Fresh blood and opportunity

In the present moment, Gaofeng was more vigorous and energetic than before he even entered the arena, and thus would continue charging ahead to see what kinds of benefits he would receive from the arena in the end. He had already surmised that this was a great opportunity, but what exactly this opportunity would lead to, Gaofeng hadn't the faintest of clues.

The next opponent arrived soon after, and this time the opponent's strength was similarly far above that of the last one. His opponent this time was, however, not a human. Instead, a demonic beast had been let into the arena. This demonic beast gave off the fluctuations of a Dao Consolidation demonic beast.

Naturally, cultivators in the Dao Consolidation realm wouldn't needlessly risk their life, especially if their opponents were far stronger than themselves, and thus this demonic beast acted as a sort of test. If it turned out that Gaofeng's power was too great for them to handle, they could only continue to send out demonic beasts, as there were only a few beings of the Dao Transformation realm in the valley, and these existences were already at the top of the food-chain. They wouldn't risk their life for a little bit of profit from the Crimson Arena.

The demonic beast which had been sent out was that of a large black bull with horns larger than even Gaofeng's entire body. It would be difficult to measure the incredible power within this demonic beast without clashing directly with it, and Gaofeng had no qualms about doing exactly that.

This time there wasn't even a timer. Instead, the beast directly charged towards Gaofeng, wanting to split open his body with its horns. Gaofeng wouldn't let that happen, but he still wanted to have a frontal clash against this bull to test the true limits of his strength.

Gaofeng didn't even move forward, instead he put out his hands as to receive the flesh mountain which was currently rushing towards him. He took a good stance, and when the bull arrived Gaofeng utilized his legs to push against the sturdy metallic ground while he grabbed one horn with each hand and exerted every muscle in his body to receive this gigantic beast.

He felt his bones creak and his muscles ache due to the impact of the demonic bull, and even his powerful leg stance was forcibly shifted backwards, but in the end he only slid a couple of meters before the bull couldn't move him another inch. At the point where the bull's momentum completely ended, Gaofeng stretched out his arms fully and actually lifted the front of the bull directly into the air. Its legs dangled in the air as it struggled to remove itself from Gaofeng's grip, but this dumb beast only had sheer physical strength and powerful horns, while it lacked in any other aspect of attack or defense except for its thick hide.

Some demonic beasts were able to naturally manipulate certain elements that they had affinity with, and this demonic bull also had an affinity with the metal element, however it lacked any sort of ingenuity or intelligence to actually use its element to do anything apart from strengthening its own body and horns.

While holding the bull in this position, Gaofeng decided that he had been able to achieve at least partial completion of his goal to see how strong he truly was by being able to test his physical might. Although it might have looked like Gaofeng was inferior in physical strength compared to the bull, this was far from the truth. The bull had gained massive momentum and additional power due to its high speed, while Gaofeng had no such momentum. He relied purely on his own physical power to completely stop the bull in its tracks, and only suffered a slight push back.

If Gaofeng had been the one to charge the bull, he had no doubt that the bull would be flung back. Still, the difference in their strength wasn't too large. If this bull's physical might could be said to be somewhere in the first stages of the Dao Consolidation realm, Gaofeng's strength seemed to be somewhere in the middle stages of the Dao Consolidation realm. He was very pleased with this knowledge, as it would let him act more freely in the future.

Gaofeng figured that it was time to end this farse, and thus he simply added downforce to one horn while pushing up on the other. When he utilized his complete physical prowess in this feat, the bull flipped over and landed on its back. Now the bull was completely helpless, and its fate was sealed.

To finish the kill, Gaofeng utilized Rebellion, the first move of the Yin-Yang Dragon Fist, and struck the bull's neck. He didn't remove his arm when he had first put his fist inside the bull's neck however, and instead activated Bloodbath to rapidly absorb the bull's blood. The amount of blood this bull had compared to the previous martial artists, in addition to its purity, was like the difference between a cup of mud and a lake of spring-water. The amount was stunningly great.

Bloodbath greedily licked up every drop of blood, and after it had finished, Gaofeng felt that this directly increased Bloodbath to the peak of the initial level. His blood-energy became far more abundant in the process, to the point of everyone in the audience being able to visibly see and feel a great bloody aura emanating from Gaofeng's body. Gaofeng didn't yet know how to utilize this blood-energy for offensive purposes, or any other purposes than defensive or enhancing, but he knew that this energy couldn't be this simple. He had a growing feeling that blood-energy would be one of his greatest assets in the future.

After the spectacle of Gaofeng defeating a demonic bull with purely his physical strength, no other cultivator dared to challenge him, not even those ancient fogies who were at the peak of the Dao Consolidation realm dared to enter the arena. The Arena Master himself, an expert in the Dao Transformation realm, felt that he didn't have favorable odds in a fight against this demonic youth.

When Gaofeng had completed his breakthrough in Bloodbath, the arena once again lit up with red light, but this time it didn't directly rush into Gaofeng's body. Instead, it formed a staircase of blood going down into the depths underneath the arena. The sturdy metal of the arena had been displaced, and the staircase extended into unknown depths.

Gaofeng heard an old voice whisper in his ear, "Enter, my child." Hearing this, Gaofeng didn't hesitate, and confidently walked down the staircase one step at a time. He had already decided to go down the stairs even before he heard the voice, so he had no fear as he continued descending.

The spectators in the arena cold only see the bright red light throughout the entire arena before it returned to its place within the runes of the arena, and even the Arena Master wasn't able to view how Gaofeng had suddenly disappeared. They only saw an empty stage left in the wake of the battle. Even the corpse of the bull had completely disappeared into thin air.