NOVEL WEB Ch. 19
Chapter 19: The Mysterious Spirit Lake
As golden light surged, the crude cave residence gradually revealed the figures of a man and a dog.
"You can open your eyes now. Remember, without my permission, you're not allowed to bark unless there's an enemy."
With that said, Chen Beiwu lifted the blindfold. Iron Egg immediately dashed around the cave excitedly but never let out a single bark.
"Very good. Now I need to cultivate, and you're in charge of standing guard."
After giving Iron Egg his instructions, Chen Beiwu took out a snake gallbladder as green as jade and a piece of Black Gold Ginseng from his backpack.
Not knowing whether boiling the snake gall would diminish its effects, Chen Beiwu cautiously used his spiritual power to cleanse it slightly. After confirming no parasites remained, he directly swallowed it.
In an instant, a strong, fishy stench filled Chen Beiwu's mouth.
"Ugh!"
He felt slightly nauseated and quickly sliced off a piece of Black Gold Ginseng, placed it into his mouth, and used his tongue to press the ginseng slice against his palate, circulating spiritual power to refine it.
As Chen Beiwu circulated the Ten Thousand Beasts Manual for one full cycle, the medicinal power of the snake gall and ginseng slice began to release.
Waves of warm spiritual energy first traveled down his throat into his dantian, then transformed into a torrential flow of spiritual energy that swiftly fused into his flesh, bones, organs, and meridians.
"This snake gall is really potent. No wonder the Verdant Scale Serpent went extinct."
Two hours later, Chen Beiwu exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, stretched out his arms, and loosened his slightly numb body.
From just refining one snake gall and a slice of ginseng, his entire body brimmed with power, and even the spiritual power within his dantian had become half a grade purer than before.
Don’t underestimate that half grade. Refining spiritual power requires time and accumulation—especially since Chen Beiwu’s spiritual power purity had already exceeded that of cultivators in the same stage.
Without external assistance, he would have needed to painstakingly cultivate the Ten Thousand Beasts Manual for at least half a month to achieve this effect. Now, it had only taken two hours. This was the power of rare spiritual treasures.
"No wonder the cultivation clans in Yuan-Kong County can produce geniuses generation after generation. If I could chew ginseng slices and swallow snake galls every day, I wouldn't even need to contract a Companion Beast. In a month or two, I’d break through to the Eighth Level of Qi Refining." Chen Beiwu sighed inwardly.
The next moment, a dog head suddenly appeared before his eyes.
Chen Beiwu asked curiously, "What, you want to eat too?"
Iron Egg nodded furiously, almost slinging drool onto Chen Beiwu.
"Simple. If you want to eat, you have to work. Don’t say I bully you—if you can help me find this kind of snake, we’ll split the spoils fifty-fifty. This is the down payment." Chen Beiwu placed the Verdant Scale Serpent corpse in front of Iron Egg.
Hearing this, Iron Egg perked up.
It first chewed up the Verdant Scale Serpent corpse like it was spicy jerky, then spat out a faint golden flame that transformed into a crude star map.
Three large sky-blue points of light within the star map were especially eye-catching, while the rest were densely packed green dots.
Chen Beiwu pulled out his map and saw that those three light points marked the territories of Second-Tier Spirit Beasts he hadn't dared explore before.
"Well? Can you find the Verdant Scale again?" he asked expectantly.
Iron Egg furrowed its brows for a moment, then quickly ran out of the cave.
Seeing this, Chen Beiwu carefully packed away the Black Gold Ginseng and followed behind Iron Egg.
They traversed rugged mountain paths and crossed lofty cliffs. As Iron Egg led him deeper into the mountains, Chen Beiwu noticed the surrounding scenery growing more and more secluded. From time to time, he heard strange cries from unknown spirit beasts in the distance.
But Iron Egg did not stop, forging ahead toward the mountain depths with clear intent.
An hour later, a thick mist like white silk shrouded the land, completely obscuring the road ahead of Chen Beiwu.
"Are you sure you didn’t take the wrong path?" He looked down at Iron Egg, feeling something was off.
Iron Egg shook its head, wrapped its tail around Chen Beiwu’s leg, and cautiously stepped into the mist.
After circling blindly in the dense fog for a while, Chen Beiwu's view suddenly cleared.
A sapphire-blue lake gleamed like a gemstone nestled between two mountains, with spiritual energy inside it so intense it was staggering.
Mist infused with spiritual energy constantly rose into the air, turning the lake surface into a hazy immortal realm. Even more astonishingly, the mist then funneled back into the lake, leaving behind layers of fog that served as a protective barrier.
‘There’s actually a Spirit Lake hidden here.’
Chen Beiwu halted, feeling as if he’d entered a dangerous zone.
A hidden lake deep in the mountains wasn’t surprising, but this Spirit Lake was different.
Naturally formed lakes with spiritual veins wouldn’t lock in spiritual energy like this.
The way the spiritual mist condensed without dispersing indicated that a cultivator had set up a spirit-gathering formation here.
Array masters vary in strength, but to lay a formation that could lock down the spiritual energy of an entire lake, the cultivator had to be at least a Second-Tier Array Master—someone far beyond his capability to provoke.
‘Is Iron Egg really this unreliable?’ Chen Beiwu readied his spiritual power to flee.
For a dog to track a snake and end up at someone’s spirit fish breeding lake… in a way, Iron Egg was a navigation genius.
The problem was, Chen Beiwu was too weak now. Even if he found a Spirit Lake, it had nothing to do with him—worse, it could be fatal.
Iron Egg remained oblivious to Chen Beiwu's thoughts, shaking its head excitedly as if waiting for its master's praise.
Just as he channeled half the power of the Gate of Ten Directions of Chaos, Chen Beiwu suddenly sensed something was off.
If someone really guarded this Spirit Lake, he and Iron Egg would never have made it this deep into the formation without being noticed. The moment they touched the mist, they’d have been discovered.
After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Beiwu broke off a tree branch and tossed it toward the lake.
"Crack-crackle!"
The branch got swallowed by the mist midair and quickly fell, drawing several spirit fish to leap from the water in a scramble.
Seeing this scene, Chen Beiwu was not alarmed but overjoyed.
‘It really is unclaimed land!’
An array set by an array master wasn’t a perpetual motion machine.
If left unmaintained for a short while, the array could still run by absorbing ambient spiritual energy.
But if left alone too long, shifts in the mountain terrain would cause flaws to appear, leaking its presence to the outside world and even disabling its defenses.
Just then, a flash of violet light swept across the center island of the Spirit Lake.
It was a giant beast with the head of a lion and tiger, standing two zhang tall at the shoulder.
At that moment, it lowered its head and pressed its spiral horn into the water.
"Crackle!"
With rampant lightning bursting forth, numerous spirit fish floated to the surface, their eyes rolled back.
[Species]: Cang Thunder Tiger
[Attribute]: Lightning
[Bloodline]: Second-Tier High Grade (Spirit Beast)
[Cultivation Years]: Over 50, under 499 (Lesser Beast)
[Talents]: Command Lightning (Control Thunder), Thunder Ghoul (Can transform devoured enemies into thunder puppet ghouls)
Recalling the details of this spirit beast, Chen Beiwu’s pupils shrank, and a sudden thought popped into his mind.
‘The owner of this Spirit Lake is still missing… could it have been killed by the Cang Thunder Tiger?’
‘Luckily, I was cautious enough to activate the power of the Gate of Ten Directions of Chaos in advance!’
As faint golden light shimmered, Chen Beiwu and Iron Egg instantly vanished from their spot.
At the same time, the Cang Thunder Tiger twitched its nose and abruptly looked toward where Chen Beiwu had stood moments ago, a hint of human-like confusion flashing in its eyes.
Was it just an illusion?