Chapter 26

The powerful magical beasts had finally been unable to contain their fury.

Xiao Ming did not hesitate to draw Gungnir and swing it down.

Then, under Xiao Yan's control, Gungnir transformed into a streak of light and shot toward a magical beast at the peak of the Da Dou Shi realm.

The instant that magical beast sensed danger, it immediately mobilized the power within its body and slammed fiercely into Gungnir.

Unfortunately, Gungnir was incomparably sharp. It tore through the magical beast's tough outer defense and ripped apart its insides.

As Gungnir continued to dart about, every magical beast it struck let out miserable cries before being instantly killed.

In just about half an hour, Gungnir had carved out a huge circle atop the hill.

After killing all the magical beasts, Gungnir returned to its normal size and flew back into Xiao Ming's hand.

Delight gleamed in Xiao Ming's eyes.

He knew that Gungnir must have extracted every beast core contained within those magical beasts.

"Looks like this weapon of mine has finally found a use in the Magical Beast Forest." Xiao Ming smiled to himself in satisfaction.

After sensing that Gungnir had devoured the bodies and souls of dozens of Da Dou Shi magical beasts, Xiao Ming found that its power had risen by another great deal.

Moreover, Gungnir's grade seemed to have vaguely increased as well.

Looking at the pile of beast cores before him, excitement rose in Xiao Ming's eyes. "It seems I should continue deeper into the Magical Beast Mountain Range."

As he spoke, Xiao Ming turned to leave.

"Wait."

Seeing that Xiao Ming was about to depart, Ya Fei, within Xiao Ming's sea of consciousness, called out to stop him at once.

Hearing this, a puzzled expression appeared on Xiao Ming's face. "What is it? Ya Fei, do you have some good news to tell me? If so, I'd be deeply grateful."

"Host, don't misunderstand. I simply don't want you to leave so soon," Ya Fei said softly. "If I remember correctly, your combat strength has yet to break through to the Dou Ling realm, right?"

"Mm." Xiao Yan nodded. "But my Gungnir has devoured dozens of Da Dou Shi magical beasts. Its strength has already reached the peak of the Da Dou Shi realm. With that kind of strength, I should be able to go deeper into the Magical Beast Mountain Range and find more Da Dou Shi magical beasts to test myself against, right?"

Ya Fei shook her head. "Although your Gungnir can indeed raise your strength further, if you want your combat strength to truly reach the Dou Ling level, you still need more time to temper yourself and gain insight."

Hearing that, Xiao Ming felt somewhat troubled.

Although Xiao Ming could now rely on Gungnir's heaven-defying power to become invincible beneath the Dou Ling realm, if he relied solely on his actual combat strength, he could not even defeat Seven Baleful Intents and the others.

Moreover, after slaughtering those dozens of Da Dou Shi magical beasts, Xiao Ming could clearly feel that the power fed back by Gungnir had undergone an extremely terrifying increase.

A bold thought immediately arose in Xiao Ming's mind.

If he could truly keep relying on killing magical beasts, then could the power Gungnir was able to unleash be further released as well?

Thinking of this, Xiao Ming no longer hesitated and directly circulated the vast Dou Qi within his body.

As his Dou Qi circulated madly, streams of warmth immediately flooded his entire body.

With the support of this power, Xiao Ming planned to begin refining the dozens of beast cores he had just obtained.

Although these beast cores were merely ordinary beast cores, that was only from the perspective of cultivators capable of entering the Magical Beast Mountain Range to hunt magical beasts.

After all, not everyone possessed a heaven-defying supreme divine artifact like Gungnir.

Ordinarily, anyone who dared enter the Magical Beast Mountain Range alone to hunt magical beasts needed to possess cultivation above the Dou Ling realm at the very least.

For Dou Ling experts, beast cores from magical beasts equivalent to those who had just entered the Da Dou Shi realm were of extremely limited use.

But at present, beast cores of any realm were of tremendous help to a Dou Zhe like Xiao Ming.

As the mountain of beast cores before him was continuously refined and absorbed by Xiao Ming, the aura emanating from his body gradually became more robust.

During this process, Xiao Ming was astonished to discover that when he had first begun refining the power contained within the beast cores, he could only absorb half a beast core in half a day.

However, as the number of beast cores he refined steadily increased, the quality of the Dou Qi within his body visibly improved.

Furthermore, Xiao Ming did not forget to continuously stabilize and strengthen his foundation simply because refining beast cores had rapidly increased his cultivation.

Faced with the wildly growing Dou Qi in his body, Xiao Ming desperately compressed it, striving to prevent his cultivation realm from breaking through.

Over the next several days, Xiao Ming continued refining beast cores while constantly compressing the Dou Qi in his body.

Although, in terms of cultivation realm, even after refining a third of the beast cores, Xiao Ming had only barely reached the level of a three-star Dou Shi.

However, Xiao Ming could clearly feel that every other aspect of his body had experienced explosive growth.

The most obvious change was that Xiao Ming discovered his speed of refining beast cores had increased tremendously.

From originally being able to refine only one beast core a day, Xiao Ming could now refine three beast cores in half a day.

"Buzz!"

After refining and absorbing three Da Dou Shi-level magical beast cores at once, a sudden buzzing sound came from within Xiao Ming's body.

"Don't tell me I'm breaking through again?"

Feeling the intense tremors within his body, Xiao Ming's expression could not help changing slightly, while countless wild horses stampeded through his heart.

A breakthrough in cultivation was something that would make anyone else exceedingly excited, but what Xiao Ming least wanted to see right now was his own cultivation breaking through.

But people ultimately had their limits. Even with Xiao Ming doing his best to suppress it, the enormous power contained in the beast cores would often cause him to break through before he could even react.

After yet another breakthrough he had failed to suppress, Xiao Ming's face had somehow become filled with exhaustion.

Of the dozens of beast cores he had obtained earlier, almost none remained after Xiao Ming refined them day and night.