Chapter 104: The Inferno Beast and the Soul-Refining Art

Mo Tiange stared at the Shuttle of Flying Apsara in her hand. It had a thick middle and two sharp ends. Aside from being slightly bigger, it looked similar to a shuttle used to weave cloth in the secular world. She didn’t know where it was made, but it had golden sparkles and wasn’t affected by the cold or heat.

Rustling noises suddenly came from the forest. A first-rank spiritual beast had unknowingly appeared before her.

Mo Tiange smiled. This little tool had indeed come to her just in time. She raised her hand, transforming the Shuttle of Flying Apsara into a beam of golden light that soared to the sky.

The little spiritual beast, which looked just like a squirrel, raised its head and looked at the golden light with its brilliant, black eyes. It was shocked to see that the golden light had suddenly changed into several hundred tiny golden needles that formed a ring and completely trapped it in the center.

Now the little spiritual beast seemed to have realized it was in danger. It retracted its head back, swung its tail, and turned around, trying to run away.

To its disappointment, however, the countless golden needles completely blocked all its escape routes. No matter which direction it jumped, it couldn’t escape the ring of light. Feeling anxious, the little guy bared its teeth and clapped its paws, creating a burst of scorching hot spiritual aura which unexpectedly made the golden needles shake.

Mo Tiange was startled but immediately pressed both palms together. The golden needles scattered for an instant and soon regrouped closer together before coming down and trapping the little guy again. No matter how it rushed left or right, it couldn’t get free.

Once it was tired, Mo Tiange waved her hand, causing a rope to appear and firmly bind it.

After withdrawing the Shuttle of Flying Apsara, she stepped forward and picked up the little spiritual beast. It bared its fangs and struggled angrily. Without the slightest care for it, she rummaged through her Qiankun Bag, took out a spiritual beast pouch, and threw the little spiritual beast into the pouch.

When she was done, she released her flying sword and flew back to her cave in Clear Spring Peak.

At first, she came out just to test the power of this Shuttle of Flying Apsara, yet she unexpectedly caught an interesting little thing. It was clearly able to perform superior fire magic. Even though its power wasn’t that strong, the fire it emitted wasn’t ordinary fire.

As she landed in front of her cave, she happened to see Luo Fengxue returning home. She called out, “Senior Martial Sister Luo!”

Upon seeing Mo Tiange, Luo Fengxue wiped her face and changed directions, making her way towards Mo Tiange. “Tiange, you went out?”

Mo Tiange nodded then opened the door to her cave to invite Luo Fengxue inside. Luo Fengxue, who looked utterly beaten, walked into the cave. Once she sat on the stone chair inside, she was motionless.

After cautiously examining Luo Fengxue’s expression, Mo Tiange asked, “Senior Martial Sister Luo, what’s wrong?”

Luo Fengxue, whose spirits were low, sighed and said, “I busied myself for more than ten days and haven’t rested at all.”

Mo Tiange was surprised. She knew Luo Fengxue wasn’t the type to cultivate painstakingly. On the contrary, she preferred to commit herself to administrative matters. It was exactly for that reason that after Luo Fengxue built her foundation, she was recruited to become one of the stewards in the steward’s hall. But Mo Tiange also knew that stewards weren’t likely to be busy every day; after all, trivial matters were handled by supervising disciples, so normally, the stewards would only have to oversee the steward’s hall. Why was she so busy like this?

“Senior Martial Sister Luo, could it be that something big is happening in the school?”

Luo Fengxue rubbed her brows and said weakly, “Do you remember that eldest martial sister took several senior martial sisters and brothers out of school a month ago?”

Mo Tiange nodded. It happened when she went to see Martial Uncle Xuanyin after she succeeded in building her foundation. Martial Uncle Xuanyin told Eldest Martial Sister Qingyu to take three other senior martial sisters and brothers with her to apparently investigate something. She didn’t nosily inquire about the matter and soon busied herself in refining her new magic tool, so she hadn’t heard any further news about it.

“Several months ago, there seemed to be unusual changes in the forest in the southern area. Eldest martial sister and the others went to investigate, but… we haven’t heard from them since they left.”

“What!?” Mo Tiange exclaimed in surprise.

Luo Fengxue nodded and said, “It isn’t just eldest martial sister’s group that’s missing. Other disciples that have been dispatched by other martial uncles from each peak are also missing. A total of seventeen people all disappeared without any trace.”

Even though Mo Tiange wasn’t in touch with the school’s matters, she understood how significant this was. Seventeen Foundation Building cultivators and all of them were elite disciples… If all of them perished, the loss would be significant, even for a large cultivation group like Xuanqing School. Although the school had more than 500 Foundation Building cultivators, the missing people were the elites among elites, a group of people with the highest chances of advancing to the Core Formation realm!

“These past couple weeks, we’ve been in contact with other cultivation groups and discovered that this issue is also happening to the other six great cultivation groups. Everyone finally realized that this matter isn’t straightforward at all.” Luo Fengxue rubbed her bloodshot eyes and continued to say to Mo Tiange, “Tiange, you don’t have to worry. This matter will be handled by the elders in the school, so the mess won’t fall on our heads. All right, I better go and rest now.”

“En. Have a good rest, Senior Martial Sister.”

Luo Fengxue waved her hand then returned to her own cave while rubbing her eyes.

Mo Tiange also didn’t think too much of the matter. Just as Luo Fengxue said, this would be handled by the higher-ups; Foundation Building disciples didn’t need to be worried about it.

Now that she was alone, she opened her spiritual beast pouch to release the little spiritual beast. Once it was out of the pouch, the little thing blinked its brilliant black eyes and stared at her like it was pleading.

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With a wave of her hand, the rope binding its body was untied and fell loose. Having obtained its freedom, the little thing immediately turned around and ran towards the door of the cave. Mo Tiange raised her hand and the Shuttle of Flying Apsara once again revealed its power. Golden needles once again appeared and trapped the creature in the center.

“Wu wu…” The little thing knew the Shuttle of Flying Apsara’s power, so it promptly turned around and begged for her forgiveness.

As Mo Tiange retrieved the Shuttle of Flying Apsara, she said, “I won’t tie you up if you don’t run.”

The little guy seemed to understand her words. It bent its hind legs together and sat down. Its front paws were joined together, creating a praying gesture directed towards her.

Mo Tiange couldn’t help but think it was funny. She reached out and stored the Shuttle of Flying Apsara back into her Qiankun Bag.

The little thing looked at the door with longing, but eventually, it slowly made its way back to her. Spiritual beasts were relatively sensitive about danger. This little thing could naturally sense that Mo Tiange was more powerful than itself. Since it couldn’t run, it could only surrender.

Watching its obedient behavior, Mo Tiange beckoned at the little thing. With its sleek brown fur, brilliant black eyes and thick tail, it looked a bit like a squirrel. However, Mo Tiange still recognized it. It was a little spiritual beast known as Inferno Beast. This kind of spiritual beast couldn’t normally advance very high, but having it as her spiritual beast was a good method of obtaining natural fire.

The fire it produced wasn’t ordinary – it was Ardent Yang Real Fire, a kind of natural Real Fire that was even purer than the Dantian’s Real Fire of a Foundation Building cultivator. It was great for concocting medicinal pills and refining tools.

After picking the little thing up and embracing it, Mo Tiange stroked its fur and said, “If you’re obedient, I’ll help you cultivate. If I manage to form my Gold Core one day, I’ll let you go.”

The little thing’s eyes brightened as it stared at her.

“It seems that you agree.” With a smile, Mo Tiange lowered it to the ground then took out several Aura-Nourishing Pills which were now useless for her. She gave them to it and said, “I should give you a name… Since you’re an Inferno Beast, I’ll call you Xiaohuo ¹ .”

The little thing swallowed all of the Aura-Nourishing Pills at once. It raised its head and made “wuwu” noises as if it was protesting its uncreative name.

Mo Tiange chuckled, completely unmoved by its displeasure. She said, “I’m not asking whether you agree or not. In any case, your name is Xiaohuo from now on. Come here… In the future, you’ll live here. You can play in the small valley in the back, but you mustn’t cause any trouble. If you’re not obedient, I’ll put you back inside the spiritual beast pouch.”

The little thing once again uttered “wuwu” noises. Mo Tiange patted its body, gave it several more Aura-Nourishing Pills then took it to the room for spiritual beasts. Once she put it in the spiritual beast room, she went back to the cultivating room and sat down to meditate.

Upon entering the Foundation Building realm, she finally realized how terrible her spiritual roots were. In the Aura Refining realm, the progression of her cultivation wasn’t necessarily slower than elite disciples since she took medicinal pills while inside the Spirit-Gathering Formation. In the Foundation Building realm, however, even if she took medicinal pills, cultivating wasn’t as easy as it was when she was in the Aura Refining realm.

These couple of months, she cultivated without the suitable technique for her spiritual roots. There was barely any increase in her spiritual aura, so she decided to suspend her cultivation. With this rate of cultivation, even if she completely exhausted the remaining 300 years of her lifespan, she might still be unable to form her Gold Core. Therefore, when she saw this Inferno Beast, an idea popped into her head.

At first, she learned about concocting just to concoct Constitution-Enhancing Pills, but now, she already gave the pill recipe to Grandmaster Jinghe. Furthermore, Martial Uncle Shoujing routinely sent her a bottle of those pills every once in a while, so she wanted to give up concocting medicinal pills. However, now that she realized how bad her natural endowments were, she had no other choice but to start concocting again.

With a sigh, Mo Tiange closed her eyes and began cultivating.

She already tested the power of the Shuttle of Flying Apsara. Indeed, as Martial Uncle Xuanyin said, it contained an Illusory Formation that could transform one’s appearance. It could be used both to attack and defend – it was indeed a high-grade magic tool.

In addition, there was also the Soul-Refining Art. Martial Uncle Xuanyin repeatedly warned her that she mustn’t be hasty and must practice it slowly.

Although the risks of practicing Soul-Refining Art were rather large, it was indeed a very powerful technique. It was a cultivation technique that specialized in cultivating the primordial spirit and could directly launch attacks on other people’s primordial spirits. Primordial spirits were the weak spots of cultivators. If she succeeded in practicing it, this technique would definitely show tremendous power.

So-called primordial spirits were what mortals called souls. Living people had souls, and cultivators would cultivate both their bodies and souls until they turned into primordial spirits.

Divine senses were derived from primordial spirits. Under normal circumstances, the primordial spirit was hidden deep inside the sea of knowledge in the dantian, so divine senses couldn’t be used to perform attacks and could even easily sustain injuries.

Among normal cultivation techniques, some could indeed strengthen divine senses, but the effects were limited to making the divine senses more sensitive with a wider coverage area. This Soul-Refining Art, however, cultivated one’s primordial spirit so their divine sense could have the ability to attack!

Mo Tiange didn’t dare say that there were no other cultivation techniques that cultivated primordial spirits. Nevertheless, the number of people practicing such cultivation techniques was certainly low. The reason was very simple – it was precisely what Martial Uncle Xuanyin said. People could easily get possessed by the devil.

The fragility of primordial spirits was known to every cultivator. Cultivating primordial spirits without a good grasp of the technique would most likely lead to injuries. It was fine if the cultivator was in the Nascent Soul realm; Nascent Soul cultivators had already combined their primordial spirit and Gold Core into one to form their Nascent Soul, so they wouldn’t be that frail. But for cultivators in the Core Formation realm and lower, basically, if their primordial spirits sustained injuries, their cultivation level would drop greatly. It was exactly for this reason that Martial Uncle Xuanyin didn’t give this cultivation technique to her at first and repeatedly warned her that she couldn’t be greedy with making progress.

However, she wasn’t a normal person. She had a bit of an advantage compared to other people in practicing this Soul-Refining Art – her Pure Yin Constitution and her terrifyingly bad natural endowments.

Due to her Pure Yin Constitution, Yin and Yang wouldn’t collide and with the Spiritual Roots of the Origin, everything would be balanced. The so-called possession by the devil was, in fact, a deviation that occurred when cultivators practicing a cultivation technique and damaged the balance inside their bodies. Possessing a Pure Yin Constitution automatically meant that Yin and Yang would never be unbalanced in her body. Furthermore, because of the Spiritual Roots of the Origin, a small cycle existed in her body that kept everything in balance. Therefore, her ability to practice this art could be viewed as a blessing from the heavens. As long as she wasn’t hasty and greedy in advancing and acted cautiously, the odds of getting possessed by the devil were extremely small.

Nonetheless, this art wasn’t easy to practice. Cultivating primordial spirits naturally had to start from the primordial spirit itself. Primordial spirits were very frail, so Mo Tiange had to strengthen hers slowly. In the past couple of months of practicing this art, she still hadn’t made the slightest progress.

There was no progress in her cultivation level, and she also had not the slightest clue about the proper cultivation technique for her spiritual roots. Mo Tiange realized that after entering the Foundation Building realm, her future seemed very gloomy indeed.