Chapter 359: Four Paths

Having left his disciples and the winged lion behind at the shore of the Pure Heart Lake to make their way back to the Flying Sword Sect for themselves, Xuan Hao didn't bother holding back in the slightest. Flying through the air and easily crossing the distance between the Pure Heart City and the Pure Heart Island within a minute.

"This should be the place..."

Arriving in front of a large opening in the ground where the terrifying aura that he had felt earlier came from, Xuan Hao grew a bit cautious. Using both his domains to careful scan the surroundings for any clues that might help him figure out what had happened earlier.

"A large group of people seem to have entered around half an hour ago..."

Narrowing his eyes as he discovered a few lingering traces from the expeditionary force of the Ghost Howl Sect, Xuan Hao soon began observing the opening itself.

Outside of just being a large hole in the ground. The opening had four different rivers that ran into it from four different directions. Ending up forming four different waterfalls that fell down into a large body of water located on the bottom of the opening in the ground.

Whoosh~

Moving down through the opening, Xuan Hao soon discovered that there were four different paths, each of them hidden behind a waterfall formed from the rivers above.

"..."

Please don't be a maze...

Feeling that he already knew where this whole thing was going, Xuan Hao gave a silent prayer as he entered the northern path.

"Wha-"

Letting out a breath of relief and at the same time amazement, as he found himself at the entrance of what could only be described as an underground ancient temple of some long-forgotten water related god.

What had once been walls filled with beautiful murals, had long since decayed under the long passage of time. Only leaving behind the pillars supporting the ancient underground temple decorated with different water serpents coiling around them in different stages of collapse.

The water serpents that decorated the large pillars several meters thick, was one of the reasons why Xuan Hao believed the ancient temple had belonged to some water related god.

However, there was an even more obvious thing pointing towards this and that was the large mural located at the back of the ancient temple.

Even though it had been damaged like the rest of the murals that covered the side walls of the temple, Xuan Hao could still make out a few things from it.

One being the fact that the bottom half of the mural seemed to depict an endless ocean, while the top half should have been the god of the temple itself.

Sadly, it was not possible to see the appearance of the god in question, as the top half of the mural was far more damaged than the bottom half. Making it impossible for Xuan Hao to begin guessing what the water god looked like.

Searching through the ancient underground temple that the northern path had led to, Xuan Hao soon left after finding. Leaving the ancient temple to explore the three other paths.

Only to be met with the exact same thing, the difference being the element of the god that was worshipped.

The southern path was a fire god. The eastern path an earth god and the western path a wind god.

Exploring the four different ancient temples, Xuan Hao realized that all of them were completely empty. Not even a single spirit stone could be found inside of any of the four and at the same time, he had no clue where the people who had entered before him had disappeared to...

Even scanning the surroundings with his divine sense strengthened by his domain, did not lead to anything.

All he could ever get to, was that the aura of the people that came before him disappeared into thin air after reaching the middle of the opening...

"Maybe it's a guardian formation of some sort..."

Looking at the centre of the large hole Xuan Hao was lost in thought. The water below the centre began to move out of the way before a circular entrance shrouded in a thick mist leading to somewhere unknown a few meters wide began to form.

Splash!

"Hah... I esca-"

Staring unblinkingly as a man dressed like a disciple from the Ghost Howl Sect crawled out of the circular entrance that had formed in the body of water before moving his exhausted body into the water with a happy smile on his face, Xuan Hao suddenly made eye contact with the person now floating in the water below him.

"..."

"..."

The man who had just come out from the circular entrance similar to the entrance of a secret realm that formed in the water. Looked up at Xuan Hao floating only in the air only a few meters away from him before a terrified expression slowly began to appear on his face.

"S-senior...!"

Doing his best to sound respectful, the disciple from the Ghost Howl Sect shivered all over as he called out to Xuan Hao. Hoping that the senior floating a few meters away from him wouldn't just outright kill him.

Even if he had no idea what the Domain Lord Realm was, the disciple could still easily understand that the person floating just a few meters away from him, was an existence that far surpassed even his sect master!

"What did-"

Just as Xuan Hao was about to ask the Ghost Howl Sect about what had happened to him and what was beyond the circular entrance shrouded in a thick mist that prevented his divine sense and domain from piercing through, the circular entrance started shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye. Given a few more seconds and the circular entrance to somewhere unknown at the centre of the lake would be closed again.

Whoosh!

Not thinking about the disciple from the Ghost Howl Sect, Xuan Hao directly rushed through the entrance shrouded in a thick mist. Not knowing what awaited him on the other side.