much energy was left in its body after the tribulation-

Thump~

As it ended up falling flat on its face in front of Xuan Hao.

Squeak…!

Ending up in an embarrassing situation like this, the rabbit demon beast let out a somewhat embarrassed squeaking sound before it used the last bit of its energy to climb up Xuan Hao's robe before quickly hiding away inside of it, its proud nature not allowing it to show its face after such a shameful display.

"…" 

Not knowing what to say after witnessing this, Xuan Hao could only shake his head before getting up to leave. Although he had not fully recovered yet, he didn't want to stay inside the trial space for too long after having completed the trial. After all, from his experience with the first trial, there should be a limit as to how long he would be able to stay inside a trial after completing it.

Although he did not find anything like this with the second trial, he had been too busy trying to escape at that time.

Given the limited knowledge he had on this matter, he believed that the normal time would be around one week. The only problem was that he had no idea where the gate leading out of the desert was located, it did not neatly appear in front of him after he killed the sandworm. Even worse, it had already been six days since the death of the sandworm.

If he had the same amount of time to leave as the first trial, he was left with less than a single day before the situation inside the desert would become life threatening!

"Guess I can only go back to the Exchange Hall for now and see if I can find out anything from the preservation golem guarding the place. At least I should be able to enter the Exchange Hall now…" Muttering this to himself as he glanced in the direction of the sandstone tower with the Exchange Hall beneath it, Xuan Hao could only pin his hope on the preservation golem and hope that it also knew the location of the gate out of the trial space.

Whoosh~!

Having decided where to go, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time as he jumped into the air before making his way back towards the sandstone tower.

…

Arriving in front of the sandstone, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes as he saw the thin barrier covering the area around the sandstone tower. Different from before, the protective formation mentioned by the preservation golem was now fully activated.

"The protective formation, I wonder if I will be fine just walking into it…" Feeling the ancient power flowing through the ancient symbols on the sandstone tower and into the thin barrier, Xuan Hao hesitated in front of the formation.

If the formation did not recognize him as someone who had completed three trials like the preservation golem said was required to enter the Exchange Hall, he might end up in a far more dangerous situation than facing off against the guardian of the desert if he decided to step inside the formation in front of him. Not only that, but there was also the fact that he did not have a long time left before the seven-day time limit was up.

It's not like I have a much better choice…

Taking a deep breath, Xuan Hao closed his eyes for a short moment- 

Thump~

Before taking a step forward into the formation. 

"Haaaa… Why is this so nerve wrecking…?" Waiting for a few seconds without anything happening, Xuan Hao could not help letting out a sigh of relief after making sure that the formation did not attack him.

Swish~

Now knowing that he was fine to enter the Exchange Hall, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time before making his way into the sandstone tower and down the spiral staircase. Soon finding himself in front of the large pair of sandstone doors that had closed again at some point in time.

Creaaak~

Slowly pushing open the large pair of sandstone doors again, Xuan Hao did not wait around like he had done the last time and instead began making his way along the old worn-down hallway that was on the other side. Not feeling too worried about any danger now that he knew that the place should be safe for him to move around.

"Hm?"

Moving along the hallway for a few minutes, a large pair of wooden appeared at the end. In front of which, two golems could be seen standing motionless without any signs of life.

On closer inspection, Xuan Hao discovered that the two golems looked exactly the same as the preservation golem that he had encountered when first entering the Exchange Hall. The only difference was that the state of these golems was far worse than the one he had encountered, both of them long since having decayed to the point where they could no longer function-

Whoosh~

"Ah!?

Or at least that was what he thought, as one of the two golems suddenly lit up for a brief moment before turning towards him.

"Greetings trial participant, it seems you have successfully completed three trials and have the qualifications to enter the lower section of the Exchange Hall. Would you like a basic introduction to the Exchange Hall?"

"Yes?"

Listening to the golem that looked like it was about to collapse at any moment, Xuan Hao could only hesitantly nod his head in agreement. Not knowing if the golem in front of him even had enough energy left inside of it to complete an introduction of the Exchange Hall in the first place…

"Great, I will now begin a ba-"

Crack~

Bang!

"…"

And almost like it had been planned beforehand, the golem collapsed before it had time to finish the first sentence…