As night fell, Immortal Lan Shuang unhesitatingly confined Yang Hong within the palace, while she and her disciples vanished into the wilderness.
It seemed some terrifying entity would descend with the darkness.
"Yang Hong, under no circumstances are you to leave the Ascension Pool again, or you'll be utterly annihilated."
Immortal Lan Shuang departed in haste after leaving a warning, her fear evident even for a Xuan Immortal.
Yang Hong, lying weakly in the Ascension Pool, was curious about what could make a Xuan Immortal flee in terror.
Driven by curiosity, he extended his divine sense. After a thousand years, his divine sense could reach a thousand zhang in the Immortal Realm. He wasn't sure if this was strong or weak.
His first impression was that the Immortal Realm's space was incredibly robust. This was a very clear sensation.
In the lower realms, his divine sense could extend over thirty thousand li, and with preparation, he could instantly traverse thirty thousand li, appearing elsewhere in an instant.
However, in the Immortal Realm, his divine sense only reached a thousand zhang, and he couldn't find any weak points in space suitable for instant transmission, not even a trace of spatial spiritual energy!
This undoubtedly demonstrated the solidity and firmness of the space!
Yooo~
At some point, a herd of over a thousand deer, resembling deer but with a body length of three zhang and a height exceeding ten feet, walked from east to west across the wilderness. Yang Hong had never seen such deer before.
In the dead of night, these deer emitted a faint green glow, illuminating the area within a hundred zhang around them. Beyond that, darkness persisted.
This seemed to be a special ability evolved by the deer.
These deer gave Yang Hong the impression of having Earth Immortal strength. If they were to charge into the Ascension Pool, they could likely crush him with a single sit!
Awoo~
Just as the deer were leisurely grazing, a clear wolf howl echoed.
Yang Hong extended his divine sense to its maximum but couldn't detect the wolves. They were clearly still beyond a thousand zhang. However, upon hearing the wolf howls, the faint green light from the deer extinguished, leaving only the green glow in their eyes.
In the darkness, they now resembled a pack of giant wolves.
However, they didn't linger. They spread their hooves and vanished beyond Yang Hong's divine sense range in a flash.
Awooo~
The wolf pack appeared, also from the east. However, their cries had shifted from arrogant confidence to terror.
"Ants? Ants again!"
The wolves' speed surpassed that of the deer, but their bodies were covered in dense, thumb-sized black ants.
Yang Hong recalled seeing these ants once when he first ascended. He hadn't expected them to still be here a thousand years later, and seemingly even stronger.
The pack of thousands of wolves entered and exited Yang Hong's divine sense range in just over ten breaths.
The wolves' strength had reached Heavenly Immortal level, a considerable feat in the Immortal Realm, wouldn't you say?
And within those ten-odd breaths, over five hundred giant wolves collapsed as they ran, rapidly turning into piles of white bones.
The white bones, which glowed with a white luminescence even in the dark, were made starkly visible by the thumb-sized black ants crawling on them, a truly horrifying sight.
The black ants, faster than the giant wolves, surged behind them like a tide, engulfing the entire wolf pack on the wilderness in the blink of an eye.
"What kind of ants are these? Fiercer than wolves, and their speed is excessively fast!"
Sss-s-s~
As Yang Hong marveled at the black ants' ferocity, the eastern wall of the palace where he was located was gnawed through by the black ants in just a few breaths.
However, as the aura of the Ascension Pool's original liquid spread, the black ants immediately retreated and dispersed, daring not to approach.
'This Ascension Pool liquid seems to have a deterrent effect on these immortal creatures.'
As Yang Hong pondered, a black tide of ants swept past him in his terrified gaze.
It took a full three hours for all the black ants to pass!
But two hours later, the black ocean roared back eastward. Not long after the black tide receded, Immortal Lan Shuang flew over on her sword.
"Indeed, these black-armored ants dare not approach the Ascension Pool."
She then turned to Yang Hong, who was still in the Ascension Pool, and asked, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
Having witnessed the terror of the black-armored ant swarm, Yang Hong still felt a lingering fear and gained a preliminary understanding of the dangers in the Immortal Realm.
It was indeed dangerous enough that even Xuan Immortals had to retreat.
"These black-armored ants are the true overlords of this Black Ant Wilderness. The movements of these disgusting creatures are completely unpredictable. They might appear daily, or not for centuries, but when they do, they annihilate all life in the Black Ant Wilderness."
Immortal Lan Shuang's delicate face was furrowed, a look of pitiable sorrow.
Yang Hong couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for a moment and instinctively asked:
"Since it's so dangerous here, why don't you leave and find another place to live and cultivate?"
"Because we are weak."
"Uh~"
This answer left Yang Hong speechless. How could a Xuan Immortal claim weakness here?
"The Frost Snow Sect has 106 Immortals and controls this Ascension Pool. Our dominion covers the Black Ant Wilderness within a million-mile radius.
We are ranked 98th in the entire Profound Yin Domain, third to last."
"With a Xuan Immortal like you guarding the third to last position? Then wouldn't the top ten sects have Grand Luo Immortals guarding them?"
"Heh heh~ No. Aside from the controller of the Profound Yin Domain, the Profound Yin Sect, which has a Grand Luo Immortal, only the second to fifth ranked powers each have a Golden Immortal. Other powers are only guarded by Xuan Immortals."
Lan Shuang's thoughts were quite scattered. While speaking to Yang Hong, she had also pulled him out of the Ascension Pool, her voluptuous figure once again overwhelming him.
This left Yang Hong utterly speechless!
"In the Immortal Realm, regardless of where you are, you must have Xuan Immortal cultivation to establish a sect.
If you can cultivate to Xuan Immortal in the future and have the opportunity to travel the Immortal Realm, and you encounter a sect without a Xuan Immortal guardian, you can directly conquer it and make it your own sect.
The prerequisite is that you have the strength to defeat the entire sect alone, without killing a single person."
"Establishing a sect in the Immortal Realm is that... that hardcore?"
"Mm~ It is indeed hard. But it's not entirely hardcore. Without Xuan Immortal protection, in many places in the Immortal Realm, even small insects can end your life.
For example, the black-armored ants of the Black Ant Wilderness."
Hearing this, Yang Hong nodded, indicating his understanding.
He had just witnessed the terror of the black-armored ants. These ants, seemingly only of Immortal level strength, had killed thousands of Heavenly Immortal level giant wolves in a single encounter, leaving not even bone fragments after the swarm passed.
"By the way, Immortal Lan, are there any mortals in the Immortal Realm? Are there cultivators?"
"There are no mortals in the Immortal Realm. All beings born in the Immortal Realm possess at least Nascent Soul stage strength at birth. Some exceptionally talented individuals are born at the Body Integration stage.
What's even more terrifying is that in the Immortal Realm, apart from humans, the vast majority of other races are born at Immortal level strength.
There's a very realistic saying in the Immortal Realm: 'You're like a human infant.' This is the most insulting curse in the eyes of other races in the Immortal Realm."
"Uh~ That curse is truly quite insulting to humans."
Hearing this, Yang Hong felt that the damage was minimal, but the insult was extreme.