Three days later, Zhang Ling was standing on the outer fringes of the storm, watching the raging wind and rain in the sky, the sound of thunder echoing in his ears. Below, the water currents churned up countless whirlpools, with waves rising higher and higher.
He was standing precisely at the edge of the storm. Before him was the endless tempest, while ten miles behind him, the power of wind and thunder gradually subsided, creating a stark contrast.
Suddenly, as if sensing something, Zhang Ling glanced at the water's surface. A black flash appeared within a rapidly swirling vortex, and a figure shot out, landing beside him. The black light dissipated, revealing a dark-faced man, the Xuan Turtle controlled by his second soul.
The Xuan Turtle merely shook its head expressionlessly at him, causing Zhang Ling's expression to turn strange.
Earlier, he had sent the Xuan Turtle underwater to investigate, and the findings were now being transmitted to his consciousness.
The situation underwater was unstable, with many powerful and intricate undercurrents spanning a vast area. They seemed to resonate with the thunderstorms above, creating a unique environment.
Over the past three days, Zhang Ling had roughly explored the area within a ten-thousand-mile radius. This region was enveloped by extensive thunderstorms in all directions—east, south, west, and north—showing no signs of weakening.
It seemed he was trapped in this bizarre area.
Staring at the churning water, Zhang Ling narrowed his eyes. After a moment, he and the Xuan Turtle soared into the sky, directly penetrating the clouds.
Half an hour later, they returned to the water's surface.
This time, however, both he and the Xuan Turtle were wreathed in wisps of green smoke, their clothes tattered, looking somewhat disheveled.
"Alas, the outer thunderstorms are even more extensive than I imagined. The deeper you go, the stronger the wind and thunder become," Zhang Ling muttered, tearing off the ragged pieces of his clothing and donning a new black robe from his storage bag.
This area was indeed peculiar. The outermost layer was shrouded in endless thunderstorms, forming a natural barrier that isolated the entire region.
Zhang Ling even suspected that the external thunderstorms were a manifestation of some powerful restriction array, creating this celestial phenomenon.
However, the scale of the thunderstorms was simply too vast. With his knowledge of formations, he couldn't conceive of any array capable of gathering such potent thunderous power and covering a ten-thousand-mile radius.
Of course, it wasn't to say that arrays and restrictions couldn't achieve this, but deploying such a powerful restriction would require immense resources and come at a great cost. Such massive arrays were usually the work of ancient cultivators.
Zhang Ling leaned more towards the idea that the special environment of this area was naturally formed. At the same time, he was ninety percent certain that he was no longer in the Flowing Cloud Sea.
Because the water beneath him wasn't a large lake or river, but the true ocean surface.
The entire Flowing Cloud Sea was within a sea of clouds, virtually an endless cloud sea that supported the Flowing Cloud Sea cultivation world.
There were no such ocean current regions there.
This discovery left Zhang Ling feeling frustrated. He led the Xuan Turtle towards the center of the area.
As he flew, he pondered his next steps.
Now that he had ascertained that the external thunderstorms covered a vast area, making it difficult to break through, Zhang Ling decided to rest here temporarily.
After all, he had essentially confirmed that he was no longer in the Flowing Cloud Sea, so he wasn't in a hurry to return.
If he truly wanted to return, he could use the ultra-long-distance teleportation array.
After being teleported here, Zhang Ling had examined the teleportation array. It was a two-way portal. Activating the array would return him to that independent space.
However, with his current cultivation level, he couldn't break through that space, and returning would only trap him there.
As for the Ding Ruozhao sisters, Zhang Ling could only sigh inwardly. Ding Ruozhao had taken the Mind Awakening Pill and would recover after a period of rest.
The two women weren't in mortal danger. When he left, he had specifically left behind several high-level puppets. Coupled with the fact that both women were powerful, as long as they didn't leave Mount Qionghua, they wouldn't be in too much danger.
Of course, it was impossible for them to leave the Heavenly Palace Secret Realm.
The罡 wind layer outside the Heavenly Palace was even more dangerous than this thunderstorm area, with spatial rifts. Even Nascent Soul cultivators would find it difficult to pass through, let alone the two women who were only Golden Core cultivators.
...
After more than half an hour, Zhang Ling arrived at a calm stretch of water, where a patch of black mist blocked his path. Without pausing, he flew directly into the mist.
After traveling a thousand feet, the black mist thinned, and an island came into view.
This island was quite large, forming a ring. Its overall shape resembled a crescent moon, with a sea current in the center.
Strangely, the sea current flowed rapidly, forming a massive sea eye, like an invincible water cave. The surrounding seawater rumbled as it poured into it.
This island was at the center of the storm area. Zhang Ling suspected that this island might be the true Demon Wind Island because it also contained ruins. He had examined the island a day earlier.
This area spanned ten thousand miles, and besides the islands of wind within the bizarre wind vortexes, the central thousand-mile radius contained seven or eight islands.
The island before him was the largest. This island also seemed unusual, but the spiritual energy on it was not weak. In particular, there was a decent high-grade spiritual vein within the easternmost peaks.
Zhang Ling flew directly towards a small green mountain on the eastern side.
This was a low mountain, only two to three hundred feet high. It wasn't particularly tall, but it was lush and green, covered with many towering trees, wildflowers, and weeds. The surrounding peaks were the same.
There was also a small pool at the foot of the mountain, with clear water like a mirror. The environment on the island was quite serene, except that the sky was dark and gloomy, without a trace of sunlight.
It had been like this for several days. Zhang Ling guessed that this was due to the thunderstorms outside, fearing that the sky in this area would always be like this.
The other islands nearby had little vegetation and were mostly barren.
In this dim environment, the vegetation and trees on this island were still so lush. It was all thanks to the high-grade spiritual vein; otherwise, this would also be a deserted island.
Zhang Ling didn't plan to stay here for long, so he didn't open up a cave dwelling. He flew directly to the mountainside and landed in a patch of ruins.
Behind him was covered with large patches of weeds and ancient trees, and in front of him was an open space. It looked like a semicircular plaza, full of potholes.
At Zhang Ling's feet, where he landed, was a giant pit more than ten feet in size, filled with dust, but many charred marks could be seen.
He glanced at it and judged that this pit was caused by a cultivator using a spell similar to a fireball technique or an attack from a fire-attribute magic weapon.
The cultivator who could cause this kind of damage wouldn't have a low cultivation level, at least Golden Core strength.
The plaza extended to a smooth stone wall more than thirty feet high, with several rows of stone caves opened on it.
He had explored these stone caves not long ago. They were empty, having long been searched by other cultivators, without anything of value. On the left and right sides of the stone wall, several stone buildings and stone towers were still intact.
A few black stone pillars could still be seen standing, with some array inscriptions engraved on them, but they were all dark and had lost their function.
Zhang Ling walked directly towards one of the five-story stone buildings that was best preserved. At the same time, he instructed the Xuan Turtle, and the Xuan Turtle turned into a ray of light and disappeared.
Although he had explored this place a day ago, to be on the safe side, he still asked the Xuan Turtle to carefully search the island again to eliminate possible dangers.
At the same time, blue light flashed in his hand, and he took out several array disks and a dozen array flags and arranged them nearby. Before long, Zhang Ling arranged several sets of arrays in this ruined area as temporary protection.
The outermost layer was a set of hidden arrays, which also released a layer of faint mist that spread around. Wherever it passed, weeds grew and the ruined area became more dilapidated.
Entering the stone building, Zhang Ling went directly to a stone room on the third floor. The interior was simply decorated, and a set of spirit gathering arrays was engraved on the ground. The spiritual energy in the building was extremely rich.
With a wave of his hand, many jade boxes and jade bottles appeared on the ground. At the same time, a black-red pill furnace was released and floated in mid-air after he cast a few spells.
He took a deep breath, opened his mouth and spat out a ball of bright yellow infant fire, and began to refine pills. He had enough pills on his body, so naturally he wasn't refining ordinary pills, but the Mind Awakening Pill that he had just refined not long ago.
And so, Zhang Ling stayed on the ring island for more than a month.
...
On this day, the stone building exploded with a loud bang.
A strange vine grew out and instantly turned into a hundred feet long, swinging in mid-air, creating bursts of wind.
Suddenly, blue and red spiritual light appeared on the vine, and strange flowers bloomed on the entire vine.
These flowers were three-colored, blue, red, and yellow, and in an instant they turned blood red, like strange mouths opening and closing rapidly, releasing a cloud of blood mist that spread around.
As the vine swung, countless black shadows seemed to appear in the blood mist. Then, the blood flowers fell off and flew out, changing rapidly.
Some of the small flowers turned gray and white, making a sound of metal colliding, becoming extremely sharp. Hitting the ground, it was like a blade cutting through, creating countless cracks.
The other part of the blood-colored small flowers differentiated into strands of blood-colored silk threads, weaving into a blood-colored net for a while, turning into blood-colored spikes for a while, and sometimes gathering together to form a strange blood-colored vine.
"After integrating the flower demon's spiritual consciousness, the parasitic vine has really changed a lot, and its spirituality has also been greatly enhanced."
A vague figure slowly walked out of the blood mist, looking strangely at the flowering vine, and said to himself.
Zhang Ling was still holding a blue-red treasure pearl in his hand.
This treasure was originally a wood-attribute demon core, which was fused with his blood essence and refined into a human Yuan evil pill. After that, it was also refined with the secret method in the Evil Demon Art, which complemented the parasitic vine in his body.
This evil pill was also his natal object, and now it has been re-refined.
At this moment, there were some strange green patterns on the evil pill, occasionally turning into small flower clusters, and occasionally turning into crystal clear green light.
The wood-attribute spiritual power emitted by this treasure has been enhanced several times, not weaker than a seventh-level demon core.
"What's wrong? What's the matter, making such a big noise."
While Zhang Ling was talking to himself, in another stone building not far away, the Xuan Turtle also rushed out. Of course, it was not the Xuan Turtle who was speaking, but a gold and blue bird standing on its shoulder.
"I didn't expect to alarm Senior Bluebird." Zhang Ling greeted casually.
"Huh, you really integrated a little bit of the weak spiritual consciousness of that unformed flower demon into your body." The bird spirit saw the vine constantly swinging in the blood mist at a glance, and exclaimed in surprise.
"Why, does Senior think it's inappropriate? Didn't Senior suggest that I do this?" Zhang Ling frowned slightly.
In a month, he became familiar with the bird spirit. Bluebird was the bird spirit's self-proclaimed name.
When they signed the soul contract before, Zhang Ling specifically added a sentence to the contract that if he encountered any cultivation problems, he would ask the bird spirit.
This was also a condition for his promise to help the bird spirit reshape its body.
During this period, the two sides got along fairly well, and Zhang Ling asked some questions about cultivation.
Although the bird spirit disdained and often ignored him, its occasional words were of great help to him, answering many doubts about cultivation.
Zhang Ling became more convinced that this person's cultivation was extraordinary.
At this time, the change of the parasitic vine was based on the bird spirit's suggestion to integrate the unformed flower demon that he could not catch not long ago.
The flower demon was born with a trace of spiritual consciousness, which was not an ordinary spiritual plant, but could be regarded as half a goblin.
Integrating this kind of thing, the power of the parasitic vine on his body has been greatly enhanced. This is not the biggest change. The biggest change is that the spirituality of the vine has been greatly enhanced.
Zhang Ling felt that it was much more difficult to control it, which reminded him of the feeling when he had not become a cultivator and was first parasitized by the vine.
Although this was the case, the flower demon's wisp of spiritual consciousness was weak after all and was not difficult to control.
The Bluebird flapped its wings and flew around, humming in a bad tone.
"Humph, what's wrong? That's just an unformed goblin. With your Nascent Soul cultivation, that little hidden danger can be ignored. You are really a freak. There is actually a demon vine parasitizing your body. No wonder you want to integrate this thing. Although this cultivation method is unusual, there are many of them among your human race cultivators, and they are called demon cultivators by your human race."
"Demon cultivator, is Senior talking about demon refiners?"
Zhang Ling had never heard of demon cultivators, so he couldn't help but ask.
"Hehe, demon refiner, when my Yuan spirit was on that female cultivator, I sensed part of her memory. It's a cultivation method of your lower realm cultivators. It is indeed very similar to the demon cultivators of the spirit world. As far as I know, demon cultivators can use the power of demon beasts to cast magical powers, and also integrate powerful demon spirits to enhance their physique. Powerful demon cultivators can integrate true spirit bloodlines. Among your human race, there seem to be several true spirit families, which were established by powerful demon cultivators."
"Integrate the bloodline of true spirits, could it be that cultivators in the spirit world can hunt true spirits like existences?" Hearing Bluebird's words, Zhang Ling asked in surprise.
The cultivation method of demon refiners in the Flowing Cloud Sea is indeed to integrate the bloodline of demon beasts and demon spirits to enhance their strength. But he had never heard of integrating the bloodline of true spirits.
"Humph, true spirits are not something ordinary cultivators can touch. Those who can achieve the body of true spirits are at least Mahayana cultivators, and the powerful true dragons and phoenixes are not weaker than true immortals. They can freely shuttle through various interfaces. As for hunting down such existences, the few of the human race in the spirit world are afraid to even think about it."
"However, true spirits also engage in battles, and places where they fight often leave behind treasures like dragon scales and phoenix feathers. Refining the remnant true spirit blood essence within them is a rare opportunity for most cultivators, and it's even possible to comprehend the true spirit's divine abilities."
"The Xuanming Turtle is one such example, having occasionally devoured some of the Black Tortoise's essence and blood, leading to its mutation. Alright, you should focus on your cultivation and break through your cultivation level as soon as possible. It would be best if you could reach the late stage within a hundred years. My nascent soul has no physical body to rely on and cannot wait too long."
Zhang Ling stroked his chin, still wanting to ask something more.
Blue Sparrow stopped elaborating, transforming into a ray of spiritual light and flying into the Xuan Turtle's sleeve, merging into a small wooden牌tablet.
Zhang Ling stood in place, wryly smiling. He was still recalling what Blue Sparrow had said.
Demon cultivators, true spirit families. These new terms made him yearn for the Spirit World. During this time, he had occasionally learned some information about the Spirit World from the bird spirit. However, the bird spirit would not say much about this information, always leaving him wanting more.
However, from these brief mentions, Zhang Ling also learned some things about the Spirit World.
The Spirit World was even larger than he had imagined. It seemed that besides humans and demons, there were many other races, and even true spirits could occasionally be seen manifesting their true forms.
And the Human World was not just their realm; if not a thousand, there were at least eight hundred. These simple facts shocked Zhang Ling somewhat.
The bird spirit was not human, nor did it seem to be a demon. As for what race it was, he did not ask in detail. After all, they had not been in contact for long, so it was not appropriate to ask about such personal matters.
The piece of wood that the bird spirit had merged into was a soul-nourishing wood. Since she was now a spirit body, this kind of sacred wood would naturally be of great help to her.
Taking out a piece of soul-nourishing wood wasn't because Zhang Ling was being particularly kind, but simply to win her over slightly and extract more information from her.
