Serpent Ancestor

"Can I have a name too?" the wolf king asked.

"You can follow me and be called Hei Er Gou," Hei Huang interjected.

"Isn't 'dog' an insult? I'm a wolf!" the wolf king protested.

"Woof!" Without another word, Hei Huang bit the wolf king's thigh, causing the latter to beg for mercy repeatedly.

Xu Hei was speechless.

In the end, the wolf king reluctantly agreed to the name Er Gou.

Although he had a name now, Er Gou was very unwilling, always feeling that it was an insult and lowered his status.

However, looking at his black and white fur, he did resemble a certain breed of dog.

Next came the exciting moment of dividing the spoils.

Xu Hei opened the first two storage bags at once. These belonged to two inner disciples and contained nothing special, just common items.

The most numerous were demonic beast corpses and inner cores.

"Don't be polite, take whatever you like," Xu Hei said.

Xu Hei was already in the late Spirit Communion Stage, and these low-level items were of little use to him. Before long, Er Gou and Xu Bai had picked out what they needed.

Then came the main event. Xu Hei took out Ye Haichuan's storage bag. The Divine Sense imprint on it had been broken three days ago.

With a flash of light, a dozen or so treasures appeared scattered on the ground.

Three hundred spirit stones, two bottles of pills, three talismans, and several jade slips.

Two flying swords, a soul flag, and a pill furnace, all of Foundation Establishment level spiritual treasures.

As for spirit medicines, beast materials, and metal materials, they filled a large bag.

Additionally, there was a crystal ball for testing spiritual roots.

"Is that all?"

Xu Hei was somewhat surprised. He had thought that a Foundation Establishment cultivator should have a wealth of treasures, but the reality was quite different.

It might not even be as valuable as Zhao Yiduo's thousand spirit stones.

"These old cultivators who have been stuck at a certain realm for years often spend everything they have to break through. Only the chosen ones from big families have a lot of valuable items," Hei Huang explained.

Xu Hei wasn't too disappointed. He picked up a flying sword and the soul flag, took half of the pills and talismans, collected all the jade slips, and handed the rest to Hei Huang.

Hei Huang grabbed the crystal ball and smiled, "This can test spiritual roots. Who wants to try?"

Er Gou immediately ran up, "I want to test! I want to test!"

Xu Hei became interested.

Er Gou placed his paw on the ball, and spiritual energy blossomed. The crystal ball emitted a faint glow of three colors.

Hei Huang shook his head, "Gold, fire, and water, three mixed spiritual roots, poor aptitude."

Er Gou immediately deflated.

Curious, Xu Bai also placed her hand on the ball.

This time, the crystal ball glowed a bright green, illuminating the entire cave dwelling.

"This..." Hei Huang exclaimed.

Xu Hei was also stunned.

In his impression, a single color indicated extremely high talent.

"A single attribute, top-grade wood spiritual root!"

Hei Huang marveled, "Such talent is rare even among humans. No wonder this serpent has such a keen sense."

Xu Bai, however, had no concept of this and was instead frightened by the bright light, shrinking back.

Xu Hei thought for a moment, took out some jade slips on wood element spells, and handed them to her, instructing her to practice diligently. Xu Bai accepted them seriously.

Hei Huang glanced at Xu Hei and smiled meaningfully, "A single wood spiritual root in a human woman would mean unparalleled beauty. If she could transform, who knows how many male cultivators she would enchant."

"..." Xu Hei remained silent.

Finally, it was Xu Hei's turn.

Xu Hei climbed up and placed his hand on the crystal ball, releasing his spiritual energy.

The crystal ball lit up with a myriad of colors, starting with earthy yellow, then red, blue, gold, and purple...

"Mixed spiritual roots? Six... seven mixed spiritual roots?" Hei Huang was a bit stunned.

No, if they were mixed spiritual roots, how could Xu Hei cultivate so quickly?

But soon, the multicolored light grew brighter and more dazzling, especially the earthy yellow light, which was almost blinding.

Even the crystal ball showed a crack, as if it was about to explode.

Xu Hei quickly withdrew his spiritual energy, and the crystal ball calmed down.

"What is going on?" Xu Hei asked in surprise.

Hei Huang pondered for a long time before saying, "You do have multiple spiritual roots, but their quality is very high. I've never seen such a situation."

Normally, the more spiritual roots one had, the lower their quality.

But Xu Hei had many spiritual roots, and their quality was high.

Especially his earth spiritual root, which was beyond top-grade.

This was quite extraordinary!

No wonder Xu Hei could master any spell quickly and with great power. It turned out he had all kinds of spiritual roots, and none of them were low-grade.

Xu Hei didn't dwell on it. Since his earth spiritual root was the best, he decided to focus on earth element spells.

After all the demonic beasts had left.

Hei Huang placed his paw on the crystal ball, which emitted a black glow, like a black hole that could swallow all light. Hei Huang immediately withdrew his hand.

"It's time to visit the Mountain Movers Sect," Hei Huang said coldly.

...

Outside the canyon, in a yellow-brown area.

Xu Hei took out a jade slip and quickly scanned it with his Divine Sense.

"There are a total of sixteen earth element spells."

"I need to learn two for now, Thick Earth Armor and Earth Spike. One for attack and one for defense. If I master these two, I should be able to escape even if I can't defeat a Foundation Establishment cultivator."

Xu Hei thought to himself. Both spells were top-tier for the Qi Refining Stage, and many Foundation Establishment cultivators used them.

With Xu Hei's top-grade earth spiritual root, their power would be even greater.

"Thick Earth Armor!"

Xu Hei focused his mind.

A yellow-brown layer of light immediately appeared on his body, gradually covering his skin, making it look petrified, with a halo surrounding him from head to toe.

But the glow dissipated after just a breath.

Xu Hei exhaled. He had succeeded on his first try, confirming his exceptional talent in earth element spells.

Days passed in a flash.

Xu Hei spent his days doing breathing exercises in the cave dwelling and went out at night to practice earth element spells.

In terms of spells, he progressed rapidly. He had already achieved minor success in both earth element spells, and their power was indeed much greater than other spells.

However, his cultivation level showed almost no progress.

The Shaoyang Powder for body tempering was useless to him, and the Qi Condensation Pills had lost their effect. He had also run out of high-level demonic beast meat.

While he could capture more demonic beast meat, the biggest problem was the pills.

"I don't lack spirit stones, but I lack effective pills. Ordinary pills have lost their effect, partly because my cultivation is too high and partly due to resistance."

"Only the top-tier Qi Refining Stage pill, the Minor Essence Nurturing Pill, has any effect," Xu Hei thought.

He had found half a bottle of Minor Essence Nurturing Pills in Ye Haichuan's storage bag and had consumed them, increasing his spiritual energy by about thirty percent.

Additionally, Ye Haichuan had a bottle of Major Essence Nurturing Pills, but only Foundation Establishment cultivators could take them. Xu Hei had tried licking one and nearly had his meridians burst, so he didn't dare try again.

"There are plenty of ingredients to make Minor Essence Nurturing Pills, like the Serpent Tree, but I don't know how to refine pills," Xu Hei frowned.

Pill refining, one of the six arts of cultivation, was extremely taxing to learn.

Xu Hei had already learned puppet techniques and had no energy to learn pill refining. Besides, his wood spiritual root wasn't high, so he might not have the talent for it.

Suddenly, Xu Hei had a flash of inspiration.

Wood spiritual root?

"Wood spiritual root? Isn't Xu Bai a top-grade wood spiritual root?"

Xu Hei's eyes widened.

Thinking carefully, Xu Bai was practically a natural pill refining genius, born for it! How had he not thought of this before?

Coincidentally, Xu Hei had a high-level pill furnace that he could give her.

Xu Hei immediately took action, carrying the pill furnace into Xu Bai's cave dwelling.

As soon as he entered, he saw her already fiddling with herbs, with a mortar in front of her, forming a ball of herbs.

During the division of spoils, she had taken the most spirit medicines and plants.

"Xu Hei!"

Xu Bai's eyes lit up when she saw Xu Hei, and she quickly crawled over.

"Are you... refining pills?" Xu Hei asked, looking at the ball of herbs in the mortar, somewhat stunned.

What kind of pill refining was this? A new concept?

"Yes, I'm a top-grade wood spiritual root, perfect for pill refining. I even got Er Gou to help me test the pills! Er Gou was so happy after eating them!" Xu Bai said with a smile.

Xu Hei listened and then noticed that Hei Er Gou was also in the cave dwelling.

However, Er Gou's face was dark, his eyes lifeless, and he stood there like a wooden statue, but his mouth was constantly grinning foolishly.

"Er Gou, aren't my pills amazing?" Xu Bai asked Er Gou with a smile.

Er Gou just kept grinning foolishly, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth.