Refinement

The cave was not spacious, but it still took Xiao Ming several minutes to inspect it thoroughly.

During his inspection, Xiao Ming found some small bits of Magical Beast droppings among several large boulders.

They had likely been left behind by rock-dwelling Magical Beasts that occasionally came here to rest.

After clearing the droppings from the cave, Xiao Ming took out the boulders he had prepared earlier from his Na Ring and sealed the entrance tightly, leaving only a few cracks for air to seep through.

After finishing these tedious tasks, Xiao Ming finally let out a long breath and walked to the center of the cave.

Sitting cross-legged before a boulder, his dark eyes burned with scorching flames as he stared intently at the Jade Bottle before him.

"Next... let's begin."

Xiao Ming did not make too many preparations before devouring the Green Rock Profound Water.

He had decided long ago to rely on Ling, nurtured through the Spirit Nourishing Technique, to forcibly devour it. Xiao Ming believed that Ling, having already devoured two Beast Flames, could handle the Green Rock Profound Water. Besides, his Dou Qi Attribute was not suitable for devouring such an attribute-based strange object.

With one hand supporting the bottom of the Jade Bottle, Xiao Ming swiftly sent his Soul Power into it and drew out the Green Rock Profound Water.

Freed from the Jade Bottle's seal, the liquid that had originally been extremely calm began to emit strange ripples once more.

It hovered in midair, with faint green mist even rising from it.

Knowing that time was of the essence, Xiao Ming sank his mind into his lower abdomen, where a palm-sized milky-white Qi Cyclone slowly rotated.

Around the Qi Cyclone was a layer of milky-white, nebula-like energy. Deep within it, a thumb-sized, fiery-red diamond-shaped crystal slowly floated to the center of the Qi Cyclone under Xiao Ming's mental gaze, remaining still.

With a slight movement of his mind, Ling, which had been exchanging energy with the Dou Crystal inside the Qi Cyclone, vanished.

Xiao Ming opened his eyes and raised his hand. Ling, which had disappeared moments ago, danced joyfully at the tip of his index finger as though it were alive.

Suddenly, Xiao Ming flicked his finger. Ling shot out, leaving behind a white afterimage as it plunged into the pool of Green Rock Profound Water with lightning speed.

The instant Ling entered the Green Rock Profound Water, it was like a wolf spotting mutton. In a flash, its size swelled several times over.

A terrifying suction force emerged from within it, rapidly pulling in and absorbing the Green Rock Profound Water.

However, the Green Rock Profound Water was clearly not so easy to absorb. A faint Energy Tide rose from the mere dozen or so square centimeters of Green Rock Profound Water, actually offsetting Ling's suction force. For a time, the two remained locked in a stalemate.

Not only that, Xiao Ming could even sense the Mysterious Water gathering the energy of heaven and earth. It clearly intended to attack Ling just as it had attacked him earlier.

Naturally, Xiao Ming would not stand by and allow the Green Rock Profound Water to launch its attack.

He struck out with fiery-red Dou Qi, scattering the energy the Green Rock Profound Water had gathered.

Then, through Soul Power, he connected with Ling and drew the Peach Blossom Flame and Azure Crystal Flame out from within Ling's body.

The two Beast Flames suddenly surged in size after appearing, enveloping the Green Rock Profound Water.

Every action of the Green Rock Profound Water was driven entirely by its instinct for self-preservation.

Now that it had been provoked, it split off part of its power to resist the flames' scorching heat. Moreover, because Mysterious Water and Beast Flames possessed different attributes, the Green Rock Profound Water focused most of its efforts on resisting the Peach Blossom Flame and Azure Crystal Flame.

The Energy Tide contending with Ling visibly weakened and could no longer offset Ling's suction. Drop by drop, the Green Rock Profound Water Origin was drawn into Ling's body.

Because Ling had been created specifically to devour Heaven and Earth Strange Objects, the divided Green Rock Profound Water Origin could not cause much of a disturbance at all.

The drops of Green Rock Profound Water Origin were immediately refined and absorbed upon entering Ling's body.

"Ling absorbs Mysterious Water far more conveniently and quickly than a person could. It's also safer than absorbing it directly with the body."

Watching Ling absorb it bit by bit—and then, when only half remained, directly swallow the Green Rock Profound Water—Xiao Ming could not help but sigh.

When humans absorbed these Heaven and Earth Strange Objects, they all faced tremendous danger.

Take the Green Rock Profound Water before him, for instance. If Xiao Ming were to devour it himself—

He would need to swallow the Green Rock Profound Water directly and let it enter his body.

The human body was extremely fragile. Even a Dou Huang Expert could not allow unfamiliar energy to rampage through their body.

Therefore, before devouring it, Xiao Ming would need to prepare all kinds of protective medicinal pills to keep the uncontrolled energy of the Green Rock Profound Water from damaging his meridians.

Of course, that would not be enough. The Green Rock Profound Water would not obediently allow itself to be refined.

He would have to endure immense pain while guiding it through the fragile meridians in his body.

In the end, after taming the Mysterious Water, if it were especially violent, he would also need a space capable of containing it, because it could not simply be placed inside the Qi Cyclone.

Xiao Ming did not know whether the Green Rock Profound Water required such a containing space.

But since the Green Rock Profound Water could unleash corrosive attacks, it was clearly no ordinary thing.

The reason the Green Poison Twin Ghosts had never refined the Green Rock Profound Water might have been not only because there was just one portion of it, but also because they lacked the ability to refine it.

In short, for humans to devour such things was troublesome and highly dangerous.

But as long as the strange object was not stronger than Ling, Ling could devour it freely without any danger at all.

For instance, Ling had now directly devoured the Green Rock Profound Water without suffering any effects.

This was the formidable aspect of the Spirit Nourishing Technique Xiao Ming cultivated.

Furthermore, when humans devoured Heaven and Earth Strange Objects, it did not improve their cultivation. Whether it was Heavenly Flames or Mysterious Water, neither could do so.

However, after Ling devoured such things, it could feed energy back into the Qi Cyclone.

Naturally, Ling's master's cultivation would also improve.

"Unfortunately, Ling probably doesn't have the strength to directly devour Heavenly Flames yet."

Xiao Ming summoned Ling, which had swallowed all the Green Rock Profound Water, back into his hand. Looking at Ling, which had turned somewhat emerald-green, he muttered to himself.

The origin of any Heavenly Flame, once unleashed, could burn the current Ling into ashes—unless it was an absurdly immature Heavenly Flame.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to casually throw Ling into a Heavenly Flame Origin like this and directly refine it.

"To suffer less when devouring Heavenly Flames in the future, it seems I'll have to devour more Beast Flames. One Beast Flame might not be enough against a Heavenly Flame, but a thousand should be somewhat useful. I should also seek out more Heaven and Earth Strange Objects. Once Ling grows strong enough, even the most terrifying Heavenly Flame won't be a problem."

"If that still doesn't work, I can just devour the Heavenly Flames myself when the time comes."

Xiao Ming would definitely devour Heavenly Flames in the future. Leaving aside whether the Simulator might draw some Heavenly Flame, he already knew of three ownerless Heavenly Flames on the Northwest Continent: the Green Lotus Core Flame and two Fallen Heart Flames.

Devouring Heavenly Flames could increase his cultivation and strengthen his offensive power.

With benefits like those, only an idiot would refuse them.

Ahem, of course, he still needed to leave one Fallen Heart Flame for Jia Nan Academy.

As for the others, Xiao Ming had already made his plans.

Once he was strong enough, he would immediately set out—first for the Green Lotus Core Flame, then for the Fallen Heart Flames.

What? Xiao Yan's Flame Mantra needed to devour Heavenly Flames to evolve, and as his clansman, shouldn't Xiao Ming consider things for him?

Heh. Honestly, knowing that such a heaven-defying Cultivation Method as the Flame Mantra existed, it would already be good enough if Xiao Ming did not seize it himself.

Leaving anything for Xiao Yan had never been part of Xiao Ming's considerations. Although Xiao Yan and Xiao Ming were indeed from the same clan, Xiao Yan was a transmigrator, and so was Xiao Ming.

What kinship could there be between two transmigrators?

He had said he would be a passerby, so he would be a passerby.

Even if Xiao Yan growing stronger would benefit Xiao Ming, Xiao Ming still believed it was better to grow stronger himself.

After all, one needed to be strong oneself before forging iron.

"Heh heh." After chuckling twice, Xiao Ming guided Ling, which had absorbed the Green Rock Profound Water and become somewhat jade-green, back into the Qi Cyclone.

That color showed that the Green Rock Profound Water had not yet been completely refined. Ling should return to milky white once the refinement was complete.

Clearly, Ling's earlier act of swallowing the remaining Green Rock Profound Water Origin in one gulp had been somewhat too hasty.

Xiao Ming returned Ling to his body now to accelerate the refinement process and receive the energy Ling fed back.