Chapter 349: Meng Yahu
Wanli Dragon.
Refining cabin.
The array activated, forming layers of array patterns in midair.
The patterns were gold and red, interweaving and weaving together to form a shape resembling a furnace.
The array reached Nascent Soul-level, but it needed to be anchored in a physical structure to fully exert its power.
When the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit initially crafted this mechanical Wanli Dragon, the resources it had gathered were insufficient.
Although it used its dragon body, it could not create the furnace inside the refining cabin.
The Lava Immortal Palace had guarded the volcano for many years, and its stores accumulated quite a few Nascent Soul-level materials.
However, the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit merely followed the blueprint without any expertise in mechanics or the ability to adapt.
Thus, it could not use alternative materials in place of the standard ones to improve the mechanical design.
Therefore, the refining cabin only had the array but no furnace.
Similar situations existed in many other cabins.
There were both advantages and disadvantages.
If the Wanli Dragon were fully equipped, its mana consumption would be much greater than it was now.
The Wanli Dragon was a Nascent Soul-level mechanical creation and should be powered by a cultivator's Nascent Soul according to standard requirements.
Thus, the Wanli Dragon had a Nascent Soul incubation cabin.
The Nascent Soul, housed in this cabin, would be well cared for while providing the Wanli Dragon with immense mana.
Currently, the Wanli Dragon's incubation cabin was empty.
It relied entirely on the massive amount of Fire Essence stored in the power furnace cabin, which was burned to provide the energy source.
This resulted in an enormous consumption of Fire Essence!
Before departing, Ning Zhuo had specifically purchased a large amount of Fire Essence.
At the beginning, the Wanli Dragon was filled with Fire Essence, and Ning Zhuo also carried a substantial amount of it in his storage belt and storage bags.
Now, nearly sixty percent of the full load had been consumed.
Like now, Ning Zhuo activating the array of the refining cabin also consumed a great deal of Fire Essence.
**Fire Burial Prajna Spirit-Resolving Sutra!**
The flames burned silently, like warm silk lightly dancing in the air.
The flickering flames seemed to perform a silent, elegant dance, warming Ning Zhuo's heart.
A large number of discarded items burned to nothing, leaving only traces of spiritual essence.
The spiritual essence glowed with a pink light, resembling a small group of fireflies.
Buddhist Doctor Meng Yaoyin stood quietly beside Ning Zhuo, motionless, allowing a small portion of the spiritual essence to enter his body—this was Meng Yaoyin's own spiritual essence.
Compared to the total spiritual essence, it was only a very small part.
Ning Zhuo sealed and stored the rest of the spiritual essence for the time being.
The purer the spiritual essence, the better.
For this mixed spiritual essence, Ning Zhuo did not yet know how to use it, so he had to store it first.
Upon inspecting the Buddhist Doctor, Ning Zhuo found that his mother's spiritual essence had increased by less than ten percent, about seven-tenths.
"Better than nothing, I suppose." Ning Zhuo sighed.
A few days ago, he had already performed a cremation, allowing Buddhist Doctor Meng Yaoyin to gain about twenty percent more spiritual essence.
That time, he had cremated the junk items collected by the Fox God during the mountain search.
This time, he had looted many valuable household items after killing the Black Wind Tiger Demon and ransacking the western valley.
After all, the Black Wind Tiger Demon was not a pure beast but a demon, and its subordinates were demon cultivators who had developed intelligence and had certain living standards.
Before, the spiritual essence of Buddhist Doctor Meng Yaoyin had reached its peak during the time in the Lava Immortal Palace when the throne was burned.
According to Ning Zhuo's estimation, Meng Yaoyin's spiritual essence had long reached the Wisdom Spirit stage, but due to Dao wounds, her spiritual essence was constantly being eroded.
The Dao wounds caused constant wear and burden, leaving Buddhist Doctor Meng Yaoyin in a perpetual state of dullness, unable to communicate.
Even Golden-Blooded Battle Ape Dasheng could still speak a few words with Ning Zhuo.
Each time Ning Zhuo collected remnants, he would quickly cremate them, refine their spiritual essence, and increase Buddhist Doctor Meng Yaoyin's power.
The stronger the spiritual essence, the greater the resilience against Dao wounds.
This principle was easy to understand—people with weaker constitutions suffer more severely from the same injuries.
"Mother, I’ve grown up."
"This time, I will definitely heal you!"
Although Buddhist Doctor Meng Yaoyin could not respond, Ning Zhuo would still stand before the Buddhist Doctor's mechanism each time and say a few words.
It was both a comfort to his mother and encouragement for himself.
He put away the Buddhist Doctor Meng Yaoyin, without stopping the array in the refining cabin.
He threw a tiger bone into the furnace formed by the array patterns.
This tiger bone was pitch-black as ink, emitting strong demonic energy at the Golden Core level.
It came from the bones of the Black Wind Tiger Demon!
In life, it had practiced the "Flesh Tank Blood Swallowing Technique," reaching Golden Core-level demonic mastery, making its most valuable parts its demon core, flesh, and soul.
All these were taken by Zhu Xuanji.
Ning Zhuo was only left with this tiger bone.
The tiger bone floated in midair, wrapped in flames, melting quietly until it completely disintegrated.
The spiritual essence that condensed gathered together, forming a spherical shape resembling a tiger's head.
Ning Zhuo took out a spirit-storing box and opened a small crack.
The tiger-head spiritual essence clung to the edge of the spirit-storing box, naturally attracting more spiritual essence.
These bits of spiritual essence drifted out of the box’s crack like fireflies, merging into the tiger-head spiritual essence and causing it to expand rapidly.
Initially, it was only the size of an adult’s fist, but after fully absorbing the spiritual essence, it grew to the size of a human head.
“The quality of this spiritual essence is very high.” Ning Zhuo's eyes glimmered with joy.
**Life Hanging by a Thread!**
He immediately performed the divine ability.
The Tiger Demon spiritual essence, having been refined by Ning Zhuo, was naturally close to him and unable to resist the divine ability, allowing Ning Zhuo to fully control it.
The process was effortless, with no hindrances.
"Father God," the Tiger Demon spiritual essence sent a message to Ning Zhuo through the Life Hanging by a Thread ability.
Ning Zhuo instantly felt the Tiger Demon spiritual essence’s deep sense of affection and reverence for him.
Though spiritual essences have no memories of their past lives, their recognition of their master was determined by their past experiences and personalities.
Just like how Yuan Dasheng regarded Ning Zhuo as his lord, the Tiger Demon saw Ning Zhuo as its Father God.
This indicated that in life, the Black Wind Tiger Demon had a good relationship with its father, the Mountain God, Night Tiger, who had cared for it well.
This information came from Zhu Xuanji, who had interrogated the Black Wind Tiger Demon’s soul after capturing it.
Unfortunately, the Tiger Demon’s soul had been nearly shattered from the ordeal, its value plummeting.
At this moment, the Tiger Demon spiritual essence proactively said, “Father God, please grant me a name.”
From just these two sentences, Ning Zhuo could sense that it was far more intelligent than Dasheng's spiritual essence.
After a moment’s thought, Ning Zhuo said, “Our connection comes from the Meng family, and you possess the Yin Shadow Night talent. You were a tiger in life... You shall be called Meng Yahu (Night Tiger of the Meng Family).”
The Tiger Demon spiritual essence trembled slightly, showing great satisfaction with the name.
It immediately said, “Meng Yahu thanks Father God for the name!”
After exchanging a few more words with Meng Yahu, Ning Zhuo stored it away.
**Spiritual Knowledge Level!**
Ning Zhuo confirmed that the Tiger Demon’s spiritual essence was of a higher grade than Yuan Dasheng’s and by more than one level.
When spiritual essence reaches the Wisdom Spirit stage, it has five sub-levels: Spirit Connection, Spirit Insight, Spiritual Knowledge, Spirit Intuition, and Spirit Ingenuity.
Spirit Connection is Yuan Dasheng’s current level, where it possesses basic intelligence and can communicate with external objects.
Spirit Insight represents deeper wisdom, allowing clearer communication and a nearly flawless understanding of commands. As they say, “Hearts are connected without words,” where even a small hint is understood.
At the Spiritual Knowledge level, the wisdom deepens further.
Not only can it understand meaning, but it can also study and learn, accumulating knowledge and cultivating its own understanding.
This qualitative transformation is significant!
Because cultivating techniques is a form of knowledge itself.
"At the Spiritual Knowledge level, spiritual essence can learn cultivation techniques!" This filled Ning Zhuo with new anticipation.
Meng Yahu had been deceived and manipulated into practicing the Flesh Tank Blood Swallowing demonic technique, which did not align with its natural talent.
“I should create a mechanical body for it, similar to its former tiger-head human form.
Then, carefully select a cultivation technique that complements its Yin Shadow Night talent.”
“If I can achieve this, Meng Yahu's combat strength will be considerable.”
“By then, I’ll have Yuan Dasheng on my left and Meng Yahu on my right…”
Ning Zhuo’s lips curled into a slight smile as he couldn’t help but envision the future.
He had a strong premonition that Yuan Dasheng and Meng Yahu would be his left and right arms, forming his two main forces in the future.
Ning Zhuo left the refining cabin.
The array inside had already been deactivated.
This was a Nascent Soul-level array and consumed a significant amount of Fire Essence.
Although Ning Zhuo knew this, he still had to try.
Familiarizing himself with the limits of these mechanical parts and gathering relevant information was of great value to him.
After this experiment, Ning Zhuo discovered that even without the furnace, just the refining array alone would be sufficient for him for a long time.
The Night Tiger bone just now was at the Golden Core level.
How could Ning Zhuo's Fire Burial Prajna Spirit-Resolving Sutra alone refine it so quickly?
"From now on, I’ll use it to handle Golden Core and Nascent Soul-level materials.”
“As for Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment-level materials, I can manage those myself!”
At this moment, Sun Lingtong was keeping a close watch in the dragon head cabin, so Ning Zhuo had no worries.
He turned and entered the storage cabin.
The storage cabin held a large number of treasures.
Spirit stones were piled up in a heap as tall as a person in one corner of the room.
Among them, the ten thousand middle-grade spirit stones obtained from the Fox God were scattered on the surface.
Most of the spirit stones in this pile were low-grade.
Ning Zhuo’s only supreme-quality ice attribute crystal was always carried with him.
(End of this chapter)