A Mortal's Start in the Spirit Beast Mountain

Chapter 228 Netherworld White Tiger

Beneath the surface of his body, countless gray-black streams seemed to be surging wildly, and dark tiger stripes resembling those of a ghost tiger appeared on his skin, sometimes collapsing and sometimes reforming.

Its eyes had completely transformed into two eerie golden-black vortexes. The whirlwind in its left eye carried a sharpness that could cut through everything, while the deep depths of its right eye revealed a chilling power that could devour souls. This was the external manifestation of the wind and yin attributes possessed by the Nether Tiger, and at this moment it was fiercely clashing and merging with the golden wind attribute of the Wind Fox Beast.

"Ugh..." The Wind Fox Beast let out a painful whimper, but its devouring did not stop. Its belly was already swollen high, as if it contained energy far exceeding its limit.

Suddenly, a faint, distorted face flashed past in the right eye of the Wind Fox Beast, emitting a silent shriek. It transformed into a wisp of solidified black energy and pierced back into the Wind Fox Beast's brow!

It was the final counterattack launched by the Nether Tiger True Man and the lingering primordial spirit of the Nether Tiger.

The Wind Fox Beast's body suddenly stiffened, and the vortex in its eyes accelerated wildly.

However, in the next moment, a certain origin belonging to an ancient beast within its body was fully activated, and an even more ancient and savage devouring power emanated from every pore of its body. The wisp of black energy that had attempted to possess or perish together with the beast seemed to sink into an endless quagmire, forcibly pulled and torn apart, and finally merged into the boiling torrent of energy.

The crisis of backlash was forcibly suppressed and resolved by it in a more thorough manner.

But this was the limit. The Wind Fox Beast could no longer maintain its form, and its entire body exploded with a "bang"—not in a bloody mess, but in a thick, churning black mist that continued to shrink inward. Within the black mist, one could vaguely see howling winds, wailing souls, and flickering specks of the Wind Fox Beast's own azure spiritual light.

The churning continued for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, until the black mist reached its maximum contraction. No more energy dissipated, no more sound emanated; all the violent fluctuations collapsed and solidified inward. Finally, it formed an oval-shaped cocoon of light, roughly the height of a person and two zhang in diameter.

The cocoon is jet black, but its surface is smooth and flowing. It is not completely non-reflective, but rather like it was polished from the deepest obsidian. Inside, it seems as if there is viscous ink slowly swirling and flowing.

Luo Ming stood quietly before the pitch-black cocoon of light, his eyes flashing with a faint light as he carefully sensed the state of the cocoon.

"It seems that the Spirit Gathering Cauldron has been quite effective in strengthening bloodline power over the years, allowing the Wind Fox Beast to suppress the Nether Tiger, which is stronger than itself." Luo Ming's lips curled up slightly, feeling quite gratified by the fortune of his natal spirit beast.

Just then, an aged voice filled with obvious surprise and doubt rang out directly in his mind; it was none other than Tianjing Sanren.

"Young Luo, the aura your Wind Fox Beast is currently displaying is quite similar to that of a very rare being recorded in ancient books."

Luo Ming's mind stirred, and he respectfully asked in his mind, "What are you referring to, Senior?"

"The Netherworld White Tiger"

The Hermit of Heavenly Mirror slowly uttered three words, his tone solemn, "I have only seen scattered descriptions in the broken jade slips passed down from ancient times. It is said that this thing is not born naturally, but rather it is a mutated seed of the Western sacred beast, the White Tiger, which has a slim chance of being born under the nourishment of myriad souls in an extremely yin and desolate place."

Its nature is profound and mysterious, its innate supernatural powers directly pointing to the origin of the soul—it can devour souls and refine them to strengthen its own divine soul; it can refine souls and turn them into accomplices, commanding the souls it devours; even more mysteriously, it can devour souls and return them to their original state, extracting residual memories or primordial spiritual light from the devoured souls to aid in cultivation or to uncover secrets. In the legendary Netherworld, which governs the cycle of life and death, this is the most supreme being.

He paused, seemingly recalling and considering: "Your Wind Fox Beast already possesses a trace of White Tiger bloodline. The Nether Tiger it devoured this time not only had powerful soul power, but its attribute was also Yin Wind, faintly compatible with the 'Netherworld.' It's reasonable that the two were forcibly fused together within the Wind Fox Beast's body by its origin, resulting in unpredictable mutations. However…"

"The Netherworld Tiger described in ancient texts is a peerless ferocious beast comparable to a true spirit, almost legendary. Compared to it, your little beast's current cultivation is like a firefly compared to the bright moon. This time, it may have only awakened a very weak trace of the Netherworld White Tiger bloodline. What kind of supernatural power it can comprehend and how powerful it will be are all unknown. You must not have too high expectations."

Upon hearing this, Luo Ming's surprise gradually gave way to a bright smile. He looked again at the serene yet seemingly teeming with life in the black cocoon of light, and instead of being disappointed, he appeared even more delighted.

"I understand what you say, senior," Luo Ming replied telepathically, his tone carrying the certainty and optimism about the future common among cultivators.

"Legendary beings are naturally far removed from me. But with a direction, there are infinite possibilities. The Wind Fox Beast's current cultivation level is still low, and being able to touch the edge of such an existence is already a great fortune. As long as the characteristics of this 'Netherworld' bloodline are established, even if it is only a trace, as its cultivation improves and its bloodline continues to purify and strengthen, its related supernatural abilities will naturally rise accordingly and become increasingly wondrous."

His gaze seemed to pierce through the dark cocoon, seeing a powerful spirit beast, howling proudly in the netherworld, accompanying him at a time of great upheaval in the future.

After confirming that the Wind Fox Beast was not in any danger and was simply quietly absorbing all the energy of the Nether Tiger, Luo Ming felt relieved and returned to his secluded chamber to begin his work.

He has too many things to do these days. He hasn't had time to refine the Geng metal he collected on Red Sand Island into Geng metal energy, and he hasn't had time to cultivate various supernatural abilities and secret techniques for various reasons.

Right now, the most important thing for him is to cultivate that wood spirit so that he can awaken the wood spirit body. No matter what kind of wood-attribute spirit body it is, it will allow him to obtain the wood spirit root, which will allow him to fully absorb the sacred embryo and gain a hundred years of cultivation.

With his magical power being several times stronger than that of ordinary cultivators, his cultivation over the past hundred years will likely be somewhat diminished, but in any case, advancing to the mid-stage of Core Formation is certain. As for the late-stage of Core Formation, he doesn't even dare to hope for it.

However, before continuing to cultivate the wood spirit, he still had some miscellaneous matters to attend to, namely dealing with the two people's storage bags.

With a "whoosh," Luo Ming emptied all the items from his two storage bags, and the various items, shimmering with spiritual light, filled half of the quiet room.

He first checked the contents of Huang Youzi's storage bag. Although the other party had a lot of collections, they were quite messy. Apart from tens of thousands of spirit stones, the main items were various kinds of demon beast materials, mostly fur, bones, and demon cores. Judging from the aura, most of them were level 5 demon beasts, and there were even a few demon cores of level 6 demon beasts. The quality was acceptable, and they could be used to feed the Xuan Turtle and the Azure Dragon.

In addition, there are many materials for making talismans, such as specially made talisman paper, spirit ink, and the essence blood of demon beasts, all of which are of superior quality, showing that they have indeed invested a lot in the art of talismans.

Several magical artifacts, including the tortoise-shell shield and the silver hook, while seemingly extraordinary, were of ordinary power to Luo Ming at his current level, barely worth mentioning. He planned to dispose of them later to exchange for spirit stones or other resources. However, he kept a few high-level talismans with concealed auras and restrained spiritual light separately, hoping they might come in handy at a crucial moment.

"It seems this is most of this person's collection, which is consistent with the wealth of a late-stage Core Formation cultivator," Luo Ming thought to himself, not too disappointed.

Next, he turned his gaze to the vast collection of items belonging to Master Minghu. Unlike Huang Youzi's chaotic collection, Master Minghu's collection was clearly more organized, and the quality was generally much higher.

The latest chapter has ignited the plot! Stay tuned for more updates.