After most of the day had passed, Wei Wen called everyone to a halt. "Let's rest for a while and have some dry rations."
"Hehe, perfect. Let's divide up what we collected earlier first," Ding Long said with a grin.
"You're the only one in such a hurry. Still, we might as well. We collected twenty soul crystals from those fights, so that's exactly four each." Once Wei Wen finished counting, he casually distributed the soul crystals in his pack.
"Junior Brother Fang, your cultivation is now firmly in the third transformation realm, enough to sustain a gray wolf and a swift eagle. You might even be able to add another support spirit creature, but your choices are still limited. Once you reach the fourth transformation or higher, though, you can try forming a spiritual bond with a mid-grade spirit creature. What do you have in mind for then?"
After distributing the soul crystals, Wei Wen posed a question to Fang Qianyuan.
Ding Long agreed. "Spirit tamers rely on their spirit creatures above all else. You really need to think this through."
Fang Qianyuan considered it. Having consumed the Mysterious Treasure Pill, his spirit sea was broad and stable, so sustaining high-ranking spirit creatures would be no problem. Unfortunately, his humble origins meant he could not easily obtain high-grade or even supreme-grade spirit creatures like the sons of aristocratic clans. He could only follow the crowd and apply to the sect for a mid-grade blue-eyed gray wolf.
So he told Wei Wen, "A blue-eyed gray wolf, naturally."
Wei Wen sighed. "Junior Brother Fang, it would be a bit of a waste for you to use only a blue-eyed gray wolf."
Ding Long agreed when he heard this. "Sects throughout the world generally call low-grade spirit creatures common-tier spirit creatures. They're widely available on the market. Even rogue cultivators can spend their savings to buy and sustain several."
"Mid-grade and above are considered superior spirit creatures, which rogue cultivators and ordinary disciples use as their primary cultivation companions."
"But with your exceptional talent, using only that sort of spirit creature would be such a waste. A high-grade spirit creature would be best, if you could get one."
Wei Wu curled his lip at that. "Our Training Institute gives every disciple at the fourth transformation or above a blue-eyed gray wolf because it controls Cang Mountain Wolf Valley and has a steady source of them. But even so, a single blue-eyed gray wolf is worth a hundred pieces of low-grade spirit jade on the market. A high-grade spirit creature costs several times more. Think about it-how could getting one be that easy?"
Hearing this, everyone fell silent.
Spirit creatures were divided into grades, and different spirit creatures placed different burdens on their hosts and served different purposes.
Who would not want better spirit creatures, and more of them? But the sect could not provide them for free. Everyone had to fight for them through their own abilities.
Fang Qianyuan's current assets were the low-grade gray wolf he cultivated as his primary companion and the swift eagle he cultivated alongside it. But to exchange those assets for more powerful spirit creatures, he would have to compete with disciples who already possessed powerful ones. Thus, the strong remained strong and the weak remained weak. Without some special opportunity, that cycle was difficult to break.
Ning Yuerong said, "You don't need to worry. Elder Gong thinks so highly of Junior Brother Fang that he must have other arrangements in mind. Perhaps if Junior Brother Fang performs a little better, he'll have a chance to obtain a better spirit creature?"
Coming from a spirit tamer lineage, she did not think a high-grade spirit creature worth several hundred pieces of spirit jade was anything remarkable.
The others could hardly argue with her. They could only smile wryly.
This young lady really knew nothing of the hardships of ordinary people.
Fortunately, once they set off again, they put the matter out of their minds.
It was not that they did not care, but worrying about it now would accomplish nothing. They would be better off putting more effort into their training in the Demon Cave and earning some extra income.
With that thought in mind, they soon resumed slaughtering the demons blocking their way. In less than an hour, they reached a stone chamber identical to the one from which they had set out and used the Teleportation Array inside to enter the Demon Cave's second level.
The layout of the Demon Cave's second level was almost exactly the same as what they had encountered after entering the branching passage. However, the enemies appearing in the halls were more numerous and considerably stronger.
To maintain their pace, Wei Wen and Ning Yuerong, who had been standing by to support them, joined the fighting as well.
Both were disciples who primarily cultivated the manifestation path. They fought by summoning incarnations of their spirit creatures and commanding them in battle.
Each sent two gray wolves into battle as soon as they acted. These gray wolves possessed strength comparable to third transformation demons. With Fang Qianyuan, Ding Long, and Wei Wu leading the attack, they easily killed every demon they encountered in no time.
Fang Qianyuan truly witnessed the power of manifestation path spirit tamers. They were summoners who issued commands, crushing their enemies without having to step onto the front lines themselves.
Fang Qianyuan praised them sincerely. "Senior Brother Wei, Senior Sister Ning, things really are much easier with you two fighting."
Wei Wen smiled faintly. "It's nothing. Spirit tamers of our manifestation path are suited to situations like this."
At this point, he suddenly brought up another matter. "By the way, Junior Brother, have you noticed that most of the spirit creatures we use are wolves?"
Fang Qianyuan said, "I've heard people mention that. Our Azure Cloud Sect possesses a unique Wolf-Taming Secret Art, and most of the techniques its disciples study are wolf-taming arts."
Wei Wen said, "That's right. However, the Wolf-Taming Secret Art places greater emphasis on the manifestation path than on applications of the way of transformation. One of its important methods is the Wolf Nest Art, which reduces the burden of sustaining wolf spirits. Human rank sixth transformation disciples like us can often sustain more than six low-grade gray wolves, along with another mid-grade spirit creature. If we used other low-grade spirit creatures of the same rank, we would have to cut that number by more than half."
"They say some powerful earth rank experts even possess true armies of spirit creatures. A single person can summon thousands of troops and horses. How could their spirit sea alone sustain that? They rely on various secret arts to reduce the burden."
Secret arts... Fang Qianyuan pondered inwardly.
Wei Wen was not telling him this to show off, but to remind him to look for an opportunity to cultivate secret arts.
Secret arts were often mysterious and powerful.
They were like the high-grade and supreme-grade spirit creatures among cultivation arts-not something everyone could possess.
"All right, let's leave that aside for now. Let's hurry and clear out this second level of the Demon Cave before nightfall. The passages are safe, but it would still be better to reach a fixed campsite to rest." Wei Wen left the subject there and addressed everyone again.
The fixed campsites he mentioned were the stone chambers at the entrances and exits of each level.
They were tightly protected by the demon-suppressing grand array, making them safe places where one could camp without worry.
"All right, let's hurry and get there!" everyone responded.
Soon, they passed through another long corridor and entered a new hall, where a dozen or so small, scrawny figures with dark skin appeared before them.
They stood only about two feet tall and resembled human dwarfs, but their faces were hideous and terrifying, like evil ghosts that had crawled out of hell.
"Dwarf demons?"
The expressions of Wei Wen and the others changed at once when they saw those figures.
"This isn't right! They're third transformation demons. Why have they appeared here in a swarm, and so many of them?"
Everyone looked farther into the hall and was greatly startled. The dwarf demons had actually spotted them, and all turned around at once, revealing bloodthirsty, frenzied expressions.
"Watch out, they're coming!"