Mo Tiange did not hear the words of this Ling Family cultivator. If she had known, she would have been shocked by the sharpness of his gaze and would have become highly vigilant.
Although she possessed many magical treasures, they were all properly stored in her Qiankun Bag. The only thing she wore on her feet was a pair of Cloud-Treading Boots. The Cloud-Treading Boots were not a magical treasure that radiated spiritual energy, and few people would notice this treasure at a glance. Yet this Ling Family cultivator had said "so many treasures," making it unclear how he had perceived this.
Setting aside this Ling Family cultivator, Mo Tiange, led by the Qi Refining cultivator Xiaoshun, arrived at Cave Abode Earth Twenty-Three. After verifying it was correct, the Qi Refining cultivator took his leave and departed.
Mo Tiange entered this Blue Qi Cave Dwelling and carefully inspected it. The cave abode was set with a formation. On the surface, it appeared to be just an ordinary entry-restriction formation, but in reality, it concealed a hidden surveillance restriction. The Ling Family was a major cultivation clan subordinate to the Jiuyan Sect, holding absolute authority in Tianxue City. It was not strange for such a cultivation clan, possessing absolute power in a certain place, to employ some tricks. After all, those who rented their cave abodes were usually rogue cultivators who generally wouldn't discover this restriction, and even if they did, they couldn't say much about it.
Therefore, Mo Tiange merely made a slight adjustment, erasing this surveillance restriction. Afterwards, she set up her own formation, replacing the Ling Family's.
Entering the Void Heaven Realm, she released Xiaohuo and Xiaofan, letting them go about their cultivation. Just as she was about to take out her magical treasures to continue refining them, Xiaohuo, who had just been released from the Spirit Beast Bag, hurriedly ran in, suddenly bit Mo Tiange's sleeve, and pulled her outward.
"What's wrong?" Sensing Xiaohuo's anxious emotions, Mo Tiange was puzzled.
Xiaohuo, of course, couldn't answer, only pulling at her sleeve as it ran outside.
Mo Tiange followed it out of the cultivation chamber, heading towards the spirit beast chamber.
Xiaohuo slapped the door open with a paw and darted in first.
As soon as Mo Tiange entered, she was startled. She saw Feifei lying on the ground, motionless. Its originally golden fur had become much duller.
"How did this happen?" She rushed forward, picked Feifei up, and discovered its spiritual energy was very weak and its body was cold.
Although Feifei's cultivation wasn't high, it was very intelligent. Since forming the spirit beast contract with her, it had been like a fish in water within the Void Heaven Realm. Apart from occasionally pestering her to play, it never required her care. When thirsty or hungry, it would find food on its own. As for cultivation, there was little need to mention it; she just needed to frequently toss it some pills. But what was going on now?
Xiaohuo whimpered twice, circling Mo Tiange twice, looking very dejected.
Mo Tiange had no time to attend to it. Carrying Feifei back to her own cultivation chamber, she carefully probed the spiritual energy within its body.
The characteristic of the Feifei race was not powerful strength, but a unique affinity. Feifei was the same. The spiritual energy within its body was quite gentle, completely non-aggressive. Upon close contact, it gave one a feeling of holiness.
After a while, Mo Tiange withdrew her spiritual energy from Feifei's body and frowned. She had examined Feifei's meridians and Dantian but found nothing abnormal. Yet, the spiritual energy being very weak was a fact. What exactly was the problem? Had it eaten something, or had something gone wrong in its cultivation?
Regardless of which it was, with the spiritual energy showing no abnormalities, she was at a loss. Generally, when a cultivator or spirit beast had a problem, it would directly reflect in the spiritual energy. Then, by smoothing out the disordered spiritual energy, the injury would naturally heal. But Feifei's current situation was not like this, leaving Mo Tiange completely baffled.
She worried for a good while, only thinking of one method. Since the spiritual energy was weak, then she should replenish it. However, this approach carried some risk. If too much spiritual energy was replenished and it couldn't be withstood immediately, the meridians and Dantian could still be damaged.
After thinking for a moment, Mo Tiange gritted her teeth and made a decision. If she let Feifei continue like this, its spiritual energy would grow weaker and weaker, ultimately meeting an inevitable death. It was better to take a gamble.
Thinking this, she took out a jade bottle from her Qiankun Bag, poured out a pill, and fed it to Feifei.
Feifei still lay motionless, but soon, its body slowly began to warm up.
Seeing it was effective, Mo Tiange felt a surge of joy in her heart and continued to watch closely.
After a while, as the medicinal effect slowly weakened, she fed it another pill.
From then on, she kept repeating this process. When the spiritual energy dissipated, she would feed Feifei a pill. After a while, when the spiritual energy dissipated again, she would continue feeding it pills.
Days passed one after another. Feifei never woke up, but it also didn't die.
Mo Tiange called Xiaofan over, and with Xiaofan, they took turns feeding Feifei pills. Because she had left most of the pills with Qin Xi before departing, she had to open the alchemy furnace and refine pills once in the middle.
A month later, the spiritual energy within Feifei's body finally increased, not as sparse as before, and the rate of dissipation also slowed down.
Mo Tiange once again entered its meridians, following them deep into the Dantian, and finally discovered the source of the spiritual energy dissipation.
It turned out that within Feifei's Dantian, there was a faint cluster of spiritual energy. If one wasn't careful, it would be completely unnoticeable. This spiritual energy cluster seemed to be wrapping around something. She carefully probed with her spiritual energy and discovered it was a tiny thing, as weak as a speck of dust. It was this object that was slowly absorbing its spiritual energy.
Now, this speck of dust seemed to have eaten its fill, having swelled considerably compared to before, which was why Mo Tiange had discovered it.
Although she had found the source, this was an unknown object. Mo Tiange didn't dare to handle it recklessly and continued feeding Feifei pills, observing this speck of dust.
As more and more pills were fed, the dust finally stopped absorbing spiritual energy, and Feifei's body slowly warmed up.
Mo Tiange breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Feifei wouldn't die, she could slowly investigate the cause.
But Feifei still hadn't woken up. That speck of dust, having absorbed its fill of spiritual energy, slowly swelled, as if undergoing some change.
Several more months passed. Suddenly, this speck of dust exploded, releasing intense spiritual energy.
Mo Tiange was greatly alarmed, fearing it would injure Feifei's Dantian. But miraculously, Feifei's spiritual energy was extremely compatible with it, even separating a portion of its own spiritual energy to wrap around it, as if protecting it.
Witnessing this scene, a thought occurred to Mo Tiange: Could it be that this object was actually Feifei's own?
This was strange. If it was something produced within Feifei's own body, why did it frantically absorb its spiritual energy, nearly causing its death? If no one had been watching over it, feeding it pills to replenish its spiritual energy, wouldn't Feifei have been tormented to death by this thing?
This question, Mo Tiange couldn't answer now. She could only quietly wait for Feifei to wake up.
Surrounded by dense spiritual energy, the golden light on Feifei's body grew brighter and brighter. Gradually, its entire body was enveloped by a dazzling ball of golden light. Then, countless streams of spiritual energy surged towards its body.
Mo Tiange watched the scene before her, utterly astonished.
She knew what was happening. This was very similar to the situation when Xiaohuo advanced to the Fifth-Rank. Feifei was about to advance.
What happened next confirmed her guess.
Feifei never stopped the process of absorbing spiritual energy. The golden light flooded the entire cultivation chamber. Within the golden light, the fluctuations of Feifei's spiritual energy grew stronger and stronger, no longer as weak as before, but beginning to rise and fall, inhale and exhale, circulate and flow.
Confirming it was about to advance, Mo Tiange felt relieved. She left the cultivation chamber to it, found another room to sit in meditation and cultivate, and refine her magical treasures. Xiaohuo automatically stationed itself outside the door, guarding Feifei during its advancement.
Seeing this, Mo Tiange smiled knowingly. Within this Void Heaven Realm, Xiaohuo and Feifei had no other companions. The two spirit beasts had accompanied each other for decades and had a very good relationship. Back when Xiaohuo was advancing, Feifei had been so anxious it ran around in circles. Now that Feifei was advancing, Xiaohuo was the same. Spirit beasts were spirit beasts, also beings of heaven and earth. They too could possess human-like emotions.
Furthermore, she was very much looking forward to seeing Feifei after its advancement. She remembered when she was in Linhai, people from the Bixuan Pavilion had told her that the Feifei was a unique spirit beast. They didn't possess powerful spells but could peacefully coexist with other demonic beasts and were extremely sensitive to spiritual energy. However, their cultivation was extremely slow; generally, even adults only reached the Second or Third-Rank.
Within this Void Heaven Realm, Mo Tiange already thought it was quite good that Feifei could cultivate to the Fourth-Rank. If it advanced again, it would reach the Fifth-Rank.
A Fifth-Rank spirit beast was equivalent to a Core Formation cultivator. Probably, cultivators in Linhai had never seen a Fifth-Rank Feifei, right? She wondered if it would possess unique spells.
Among her three spirit beasts, Xiaofan and Xiaohuo were already Fifth-Rank. If Feifei also advanced to the Fifth-Rank, she would be the envy of other Core Formation cultivators. For them, obtaining one Fifth-Rank spirit beast was already difficult. Where would they find three? If not for the Void Heaven Realm, Mo Tiange also couldn't possibly have three Fifth-Rank spirit beasts. Raising spirit beasts required spending many pills. Most cultivators couldn't even guarantee their own pill supply, let alone casually feed them to spirit beasts?
In the following time, Mo Tiange refined her magical treasures while waiting for Feifei to advance. Due to the special circumstances of Feifei's advancement, she didn't dare to leave easily. She had to put other matters aside for later, waiting until Feifei's advancement was confirmed.
Several months later, the cultivation chamber where Feifei was finally stopped absorbing spiritual energy and erupted with dazzling golden light. This golden light spread out, almost dyeing the entire Void Heaven Realm gold, with spiritual lights dancing in the sky.
Mo Tiange reached out her hand and discovered specks of spiritual light distributed throughout the entire Void Heaven Realm. She was utterly amazed. The momentum of Feifei's advancement was actually much stronger than Xiaohuo's, somewhat resembling a cultivator forming their Core. Could this also be a characteristic of its race?
The spiritual lights persisted for about half a day before finally slowly dissipating, and the spiritual energy gradually returned to calm.
Mo Tiange stood outside the cultivation chamber, about to push open the door, when she heard a "creak." The cultivation chamber door had already been pushed open from the inside. Then, a ball of golden light pounced into her arms, and a tender voice sounded in her ear: "Master."
Mo Tiange held Feifei, whose body was still petite but whose aura was completely different, in utter astonishment: "Feifei, you... you can speak?"
Feifei rubbed against her in her arms, yawned, and said with great satisfaction, "Finally can speak. It was stifling me."
Mo Tiange was as if petrified. This... she knew Feifei wasn't an ordinary spirit beast, but such a tender, child-like voice, why did it have this old-fashioned, world-weary tone? Wasn't Feifei supposed to be a very cute, playful little spirit beast?