Chapter 1298: Fourth Celestial Trial, Mushroom Forest
Unaware of the fact that Mui had already finished off all the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts in the forest that he had left her in, Xuan Hao focused his full attention on the spatial passage that he had been sucked inside of after entering the fourth celestial gate.
Although the fourth celestial gate looked like it had been completely undamaged from the outside and there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the spatial passages connected to it, Xuan Hao still remained cautious in case he ended up being thrown into a spatial storm.
After all, even with his current strength at the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, he was nowhere near strong enough to resist against the spatial storms he had seen when observing the different spatial passages connected to the third celestial gate.
At most, he would be able to try and make use of his comprehension of the Dao of Space to force himself out of the spatial passage before he ended up inside a spatial storm.
Even if this might end up being dangerous, he still felt like it would be better than him getting stuck inside a spatial storm where he would have no way to escape with his current strength.
Dispersing the spatial storm or trying to escape from it with his comprehension of the Dao of Space was also impossible, as he doubted that he would be able to do something like that unless his Dao of Space broke through to the Perfection Realm.
Luckily, there wasn’t anything wrong with the spatial passage and he soon found himself safely on the other side of the spatial passage.
Plop~!
However, what appeared on the other side of the spatial passage was nothing like what he had expected to see when he entered the fourth celestial gate, as a forest made up of giant mushrooms spread out in all directions around him as far as he could see.
Not just that, but the place he had landed after leaving the spatial passage was one of these giant mushrooms that stood dozens of meters tall with a cap that had a diameter of over a hundred meters.
From first impressions, the trial contained inside the fourth celestial trial was by far the most unique one and made him wonder just what kind of challenge he had to overcome to complete the fourth celestial trial.
Fight some kind of mushroom monster? Protect the giant mushrooms from an external threat? Or perhaps something completely different…
No matter what kind of challenge awaited him, Xuan Hao didn’t dare let his guard down, as he understood from past experience that the difficulty of the trial was adjusted according to his cultivation realm… And considering that he was now in the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, it should be far more dangerous compared to the past.
Of course, there was also the fact that he wasn’t even at the Peak of the Late Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm yet and could only be considered around the middle stages of the realm. Making the current celestial trial far more dangerous compared to the past three celestial trials.
“For now, I should try and find the scroll of trials so I can figure out what this celestial trial is about…”
No longer having the help of his system to at least give him some hints about the trial he was going through, Xuan Hao quickly decided to try and seek out the scroll of trials he had encountered during his past three celestial trials. Understanding that he should be able to find out what he needed to do if he found the scroll of trials of the fourth celestial trial.
The only problem with this was the fact that he had no idea where this scroll of trials might be located, as everything around him looked the same with giant mushrooms in all directions.
Even when he used his divine sense to try and find out more about the mushroom forest, he only found out that the range of his divine sense had been severely limited… And that there was nothing within the range of his limited divine sense that helped him figure out what direction to go in.
The only thing he found with the help of his divine sense was a few mushroom-shaped monsters that roamed around at the ground below.
However, given that most of these monsters were barely in the Nascent Soul Realm with only a few in the Domain Lord Realm and none above the Domain Lord Realm, he decided to ignore them, as they were far too weak to do anything to him and didn’t seem much different from the wild demon beasts normally found inside large forests outside of them being mushrooms.
“Guess I will have to try and head in a random direction and hope for the best…” Muttering this to himself as he looked down at a few mushroom monsters fighting with each other right below the giant mushroom that he was standing on top of, Xuan Hao stepped off the edge of mushroom and flew in a random direction-
“Ah?!”
Or at least, that was what he wanted to do, but he instead found himself plummeting to the ground below without any way to stop himself-
BANG!
And unfortunately for one of the two mushroom monsters fighting, he landed directly on top of it.
Killing it in a single hit, as he had been trying to use the full strength of his dao domain to stop himself from falling. Resulting in the unfortunate Domain Lord Realm mushroom monster being crushed by the full force of his dao domain…
Squuueeee~!?
Taken aback by the sudden death of its opponent, the second mushroom monster let out a surprised sound before turning around and escaping before it ended up in a similar state.
“There is a restriction that prevents flight… And one that is strong enough to restrict even my dao domain… Is it perhaps related to the challenge of this celestial trial?” Not paying any attention to the terrified mushroom monster or the one that had been crushed beneath him, Xuan Hao was instead preoccupied with the fact that he had been unable to fly.
It had to be known that outside of the range of his divine sense being limited and being unable to fly, his strength hadn’t been restricted in the slightest. Making him guess that it should be related to the challenge of the fourth celestial trial in some way.
After all, during the past three celestial trials, he hadn’t encountered such a situation before. Making it clear that there was a good chance that the restrictions were related to the challenge of the fourth celestial trial.
Not able to figure out anything from just standing around, Xuan Hao ultimately just shook his head regretfully before continuing to move in the direction he had first wanted to fly in.
Without the scroll of trials or some kind of powerful demon beast that served as a challenge to overcome, he could only search through the mushroom forest by himself.
Although his speed wasn’t that affected as he could still use his comprehension of the Dao of Space to execute the Drifting Cloud Steps and teleport himself forward, it was still annoying finding himself falling back towards the ground whenever he used the Drifting Cloud Steps to teleport himself a few thousand meters every step.
At least, as long as he continued using the Drifting Cloud Steps, he could teleport forward before he had any time to fall from the sky. Essentially archiving a similar result as if he was flying through the air normally.
The only problem with this kind of movement technique being that it was far more draining to execute than normal, as the formation that suppressed his divine sense and flight ability also seemed to be actively trying to stabilize the space inside the celestial trial.
Even then, it didn’t take him long before he found the first thing that stood out inside the mushroom forest, a mushroom far larger than any other mushroom stretching more than a thousand meters into the sky with a cap that seemed to cast an eternal night on the mushroom forest below it.
Rumble~
However, the most unique thing about this massive mushroom was the fact that it seemed to be alive. Moving ever so slightly at a speed that would make it hard to discern that it was even moving if not for the loud sounds that it created every so often.
As for the strength of this giant mushroom, Xuan Hao honestly had no clue, as he couldn’t really tell how strong it was through his divine sense.
Of course, knowing that he was inside a celestial trial and the giant mushroom very much looked like a possible challenge he would have to overcome, Xuan Hao decided to be on the safe side and not recklessly approach the giant moving mushroom.
