After Zhang Ling appeared, he glanced around, his gaze landing on the dragon and phoenix patterned painting floating beside him. He immediately reached out to grab it.
The moment his hand touched the painting, the treasure, full of spiritual energy, slipped away from his grasp like an eel. Instead, his palm was numbed by the shock.
With a cold snort, he released a mass of Heavenly Star Sand, which transformed into quicksand and instantly enveloped the painting.
The painting, trapped within the sandy confinement, emitted dragon roars and phoenix cries, shattering the quicksand that tried to gather upon it. At the same time, the painting rapidly unfurled once more.
As golden light flashed on the surface, the dragon and phoenix sounds intensified, instantly scattering the Heavenly Star Sand.
Zhang Ling had already prepared a backup plan. A Xuanwu (Black Tortoise) appeared beside him, spitting out a patch of black water, which transformed into thick black ice, forming another layer of confinement.
The power of the dragon and phoenix sounds was considerable, instantly creating cracks on the black ice. Fortunately, with the Xuanwu's demonic power bolstering it, more black water covered the surface, and the ice seal was continuously reinforced.
This scene persisted for a while until the Xuanwu had essentially released all of its black heavy water, turning it into an ice seal. Only then did the dragon roars and phoenix cries from the painting subside.
At this moment, the painting was sealed within a giant ice block fully three zhang thick. Faint sounds could still be heard from within.
Zhang Ling's gaze swept around, and he discovered that he was now in a ten-zhang-wide stone chamber. Besides a simple stone table and stools, there was also a crystalline white jade bed behind him.
Not far in front of him, a stone door was sealed off, with a layer of red light restriction swirling around it.
Sensing it with his divine sense, he felt that this layer of red light was not particularly strong and that he could easily break it with his strength.
"You guard this place; I will go inside and take a look," Zhang Ling instructed the Xuanwu. He then had the Void Insect use its spatial divine power once more.
His figure blurred in the black and white mist, and he directly entered the painting.
This painting was a spatial treasure, and the dragon and phoenix phantoms displayed on it were a layer of restriction, possessing considerable power. Even that tenth-order great demon was blocked, unable to break through in a short time.
However, with the Void Insect, entering it was not a problem.
The painting sealed in ice was still vibrating constantly when suddenly a mass of black and white mist enveloped it. The dragon and phoenix phantoms on the surface resisted slightly, but the mist merged into them.
The next moment, Zhang Ling appeared in a space. Before he could see the situation clearly, a bright white light suddenly appeared before his eyes, and two crisscrossing white streaks slashed towards him.
His expression immediately darkened because the white streaks in front of him were not ordinary attacks but two spatial rifts.
The Void Insect also chirped, sensing the danger as well. Without Zhang Ling's instructions, the spirit insect immediately moved him several zhang away, dodging the two spatial rifts.
The spatial rifts brushed past him and disappeared instantly. Zhang Ling was truly startled. Without the Void Insect, spatial rifts would be difficult to avoid.
Focusing his mind, he discovered that not far in front of him stood the Flamehoof Beast, covered in blood, and a golden object hovered above the beast's head.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a two-zhang-long golden carp with dragon horns on its head.
"This is, a Golden Scale."
Zhang Ling's pupils shrank. The golden fish in front of him looked very much like the Golden Scale Fish, which also possessed true dragon blood. This was also a type of exotic beast.
Then he discovered that the Golden Scale in front of him did not possess the aura of a living being. It was entirely formed from special soul power, its body semi-transparent. It was more like a demon soul.
At the same time, the Golden Scale emitted a strange 'gu gu' sound, swimming in mid-air. Five or six more bright white spatial rifts immediately appeared around it, quickly slashing over.
Zhang Ling naturally did not dare to be negligent. Spiritual light flashed on his body, and he immediately left his original position, dodging these spatial rifts.
Thinking to himself, could this Golden Scale demon soul possess spatial divine powers like the Void Insect?
In the blink of an eye, several more spatial rifts slashed over. Zhang Ling noticed that the spatial rifts released by the Golden Scale seemed very fast, but the trajectory of their shots was easy to predict.
Therefore, even without the help of the Void Insect, he could quickly dodge them.
Up until now, the Void Insect had found it difficult to release such spatial rifts. The Void Insect's tearing of space seemed unstable. To directly release such relatively stable spatial rifts, like wind blades slashing all the way over.
This mastery of spatial divine powers should be very mature. But the Golden Scale in front of him seemed to have some reservations. It seemed unable to fully unleash its spatial divine powers.
At this moment, a neigh sounded. The Flamehoof Beast also seemed very anxious. The cyan and red flames on its body flickered, and it instantly spat out fifty or sixty huge fireballs, smashing over.
Zhang Ling held out a flying sword and released sword light to block these fireballs.
The Golden Scale Fish suddenly let out a dragon's roar, and instantly this feeling shook the entire space. Twenty or thirty bright white spatial rifts immediately appeared around it, crisscrossing and slashing over, blocking all his escape routes.
Zhang Ling's mouth twitched, and he busily commanded the Void Insect to release a black and white gas mass to envelop himself. His body became blurred.
These spatial rifts slashed over and all deviated from their direction, not causing him any substantial harm.
At the same time, a green light suddenly lit up in his hand. It was the broken bronze ancient lamp that amplified soul power, the Divine Essence Lamp.
With a cold snort, a cyan-black lotus pattern appeared on Zhang Ling's brow. He was activating the Soul Treasure in his sea of consciousness.
Since this Golden Scale could use spatial divine powers, he naturally wanted to resolve it quickly. Since this guy looked like a demon soul.
Zhang Ling immediately thought of using soul attacks to deal with it. He saw the black-cyan lotus at the center of his brow flicker strangely, and a small gray light shot out.
This was the Soul Piercing attack from his cultivated soul power technique, the Nine Yuan Spirit Refining Art.
As he entered the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, his own soul power had also increased a lot. In addition, the bronze ancient lamp amplified it at this moment.
This soul attack, even when facing a great cultivator in the late Nascent Soul stage, could cause a brief loss of consciousness.
Sure enough, this move immediately proved effective.
With a scream, the Golden Scale Fish immediately seemed to have suffered a shock. Its transparent body suddenly fell from the sky, its figure swaying and collapsing.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Ling couldn't help but be stunned. He wondered if the power of his attack was too strong, turning this guy to ashes.
Before his thoughts could finish, the entire space suddenly shook. The surroundings immediately became flickering and dim. In the blink of an eye, many more white spatial rifts appeared.
With a glance, this time there were at least a hundred spatial rifts. The scenery in front of him was distorted.
Zhang Ling's face turned pale. He was only fighting a demon soul, so how could this space be on the verge of collapsing?
"Stop it, human cultivator."
At the same time, he also heard a muffled voice. The voice came from the Flamehoof Beast. The beast, which could speak human language, also looked flustered.
This beast was comparable to a ninth-order demon beast. Although it had not transformed, the intelligence of such exotic beasts was generally not low. Being able to speak human language was naturally not surprising.
"What's going on?" Zhang Ling retorted. At the same time, he quickly had the Void Insect release its spatial divine power again, enveloping himself.
If this place really experienced spatial collapse, he could only rely on the Void Insect to protect himself.
The firelight on the Flamehoof Beast flickered, and it used the Wind Fire Escape Technique to dodge two spatial rifts and escape fifty or sixty zhang away. It angrily responded, "You attacked the spirit of the Dragon Phoenix Diagram just now."
Hearing this, Zhang Ling's face darkened. So the golden carp just now was the artifact spirit of this spatial treasure. No wonder the current situation occurred.
If the artifact spirit of a treasure was scattered by him, it would immediately be damaged. Although it might not be completely destroyed. But this happened to be a spatial treasure.
Fortunately, after a moment, Zhang Ling observed that the spatial tremors in this place were weakening. The spatial rifts that appeared around were also rapidly closing.
This made him breathe a sigh of relief. There was no real spatial collapse. The space was gradually stabilizing.
Looking towards the Flamehoof Beast, he saw two golden tokens floating above the beast's head. The dragon and phoenix phantoms intertwined with each other. A wisp of golden mist appeared around it.
As these mists intertwined, they once again gathered into that Golden Scale Fish.
Zhang Ling glanced over and sensed that this Golden Scale had no difference in aura from the previous one. It seemed even more illusory. It seemed that his Soul Piercing attack had not really killed this artifact spirit.
Seeing the artifact spirit re-condense, the Flamehoof Beast also relaxed. It raised its head and was about to absorb the two golden tokens floating above its head into its mouth.
But a black shadow swept over. It was a thick black vine. With a loud bang, the Flamehoof Beast was directly knocked away more than ten zhang.
Zhang Ling had appeared, and a mass of Heavenly Star Sand was released, wrapping the two tokens in front of him.
The Flamehoof Beast neighed and stood up. The cyan and red flames flickered in its mouth, seemingly wanting to counterattack immediately, but it did not really attack. The look in its eyes towards Zhang Ling was somewhat fearful.
"You can control this spatial treasure, so it seems you are very familiar with this place. Could you be the spirit beast of that Dragon Phoenix Fairy?" Spiritual light flickered in Zhang Ling's hand, and he flicked out streams of yellow light, which turned into a piece of runes, entangled in the two golden tokens.
The two golden tokens emitted dragon roars and phoenix cries, but they were trapped in the Heavenly Star Sand. And without anyone controlling them, they were instantly completely sealed by him.
Playing with the two golden tokens in his hand, one of them was the golden token with a cross mark that he had obtained before, with the ancient characters 'Long Xi' written on it.
The other golden token also had two ancient characters engraved on it, writing 'Feng Ling'.
Long Xi, Feng Ling, seemed like names.
The Flamehoof Beast did not answer Zhang Ling's words, but only looked at him warily.
Zhang Ling flicked his hand and put away the two golden tokens, looking at the Flamehoof Beast. "Your injuries are not light; you can't leave this place. I came here for a Wind Fire Demon Core. If you are willing to spit out the demon core, I can let you live."
As he spoke, Zhang Ling's eyes turned cold. "If you are unwilling, then I will do it myself." The Earth Element Gourd immediately appeared beside him, and a large mass of Heavenly Star Sand flowed out from it.
At the same time, seven flying swords emerged from his sleeves, flashing out streams of cyan-golden sword shadows.
When the Flamehoof Beast saw him release his magic weapons, its eyes became complicated. Suddenly, it let out a long howl and actually spoke, "Hmph, you want my demon core, but it's for refining treasures."
Zhang Ling nodded without committing himself. He was not immediately killing this beast at the moment, not because he couldn't bear it.
Cultivators kill demon beasts, and demon beasts devour humans. Everything is spoken with strength. If he were in a weak position now, this beast would not easily let him go.
But that Golden Scale artifact spirit was always following the Flamehoof Beast. Making him a little afraid to act rashly.
Just now, he collected the two golden tokens, but they were not the tokens to control this spatial treasure. He didn't know how the Flamehoof Beast was controlling this treasure.
