Chapter 401: Breaking In Through The Front Door
Making his way through the tunnel at a speed that would easily allow him to disappear in the eyes of people, Xuan Hao arrived at the true entrance of the base that was located beneath the small house within only a few seconds.
"Hm... Looks like that's the entrance to the base..." Coming to a stop just as the tunnel around him had expanded from only being a tunnel only a few meters tall, to being a cave least a few dozen meters tall expanding in all directions.
Not only that, but there were several other tunnels similar to the one he had used, connecting to the underground cave he now found himself inside of. Likely leading towards other similar entrances like the one he had entered through.
Just looking at the number of tunnels alone numbering above ten, Xuan Hao could easily imagine the strength of the power that existed here if every single entrance had someone at the Nascent Soul Realm guarding it!
With this in mind, Xuan Hao cautiously inspected his surroundings before focusing all his attention on a large metal gate made out of spiritual metal located only a few hundred meters away from him.
Just the size of the gate alone was more than enough to amaze anyone seeing it. Not only for its sheer size being able to directly block anyone from moving deeper into the cave where the base was likely located, but also because the spiritual metal used in its construction was at the very least Soul Rank Spiritual Metal!
From a distance, Xuan Hao could even sense that traces of Mystic Grade Spiritual Metal had been used in its construction to strengthen the giant gate even further!
The gate was not only built to hold off against people in the Nascent Soul Realm, but would also have the ability to delay someone in the Domain Lord Realm for a short moment...
Looking over at the gate, two guards that could be seen closely observing the tunnel, both of them having reached the Nascent Soul Realm.
"Should I just try to break through?" Muttering this to himself as he looked over at the gate, Xuan Hao had already tried to find a way around the gate, like digging into the side of the cave and directly bypassing the gate altogether...
But after closely inspecting with his divine sense, he realized that the gate was not only a gate, but also acting as a core for a large formation that enveloped the deeper part of the cave!
The formation connected back to the gate in front of him and without breaking through it, he would have no way enter the deeper part of the cave.
Ignoring the two guards at the gate, breaking through the gate would be his only way of entering the base in the short term and he did not really have time on his side...
Whoosh!
With this in mind, Xuan Hao didn't bother wasting any more time trying to think up a way to sneakily enter the base and directly dashed towards the base while condensing the strength of both his cultivation base and two domains inside a large transparent silver palm that-
BOOM!
Directly smashed into the gate, causing several cracks to form in the gate, while at the same time causing the two unfortunate Nascent Soul Realm Experts standing guard to be hit by the shockwave of the attack. Instantly sending both of them flying into the nearby cave wall. Their conditions unknown.
"Indeed, a strong gate..." Looking at the gate that had managed to hold up even after he had used the Earth Rank Technique, God's Palm, Xuan Hao could not help but feel amazed at the defensive powers of the gate.
Even if he had only used an Earth Rank Technique, God's Palm was not a technique that could be underestimated in the slightest!
The reason why it had ended up becoming popular across the entire Ewaria Continent was because its ability in allowing someone to merge all of one's power into a simple palm attack!
The stronger the user, the stronger the palm would become! While it was indeed a useful technique for fighting people below one's own realm, its weakness became obvious when fighting someone at the same realm.
The technique was indeed strong, but it cost a massive amount of energy compared to other techniques and at the same time, the attack was extremely slow! Only improving in speed after every breakthrough into a new major realm, where the newly acquired speed was once again useless against someone in that realm...
Swish~
Not bothering to stand around waiting for the people behind the gate to react, Xuan Hao switched to using his sword domain, as a sword manifested in his right hand before he slashed down towards the gate that was already in the process of falling apart.
After being hit by the giant palm attack, the gate could no longer stand up any longer, as the sword attack managed to directly slash through it. Cutting the gate in half and destroying the formation connected to it at the same time.
Bang!
As the gate fell to the ground, the large cracks that had formed from the first attack grew even larger before the two halves of the gate shattered into several smaller pieces on the ground.
"Wha-"
A person standing on the other side of the gate covered in a dark robe with his hand raised into the air like he was about to knock on the gate had a confused look on his face upon seeing the gate suddenly cracking before being slashed in half in front of him.
The entire thing took no time at all and in the eyes of the robbed man about to knock on the gate, all of it had happened during the time that he even manged to move his hand a few centimeters forward to knock on gate!
Whoosh~
Not bothering to pay any attention to the person who had appeared on the other side of the gate, Xuan Hao dared not waste any time, as he rushed through the now empty place where the gate had been just a few seconds ago.
"WHO!?"
Just as he entered the underground base located, a loud roar could be heard from the deeper part of the cave before a terrifying aura even stronger than his own could be felt erupting with a fear inspiring domain following closely behind.
Just from the presence alone, Xuan Hao knew that the other person would not be someone that he would be getting along with...
Whoosh!
Ignoring the question from the voice, Xuan Hao fully unleashed the strength of his ice domain to counter the terrifying aura erupting from the deeper part of the cave, as everyone and everything around him instantly froze in place.
The few unfortunate people caught up in his domain suffered similarly as they were all turned into ice statues on the spot. Not even getting a chance to react before they died a quick and cold death.
Boom!
The clash between the two domains instantly caused the cave to shake violently as it showed signs of collapsing.
Without the gate and the formation to help keep it intact, there was no way a normal cave would be able to endure the terrifying energy waves from two domains clashing with each other for more than a few seconds!
"HOW DARE YOU!"
Sensing how bad the current situation was, the voice from the deeper part of the base immediately began dedicating part of his strength towards making sure that the cave didn't suddenly collapse and kill off all the people and ruin everything inside the base.
From the domain alone, Xuan Hao could not find any similarities to the domains of the Domain Lords that he had read about in a book detailing the domains of the different Domain Lords inside the Sky Empire!
The book itself was not that hard to get his hands on, as it was apparently available for the Flying Sword Sect to easily buy for a few spirit stones through the Explorer Union even before he had reached the Domain Lord Realm.
From the book, Xuan Hao guessed that the Domain Lord should either be a new Domain Lord or someone not from the Sky Empire and given the fact that he was above the Fourth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao highly doubted he was a new Domain Lord...
At the same time, he could also not rule out the possibility that the Domain Lord was someone with more than one domain like himself!
Whoosh~
Ignoring the angry words coming from the deeper part of the cave, Xuan Hao smiled to himself as he began searching through the cave for anything that would help him figure out what power the Domain Lord in the deeper part of the cave belonged to.
Even if he could not pinpoint where the Domain Lord was from, he should still be able to find something inside the cave that would help him find out...