The middle-aged deacon accepted Yuan Ming's waist card with a complex expression, turned back into the room, and then brought out a coarse hand-written journal with a grey-brown beast skin cover.

After taking it, Yuan Ming immediately went to find a place to read through it.

This time, he read even faster, but due to the rich content, it still took him slightly more than two hours to finish reading everything.

In the Second Cave Master's herb-picking journal, he found the sought-after descriptions of the Black Scale Fruit and Yin Marrow Liquid, the former being black fruits that grow on the shaded cliffs of the Ten Thousand Mountains.

The latter was a spinal fluid extracted from specific poisonous insects, both being special spiritual materials used in refining elixirs.

The spiritual medicines and materials recorded in this journal were even rarer than those listed in the "Herborist", naturally ranking a level higher and greatly enriching Yuan Ming's knowledge in this area.

Having returned the journal, he left the Gui Cang Pavilion under the puzzled gaze and sighs of the middle-aged deacon.

By coincidence, on his way back to the Fire Refining Hall, Yuan Ming saw a familiar figure from afar – it was Wulu.

The latter also noticed him, didn't avoid him, and instead, walked over proactively.

"Brother Yuan, long time no see," Wulu greeted with a fist and palm salute, a smile on his face.

"Brother Wulu, what brings you over here?" Yuan Ming looked around and did not see Kun Tu.

"Oh, I've just returned from a task and am about to go back to the Beast Taming Hall. Shall we walk together?" Wulu offered with a smile.

Yuan Ming nodded, and the two of them walked side by side towards the direction of the Fire Refining Hall and the Beast Taming Hall.

"Speaking of which, I really envy you, Brother Yuan. You have such good luck to be appreciated by the Three Cave Masters," Wulu initiated the conversation.

"Compared to me, you're actually more intriguing. How did you suddenly enter the Biluo Cave?" Yuan Ming chuckled, dodging the question, and instead, he turned the topic back to the other person.

The last time he saw Wulu, the man was following Kun Tu. There were some things he was not willing to say or couldn't say.

Wulu did not conceal anything, candidly admitting, "Kun Tu appreciates me quite a bit. After he became an Inner Sect Disciple, he used his power to take me as a servant, following by his side as a lackey."

Hearing the term "lackey", Yuan Ming couldn't help but laugh to himself.

"Just now, you mentioned returning from a task, but... it seems to me that servants shouldn't be able to take on tasks from the Execution Hall, right?" Yuan Ming inquired, puzzled.

At this question, Wulu visibly hesitated for a moment.

He looked around and, finding no one else in sight, leaned in closer to Yuan Ming.

Yuan Ming found this sudden act somewhat strange but did not shy away, instead leaning in to listen.

"This isn't a task from the Execution Hall, it's from the Beast Slave Hall," Wulu said, his voice lowered.

A task from the Beast Slave Hall?

Yuan Ming was first puzzled, but then he quickly understood.

"You mean the task of capturing Wild Men?" Yuan Ming asked.

"You know about it?" Wulu said, surprised.

"Heh, Brother Wulu, have you forgotten how we became Fur Beast Slaves?" Yuan Ming chuckled.

Wulu slapped his forehead, as realization dawned on him, "I almost forgot, we were indeed captured along with the Wild Men, weren't we? Speaking of which, it seems that we're the only two still alive from those who came together."

Hearing these words, Yuan Ming felt something was amiss, yet he couldn't immediately pinpoint what it was.

"No, there's also the fellow with Dual Spirit Roots. If I'm not wrong, his name is Yiguo?" Yuan Ming remarked.

"Right, there's also him... but his circumstances are very different from ours; he is probably an Inner Sect Disciple by now," Wulu stated with a hint of melancholy.

"Why would you take on a task from the Beast Slave Hall?" Yuan Ming asked.

He hadn't forgotten that Silver Cat had asked him to find out the reason why Biluo Cave was capturing Wild Men.

"Kun Tu assigned it, saying he could find a way to make me a Registered Disciple," Wulu explained.

"He truly values you," Yuan Ming affirmed.

"Just raising a useful dog," Wulu said with a self-deprecating smile.

"I've always been curious, why do they capture these Wild Men?" Yuan Ming asked tentatively.

Wulu took a deep look at Yuan Ming, seeming to hesitate before asking, "Isn't it to select Beast Slaves?"

"But those Wild Men without a Spirit Root, there was no need to kill them all, was there?" Yuan Ming pressed.

"That, I don't know," Wulu shook his head.

After saying that, he looked at Yuan Ming again with a smile, "If you really want to figure it out, you might as well take on a task from the Beast Slave Hall. The rewards are quite generous."

"I was just asking out of curiosity; I don't have that much time right now," Yuan Ming chuckled.

As they spoke, the two had reached the foot of the mountain. They bid each other farewell and went their separate ways towards the two different peaks.

...

In the following days, Yuan Ming began to practice the Wood Prison Technique and the Wood Concealment Skill diligently.

The first layer of Moonlight Technique was completed, and with the enhancement of his powerful Divine Soul, he had initially mastered two Spells in just half a month.

At night, the cold moonlight shone through the window.

Yuan Ming circulated the Moonlight Technique, slowly ended his cultivation, and opened his eyes.

Since the first layer of the Moonlight Technique was perfected, the growth of Soul Power had significantly slowed down, and in the past two days, it had completely stopped.

"It seems that the cultivation of the Moonlight Technique has reached a bottleneck. The four spiritual materials that the silver cat asked me to find, could they be the key to breaking through the bottleneck? I must gather them as soon as possible," he murmured to himself.

Yuan Ming didn't get up but cultivated to check the state of his Mana.

Ever since he identified the attribute issue with the Nine Elements Technique, he sought out areas lush with vegetation for his daily practice. His cultivation speed returned to its former state, his Mana progressed rapidly, and he was not far from the sixth layer of Qi Refining.

Capturing a Fierce Beast, as opposed to slaying one, involved incomparable difficulty and even potential unexpected situations. Although Yuan Ming had many methods at his disposal, being at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer placed him slightly lower among the Registered Disciples, and it would be best to advance to the sixth-tier Qi Refining before attempting it.

With the extraordinarily fast cultivation speed of the Nine Elements Technique, another month would suffice to reach the sixth-tier Qi Refining. However, all preparations for taming beasts were already made, and waiting another month would be an excessive waste of time.

Yuan Ming gritted his teeth in his mind, took out a watery Immortal Peach, which was the same red peach he had picked from Mist Island.

He had already inquired clearly that this peach was known as a Red Core Spirit Peach, a rather rare type of Strengthening and Nourishing Spirit Fruit. Judging by its appearance, it was almost a hundred years old, suitable for refining into elixir or could be consumed directly like meat Ganoderma.

Given his current status and means, he naturally had neither the channels nor the capital to refine it into an elixir.

Yuan Ming took a bite of the peach, swallowing it in just a few bites.

The flesh soon turned into a liquid that flowed into his stomach, and a copious amount of Spiritual Power began circulating throughout his body.

Yuan Ming closed his eyes and circulated the Nine Elements Technique to absorb this Spiritual Power, causing fluctuations in his Mana to gradually rise.

A day and a night passed quickly.

Yuan Ming's aura surged dramatically, and his clothes fluttered without wind, the surrounding air also moved and shook before finally returning to calm.

He opened his eyes and a smile graced his lips.

The nearly hundred-year-old Red Core Spirit Peach indeed had a potent medicinal strength. Even without being refined into an elixir, its abundant Spiritual Energy greatly pleased him and allowed him to break through to the sixth-tier Qi Refining as he wished.

With this, his confidence and ability to protect himself in taming a spirit beast had both increased.

The next day, Yuan Ming greeted Fang Ge and then applied for the Sect-leaving token, leaving Biluo Cave.

Disciples of Biluo Cave who wish to tame their own spirit beasts usually head deep into the Ten Thousand Mountains, where Fierce Beasts are numerous, to find suitable targets.

However, since the depths of the Ten Thousand Mountains are vast, finding a suitable spirit beast depends on luck. Many search for months without finding their desired beast, which is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive but also fraught with immense danger.

For this reason, most disciples buy their spirit beasts from the Beast Taming Hall rather than seeking them out on their own.

Yet, Yuan Ming was not concerned about this. When he had previously sought advice from the Three Cave Masters on the art of taming beasts, he had already decided where to look for his quarry - Mist Island.

The island was teeming with strange Fierce Beasts, and capturing any one of them would yield a fine spirit beast.

The only trouble was the black aquatic monster surrounding the island. However, he was now different from before and had prepared some countermeasures.

Yuan Ming left the Sect and quickly arrived at the shores of Qianlu Lake.

Instead of binding a raft again, he waved his hand towards the lake, and a small boat appeared and settled on the water's surface.

The boat, crafted by a disciple skilled in handiwork within the Sect, was much faster than his previous raft on the water.

He leapt aboard, paddled the oars, and headed in the direction of Mist Island.

After two hours, Yuan Ming reached an area with particularly dense mist.

Using his memory and lifting the incense burner several times to search from the sky, he eventually found Mist Island again.

This time Yuan Ming was lucky, not encountering the black aquatic monster. However, to be safe, he still packed away the boat from a distance and flew directly onto the island with the incense burner, landing within a purple forest.

"This is not the Black Pine Forest..." he was rather disappointed.

Impressed by the effectiveness of the Red Core Spirit Peach, he initially hoped to land from the side of the Black Pine Forest and pluck all the Spiritual Peaches there. It seemed now that would not be possible.

He would look for that fruit tree once he finished handling his affairs.

Yuan Ming surveyed his surroundings, looking at the nearby Purple Trees. Their leaves were palm-shaped, resembling maple leaves, and emitted a faint, pleasant fragrance.

In the time since, he had brushed up on a lot of knowledge about the Ten Thousand Mountains, including the trees and vegetation. However, these purple maple trees had not appeared in the Classics, nor had the earlier Black Pine Trees.

Yuan Ming looked at the other plants, which were also unfamiliar.

"This island is quite peculiar. Its vegetation seems to be completely separate from that of Ten Thousand Mountains. Could it be due to being surrounded by water on all sides?" He pondered quietly to himself.

Yuan Ming didn't immediately venture deeper into the island but first found a safe place in the maple forest to completely restore his Mana before setting off into the island.

It seemed that the Purple Maple Forest was devoid of Fierce Beasts. He walked out of the forest without any danger approaching.

He continued forward, and the fog ahead thinned out, revealing a vast, open swamp. With his vision, he could see more than ten zhang away.

The swamp was filled with dark green mud, and looking around, there were lush water plants everywhere, with occasional trees standing tall, saturating the air with a rotting smell.

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