Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Edited by Aelryinth

Jingzhou, Hua Xia…

This was the southernmost area of Hua Xia. Even with the climate change, the winter being more than ten degrees celsius colder than before, it was still as warm as spring in Jingzhou.

Looking down at the city from high up in the sky, the whole island was covered in lush greenery. There were few human settlement areas.

After the arrival of the new age, due to the island being surrounded by the sea in all directions, the exotic beasts here were mostly water-based, or amphibious, able to live in the water and land. They were unusually strong.

Due to that, there were only a few cities left on the whole island. Xinjing City was newly established by the surrounding towns and villages after the arrival of the new age, situated in the west central area of Jingzhou. Its population numbered less than two million, but it was the most populous city in all of Jingzhou, and had become the new center of Jingzhou.

Today, a series of military large transportation aircraft came from the far north to the Xinjing City's military airport, along with an escort of dozens of the newest fighter jets, filling up the s.p.a.cious military airport.

A series of large trucks were waiting at the airport. After the transportation aircraft landed, the trucks drove up at the same time. A group of soldiers operated all kinds of unloading machinery, moving large amounts of materials from the transportation aircraft to the trucks. Afterwards, the trucks drove off towards a s.p.a.cious, empty area northeast of Xinjing City.

At the s.p.a.cious, empty plot of land, a row of new buildings were erected. This place was the new location the Huang family had finally decided on for the herbal research inst.i.tute.

The weather in Jingzhou was naturally extremely suitable for the growth of spiritual herbs. At the same time, Xinjing City had healthy population numbers, and the troops stationed here were at division-level, in addition to having a big group of high-tier beastmasters.

In order to facilitate the smooth development of the new herbal research inst.i.tute, Huang Juyun had applied to be transferred here, and had become the commander of Xinjing City's military forces.

Today was the moving day of the herbal research inst.i.tute.

Large numbers of experimental apparatuses, as well as the spiritual jade and spiritual herbs from the original herbal field, were all transported here from Bei Du with the transportation aircraft. Under the research staff's instruction, the soldiers moved the materials into the new research inst.i.tute in an orderly manner.

The various devices for experimentation were reinstalled in an orderly manner. The soil of the plot of land spanning dozens of hectares wide had already been dug up. Another group of people were burying the spiritual jade, which had been cut into smaller pieces, evenly across the field, then began planting the spiritual herbs one by one.

Of course, there weren't that many spiritual herbs. After transplanting them all, they only took up a tiny, insignificant corner of the herbal field, covering less than a thousand square meters.

Seeing everyone working so diligently, Huang Juyun was filled with antic.i.p.ation. He didn't know how much longer that kid Zhang Che needed to advance to Tier Seven beastmaster… well, that wasn't the main point. The key thing was, that kid had been giving his all in the beast worlds during this period of time. He must have gathered a lot of spiritual herbs, right?

Of course, this new plot of land spanned dozens of hectares; even if Zhang Che had a subdued beast with the ability to sense spiritual herbs, it'd take him a long time to fill up the whole field. Perhaps, this process would last a few years…

If Zhang Che, who was currently experiencing the joys of advancing, learned what his father-in-law was thinking right now, he'd probably not be able to keep it in and tell him the truth, scaring him.

In the secret plane, spiritual herbs were practically everywhere! Zhang Che only needed a month at most to dig up enough spiritual herbs to fill up the new herbal field!

Of course, even if Zhang Che wanted to transplant the spiritual herbs as soon as possible to produce large amounts of spiritual honey, he couldn't really bring out too many herbs in one go.

After all, spiritual herbs weren't like cabbages in the market. If he brought out too many of them at once, it'd be too shocking. At that time, he'd surely draw the eyes of others. Even with the Huang family's strength, it would be a very difficult task to defend so many spiritual herbs.

As the saying went, wealth draws the hearts of others. When benefits reached a certain level, it was inevitable that someone would take action to seize it for themselves unless you had absolute power over them.

At present, Zhang Che was still sitting cross-legged on the protruding mountain rock. Although his eyes were open, his expression was serious, yet surprised.

After his breakthrough to Tier Seven beastmaster, his spiritual force had started to materialize after absorbing the essence refined from the large amounts of soul force acc.u.mulated. It looked like a ma.s.s of white, blurry fog, faintly scattered in his spiritual sea.

At that moment, the originally calm golden vortex suddenly started spinning crazily. A strong suction was born, devouring all of the spiritual force which had just materialized.

"What the heck? What trick is it playing now?"

Zhang Che didn't feel very confident. He truly didn't know what was going on with the golden vortex right now.

Although Zhang Che believed the golden vortex wouldn't harm him, he felt uneasy about this new phenomenon and was at a loss for what to do.

After his spiritual force was devoured by the golden vortex, Zhang Che felt empty, with an indescribably terrible feeling. He felt incredibly fl.u.s.tered.

"Could it be that the golden vortex can devour my spiritual force and grow stronger?" Zhang Che couldn't help but start guessing. If that was true, it couldn't be said to be a bad thing…

In any case, spiritual force could be produced slowly, and once the golden vortex grew stronger, the range with which he could control the scarlet and white sword would surely expand. This was extremely beneficial to his growth.

The golden vortex didn't stop spinning after absorbing all of Zhang Che's spiritual force. A golden light was gradually spreading from the inside of the vortex.

Zhang Che couldn't help but feel some antic.i.p.ation. He felt like the golden vortex was probably going to grow bigger.

However, as the golden light grew denser and denser, the golden vortex still showed no signs of growing bigger. After a short while, traces of golden fog spread out from inside the vortex.

"This… is my spiritual force?" Zhang Che was both surprised and happy.

He could sense that the traces of golden fog were indeed his spiritual force, but after it was refined by the golden vortex, the level of the energy had far surpa.s.sed the original white spiritual force.

If he were to compare the two, likening the original spiritual force to water, then the golden spiritual force was like mercury. It was many times better!

"Alright! I didn't expect the golden vortex to have such an ability! With this, the level of my spiritual force's energy is probably higher than even Tier Nine beastmasters, right? If I used it to temper my body, the benefits would be unthinkable!"

Zhang Che was pleasantly surprised. He carefully drove the traces of golden spiritual force out of his spiritual sea and directed them into his flesh and blood.

Although Zhang Che had not learned the proper cultivation method to temper his body with his spiritual force, when the traces of golden spiritual force pa.s.sed through his flesh and blood, an extremely pure energy automatically started tempering his body.

Not only that, the energy was very gentle. Zhang Che didn't feel any pain at all, and he could faintly tell that his flesh, blood, and bones were becoming more refined.

Although there wasn't any tests to convert the difference into numbers, Zhang Che felt that this tiny bit of golden spiritual force had increased his strength by about one percent from the tempering!

Of course, this was the first time his body was tempered by the mutated spiritual force. The effects were naturally extremely obvious. It was impossible to get such quick results again.

Even so, Zhang Che was very pleasantly surprised!

After he learned the proper cultivation methods to temper his body with spiritual force and continued to do so, his body would develop to a degree much better than ordinary beastmasters sooner or later.

Perhaps when he grew to a certain level, he would be able to withstand the attacks of mid-tier dark gold-quality exotic beasts, even without the defense of a beast card armor?

Antic.i.p.ating such a beautiful future, Zhang Che's lips gradually drew back and he laughed silently.