BANG!
Liu Yanjiang had managed to hit the large Dao Beast.... however..... The large Dao Beast had an extremely thick carapace and Liu Yanjiang unfortunately didn't know that the Dao Beast was not only Above her in cultivation by two refinement layers but also at base without its bloodline in effect had equal strength to her.
Add on its bloodline, it's natural thick carapace, and the fact that since it was in the Palace Creation refinement realm its Qi was thick and abundant compared to someone like her who had yet to even enter Dao Condensing and it then looked like she was destined to never harm this Dao Beast.
Immediately after hitting the Dao Beasts carapace her arms trembled slightly from the impact, barely capable of continuing to grip her sword.
The recoil from its carapace incredibly hard on her. Thankfully she had advanced far in tempering her marrow and was merely a slight breakthrough away from entering Dao Condensing, otherwise it would have been impossible for her body to withstand the Qi reverberations from smacking the Dao Beasts Carapace.
The Dao Beast while making incredibly disturbing chittering sounds swiftly responded to Liu Yanjiang's sword slash and whipped out a dozen of its sharp pointed legs towards her, being within such close proximity and the Dao Beast being close in dexterity to her made it quite hard to dodge especially while she was slightly "airborne" from leaping up.
She'd still find a way to maneuver slightly and position her sword sideways to take some of the brunt of the attack from the Dao Beast but it's immense strength still pushed through and flung her backwards extremely quickly.
And because of the amount of legs that attacked her she couldn't quite defend entirely with half a dozen holes and slashes appearing on her body, some on her torso, shoulders,and arms.
Thankfully as she was flung back Tai Bàoli had finally responded, quickly maneuver to get behind her and stop her momentum and catch her he'd quickly help her steady herself while charging forward and yelling instructions to her.
Tai Bàoli: "Go for its face and carapace joints!! Try to continually dodge only attack when it's preoccupied with me!!"
Tai Bàoli's dexterity was lower then both the Dao Beasts and Liu Yanjiangs, however his Light Devouring Phantom Body was an extremely strong Earth rank technique at mid mastery.
This would also be his first time testing it in combat since he had upgraded himself so significantly.
Immediately his body seemingly disappeared from in front of Liu Yanjiang and the Dao Beast, and as it did so the surrounding light in the area seemingly collapsed inward created a small black darkness "smokescreen" like the light had been eaten by the surrounding darkness.
Liu Yanjiang couldn't help but be surprised, and same for the Dao Beast.
Even though it was a Palace Creation realm Dao Beast it wasn't at the Qi Gathering Realm. So even while it's being was imbued with Qi it found locating Tai Bàoli extremely difficult.
Quickly Tai Bàoli had reached the Dao Beast and begun clobbering its face with two quick back to back hammer strikes utilizing his petrifying mad hammer stance.
Quickly portions of the Dao Beasts face would begin petrifying.
Of course with its abundance of Qi it still fend off most of the effects, however surprisingly the Dao Beast found that this human in front of it could hurt it quite bad.
These two hammer strikes seemingly stunning the beast momentarily as it staggered backwards into the wall making the entire cave tremble slightly.
This was of course do to Tai Bàoli's absolutely enormous 42.5 Strength.
However this was merely the start of the battle.....this battle was seemingly going to take a long time to finish.....
TWHACK!!
CRUNCH!!!!
Surprisingly an hour had passed and both Liu Yanjiang and Tai Bàoli stood panting and heavily injured outside of the cave they'd entered, the long battle having seemingly taking them through and out of the creatures burrow/cave.
The huge crunching sound was from Tai Bàoli's hammer shattering another part of the Dao Beasts carapace.
Tai Bàoli had petrified a large portion of the Dao Beasts body slowing both him and the Dao Beast significantly, thankfully he didn't always use the Mad hammer stance when attacking or else he'd have been petrified long ago.
Instead just a large portion of his body and being was covered in a greyish crack stone like texture his movements clearly hindered. However still swift.
Additionally both he and Liu Yanjiang were covered in an enormous amount of blood and viscera from the Dao Beast.
A Dozen or so minutes ago Tai Bàoli and Liu Yanjiang in their combined efforts had obliterated the Dao Beasts head. However they found that it still made wild thrashing movements even without its head and brain.
So for the last dozen or so minutes Tai Bàoli and Liu Yanjiang had been meticulous and began comboing their attacks at specific areas trying to find any internal organs that they could crush to try and stop the Dao Beast.
And just now they'd finally did it. Panting heavily and standing two dozen feet away from the enormous Dao Beast they watched it spasm slowly as it's remaining life left its body it's legs spasming slightly.
However compared to the wild thrashing from before they knew the Dao Beast was finally done in.
Of course this didn't come without heavy cost.... Liu Yanjiang was Heavily injured and spitting up blood, at least a thousand cuts and slashes of various degrees littering her body.
Clearly her internal organs harmed as well.
The same could be said for Tai Bàoli but the greyish petrified texture made him seem less injured, of course he was still covered in blood and viscera but it wasn't nearly as bad looking as Liu Yanjiang's condition.
Eventually they sit down and slowly breath a sigh of relief and begin recuperating.
During this moment of relief Liu Yanjiang would take out two pills similar to the pill Tai Bàoli had been fed back when he was attacked in the back of the head months ago.
She'd give one to Tai Bàoli, which of course he'd accept, both of them chewing down the pill and swallowing.
Previously Tai Bàoli was unconscious when the pill was working but now he felt it effects in full.
It was truly wonderful, he felt the petrification on his body slowly reverting as well as the slashes all over him begin scabbing up and healing.
Of course the deeper internal injuries still remained but they were under much better conditions now. The same could be said for Liu Yanjiang.
Tai Bàoli: "Should we loot it and the beasts within the caves bodies? We can take their eyes to claim them as our own? Maybe we'll get more benefits for completing the mission."
Liu Yanjiang: "Definitely! Of course this Dao Beast was also within the Palace Creation refinement realm so we should probably search for it's Dantian Dao Beast Pearl, it could fetch a large price credits wise probably."
Tai Bàoli: " Dao Beast Pearl? "
Liu Yanjiang: " Have you been going to any elders classes? This is general knowledge taught in the sect. Palace Creation and above realm Dao Beasts contain Dao Beast pearls that can be/are extremely useful in forging, refining, pill making, and arrays. "
Tai Bàoli: "Really? Ok...and yea I've been slacking recently....."
Quickly the two would then muster up there remaining will power to muster through their injuries and search the cave and Dao Beast.
They'd find not only the centipedes Dao Beast Pearl, but also the Two Headed Armoured Mantis' Dao Beast Pearl from within the centipedes stomach.
They'd carve out the creatures eyes and any unique features of the dead half eaten creatures left in the cave and then begin their journey back to the sect.
Of course even while injured they still moved faster then when Tai Bàoli had returned previously heading through the forest deep into the night they'd eventually come upon the beginning of the mountain entrance.
They weren't at a high enough realm to use Qi to cleanse themselves of all the blood and viscera so they'd have to walked through the entrance just like Tai Bàoli had done before covered in blood and stinking it up.
Looking crazy.
Surprisingly this time like last time Great Elder Fu would catch them again, or at least catch Tai Bàoli again, this being the first time Liu Yanjiang had come like this through the entrance.
Great Elder Fu: " Wow two inner sect disciples looking so disheveled what does this old man have the pleasure of helping you with "
Seeing Great Elder Fu's slightly joking and extremely friendly demeanor had Liu Yanjiang thrown off significantly, this was after all the Great Elder in charge of the law enforcement pavilion...he was usually extremely strict and stalwart.
Quickly Tai Bàoli and Liu Yanjiang would bow their heads
Tai Bàoli and Liu Yanjiang in unison: "Disciple greets Great Elder!"