Although Zhang Ling looked exhausted, he was filled with joy as he looked at the Nascent Soul Pill. After looking at it for a while, he quickly sealed the jade bottle and put it into his storage bag. Thinking about the pill refinement process over the past two months, his head felt a little dizzy.
From the Spirit Earth Fruit Tree he brought out of the Abyss, he ripened a total of eight Spirit Earth Fruits, and only refined six Nascent Soul Pills. He failed several times, and wasted a lot of spiritual herbs in the process. If other pill refinement cultivators were to find out, they would definitely scold him for being a spendthrift.
One Spirit Earth Fruit isn't only capable of refining one Nascent Soul Pill. If it were in the hands of a top-tier pill refinement master, refining two or three Nascent Soul Pills wouldn't be difficult.
Actually, his attainments in pill refinement weren't bad either. After all, he had the mysterious pearl for so many years and had refined many pills using a massive amount of spiritual herbs. Just in terms of this experience, probably no other cultivator could compare.
However, during this pill refinement, the Twin-Tailed Cat's assistance caused several mistakes. If he had refined the pills alone using Earth Fire, he might have refined a few more.
Zhang Ling naturally didn't care about these losses, but looking at the Twin-Tailed Cat next to him with a look of doing something wrong, he smiled. He kicked the Twin-Tailed Cat, and the beast mewed softly.
Helplessly comforting it for a few words, the spirit beast's mood improved a bit.
Zhang Ling walked out of the cave. Once outside, he checked the formation. The formation was intact, without any abnormalities. Then, he dove into the water beneath the pool to check on the condition of the Black Tortoise.
The Black Tortoise lay on the bottom of the pool, motionless like a giant black rock, as if it had entered a hibernation state. The icy mist swirling around it was becoming increasingly dense.
Sensing the Second Soul with his divine sense, the Second Soul didn't respond, but through the connection between them, Zhang Ling sensed some things.
The Second Soul didn't respond because it was focused on breaking through, which was a good sign. Zhang Ling didn't disturb it too much and swam directly out of the pool, going to attend to his own matters.
In the following days, he cultivated secret techniques while diligently training, constantly accumulating spiritual power within his body, hoping to quickly cultivate to the peak of the Golden Core stage.
Time passed quickly.
One day, the clouds and mist above the canyon churned rapidly and gradually gathered into a large patch of dark clouds, covering the surrounding hundred-mile area in the blink of an eye. Rumbling thunder sounded in his ears, as if a storm was about to form.
Deep within the canyon, on the cliff wall next to the water pool, a ten-foot-tall stone door was pushed open with a bang. A figure flashed out, and Zhang Ling frowned as he looked at the situation in the sky, a hint of both doubt and surprise in his eyes.
The dark clouds in the sky weren't ordinary clouds and mist, but a special phenomenon caused by the Black Tortoise.
At this moment, the entire pool of water had stopped flowing and was frozen into thick layers of ice, emitting a terrifying chill.
It looked peaceful on the surface, but the Black Tortoise inside was not calm. Zhang Ling could clearly sense that the Black Tortoise had reached the critical moment of its breakthrough.
And Zhang Ling immediately thought of a reason for the strange phenomenon in the sky. This could be... the lightning tribulation for a demon beast transforming into human form.
The transformation lightning tribulation is the tribulation experienced by a seventh-tier demon beast when it advances to the eighth tier.
After passing through this lightning tribulation, the demon beast's physical body will be baptized by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, thereby gaining the divine power to transform into human form.
It is said that demon beasts that have just advanced to the eighth tier will have a basic human form, with most of their bodies being no different from human cultivators. As their cultivation increases, when they advance to the tenth tier, they can be no different from human cultivators.
At the same time, after being baptized by the lightning tribulation, the demon beast's intelligence will also greatly increase. Of course, some heaven and earth exotic species have intelligence that is not inferior to that of humans even before reaching the eighth tier. It is said that there are also some demon beasts that will not transform and will always maintain their beast form.
Like when he went to the Demon Concealment Valley before, he had seen some seventh-level demon beasts whose intelligence was not weak. Of course, it may have been because the Demon Concealment Valley had Transformation Fruits. After taking this kind of heaven and earth spiritual fruit, it can gradually awaken the demon beast's intelligence.
However, this is just a special case. Only demon beasts that have undergone the transformation lightning tribulation are true demon clans. Zhang Ling stared at the frozen pool with a complicated look, sensing the condition of the Black Tortoise and the Second Soul.
This Black Tortoise was originally a desolate beast, and its original strength had reached the level of an eighth-tier demon beast. However, as a desolate beast, it was eroded by turbid qi and had no intelligence. Perhaps this was also the reason why it didn't transform.
Now, under his perception, the Second Soul had completely merged with the Black Tortoise's physical body. Even the Black Tortoise's eighth-tier demon core had completely fused.
The Black Tortoise's demon soul and physical body were originally one, and now the fusion triggered the transformation lightning tribulation.
This caught Zhang Ling off guard. He had never thought about this before. Now that the Black Tortoise's transformation lightning tribulation was right in front of him, he couldn't help but feel a little worried.
Awooo!
A deafening roar came from the water, as if it contained some kind of pressure, directly impacting heaven and earth. The Black Tortoise seemed to be experiencing pain, but also seemed very excited.
At the same time, the dark clouds above the sky churned and quickly compressed, forming a patch of black clouds as black as ink. Streaks of blue lightning, like countless swimming flying snakes, quickly shuttled through it. Although lightning hadn't fallen yet, he could sense the terrifying pressure within.
Zhang Ling glanced at the pool again, and directly transformed into a ray of light and flew into the distance. Although the transformation lightning tribulation was aimed at the Black Tortoise, he would definitely be affected if he was too close. It was better to stay away.
A moment later, he flew out of the canyon and onto a high mountain fifty or sixty miles away, observing the changes in the canyon.
He didn't know how long had passed, but the dark clouds in the sky pressed lower and lower, and the canyon where the Black Tortoise was located was shrouded in a layer of black mist. When his divine sense penetrated into it, he felt extremely strong spiritual energy fluctuations, and they were extremely chaotic.
At this time, the thunder in the sky became low and muffled, and the canyon was also very calm. The Black Tortoise no longer roared.
But Zhang Ling keenly felt that the surrounding spiritual energy fluctuations were getting stronger and stronger, especially the spiritual energy gathered in the dark clouds was even more violent.
He didn't know if the Black Tortoise could withstand the transformation lightning tribulation. If it couldn't, the Second Soul and the Black Tortoise would probably be lost. He didn't dare to contact the Second Soul at will now, to prevent it from affecting its breakthrough.
Rumble, rumble.
Just as he was thinking wildly, a thunderclap sounded in the air. The originally low-pitched lightning gathered together and formed hundreds of thick lightning bolts that instantly struck down.
Zhang Ling only felt a flash of light in front of his eyes, making his eyes a little sore. The ground also shook for a while.
This lightning bolt seemed to be a signal. Countless lightning snakes rolled in the clouds, and in an instant, a large area of thick lightning bolts fell. The entire canyon was covered in lightning.
The mountain wall near the canyon cracked with cracks of varying sizes, soil and rocks rolled, and large swaths of vegetation were lifted off.
Countless gravels crashed into the canyon below with a bang, raising a large cloud of dust, like an earthquake.
In the blink of an eye, the pool where the Black Tortoise was hiding was instantly destroyed by the indiscriminate bombardment of lightning. Huge cracks appeared on the ground, and the surrounding mountain walls were the same. The sound of water gurgling was constant, and streams of water shot out from the cracks.
