The Hellfire Salamander darted into the mountain crevice in the blink of an eye, eyeing the figure only three or four yards ahead. It opened its maw and unleashed another attack. But suddenly, it felt a constriction, a squeezing sensation coming from all around its body. Unbeknownst to it, the space within the mountain crevice was shrinking. The Hellfire Salamander paused, seemingly stuck in the narrow opening. The beast roared, its body erupting in flames as it forcefully wriggled its body, squeezing itself free. Zhang Ling naturally wouldn't let it escape. He manipulated a hand seal, and the earth and rocks around the Hellfire Salamander churned, as if alive, burying the beast within. Simultaneously, he raised his hand, which emitted a brilliant golden light. A square golden brick was tossed above his head. Streams of spiritual power poured into the magical artifact, causing the golden brick to rapidly expand. Rumble! A loud crash echoed as the earth and rocks before him shattered, and flames and dust filled the air. The Hellfire Salamander spat flames as it burst out from the earth and rocks. It immediately launched a massive fireball towards him. Zhang Ling didn't confront the fireball. His speed increased as he flashed into another passage. His spiritual power continued to flow, still fueling the golden brick artifact. Meanwhile, the vine on his left arm dragged along the ground, splitting into writhing tendrils. These tendrils gradually turned blue-black on the ground, quickly growing into thick, thorny vines that ensnared the pursuing Hellfire Salamander. Although the iron thorns were tough, the demonic beast was too powerful. The iron thorns wrapped around it were instantly incinerated.
Seeing this, Zhang Ling coldly snorted. He was well-prepared, with more traps awaiting the beast. With a thought, the vine on his left arm stretched out, splitting into more iron thorns, constantly hindering the Hellfire Salamander's advance. He maintained a distance of three yards from the beast, continuously manipulating the golden brick artifact while harassing it with iron thorns. The Hellfire Salamander was also formidable, relentlessly pursuing him. Its fire spiritual power was pushed to its limits. If he hadn't altered the surrounding terrain with earth spiritual power, greatly restricting the beast's movements, he wouldn't have been able to remain so composed. After a few breaths, the golden brick artifact had grown to the size of a millstone. Zhang Ling wasn't in a hurry to use the golden brick to attack. Instead, he took out several black gourds and hurled them towards the Hellfire Salamander. The black gourds exploded in mid-air, forming a cloud of colorful smoke. This was Five-Color Smoke, originally a technique used by mortal martial artists. Through years of practice, its power had greatly increased. He had added several highly poisonous spiritual herbs to it. Moreover, the spiritual herbs were all a hundred years old. Even a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator would die instantly upon contact, and the same was true for demonic beasts. The Five-Color Smoke enveloped the Hellfire Salamander, and the beast immediately emitted painful roars. Then, booming explosions of flames erupted within the smoke as the Hellfire Salamander burst out, covered in patches of green spots of varying sizes. These spots continued to expand, emitting a strong, rotten stench. Moreover, intense flames erupted from the beast's body, rapidly expelling wisps of black poisonous gas. Zhang Ling frowned slightly. The beast had a strong resistance to his specially formulated poisonous smoke, and it seemed to have little effect. Thinking this, his hand movements didn't stop. He controlled the golden brick with his spiritual sense, smashing it down fiercely. With a loud crash, the golden brick struck the Hellfire Salamander's head, instantly smashing the demonic beast into the ground. The demonic beast suffered a fatal injury. Its eyes bulged, and its large head was covered in blood. However, its vitality was tenacious, and it continued to roll on the ground, not dying for the time being. Zhang Ling showed no trace of pity. The golden brick artifact spun in the air and crashed down again on the beast's head with a boom. After several heavy blows, half of the Hellfire Salamander's head was smashed to pieces. The beast shook its body a few times in resentment before finally dying. After killing the Hellfire Salamander, Zhang Ling didn't hesitate to go to the rock wall where the Flame Yang Flower seedling grew. He reached into his robe with one hand and took out the mysterious bead, examining the changes on it. Calculating the time, there was less than an hour left until midnight.
Speaking of which, the time it took to kill the Hellfire Salamander wasn't long, but fully activating the golden brick artifact and the preparations beforehand had consumed a lot of spiritual power. Zhang Ling sat next to the stone wall, swallowed a few pills, and began to recover his consumed spiritual power. In the blink of an eye, the time arrived. He eagerly opened his right hand, and the earthy yellow round bead didn't disappoint him. It had once again condensed a layer of thin ice. He activated his spiritual power, and the thin ice on the bead melted into several drops of water, which were guided by his spiritual power onto the Flame Yang Flower seedling. He only needed to wait quietly, and soon he would obtain a mature Flame Yang Flower. A look of joy couldn't help but appear on Zhang Ling's face. As long as the Flame Yang Flower had thirty years of medicinal power, it could be used to refine Foundation Establishment Pills. He used all of the mysterious thin ice on this Flame Yang Flower, and in a few hours, he would have a hundred-year-old spiritual herb. He wondered what the value of a hundred-year-old Flame Yang Flower would be and whether it could be exchanged for a Foundation Establishment Pill. Afterward, Zhang Ling released his spiritual sense to carefully search the surroundings, hoping to find more Flame Yang Flowers. However, after searching the surrounding area for several miles, he didn't find a second Flame Yang Flower, but he did find three pieces of Purple Heart Stone. Two of them were the size of a thumb, and the last one was the size of a fist. Such a large Purple Heart Stone was also quite valuable. Several hours later, the Flame Yang Flower finished growing. The original small grass had grown to half a person's height, with thick roots and fiery patterns on it. The most dazzling thing was the several flame-shaped flowers growing on it. Zhang Ling took out a white jade box from his storage bag, dug up the Flame Yang Flower along with its roots, placed it in the jade box, and attached two spiritual talismans to it. After carefully preserving it, he stored it in his storage bag. With this Flame Yang Flower, he finally breathed a long sigh of relief and felt much more at ease. Afterward, he returned the way he came. When he passed the place where the Hellfire Salamander died, the demonic beast was lying motionless on the ground, its flesh and blood a mess, emitting a nauseating smell. Zhang Ling took a sniff and felt dizzy. After being killed by him, the Five-Color Smoke's poison hadn't been completely eliminated from the beast's body, and it had now corroded the beast's body. Its entire body of materials was now useless. Zhang Ling cast a spell on the ground, and a surge of earth and rocks buried the demonic beast on the spot. After his improvement, the Five-Color Smoke's power had greatly increased, but this kind of poison was in the form of smoke. For cultivators who were prepared, the effect wasn't great. After all, cultivators would activate their spiritual power shields during fights. Although the spiritual power shield's defense wasn't strong, it was better than a defensive magic weapon because it covered the whole body, making it difficult for the Five-Color Smoke to harm cultivators with such full-body defense. However, it was a good method for dealing with demonic beasts. After all, demonic beasts had low intelligence, and even if they were strong, they wouldn't deliberately defend against this kind of attack, making it much easier to succeed.