Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

As the battle with the ferocious beasts continued to drag on, Xuan Hao continued to keep part of his attention focused on the sea of lightning above. Worried that another powerful ferocious beast might get attracted by the clash between him and the four remaining ferocious beasts in the Celestial Immortal Realm.

However, even as the battle dragged on for over half an hour, no new ferocious beasts in the Celestial Immortal Realm appeared to join the battle. Allowing him to ultimately kill off another of the lightning birds. Reducing the number of lightning bird ferocious beast from three all the way down to one.

Not just that, but the last remaining lightning bird ferocious beast was already on the brink of exhaustion by now. Missing one of its claws and part of its left wing.

Compared to the winged serpent and the three headed turtle, the lightning bird was only at the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm and had difficulty keeping up with the battle in the same way that the two Middle Stage Celestial Immortal Realm ferocious beasts could-

SCREEEECH-!?

PTSH-!

In the end, it was a lack of response and building exhaustion that ended up being the end of the final lightning bird ferocious beast, as it was cut down by Xuan Hao’s Heaven Splitting Sword Art. Leaving only two ferocious beasts to keep up the fight. The winged lightning serpent and the three headed turtle.

”One is unkillable with my current strength, while the other is far too slippery for me to hit it without ample preparation…” As the final lightning bird crashed into the mountain range below, Xuan Hao could not help frowning to himself as he muttered this while looking at the three headed turtle recklessly charging towards him, while the winged lightning serpent kept its distance looking for an opportunity to attack.

Although the two ferocious beasts were in the Middle Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm and he should have been able to deal with them with his current strength, he simply found it impossible to deal with the two of them in his current state.

Not only had he exhausted a great deal of his strength dealing with the three lightning birds in the Early Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, but the remaining two ferocious beasts were simply too difficult to deal with.The three headed turtle having a defense that he couldn’t break even using his full strength, while the lightning serpents fast speed and agility allowed it to avoid him with ease.

Defeating the winged lightning serpent under normal circumstances wouldn’t have been difficult, the main problem was that the three headed turtle always showed up to force him into defense or retreat whenever he was about to corner the winged lightning serpent.

In the end, even after over half an hour, he hadn’t managed to land a single hit on the winged lightning serpent.

”Guess this will do for now, I at least managed to get a good idea of my current strength…” Muttering this to himself as he once again dodged out of the way before the three headed turtle had the chance to slam into him, Xuan Hao decided not to continue entangling himself any further with the two remaining ferocious beasts. Using his movement techniques to their full extent to leave before the two ferocious beasts had the opportunity to block him.

Whoosh~

Along the way, he didn’t forget to pick up the bodies of the three dead Early Stage Celestial Immortal Realm ferocious beasts. Planning to bring them back to the sect for processing later.

After all, the bodies of demon beasts and ferocious beasts were incredibly valuable to cultivators, be it for alchemy, blacksmithing or other things, he couldn’t just leave behind three Celestial Immortal Realm corpses after putting in so much effort to kill them. Especially considering that the most valuable part of these three corpses, their cores, was still intact.

ROOOOAR-!

RAWWR!

Of course, with his quick escape from the battle to avoid getting entangled with the two remaining ferocious beasts for even longer, it earned the angered roaring of the two ferocious beasts, who wasted no time chasing after him.

Unfortunately for them, Xuan Hao had already prepared for such a situation and quickly entered the sea of lightning above. Using the unique environment of the lightning sea to hide himself from the two furious ferocious beasts, as he had long since discovered that one’s senses were limited inside the sea of lightning. Making it a perfect place for him to shake off these two ferocious beasts…

Whoosh~!

And so, after a few minutes journeying through the sea of lightning, Xuan Hao managed to successfully shake off the two ferocious beasts chasing after him. Allowing him to leave the sea of lightning and return to the mountain range below.

Along the way, he also discovered that the number of Celestial Immortal Realm ferocious beasts lurking inside the sea of lightning was far higher than he had initially expected.

Even after just a few minutes inside the sea of lightning, he had discovered more than a dozen ferocious beasts in the Celestial Immortal Realm, one of them even reaching the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm.

The reason why they hadn’t discovered his battle below or been attracted to the fight had nothing to do with them having been too lazy to join in on the battle taking place. Instead, it was because the sea of lightning was terrifyingly good at isolating it from anything happening outside the sea of lightning.

The only reason he had ended up fighting the five Celestial Immortal Realm ferocious beasts earlier had been due to all of them being on the edge of the sea of lightning that had allowed them to sense him.

Thinking about it, Xuan Hao felt that it was rather lucky that he hadn’t drawn out more ferocious beasts, as he understood full well from his earlier battle that although he was strong enough to handle multiple opponents in the Celestial Immortal Realm with his current strength, there was still a limit and dealing with more than a dozen Celestial Immortal Realm ferocious beasts definitely wasn’t something he could do at the moment. Especially so if one of them reached the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm…

Deciding to not think too much about potentially facing off against that many ferocious beasts at the same time, Xuan Hao began to journey through the endless mountain range in search of any clues as to what completing the celestial trial involved.

Although he was partially aware that it should be related to the sea of lightning above, he wanted to find something to confirm it before recklessly diving into the sea of lightning above.

After all, if he ended up fighting inside the sea of lightning, it would be far easier for the ferocious beasts inside the sea of lightning to sense it compared to when he had fought outside the sea of lightning.

Considering that he had even spotted a ferocious beast in the Late Stage of the Celestial Immortal Realm, Xuan Hao wanted to avoid recklessly entering the sea of lightning before he figured out the goal of the celestial trial.

Luckily, he didn’t have to wander around the mountain range for long before he spotted a valley hidden among the endless mountains.

Inside the hidden valley, he not only found an old ruin that had long since decayed to the point where only a few loose rocks stood stacked together to resemble what should have been a large tower in the past but also found the scroll of trials.

The scroll of trials was what he had been hoping to find in his search for clues on the celestial trial, though he had not expected to find it that fast.

Even then, he didn’t plan to hold himself back for no reason and wasted no time reading through the scroll of trials.

”Trial of the Lightning Core…” Muttering the first few words at the top of the scroll of trials, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he began to read through the rest of the scroll.

Although not as simple as the trials centered around killing a guardian, it was still a rather simple trials all things together. Reach the core of the sea of lightning.

However, the thing that made him narrow his eyes was the fact that it clearly stated the strength of the ferocious beasts inside the sea of lightning would continue to increase with each passing hour. Growing stronger the deeper inside the sea of lightning one went.

Calculating with his fingers, Xuan Hao soon realized that he had already spent three hours inside the trial. Meaning that the ferocious beasts had already strengthened three times. Making the task of reaching the core of the sea of lightning far more difficult than if he had charged inside the sea of lightning when first arriving at the celestial trial.

At the very least, there was a bit of an optimistic turn to this, as the scroll of trials clearly stated that the number of celestial coins received would increase exponentially with each passing hour one spent inside the celestial trial before maxing out at the five-hour mark.

Not because the strength of the ferocious beasts stopped increasing, but because it was stated to be impossible to escape after the five-hour mark, as it also signaled the emergence of a ferocious beast with strength comparable to someone in the Land Creation Realm.

Given the trial was designed for someone in the Early Stage of the Sea Formation Realm, it was understandable that it was considered impossible to escape when a ferocious beast that powerful emerged…