Miscalculation

After killing the Middle Stage Bone Strengthening Realm Azure Winged Wolf, Xue Bai's token went up another 100 points, bringing his score up to 400. However, that was nowhere near enough.

In the airship, Xue Bai managed to spot almost 500 Organ Tempering Realm cultivators. But that obviously couldn't be the ones that Xue Bai managed to see were the only ones, as Xue Bai couldn't have seen and examined each and every trial taker that was on the ship.

So taking into consideration how many people he had on the ship, compared to the Organ Tempering Realm cultivators he saw. And using that same percentage for the remaining people that he hadn't, Xue Bai estimated there were at least 700 Organ Tempering Realm cultivators.

Leaving Xue Bai with a 300-person safe area for participants below the Organ Tempering Realm to slide in.

But having to crawl into the bottom 30% by the skin of his teeth just to pass didn't feel right with Xue Bai. He wanted to climb to at least the top 50%!

But because of the exponential grading system, Xue Bai would have an extremely tough time accomplishing that. Even if he decided to go beyond his strength and hunt Peak Stage Bone Strengthening Realm demonic beasts, it would take almost three demonic beasts of that strength for Xue Bai just to equal 1 Early Stage Organ Tempering Realm one.

So rather than continue to scrounge by and only kill Bone Strengthening Realm demonic beasts, Xue Bai planned to hunt one in the Organ Tempering Realm instead. And while he wasn't strong enough to kill one himself, with his gravity field array, Xue Bai could potentially even kill a beast in the Qi Sea Realm, let alone something in the Organ Tempering Realm.

However, the only problem was on how to successfully lure a demonic beast into the gravity field array formation. Setting an array around a settled demonic beast would never work, as while they didn't have Spiritual Sense, they would most certainly be able to sense Xue Bai setting up an array around their territory.

While barbaric and known to run on instincts alone, demonic beasts were extremely keen in the wild and were more than able to sense changes in their territory.

So Xue Bai's only choice was to set up the gravity field array formation far away from the target demonic beast and then lure it into the array, where Xue Bai could easily kill it. But there was a problem with that plan.

Xue Bai wasn't sure if he could run away from an Organ Tempering Realm demonic beast long enough to get it into the gravity field array formation.

While Xue Bai wasn't weak compared to his peers in the Bone Strengthening Realm and was almost as strong as someone in the Late Stages of the Realm, that's all he was in the Bone Strengthening Realm.

Pitted against a demonic beast, who, as a race, were known to be nigh invincible in their respective stages, for Xue Bai to escape against one who was an enter Realm above him, his odds weren't the highest.

However..

"With great risk comes great reward! Besides, what's the worst that could happen? I can't die as long as I have the soul imprint." Xue Bai motivated himself.

And following a few slaps to the cheek for extra adrenaline, Xue Bai sent off in search of a weak Organ Tempering Realm demonic beast. While he was going risky, he didn't want to kill himself by going after one in the Middle or Late stages.

Now with his range of targets expanded, after finding and killing a few more weaker demonic beasts, Xue Bai finally found his perfect target.

The mark he had chosen was another jaguar-type demonic beast that he managed to sense had just advanced to the Organ Tempering Realm. The way he spotted this was very easy, as whenever a cultivator breaks through, whether human, demonic beast, or devil, their aura becomes shaky and unrestrained, leaking into the air.

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And while it should be impossible to sense the cultivation of something that was almost a realm higher than his own, Xue Bai's strong soul and the jaguar's unrestrained aura gave him the perfect scenario to be able to do so.

The jaguar demonic beast that Xue Bai had found possessed an odd barf green fur color with bark-like spots that covered its body like a checkerboard. And seeing such an oddly toned demonic beast, Xue Bai, even with his wealth of knowledge about demonic beasts, couldn't tell what it was.

And after some thinking that led nowhere, Xue Bai eventually gave up on thinking about it and marked it up as an odd mutation that gave the jaguar such a peculiar pigment.

While knowing what the species of the demonic beast you were hunting was important for the upcoming fight, since it wasn't in the Qi Sea Realm, nor did it have any special bloodlines, Xue Bai didn't care much about what specific species it was.

Species for beasts in the five physical realms didn't matter much as before the Qi Sea Realm. They hadn't yet tapped into the power of their bloodline yet, meaning that any innate ability that would come from their bloodline would still be dormant within them.

That was why demonic beasts with high-grade bloodlines were able to do things that other demonic beasts couldn't do until the Qi Sea Realm. The Qi Sea Realm was a giant barrier that blocked any demonic beast with an impure or low-grade bloodline advancing past.

And this oddly green-hued jaguar demonic beast in front of Xue Bai was one such demonic beast. A degraded mixed breed that would most likely never advance another Realm again in its lifetime.

However, at this moment, no matter how many derogatory terms Xue Bai could hurl at his mark, it still didn't change the fact that it was still currently much stronger than him.

So putting aside any disdain he had towards the demonic beast, Xue Bai quietly left the sleeping powerhouse to go and set up the gravity field array formation some ways away.

Finding a suitable spot didn't take long, as only about 2 kilometers away was a large clearing that was more than able to fully hold down the merely 3-meter tall and 4-meter long jaguar.

And after making sure that all 12 of his formation flags were concealed from sight, Xue Bai went back to where his target slept. Where after climbing a tall tree nearby, Xue Bai took a deep breath before pulling out his trusty bow and arrow.

Xue Bai knew that if he hit this shot, it could potentially make or break his chances.

While Xue Bai had his arrow dodged by Wang Lin earlier in the day, that shot wasn't fully charged up, nor did Xue Bai mean for it to hit him. So against this half-asleep jaguar that had its guard down, Xue Bai was confident in his chances of hitting his mark.

Taking a deep breath to clear his mind, Xue Bai aimed at the resting jaguar's left eye. Then, following a few mental preparations, Xue Bai engulfed the arrow in flames. And after circulating as much Spiritual Qi into his arm to amplify his strength, Xue Bai sent it flying toward the jaguar's eye.

And like a shooting star soaring through the night sky, Xue Bai's flame-covered arrow flew at the mutated jaguar before perfectly piercing through its left eyelid, dooming it to never open again.

However, before Xue Bai had any chance to celebrate, the jaguar, who suddenly lost half of its vision, jumped up before unleashing a guttural rage-filled roar, not bothering to restrain its anger.

It had been asleep peacefully until it woke up to a smoldering arrow that pierced its eye.

Opening its other eye, the jaguar scanned its surroundings menacingly before spotting Xue Bai in the tree a few dozen meters away.

Because of its towering rage, the jaguar instantly started to sprint in Xue Bai's direction, not even bothering to check its surroundings fully.

Xue Bai, seeing that his target had taken the bait and was more than enraged, ran off in the direction of where he set up the gravity field array formation.

Though Xue Bai practiced movement techniques, the movement techniques before the Qi Sea Realm were extremely basic and fundamental. And because of this, the speed bonus that the movement techniques gave to him weren't enough to give him much of a lead over his chaser, who was almost a realm above him.

Jumping from branch to branch in the treeline above, as if he were a monkey reincarnated, Xue Bai managed to, while not extending the lead, keep the gap between him and the enraged jaguar.

Down below, the jaguar, who was still seething with rage from having its eye blinded, chased Xue Bai with persistence. Even going as far as ramming through trees, unrooting them by force to make sure it didn't lose its line of sight on Xue Bai.

The chaotic chase would continue with Xue Bai not daring to miss a step in the foliage above or the jaguar down below, who seemed to want to eat Xue Bai's flesh and drink his blood, chasing behind, slowly catching up.

However, thankfully because of Xue Bai's elevation advantage and the route he planned in advance, the jaguar was never truly able to catch in spite of its overwhelmingly higher cultivation base.

And while Xue Bai was calm about this situation, the jaguar down below wasn't. It knew it was stronger than the human child, and it also knew that it was faster. But because of the dozens of obstacles that it had to run through and the one blind eye, it was forced to eat its much weaker assailant's dust.

So with how much rage and thoughts of revenge had clouded the jaguar's instinctual brain, it did the only thing it knew that could change the situation, it started to burn its Blood Essence.