The lands that demonic beast clans controlled were huge, but, fortunately, these demonic beasts would only attack their targets once. If they failed, they would just give up. That alone had made Chen Jingzhai’s and his party’s trip easier.

It was the third morning after they had entered the Woods Ocean Ancient Path. With a wave of his arm, Chen Jingzhai recalled the formations, the Mountain Duplication Formation, and the Heaven, Earth, and Man Formation that he had deployed.

After resting for three hours, everyone regained their energy. The exhaustion was no longer present on their faces. Due to Chen Jingzhai’s suggestion, the female cultivators even changed into dark green colored robes.

Chen Jingzhai was now wearing a tight black robe which made him stand out and dashing. However, after dealing with every beast and monster they had come across for the past two days, even he was exhausted.

The exhaustion definitely wasn’t caused by killing beasts. This wasn’t his first rodeo. Whether it was at the secret zone or the Eastern Ocean, he was merciless towards demonic beasts. The only difference was that the beasts in the forest were stronger, and some could even take on human forms.

He had to be even more focused during his fight with such beasts. That had caused a huge change in his physical and mental state.

The change was understandable as the pressure from the demonic beasts was huge.

Even if he had reached the Complete Foundation Plane and could use a portion of the Golden Core power, his energy would still be depleted after continuously experiencing numerous short battles. The worst was that he had used up too much spiritual power and was having a hard time replenishing it.

Despite having a lot of spiritual power, it was complicated for the power to recover. If he did not possess the Primordial Essence World, he would never have the guts to spend more than 50% of his spiritual power.

That was why he had been using spells as much as he could. The reason was that spells were conjured using the Essence Power of heavens and earth and would only consume a little of it. It would be a different story if he kept using magic treasures as that would quickly deplete his spiritual power.

The cost of using spiritual treasures was even worse. Unless he had no other options, he would never resort to using magic treasures and spiritual treasures. In the end, he was still a Foundation Establishment Plane cultivator, and using items meant for a higher level would exhaust him too much.

Fortunately, he had already mastered the sword’s will. He could fight a powerful demonic beast with his physical power and sword.

“Honger, which clans will we encounter after this?” Chen Jingzhai asked.

Everyone immediately shifted to the small animal sitting on the young man’s shoulder.

Ni Honger had helped the party a lot after she had joined them. Because of her warnings, Chen Jingzhai was able to make preparations before running into different beast clans.

She was much more informed than the rhino beast as the latter only moved within their territory while the rat would roam around the forest freely.

Ni Honger didn’t feel awkward even when she was being stared at by everyone. “Next is the Sky Blue White Crane’s territory and the Gold Demonic Ape’s territory. These two tribes are very powerful. They could be considered some of the strongest in the forest due to their powerful bloodline talent. I never get too close to them.”

“The Sky Blue White Cranes are Grade 4 demonic beasts.” Sage Lu Tao raised a brow. “The Sky Black Crane has a hint of the Sky Blue White Crane’s blood, and they might even evolve into one in the future. However, it’s almost impossible for one to evolve as a tamed beast.”

Spiritual beasts could still awake their bloodline. However, instead of a demonic beast bloodline, they would have to forfeit their chance at obtaining a human form and continue to cultivate their original bloodline. The Sky Blue White Crane was a Grade 4 beast and had an 80% chance of obtaining the strength of a Nascent Plane lord’s power once they matured.

“But if they are living in the deepest part of the forest, then that means they could be led by one that is as powerful as a Spirit Plane lord, or even stronger,” said Celestial Maiden Han. “What should we do? Should we split up?”

“No, let’s not do that,” Miao Yun replied after a brief ponder. “We’ll run into the Gold Demonic Ape after that. Even if we split up and are lucky enough to get past the crane’s territory, we’ll still have to get past the apes.”

“We’ll not split up then.” Chen Jingzhai nodded. “We’ll just move as fast as we can. This time, we’ll split into parties consisting of your own clan members. Be mindful of the waves of your spells. Keep them as minimal as possible. We’ll also move from trees to trees to avoid detection. If there are no trees, we’ll go beneath the ground.”

“Okay!” Everyone agreed.

Chen Jingzhai’s suggestion of splitting up into parties with their own clan members was a great idea. The Elixir Twilight Clan had three Golden Core Sages. They could have two sages lead one disciple each and the remaining one could be the vanguard.

Although the Soaring Clouds Clan had only sent out two sages, Miao Fa and Miao Yun were powerful enough to protect the three disciples. There was also the fact that Miao Xin and her two other peers could create a formation and were protected by magic treasures.

There were even fewer things to worry about for the Luo Sheng Sword School. Other than Chen Jingzhai, all the disciples were from sword branches and had the same battle power as a Golden Core Sage.

The most important person out of all the participants of the Luo Sheng Sword School was Chen Jignzhai. Having mastered the Reversed Formation, he was able to use the formation to save anyone who was in danger.

That was why not a single person in the party was gravely injured for the past two days despite all the battles they were thrown into. Although there were some close calls and they were all exhausted, just the fact that everyone got off with minor injuries at most was a blessing.

After coming up with a plan, Sage Lu Tao and Sage Ji Shuanghua took the lead with the Soaring Clouds Clan behind them. The Elixir Twilight Clan followed behind them while maintaining a 100 feet distance.

Chen Jingzhai traveled in front of the Soaring Clouds Clan and in the rear of the Luo Sheng Sword School party. The Illusion Light Rat did not take the lead anymore. Instead, she stayed inside Chen Jingzhai’s pocket since that was the safest place to be at.

She was afraid that if she strayed too far away, she would get caught or killed by other demonic beasts. Now that she had become Chen Jignzhai’s tamed beast, the aura surrounding her was different now.

She almost got caught by a Golden Back Sky Wolf last time and was scared to death. After that, she couldn’t leave her master’s side anymore, to the point where she was willing to stay inside the Beast Taming Card if needed.

Everyone had also recalled their mounts as the bull demonic beasts weren’t able to hide their presence.

“Let’s go!” Chen Jingzhai commanded, and the Luo Sheng Sword School party took the lead.

In order to not attract any attention, the disciples from the sword branches unprecedentedly used earth escape methods as well.

A few seconds after that, the rest of the two clans started to follow the lead as well.

Half an hour later, three Sky Blue White Cranes were circling in the sky on top of their territory.

Their sight was so keen that even lush green trees weren’t able to stop them from seeing what was going on in the forest.

“I found them! They are trying to get past us using earth escape methods!”

“Ha! Inform everyone!”

The cranes weren’t the only ones who had heard the warning, but Chen Jingzhai and the rest of his party heard as well.

“Shit! They’ve found us. Everyone, be careful. We’re speeding up!” Chen Jingzhai informed everyone through a phone bug and increased his speed.

A crane dived down from above in a beautiful motion. It passed through the branches and precisely hit the ground above Chen Jingzhai’s head.

At the same time as the crane had landed, a powerful sword vapor surrounded by the sword’s will was shot out from Chen Jingzhai’s finger, and it accurately pierced through the Grade 2 beast.

However, the crane was successful in slowing Chen Jingzhai down.

A white figure suddenly approached the young man. After locking on the target with his divine mind, Chen Jingzhai’s expression changed a little.

The white figure belonged to a sinister-looking young man with a pair of white wings on his back.

Chen Jingzhai could tell from the young man’s aura that he had reached the pinnacle of Grade 3 and was just a step away from achieving Grade 4.

“I’ve heard that you can kill a lord? Let’s see if you can stop my White Crane Claw!” The white figure smirked and waved his arm.

He shot out a shadow made out of a crane that pierced through Chen Jingzhai’s body. However, the latter suddenly turned into a puddle of water.

It was Chen Jingzhai’s Water Illusion Shadow.

The white figure frowned a little and quickly chased after Chen Jingzhai. He did not expect that Chen Jingzhai would run away instead of facing him head-on.

He quickly caught up to Chen Jingzhai. However, Chen Jingzhai sped up even more with the help of the Dharma Intent. The white figure didn’t even flinch at that, but he did show signs of anger as he pointed directly at Chen Jingzhai with his finger.

A white feather was shot out from his finger and towards Chen Jingzhai. With a loud bang, the feather dug itself deep into the ground.

However, the ground suddenly split open, breaking the trees around into pieces. A gold tiny sword made out of condensed energy appeared in Chen Jingzhai’s hand before he shot it toward the man.