The sky and land were teeming with flying Great Demons; some stood at the edge of the cliffs, while others spread their enormous wings and took to the air from the cliffside.
Ye Chen glanced at the scene and noticed that on the Eighty-fifth Peak, even the smallest Great Demon was over sixty meters tall, with wings unfurled that measured more than a hundred meters in length. Others were even larger, with wings spread to a staggering one hundred and seventy or eighty meters, with individual feathers dwarfing Ye Chen himself!
All of these were mid-tier Great Demons!
The strength of these Great Demons was comparable to a mid-stage Spirit Sea Realm powerhouse. Even many cultivators of the Spirit Sea Realm would not dare to set foot here easily, but Ye Chen had now directly entered the midst of these mid-tier Great Demons!
Just as Ye Chen stepped onto the Eighty-fifth Peak and into this mountain of Demon Beasts, the Great Demons spread across the skies discovered the sudden appearance of Ye Chen.
To be called Great Demons, their intelligence was on par with humans, and they were exceedingly astute. Seeing Ye Chen barge in, no fewer than ten Great Demons instantly shot towards him in attack, while the others also flapped their wings and roared loudly.
Ye Chen had similarly been attacked by Demon Beasts and Great Demons on the previous eighty-four Floating Peaks, so when faced with the onrush of ten plus Great Demons, he was not the least bit flustered.
His body surged with Gang Yuan True Qi, which enveloped him completely.
The roiling Gang Yuan True Qi even shot up over a hundred meters high, and with the silver Wind-Thunder Wings unfurling behind him, he took to the middle of the sky.
Although Ye Chen's stature was incomparable to that of these Great Demons, standing in the void with over a hundred meters of surging silver Gang Yuan True Qi swirling around him made those Great Demons halt their attack mid-assault.
These highly intelligent Great Demons clearly realized that Ye Chen was not an easy target!
The Great Demons that stopped their assault merely stared at Ye Chen, watching his every move, but no longer taking the initiative to attack first.
If Ye Chen did not strike at them, they certainly would not provoke this human who seemed difficult to deal with!
"As expected, the higher the climb, the greater the intelligence of the Great Demons!"
Seeing that the flying Great Demons no longer attacked him, Ye Chen gave a faint smile. With a move of his figure, he began to fly around the Eighty-fifth Peak, sizing up the various Great Demons.
"An eighty-meter-tall, brownish-yellow giant eagle!"
"A snow-white feather sculptor over ninety meters tall!"
"This giant oriole is even more extraordinary, with wings spread that are at least one hundred and seventy-eighty meters long!"
Under the watchful gaze of countless Great Demons, Ye Chen evaluated them all but ultimately shook his head.
Having come to the Eighty-fifth Peak, he still had not found the Great Demon he wanted to capture!
While traveling from the sect's main gate square to Sky Extreme Cliff on the flying boat, Fairy Jia Luo had once told Ye Chen and the others that this trial of capturing Flying Beasts not only tested the candidates' combat capabilities but also offered a bonus. The captured Flying Beasts could be used as mounts for those candidates in the future.
Fairy Jia Luo's words did not make much of an impact on the other youths. They were still concerned with the difficulty of climbing the Sky-Scaling Vine and the dangers of capturing Flying Beasts, hardly minding what kind of Flying Beast they captured or whether the mount was powerful or not.
After all, the more powerful the mount, the harder it is to capture, and the more dangerous the capture process!
But upon hearing Fairy Jia Luo's words, Ye Chen had made up his mind that, in addition to accomplishing the goal of capturing a Great Demon, he certainly wanted to seize one that he was satisfied with to serve as his mount!
Even though Ye Chen had cultivated the Wind-Thunder Wings and was capable of Qi Riding Flight, this method of flying through True Qi Skills still did not match the divine powers of Spirit Sea Realm powerhouses who could soar through the skies and traverse the earth with ease.
Initially, when Ye Chen traveled from Qingyang City to Taixuan Sect, it took him two whole days of flight and considerably drained his True Qi.
Now that he had the opportunity to capture Great Demons which could even serve as mounts, Ye Chen would certainly not miss out!
Capturing a powerful Great Demon would save him a lot of True Qi expended in flight, so upon hearing Fairy Jia Luo's words, he had already resolved to catch a Great Demon that he himself was satisfied with to serve as a mount.
That was why he climbed unhurriedly upwards, carefully evaluating each layer's Flying Beasts.
Unfortunately, up until the Eighty-fifth Peak, Ye Chen still had not found a Great Demon that met his satisfaction.
"Ninety-Nine Floating Peaks, the higher up, the stronger the Great Demons. Based on my observations of the peaks below, I fear the most powerful high-tier Great Demons are all within the top eleven Floating Peaks."
"High-ranking Great Demons, with my current strength, it would be somewhat difficult to capture one, and if I were to encounter a group attack from several high-ranking Great Demons, it could be life-threatening!"
"The higher I climb, the more careful I need to be!"
"There isn't much time left in the one-hour examination period. I should climb a few more Floating Peaks. If I can't find a suitable Great Demon, I'll have to subdue a mid-ranking Great Demon to complete the assessment!"
Having made up his mind, Ye Chen's figure flashed as he flew onto a Sky-Scaling Vine and then left the Eighty-fifth Peak, continuing to ascend.
"The Eighty-fifth Floating Peak, it's still not Ye Chen's target!"
"Which Floating Peak is he planning to go to? Could it be that he wants to step into the territory of high-ranking Great Demons?"
Seeing Ye Chen continue to climb upward, many of the onlookers outside the assessment area couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
Amidst their exclamations of surprise, Ye Chen entered the Eighty-sixth Floating Peak.
As soon as he stepped onto the Eighty-sixth Floating Peak, Ye Chen felt very strange. It was too quiet, and he couldn't see a single trace of any Flying Beasts.
Climbing up from below, Ye Chen had long noticed that the higher he went, the more numerous and powerful the Demon Beasts were.
He had never seen a Floating Peak without a single Demon Beast!
Baffled, Ye Chen flew while covering the Eighty-sixth Floating Peak with his Divine Sense to observe, only to find that after flying over thousands of meters in the area, he didn't see a single Great Demon.
Shaking his head, Ye Chen continued to fly upward.
As a result, the Eighty-seventh Floating Peak was also devoid of any Great Demons!
This caused Ye Chen to let out an involuntary murmur of surprise.
"There were more than a hundred Great Demons gathered on the Eighty-fifth Peak, but there's not even a single one on the Eighty-sixth and Eighty-seventh Peaks!"
"Why aren't those Great Demons living on the Eighty-sixth and Eighty-seventh Peaks?"
Amidst his confusion, Ye Chen officially entered the Eighty-eighth Floating Peak.
As soon as he stepped on the Eighty-eighth Floating Peak, it was still quiet, but Ye Chen felt an extremely hot breath rushing towards him.
It's worth noting that Ye Chen's Protective True Qi was already extremely powerful at this point, so for him to feel an exceptionally hot breath means it must have been terrifyingly intense.
When Ye Chen operated his Divine Sense and flew around, sizing up the Eighty-eighth Floating Peak, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
After passing two peaks devoid of Great Demons, Ye Chen finally saw a Great Demon again, but on the vast Eighty-eighth Floating Peak, he could only see one Great Demon.
It was a Great Demon that captured Ye Chen's gaze so entirely that he could not look away.
This Great Demon was incredibly awe-inspiring. It was a giant Fire Sparrow measuring over eighty meters in length. With its wings folded, its wingspan was unknown, but each and every one of its feathers shone a fiery red without a single speck of any other color, as beautiful as blazing flames.
At that moment, the fiery red Fire Sparrow was fast asleep, surrounded by swirls of fiery red light, emitting an exceedingly hot breath.
Obviously, the breath Ye Chen had previously sensed was emanating from this marvelous Fire Sparrow.
In the middle of this giant Fire Sparrow's forehead, there was a black flame-shaped mark, making the entirely red body of the giant Fire Sparrow appear inexplicably wondrous.
From the aura swirling around the giant Fire Sparrow's body, Ye Chen could tell that this was an incredibly awe-inspiring mid-ranking Great Demon!
Upon seeing it, Ye Chen knew that the object he wanted to capture as his mount had finally appeared!