Over the next two days, Mo Jiu's main followers began contracting their own spirit beasts one after the other. Mei Hua and Ba Duo got high grade defensive beasts, Han Wei got a high grade attack beast and Gu Long got a high grade plant based beast.
It was a breed of plants called immortal vines. Its appearance was a single vine that grew exponentially and branched out once activated with its owner's spiritual energy. The reason for its name was the fact that these vines were incredibly hard to cut down as they had strong regenerative ability.
He Yuan watched as each one of them persevered in contracting the spirit beasts and he was honestly impressed. Although collective effort was needed to subdue the beast as high grade beasts were higher than their level individually, contracting the beast was not an easy task.
If the contractors were a little weak then the spirit beasts could turn on them and use the cultivators' cores to nourish themselves back to full health.
On the fifth day, Mo Jiu still hadn't gotten contracted but the man in question wasn't bothered. He spent his days helping others so subdue spirit beats in one strike and his nights digging his rod into Mu Qingqing.
They had encountered the blue robed team with the jade twins once more the day before and Chu Leng's betrothed had been thoroughly humiliated by Mo Jiu again.
With how far the team had travelled, all that was left was the innermost ring of the forest where the alleged divine level beast resided. Although they'd been rumours about a divine level spirit beast residing in the innermost ring, no cultivator had actually found any such beast.
On the night of the fifth day, when the entire team where deeply immersed in their cultivation, a black clad figure sneaked into their camp.
Almost immediately, Mo Jiu opened his eyes. Sensing the presence of a stranger, he leaped up from his position and chased after. He Yuan, who had forsaken cultivation since he entered into the spirit beast forest so he would watch Mo Jiu carefully, leaped down from his spot in a nearby tree and followed.
He made sure to stay just outside the range of Mo Jiu's spiritual sense so he would not be spotted.
The black clad figure expertly wove through the forest and if not for the fact that the stranger was making use of teleportation talismans at extremely short distances, he/she would have been caught.
Everything about this chase pointed to one thing... A trap. The person's actions were practically screaming 'IT'S A TRAP!' And as He Yuan closely followed them on his lotus artifact, he wondered how Mo Jiu was falling for this obvious set up.
When Mo Jiu started sending out attacks to slow down the person, He Yuan understood. Mo Jiu was clearly overestimating himself once more. If he'd woken up the others and asked for help, that person would've been caught within seconds but no, this was Mo Jiu.
And Mo Jiu never asked for help, because he was a lone cultivator fighting against the dao of heaven. Whatever that meant.
Soon enough, they started going deeper and deeper into the forest and He Yuan was beginning to feel his legs tremble even though he was on the lotus artifact. The spiritual pressure in the atmosphere was too strong, he could practically smell danger. How was Mo Jiu not noticing this?!
The chase became faster and faster and He Yuan struggled to keep up because the pressure began to affect his lotus artifact too. He soon lost track of them.
"FUCK!" He shouted as he paused and looked around. He was in a danger zone and if he wasn't careful enough, he was going to be mauled to death by medium to high grade spirit beasts.
That thought had only crossed He Yuan's mind for a few seconds when a bunch of purple vines shot out from a tree towards him. He immediately dove to the side and took out his sword.
After slashing for a few times, He Yuan gave up and took out a teleportation talisman and teleported some distance away. His low grade sword was too weak to cause any real damage to the vines so there was no need to remain and ask for death.
He Yuan's senses were on high alert as he observed his surroundings, trying to determine which was to go even as he kept an eye out for possible danger. He decided to pick a random location and try his luck when,
BOOM!
The entire Spirit beast forest reverberated from the sheer force of the spiritual energy that waved through it. He Yuan, who had been blasted to the ground from the force, quickly stood up and hopped on his lotus artifact before riding in the direction of the source.
Whilst he was trying to figure out his way, the ten-thousand-year-old beast had been unsealed and if he didn't arrive in time, the barrier that locked Mo Jiu in would be closed up and there would be no stopping Mo Jiu from absorbing the beast core.
"AAAAHHH!"
"BOSS DONG HURRY!"
As soon as He Yuan arrived, he ran into a bunch of blue robed cultivators running away from the direction of the blast with dishevelled looks. He paid them no mind and increased his speed.
There was just a small part left before the barrier closed up completely and He Yuan managed to slip through just in time. As soon as he did though, he fell straight from the sky and landed on the ground with a heavy thud.
His lotus artifact had lost its functions from the heavy spiritual pressure in the atmosphere and He Yuan's chest was burning so bad, he began coughing up blood.
At the centre of the barrier was Mo Jiu facing off against the largest creature He Yuan had ever set his eyes on. The spirit beast had spikes all over its spine and two pairs of horns. Two growing out of its head and two growing out of its jaw.
SMASH!
The creature smashed a huge foot against the ground and a huge wave of spiritual pressure spread all over the barrier.
He Yuan was pushed low against the ground as blood began to spill from his nose in addition to his mouth. His insides felt as though he had swallowed a chain saw. The only thing keeping him alive were his high grade defensive robes.
Mo Jiu was not much better either but he was holding up nicely and the defensive robes he had on were also working its magic.
He Yuan crossed his leg and began to cultivate in order to alleviate the pain. He was a long distance away from the fight so he wasn't worried about Mo Jiu's spiritual sense spotting him.
The fight went on for hours and soon enough, the older cultivators had been alerted and were beginning to attack the barrier. He Yuan knew all of their attacks were useless and even after Mo Jiu killed off the beast, the barrier would still hold up for three more days. It was that powerful.
That was the reason he needed to be inside the barrier. If he'd waited outside, he wouldn't have been able to stop Mo Jiu.
Mo Jiu took out various precious artifacts and high grade treasures as he fought the beast off relentlessly. He was covered in sweat and slight injuries but he continued to fight on. There was no turning back now.
His life had been strife with hardship and struggle every step of the way. He had been abandoned by his parents and even when he first arrived at the Duoluo sect, he had been rejected by everyone.
Nothing had been handed over to him on a platter. He'd always worked hard for everything he had. He just wanted to survive so why was the heavens so against him? Do they think this bit of hardship could bring him down? Ha!
He'd suffered through worse. Since the heavens were so against his existence, he was going to defy the heavens and overturn the dao!
His mind flashed with the people that were waiting for him to return. His companions, his master, his sect and lastly, his steadily forming harem members.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" With a loud roar, Mo Jiu managed to skip two levels and activate a skill that was exclusive to cultivators in the early stage of Dao seeking and blast through the beast.
"ROAR!" The huge beast let out a strangled cry as it took its dying breath. Next, it landed on the ground with a mighty thud and a huge wave of spiritual energy that had He Yuan bleeding from his eyes and skin pores too.
Even at a time like this, Mo Jiu managed to look so cool and handsome with thin scratches all over his skin.
He Yuan shakily stood up and grabbed his needles. All he'd done was cultivate but he looked even more beat up than the man who had engaged in the fight.
It was quite embarrassing.
He wiped his bloody face and moved forward. Mo Jiu had just skipped levels so he was at his weakest now. His spiritual sense would not be able to reach far for some time.
Mo Jiu breathed heavily as he rested on one knee. He... Was alive? He'd succeeded. He looked to the heavens and scoffed. Want to bring him down? Never! Not if he had something to say about it!
He slowly stood up and dug Huoyan into the gigantic head of the beast in search for its core. There had been records of people absorbing the cores of spirit beasts on the verge of entering divine level. The chances of survival was small but he was going to try it anyways.
He needed to become stronger if he wanted to protect the people he cared about.
"For survival," Mo Jiu whispered slowly, "For everything I care for. I don't mind going against the heavens and even if it brings me death, I would never bend over backwards!" With a roar that steeled his determination, he lifted the core from the beast.
Before he could do anything else, he felt a sting in his neck and next thing he knew, he fell to the ground face first and lost consciousness.
He Yuan rolled his eyes as he crossed Mo Jiu's unconscious body and grabbed the core. What the heck was Mo Jiu being so dramatic for?
He hissed and directly walked away with the core.