Chapter 39

Yun Ling flew through the Magical Beast Forest for roughly half an hour. During that time, he was repeatedly ambushed by magical beasts, but relying on his formidable defenses and agile movement technique, he evaded them all. Still, several vicious wounds were left across his clothes and skin.

Fortunately, his defenses were astonishingly strong. Though the wounds looked severe, they were nothing to Yun Ling. Moreover, he carried top-grade medicinal pills refined by Pill King Gu He, and his injuries quickly healed.

As Yun Suo flew deeper and deeper, the magical beasts he encountered grew increasingly powerful. Yet beneath Yun Suo's formidable defenses, they could do nothing to him at most, they could only leave a few marks on his clothes.

As time passed, he drew ever closer to the core region of the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

But Yun Ling did not know that he was moving farther and farther away from his true target, Xiao Ming.

Only after confirming that Yun Ling had gone far away did Xiao Ming, who had been hiding in the shadows, dare to emerge again.

Looking at the corpses of the magical beasts Yun Ling had slain earlier, Xiao Ming secretly rejoiced.

Just now, when Yun Ling had hurried off in search of his grandson, he had not stopped to collect the beast cores of these four magical beasts, each of which had reached the Dou King level.

Thus, all of it naturally became Xiao Ming's spoils.

Although Yun Ling had left under Xiao Ming's watchful gaze and had even cleared out all the magical beasts in the area, Xiao Ming did not let down his guard. He knew that many powerful magical beasts were surely lurking outside the Magical Beast Mountain Range, so he remained extremely cautious along the way.

During this time, Xiao Ming excitedly found an exceptionally hidden cave. He immediately entered it, intending to refine all the Dou King-level beast cores he had gathered.

As Xiao Ming acted, the power contained within the beast cores in his hand immediately surged forth and poured into his body.

Feeling the immense energy flooding into him, Xiao Ming felt his body fill with power.

Just as that powerful energy was about to surge into his body, Xiao Ming abruptly opened his eyes.

"What is this power?"

When Xiao Ming looked at the beast core in his palm, he could not help crying out.

"Th-this... what is this thing?"

Staring at the dark crimson crystal in his palm, Xiao Ming's face was filled with undisguised shock.

"This is bad. The power contained in a Dou King-level beast core is far too immense. If this continues, I'll be burst apart by this power sooner or later!"

But just as Xiao Ming thought he was about to be burst apart by the overwhelming energy, Gungnir, which had been dormant within him all this time, suddenly emitted an incomparably powerful suction force.

In mere moments, Gungnir absorbed more than half of the beast core's violently raging energy.

"Huh? Wh-what is going on?"

Feeling the emptiness within his body, Xiao Ming could not help widening his eyes.

Gungnir had actually absorbed the energy contained in the beast core at such a crucial moment!

And that was not even what shocked Xiao Ming most. What he found even harder to believe was that when he refined the remaining beast cores afterward, Gungnir continued devouring all sorts of beast core energy.

Yet this was the first time Xiao Ming had seen Gungnir actively devour energy from the outside world. Normally, Xiao Ming had to channel energy into Gungnir himself.

At that moment, bolstered by the immense power, Gungnir began to evolve.

Moreover, Gungnir underwent enormous changes. The Gungnir that had originally been only as thick as a wrist now expanded until it was as thick as a fist.

This left Xiao Ming utterly astonished.

"Wh-what is happening? The Gungnir inside my body is continuously evolving! And this degree of evolution seems far from small!"

Watching Gungnir's thickness constantly change, Xiao Ming could not help muttering.

Though he did not understand what was happening, one thing was certain: the Gungnir within him was now several times more powerful than before!

"What exactly is going on?"

Unable to figure out what had happened, Xiao Ming knew that now was not the time to dwell on such questions. He did not have much time and had to raise his cultivation to a level that would allow him to escape from Yun Ling as soon as possible.

As Gungnir evolved, faint flames began to spread across its body.

These flames were the energy of the fire elements Gungnir had absorbed over the past few days!

Although Gungnir was evolving, the fire elements it absorbed were no ordinary fire elements. They had been condensed from the fire-element essences Yun Ling had obtained from other magical beasts during this period.

These fire-element essences contained the energy of heavenly fire, lightning energy, earth-attributed energy, metal-attributed energy, and wind-attributed energy.

Thus, after Gungnir devoured these fire-element essences, it fused them together, forming its current state.

Of course, Gungnir had not taken on its present appearance merely because its strength had increased. Rather, Gungnir was a super divine artifact and inherently possessed countless heaven-defying powers.

Therefore, after devouring so many fire-element essences, the power Gungnir could unleash naturally rose accordingly.

All of this was thanks to the immense power contained within those beast cores just now.

After absorbing so many fire-element essences, the Dou Qi within Xiao Ming's body continuously grew stronger as well.

This refinement was successfully completed.

Although the result of this refinement was not perfect, he had still gained quite a lot. Furthermore, it had allowed the people of Xiao Clan Fortress to grow considerably, leaving Xiao Ming very satisfied.

After all, for the current Xiao Ming, his strongest method was the Gungnir in his hand.

"This world truly reveres the strong. Even if I'm not powerful enough now, in the future... heh heh, when that time comes, in this vast world, even Yun Ling will have to think twice before trying to hunt you down."

At the thought of Yun Ling, a cold glint flashed through Xiao Ming's eyes.