[Congratulations, you have slain the Secret Cult Elite Leopard Spirit (30 years mutation), obtained Charred Secret Cult Leopard Spirit Corpse *1, obtained Secret Cult Spirit Essence (30 years) *1]
Jiang Kai ignored Ruan Yu's grief, collected the spoils of war, and immediately found the elite treasure chest.
The chest contained quite a few high-grade ores, three portions of mutated blood essence crystals, one treasure jade, and a book.
After appraisal, the treasure was a third-grade treasure "Qi Energy Treasure Jade".
[Qi Energy Treasure Jade, provides a layer of qi force defense. Qi force defense has strong resistance to physical attacks, cannot be critically hit, does not suffer penetration damage, and qi force defense has durability. When durability is exhausted, it disappears.]
[Qi force durability increases with level.]
One elite dropped a third-grade treasure, Jiang Kai and Hu Yan were both pleasantly surprised.
"Captain Kai, quickly look at that skill book!" Hu Yan said excitedly.
[Unfamiliar Knowledge Fragment (I), Ji Qi Volumes One to Nine fragments, can be synthesized into a complete skill.]
Jiang Kai frowned tightly, "You need all nine Ji Qi fragments to synthesize one skill?!"
The difficulty of Immortal Trace Valley was originally higher than normal maps outside. The beasts here all had domineering skills like qi force protection. Then this skill, which required nine fragments to synthesize, might be quite powerful!
The Fire God Squad had been hunting continuously for a long time. After this battle, Jiang Kai and the others were quite worn out. Ruan Yu had already fallen asleep, so Jiang Kai decided to just rest here.
With the Wind Thunder Staff, combined with the Spirit Ring, Hu Yan's mental recovery speed was even faster than Jiang Kai's.
He was busy making fire and boiling water, grilled a few pieces of fresh meat over the fire, and after finishing, came to Jiang Kai's side.
Jiang Kai sat there, staring blankly at the ever-burning flames.
"Captain Kai, what are you thinking?" Hu Yan asked, walking over.
Jiang Kai came back to his senses, "Oh, I was thinking about that skill book. Skills I've seen before usually appear directly. At most, they come in upper and lower volumes. But this time, it's a fragment! I wonder if we can synthesize that skill."
Hu Yan said, "The level of Immortal Trace Valley is the highest among hidden maps, so it's normal for new items to appear."
"That night, I asked Dong Li about hidden maps. She said that ever since the Taiping Mountain Road was opened, no one had entered Immortal Trace Valley. So we're the first team to enter."
"Since no one's been here before, I think as long as we kill enough beasts, we might actually collect them all."
"The first wave of a hidden map gives the most profit. Anyway, I brought enough supplies. Worst case, we farm here for a few months. Aside from the BOSS here, I think we can clear everything else."
Jiang Kai widened his eyes, "A few months?"
Hu Yan laughed, "Captain Kai, you level up so fast, so it feels unbelievable to you. But honestly, this is the normal way of doing things on Ghost Star..."
Thinking for a moment, Jiang Kai nodded, "Looks like we'll be staying here for a while. But we must finish within three months. After three months, there's an important matter!"
Jiang Kai looked at Ruan Yu, who was sleeping soundly.
Spirit essences couldn't be stored long. Jiang Kai directly used the Divine Might Treasure Jade to remove Ruan Yu's drunken state.
Ruan Yu immediately opened her eyes, "Hm? Where am I?"
Jiang Kai laughed, "I used the Divine Might Treasure Jade. Quickly fuse the spirit essence!"
Ruan Yu finally regained her senses. Hearing the captain's order, she obediently got to work.
After the last successful fusion of a fine-grade spirit essence, Ruan Yu now always fused four spirit essences at once.
However, things did not go as hoped—none of the recent fusions produced a fine-grade.
Four fusions, all failed.
But spirit essences over twenty years old could undergo a second fusion. For the last attempt, Ruan Yu staked it all and placed all four over-twenty-year spirit essences into the fusion container.
A red light appeared in the fusion container. Jiang Kai and Hu Yan widened their eyes, looking at Ruan Yu.
Ruan Yu laughed a few times, "Hahaha, finally succeeded!"
Jiang Kai used an appraisal charm to identify the spirit essence. Soon, the information appeared on the appraisal card.
[Secret Cult Spirit Essence 38 years (obtained through human fusion) (Superb), can substitute mutated blood essence crystals in low-grade attribute elixirs. Direct consumption grants 76,000 experience points.]
[Fine-grade trait: After consumption, increases fire strength by 20 points.]
Though 76,000 experience points wasn't a small amount, when it came to leveling up, for Jiang Kai, it was just a matter of time.
The key was the fire strength—this was the most effective way to deal with the beasts' qi force protection in the hidden map!
Jiang Kai didn't hesitate and directly consumed the spirit essence.
At that moment, a system notification sounded again.
[Detected you have previously consumed one of this type of superb spirit essence. High-quality spirit essence effects will replace low-quality ones. Your body's fire strength increased by 20 points.]
"Not stackable?" Jiang Kai said with dissatisfaction.
Hu Yan said, "Captain Kai, if it's not stackable, then it's not. Without that previous superb spirit essence, we wouldn't be farming this smoothly. Looking at it that way, it's not a loss."
What Hu Yan said wasn't without reason. After all, after consuming the superb spirit essence, Jiang Kai's fire strength had increased by 20 points.
Not long after, night fell. Jiang Kai decided to rest and go hunting again the next morning.
The night in Immortal Trace Valley was peaceful and harmonious. A bright moon hung high above the mountain peak.
Jiang Kai lay in the grass, hands behind his head, enjoying the pleasant moonlight, gradually drifting into sleep.
Just as he was about to close his eyes, he suddenly saw a black shadow flash quickly beneath the moonlight on the mountaintop.
When Jiang Kai sat up and looked again, the black shadow had already disappeared into the horizon.
"BOSS?" Jiang Kai was a little confused. But then he thought, even if it was a BOSS, as long as it didn't come looking for him, he'd better not provoke it.
Thinking of this, Jiang Kai lay back down, stretched lazily, and quickly fell asleep.
The next day, the Fire God Squad tried to find the Black Panther Spirits. In the process, they only saw seven or eight lone Black Panther Spirits. Then they even saw a group of Lion Spirits, but no more panthers.
"We've entered the lion group's territory." Jiang Kai frowned, "The map of Immortal Trace Valley is still small, and the beast spawn rate is also very slow."
"I wonder if future Black Panther Spirits will still drop spirit essences."
The Fire God Squad killed the remaining Black Panther Spirits. Ruan Yu did not manage to fuse another fine-grade.
Jiang Kai and the others could only hunt the Lion Spirit group.
Lion Spirits were larger, stronger, and more robust in both strength and physique compared to the Black Panther Spirits. They also had qi force shields, and their shields' defense was twice as strong as the panthers'.
However, they were less agile than the Black Panther Spirits. Once the qi force shield was broken, their physical defense was just as weak.
After Jiang Kai's fire strength increased again, as long as he burned through the qi force protection, it was actually easier to kill them than the Black Panther Spirits.
After figuring out the Lion Spirit group's situation, Fire God Squad immediately began hunting them.
The Arsonist paired with the Light God Order, plus Hu Yan's wailing ghost cries, made the Fire God Squad's clearing speed faster and faster.
Lion Spirits also dropped Secret Cult Spirit Essences. After many fusion attempts, Ruan Yu finally produced a fine-grade spirit essence.
[Secret Cult Spirit Essence 27 years (obtained through human fusion) (Fine-grade), can substitute mutated blood essence crystals in low-grade attribute elixirs. Direct consumption grants 135,000 experience points.]
[Fine-grade trait: After consumption, increases true energy strength by 10 points.]
"True energy for martial disciples?" Hu Yan suddenly exclaimed.
True energy was the core talent of martial disciples. You could say that martial disciples ranked among the world's top ten professions thanks to their true energy attacks!
Unfortunately, Yuan Zhu wasn't here. Otherwise, this fine-grade spirit essence would be perfect for him.
Among the current three, none of their professional skills could unleash true energy attacks!
Finally, Jiang Kai looked toward Ruan Yu.
"Ruan Yu, you could previously release sword qi. Do you think… sword qi might be a type of true energy?"
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