In a place riddled with danger like this, Shen Hao’s perception was always at the highest alert—he hadn’t sensed anyone behind him at all until he heard a voice.

This meant the person behind him had a cultivation far above Shen Hao’s, and must have only just entered this area. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have spoken up only after Shen Hao had spent so long examining the arm guard he’d just obtained.

Calling it "asking" was putting it nicely; to be honest, it was robbery.

Shen Hao turned around and saw a young man who looked about thirty, dressed in a snow-white long robe, handsome features, with a faint smile at his lips but an unmistakable contempt and playfulness in his eyes. The man’s right hand rested on the hilt of the sword at his waist.

The aura was strong, but still nowhere close to Nie Yun’s.

At this moment, a thin membrane visible to the naked eye covered the young man’s body, trembling slightly with his breathing; Shen Hao didn’t know which magical artifact produced it, but it seemed to be resisting something. Shen Hao suddenly understood: this man had barged straight into the Cloud Sword Domain—he must have relied on this membrane to avoid falling immediately into the illusion realm.

What stood out most was a purple emblem at the man’s waist, shaped like flames with a toad crouching in the center. This unique ornament was easily recognizable.

This was the insignia of the Celestial Toad Sect, a first-class sect in Jingxi like Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute. In the Xuanqing Guard’s files, they described Celestial Toad Sect with one phrase: behaving perversely and domineeringly, both righteous and evil, unreasonable and wild.

Celestial Toad Sect’s headquarters was to the east of Jingxi, outside Fengri City’s jurisdiction. Shen Hao had never seen anyone from this sect before.

"Kid, gone mute? I’m asking you a question, and you dare not answer?"

Shen Hao cupped his hands at the other man and directly took out the small silver gourd Nie Yun had given him before, announcing loudly, "I am Shen Hao, Black Banner Battalion Hundred Households under Fengri City of Xuanqing Guard, Named Disciple under Old Tree Peak of Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute. Greetings to you, sir!"

It was usually hard for cultivators to tell exact ages. This man looked about twenty, but Shen Hao was sure he was older—because even with his Gathering Spirit Realm Third Layer’s perception, he couldn’t sense the other’s presence at all. The other was at least four Small Realms higher, maybe a whole Great Realm above.

"Hundred Households of Xuanqing Guard? Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute Named Disciple? Tsk tsk, Platinum Gourd—so Nie Yun that boozehound took you in? Heh, I never thought I’d run into someone from Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute in this godforsaken place. What an eyesore."

This was hardly friendly. Shen Hao instinctively put one hand on his saber, the other clutching his storage bag—he still had some assets that he could use to fight.

"You just got some benefits, didn’t you? Tell me what’s going on here."

Shen Hao shook his head, face expressionless. "There’s some strange anomaly here—a lot of people from Xuanqing Guard got trapped. I was just here to investigate and accidentally got dragged in myself. I only know that there’s no way out right now, nothing else is clear."

"Not clear? Heh, everyone around is caught in the illusion realm, and even I am constantly being eroded by it, but you’re fine. I saw you just now stash a top-grade magical artifact in your storage bag, and now you say you don’t know?

Heh, kid, do you really think just flashing those two affiliations would make me scruple? I’ll give you one last chance: hand over your storage bag, and tell me everything about this place."

As he finished, the man’s hand flicked up, and a sword point shot toward Shen Hao—without warning, and extremely fast.

Shen Hao startled, but then a cold smile crept onto his face.

This was the Cloud Sword Domain; using magic like this remotely was impossible. Sure enough, the sword point vanished just a foot from his hand.

"This... heh, so this place is some kind of domain. Is this your trump card? Kid, even if I take you in myself, do you really think you can escape my grasp?"

Shen Hao didn’t run; he felt no need—because he clearly saw that membrane around the man was being compressed rapidly. In just a few moments of conversation, it was already pressed tightly to his skin, and wouldn’t last more than a few breaths.

This was the Cloud Sword Domain; thinking a mere magical artifact would let you swagger through here? What a joke.

"Hm?"

After spouting those threats, the man also clearly noticed the state of his magical artifact, realizing it couldn’t resist the illusion realm’s erosion. But he didn’t care.

To him, a mere Gathering Spirit Realm Third Layer, a non-tiered cultivator, could escape this illusion realm; the others stuck here must be even more worthless. For him, it’d take just a blink.

"Looks like you know plenty about this place. I’ll have to interrogate you properly later." As he spoke, he waved his hand, dropping a hexagonal golden shield that garrisoned about ten feet around him. At the same time, the membrane was eroded away by the Cloud Sword Domain and the man was trapped in the illusion realm.

The next moment, a loud bang sounded beneath Shen Hao’s feet, and his body shot out like a cannonball toward the man.

Escaping the Cloud Sword Domain’s illusion realm wasn’t hard, especially for such a master. Shen Hao had needed almost half an hour when he first did it; someone like Nie Yun could do it in ten breaths or so.

Shen Hao didn’t dare bet whether the man would be killed by the domain’s fatal soul attack during his escape. What if he was also a soul-strength mutant like Shen Hao or Nie Yun? Then Shen Hao would be in deep trouble—the way this guy had shown zero respect for Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute just now, he’d either die or get skinned alive.

So Shen Hao naturally had to strike first.

Did he really think a defensive magical artifact would let him sleep easy? Did he really think he could ignore a mere Gathering Spirit cultivator?

Maybe anywhere else Shen Hao would have had no choice but to run, but here in the Cloud Sword Domain, after drifting here for a day and a half, he had plenty at his disposal.

The distance wasn’t far. It took him two breaths to rush over; then he swung his Yanji Saber full force in a downward slash, carving a circle around the other’s defense array and even cutting out a huge chunk of earth along with it.

Six breaths had passed.

The defense array itself was beyond Shen Hao, but there were other ways. If he couldn’t move the man, he’d move the ground with him!

He summoned all his strength, hoisting the chunk of earth, man, and array overhead. Then, blasting off, he dashed hundreds of feet to the left. Eleven breaths had now elapsed.

"Die, you bastard!"

At the twelfth breath, Shen Hao hurled the man—along with the earth chunk—overhead, smashing them into a cloud sword cluster ahead, the size of a house, three yards across...

Almost at the instant the man touched the cloud sword, he broke free of the illusion realm, not killed by the Cloud Sword Domain’s soul-rending force—he was also someone with abnormal soul strength. But as he faced the looming cloud mist, he felt a deep sense of peril—too bad he had zero time to react.