Pef fought with all his heart.
It was either this or fail and die, and then get eaten by Chaosbeasts.
One might think that killing hundreds maybe even a thousand enemies per second was a good deal. But the blood and flesh of the beasts attracted even more, and then more beasts, like sharks drawn to feeding frenzy.
At his side the Old Bee Queen fought without a sword,, but instead using her sting tail and her wings like blades. She was somehow keeping pace with his kill count, by virtue of her immense speed.
But after an entire day of fighting, the beast herd was actually larger now, and the weaker enemies were less easy to find.
For a while Pef brought out the girls so they can help out, but at their meager Tier 9 they got tired and used their qi too fast. They had to withdraw to recover, while Pef fought on. There will be no retreat from the Chaos Sea. The only way out was through.
So it became a grinding game, while Pef and his bee mount fought outside, inside his Selves and Avatars struggled to cook faster, just so they could produce some sustenance to keep his Sword qi active and killing.
But Pef was slowly losing this game. His cultivation was not enough, his Sword skills were not enough, his Formation arrays depleted too fast under the assault of too many strong beasts.
And then, an armored goddess arrived and flicked a tree seed into his mouth. "Still pathetic, my young user. You have three months to finish this small battle, while I prepare the battleground for your war with the Jade House. And try not to die again, will you?" his orange glove asked rhetorically, then vanished with a flick of wings.
"And they say cultivation is hard. This is fun! Right, my trusty mount?" he asked the Bee Queen while withdrawing under a defensive Formation to analyze his new gift.
It took less than a minute to deduce what it was, and what it meant. A Devour Seed, containing over 12% extra Dao insight. Probably priceless, if anyone would sell such a thing for some reason.
His own Devour Dao spiked to 99.99%, only a hair away from a full completition of a Supreme Dao.
As a result, his strikes became stronger, and they also drained some essence from his targets, twice that of the regular Legion method. He could actually sustain himself in combat from his kills, which meant...
The fight became easy once more. Every minute or so, Pef would feed the Bee Queen another cooking recipe, be it a meat pastry or Chaos Burger, while collecting more and more beasts bodies into his inner universe.
A pair of Avatars split off to take over attack and defense Formations, while Pef focused on polishing his Sword skills. Consuming less qi, making the cuts deeper and wider, and everything else.
After an entire month of constant fighting, his cultivation grew into the 5th Star, something that normal cultivators took billions of years at a minimum to achieve. And most took far longer, due to lack of resources and a poor environment.
But there was a good reason why the Steelord Demonhunter was at the peak of cultivation in the Upper Realms. Just as his Daoist name hinted, the ascended fish fought nearly constantly here in the Chaos Sea, becoming stronger and stronger with every fight.
And there was a rumour that the Beasthunter was trying to emulate that feat, and also fought in the Chaos Sea to become stronger.
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"How is it going out there? Can you hold on?" Lady Gia asked in a worried tone.
His inner Avatar just shrugged. "I guess I got a bit used to the rythm. And I killed three of those Iron Realm Krakens, so I don't get hit so often now."
Lady Meili frowned as she realized what Pef meant. "Three of a total of seventeen? And the pressure is noticeably weaker?"
"I'll try to go after that big Stingray next." he answered with a careless voice.
The Yin Wood disciple nodded to herself. "Almost to the level of our Elders then. But they are at the 6th Star of Iron Realm."
Pef nodded in agreement. "I still have more training to do, but there are two months left in this trial. I can probably reach the 6th Star by then."
"It's not how cultivation works!" Lady Gia protested in dismay.
"You ascended two realms in a single day, my dear. You shouldn't be talking about fairness." Pef countered as he managed to get close enough to the Chaos Stingray and land an Universe Splitter on its tail, slicing it off and storing it away for later cooking.
A dozen Tier 11 beasts rushed to feed on the wounded Stingray, giving Pef an opportunity to bisect a careless Iron Levithan in half, and store its body before retreating.
Now he needed to thin the herd again, as the feeding freenzy attracted even more Chaosbeasts. But it was only fair. He also removed two more Iron Realm beasts, making the presure reduce substantially.
Taking a hint from her Master, the Bee Queen landed a Sting strike on the back of a careless Iron Whale, who screamed in pain from the deadly poison. Just a sting wouldn't kill the giant whale, but it would slow it down, making the fight even easier.
Pef grinned a bit too wide. Cultivation was still hard, but nothing said he couldn't have fun while doing it.
Glancing at his inner screen, he found his Order Dao had climbed to 2%, which was probably a very good acheivement. Too bad he didn't have anyone to ask about this.
'We start Cooking the Chaos Leviathan now?' the Icefire asked with a curious voice.
'Nah. I'm more interested in this Stingray tail. I feel some kind of Preservation Dao infused in the base of the tail.' Pef answered while licking his lips.
'Living people are so weird. We have billions of enemies to fight, and all you care about is food!' the Heart Ruler grumbled in a bored tone. Since the Elfsmith had reforged the big sword into a Tier 12 Artifact, the sword seemed bored all the time. Possibly because the enemies were too weak.
'I need to Ascend again to reach your realm, silly sword. And my Cooking is pretty fast, if I say so myself. Or do you want to wait a million Chaos Cycles while I meditate on top of a mountain?' Pef countered with a careless voice.
'That would be far worse. Fighting these weak beasts is still better than rusting away in the rain. But try to Ascend a bit faster, my user. This is kinda boring. I need worthy opponents!' the Heart Ruler muttered in a low voice.
Pef nodded at the Icefire and began Cooking the new beast tail, while Icefire shook his flaming head in a confused manner. 'You're not even 50 years old and already in Tier 11. The sword is an idiot.'
'I could try and be a bit faster though. My orange glove is already in Tier 12 and makes fun of me. Called me pathetic just a month ago.' Pef complained and unleashed another blade storm at the beast heard, killing three thousands of them at once.
'Fight smarter, not harder.' the Icefire countered with a wise advice.
Pef scratched his cheek as his petal blades returned in their Heart Ruler form.
'Smarter, huh?' he mused inward.
'The Nine Universe Array, perhaps?' his Self that floated on his back near the beach wondered in questioning tone.
'It won't work on the stronger beasts. But thinning the herd by the millions would also help.' Pef decided and tapped his foot, while the Formation array deployed in a expanding wave, and then contracted violently to crush the nearby Chaosbeasts into a singularity, while the Tier 9 and above beasts forced their way out of the array.
Pef flicked the resulting meat pellet into his inner world, where his Cooking Self pressed it into a meat bun and began to cook it.
A flash of lightning fell on the bun after a few minutes, giving the bun a lightning edible cloud. A Silver Realm cloud at that.
'Silver lining, huh?' Pef thought as he examined the new recipe.
So he tried again. Another array, another meat bun, another cloud bun.
'There aren't enough Chaosbeasts...' Pef complained as he began to farm the huge beast herd for more guaranteed Ascensions.
A week later, his words came true as the herd was reduced to a few thousand higher realm beasts. 'I guess I fought too smartly. Back to brute force now.' Pef complained inward.