An overwhelming aura scattered the yellow wind, and the Dragon Crocodile roared, its body swelling in size. Its clothes were torn apart, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a monster with a human body and a crocodile head.
With a sway of its body, the Dragon Crocodile swept a massive crocodile tail out from behind, like a scarlet whip, smashing directly into the White Giant Bull with a thunderous boom.
The White Giant Bull seemed unprepared for the attack, its body instantly sent flying backward for hundreds of feet, crashing into the mountainside.
Large swathes of rock and stone shattered, but the strike didn't seem to cause much damage to the Giant Bull; instead, it ignited its ferocity.
With a shift of its massive form, the bull transformed into a yellow whirlwind, charging forward with undiminished momentum. The Dragon Crocodile, not to be outdone, unleashed its monstrous aura, a colossal crocodile phantom looming behind it.
The clash between the two behemoths unleashed a terrifying force, devastating the surrounding vegetation and turning rocks into rubble and dust.
The Dragon Crocodile's current form resembled the Demon Transformation technique used by demon trainers. However, this was actually a Half-Demon Transformation used by a Transforming Demon King. In this state, it could not only unleash many demonic secret techniques but also rely on its powerful physique for close combat.
In fact, this Half-Demon Transformation came first, inspiring ancient cultivators to create the Demon Transformation technique by harnessing the power of demon souls.
At this moment, the Dragon Crocodile unleashed its full power, instantly suppressing the White-Haired Giant Bull. However, this beast was not a demon beast but a wild ancient beast, its spiritual power reaching the peak of the eighth rank. Moreover, it was thick-skinned and possessed several special divine abilities, making it difficult to kill.
The Dragon Crocodile didn't want to provoke such a powerful ancient beast. It had been directly teleported into this beast's cave during the previous transmission.
In that cave, it had discovered a decent fourth-grade spiritual herb. Just as it finished picking the herb, it encountered two White Bulls of insignificant strength.
Initially, it considered them ordinary demon beasts and casually slaughtered them, which led to the pursuit by this ancient beast. Now, it had no choice but to fight.
In another direction, Old Man Wan, his two disciples, and the mysterious woman wearing gold and silver masks hadn't been separated. They regrouped and advanced rapidly in one direction.
"Grand Elder, I've used my methods to scatter those demon cultivators. They're now tens of thousands of miles away. Here in the Heavenly Palace, that should buy us a day or two," Old Man Wan said, looking at the Yuanling compass in his hand with a smug expression.
"That's good. Although this time is somewhat tight, as long as the person who broke into Myriad Manifestation City enters this place, I can quickly find him using secret methods. That person was severely injured during our encirclement and can only exert half of his strength at most. However, he possesses the Quadrant Flags and isn't an ordinary person. We can't be careless. If necessary, prioritize killing him. As for the demon kings' treasure hunt, it doesn't matter if we miss it. I'll compensate you afterward."
The mysterious masked woman held a transparent jade bottle, performing secret techniques with both hands while speaking without turning her head.
"Hehe, with those words from the Grand Elder, Wan is grateful in advance," Old Man Wan said with a smile, seemingly waiting for this statement.
…
Meanwhile, Zhang Ling flew towards the Blackwater Pool. On his first day in this secret realm, he didn't encounter any danger.
He didn't stop along the way, wasting no time. Even when he saw some ancient ruins, he only passed by in a hurry, without delving deeper.
This was also because the discovered ancient ruins were mostly dilapidated, with no restrictions. It seemed that over the millennia, the Nascent Soul cultivators and Transforming Demon cultivators who had entered this place had thoroughly explored the outer areas of the ruins.
He naturally wouldn't waste time on these ruined relics. Even if some things remained, there would be basically no gains.
Wasting too much time wouldn't be worth it. His goal in entering this place was clear: to resolve Ding Ruozhao's situation and find the spiritual herbs for refining the Soul Awakening Pill. He flew towards safe areas, hoping to reach the Blackwater Pool as quickly as possible.
Calculating the distance, he had already traveled a little more than half the distance. At most, he would reach the area in another full day.
His travel speed was much faster than Zhang Ling had expected, thanks to the Space Ripple Sensing Bell, which allowed him to avoid many spatial rifts along the way.
Soon after, Zhang Ling stopped his escape light, sat on a boulder at the edge of a nameless island, and closed his eyes in meditation. Beside him was a palm-sized incense burner, emitting wisps of purple smoke.
He was recovering from the consumption of over a day. In fact, the spiritual power in his body had remained abundant during this time, with basically no consumption.
It was just that when passing through the Gang Wind Layer and entering this place, he had to pay attention to the surrounding situation at all times, so his divine sense was constantly released, consuming a lot.
After an hour, Zhang Ling exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, recovered his spirit, flashed to his feet, put away the incense burner, and once again transformed into escape light to continue his journey.
At the same time, he communicated with the Black Tortoise through his mind. The Black Tortoise had also been traveling quickly during this day, but it hadn't been as peaceful as his side.
The area where the Black Tortoise was located had many high-level demon beasts. Not long ago, it had even passed through a mountain forest and alarmed a giant python with eighth-rank strength.
Fortunately, the giant python didn't pursue the Black Tortoise, making it a near miss.
According to the information gathered earlier, the large and small islands on the periphery of the Heavenly Palace not only had demon beasts but also some wild ancient beasts.
Some areas were rarely visited by cultivators, maintaining the environment of the ancient era. In places where spiritual energy was abundant, the growth rate of ancient beasts was extremely fast. Among them, there were some ancient beasts comparable to Transforming Demon beasts.
Fortunately, most ancient beasts spent their time sleeping, and they didn't have much intelligence, only a strong sense of territory. If one didn't provoke these guys, they basically wouldn't leave their survival range. It was easy to avoid them.
After setting off again, Zhang Ling traveled peacefully for more than a thousand miles, passed through several nameless areas, and saw another special area.
From afar, he could see that the sky not far ahead had become unusually dim, with a large patch of black-green mist obscuring the sky, like miasma in a dense forest.
"Green Cloud Valley, so I've reached this place."
Zhang Ling chuckled, took out a jade bottle, poured out a milky white pill, held it in his mouth, and without the slightest intention of changing direction, flew directly towards the mist-shrouded area.
Green Cloud Valley was a poisonous miasma zone where poisonous fog drifted all year round, and many highly poisonous demon beasts lived within.
It was said that Green Cloud Valley was originally a poisonous mist island north of the Demon Wind Mountain Range. After the century-long cataclysm of Gang Winds, this island disappeared.
Later, cultivators who entered the Heavenly Palace discovered that the original poisonous mist island had been swept to this place. Because of the special environment of this island, some people called it Green Cloud Valley, which became a landmark in the Heavenly Palace Secret Realm.
If it were in other places, Zhang Ling might have bypassed this area, but now he needed to hurry, and passing through it was the most direct route.
Taking a detour would delay him by at least half a day. Fortunately, there weren't any powerful poisonous beasts or ancient beasts in this area. With his Nascent Soul cultivation, he didn't need to worry and could simply pass through.
As for flying upwards and passing through the sky above this area, that wouldn't be wise. During his journey, Zhang Ling had discovered that if he flew upwards, the chances of encountering spatial rifts would be very high.
The outermost area of the Heavenly Palace Secret Realm had the most spatial rifts, forming an invisible barrier that wrapped the entire secret realm.
Continuing upwards or downwards would lead to encountering the Gang Wind Layer again. This was also the main reason why not many cultivators could enter this place.
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Ling plunged into the black-green poisonous mist, his body covered in a protective spiritual light, and a Mind-Clearing Pill in his mouth. The poisonous gas naturally couldn't affect him.
His divine sense covered a wide area around him, and he immediately discovered that many suspended small particles were floating in the mist, like dust, flashing with gray-green spiritual light.
He could sense that these spiritual lights not only contained spiritual energy but also some other things.
With a thought, Zhang Ling absorbed some light spots and immediately felt a slight discomfort in his body. He understood that these light spots were spiritual lights condensed from the poisonous mist.
While flying, he clapped his hands and took out a huge jar. A yellow light struck the jar, and as he moved, the jar slowly rotated, generating a suction force, and the light spots in the poisonous mist were all absorbed into it.
He intended to collect some poisonous mist light spots, perhaps they could be useful.
Zhang Ling didn't stop his escape light. This was just a casual action. He simply thought that these spiritual lights containing toxicity might be helpful for studying alchemy, so he thought about collecting some.
Among the pill formulas he had collected before, there were also several poisonous pills. One of them was the Thousand Poison Pill, which, when mixed with special poisons, could neutralize the toxicity and become a sacred healing medicine.
There was also a fourth-grade Blood Soul Pill, which was a special pill with body-refining effects.
After taking it, it could stimulate the spiritual power in the body, reaching a frenzied state in a short time, stimulating the body's spiritual acupoints to train the body's strength.
Of course, there were many restrictions on the physique of cultivators who wanted to take this special pill. Not everyone could take it.
During his research, Zhang Ling discovered that he met the requirements for taking the Blood Soul Pill. If he could refine it, his body's strength could be greatly improved.
As his cultivation increased, he had been to many places and seen many ancient books in recent years while dealing with Ding Ruozhao's matter. His experience and knowledge had increased.
In ancient times, some cultivators practiced several techniques concurrently, reaching the level of dual cultivation of Dharma and body. Not only was their physical body strong, but their mana was also extremely powerful. The resulting increase in strength was incomparable to ordinary cultivators.
Of course, there were very few people who practiced dual cultivation of Dharma and body, after all, cultivators had limited lifespans.
After so many years of cultivation, although Zhang Ling hadn't deliberately cultivated any body-refining techniques, the vines parasitizing his body made his physique different from ordinary people.
During the process of the parasitic vines strengthening, his body's strength was also slowly increasing. With the help of the parasitic vines, Zhang Ling could use several demon trainer secret techniques without any problems.
To be honest, he was half a demon trainer. The demon trainer lineage was originally a branch of body cultivation. If the body's strength was increased to a certain level, his strength would definitely increase a lot.
Of course, his current focus was still on his main cultivation technique. After all, cultivation was the foundation.
Zhang Ling traveled while thinking about his path of cultivation, always releasing a portion of his divine sense to observe his surroundings. As he went deeper into the poisonous mist area of Green Cloud Valley, he detected many kinds of poisonous insects and beasts.
A hundred feet away, there was a strange lizard with a black body and snowflake spots, hiding under a dead tree, devouring a group of blue, glowing flying insects.
This lizard was a fourth-order demon beast, transparent, with the ability to change its skin. It was considered a special demon beast. If this beast was stronger, a high-level demon beast, Zhang Ling would directly kill it.
The skin of this demon beast was a good material for refining weapons.
But the lizard in front of him was only a fourth-order demon beast, so it wasn't worth it. At most, its skin could only be refined into a top-grade magic tool. He looked down on it, so he didn't bother to act.
The flying insects, which looked like bees, had several strange blood-red stingers on their tails. They drew blood-colored traces in the air as they danced, and their flying speed was extremely fast.
Zhang Ling recognized them at a glance: they were a group of Blue Shadow Bees, which many sects raised.
The Blue Shadow Bees were somewhat similar to his Earth Spirit Bees, able to brew special honey. However, their individual strength couldn't compare to the Earth Spirit Bees. But if he could cultivate thousands of them, they could pose a threat to Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Along the way, Zhang Ling encountered several more spiritual insects that could be raised by human cultivators. Three of them were no weaker than the Earth Spirit Bees he raised.
One was the Spirit Flower Butterfly, one was the Flying Firefly, and one was the Purple-Striped Poison Scorpion. But these three spiritual insects were not gregarious. If they were gregarious, he would collect some eggs to cultivate.
In fact, these spiritual insects were no longer of much help to him. The greatest use of cultivating Earth Spirit Bees now was to use them as food for the Spirit Devouring Insects.
He hoped that the two hundred or so Spirit Devouring Insects he controlled could advance quickly. Only these kinds of spiritual insects with special abilities might be able to help him in some situations.
After all, ordinary spiritual insects, no matter how many, were useless to Nascent Soul cultivators.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling's expression changed slightly, and he changed direction, flying a distance to the right. His gaze swept towards a towering tree.
This was a giant tree with a diameter of more than ten feet wide, growing crookedly, with yellowing leaves on the branches. It didn't look like it was growing well, it was a dead tree.
However, on the ground under this tree, there was a patch of blue grass, each only a foot long, moving with the wind, swaying a patch of white shadows.
Upon closer inspection, these grasses had round, pearl-like white flowers on them.
"Hehe, third-grade Dried Spirit Flowers, quite rare."
Zhang Ling smiled strangely, waved his hand, and a piece of yellow light scattered over, instantly collecting this patch of Dried Spirit Flowers into his storage bag.
