Yuan Ming stopped his steps as he walked around a rock and came to a halt.

Beside a mountain wall in front of him, there grew a withered old tree. The bark had long fallen off, revealing a shriveled trunk with numerous decayed holes. It seemed to have died many years ago.

Yuan Ming ignored the other parts of the dead tree and looked towards the bottom. On a low branch of the tree, there grew a black Lingzhi mushroom the size of a palm. It had a silver pattern on the edge, clearly indicating that it was not an ordinary object.

“Sure enough, it’s the Yin Yuan Lingzhi!” Yuan Ming squatted down and carefully examined it, his face filled with joy.

According to the records in the “Bai Cao Ji,” this was a rare Yin attribute spiritual material. Although it couldn’t be directly consumed like the flesh Lingzhi or the red core Ling Tao, it could be used to refine Yin attribute pills.

Yuan Ming had seen a reward of five contribution points in the Execution Hall for finding this Yin Yuan Lingzhi. He didn’t know if anyone had completed this task.

He carefully picked the Lingzhi and put it into a jade box, storing it away.

This Yin Yuan Lingzhi was the most valuable spiritual material he had encountered so far. If he could find a few more, even if he couldn’t find the red core Ling Tao, this trip would not be in vain.

Yuan Ming continued on his way after standing up. He hadn’t walked far when his gaze suddenly froze, looking towards the mountain wall ahead.

In a shady spot on the mountain wall, there grew a black spiritual grass. It was only two feet tall and had oval-shaped leaves, emitting a faint black spiritual light.

Yuan Ming looked towards the top of the spiritual grass, where a black spiritual fruit was growing.

The fruit was the size of a pigeon egg, with fine patterns on its surface. It looked like many scales closely packed together, and a faint fragrance wafted through the air.

“Huh, isn’t this the black scale fruit that Silver Cat asked me to find?” Yuan Ming felt delighted.

There was a drawing of the black scale fruit in the herbal collection of the Second Cave Master. It was exactly the same as the one in front of him, with no difference in appearance or description. The age was also sufficient, and his luck was indeed good.

He quickly walked over and prepared to pick the fruit.

“Croak croak!” Suddenly, the black toad beside him let out an urgent cry.

Yuan Ming immediately stopped in his tracks, and his expression changed slightly. He used the Shadowless Step to swiftly move backward.

A black shadow fell from the sky and heavily landed where Yuan Ming had just stood, creating a large pit in the ground. A large number of broken stones shot in all directions.

Yuan Ming continued to swiftly move backward, dodging the flying stones. Only then did he see the black shadow clearly.

It was a fierce beast resembling a lion, with gray-white long fur on its head and neck, and thick scales on its back and abdomen. It stood in front of the black scale fruit, growling at Yuan Ming. It seemed to be guarding the fruit.

“This beast looks like the Lion Scale Beast from the Ten Thousand Mountains, but the fur and scales of the Lion Scale Beast are red. This one is gray-white…” Yuan Ming thought to himself, taking out the White Ape’s skin and using the Fur Transformation Technique to transform into a White Ape.

Seeing that Yuan Ming didn’t intend to leave, but instead transformed into a White Ape to provoke it, the Lion Scale Beast immediately roared and pounced towards him.

Yuan Ming didn’t engage in battle and used the Shadowless Step to swiftly dodge to the side, while pointing backwards with a finger.

The ground in front of the Lion Scale Beast cracked, and five thick wooden spikes emerged, aiming for its neck.

The Lion Scale Beast paused its steps slightly and swept its front paw, easily breaking the five wooden spikes.

Yuan Ming wasn’t surprised by this. The Lion Scale Beast in the Ten Thousand Mountains was a first-level fierce beast. Although the one in front of him had a different color, it was no different in terms of aura, size, and shape. It was most likely also a first-level fierce beast. It couldn’t be easily injured by the Wood Spike Technique.

He took out the Blue Fish Sword and his right arm suddenly became several times thicker, with bulging blue veins. This was the “Accumulate Yuan Arm” technique.

“Go!” Yuan Ming shouted, swinging his arm forcefully. The Blue Fish Sword turned into a blue shadow and flew straight towards the Lion Scale Beast’s chest.

The Lion Scale Beast opened its mouth and spewed out a gray fireball the size of a human head. Its speed was no slower than the Blue Fish Sword, and they collided head-on.

With a loud bang, the gray fireball exploded, creating a visible shockwave that directly sent the Blue Fish Sword flying.

Yuan Ming had anticipated this and pointed a finger, causing the flying Blue Fish Sword to immediately stop and circle around before continuing to slash towards the Lion Scale Beast.

The Lion Scale Beast’s four hooves emitted a gray-white light, increasing its speed and easily dodging the attack of the Blue Fish Sword. It continued to pounce towards Yuan Ming.

At this moment, the ground beneath it cracked again, and a purple-black vine emerged, entwining its two front limbs and chest. It was the Purple-Black Demon Vine.

Behind a large stone about thirty feet away, the black toad quietly lay in the shadow. The Purple-Black Demon Vine shot out from its back and disappeared into the ground.

The Lion Scale Beast was greatly alarmed. It forcefully kicked the ground with its strong limbs and leaped to the side, intending to use brute force to break the demon vine. However, the length of the vine exceeded its expectations and quickly emerged from the ground.

Even though the Lion Scale Beast jumped seven or eight zhang away, the Purple-Black Demon Vine still didn’t straighten out.

More and more vines emerged from the ground, twisting and entangling the Lion Scale Beast’s hind legs tightly.Chi chi…

The demonic vine secreted black venom, infecting the Lion Scale Beast’s body. The Lion Scale Beast’s flesh and skin directly melted, revealing white bones in many places. The blood that flowed out also had a black-red color, and the scales were eroded and pitted.

The Lion Scale Beast was both shocked and angry. It opened its mouth and spewed out a gray fireball, disregarding the harm it would cause to itself, hitting the demonic vine that was entangling its body.

With a loud explosion, a large number of demonic vines were blasted apart. The Lion Scale Beast broke free from most of them, and it seemed like it was about to completely escape from the entanglement.

A layer of green light suddenly lit up around the Lion Scale Beast, and numerous demonic vines swiftly weaved in and out, forming a purple vine cage in the blink of an eye, firmly imprisoning the Lion Scale Beast, making it unable to move at all.

It was the “Wooden Prison Technique”.

After Yuan Ming finished casting the spell, his figure flew over. In his hand, a crimson light flashed, and an additional dark red hammer appeared. It was the one he obtained from this island.

He infused his mana into it, and the large hammer emitted a dazzling red light, like a ball of crimson flames.

Feeling the astonishing aura emitted by the dark red hammer, the Lion Scale Beast was both shocked and fearful, opening its bloody mouth wide.

A gray-white fireball the size of a millstone flew out and hit the surrounding purple vine cage.

With a loud boom, a gray-white mushroom cloud rose!

The purple vine cage trembled violently, and several demonic vines were blasted apart, but the entire cage was almost undamaged, still firmly imprisoning the Lion Scale Beast.

The power of the Wooden Prison Technique depended to a large extent on the type of tree that formed the wooden prison. The purple-black demonic vines were originally sturdy, and the wooden prison formed by them had immense power. It was already difficult for a Qi Refining stage fierce beast to break free.

A red shadow of a hammer whistled down and struck the Lion Scale Beast’s head.

The Lion Scale Beast’s head exploded with a sound, and countless red and white substances scattered in all directions. It didn’t even have a chance to let out a miserable cry before it fell to the ground.

The purple-black demonic vines shot out and pierced into the Lion Scale Beast’s wounds, rapidly absorbing its blood.

Yuan Ming ignored the actions of the purple-black demonic vines and looked at the lifeless body of the Lion Scale Beast, feeling somewhat dazed.

Through the previous battle, he deeply experienced the terror of this gray-white Lion Scale Beast. It was definitely not inferior to the Four-Eyed Golden Ape and the Black Giant Crow he had encountered before.

He had previously escaped in a sorry state from the Four-Eyed Golden Ape and the Black Giant Crow, but now he could easily kill a fierce beast of the same level. It had to be said that the Black Toad and the demonic vine played an indispensable role.

He didn’t expect that the help of a capable spirit beast could be so significant.

Yuan Ming took a few steps forward and picked up a broken vine from the ground, furrowing his brows.

Although this demonic vine was tough, it was ultimately a wood attribute object. It was greatly restrained by attacks of the fire attribute.

Fortunately, the purple-black demonic vine had strong self-healing abilities. Now that it had merged with the Black Toad, as long as it had enough blood, it could quickly recover from this level of damage.

Yuan Ming threw away the vine in his hand, ignoring the body of the Lion Scale Beast. He turned around and came to the Black Scale Fruit, carefully picking it and storing it away.

At this moment, the purple-black demonic vine had absorbed all the blood of the Lion Scale Beast. Instead of nourishing the Black Toad’s body this time, it repaired its own injuries. The broken vines quickly grew back, and within a few breaths, they had recovered more than half.

Yuan Ming continued forward, and the sound of rushing water came from ahead.

He turned around a small hill, and a gray-white stream stretched across in front of him. The Yin energy in the stream was heavy, and it could be clearly sensed from a distance.

Yuan Ming was taken aback, then revealed a pleased expression.

This was exactly the stream he had encountered when he first arrived on the island.

Finding this place made things much easier. He followed the memories in his mind and walked upstream along the stream. A small mountain appeared in front of him, which was the peak where Master Heimu’s hidden cave was located.

The entrance to the cave was still wide open, and the footprints from before appeared on the ground at the entrance. Everything remained the same as before.

Yuan Ming entered the cave, with the Black Toad closely following by his side, alert for any underground demons they had encountered before.

The cave remained unchanged as well. He searched every corner of the cave once again and even used his spiritual sense to check if there were any secret rooms or compartments in the surrounding walls. Unfortunately, there were no more secrets here.

Yuan Ming felt quite disappointed and came to the forge.

The only valuable thing left here was this forge. Last time, when he encountered the underground demon, he left in a hurry and didn’t have time to take it away. This time, he wouldn’t miss the opportunity.

He activated the black storage bag and tried to collect the forge.

However, after casting the spell, the forge remained motionless in its original place.

Yuan Ming’s face showed a look of surprise. The space inside the black storage bag was large enough to hold this forge.

With a hint of puzzlement, he began to inspect the forge and quickly discovered the reason.

A circle of densely packed red runes was engraved on the ground around the forge. It looked quite complex and seemed to have a special connection with something underground. Unless these runes were destroyed, it would be impossible to move the forge.

Yuan Ming pondered for a moment, took out the Blue Fish Sword, and slashed at the runes on the ground.Before the sword could touch the rune, a layer of red light suddenly surged, sending the Green Fish Sword flying away.

“Could it be a formation?” Yuan Ming’s face showed a look of surprise. After pondering for a moment, he gave up on retrieving it.

He had heard from Senior Brother Fang Ge that some skilled artifact refiners also used furnaces similar to magical tools, which contained special runes that provided special benefits during artifact refining.

Even more skilled refiners would further enhance the capabilities of the furnace in all aspects by inscribing formations, providing even greater benefits to artifact refining.

Since Master Heimu had left such a formation and furnace here, he must have had his reasons. If he recklessly destroyed the formation, it would be equivalent to destroying half of the furnace. It would be better to wait until his cultivation was sufficient in the future.

(End of Chapter)