932 Path to the Surface



Rumble~!

However, before he had a chance to escape, the turtle demon beast's massive body appeared in front of him. Blocking his path of escape.

"So, you don't intend to let me get away after helping you out?" Not feeling too surprised about the behavior of the turtle demon beast, Xuan Hao could still not help feeling a bit disappointed that the turtle demon beast had not just decided to take advantage of its weakened opponent and ignore him.

In the end, both of the demon beasts had reached a similar conclusion and were unwilling to let him leave alive, as it would prove dangerous for both of them if he decided to ambush them later on after their fight had finished. For this reason, the turtle demon beast stopped remaining inactive the moment he was about to run away and went in to block his path of escape.

Whoosh~

Feeling the killing intent of the demon beast behind him and looking towards the turtle demon beast that had blocked his path, Xuan Hao decided to directly use his Drifting Cloud Steps to teleport right past the massive turtle before continuing to escape. Ignoring the turtle demon beast that had only blocked his path and hadn't really attacked him yet, likely feeling vary after seeing what had happened to the other demon beast.

Roar…?

Realizing what had just happened, the turtle demon beast let out a confused roar as it turned and looked in the direction of Xuan Hao filled with confusion. Making it rather obvious that this demon beast had never witnessed teleportation before and had never thought of such a possibility when blocking his path just now.

Considering that the demon beast inside the mist covered mountain range had never encountered any humans before him and most of them were focused on cultivating their physical body instead of comprehending a dao, it made sense that they had never come into contact with something complicated like using spatial manipulation for short distance teleportation.

Swish-!

Not bothering to stay behind and wait for the confused turtle demon beast to recover from the shock of witnessing teleportation for the first time, Xuan Hao used his Drifting Cloud Steps to the limit, as he soon disappeared from the small opening created by the short clash between him and the demon beast that had been bold enough to swallow him alive.

ROOOAR!

Only the reluctant roar of the demon beast filled with killing intent after having its tongue cut and insides burned up, echoed through the forest before the two demon beasts inevitably started fighting again.

Bang! Bang!

The only difference this time around was that neither of them dared to go all out again. Fearing that Xuan Hao might be lurking around somewhere in the forest, waiting to ambush them when they had used all of their energy.

…

At the same time Xuan Hao was escaping from the two Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts as fast as possible, his two disciples were still stuck underground. Having spent the last week wandering through the seemingly endless tunnels that had been dug out by the mole demon beast.

Although they had yet to encounter the mole demon beast, they both understood that this would not last forever and they would inevitably end up running into the mole demon bast if they didn't find a way back to the surface.

The only problem was that they had already tried digging their way up to the surface several times without success. The longest distance they had managed to cover so far, was around a hundred or so meters. In the end, they were forced to return back to the mole demon beast's tunnels, as their own quickly ended up collapsing on top of them after they tried to dig any further. 

From this, it was clear that digging a tunnel in the rocky soil of the mystic realm was not as easy as they had first imagined after seeing the countless tunnels of the mole demon beast. Different from them, the mole demon beast seemed to be using some kind of special technique to keep its tunnels from collapsing. Unfortunately for Chu Yang and Qing Yi, neither of them could figure out how to copy this tunnel building technique after wandering through the tunnel of the mole demon beast for the past week.

"Haaa… These damnable tunnels will never end! When was the last time we found a tunnel leading upwards!?" Seeing yet another tunnel leading back down as they continued forward; Qing Yi could not stop herself from complaining as part of her felt increasingly fearful that the mole demon beast would find them before they escaped from the underground world and made it back to the surface.

Even if the surface was dangerous, they at the very least still had an exit to escape to if they ended up getting chased down by demon beasts again. Underground, they had no escape path and would only be able to continue running and hope that the one chasing them would grow tired and stop chasing after them. Not a good plan if the one chasing after them was faster than they were…

"Calm down." 

Knowing that his senior sister was starting to lose hope of finding a way out, Chu Yang lightly patted her on the shoulder to calm her down before pointing towards a new tunnel that had just appeared in the distance. "There is another tunnel coming up over there… And from the looks of it, its going up instead of down!"

"Really!? Ah! You are right! Finally, another tunnel going up! Maybe we can finally make it to the surface this time around." Hearing what Chu Yang said, Qing Yi quickly calmed down before excitedly exclaiming with a happy smile plastered all over her face after discovering that the new tunnel did indeed lead up.

Not only that, but after both of them reached the tunnel, they discovered that it continued up for hundreds of meters before the rest of the path disappeared behind a large rock that the mole demon beast had maneuvered around when constructing the tunnel.

"This… We might finally have found a path to the surface!"

"Yeah. Even if this path doesn't reach the surface, it should at the very least get us close enough to dig the rest of the way ourselves!"

As both of them were filled with excitement over having finally found a path back to the surface after a week wandering in the dark and seemingly endless tunnels of the mole demon beast, constantly on edge as their divine sense kept scanning their surroundings for the mole demon beast, it happened.

Rumble~

The mole demon beast that both of them had been worried about, emerged from one of the dozen or so tunnels behind them-

ROOOOAR-!

And it didn't look too pleased about the fact that someone had dared barging into its tunnel network without permission, as it directly charged towards them without caring about accidently damaging the structure of the tunnel. Understanding very well that even if the tunnel ended up collapsing as a result of this, it would still be fine, as for Chu Yang and Qing Yi? They would have no way to escape from it if they ended up getting buried alive by the tunnel that had already started collapsing around them.

From the looks of things, the mole demon beast was also planning to collapse the tunnel in an attempt to prevent them from running away. The only difference between the mole demon beast's way of doing things and how Chu Yang and Qing Yi planned to do it, was the fact that the mole demon beast was trying to collapse the entire tunnel. Not just a single part to delay them.

"Run!"

Not daring to waste any time after seeing the mole demon beast, Chu Yang dashed into the tunnel leading upwards with Qing Yi following closely behind him. No matter how much he wanted to try and collapse the tunnel above the mole demon beast to delay it before entering the smaller tunnel leading upwards, he also understood that doing this would run the risk of collapsing the entire tunnel and end up burying both him and Qing Yi beneath the earth. Trapping them in a place where the mole demon beast would be able to easily kill them!

ROOOAR!

Seeing that they entered another tunnel and that it wouldn't be able to archive anything by collapsing the tunnel it was currently inside of, other than buying more time for Chu Yang and Qing Yi to run away, the mole demon beast stopped destroying the tunnel and instead focused all of its energy on chasing after Chu Yang and Qing Yi.

Swoosh-!

Swoosh-!

Escaping through the smaller tunnel leading upwards, Qing Yi and Chu Yang soon reached the stone that the mole demon beast had tunneled around in the past.

"Junior brother! Let's use the rock!" Shouting this before beginning to push the rock that had already been loosened by the tunneling of the mole demon beast, Chu Yang quickly understood what she wanted to do-

ROAR!

RUMBLE~

And the moment the mole demon beast entered the smaller tunnel leading upward, they managed to free the rock and send it tumbling down towards the mole demon beast that had begun rapidly closing the distance between them.