Held by Lin Tian's large hand, Zhang Lingyu seemed to find a sense of security. Her cheeks gradually regained their color. She took a deep breath and said softly, "I'm fine, just remembered something."

"Something from your childhood?" Lin Tian asked.

Zhang Lingyu gently withdrew her hand from Lin Tian's, her face slightly flushed. She nodded, "You guessed it right. I was trained in Taoism by my family from a young age. Back then, I always thought being a Demon Exorcist was a really cool profession, until..."

She paused for a moment, then continued, "You know, in the line of being a Demon Exorcist, you often deal with all sorts of strange things, demons and ghosts, corpses, haunted houses, cemeteries, grave pits — each of these requires tremendous courage."

"When I was nine, it was my first bravery training. I was on the grasslands with my senior uncle, and he took me to see a scene of hungry wolves gnawing on the carrion of animals. At that time, a flock of vultures came to snatch the carcasses, driving the wolves away."

"I still remember the scene vividly — vultures pecking open the belly of the carcass, pulling out black and green intestines. Although later on, I overcame various fears and became a qualified Demon Exorcist, I can never forget that moment."

Zhang Lingyu's voice was somewhat ethereal, not quite afraid, but one could sense that the shadow of childhood still lingers in some corner of her mind.

That was at nine years old, still a little girl unaware of worldly matters, yet having to undergo inhuman training. While other little girls were still being coddled in their parents' arms, Zhang Lingyu was already facing those terrifying scenes, scenes that would make even grown men weak at the knees.

Lin Tian seemed to see a child in a purple dress watching the vultures peck at the carrion, her face filled with fear yet her eyes full of stubbornness.

Zhang Lingyu is a very capable Demon Exorcist, but who knows how much she has sacrificed behind that excellence. Many envy the success and glory of others, but who can bear the toil and tears behind it?

Lin Tian said nothing, only held her hand again. This time, Zhang Lingyu did not withdraw; she could feel all the emotions in Lin Tian's eyes.

"Charlotte, how did you get these Netherworld Crow feathers?" Lin Tian asked curiously.

Charlotte glanced at their clasped hands and said, "Blood Clan has plenty of graveyards..."

"Forget it, stop," Lin Tian waved a hand, interrupting Charlotte. He already knew what Charlotte was about to say; those were real corpses.

Lin Tian continued to look at the next material. It was a piece of snakeskin, a peculiar snakeskin, rolled inside a box. The snakeskin was the slough of a snake, usually white, but the one in the box was a dark blue color, with scales still vivid and lifelike.

This scale, this color, was all too familiar to Lin Tian. He said in surprise, "It's the skin of the Black Water King Snake! Who is so daring to go to its territory to collect snakeskin?"

The place where the snake sheds its skin must be its territory. The Black Water King Snake is most sensitive to its domain. Whoever invades it has to fight to the death, so obtaining the slough of a Black Water King Snake is no easy matter.

"People die for wealth, birds die for food. As long as there are valuable things, naturally, people will take the risk," Charlotte said blandly, seeing through human nature.

Lin Tian slightly shook his head and turned to the third material. It was not a scary thing this time but a smooth jade stone. The jade stone was semi-transparent with red threads inside, somewhat like blood jade at first glance but in reality, it wasn't. Blood jade is even redder than this.

Moreover, blood jade has a sense of death because it is placed in the throat of a corpse for burial. Over time, the dead blood seeps into the jade, turning it into blood jade.

However, the jade stone in the box had a sense of Spiritual Energy. Lin Tian recalled slightly and found its record in the "Shennong Emperor's Medical Scripture."

Dragon Blood Stone, it is said that when a Jiao Long sheds its skin, to get rid of old skin, it rubs its body against stones. During the shedding, the Jiao Long, already fragile, often wears its body to bleeding.

If the blood of the Jiao Long just happens to seep into a peculiar jade stone, the stone will mutate over time and become a Dragon Blood Stone. Since the jade stone inherently contains Spiritual Energy, once it absorbs the blood of the Jiao Long, its Spiritual Energy becomes even denser.

But this is all legend. No one has ever seen a Jiao Long, and its existence is still up for debate. Lin Tian guessed a possibility: it might be a giant snake like the Black Water King Snake shedding its skin, rubbing against a stone, bleeding, and the blood seeping into the jade stone, forming the Dragon Blood Stone.

Such a giant snake as the Black Water King Snake is of the overlord level. Whether it is the snakeskin, scales, gall, or snake blood, all are treasures, especially the snake blood, which is a powerful tonic.

Lin Tian continued to look at the remaining materials — there were flowers, roots, bones, and various strange materials. After familiarizing himself with these, he compared them with the "Shennong Emperor's Medical Scripture" and fully grasped the properties of these materials.

"Lingyu, it's time to set up the Formation," Lin Tian reminded without letting go of Zhang Lingyu's hand.

Zhang Lingyu coquettishly rolled her eyes at him, withdrew her hand once more, and then took out a writing brush from her waist, starting to write and draw around the medicine cauldron.

This time the array arrangement took a long time. Zhang Lingyu wrote, drew, and stuck talismans, and an hour later, she completed setting up a complex array.

"Is it ready?" Lin Tian asked.

Zhang Lingyu nodded and said, "The Soul Suppressing Array has been set up, waiting for the right moment to activate."

"Great, I'll start refining the materials," Lin Tian said loudly. He initially wanted to use purple flames to try refining but then decided against it.

A weapon couldn't withstand the augmentation of fire power, let alone a medicine cauldron. If replaced with a good medicinal cauldron, one like the Shennong Ding, the fire power could truly be used for refining. Moreover, finding the Shennong Ding was also one of his goals.

In the end, combining the four major zombie bloodlines and Cain's bloodline blood, all refined using the Shennong Emperor's recipes, would be complete.

Unable to use purple flames, Lin Tian could only use fuel. Musa is an Alchemist and lacks no fuel. The fuel was put into the furnace and lit; blue flames started to heat the medicine cauldron.

Charlotte and the others watched as Lin Tian began refining, all silently waiting, not disturbing him.

The first material to be refined was the Netherworld Crow feather. Although it seemed like just bird feathers, when Lin Tian threw them into the medicine cauldron, everyone realized how heat-resistant these few feathers were.

Baking heat radiated from the cauldron, indicating the high temperature inside. This state lasted for half an hour. Lin Tian added fuel twice, carefully controlling the fire, maintaining the temperature inside; it couldn't continuously rise or drop.

The requirements for spiritual sense in this task were unimaginably high, but the people in the room were not ordinary; they could feel the temperature being maintained at an extraordinary level, realizing that refining was more complex than they had imagined by a hundredfold.

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