Two days later, Zhang Ling left the Fiend Valley. After spending some more time, he left the controlled area of Fire Fiend City.
Once out of the desolate wilderness, he landed directly on the ground, using Earth Tunneling to burrow into the earth, creating a simple cave for temporary rest.
Sitting cross-legged on a large rock, Zhang Ling’s mouth glowed as he spat out the Fire Essence Gourd. Several magical seals struck it, and the Fire Essence Gourd spun in front of him, with popping sounds constantly echoing from within.
After a good while, the sounds finally stopped. Zhang Ling revealed a hint of a smile and meditated to recover for a moment. Then, another magical seal struck the gourd.
With a puff, a ball of purple flame spewed out from the mouth of the Fire Essence Gourd, precisely the Purple Light Demon Fire collected from the earth fire vein.
He had collected a whole gourd of demon fire, but the time was too short to refine it, so now he naturally had to refine it.
With a thought, Zhang Ling's hands flashed with yellow light, and he directly grabbed the wisp of purple fire spewing from the gourd between his hands. He also spat out a ball of essence, covering the flame.
After several hours, he finally let out a long breath and opened his eyes. The demon fire in his hand had shrunk into a ball, a flame the size of a lamp, appearing even more transparent.
This Purple Light Demon Flame, due to the demonic energy it contains, is more violent than ordinary spiritual fire. Such a small ball wasted several hours and was not easy to refine.
Again summoning a ball of Purple Light Demon Flame from the Fire Essence Gourd, Zhang Ling suddenly thought of something. He manipulated the magical seals in his hand, continuously changing them, and cast a ball of chaotic spiritual light of indiscernible color, covering the demon flame.
This time, it only took half an hour to refine a ball of demon flame.
It wasn't that his refining speed had increased, but that he had changed the refining technique.
He had been using ordinary refining methods, but this time he used the Myriad Spirits Transmutation Method that Blue Sparrow had given him.
Refining demon flames with this method sped things up several times.
And this wasn't the first time he had tried this. The Myriad Spirits Transmutation Method was a special technique Blue Sparrow had given him to refine True Demon Qi.
However, during the cultivation process, Zhang Ling had long discovered that this technique wasn't just for refining True Demon Qi; it seemed to be able to refine all spiritual power very well.
With such a multiplier, Zhang Ling sat in meditation for a month, refining all the Purple Light Demon Flame collected in the Fire Essence Gourd.
If he had refined it using ordinary methods, it would have taken at least nearly a year.
After refining the Purple Light Demon Flame, he gathered it into nine purple-red fire beads.
Zhang Ling then began to refine the Fire Essence. After a full three months, he had also preliminarily refined the Fire Essence.
The white flame figure transformed from the Fire Essence, like a two-inch-tall flame infant, flew in the air holding the Fire Essence Gourd. It appeared extremely spiritual.
The Fire Essence Gourd occasionally spewed out a piece of purple flame, which was devoured by the flame child. The white flame child was immediately dyed purple-red, emitting a rich fire spiritual energy.
The Purple Light Demon Flame and Fire Essence had been preliminarily refined. He could use the Flame Gourd and Fire Essence to perform some fire-attribute divine powers.
Although the power he could unleash was somewhat inferior to that of cultivators proficient in fire-attribute techniques, it was not much different.
The next step was to have the Fire Essence devour and fuse all the Purple Light Flames, further refining it.
The Fire Essence was originally a kind of spirit, possessing a weak spiritual consciousness. If it continuously devoured various fire spiritual energies, over time, it could even give birth to intelligence no weaker than that of humans.
Of course, this process would take many years, even thousands of years, depending on the opportunity.
Thinking of this, Zhang Ling chuckled and waved his hand, and four gourds appeared before him. This was the Five Elements Treasure Gourd he had now refined.
The five gourds were all cyan-white overall, but the spiritual patterns on them were slightly different.
Pointing at the Metal Essence Gourd, the gourd lit up with golden-white spiritual light, and seven flying swords emerged one after another, surrounding the gourd, emitting bursts of sword sounds. Occasionally, one could also see a white tiger phantom floating on the gourd.
The Earth Essence Gourd need not be mentioned; this was the first Yin-Yang Gourd he had refined, and it was the most comfortable to use. With a thought, the gourd immediately spewed out a large expanse of quicksand, like countless starlight.
The Wood Essence Gourd flickered with green spiritual light, and small vines were wrapped around it, actually growing a few black-red flowers.
The Water Essence Gourd also had a semi-transparent water snake coiled around its mouth. It looked very lazy, but occasionally it would spit out a few bubbles.
Looking closely at these bubbles, illusions would appear before one's eyes.
This semi-transparent water snake was the water spirit from Ghost Peach Mountain. Speaking of which, this water spirit was the most spiritual treasure nurtured among the five gourds.
During this time, Zhang Ling had also experimented a lot and found that the water spirit's attack methods were not very strong, and its defense was not outstanding. Instead, it was more proficient in illusions.
Thinking about it, they were trapped by this water spirit's illusion of a pavilion, and it was difficult to find flaws.
It was just a pity that he had not completely subdued this water spirit yet.
Of course, he could also use blood refinement to erase the water spirit's spiritual consciousness and refine it as ordinary spiritual water. But doing so would greatly reduce the power that could be exerted.
This matter was not urgent for him, so Zhang Ling decided to spend some time completely subduing the water spirit.
After all, in ordinary battles, he used the Heavenly Star Sand and seven flying swords the most, as well as other treasures. The Fire Essence Gourd, Water Essence Gourd, and Wood Essence Gourd had only been preliminarily refined.
Zhang Ling was already very satisfied that they could play some auxiliary role.
After a short retreat of half a year, Zhang Ling came to the outside world again.
But he did not return to the sect, still staying in the territory of the Different Demon Race. Of course, not near Fire Fiend City, but to the major immortal cities located along the Black Cloud Desert.
Previously, he had accidentally used the teleportation array to return to the human race's side. He had not traveled to the eastern part of the Different Demon Race's area.
This time, he could just make up for it. At the same time, the Different Demon Race also had some special materials. Of course, he was still looking for a wind-fire dual-attribute demon core.
If that really didn't work, he could only settle for second best, find a fire-attribute demon core and a wind-attribute demon core. At the same time, he would refine two supplementary spiritual treasures.
In this way, more than a year passed.
During this time, he participated in several auctions and ghost markets held by the Different Demon Race. He collected a lot of miscellaneous materials, but not many rare materials.
This kind of situation was not strange. Some of the rare materials and spiritual objects needed at his current realm were mostly only available to Nascent Soul cultivators.
Even large auction houses could only rely on luck, and it would be worth it if they could occasionally collect one or two pieces.
This day, Zhang Ling had just flown out of a mountain market, intending to go to another place.
He had just flown a hundred miles when he suddenly stopped his escape light, turned his head expressionlessly, and said coldly, "Fellow Daoist has been following me all the way, could it be that you want to plot something."
The sky behind him was empty, and there seemed to be no cultivators. But his spiritual sense had already sensed that someone had been following him since he left the market.
After waiting for a few breaths, a blue escape light sped over from the horizon. "Wang is not intentionally following Fellow Daoist. I just want to do a deal with Fellow Daoist, please don't be offended."
As the voice came, a drooping-brow old man appeared in the escape light. This man had a head of white hair and looked very old, but his face was ruddy and full of energy, not like an old man. Judging from the aura he exuded, he was also a Nascent Soul中期 stage expert.
"In Cloud Mountain Market, Fellow Daoist Wang had already been eyeing me, right?" Zhang Ling snorted expressionlessly.
"Fellow Daoist, please forgive me. Cloud Mountain Market is guarded by our Stone Cloud Tribe. Our Stone Cloud Tribe is just a small and medium-sized tribe. If a Nascent Soul cultivator suddenly comes, this old man will pay attention to it," the drooping-brow old man explained kindly.
Hearing this, Zhang Ling's expression still did not change.
The Different Demon Race rarely builds immortal cities, but there are many markets of all sizes. Ordinary cultivation resource trade and other activities are also very frequent.
He had just arrived here a day ago and only stayed in Cloud Mountain Market for a while, and it actually attracted the attention of the Nascent Soul old monster here.
Stone Cloud Tribe, it seems to be a tribe in the area five or six thousand miles nearby. If he remembered correctly, it seemed that there were three Nascent Soul old monsters guarding it.
The drooping-brow old man could not see the change in Zhang Ling's expression, and asked with a smile, "May I ask if Fellow Daoist is looking for a wind-fire dual-attribute demon core, as well as a top-grade wood spirit stone?"
Zhang Ling's expression sank. During this time, he basically asked about this matter in the large shopping malls of every market or immortal city he went to.
These rare materials could not be collected by ordinary cultivators, so he had not hidden his cultivation much during this time.
Of course, he changed his appearance, figure, and external characteristics every time he went to a place. Now it seemed that he was still being watched by someone with a mind.
Although Zhang Ling's expression looked bad, he was happy in his heart and took another look at the drooping-brow old man. "Could it be that Fellow Daoist has these two treasures?"
"Haha, this old man does not have top-grade wood spirit stones. However, this old man just happens to know that there is an ancient beast that may have a wind-fire dual-attribute inner core in its body."
"Ancient beast." A flash of light flashed in Zhang Ling's eyes, and he immediately asked, "Has it reached the eighth rank?"
The smile on the drooping-brow old man's face became even stronger. "That ancient beast is quite difficult to deal with. It is indeed not weaker than an eighth-rank demon beast. Its strength is even higher. It seems that Fellow Daoist is quite interested. Why not go to this old man's foothold for a detailed discussion? To be honest, Wang has caught up with Fellow Daoist for this matter."
Zhang Ling thought for a moment, then nodded. The drooping-brow old man was overjoyed and hurriedly said a word of invitation, and led the way in front.
Following this person, he returned to Cloud Mountain Market, a hundred miles away, without any obstacles and went to the top of the mountain.
The top of the mountain was surrounded by clouds and mist, and there was a not small Tianchi on the mountain, and not far away there was a courtyard with a large area, which looked ancient and quiet.
It seemed that this was his cultivation place in the market.
As soon as he entered it, there was also a middle-aged cultivator in the early stage of Nascent Soul waiting inside. Both of them were elders of the Stone Cloud Tribe. The old man's name was Stone Cloud True Person.
