Cultivating Disciples to Breakthrough

Feeling the guardian of the trial starting to stir shortly after his arrival, Xuan Hao couldn’t help feeling somewhat uneasy about the upcoming battle. After all, the guardian had not just surpassed the strength of a normal Peak Celestial Immortal Realm demon beast, but his usage of the Dao of Space had also been restricted to the point where it had essentially been rendered useless.

Although he still had the Dao of Ice and the Dao of the Sword to rely on, he wasn’t the least bit confident when it came to dealing with this kind of powerful creature that seemingly existed in some kind of transitional realm between the Sea Formation Realm and the Land Creation Relam. Especially considering his own limited experience in fighting at his current realm.

The few battles he had so far might have helped him gain some experience and a better understanding of his own strength, but it was far from enough for him to be confident in fighting an opponent far stronger than himself…

Rumble~

As Xuan Hao found himself pondering over how to deal with the guardian of the trial, the guardian in question slowly stirred to life before slowly moving its head to look directly at him with a clear killing intent in the depths of its large eyes.

Only at this time did Xuan Hao realize just how massive the guardian of the trial was. Looking no different from a towering mountain range from his point of view, as the pair of eyes staring down at him looked like two bright stars.

The shape of the guardian was that of a snake, but from the terrifying size of the guardian and its rather unique rocky appearance, he didn’t really feel like calling it a snake would do it any justice. Instead of that, it seemed far more fitting to call it a heavenly snake or just mountain range snake, either were fine, though he did prefer the latter because of how direct it was.

Sssssss~~

As he officially decided on a name for the guardian, the guardian in question let out a threatening hissing sound before slithering towards him with a terrifying speed that closed the distance between them in an instant-

Bang!

However, he had already been prepared for an attack the second he had entered the independent space of the guardian, thus resulting in a large ice wall manifesting in front of him to block the charge of the guardian. Buying himself just enough time to use the Illusory Light Steps to avoid being hit by the reckless charge.

Whooosh~~!

Even then, he didn’t get any time to relax, as countless small rock spikes shot off the back of the guardian before forming a dense cluster of rock spikes that flew straight towards him. All working together to form a natural formation that linked their strength together and formed a single inescapable attack.

Rumble-!

Faced with this kind of attack, Xuan Hao understood that he would only be able to get through it with brute force. Wasting no time as his spiritual sea manifested behind him alongside his sword intent, which soon merged with his spiritual sea to form a sea of swords that surged forward to meet the incoming earth spikes-

RUUUUMBLE-!

Soon enough resulting in a terrifying clash as the dense cluster of earth spikes numbering in the millions clashed with the sea of swords. Entering a stalemate as both sides pushing back with terrifying power.

Boom!

However, as time passed, the earth spikes that had slowly begun to gain an advantage in the clash were overwhelmed and destroyed by the sea of swords. Not because they were weaker, but instead because all the earth spikes were destroyed. After all, there was a limited number of earth spikes thrown out, while Xuan Hao could continue bolstering the sea of swords with his qi.

Because of this, Xuan Hao wasn’t the slightest bit happy after the brief clash came to an end, as he felt just how strong the guardian was from the clash.

Not just that, but during the brief clash just now, the guardian hadn’t just been watching from the side doing nothing. Instead, it had moved its massive body to form a circle around him. Clearly intent on preventing him from dodging like he had done during their first clash.

”This… Is troublesome…” Muttering this to himself as he gazed up at the towering head of the guardian staring down at him with a clear look of contempt, Xuan Hao understood that this guardian would be far more difficult to deal with than he had first expected.

Not just because of how strong it was, but also because it was far more intelligent than he had expected. To the point where it even seemed to be looking down on him.

Well… Considering how it had managed to trap him by using the earth spikes as a distraction, he couldn’t really say anything about it…

Swish-!

Not that he had much time to think about any of this, as the guardian came rushing down towards him for a second time. The difference this time around being that it wasn’t possible to escape in the same manner as he had done before, as a dense yellowish net had formed along the body of the guardian to block any potential escape paths. Limiting the area, he could move to the area that had been encircled by the guardian’s body.

Even though this might be a vast area, especially given his own current small size, it was far from enough to avoid the guardian more than a few times before being cornered-

Whoosh~

And one of those times had just been used as he barely moved out of the way int time before the guardian had the opportunity to crash into him. Narrowing down the space he could move around in.

Clashing head-on was an option, but it was ultimately something he wanted to avoid, if possible, as it was rather clear to him just how much stronger the guardian was.

It might be fine in the short term, but over an extended period of time, he would end up losing.

What he needed to do was find a weakness he could take advantage of to deal with the guardian in a similar way to how he had dealt with past guardians of other celestial trials.

After all, even though he hadn’t managed to find out about the guardian’s weakness through the scroll of trials, he understood from past trials that there should be some kind of weakness for him to take advantage of.

All he had to do was find said weakness, something that was easier said than done.

The only thing he could be certain of so far was that the Dao of Ice and the Dao of the Sword wasn’t among the guardian’s potential weaknesses…

Whoosh-!

Finding himself brushing against the side of the guardian’s head as he just narrowly avoided another attack as he thought about this, Xuan Hao felt like his current situation would be so much simpler if he had been able to use the Dao of Space.

In a sense, it made him understand that one of the weaknesses of the guardian was likely the Dao of Space… And this was the reason why this specific Dao had been sealed when he decided to unknowingly increase the difficulty of the trial.

However, before getting any further along this train of thought, Xuan Hao finally found himself facing an attack he was unable to dodge in time-

BANG!

And given that he hadn’t been able to put up a proper defense in time either, he ended up being knocked flying by the guardian, as he soon crashed into the yellowish net that had been blocking his escape path.

Whoosh~

”Huh?”

Different from the resistance he had expected after hitting the yellowish net, he instead found himself flying straight through it without any form of resistance as the net itself dissolved like it had never existed in the first place. Making it clear that the yellowish net wasn’t an obstruction like he had seen through his divine sense and other senses when it had been created, but instead an illusion strong enough to fool him.

Given his own comprehension of the Dao of illusions and his powerful soul, he had never even considered something like this happening, as he guessed that he would at least have been able to somewhat tell if the other party used an illusion.

But… In the end, he had been unable to do so…

The reason for this was not so much because the illusion was great, but more so because it had been completely unexpected. The appearance of the guardian didn’t really scream that it was proficient in illusions.

However, now that he understood that it could use illusions, he would be ready.

Not that it changed the current situation, as he had still ended up injured from the hit that had sent him flying just now, a hit he could have avoided if he had known the yellowish net blocking his path was nothing more than an illusion…