Spiritglory Grass

Spiritual energy nourished the wounds, and the recovery was highly efficient.

In barely a quarter of an hour, Dong Lin had recovered seven or eight-tenths of his strength.

Although cultivators' bodies were not as sturdy as those of body refiners,

with the mysteries of spiritual energy, as long as they had not suffered any special injuries, they could still recover remarkably quickly.

Everyone had recovered seven or eight-tenths of their strength, and the spiritual energy they had expended had also been replenished.

Every additional unit of spiritual energy required half a day of painstaking cultivation, yet after it was spent in battle, it truly recovered quickly.

Cultivation used techniques to guide spiritual energy through the meridians, transforming it into origin energy and gradually raising the Dantian's capacity limit.

Cultivation in the Qi Refining Stage mainly involved two things: compressing the spiritual energy in the Dantian and expanding the Dantian. Both aimed to raise the upper limit of how much spiritual energy a cultivator could contain.

"These beasts have fairly decent beast cores."

Baili Tianming began cleaning up the battlefield.

The most valuable items were naturally the inner cores of these five Earth-Element Armored Beasts.

Spirit beasts were born with inner cores.

After ordinary wild beasts mutated into spirit beasts, they would also spontaneously form an inner core.

The spiritual energy spirit beasts naturally inhaled and exhaled each day, as well as the spiritual energy they absorbed by consuming objects rich in spiritual energy,

would all be absorbed by this inner core.

Then the inner core would in turn nourish their bodies, gradually strengthening the spirit beasts' flesh.

In the early stages, the vast majority of spirit beasts followed a path similar to that of human body-refining cultivators.

They continuously strengthened their physical power through spirit cores, seeking to break all techniques with sheer force.

Spirit beasts were innately born with their own unique spiritual attributes, which basically came from their species' bloodline inheritances.

Bloodlines were the foundation of spirit beasts. Bloodlines were like human talent—the purer the bloodline, the faster one's strength grew, and the stronger one was within the same realm.

Some bloodlines that were connected to divine beasts or ferocious beasts could even come with innate divine abilities from a very early age.

These Earth-Element Armored Beasts possessed abilities related to wind and sand.

Being able to obscure vision and block divine sense to a certain extent was already exceedingly rare for first-rank spirit beasts.

"These inner cores should all carry wind and earth attributes. Even among first-rank inner cores, they count as top-grade."

Gu Chen looked toward Zhao Shuheng.

"They are precisely the two attributes I mainly cultivate, so they are very useful to me. If none of you need these inner cores, I will buy them. I have five stalks of Spiritglory Grass here, which should be enough to offset the value of these inner cores."

Zhao Shuheng took a handful of spirit herbs from his ring and handed them to Gu Chen.

In team battles, distributing supplies was a difficult matter.

However, Dong Lin did not need to worry about such things. After all, Captain Gu Chen was there to consider them.

They were all sect prodigies and generally did not lack resources. A little more or less was not something they would normally haggle over.

"Alright. These five Earth-Element Armored Beasts included one at the peak of the first rank and four at the late first rank.

Perfect. Brother Shuheng has brought out five stalks. Brother Dong fought three beasts alone this time and killed two, so he gets two stalks. The three of us get one each. How about it?"

"Alright, I'll follow Senior Brother's arrangement," Tao Yan stated softly.

"Spiritglory Grass nourishes divine sense and seems to temporarily raise one's comprehension by a trace.

It is one of the better Black Tier spirit herbs.

The Merit Affairs Hall really is rich and overbearing, Brother Zhao. I certainly have no objection to such a bargain."

Baili Tianming said with a smile.

Next came the processing of the mutant beasts' corpses. Since mutant beasts followed the body-refining path, their bodies contained many highly valuable materials.

Unfortunately, Dong Lin had been too violent and had smashed apart the shells of two Earth-Element Armored Beasts. Otherwise, they could have harvested five solid shells this time.

The meat of a mutant beast at the peak of the first rank contained spiritual energy and was an excellent food for replenishing vitality and blood.

The main consumers of mutant beast meat were body-refining martial artists. The abundant vitality, blood, and spiritual energy within could quickly replenish what they consumed during cultivation.

It had excellent effects for body refinement.

Unfortunately, these mutant beasts survived by relying on their shells and did not possess any decent fur. Otherwise, the hides of such late first-rank mutant beasts would normally be hot commodities as well.

Whether made into clothing, armor, or luxurious ornaments, plenty of people would pay for them.

"Let's divide the meat evenly. We can use it to treat ourselves now and then. It also has quite good tempering effects on our bodies."

Gu Chen proposed.

"Alright."

"I'll follow Senior Brother's arrangement."

No one had any objections.

Meat of this grade was generally provided free of charge by the sect to direct disciples.

Dong Lin's three daily meals were now arranged by the Thunder Division steward. Every meal included a certain allotment of mutant beast meat for direct disciples.

Each meal was worth at least twenty low-grade spirit stones. Accumulated day after day, that was an extremely terrifying sum.

After returning to the entrance of the secret realm, Gu Chen reported their encounter to the sect garrison, then they returned to the inner sect together.

This small trial had not been dangerous enough to claim their lives, but it had still been exceedingly perilous.

On the way back, Dong Lin kept reviewing the lessons and experience from this sudden battle.

"Combat experience really isn't something that can be cultivated so easily!"

Dong Lin sighed.

Gu Chen and Baili Tianming had dealt with that peak first-rank Earth-Element Armored Beast with complete ease.

Their combat techniques were seasoned at a glance, clearly the result of frequent tempering.

Of course, everyone was a few years older than Dong Lin. Whether they had climbed step by step from the bottom or had been raised under their masters' guidance since childhood,

their combat experience was clearly far superior to Dong Lin's.

When I get the chance, I should try it on my own. The risks in this secret realm are low, making it the perfect place to temper myself.

Dong Lin silently made up his mind, feeling that burying his head in cultivation all the time was ultimately not the answer.

After returning to Thunderwave Hall, Dong Lin sat in meditation and adjusted himself for a while.

He took out the items he had previously stored in his ring from the Spirit Chamber where he cultivated and arranged them within Thunderwave Hall one by one.

He first brewed himself a cup of spirit tea to nourish himself.

Then, he took out the two stalks of Spiritglory Grass allocated to him.

This spirit herb could be consumed directly, or an alchemist or apothecary could refine it into pills or mix it into medicinal juice.

However, Dong Lin did not have any familiar friends and did not wish to trouble anyone, so he prepared to consume it directly.

With the principle of enjoying it early, Dong Lin swallowed the two stalks of Spiritglory Grass in one gulp before they had even gone cold in his hands.

Dong Lin instantly felt an abundant surge of spiritual energy rush straight to the crown of his head. The strength of his divine sense slowly rose, and he gained a slightly clearer feeling of the world, as though his Ren and Du meridians had suddenly opened and he had become a god on the spot.

"Is this the effect they spoke of, temporarily raising one's comprehension? But they say it won't last long. How careless of me!"

Dong Lin felt somewhat regretful. He had not expected the Spiritglory Grass to be far more effective than he had imagined.

Dong Lin hurried to the training room, intending to sit down and begin cultivating.

Then, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the Hanging-Eyed White Tiger Painting he had just hung on the wall, and his gaze froze.

The entire Hanging-Eyed White Tiger Painting seemed to be glowing. The white tiger's eyes appeared to have come alive, swaying endlessly before Dong Lin's eyes.

Before long, Dong Lin felt dizzy and drowsy. He collapsed beside the meditation cushion and quietly fell asleep.