Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Making sure that Huo Fen and Meng Jie were fine on their own, he didn't waste any time before following the demon beast he had kicked into the distance-

BANG!

Rumble~!

However, even using the Illusory Light Steps, he had no way to catch up to the massive demon beast before it crashed into and leveled a small hill mountain peak along with a few unfortunate flying demon beasts who had been nesting peacefully at said mountain peak before it was flattened by the towering demon beast that looked like a mix between a beaver and a bear.

Roooar-!

Unaffected by the hundreds of flying demon beasts that had just been crushed beneath its massive body, the demon beast didn't show any sign of being weakened after being kicked flying. Soaring into the air before rapidly charging towards the person that it assumed to be the one behind the kick just now.

RUMBLE~!

In the process, causing a massive earthquake to sweep through, causing large chunks of the earth to break apart before ascending into the air around the demon beast where the large chunks fused together to form over a dozen towering earth spears all carrying might far beyond that of any ordinary Celestial Immortal Realm cultivator, while combined, they even posed a threat to someone like himself at the Sea Formation.

Whoosh-!

Clear on the simple fact that the demon beast was intending to go all out from the start without wasting any time trying to test his strength.

This was not just because it had been angered by how he had just kicked it flying, but also because it understood clearly that its opponent this time around was far stronger than the opponents it had faced in the past… And so, with no other choice but to meet the more than a dozen massive earth spikes being thrown towards him the second he appeared, Xuan Hao wisely decided to use his dao domain in combination with his Dao of Ice to form a massive ice lotus to block the earth spears that descended upon him along with the demon beast-

BOOOOM-!

This is far from enough to break through the ice lotus…

Quietly thinking this to himself as his spiritual sea silently manifested behind him while the demon beast began slowly breaking through the first few layers before finding it difficult to advance any further. Far from the guardian of the quiet temple he had faced when he had come up with this defensive technique. Making him feel that it was a bit of a waste to use this kind of life saving last line of defense technique to defend against the attack from the demon beast.

Not because he underestimated the demon beast so to speak, but more so because the qi required to create the ice lotus was astronomical and was not worth it given how the demon beast outside even struggled to reach the seventh layer. Far from the ninth layer of the ice lotus that was the core of the technique and carried the most defensive power.

In a sense, this first exchange could be considered a win for the demon beast given how much qi it had ended up making him waste after he had decided to go on the defensive during their first official exchange.

But…

Rumble~

Now that he had a general idea about how strong this demon beast was and how little of a threat it was, he didn't feel the slightest need to waste his time fighting with it for an extended time, something that directly manifested in the form of his dao domain rapidly changing from its original shape of a majestic ice lotus to a frozen sea that churned furiously beneath the calm surface as it expanded rapidly before it had completely engulfed the demon beast that was still in a somewhat shocked state after seeing how useless its earlier attack had been…

Roar!?

SPLASH~!

And by the time that it realized what was happening, it was already too late, as the ice-covered surface now directly below its feet began breaking apart before surging out to form an icy spherical cage around it through the Dao of Formations, that prevented it from escaping, as it was soon directly pushed down into the ice-cold water below.

RUUUUMBLE-!

Not just that, but as the demon beast fought violently to try and break free from the icy underwater prison, it found itself being attacked from all side by sharp pieces of ice that had seemingly broken off from the frozen surface above and had been strengthened through the Dao of the Sword to become more powerful.

Along with all that, the demon beast also soon began to feel some kind of unknown force slowly affecting its consciousness and soul. Plunging it into a cold a sluggish state that made it difficult to think straight. This being none other than Xuan Hao's first real use of the Dao of Yin in combat, as he had through some preliminary research realized that it was an extremely potent Dao when it came to attacking the soul, even stronger than the Dao of Illusions that would mostly confuse the soul.

Rooar!

Faced with this kind of overwhelming attack from all sides, even though the demon beast had reached the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm and had a far stronger vitality than a normal human that had reached the Celestial Immortal Realm, it had no way to fight back.

The Dao of Formations kept it locked in place together with the spiritual sea that had merged with the Dao of Ice to form the icy sea that the demon beast was submerged in, while Dao of the Swor worked in tandem with the Dao of Yin to exhaust the demon beast's terrifying vitality, one targeting the physical body, while the other targeted the soul. Not giving the demon beast any chance of escaping or fighting back. Leaving it only barely capable of thrashing around helplessly without any way out of its current deadly situation.

Of course, using this kind of attack was by no means easy and even with the seemingly endless supply of qi that came along with formation of a literal spiritual sea inside ones dantian, Xuan Hao found himself feeling drained after a little over a minute, but… Even though he felt his qi supply starting to show signs of faltering under the continued stress of maintaining such a wide and all-encompassing attack that was far from optimized to deal with just a single opponent, he didn't slow down and instead only increased the intensity.

R-Roaaar-!

The reason for this was rather simple, the demon beast was in a far worse state than him!

The fur covering its large body was already torn apart and bloody. Painting the surrounding water blood red, while the claws it had used to try and fend off the ice shards had already broken apart. Offering no way for it to defend as the ice shards continuously pierced through its body and inflicted damage that was becoming difficult to recover.

As for the damage caused by the Dao of Yin… Though not as visible as the damage that had been caused by the Dao of the Sword through the ice shards, it was clear to Xuan Hao from a glance that the soul of the demon beast was already on the brink of collapse. After all, the mental state of the demon beast was not just affected by the Dao of Yin, but also the increasingly helpless situation it found itself in that sped up the internal collapse.

But more than anything, the thing that had caused the most damage to the demon beast's mental state might be how nonchalant its opponent was about the entire situation, as from start to finish, Xuan Hao had used the opportunity to test out a few new attacks on the demon beast to see how effective they would be in actual combat.

This had nothing to do with him disrespecting the demon beast, but… he really did need combat experience and the demon beast in front of him was the best subject to help him out in this regard…

Boom~

Ptsh!

Rooooar...!

And so, the demon beast that would have originally ended up dead around the three-minute mark ended up surviving for an additional two minutes, as Xuan Hao made full use of the opportunity to test out a few things.

Although this did leave him in a far more drained state than he had originally wanted to be in, he didn't think too much about it, as it wouldn't take that long for him to recover his qi and escaping was always an option even without him being capable of making use of the Dao of Space, as he now had the Illusory Light Steps to assist him in just this kind of situation.

To be honest, he might have kept the demon beast at the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm around for longer, but he also knew that he couldn't leave Huo Fen and Meng Jie on their own for too long inside a place like the Verdant Abyss…