Seeing this, the snake woman's expression improved considerably, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
She bowed to Zhang Ling and exchanged a few simple pleasantries before walking to the base of the high platform, where there was a small circular magic array. After placing a few spirit stones on it, the array was activated. With a flash of light, the snake woman was teleported away.
Zhang Ling couldn't help but glance at the magic array. It was a small teleportation array with a range of less than a thousand miles. Zhang Ling carefully put the jade slip in his hand into his storage bag, planning to study it carefully after he left.
There was another reason he let the snake woman leave. This place was different from other places, and the competition was being held by half-demons.
Killing a high-level half-demon might attract the hostility of other half-demons. Of course, he wasn't afraid, as entering this place meant risking life and death. But if he could resolve the conflict peacefully and avoid some trouble, that would be good.
As soon as the snake woman left the high platform, the array's light罩 flashed a few times and disappeared. At the same time, a stone pillar about ten feet wide rose from the center, with several glittering objects placed on it.
A yellowish-brown demon core, a black spear, and a white jade bottle. The demon core was a sixth-order earth-attribute core, the spear was a magical treasure, and the white jade bottle was labeled with the three small characters 'Yangming Pill'.
Zhang Ling made a grabbing motion with one hand, and the three items flew into his hand. First, he opened the white jade bottle, which contained ten milky-white pills, emitting a rich medicinal fragrance.
He had never seen this kind of pill before, but after careful identification, it seemed to be a high-grade pill. It seemed to be for assisting cultivation.
The demon core was, of course, an earth-attribute core, which was exactly what he needed. Although he couldn't use the spear magic treasure, he also put it into his storage bag.
Afterward, he didn't leave the high platform immediately but took out a few pills, swallowed them, and sat down to meditate and recover his consumed spiritual power.
Although the battle just now hadn't lasted long, it had consumed two or three tenths of his spiritual power. Moreover, after using the Soul-Breaking Sound once, his own divine sense had also been affected to some extent.
He meditated for a full two hours, and with the help of the pills, his spiritual power was completely restored, and his divine sense was no longer significantly affected.
Zhang Ling got up and set off again towards the center of Hundred Spirits Pool. Calculating the time, four or five hours had already passed.
A small half of the time had already passed, so he needed to hurry to the center to meet Huang Ying and obtain the Bloodwood Heart.
In the following time, he didn't encounter any danger except for some low-level demons. But as he approached the center, he also encountered other cultivators and even discovered several high-level demons.
On an identical high platform, strands of black light formed a giant more than ten feet tall. The giant held a scarlet long knife in his hand and slashed down fiercely.
With a loud bang, a white ball of light was directly cut open in the light of the knife, and a scream was heard at the same time. A figure in the ball of light was split in half, spilling a large amount of blood.
After the light dissipated, a three-丈 tall dog-headed giant appeared. The dog-headed giant grabbed two storage bags from the corpse.
At the same time, after the dog-headed man killed his opponent, three treasures also appeared on the high platform.
On another high platform, a white-robed woman was covered in silver lightning, wielding a pair of white and black arc-shaped strange blades, slashing out beams of light to attack a gray-haired high-level demon wolf.
At this time, in the entire Hundred Spirits Pool, many cultivators and demons, like Zhang Ling, were either fighting with other high-level cultivators or had defeated their opponents and were heading towards the center. Of course, some of them had already died.
...
In the blink of an eye, half an hour passed, and Zhang Ling estimated that he was about to reach the center of Hundred Spirits Pool. Suddenly, his expression changed, and he looked towards the distant left, where powerful spiritual power fluctuations were erupting.
He released his divine sense to investigate and immediately discovered that someone was fighting more than ten miles away from him.
The person fighting surprised Zhang Ling greatly. It was actually a sixth-order peak Iron Tooth Pig. This demon beast was fifteen or sixteen feet tall, and its black fur stood on end, looking like a small mountain. Its head was also emitting a faint golden light. The tusks in its mouth were also extremely sharp, and the air seemed to be pierced between its movements, and a muffled sound came.
Rumbling sounds continued, and balls of fire fell from the sky above the demon beast, like a rain of fire, hitting its body.
The Iron Tooth Pig roared and shook its huge body. Instantly, golden black hairs grew out of its back, and they turned into ten-foot-long black thorns and shot out.
For a time, countless clusters of sparks exploded above its head. The one fighting against this demon beast seemed to be a cultivator. That person was hidden in a cloud of scarlet fire, constantly shooting out fireballs to attack.
The Iron Tooth Pig was not a native demon beast here, but like him, it had come to participate in the competition.
Hundred Spirits Pool would have some powerful demon beasts. These demon beasts were not ordinary. They were all demon beasts favored by the demon kings here, or they were directly the descendants of these demon kings.
They could not be compared with ordinary demon beasts.
The main reason why demon beasts participated in this kind of competition was because the prizes in Hundred Spirits Pool might include Transformation Fruit. This kind of spirit fruit could not only make the demon beasts' intelligence grow rapidly but also give them the ability to transform. Naturally, it attracted countless demon beasts to strengthen themselves.
Zhang Ling glanced at it from a distance and then changed direction again and quickly bypassed it. He would naturally not be stupid enough to approach the battlefield over there. Next, he flew towards the center, encountering some fights along the way. He avoided them all from a distance.
After another quarter of an hour, a hundred-foot-high black stone mountain appeared in front of him. Although it was not very tall, it was hidden in a thick fog. Beyond the mountain, the other side was the center of Hundred Spirits Pool.
Arriving here, Zhang Ling became even more vigilant, releasing all of his divine sense to surround the area to prevent sneak attacks from other cultivators or demons.
Suddenly, his divine sense moved, and a jade plate appeared in his palm from his sleeve. A faint white spot appeared on the blue jade plate.
Zhang Ling was overjoyed. This meant that Huang Ying was not far from him. He carefully looked at the position of the light spot on the jade plate, corresponded it with his own position, confirmed the direction, and then flew along the black stone mountain to the left.
After a cup of tea time, he and Huang Ying had already met. The two were standing on the top of the mountain, looking at the thick fog in front of them.
"Fellow Daoist Zhang, calculating the time, the central area will open in another half an hour. When the time comes, we will join forces to obtain the treasure."
"Since I have taken the demon king's treasure, I will naturally do my best."
The two were looking at a circular jade plate, discussing the treasure-hunting plan shortly.
