Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

As Jiang Chen began his first proper exploration of the Star Shattering Sect alongside the few other branch sect disciples who had managed to enter the Shattered Star Peaks thanks to the tournament held by the elder, within the ascension realm tower, Xuan Hao found himself pushed to the limit by the mountain sized demon beast at the Celestial Lord Realm. Not because the demon beast in question was stronger than he had originally anticipated, but instead because the vitality of a demon beast at the Celestial Lord Realm far exceeded any living being he had ever faced. Devastating an area far larger than that under the control of the current Star Shattering Sect during the battle.

Even after going all out and using his full strength to tear off chunks of the demon beast, it did nothing and the injury was soon healed by the seemingly endless vitality of the other party. Maybe a good opponent to fight at the start as it allowed him to get a proper grasp of his current strength, but after the first day passed, he began growing somewhat exhausted from the drawn-out battle that showed no sign of ending.

The exhaustion in question wasn’t his spiritual qi running out, but the mental kind of exhaustion as he began seriously doubting his own strength during this battle. Having long since seen through the true cultivation realm of the mountain sized demon beast that should be the Middle Stage of the Celestial Lord Realm equal to the Middle Stage of the Land Creation Realm.

If he couldn’t even take down an opponent of a similar cultivation realm within a day, he began to seriously doubt his early guess about his strength reaching the Peak of the Land Creation Realm close to the Star Creation Realm- or maybe the Celestial Lord Realm was far more special than he had originally thought. After all, Land Creation Realm cultivators could still be found on the Ewaria Continent, but Celestial Lord Realm cultivators were seemingly nonexistent.

Maybe the reason for this had nothing to do with the cultivation path to the Celestial Lord Realm being cut off, but instead the fact that the Celestial Lord Realm was far more difficult to reach and came with a far higher ceiling once reached.

ROOOOAR-!

As his thoughts began wandering amidst the one-sided beating of the unkillable mountain sized demon beast that showed no signs of dying any time soon, another roar could be heard from the distance followed by a terrifying presence, only a single step below that of the mountain sized demon beast.

Another demon beast had shown up, a bit weaker than the undying demon beast below him reaching the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

As for the demon beast in question currently being suppressed by him…

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Rooooaaaaarrr!

It didn’t even have the time to react before part of its head was blown off by small glowing ball of fire that exploded with a terrifying might strong enough to grievously wound someone at the Land Creation Realm. Part of the now countless similar small balls of fire that rained down on the mountain sized demon beast from above, a sign he had switched away from using the Dao of Sword to instead using the Dao of Fire to deal with this demon beast.

A choice that had been made not because his Dao of Fire was stronger than his Dao of the Sword while utilizing the Void Sword art or the Heaven Splitting Sword Art, but instead because he discovered that it was far more cost effective in terms of spiritual qi.

His goal when it came to dealing with the mountain sized demon beast having long since switched from killing it with a single strike to slowly chipping away at its massive body until there was nothing left, something he had seen some success in, as the overall size of the mountain sized demon beast had shrunk by a few hundred meters over the past day of constant attacks.

Of course, if possible, he would have loved to use another way to deal with this powerful demon beast. Namly the unique divine ability belonging the divine void eyes or an attack directly targeting the soul.

Unfortunately, it was close to impossible to collapse space on the twenty sixth floor with how dense and almost solid space on the floor was without paying a significant price that could put him at risk in case he ran into another demon beast, while soul attacks didn’t show much effect on it for the simple reason that he couldn’t locate the soul of the other party inside the massive body.

Shaking his head as these thoughts passed through his mind, Xuan Hao found himself forced to shift his attention away from the demon beast down below. Focusing on the new demon beast that had just decided to join in on the fun-

Rumble-!

Rushing over with a terrifying momentum, as it flapped its terrifyingly massive wings that easily covered a few hundred meters before going into a dive as it flew at him at a terrifying speed that easily exceeded what should have been possible for a demon beast at the Early Stage of the Celestial Lord Realm.

”Hmph, unimpressive.”

BANG-!

Unfortunately, though it possessed great speed, the strength was lacking. Finding itself slamming directly into a wall made entirely of ice before it even had the chance to reach its target. Falling to the ground in a rather anticlimactic manner.

Although, its unimpressive display did at least help him confirm that it wasn’t the Celestial Lord Realm that was inherently special, but instead the demon beast below him who was impressive all on its own.

Great as this was when it came to his chances of successfully completing the challenge of the twenty sixth floor, it did make him a bit worried about the strength of the floor boss, as that demon beast was bound to be stronger than this mountain sized demon beast, he found himself facing off against.

Roar!?

Unaware of the fact that it was being looked down upon, the flying demon beast that had just shown up could not help revealing a somewhat bewildered look on its monstrous face. Not understanding what had just happened or where that wall of ice had suddenly emerged from out of seemingly nowhere.

Fast as it was, its mind was unable to keep up with its own speed and it simply hadn’t perceived Xuan Hao using the Dao of Ice to create the wall of ice it had slammed into, a clear flaw that came with its great speed, as while it might dominate equal level opponents. In the face of someone stronger, it stood no chance and couldn’t even rely on its great speed to react in time to dodge incoming attacks or potential barriers put in place in front of it at the last second.

Not that it normally had to worry about something like that even in the face of stronger enemies, as its strength was by no means lacking and few on the twenty sixth floor could defend against it, let alone react in time and successfully conjure up a barrier strong enough to block its forward charge.

In fact, one of the demon beasts that could deal with it was the walking mountain demon beast Xuan Hao was currently finding great difficulty killing.

One of the reasons it had rushed over immediately upon sensing the battle in the distance had nothing to do with it wanting to attack Xuan Hao, this outsider, but instead had to do with it silently hoping someone was beating up this annoying mountain that no one else could defeat because of how powerful its defense was.

Only upon getting closer and sensing Xuan Hao wasn’t another demon beast like it had originally expected did it give up on its original intentions and join the battle against him on the side of its sworn enemy. Feeling a supreme will within spurring it into this direction of thinking, the second it saw Xuan Hao and realized he wasn’t someone from the twenty sixth floor, the world it called home.

Swish-!

Unfortunately for it, it didn’t stand much of a chance in the face of Xuan Hao, as shortly after finishing its short train of thought upon smashing into the ground beside the mountain sized demon beast that was its sworn enemy, it found a terrifying sword far exceeding any attack it had seen before descending down towards it like the will of heaven itself. Carrying with it a might that left its soul shivering in fear, unable to muster up even the slightest bit of resistance in the face of this seemingly divine judgement from above.

BOOOOM-!

ROOOAR-!

But before the attack could reach, a large shadow covered it from above. Blocking the descending sword before it had the time to reach its target… And looking up, the flying demon beast saw none other than its old enemy blocking that divine sword meant to kill it from above by putting his own body on the line.