340: Chapter 340: Jade Spirit's Essence

"King from beyond, you should not have intruded into the territory of another clan."

Just as Nie Ning was pondering a way to respond, a gentle female voice reached his ears.

Nie Ning scanned his surroundings, but all he saw were the Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies constantly flapping their wings.

'King from beyond?'

For a moment, Nie Ning didn't quite understand the meaning behind that female voice.

"I mean no ill intent. I will be leaving this place very soon."

After a moment's thought, Nie Ning spoke toward the outside of the barrier.

Whatever the case, the most important thing was to stabilize the current situation and wait for Xiao Guang to complete the transformation.

Nie Ning waited for a while, but there was no response from the other side.

As more and more Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies gathered, the entire barrier shook violently under the force of the gale, as if it might collapse at any moment.

Just as Nie Ning was thinking that a great battle might be inevitable, the Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies surrounding him suddenly parted to form a path, and a Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Fly that was significantly larger than the others flew over.

Not only was it twice as large, but it also had a single horn on its forehead and bright golden stripes across its body.

Its aura was also much stronger than the other Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies, having reached at least the fourth rank!

Nie Ning looked on guard. Was it this Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Fly that was speaking?

The bright Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Fly flew next to the barrier, holding a mass of unknown golden slime in its legs. It then pushed it toward Nie Ning inside the barrier, seemingly gesturing for him to take it.

"This is Jade Spirit Marrow; it can help your companion recover more quickly."

The gentle female voice rang out once more.

Nie Ning was puzzled, but he could sense that it wasn't the Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Fly in front of him that was speaking.

As for this Jade Spirit Marrow, Nie Ning had never heard of it, though it was possible he was simply ill-informed.

Sensing the goodwill being shown, Nie Ning hesitated for a moment before waving his hand to summon the xielin turtle shield to protect the evolving Xiao Guang, and only then did he deactivate the barrier.

Since a fourth-rank Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Fly had appeared, there might be even more formidable beings present.

If a fight broke out, even the fifth-rank Xiao Guang might not be their match, and they might not even be able to handle this swarm of Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies.

In an instant, a gale blew through. Nie Ning's sleeves fluttered in the wind, and the terrifying air pressure even distorted the shape of his face.

The surrounding Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies did not attack, remaining floating in the area outside the original barrier's range.

The bright Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Fly flew forward and handed the mass of Jade Spirit Marrow to Nie Ning.

"Thank you."

Nie Ning took the Jade Spirit Marrow and offered his thanks.

"Do not linger. Leave quickly once the transformation is complete."

The female voice entered Nie Ning's ears, and immediately after, the surrounding Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies began to retreat.

In a short while, peace returned to the surroundings, with only an occasional breeze blowing from afar.

Nie Ning looked at the Jade Spirit Marrow in his hand, then at the direction in which the Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies had left, somewhat confused by the situation.

A large swarm of Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies had arrived out of nowhere. He thought they were here for war, but unexpectedly, they had come to deliver a treasure.

Furthermore, the behavior of these Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies was truly strange.

Under normal circumstances, they likely would have attacked an intruder long ago, giving them no room to breathe.

'King from beyond?'

Nie Ning didn't quite understand the origin of this title. Could they have mistaken him for someone else?

Feeling the violent fluctuations of energy behind him, Nie Ning stopped thinking about the subject.

Turning around, he saw green light flashing around Xiao Guang; it was clearly a critical moment.

Nie Ning looked at the Jade Spirit Marrow in his hand. It contained a gentle energy, and one could tell it was something good just by looking at the surface.

After a slight hesitation, thinking of the goodwill shown by the Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies, Nie Ning tossed the Jade Spirit Marrow toward Xiao Guang.

Given the sheer numbers of the Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies, they wouldn't need other methods if they wanted to kill them.

As the Jade Spirit Marrow floated toward Xiao Guang, it transformed into a golden aurora-like ribbon in mid-air and then merged into the green light fox.

Immediately after, Xiao Guang's bloodline power began to recover, and the green fox shadow shrouding his body slowly turned a pale gold.

Seeing this, Nie Ning shook his head slightly.

"It seems we'll need to wait a bit longer."

Judging by the current trend, at least the result was positive.

Moreover, Nie Ning hadn't expected the Jade Spirit Marrow to be so helpful to Xiao Guang; it was actually a treasure that could rapidly restore bloodline power.

This way, once Xiao Guang finished the evolution, he wouldn't need to spend time replenishing the bloodline power depleted by the human form transformation.

In terms of time, this saved at least three to five months, or even half a year.

And that was assuming Nie Ning had the money and could actually collect treasures to supplement bloodline power.

If any problems arose during that period, the timeline would be pushed back; for a normal exotic beast, the recovery period would be at least three to five years.

Fortunately, it was a fifth-rank human form transformation; otherwise, the required recovery time would only get longer the later it happened.

Of course, if it were earlier, there wouldn't be the ability to take human form at all; in fact, the bloodline power of most exotic beasts didn't even support human form transformation.

...

...

Time passed bit by bit, and in a flash, a week had already gone by.

During this time, the Golden-Patterned Wind-Gathering Flies never appeared again, as if they had never existed.

Only the Triangular Boundless Weasels often ran over. Nie Ning had no idea what those little fellows were thinking.

Xiao Guang's transformation was taking longer than Nie Ning had anticipated.

However, most of the time was being spent on recovering bloodline power.

Nie Ning was in no hurry. Although Xiao Guang was taking human form, he was still an exotic beast after all and had a strong dependence on bloodline power.

Or rather, to rapidly increase strength, one needed sufficient bloodline power to maintain it.

And when the bloodline reached its peak, the road ahead could only be walked by Xiao Guang himself.

Looking back at the endless number of exotic beasts, those who could break through the limitations of their bloodline were few and far between.

For exotic beasts, bloodline was both an aid and a shackle, and taking human form might be the way to break that deadlock.

Nie Ning glanced at Xiao Guang and then continued to tinker with the things in his hands—it was still gene potion.

Fourth-rank exotic beasts were hard to find, so Nie Ning had naturally kept some exotic beast flesh for himself, wanting to extract the energy contained within the bloodline.

Moreover, he had originally thought Xiao Guang would finish the evolution quickly; who would have thought it would take so long?

So, in order not to waste time, Nie Ning prepared to use the gene potion.

Before long, the gene potion was ready.

By now, Nie Ning was becoming more and more adept at making gene potions.

Looking at the red potion in his hand, a strange look flashed across Nie Ning's face.

This was a potion made from the genes of an exotic beast nearly at the fifth rank; the effect should be very good.

With that thought, Nie Ning checked the barrier, and after confirming there were no issues, he downed the two bottles of gene potion in his hand in one gulp.

...