After flying for several more days, Yuan came to a halt when another statue appeared in the distance. This time, it was that of a massive phoenix with colossal wings that covered almost the entire sky.
"What a sight…" Yuan took a deep breath after a sense of awe washed over him.
Suddenly, a figure materialized right in front of him out of thin air.
It was Feng Yuxiang, and she was staring at the phoenix with a dazed look on her face.
"Feng Feng? Are you feeling okay?" He asked her.
"Yes… It's just that when I look at this statue, my blood suddenly starts to boil for some reason, almost as though it's reacting to it."
"Perhaps you recognize this phoenix?" Yuan made a guess.
"That's possible, but I don't remember seeing this phoenix before," she sighed.
Yuan narrowed his eyes at the phoenix and asked, "You can tell? Even though it's just a statue?"
He would have a hard time telling the difference between two phoenixes unless one had a unique feature.
"It's just a feeling. I am not certain that I know this phoenix, but I cannot ignore my body's reaction. This is the first time something like this has happened to me."
Yuan then said, "Go ahead, take a closer look. I will wait for you."
"Thank you, Young Master."
Feng Yuxiang nodded and flew closer to the phoenix.
After spending several minutes inspecting the phoenix statue, Feng Yuxiang returned to Yuan's side and said, "That is a mature phoenix— a female one, at that."
"Oh… How can you tell the difference between a male and female phoenix?" Yuan asked out of curiosity.
Feng Yuxiang smiled and said, "The chest. You see how her chest is slightly puffed out? A male phoenix's chest is much flatter."
"Is that so…"
"Anyways, I am done here. Maybe I met this phoenix in the past and forgot about it, but there's no point pondering about it now."
He nodded, "Alright. Let's continue moving then."
This time, he decided to move towards the direction the phoenix was pointing.
Two days later, Yuan came to another halt when he was suddenly surrounded by demons.
This time, there were over a hundred of them. The majority of them were low-ranking demons, but there were a dozen Elite Demons, three Superior Demons, and one Demon General.
"A whole army of demons this time, huh." Yuan mumbled with a nonchalant look on his face.
Since he was facing this many demons at once, he could no longer go easy on them. Thus, he decided to use one demon sealing technique— just one.
His eyes flickered with a vicious glint before activating the Demon Sealing Zone.
Whoosh!
The Demon Sealing Zone instantly swallowed up all of the demons, and the moment it touched a demon, they would immediately turn into solid, becoming a statue.
Jin Xi's eyes widened when she saw this. In her eyes, all of the demons there simultaneously turned into stone out of the blue.
"You… You are a Demon Sealer, as well?" She asked him in a dumbfounded voice.
"That's right." He calmly nodded.
"Why did you hide it until now?" She raised an eyebrow.
"I wasn't trying to hide it. I just didn't need to use it. My Sword Aura is more than enough to deal with a few demons." He shrugged.
"Unbelievable…"
"Anyways, I am going to try something new. You should move away, since this is going to cover a large area."
Jin Xi suddenly stuck out her chest and puffed in an arrogant manner, "You won't be able to hurt me even if you tried. My strength was limited during the trial for your sake, but I no longer have said limit."
"If you say so…" Yuan proceeded to close his eyes and began building up his Sword Aura.
A minute or so later, his eyes snapped open, and a massive amount of Sword Aura gushed out of his body. However, it did not stop and continued to expand until it was large enough to kill all of the demons there in one fell swoop.
Yuan released a sigh afterward.
"Although that worked, it took too long. I will need to work on my speed before I can actually use it properly."
Lan Yingying then said, "And if you can make it last longer, you will be able to use it to protect cities, just like the Lord did in the Mystic Realm."
"Oh, you're right. It's basically the same thing." Yuan said after realizing this.
Right before they continued their journey, Jin Xi reminded Yuan that the Demon General had left behind a crimson key.
"This makes it the fifth key in my possession. I still need four more, huh." Yuan did not like this easter egg hunt at all.
A few more days later, Yuan noticed a small pond about a hundred miles away, and despite being that far away, he could sense a strong Sword Aura coming from it.
"What is this place?" Yuan asked Jin Xi once they landed before it.
"Sword Pond is its name."
Yuan tried to see how deep this pond was, but to his absolute shock, he wasn't able to see the ground even with his Divine Sense at maximum strength.
"Heavens… How far down does this pond go?" He turned to look at Jin Xi with a stupefied face.
She shrugged, "Who knows. Why don't you go down there and let me know afterward?"
Yuan was not the least surprised by her response, even expecting it.
He turned to look at the pond and swallowed nervously.
Despite its calm appearances, every drop of water in this pond was covered by a thin layer of Sword Aura. If an ordinary cultivator plunged into this water, their body would instantly get shredded until there was nothing left, and this pond was deep— at least a thousand miles deep.
Unfortunately, Yuan knew that he was fated to enter this pond. He only prayed that he wouldn't instantly die the moment he entered it.