In an unnamed mountain, a female cultivator with exquisite features carefully stowed away a fiery red spiritual mushroom, and with a flash, quickly left the area.
In another canyon, two men dressed in black, their sect unknown, were fiercely battling a monstrous beast resembling a two-headed lion.
One wielded a cyan longsword, continuously slashing out several white sword beams, while the other, with eyes closed, continuously formed hand seals, emitting violent spiritual power from his body, as if casting some kind of spell.
The sword beams struck the giant lion, leaving only faint marks. Unable to cause substantial damage to the two-headed lion, they only enraged the beast. The man dared not be negligent, retreating quickly while activating a magical artifact to obstruct it.
For a time, the man and the monstrous beast were locked in a stalemate, unable to determine a victor.
At this moment, the man who was concentrating on casting the spell opened his eyes, his aura solidified, and with a loud roar, all the spiritual power in his body flowed into his right hand, his right hand actually turned into a black arc of light. This person turned his hand into a blade, and with a vigorous wave, a three-zhang-long black ray shot out.
This attack intersected at the necks of the two-headed lion, and two ferocious lion heads fell to the ground. With a loud bang, the beast's headless body immediately lost its strength and fell to the ground. Blood splattered, staining the ground red.
The two cultivators flashed with joy, but they did not collect the beast's core. Instead, they impatiently flew away on their escape lights to a cave a few miles away.
After entering, they dragged out a small red tree. The tree was covered with many small cherry-sized blue fruits, which made them extremely excited.
The Nine Dragon Island area on the fourth level, with its vast area, has nine high-grade spiritual veins. Although danger is constant, the resources are also the richest in the Sky Abyss.
Furthermore, in the better part of the day, Zhang Ling had collected seven or eight spiritual herbs that were over three hundred years old. The most precious of these was an eight-hundred-year-old, fourth-grade Azure Nether Flower.
However, at this moment, he and the Twin-Tailed Cat were running wildly, with pursuers constantly behind them.
Zhang Ling's expression was solemn as he ran non-stop through the dense forest, chased by many black-haired giant squirrels, their large tails raised, numbering in the hundreds.
This was a group of fourth-order gregarious monstrous beasts. With a flick of their large tails, they could condense several fireballs to attack.
Their individual strength was not worth considering, but with hundreds of fourth-order monstrous beasts, he had to retreat.
Zhang Ling occasionally waved his hand backward, releasing several talismans, slightly hindering these fellows, before quickly disappearing from sight. Behind him, there was a series of explosions, a cloud of smoke and fire. Without even looking at the commotion behind him, he accelerated his escape.
Amidst the smoke, a series of strange cries erupted, and many black shadows rushed out. He could kill these squirrels head-on, but it would waste a lot of spiritual power. Fortunately, he had bought a lot of spiritual talismans in Myriad Manifestation City, otherwise, in this dangerous place, the excessive consumption would be detrimental to dealing with emergencies.
After about an incense stick's worth of time, Zhang Ling finally shook off the demonic beasts behind him and hid in a large, hollow tree trunk to conceal his aura.
He looked at the string of hard-shelled nuts in his hand. These nuts were each about the size of a thumb, with a cross-shaped opening on top, revealing the flesh inside, resembling chestnuts.
However, the flesh inside was purplish-red, each one crystal clear like a gemstone, with a faint medicinal fragrance wafting from it.
This string of spiritual fruit was what he had picked from the giant squirrels' nest not long ago, which was why it had attracted the pursuit of the entire group of monstrous beasts.
Zhang Ling chuckled and muttered to himself, "As expected, it's a Purple Heart Stone." This was an extremely rare third-grade spiritual medicine, more valuable than ordinary fourth-grade spiritual medicines.
This spiritual fruit could be used to refine a pill called Blood Essence Pill, which had a strong healing effect and could quickly replenish consumed blood energy.
He took out a jade box made of Icefire Jade and carefully stored the string of Purple Heart Stones, then swallowed a pill to restore his spiritual power.
He had fled for hundreds of miles and consumed some spiritual power. He needed to keep his spiritual power abundant at all times in order to survive better.
A day later, a lake shrouded in mist suddenly exploded with water, and a figure rushed out from it.
As soon as Zhang Ling rushed out of the water, he flew away without the slightest hesitation. Immediately after, a loud noise came from the water behind him, and the lake water surged, creating waves ten zhang high.
Two huge monsters chased after him in the waves.
These were two high-level monstrous beasts, resembling ordinary crocodiles, but their scales were cyan, and their tails were extraordinarily long, like snake tails. These two monstrous beasts were like Ironjaw Crocodiles, one with seventh-order strength and the other with sixth-order strength.
Zhang Ling led the two Ironjaw Crocodiles to the shore in an instant and sped away.
After the man and the two beasts left, the lake returned to calm.
But another figure suddenly flashed out from behind a giant tree on the shore, it was Zhang Ling again. He was wearing an Invisibility Veil, revealing no aura at all.
The figure that looked exactly like him just now was a clone transformed from the Water Bubble Ancient Treasure he had obtained not long ago.
This clone was now leading the two high-level Ironjaw Crocodiles in pursuit in the distance.
He turned his gaze and looked at the lake, which had returned to calm. It was a small lake with a range of seven or eight li, shrouded in a layer of ice mist, seemingly an ice lake. But the lake water was clear and flowed slowly without freezing.
An hour ago, he had come to this place and found that the spiritual energy here was much more abundant than in other places. He stopped to investigate and then discovered that the ice mist covering the lake was an illusion formed by a formation.
This piqued his interest, as it was clearly an illusion formation set up by ancient cultivators. This formation was not strong, with only a confusing effect. As long as he guarded his mind, there would be no major interference.
Therefore, Zhang Ling directly dived into the lake. Before long, he discovered a hidden ancient cultivator's cave at the bottom of the water. When he wanted to enter that cave, he encountered these two high-level Ironjaw Crocodiles.
That's why the situation just now occurred.
Now that the clone had lured away the Ironjaw Crocodiles, Zhang Ling had no worries. With a flash, he flew close to the lake surface. With a wave of his hand, he threw out seven or eight formation flags and two black crystal balls.
The formation flags disappeared into the water, immediately turning into spiritual light clusters, transforming into a layer of blue light, revealing dense formation patterns. He began to set up the formation.
He had to set up the formation before the two Ironjaw Crocodiles returned, so that he could trap these two high-level monstrous beasts and kill them in one fell swoop, which would be much easier. If he fought them head-on, he could naturally solve these two monstrous beasts, but it would take some time and spiritual power.
With the assistance of the formation, it would be much easier.
This was a set of water-attribute formations, called the "Azure Spirit Water Formation", one of the several sets of formations he had refined while hunting monstrous beasts. It was very suitable for setting up here, and could quickly trap high-level monstrous beasts with the help of water power.
After a moment, the formation was set up. Zhang Ling hid nearby and waited quietly.
Before long, a black cloud flew from not far away, and the roars of the Ironjaw Crocodiles came from inside. The black cloud flew to the sky above the lake and rushed directly into the water.
