Chapter 145: Spiritual Treasures with Companionship

Inside the spiritual grotto of Muyu Island, blood-red flames were surging, and within them, the shadowy form of a flood dragon flickered vaguely.

Having successfully fished out the flood dragon without any hesitation, Jiang Chen returned to Muyu Island, instructed the Black and White Elders to quietly step up their vigilance, and ordered that no one be allowed to disturb him. He then directly began the refinement of the beast skin.

"Compared to ordinary beast skins, refining a natal beast skin is far more complex, requiring blood refinement and vital energy refinement to be carried out simultaneously."

With a turn of his thoughts, gazing at the nascent form of the flood dragon skin, Jiang Chen dripped a drop of his own heart's blood into the blood-red flames.

Hum. As Jiang Chen's blood fell, the originally soaring blood-red flames took on a dark, somber hue, giving rise to a new transformation. At the same time, a vague connection formed between Jiang Chen and the flood dragon skin.

Confirming that this connection had been established, Jiang Chen nodded.

"Go!"

Following this connection, Jiang Chen sat cross-legged, continuously channeling his genuine Qi into the flood dragon skin.

As time passed, under the constant scouring of the Formless Genuine Qi, the flood dragon skin gradually took on Jiang Chen's aura. Simultaneously, as the bond deepened, Jiang Chen could clearly perceive the tyrannical nature of the residual will trapped within the flood dragon skin.

It lurked in wait, biding its time, watching for an opportunity to counterattack.

"The more powerful the demonic creature, the greater the backlash when refining its skin. Although this mist flood dragon's strength was only a small tier higher than mine, its bloodline is formidable. It is precisely because of this that its backlash is exceptionally ferocious, though for now, it is merely suppressed and not yet unleashed."

Knowing this all too well, Jiang Chen watched the slowly transforming flood dragon skin as various thoughts flashed through his mind.

According to the records left by Taoist White Crane, the safest method to refine a beast skin was to personally step forward, engage the demonic creature in direct combat, and subdue it. The backlash from a creature subdued in this manner was the lightest and the refinement the safest. However, correspondingly, the enhancement such a beast could provide was extremely limited, as the cultivator was already capable of fighting it head-on.

"The Impermanence Sect indeed possesses methods to assist disciples of lesser cultivation in refining and taming powerful beast skins, but those are beyond my reach for now. After all, I don't even know where the Impermanence Sect's mountain gate is located."

"If I want to truly succeed in refining such a pure-blood flood dragon skin, I must rely on my own methods."

Deeply aware of the tyranny of the flood dragon's lingering will, Jiang Chen's resolve grew even firmer.

With his powerful soul, he actually had a fair degree of confidence in succeeding in refining this flood dragon skin directly, though the possibility of failure was equally non-trivial, given how remarkably potent the bloodline power of a pure-blood flood dragon truly was.

To say nothing else, simply in the crucible of forging a Dao Foundation, a pure-blood flood dragon held an absolute advantage. In the cultivation world, whether human cultivators or ordinary flood serpents and mixed-blood flood dragons, all had to acquire spiritual treasures to assist them in forging their Dao Foundations.

Pure-blood flood dragons, however, were different. As long as their cultivation reached the perfection of Qi Refining, their bloodline power would naturally condense into a flood dragon pearl. By utilizing methods such as dragon-walking to gather formless collective will and perfecting this pearl, a pure-blood flood dragon could use it as a foundation to forge its Dao Foundation directly.

To some extent, these pure-blood flood dragons were born with a spiritual treasure accompanying them, starting far ahead of ordinary demonic beasts and human cultivators. Because of this, provided they grew up normally, the probability of a pure-blood flood dragon forging a Dao Foundation was nearly one hundred percent.

The reason the mist flood dragon had not appeared quite so formidable earlier was largely because it had lost its intelligence. Born within the spiritual grotto, the high-pressure spiritual environment further stimulated its bloodline, allowing it to leap into a pure-blood flood dragon after swallowing the Fish-Dragon Pearl, but that same prolonged high-pressure environment had imperceptibly suppressed its divine soul, leaving it born with deficient intelligence and acting purely on instinct.

Under such circumstances, to maximize the success rate of refining this flood dragon skin, Jiang Chen had to employ certain supplementary methods.

And so, day after day passed. Aside from necessary intervals, Jiang Chen rarely left the spiritual grotto, spending every day refining the flood dragon skin with his blood and genuine Qi.

Meanwhile, in the outside world, as the mist flood dragon completely vanished, Qinghe County returned to peace once more. More and more people began to treat the tales of the flood dragon as a joke, as similar events had in fact happened many times before.

True dragons were mighty, and flood dragons also had countless legends among the common folk. Because of this, whenever strange things occurred, the common people were prone to attributing them to flood dragons—for instance, a local fish demon making trouble would often be embellished through word of mouth until it became a flood dragon.

Yet, while Qinghe County was returning to peace, within the county government office, Liao Yonghuai, who had been secretly observing the Peace Sect, was filled with disappointment.

"What on earth is going on? Why hasn't the Gao family made a move yet?"

"Given the feud between the Corpse Daoist and the Gao family, upon learning of the Corpse Daoist's whereabouts, the Gao family's reaction shouldn't be this lukewarm. Even if they had some suspicions about the source of the news, they should have at least sent people to investigate."

Pacing back and forth in the inner courtyard of the county office, Liao Yonghuai was utterly baffled.

He had deliberately leaked the news of the Corpse Daoist, originally intending to borrow the Gao family's knife to eliminate the Peace Sect and thus wipe out any future troubles for himself. But the Gao family's reaction had completely defied his expectations, showing not the slightest response even now.

Just as Liao Yonghuai felt a fire burning in his heart and racked his brains, a piercing pain shot through his mind, abruptly interrupting his train of thought.

"Damn it, it's starting again..."

With a splitting headache, Liao Yonghuai sat down, trembling.

After the span of a cup of tea, the pain subsided, and Liao Yonghuai finally drew a breath. At this moment, he was drenched in sweat, his face as pale as paper, and his aura exceedingly faint and unstable.

His silver puppet had been crippled, damaging his mind and spirit. Although under his suppression the condition had initially stabilized and was not fatal, it had left behind severe sequelae.

"I cannot go on like this. I must find a spiritual item capable of healing the divine soul to eradicate this hidden danger as soon as possible, or my cultivation itself might be affected."

With the Peace Sect still uneradicated and his injuries frequently flaring up, Liao Yonghuai no longer wished to wait.

"According to past custom, Yanhuo Island should be holding another auction in a while. Although spiritual items capable of repairing soul injuries are relatively rare, there is still some chance they might appear then. Perhaps I should go and take a look."

With his thoughts churning, Liao Yonghuai formulated a plan.

During this period, to avoid arousing suspicion from the Peace Sect, he had kept a low profile and rarely ventured out, but the stubborn persistence of his soul injury made it impossible for him to wait any longer.

"Jiang Chen, I'll let you be smug for a little longer. I refuse to believe the Gao family can truly hold back and never move against you."

"Even if the Gao family doesn't make a move, once my soul injury recovers, I will kill you at any cost."

Gazing in the direction of Muyu Island, a ferocious expression flashed across Liao Yonghuai's gaunt face. The agonizing torment of recent days had made him truly hate Jiang Chen to the core; every time the blinding headaches struck, his most fervent desire was nothing less than to kill Jiang Chen.