The five Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Martial Practice Hall drew the attention of the vast majority of the red-furred abnormal beasts.
Tucked away inside the Heavenly Spirit Fire Dragon Formation, Li Fan watched the battle across the island at his leisure, feeling not the slightest pressure.
Five sword-shaped Foundation Establishment wonders struck in alternating succession like a razor-sharp drill bit, churning every beast blocking their path into mincemeat.
Yet, faced with the rapid advance of the five-member Tianbian Squad, the colossal Golden Core beast appeared entirely indifferent. It merely accelerated the speed at which it snatched and devoured its kin.
The red-furred beasts along their path were fearless in the face of death, frantically forming a defensive wall with their own flesh, willing to pay any price to hinder the squad.
These beasts were, after all, each equivalent to the Foundation Establishment stage.
Assailed by wave upon wave of the beast tide, though the Tianbian five wielded sharp blades, their forward momentum inevitably slowed.
They had relied on a burst of sheer initial vigor.
Now that this vigor had been blunted and their advance slowed, the pressure mounted steeply against the seemingly endless horde of red-furred beasts. This in turn caused their charge to grind even slower.
The situation deteriorated rapidly. At the critical moment, Huan Sui bellowed, "Shift the formation!"
In an instant, the other four lined up behind Huan Sui, channeling all their spiritual energy into his body. Amid a blinding blaze of radiance, the five swords gradually merged into one.
With the five swords combined, their might surged exponentially.
Sword qi swept across the battlefield, easily gouging a deep trench into the earth. The red-furred beasts standing in their way dissolved in the sword light as if they were made of paper.
In the span of a breath, the giant sword arrived before the Golden Core behemoth.
Having devoured a vast number of its brethren, the behemoth's upper body had already completed its transition from phantom to solid flesh. But with the sword light already upon it, it had no further opportunity to bolster its strength.
Beating its chest in indignation, the Golden Core beast thrust out its thick, burly arms, clamping tightly onto the colossal blade that was about to cleave through its skull.
The giant sword flared with incandescent light, fighting to break free. Yet black mist swirled around the behemoth's claws, binding the sword tightly like unbreakable threads of silk.
The gaping maw on the beast's chest snapped open. An eerie, bloodcurdling roar issued from within.
The sword light dimmed abruptly. As if crushed by an invisible, gargantuan force, the blade itself visibly twisted and warped from a distance.
"Shift!" Huan Sui's voice rang out once more.
The sword light broke apart, one blade dividing back into five.
The Golden Core beast's gripping hands suddenly clasped empty air.
The five members of the Tianbian Squad flashed to different positions at once, and their five distinct swords slashed down upon the Golden Core beast simultaneously.
*Roar!*
The behemoth howled in agony. No blood spurted from the wounds, but its form turned somewhat more ethereal.
With a violent jerk of its arms, it threw off all five blades and slammed a fist toward one of the Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Yet before the shockwave whipped up by the punch could reach the Tianbian member, the formation shifted again. The five regrouped in unison, reappearing behind the Golden Core beast.
This time, a different member took the lead.
The five swords merged into one once more, cleaving brutally into the behemoth's back.
Reeling from the sudden heavy blow, it staggered, nearly knocked flat to the ground. It immediately grabbed a fistful of its kin, crammed them into its mouth to mend its injuries, and swept its arms back to deflect the sword light.
The Tianbian five-member squad refused to meet it head-on. A moment later, they dispersed again to separate positions, carving five fresh wounds into the beast.
Thus, alternating between dispersing and combining, the Tianbian Squad steadily whittled down the Golden Core beast's strength. And although the behemoth possessed brute force in abundance, it simply could not land a hit. It was reduced to taking a beating passively, watching helplessly as its injuries accumulated.
Its fury mounted, and its breathing grew heavier and rougher. In its rage, the red fur covering its body stood straight up.
After taking another crushing blow from the unified sword light, its wrath finally breached its limit.
In an instant, the red fur came alive, growing with savage abandon. The behemoth tore a massive patch of hair from its own body and flung it into the air.
Radiating an ominous aura, the clump of twisted red fur elongated ceaselessly like squirming tentacles. Without pausing, the Golden Core beast stripped away all the fur from its body. The space around it filled with the red hair, tangling and weaving together like clumps of yarn. Whenever a sword light grazed it, it became ensnared, requiring tremendous effort to break free.
As the red fur multiplied, the room for the Tianbian five to maneuver shrank. Often, they had to dance around for a long time just to land a single strike.
Conversely, with the red fur providing cover and aid, the Golden Core beast grew increasingly comfortable. No longer concerned with the sword strikes, it attacked while casually grabbing the swarming beasts nearby and shoving them into its mouth to strengthen itself.
*The situation looks a bit dicey,* Li Fan thought, watching from afar as he incinerated a red-furred beast that had attempted to creep near. His brows furrowed slightly as he weighed whether to step in secretly.
Just then, Jiang Zhengji's voice drifted down from above. "Do you understand where you went wrong? The moment that beast manifested, you should have attacked with all your might instead of hesitating until it had devoured a huge swarm of red-furred beasts and undergone a qualitative leap in power.
"In a life-and-death struggle, a single moment of hesitation spells defeat.
"Once it reached the Golden Core stage, the outcome of your mission was already sealed.
"Formidable though the Tianbian Formation may be, this Golden Core beast has an almost endless supply of its brethren to feed on. It will only grow stronger the longer it fights, while your strength will only diminish.
"Still, that your coordination managed to force out its red-furred form exceeded my expectations.
"It seems your daily training was not in vain.
"For today, consider yourselves barely passed."
Hearing this, Huan Sui and the other four first showed a trace of shame, but then, upon learning they had passed, could not help letting out sighs of relief.
Before Jiang Zhengji's words had even finished echoing, he appeared directly above the Golden Core beast.
Sensing danger, the behemoth moved to react, but it was already too late.
The heavy snow swirling between heaven and earth surged toward the beast. The blizzard blotted out the sky, yet every flake converged upon its body.
In a mere flash, the beast was completely entombed, and a rather comical, giant snowman stood beneath Jiang Zhengji's feet.
At first, the beast trapped inside struggled to break out, but as the snow accumulated thicker and heavier, its movements grew feebler. In the end, it lost all capacity to resist.
While the Golden Core beast was sealed in the snow, the surrounding twisted red fur squirmed, attempting to come to its rescue.
Yet the red plums blooming across Wanlai Island cast tens of thousands of petals adrift on the wind. Sharp as blades, the red plum blossoms relentlessly shredded the tangled red fibers without end.
Cut into miniscule fragments, the red fur drifted down beneath the plum trees alongside the falling petals. Enfolding the hair, the petals gradually withered into dust, which was then absorbed by the plum trees, leaving behind only a faint, pure fragrance in the air.
Jiang Zhengji looked with open appreciation at the plum trees, now stripped down to bare branches. He then stepped lightly forward, planting his foot atop the snowman's head.
The colossal snowman steadily shrank beneath his foot. Ultimately, it compressed into a palm-sized miniature, which Jiang Zhengji tucked away.
In the blink of an eye, before the stunned gazes of Huan Sui and the others, the Golden Core beast that had left the five-member Foundation Establishment squad utterly helpless had been effortlessly captured.
The vast chasm between mid Golden Core and Foundation Establishment was plain to see.
Chapter 186