Inside the cave dwelling, Zhang Ling looked at the now gigantic Twin-Tailed Cat beside him, stroking the spirit beast's large head.
At this moment, the Twin-Tailed Cat had become as large as a tiger, with flame patterns on its body that felt soft to the touch.
Zhang Ling then used his divine sense to issue a command to the spirit beast.
Immediately, the Twin-Tailed Cat meowed, the flame patterns in its eyes lit up, and it spat out a ball of crimson flames that surrounded it.
At first glance, it looked like a fiery demon tiger. Zhang Ling focused intently, carefully observing the flames on its body.
He then raised his hand, and the Golden Iron Shield appeared. The magical artifact floated about ten feet in front of him, and with a flash of yellow light, it transformed into a giant iron shield.
"Huzi, attack this shield."
Zhang Ling commanded the spirit beast in his mind. The Twin-Tailed Cat's eyes lit up, and the flames on its body swirled, gathering in its mouth.
Then, with a loud bang, the Golden Iron Shield trembled violently twice. Following that, several large fireballs continuously struck the shield.
After emitting over a dozen thick fireballs, the Twin-Tailed Cat meowed, and the flames on its body gradually weakened.
"Its attack power is so-so, comparable to a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. But its endurance doesn't seem great."
Looking at the Twin-Tailed Cat, Zhang Ling couldn't help but smile wryly. Although this spirit beast had advanced to become a second-tier demon beast, its strength seemed quite ordinary.
Moreover, the flames it had just released were the demon fire condensed within its body after its advancement. Its endurance wasn't very long.
No matter how he looked at it, it was just an ordinary demon beast, no different from other second-tier demon beasts.
But the spiritual energy it absorbed during its advancement was several times that of ordinary demon beasts, which was quite strange.
"Do you have any other abilities?" Zhang Ling thought, using his divine sense to inquire of the Twin-Tailed Cat.
Most spirit beasts were tamed from demon beasts, and their strength was comparable to wild demon beasts. However, after living with human cultivators for a long time, their intelligence also grew rapidly.
Even without using divine sense to communicate, it could understand direct commands. Even ordinary cats and dogs kept as pets by ordinary families in the secular world could understand some simple commands, let alone a second-tier demon beast.
Meow!
Hearing Zhang Ling's words, the Twin-Tailed Cat twitched its ears and shook its body. Its body gradually shrank rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it became the size of an ordinary orange cat.
Then, gray-black spirit patterns appeared on its body. These spirit patterns began to move, gathering on one of its tails. The Twin-Tailed Cat howled, and one of its tails became several times thicker.
Subsequently, this tail flickered quickly in the void, and the tail actually broke off.
Zhang Ling was startled by this, but he still stared intently. He saw that the severed tail was like an intangible object, turning into wisps of cyan smoke.
The smoke then intertwined, transforming into a small, gray, dusty light orb.
Upon closer inspection, the light orb was a phantom of a cat, showing only a rough outline, with only a pair of scarlet cat eyes faintly visible.
What surprised Zhang Ling even more was that the gray fur phantom flickered and faded even more. If he hadn't been staring at it, he almost wouldn't have noticed it.
Zhang Ling became suspicious. The Twin-Tailed Cat cried out again, and the gray cat phantom that split off flashed and arrived in front of the shield.
With a crisp clang, the shield was sent flying, crashing into the wall next to it.
Zhang Ling was truly shocked this time. The attack power of this strike was also equivalent to that of a second-tier demon beast.
Then, the gray shadow flashed and disappeared into the orange cat, and the two tails grew out again behind its butt.
A doppelganger! Or a phantom?
Zhang Ling communicated with the spirit beast for a while and also investigated the spirit beast's body. He discovered that the Twin-Tailed Cat was indeed not an ordinary demon beast.
In addition to gathering fire spiritual energy, there was also a hidden团 of wind spiritual energy. The gray cat phantom was this wind spiritual energy, transformed by a tail.
It was neither a real body nor a purely illusory clone, so its attack power was real. Moreover, it was extremely fast and not easy to detect.
Regarding this, Zhang Ling also confirmed that this Twin-Tailed Cat was a mutated spirit beast, or rather, a dual-attribute demon beast.
In the world of cultivation, dual-attribute demon beasts were not common, but there were some, so they were not considered rare demon beasts.
However, the spiritual energy within such demon beasts was often mixed, and their strength varied.
It was rare to see a situation like the Twin-Tailed Cat, where the spiritual energies within its body did not interfere with each other.
Zhang Ling didn't know whether this was good or bad. After all, he wasn't a cultivator who specialized in nurturing spirit beasts.
He was still happy that this Twin-Tailed Cat spirit beast had the ability to create a doppelganger. The spirit beast's increased strength could also provide him with considerable assistance.
If he released it during a battle, it might really be able to launch a successful sneak attack.
Zhang Ling then put away the shield magic tool and took out a few Spirit Feeding Pills and threw them to the Twin-Tailed Cat. After eating the pills, it lay down next to the spiritual spring in the cave dwelling and fell into a deep sleep.
The Spirit Feeding Pills used to nurture spirit beasts were no longer sufficient for second-tier demon beasts, but Zhang Ling wasn't worried about this.
Some time ago, he had collected some pill formulas, including three or four types of pills for nurturing demon beasts.
He had collected all the spiritual herbs needed for these pills. In the following month, he opened the furnace and refined the pills several times. In this way, he stored hundreds of pills for nurturing demon beasts.
This type of pill was quite easy to refine, and he could master it well with his current pill refining level.
This was because this type of pill for nurturing spirit beasts didn't require deliberately sorting out the spiritual energy in the pills.
Zhang Ling had also studied the nurturing of demon beasts for a period of time. In addition to Spirit Feeding Pills, which were specialized auxiliary elixirs, he could also directly feed them spiritual herbs or spiritual stones.
Wild demon beasts also mostly used this method to advance quickly.
Spirit beasts were originally demon beasts, and their bodies were much stronger than those of human cultivators, so their demand for elixirs was not so harsh.
After resolving the spirit beast's matter, Zhang Ling once again entered into arduous cultivation.
……
