Zhang Ling nodded secretly as he witnessed the completion of a transaction. The spiritual objects appearing in these secret exchanges were no less impressive than the items at the first auction he attended.
The moment that red box was opened even a crack, an astonishing medicinal fragrance wafted out. Judging by the scent, he could roughly determine that it indeed contained a thousand-year-old fire-attribute spiritual herb.
If it was truly Fire Crystal Grass, it could indeed be worth a magical artifact.
Fire Crystal Grass was a Grade Three rare fire-attribute spiritual herb, its value on par with Ice Mulberry Fruit, both being treasures among Grade Three spiritual medicines.
A Fire Crystal Grass of about a thousand years old could fetch at least two hundred thousand spirit stones on the market. This herb was the main ingredient for refining Fire Crystal Pills, possessing extremely potent medicinal effects for cultivators practicing fire-attribute techniques.
Then, a clear, cold voice sounded. It was a woman in a blue dress who spread out her hands, revealing two round orbs, one blue and one black.
"One Fifth-Order wind-attribute demon core, one Sixth-Order water-attribute demon core. This young lady wishes to exchange them for a few Fourth-Order spiritual talismans."
After the woman announced the items she wished to exchange, no one responded. After a dozen or so breaths of silence, the woman sighed, retrieved the demon cores, and sat back down.
It wasn't that these two demon cores lacked value, but Fourth-Order spiritual talismans were simply scarce on the market. The lowest-grade Fourth-Order spiritual talisman cost over ten thousand spirit stones, and some powerful ones could be worth close to a hundred thousand.
To exchange for the demon cores, one would need at least six or seven Fourth-Order spiritual talismans.
Even for cultivators skilled in talisman-making, crafting Fourth-Order spiritual talismans was quite difficult. Ordinary cultivators would need to spend a lot of time to collect them. Even if they had these talismans, no cultivator would easily trade them away.
In the market, a Fifth-Order demon core was worth around one hundred and fifty thousand spirit stones. Zhang Ling himself had been looking for such high-grade talismans these past few days but had only collected a mere three or four Fourth-Order talismans.
After the woman sat down, another cultivator stood up.
This was a middle-aged man who wasn't wearing a mask. He had white hair, pointed ears, and scales covering his hands. Judging by the dense demonic aura around him, he had reached the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm; he was actually a high-level half-demon.
With a wave of his hand, a muffled thud echoed as a beast, over ten feet long and covered in blue-black fur, appeared on the table in front of him. The beast showed no signs of life; it was a corpse.
Upon closer inspection, the beast was a tiger-like demon, immediately attracting everyone's attention.
Zhang Ling also glanced at it, judging from the beast's residual aura that it seemed to be a Fourth-Order demon, well-preserved except for a small hole, two fingers wide, on its neck, seemingly the cause of its death.
After determining that it was just a Fourth-Order demon beast, most people lost interest. For high-level cultivators, the materials from a Fourth-Order demon beast held little appeal.
Zhang Ling also lost interest, but suddenly his mind stirred, and a spirit beast pouch at his waist twitched a few times. He quickly touched the pouch, slightly soothing the spirit beast inside.
The Twin-Tailed Cat inside seemed quite excited, constantly conveying some meaning to him. This startled him.
The Twin-Tailed Cat was usually very quiet, spending most of the day asleep, a complete lazybones. Why was it suddenly so restless?
Zhang Ling communicated with the Twin-Tailed Cat mentally and immediately understood its meaning: it was interested in that demon beast corpse. He couldn't help but turn his gaze back to the demon beast's body.
At this moment, the half-demon man also began to introduce it.
"This is a Fourth-Order peak Azure Flame Tiger, a complete body, for exchange for spiritual objects that can help low-level cultivators break through to the Golden Core realm, at least two or more types of auxiliary spiritual objects."
After speaking, he scanned the crowd, but no one seemed interested in the beast's body.
A Fourth-Order peak demon beast's body might be worth one auxiliary spiritual object, but two were naturally considered not worth it by the cultivators present.
The man frowned, and with a flash of spiritual light, he took out a semi-transparent crystal ball. Spiritual light flickered in his hand, and strands of white light emanated from the crystal ball, entering the demon beast's body.
After a few breaths, those strands of white light were dyed azure, and strangely, the azure light trembled like flames, emitting a sense of heat.
"Everyone, take a good look. This is no ordinary Fourth-Order demon beast, but one about to break through to the Fifth-Order. I happened to witness it breaking through and killed it with one strike. And when I examined this demon beast's body, I discovered that, for some reason, the natal demon fire within hadn't immediately dissipated. So, I sealed the demon beast's demon fire. After my research, its natal demon fire has undergone a qualitative change, no weaker than a Golden Core cultivator's Dan fire. If there are any cultivators skilled in fire attributes, you know the uses after refining this demon fire."
As he spoke, the half-demon gently shook the crystal ball in his hand, and suddenly those strands of azure flame swelled up a bit, instantly turning into a small patch of firelight in front of him.
This immediately attracted the attention of the cultivators. Many released curious expressions, carefully using their divine sense to examine it, and immediately some became interested.
Demon fire equivalent to that of a Golden Core cultivator was also a special kind of spiritual fire. However, the demon fire within demon beasts usually dissipated immediately after death.
Could this be the reason for his Twin-Tailed Cat's restlessness? Zhang Ling couldn't help but guess.
The half-demon man also revealed a smile. At this moment, several divine sense transmissions fell into his ears, and he was talking to them.
However, he simply replied to most of the transmissions with a few words, shaking his head, obviously dissatisfied with the prices offered.
Then, a few more people directly took out some things, but the half-demon man only seemed willing to exchange for spiritual objects that could assist low-level cultivators in breaking through to the Golden Core realm, and he wasn't interested in anything else.
Suddenly, he turned his head to look at someone not far away, the old man who had traded for the fire-attribute spiritual medicine when Zhang Ling had just arrived.
The old man flicked his hand, and a jade bottle shot towards the half-demon man. The man caught the bottle, opened it, took a look, and frowned in thought.
"Fellow Daoist, why not take a look at my two pills?"
Just as he was hesitating, another voice transmission entered his ear. The man turned his head to look in the direction of Zhang Ling's location.
Seeing this person turn his head, Zhang Ling also flicked his hand, and a white porcelain bottle was thrown out. The man caught the bottle, opened it, and inside were two pills, one white and one purple.
He released his divine sense to carefully examine these two different pills, and the half-demon man's frown deepened.
Zhang Ling's heart sank. He had taken out a White Bloom Pill and a Purple Vein Pill. Both of these pills could assist low-level cultivators in increasing their chances of forming a Golden Core. He had obtained them from the storage bags of other cultivators.
The effects of both pills weren't bad, but seeing that this high-level half-demon was still hesitating, he didn't seem satisfied.
Zhang Ling glanced at the spirit beast pouch. Although the Twin-Tailed Cat inside had been temporarily soothed by him, its emotions were still quite agitated. It seemed that the demon beast's body really had an effect on this guy.
Sighing in his heart, he flicked his hand again, and a larger black jade bottle was thrown out, along with a voice transmission. "Fellow Daoist, how about adding this honey?"
The black jade bottle contained honey produced by mature spirit bees, which had the effect of refining spiritual power. A whole bottle was no weaker than other auxiliary pills.
Seeing this, the half-demon man's eyes lit up, and he grabbed the jade bottle. Inside lay some semi-transparent earthy-yellow spiritual liquid, containing a dense earth spiritual power. Although he didn't recognize what this spiritual liquid was, he had his own means of testing it.
The man opened his mouth and sucked two drops of the liquid in, carefully tasted it, and his face lit up with joy. With a wave of his hand, the demon beast's body on the table flew towards Zhang Ling.
Zhang Ling breathed a sigh of relief and put away the demon beast's body. He would carefully examine the demon beast's body after leaving this place.
Afterward, another high-level cultivator stood up, took out treasures, and stated what he wanted to exchange for. This went on for more than an hour before the trading session ended.
Zhang Ling naturally also took out some treasures, even a thousand-year-old Grade Three spiritual medicine, but to his disappointment, the high-level cultivators who came here didn't have this special material, Yao Stone.
After the trading session ended, he went straight back to the small shop opened by Yunfeng Shangren.
As soon as he returned to the house, Zhang Ling released the body of the Azure Flame Tiger.
Meow!
Before he could carefully examine the demon beast's body, a spirit beast pouch at his waist bulged, and with a flash of spiritual light, a fat orange cat appeared at his feet, rushing towards the demon beast's body.
Zhang Ling's mouth twitched a few times. He quickly raised his hand and released a beam of Heavy Yuan Profound Light, instantly suppressing the orange cat in place.
"You lazy fellow, you never put in any effort usually, but you're so eager when you see something good."
He couldn't help but chuckle, and the only response he received was the Twin-Tailed Cat's meowing. The Twin-Tailed Cat, suppressed on the ground, kept meowing, looking aggrieved.
"I'll check if there's anything special about this demon beast first." Zhang Ling chuckled and released his divine sense to carefully examine the Azure Flame Tiger.
Through sensing, it was indeed a Fourth-Order peak demon beast. It didn't seem to have been dead for long, and its body had residual spiritual power, which could sense faint traces of fire spiritual power. It seemed to be a fire-attribute demon beast.
But then he sensed another wind-attribute power from its body that was no weaker than the fire spiritual power. Zhang Ling couldn't help but become interested. Could this be a wind-fire dual-attribute demon beast?
Unlike human cultivators, who mostly cultivated one type of spiritual power, low-level demon beasts mostly survived on instinct, and some of them had two or three types of spiritual power in their bodies.
However, these demon beasts were mostly low-level and progressed slowly in strength. High-level dual-attribute demon beasts were rare and considered to be different species. But once these demon beasts advanced to a high level, their strength was also greater than that of ordinary demon beasts.
For example, the Ice-Fire Python was a demon beast with both ice and fire attributes, and there was also a Three-Headed Eagle with three heads that was proficient in three types of spiritual power.
And some sects or cultivators who were proficient in beast taming often searched for this kind of demon beast with great potential. The mountain-protecting spirit beasts of some large sects were mostly these powerful demon beasts. Once they were cultivated to a high level, they would become a powerful aid.
Then he began to dissect the demon beast's body.
Half an hour later, the demon beast had been completely dissected by him. Its flesh and blood were nothing special, and the fur on its body was the same as that of ordinary demon beasts. Only a spiritual bone about an inch in size was found in its heart.
This spiritual bone was a rib bone of the demon beast, growing between its chest and abdomen, with irregular spiritual patterns on it. Once it was separated from the body, this rib bone turned white and seemed no different from other bones.
Holding the spiritual bone in his hand, a strand of yellow spiritual light was pointed on it, and immediately red fire patterns appeared, and then with a puff, the bone burned.
But the bone was not destroyed, and some fine cyan patterns appeared on it, and the burning flame was instantly converted into cyan.
Strands of cyan flames with terrifying high temperatures wrapped around the spiritual bone and rotated. The whistling sound of wind rose in the four hands, forming a thick cyan fire tornado centered on the spiritual bone.
Zhang Ling also immediately stopped the experiment, and the cyan flame instantly shrank back into the bone. The spiritual patterns on the bone flickered a few times and returned to calm, turning back into a white bone, looking like an ordinary rib.
But the flame instantly turned cyan, containing fire and wind spiritual power, and complemented each other and merged together, greatly increasing the power of this demon fire.
It was indeed like what the half-demon man said, not weaker than a cultivator's Dan fire. The demon fire generated in this demon beast's body was actually preserved in this spiritual bone, which was a bit rare.
After the demon beast died, this demon fire born in the demon beast's pavilion was a rootless thing, and it was indeed rare to be able to survive.
It seemed that it was because of this spiritual bone that it could be preserved. Spiritual bone was also a good material for refining treasures, and was used to refine magic weapons and magic tools.
Such a special spiritual fruit, if refined well, it was possible to refine it into a magic weapon.
Meow meow!
While Zhang Ling's mind was turning, the Twin-Tailed Cat, which was trapped by him with spiritual light, looked anxious and kept meowing.
Zhang Ling smiled helplessly, flicked his finger slightly, and released the spirit beast. Immediately, the Twin-Tailed Cat flashed to his feet, constantly rubbing against him, looking ingratiating, and its round eyes were fixed on the spiritual bone in his hand.
It seemed that he was right, the Twin-Tailed Cat's previous restlessness was related to this spiritual bone.
Zhang Ling reached out and touched the fat cat's head, and chuckled. "You little fellow, I didn't expect you to have such good luck, to encounter such a special thing."
Saying that, he raised his hand and the rib bone fell down. The Twin-Tailed Cat immediately lit up its eyes, seemed to understand his words, jumped up and instantly swallowed the spiritual bone in its mouth.
Zhang Ling was taken aback. This little guy actually swallowed the spiritual bone in one bite. You must know that this spiritual bone contained a demon fire with considerable power. If he was not careful, he might set himself on fire. He quickly checked the condition of the spirit beast, but the Twin-Tailed Cat was very excited and there was no special fluctuation.
After observing for a while, he breathed a sigh of relief.
