While he was defending, three more white mist figures appeared, making it five in total. Zhang Ling continuously released iron brambles to block the approach of these figures. However, he couldn't help but admire the person controlling them, able to manipulate five clones simultaneously. This person had definitely put in a lot of effort in their spellcasting. Zhang Ling didn't dare to be careless. He grabbed a cyan spirit talisman in his hand and channeled spiritual power into it, causing the talisman to transform into a small wind vortex. A whooshing sound arose, suddenly turning into a gust of wind. The wind vortex rapidly expanded, centered around him, quickly growing into a whirlwind. This was a hurricane spirit talisman, sealing a low-tier, mid-level wind-attribute hurricane spell. The wind vortex instantly expanded to fifteen or twenty feet in diameter and dozens of feet in height, forming a small tornado. The white mist figures were immediately sucked into it, tossed around, unable to maintain their form, and dissipated into white smoke. At the same time, the tornado also blew apart the iron brambles underfoot, sending them flying into the sky. The wind vortex came and went quickly. After a few breaths, the hurricane dissipated. Zhang Ling stood in place, the black flying sword orbiting around him, his divine sense fully extended, searching for Wu Shan's tracks. Then, a flash of white light appeared behind him, and a white mist figure silently released several ice spikes. By the time he noticed, the ice spikes were only inches away. There was no time to dodge. At this critical moment, Zhang Ling slightly twitched his shoulder. Suddenly, several finger-thick vines emerged from below his neck, whipping around and knocking away the sneak attack's ice spikes.
Zhang Ling twisted his body, shifting about ten feet to the left. At that moment, another flash of white light appeared overhead, and a delicate dagger manifested, quickly stabbing straight down. Zhang Ling's expression remained unchanged. His left arm swung upward first, and a green vine shot out from his sleeve, instantly extending and striking the area dozens of feet above his head. With a loud bang, Wu Shan's figure, originally in the empty space above, was revealed and sent flying backward, crashing heavily to the ground. He rolled several times on the ground. If it weren't for the spiritual energy shield on his body, he would have been seriously injured or killed by the heavy blow from the vine. Just as Wu Shan flipped himself up, a flash of red light passed before his eyes. A slender flying needle pierced his forehead, and he fell back to the ground, a look of disbelief on his face. Zhang Ling snorted softly, expressionlessly snatching two storage bags from the person's body, and also taking the dagger magic tool that had just attacked him into his storage bag. His divine sense swept around, but the female cultivator surnamed Li was long gone. She seemed to have taken the opportunity to escape while he was dealing with Wu Shan. Zhang Ling felt somewhat annoyed. Looking not far away, Bai Heng and the black-robed man were fighting fiercely. Bai Heng's yellow jade fan floated in mid-air, releasing arcs of wind blades. At the same time, he was also controlling two other magic tools: a small white light shield, which surrounded his body and emitted a layer of dense white light, and a golden small sword. This person, with his peak Qi Refining cultivation, displayed considerable skill in controlling three magic tools, but he was still at a disadvantage. The black-clothed man surnamed Guo had the upper hand. He retracted his silver ring magic tool and was now wielding a section of white bone claw, its spiritual power fluctuations were very strong, not comparable to ordinary high-grade magic tools. The white bone claw was actually a top-grade magic tool. With one grab, it caused Bai Heng's protective shield to tremble and develop cracks, indicating that it wouldn't last long. Zhang Ling didn't interfere in their fight, quickly heading towards the nearby cave. On the way to the cave, he patted his storage bag and took out a jade bottle, pouring two milky-white pills into his mouth. These were Spirit Returning Pills, the best pills that Qi Refining cultivators could use to restore spiritual power, costing ten spirit stones each. He had consumed more than half of his spiritual power in the previous fierce battle. Now that he had the opportunity, he naturally wanted to recover. His goal was the Flame Sun Flower, so it was best to pick it as soon as possible. He entered the cave, and with a sweep of his divine sense, he discovered two half-human-sized lizard demon beasts at the cave entrance. They were already dead. Zhang Ling quickly walked inside the cave. The cave was wide but not deep, only about forty feet in size. He reached the end in a few steps. At the innermost part, there was an underground hollow, like a well opening, with hot magma gurgling and bubbling.
On the mountain wall beside the hollow, there were some traces of excavation. Seeing this, Zhang Ling's heart sank. Someone had beaten him to it. Instantly, he thought of the female cultivator surnamed Li who had escaped earlier. It was most likely that she had taken the spiritual herbs before fleeing. Although the several mature Flame Sun Flowers had been taken, after scanning the cave with his divine sense, he discovered two Flame Sun Flower saplings in a corner. They didn't look to be even ten years old, but they were exactly what he wanted. Zhang Ling quickly took out two jade boxes, sealed the two Flame Sun Flowers with their roots and soil, and put them into his storage bag. Then, he quickly headed towards the cave entrance. As he approached the cave entrance, Zhang Ling's expression changed slightly. A golden spirit talisman appeared in his hand. He injected spiritual power into it, activating the talisman, which transformed into a layer of golden light that enveloped his entire body. At the same time, he held up the tortoise shell shield and slowed his pace towards the cave entrance. Because there was no sound of fighting outside, he had to be cautious. At the cave entrance, his speed suddenly increased. He flashed out of the cave and into the outside, but at the same time, a golden light flashed before his eyes, and a golden beam of light shot over. With a loud bang, Zhang Ling was directly sent flying dozens of feet away, and three golden bronze mirrors surrounded him. As expected, there was an ambush. Cursing inwardly, Zhang Ling quickly shook his left hand, and the vine grew out again, instantly wrapping around a nearby boulder. Using the pulling force, he escaped the encirclement of the light mirrors. Before he could stand firmly on the ground, the sound of rushing wind came from beside him. Without thinking, Zhang Ling threw out his flying sword. There was a crisp clang, and the black sword collided with a white shadow and was knocked away. His face darkened, and the tortoise shell shield blocked in front of him, blocking the attack. At the same time, he controlled the flying sword that had been knocked away to deflect the white shadow attacking the shield. However, there were already several nicks on the blade of the flying sword. "You do have some tricks up your sleeve." A soft snort came from the front. The black-robed cultivator waved his hand, retrieved the golden bronze mirror, and pointed at the white bone claw in the air, transforming it into a giant claw several feet in size, which slammed heavily onto the tortoise shell shield, causing a scratching sound. This top-grade magic tool was the white shadow that had attacked him earlier. Zhang Ling didn't dare to be careless, and quickly poured spiritual power into the tortoise shell shield, while also controlling the flying sword to intercept the white bone claw. However, four or five long, clear claw marks had appeared on the shield. After a series of clanging sounds, he barely managed to withstand the attacks. His flying sword and tortoise shell shield were both high-grade magic tools, but they were damaged in one exchange. It was clear that the person's beast claw magic tool had terrifying attack power. Zhang Ling fully activated his flying sword, and once again deflected the white bone claw, he patted his storage bag and took out a small earthen yellow shield, changed his hand seals, and placed both shields in front of him. The black-robed cultivator also fully activated the white bone claw, which emitted strands of green light. The tips of the claws gradually turned cyan-black, like iron claws, and attacked again with the sound of rushing wind. Zhang Ling continuously controlled the flying sword to resist, while injecting most of his spiritual power into the earthen yellow shield. A piece of earth and stone under his feet condensed onto the shield, quickly forming a huge earth and stone shield. Unlike the earthen yellow shield in the outside world, the earth element shield here was now a reddish-black color. This was because the environment here was special and the ground was hard. Therefore, the defensive power of this magic tool was increased by 10-20% out of thin air. However, there were also weaknesses, which was that the speed at which this magic tool condensed earth and stone was much slower here. It was not as flexible as the tortoise shell shield, which was the main reason why he had not used this magic tool before. Now he had three layers of defense, the outermost layer was the tortoise shell shield, the middle layer was the earth element shield. The innermost layer was the golden light shield formed by the spirit talisman. This was a "Golden Light Talisman" with outstanding defensive power, a gold-attribute defensive spirit talisman, whose defensive power was even stronger than the two shields. With three layers of defense, Zhang Ling felt relieved, and with his right hand, he reached into the collar of his chest and took out a cyan talisman.