Reaching the pedestal that was barely visible in the tall grass, Xuan Hao examined the scroll on top of it for any hidden traps or other things that might prove dangerous. Even if the first Scroll of Trials that he had encountered did not have any sorts of defenses or traps guarding it, there was no guarantee that it would be the same for the other trials.
Only after finding no traps or hidden defense mechanisms inside or around the pedestal did Xuan Hao pick up the Scroll of Trials for the second celestial gate. Feeling curious about what kind of guardian he would encounter this time around and if there were any weaknesses that he could take advantage of. Maybe more important. Finding out if the guardian had the ability to control the tall grass all around him.
If it really had the ability to control the tall grass, he would have to figure out ways to deal with the seemingly endless sea of green all around him without exhausting himself too much in the process…
"Hm? Trial of the Emerald Serpent? So, the guardian of this trial is a serpent?" Muttering this to himself as he read through the first part of the Scroll of Trials, Xuan Hao could not help glancing towards the tall grass that surrounded him from all sides. For some reason, he had a feeling that he understood why the trial took place on a seemingly endless grassy plain.
Turning his attention back to the Scroll of Trials before reading through the rest of it, Xuan Hao managed to get a general idea about the guardian that he was going to face.
The guardian itself was a special kind of demon beast called an Emerald Serpent, a demon beast that specialized in hunting in environments with tall grass. The environment that he now found himself inside of was one such environment. The only difference being the fact that the tall grass all around him was a special kind of grass called Sense Depravation Grass that reduced the sense of anyone below the Earth Immortal Realm according to the Scroll of Trials.
As for why the Scroll of Trials had been so kind to provide this much information this time around… That was because he didn't just need to face a single Emerald Serpent but had to kill at least three before being able to successfully pass the trial!
Although killing three demon beasts might not sound like a lot, it still had to be known that the weakest Emerald Serpent had at least reached the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, while the stronger ones had reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm.
To make matters even worse, the Emerald Serpents below the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm all hunted in groups of three or more!
A special demon beast that tends to gather in groups when its strength is below the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm… What in the world caused the difficulty of this trial to increase by so much compared to the last!?
Feeling a hint of fear as he finished reading through the Trial of Scrolls, Xuan Hao could not understand why the difficulty of the second trial seemed to have increased by so much compared to the first. Even if he was more than confident enough to kill a demon beast that had reached the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, the same could not be said when there were two other demon beasts with similar strength around.
As for killing a Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast? He had already tried fighting one before and understood very well that killing a demon beast like that was not something that was going to be easy with his current strength. Even if he did succeed in killing one, he still had to think about possible ambushes from other Emerald Serpents.
ROOOAR!
Lost in thought as he thought about why the difficulty of the second trial had suddenly spiked by so much compared to the first trial, a loud roar that sounded nowhere near the hissing sound of a serpent, echoed out across the empty grass plain.
"Hm? I'm sure that was not one of the Emerald Serpents, but what- Ah! The demon beasts who were after the rabbit demon beast! Don't tell me… Did they perhaps enter the celestial gate!?" Turning to look in the direction that the loud roar had emerged from, Xuan Hao could not help showing a shocked expression on his face after spotting a large demon beast the size of a small hill making its way through the tall grass without the slightest bit of cation present on its face.
"The difficulty increases depending on the cultivation base of the one taking the trial." Glancing back down at the Scroll of Trials still in his hands, Xuan Hao could not help repeating the last sentence on the scroll before a hint of realization appeared in his eyes.
The difficulty of the trial increased depending on the cultivation base of the one taking the trial… And given that there was more than one person taking the trial, with most of them having reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm, the trial changed accordingly to fit their cultivation base.
Killing a group of Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts below the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm or a single Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon presented level of difficulty that could almost be considered similar with its own unique challenge. In a sense, the trial was well constructed for someone who had reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm. The only problem was… He was still far away from reaching the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm!
"Hah… Maybe I should have just killed that rabbit and prevented it from following me…" Shaking his head as he remembered the rabbit demon beast that should have followed him inside the celestial gate, causing the rest of the demon beasts to also enter the celestial gate, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit regretful that he didn't do anything to prevent the rabbit demon beast from chasing after him.
ROOOOOOAR!
BOOOOM-!
Just at this moment, a similarly loud roar once again echoed out once again before a loud collision of two powerful energies suddenly overtook it. Even without having seen who attacked the hill sized demon beast, he could still tell that both sides had reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm.
"One of the demon beasts from the forest encountered one of the Emerald Serpents." Hiding himself as he poked his head above the tall grass to observe the fight that was taking place, Xuan Hao began to examine the large emerald colored serpent in the process of coiling itself around the massive hill sized demon beast.
Considering that he had to at least kill three Emerald Serpents before being able to complete the trial, he did not plan to give up an opportunity to observe its combat abilities firsthand and see if he could find any weakness that he could take advantage of.
Bang! Bang!
As the two demon beasts violently thrashed around in the tall grass without the slightest bit of care towards possibly attracting more Emerald Serpents and other demon beasts to their location, Xuan Hao got a perfect chance to observe some of the Emerald Serpent's attack patterns, special abilities, and weaknesses. For one, he learnt that the Emerald Serpent had a weak spot on its scaly body located just a few meters below its head on its underbelly. Another would be the Emerald Serpents weird ability to suddenly grow poisonous spikes all over its body and shoot them out in all directions-
Ptsh-!
ROOAR!?
He really needed to thank the hill sized demon beast for its help after the battle ended. If not for the demon beast's help in finding out what kind of abilities the Emerald Serpents had, he would really end up suffering with how many deadly techniques the Emerald Serpent began to show off in its battle against it.
…
ROOOOOAR!
Unaware of the fact that Xuan Hao was watching it getting beaten up by the Emerald Serpent without the slightest chance to fight back against it, the demon beast in question could not help letting out a loud roar filled with both pain and anger before looking towards the Emerald Serpent, that had grown brand-new layer of poisonous spikes all over its body, filled with killing intent.
If not for the fact that the snake in front of it was far too slippery, it would have long since jumped forward to rip it apart. After all, even if both of them had reached the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm, the Emerald Serpent did not have the same level of defense as the hill sized demon beast who could continue to take a beating without dying.
Comparable to an unkillable giant like this, the Emerald Serpent was rather lacking. Even the single clash from the start had been more than enough to seriously injure it. All things considered, the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast from the forest was stronger than the Emerald Serpent and not by a small margin.
The only thing that kept the Emerald Serpent alive, was the fact that it was extremely slippery and hard to hit…