Meow… Meow
The double-tailed cat, after a flurry of frantic dashes, suddenly landed at Zhang Ling's feet, meowing at him with excitement.
At that moment, the crimson-purple flames on the double-tailed cat gradually faded, revealing its original appearance.
Zhang Ling crouched down, picked up the double-tailed cat, and examined it carefully. Its fur was still orange-yellow, but the纹路 (wenlu) on one of its tails had turned dark red, seeming to shimmer with a layer of purple light.
Besides that, the double-tailed cat's body temperature had also increased slightly.
Zhang Ling carefully sensed the spiritual energy fluctuations on the double-tailed cat, confirming that it had indeed reached the level of a fourth-order demon beast. Moreover, the fire spiritual energy on its body was even more violent.
Then, he communicated with the spirit beast using his mind. From the spirit beast's feedback, Zhang Ling confirmed that the double-tailed cat was not experiencing any discomfort and seemed to have completely refined the Profound Yang Fire.
Following that, Zhang Ling carried the double-tailed cat outside to an open space to test the spirit beast's strength. Soon, a series of rumbling explosions echoed, leaving Zhang Ling very satisfied.
After refining the spiritual fire, the double-tailed cat's own demon fire had greatly increased in power.
Although its practical use still seemed slightly inferior to the core fire of a Golden Core cultivator—after all, a spirit beast's intelligence was a weakness—the flames it spat were enough to pose a threat to early-stage Golden Core cultivators.
With the spirit beast's strength increased, the double-tailed cat could play a certain role in future battles with other cultivators.
Next, Zhang Ling refined several furnaces of fire-attribute spirit pills to feed the double-tailed cat. Now that the double-tailed cat had reached the fourth order, the Beast Controlling Pill no longer had much effect on it.
Moreover, there were no more suitable Beast Controlling Pills on the market. After all, in the world of cultivation, raising spirit beasts was extremely time-consuming and laborious. Even those sects specializing in beast control rarely had anyone who could cultivate a spirit beast to the fourth order.
A further step would be a high-level spirit beast with fifth-order strength. Like a cultivator's advancement, a spirit beast's advancement was even more difficult. The double-tailed cat was able to advance so quickly because it relied on the powerful fire spiritual energy contained within the Profound Yang Fire to forcefully cross a level.
It could be considered that the Profound Yang Fire here was not wasted. Subsequently, Zhang Ling even took out the demon core he obtained from the Crimson Firebird and allowed the double-tailed cat to refine it.
This was a sixth-order demon core, and the turbid aura of the desolate region remaining on it had been removed after years of soaking in spiritual liquid. As long as the spirit beast could absorb the fire spiritual energy within the demon core, it might be able to break through another realm.
As for whether it could advance another level, Zhang Ling was not entirely certain and could only rely on the spirit beast's own fortune.
Afterward, Zhang Ling entered a monotonous cultivation life, basically spending every moment in meditation and cultivation. Of course, he also did not forget to cultivate spiritual herbs, accumulating quite a few spiritual medicines that were three to four hundred years old.
Spiritual medicines of this age were more than enough to refine the pills needed by Golden Core cultivators. Besides his own consumption of pills, the spiritual medicines could also be exchanged for a large number of spirit stones.
As time went by, he would be able to accumulate a large number of spirit stones, but if he were to sell so many spiritual medicines, it would inevitably attract the covetousness of other cultivators.
According to Zhang Ling's plan, he intended to stay in the cave for the next few years to cultivate, while also constantly refining his natal magic treasure with his core fire.
This kind of monotonous cultivation was the daily life of Golden Core experts. Even with the assistance of several good pills, he would not break through quickly in a short period.
According to his current refining speed, he estimated that it would take at least fifty to sixty years of hard work to break through to the middle stage of Golden Core.
Moreover, a cultivator's realm often encountered various bottlenecks. Many Golden Core cultivators were stuck in the early stage for their entire lives.
Therefore, although Golden Core cultivators seemed to have five to six hundred years of lifespan, time was still very pressing for them.
…
In the blink of an eye, several years had passed. Until one day, Zhang Ling received a message and then left Fire Cloud Island. He did not go to Myriad Manifestation City, but instead flew north all the way.
Several days later, under a sky full of haze, a flash of light appeared and Zhang Ling stopped in mid-air. He took out a jade slip from his bosom and probed it with his divine sense. After a moment, he raised his head and looked into the distance.
In the due north direction, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and the gloomy sky seemed somewhat oppressive.
That was the place he was about to go, an island called Waterlight Island.
This island, although a small island, was not small in size, with an area of thousands of miles in circumference.
It was only called a small island because the spiritual veins on the island had not reached the middle grade.
Why go here? Because Zhang Ling was very interested in the information on the jade slip.
It said that a month ago, someone discovered an ancient cultivator's cave on Waterlight Island.
Although this kind of thing was not common, it was not strange, but that ancient cultivator's cave had undergone earth-shattering changes.
It was said that several Foundation Establishment cultivators entered it at that time and released a ghost whose strength was comparable to that of a Golden Core cultivator.
A demon ghost of this strength was already very strong. Once released, it caused great chaos on Waterlight Island.
First, it destroyed several mortal cities on the island. Then, the demon ghost seemed not satisfied and began to slaughter the cultivators on the island.
Such an arrogant demon ghost naturally did not end well. It was directly killed by the joint forces of several forces on the island.
Originally, this matter should have ended here, but it was not over.
After hearing about this, many other cultivators on the island entered the ancient cultivator's cave to check it out.
But then they seemed to have triggered some kind of restriction, directly turning the place into a Yin Fiend Ground.
The jade slip also recorded several pieces of inside information. It was said that it was not an ancient cultivator's cave, but a Spirit Sealing Pillar, which was destroyed by the cultivators before releasing the demon ghost. And below it was sealed a Yin Fiend Spiritual Vein with rich Yin Qi.
This kind of special place was rare in the world of cultivation. It was a Yin Fiend Ground formed by the condensation of Yin-attribute spiritual power between heaven and earth.
When he was still in the Foundation Establishment stage, his master Wei Shen had taken him to a Yin Fiend Ground. The Ghost Willow Wood in his hand was obtained from there.
At that time, Wei Shen wanted to use his flesh and blood to refine the Human Yuan Fiend Pill, but he was killed by him instead.
In addition, he had been to another Yin Fiend Ground. When performing the Twelve Immortal City mission, he was once卷入 (juanru - swept into) an underground underground river, which also belonged to the Yin Fiend Ground and was equally dangerous.
However, the Yin Fiend spiritual power in these two places had not reached the point of nurturing spiritual veins.
The Yin Fiend Ground on Waterlight Island was rumored to have Yin spiritual power close to the level of a middle-grade Yin Vein. Many cultivators had entered it and found a large number of Yin-cold attribute materials.
This was also Zhang Ling's purpose. He also wanted to collect some Yin-cold attribute materials. As for the reason, it was for his Fiendish True Body Corpse Bear.
