The red-haired boy bared his teeth. Seeing the youth charging again, he dropped to all fours, intending to flee...
Xu Xian, mid-stride, formed a hand seal and chanted an incantation.
"Thinking of running?"
The golden light of the Great Dao surged rapidly, blocking the path ahead. Then, golden talismans filled the air, sealing off his retreat.
The red-haired boy slammed right into it.
"Roar!"
Boom! Ripples cascaded across the barrier, but it remained unshaken.
"Take a sword from me!"
Xu Xian arrived in an instant, his heavy sword swinging down. The red-haired boy had nowhere to hide. Seeing the cold edge of the heavy sword hanging over his head, he could no longer care for anything else and let out a roar.
His meridians bulged across his body, and his limbs and torso expanded at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Suddenly.
He revealed his true form to tank the strike.
The sword fell as intended, but no blood sprayed. Instead, there was a metallic clank, like metal striking metal.
The blade was halted.
Xu Xian narrowed his eyes and smirked. "So it really is a deer."
It was a deer.
But not a white one.
Beneath Xu Xian, a beast the size of a large house had materialized out of thin air.
The beast looked like an elk, with long horns on its head that were as sharp as blades.
It was blood-red from head to tail. Its fur looked as though it were dripping blood, and a thin layer of malicious qi swirled around its body.
Its four hooves ended in claws like those of a dragon, wreathed in crimson flames...
Aside from a thin ring of white, its pupils were like drops of blood.
A blood-colored elk.
Radiating pure hostility.
It bore no resemblance to the legendary white deer. Had it not been for the Great Dao Fortune surrounding it—which his Pupil of Insight could see through—no one would believe this creature if it stood before them and claimed to be an auspicious beast.
To call it an auspicious beast...
One might as well call it a ferocious beast or an evil beast. In Xu Xian’s eyes, "demonic beast" was the most fitting description.
Having revealed its true form, the blood elk was brimming with malice. After blocking Xu Xian's blade with its antlers, it didn't hesitate for a moment. With a forceful toss of its head, its eyes flashed, unleashing a dense web of blood-colored lightning toward the youth.
Seeing this, Xu Xian did not dodge. Instead, he channeled more power into his palm, executing a second burst of force.
His sword intent surged again, shredding the lightning.
The sword momentum rose once more, heavy as a thousand mountains.
The ground beneath the blood elk cracked and collapsed. Its muscles bulged, and after several breaths of stalemate, Xu Xian added even more power.
"On your knees!"
The blood elk, which had been struggling to hold on, finally succumbed. Its front legs gave way, and it crashed to the ground.
The moment it bowed its head, the vigorous sword intent lost its obstruction. Like a waterfall plunging straight down, it smashed into the beast with a roar.
The blood elk and the ground for hundreds of meters around were cleaved into a deep crater.
Dust billowed into the sky.
Low whimpers echoed within the chaos.
In the whistling, mournful wind, afterimages of sword light flashed occasionally, mixed with the chaotic glimmers of blood-red shadows. Two figures burst out of the dust, one chasing the other.
They were locked in combat.
The blood elk fled, using its divine abilities to move through the sky and ground. From time to time, it used its hooves to tear open spatial rifts, vanishing without a trace.
Or it would dissipate into a mist of blood, drifting with the wind.
Yet, every single time, Xu Xian precisely captured its location and forced it back into its original form.
Back and forth they went.
The blood elk was in a wretched state, covered in sword wounds and whimpering occasionally.
Xu Xian's sword was like a phantom, traversing heaven and earth as he pursued and intercepted, leaving the beast with no escape.
A natural auspicious beast.
Born at the beast king stage.
Its strength was even infinitely close to the beast emperor stage.
With diverse divine abilities and a powerful bloodline, its defense, vitality, and speed far exceeded those of normal demonic beasts.
Though it was only at the sixth stage, its combat power was not inferior to the beast emperor stage.
For a time, although Xu Xian held the absolute upper hand, he could do nothing to the beast in the short term.
If not for his Pupil of Insight, Xu Xian definitely wouldn't have been able to keep it here.
If its opponent weren't Xu Xian, probably no one among the humans or demons in this Demon Suppression Abyss could defeat it in a one-on-one fight.
It was no wonder so many people had failed to capture it for twelve days.
This strength.
It was truly formidable.
Beyond the reach of ordinary people.
The elk and the man traversed through Spirit Elixir City, sword light and blood light colliding. Although both were at the sixth stage, the intensity of their battle surpassed that of a clash between those at the seventh stage.
The commotion naturally attracted the attention of many nearby.
Demons.
Humans.
All were involuntarily drawn toward the source of the noise.
Naturally, they saw everything clearly and soon recognized that the blood elk fighting Xu Xian was the newly born auspicious beast.
Upon first seeing it, whether human or demon, their expressions were much like Xu Xian's had been.
They even questioned for a moment if their eyes were playing tricks on them or if they had the wrong creature.
But after careful scrutiny, they reached a definitive conclusion.
That was indeed the auspicious beast.
They had all been fooled before.
Furthermore.
This auspicious beast was not weak; it was actually fighting Xu Xian on even terms. They had all underestimated its strength, which also served as a side-proof of how powerful its bloodline was.
"It's actually a blood elk..."
"Dammit, we were all played by this thing."
"Born at the peak of the beast king stage. This is even stronger than the descendants of true dragons recorded in books."
"No wonder we couldn't find it. The fellow was hiding in Spirit Elixir City. The demon race is a joke, a bunch of blind fools."
"Should we snatch it?"
"What do we do?"
The auspicious beast they had hunted for ten days had appeared right before their eyes. Yet, the hunters of yesterday were now hesitating, each one lingering indecisively.
They were wary not only of the current situation but also of the auspicious beast's strength.
Right now.
If they stepped forward rashly, they would not only offend Xu Xian but might also be killed by the beast. At the very least, those below the seventh stage didn't even dare to entertain the thought.
But...
If they just stood by and watched, letting the Wendao Sect take the prize, they wouldn't be able to accept it either.
In various parts of the city, several seventh-stage experts from the Central Plains, after a period of mental conflict, moved toward the battlefield where the man and elk were fighting.
They wanted to wait for an opportunity to strike and fight for it.
The demon contingent that had already withdrawn from Spirit Elixir City also witnessed all of this.
When they saw the auspicious beast entangled with Xu Xian and constantly suppressed, the expressions in their eyes flickered with conflicting emotions.
On the eastern bank of the Wild River, the group of beast sovereigns could no longer sit still. Their expressions were anxious as they watched the auspicious beast appear, only to be potentially taken by the humans. They paced around in a frenzy.
They wished they could step across the great river right this instant.
But logic still triumphed over impulse.
However, if they did not take the auspicious beast that was within their reach, their hearts would never find peace.
They sent voice transmissions across the river, ordering their juniors to return to the city. At all costs—even if it meant death—they had to protect that auspicious beast and bring it back.
"Go, quickly!"
"Snatch it back!"
The seventh-stage beast emperors, already covered in wounds and exhausted, had to grit their teeth and head back.
"By order of the elders, reclaim the auspicious beast!"
"Kill!"
The winds of conflict rose again as over a hundred beast emperors moved in the opposite direction. Some revealed their true forms to charge head-on, while others remained in human form, lurking quietly.
Their auras continued to close in...
The members of the Wendao Sect naturally noticed immediately and responded quickly.
Half moved to intercept the demon horde, while the other half remained on alert against the humans in the city.
Wen Qingxue unleashed a sword strike within the city, facing the Central Plains' seventh-stage cultivators, and issued a dark warning:
"Do not move!"
"Anyone who acts recklessly will be executed!"
Rate on N.U.
