Chapter 329: What Kind of Turtle is This? An Ancient Spirit Turtle?

Chapter 329: What Kind of Turtle is This? An Ancient Spirit Turtle?

For an entire month, Chu Ning continued his flight and sweep of the Central Sea Region.

He didn't specifically look for eighth-tier demons, but he didn't let a single seventh-tier demon escape.

After spending a total of two months outside, Chu Ning finally flew back to the inner sea area of the island where his cave abode was located.

From a distance, he could sense an intense battle taking place on the island.

Chu Ning's spiritual sense perked up, and he paused momentarily.

At that moment, Bai Ling was using the array to fight against five sixth-tier demons.

Bai Ling had not resumed her true form but continued to maintain her appearance as a young woman.

With the help of the array's might, she repelled the sixth-tier demons that pounced towards the island.

From time to time, she would lightly raise her hand, unleashing strands of icy energy that would freeze even sixth-tier demons solid.

There were already three ice sculptures in the array, and it was likely that there were demons trapped within them.

On the other side, two Golden Thunder Eagles, who had somehow managed to advance in rank, were fighting against four fifth-tier demons.

The two Golden Thunder Eagles occasionally spewed golden lightning from their beaks, forcing the fifth-tier demons to dodge and weave.

Taking advantage of any openings, the eagles would then attack at close range.

Using their speed, far superior to that of ordinary demons, and their sharp claws that could tear through metal and stone, they continuously inflicted damage on the demons.

Even though the two Golden Thunder Eagles had just recently advanced to the fifth rank, they were still holding their own against four fifth-tier demons.

Their combat prowess impressed Chu Ning.

However, he soon furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Where did all these demons come from?"

He had set up a special concealment array on the island, which should have made it impossible for ordinary cultivators and demons to sense its presence.

Occasionally, one or two demons might stumble upon the island by accident, but it was extremely rare to have so many demons appear at once.

Chu Ning extended his spiritual sense and found no other cultivators or demons in the surrounding area.

It seemed that neither Bai Ling nor the Golden Thunder Eagles were in any immediate danger.

Chu Ning decided to hold back and quietly observe.

After all, both Bai Ling and the Golden Thunder Eagles had rarely had the opportunity to fight during the nearly thirty years he had spent in seclusion.

It would be good for them to get some practice now.

About fifteen minutes later, the two Golden Thunder Eagles and Bai Ling had all emerged victorious, and the demons were slain.

Only then did Chu Ning descend upon the island and said with a smile, "Good job! You crushed them without breaking a sweat."

"Master!" Seeing that Chu Ning had returned, Bai Ling's face lit up with joy.

The two Golden Thunder Eagles also let out joyful cries and flew towards him.

Chu Ning carefully examined the two eagles and noticed that they had both grown significantly larger since the last time he saw them.

Their wingspan was now nearly a hundred feet wide, and their bodies were massive.

The dark golden color of their feathers had intensified, and while it wasn't as dazzling as pure gold, it exuded an air of nobility.

On their foreheads and claws, the golden lightning bolts shone brilliantly.

It seemed as though they could unleash golden lightning at any moment.

Their eyes, as black as gemstones, were sharp and piercing.

Looking at the two majestic eagles, Chu Ning nodded in satisfaction and patted each of their wings.

"Big Gold and Little Gold, you've made remarkable progress since your advancement. Well done!"

"Gu!" "Gu!"

Hearing Chu Ning's praise, the two Golden Thunder Eagles let out cheerful cries.

At that moment, Chu Ning turned to look at Bai Ling.

"Bring the demon corpses into the island, and then tell me what's been going on. How did all these demons suddenly appear?"

"Yes, master," Bai Ling replied with a smile, her eyes curving like crescent moons.

She waved her hand, and the demon corpses were instantly teleported into the island.

Then, she manipulated the array flags, once again concealing the spiritual energy fluctuations of the island, hiding it from prying eyes.

Seated in the cultivation room, Chu Ning took a sip of his yuan-yang flower tea as he gazed out at the sea.

Then, he turned to Bai Ling and asked, "Now, tell me what happened. Why did so many demons suddenly appear?"

"It's related to Big Gold and Little Gold's advancement a month ago," Bai Ling explained.

Chu Ning listened intently, and it slowly dawned on him.

"The heavenly phenomenon caused by Big Gold and Little Gold's advancement attracted the attention of these demons?

Even if the demons noticed, it should have only been those present at that time. It's been a month since then, and with the array in place, they shouldn't have been able to locate the island. How did they keep attacking?"

"It wasn't the demons who noticed, but a cultivator," Bai Ling said.

Chu Ning's eyebrows furrowed slightly, but he knew that Bai Ling would continue her explanation, so he didn't interrupt.

Bai Ling proceeded to recount the events that had transpired.

When the two Golden Thunder Eagles had advanced simultaneously, the resulting heavenly phenomenon could not be concealed by the array.

This attracted the attention of nearby demons and cultivators.

Since the two eagles were demons themselves, the demons that noticed didn't pose much of a problem. A few of them approached to investigate but soon left.

As for the cultivators who gathered to watch, Bai Ling had taken on a human form and managed to persuade them to leave.

After Bai Ling revealed herself and informed them that this was a spiritual beast kept by the master of the island, many cultivators, though curious, left one after another.

However, there was one young cultivator who persisted and insisted on visiting the island.

Bai Ling, of course, refused and hid within the island to avoid him.

This went on for half a month before the young cultivator finally left.

But the next day, demon beasts started attacking the island, and it had been going on for about half a month.

"So you suspect that these demon beasts are being sent by that person? What's his cultivation level?"

Chu Ning asked, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"I believe he's in the late Golden Core stage," Bai Ling replied, a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"He was extremely rude in his speech. If you weren't away from the island, Master, I would have taught him a lesson by now."

A hint of anger flashed across Bai Ling's usually cheerful face.

Chu Ning didn't doubt Bai Ling's words.

Bai Ling was clearly on the verge of breaking through to the sixth tier as a demon beast.

Theoretically, she was only at the same level as a cultivator in the early Golden Core stage.

But as a heavenly spirit beast, it wouldn't be difficult for her to fight opponents of a higher tier.

Chu Ning's eyebrows lifted slightly at her words.

"Has that person not shown up during this time? Did he not mention any reason for wanting to visit the island?"

"No," Bai Ling shook her head.

Chu Ning fell silent for a moment before continuing, "Then let's wait and see. If he continues to send demon beasts to attack, we'll find him and deal with him."

Chu Ning wasn't worried about finding the culprit.

Since he was using demon beasts to attack this island, he must be nearby.

Logically, he shouldn't be more than three hundred miles away.

While Bai Ling's spiritual sense couldn't detect him, Chu Ning's spiritual sense was more than sufficient.

In fact, Bai Ling had been cautious and remained within the array.

Otherwise, if she had ventured out, she might have been able to find some trace of the culprit.

Hearing Chu Ning's words, Bai Ling nodded repeatedly.

It was clear that the person's actions had been causing her no small amount of trouble.

At this moment, Bai Ling changed the subject and asked with a smile, "Master, you've been away for a long time. Has everything been going smoothly?"

"Pretty smoothly," Chu Ning replied.

As he spoke, he led Bai Ling out of the cultivation room and onto the island's surface.

Then he began to empty the contents of his storage bag.

When Bai Ling and the two Golden Thunder Eagles saw what Chu Ning was taking out, their six eyes widened in surprise.

"One eighth-tier demon beast, sixty-two seventh-tier demon beasts, and a total of one hundred and thirteen fifth and sixth-tier demon beasts," Bai Ling counted the demon beast corpses, a strange expression on her face.

"Master, did you kill all the demon beasts in the Central Sea Region?"

"Not quite," Chu Ning shook his head and laughed.

"I only killed that one eighth-tier demon beast, but I did take out quite a few seventh-tier ones. As for these fifth and sixth-tier demon beasts, they were just convenient targets.

Recently, Yuan Ying cultivators haven't shown up, and ordinary Golden Core cultivators don't dare venture into the Central Sea Region.

These demon beasts have been acting arrogantly, roaming the sea without any concealment, so it was easy for me to find them."

Chu Ning continued, "By the way, I also captured a seventh-tier deep-sea turtle that was about to awaken and advance to the eighth tier.

I was going to ask if, according to your inherited memories, there's any secret method to form a contract with a demon beast of this level."

"It's about to advance to the eighth tier? Forming a contract with it will be a bit troublesome," Bai Ling said thoughtfully.

"It needs to willingly split a strand of its soul essence and give it to you, Master. Once you refine that strand, you can form a contract and control it."

After explaining, Bai Ling turned to Chu Ning and asked, "Master, a seventh-tier demon beast advancing to the eighth tier requires a significant amount of heavenly spiritual energy.

The spiritual energy on the island is already scarce. If we keep it in the spirit beast bag, will it affect its breakthrough? Should we release the turtle?"

"Release the turtle?" Chu Ning looked at the pile of demon beast corpses in front of him.

"I'm not sure we have enough space here."

Bai Ling looked confused at his words.

Chu Ning wore a strange smile as he said, "Come with me, and you'll understand what I mean."

With that, Chu Ning released his spiritual sense to scan the surroundings.

After confirming that there were no cultivators or demon beasts nearby, he led Bai Ling out of the array.

Then, facing the vast sea ahead, he removed the spirit beast bag containing the giant turtle and began to empty its contents.

"Hmm?"

Just then, Chu Ning realized that he couldn't control the spirit beast bag.

No matter how much spiritual power he infused into it, the bag remained still, and the giant turtle's figure didn't appear.

"What's going on? Is it dead? No, even if it's dead, I should still be able to take it out of the bag."

Chu Ning's confusion grew as he continued to infuse spiritual power into the bag, but it remained unresponsive, as if his spiritual power had no effect on it.

There shouldn't be anything wrong with his spirit beast bag, so the problem must lie with... the giant turtle?

"Master, what's wrong? Can't you take the turtle out?" Bai Ling asked curiously.

"I can sense that the spirit beast bag is perfectly usable, and the giant turtle is indeed inside," Chu Ning frowned. "But I can't seem to get it to come out."

This was the first time he had encountered such a strange occurrence.

Bai Ling blinked her eyes, her gaze fixed on the spirit beast bag with curiosity.

"Do you want me to go in and take a look?"

Chu Ning thought it was a good idea and agreed.

Bai Ling immediately resumed her true form.

With a pat on the mouth of the spirit beast bag, she flew right into it.

However, as soon as she reached the opening, she stumbled and was blocked from entering.

"Hmm..."

This development surprised both Chu Ning and Bai Ling.

"Master, are you sure this is the seventh-tier deep-sea turtle you captured?" Bai Ling asked, her face showing confusion and suspicion.

"I feel a heart-stirring ancient aura coming from inside. How is that possible?"

Hearing Bai Ling's words, Chu Ning's expression changed slightly.

When he had first seen the giant turtle, he had also felt that something was off about it.

However, he hadn't sensed an extremely powerful aura from the turtle.

Moreover, the turtle's appearance resembled that of a demon beast on the verge of advancing to the next tier.

So, after some hesitation, he had decided to capture it and put it into the spirit beast bag.

But now, with this strange occurrence and Bai Ling's words, Chu Ning couldn't help but suspect that he might have made a mistake.

At that moment, Chu Ning explained to Bai Ling about his encounter with the giant turtle and its unusual appearance.

"A turtle over 1,500 zhang in size, with innate patterns on its shell..." Bai Ling's face turned strange as she listened, "According to my inherited memories, there seems to be only one type of heavenly spirit beast that fits that description—the Ancient Spirit Turtle."

"An ancient spirit beast? The Ancient Spirit Turtle?" Chu Ning murmured softly, his expression turning solemn.

"If it's an ancient spirit beast, how old could it be? And what level of cultivation might it have achieved?" he wondered silently.

The tenth tier didn't seem like an exaggeration.

Chu Ning felt a headache coming on as he contemplated the possibilities.

Bai Ling, noticing his expression, quickly added, "Master, what I said might not be entirely accurate.

I've never heard of anyone encountering such an ancient spirit beast, and it's likely they no longer appear in the cultivation world.

Moreover, if it were a high-tier ancient spirit beast, why would it suddenly appear in the Boundless Sea?"

Chu Ning shook his head. His only thought at that moment was to get rid of the spirit beast bag as soon as possible.

"Forget it, let's not overthink this. I'll just put the turtle back where I found it.

If I can't open the spirit beast bag, I'll discard it along with the turtle.

Since the beast can control the bag, it should have no problem getting out."

"Master, I don't think that's a good idea," Bai Ling shook her head, her face serious.

"Ancient spirit beasts are highly intelligent and have a strong sense of cause and effect. They also hold grudges.

If it truly is an ancient spirit beast that has lived for so long, your actions might completely enrage it.

Fully mature ancient spirit beasts are in tune with the heavens and the earth. Even if you leave this northern cold land, it might still find a way to track you down..."

Hearing Bai Ling's words, Chu Ning couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"So, I've accidentally invited a grandmaster into my home?"

Bai Ling smiled and said, "Look at it from another perspective. If this turtle truly is an ancient spirit beast, something must have happened to cause it to appear in the Boundless Sea.

Perhaps you inadvertently helped this spirit beast, and it might even be grateful to you.

Encountering an ancient spirit beast is also a tremendous opportunity."

Chu Ning thought for a moment and said, "Then let's keep it for now. Anyway, the spirit beast bag won't open.

As you said, ancient spirit beasts are highly intelligent. I captured it, but I didn't do anything harmful to it."

After saying this, Chu Ning hung the spirit beast bag back on his body.

Then he turned to the pile of demon beast corpses and began processing them.

He extracted the demon cores, as well as useful materials like beast hides, bones, and tendons that could be used for refining.

At the seventh tier of cultivation, demon beasts were practically treasure troves.

Even their flesh was valuable. If properly processed, it could be used to strengthen one's qi and blood.

However, since Chu Ning's body refinement had already reached such a high level, the effects would be minimal.

Most of the demon beast meat was given to the two Golden Thunder Eagles to consume.

Feeding them this meat would greatly enhance their cultivation.

By the time they finished processing the corpses, half a day had passed.

Chu Ning's storage bag was now filled with numerous demon cores and materials.

As for the flight artifact he had always wanted to refine, the materials from the seventh-tier demon beasts didn't quite meet his standards, and the artifacts he could create would likely be inferior to his own escape techniques.

On the other hand, the materials from the lone eighth-tier demon beast, the Purple-Crowned Emerald Water Wyrm, were extremely valuable but not ideal for crafting a flight artifact.

Instead, they were more suitable for crafting a set of water-attributed artifacts, especially its scales, which were perfect for defensive artifacts.

Of course, the most useful to Chu Ning was the wyrm's spirit soul.

Back in the cultivation room, Chu Ning took out a jade box from his storage bag and removed the scales inside.

One could vaguely see a tiny wyrm wriggling within the scales, and as soon as Chu Ning took out the scales, it darted out, attempting to escape.

However, Chu Ning was prepared. Even before the little wyrm could crash into the barrier and restrictions he had set up, he reached out and grabbed it.

The next moment, he channeled his spiritual power, enveloping the little wyrm.

Then, with a series of hand seals, he began to suppress the fierce nature and memories of the Purple-Crowned Emerald Water Wyrm's spirit soul.

Eighth-tier demon beast spirit souls were incredibly powerful, and this one was exceptionally intact, retaining the memories and ferocity of the wyrm.

Chu Ning would need to gradually erase its essence to truly use it for refining the water spirit sword artifact.

Moreover, this wouldn't be accomplished in a day or two.

For nearly half a day, Chu Ning continuously channeled his spiritual power to erase the ferocity and memories from the Purple-Crowned Emerald Water Wyrm's spirit soul.

Afterward, he resealed it within the scale, intending to continue the process tomorrow.

Just as he put the scale away, Chu Ning's eyes flickered as he sensed seven or eight demon beasts approaching the island.

"Bai Ling, you guard the array. I'll go see who's coming."

After instructing Bai Ling, Chu Ning dove into the ground and then into the sea, heading in the direction of the approaching demon beasts.

Since the demon beasts were coming from that direction, the person controlling them should be nearby as well.

As he dove underwater, Chu Ning released his spiritual sense.

"Looks like it's him!"

About 120 li away, he sensed a tall and robust young man with a fierce aura.

A cold glint flashed in Chu Ning's eyes as he swam through the water toward the man.

Although he had refreshed his body with the Yin Water Spirit Body, he hadn't cultivated any water-based spells or water escape techniques.

So, he was relying solely on his ordinary flying escape technique to move through the seawater, resulting in a less than impressive speed.

Fortunately, the young man didn't move away. Instead, he stayed about 20 li behind the group of demon beasts, heading in Chu Ning's direction.

As they moved toward each other, Chu Ning soon reached the area below the young man in the seawater.

However, hidden within the water and with the concealment of the Spirit Concealment Technique, the robust young man couldn't detect Chu Ning's presence. He continued flying toward the island where Chu Ning's cave abode was located.

At this point, Chu Ning decided not to reveal himself and instead followed the young man from below, maintaining a distance of about 30 li.

What surprised Chu Ning a little was that, according to Bai Ling, this young man hadn't shown himself before and had only sent demon beasts to attack.

But today, he was accompanying the demon beasts himself.

The demon beasts had already reached the island and were attacking the array, yet the young man showed no signs of stopping.

Instead, he continued flying until he was just a short distance above the island.

Looking at the spiritual energy fluctuations of the array, a smile appeared on the young man's face.

The next moment, he called out, "Greetings to the fellow Daoist on the island! I am Li Bailin, and I have a matter to discuss. Would you please come out? Rest assured, I can make these demon beasts stop their attack."

As his words fell, the young man made a few strange sounds with his mouth.

The demon beasts that had been attacking the array suddenly stopped and retreated to a distance of several li from the island.

This development surprised Chu Ning, who was following from behind.

These demon beasts were clearly ordinary sea beasts native to this area and not ones that the young man had raised, yet he could control them at will, which was quite mysterious.

Moreover, the young man had just used some kind of spiritual sense control technique that Chu Ning hadn't encountered before.

At this moment, as the demon beasts backed off, Bai Ling's figure emerged from the array, looking at the young man named Li Bailin with a hint of anger in her eyes.

"Greetings, Fellow Daoist. You've finally shown yourself. It seems I had to go through quite a bit of trouble to see your beautiful face."

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end