Chapter 288: The Stele

However, because too much time had passed, the characters carved into the stele were blurred and illegible.

Wu Hao walked up to the stele and touched the carved characters, muttering to himself, "These lines seem to be ancient script. Even if they weren't damaged, I'm afraid we wouldn't know what they say."

Liu Tong punched the stele a few times, looking quite surprised. "I don't know what material this stele is made of; it has withstood so many years, yet it remains this solid."

Zi Xu Daoist observed the surroundings for a while, then looked at Lingguang Sanren in confusion. "There doesn't seem to be anything special here other than this stele. Are you sure the Treasure-Seeking Flying Insect didn't find the wrong place? Could it be that it was just tired and stopped on the stele to rest?"

Lingguang Sanren shook his head. "In a place like this Cave-Heaven Paradise, there's a stele, and the Treasure-Seeking Flying Insect just happened to land on it—do you really think such a coincidence exists?"

"If I'm not mistaken, there must be a hidden special realm here; it's just that we haven't found it yet."

Lu Fang nodded. Just as Lingguang Sanren said, things couldn't be that coincidental; there had to be something here.

The stele!

This was the only eye-catching spot here, and the Treasure-Seeking Flying Insect had landed on it.

Thinking of this, Lu Fang reached out and touched the stele, attempting to input a sliver of Haoran Zhengqi. The moment the cyan energy entered the stele, the phenomenon changed abruptly: the dilapidated stele suddenly emitted a faint aura of the Ten Thousand Daos.

"This really is a special place."

Seeing this, Lingguang Sanren was incredibly excited and agitated.

Wu Hao was even quicker; his hands rapidly formed seals, and countless translucent "Seal" characters rose from his fingertips, shrouding the entire mountain.

"This sealing barrier of mine can cover all movement within a certain distance, so we don't have to worry about being spied on by others."

Wu Hao chuckled.

However, he stopped laughing soon after. The aura of the Ten Thousand Daos on the stele grew increasingly intense, shattering the sealing barrier almost instantly, and a brilliant light shot into the sky.

"How could this happen?" Liu Tong frowned.

Lu Fang shook his head. He had long anticipated this; this was a Cave-Heaven Paradise, after all. It would be strange if a Second-Rank cultivator could seal the phenomenon of a special realm here.

Just then, a gradually forming teleportation array appeared in front of the stele.

"Great!" Wu Hao said excitedly. "This really is a special realm. Even if we couldn't hide the phenomenon, we'll be the first to enter once the teleportation array forms."

Liu Tong said with some worry, "Can the five of us handle it?"

Zi Xu Daoist gritted his teeth and said, "We've finally encountered such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. No matter how dangerous this special realm is, it's worth a try."

Lingguang Sanren looked at the extremely slowly forming teleportation array and glanced around with concern. "I'm just afraid that others will see the phenomenon here and come to fight for this opportunity."

Wu Hao shook his head. "There haven't been many people along this route. They're probably all in other special realms and haven't seen the phenomenon here."

"Someone is already coming." Lu Fang frowned as he looked toward the north.

Although he had expected it, he hadn't expected the first wave to be a squad composed of demons. The scale of this squad wasn't large, consisting of six Second-Rank demons.

"How unlucky!"

Wu Hao frowned as he looked at the demon squad flying directly toward them, and reminded them in a low voice, "Be on guard!"

If it were a human squad, perhaps both sides could negotiate.

But since a demon squad had arrived, and their combat power was stronger than theirs, a conflict over this stele's special realm seemed unavoidable.

"How foolish!" The Great Peng Demon leading the demon squad flapped its wings, blowing the "Seal" characters of the barrier into dust. The six Second-Rank demons of their squad landed before the stele.

"A bunch of foolish fellows, actually trying to seal the phenomenon of a Cave-Heaven Paradise—what a pipe dream," a horse-faced Second-Rank demon sneered.

The Great Peng Demon appeared to have a very high status in this demon squad; the other five demons stood vaguely behind it.

"Get out of here immediately, and perhaps I'll spare your lives," the Great Peng Demon threatened.

Wu Hao frowned and said, "We found this place first. Why should we leave? If anyone is leaving, it should be you."

Lu Fang chimed in, "That's right. This is a Cave-Heaven Paradise; it's not just your demon race here. If a conflict breaks out, do you think you'll gain any advantage? Don't forget, the phenomenon just appeared here."

Seeing these human cultivators showing it no respect, the Great Peng Demon's expression turned extremely ugly. It was about to say something when another group of people appeared not far away.

This time, the group attracted by the phenomenon of the stele's special realm consisted of ten people, including First-Rank cultivators and some Second-Rank cultivators.

Lu Fang had heard the name of the leader in the outside world—a First-Rank cultivator named Li Jia. It was said that his strength was quite formidable, and his family background was also significant.

Therefore, when Li Jia called out, many chose to form an alliance with him.

"Great, there really is a special realm here." Li Jia was the first to land before the stele, smiling as he looked at the forming stele, then acting as if he had only just noticed the Great Peng Demon, frowning, "What's the situation here?"

Wu Hao cupped his hands and recounted what had happened previously.

After listening to Wu Hao's account, Li Jia raised an eyebrow, looked at the Great Peng Demon, and said, "Since we found this place, please take your people and leave, or bear the consequences!"

"You!" The Great Peng Demon glared at Li Jia.

Li Jia smiled disdainfully. "What's wrong? Do you want to fight one-on-one, or all together?"

Logically speaking, demons should be significantly stronger at the same rank, but since there was a full rank difference between the two, Li Jia should theoretically be stronger.

The Great Peng Demon was naturally very unconvinced, but in this situation, it wasn't easy to act. Just then, the horse demon that had been very arrogant earlier leaned in and whispered some advice.

"Let's go!"

The Great Peng Demon was still quite sensible.

After all, the friendship within this temporarily formed demon squad wasn't that deep. In such a clearly disadvantageous situation, even if it wanted to fight, the others wouldn't necessarily step in.