Zhang Ling narrowed his eyes, contemplating the events of the past few days, taking stock of the gains, losses, advantages, and disadvantages. He secretly resolved to act even more cautiously in the future.
Finally, with a wave of his hand, a few items appeared on the table beside him.
A white jade flying sword, a fiery red flying knife, and a tattered black shield. Besides these, there were a dozen or so intact mineral stones of various colors.
The remaining items were mostly broken and worn, with little value upon inspection.
These were the spoils from killing Liu Yuan, who was ultimately blasted apart by Ding Ruozhao's powerful silver arrows.
The black shield now bore a large gash, indicating it was ruined. The fact that her arrow could pierce such a well-defended magic item demonstrated its formidable power.
Although he couldn't use these magical items himself, selling them in the market could fetch five or six hundred thousand spirit stones, which was a decent profit.
Among these items, Liu Yuan's natal magic weapon was missing. He immediately thought of the black spear held in the Thunderfire Beast's mouth, which was likely Liu Yuan's true natal weapon.
Zhang Ling then put these items away. With another flip of his hand, he retrieved the pointed crystal stone wrapped in Fiend Soul Silk.
This treasure was his greatest gain this time.
Currently, the treasure was encased within a black silk ball, constantly flashing with spiritual light and struggling.
Zhang Ling activated a magical technique, causing the black light sphere to flicker several times before gradually unraveling, revealing the crystal stone inside. As soon as the green crystal stone was exposed, it nimbly attempted to fly away.
Zhang Ling expressionlessly opened his mouth and spat out a cloud of condensed yellow essence, instantly striking the crystal stone. The crystal stone was immediately frozen in mid-air, trembling, before falling back into his hand.
At the same time, he thought to himself that the spirituality of this treasure was incredibly strong. Even though it was temporarily trapped by the Fiend Soul Silk, it tried to escape as soon as it was free.
Releasing his divine sense to sense the crystal stone, he detected a powerful divine imprint on it.
A divine imprint is left by cultivators on magical treasures and instruments to control them. Imprinting one's own soul imprint on a treasure makes it easier to control and unleash its full power.
Under Zhang Ling's perception, the pointed crystal stone was indeed an ancient treasure. It emitted a low hum, as piercing as tearing the air.
Generally, pointed treasures like this have powerful attack capabilities and a certain armor-breaking effect.
Zhang Ling then raised his hand again, and an ancient bronze lamp appeared in his hand. He spat out several clouds of essence blood, merging them into the bronze lamp.
With a thought, the bronze lamp floated above his head and ignited with a 'poof,' emitting a layer of gray-green flame.
Under the illumination of the lamp flame, Zhang Ling immediately felt refreshed, his spirit greatly enhanced, instantly doubling in strength.
Then, he stared intently at the green crystal stone. Although he appeared motionless, he mobilized all his soul power, releasing his enhanced divine sense to completely envelop the green crystal stone.
He repeatedly used his divine sense to continuously scour away the remaining soul imprint of the green-robed old man.
This lasted for over an hour before Zhang Ling put away the bronze lamp. His face was pale, but he looked at the motionless crystal stone in his hand with joy, and couldn't help but smile wryly.
His smile seemed bitter, but he couldn't help but marvel in his heart.
He didn't expect that even with his enhanced divine sense, he was still so far behind a Core Formation cultivator, that it would take him so long to eliminate the imprint.
With a thought, the pointed crystal stone flashed and transformed into a green light. For a moment, only a green light could be seen flickering before his eyes, drawing streaks of green.
This treasure was now truly his.
Zhang Ling played with it for a while. In his estimation, this treasure was even stronger than his flying sword in terms of attack power alone.
As he continuously injected more spiritual power, the pointed crystal stone gained a powerful force. Once it struck another cultivator, its power would increase considerably, and those two pointed energy shields could probably be pierced with a single strike.
Even with defensive magic treasures, they probably wouldn't last more than a few rounds before being broken through.
This was what made Zhang Ling happy. With this treasure, his strength had increased considerably. Coupled with some tricks, Zhang Ling could be said to be confident in victory when fighting against cultivators of the same level.
……
At the same time, Ding Ruozhao appeared in a stone cave.
A wailing sound came from the front. The Thunderfire Beast was agitated, having transformed into a creature several dozen feet tall, its body emitting crimson lightning.
“I know you are intelligent. Now that you have retrieved your natal soul tablet, you want to leave. But my Ding family has nurtured you for so many years, so naturally we won’t let you leave easily. Now I can give you a few choices.”
Ding Ruozhao stared at the Thunderfire Beast without any emotion, allowing the thunder and fire on its body to dance without moving an inch, confronting the beast.
“First, hand over the soul tablet, and I can guarantee that you will still be the Ding family's inherited spirit beast.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the Thunderfire Beast seemed to understand. The flames on its body instantly soared, and it took a step forward, directly pressing towards Ding Ruozhao.
Instantly, the entire stone cave was illuminated by firelight. The thunder and fire on its body crackled loudly, and the single horn on its head gathered deep red lightning, as if it wanted to attack, but it hesitated for some reason and didn't act.
Ding Ruozhao was not intimidated by its aura and calmly said again, “The second choice is that we can fight. If you win, naturally the Ding family will no longer be able to restrain you. If you lose, I won’t keep you.”
As she spoke, Ding Ruozhao suddenly raised her hand and formed several strange hand seals. Instantly, a ball of spiritual power transformed into strands of spiritual light and rushed towards the Thunderfire Beast.
The Thunderfire Beast, with its keen senses, instantly jumped away, retreating a dozen feet. However, the strands of light seemed to have eyes, and no matter how the Thunderfire Beast dodged, they chased after it relentlessly.
In an instant, these strands of light struck the Thunderfire Beast, and some blue runes appeared on its body.
These runes were very faint. Compared to the firelight on the Thunderfire Beast's body, they were only a thin layer. But under the effect of the runes, the aura on its body instantly decreased by twenty to thirty percent.
Ding Ruozhao calmly watched this scene, and then said again.
“Although you have retrieved your natal soul tablet, don’t forget that the Ding family has nurtured you for so many years and has also planted some secret techniques on your body. Although they can’t completely control you, making your strength decline and seriously injuring you is definitely not a problem. Fighting me in this state, you have no chance of winning.”
