Knowing that the battle for the ancient inheritance contained within the palace should have already started without him because he had ended up trapped inside the spatial maze within the hallway, Xuan Hao didn’t hesitate waiting around outside the large pair of doors at the end of the hallway and directly pushed on the towering doors before a crack large enough for him to fit through opened up. Allowing him to slip inside without having to open the towering door that easily stood more than a thousand meters tall entirely. Avoiding the inevitable attention, he would have drawn if he had swung such a massive door open. Even if the Void Integration Realm cultivators were busy fighting with each other, it would be difficult to notice something like that.
Eager as he might be to join the battle with those Void Integration Realm cultivators, he also understood that drawing everyone’s attention at once could very well result in them teaming up for a short time to get rid of this new competitor. Strong as he might be, dealing with that many Void Integration Realm cultivators wasn’t simple. Especially the one that had reached the Peak of the Void Integration Realm, a level that was comparable to someone in the Star Creation Realm.
Because of this, as he snuck though the small opening of the large door that wouldn’t be visible from far away to those who should be fighting on the other side, he succeeded in not drawing any unwanted attention from the group that had now become visible within the large hall on the other side of the door.
Although, calling it a hall was a bit inaccurate, as it was almost like a small independent world on its own that had been shaped by the creators terrifying spatial control that far exceeded even the spatial expansion that had been utilized to create the hallway and the spatial maze he had been trapped inside of earlier.
The fighting he had heard and sensed from the other side of the towering door that was now behind him wasn’t that difficult to identify either, as at the very center of this massive hall the size of a large secret realm, a towering throne more than a thousand meters tall could be seen. On top of which was what looked like the skeleton of a giant that barely seemed to fit on top the towering throne, an interspatial ring of unimaginable size clearly visible on the skeleton along with several other artifacts that didn’t look like they had decayed even a single bit over the long years.
The battle playing out was unsurprisingly centered around this massive throne and the skeleton on top of it, as the Void Integration Realm cultivators all fought to seize the treasures attached to the towering skeleton.
Still, considering how one of the people involved in the battle had reached the Peak of the Void Integration Realm and another had reached the Late Stage of the Void Integration Realm, the remaining six Early and Middle Stage Void Integration Realm cultivators had teamed up to properly participate in the struggle against these two powerful senior. None of them willing to give up what was clearly an opportunity to reach the Late Stages of the Void Integration Realm or potentially even the Void God Realm.
Amongst the three groups that had formed, it was clear that the strongest one was the cultivator at the Peak of the Void Integration Realm, as the group of six alongside Late Stage Void Integration Realm cultivator who should be the city lord of Desolate River City joined together every now and then to ensure an attack went through and did some damage to this Peak Void Integration Realm cultivator.
Still, even with this team up from time to time, it was clear that the Peak Void Integration Realm cultivator was winning, as he slowly began drawing closer to the towering skeleton on the mountain sized throne.
As for why he didn’t just rush forward and try to grab the interspatial ring alongside the other artifacts on the skeleton? That had to do with what should be the trial left behind within this hall that required one to slowly adjust to an increasingly oppressive pressure the closer to the towering skeleton one got.
A pressure that even left him shivering in fear even though he was only being affected by the remnants that seeped through the area where this trial had been erected.
The one who had gone the furthest was of course the city lord that had been working on trying to reach the skeleton for weeks already, but the speed that the Peak Void Integration Realm cultivator was pushing through and approaching the skeleton was far faster than the city lord and after a quick calculation, it was clear this new Peak Void Integration Realm cultivator would reach the skeleton first and claim the artifacts.
Maybe it was also because he had realized this that the current battle had ended up breaking out in the first place, as the city lord himself understood that he stood no chance in trying to claim the artifacts left behind on that skeleton if they ended up getting into the hands of this Peak Void Integration Realm cultivator.
Having sensed this as well, the weaker Void Integration Realm cultivators who still felt they stood a chance ganging up on the city lord who had yet to fully merge with the void also ended up joining the battle.
In a way, though this battle appeared to be free for all, it was more so a one against two, with the Peak Void Integration Realm cultivator having essentially become the sole focus of the two other sides.
If he had ended up showing up in this kind of situation, he could already see himself turning into the new target for these Void Integration Realm cultivators as the original target joined up with the rest to get rid of the new one trying to join the battle.
Shaking his head as he thought about this, Xuan Hao decided to shift his attention away from the battle playing out before him for now and instead investigate the vast hall he found himself in more closely. Not taking too long to realize just how odd the current situation was.
After all, from the fact that there were still old remnant souls around inside the palace complex, he expected the lord of this place to be around as well.
But... Instead, he found a large hall with a throne and a skeleton on top of it.
To say he was suspicious about this entire thing would be an understatement as he was almost certain that something was wrong. Especially given how the presence from the skeleton that the challengers had to pass through was layered in a manner that would be impossible to set up before the other party had died. Meaning the skeleton had deliberately been placed there along with the formation that layered the pressure into several different layers that the approaching cultivators would have to pass through to reach it.
Outside of it clearly being something that hadn’t been set up by the owner of the large skeleton, it also left him deeply bewildered, as this kind of challenge or trial was far from what he had expected and could be considered the worst kind of challenge for an inheritance as it essentially only tested the physical body of the challenger and nothing else.
Unless the owner of this place was some kind of renowned body cultivator who wanted to only leave behind his or her inheritance for those with strong enough bodies to bear it, this more so smelled like someone trying to find a strong enough body to possess and live again.
Although doing something like that came with countless complications, it wasn’t difficult for someone in the Nascent Soul Realm to accomplish, let alone someone suspected to have reached the Holy Lord level in terms of strength.
Normally, these Void Integration Realm cultivators should be cautious of something like this but given the environment of the fragmented continent and the inherently weak souls of the inhabitants. Soul possession wasn’t really a possibility for them, as the second their soul left their bodies, it would run the risk of being dragged out of the fragmented continent by the spatial turbulence that was ever present across the fragmented continent.
Not to mention, even within protected environments, the inherently weak souls also meant soul possession was far more difficult compared to normal. Making the success chance of someone successfully possessing someone abysmal to the point where soul possession wasn’t even a known thing throughout the fragmented continent.
Thinking this to himself as he watched the eager Void Integration Realm cultivators fighting hard for what was so clearly a trap in his eyes, Xuan Hao decided against his initial plan to join the battle and try to claim the inheritance that had turned out to be the most obvious kind of trap.
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