Zhang Ling flew westward.
Now that he had reached the fourth level, his main goal was to find spiritual objects that could help him condense his Core. Specifically, he was searching for the Earth Spirit Fruit, the main ingredient for the Core Formation Pill.
As for his agreement with the Azure Fox King, he wasn't in a hurry. Once he arrived here, the Azure Fox King would naturally find a way to contact him. Collecting the Rootless Lotus wasn't urgent either.
The turbid Qi here was significantly reduced, and the spiritual Qi was abundant. Zhang Ling began searching for places with the most concentrated spiritual energy, hoping to find ancient cultivators' abandoned medicine gardens or similar locations, as those were the most likely places to discover the Earth Spirit Fruit.
In the blink of an eye, half a day had passed.
Inside a dim cave, Zhang Ling was fighting a gray-furred rat. This was a sixth-level demonic rat with extremely fast attacks.
The rat transformed into a streak of black light, creating several illusory images, making it difficult to track and attack. A dozen gray shadows darted around him, occasionally shooting out black claw-like芒。
With a loud bang, the beast's large claws struck him.
Zhang Ling was sent flying several dozen feet away, but he remained expressionless and coldly shouted. Large swathes of sword light swept out, forcing the beast back.
The demonic rat's attack power wasn't particularly strong. The yellow protective shield generated by the Yellow Luo Umbrella blocked the attack.
At the same time, Zhang Ling's fingers danced, rapidly forming hand seals. The combined fierce attacks of numerous sword lights and Heavenly Star Sand quickly killed the demonic rat.
After collecting the demon core and the beast's materials, Zhang Ling directly entered the cave's interior. After exploring for a while, he shook his head and walked out.
This cave showed signs of artificial construction. It seemed to have been an ancient cultivator's dwelling. The spiritual Qi inside was rich. He had recently discovered this place and entered to explore, hoping to find the Earth Spirit Fruit.
As soon as he came in, he encountered this demonic rat.
Although I didn't find the Earth Spirit Fruit inside, I did find several five-to-six-hundred-year-old third-grade spiritual herbs, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.
Over the next day or so, he explored many places. Apart from encountering a few ignorant wild beasts, there were basically no dangers.
At this moment, Zhang Ling was recovering his spiritual power under a large tree in the dense forest when he suddenly heard a series of banging noises. He frowned slightly and opened his eyes, looking in one direction.
The sound was getting closer and closer. He couldn't tell if it was a fight between cultivators or a fight between wild beasts.
Zhang Ling immediately got up and headed in the opposite direction. This place was deep within the fourth level of the Abyss, with many wild beasts. The cultivators who could come here were also extraordinary. It was best to avoid them.
A quarter of an hour later, he was sixty kilometers away, far from the battlefield, and arrived at the edge of the dense forest. Before him was a patch of withered yellow bushes.
This place was located at the junction of two small mountains, and the ground was covered with many broken stones.
Suddenly, a cold wind rose beside him, and a two-zhang-long patterned green snake sprang out of the bushes, pouncing towards him.
Zhang Ling simply flickered and dodged the attack. A scan with his divine sense revealed that this was a fourth-level peak wild beast.
Meow.
The twin-tailed cat beside him cried out and attacked first. A sweep of its tails sent the green snake flying.
After entering this place, he had released the twin-tailed cat. This spiritual beast also had fifth-level strength and was a good helper.
However, the green snake that had been knocked away didn't die. Instead, it let out a strange cry, and a black light flashed on its back. It actually grew a pair of fleshy wings, and its aura soared, emitting an aura close to that of a fifth-level demon beast.
The green snake flapped its fleshy wings and shot up, gliding in the air. A golden light flashed in its mouth, and several golden wind blades struck towards the twin-tailed cat.
In that instant, Zhang Ling waved his hand, and a yellow light ball appeared in front. With a whoosh, the yellow light ball exploded, covering the green snake.
No matter how the green snake screamed, it could no longer break free. The Heavy Yuan Profound Light could completely trap low-level wild beasts instantly.
Then, the twin-tailed cat flicked its tail, and several huge red fireballs slammed into the green snake, turning the beast into ashes.
Zhang Ling led the twin-tailed cat without stopping, continuing to explore places with abundant spiritual Qi, searching for the Earth Spirit Fruit.
...
At the same time, unrest began to stir in various parts of this Nine Dragon Island area.
Not to mention the Nascent Soul old monsters who had entered this place, the Golden Core cultivators alone provoked many high-level wild beasts. The goals of these people were basically the same as Zhang Ling's: to find spiritual objects for Core Formation.
In a black mud swamp, a man wearing a green Daoist robe waved his hands, and a large saber magic weapon constantly released green light saber shadows, slaying an unknown wild beast more than ten zhang tall.
The man was overjoyed and didn't even look at the wild beast's corpse on the ground. He turned his head to look at a swamp where a ten-zhang-long dead tree lay. It was already rotten, but a zhang-large green spirit grass grew on one section of the dead tree.
This grass moved with the wind, flashing with blue spiritual light, and seemed to be no ordinary product.
The man immediately arrived in front of the spirit grass and immediately smelled a rich medicinal fragrance. If anyone else were here, they would definitely recognize that this was a fourth-grade Green Leaf Flower, and it was already a thousand years old.
The man was extremely excited, bent down, and reached out to grab the spirit grass. Suddenly, the mud under the dead tree made a gurgling sound.
A red shadow shot out without warning. The man quickly flipped over and floated in mid-air, a fire-glowing shield in front of him.
But he heard a light clang, and the man's body was knocked backward, his hands were bloody. The spiritual light on the shield flashed wildly, and it was also knocked away.
The man's face changed greatly, and he quickly flashed to fly into the air.
But the red shadow flashed, turning into a long pink snake, obviously not giving him a chance. After knocking away his magic weapon, it actually didn't reduce its momentum and pierced through his body.
The man's body stiffened, and a mouthful of blood spurted out, half of his body was stained red with blood. He waved his hands, seemingly wanting to cast some secret technique.
However, the long snake that pierced through his body twisted, and sharp black thorns that continued to grow emerged, instantly piercing countless large holes in his body.
Ah!
Having suffered this kind of injury, his physical body was bound to be difficult to protect. The man screamed, his aura dissipated, and he lost his strength. The pink snake contracted quickly and elastically, pulling the man's body into the mud.
A Golden Core powerhouse was actually killed by an unknown wild beast in an instant. He didn't even know what monster killed him until he died.
Faintly, one could see the swamp below churning, revealing a pair of five-to-six-zhang-large blood-red eyes. These strange blood eyes flashed and let out a gurgling strange cry, then sank back into the mud. The area returned to calm once more.
Only a shield full of cracks was left in the distance, gradually being swallowed by the swamp, while the green spirit grass remained safely in the mud, quite eye-catching.
