Chapter 686: Chapter 686

After selecting the cave dwelling, Qin Sang handed the bone sword and bone spear to the man in grey and the old woman, respectively. He then asked the remaining three for the artifacts they were most adept with.

Without holding back, Qin Sang directly refined the Jiao corpses they had previously hunted, enhancing the power of their artifacts.

If he wanted these people to help him search for beasts, he had to equip them with more means of survival. Only then could they explore wider regions. The Fuhu Sea lay at the very fringe of the area where cultivators from Duyan Island operated. It was a chaotic region. Although they weren’t expected to hunt beasts, scouting for the traces of great demons still posed significant danger.

Fortunately, very few cultivators operated within the Fuhu Sea. In this vast ocean, the chances of encountering others were almost nonexistent, so they didn’t need to be on guard against other immortal cultivators.

By sheer luck, less than a month after arriving in the Fuhu Sea, they helped Qin Sang locate a suitable Crimson Jiao.

With that, he finally completed the collection of nine Jiao spirits. The full power of the Nine-Dragon Heavenly Chariot Talisman was unleashed. The originally jade-tablet-like spirit talisman transformed into a palm-sized jade Jiao, coiled like a living creature, slumbering in Qin Sang’s Qihai.

Anyone unaware of its origin would never suspect this was actually a spirit talisman.

Once activated, a radiant shield formed around Qin Sang, its surface encircled by nine Jiao phantoms. Because five of them were Crimson Jiao spirits, the barrier glowed a fiery red, as if he had donned the legendary Divine Fire Shield of Nine Dragons—wondrous and awe-inspiring.

After its metamorphosis, the talisman’s fully awakened power exceeded Qin Sang’s expectations.

During the chaos between the two regions, Qin Sang had witnessed many Core Formation cultivators fighting and had secretly compared his strength. With the talisman and Sword Qi Thunderclap, his evasion speed was already slightly faster than most late-stage Golden Core cultivators.

Once he broke through to the middle stage of the Core Formation Realm, even late-stage cultivators would be left in the dust.

However, Qin Sang estimated that the talisman’s power had limits. Even if he reached the late stage and combined it with Sword Qi Thunderclap, there was no way he could match the evasion speed of a Spiritual Infant grandmaster.

Among the four great secret talismans of Shangyuan Tranquility Palace, the Inner Vision Primordial Talisman, the Heavenly Blade Talisman and the Nine-Dragon Heavenly Chariot Talisman, each was a treasure at the Core Formation Realm.

The last one was said to be related to the Spiritual Infant Realm, but it was extremely mysterious. Despite many inquiries, Qin Sang had not even learned its name, let alone its effects.

Naturally, the Nine-Dragon Heavenly Chariot Talisman’s consumption of true essence skyrocketed as well, surpassing even the terrifying Ten Directions Yan Luo Banner.

The first time Qin Sang activated the fully complete Nine-Dragon Heavenly Chariot Talisman, he became so exhilarated that he lost his sense of restraint. By the time he realized his true essence was nearly depleted, it was already too late. He almost plunged into the sea and ended up in quite a sorry state.

With his current cultivation, he could only maintain the talisman for a short while before his true essence ran dry. But it was more than enough to escape in a life-or-death situation.

With the talisman guarding him, Qin Sang was finally able to ease the tension that had long weighed on him. Even so, he didn’t dare relax entirely. If he provoked a late-stage Demonic Core Realm great demons, the talisman might not be enough to save him.

Of course, when facing demonic beasts below the late-stage Demonic Core Realm, as long as they weren’t proficient in evasion techniques, Qin Sang could easily handle them. If he couldn’t win, he would simply use them for practice and escape with the talisman if things turned ugly.

Those demonic beasts couldn’t catch him and could only watch helplessly as he fled, consumed with impotent rage.

In fact, the first time he encountered a demonic beast in the Fuhu Sea, this was exactly what Qin Sang did.

It was a middle-stage Demonic Core Realm Fuhu. Fınd the newest release on novel•fire.net

Fuhu was a fish-type demonic beast, resembling an eel, but with a parrot-like beak and eight legs. It looked extremely bizarre.

It was a naturally water-based demonic beast, adept in water-elemental supernatural abilities. Its eight legs moved in pairs, allowing it to unleash four different supernatural abilities simultaneously. These abilities were erratic, unpredictable, and extremely hard to guard against.

Among its four strongest abilities, none included Water Evasion Technique.

In the past, Qin Sang would never have dared provoke such a formidable beast. Now, however, he saw it as an ideal sparring partner.

Once he found that Fuhu, Qin Sang became hooked. Every so often, he would go looking for it, initiate a fierce battle, and then activate his talisman to retreat, returning to his cave dwelling to cultivate.

At first, he had entertained thoughts of killing the beast. But after several bouts, he realized it was nearly impossible. All four of the Fuhu’s abilities were formidable, and when combined, their power was overwhelming.

Even if he risked the destruction of his flying yaksha, he still wasn’t confident.

In the Demonic Sea, one couldn’t rely on brute force alone when hunting beasts.

During several of their fights, once the battle dragged on too long, Qin Sang would notice something strange in the surrounding sea. The disturbance had clearly attracted the attention of other demonic beasts quietly drawing near.

In such cases, Qin Sang had no choice but to retreat.

Even so, he didn’t completely give up on the idea. After several encounters, he had already memorized the Fuhu’s patterns and abilities. He planned to return to Duyan Island sometime soon and gather some allies to hunt the creature together.

However, just as Qin Sang was lost in his dream of hunting beasts, he suddenly discovered that the Fuhu, driven to its limit by his constant harassment, had abandoned its territory and vanished without a trace.

Unwilling to accept this, Qin Sang searched several times, but the Fuhu was nowhere to be found. It had already left its home far behind.

This was merely a minor interlude. Qin Sang’s cultivation journey remained largely unaffected. With the assistance of the old couple and the other three, his progress went remarkably smoothly.

In the blink of an eye, Qin Sang had already spent four full years in Fuhu Sea.

With sharp judgment and swift comings and goings, he had practically become a scourge of Fuhu Sea. Nearly every great demon that revealed its presence had been harassed by him at some point.

Although he dedicated most of his time to cultivation, several more demonic cores had appeared inside Qin Sang’s Thousand-Jin Ring. All of them were from early-stage Demonic Core Realm beasts.

During this period, they encountered danger on multiple occasions.

The man in grey was once spotted by a demonic bird and had his arm savagely bitten off. He barely escaped after detonating his bone sword. The old couple nearly lost their lives to a beast as well, but were fortunately rescued in time by Qin Sang.

Qin Sang himself was no exception.

In one encounter with a middle-stage Demonic Core Realm beast, his prolonged fight happened to draw the attention of a passing late-stage Demonic Core Realm beast.

Startled, Qin Sang immediately activated his secret talisman and fled desperately. The great demon, seeing that Qin Sang’s escape speed was too fast and being drawn instead to the scent of blood from the other beast, eventually gave up pursuit.

From a distance, Qin Sang witnessed a terrifying clash between two great demons. The scene was utterly harrowing. His former opponent was torn apart and devoured by the late-stage Demonic Core beast.

Once he had calmed down, Qin Sang became even more determined to refine the Primordial Unity Ring as soon as possible.

One of the ring’s abilities was its high sensitivity to demonic qi. Within a certain radius, if a great demon approached, the ring would automatically issue a warning.

In the Demonic Sea, this was as good as a divine artifact. With this astra, Qin Sang could detect approaching threats in advance and make preparations, avoiding the repeat of today’s close call.

Moreover, the ring’s greatest function lay in its power to control demonic beasts.

With Qin Sang wielding the yang ring, he could use the yin ring to control a demonic beast at the early stage of the Demonic Core Realm.

Due to the astra’s limited grade, there would be considerable restrictions when using such a beast to fight. Even so, it would still be equivalent to gaining an additional ally whose strength was not inferior to his own on top of his flying yaksha.