noffsinger Chapter 40 Inferior
Chapter 40 Inferior
Behind the counter sat an old man with a goatee. He raised his eyelids to look Chen Bai up and down, then slowly put the spirit stones into a drawer and took out a bronze token from the drawer and handed it over.
"Number 7, turn left and go inside. It's the third room."
You all know the rules, right?
Don't mess with the formations inside the cave. If you're going to perform a spell, then perform the spell; don't take it out on the formations. You'll have to pay for any damage.
Chen Bai accepted the token, thanked him, and walked straight inside.
The seventh cave of the Bing character is a stone chamber about three zhang square, with its four walls made of thick lapis lazuli and its surface engraved with dense reinforcing array patterns.
The ground was covered with a layer of fine gravel, which made a rustling sound when stepped on.
In the very center of the cave stood three humanoid iron golems, about the size of real people, cast entirely from refined iron, their surfaces covered with mottled marks from swords and knives, having been used by countless cultivators for practice.
Chen Bai closed the stone door of the cave and inserted the token into the groove behind the door.
With a soft hum, the array patterns on all four walls simultaneously lit up with a faint blue light before disappearing.
The reinforcement array has been activated.
Chen Bai flipped his hand and took out two demon beast essences from his pouch, then arranged them into two small wooden boxes.
Sealed inside the wooden box are the two strands of spiritual fire needed for this Crimson Flame Spirit-Guiding Technique.
Chen Bai had already mastered the method of refining beast spirits.
Now, for him, who has cultivated spiritual awareness, inserting a spirit-controlling talisman into the essence of that poisonous leech in the swamp is a piece of cake.
The leech's essence was dark green, thin as a rope, with sharp mouthparts, and its appearance was exactly the same as when it was alive.
The moment the talisman entered its body, it violently curled up and twisted, instinctively emitting waves of resistance.
With Chen Bai's current strength, there was no need for the previous complicated process. He simply used his spiritual sense to forcefully suppress it. Before it could struggle for long, it wisely calmed down, turning into a series of slight tremors, and then accepted the talisman's integration into its body.
After completely taming it, Chen Bai continued to cast spells and incantations into it, taking out the wisp of spiritual fire [Mysterious Yin Cold Flame] and repeatedly forging its form.
It took a full half-incense stick's time to refine it completely into a dark cyan beast spirit, with faint cyan flames flowing over its body. It hovered motionless in mid-air, exuding a docile and dull aura.
Following the same method, Chen Bai took a wisp of spiritual fire he had just purchased and began to refine the essence of the Jade Horned Antelope.
Not long after.
Two beast spirits floated side by side in front of him, their bodies shimmering with spiritual light.
Chen Bai examined it for a moment, then his brows furrowed slightly.
These two spirit beasts are still somewhat inferior to Spirit Crow Xiao Liu.
Their eyes were too dull.
Although Xiao Liu is not very intelligent, he at least has some of the liveliness of a living creature. He can respond to his commands on his own initiative and even occasionally exhibit some behaviors similar to being affectionate.
These two beast spirits were much better than the two they had been refined the first time, but they were still like two puppets that followed each other step by step.
"They lack intelligence and can only be commanded, not act independently." Chen Bai sighed and put the two beast spirits into his dantian.
He stood in the center of the cave, first stretching his muscles and bones, feeling the smoothness of the spiritual energy flowing through his body.
Then he took out the bag of refined grass seeds from the pouch and pinched five or six seeds into his palm.
The first Taoist technique to be practiced is the binding spell of binding grass.
Chen Bai took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on the iron man about three zhang away.
With a sudden flick of his wrist, five or six grass seeds flew out of his hand, tracing several barely perceptible arcs in the air as they flew toward the Iron Man.
At the same time, he chanted a spell.
The incantation is short, consisting of only a few syllables.
But with each syllable he uttered, one could feel a slight tremor in his dantian, and a surge of spiritual energy was injected into the incantation along with the vibration of his voice, creating a strange resonance.
In the blink of an eye.
Those few grass seeds, still flying in mid-air, suddenly burst into a blinding green light, as if they had been ignited by something.
Immediately afterward, the grass seeds began to grow and expand rapidly before even hitting the ground—
First, the seed coat cracks open, and tender shoots emerge. Then, the shoots grow into thin vines at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye. The thin vines then quickly thicken and lengthen, intertwining and coiling in the air, like several green pythons simultaneously pouncing on their prey.
"Hiss hiss hiss—"
Vines wrapped around the iron man, producing a dull thud as leather rubbed against metal.
The vines were as thick as a thumb, covered with fine barbs. Once they stuck to the iron man's surface, they hooked on tightly and then wrapped around him layer by layer.
In less than a breath, the Iron Man was tightly bound from chest to knees seven or eight times, and the vines continued to tighten, making the Iron Man creak and groan like metal.
Chen Bai stepped forward and reached out to tug at one of the vines.
The vines were extremely resilient; it took him three or four tenths of his strength to break one of them in half. A few drops of greenish sap seeped from the break, emitting a unique, slightly bitter scent of grass and wood.
"good."
Chen Bai released his grip with satisfaction.
This lower-level Daoist technique, driven by fetal breathing, is significantly stronger than before, both in terms of its activation speed and the resilience of its vines.
In actual combat, if you can bind your opponent for even a breath or two, it's enough for him to deliver a fatal blow.
He waited for a while, and the vital energy in the vines was exhausted. The tightly wrapped vines quickly withered and turned yellow, falling off the iron man and turning into a pile of grayish-brown withered vine fragments on the ground.
Chen Bai took out a few more grass seeds from his bag. This time, he wanted to test the hit rate against moving targets.
There are several mechanisms on the walls of the cave that control the puppet beasts.
Chen Bai walked to the wall and turned one of the levers.
The two iron golem beasts in the corner instantly came to life—
Those were two iron dogs, their four hooves connected by joints. Although they moved somewhat stiffly, they were not slow.
Chen Bai retreated to the center of the cave, flicked his wrist, and the grass seeds flew out again.
This time, things didn't go as smoothly as before.
As the first handful of grass seeds were scattered, the two iron dogs happened to separate to the left and right, and the vines missed their target in the air and became entangled on the ground.
The second time, it managed to entangle the hind leg of an iron dog, but the iron dog's forward momentum was too great, and it snapped the vine off at the base.
It wasn't until the third handful of grass seeds that Chen Bai figured out the movement pattern of the iron dogs, and by anticipating their movements by half a body length, he was able to firmly bind one of them.
"The hit rate is probably just over 50%, and you have to catch people off guard."
Chen Bai silently memorized the number.
The advantages of the Grass Binding Spell are its fast casting speed and strong binding force, but its disadvantage is that the grass seeds do not fly fast enough, making it difficult to accurately hit opponents who are agile or move quickly.