Several days later, deep within the Ten Thousand Mountains, in a dense forest.

A leopard cloaked in coin-shaped patterns fled in terror, its four legs pounding across the forest floor, occasionally emitting angry roars.

This leopard was two to three Zhang long, with a sleek body and a powerful aura. Wherever it passed, birds and insects scattered in fright; it was unmistakably a second-level fierce beast.

There were no wounds on the leopard's body, but blood was continuously trickling from the corner of its mouth.

No matter how desperately the beast ran, the blood by its mouth flowed more profusely, its speed rapidly diminishing until it finally collapsed to the ground, never to move again.

Two hundred zhang away in a clump of grass, the air trembled gently, and a green silhouette slowly emerged—it was Yuan Ming.

He was draped in a gray cloak gifted by Xi Ying, which now took on a jade green color, completely blending with the surrounding environment.

Yuan Ming strode forward and soon arrived beside the carcass of the leopard.

This leopard, known as the Golden Patterned Leopard, was a second lower-rank fierce beast. Its combat ability was comparable to an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. However, Yuan Ming had remotely controlled the Black Needle Magical Artifact from a distance, ambushing the beast's abdomen, piercing through its belly and entering its body, slashing the leopard's heart, liver, intestines, and lungs into a shattered mess.

The Golden Patterned Leopard met its bewildering end without even detecting the enemy's location.

Yuan Ming beckoned with his hand and the Black Needle Magical Artifact flew out from the leopard's mouth, landing in his palm.

Looking at the top-grade magical tool in his hand, thin as a hair, he nodded in satisfaction and stored it away.

He had spent several days refining the tool, making it more attuned to him. This trial confirmed it met his expectations.

Yuan Ming drew out the Cold Star Sword, carefully skinning the Golden Patterned Leopard's hide.

As a Gold Element fierce beast, its skin contained abundant Gold Attribute Spiritual Power, extremely sturdy yet lightweight and supple, suitable for refining into inner armor-class magic artifacts, and quite valuable.

As for the rest of the leopard's body, it was not worth much.

Yuan Ming stored the leopard skin and lightly tapped another Spiritual Beast Bag.

The Black Toad Spiritual Beast leapt out and, sensing the rich blood energy of the Golden Patterned Leopard, shot out several Purple-Black Demon Vines, quickly draining the leopard's corpse.

The demonic power contained within the Golden Patterned Leopard's flesh and blood was quite different from that of the Black Toad, hence the toad's energy increased only slightly, and it lazily returned to Yuan Ming's side.

Yuan Ming's brows furrowed slightly, as the Black Toad had always been spirited and never so sluggish before.

Through the Beast Taming Rune inscribed in the Black Toad's Sea of Consciousness, he communicated with it but could not detect anything wrong. Thus, he stopped bothering about it and returned it to the Spiritual Beast Bag.

Yuan Ming then summoned the Green Cloud Crane and flew towards the outskirts of the Ten Thousand Mountains, no longer hunting beasts in the area.

Two days later, Yuan Ming arrived outside Snake King Valley.

Having experienced the devastating battle at Biluo Cave, facing powerful cultivators and hordes of beasts, he acutely felt his own insignificance, yet his vision had also expanded.

Now, his desire for advancement in cultivation had grown even more intense. With his preparations nearly complete, if he could break through the bottleneck, his cultivation and strength would take a qualitative leap.

Upon returning to Da Jin, he intended to settle accounts with certain individuals.

Breaking through to Foundation Establishment could take a considerable time; he needed to find a safe and secluded place. After much thought, the underground passage in Snake King Valley, which he had visited before, was the quietest and safest, an ideal spot for seclusion.

Although the valley was filled with dense miasma, deep underground it was much thinner, and with the assistance of the Obstacle Avoidance Pearl, it would not affect his cultivation.

Yuan Ming released three soul crows to thoroughly scout Snake King Valley. Only after confirming no one had passed by did he enter the valley and soon arrived at the underground passage beneath Snake King Cave, waving his hand to summon the Black Toad.

As soon as the Black Toad landed, excitement flickered in its eyes, and it rushed toward the depths of the passage.

Yuan Ming did not call it back, allowing it to disappear into the darkness ahead.

His reason for choosing this place for seclusion was not only for its tranquility but also because the Black Toad had previously absorbed the strange black air within the ancient tomb, significantly increasing its strength. He planned to continue letting the Black Toad absorb it to see how much it could improve.

Spirited as the Black Toad now appeared, it seemed to be untroubled; its previous sluggishness must have been a fluke.

Yuan Ming composed his mind, affixed the Four Directions Sealing Spirit Talisman onto the surrounding stone walls, and unfolded a Spiritual Power Barrier, completely isolating the thin miasma.

He sat cross-legged and ingested a Golden Flower Pill, cultivating to refine it.

As time passed, over a month quickly went by.

Within the underground passage, a burst of aqua light around Yuan Ming suddenly intensified, and his powerful aura rippled outwards in all directions, shaking the Barrier formed by the Four Directions Sealing Spirit Talisman.

He opened his eyes, a hint of joy on his face.

Through arduous cultivation, combined with the assistance of the Golden Flower Pill, the Nine Elements Technique had finally broken through to the Qi Refining Thirteen Layers.

The supply of Golden Flower Pills, which had already been running low, was now completely exhausted, but fortunately, the breakthrough was successful.

The Qi Refining Thirteen Layers differed significantly from the twelfth layer, with the Mana in his Dantian even more condensed, hinting at a tendency to liquefy.

The hallmark of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator was the liquefaction of Mana. Reaching the thirteen layers with the Nine Elements Technique indeed provided substantial assistance for Advancement to Foundation Establishment.

Yuan Ming did not pause but continued cycling the Nine Elements Technique to stabilize his realm.

After three days and nights, the Mana in his Dantian stabilized completely, and his Divine Soul was adjusted to an optimal state.

Yuan Ming took out a Foundation Establishment Pill and swallowed it, starting to cultivate and refine it.

The Foundation Establishment Pill was entirely different from the elixirs he had taken before; it took a long time to slowly dissolve with the cultivation.

Before long, a scorching sensation erupted from his lower abdomen, as if a fire had been lit within.

Yuan Ming had already determined the method for using the Foundation Establishment Pill, rotating the Nine Elements Technique and transferring this extremely hot medicinal power to his Dantian.

The use of the Foundation Establishment Pill was very simple, just directing the medicinal power into the Dantian would do. The scorching medicinal power would forge the mana repeatedly, like a hammer forging ore, until a breakthrough occurred.

This process was extremely lengthy, requiring half a month to yield results.

Yuan Ming closed his eyes and circulated his mana, coordinating with the play of the medicinal power of the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

Yuan Ming opened his eyes and stopped cultivating, a bitter smile appearing on his face.

This attempt at Foundation Establishment had ended in failure; although his mana boiled and surged under the action of the medicinal power of the Foundation Establishment Pill, there was little tendency to liquefy, retreating every time it reached the critical threshold for breakthrough.

He wasn't surprised; with his Four Spirit Roots, cultivation during the Qi Refinement Realm could rely on the Nine Elements Technique and the massive amounts of elixirs he had obtained from various places for rapid progress. However, Foundation Establishment was different; the difficulty increased by more than tenfold, not something that a single Foundation Establishment Pill could easily overcome.

"It seems I need to find some additional auxiliary items," Yuan Ming thought to himself.

If he was somewhat confident before, this attempt gave him a deeper understanding. Although he still had two Foundation Establishment Pills, he decided not to try them without more than fifty percent certainty to avoid wasting them.

Of course, this unsuccessful attempt at Foundation Establishment wasn't without gain. The mana within his Dantian became even more robust and viscous, increasing his chances for a successful breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment Stage next time.

After failing to advance to Foundation Establishment, Yuan Ming had no intention of staying here. He telepathically communicated with the Black Toad, preparing to leave but received no response whatsoever.

Yuan Ming was puzzled and stood up to walk deeper into the passageway, quickly arriving at the ancient tomb in front.

Just like before, the Demon Vines inside the Black Toad spread out again, covering an even larger area than before, nearly swallowing the entire Stone Chamber. The purple-black vines and flowers were also larger and more numerous, an odd and ethereal fragrance wafting through the air.

The originally dim ancient tomb now seemed to have turned into a luxuriant garden.

Yuan Ming admired the strange and beautiful scene before him and was about to step forward when several vine bodies nearby sprang up like venomous snakes, poised to attack him.

Yuan Ming's expression grew grim as he lightning-fast grabbed a vine body, activating his Beast Taming Technique.

A thick black mist rolled out, pouring into the vine along the vine body, and stirring the Beast Taming Runes.

All the Demon Vines in the hall writhed in pain, quickly retracting.

Within a few breaths, except for the vine in Yuan Ming's hand, the Demon Vines in the hall had all disappeared, and the figure of the Black Toad revealed itself, having undergone a great change.

The Black Toad's originally plump body had become exceptionally shriveled, skeletal to the point of emaciation. Raised objects covered its entire body, at first glance seemingly its meridians. However, Yuan Ming could clearly sense that these raised objects were the Purple-Black Demon Vines.

The Purple-Black Demon Vines had been living symbiotically within the Black Toad. But now, the Demon Vines had begun to plunder the Black Toad's life force!

"Could it be because it absorbed the black mist?" Yuan Ming recalled how the Demon Vine had recently dared to attack him, feeling increasingly that something was amiss.

A spirit beast imprinted with a Beast Taming Rune wasn't foolproof and could go out of control, with several precedents in Biluo Cave's history of spirit beasts turning on their masters.

Yuan Ming originally thought that with his powerful Divine Soul and Beast Taming Technique, he could easily control the Demon Vine. Now, it seemed he had underestimated this Demon Vine!

However, as a major Beast Taming sect, Biluo Cave naturally had ways to deal with out-of-control spirit beasts.

Yuan Ming held onto the vine with one hand, continuously activating the Beast Taming Technique, while the other hand sliced open the skin on his fingertip, forming a seal in mid-air.

A stream of blood shot out, drifting and forming a blood-colored pattern as he made his seals in the air.

"Zha!"

Yuan Ming bellowed, the Blood-colored Rune flaring with light before turning into a stream of Blood Light that entered the Demon Vine, striking at its Beast Soul consciousness.

This rune was called the Blood Spirit Rune, which not only enhanced the power of the Beast Taming Technique but could also severely damage the Divine Soul of a spirit beast, preventing it from causing trouble.

The consciousness of the Purple-Black Demon Vine was heavily damaged, becoming weak and listless, the vine in Yuan Ming's hand drooping like a dead snake.

The Black Toad let out a miserable cry, flipped over, and collapsed, motionless.

Yuan Ming hurriedly crouched down to check on the Black Toad's condition; its consciousness was also very weak, now sinking into a deep sleep.

Not being particularly skilled in Beast Taming, Yuan Ming didn't know what to do in this situation. For the time being, he could only collect the Black Toad into the Spiritual Beast Bag and decide what to do after observing the situation for a while.

Several days later, in the afternoon.

In a tavern near the main street of Black Rock City, a young man with a somewhat delicate appearance sat drinking with a burly man by the window.

"Brother Wulu, talking about it really is a coincidence! You said you would come to Black Rock City in a few days, and strangely enough, I had just set foot in the city when I bumped right into you," the delicate young man said with a smile.

"This is called fate bringing people together from a thousand miles away! You see, I also ran into some troubles on the way, and after dealing with them, I was delayed. Come on, let's toast to our serendipitous meeting!" Wulu laughed heartily, clinking his glass with Yuan Ming's and downing it in one gulp.

Yuan Ming naturally had his suspicions about Wulu's explanation but kept his secluded cultivation a secret. The decision to come to Black Rock City was also impromptu; unless the other person could read his mind, it was impossible to know his itinerary.

"Perhaps it really is a coincidence?" Yuan Ming thought so, emptying the contents of his glass in one gulp.

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