Yuan Ming didn't bother to pay attention to Luo Wanshan's intentions. Instead, he said to Bi Shuirou, "Let Island Master Liu 'live' to return. Dying here now would complicate things later."

Surprise flashed in Bi Shuirou's eyes, and she hesitated before nodding.

"Then I will trouble Island Master Luo to take Island Master Liu back with you, and be careful on the way," Yuan Ming said, turning his head toward Luo Wanshan with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Luo Wanshan felt as if his liver and gallbladder were about to split, and he quickly agreed, taking "Island Master Liu" in a panic to flee.

"Fellow Daoist Bi Shui, tomorrow I will have 'Island Master Liu' hand over full authority of handling Liulan Island's affairs to the Deputy Island Master. He himself will claim to be roaming the outer sea. Afterwards, you can just have Luo Wanshan cooperate with you," Yuan Ming instructed.

With his current cultivation, soul crow corpse control was naturally a trivial matter for him; however, the corpse would ultimately decay over time, so it was imperative to handle the situation swiftly to avoid complications from arising with the passage of the night.

"Fellow Daoist Yuan, your great kindness is truly difficult to repay. Please accept my bow," said Bi Shuirou, bowing deeply as she realized he had thought everything through so thoroughly. She knew that without Fellow Daoist Yuan before her this time, she would inevitably be doomed.

If it weren't for the presence of Daoist Xi Ying by Yuan Daoist's side, she might have even offered herself in marriage.

"You are a friend of Xi Ying, and thus a friend of mine. Among friends, there's no need for such formality," Yuan Ming said, waving his hand with a smile.

Xi Ying, who had been standing aside and had said little, now slightly curled the corners of her mouth into a smile.

After Bi Shuirou had left, Xi Ying suddenly raised her eyebrows and asked, "Fellow Daoist Yuan, you've really put a lot of thought into helping Fellow Daoist Bi Shui, incredibly thorough indeed!"

"It's just to make sure we can successfully get the Immortal Fruit," Yuan Ming said, startled, feeling that the comment wasn't really a compliment, and quickly responded.

Xi Ying showed no sign of anger, just huffed lightly and then turned around to leave, returning to her room.

Yuan Ming touched his nose and shook his head before also returning to his room.

Once he closed the door, he took out the incomplete volume of the Golden Sunflower Beast Taming Technique again and started to examine it carefully.

About half an hour later, Yuan Ming put the book volume away and began to meditate with his eyes closed, imagining the intricacies of the technique.

Shortly after, he slowly opened his eyes and tapped the Spiritual Beast Bag at his waist.

In a flash of lightning, Lei Yu's figure appeared inside the room, landing at Yuan Ming's feet.

Yuan Ming, feeling a connection of minds with it, immediately conveyed his intention to practice the Melding Spirit Secret Technique together using Divine Thought.

Lei Yu, upon learning this, was extremely thrilled and cooperatively flew onto Yuan Ming's shoulder.

Yuan Ming smiled knowingly, holding the Stealing Heaven Tripod, and then started channeling his mana according to the content recorded in the Golden Sunflower Beast Taming Technique.

The Melding Spirit Secret Technique, which usually could only be performed between a master and a spirit beast, had a higher success rate the better their rapport. Lei Yu had grown up under Yuan Ming's care, sharing a deep mutual understanding, which was exceptionally strong. Combined with the immense Desire Power within the Stealing Heaven Tripod, Yuan Ming's cultivation speed was extremely fast.

After only trying a couple of times, Yuan Ming quickly managed to channel his mana into Lei Yu's body, establishing a communicative bridge between them.

Then, Yuan Ming let Lei Yu fly off his shoulder, creating some distance between them.

Their connection did not break; the bridge still existed.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming was delighted and officially began the Melding Spirit process, trying to draw Lei Yu's demonic power into his body.

At the initial attempt, Lei Yu felt its demonic power surge out suddenly, causing it some panic and distress as it flapped its wings and walked back and forth in the room.

"Don't be afraid, it's okay," Yuan Ming said quickly to comfort it, allowing it to settle down.

After a few moments, the sensation of the demonic power flowing outward quickly disappeared, replaced by a unique feeling of interconnected blood and energy channels between the two, almost as if they were one entity.

However, Yuan Ming and Lei Yu's Divine Thoughts remained independently intact, not merging into one, otherwise they both would have felt the illusion of truly becoming one entity.

Soon, Yuan Ming was pleasantly surprised to find that after Melding Spirit, his own mana had become much thicker, already comparable to the mid-stage of Core Formation.

He could feel that with just a thought from him, the blended mana and demonic power could flow like water between him and Lei Yu, seamlessly integrated.

"Let's go out and try it," Yuan Ming said with a smile, patting Lei Yu's back, and the man and bird quickly left the courtyard.

Before long, the two appeared above the outer sea surrounding the island.

On the dark sea surface, waves churned, reflecting the moonlight and stirring the shimmering waves.

Yuan Ming's gaze sharpened as he formed a spell with his hand, bringing Lei Yu into the Illusion Space.

He stood on Lei Yu's back, reaching out his arm and spreading his fingers.

The next moment, a golden thunder light sparked in his eyes, and a thick golden thunderbolt branched into dozens of lightning bolts, forming a net of golden electric light that covered the area ahead.

In the void covered by the electric net, golden electric arcs violently collided, emitting bursts of thunderous noise.

The form was different from Lei Yu's Thunder Strike Divine Ability, but the power was superior.

"By merging your demonic power with my Mana, both the range and effect of our attacks have greatly been enhanced," Yuan Ming said joyfully.

Lei Yu chirped cheerfully in response.

Afterward, Yuan Ming raised his palm to the sky, and layers of dark clouds immediately began to rush together, forming a massive stretch of dark thunderclouds, as if the very sky was being churned.

Having tested these two Divine Skills, Yuan Ming was very pleased and then proceeded to try flying.

While channeling the power of thunder and lightning to attempt flying, wing-shaped thunder patterns emerged on both his arms. Then his whole body was engulfed by the force of the lightning, covering a hundred yards in an instant.

Suddenly, a figure wrapped in arcs of electricity appeared high above the sea—now in the distance, now disappearing nearby, fluttering uncertainly like a ghostly specter.

When he stopped, the wing-shaped thunder patterns on his arms also disappeared.

"Indeed, with this Melding Spirit method from the Golden Sunflower Beast Taming Technique, I can now harness the Divine Skills of spirit beasts as well," Yuan Ming expressed with extreme delight.

He then summoned Hua Zhi and the Three-eyed Crow, informing them about the Melding Spirit.

Being Yuan Ming's Believer, the Three-eyed Crow naturally had no objections, while Hua Zhi reacted enthusiastically, vying to be the first to try it out.

Yuan Ming successively completed the Melding Spirit with both of them.

The results of the experiments greatly satisfied him; these two fellows had a higher cultivation level than Lei Yu, so after melding spirits with them, his Mana increased more significantly, roughly to the level of a Late-stage Core Formation.

Yuan Ming praised each of the three creatures several times. After consoling them, he collected them back along with Lei Yu.

Subsequently, he dispelled the illusion and returned to his dwelling, thoroughly satisfied.

...

The next morning, the third round of the selection began.

Among the remaining sixteen group islands, one advancing spot would be decided in turn, making today's competition notably more fierce than the previous two days.

Apart from the four second-class islands' groups, the participants sent by the first-class islands were almost exclusively Late-stage Core Formation Cultivators.

Whether by design or coincidence, today's first four matches were all between second-class islands. The four islands that won in the last session—Winter Crystal Island, Wuyun Island, Blood Bird's Nest Island, and Golden Lotus Island—still emerged as winners this session.

And in the following dozen matches, the first-class islands dominated overwhelmingly, securing victories.

By an hour after noon, it was time for the last match of the day—Karma Fire Island versus Red Ganoderma Island.

The spectacular performance of Red Ganoderma Island before had raised some expectations among the cultivators from many islands for this match.

In the history of the competitions, no second-class island had ever managed to overthrow a first-class island, so apart from the cultivators from Luoshan Island and Liulan Island, almost all the cultivators from second-class islands secretly hoped that Red Ganoderma Island, the dark horse, could make history in this tournament.

They were powerless to oppose the unfair competition system, but that did not mean they harbored no resentment.

Most of the first-class island cultivators, while indifferent, nonetheless harbored a faint hope, curious to see Karma Fire Island embarrassed.

These mixed thoughts silently shifted everyone's expectations, and strangely enough, most of the crowd present actually hoped for Red Ganoderma Island to win.

When Xu Fu announced the start of the match, Yuan Ming was the first to leap onto the Martial Arts Arena.

After a short wait, the competitor from Karma Fire Island finally arrived fashionably late, stepping onto the Martial Arts Arena as well, and his arrival immediately sparked a murmuring among the spectators.

"It's him, Karma Fire Island has actually sent him."

"Cui Yu, Karma Fire Island actually let Cui Yu fight—they've really left nothing to chance this time..."

"Tsk, Karma Fire Island must really be scared of losing to send out Cui Yu?"

...

Various noisy voices erupted.

On the stone platform in the square, the heads of the first-class islands also showed their surprise.

The person in charge of Red Rain Island looked astonished, turned to Yan Xiang, and asked, "I remember that Nephew Cui Yu entered seclusion a month ago to attempt a breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm. How is he participating in the competition now?"

"His talent is dull, and failing to achieve a breakthrough, he volunteered to participate in the competition, hoping to find an opportunity to break through during a real battle," Yan Xiang replied, his eyes not straying and his tone steady.

The crowd, upon hearing this, scorned inwardly.

Who didn't know that Cui Yu was the direct disciple of the Master of Karma Fire Island, possessing exceptional cultivation talent? Before reaching the age of two hundred, he had already achieved the peak of Core Formation, making him the most likely within Karma Fire Island to advance to the Nascent Soul Realm before turning two hundred.

To say he had dull talent was a fool's belief in this grand-sounding nonsense.

Moreover, attempting a breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm isn't something determined within a month of seclusion; normally, it requires a year and a half to three to five years.

It must have been Yan Xiang's realization of something unusual in Red Ganoderma Island's participation this time, fearing some mishap, that led him to summon the secluded Cui Yu for an emergency participation in this match, ensuring absolute safety.

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