After an unknown amount of time, Yuan Ming gradually regained consciousness and slowly sat up from the ground.

The surrounding mist swirled and floated, and he couldn’t see the sun even when he looked up, making it impossible to determine how long he had been unconscious.

His mind was still a bit foggy, but after shaking his head, he remembered what happened before he passed out and quickly looked around.

Although he had suppressed the will of the purple-black demon vine with his beast taming technique, given its tenacity, it might not be dead.

The surroundings were quiet, not even a single bug could be seen, let alone the demon vine.

The Qingyu Sword was slanted and inserted into the ground nearby, with a faint glow at the blade.

“If I didn’t see the body of the demon vine, it means that it really didn’t die. Could it have escaped underground?” Yuan Ming muttered to himself.

He had just fallen into a coma, so if the demon vine was still alive, why didn’t it take the opportunity to kill him? Could it be that it was scared off by the beast taming technique?

He slapped his cheeks hard and stood up.

“Huh!” Yuan Ming suddenly noticed another anomaly. He didn’t know when he had released the beast transformation technique, and the black toad beast skin was nowhere to be found.

“It’s one thing for the purple-black demon vine to be missing, as it could have escaped on its own. But why would the black toad beast skin disappear? Could someone have come just now?” Yuan Ming thought of a possibility and quickly checked his belongings.

Everything in his storage bag was still there, nothing was missing. The mysterious incense burner had turned into an imprint and was quietly residing in his right arm, showing no abnormalities. Even the conspicuous Qingyu Sword was not lost. It didn’t seem like someone had come.

Yuan Ming silently picked up the Qingyu Sword and was about to search the nearby area when his expression suddenly changed, and he looked in a certain direction.

There seemed to be something there that was connected to his mind, but the connection was very weak, and he couldn’t sense it clearly.

“What is it?” Yuan Ming was quite surprised.

Something that could establish a mental connection must be a profound secret technique, similar to the beast taming technique, or a blood-contracted artifact.

His beast taming technique had not yet tamed any spirit beasts, and the only thing he had blood-contracted with was the mysterious incense burner, which was now peacefully residing in the incense burner imprint on his right arm. What else could establish a mental connection with him?

Yuan Ming couldn’t figure it out, but soon stopped thinking about it and started searching for the black toad skin in the vicinity, but found nothing.

“Forget it, the black toad skin is just an auxiliary item. If it’s lost, it’s lost.” He sighed and sat cross-legged, circulating the Nine Elements Technique to restore his mana.

After a while, Yuan Ming’s mana was fully restored, and his strength returned to his body.

However, he had lost nearly half of his blood and his muscles and bones were a bit weak, but fortunately, it didn’t affect his movements.

Yuan Ming took out the white ape skin, but instead of using the beast transformation technique, he wrapped it around his waist and ran towards the distance.

The anomaly there had always been tugging at his mind, so it was better to investigate it clearly.

Fifteen minutes later, Yuan Ming arrived at a swampy water pool several acres in size, and the object that was connected to his mind was in the water.

As he got closer, the mental connection between him and the water pool became stronger, and he could already sense what it was.

“No way!” Yuan Ming was somewhat incredulous. This matter was too unbelievable.

Just at this moment, the water pool suddenly exploded, and large waves rolled violently. A gray fierce creature emerged from the water, turning out to be a several-zhang-long gray fierce crocodile.

The head of this crocodile was actually dark red, especially its eyes, which were blood-red and exceptionally fierce.

“Not good, it’s an adult Bloodhead Crocodile!” Yuan Ming recognized this beast.

An adult Bloodhead Crocodile had at least the peak strength of the Intermediate Rank 1, with extremely tough scales, immense strength, and excellent water combat abilities. It was one of the most powerful Intermediate Rank beasts.

However, this Bloodhead Crocodile was currently in a panic, quickly twisting its body and fleeing in a hurry.

Before it could escape far, a slender purple-black object broke through the water, wrapped around the body of the Bloodhead Crocodile, and swiftly coiled around it. It was a purple-black vine.

The vine was completely bare, without a single leaf, and its body was crystal clear, with faint bloodlines visible inside, giving it an eerie and strange appearance.

Yuan Ming’s pupils suddenly contracted.

Although the appearance of this purple-black vine had changed, he could tell that it was the same purple-black demon vine that had almost taken his life before!

The Bloodhead Crocodile struggled desperately, but the purple-black demon vine was extremely tenacious. No matter how the Bloodhead Crocodile struggled, it couldn’t break free.

The vine made a sharp “sizzling” sound, becoming sharp, and then suddenly shot out, piercing the tough skin of the Bloodhead Crocodile.

With a light “pu” sound, the demon vine easily pierced through its tough skin and entered its body.

The Bloodhead Crocodile let out a miserable scream, its long and thick body trembling violently, but the amplitude became smaller and smaller.

After a few breaths, the crocodile completely lost its breath, and its swollen body floated on the water’s surface.

With a “splash” sound, a black shadow slowly emerged from the water. It was a fist-sized black toad with a round and bulging purple-black drum on its back, which looked like several leaves of a certain plant folded together. It had more than a dozen poison sacs around it, and its cold eyes looked at the Bloodhead Crocodile.

Yuan Ming tried to maintain a calm expression on his face, but the astonishment in his eyes couldn’t be concealed no matter what.

This black toad, both in terms of skin color and appearance, was exactly the same as his toad beast skin, just smaller in size.

A piece of beast skin actually resurrected out of thin air. Such a miraculous thing actually existed in the world!The dark purple vine shot out from a bulge on the toad’s back, a stream of blood-red light quickly flowed back along the vine to the toad’s back. The toad’s body glowed with a faint blood light, which quickly dissipated, but its body subtly enlarged.

The dark purple vine flew back and disappeared into the bulge on the toad’s back.

The toad seemed to sense something, turned its head to look at Yuan Ming nearby, a trace of surprise in its eyes, and turned to flee.

“Come here!” Yuan Ming’s face darkened slightly, he shouted coldly, his right hand forming a spell, the tip of his finger flickering with black light.

The toad’s body trembled, but it didn’t move.

A look of surprise crossed Yuan Ming’s face. He pushed his beast taming technique to the maximum, and the toad reluctantly turned around and swam over, hopping in front of Yuan Ming.

He raised his hand and pressed it on the toad’s head, a thick black aura surged from his palm, rolling into the toad’s body.

After a moment, he withdrew his hand, a complex look on his face, surprise, joy, but mostly confusion.

Yuan Ming had just used the beast taming technique, combined with the power of his soul to check, the original black toad’s skin had indeed grown internal organs for some reason, and there were soul fluctuations within its body, it had become a living creature.

The dark purple vine, through the bulge on the toad’s back, grew together with its internal organs, becoming an organ-like existence within its body. Each time the heart beat, the toad’s blood could be transmitted to various parts of its body through the dark purple vine, in addition to its blood vessels.

The black toad in front of him looked like a black-patterned poison toad, but in fact, it was a freak formed by the fusion of two completely different creatures.

Inside the dark purple vine resided a rune mark, which was a beast taming rune, containing Yuan Ming’s soul power, it looked like it was condensed from his soul.

Yuan Ming had just sensed a connection between himself and this beast taming rune, but he found it hard to believe, yet the fact was right in front of him, he had no choice but to doubt.

Anyway, he had accidentally tamed a spirit beast.

With his current cultivation in the Qi Refining stage, he could no longer tame a second spirit beast, unless he killed the vine and destroyed the beast taming rune within it.

“Forget it, let the vine be. Its abilities are quite good, and now it has merged with this black toad, maybe it will develop some special powers?” After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to keep the vine.

Yuan Ming sat cross-legged in front of the black toad, continuing to communicate with it using the beast taming technique, probing its internal condition.

More importantly, he needed to understand the current abilities of the black toad.

Half a day later, he stopped casting spells, a hint of joy in his eyes.

As he had guessed earlier, after the black toad and the vine merged, their powers had changed greatly. The most notable point was that the powers of the two began to merge. Now the vine also contained the black toad’s venom, which greatly increased the attack power of the vine in battle.

The reason why the dark purple vine could easily pierce the skin of the Blood Head Crocodile was because of this.

Furthermore, the black toad also had the same powerful self-healing ability as the vine. Combined with the vine’s blood-sucking characteristic, its self-healing ability had reached a monstrous level. As long as it didn’t suffer fatal damage, it could heal quickly.

“Follow me well from now on!” Yuan Ming exhaled lightly. This black toad had become a monstrous existence, and it might not be a bad thing for him to keep it as a spirit beast.

The black toad looked at Yuan Ming and didn’t move.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming slightly increased his mana to drive the beast taming technique, and the black toad reluctantly croaked, jumped onto his shoulder, and squatted there.

“This black toad was born from mutation, and the beast taming rune I applied is engraved inside the vine. I don’t know how effective it is in restraining this beast… But this little thing is so black that it’s hard to be noticed when it hides.” He thought to himself.

Yuan Ming quickly moved on. Now that the matter of taming the spirit beast was over, and with this black toad by his side, his strength had increased a lot. He planned to continue exploring this island.

Most importantly, he wanted to find that Four-eyed Golden Ape.

The effect of those Red Core Spirit Peaches was unforgettable to Yuan Ming. If he could find them, combined with the miraculous effect of the Nine Revolutions Technique, he could quickly advance his cultivation to the eighth or even ninth level of Qi Refining.

……

Two days later.

Yuan Ming arrived at a low mountain area on the island. The low mountains here were gray-black, and the stones in the mountains exuded a strong yin energy. The air was also filled with a sense of coldness, making people feel quite uncomfortable.

The vegetation inside the low mountains was also very sparse, obviously unable to withstand the oppressive yin energy of this place.

Yuan Ming took the black toad into it and began to search around.

In the past two days, he had searched all over the island. Although he hadn’t been able to find the area where the Four-eyed Golden Ape was, he had made quite a few discoveries, finding seven or eight precious spirit materials. If he took them to the sect to exchange, he could get quite a few contribution points.

However, this island was astonishingly large. He had been searching for three days and still hadn’t found the place where he had landed last time.

This made him a little anxious. The time he had applied for to leave the sect was only five days, and now there wasn’t much left. If he couldn’t find it, he would have to wait until next time.

(End of the chapter)