Mystic Spirit Lake

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Chapter 19: Mystic Spirit Lake

As golden light surged, the figures of a man and a dog slowly appeared in the crude cave dwelling.

"You can open your eyes now. Remember, without my permission, you're not allowed to bark unless an enemy appears."

With that, Chen Beiwu removed the blindfold. Iron Egg raced around the cave in delight, but never let out a bark.

"Good. I'm going to cultivate now. You're on lookout duty."

After instructing Iron Egg, Chen Beiwu took the snake gallbladder, green as emerald from end to end, and the black gold ginseng from his backpack.

Unsure whether steaming or boiling would greatly diminish the gallbladder's potency, Chen Beiwu decided to play it safe. He cleaned it briefly with his magical power, confirmed that no parasites remained, then opened his mouth and swallowed it whole.

In an instant, a thick, fishy stench filled Chen Beiwu's mouth.

"Urgh!"

His stomach churned. He hurriedly sliced off a piece of black gold ginseng and put it in his mouth, then pressed it against his palate with his tongue and circulated his magical power to refine it.

As Chen Beiwu circulated the Ten Thousand Beasts Art through one greater celestial circuit, the medicinal power of the gallbladder and ginseng slice began to release.

Streams of warm spiritual energy first flowed straight from his throat into his dantian, then became a ceaseless, surging torrent that swiftly merged into his flesh, bones, organs, and meridians.

"This gallbladder really packs a punch. No wonder Jade-Scale Snakes went extinct."

Two hours later, Chen Beiwu exhaled a breath of turbid air, spread his arms, and stretched his slightly tingling body.

After refining just one gallbladder and one slice of ginseng, not only was his whole body brimming with strength, but the magical power in his dantian had also become a full five percent purer.

That five percent was nothing to scoff at. Purifying magical power required time and steady effort to begin with, and Chen Beiwu's magical power had long since surpassed that of cultivators at the same level in purity.

Without outside assistance, he would have needed at least half a month of arduous cultivation with the Ten Thousand Beasts Art to achieve this result. Now, he had done it in only two hours. Such was the power of heavenly treasures.

No wonder the cultivation Lineages in Far Sky County produce geniuses generation after generation. If I could suck on ginseng slices and swallow snake gallbladders every day, I wouldn't even need to contract a companion beast. I could break through to the eighth layer of Qi Refining in a month or two, Chen Beiwu thought with feeling.

The next moment, a dog's head suddenly entered his field of vision.

"What, you want some too?" Chen Beiwu asked curiously.

Iron Egg nodded furiously, nearly flinging drool onto Chen Beiwu.

"Simple. If you want to eat, you have to work. Don't say I'm taking advantage of you. If you can help me find this kind of snake, we'll split them fifty-fifty. This is your advance." Chen Beiwu placed the Jade-Scale Snake's corpse in front of Iron Egg.

At those words, Iron Egg perked up.

First, he chewed and swallowed the Jade-Scale Snake's corpse as though it were a spicy snack, then spat out a ball of pale golden flame that formed a crude star map.

Three large sky-blue points of light stood out most prominently on the map. The rest were densely packed green dots.

Chen Beiwu took out his terrain map and checked it, discovering that those three points were all territories of second-tier spirit beasts that he had previously dared not explore closely.

"Well? Can you find Jade-Scale Snakes?" he asked expectantly.

Iron Egg furrowed his brow for a while, then hurried toward the cave's exit.

Seeing this, Chen Beiwu carefully put away the black gold ginseng and followed Iron Egg.

They passed along rugged mountain trails and over towering cliffs. As Iron Egg led him deeper into the mountains, Chen Beiwu found their surroundings growing ever more secluded, while the cries of unknown spirit beasts occasionally rang out in the distance.

Yet Iron Egg still did not stop, continuing deeper into the mountains with a clear destination in mind.

An hour later, a thick bank of mist shrouded the land like white silk, completely obscuring the path ahead of Chen Beiwu.

"Are you sure you haven't gone the wrong way?" He looked down at Iron Egg, feeling that something was off.

Iron Egg shook his head, wrapped his tail around Chen Beiwu's calf, and carefully stepped into the mist.

After making a wide circuit through the mist, where nothing was visible, Chen Beiwu's view suddenly opened up.

A sapphire-blue lake lay nestled like a jewel between two mountains, its waters containing an astonishing concentration of spiritual energy.

Mist imbued with spiritual power continuously rose from it, not only turning the lake's surface into a hazy immortal paradise, but also drawing the spiritual power escaping from the mist back into the lake, leaving only layers of fog to serve as a defensive barrier.

There's actually a spirit lake hidden here.

Chen Beiwu halted, bracing himself as though facing a formidable enemy.

There was nothing unusual about a lake hidden deep in the mountains, but the spirit lake before him was an entirely different matter.

A lake that naturally harbored a spiritual vein would not seal in its spiritual energy and prevent it from escaping.

The spiritual mist over this lake gathered without dispersing, which meant a cultivator had laid down a Spirit-Gathering Formation here.

Formation masters varied in strength, but any cultivator capable of setting up a formation that locked in an entire lake's spiritual energy was at least a Second-Tier Formation Master-someone he could not afford to provoke.

Is Iron Egg really this unreliable? Chen Beiwu mobilized his magical power, preparing to flee.

To find someone else's fish-rearing lake while searching for snakes-in a certain sense, Iron Egg truly was a genius at navigation.

His strength was far too meager right now. Even if he discovered a spirit lake, it was beyond his reach, and might instead put his life in danger.

Unaware of Chen Beiwu's thoughts, Iron Egg wagged his head excitedly, seemingly waiting for his master's praise.

Halfway through mobilizing the power of the Ten Directions Chaos Gate, Chen Beiwu suddenly realized something was wrong.

If someone were guarding this spirit lake, he and Iron Egg could never have safely made it all the way to the formation's core. The formation's owner would have discovered them the instant they touched the mist.

After a moment's hesitation, Chen Beiwu snapped off a branch and threw it toward the lake.

Crackle, crackle!

The branch was swallowed by the hazy mist in midair, then fell at a speed visible to the naked eye, prompting several spirit fish to leap from the water and scramble for it.

At this sight, Chen Beiwu felt delight rather than alarm.

It really is ownerless land!

A grand formation laid down by a formation master was no perpetual-motion machine.

Going without maintenance for a while was no great problem; the formation could automatically absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth to keep running.

But if it went too long without maintenance, changes in the mountain terrain would cause flaws to appear in the grand formation. Its energy signature would then leak out, revealing it to the outside world, and it might even lose its defensive function.

Just then, a streak of purple light suddenly flashed across the Central Island in the spirit lake, opposite Chen Beiwu.

It was a massive beast with a head resembling both a lion's and a tiger's, standing twenty feet tall at the shoulder.

At that moment, it lowered its head, touching its spiraling horn to the lake water.

Crackle!

As wild lightning erupted, spirit fish rolled their eyes back and floated helplessly on the lake's surface.

[Species]: Azure Thunder Tiger

[Attribute]: lightning

[Bloodline]: second-tier upper grade (spirit beast)

[Cultivation]: over fifty years, under four hundred and ninety-nine years (lesser demon)

[Talents]: Thunder Mastery (commands lightning), Thunder Wraith (can turn devoured enemies into Thunder Wraith Puppets)

Recalling what he knew about this spirit beast, Chen Beiwu's pupils constricted, and a thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

The owner of this spirit lake is nowhere to be seen. Could they have died at the Azure Thunder Tiger's claws?

Good thing I was cautious and mobilized the Ten Directions Chaos Gate's power in advance!

As an almost imperceptible golden glow spread, Chen Beiwu and Iron Egg instantly vanished from the spot.

At the same time, the Azure Thunder Tiger's nose twitched. It suddenly raised its head and looked toward Chen Beiwu's former position, a trace of almost human puzzlement appearing in its eyes.

Was it imagining things?

(End of chapter)