990 Terrifying Rabbit!

Squeak!

Swish!

The moment Xuan Hao noticed the small head of the rabbit demon beast poking out from his sleeve once again, the rabbit demon beast already finished determining its target, as it shot out from his sleeve and flew in the direction of the crystal fish who had managed to get ahead of the rest of the crystal fish.

Roar?

Not expecting for the rabbit demon beast to suddenly emerge from Xuan Hao's sleeve before rushing directly towards it, the crystal fish could not help showing a surprised expression on its face before it was replaced by one filled with fear. Remembering just what had happened to the crystal fish who had faced the rabbit demon beast only a short time earlier.

Even if the strength shown by the rabbit demon beast was at the same level as its own, it didn't believe it in the slightest, as it had personally seen how easily the rabbit demon beast had managed to enter the body of the crystal fish before fatally wounding it. Not aware of the fact that the crystal fish in question had decided to completely ignore the rabbit demon beast as it chased after Xuan Hao. Allowing it to enter its body while its defenses were lowered.

Whoosh~

Squeak!?

Seeing the crystal fish with what it thought to be a large spirit stone inside of it starting to escape, the rabbit demon beast let out a surprised sound before increasing its speed even further as it chased after the escaping crystal fish.

R-Roar!

Growing increasingly panicked as it watched the rabbit demon beast approaching it with a dangerous look in its eyes that resembled a starving animal hunting for anything edible, the crystal fish let out a roar filled with terror. Trying to warn the other crystal fish and have them help it escape from the terrifying rabbit demon beast chasing after it.

Rumble~

Responding to the call of their friend, the dozens of Soul Ascension Realm crystal fish all focused their long-distance attacks on the rabbit demon beast in an attempt to slow it down and but enough time for their friend to escape.

Squeak?

Seeing the countless attacks heading towards it, the rabbit demon beast didn't panic, as it used its terrifying speed far above that of a normal Third Tribulation Soul Ascension Realm demon beast to easily dodge the different attacks-

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Resulting in all of the attacks hitting the ground just beside the rabbit demon beast without doing any harm to it in the process.

R-R-Roar…!

Unaware of the fact that the rabbit demon beast had just dodged the attacks and thinking that it had taken it head on due to the massive cloud of dust being kicked into the air after the first attack landed, the leading crystal fish who had momentarily come to a stop could not help letting out a roar filled with terror as it watched the rabbit demon beast emerge completely unscathed from the large cloud of dust. Reinforcing its belief that the rabbit demon beast was far more powerful than the strength that it showed outwardly and had just been hiding its strength.

The reason for the rabbit demon beast hiding its strength also became clear when it remembered how it had extracted the crystal core of its friend earlier. The crystal core itself was the result of the crystal fishes' own unique cultivation path and was a symbol of reaching the Soul Ascension Realm, but more importantly than that, it was also the place where close to half of their qi cultivated by the crystal fish was stored.

Making it clear to the leading crystal fish that the objective of the rabbit demon beast was to lure them out of the water where they were weaker than normal and take the chance to steal their crystal cores.

R-Roar…!

R-R-Roar!

The rest of the crystal fish also started trembling in fear as they watched the rabbit demon beast emerge from the dust cloud without a single scratch present on its body. Unaware of the fact that the rabbit demon beast had just managed to dodge the slow and predictable long-distance attacks with its superior speed, they also seemed to have reached the same conclusion as the leading crystal fish-

Whoosh!

And without waiting for the leading crystal fish who was still staring towards the rabbit demon beast who had just emerged from the cloud of dust in fear, they turned around and began escaping towards the ring-shaped lake where they would be able to hide or use their full strength if needed.

ROAR!?

Realizing that its friends had decided to abandon it to escape from the rabbit demon beast by itself, the leading crystal fish let out a both horrified and angry roar. Not able to believe that it had been left behind so easily.

Ptsh!

However, before it had time to calm down and escape as well, the rabbit demon beast caught up to it and easily pieced through its thin unprotected skin. Reaching the special crystal core that the rabbit demon beast still firmly believed to be a spirit stone.

Riiip~!

Not a second later, the rabbit demon beast cut the crystal core out and left the body of the now fatally wounded crystal fish before making its way back towards Xuan Hao who could only stare speechlessly at the escaping crystal fish and half dead leading crystal fish laying on the ground not too far away from him with a terrified look in its eyes.

From the looks of things, he no longer had to worry about escaping from the crystal fish…

Squeak~

Hearing the rabbit demon beast happily making all sorts of joyful sounds as it carried the strange object that looked like a spirit stone, Xuan Hao had no idea what to say.

Squeak!

Having misunderstood Xuan Hao's gaze as him also wanting to take away the crystal core, the rabbit demon beast protectively held it as it rapidly climbed up his robe before hiding away inside the hidden pocket where it slowly began to absorb the dense qi contained inside of the crystal core.

"Haaa… Whatever, at least I should be able to start recovering now…" Shaking his head as he muttered this to himself while looking at the place where the hidden pocket with the rabbit demon beast inside of it was located, Xuan Hao decided not to think too much about it and instead found a secluded spot inside the forest where he sat down and began to recover from the escape.

In the process of this, completely ignoring the presence of the two crystal fish who had been fatally wounded by the rabbit demon beast not too far away from where he was recovering. Not believing that they would be much of a threat in their current state. Even less so after he recovered his strength.

Like this, a day flew by before Xuan Hao opened his eyes again filled with renewed power as he had managed to fully recover the qi he had used up and fixed his arm.

The main reason for such a fast recovering being the fact that the dense qi from the massive forest had all gathered together in the small part of the forest that remained after the clash between the cloud demon beast and the guardian formation of the mystic realm.

Not only that, but after a day inside the small forest, Xuan Hao also managed to scan the entire area with his divine sense and discovered that the strongest demon beast still left alive had only managed to reach the Domain Lord Realm. None of the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts were anywhere to be seen. Meaning that they might have perished during the terrifying clash.

Thinking about this, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a sense of relief. After all, if he had to deal with a Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast, it would be hard for him to escape given that the massive forest that had provided him cover in the past had been reduced to a small patch of trees that could easily be covered with his divine sense.

Rustle~

Standing back up again at this moment, Xuan Hao gazed out into the wasteland that seemed to go on for hundreds of kilometers in the place where the massive forest had once been.

Guess its best to leave this place now that the side quest has been completed, but… I wonder if the empty void created by the true spatial collapse is still around…

As he thought about this while observing the charred ground, Xuan Hao soon shook his head in disappointment after realizing that there wasn't anything in the direction where the empty void created by the true spatial collapse was located.

Swish~

In the end, Xuan Hao stood around for a few minutes to see if there was anything that had managed to survive the clash other than the small part of the forest where the qi had been funneled into before ultimately beginning to make his way back in the direction, he had entered the massive forest from.