Lu Ye painstakingly cultivated inside the cave without stopping. His days passed by in a loop. He consumed Spirit Restoring Pill after Spirit Restoring Pill and filled up his Spiritual Points, then broke through the barrier of his next Spiritual Point. In the meantime, he also slept when he was tired and ate when he was hungry. The days passed by in a calm and boring manner, but he could feel the Spiritual Power accumulating inside his body as the days passed. Thus, he knew that this was a process for him to become stronger.
Before he entered the Spirit Creek Realm, he basically maintained a rate of unlocking one Spiritual Point every three days. It took him about 6 Spirit Restoring Pills to do so. Now that he was in the Spirit Creek Realm, he continued to maintain a rate of unlocking one Spiritual Point every three days. It was just that his consumption of Spirit Restoring Pills had increased slightly. He now needed approximately 8 or 9 Spirit Restoring Pills to unlock a single Spiritual Point.
The reason he could maintain this speed was that his cultivation had increased, which in turn increased his efficiency and speed of refining the Spirit Pills. In the past, it had taken him half a day to finish refining a single Spirit Restoring Pill. Therefore, he could only refine two Spirit Pills a day. In contrast, he was currently capable of refining 3 Spirit Pills to completion in a day if he concentrated hard enough. In that way, he managed to maintain his rate of unlocking his Spiritual Points even though his consumption had increased.
Half a month passed by in a flash, and he consumed the last of his Spirit Restoring Pills. Inspecting his cultivation, he found that he was still in the First-Order Spirit Creek Realm, However, he had unlocked the fifteenth Spiritual Point. He had yet to fill his fifteenth Spiritual Point with Spiritual Power.
He was only three Spiritual Points away from breaking through to the Second-Order Spirit Creek Realm! If he could enter the Second-Order Spirit Creek Realm, he would surely experience a great boost in power. Unfortunately, it was not something he could achieve yet. The Spiritual Power reserves in his body might have increased by a lot, but his newly unlocked Spiritual Points were not joined in a system. Therefore, they would not be of much help to him in a fight.
There were still some mineral ores in his possession that he could exchange for Spirit Stones. Therefore, he prepared to leave the mountain to visit the Divine Trade Association once more with his previous experience in mind.
He leisurely walked out of the cave. The sun outside was shining brightly, but the forest canopy was so dense that only sporadic rays of light filtered through the dense foliage to form pools of light on the ground. Squinting slightly in the sun, he waited a while until his eyes adjusted to the light before he finally strode forward.
He didn't get very far when he suddenly heard a strange commotion coming from not far away. Frowning slightly, he quietly headed in the direction of the voices. A short while later, he hid behind a large tree and peered forward.
There were three cultivators standing in that direction, looking as though they were facing a great enemy. Every one of them had sorrowful and anxious expressions on their faces. One of them was a female cultivator who looked like she was on the verge of tears.
Not far from those three was a well-built and sturdy snow-white tiger that was pacing back and forth. Its amber tiger eyes glanced at the three cultivators from time to time, giving them an extremely oppressive feeling. Its mouth moved as it walked. "Unlock your Storage Bags and toss them on the ground. Then, get the Hell out of here! Otherwise, I don't mind eating you up!"
The corners of Lu Ye's eyes twitched at the sound of that voice. He had heard that majestic and ancient sounding voice once before, but it eventually turned out to be a trick that Yi Yi played on him.
Those three cultivators were clearly frightened. One of them tremblingly untied the Storage Bag around his waist, unlocked the Restraining Lock, and tossed it to the ground. Staring at the tiger in horror and trepidation, he beggingly said, "Please forgive us! We didn't mean to offend you! Everything is right there! Please let us go!"
The tiger glanced at the Storage Bag on the ground and roared. "Get lost!"
That person hurriedly turned around and fled without even looking back. With his lead, the other two cultivators hurriedly dropped their Storage Bags to the ground and ran for their lives.
After making sure that the three cultivators were gone, the tiger slowly stepped forward. However, somebody rushed out and snagged the three Storage Bags before the tiger could get any closer.
Shocked, the tiger violently jumped back in fright. On the other hand, a small figure came out of its head and stared at Lu Ye flabbergasted. "That's ours!"
Lu Ye held the Storage Bags in his hands and quickly checked through them, furrowing his eyebrows in response. The contents of these Storage Bags were extremely pitiful. Each of them only had a few Spirit Restoring Pills and some herbs, as well as some miscellaneous daily necessities. There were no Spirit Stones at all.
He secretly cursed them for being poor bastards, then took out the Spirit Restoring Pills and divided them into two portions. He kept one portion for himself and tossed the other portion to Yi Yi. "Witnesses get a share!"
Yi Yi was shocked by his actions. Baring her teeth at him, she leaped at him. "Return them to me!"
*Clank.* His longsword slid out of its sheath. He smiled at her without uttering a single word as she threw herself at him.
Her figure froze in front of the longsword. She was so livid that she was gnashing her teeth furiously and cursing wildly. Her language was so colorful that it was like her mouth had been smeared with honey.
"Should I call those three back?"
She instantly shrank back from him and grudgingly retreated, knowing that she was not going to get the Spirit Pills back from him. She could sense that he was much stronger than he had been one month ago, and the tiger was by no means capable of being his opponent if it really came down to a fight. Even so, having her loot stolen from her made her feel extremely wronged. Thus, she muttered words such as 'Shameless' and 'Contemptible' under her breath.
"I want to ask you a question," he said.
"I refuse to answer any questions you may have!" she snarled through gritted teeth.
"If you answer me well, I will return these to you." He lifted the stolen goods in his hand and gave it a little shake. There were only a few Spirit Restoring Pills, so he didn't care too much for them.
"Hah!" She gave a laugh of contempt, acting as though she looked down on money as though it was dung. Sitting cross-legged on top of the tiger's head, she straightened up and lifted her head. "Ask away!"
"I met many Demon cultivators in the city at the foot of the mountain. They don't seem all that great, so why are people so afraid of you?"
This was something that had been puzzling him greatly. Those Demon cultivators were definitely stronger than the tiger. Logically speaking, a cultivator who was accustomed to seeing Demon cultivators had no reason to fear a Spirit Beast that had not transformed. So, why were they scared witless with just a few words?
"You don't understand." She became proud. "There are differences between Demon cultivators who transform and Demon cultivators who don't…"
After listening to Yi Yi's explanation, Lu Ye finally understood. Not every Spirit Beast would choose to undergo transformation. It might have been a Spiritual Intelligence issue, their own choice, or even their bloodline's inheritance. In short, a considerable amount of Spirit Beasts maintained their original appearances. This kind of Spirit Beast did not have the ability to speak when their cultivation was low. However, they would gain the ability of speech when their cultivation reached a certain level.
In other words, a Spirit Beast that could speak was synonymous with a powerful person! As for how powerful they were… At the very least, they were not something the low-leveled cultivators in this area could afford to upset. The combined performance between Yi Yi and the tiger was extremely terrifying, and many cultivators who trespassed into this area had suffered from that as a result.
"I see!" He felt as though he had learned a little more about the common sense of the Cultivation World. Lifting his hand, he tossed the stolen goods to Yi Yi and turned around to go down the mountain.
She checked the items and confirmed that there was no problem with them. Then, she shouted at his departing back. "Are you leaving?"
"It's none of your business!" Lu Ye's voice came from afar.
"Damn it!" Yi Yi muttered. Turning around, she hugged the tiger's head and lamented sorrowfully, "Amber, we are so pitiful!"
"Woo…"