Zhang Ling carefully flew along the bank of the Blackwater River for a while, trying to find a narrow spot to cross, but this Yin Water River was extremely wide, and he couldn't see the opposite bank anywhere along the way.
These giant raven wild beasts were not in a single group. He occasionally saw several groups, ranging from hundreds to thousands of ravens.
At the same time, there was also a strange fish in the water, covered with black scales, similar to ordinary black fish, but with a flat body and, strangely, a long, sharp beak. It was about ten feet long, like a sharp sword.
This was also a gregarious strange fish, generally with the strength of second or third-tier demon beasts. Every once in a while, the raven flocks in the sky would swoop down to hunt these strange fish.
This Blackwater River seemed to be their territory.
It seemed that flying directly through the air was not feasible. The river was wide and could not be crossed in a short time. Zhang Ling pondered for a moment and suddenly had an idea, but whether it would work or not required some experimentation.
With a flip of his hand, he took out the Yin Soul Banner he had obtained from Old Shen. He cast a spell, and the banner shook, releasing a large cloud of Yin Qi, enveloping him inside.
He transformed into a gust of Yin wind and flew directly towards the river surface.
After a while, Zhang Ling had flown more than a mile, and as expected, no strange fish or ravens attacked him.
From the outside, he was just a drifting cloud of Yin mist. This kind of Yin mist was very common on this Yin Water River. He was overjoyed and hid in the Yin mist, flying towards the opposite bank.
Simply put, the Yin Soul Banner gathered Yin souls and ghost Qi, which could isolate the aura of living beings.
The sharp-mouthed strange fish in the river and the ravens in the sky were both wild beasts with Yin and cold attributes and had a strong sense of vitality. They would attack as long as living beings passed over the water surface.
By using the Yin Soul Banner to shield his own vitality, crossing the river became much easier.
Soon, he had traveled more than halfway. This Yin Water River was wider than Zhang Ling had thought, at least five or six hundred miles wide.
Suddenly, a strange cawing sound rang out from overhead, and a flock of hundreds of giant ravens swooped down, flying towards his direction.
Zhang Ling's expression changed, but then he realized that he had not been exposed. This flock of ravens seemed to be trying to catch the sharp-mouthed strange fish in the water.
At the same time, the water surface ahead surged, creating towering waves, and black lights shot out, revealing the sharp-mouthed fish breaking out of the water.
For a time, the water surface within a few miles was like a pot that had exploded.
Many large ravens had not even approached the water surface before they were pierced by large numbers of sharp-mouthed fish, falling into the water and being devoured by the large group of fish beasts.
Zhang Ling saw this sudden scene and couldn't help but stop, hiding in a cloud of Yin mist and watching everything. He marveled in his heart.
The sharp-mouthed strange fish had actually begun to counterattack the flock of ravens in the sky.
For a time, a large number of fish beasts and ravens devoured and killed each other, and the water surface was dyed blood red in a short period of time.
Suddenly, a strong wind blew overhead. Three high-level ravens flapped their wings wildly, transforming into countless wind blades that swept over, like a rain of knives.
Rumbling sounds continued, instantly killing hundreds of sharp-mouthed fish.
Ooo…
A long howl came from underwater at the same time, the river water flowed backward, creating a hundred-foot-high wave. A huge fish beast with blue-black scales appeared.
Zhang Ling's eyes narrowed, and he saw that this was also a sharp-mouthed fish, but it was huge, more than thirty feet long. This beast's huge body rode the wind and waves, with the power to overturn rivers and seas.
The sharp thorns on its head flashed with black light, turning into a huge black light that instantly split a high-level raven in half.
Zhang Ling was shocked to see this. The aura on this big fish was astonishing. It was a seventh-tier demon fish, but its strength seemed to have reached the peak of the seventh tier.
He didn't dare to stay in place for long, and wrapped his whole body in Yin mist, flying towards the other side to escape the battle between these two groups of wild beasts. He didn't want to be caught in it.
After flying secretly for a quarter of an hour, Zhang Ling finally saw the opposite bank.
Once he reached the opposite bank, he directly entered a dense forest, found a hidden spot, rested for a while, identified the direction, and flew towards the place where the earth spirit fruit grew.
After more than an hour, he walked out of the dense forest and saw a lush grassland.
Before him was a vast grassland area, and in the far distance, he could see a continuous range of mountains, which was where the earth spirit fruit grew.
Calculating the distance, it might take more than half a day to get there. Zhang Ling calmed himself, concealed his figure, and flew towards that direction.
The grass under his feet was lush, and everywhere grew a continuous stretch of weeds. His divine sense was always around him, and from time to time he could discover the wild beasts hidden within, but once he discovered them, he consciously avoided them.
In the blink of an eye, the sky darkened, and it looked like it was about to get dark.
However, in the Tianyuan Secret Realm, there was not much difference between day and night, and it had no effect on cultivators like them.
However, Zhang Ling also keenly noticed that gusts of Yin wind were blowing around, and the wild beasts were becoming more active.
He traveled a hundred miles.
Suddenly, his brow furrowed, and he slowed down. Not far to the left, a patch of fire appeared, and a large area of grassland was burning.
He released a few strands of divine sense to check the area, and Zhang Ling's expression became strange.
Several miles away, in the weeds, there was a rocky area, and a huge black stone had a figure kneeling on it. This person had a golden short sword inserted into his chest. A pool of blood flowed from under this person, but it had already dried up, and it seemed that he had been dead for a long time.
Ten or so feet away from this person, a headless corpse lay crookedly on the ground, without a trace of vitality, obviously dead.
Zhang Ling's divine sense moved slightly, and he found that the storage bags on these two people were intact. It seemed that the two had died together.
Those who could enter this place were all Golden Core cultivators, and most of them were not ordinary cultivators.
Zhang Ling looked around and saw no trace of other cultivators. He carefully released his divine sense and checked within a few dozen miles. After a while, he withdrew his divine sense and felt relieved. There seemed to be no other cultivator's aura.
However, to be on the safe side, he did not rashly approach the area, in case it was a trap set by others.
Zhang Ling raised his hand, and a colorful bubble appeared in his hand. It was the ancient treasure he had obtained not long ago, and now it could come in handy.
It was just that this ancient treasure consumed a lot of spiritual power to activate.
After a dozen breaths, this treasure was activated by him and turned into a faint layer of spiritual light covering his whole body. Zhang Ling's figure swayed, and an identical person appeared in place.
A wisp of divine thought was injected into this phantom, and this phantom, which was exactly the same as him, turned into a ray of escaping light and flew directly towards the two corpses in the rocky area.
The phantom transformed by this ancient treasure had a certain amount of attack power. Although it could not pose any threat to Golden Core cultivators, it was perfect for collecting the storage bags from the two corpses.
After a while, this real phantom approached the rocky area. Zhang Ling controlled the phantom to swagger around the area, and nothing happened.
Then, he no longer delayed, and the phantom flashed and arrived next to the headless corpse. He immediately found three or four storage bags from the corpse.
Then, the phantom flashed again and arrived in front of the man killed by the short sword, and also found several storage bags. At the same time, the short sword on this person was also a very good magic weapon, so naturally he did not let it go.
After collecting everything, nothing happened, and Zhang Ling was relieved.
Then, the phantom's hand flashed with fire, and it shot out a few huge fireballs, directly cremating the corpses of the two people.
After a few breaths, the phantom returned to Zhang Ling and turned into a cloud of colorful mist that merged into his body.
Looking at the five or six storage bags floating in front of him, as well as a short sword magic weapon, Zhang Ling smiled. He didn't expect that he could still find a bargain in this kind of place.
He immediately released his divine sense and invaded the storage bags to check the contents. Before long, he had checked everything inside.
Although there were not many spirit stones, there were several magic weapons, as well as many well-packaged spirit medicines, spirit ores, some wild beast materials, and more than a dozen demon cores of different attributes.
To his surprise, there were also two seventh-tier demon cores.
It seemed that the strength of these two people was not weak. Seventh-tier wild beasts were not easy to kill. Zhang Ling satisfiedly put these things away and went into stealth again.
Two hours later, he crossed this plain.
At this time, Zhang Ling turned into a faint phantom and was hurrying on his way. With his current escape technique, he could reach the place where the spirit fruit grew in half a day.
The earth spirit fruit was a fifth-grade rare spirit medicine, and it had to be at least eight hundred years old to be used to refine the Nascent Soul Pill. He was not too worried about this. As long as the marked point had earth spirit fruit, it would be fine.
If the age was not reached, he could also use the mysterious pearl to催生.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling's expression moved slightly, and he stopped his escaping light, landed directly on the ground, and hid behind an ancient tree, looking up at a direction.
Although he was wearing an invisibility cloak, he would still emit a little spiritual light when flying. At this time, he sensed that two escaping lights were flying from not far away.
At the same time, there were violent spiritual fluctuations coming from that side, obviously there were cultivators fighting. He didn't want to run into other cultivators, so it was better to hide.
After a while, a black light and a golden light were fighting in the sky. Looking at the figures in the escaping light, they were two middle-aged men. Judging from the intensity of the spiritual power that erupted, both of them were late-stage Golden Core experts.
One of them was angrily shouting, "Yin Feng, you are relentlessly pursuing me for the sake of an ancient treasure. Do you really think I'm afraid of you?"
"Since Fellow Daoist Qian doesn't want to be my enemy, then hand over that Profound Yin Jade. This thing is of great use to me, and I will never give up."
"Snatching treasures by force, humph, wishful thinking."
As they spoke, the golden escaping light in front of them spun around and then exploded with a bang, turning into a golden cloud, and golden silk threads shot out from it, instantly covering the area within twenty feet and trapping the black light chasing behind in place.
Taking this opportunity, the golden light split into three, turning into faint spiritual lights and fleeing in three directions.
"Stop!"
The trapped black escaping light also instantly unleashed its power. A layer of black mist quickly condensed into a huge ghost claw, and with a fierce grab, the golden silk threads that trapped him broke one after another.
The black light also turned into a black cloud, and more than a dozen white bone skeletons jumped out of it, cawing strangely and chasing after them.
Zhang Ling narrowed his eyes and watched the two disappear into the sky, sneering. "Hehe, it seems that those who dare to come to this fourth level are all extremely powerful cultivators."
He did not stay and quickly left the place.
The next journey was smooth, and except for encountering some low-level wild beasts, there were no other dangers.
Several hours later, he smoothly arrived at a small valley.
Zhang Ling now walked around the area, confirmed that this place was the marked place, and directly entered it.
The valley was quite quiet, and he could smell bursts of floral fragrance. The ground was covered with a large area of exotic flowers and herbs, like arriving at a paradise.
Zhang Ling wandered around the valley, released his divine sense and carefully explored it. He did not find any other high-level wild beasts, so he boldly walked towards the southeast area of the valley.
That area had sparse vegetation, and the surrounding spiritual energy was much weaker than other places. It didn't look like a place where earth spirit fruit would grow.
But the spot marked by the mysterious woman was this area. It said that there was an ancient cultivator's medicine garden here, but there was no more detailed information, so he could only rely on himself to find it.
But since he had come to this place, finding spirit medicines was not difficult for him.
Zhang Ling thought for a moment, directly took off a spirit beast bag from his waist. With a wave of his hand, the spirit beast bag flew into the air, and the mouth of the bag opened at once, and countless fist-sized earth spirit bees flew out from it, buzzing loudly.
He murmured a few times in his mouth, and this large group of earth spirit bees dispersed and went to explore this area.
Although the divine sense of cultivators was infinitely useful and could sense the spiritual energy of plants, the spiritual sense of demon beasts and spirit insects was often more敏锐 in this regard.
Releasing tens of thousands of earth spirit bees to explore this area was much easier than exploring it himself. Of course, Zhang Ling himself was not idle. At the same time, he also summoned the twin-tailed cat to search the valley together.
The most direct thing was to first find the place with the most abundant spiritual energy in the valley, which was most likely the location of the medicine garden.
With the help of many earth spirit bees, half an hour passed, and some discoveries were made. Zhang Ling took the twin-tailed cat and went directly to a direction in the valley.
Soon after, he arrived at a cliff. Several earth spirit bees flew up from below. Through divine sense induction, these earth spirit bees had made some discoveries below.
This cliff was not high, only fifty or sixty feet. Below was a barren rocky area. During the process of falling, Zhang Ling gave a light sigh and accelerated his speed to land on the ground instantly.
His eyes swept over and saw a severed hand lying in a pile of dead grass not far away. The blood at the fracture of this hand was black, obviously it had been separated from the body for some time. And the severed hand seemed to have been torn off by brute force.
Zhang Ling frowned slightly. There might be some kind of danger in this place.
