Inside the cultivation chamber, several black array flags were stuck into the ground, emitting waves of dark light that formed a circular array. Zhang Ling sat cross-legged in the center of the array, his hands flashing with spiritual light as he cast a spell.
As the hand seals changed, the Yin-Yang Gourd floating above Zhang Ling's head spewed out a large cloud of azure and white mist, which enveloped a pile of black sand.
This black sand was evenly distributed, falling onto the array on the ground. Zhang Ling, with a solemn expression, extended his left hand, then used two fingers of his right hand to slice his left wrist, creating a wound. Streams of fresh blood flowed from the wound, and Zhang Ling quickly formed hand seals, causing the flowing blood to vaporize into a blood mist.
This scene lasted for a full quarter of an hour, until the inside of the array had turned blood-red, enveloped in a thick, bloody aura.
Sitting in the center of the array, Zhang Ling's face was pale. In his divine sense, the black sand, enveloped in the blood energy, floated in the air.
Countless blood-colored threads, as thin as hairs, continuously缠绕缠绕 these black sands in the blood mist, desperately trying to penetrate them. However, these black sand particles remained unmoved, like stubborn stones, and the scene remained deadlocked.
After an unknown period of time, a flash of spiritual light appeared in Zhang Ling's hand, and the gourd reappeared, directly sucking all the black sand and blood mist inside.
He stood up unsteadily, having lost a significant amount of blood essence, but the black sand had not fused with his blood essence.
"Hmph, these black substances are truly tough," Zhang Ling chuckled self-deprecatingly before leaving the cultivation chamber. Of course, he wouldn't give up so easily. He would use the blood refinement method to refine these black sand particles every so often.
This continued for more than three years, finally integrating his blood essence into the black sand.
The black sand also turned black-red and could now be stored in his dantian to be tempered by the dantian fire, similar to a natal magic treasure.
As for the previous ability of the black sand to enter his body, it was actually just being brought into his dantian within the gourd. It wasn't like a natal magic treasure that could be independently absorbed into the body.
This indicated that the initial refinement of the black sand was complete. Next, as long as it was combined with Heavenly Star Stones and other materials, it could be refined into Heavenly Star Sand.
As for Heavenly Star Stones, he had indeed collected one from Myriad Manifestation City in the past three years, but it was only the size of a fist, and the quantity was not enough.
And after his research, he also found a suitable material for the other auxiliary materials: a type of earth-attribute material called Yao Stone.
Yao Stone also has another name: Mountain Soul. This material is the essence of earth and stone in the mountains. The reason for choosing this material is that Yao Stone has the power to condense earth and stone.
In other words, if Yao Stone is mixed into the Heavenly Star Sand, it can gather the Heavenly Star Sand together and turn it into a whole piece of earth and stone. If there is enough sand, it might even turn into a rocky mountain.
Condensing sand into stone and gathering stone into mountains is the characteristic of Yao Stone. If a piece of Yao Stone is thrown into the desert, a mountain can form on the spot within a hundred years.
Magic treasures refined with this material are often extremely powerful. Like the Heavy Mountain Peak, the Thousand-Foot Stone, it is said that some cultivators have refined an entire mountain peak into a magic treasure using Yao Stone, with infinite power.
Yao Stone is also a very precious earth-attribute material, which is only likely to be produced in mountains with rich metal and earth energy.
These types of mountains are actually common, such as sparsely vegetated stone mountains, or mountains with metal and earth spirit mines, which may give birth to this thing.
However, the probability of birth is extremely low, so Yao Stone is quite difficult to find in the cultivation world.
Apart from Yao Stone, Zhang Ling has read many books recording refining treasure materials, and there is no other suitable material.
In the end, he decided to use Yao Stone as an auxiliary material. Although this material is rare, it can still be found with some time.
In addition, a material called Spirit Breath Soil can also be used for refining. This material is not rare, but it is just troublesome to obtain. It is also the most consumed earth-attribute material.
Heavenly Star Stone, Yao Stone, and Spirit Breath Soil, these three materials, combined with the black sand in hand, can be refined into Heavenly Star Sand, which is the second natal magic treasure Zhang Ling designed for himself.
Of course, in addition to these main materials, other common materials will also be used, and most of these materials can be collected from the market.
Therefore, in the following period of time, in addition to paying attention to these materials, Zhang Ling began to continue to retreat and practice hard.
Collecting materials is not urgent, after all, those precious materials are not easy to collect. In this way, five or six years passed in a flash.
Zhang Ling was meditating and practicing in the quiet room. At this moment, a thick layer of yellow mist gathered outside his body and continued to gather towards his body.
This scene lasted for five or six hours, until the mist gradually dissipated before he opened his eyes, but his face was not good.
Calculating the time, it has been thirty or forty years since he entered the Golden Core realm, and the spiritual power in his body has accumulated to a certain extent. He tried to break through to the middle stage half a month ago, but failed today.
He felt that his spiritual power had reached the level to break through to the middle stage of the Golden Core, but it was always a little short when breaking through. This naturally would not make him feel good.
After stopping the cultivation, Zhang Ling walked out of the cave, and for most of the time afterwards, he did not cultivate, but entered a state of relaxation, cultivating spiritual herbs and spiritual insects every day, and playing with the twin-tailed cat.
Zhang Ling spent more than half a month of leisurely time, and then entered a state of retreat again.
With the retreat, he found that he seemed to have entered a bottleneck, and the growth of his cultivation became slow.
Then he changed the cultivation plan again.
He spends some time every day doing other things, most of which he uses to study high-level spells.
The power of spells above the third level is not small, so spells above the third level are not divided into grades and are all classified as advanced spells.
Zhang Ling's first choice was naturally the earth-based spells that were suitable for him. He selected several spells such as Wind Sand Technique and Earth Armor Technique to comprehend.
The Earth Armor Technique can use the power of earth and stone to form a layer of earth armor defense outside the body. When cultivated to a profound level, the condensed earth armor is three points stronger than ordinary defensive magic weapons.
He cultivated this technique quite smoothly, and basically mastered it in a few days, after all, he mainly cultivated earth-attribute spiritual power.
The Earth Armor Technique takes some time to cast, so it does not seem very practical, but it is still useful. When casting this technique, standing on the ground can continuously borrow the power of the earth and stone under your feet to reduce your own consumption.
Zhang Ling tested it and found that the spiritual power consumed by the Earth Armor Technique with the help of earth and stone power was less than half of the other high-level spells. If you use this technique when fighting with others for spiritual power, you can greatly reduce your consumption.
Although high-level monks can fly in the air, and most of the fights are in the sky, it can also come in handy in some places.
