Chapter 119: The Pot Collected by the Mutated Giant Owl

The mutated giant owl, though injured, moved at incredible speed.

In just a short time, the giant owl left Ding Huan's spiritual sense range.

Ding Huan wasn't worried—he had left a spiritual mark on the giant owl.

No matter how far the owl fled or how well it concealed itself, as long as Ding Huan could sense his spiritual mark, the owl couldn't escape.

Ding Huan couldn't claim he could find it anywhere on Earth as long as the mark remained, but as long as it didn't flee into the ocean, it wouldn't get away.

The Kunlun Mountains were indeed filled with ferocious beasts; whether the giant owl or Ding Huan, both moved like flashes as they traversed the range.

Before these ferocious beasts could even confront Ding Huan, he had already vanished far ahead.

After tracking for some distance, Ding Huan realized the giant owl was even more cunning than he'd imagined.

The owl moved at tremendous speed—it followed a stream for over ten minutes, then suddenly dove into the water, and when it burst out again, it reversed direction and fled into a forest.

The owl was injured, and blood continuously sprayed out, so the blood trail along the path before entering the stream was extremely clear.

After washing itself in the stream and then dashing into the forest, the giant owl now flew above the trees, and its dripping blood was mostly blocked by leaves, leaving almost no trace.

If Ding Huan hadn't had the spiritual mark, his first thought would've been that the giant owl had hidden inside the stream.

But Ding Huan had often used this trick himself—even if fooled for a moment, he'd quickly realize.

Moreover, since he'd already placed a spiritual mark on the owl, he didn't need to follow the blood trail—he simply turned back and charged into the forest.

The mutated giant owl, thinking itself clever, only wasted more time.

After tracking for nearly three or four hours, Ding Huan's spiritual sense finally sensed the giant owl had stopped fleeing and had come to rest in one spot.

Ding Huan slowed his pace, his spiritual sense always extended outward.

Finally, his spiritual sense located the giant owl inside a stone cave.

The cave wasn't large; outside it stood a massive ancient tree, its girth likely exceeding fifty meters.

This ancient tree seemed to have been struck by lightning and broken, yet its interior remained hollow.

The owl seeking refuge in the ancient tree was perfectly normal.

The strange thing was that, for some reason—whether due to its injuries or otherwise—the owl hadn't hidden itself within the tree.

Ding Huan's spiritual sense discovered an iron pot inside the hollow tree trunk.

This mutated giant owl really wants to become human? Even collecting pots?

After all, the owl was still an animal; no matter how cautious or cunning, it never imagined Ding Huan would track it to its den, so upon returning, it immediately began healing.

It had hidden various herbs in its cave—Ding Huan's spiritual sense saw the owl swallow them all, then stuff some into the wound caused by his wooden spear.

Ding Huan activated the Wind Riding Technique, arriving silently at the owl's cave entrance.

While the owl was still healing, Ding Huan gathered his true energy, transforming his spear into infinite spear rays that slammed toward the giant owl.

Almost the instant Ding Huan launched his spear, the owl sensed the danger—it didn't hesitate, bursting out of the stone cave.

But this was equivalent to delivering its body a second time directly into Ding Huan's spear.

Even if Ding Huan's spear had shattered from this full-force ambush, it still smashed through the owl's neck.

The spear tore through the giant owl's throat, piercing clean through.

"Chiu!" The owl let out a piercing cry, its massive claws still reaching for Ding Huan.

Too bad—the creature had been tricked twice by Ding Huan, and now had less than one percent of its strength; its claws hadn't even reached Ding Huan before being shattered by a single punch.

"Crack!" The sound was clearly audible.

The giant owl, along with Ding Huan's spear, was flung by that punch, crashing into the cave entrance and falling to the ground.

Blood clots continuously poured from the owl's wounds—it was too severely injured; though it desperately wanted to rise and attack Ding Huan, it had no strength left.

Watching Ding Huan approach, the owl's eyes flickered with resentment.

It should've been the one ambushing this human—but instead, it failed to ambush the human, and was ambushed twice in return.

In all its years cultivating in the Kunlun Mountains, this was its first time suffering such a loss—and likely its last.

Why not just rule the Kunlun Mountains peacefully? Why steal from this human?

The owl felt regret—but if given another chance, it likely still couldn't resist seizing those Spirit-Expanding Crystals.

"Have you reached Foundation Establishment?" Ding Huan stopped several meters from the giant owl and asked it.

The owl's eyes flickered with disdain and ignored Ding Huan.

Even in death, it would make this lawless human suffer.

It couldn't move to attack this human—but if the human came near, it would give him a bloody lesson before dying.

Ding Huan had too much experience—he asked the owl from five meters away.

Seeing the owl ignore him, he stopped asking and cleanly slashed out several wind blades.

Sensing the danger, the owl let out another mournful cry—but the wind blades cleanly severed its head.

It ruined its plan to strike Ding Huan before dying.

Ding Huan walked into the owl's cave and found it empty—except for some herbs he didn't recognize, there was nothing else.

He truly didn't understand why the owl had chosen to build its den here—or whether this was even its true den.

Now that the owl was dead, even if this wasn't its den, he had no way to continue searching for its true lair.

Ding Huan suspected this giant owl was very likely the beast described by Cang Beichun as exceeding Level Nine—a ferocious beast so rare it was nearly impossible to encounter.

Even with the vastness of the Kunlun Mountains, it was impossible for two such beasts to exist here.

After confirming the giant owl's den held nothing of value, Ding Huan walked to the massive tree.

The giant owl had hidden this pot inside the tree's hollow trunk—but surely this pot wasn't an ordinary one?

Ding Huan extended his spiritual sense to coil around the pot, then was astonished to find he couldn't move it.

This piqued Ding Huan's interest—he didn't damage the tree hollow, but stepped inside, grabbed the pot, and pulled it out.

The pot wasn't heavy—then why hadn't his spiritual sense moved it just now?

The pot looked no larger than about forty to fifty centimeters in diameter. It had no handle, but three lugs.

Ding Huan carefully examined the pot—it looked entirely ordinary.

But when Ding Huan tried to penetrate the pot with his spiritual sense, he froze—his spiritual sense could not penetrate it at all.

This reminded him of the star-shaped stone in his pocket, whose spiritual sense also refused to penetrate.

This pot before him was certainly no ordinary pot, Ding Huan concluded.

An ordinary pot, his spiritual sense could penetrate with one hundred percent certainty.

Besides, would an ordinary pot be hidden here by this mutated great eagle-owl?

This creature possessed a certain level of intelligence and had cultivated to the level of a demonic beast, capable of distinguishing treasures.

The great eagle-owl may have placed its lair here specifically to guard this pot.

Ding Huan carried the pot to the great eagle-owl's body, slashed out a wind blade, splitting its skull open, and pulled out a green demonic core.

Holding the green demonic core in his hand, Ding Huan felt this was truly a demonic core—even the lowest grade was still a demonic core.

Unlike the demonic cores he had obtained before, this green demonic core radiated an energy far surpassing that of ordinary demonic cores.

He shoved the demonic core into his pocket, picked up the dead great eagle-owl with his other hand, and hurried back.

This great eagle-owl was a low-grade demonic beast—even its corpse was valuable.

Moreover, the meat of such a demonic beast likely contained abundant heavenly and earthly qi.

……

Seeing Ding Huan arrive with the great eagle-owl's corpse, Lao Liu rushed out at once, thrilled.

The eagle-owl's attack had been too fast earlier—he hadn't even seen it clearly.

Such a powerful creature had been slain by Master Huan; it seemed his soul imprint on Master Huan wasn't such a bad deal after all.

Qi Qi Xinyue was also very pleased; seeing the great eagle-owl in Ding Huan's hands, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

She knew well that leaving such a powerful demonic beast in the Kunlun Mountains would make Ding Huan unwilling to leave.

"Xinyue, collect the eagle-owl's talons and primary feathers, and boil the meat. I'll still be cultivating here for a while." Ding Huan tossed the corpse onto the ground.

"By the way, use this pot." Ding Huan handed the pot to Qi Qi Xinyue.

"Lao Liu, go help Xinyue gather firewood and build a stove. We'll be staying here for several days at least." Ding Huan decided to cultivate inside the Blue Star for a while.

He wouldn't leave until he reached the peak of Level Nine.

Lao Liu was now full of energy—he also longed for Ding Huan to leave soon.

Ding Huan had promised that once they left here, they'd return to Luohe City first—and in Luohe City, he'd find a way to grant Lao Liu a spiritual root.

Ding Huan returned to the Blue Star. As soon as he entered, he felt the thick, dense heavenly and earthly qi.

Seeing the Blue Star filled to the brim with Zhan Shen crystals and the ten-meter-long energy vein, Ding Huan was deeply satisfied.

Too bad, this energy vein had been severed by him—it wasn't perfect.

Regardless, with this energy vein and over a hundred thousand Zhan Shen crystals, at least after entering the cosmos, he wouldn't worry about lacking qi for cultivation or starving to death.

After casting the Dust-Removing Spell on himself, Ding Huan sat directly atop the energy vein and began his Zhou Tian circulation.

To Ding Huan's shock, after just one Zhou Tian, his cultivation surged upward.

This…

Ding Huan halted his cultivation, unable to believe it—he reached out and touched the ten-meter-long energy vein with his hand.

Cultivating with this thing was vastly superior to Zhan Shen crystals.

If he had cultivated here from the start, he wouldn't have needed nearly a month to reach Level Nine Gene Cultivator.

What kind of energy vein was this, so powerful?

And if this energy vein hadn't been severed back then, would cultivation have been even better?

(That's all for today's update, friends! Goodnight! Please support with monthly votes!)