979 Ice Phoenix, Snow bird, Frozen Sovereign



Leaving the dragon claw mark behind, Xuan Hao made his way over towards the edge of the foundation before looking around for the small thin tree that the rabbit demon beast had decided to sleep in.

"There it is, looks like nothing happened to it…" Muttering this to himself after noticing that nothing had happened to the rabbit demon beast, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of relief. Although he was not attached to the rabbit demon beast given how little time they had spent together, he was still aware of how valuable its existence was to the Star Shattering Sect.

The main reason why this was the case was due to the fact that the current Star Shattering Sect didn't have any experts in the Soul Ascension Realm. Without him present, the Star Shattering Sect wouldn't be able to safely expand beyond the limits of the border territory of the Sky Empire. 

The rabbit demon beast who had reached the Third Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm solved this problem, as only the old ancestor of the Sky Empire had the strength to fight against it… And given that the ancestor of the Sky Empire could not leave the capital city without risking another attack from the experts belonging to the three religions, the Star Shattering Sect would be able to expand freely throughout the territory of the Sky Empire.

As for dealing with the three large religions… Xuan Hao hadn't really thought of a way to this yet, as he understood that he was still too weak to fight with the stronger experts from these three religions. Although, given that the three religions in the Sky Empire were only small branches located outside the core of the continent where the main churches and temples of these religions were located, Xuan Hao felt that it should be fine if he just ignored these three religions and the territory under their control for now.

As long as he didn't directly attack the three religions and reduced the faith they were currently gathering from the kingdoms and territories under their control, the core of these religions located in the core of the continent shouldn't send out any powerful experts in the Earth Immortal Realm.

Thinking about all of this, Xuan Hao turned his attention away from the rabbit demon beast, as he focused it back on to the foundation beneath his feet. Although he had not managed to see what had ended up killing the dragon, he had still seen the ancient symbols that had covered the foundation before the death of the dragon.

Other than this, the only clue he had to who was behind the death of the dragon, was the last sentence that the dragon had screamed in a panic before trying to flee.

"Snow bird… Is it perhaps related to the ice phoenix?" Whispering this to himself as he curiously crouched down to inspect the foundation more closely, Xuan Hao could not help wondering if the snow bird mentioned by the dragon was the same as the ice phoenix whose feathers had already merged together with him. 

Other than that, there was also the mark of the frozen sovereign that the elder from the from the Mirage Sect had mentioned as one of the reasons for him trusting him to not be from any of the forces that had destroyed the Mirage Sect.

Given this, it was not hard for him to understand that this frozen sovereign mentioned by the elder from the Mirage Sect was likely the ice phoenix whose feathers had merged together and formed the flame imprint hidden between his brows… And with this in mind, the snow bird that had created the symbols protecting the foundation of the pagoda was most likely the same as the frozen sovereign mentioned by the elder from the Mirage Sect.

Fwoosh~

Gently touching the location between his brows where the flame symbol was hidden and feeling the blue divine power inside churning with power, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of disappointment as he remembered how the elder from the Mirage Sect had passed away before he had a chance to ask him about the frozen sovereign.

This was the first time he had found someone who actually knew about the ice phoenix, but in the end, he had not managed to gain anything substantial. The only information he had managed to gain was the fact that the ice phoenix was allied with the Mirage Sect in the past.

At least I now know that I should be able to gain more information on the ice phoenix by searching through the remnants of the Mirage Sect. Maybe I will even be lucky enough to encounter another elder who managed to survive the battle back then…

Feeling a bit more positive as he thought about this, Xuan Hao didn't forget that the entire mystic realm had once been under the control of the Mirage Sect, it was inevitable that some of the records of the past should have managed to survive like the elder in the Exchange Hall. After all, from the battle that had taken place at the pagoda, it didn't seem like the Mirage Sect was weaker than its opponent, but merely that it had been caught off guard by the sudden attack.

Compared to the pagoda, the main sect of the Mirage Sect should not have perished so easily. Maybe the attack on the Mirage Sect in the past had even served as the catalyst for the battle depicted in the murals and paintings of the ice phoenix facing off against the combined might of countless different races on its own.

But in the murals, there wasn't any depictions of the Mirage Sect… Did the Mirage Sect fall before the battle began or did something else happen?

Finding it a bit weird that the Mirage Sect that seemed to be one of the core allies of the ice phoenix was not depicted at all in the murals or paintings of the great war he had seen in the past, Xuan Hao could only shake his head after realizing that he was lacking far too much information to try and figure out what had ended up happening to the Mirage Sect back then.

For now, he could only resume examining the remnant left behind by it…