A Mortal's Start in the Spirit Beast Mountain

Before he knew it, two months had passed. Luo Ming's talisman-making skills had steadily improved, and he was now proficient in drawing more than ten kinds of low-grade talismans. He had even begun to attempt to draw the more difficult low-grade mid-grade talismans—the Wind Control Talisman. Compared to low-grade talismans, the Wind Control Talisman required a higher degree of precision in controlling spiritual power. The outline of the talisman had to be drawn in one go; the slightest hesitation would lead to the failure of the talisman. This was undoubtedly a considerable challenge for Luo Ming, who had just come into contact with mid-grade talismans.

That day, he finished his talisman-making practice and carefully stored the few Wind-Traveling Talismans he had just drawn into his storage bag, the residual spiritual energy from drawing them still lingering on his fingertips. He habitually walked to the Spirit Gathering Cauldron, his gaze falling on the dancing golden spiritual flames within. A flash of surprise appeared in his eyes: "It really works! This Spirit Gathering Cauldron can actually strengthen demonic fire!"

The ball of pure Yang spiritual fire within the cauldron had grown larger than it had two months ago. The color of the flames had deepened from a light gold, and the intense heat emanating from it was several times stronger than before, causing the surrounding air to distort slightly. However, Luo Ming frowned slightly, somewhat displeased that the rate of enhancement was too slow.

"Could it be because the spiritual energy inside the cave isn't dense enough?" Luo Ming pondered to himself, lightly tapping the cauldron with his fingertips. "If I could place the Spirit Gathering Cauldron in a place with denser spiritual energy, such as the core of a sect's spiritual vein, the strengthening speed of the spiritual fire should be much faster, right?"

However, he quickly suppressed the thought as soon as it arose. The core of the sect's spiritual vein was a forbidden area, and only sect elders were qualified to approach it. "Forget it, haste makes waste," Luo Ming sighed softly. "As long as the Spirit Gathering Cauldron can strengthen the spiritual fire, that's enough. I have plenty of time and patience to cultivate it slowly."

He gazed at the dancing golden spirit fire within the cauldron, a sense of anticipation rising within him: "If this continues to strengthen, what will this spirit fire ultimately become? Will it transform into a higher-level spirit fire, perhaps something like the legendary Golden Crow True Fire?"

Setting aside the matter of the spirit fire for the moment, Luo Ming turned and walked to the other side of the cave, where an exquisite jade bottle sat on a stone platform. He picked up the bottle, uncorked it, and a rich aroma, tinged with a faint eerie scent, instantly filled his nostrils. The bottle contained the juice he had previously extracted from the demon-attracting herb.

As the jade bottle was opened, the several spirit beasts that had been quietly lying dormant in the cave suddenly became restless. The bluish-gray wind fox beast darted out from the crack in the rock, its bright eyes fixed on the jade bottle; the black tortoise with its thick shell also slowly crawled over, stretching its neck and looking at Luo Ming expectantly; even the azure dragon, which was locked in the spirit beast chamber on the other side, sensed the presence and let out a series of muffled roars, causing the restrictions of the spirit beast chamber to tremble slightly.

"I know you're in a hurry, but you'll have to be patient for a while longer." Luo Ming shook his head helplessly and comforted the spirit beasts, "If your master succeeds in this experiment, you'll have an endless supply of this spiritual liquid in the future."

Now, he wants to throw anything containing spiritual energy into the Spirit Gathering Cauldron to see what the effect is.

It took quite a bit of effort to calm down the eager spirit beasts. Luo Ming didn't dare delay and immediately poured the entire bottle of demon-attracting herb juice into the Spirit Gathering Cauldron, carefully observing the changes inside. Afterward, he set up a protective array around the cauldron to isolate the scent, so that the spirit beasts wouldn't keep bothering him and disturb his observation of the experiment's effects.

As the days passed, the color of the Demon-Attracting Grass juice in the Spirit Gathering Cauldron gradually deepened, slowly changing from a light green to a dark green. After a few more days, it turned completely dark green. By the tenth day, the color of the juice had stopped changing, clearly indicating that it had been purified and refined to its extreme.

Luo Ming removed the isolation array, and an even more intense and strange aura instantly spread out. The spirit beasts inside the cave immediately turned red-eyed, their auras becoming chaotic, staring intently at the dark green liquid in the cauldron, wishing they could pounce on it and snatch it immediately.

Luo Ming separated a small clump of dark green liquid from the liquid, held it on his fingertip, pondered for a moment, and finally decided to feed it to the Xuan Turtle first. The Xuan Turtle was already at the peak of the first level, making it the most suitable animal for testing the effects of this condensed spiritual liquid.

He wanted to see what wonderful uses this essence of the Demon-Attracting Grass, enhanced by the Spirit Gathering Cauldron, could have. If it could truly promote the advancement of demon beasts, then his Spirit Gathering Cauldron would be even more practical than the little green bottle—although the Spirit Gathering Cauldron could not accelerate the ripening of spiritual herbs, it could purify and condense the essence of spiritual herbs, which would definitely be of great use in the future.

As the small clump of dark green spiritual liquid was consumed by the Xuan Turtle, its aura suddenly became somewhat turbulent, and a faint spiritual light emanated from its shell. Luo Ming observed intently and discovered that the Xuan Turtle's spiritual power, which had originally reached the peak of level one and was difficult to advance further, was beginning to slowly increase. Although the increase was small, it was real.

"Hmm, the effect is good." A hint of joy flashed in Luo Ming's eyes as he analyzed, "If taken long-term, this spiritual liquid should promote the advancement of demonic beasts."

He knew that the stronger a demon beast was before breaking through a realm, the easier it would be to succeed, just like human cultivators. However, limited by their bloodline aptitude, many demon beasts with low aptitude would encounter an invisible barrier after accumulating a certain level, making it difficult to advance further—this was the shackle of their bloodline. And this condensed Demon-Attracting Grass juice could subtly break through this invisible barrier; no wonder it was called "Demon-Attracting Grass," possessing a fatal attraction for demon beasts.

Luo Ming looked at the remaining dark green liquid in the cauldron again, and couldn't help but feel tempted: "If it's effective for humans as well, then it would be a great help to cultivation." But after hesitating for a moment, he finally didn't dare to take the risk. "Let's see what side effects the spirit beasts will have if they take it for a long time first. To be on the safe side, we can't be rash."

Time flies, and four years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Deep within the cave, Luo Ming sat cross-legged, his aura fluctuating in strength. After a long while, Luo Ming slowly withdrew his magical power, opened his eyes, and a flash of red light appeared in them before disappearing. However, Luo Ming found that he was more sensitive to the flow of spiritual energy around him, especially the flow of fire-attribute spiritual energy, which he could see clearly.

"I didn't expect I'd be so suited to cultivating eye techniques; I reached the first level in just four years." A hint of joy appeared on Luo Ming's face.

Over the past four years, he has devoted the same amount of time to both the Spirit Fire Forging Technique and the Qianyang Fire Eye. Unexpectedly, his progress in the Spirit Forging Technique has been far surpassed by the Eye Technique. The original manual described the Eye Technique as difficult to cultivate, generally requiring ten years to master, but he has spent less than half that time.

"Could it be because of that spiritual fire?" Luo Ming's heart stirred. Thinking of the spiritual fire that had been continuously refined by the Spirit Gathering Cauldron over the past four years, he reached out and summoned a ball of blazing white flame at his fingertips.

The original golden flames, continuously refined by the Spirit Gathering Cauldron, have now turned a blazing white, and their power has become increasingly restrained, appearing from afar like ordinary mortal fire.