Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Watching as the corruption spread throughout the body of the guardian demon beast without any sign of stopping before the guardian demon beast was forced to pull out its own eye to stop the corruption from spreading to the rest of its body. Showing just how effective the Dao of Corruption was when it came to fighting against this guardian demon beast.

Although… It did leave a certain worry that he might have to end up fighting a corrupted version of the guardian demon beast if it ended up being fully overwhelmed by the corruption that had spread without being able to stop it.

In a sense, this did make using the Dao of Corruption rather risky, as it ran the risk of turning his opponent into something far stronger in the process if not correctly managed. Especially so because he could clearly see how the environment that the eye of the guardian demon beast landed in almost instantly turned into a corrupted piece of land with several tentacle-like plants sprouting from it.

Even though the spread of the corruption seed to slow down at some point, it was still clear that the corrupted environment around the pulled-out eye was still slowly spreading and the tentacle-like plants growing inside the corrupted environment grew stronger with each passing second.

Weak as they might be now, only reaching between the Later Stages of the Qi Condensation Realm and the Earlier Stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Left alone, they could grow into a potential threat in the future.

Of course, given their current growth speed, he would be long gone from the trial space when the corrupted terrain became a threat capable of challenging him with his current strength. The only thing that could cause it to rapidly grow to the point where it could threaten him would be for it to receive a proper fertilizer like the eye that had created the corrupted terrain in the first place.

With that in mind, he still had to be somewhat cautious in dealing with the guardian of the trial, as he didn’t plan to nurture another ’guardian’ for him to take care of in the process.

Unfortunately, given the difference in strength between himself and the guardian of the trial, he couldn’t really neglect the Dao of Corruption, as it was the only real weapon he had against the guardian of the trial with his Dao of Space sealed.

Swish-!

And so, without much hesitation, he wasted no time in utilizing the Dao of Corruption to launch another attack towards the guardian demon beast. Focusing his attack on the head of the guardian that had already been damaged earlier. Planning to try and destroy the divine soul of the guardian without wasting too much strength dealing with the rest of the guardian’s massive body.

After all, even if he had a way to seriously injure it with the Dao of Corruption, the chunks of the body falling off the guardian would ultimately also serve as nutrients for the growing corruption of the mountain range below the two of them. Focusing on the head on the other hand proved the best when it came to ensuring as little nutrients as possible reached the corrupted land below, while at the same time ensuring damage to the guardian demon beast by targeting one of the more critical parts of its body.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Now with a clear goal and having no need to continue dodging the guardian demon beast, Xuan Hao didn’t hesitate to clash head on with the guardian demon beast.

Although it was far stronger than him and its Dao of Earth provided it with a terrifying defense, the Dao of Corruption didn’t seem to care about any of this as it directly corroded through the defenses of the guardian demon beast like a hot knife through butter. From this alone, it was clear just how weak the guardian demon beast was in the face of the Dao of Corruption.

But… The Dao of Corruption shouldn’t have been the intended way to clear this trial, it should have been the Dao of Space…

Narrowing both his eyes as he continued to fight with the guardian of the trial, Xuan Hao became increasingly aware of just how weak this massive demon beast would be in the face of someone skilled in the Dao of Space.

If his own Dao of Space hadn’t been sealed to the extent it had been, he would have been able to easily deal with this guardian even if his comprehension of the Dao of Space had only reached the Large Success Realm.

The reason for this being that the movement of the guardian demon beast was simply far too awkward and slow it was to turn its body, it was fast enough to deal with him using the Illusory Light Steps, but someone who could use a short distance teleportation movement technique like the Drifting Cloud Steps would have been able to completely outmaneuver it.

The only worry at that point in time would have been its mastery over the Dao of Illusions, though this aspect had been negated by his own comprehension of the Dao of Illusions.

The main reason he had been caught off guard by it in the past being because it had been completely unexpected, a mistake on his part.

SSSSssss~~!

However, now that he had found another way to fight this guardian demon beast by utilizing the Dao of Corruption, he slowly began wearing down the guardian over time, as it was forced to cut off parts of its own body whenever an attack landed to prevent the corruption caused by the attack from spreading.

In turn, this allowed the corrupted land below to grow rapidly, something that Xuan Hao also decided to take full advantage of. Using his comprehension of the Dao of Corruption to command the different tentacle-like plants growing below to attack the guardian demon beast.

Even though the strength of these plants had barely reached the Core Formation Realm and didn’t carry any real power, they still had the ability to corrupt the parts of the guardian demon beast’s body that they touched. Forcing the guardian demon beast to partly focus its attention on dealing with these strange plants. Overall, alleviating the burden Xuan Hao had to bear while facing this powerful guardian demon beast on his own.

After all, even though he had found a clear weakness and was slowly gaining an advantage, the opponent was ultimately still someone who had partly surpassed the Sea Formation Realm in terms of strength. Not yet at the Land Creation Realm, but still, something far beyond what he could face at the current moment.

And… As the battle dragged on, Xuan Hao increasingly began to feel that he would have been unable to fight with the guardian demon beast without the help of the small, strange plants growing below him.

The reason for this being rather simple, the endurance of the guardian demon beast was far beyond anything he had encountered before.

Even with its head essentially having been cut off and regrown more than a dozen time, it still came at him with overwhelming strength without showing any signs of weakness. Making it clear just how unrealistic it would have been for him to face this kind of tenacious guardian demon beast on his own without grasping any of its weaknesses.

At the very least, with a weakness in his hand… And one that forced it to cut off parts of its body, he had been able to rapidly reduce its vitality.

If he had not been able to do this, he couldn’t even imagine how long it would have taken him to defeat this kind of guardian demon beast with a seemingly endless vitality.

Only by relying on a Dao like the Dao of Space would he have been able to keep up such a long-drawn-out battle without ending up exhausting himself in the process-

Ptsh-!

Sssss~~!

Speaking of ending up exhausting oneself, as he forced the guardian demon beast to cut off part of its own head for nineteenth time, he finally noticed its recovery speed slowing down significantly. Indicating that it was finally reaching the end of its endless vitality, something that not only excited him, but also made him feel relieved.

The reason being that with the guardian demon beast cutting off parts of its body at a near constant rate, the strength of the strange plants growing in the corrupted soil below had also grown stronger. Strong to the point where he felt his control of these strange plants slipping. Meaning they would soon exceed what his current comprehension of the Dao of Corruption could handle.

Rustle~

And the main reason for this was clear, a towering flower with countless tentacles had emerged amidst the mountains below, its strength already reaching the Middle Stage of the Dao Seed Realm, just a single step away from the Late Stage of the Dao Seed Realm…