Xiang Shaoyun was not holding anything back in that punch of his, drawing power from both the lightning energy in his first star and the innate purple lightning from his lightning bone. The two sources of lightning energy stacked up, and they coursed through the meridians in his arm before shooting out from his fist. The lightning bolt rumbled out like a roaring dragon, carrying with it a boundless might.
Rumble!
The two-headed black canine was first hit by the Star Destroying Finger, and before it could recover from the pain, the punch arrived and caught it by surprise. The terrifying power of lightning was extremely destructive, turning all the plants into charcoal. The prowess of this fist had absolutely surpassed the limits of an Astral Realm cultivator.
There were three stages in the Lightning Bolt Fist. At the first stage, one would blend one's energy into one's fist. At the second stage, one would blend lightning into one's fist, and at the third stage, one would start drawing lightning into one's body.
Borrowing the innate purple lightning in his body, Xiang Shaoyun was able to unleash the effect only available during the second stage—blending lightning into one's fist. This was a punch only those at the second stage of Lightning Bolt Fist could unleash, and it technically had the destructiveness surpassing even the attacks of King Realm cultivators.
After all, only King Realm cultivators would be able to borrow the power of nature to unleash destructive attacks. The two-headed black canine had a resilient body, but even so, its body immediately exploded upon being hit by Xiang Shaoyun's fully powered punch.
Its body was reduced into a pile of mincemeat. Xiang Shaoyun stared at his own fist in astonishment, his face covered with disbelief. He did have a feeling he could now fight ordinary Great Demons, but never had he expected that he was actually strong enough to kill a Great Demon with one punch now.
"So is this the power of a lightning bolt? No, this is the power of the innate purple lightning, or perhaps the combination of both." Xiang Shaoyun took a deep breath before revealing an excited expression.
After discovering the might of his punch, Xiang Shaoyun's confidence grew. With this, leaving the Hundred Beast Mountain Range would no longer be as difficult. He resumed his journey with renewed confidence. But unbeknown to him, up in the air, someone was observing his every action.
"So the young master is actually so powerful. No wonder he refuses my protection. Looks like I need to work harder as well so that I won't stop being useful to the young master. Otherwise, I will only end up pushed away in the future." This person was none other than Elder Zhen Peng. He was worried about Xiang Shaoyun, so after bringing Zi Changhe to somewhere safe, he had turned back to tail Xiang Shaoyun in the dark.
Now that he had witnessed the astonishing might of Xiang Shaoyun, he finally believed that Xiang Shaoyun was capable of leaving this place himself. He also realized that Xiang Shaoyun was trying to temper himself here and must not be disturbed by others.
It was also at this moment that the final bit of hesitation he still had toward becoming Xiang Shaoyun's follower vanished. It would never be wrong to follow a young master with boundless prospects like this.
After Elder Zhen Peng left, Xiang Shaoyun looked up at where Elder Zhen Peng had been, and he muttered, "Is Elder Zhen Peng still around? Why do I feel like someone is watching me?"
He then shook his head and continued traveling amid dense forest. He had already arrived at the intersection between the outer and inner fringe of the Hundred Beast Mountain Range, and this was a place filled with numerous demonic beasts.
As he traveled, various demonic beasts attacked him, and there were a few times where he was nearly defeated. If it wasn't for the inner armor he was wearing, he would have either been killed or seriously injured by now.
After three days, Xiang Shaoyun had killed 5 Great Demons and 15 Intermediate Demons and had fled from numerous late-stage Great Demons. Without the Overlord's Nine Nether Steps and the comprehension of the wind he had gained not long ago, he would have ended up as beast fodder by now.
The three days worth of bloody tempering allowed Xiang Shaoyun to understand that his current combat prowess was comparable to an early-stage Transformation Realm cultivator. Being able to battle someone a realm higher than him, he was an absolute cultivation freak.
But Xiang Shaoyun did not see himself as a freak. He knew that during the ancient times, there existed early-stage Astral Realm cultivators capable of killing Great Demons with a single punch. There had also existed many Transformation Realm cultivators capable of stepping Demon Kings to death with a stomp of their feet.
Even though those were legends, Xiang Shaoyun believed that those freaks truly existed. A good example would be the place he had grown up. There, geniuses capable of fighting people several realms above them could be found. Of course, some of those people were also included in his list of people he would trample upon in the future. Thus, he had to become even stronger.
Xiang Shaoyun was currently harvesting an old herb. He had just kept the herb away when he suddenly heard something. His vigilance immediately went up.
"Boss, it's me," Little White's voice rang out.
Then, a snow-white tiger appeared and rushed toward him. The newcomer was none other than Little White who had enlarged his body. If it wasn't for the slight variation of his fur’s color, he would have looked exactly like a white tiger.
Xiang Shaoyun hugged Little White's neck and said, "Haha, I knew you would be fine."
Little White rubbed his head against Xiang Shaoyun's body before saying, "Boss, do we leave now?"
"Yeah. A while ago, I was still worried that you wouldn’t catch up to me in time." Xiang Shaoyun nodded.
"Boss, don't leave first. I found some humans over there. They seem to have discovered something nice and are currently fighting for it," Little White said while pointing in a certain direction.
"Oh, but since they found it first, forget it," Xiang Shaoyun said. He was not interested in robbing others. He was no bandit.
"I seem to have overheard that they are from the Mad Lion Hunting Group," Little White added. The Mad Lion Hunting Group had once hunted Xiang Shaoyun when he had first gotten his hands on the Earth Star Spring. At that time, Little White had been completely helpless.
"Mad Lion Hunting Group? Hehe, little fellow, so it turns out you hold a grudge as well. Fine, let's go take a look," Xiang Shaoyun said.
The Mad Lion Hunting Group had moved against him a few times already. Now would be the time for him to return the favor. Xiang Shaoyun hopped onto Little White and headed toward the Mad Lion Hunting Group.
After a while, they arrived at a different patch of woods in the mountain range. There, they heard the indistinct sounds of Mad Lion Hunting Group members battling demonic beasts.
There were quite a number of Mad Lion Hunting Group members here, 23 in total. Most of them were in the Astral Realm while five of them, who were also leaders, were at the Transformation Realm.
They were currently in a bitter battle against a group of silverscale elephants. The silverscale elephants were not good at offense, but they excelled at defense. Even so, one still couldn't afford to overlook the might of their tackle.
Bang! Bang!
The elephants stampeded everywhere, shaking the ground and destroying everything in their path. The hunters that couldn't escape in time were directly turned into mincemeat. Although the silverscale elephants looked powerful, under the attacks of the Transformation Realm experts, the hunters held the upper hand in this confrontation.
A certain late-stage Transformation Realm expert traveled forth by stepping on the stampeding elephants, and he shouted, "This silverhorn fruit shall belong to me, Dongfang Shuo!"