913 Inferno and Natural Formation

Roar~

Hearing that it would be able to keep one of the Nascent Soul Realm demon beasts after watching over them, the winged lion let out a happy roar before turning to look back towards the horned sheep filled with anticipation. Even without it saying anything, it was obvious that the winged lion had already chosen what demon beast it was going to eat in the future.

Something that caused the horned sheep demon beast to start shivering violently.

Outside of the immediate problem of possibly being eaten by the terrifying winged lion demon beast, it had also managed to learn what Xuan Hao wanted to do with it and the rest of the demon beasts. The most important thing being that the terrifying winged lion demon beast looking at it with the clear intent of eating it in the future, could only chose one demon beast to eat!

During the unknown period of time that Xuan Hao would be gone, its only chance of survival was to get the terrifying winged lion more interested in some of the other demon beasts. Not that hard considering that it had already spotted a few demon beasts who were both stronger and larger than itself.

Unfortunately, it looked like these demon beasts had also overheard what Xuan Hao had said to the winged lion, causing them to try their best to use their limited strength and movement to shrink their size or make themselves look less appetizing.

One decided to shed parts of its fur in an attempt to look less appetizing, while another decided to shrink itself to a smaller size with less meat for the winged lion to eat.

For the bigger ones who could not shrink themselves, they decided to go for more extreme measures to ensure their own safety. For example, one of the more talented demon beasts the size of a small hill, used its limited movement to roll around in what looked like its own… Excrement... Truly sacrificing any and all respect it might have had with the other demon beasts around…

"This… I will be leaving for now, make sure none of them leaves this mountain. In case some of them do end up escaping, you can do whatever you want with them." Seeing the demon beasts starting to frolic around the mountain after he had silent removed some of their movement restrictions, Xuan Hao gave some instructions to the winged lion demon beast before rushing towards the crack in the formation leading into the mystic realm-

Whoosh~!

Just barely making it through the crack in the formation before it closed up. Soon coming face to face with the last remaining demon beasts trying their best to escape and the endless swarm of spider demon beasts chasing after them from behind.

Roar?

Seeing someone appearing in front of them, the demon beasts about to leave the mystic realm let out confused roars as they looked up towards Xuan Hao filled with confusion. None of them understood where this weird looking demon beast had appeared from.

As for the fact that he was not even a demon beast to begin with… This was something that these weaker demon beasts in the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment Realm had never thought about. After all, all they had ever seen of living things had been demon beasts. The reason why the more powerful demon beats in the Nascent Soul Realm had known that Xuan Hao was different, was due to a combination of their increased intelligence and their instincts.

"So many spiders…" Not caring about these weaker demon beasts as he was sure the winged lion would be taking care of them after they left the mystic realm, Xuan Hao instead focused his attention on the endless swarm of spiders in front of him.

Although he had thought that their number should have been just barely enough to deal with someone in the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm, he changed his opinion after being able to use his divine sense to find out just how strong they were and the overall number of spiders.

However, he soon ran into a problem after using his divine sense to investigate these spiders-

"This… My divine sense is not big enough to cover all of the spiders!?"

And that was the fact that his divine sense was not large enough to cover all of the spider swarm!

Instead, the only thing interesting he managed to find was a First Stage Domain Lord Realm spider located somewhere at the edge of his divine sense.

Finding this Domain Lord Realm spider demon beast not only meant that the strength of the spider swarm had far exceeded his initial impression.

At the very least, considering that the Domain Lord Realm spider he found should be male and didn't seem to be the one in charge of the swarm itself, there should at the very least be a queen spider who was above the First Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao narrowed both of his eyes as he looked towards the approaching swarm of spiders. Understanding that he would not be able to leave this place before he dealt with the swarm of spiders all heading towards the direction of the formation leading outside the mystic realm.

Even if the winged lion might be capable of taking care of these spiders with time, it would not be easy considering their number and the fact that he had no idea if there were more Domain Lord Realm spiders present in the swarm.

If the winged lion ended up stuck in a fight with these Domain Lord Realm spiders, it was easy to imagine what would happen to the rest of the Flying Sword Sect without the support of the winged lion. Especially considering that the Flying Sword Sect did not have a powerful formation like the one at the Shattered Star Peaks…

Fwoosh~

As the endless swarm of spiders encroached on him, Xuan Hao's eyes ignited with an infernal blaze, reflecting the profound power belonging to the Dao of Fire. The Dao he had just recently managed to comprehend and what had allowed him to break through from the Initial Stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm and reach the Intermediate stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm.

With a flick of his wrist, Xuan Hao conjured a sea of fire, pure and filled with a power far exceeding that of the Domain Lord Realm.

Fwoosh-!

As the sea of fire danced and swirled in the air in front of him. The spiders, sensing the scorching heat of the flames, hesitated for a moment-

Rustle~

But their fear when faced with the sea of fire did not last for long, as their instinctual hunger drove them towards the weaker demon beasts who had taken advantage of this opportunity to try and climb up the cliff.

"They are… Ignoring me?" Not having expected the spiders to just ignore him, Xuan Hao didn't know what to feel as he watched the swarm of spiders continue charging towards the fleeing demon beasts below him.

"Hmph! I would like to see if you can ignore this!"

Swish-!

Feeling somewhat offended after being ignored by the swarm of spiders who had at most reached the Nascent Soul Realm without counting the one Domain Lord Realm spider, Xuan Hao thrust his hands forward, causing the sea of fire in front of him to condense into a torrent of scorching fireballs that hurtled towards the swarm of spiders below.

Rumble~!

FWOOOOOSH-!

As the fireballs smashed into the ground, they soon reformed into a large inferno that rapidly grew in size as it swallowed up the swarm of spiders without showing any signs of stopping its expansion.

Screeeech-!

The spiders caught in the inferno could only screech and writhe in pain as the flames of the inferno consumed them before they had a chance to fight back.

But the spiders somehow still managed to persist, their sheer numbers seemingly never ending as new spiders would soon replace the ones that had been swallowed by the fiery inferno. Soon, the spiders entered some sort of weird state where they merged their power together into a single entity that momentarily stopped the inferno.

"Hm? A natural formation?"

Seeing how the spiders had come together and stopped his flames, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face. Not having expected the spiders to actually have the ability to merge together and form some kind of unique natural formation.

From the fact that they had the ability to stop the inferno he had created, it meant that their strength should at least have reached a level comparable to that of a First Tribulation Soul Ascension Realm cultivator!

This alone was more than enough to make Xuan Hao stop for a short moment as he felt a renewed sense of respect towards the spiders. Even if they had ignored him earlier, it should have been because they had been confident in dealing with any possible danger, they might encounter by using this powerful natural formation.

If it had been before reaching the Intermediate stage of the Dao Domain Lord Realm, it would have been difficult for me to deal with these spiders. Especially considering that they can easily replace any of the spiders that are killed. Making it close to impossible for someone in the early stage of the Soul Ascension Realm to break through the natural formation formed by them… Unfortunately for them, I'm not someone in the earlier stages of the Soul Ascension Realm!

Shaking his head as he thought this to himself, Xuan Hao raised his hand and made a grabbing motion towards the inferno below-

Whoosh~!

This simple action caused the ragging inferno constantly smashing into the swarm of spiders to suddenly stop before turning into stream of fire that gathered together inside the palm of his hand.

"Hm… I never really got a chance to try out how strong the Dao of Fire is, this should be the perfect opportunity!" Looking at the small ball of fire that had gathered inside the palm of his hand, Xuan Hao used one of his fingers to make a small swirling motion in the ball of fire. Creating a small swirling vortex of flames in the palm of his hand before letting it fall down towards the spiders that had already reached the bottom of the cliff.