Chapter 241: Chapter 196: The Materials are Ready
The scene inside the Black Tower was too eerie, and Han Ning had no desire to linger.
After successfully killing a Shadow Reaper, he took its corpse and headed straight back without a moment’s hesitation.
The farther they got from the Black Tower, the more Fei Lin’s trembling subsided. She returned to her usual innocent, curious self, sucking her thumb and nestled quietly in Han Ning’s arms, as if what had just transpired had never happened.
’I wonder what Level those two Soul Beasts in the Black Tower are... To be protected by a group of Shadow Reapers with C Talent, they must be special in some way.’
Even though they were far from the Black Tower, Han Ning remained intensely curious about what he had seen inside.
From the architectural style to the interior layout, the civilization that had erected these structures clearly had an aesthetic very similar to that of humans.
Unfortunately, the area was too dangerous to explore for the time being.
Once they had made their way back to the Secluded Lake, Han Ning signaled for Yin Yi to place the Shadow Reaper’s corpse on the ground.
It could phase through stone doors and was immune to some physical attacks, but it wasn’t invincible. It couldn’t resist attacks of Spiritual Energy, and it had ultimately fallen to Yin Yi’s overwhelming assault of Flower Thorns.
This Shadow Reaper was about two meters tall. Its most striking feature was its four scythe-like appendages, which completely lacked any normal limb structure. They were, for all intents and purposes, four exceptionally sharp, pale blades.
It was less a living creature and more a biological weapon.
Han Ning estimated its power didn’t surpass the Extraordinary Limit, let alone the War General Level. Compared to other Shadow Reapers, it was probably just a ’little guy.’
However, the panel hadn’t specified a required Level for the Shadow Reaper’s blood, so a sample from an Extraordinary Level creature should be more than enough for Fei Lin.
He didn’t rush to have Egg Pancake dissect the Shadow Reaper’s corpse. Instead, he planned to preserve its Body and take it back to the academy so the instructors could study just how this type of Soul Beast was able to shift between tangible and intangible states.
Using the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm’s blood-draining ability, Han Ning extracted nearly two-thirds of the creature’s blood before pulling the sharp tendril from its body.
The extracted blood was a faint, ghostly green. Under the glow of Spiritual Energy, it looked like a pool of ethereal fluid, shimmering with a faint light.
Beside him, Fei Lin’s small nose twitched, and a look of longing spread across her face.
"You can’t drink it yet."
Han Ning stroked Fei Lin’s soft hair. He lifted her into his arms as he stood up and scanned their surroundings.
He breathed an inward sigh of relief. Acquiring the Shadow Reaper blood, the most difficult component, had gone far more smoothly than he’d anticipated.
Aside from the blood and a few other essential materials that Aketu could provide, he was now missing only one ingredient: something called "Dark Spring."
Compared to the other ingredients, the Dark Spring seemed much easier to obtain.
By searching through the ancestral knowledge of the Yinsaike Race, Han Ning learned that a Dark Spring was simply a liquid that contained a certain amount of Dark Energy and Death Energy. Its counterpart was the Life Spirit Spring.
Typically, a Dark Spring was likely to form in places rich with Dark Energy and where numerous corpses were buried. It was thought that when nearby water sources were exposed to both types of energy over long periods, they would undergo a miraculous transformation.
’A Dark Spring... isn’t that just like the place where I found Fei Lin’s body?’
Han Ning thought back and realized that the small pool where they had encountered the Winged Demon fit the description of a Dark Spring perfectly.
Before leaving that place, they had even collected a small sample of the spring water. But the quantity had been too small, and so far, no research had yielded any definitive conclusions.
’I wonder how far I am from that Dark Pool...’
Han Ning gazed down into the pitch-black valley floor. After a moment of thought, he decided to use his Spirit Fusion Technique’s "radar" ability again. He would search for a place with a dense, deathly aura, while deliberately avoiding the direction where that aura was strongest.
The chances of a Dark Spring forming were much higher in a place with a dense, deathly aura. Surely, in a place as vast as the Mist Deep Valley, there had to be more than one.
He closed his eyes and entered a deep state of Meditation. Through his Spiritual Perception, the world around him once again dissolved into colorful particles and clouds of energy of all shapes and sizes.
The black ones were Dark Type Spiritual Particles.
The grayish-white ones were the Energy Particles that signified the Undead.
Aside from the direction to the northeast where the aura was densest, the second most Vigorous concentration was due north.
And so, Han Ning packed his things and set off once more, heading north.
...
Han Ning continued to search, probing the area as he went. Whenever he passed a place with a relatively dense deathly aura, he would dispatch a Ghost Bee to investigate and confirm whether a Dark Spring was present.
But after investigating four locations with a noticeably stronger aura, he found nothing. They were merely the habitats of some Dark Type Soul Beasts, with no sign of a Dark Spring.
Han Ning wasn’t discouraged, however. He simply continued his search.
About an hour later, they crossed through sparse patches of decaying grassland. A forest of pale, dead bones, a Skeleton Forest, appeared before them, its "trees" ranging from a few to over ten meters high.
This wasn’t the first time Han Ning had seen a Skeleton Forest constructed from the stark white bones of dead Soul Beasts. He had seen a similar sight with the other instructors and students when he first entered the Mist Deep Valley.
After weaving between the bone-trees for several hundred meters, they came upon two massive, collapsed bones that lay crisscrossed over each other, narrowing the path ahead.
"Eee! Eee!"
Fei Lin pointed at the gap between the collapsed bones, squealing excitedly.
After walking a few dozen more steps, a narrow passage, sloping gently downward into the earth, was revealed at their feet.
