Making use of the large amount of leaves to take cover, Ace used his sword to descend down the tree quickly before taking cover amidst the lush bushes.
Remaining silent, he prone within the thick cover of bushes as he looked upwards, only to realise that his vision from the aerial demon beast was blocked.
Thinking that the same situation should be happening to the aerial demon beast, Ace was about to leave this place as silently as possible when a wind blade stopped him in his tracks.
Through the bushes, he saw a sharp pair of eyes staring at him, his body immobilized as he watched the impending threat landing on the ground.
His feet were rooted to the ground by a trap made of wind. Unsheathing his sword, he swiftly freed himself as he evaded backwards by leaping into the air, his slaughter law infused in his sword as he sent a sword wave flying towards the front.
The sword wave pierced through the air, grazing past the bushes as the aerial demon beast easily destroyed it by flapping its wings, creating a strong gust that shattered the sword wave.
In this brief amount of time mid-air, Ace finally managed to catch a glimpse of the first opponent he was up against.
It was a large hawk that had sharp brown feathers, eyes that were threatening and most importantly, was the glimmering crystal in the middle of its eyes. The hawk landed on the ground, its body almost triple the size of Ace's body.
*Screech*
Judging from the aura that the hawk was eluding, it was definitely at the peak of the Martial Master realm, but this was only because it's been restricted by its bloodline.
With its advantage of flight and combat sense gained in defending its territory for a long period of time, it was definitely not weaker than a Great Martial Master realm demon beast. It was an opponent he has never been up against and he was at a major disadvantage.
What should I do now? Scanning around the area, Ace realised that there was no clear path of retreat, his exits were blocked off by the bushes and if he traveled deeper into the forest, he might just get into deeper trouble.
Left with no choice, Ace faced the hawk directly. His sword was directly in front of him, putting up a defensive stance, he waited for the hawk to make the first move.
Soon enough, it took off into the air. Swinging its wings towards Ace, it gathered a wind orb which was fired towards Ace.
I have to dodge this! Ace instincts roared at him to get away as he evaded by sliding towards the front diagonally to take cover behind a tree.
I should sneak past it now. Ace was about to make a move, turning around, he took his first step only for the wind orb which had missed to suddenly explode, creating a powerful suction force that was trying to devour him.
Stabbing his sword into the ground, he pushed it deeper in as he grabbed on to it with all his strength.
After a few seconds, the suction force was decreasing as it finally came to a stop.
Phew, Ace collected his breathing, prepared for another tough exchange of moves ahead.
"Screech!"
It found me! That was Ace's first reaction as he gathered his strength and slashed towards the hawk.
"Imbalanced Harmony!"
A scarlet sword wave was released by his sword. The scarlet sword wave pierced through the air, aiming straight for the hawk which was underestimating the lethality of his sword wave as he smirked internally within his heart.
Of course, the hawk was going to pay the hefty price for underestimating this sword wave. As for the price, there was no room for bargaining. It had to pay with its life as the sword wave severed its head into two as the hawk fell lifelessly onto the ground.
Waiting for a few seconds, Ace was sure that the hawk was dead as he advanced towards it and extracted the demon core from its body carefully.
After finding a safe spot among the bushes, Ace absorbed the energy within the demon core and realised that in just this one hour, he had fully absorbed the demon core which actually contained spirit energy equivalent to three days of his cultivation.
It was only at this time that Ace realised why Lucifer wanted him to survive in this forest alone. If things go well and he manages to survive through this one month of hell, he might be able to leave the forest as a cultivator who has stepped onto the true path of cultivation with a perfect foundation.
But if he fails here, then Lucifer definitely wasn't joking about collecting his corpse since he might not be able to crush the talisman he gave him in time.
Taking a deep breath, Ace recollected his breathing and realised that if he threaded carefully, he might be able to return to the lake safely without getting caught.
If he manages to arrive at the lake safely, he would be able to search around for the hidden hideout of the demon beast who he tricked into death.
Travelling within the tall grass carefully, Ace was wary of each step he took and at every moment, his sword was constantly infused with the slaughter law even though it was mentally exhausting.
The tall grass was hindering his vision, but that wasn't the main concern here. His legs had come into something sticky, even when he tried to pull away, his leg was still stuck to it.
Crouching down to take a closer look, Ace realised what the problem here was. He had travelled into the territory of a demon beast that's most likely a mutated spider.
Swinging his sword down to free himself from the web, he increased his speed, only to be impeded in his advance time and time again in the endless maze of spiderwebs.
"Purr…"
Ace didn't have to turn around, he knew for sure that the spider had located him after the destruction it caused to its territory despite being uninvited.
Swinging his sword backwards, a scarlet sword wave was released from his sword as it pierced through the air towards the spider.
"Purr…"
Yet, the spider had already seen through his move and made use of a string of spiderwebs to pull itself up by making use of a tree branch.
With the momentum it got, it circled around Ace while using its spiderwebs to form a trap that would corner Ace to death.
It seems that the fire intent is still useful after all. Ace smirked disgustingly at the spider as he infused the fire intent into his sword and touched one of the strings.
*Sizzle*
"Purr…!"
As the spider was chasing him in anger for setting its spiderwebs on fire, he still managed to generate some distance since the spider actually wasted a few seconds protecting its main territory by splitting the webs apart.
"Purr…!"
The spider was angered and was trying to take his life, its menacing aura was forcing Ace to increase his speed once again.
*Swoosh*
A human could be seen running for his life under the pursuit of a gigantic spider that was spitting webs at him continuously.
It was tiring for Ace, but he had to maintain his calm and face the situation bravely.
One mistake here meant death.
My time isn't up yet, there must be a way against this spider. Ace was processing a winning strategy against this gigantic spider which was no weaker than the hawk he just faced around two hours ago.
Increasing his speed once again by pushing his body against its limits, he vomited a mouthful of blood while leaving behind a trail of ice.
"Bullseye!" Ace mumbled to himself confidently as the spider lost control of itself and began to follow the trail of ice Ace had created when travelling at top speed.
Infusing the fire intent into his sword, he stabbed towards the ground and created a pit of fire.
Infusing the slaughter law into his sword, he leaped into the air and the moment the spider tried to scurry away after being burnt in flames, the sharp tip of his sword stabbed through the head of the spider from above.
The sword went through the first layer of the spider, to the second, to the third...all the way until it pierced through the head of the spider and pinned it to the ground as he dragged his sword out, stabbed it into the body of the spider, made a beautiful and extract its demon core before retreating to find somewhere safe to digest the demon core.
Yet, trouble had only just begun as the ferocious sound of a demon beast coming from the lake alerted him. It was a sound he was familiar with, it belonged to the crocodile demon beast which had most likely stepped into the Transcendent realm just recently after devouring that rich demon core.
Left without a choice, Ace could only keep the demon core in his spatial ring first as he made his way to the lake.
There, he saw a woman who was fighting against the crocodile and holding the upper hand easily without much difficulty with just a fan almost as large as her body when opened up.