These large birds had grayish-white eyes and a blood-red fleshy growth on their heads, appearing quite strange. Each emitted a faint aura, indicating the strength of a third or fourth-tier demonic core.
The desolate birds' target was the incense burner on the rock. As the birds approached the ground, a flash of black light appeared beside them in what seemed to be an empty space, and a tall figure suddenly materialized.
Without any apparent action, a layer of black mist emerged from the figure, rapidly swirling and transforming into a black wind that swept outwards.
Instantly, this black wind enveloped the dozen or so large birds, followed by a series of惨叫 (cǎnjiào) miserable screams. After two or three breaths, the black wind dissipated, leaving behind only a pile of broken bird bones falling from the sky into the swamp.
Within moments, the bird bones in the swamp sank into the mire and disappeared without a trace. The area returned to its previous tranquility, as if nothing had happened.
"Seven or eight days already. Are there no other high-level demonic beasts in this area?" A deep, muffled voice suddenly sounded as Zhang Ling appeared next to the corpse of the bear.
He had been in the desolate region for over two months, and had already killed three high-level demonic beasts: two fifth-tier demonic beasts and one sixth-tier demonic beast.
However, only one of them, the fifth-tier Earth Mother Worm, was an earth-attribute desolate beast; the other two were of different attributes.
Although the desolate region was filled with countless desolate beasts, including many high-level ones, the area itself was vast. Sometimes you might encounter several high-level desolate beasts in a single day, while other times you might not see one for a whole month.
The Heavenly Demon Incense he refined was prepared for this purpose, but the results were not significant. Generally, it would take half a month or more to attract a high-level desolate beast.
The Heavenly Demon Incense also attracted a large number of low-level demonic beasts, just like it had attracted the group of third and fourth-tier desolate birds earlier.
Zhang Ling sighed and, with a wave of his hand, retrieved the incense burner from the rock. He then took out three or four maps and began to examine them.
In order to hunt desolate beasts, he had purchased many maps of the desolate region while he was in Myriad Manifestation City. These maps were not cheap, as they contained a wealth of information about desolate beasts.
However, this information was often inaccurate, as desolate beasts were constantly moving. Moreover, because the desolate region was so vast, no map could cover the entire area, so it was impossible to know where all the demonic beasts were located.
After studying the maps for a while, Zhang Ling determined his next destination. He put away the maps and quickly flicked his fingers, sending out more than a dozen beams of spiritual light that disappeared into the surrounding area. Several array flags of different colors suddenly appeared and were collected by him.
Zhang Ling's body flashed with a green light, enveloping himself and the corpse bear, and they disappeared without a trace in a streak of green light.
...
Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, more than a year had passed in the desolate region.
Zhang Ling had killed more than twenty high-level desolate beasts, of all attributes, but he had not collected many of the gold and earth attribute demonic cores he truly needed.
He had only collected five earth-attribute demonic cores and one gold-attribute demonic core. This was far from enough. According to Zhang Ling's estimation, he would need at least ten thousand catties of spiritual breath earth to refine Heavenly Star Sand.
This would require thirty or so gold and earth attribute demonic cores, with earth attribute demonic cores making up the majority.
However, he had already decided to stay in the desolate region for several years to collect all the necessary demonic cores.
As for the demonic cores he had obtained from killing other demonic beasts, he naturally stored them well in his storage bag. There were also several demonic cores of different attributes.
Even if he couldn't use these demonic cores, he could sell them in the market for a high price in spirit stones. In addition, he had obtained many high-level demonic beast materials.
Beast hides, scales, horns, and spirit bones were all excellent materials for refining treasures. These items could be exchanged for a lot of resources. He owed the collection of these materials to the Heavenly Demon Incense. Without the incense to lure the desolate beasts, his harvest would probably be less than half.
Of course, this was also limited by his own strength. If he were stronger, he could naturally go to those areas with a large number of high-level advantages.
These areas were clearly marked on the maps he had purchased, and were considered extremely dangerous areas. There were many seventh-tier desolate beasts, and he might even encounter desolate beasts comparable to Nascent Soul cultivators.
If he wandered around the desolate region without a map to guide him, he could easily lose his life. Zhang Ling believed that his strength was already considerable, but he had encountered two mistakes in the past year.
Once, he had attracted several fifth and sixth-tier demonic beasts, and had to flee in a hurry. Another time, he had used the Heavenly Demon Incense to attract a seventh-tier Rock Earth Turtle.
The Rock Earth Turtle was an earth-attribute desolate beast. He had been excited when he attracted this demonic beast, thinking that if he could get a seventh-tier demonic core, it would be worth five or six fifth-tier demonic cores.
But reality was cruel. Even though he had trapped the Rock Earth Turtle with an array, and had the corpse bear avatar assist him from the side, he himself had not been able to break through the Rock Earth Turtle's defense. He had even angered the Rock Earth Turtle, which had chased him for several days.
He had also damaged a set of array flags for trapping demonic beasts in the process.
Fortunately, he had carefully studied Elder Dragon's array formation classics and had collected several sets of array materials for this trip to the desolate region.
After the array was destroyed, he had spent a full month re-refining a set of trapping demonic beast arrays. But this also made Zhang Ling feel distressed for a long time.
This kind of array used to trap high-level demonic beasts was already very rare, and the consumption of materials alone was equivalent to several magical treasures.
So, considering the gains and losses over the past year, although he had not lost money, he was quite depressed. Time passed day by day, and Zhang Ling would occasionally change the location for trapping desolate beasts. Every time he arrived at a new location, he would stay for half a month or even more than a month.
Sometimes he would gain nothing, and sometimes he would attract several high-level desolate beasts at once. Fortunately, Zhang Ling had gained some experience in using the Heavenly Demon Incense and had not attracted any desolate beasts that he could not deal with.
During this period, he had also killed a large number of low-level desolate beasts and obtained a large number of desolate beast materials. He only collected the most valuable ones, and discarded most of the rest.
After all, no matter how many storage treasures he had, there was a capacity limit, and he could not store so many materials.
It is worth mentioning that, in the process of killing high-level desolate beasts, he had collected seven or eight complete demonic souls, and Zhang Ling had refined three Soul Piercing Beads. Two of them were refined with fifth-tier demonic beast souls, and one was refined with a sixth-tier demonic soul.
The three Soul Piercing Beads could attack cultivators' souls and could serve as one of Zhang Ling's trump cards.
...
In an unnamed mountain peak, Zhang Ling was sitting cross-legged on a boulder, closing his eyes to rest.
On a bluestone more than twenty feet in front of him, the incense burner of Heavenly Demon Incense floated in the air, emitting a tempting fragrance with faint pink smoke.
This kind of Heavenly Demon Incense refined with Five Fragrance Wood was not good for cultivators to inhale too much, as it would cause a feeling of dizziness.
It was unknown why Heavenly Demon Incense could attract demonic beasts and desolate beasts. The refining method of Heavenly Demon Incense was widely circulated in the Flowing Cloud Sea, but thousand-year-old Five Fragrance Wood was rare.
The Five Fragrance Wood sapling in his hand was still purchased with a lot of spirit stones, and it only had an effect after being催生 (cuīshēng) forced to grow to a thousand years old with the mysterious bead.
