Zhang Ling closed his eyes and looked inward at his dantian.
In his sea of Qi, amidst a patch of earth-yellow spiritual light, the nascent soul spirit was seated, with four small gourds floating beside it.
The four gourds looked identical, except for slight differences in the spiritual patterns on them.
With a thought, the four gourds each spat out a ball of Five Elements spiritual light.
The Five Elements spiritual light was the dual energies of azure and white from within the Two Forms Gourds themselves.
The Five Elements spiritual light appeared as a ball of azure and white spiritual mist, which was now intertwined and fused together, gradually transforming into a five-colored glow.
His cultivated earth spiritual power merged into it, making the five-colored glow even more dazzling. It shone on the nascent soul spirit, causing it to exhibit a five-colored form.
After a moment, Zhang Ling stood up with satisfaction, softly whispering, "The Five Elements spiritual light contained within the four Two Forms Gourds indeed speeds up the tempering of magical treasures by more than double."
Now he already had the Earth Element Gourd, Metal Element Gourd, Water Element Gourd, and Wood Element Gourd, only lacking the final Fire Element Gourd.
Then he could form the Five Lights Treasure Gourd from the Five Elements Treasure Art.
He had already placed the last Two Forms Gourd in the Sumeru Grotto to cultivate; it would take shape in a few more years.
However, the newly refined Water Element Gourd and Wood Element Gourd were empty, without any treasures absorbed for tempering.
As for what kind of treasures to temper, Zhang Ling had not yet decided. There was no rush, and he wanted to consider it carefully.
As Zhang Ling walked out of the cultivation chamber, a flash of light appeared before his eyes, and a fiery-red spiritual talisman came into view.
This was a communication talisman, which was not unexpected. It contained the recent intelligence from the Immortal City.
One would arrive every few days, allowing him to understand the situation there.
With a flick of his finger, spiritual power struck it, and the fiery-red spiritual talisman flashed, transmitting the message.
Zhang Ling scanned the information with his divine sense. The information above was the same as the previous times, with nothing special.
In recent months, the Alien Demon race had indeed launched a war, but only on a small scale. At most, a few Golden Core cultivators had died, and a few small array nodes had been breached.
These small array nodes were not difficult for the Immortal City to repair and did not cause too many casualties.
Of course, the number of low-level cultivators killed and wounded was also in the thousands, but they were easily replenished.
Zhang Ling put away the communication talisman and planned to go to another quiet room next door to rest. After all, he had consumed a lot of energy refining magical treasures these past few days.
Meow, meow!
Suddenly, a red light darted over and bumped against his feet. It was the silly-looking twin-tailed cat. The large creature rubbed against his pants leg and meowed again.
"Hehe, you're just bored, aren't you? You should cultivate properly."
Zhang Ling stroked the big fellow's head. With a thought, he communicated with the twin-tailed cat and immediately revealed a look of joy. He followed the twin-tailed cat out of the cave and towards the back of the mountain.
In a short while, he arrived at a hidden stone cave behind the mountain.
This was an area he had specially created for several spiritual beasts to cultivate. The space inside was even larger than his cave, divided into several levels.
The top level was covered with a layer of fire crystal stones, surrounded by dense fire energy, which was the twin-tailed cat's cultivation place.
Zhang Ling went straight to the second level. The second level was very dark. As soon as he entered, he heard a buzzing sound.
Clusters of insect clouds gathered in it, extremely restless. This was divided into several compartments, which he had opened up into insect rooms.
He passed several groups of Earth Spirit Bees and saw a strange insect about ten feet long in a white jade stone room. It was the Void Devouring Insect he was raising.
At this time, the Void Devouring Insect was undergoing a transformation. The Void Devouring Insect was wrapped in a cloud of gray-white mist, and only a few vibrating wings could be seen clearly.
As the Void Devouring Insect's wings vibrated, spatial fluctuations appeared in the area where the Void Devouring Insect was located. Black and white patterns like ripples of water rippled in the air.
"Is it about to advance?"
Zhang Ling did not approach. Through telepathy, he immediately knew that the Void Devouring Insect was about to advance. This was naturally a very happy thing.
In fact, it was not good to get close now. Although he was strong, this insect controlled spatial powers.
At this critical moment of advancement, the spatial power around it was extremely unstable. If a spatial crack suddenly appeared, that would be bad.
Over the past ten years, this insect had been carefully cultivated and had reached the level of a third-order demon beast. Its spiritual power was equivalent to that of a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
But at this moment, its spiritual power had not reached the point where it was about to advance to a high-level demon beast, but it suddenly advanced inexplicably.
Zhang Ling was still slightly surprised, but this spiritual insect was extremely special, and even the relevant records were scarce.
The path of advancement could not be deduced by common sense.
Zhang Ling stroked his chin, took off two spirit beast bags, and put the Earth Spirit Bee colony and the two hundred or so Spirit Devouring Insects from the next insect room into them.
To avoid these spirit insects from hissing and affecting the Void Devouring Insect's advancement.
Moreover, he sat cross-legged on a stone on the ground, closed his eyes, and rested, waiting for the Void Devouring Insect's advancement to complete.
The twin-tailed cat also curiously sat cross-legged at his feet, licking its paws, and waited as well.
Staying here was also to prevent the Void Devouring Insect from making any noise during its advancement.
This wait lasted for two days. A strange hiss came from the insect room.
Zhang Ling opened his eyes and immediately looked at the Void Devouring Insect. The twin-tailed cat, which was lying on its stomach and snoring at his feet, was also awakened and whimpered.
The spatial fluctuations in the area where the Void Devouring Insect was located were even more intense.
The Void Devouring Insect's body had become half the size of before, and its original blue-black body had turned black and white. Many black and white spots had appeared on its flat triangular head, and the wings behind its head had become more transparent.
The sound of fluttering continued to vibrate, and the insect's body had also grown carapace like a centipede. There were many tiny holes in these carapace, making it even more hideous.
As the wings vibrated, a cloud of light white mist emerged from the holes. Most of the Void Devouring Insect's body was hidden in the mist, looking a little ethereal.
Through telepathy, Zhang Ling could sense that the Void Devouring Insect was quite excited now, immersed in the joy of advancing.
Zhang Ling naturally did not disturb it, but quietly observed. The spiritual power fluctuations on this insect's body had increased slightly compared to before, reaching the level of a fourth-order demon insect.
But this was not the most important thing. The Void Devouring Insect was swimming in the air, and the light white mist it emitted actually created a bizarre black and white space.
The area of this black and white space was not large, only about ten feet in size. It was like a special film. Through this film, one could see the stone wall behind it.
But the stone wall behind it had lost its original color and looked a little strange.
This small space seemed to be between reality and illusion. It was a special space created by the Void Devouring Insect.
After happily swimming around in the air a few times, the black and white space created by the Void Devouring Insect vibrated strangely and disappeared. The insect suddenly flew towards Zhang Ling and circled around him.
"Well, the space created is more stable than before. It seems that it can be used for something. Little thing, what other tricks do you have? Show them to me."
Zhang Ling stroked the Void Devouring Insect's flat head and whispered.
The three pairs of compound eyes on the Void Devouring Insect's head flashed with a strange black and white light, hissed, and the wings behind it vibrated.
It instantly darted out.
The Void Devouring Insect flew to a place ten feet away, and white mist appeared on its body again. It created a black and white space again.
Compared to just now, it was only half a foot in size. The Void Devouring Insect arched its upper body like a snake and passed through the black and white space.
Half of its body disappeared, leaving only half of its tail.
The next moment, a cloud of white mist appeared five or six feet away, and half of the Void Devouring Insect's body emerged from there.
The Void Devouring Insect's body seemed to be broken into two pieces, which was very strange.
This scene stunned Zhang Ling for a moment. He moved his mind and asked the Void Devouring Insect to maintain this state. The Void Devouring Insect did not feel uncomfortable at all, and the two sections of its body were still alive and kicking in different places.
Zhang Ling flashed and came to the Void Devouring Insect's tail. He gently raised his left hand, and a section of vine shot out.
The vine passed through the black and white space created by the Void Devouring Insect, and the front end of the vine came out of the mist near the head in the void.
Zhang Ling shook his hand, and the vine was retracted. It was not broken and there were no abnormalities. It was still the same as before.
Then he directly reached out his hand and passed through the black and white space, and half of his palm appeared next to the Void Devouring Insect's head. He did not feel any discomfort at all. His hand grabbed and touched the Void Devouring Insect's head.
This insect chirped happily instead.
Zhang Ling tried a few more times, and the Void Devouring Insect could maintain this state for the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.
Although the time was not very long, the black and white space created was very stable and there were no signs of collapse.
The Void Devouring Insect could arbitrarily travel to any place within a range of fifty or sixty feet. It created a space connecting two different locations.
In addition, the Void Devouring Insect could hide in the black and white space and disappear without a trace, with a strong concealment.
Most importantly, it could also hide him together. Divine sense could not detect it at all.
This was this insect's innate ability, hiding in the void cracks. Divine sense power was difficult to detect, making it more concealed than any concealment technique.
With the help of this magical power, it would definitely be able to play some unexpected roles in battle.
Even when encountering an invincible danger, hiding in the void, in the space created, might be able to avoid a disaster.
In the following days, Zhang Ling kept the Void Devouring Insect with him and practiced this insect's magical powers many times, coordinating with his own spells.
This peaceful cultivation time passed for another half a month. This day, Zhang Ling received another communication talisman.
The information above revealed that the situation in Yanhsia City was not good. Moreover, Blackwind City, which was adjacent to Yanhsia City, was also in danger.
Half a day ago, seven Nascent Soul monsters suddenly appeared, leading a large number of alien demons to besiege it, and it was almost breached.
Although it was defended, many of the Demon Cloud Sect monks stationed in Blackwind City were killed and injured. Even a Nascent Soul elder of the Demon Cloud Sect had fallen.
Two other Nascent Soul elders were seriously injured and were requesting reinforcements from Tianmu City.
Hearing such a battle report, Zhang Ling felt a little bad. This was the first time he had heard of a Nascent Soul monster falling in this battle.
It seemed that this war was about to enter a white-hot stage.
Just after reading this news, only a little over an hour had passed, and Zhang Ling had received two more sound transmission talismans one after another.
One of them was a black communication talisman with the symbols of Tianmu City and Yanhsia City on it, and his face became gloomy.
Because the appearance of this talisman meant that he also had to go to the front line. This was an order. The task above was for him to reinforce Blackwind City.
Although Zhang Ling had some expectations for this, he did not expect that he would receive the order in half a day.
The above even attached a reward, as long as he resolved the crisis in Blackwind City. He could arbitrarily choose two rare treasures in Blackwind City's treasure trove.
This was not surprising. At this time, these people had to obey the dispatch of the Twelve Immortal Cities.
However, since Nascent Soul cultivators were required to take action, the Immortal City would not be stingy with these rewards. They even put the rewards on the table to motivate them to take action.
After all, high-level monks had different temperaments, especially Nascent Soul monsters, who were all cunning. If they simply used the power of the Immortal City to force them to take action.
Even if they obeyed the dispatch, they would not work hard at that time. That would be greatly detrimental to the battle.
So, benefits were naturally the most direct and effective means.
As for the other sound transmission talisman, it was from Senior Brother Tianfeng.
Senior Brother Tianfeng seemed to know that he had received the order and told him not to worry about the safety of the sect. Lin Fei was on his way back and would guard the sect in his place.
They had discussed this matter before. Zhang Ling would not think too much about it.
After receiving the order, Zhang Ling naturally did not delay. First, he went to the sect's main hall to summon the remaining Golden Core monks in the sect and told them about the situation.
Then he left the sect alone.
Half a day later, Zhang Ling hurried all the way and entered the territory of Yuanfeng Kingdom.
He landed in a certain earthen mountain on the border of Yuanfeng Kingdom and waited.
The order he received also had two fellow monks of the same rank to reinforce with him.
Whether it was a coincidence or not, the other two were the Fire Cloud Sect elder from Tianyang Kingdom, the old man Fire Spirit. One was the Black Eagle Shangren from the Beast Control Sect of Yuanfeng Kingdom.
He was no stranger to these two people. He had seen them once when he joined the Haoyuan Sect for the entry ceremony.
The three of them happened to be the three countries of their alliance.
It seemed that the Immortal City also knew that the sects of their three countries were a united small force. Assigning the task together seemed to be intentional cooperation.
Zhang Ling waited on the earthen mountain for a quarter of an hour and sensed something. He looked at the direction north.
He saw a fire light speeding from the sky. It circled in the air and landed not far from him. It revealed a hunched old man.
"Fellow Daoist Fire Spirit." Seeing this old man, Zhang Ling smiled and greeted him.
"Hehe, so it's Little Friend Zhang. I didn't expect Little Friend to arrive so quickly. The old man dealt with some trivial matters in the sect." Old Man Fire Spirit's face was black and red, but a trace of a smile was squeezed out on his wrinkled face, and there was a trace of helplessness between his eyebrows.
"I haven't been here for long." Zhang Ling replied casually.
Then the two of them talked about the mission to increase defense.
