Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Hearing the roar from the demon beast behind him followed by the roars of the demon beasts from the surrounding territories, it wasn’t too hard for him to figure out that the demon beast had realized that it couldn’t catch up to him in its current injured state and thus decided to call the other demon beasts over for help.

Although this would clearly also place itself in danger given how injured it was, there was also a clear understanding that the other demon beasts wouldn’t target it before the human cultivator or himself was taken care of. Meaning that before that happened, the demon beast would be free to either retreat or recover enough strength to make the other demon beasts think twice about attacking it.

But he didn’t really have the time to worry about the demon beast that was trying to kill him, as he found himself far more focused on the countless demon beasts that he suddenly found rushing towards his direction from all around.

Even if the strength of most of these demon beasts were negligible to him in his current cultivation realm, the ones that had reached the Celestial Immortal Realm in terms of strength did at least possess the ability to slow him down if they came at him head on... And he could already sense at least a dozen such demon beasts within the current area covered by his divine sense.

All of this not even mentioning the more than ten Land Creation Realm demon beasts that had been alerted by the earlier roar and was currently rushing towards him, one of them being especially worrying, as though still outside the range of his divine sense, the sheer speed at which its presence was approaching was more than enough for him to understand that he was dealing with a demon beast focused in speed.

The Illusory Light Steps had been improved significantly following his Dao of Light reaching the Large Success Realm and his modifications with the Dao of Time, but... It was at most able to help him jump slightly above the base level speed of someone in the Land Creation Realm. Far from enough to compare to a cultivator- or in this case a demon beast, specialized in speed.

Rooar-!

But even though he wanted to try and figure out how to deal with the problem of the Land Creation Realm demon beast that had already begun to rapidly close the distance, he didn’t have the time to do so, as the first demon beast blocking his path forward had already appeared to block his path.

With a gaze that held a familiar killing intent along with an understandable fear in the face of a far stronger opponent, the demon beast that had barely reached the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm jumped off a nearby mountain peak in a reckless attempt to try and slow him down. Knowing that he wouldn’t waste time fighting with it, as doing that would give the other demon beast enough time to catch up and box him in.

Even with the clear difference in strength between the two of them, it also felt confident in its own vitality and the strength of its body. Feeling confident that even with a difference in strength, Xuan Hao wouldn’t be able to do any real damage to it-

Rumble~!

Something that it soon came to regret, as Xuan Hao didn’t spare anything in knocking it aside with his dao domain. Not only using the full strength of his dao domain and spiritual sea but also using the Sky Splitting Sword from the Heaven Splitting Sword Art to channel the strength of the two into a singular attack that was more than powerful enough to make a Land Creation Realm hesitate in taking such an attack head on.

As for the demon beast that now found itself facing this terrifying attack head on...

R-Rawr...?

Swish-! Ptsh~

Rooooar~!

It only now realized that it had made a mistake in being the first to charge forward and attempt to slow down Xuan Hao, as it found itself almost being cut in half from a single attack. Only barely managing to hang on by forcibly pulling back at the last second and the simple fact that Xuan Hao simply didn’t have time to spare wasting on dealing with it. Allowing it to take the opportunity before any of the other demon beasts caught wind of just how badly it had bene injured to sneak away to find somewhere to secretly recover from its injuries.

Only after a few seconds passed did what had happened register with the different weaker demon beasts who had been planning to jump in to try and delay Xuan Hao, causing most of them to back off, while only a few remained behind to try and block his path.

In the process, Xuan Hao ended up taking down another two demon beasts in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm and even killed an Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm demon beast who had overestimated itself before the weaker demon beasts decided to back off. Knowing that it would be far from simple for them to try and block Xuan Hao’s path with their current strength.

The only demon beasts who remained behind to block his path forward were two demon beasts at the Late Stage Celestial Immortal Realm and one at the Peak of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

But... Knowing how difficult it would be to simply knock these demon beasts back with a single move. Especially the one that had reached the Peak of the Celestial Immortal Realm, Xuan Hao decided that it would be for the best to try and rely on his superior movement technique to avoid them.

Difficult as this might be in the face of a demon beast capable of affecting a large area at once with their own domains, he managed to make it past the two Late Stage Celestial Immortal Realm demon beasts with relative ease. Only finding himself in a troublesome situation when he ended up face to face with the Peak Celestial Immortal Realm demon beast.

Even without being chased by a Land Creation Realm demon beast, it would be difficult for him to deal with a Peak Celestial Immortal Realm demon beast... And now that he had little to no time on his hand, it was a far more difficult experience, as he essentially had to rely entirely on the Illusory Light Steps to try and dodge the attacks that were thrown towards him.

Simple as this might sound given how fast he was. Reality was far from kind, as the demon beast that turned out to be some kind of aquatic demon beast, turned the terrain ten thousand kilometers around itself into a raging ocean.

Going around wasn’t exactly an option, as that would waste far too much time and would give one of the Land Creation Realm demon beasts approaching him from the side enough time to catch up to him, so in the end, he was essentially forced to dive headfirst into the raging ocean.

And soon enough, he found himself being attacked from all sides, as the ocean itself twisted wildly into all kinds of strange attacks that made it impossible for him to dodge everything- or more specifically, he had to dedicate a lot of attention on protecting Huo Fen and Meng Jie, who had no way to defend themselves in this kind of situation.

Essentially, though he ended up successfully shaking off the Peak Celestial Immortal Realm demon beast and escaped from the raging ocean it had created, the qi consumed protecting Huo Fen and Meng Jie along the way had made it more expensive in terms of qi expenditure compared to the Land Creation Realm demon beast’s attack he had forcibly taken at the beginning of the chase, something that made it clear to him just how burdensome it was carrying this master and disciple pair along.

But... Even though a part of him did start seriously considering dropping the two of them in case it was his only way to escape alive, he decided not to explore this dangerous train of thought for now. Not just because he didn’t want to kill the two of them after having grown to know them, but maybe more so because he would have no idea how to find the ancient alchemy sect without their help.

At least for now, he still felt confident in being able to get out of the Verdant Abyss. Not just because there were no more powerful demon beasts blocking the path forward, but also because he clearly sensed through his divine sense that he was about to leave the core region of the Verdant Abyss.

The only real worry he had left wasn’t so much the demon beast he had passed by at the beginning, but more so the speed focused demon beast that was rapidly catching up to him.

By now, it had already passed several other Land Creation Realm demon beasts and was about to catch up with the one he had first clashed with.

The only thing he could hope for was that he would be able to find some new friends along the way that would be able to help him block it for a bit...