Chapter 149: Chapter 57: Golden-Armored Demon Frog

The vast sea domain harbors numerous treasures, but beneath the deep sea lies an enormous danger.

The near sea has mostly been scoured countless times by the cultivators of the Five Elders Association, making it difficult to find treasure materials. Therefore, Guagua could only go deeper into areas that pose a greater threat to most sea island cultivators to make any gains.

With its strength as a Tier Two Mid Stage demon beast, along with its mirage divine abilities, it could at most search near the boundaries of the Tier Three Sea Demon territory.

Over the three years, it brought back Tier Two Upper Grade treasure materials three times, all of which were used for the creation of quasi-Third Tier puppets.

Most of them were still Tier Two Lower Grade and Tier One materials, many of which were used by Li Jizhou as consumables for artifact refining practice.

This greatly improved Li Jizhou’s artifact refining skills.

While demon beasts rested, Li Jizhou organized all the harvests from this time.

Three-tenths were materials with grades, while the rest were ordinary objects, a ratio that was steadily increasing.

He still remembered when Guagua first received instructions from Li Jizhou to hunt for treasure, it brought back only pretty-looking ordinary beads and shells.

There wasn’t a single graded material.

It wasn’t until half a year later that it made its first fruitful trip.

Upon completing the separation, Li Jizhou was very satisfied.

This time, there was another piece of Profound Crystal Gold, a Tier Two Middle Grade metal element material suitable for crafting attack-type magical artifacts.

Previously, Li Jizhou tried to use it to craft his natal magical artifact, and only after simulating it over a hundred times did he barely capture that elusive feeling on the Heart-Burning Furnace to engrave the inscription,

but it still couldn’t withstand the pressure and shattered.

It was equivalent to directly wasting materials worth at least a thousand spirit stones.

This time, he decided it might be better used for making attack-type puppets.

“Alright, keep up the good work, go on!” He gestured with a wave of his hand for Guagua to continue working with its little minions.

“Gua~” Guagua felt no aversion to this work; it patted its battle armor made from golden scales and instantly led the little minions back into the sea.

A year ago, Guagua dove into the depths guarded by Tier Three Sea Demons seeking treasure and was pierced through by a Great Demon. After it returned, Li Jizhou used the scales of a golden fish demon to craft it battle armor.

With Li Jizhou’s Tier One Advanced Level artifact refiner skills, the battle armor he made was merely a Tier One top-grade magical artifact. Normally, it wouldn’t withstand a single strike from a Tier Three Sea Demon, but luckily, the material of the golden scales barely assured its escape from the Great Demon with its life.

Moreover, in these three years, Guagua encountered countless crises, greatly enhancing its vigilance.

It had also reached the cusp of advancement since it ascended to a Tier Two Middle Level demon beast eleven years ago.

This was largely due to its brutal battles.

“If you can truly ascend to a Tier Two Advanced demon beast, I will assist you in forming your core!”

For a demon beast to ascend to Tier Three, it must condense its demon core into a pill, akin to human cultivators in Core Formation.

Originally, with Guagua’s lower grade bloodline talent, ascending to Tier Two was already forced. Luckily, having been with Li Jizhou testing poisons for years allowed it to evolve, a sort of alternative Tier Two advancement.

At the Spirit Blood Pool of the Rong family’s Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, relying on its stubborn competitive spirit, it surprisingly upgraded its lower grade bloodline to a middle grade bloodline, now having the chance to form a core.

The chance of a lower grade bloodline forming a core is zero, while a middle grade bloodline has a ten percent chance of success.

However, in the mysterious realm of the Thunder Flame Sect, that red-robed woman gave it some Celestial Pure Water, which, varying person to person, can increase the success rate by up to fifty percent.

Originally, that woman gave Li Jizhou half a bottle, which was enough for his own Core Formation needs.

And for Guagua, the woman secretly gave a little extra.

Li Jizhou had been keeping this little bit for it.

Now he decided to let it use this little bit.

Not long after Guagua left, an unexpected visitor arrived.

It was actually Qi Yuan.

Over these three years, Li Jizhou had also learned about Qi Yuan’s situation and had previously lamented how comparing oneself to others can be frustrating, but now, Qi Yuan had changed her reckless ways.

However, this wasn’t something to particularly laud.

In this realm, ninety-nine percent of cultivators are striving desperately, and yet, due to talent and background, no matter how hard they try, they barely reach others’ starting points.

In comparison, these people are more worthy of admiration.

Her purpose was simple, as she also heard about the Qi Kingdom’s Blood Fiend situation, and came to ask when Li Jizhou would return to the Golden Sun Sect, hoping to go together.

Li Jizhou, using Zhang Ruoyu’s tone, said it wasn’t safe yet and needed to further observe changes.

Qi Yuan kept calling him “grandfather,” making Li Jizhou somewhat uneasy.

If she returns to the sect and meets the real Zhang Ruoyu, he wonders how she’ll feel.

Three days later, Jiang Li arrived as promised with ten Tier Two Advanced water attribute demon cores.

Normally, a Tier Two Advanced demon beast is comparable to a Late Stage of Foundation Establishment cultivator. With bloodline divine abilities, even a Fake Pill cultivator would find them hard to capture.

Yet, in just three days, Jiang Li brought ten cores, all fresh, leaving Li Jizhou inquisitive.

This was when he discovered that next-door Pearl Jade Island could even cultivate Tier Two demon beasts and had complete control over their life and death.

This led Li Jizhou to decide to find time to visit Pearl Jade Island.

Perhaps there could be an opportunity to assist Guagua in forming a core.

After taking the demon cores, Li Jizhou instructed her to wait for news, and once he had results, he would send a message for her return.

Then he began preparations.

According to an ancient text he had seen in the Immortal City, the key to awakening the Water Spirit Body lies in thoroughly nourishing the physique with a large quantity of water attribute magical power,

so that when the physique attains a state akin to water, it’s considered complete.

Normally, this requires one to absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi over long periods, refining it into magical power, and then nourishing the body.

But such a process takes too long; most people spend their whole life without seeing a complete awakening day.

Li Jizhou’s method was simple and crude: using the Waterfall Pill to instantly fill the body with water attribute magical power.

If the physique doesn’t timely absorb the excess, it would be stored in the dantian, allowing for immediate effect.

Yet, truly awakening requires at least dozens of attempts.

A month later, a crisp light hum sounded from the Heart-Burning Furnace.

Eight Waterfall Pills infused with water attribute magical power were successfully refined within the furnace.

“Gua~” After Li Jizhou put away the pills, he was just about to call Jiang Li when Guagua’s urgent cries came, and it dove into the Spirit Pet Bag.

This time, there were no other little minions with it.

“Open the door, hurry up!”

Through divine sense communication, as soon as Li Jizhou understood the reason, a somber knocking sounded from outside.

“Fellow Daoist, what brings you here?” Li Jizhou didn’t open the door immediately.

“Enough nonsense, I am the head of the Law Enforcement Hall of the Five Elders Association, currently tracking a Golden-Armored Demon Frog, open the door!” The man at the door, clad in the Law Enforcement robes of the Five Elders Association, looked stern.

“You have the wrong place, there’s no Golden-Armored Demon Frog here. Go look elsewhere.”

“Hmph, I personally saw it sneak into this courtyard, don’t try to deny it! If you don’t open the array soon, don’t blame me for being rude!”

“…” The attitude of the other party was not to Li Jizhou’s liking.

The main point was, he had learned from Guagua the details of the incident, and Guagua was not wrong. Guagua adhered strictly to his admonitions, causing no conflicts or disputes with any sea domain cultivators, opting to hide at the first opportunity.

“Please, come in!” Upon contemplating this, Li Jizhou activated the array.

The man in robes flashed in, and before saying anything, he pulled out a Restriction Talisman and slapped it on the courtyard wall.

“What is your intention?” Li Jizhou couldn’t help but smile slightly.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep