A Mortal's Start in the Spirit Beast Mountain

Chapter 230 Refining Wood with Spirit Fire

"Hmph, making a fuss over nothing." Tianjing Sanren's voice rang out at the right time, carrying a hint of composure born of experience.

"These innate spirits contain a trace of the origin of heaven and earth, and their growth cannot be measured by ordinary rules. Once they develop intelligence and form a physical body, as long as the supply of spiritual energy is sufficient, they can advance all the way to the equivalent of the Core Formation stage without any bottlenecks, just like the Heavenly Spirit Root cultivators among the human race."

Moreover, since wood spirits are not bound by flesh and blood, their efficiency in sensing and refining the wood spirit energy in the world far surpasses what human cultivators can imagine. With the pure and abundant spiritual energy within your Spirit Gathering Cauldron, coupled with that pile of high-grade wood spirit stones, it's not surprising that it has made such progress in such a short time.”

His tone turned serious: "That's why you need to act quickly to destroy its intelligence and leave only its purest wood spirit essence. Otherwise, once it truly reaches the Core Formation stage, its intelligence will be stable and its instinctive resistance will intensify. If you try to destroy its consciousness and refine it, not only will the difficulty increase dramatically, but the risk will also be greater. You might damage its essence if you are not careful."

"This junior understands." Luo Ming's expression returned to calm, a hint of determination flashing in his eyes. He immediately sat down cross-legged, formed hand seals, calmed his mind, and sank all his thoughts into his sea of ​​consciousness.

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, a slight ripple appeared, and a cone-shaped object, dark brown in color, slender and sharp, with spiral patterns on its surface, slowly condensed and emerged, radiating a sharp aura capable of tearing apart the soul—this was the Divine Breaking Cone, a secret technique of spiritual attack that Luo Ming had condensed based on the second level of the "Spiritual Fire Forging Divine Technique".

"go!"

Luo Ming silently shouted, and the invisible God-Slaying Cone shot out from between his eyebrows in an instant. Its speed was so fast that his divine sense could hardly catch it, and it aimed directly at the brow of the sleeping wood spirit inside the Spirit Gathering Cauldron! In his view, his powerful divine sense at the Nascent Soul stage was enough to deal with a wood spirit that had just awakened its intelligence and was at most at the late Foundation Establishment stage. Moreover, he was launching a surprise attack while the spirit was asleep. He should be able to hit it with one blow and instantly obliterate its soul.

However, something strange happened!

Just as the God-Slaying Cone left its body and shot into the mouth of the Spirit-Gathering Cauldron, the Wood Spirit, which had been snoring evenly and fast asleep, suddenly opened its pair of emerald green eyes, the size of mung beans! There was no trace of the confusion of someone just waking up in its eyes, only a cold and vigilant spiritual light. It was as if it had sensed the deadly danger in advance, and its gaze instantly locked onto the position where Luo Ming was sitting cross-legged outside the cauldron!

Then, something even more shocking happened to Luo Ming: the God-Slaying Cone was as fast as lightning and was about to strike the Wood Spirit. But the Wood Spirit's small body suddenly became ethereal, as if it had merged into the surrounding wood-attribute spiritual energy. The next moment, it had already appeared on the other side of the Spirit Gathering Cauldron. The God-Slaying Cone grazed the afterimage of its original location and disappeared into the cauldron wall.

"Teleportation?!" Luo Ming couldn't help but exclaim. This was no ordinary escape technique; it was more like some kind of innate spatial teleportation or an escape method highly compatible with the wood element.

This Wood Release technique is much faster than the Azure Dragon's Wood Release technique; it's more like teleportation.

This reminded him of the Nascent Soul of a Nascent Soul cultivator, who, freed from the constraints of a physical body, could use teleportation techniques in a spiritual form.

The astonished voice of Tianjing Sanren echoed in Luo Ming's mind, "How is this possible! This spirit clearly hasn't even reached the Core Formation stage yet. How could its comprehension and application of the wood attribute laws possibly reach the level of teleportation? This... unless it's its birthplace, or your Spirit Gathering Cauldron..."

He suddenly realized a possibility, his voice filled with disbelief, "Could your Spirit Gathering Cauldron have a special nourishing or enhancing effect on wood-attribute spirits, actually helping them awaken such a talent for escape techniques ahead of time? Like Xianxia novels? Come discover more exciting content! Back then, when I was only at the Nascent Soul stage, I had to set up a special sealing array beforehand to isolate the five elements, and only then did I manage to succeed by sheer luck!"

At this moment, the wooden spirit inside the cauldron seemed to have fully awakened. It hovered in mid-air, its small body turning towards Luo Ming's direction. Its emerald green eyes were wide open, filled with human-like anger and grievance. It even waved its little fists a couple of times, making indistinct "ee-yah-yah" sounds, as if accusing Luo Ming, this "big guy," of being unethical and launching a sneak attack!

Upon seeing this, Luo Ming's initial surprise was quickly replaced by composure. Mu Ling's reaction and talent were indeed unexpected, but that was all.

"Hmph, no matter how talented you are, you're still trapped in this cauldron. I'll see how long you can hide." Luo Ming's mind raced, the principles of the Five Elements' mutual generation and restraint emerging in his mind, "Wood generates fire, but it also fears fire. Especially... the extreme yang fire!"

Without further hesitation, he communicated with the Zhiyang Bird in his mind. A clear and melodious cry rang out, and a crimson light flashed. The Zhiyang Bird, which was already over two zhang tall and exceptionally magnificent, appeared beside him, affectionately nuzzling his cheek, its body radiating a scorching aura that reached straight to his soul.

"Little one, it's up to you. Use your natal spiritual fire to trap it and incinerate its soul, but try not to damage its original wood energy too much," Luo Ming gave the order.

Upon hearing this, the Zhiyang Bird turned its bright little eyes to the puffed-up wood spirit inside the Spirit Gathering Cauldron, a glint of excitement flashing in its eyes as if it had seen "food." It raised its head and let out a short cry, then opened its beak and spat out a fireball, no bigger than a fist, but shining with dazzling golden light, its core as white as the blazing sun, which precisely entered the Spirit Gathering Cauldron.

As soon as the fireball entered the cauldron, the temperature in the originally warm and cozy Spirit Gathering Cauldron space suddenly soared! The terrifying high temperature not only affected the physical objects, but also spread out with a scorching heat that burned the soul.

The wood spirit inside the cauldron instinctively felt a strong sense of unease the moment the Fat Sun Bird appeared. When the blazing white fireball that made its soul tremble appeared, a clear look of fear appeared on its emerald green face for the first time. Without thinking, its form blurred again, attempting to use the Wood Escape Technique to escape.

However, while the Spirit Gathering Cauldron could nourish it, it had now become the most impenetrable cage. Its teleportation ability could only move within the limited space inside the cauldron, and it was completely unable to break through the cauldron's walls.

Just as it panicked and reappeared in another place, Luo Ming had a thought and gave a command to the Zhiyang Bird.

"burst."

Inside the Spirit Gathering Cauldron, the seemingly calm, blazing white fireball suddenly exploded!

There was no deafening roar, only a silent burst of flames that instantly filled every inch of the cauldron! The golden flames rolled like raging waves, dyeing everything a blazing gold. The terrifying, supremely yang fire not only burned the wood-attribute spiritual energy within the cauldron, but also directly affected the pure wood spirit's body and soul.

"babble--!!!"

The wood spirit let out a sharp, agonizing cry as the emerald light on its body rapidly dimmed and melted away in the golden flames. With no way to escape, it could only frantically shrink its entire spiritual body and soul inward in a desperate struggle.

In the blink of an eye, its plump body disappeared, leaving only a solid cyan ball of light about the size of a fist, floating in the blazing golden flames.