RUMBLE-!
Realizing that it had missed its target, the sandworm emerged from beneath the desert's surface, its massive form causing the sand on top of it to cascade down its body like a waterfall running down the side of a mountain.
Turning its massive body in the sand for a few seconds as Xuan Hao watched on in awe, as he wondered whether it would even be possible for him to kill such a massive creature in the first place. Not only was the size of the sandworm a problem, but its strength was by far the most worrying. Having reached the Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm.
Although the Fifth Stage of the Soul Ascension Realm might not sound like too much of a problem considering the fact that Xuan Hao's current strength was comparable to that of someone in the Fourth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm, it also had to be noted that the physical body of the sandworm in front of him was far stronger than just a Fifth tribulation Soul Ascension Realm demon beast.
Observing it with his divine sense, Xuan Hao had a feeling that even the Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beasts from the massive forest of the mist covered mountain range would be nowhere near the same level of the sandworm in front of him. Even worse, he could sense a few similarities between the power given off by the enormous body and the cloud demon beast!
If he was not wrong, the physical body of the sandworm in front of him should have reached a realm that was only a single step away from the Earth Immortal Realm…
ROOOOOAR!
Not caring about what Xuan Hao thought about it, the sandworm let out a deafening roar, its dark eyes fixed on Xuan Hao, as it recognized him as the same person who had escaped from its attack a few seconds earlier.
Rumble~
Wasting no time after this, the sand worm rushed towards him as its giant mouth opened side enough to blot out a part of the sky.
Swish-!
Dodging the mouth of the giant sandworm by leaping into the air, Xuan Hao could not help wondering if he had overestimated the strength of the sandworm. Even if it had a strong body, it would not be too difficult to deal with if its only form of attack was opening its mouth wide and trying to swallow him. Especially so with how he would be able to simply fly into the air to dodge this kind of attack with no effort on his part.
The only limiting factor was that the space of the desert still limited his ability to fly for a prolonged period of time. Although not to the degree of the emerald serpent trial, it still used a significant amount of energy, something that would be best to avoid when it came to fighting against a powerful creature like the sandworm below him.
Thump!
For this reason, instead of remaining in the air above the sandworm, Xuan Hao firmly landed on top of it before the silver sword appeared in his hands as he gathered his power at the tip of the sword before stabbing into the scales covering its body-
Ching~!
However, the defensive ability of the sandworm was not something that easy to breakthrough, as the sword barely scratched the surface of the scales before bouncing off without doing any real damage to the enormous creature.
If he wanted to do any real damage to the sandworm with his current strength, he would first have to find a weak point, a chink in the scaly armor of the sand worm.
ROOAR!
Feeling Xuan Hao trying to stab through its scales, the giant sandworm roared in anger before it began violently thrashing beneath him in an attempt to throw him off. Even if he did not succeed in breaking through its scales, it was still a rather painful experience to be hit with the full blunt force of his sword attack.
Bang! Bang!
Roar!
Soon realizing that it was unable to throw off Xuan Hao who continued probing its body for any possible weakness by using his dao domain to conjure thousands of different sword attacks to attack all over its body, the sandworm decided that enough was enough-
RUMBLE-!
And before Xuan Hao had any time to react, the enormous body of the sandworm over a dozen kilometers in length suddenly rolled over. Resulting in Xuan Hao finding himself getting dragged down beneath the sand in the process.
The change in surroundings didn't affect him too much as his dao domain kept the sand at least a few dozen meters away from his body, but at the same time, he also understood that it would be far harder to escape the attacks of the sand worm. Especially considering that he was at least a hundred meters beneath the sand at this point in time.
However, as long as he remained attached to the sandworm, there would be no way for it to attack him-
"Huh?"
It was only at this point in time that Xuan Hao realized that the scales of the sandworm that he had been standing on top of only a moment ago had completely disappeared. Instead, being replaced by a layer of solid sand that felt similar to them.
The sandworm has the ability to manipulate sand!?
Even if he realized this now, it was already too late at this point in time, as the sandworm had already managed to fool him and somehow escape without him noticing.
It did not really help that his divine sense had been severely limited due to him being underground and the fact that the sand had a rather unfortunate property of also restraining the area he could cover with his divine sense in a similar way as the tall grass from the emerald serpent trial.
In a sense, he was now completely defenseless against the giant sandworm hiding somewhere nearby, just waiting for an opportunity to strike.
All of a sudden, Xuan Hao no longer felt that the sandworm was weaker than expected…