The herb glowed with a golden light, and its whole body was covered with a faint dark - green sap. Presumably, it was because it had stayed inside the Purple - Gold Roc for a long time.
Zhang Tianyuan actually used spirit beasts as hosts and planted spiritual herbs in their bodies. Since these spiritual herbs grew in different environments, their shapes were quite different from those of other spiritual herbs.
The Purple - Gold Roc offered the Golden Bramble Grass in its body as a reward and asked Zhao Shuning to help protect its five children.
The Golden Bramble Grass lay quietly in Zhao Shuning's palm. A fiery red flame slowly rose from her palm.
This was the furnace of an alchemist.
If Zhao Shuning wanted to protect those little spirit beasts with considerable cultivation, she had to become stronger. So she had to refine this Golden Bramble Grass and make it her own.
Currently, her cultivation was only at the early stage of the second rank. The Golden Bramble Grass was a very rare spiritual herb. Coupled with its unique growth environment, the spiritual energy contained in this Golden Bramble Grass was much more than that of an ordinary one.
Zhao Shuning's body gradually became scorching hot.
The Golden Bramble Grass was becoming more and more transparent at a visible speed. Finally, when it was about to disappear, it turned into a thin golden ray of light and directly drilled into Zhao Shuning's palm. Then it wandered in her body for half an hour.
Zhao Shuning's blood vessels became much smoother immediately. Most of the meridians in her body had been opened up, and every part of her body became extremely hot.
Her breathing was rapid, and her face even began to turn light purple.
Perhaps the spiritual energy of the Golden Bramble Grass was too powerful, while her body was too weak. So for a moment, her body couldn't bear such a powerful force.
"Bang!"
A sound came from Zhao Shuning's body.
Not long after, Zhao Shuning suddenly opened her eyes. She touched her stuffy chest and finally couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of fresh blood.
Immediately afterwards, she felt that her body began to become extremely light, as if floating in the sky. That feeling was so wonderful. She stretched out her hands and gently clenched them. The spiritual energy in her hands was a completely different experience from what she had before.
Her body ached so much. This pain was as if all her bones had broken and then been re - assembled.
Now she was just immersed in this painful adaptation again and again.
"Come on. I, the Empress, am not afraid of this little pain."
The spiritual energy wandered back and forth in her body again and again, and Zhao Shuning's body became even more dangerous. She knew that this young body had reached the verge of collapse, but Zhao Shuning didn't want to give up. Even if she had to take a risky path, she would accept it. She didn't want to stay at the early stage of the second rank forever. She didn't want to be so incompetent and unable to protect the people she cared about.
She clenched her fists. With each cycle, Zhao Shuning felt that life was worse than death.
Then, the golden ray of light finally stopped completely. Its current position was between Zhao Shuning's eyebrows.
Not long after, a golden mark appeared between Zhao Shuning's eyebrows. But within a moment, the golden mark became fainter and fainter, and finally disappeared completely between her eyebrows.
Zhao Shuning let out a long sigh of relief, spread out her hands, and slowly returned to the ground.
Finally, she had reached the late stage of the second rank. Her master had said that if one wanted to leapfrog in cultivation, one had to endure the pain that ordinary people couldn't bear. Now, Zhao Shuning finally knew the pain of leapfrogging.
She believed in making progress step by step, but if there was a shortcut that didn't harm others, she wasn't stupid enough to keep taking the winding path.
"Don't worry. Even though I'm only at the second rank, since I've accepted your favor and used your stuff, I, Zhao Shuning, will surely do my best to help you achieve this."
The sky in the distance seemed to be getting even darker.
The Dark Aura Land was mainly dominated by darkness. Among them, the most turbulent and terrifying one was the Undercurrent River on the cliff at the second highest level.
This year's trial of the Misty Rain Tower really broadened Zhao Shuning's horizons.
Everyone already knew that the trials of the Misty Rain Tower were cruel and cold - blooded, but they didn't know that it could be so vicious. Or rather, this year's trial was especially cruel. They even had to bet the lives of spiritual pharmacists.
Zhao Shuning returned to the base and told the others what to do next.
"Leader, it seems that you have something to do?"
Otherwise, according to Zhao Shuning's personality, she would never suddenly give so many instructions. It was as if she was arranging her affairs before death, which made the others worried.
Zhao Shuning just smiled sweetly and said, "I naturally have something to do. I'm just giving you the usual instructions."
"Zhao Shuning, what are you going to do? You can't leave us. Without you, we really don't know what to do."
Zhao Shuning looked at Kong Shishuang. There was nothing but worry for her in Kong Shishuang's beautiful eyes.
"Don't worry. I believe that with your current abilities, you can surely go further even without me."
Zhao Shuning knew clearly that perhaps the future would be very hard, but these five of them would have to train themselves sooner or later. She had more important things to do and couldn't always accompany them. They had to learn how to face the thorns ahead.
"Leader?"
"Little Ning'er."
Zhao Shuning stood up, took out the map behind her, and handed it to Se Se.
"Se Se, I'll leave this with you for now. I'll feel more at ease."
"Leader Ning."
"I really have nothing to worry about. I'm just going out to look for something. I'll come back tomorrow. Don't look like the sky is falling."
The others nodded. They all knew Zhao Shuning's abilities. Ordinary people didn't pose the slightest threat to her.
"Leader—"
When Zhao Shuning was about to leave, the others still felt very sad and were reluctant to part with her.
"It's okay. Trust me."
After saying that, a faint red light emitted from Zhao Shuning's body. Her palm was filled with spiritual energy, and her combat power also amazed those present.
The late stage of the second rank? How did the leader achieve such a heaven - defying leap in cultivation?
"Now, you should be able to rest assured."
"Leader, we'll wait for you."
Zhao Shuning nodded. Then she didn't look back and walked quickly towards the dark and quiet path. Soon, her figure merged with the night.