Seeing that the big fish was about to leap back into the water, a meow echoed, and a black shadow flashed past. With a thud, the big fish landed on the ground, creating a small pit.
The red-scaled fish thrashed about, seemingly trying to struggle, but then a streak of fire struck its head, creating a bloody hole. The fish ceased its movements and instantly died.
At the same time, the Twin-Tailed Cat landed from the air, stepping onto the fish's back and meowing triumphantly, as if showing off its power.
"You little thing, you really don't let a single fish go," Zhang Ling said with a helpless smile, casting his fishing rod again and continuing to fish.
The Twin-Tailed Cat didn't devour the big fish, but kept pawing at it.
A glance revealed more than twenty fish beasts of various sizes lying beside the Twin-Tailed Cat, including a two-zhang-long Blackwater Crocodile.
These were all low-level demon beasts that had been caught in the past half-hour or so.
He had just emerged from seclusion and was leisurely fishing here, relieving much of the boredom of cultivation.
After all, prolonged seclusion could cause one's state of mind to become more or less restless. Using this method could also shift his mindset, which was more conducive to his cultivation.
For more than half a month after coming out of seclusion, Zhang Ling had maintained this relaxed state of mind. He was able to have this mindset because his cultivation had greatly increased during this period of seclusion.
After twenty years of hard work, he had now reached the peak of the Golden Core stage.
In addition to the large amount of spiritual medicine, the spiritual vein here also played a significant role, allowing his cultivation to increase so quickly.
At the same time, the Nine Yuan Soul Refining Art had also made some progress. With the help of the Soul Nourishing Powder refined from Cloud Swallowing Stones, cultivating this Soul Refining Art was indeed twice as effective.
Now, the third level of the Nine Yuan Soul Refining Art had also been cultivated to the peak, only one step away from completion.
The most direct manifestation of a full soul was the significant increase in spiritual consciousness. Now, when he fully exerted his spiritual consciousness, it could cover a range of fifty miles.
The spiritual consciousness of ordinary late-stage Golden Core cultivators was only about thirty miles. Even if each cultivator had slight differences, after reaching the peak of the Golden Core stage, their spiritual consciousness generally could not break through forty miles.
Unless they also cultivated a Soul Refining Art like him, it was possible to break through to forty miles, but it was even more impossible to reach a spiritual coverage range of fifty miles.
After all, Zhang Ling also wore Soul Nourishing Wood, a divine wood, all year round, constantly nourishing his soul. Others did not have this advantage.
Moreover, he also had the Bronze Ancient Lamp in his hand. With the blessing of the lamp's flame, his spiritual consciousness could instantly increase by more than double, definitely comparable to the spiritual consciousness of an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
Zhang Ling had also studied the Soul Refining Diagram that recorded the Nine Yuan Soul Refining Art for a long time, often using this diagram to exercise his spiritual consciousness.
It is worth mentioning that without using the assistance of the Bronze Ancient Lamp, with his current soul strength, he had killed another phantom in the Soul Refining Diagram. However, he did not obtain the subsequent cultivation method of the Nine Yuan Soul Refining Art, but instead obtained a spiritual secret technique called Soul Shocking Thorn.
This was a spiritual attack secret technique, similar to the Soul Shattering Sound recorded in the previous incomplete Soul Refining Art.
However, there were great differences between the two. Soul Shattering Sound used soul power to emit soul fluctuations like sound waves to attack. It was like shouting suddenly, shocking people's minds.
The attack of Soul Shocking Thorn was more powerful and purer. It condensed soul power into a single point, directly stabbing the souls of other cultivators.
As long as the cultivator did not have soul defenses, the success rate of Soul Shocking Thorn's attack was very high. Once the target was hit, the enemy's soul would be greatly damaged, and it might even cause them to fall directly into a coma.
Zhang Ling had barely succeeded in cultivating this secret technique. And a few days ago, he had specially found two high-level demon beasts to test its power.
One of the fifth-order demon beasts, under the attack of Soul Shocking Thorn without any defense, instantly fell into a coma.
The other sixth-order demon beast, although it did not fall into a coma, was also miserable. After being hit, blood flowed from its seven orifices, and its strength instantly dropped by more than half.
Low-level demon beasts could not stop the attack of Soul Shocking Thorn at all, and could be killed with one blow.
Although demon beasts were not as strong as human cultivators in terms of soul, Zhang Ling was already very satisfied with this effect. Soul Shocking Thorn was definitely a top secret technique.
Soul attacks were inherently difficult to defend against. He was confident that he could use this secret technique, coupled with other attack methods, to instantly kill cultivators of the same level.
However, correspondingly, the use of Soul Shocking Thorn also placed high demands on one's own soul. He could only activate it once in a short period of time, which put a great burden on his soul.
If he cooperated with the Bronze Ancient Lamp in his hand to perform this technique, the power would definitely be beyond imagination, and it might even hurt Nascent Soul cultivators.
However, obtaining this secret technique was only a small episode during seclusion. Zhang Ling's focus was still on his own cultivation.
Now, in addition to reaching the peak of the Golden Core stage, the Thunder Yuan Spirit Nurturing Art he cultivated had also been basically completed, and the spiritual power in his body had been completely refined.
This allowed his dantian to gather more spiritual power than ordinary cultivators, and the painstakingly cultivated Golden Core was even more stubborn.
Now his soul was full, his Golden Core was stable, and the spiritual power in his body was condensed to the extreme, seemingly reaching the rare pseudo-Nascent Soul realm.
The so-called pseudo-Nascent Soul realm refers to having one foot already stepping into the threshold of condensing the Nascent Soul. It belongs to the cultivation of Golden Core Perfection.
In general, Zhang Ling was quite satisfied with this seclusion. Next, he had to consider the matter of condensing the Nascent Soul.
To this end, he had made a lot of preparations, not only venturing into the Abyss to obtain the Earth Spirit Fruit to refine the Nascent Soul Pill.
Cultivating the Thunder Yuan Spirit Nurturing Art, the Nine Yuan Soul Refining Art, stealing the Cloud Gathering Array for condensing Cloud Swallowing Stones, and arranging the Spirit Restraining Array were all preparations for this.
Now everything was ready, only an opportunity was lacking. This opportunity might be a sudden insight, or it might be a certain state of mind.
His current state of playing in the mountains and forests every day was also to maintain his state of mind and find this opportunity in the dark.
During this period, the strength of the Twin-Tailed Cat had also increased a lot, breaking through to the sixth order ten years ago.
Zhang Ling took the Twin-Tailed Cat to play in the mountains and forests every day, immersing himself in his state of mind while rarely admiring the scenery around him.
Starting from the mountain where his cave was located, he sometimes leisurely fished like a mortal, sometimes fiddled with some flowers and plants, watched the sunrise, and watched the sunset.
