“Ah, I see…”
Shui Miao suddenly understood. This fight had its conditions and limitations.
The little boy was the spirit of the artifact, and this Fairy Spirit Mirror was his territory. Attempting to seize his axe was indeed no small challenge.
But since this was the instruction of Xiao Caidie, there must be a reason behind it.
“Also, I can attack too. Watch this!”
Suddenly, the little boy charged at Shui Miao with his axe…
Shui Miao was startled and quickly dodged, immediately channeling spiritual energy into his body. However, the boy’s speed increased rapidly. With his dual axes swinging left and right, he pressed Shui Miao back relentlessly. Before long, Shui Miao was struck by the axe and fell into a helpless state.
“Haha, you lost! You’re just too weak. With such skills, you dare to fight me? You should go back and train some more,” the boy laughed.
The axe struck Shui Miao’s thigh, causing intense pain as if his bones were shattered. His entire body went numb, and he couldn’t move. “You… you bastard! I wasn’t even ready yet…”
“Hehe, if Golden Immortals were chasing you, do you think they’d wait for you to prepare?” The boy sneered, then vanished immediately. “Don’t worry, your injuries aren’t real. They’ll disappear once you leave here.”
The boy’s echoing voice reverberated in Shui Miao’s ears.
Indeed! He was too weak!
The Jade Void Sect had sent three Golden Immortals. With his current skills, how could he possibly stand against them?
Without strength, one had no right to speak.
I’m so weak that I can’t even protect everyone, only dragging them down.
No, I must train hard and quickly improve my cultivation.
Shui Miao realized his awkward situation. He had always felt strong, but that was just luck from facing weak opponents. In a real battle against a powerful enemy, what was his current strength worth? If he couldn’t even defeat a little boy, how could he fight against Golden Immortals, let alone seek revenge against the Infinite Celestial Lord?
Suddenly, Shui Miao felt like a joke, a pitiful creature.
How ridiculous! I actually thought I was strong all along!
No, I can’t waste any more time. I must go out and train right away!
Shui Miao felt a surge of determination and immediately left the Fairy Spirit Mirror.
As the boy had said, the injuries were fake. Once he exited, all injuries vanished.
When Shui Miao exited the cave, Bai Feng, who was arranging accommodations for the girls, immediately approached. “Shui Miao, how did it go?”
“Not bad. They’re being nurtured inside my Holy Yuan Ring and should hatch soon.” Shui Miao suddenly took a deep breath and looked at Bai Feng. “Bai Jie, I suddenly realized how weak I am. Relying solely on the Soul Devouring Power and everyone else isn’t enough. I want to train my body, pushing my speed and explosive power to the limit. Then, when I encounter strong opponents, I can easily deal with them.”
Shui Miao spoke with great conviction, clearly determined.
Bai Feng furrowed her brow slightly, puzzled. “Shui Miao, why did you suddenly think this way?”
“Why? To become stronger, don’t I need to train my body? Why are you even asking this?” Shui Miao was confused. Bai Feng had lived for five or six hundred years; how could she ask such a foolish question?
To his surprise, Bai Feng shook her head and smiled gently. “It’s not what you think. Among the world’s powerful cultivators, who isn’t an expert in magical techniques? Physical training has become less useful. True experts harness the forces of nature and use them to attack their enemies. Physical training, however, is limited. In the end, you’re still relying on your own limited strength. A master of magical techniques can immobilize you with a mere thought. Then, how would you fight?”
“Magical techniques!”
Shui Miao had always trained haphazardly, never really understanding the direction of cultivation.
Bai Feng nodded. “Take the Daoist experts, for instance. None of them focus on physical training. They all cultivate magical techniques. Lao Tzu’s Three Realms Fire can melt anything in the world. No matter how well you train your body, it can’t withstand even a small flame. As for Buddha Sakyamuni, he sits on Vulture Peak every day, receiving the faith and wishes of countless Buddhas, continuously enhancing his power. Did he ever engage in physical training?”
“White Sister, do you know how to cultivate magical techniques?”
Shui Miao scratched his head, somewhat realizing his own naivety.
Bai Feng smiled again. “You’re really silly. Haven’t you already been cultivating magical techniques? Cultivating magical techniques involves enhancing your spiritual power and your ability to control spiritual energy. True experts can harness every bit of spiritual energy around them. The Feng Shui and natural ways you’ve been studying are actually foundational for understanding spiritual energy! If you calm your mind and study diligently, you’ll surely become increasingly powerful. For instance, you can now multitask, defending against numerous ant beasts while simultaneously killing the queen from a distance. In our eyes, this kind of cultivation is already very impressive!”
“…”
After Bai Feng’s words, Shui Miao suddenly regained his confidence and found the direction for his cultivation.
“Thank you, Bai Jie. I’m no longer confused. I’m going to cultivate now.”
Shui Miao returned to the cave and found a quiet spot to sit cross-legged and begin his cultivation.
This time, Shui Miao’s method of cultivation was somewhat different from before.
He focused his attention, sensing the spiritual energy around him and attempting to control it with his spiritual power to serve his purposes.
To his surprise, it was very easy. The spiritual energy in the entire cave was immediately mobilized, responding to Shui Miao’s will.
It turned out that Shui Miao had been cultivating blindly all along, without finding the proper path.
Now, he had finally found the right method.
“Gather spiritual energy to form a defense!”
Shui Miao concentrated, and the spiritual energy gradually condensed in front of him.
He found it not too difficult. However, since the cave didn’t have much spiritual energy, Shui Miao stopped and pondered aloud, “This method doesn’t seem very effective. With so little spiritual energy, it’s hard to create any real power. It would be great if I could control the spiritual energy cultivated by others. Oh, right! Bai Jie mentioned cultivating spiritual power. If my spiritual power is much stronger than my opponent’s, I should be able to control their spiritual energy. But how can I make my spiritual power exceptionally strong?”
The cultivation techniques Shui Miao had obtained from Sima Zongheng and Zhuge Suapan only enhanced his intelligence.
To boost his spiritual power, besides pills, Shui Miao couldn’t think of any better methods.
Since this method wasn’t effective, he decided to focus on his own spiritual energy.
Shui Miao’s mind was quick, and after some thinking, he suddenly realized that his Soul Devouring Power was indestructible, capable of devouring everything and even transforming into weapons. Why not try converting all his spiritual energy into Soul Devouring Power?
Upon deeper reflection, Shui Miao realized something unusual about himself.
Ordinary cultivators could only cultivate spiritual energy, which would gradually transform into immortal energy as they advanced step by step.
But he possessed the extraordinary Soul Devouring Power!
Shui Miao pondered deeply. Although he could use the Soul Devouring Power at will, he always felt it was an external object—an unfair advantage that allowed him to defeat stronger opponents, or a loyal guardian protecting him.
As he thought, a sudden idea struck him. Since the Soul Devouring Power was so miraculous, why not specialize in confronting ant beasts, even raising a large number of ant queens to refine them, allowing the Soul Devouring Power to expand infinitely and become increasingly powerful? By then, even if he encountered Golden Immortal experts, he would have a chance to fight them!
With this thought, Shui Miao immediately shifted his consciousness into the Holy Yuan Ring.
“Huh? This is…”
“Could it be… it has hatched!”
Seeing the scene inside the Holy Yuan Ring, Shui Miao was stunned…
Inside the Holy Yuan Ring, three small creatures were facing off. Two chubby ones were clearly newly hatched ant queens. But facing them was another creature that looked like a small African monkey. Nearby, the Dream Demon Baby’s egg was shattered into many pieces, scattered on the ground.
The Dream Demon Baby’s egg was something Shui Miao and Bai Feng had obtained from the Spirit Treasure Pavilion.
It was said that this egg had been lost for a very long time but had never managed to hatch.
Today, it suddenly hatched, obviously due to the power of the Rakshasa Realm’s spiritual energy.
Inside the Holy Yuan Ring, the previously abundant spiritual energy was now nearly depleted.
“What are you doing?”
Shui Miao manifested a phantom clone within the Holy Yuan Ring.
Upon seeing Shui Miao, the two young ant queens immediately crawled toward him, hugging his legs and hiding behind him in fear.
The Dream Demon Baby also ran up to Shui Miao, opening its big eyes, placing its small hands together, and excitedly calling him “Mom…”
What the heck! This little guy actually called me “Mom”!
Shui Miao was slightly taken aback, genuinely not liking this creature that looked like an African monkey calling him “Mom.” But thinking about the little one’s ability to enter others’ dreams and do special things, Shui Miao squatted down, smiled warmly, opened his arms, and embraced the Dream Demon Baby.
“Mom, you’re my Mom!”
“Baby, you’ve finally hatched!”
“Mom is so good…”
Shui Miao stroked the Dream Demon Baby’s head and found the creature quite pleasant—soft and affectionate, giving him a strange sense of having his own child.
“Baby is so good!”
Shui Miao couldn’t quite believe that this little creature was actually so human-like.
The Dream Demon Baby made a face at the ant queens behind Shui Miao and pointed at them, saying, “Mom, they were bullying me and trying to bite me.”
“…”
Shui Miao was taken aback and looked at the ant queens behind him. They looked like two white pugs, chubby and somewhat repulsive, not nearly as cute as the Dream Demon Baby.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t speak.
They seemed to know they were also close to Shui Miao, so they weren’t afraid of him and made faces at the Dream Demon Baby.
“Hehe, you two!”
Shui Miao smiled and teleported all three little ones into the cave, lining them up and saying to them, “You’re all my good babies. We’re a family. No fighting among family members, no attacking each other. We must get along harmoniously, unite, and fight against the bad guys.”
“But Mom, why do I look so different from them? They look so strange!” The Dream Demon Baby had the audacity to say others looked strange without even looking at its own appearance.
“Ni ni…”
“Hei he…”
The two ant queens angrily made strange sounds at the Dream Demon Baby, seemingly very dissatisfied with its words.
Could it be that they understood what was being said, just unable to speak?
A thought struck Shui Miao. He teleported the Dream Demon Baby back into the Holy Yuan Ring, manifested a phantom clone, and focused on both the Dream Demon Baby and the ant queens simultaneously.
Through communication, Shui Miao discovered some issues.
The Dream Demon Baby had an aura of malevolence, and its speech and intelligence were extremely advanced, surpassing that of an adult, almost flawless—this was very alarming.
As for the two ant queens, since Shui Miao had imparted thoughts to them, their behavior mirrored his exactly. They were even pointing at the eggs, seemingly eager to hatch them!
Hatching the eggs required a large amount of spiritual energy.
The growth of the ant queens also needed spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy here was clearly insufficient. However, the Fairy Spirit Mirror contained many spirit stones. Shui Miao focused his mind and entered the Fairy Spirit Mirror again.
“Golden Horned Bull King, where are you? Come out for a moment!”
Shui Miao roared toward the mountains within the Fairy Spirit Mirror.
The little boy immediately appeared, looking drowsy as he looked at Shui Miao. “What’s going on? You came back so quickly. Are you some kind of masochist?”
“You little cow-nosed brat, what are you talking about? I need the spiritual energy that Xiao Caidie brought from the mountains. Release it for me,” Shui Miao was so angry his teeth itched. Such a tiny creature dared to speak to him in such an old-fashioned manner. He wanted to immediately activate his Soul Devouring Power to swallow and refine him.
“Tsk, those are just some lowly stones from the lower realm. I don’t care for them at all.”
With a wave of his hand, the little boy vanished instantly.
What he said! Could it be that there were even better immortal stones hidden within the Fairy Spirit Mirror? As Shui Miao pondered this, he found that a large amount of spirit stones had already been released.
The ant queens were delighted and immediately started licking the Yin-type spirit stones.
Shui Miao focused his mind, moving a portion of the spirit stones into the Holy Yuan Ring for the Dream Demon Baby to absorb and enhance its cultivation.
There were still many spirit stones left, so Shui Miao decided to teleport a large batch outside, letting Bai Feng distribute them among everyone.
Everyone had just gone through life and death with him, so naturally, he considered them as close as family.
When Shui Miao returned from outside, the two ant queens had already doubled in size. They were no longer just licking the stones but chewing them directly. They were growing at an astonishing rate, visibly transforming into mature ant queens, becoming increasingly fat and overwhelming.
Their appetite kept improving, and soon they were crunching on spirit stones of other attributes.
The spiritual energy emitted by the spirit stones spread throughout the cave inside the mountain. Under the influence of this spiritual energy, many ant eggs began to hatch. One by one, small ant beasts, tiny mountain-moving ants, and flying ants emerged.
Looking around, within the vast cave, a new empire of ant beasts quietly came into being!
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