At the summit of West Mountain, a seemingly ordinary large tree, a Little Tree Spirit sped towards it—none other than Cao Li Heng.

He anxiously waited there, and a moment later, a group of eight Little Tree Spirits emerged from a tree hollow below the ordinary tree, led by his sister, Cao Li Kuang.

"Sister, have you found any survivors?"

Cao Li Heng asked eagerly. Since the last Grass and Wood Demon Soldiers test ended, over ten days had passed. This time, his sister applied for support from the superior branch of the Divine Temple, inviting several highly respected and powerful Tree Spirit experts to investigate the Grass and Wood Zombie case and search for the missing Little Demon.

Cao Li Kuang shook her head, didn't elaborate much, just formally thanked the other Little Tree Spirits and sent them off with expensive gifts, before sighing: "It's futile, these short-sighted old fools, they actually want to abandon this place."

"What! Abandon!"

Cao Li Heng was shocked, "This is Grandpa Tree's branch of the Divine Temple! How can they just abandon it like that."

"Shut up, fool! Others might not know, but you and I do. For hundreds of years, Grandpa Tree has been asleep, and its grand branch at the foot of West Mountain is gradually withering. No matter the sacrifice, we can only achieve shallow awakening, deep communication is no longer possible."

"If it were only this, we could still barely support it, but I've already received news - the human city Yun Ding is indeed preparing to conquer Great Snow Mountain. The previous rumors of expanding territories by three thousand miles were all false. We are only two thousand miles from Great Snow Mountain here, once war breaks out, peace cannot be had."

"Originally, I wanted to raise Xiong Lianhua, the Barbaric Ancient Bear, until it matured, then sacrifice it to Grandpa Tree's branch. But I've been so unlucky; a seemingly ordinary test, meant to reassure it, was messed up like this!"

"Sister, you actually want to sacrifice our benefactor!" Cao Li Heng was utterly shocked.

"Why? Is it not allowed! I am now the clan leader of the West Mountain Ancient Tree Companions, and you, gallivanting freely outside, do you not know how severe the situation in our clan is? We have gone thirty whole years without a Ninth-Grade Companion Tree Spirit being born. The Ancient Tree Mother simply doesn't respond to our prayers and calls. What do you want me to do?"

"Only the Ancient Blood Demon Spirit can revive the Ancient Tree!"

"But—"

"No buts, Xiong Lianhua is either extremely unlucky or has sensed something. Even that ox and pig have disappeared together, and with the maze-like underground tree roots of West Mountain, plus the rampant Grass and Wood Zombies, it's tough to find them!"

"Let's drop the matter, don't complicate things further. Focus on cultivation, once war starts, I can't look after you. I must go to Great Snow Mountain to see if I can buy some Ancient Blood from Snow Mountain Great Ape King. If we want to bring our West Mountain Companion Tree Spirit Clan into the war chariot, we need to offer some benefits!"

"But, sister, earlier I truly found two human cultivator spies. They are likely still lurking in this area. If we catch them to offer to the Ancient Tree, wouldn't it be great?"

"Don't be foolish, how much time has passed? The Tree Spirit Elders I invited this time have confirmed already, within three hundred miles, for half a month, there's been no trace of humans, nor signs of those three demons—bear, ox, and pig. Do you not believe this?"

"I—I believe." Cao Li Heng seemingly resigned himself, while Cao Li Kuang swiftly vanished into the boundless vegetation.

——

At the same time, deep underground in West Mountain, inside a Profound Iron Jar, Niu Aihua was idly counting the hairs on his cowhide, while Pork Belly was stretching its tongue to lick at the honey that might have once existed, but in reality, no longer did.

Above them, the mouth of the jar was covered by a thick Profound Iron Plate that neither could move no matter what.

If it weren't for the damaged edge of the jar still allowing air to flow in, they would probably have just a few days before suffocating to death.

"Big brother, do you think the third one is still alive? If still alive, where could it be!"

Pork Belly couldn't resist asking for the 1239th time.

And Niu Aihua also answered for the 1239th time, "I don't guess, it's meaningless, you might as well guess how long I can live?"

"I definitely won't outlive you, big brother, when the time comes, you should go ahead and eat me, I don't have any hope left." Pork Belly couldn't taste honey and could only play dead on the ground.

Niu Aihua snorted, too lazy to respond, only Pork Belly continued to complain.

"Ah, honey truly is delicious, big brother, there must have been a lot of honey here before, isn't it so stingy of the third one to leave us just a little?"

"But the third one had it tough too, now I finally understand, this is definitely a trap. Who would set up such an expensive Profound Iron trap here? It couldn't be those Little Tree Spirits, could it, big brother? I reckon it's unlikely to be any other Great Demon, could it be the Human Race Cultivators?"

Pork Belly jumped up as if he had found a blind spot, bouncing excitedly, "Big brother, I'm really so smart, I've discovered this frightening truth, yes, this Profound Iron Jar is a trap. Below could be the secret base dug out by the evil Human Race Cultivators, they want to hide soldiers here! We, we—Big brother, why aren't you speaking?"

"I guessed it long ago!" Niu Aihua said gloomily.

Pork Belly fell into silence too. If there really was a secret base of evil Human Race Cultivators below, did Xiong Lianhua still have a chance at being alive?

"We must avenge it, but first, we must survive. Second brother, starting today, you and I take turns to grind at that Profound Iron with our horns and tusks. Third brother is gone; we must inherit its will; we cannot tarnish the name of the West Mountain Three Heroes."

Niu Aihua said with determination. Living for fifty years, only now he feels like an idiot. If only he were smarter earlier, stronger, could he have brutally injured and left Second Brother unconscious? Could he have watched Third Brother go to its death alone?

From this moment on, I will rise!

Third Brother, please bless me with your spirit.

Niu Aihua thought devoutly, but, that's not enough yet.

"I must change my name to declare my resolve. I don't want to be the Niu Aihua who loves beauty and dallies with the wind and dust anymore; I shall be Niu Dajiao of great strength!"

"Great, big brother, I will join you, I won't be called Pork Belly anymore, I'll be called Pig Iron Beak, the best at digging!"

"And what about Third Brother, let's call it the fiercest Bear's Claw?"

"Oh, second brother, I hate to say it, but your language skills are so lacking, and do you think Third Brother is fierce? I'd say it should be the cunning Bear's Claw Fang!"

The two demons of ox and pig, after speaking, fell into silence once more, even losing the desire for their usual banter and playfulness.

The real world is simply too harsh.

Third Brother, you died so tragically!

——

Wang Wu has really been living it up these days.

Every day, he eats until he's full, then sleeps, and after waking up, he eats again. And without exception, all the food he eats is of the ninth grade or above, ranging from spirit fruits to spirit grass, to all sorts of strange and peculiar Human Race foods like smoked meat, roasted meat, jerky, meat sauce, spirit rice, spirit fish, and spirit wine. It's incredibly abundant!

Those two Human Race Cultivators are supposed to be on duty here, so they prepared a lot of very good food.

Enough for them to eat for three to five years, and now it's all going cheap for Wang Wu.

Of course, he didn't eat randomly. Instead, he meticulously crafted a plan.

Which is, every three days, he indulges in a feast, each time striving to accumulate 2,500 points of spiritual qi, which is immediately used for upgrading basic attributes, and the resulting satiety of at least 5,000+ points is used to run a poison pit dungeon.

Then, each time he can experience the three-phase transformation of mixed toxins.

After all the hassle, there's a period of extreme weakness, and after three days of rest, he resumes the vigorous feasting and drinking.

In summary, this is a highly efficient dungeon running plan.

He then ran it four times straight, taking twelve days.

In total, he accumulated 10,000 points of spiritual qi and 24,000+ satiety points.

A great harvest.

Of the four poison pit dungeon runs, they collectively provided him with six points of Demon King Level Poison Resistance, currently at 13/100.

It seems a bit small, yes, Wang Wu thinks so too.

But on the upside, his negative resistance increases exponentially.

Back then, the youth only needed three drops of Demon King-level poison to inflict 1,500 points of poison damage per second on him.

And now,

the first time he ran the poison pit dungeon, he simply did it shower-style.

The second time, he was forced to adopt a bathing method.

The third time, he already had to start with a small amount of oral intake.

By the fourth time, he could only switch to chugging mode.

Then there was nothing left.

The toxin concentration in the big poison pit dungeon dropped significantly.

It dropped to a level that Wang Wu couldn't believe.

But that's the truth, all three Demon King-level toxins and their precedent sequences he has completely maxed out.

Yes, completely maxed out!

Just the special growth level alone gained 60%, starting from zero, and according to the previous pattern, every time it reaches 100%, he'll gain 1% in bloodline evolution level.

The bloodline evolution level, however, increased a bit slower, giving him only 0.5% over four runs, reaching a total of 37.6%

But still, it seems a bit lackluster.

Because even with this kind of poison resistance brushing, he currently only has 13 points of Demon King-level poison resistance, a far cry from the perfect level of 100 points of Demon King-level poison resistance.

This makes him filled with a deep sense of awe towards this Cultivation Realm.

Perhaps there are more terrifying, more complex, higher-sequence toxins.

Currently, what he's encountered are basically natural, naturally formed toxins, so surely there will be man-made synthesized toxins, such as those concocted by specialized venomous Cultivation Sects, etc.

Moreover, the Demon King Level certainly isn't the pinnacle. Above it are the Thousand-Year Great Demons and Ten-thousand-year-old Demons.

The road ahead is long and arduous.

And apart from the toxin resistance gains, his other gain came from the spiritual qi point allocation.

Previously, he had already raised his basic defense to 60 points, which counts as his core attribute and is of the highest priority.

Then, it should be the turn of the bloodline talents.

Passive Concealment, Self-Healing, and Danger Perception, these three bloodline talents now require 2,500 points of spiritual qi each to level up, which is a staggering amount.

And Heart of the Earth is even more exorbitant, requiring 5,000 points of spiritual qi to level up.

After a serious study, mainly analyzing those foods, Wang Wu ultimately decided to forgo upgrading Heart of the Earth.

The reason is simple, most of these foods are ninth-grade foods, with only a small amount of spirit wine being eighth-grade.

This means he needs to increase his satiety to at least 10,000+, just to barely gather 5,000 points of spiritual qi, which is frankly too harsh a condition.

Moreover, comparatively speaking, the first three talents are currently the most worth upgrading.

So during these 12 days, all accumulated spiritual qi was used without hesitation to enhance Passive Concealment.

A flurry of upgrades later, he reached Level 14 Passive Concealment.

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