Cultivation Begins From The Desert

"The 'Five Elements Life and Death Sword Array,' despite having 'Five Elements' in its name, doesn't actually require five swords with five different elemental attributes to form.

Since the Five Elements mutually generate and restrain each other; metal can generate water, water can generate wood, wood can generate fire, fire can generate earth, and earth can generate metal, creating an endless cycle.

Therefore, even with five gold attribute flying swords, one can still form the 'Five Elements Life and Death Sword Array.'

The true core essence of this sword array lies in the words 'Life and Death.'

When the Five Elements mutually generate, they produce a strong defensive capability, allowing the array to disperse external forces through the rotation of the Five Elements, making it difficult to be broken by external force.

When the Five Elements mutually restrain, they produce a powerful offensive destructive ability. If an enemy has the attributes of the Five Elements, they must endure additional damage from the sword array.

Although the 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' has the thunder attribute, this attribute originally mutated from the wood attribute and still falls within the scope of the Five Elements.

So when Zhouyang directly formed a 'Five Elements Life and Death Sword Array' and attacked, the 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' repeated its old tricks by releasing thunderbolts on the flying swords, but this did nothing except slightly weaken the sword light and could no longer shake the entire sword array at all.

Seeing this situation, panic flashed in the bull eyes of the 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast.' It quickly let out a low roar to seek help from its mate.

Upon hearing its mate's call for help, the other 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' also hurriedly released lightning towards the sword array. However, just after it released the magic, a pillar of green and red light slammed into it fiercely, knocking it out instantly.

It was the Eagle Lion Beast that, after hearing its master's order, directly unleashed its deadly move and joined the battle.

At the same time, Huang Yi seized the opportunity when the 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' was knocked down by the Eagle Lion Beast, quickly performing hand seals to release the Tier Three Lower Grade Earth Spell 'Rock Cage,' trapping the fallen 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' within.

With this 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' no longer able to interfere, the attack from the remaining 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' alone could no longer shake Zhouyang's 'Five Elements Life and Death Sword Array' in the slightest.

At this point, the shortcoming of the thunder attribute being strong in attack but weak in defense became apparent. Facing the aggressive attacks of the five flying swords, the 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' could only release various thunder techniques in counterattack without forming any protective magic on its body.

As the sword array approached its body, its end came.

Five sword lights flew over the 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast's' body, swiftly tearing it apart and piercing through its heart.

Afterward, Zhouyang used the same method to kill the other 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' as well.

Since the 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beast' is a rather rare thunder-type demon beast and a Tier Three High-Grade Demon Beast, this time Zhouyang did not just take the rhino horn and rhino hide like before.

He directly reached into his clothes and took out a Jade Bottle Spiritual Artifact to collect most of the demon blood from both 'Thunder Rhinoceros Beasts,' and also took their skeletons and eyeballs, storing them into a Storage Bag, leaving only the beast meat for the Eagle Lion Beast to feast on the spot.

As it happens, the Jade Bottle Spiritual Artifact he used to collect demon blood was purchased in Zhenyue Immortal City.

Cultivators in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm have extensive experience in demon hunting and have refined many artifacts to assist in handling demon beast carcasses.

The Jade Bottle Spiritual Artifact Zhouyang used to store demon blood this time, though it looks like an ordinary medicine bottle, has enough space inside to hold three square zhang of liquid, with a preservation function to keep the demon blood inside from spoiling for months.

Unfortunately, this item, like Storage Bags and Spirit Beast Bags, is a spatial spiritual artifact and cannot be carried inside a Storage Bag; otherwise, he would have bought dozens to resell for profit in the Boundless Sea of Sand Cultivation Realm.

As someone who contributed, Zhouyang was not stingy this time, tossing a rhino horn he had previously collected to Huang Yi as a reward for his effort.

This rhino horn is a Tier Three Spiritual Object, which can be used to refine Tier Three Spiritual Artifacts and in medicinal alchemy, and is worth over a thousand Spirit Stones. Zhouyang used this as Huang Yi's reward, which indeed is not insignificant.

Huang Yi was quite satisfied, even pleasantly surprised.

He originally thought that, like previous battles, he would end up busy for nothing, only collecting some demon blood and beast meat that Zhouyang didn't want, but didn't expect Zhouyang to be willing to give him even the precious Tier Three Spiritual Object, the rhino horn.

Zhouyang noticed Huang Yi's expression and naturally knew what he was thinking. He looked at him with a meaningful gaze and said, "You are a smart person. As long as you follow our Zhou Family diligently, work obediently, and refrain from scheming, our Zhou Family will not treat you poorly just because you signed a blood contract!"

Huang Yi's expression slightly changed, and then he quickly bowed respectfully, saying, "Huang Yi understands, thank you Clan Leader for your reward."

Whether he truly understood, only he would know.

Zhouyang didn't pay much attention to this matter, as Huang Yi was bound by a blood contract and couldn't stir up much trouble.

With time, when he realized that staying with the Zhou Family had indeed many benefits, he would naturally understand what to do.

Killing the two "Thunder Rhinoceros Beasts" consumed a lot of magical power for Zhouyang. Combined with the magical power consumed in the previous battles, his strength was now less than sixty percent of his peak condition.

In this situation, he could only take out a middle-grade spirit stone to absorb its spiritual power to recover his magical power while secretly pondering a retreat route.

"Both 'Golden-Horned Rhinoceroses' seem to be merely tier five lower-grade demon beasts. Logically, if Cao Wenjin had been giving his all, it shouldn't have taken so long to deal with one of them. Why is there still such a strong fluctuation of spiritual qi over there?"

"Time cannot be delayed like this. The longer it drags on, the easier it is for the 'Golden-Horned Rhinoceros' opposing Li Zhennan and Chen Yaohui to defeat them and reunite with its mate. If the two tier five demon beasts join forces, it becomes even less possible for Cao Wenjin to kill the demon beast and retrieve the core!"

"Additionally, those tier four demon beasts are also a threat. Although the Yellow Sand Sect's tier four puppet beast is formidable, it will eventually deplete its energy. The soul beasts formed by those 'Beast Soul Talismans' also cannot fight for long. If both tactics lose their effectiveness, even if two or three tier four demon beasts appear, it could very well cost the lives of us Foundation Establishment cultivators!"

Although Zhouyang was quite proud of his own strength, he was not arrogant. He clearly understood the huge gap between himself and a Purple Mansion Stage cultivator or a tier four demon beast.

The so-called invincibility of the Foundation Establishment Stage was merely a joke in the eyes of Purple Mansion Stage cultivators or tier four demon beasts.

Take the "Thunder Rhinoceros Beast" he had just killed, for example. If it were the tier four "Thunder Rhinoceros Beast" he first encountered, the opponent could have just cast a few tier four thunder spells, and even if he used all his trump cards, he would have no choice but to give up.

Even against the tier four "Iron Armor Rhinoceros," which lacks strong long-range attack capabilities, he was not a match because his flying sword couldn't breach the defense of the tier four "Iron Armor Rhinoceros." In contrast, the opponent, who had already mastered flying, could crush him everywhere.

So if a tier four demon beast did emerge from behind, Zhouyang had no choice but to flee.

However, Zhouyang didn't know that Cao Wenjin was also in a dilemma now, inwardly complaining bitterly.

In fact, the Yellow Sand Sect had discovered the Rhino Horn Continent not so long ago, less than five hundred years, and was not highly familiar with the situation there, only knowing that it was a tough nut to crack.

Therefore, even with Jiang Ming, a second Golden Core Stage cultivator, the Yellow Sand Sect had not thought of risking a fight that could result in mutual destruction to tackle this hard bone.

Until engaging now, Cao Wenjin realized it was not merely a tough bone, but essentially a piece of iron!

Yes, the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros" is just a tier five lower-grade demon beast, and it logically couldn't be a match for Cao Wenjin in the late stage of the Golden Core.

Originally, the situation was indeed like that.

Under the attacks of Cao Wenjin, who controlled the "Divine Sand Gourd" along with several tier five spiritual artifacts, the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros" he was fighting was quickly littered with scars and badly injured.

However, before Cao Wenjin could rejoice for long, the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros" suddenly spat out a pale golden bone ring spiritual artifact and put it on its nostril, then used this bone ring's help to forcibly neutralize the damage caused by the "Black Death God Sand."

Demon beast taming spiritual artifacts were not new to Cao Wenjin.

But the significance of this matter was enough to make him turn pale.

One must understand that only those tier six demon kings among the demon beasts know how to refine spiritual artifacts, and the high-tier spiritual artifacts refined by these tier six demon kings are typically bestowed only to their descendants and a few trusted subordinates.

The bone ring spiritual artifact used by the "Golden-Horned Rhinoceros" may only be tier five lower-grade in terms of quality, but its presence suggested it has some connection with a tier six demon king.

It was either an offspring of a tier six demon king or a trusted subordinate of a demon king.

Cao Wenjin originally only wanted to kill the demon beast to obtain the core and safeguard the sect's inheritance, never expecting to provoke a demon beast connected to a tier six demon king!

This discovery left him with an unutterable bitterness!

Yellow Sand Sect was already on the brink of inheriting extinction, and if it provoked a tier six demon king, avoiding annihilation would be challenging!

But since things had come to this, it was impossible to retreat now even if he wanted to.

For ensuring the success of this expedition to Rhino Horn Continent, he had exhausted the Yellow Sand Sect's long-maintained good reputation and used the tier four puppet beasts and other treasured items that the sect had kept as a last resort.

If they returned empty-handed, the Yellow Sand Sect would truly be beyond saving!

Most importantly, things had come to a point where retreating was no longer an option.

The two "Golden-Horned Rhinoceroses" would definitely not forget their grievances just because he retreated, and if they were indeed backed by a tier six demon king, the oasis where Yellow Sand Sect was based would possibly be besieged by an army of demon beasts.

The potential of offending the tier six demon king remained whether advancing or retreating, making it easy to understand why Cao Wenjin was feeling so awful at this moment.