Chapter 1147: Crossing the Frozen Wasteland
“This…”
Seeing the large frozen storm forming a barrier between the Frozen Wasteland and the Sky Empire, Yi Min could not help swallowing unconsciously as she felt a shiver run down her spine.
Although she knew Xuan Hao was stronger than the demonic cultivators, she didn’t expect the demonic cultivators to die so easily. Not to mention, when looking at the frozen storm now blocking the path from the Frozen Wasteland to the Sky Empire, she understood that Xuan Hao had most likely surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm. At least that was the only way she could explain what she had just witnessed.
“Let’s get going before more demonic cultivators show up.” Not aware of how shocked Yi Min was following his creation of the barrier between the Sky Empire and the Frozen Wasteland, Xuan Hao didn’t say anything more before leaving the scene together with the still shocked Yi Min.
Even though it had looked easy for him to create the frozen storm now separating the Sky Empire from the Frozen Wasteland, the qi required to accomplish something like that had almost ended up draining his dantian completely.
After all, the barrier was not a formation and couldn’t absorb the qi from the air around it to strengthen and keep itself running, it only had the initial qi Xuan Hao had used to create the ice swords controlling the frigid qi gathered from the Frozen Wasteland. The moment the qi in the ice sword ran dry, the frozen storm would disperse by itself, and the frigid yin qi would return to the Frozen Wasteland.
In the end, it wasn’t a permanent solution to the problem of demonic cultivators entering the territory of the Star Shattering Sect from the Frozen Wasteland, but it would at least ensure that no demonic cultivator in the True Demon Realm or below entered the Star Shattering Sect’s territory during his absence…
“Huh? This is…” As Xuan Hao and Yi Min left following the death of the demonic cultivators and made their way along the edge of the Frozen Wasteland, Xuan Hao could not help frowning when he suddenly felt a powerful divine sense sweeping over both him and Yi Min from deeper inside the Frozen Wasteland.
Though it only swept over them for a brief moment before disappearing again, it was obvious from the strength of the divine sense that the other party had at least reached the Earth Immortal Realm… And given that he had just used up most of his qi to create the frozen storm, Xuan Hao had no plans of getting involved with a powerful demonic cultivator-
Whoosh-!
For this reason, before the other party could show up or do anything, he decided to preemptively use most of his remaining strength to execute the Drifting Cloud Steps. Using his mastery of the Dao of Space to rapidly teleport across the small patch of the Frozen Wasteland they had to cross over to reach the edges of the continent where the Grandmaster Realm Blacksmith was located.
Rumble~
Not a second after Xuan Hao had disappeared together with Yi Min, a handsome man looking like he was in his mid-twenties appeared at the spot where he had been standing with a frown on his face, a pair of devil horns visible on the top of his head.
“Hmph! The Dao of Space… Did those people discover anything or is this just a coincidence…?” Muttering this to himself as he looked in the direction that Xuan Hao had disappeared in together with Yi Min, the man let out a reluctant sigh before turning around to head back into the core of the Frozen Wasteland again.
“No matter whether it’s someone sent by one of those people, they shouldn’t be certain for them to send someone to investigate the situation. If they truly had an idea, they would have already shown up personally instead of sending someone in the Earth Immortal Realm…” Shaking his head as he said this, the handsome man tore apart the space in front of him before walking through it.
Different from Xuan Hao who had manipulated space to teleport, he used a far cruder method of using his strength to tear apart space directly to teleport.
Although it was useful and demonstrated that one’s strength had at least reached the Soul Ascension Realm, it was far inferior to someone who had comprehended the Dao of Space. Not only due to the consumption involved in tearing space, but also due to the lowered accuracy in teleporting somewhere.
If not for the fact that the handsome young man didn’t master the Dao of Space, he would undoubtedly have tried to catch up with the escaping Xuan Hao and tried to get answer out of him.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t do this and could only give up. Allowing Xuan Hao to escape.
…
“Haaa… That was close…”
Using the next few hours to rush out of the Frozen Wasteland, Xuan Hao could not help letting out a sigh of relief after realizing that the owner of the powerful divine sense didn’t chase after them.
Although he had no idea how strong the other party was and only knew that it should at least be in the Earth Immortal Realm, he also understood that there was a chance that the owner of the divine sense had surpassed the Earth Immortal Realm and reached the demonic cultivators equivalent of the Celestial Immortal Realm.
“Did something happen…?”
Being far too weak to notice the powerful divine sense earlier, Yi Min could not help showing a somewhat confused expression on her face as she asked this. Not understanding why Xuan Hao had suddenly gone quiet before increasing his speed far beyond anything she had ever seen before.
“A powerful divine sense swept over us from the core of the Frozen Wasteland. Although the divine sense didn’t seem to be looking for us, I didn’t want to take any chances and decided to escape before the other party could think about catching us.” Seeing Yi Min’s confused expression, Xuan Hao didn’t hide anything as he explained his reason for their earlier escape from the Frozen Wasteland.
“I see… How powerful was the demonic cultivator?” Hearing what Xuan Hao said, Yi Min nodded her head in understanding before asking this. Feeling curious about how powerful a demonic cultivator who could scare him away was.
“I don’t know, but it should at least be in the later stages of the Earth Immortal Realm, possibly even above that!”
“Above the Earth Immortal Realm!? This… I never expected for there to be demonic cultivators that powerful inside the Frozen Wasteland.”
“Well, the Frozen Wasteland should have something to rely on for it to stay strong over so many years…”
As Xuan Hao said this, both him and Yi Min looked at each other. Only now realizing that the Frozen Wasteland was far more dangerous than it seemed at the surface. Especially Xuan Hao, who hadn’t really treated the Frozen Wasteland too seriously before. Mainly due to the knowledge he had obtained through the sky Empire earlier on that stated that the strongest demonic cultivators at the core of the Frozen Wasteland were in the True Demon Realm.
From the looks of things, he should pay more attention to the Frozen Wasteland in the future.
Even if the demonic cultivators didn’t end up invading his sect, he needed to at least have an idea about how strong the place filled to the brim with demonic cultivators bordering his sect’s territory was in case they ended up falling out with them in the future.
At least, given the fact that none of the major powers like the Blue Sea Empire had decided to go in and kill off the demonic cultivators yet, he could assume that the Frozen Wasteland was at least as strong as these major powers. Meaning that they would at least have a handful of experts in the Celestial Immortal Realm.
Thinking about it, not only did he have to deal with the Heavenly Dragon Temple and the Blue Sea Empire in the future, but from the looks of it, he would also have to deal with the Frozen Wasteland if the Star Shattering Sect wanted to continue to expand in the future.
Not to mention, there was no saying how the different major powers in the core of the continent would react to the rise of a new power that would end up cutting into their share of the cultivation resources on the continent.
Outside all of this, there was also the different religious organization that would be less than happy at the rise of a sect that wouldn’t allow them to harvest the faith of the kingdoms and powers under them.
“…”
Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly to himself. From the bottom of his heart, he had a feeling that he understood why he had to raise a few disciples. If he had to deal with everything by himself, he would undoubtedly end up dying of exhaustion…
