With a thought, the two Ice Spirit Silkworms raised half of their bodies and spat out strands of shimmering silk as fine as hair.
Zhang Ling picked up a few strands of silk and rubbed them in his hand. The silk was very soft but had a faint layer of blue spiritual light and felt cool to the touch.
Then he directed the two silkworms to spew out light blue ice mist. The mist spread on the ground, forming a layer of white frost, and the icy power contained within seemed quite strong.
Zhang Ling nodded inwardly, the strength of the two larvae was not bad. Then he placed the two larvae in a pile of Ice Mist Grass and left the spirit beast room.
Next, Zhang Ling went to check on the Earth Spirit Bees. Most of the bee colony had been taken into the desolate region before, and many were lost while hunting desolate beasts, with the majority of the losses occurring when dealing with the three cultivators earlier. By the time he returned to the cave, the Earth Spirit Bees were almost exhausted, and he only brought back about a thousand.
However, after several years of breeding within the cave, the number of mature spirit bees had increased by more than twenty thousand. These newly matured spirit bees, under control, had roughly replenished the losses.
Although the strength of the Earth Spirit Bee colony was not particularly strong, and it seemed that there was not much room for growth, once the number reached tens of thousands, dealing with a Core Formation stage cultivator would not be a problem.
In addition to this, Zhang Ling had also refined a type of pill and a special magical treasure.
The magical treasure was a piece of gauze about ten feet in size, capable of concealing a cultivator's spiritual power and form. Even if a cultivator with strong spiritual sense scanned it, there would be no trace.
This treasure had a very resounding name in the cultivation world, called the Spirit Concealing Veil. The refining material was the silk spun by the Ice Spirit Silkworms. After refining, this silk could be turned into transparent threads, which had a miraculous effect on concealing spiritual power, thus allowing the creation of this special treasure.
With this Spirit Concealing Veil, in some special situations, one might be able to escape danger quietly, or even use it to ambush other cultivators.
The newly refined pill was called Ice Heart Pill, and he refined a total of thirteen. It was refined using the demon core of an Ice Shimmering Silkworm that had reached the fifth rank and Ice Mulberry Fruit as the main materials.
This pill was very precious, with each one costing at least forty to fifty thousand spiritual stones, and even then, it was hard to find.
The effect of the Ice Heart Pill was also miraculous. It was said to be able to cleanse a cultivator's mind, allowing them to calm their mind and thus help them absorb external spiritual power more quickly.
This pill sounded a bit mysterious, but it could indeed assist cultivators in cultivation, especially when breaking through bottlenecks, the effect was most obvious.
Some ancient books even listed this pill as a breakthrough pill. Breakthrough pills could help cultivators quickly break through bottlenecks. This type of pill was the most precious, but generally speaking, breakthrough pills only worked for low-level cultivators.
Since ancient times, no pill had dared to claim that it could allow a Core Formation stage cultivator to break through a small realm out of thin air. The fact that Ice Heart Pill could be listed in the ranks of breakthrough pills showed how precious this pill was. Of course, Ice Heart Pill was not a true breakthrough pill.
The Ice Heart Pill's recipe was also found in the storage bags of the three cultivators he had intercepted before. The main material was Ice Mulberry Fruit. It seemed that the three cultivators' purpose at the time was to pick Ice Mulberry Fruit and refine this pill.
After the Ice Heart Pill was refined, Zhang Ling also took a few to test the effect. This pill was not as magical as described in the ancient books, but it still had some magical effects.
From his own feeling, after taking one, a special icy spiritual power would be generated in his body. This icy spiritual power would flow throughout his body and maintain for a period of time. During this period, meditating and cultivating would allow him to absorb spiritual power four or five times faster than usual.
This speed of absorbing external spiritual power could be said to be very terrifying, and it was no wonder that the Ice Heart Pill was rumored to be so magical.
During this time, Zhang Ling used this pill to meditate and cultivate. Each Ice Heart Pill could maintain more than a month of cultivation effect.
With the assistance of this rare pill, he faintly felt the loosening of his bottleneck, and then returned to a peaceful cultivation time.
Half a year later, Zhang Ling walked out of the cave with joy. At this time, his body was full of spiritual power, and his aura was stronger than before. Under internal inspection, the spiritual power gathered on the golden core constantly rotating in his dantian had increased by more than twice as much as before, which meant that his cultivation had reached the middle stage of Core Formation.
This made him happy for a while, and it was not in vain for his decades of hard work.
After the breakthrough, his strength had increased a lot. He was more comfortable in operating spells and urging magical treasures. At the same time, the coverage of his spiritual sense had also increased. Fully releasing his spiritual sense could cover a range of seventeen or eighteen miles, and this kind of spiritual sense strength was not weaker than that of a late Core Formation stage cultivator.
Then Zhang Ling continued to meditate and cultivate, spending more than a month to consolidate his cultivation. But after entering the middle stage of Core Formation, the auxiliary effects of the pills during cultivation were reduced.
Among them, the effect of the Earth Origin Pill was reduced by more than half compared to the initial stage, and the effect of the Condensing Essence Pill was also weakened. These two pills were caused by the body developing some drug resistance due to excessive use.
At the same time, the newly refined Ice Heart Pill, although the auxiliary effect was very strong, was not suitable for long-term use. Excessive use would produce a kind of cold poison in the body, so it should be used with caution.
Regarding the matter of pills, Zhang Ling re-planned it.
After experimenting, he chose two kinds of pills that were suitable for him. One was a pill called Yellow Spirit Pill, and the other was a Earth Peony.
The Yellow Spirit Pill was a relatively common pill, suitable for cultivators in the middle and late stages of Core Formation. The Earth Peony was an earth-attribute pill handed down from ancient times, suitable for cultivators who practiced earth-attribute techniques.
The main medicine of the Yellow Spirit Pill was the third-grade pill Yellow Leaf Flower, and the age of the spiritual flower had to reach about five hundred years. The value of the Yellow Spirit Pill on the market could also be bought for more than a thousand spiritual stones.
The Earth Peony was not easy to refine. It not only required three or four kinds of third-grade spiritual medicines, but also needed to use earth-attribute demon cores as materials to configure a special spiritual liquid as a medicine guide to be refined successfully.
Pills refined with demon cores were also quite common in the Flowing Cloud Sea, and the refined pills were most suitable for high-level cultivators.
It was just that demon cores were valuable, and not everyone could use them.
Even Zhang Ling felt a little headache. After refining the Spirit Breath Soil, there were not many earth-attribute demon cores left on his body, so he went to the market and only collected a few fifth-grade demon cores after more than half a month, and the cost was not small.
In this way, he cultivated while refining pills, and more than a year passed.
During this time, the catalytic spiritual liquid produced by the mysterious bead was also used to cultivate spiritual herbs and flowers.
The two kinds of pills were also successfully refined under the consumption of a large amount of spiritual medicine. Fortunately, the effects of the two kinds of pills did not disappoint him, especially the Earth Peony, which could assist more than three months of cultivation with one pill.
It contained pure earth spiritual power, which was much better than the effects of other kinds of pills.
