An angry, thunderous voice rang out across the land and sky.
Lin Ke abruptly raised his head.
The Spirit Pearl?!
"Scared, scared." Lin Can, who had only just been soothed, clung tightly to Lin Ke's finger in terror.
The next second, an immeasurably powerful wave of Mental Power swept in from afar, only to crash into the Golden Wing Sect's Sect-Protection Array.
Not just the Golden Wing Sect, either. Every sect throughout the Poison Tempering Mountains and the surrounding regions had its Sect-Protection Array automatically activated.
Something was happening!
Seeing this, Lin Ke hurriedly sent Lin Can back into his Niwan Palace.
"Beast Venerable, please calm your anger first..."
An aged, world-weary voice sounded from somewhere unknown, and the Mental Power belonging to the one called the Beast Venerable vanished in an instant.
Yet in the very next moment, the Beast Venerable's voice reverberated through heaven and earth: "Damn you humans! Not only did you trespass into my Cloud Frontier, you even stole my Spirit Pearl! I will not rest until one of us is dead!"
As his words fell, a swath of crimson collided with a surge of pale purple, and a crack seemed to open at the edge of the sky.
Dawn had only just arrived, and the morning sun was about to rise, but the two powers tore through it, changing the color of the entire sky.
Only several minutes later did the sound of their collision arrive from afar, as though heaven were collapsing and earth were splitting apart.
Rumble!!!
The sound came with a blast of air that hammered against the Golden Wing Sect's Sect-Protection Array.
Countless people within the Golden Wing Sect looked up in terror, while elders and disciples took to the air.
Many had cultivated all night and had no idea what had happened.
"What's going on? What's going on?"
"That's a clash between mighty Spirit Transformation cultivators! The Cloud Frontier Beast Venerable, the Cloud Frontier Beast Venerable... How terrifying!"
"A Spirit Pearl? What Spirit Pearl could be so important that it made the Beast Venerable fight one of our mighty human cultivators?"
In the distant sky, countless members of the Golden Wing Sect were exchanging words.
Then a calm female voice spread throughout the sect: "Powerful cultivators will attend to the matter of the Cloud Frontier Beast Venerable. All disciples, return."
"I am going to the Mu Mansion in the Dali Domain to discuss important matters. Until I return, Grand Elder Luo will decide all sect affairs."
After she finished, everyone in the sect fell silent, then bowed and cupped their hands toward the sky. "We obey the sect master's command!"
The sect master!
Far away in the Green Mulberry Garden on the sect's outskirts, Lin Ke bowed and said, "I obey the sect master's command!" Then he raised his head and saw a streak of dark gold light shooting into the distance like a meteor, moving at tremendous speed.
The Spirit Pearl... The Cloud Frontier Beast Venerable...
Ignoring the people still discussing things in the distant sky, Lin Ke quickly returned to his room.
The Cloud Frontier Beast Venerable had swept his Mental Power across heaven and earth just as Lin Ke brought Lin Can out of his Niwan Palace.
Lin Ke did not believe that the Mysterious Bead that had opened his Niwan Palace had nothing to do with the Spirit Pearl the Cloud Frontier Beast Venerable mentioned.
He guessed that perhaps, because of Lin Can's unusual constitution, she had absorbed the special gas within the Niwan Palace and inadvertently leaked its aura after coming outside.
After all, the Cloud Frontier Beast Venerable had noticed nothing when Lin Ke opened his Niwan Palace, nor when he brought the Blackgold Silkworms and ordinary insects in and out. Yet the moment Lin Can emerged, the Cloud Frontier Beast Venerable had appeared.
"It looks like I'll have to let Lin Can out as little as possible from now on," Lin Ke murmured, then carefully brought her out again.
To achieve Foundation Establishment, a life-bound spirit insect was indispensable.
After accumulating enough power to reach the ninth layer of Qi Refining, he only needed to refine a life-bound spirit insect and pierce that final layer of "window paper" to reach the Dao Foundation realm.
He could also choose to refine a Stinger Hawk Moth or a Blackgold Silkworm, but as a life-bound spirit insect, Lin Can undoubtedly had better aptitude.
"Daddy!"
After coming out, Lin Can still looked shaken. She patted her chest with her little hand. "Daddy, scared! He wants to eat me!"
"He won't get to eat you." Lin Ke soothed Lin Can, then hurriedly mobilized the Spirit Power within his body and began refining her according to the Miaojiang Gu Art:
"Stay still now, and don't resist. I'm going to refine you into my life-bound spirit insect."
As he spoke, he channeled his Spirit Power into Lin Can's body.
Lin Can's attention immediately shifted to the Spirit Power inside her.
Curiously, she touched her body, then her head, then her legs. "Oh! Daddy's in here!"
Lin Can kept looking herself up and down and feeling around her body, then looking back at Lin Ke, as though she could hardly understand why his aura was circulating inside her.
Naturally, Lin Ke had no attention to spare for anything else. He concentrated fully on channeling Spirit Power into Lin Can's body, then shaped it into something resembling the traditional character for "gu."
"It worked!"
The moment the character formed, understanding dawned simultaneously on Lin Ke and Lin Can. They looked at each other and smiled in unison.
"Lin Can, how do you feel?"
"Good! So good! Daddy!"
Hearing her voice sound inside his mind, Lin Ke nodded slightly.
Now Lin Can was his life-bound spirit insect.
When others subdued and refined a life-bound spirit insect, they generally beat the insect half to death before refining it. Otherwise, they would encounter fierce resistance, and a failed refinement could even injure their souls.
But what about Lin Ke?
In a sense, Lin Can was the artifact spirit of the Niwan Palace, and the Niwan Palace belonged to him.
Even though Lin Can had her own consciousness, she was still something akin to an avatar of Lin Ke.
Thus, refining Lin Can yielded twice the result for half the effort, without the slightest obstacle.
And now, Lin Can was like a filter. While circulating his cultivation art, Lin Ke only needed to pass his Spirit Power through her body, and it would emerge far purer.
That was the function of a life-bound spirit insect!
Its usefulness was not limited to combat. A life-bound spirit insect was also extremely important in everyday cultivation.
Different life-bound spirit insects served different functions.
Lin Ke did not know what grade of life-bound spirit insect Lin Can belonged to. In fact, he did not even have a particularly clear understanding of their effects.
But learning about all that could wait until later.
"Now, let's continue the breakthrough..."
After refining Lin Can, Lin Ke did not stop. He decided to carry his momentum through and break into the Dao Foundation stage in one push!
"Lin Can, come."
With a thought from Lin Ke, Lin Can turned into a phantom and merged into his body, flowing like blood to his cinnabar field.
The upper origin palace was also called the Niwan Palace.
The middle origin palace was also called the heart chamber, or the central palace.
And the lower origin palace was the cinnabar field, also known as the embracing origin palace!
"Oh! So much Spirit Power! Daddy's Spirit Power!" Wrapped in Lin Ke's Spirit Power, Lin Can gazed curiously at the surrounding darkness.
"Lin Can, help me open the embracing origin palace!" Lin Ke's voice passed directly into Lin Can's mind.
"Okay!" Lin Can put away her curious expression and nodded firmly.
Though she had only recently been born, she understood that this was a matter of great importance.
Then Lin Can straightened her body in that empty space and raised both arms high, forming a "Y" with her entire body.
"Hyaa!!!"
She gritted her teeth and puffed out her little cheeks, clearly straining with all her might, as though lifting something heavy.
An endless stream of Spirit Power flowed into the cinnabar field and entered Lin Can's body, then emerged from her even purer.
Following Lin Can's posture, this pure Spirit Power slowly expanded the area through which it circulated.
"Aaaah! Open!"
Lin Can's little face flushed bright red. Then she suddenly leaped with all her strength, and a point of light appeared within the cinnabar field.
That point of light rapidly expanded, and the clear and the turbid took shape.
At the same time, waves of rumbling came from Lin Ke's Niwan Palace.
The land within the Niwan Palace rapidly sank into the void, moving as swiftly as a ship plunging to the bottom of the sea.
Then, at a certain instant, the entire Niwan Palace emptied. Not a speck of soil remained in sight, only billowing masses of blue-gray gas.
Meanwhile, the embracing origin palace filled with soil in an instant-the very soil that had come from the Niwan Palace.
Sensing the changes within his body, Lin Ke abruptly opened his eyes.
The clear and the turbid had separated?!
Before you continue