I am in Yellow Maple Valley, and I have a demonic beast clone!

Chapter Forty-Nine: A Year's Treasure Hunt and its Harvest! A Level Three Demonic Beast's Primordial Spirit!

Time flies, and a whole year has passed since Xiao Jin advanced to the second level of demon beast.

That year, Zhou Ding's life was as regular as a pendulum: cultivating the "Azure Origin Sword Technique", refining the "Hundred Beasts Body Forging Technique", studying the basics of formations, and occasionally trying to refine Foundation Establishment stage pills.

Although the success rate remains appalling.

But the most important thing is treasure hunting.

Every morning, he would take Xiao Jin out of the cave and venture deep into the Taiyue Mountains, exploring this primeval forest that stretches for thousands of miles inch by inch.

Xiao Jin's Earth Listening Technique can now precisely detect an area within a radius of eight kilometers. Wherever he goes, no buried medicinal herbs, mineral deposits, or relics can escape his notice.

Over the course of a year, they explored a quarter of the Taiyue Mountains.

The harvest was so abundant that it would make any Foundation Establishment cultivator envious.

……

On this day, Zhou Ding's escape light landed in a hidden valley.

The valley is not large, surrounded by mountains on three sides, and can only be entered through a narrow passage.

The valley was densely vegetated with hanging vines. If it weren't for Xiao Jin's ability to hear the earth and detect the anomaly, Zhou Ding would never have imagined that a treasure was hidden behind this seemingly ordinary mountain wall.

With a clear goal in mind, he went straight to a stone wall covered with vines.

Probing with divine sense, a clear fluctuation of spiritual energy was faintly emanating from a depth of about ten feet behind the stone wall.

Without wasting words, Zhou Ding flipped his right hand, and the golden blade transformed into a streak of azure light, piercing fiercely into the stone wall!

"boom!"

Rock fragments flew everywhere, and a crater more than ten feet deep was blasted into the rock wall.

At the bottom of the pit, a narrow crevice was faintly visible. Deep within the crevice, a strange, ethereal herb, entirely emerald green with translucent, creamy leaves, was quietly growing, emitting a rich yet refreshing medicinal fragrance.

"Sap Grass!"

A look of surprise flashed in Zhou Ding's eyes.

Condensing Grass is one of the main ingredients used to refine pills for cultivators in the late Foundation Establishment stage or even the early Core Formation stage to improve their cultivation.

This herb has extremely demanding requirements for its growing environment; it can only grow in places with abundant spiritual energy and constant dampness.

Judging from the number of layers of its leaves and its creamy texture, this condensed liquid grass is at least 500 years old!

Five-hundred-year-old spiritual herbs are beneficial even to Core Formation cultivators!

Zhou Ding carefully took out the jade shovel, dug up the condensed liquid grass along with the soil around its roots, put it into a specially made jade box, and sealed it properly.

He turned around and went to the other side of the valley.

The terrain here is even lower and more prone to water accumulation, forming a small swamp.

In the middle of the swamp, a withered old tree lay crookedly, most of its roots exposed.

Zhou Ding unleashed his golden blade and began digging down along the tree roots.

After digging about ten feet deep, the tip of the sword touched a hard object.

He sheathed the golden blade and switched to using his hands to carve. A moment later, he pulled a fist-sized, bluish-gray ore with faint silver specks shimmering on its surface from the mud.

"Blue Steel Stone".

This stone is an excellent spiritual material for refining top-tier magical artifacts. It contains pure metal element energy, which can greatly enhance the sharpness and durability of magical artifacts.

Such a large piece would be worth at least several hundred spirit stones in the market.

Zhou Ding put the blue steel stone into his storage bag, a slight smile playing on his lips.

This trip was quite fruitful.

He walked out of the valley and glanced around.

Not far away, deep underground, Xiao Jin was using his Earth Listening Technique to continuously scan everything within a radius of eight kilometers.

That invisible wave spread out like radar, relaying all the secrets deep within the earth back to Zhou Ding.

A moment later, Xiao Jin sent a message saying that there were no more treasures worth exploring in the vicinity.

Zhou Ding manipulated Xiao Jin to emerge from the ground and then put it into the spirit beast bag.

It transformed into a streak of light and sped towards the cave.

……

Half an hour later, inside the cave.

Zhou Ding sat cross-legged in the quiet room and began to take stock of the year's gains.

The miraculous herbs—a total of one hundred and twenty-three!

Among them, there are 56 medicinal herbs under 100 years old, 42 herbs between 100 and 300 years old, 20 herbs between 300 and 500 years old, and 5 herbs over 500 years old!

That condensing liquid grass was one of the five.

Besides the condensing grass, there is a 600-year-old purple salvia, a 550-year-old jade spirit flower, a 520-year-old he shou wu, and a 580-year-old dragon heart fruit.

Each of these spiritual herbs would be fiercely contested by Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Even Core Formation cultivators are envious.

The other spiritual materials were also plentiful.

From the most common spirit iron and spirit copper, to the rare blue steel stone, red copper heart, and black iron mother, and then to the top-grade spiritual material, glass crystal, for refining magical treasures!

The piece of glass crystal was about the size of a baby's fist, crystal clear, with faint iridescent light flowing through it.

This item is a top-grade material for crafting flying swords and other magical artifacts, and it can greatly enhance the artifact's spirituality and sharpness.

If you take it to the market, you can get nearly ten thousand spirit stones!

Also.

Six months ago, Xiao Jin discovered an abandoned monk's cave in a secluded mountain.

The owner of that cave should have been a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, but he perished for unknown reasons, and his remains have long since weathered away.

Zhou Ding searched the cave and found over a thousand spirit stones, several magical artifacts, as well as some pills and miscellaneous items.

……

Looking at the mountain of harvest in front of him, Zhou Ding felt a sense of pride.

With his current wealth, even those veteran Foundation Establishment cultivators at the Pseudo-Core stage probably cannot compare.

All of this is thanks to Xiao Jin's ability to hear the ground.

Without Xiao Jin, none of this would exist.

…………

The next day.

Zhou Ding left his cave dwelling again and headed to the market town of Huangfeng Valley.

This time, he wasn't going to sell anything, but to retrieve a treasure he had reserved long ago.

Wanbaolou.

"Fellow Daoist, you've arrived."

Manager Wan personally came out to greet you, beaming with smiles: "The item you requested just arrived half a month ago."

He led Zhou Ding into the inner room and took out a fist-sized, completely transparent bead from his storage bag.

Inside the bead, a crimson phantom was slowly moving, faintly emanating a scorching and violent aura.

The phantom sometimes coalesced into a majestic giant tiger, and sometimes dispersed into a blurry patch of flames, as if it might break free from the bead's restraints at any moment.

"The primordial spirit of a level three demonic beast, the Crimson Flame Tiger."

Manager Wan handed the bead to Zhou Ding: "This demon beast was incredibly powerful in life, and its primordial spirit was also well preserved after death. I went to great lengths to obtain it."

Zhou Ding took the Soul-Gathering Pearl, probed it with his divine sense, and carefully sensed it.

That's right, it's the primordial spirit of a level three demon beast.

That fiery, violent, and wild aura cannot be faked.

"Thank you for your trouble, Manager Wan."

Zhou Ding put away the Soul-Gathering Pearl and took out a bulging bag from his storage pouch: "This is the final payment, please count it."

Manager Wan took the bag, scanned it with his divine sense, and nodded in satisfaction: "Perfect. If you need anything else in the future, please feel free to come to Wanbaolou. I will serve you wholeheartedly."

Zhou Ding purchased another batch of auxiliary spiritual medicines needed for cultivating the "Hundred Beasts Body Forging Technique" before taking his leave.