Death... and me

Hurio wasn't lying. First of all, he was able to fill his dantian up to 80% of the necessary energy needed for him to breakthrough. It made sense that an Energy Elemental Affinity cultivator like him could also cultivate quickly. That being said, Hurio was able to break through three weeks later. It's just that his breakthrough took almost an entire hour to conclude. Then again, don't look down on this time. Not taking the twins' group into consideration, such a breakthrough was already incredibly fast.

Of course, from now on, he would start to fall behind the twins as long as they had Rank Three Divine Stones and Celis. On top of that, he also needed more energy than normal cultivators and didn't have the twins' perks.

Back to the journey, the twins barely found any low-level Saint Realm cultivators anymore. They were all either Late Stage or above, with many of them being old Peak Stage Saints. That showed that they were nearing the border between the outskirts and the depths.

Nine and a half months after the twins' group entered the Lost Star Realm… Hurio began to notice something off. "Weird… How come we haven't found a single one of those ancient formations yet? We didn't even find a single group trapped in them or anything like that."

"Perhaps we're just lucky," Rean said in response.

[Lucky your ass!] Sister Orb complained. [I found seven of those things on our way here, and I believe two of them were slaughtering formations due to the type of energy they emitted. If I didn't tell you three far in advance about them, you might have fallen inside one. Obviously, since Kentucky changed direction way before getting close to them, you guys haven't seen them at all.]

Rean then calmed Sister Orb down after that. 'I know, I know. However, I can't simply tell him that it was you who helped us with it, right? Come on.'

[Sigh… it feels so lonely to be hidden.]

Hurio obviously had his own suspicions. But then again, he had never heard about someone being able to detect the ancient formations from far away. Usually, one would hear about it from cultivators who saw others being trapped or killed inside. Or maybe one would see those cultivators who lost their entire cultivation. However, even then, they didn't find a single one of those along their journey. 'Well… I guess they can be as mysterious as I can, I guess?'

Suddenly, their group sighted a faint white wall tens of kilometers away. As they got closer, it became more distinct until finally, they noticed that it was some kind of barrier. "Was there supposed to be a barrier here?" Rean asked.

Hurio seemed surprised to see it, saying, "Not that I know of. I found nothing in the records, nor did any of my elders mention this thing."

Rean and Roan looked at each other before saying, "Maybe this is the reason why we found so many ancient beasts."

They were right. Cultivators were not the only beings they found in the outskirts of the Lost Star Realm. They still found four more ancient beasts on their way here, which was definitely a lot. Well, to be more precise, they only saw one extra ancient beast. They didn't have a chance to see the other three because they were warned by other cultivators of their existence.

They asked the cultivators whether they knew if those ancient beasts were fighting some other ancient beasts. However, they couldn't confirm it. They obviously thought that they could find another Divine Origin Energy area from it. It's just that they quickly gave up on the idea. Those areas only lasted a few hours regardless of whether the Divine Origin Energy was totally absorbed or not. Since they couldn't confirm if there were more ancient beasts nearby, chances were that there were no Divine Origin Energy areas in those places. Even if there were some recently, it was definitely gone by the time they arrived.

Because of the size of the Lost Star Realm, the barrier obviously occupied a vast distance. With that being said, Rean and Roan couldn't see any other cultivator nearby. "We don't know what this thing is, so we better leave it alone. Let's move around the perimeter of the barrier and see if we can find some entrance."

Rean and Hurio agreed with Roan before Kentucky changed direction and began to follow the barrier's side. Nevertheless, three days went by, and they couldn't even find a single thing that looked like an entrance. They weren't sure, but it truly did look like the barrier was covering the entire Lost Star Realm's depths.

They had time, though, so they continued to travel alongside the barrier. Eventually, the twins' group ended up on the base of a mountain that was as high as they could see with their eyes. That wasn't the only one, though. There was another mountain on its side, pretty similar to the one they were looking at.

However, that's not what caught their attention. They had passed by several mountains on their way here, after all. What caught their attention was the number of cultivators stationed between the two mountains in front of the white barrier. There were also cultivators on the other side of the barrier, who didn't seem to be going forward but not coming back either.

Hurio immediately identified many of those cultivators. "Croste Clan, Jix Organization, Vanius Sect, Forse Guild, Ditatido Guild, Forse Guild, Krui Clan, Dragon Tail Brotherhood, Earth Nova Sect… above all, the Lanqueas Sect… what are all the top ten powers doing here?"

Rean and Roan looked at Hurio after he said that. "How do you know they're part of the top ten powers?"

"Their clothes and badges," Hurio replied, surprised that the twins didn't know of it. Well, he already suspected that the twins didn't come from Lanqueas Continent, and this just reinforced his belief. "They're definitely disciples of the top ten powers. However, they have an agreement on when each power would enter the Lost Star Realm. It's to prevent meaningless struggles between the experts of each power. That's why I find it weird that all ten powers are here at the same time."