Qin Wang slowly made his way down the path dug by Zhao Hunyin.
To ensure safety, he summoned Zhao Hunyin, Shi Hun San, Ye Qian, and others, coating them with spirit salt garlic powder and sending them ahead. He stayed alert at the rear, ready to retreat if anything went wrong.
Before long, Zhao Hunyin, Shi Hun San, Ye Qian, and the other soul puppets entered the cave. Through their vision, Qin Wang 'saw' a five-zhang-long, blood-red earth dragon beast lying motionless in a distant, open cave.
It was the Earth Dragon Beast King!
Surrounding it were many earth dragon beasts, seemingly protecting the king.
"The intel indicates that the mutated Earth Dragon Beast King will be in a weakened state at noon today, with an extremely weakened soul. First, use the spirit salt garlic powder, then use a soul seed to take control of its body!"
Qin Wang recalled the intel and found it feasible.
With this in mind, he took out the remaining spirit salt garlic powder from his storage bag and directed Shi Hun San to approach the motionless Earth Dragon Beast King.
"Squeak! Squeak!"
As Shi Hun San got within five zhangs of the Earth Dragon Beast King, it suddenly raised its head, hissing and writhing as if very wary of Shi Hun San. However, its body soon fell limp, no longer moving.
"It seems its soul is indeed weakened!"
Qin Wang's eyes flashed. He immediately controlled Shi Hun San to sprinkle the spirit salt garlic powder around the Earth Dragon Beast King, forming a boundary. He waited a while, sensing the time was right, and then took out the soul gathering bowl, summoning a faint, translucent human-shaped soul seed.
Under Qin Wang's control, the soul seed floated towards the Earth Dragon Beast King.
As the soul seed neared, Qin Wang directed it to dive into the beast.
"Squeak! Squeak!"
"Boom!"
As the soul seed entered, the mutated Earth Dragon Beast King struggled violently, crashing into the cave walls and causing large sections to collapse.
The surrounding earth dragon beasts shrieked madly.
Through the soul seed, Qin Wang saw a three-zhang-long earth dragon beast king soul in the beast's sea of consciousness, charging at the soul seed. However, this beast soul was very faint, clearly extremely weak, only putting on a brave front.
In contrast, the soul seed was much more solid.
Qin Wang controlled the soul seed to attack the beast soul, shattering it into pieces.
"Squeak!"
The earth dragon beast soul let out a silent scream in the sea of consciousness, baring its fangs and claws at the soul seed. However, in its current extremely weakened state, it was no match for the soul seed. After a few exchanges, the beast soul grew even fainter.
Finally, the earth dragon beast soul retreated in the sea of consciousness, with the soul seed in pursuit.
"Why not have Xiaobai communicate with it?"
Qin Wang recalled that Xiaobai, the spirit-seeking mouse, could communicate with others using its divine sense.
With this thought, he withdrew his divine sense and took out the spirit-seeking mouse, communicating with it to negotiate with the Earth Dragon Beast King: surrender its soul blood or face destruction.
Qin Wang figured that refining the beast's soul blood would make control easier than using a soul seed.
Following Qin Wang's instructions, Xiaobai communicated with the Earth Dragon Beast King.
About half a quarter-hour later, the Earth Dragon Beast King's soul was once again scattered by the soul seed. After reassembling, it lay prostrate before the soul seed, a faint blood-colored soul blood the size of a pigeon egg floating from its head.
"It seems Xiaobai's communication worked!"
Seeing the Earth Dragon Beast's soul blood, Qin Wang was pleased.
The Earth Dragon Beast King had no choice but to submit. In its weakened state, refusal meant death, with its soul being extinguished and its body taken over by the soul seed.
Qin Wang immediately used his divine sense to gather the soul blood and began refining it.
After another quarter-hour, Qin Wang had refined the mutated Earth Dragon Beast's soul blood, feeling a connection with it. With a single thought, he could now annihilate the beast's soul.
Qin Wang looked at the prostrate, weakened Earth Dragon Beast, issuing a command through his divine sense. "Earth Dragon Beast, I'll put you in the spirit beast bag for now. Recover inside."
As he spoke, the Earth Dragon Beast King coiled up its five-zhang-long body. Qin Wang covered it with his divine sense and swiftly stored it in his storage bag.
"Now, time to collect the array disk."
After securing the Earth Dragon Beast King, Qin Wang turned his attention to the stone recess, where the spirit gathering array disk lay. It was an ancient spirit gathering array from the Myriad Spirits Holy Land. Though old, it could still be restored to its former glory.
"Shi Hun San, Zhao Hunyin, Lin Shengbing, Ye Qian, dig out the array disk from the stone recess!"
With a wave of his hand, Qin Wang summoned four soul puppets. They began digging around the stone recess, their top-quality spirit swords cutting through the stone like tofu. Soon, they reached a three-zhang-deep stone slab. Beneath it lay a three-zhang-square stone chamber.
In the center of the chamber rested a millstone-sized hexagonal array disk, covered with intricate black array patterns and surrounded by a faint swirl of visible spiritual energy. Eighteen black array flags stood around the chamber.
Qin Wang cast a spell, lifting the array disk. As soon as he did, the vortex of spiritual energy dissipated.
"So this is the spirit gathering array disk?"
Qin Wang examined the disk, feeling an ancient, weighty aura emanating from it.
With a flick, he stored it in his bag, then cast another spell to collect the eighteen array flags.
"Boom!"
At that moment, a rumbling sound echoed from outside, causing the cave to collapse.
"Hmm? Someone's coming in?"
Qin Wang's expression changed as he stored Shi Hun San, Zhao Hunyin, Lin Shengbing, and Ye Qian, preparing to leave through the dug path. Just then, three figures appeared at the cave entrance. One of them exclaimed, "Young master, there's someone inside!"
Ignoring the three, Qin Wang dove into the tunnel and swiftly ascended.
Soon, he emerged and sped away.
After Qin Wang left, the two men and one woman arrived at the spirit gathering array's location, their faces darkening.
"Young master, there was an array disk here, but it has been taken!"
A lean, elderly man at the twelfth level of Qi Refinement frowned deeply, surveying the surroundings. "There should have been an Earth Dragon Beast King here too, but it's gone now."
"This person took the sixteen Tianqing Fruits and the array disk. We must stop him!"
The young man in the lead narrowed his eyes, speaking coldly. "Chu Lao, track him!"
"Yes, young master!"
The lean elder, Chu Zhang, bowed and summoned a fiery red bird from his storage bag. The bird flew out through the tunnel.
"Let's go!"
Chu Ping glanced around the cave, his face grim as he chased after the bird. The beautiful young woman in yellow followed closely behind.