The enlarged twin-tailed cat, its fur now a fiery red, opened its mouth and unleashed a crimson pillar of flame.
With a deafening roar, it struck the blue shadow directly. The bizarre shadow's body wavered, becoming extremely transparent, and its aura diminished significantly.
Zhang Ling smiled at this, realizing the spirit beast possessed some strength after all.
But then, the shadow abruptly shrank into a block of ice about a foot in size, emitting a dazzling, azure light.
Instantly, Zhang Ling felt the surrounding cold intensify dramatically. A sweep of his divine sense revealed that the ice-fire jade within several passages had also begun to glow with a blue light.
Cracking sounds echoed incessantly as the ice-fire jade shattered one after another. The contained ice spirit energy transformed into streams of cold air, rapidly converging towards the ice block formed by the shadow. The cold emanating from the ice block intensified, and the entire block turned an icy black.
Seeing this, Zhang Ling was greatly alarmed.
It was rapidly absorbing the cold energy from the ice-fire jade, and at such an incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, the aura emanating from the ice block had returned to the level of a sixth-order demon beast, and it was still growing stronger.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling's eyes lit up as he exclaimed, "An Ice Wraith!"
Seeing the icy blue shadow absorb the ice spirit energy from the ice-fire jade, its aura surging violently, a specific creature name surfaced in Zhang Ling's mind: "Wraith."
Wraiths are rare monsters, and the exact mechanism of their formation remains unclear.
Wraiths are a type of special spirit body. It is said that they have a chance to be born from the resentment of deceased cultivators, their lingering souls accumulating in special locations over many years.
Although these monsters are spirit bodies, they do not possess the Yin and evil energy of Yin spirits. Instead, they adapt to their specific environment, giving rise to different types of wraiths. The most common types are Fire Wraiths, Water Wraiths, and Ice Wraiths.
Wraiths all possess a powerful ability: rapidly absorbing corresponding spiritual energy to enhance their strength. For example, Fire Wraiths may form in geothermal fires, Water Wraiths in Yin water rivers, and Ice Wraiths in icy lands.
Fire Wraiths can instantly ignite the earth's fire veins, flattening mountains and turning regions into fiery wastelands in moments. Ice Wraiths can manipulate the extreme cold spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and are rumored to be able to freeze thousands of miles.
Their shared ability is to quickly absorb spiritual energy to restore and enhance their strength, often increasing their power exponentially in an instant, resembling the legendary control over the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
These monsters are rarely seen in the cultivation world, and even high-level cultivators know little about them. If he hadn't seen the icy blue shadow's strength surge instantly, absorbing the icy spiritual energy from the mine, he wouldn't have recognized it.
In the blink of an eye, visible frost appeared around the ice block formed by the Ice Wraith, solidifying rapidly. The Ice Wraith's body was no longer translucent but had transformed into an ice creature over two zhang tall.
In its head region, a pair of light blue eyes, resembling human eyes, emitted a bone-chilling light. At this moment, the spiritual pressure emanating from the monster had reached the level of a seventh-order demon beast, and it was still increasing rapidly.
Zhang Ling dared not be negligent. If he allowed this Ice Wraith to absorb enough icy spiritual energy, its strength could increase to an unimaginable level. He didn't want to capsize in a gutter.
With a thought, numerous sword lights attacked, and a large mass of Heavenly Star Sand was released, condensing into countless sand spheres that crashed down with immense force.
Still, he wasn't at ease. With a wave of his hand, a purplish-black bronze bell was summoned, and spiritual energy was frantically poured into it, activating this ancient treasure.
In a short while, numerous sword lights slashed against the Ice Wraith's ice-like body with a whooshing sound, producing the clang of metal striking metal. Countless ice shards flew everywhere, and parts of the Ice Wraith's body were directly shattered, suggesting that the monster wasn't as terrifying as he had imagined.
But in the blink of an eye, countless ice flowers danced, and the Ice Wraith's body recovered without any damage. It immediately emitted an azure light, spinning rapidly in place, like a giant blue top.
As it spun rapidly, it shot out sharp ice spikes, making them impossible to dodge.
In an instant, the Heavenly Star Sand he had released was scattered before it could even attack the monster.
Zhang Ling quickly retreated some distance, but with two crisp sounds, three or four ice spikes struck his spiritual light shield. He immediately felt the spiritual energy shield tremble as a wave of icy energy covered it, forming a layer of frost.
Under the impact of the cold energy, he felt the spiritual energy shield operating sluggishly, and its defensive effect was greatly reduced.
Again, countless ice spikes shot towards him.
Zhang Ling snorted coldly, and a zhang-tall yellow light erupted from his body. The spiritual energy within him was rapidly injected into the shield, and the frost on it instantly dissipated. At the same time, the spiritual energy shield thickened by another three points.
Then, he opened his mouth and spat out a ball of hazy yellow essence, which transformed into a yellow light and shone forward.
The attacking ice spikes, still a zhang away from him, were enveloped by the yellow light and frozen in mid-air. Then, the two flying swords beside him shot out, and all the ice spikes were shattered into ice dust by the sword light.
This yellow light was the Heavy Yuan Profound Light he had cultivated. Temporarily immobilizing the numerous ice spikes, and as his cultivation increased, the power of this ability also increased.
Meow...woo!
Beside him, the twin-tailed cat also spat out a thick, crimson flame, which crashed into the Ice Wraith's body with a roar. Instantly, most of the monster's body melted and dissipated in the flames.
The flames spat out by the twin-tailed cat were much more powerful than a cultivator's core fire, not comparable to ordinary fire-attribute demon beasts.
And the ancient treasure in his hand was also activated. The bronze bell transformed into a black light, and with a clang, a layer of visible sound waves struck the Ice Wraith's shattered body, directly shattering it into powder.
But the ice shards, now ice dust, flashed with a faint light and instantly vaporized, forming a cloud of cold mist that spread throughout the entire passage.
For a time, the scene was filled with white mist, and even his divine sense was affected.
Trying to escape!
Zhang Ling immediately realized that the Ice Wraith was trying to escape. He quickly released all of his divine sense, penetrating the ice mist. As he observed, he immediately spotted a black ice crystal flash, shooting towards another passage.
The black ice crystal was only the size of a palm, seemingly the Ice Wraith's main body. Zhang Ling quickly locked onto the black ice crystal with his divine sense and pursued it closely.
And just like that, he and the twin-tailed cat chased after it, one in front and the other behind, passing through three or four passages.
During the chase, he also discovered that the ice-fire jade within the passages had shattered one after another. And the fragments were crimson, still gathering a small amount of fire spiritual energy.
Zhang Ling realized that the Ice Wraith had absorbed the ice spiritual energy within, and the spiritual energy within the jade mine was disrupted, destroying the balance of spiritual energy, directly ruining the ice-fire jade.
