Traveling through time to cultivate immortality: a life and death test

The puppets walked into the cave, and a huge cave space appeared before their eyes. Liu Xing could see the situation in the cave clearly through the puppet beast's eyes. The panicked manta ray stared at the cave entrance. It was really scared and felt extremely helpless. It saw two puppets coming in, but they were very weak and posed no threat to it. It estimated that if it didn't move, the puppets would not be able to penetrate its skin. So it didn't care much and just monitored their actions. It was afraid of the human who had chased it before, who had injured it so badly that it could only lie in the cave licking its wounds.

The mechanical monkey and wolf remained motionless, making no offensive moves, simply surveying the cave. Liu Xing deliberately avoided provoking the manta ray, exploiting its composure to gain a better understanding of the cave's situation, particularly its escape routes. The mechanical puppets even slowly moved to the sides for a better view. A full quarter of an hour passed before they finally grasped the cave's situation. It was a sealed cave with only one exit. With that, Liu Xing felt relieved and prepared to catch the tortoise in its trap.

Therefore, Liu Xing set up a concealing formation above the trap at the cave entrance to conceal the presence of the creature. Furthermore, the manta ray was like a frightened bird, so Liu Xing took advantage of the fact that it didn't dare to come out and fight for its life and used his Mountain Shaking Blade Talisman to begin injecting spiritual energy into it.

The manta ray felt its heart pounding with fear. It fidgeted restlessly, feeling a sense of impending disaster. However, knowing that the despicable human was guarding the door, it dared not leave. While it hesitated, the Mountain-Shaking Blade talisman, already fully crafted, charged towards the cave. The power of the talisman terrified the manta ray, and it dared not resist, instead swimming and dodging within the cave. The Mountain-Shaking Blade locked onto it, closing in at an ever-increasing speed. Seeing no escape within the cave, the manta ray bravely fled. Unexpectedly, it collided head-on with the barrier of the rising Azure Sea Tide, sending it flying. Just as it was disoriented, the Mountain-Shaking Blade struck it head-on. Fear flashed in the manta ray's eyes, and it summoned its remaining magical power to emanate a ball of energy in a final, desperate struggle. With a resounding boom, the energy ball collapsed, and the blade slashed through the manta ray's flesh, bisecting it. Manta rays roamed this sea area for hundreds of years, but finally died.

Upon seeing the manta ray destroyed, Liu Xing immediately rushed into the cave. He first released Jiao Jiao, letting it see its enemy slain. After a few days of recuperation, Jiao Jiao's injuries had largely healed. He then retrieved the Yin Gathering Bowl and collected the manta ray's spirit. He then retrieved the manta ray's demon core and carefully stored it in a jade box. Liu Xing was overjoyed, having achieved a complete victory in this encounter. Fortunately, there were no mishaps along the way, such as encountering a swarm of manta rays or other high-level demonic beasts. This was considered good luck.

Then, he removed the manta ray's teeth, leather armor, and a pair of front horns—precious materials for refining weapons—and collected its blood essence in a jade bottle. Manta rays are cartilaginous monsters, so they lack skeletons. The remaining flesh became Jiao Jiao's rations, and she devoured them with relish. Her recent consumption of the flesh and blood of Level 4 monsters had significantly improved her magical powers. Combined with the constant consumption of dragon scale fruit, the power of her dragon bloodline was being stimulated, bringing her cultivation level to nearly the peak of Level 2. Liu Xing was envious of her rapid cultivation. Jiao Jiao's aptitude was clearly exceptional among monsters, leaving other monsters far behind.

To summarize this battle, it was the manta ray's cowardly flight that created Liu Xing's opportunity. As it fled, it was attacked by Liu Xing, gradually draining its mana and weakening its fighting power. If the manta ray had not fled, but instead fought Liu Xing to the death, Liu Xing would have had no time to cultivate talismans. Under the pressure of the perilous sea, Liu Xing would certainly not want to fight a monster to the death, and he would have been the one to flee in despair. However, the manta ray's intelligence was far from high, and it acted only on instinct. Liu Xing self-destructed two of his top-grade magic tools, giving it a warning and making it subconsciously sense the danger, so it began to flee.

The second major mistake was fleeing back to his cave despite being seriously injured. Like a child being bullied, he ran back home to hide. The manta ray thought it was safe in its lair, but this was just a subconscious misconception. Its lair was a dead end, allowing Liu Xing to easily block the entrance and catch the turtle in the jar.

If he has low IQ, no matter how strong he is, he is just a giant baby. Liu Xing couldn't help but think with emotion, and he had more ideas for the next monster hunting plan.

It was quiet here, so Liu Xing simply rested in the cave for a day and a night, restoring his mana to peak levels. Curious about the miraculous effect of the rock outside the cave in isolating spiritual consciousness, he considered a few possibilities. He broke off a large chunk and used his refining technique to purify the rock, extracting the minerals within. After removing the impurities, he obtained a brownish-brown substance the size of a grain of rice. When he probed with his spiritual consciousness, he discovered that his spiritual consciousness had been absorbed by the ore. It resembled the legendary magnetic stone, which he had once mentioned in a travelogue, but the details were vague and lacked a detailed description, so he wasn't entirely sure. He needed to research it later to confirm the details.

However, with his mastery as a weapon refiner, he could determine that this was an excellent material for refining. He could imagine numerous applications for this mineral: mixing some magnetic spirit stone into the creation of magical instruments, formation plates, and puppets would shield them from divine awareness and enhance their concealment. So, he released a dozen Qi Refining puppets, gave them some magical instruments, and instructed them to mine the rock. He would be responsible for purifying the rock and obtaining the magnetic spirit stone. Jiao Jiao's injuries had fully healed, and with nothing else to do here, he swam outside the cave to take charge of security and patrol duties.

Strength lies in numbers. After half a month, the rock that blocked spiritual consciousness was completely mined. From the outside, it looked as if a large section of the underwater valley had been dug away, and the original cave dwelling was no longer visible. Liu Xing's purification speed couldn't keep up with the mining speed of a dozen or so puppets. He discovered that these low-level puppets were truly adept at such physical labor. Consuming only a small amount of spirit stones, they would work tirelessly, truly useful. He decided to refine a few more for future use.

Another half month passed before Liu Xing finally purified all the rocks, yielding approximately five kilograms of magnetic spirit stones. He happily stored them away, declaring them an unexpected bounty that would prove valuable in the future. He gathered the two array plates and flags, summoned Jiao Jiao, summoned the assault boat, and continued northward.