Chapter 406: Little Peng's Awakening

Inside Little Peng's body, the demon core spun rapidly, greedily absorbing the surrounding Spirit Qi. With each rotation, the demon core shone brighter.

As it reached its limit, a faint cracking sound echoed from within the demon core, and cracks appeared on its surface, emitting brilliant rays of light. The outer layer of the demon core began to break apart along these cracks, revealing a radiant golden demon core inside.

The newly formed demon core continued to absorb the nearby Spirit Qi, rapidly increasing in size. With its growing volume, its absorption rate of Spirit Qi also accelerated. The swirling vortex formed by the gathering Spirit Qi was entirely drawn into Little Peng's body, as if this small Golden Core were a bottomless pit.

This area was originally not abundant in Spirit Qi, lacking even a small Spirit Vein. Many cultivators came here daily to absorb Spirit Qi, making it relatively sparse.

Now, the surrounding spiritual energy converged here, quickly turning it into a vacuum devoid of Spirit Qi.

Wang Hong, sitting at the entrance, felt the rapid decline in the concentration of Spirit Qi around him. The existing Spirit Qi was unlikely to support Little Peng's smooth advancement.

Long ago, Wang Hong had mastered a formation that could convert Spirit Stones into Spirit Qi. Later, as he became a formation master, he made some improvements to this simple formation.

He swiftly retrieved various materials for the formation from his Storage Bag and inscribed Runes on the ground. Due to the insufficient supply of Spirit Qi, Little Peng's newly expanded demon core began to lose its form, dimming, and shrinking slowly.

Within a quarter of an hour, Wang Hong had completed the formation and then took out a hundred thousand low-grade Spirit Stones to install into it. The dense Spirit Qi produced by these Spirit Stones was instantly absorbed by Little Peng. The demon core, which had shriveled just moments ago, began to expand once again.

Wang Hong watched as the Spirit Stones in the Transmutation Array gradually lost their luster and turned into ordinary stones. He immediately added another half a million Spirit Stones.

At this moment, the phantom of the Golden-Winged Roc in the sky had already taken shape. It dived down into the Spirit Qi vortex, merging with it and entering Little Peng's demon core. Inside the demon core, a very small Golden-Winged Roc phantom appeared, seemingly coming to life, soaring within its demon core.

With the Golden-Winged Roc phantom inside the demon core, the external Spirit Qi gradually began to stabilize.

"Senior Brother Chu, do all Demon Clan members have such a grand ceremony when advancing to the third tier?" Gu Yuan asked Sloppy Old Daoist. He had witnessed several Human Clan cultivators advancing to the Golden Core stage, and the extent of Spirit Qi disturbance was smaller than what he saw here.

"It's not the case for all Demon Clan members. Generally, it's similar to our Human Clan. This Spirit Beast should have better bloodlines or a deeper foundation," Sloppy Old Daoist replied.

"Let's disperse! Nothing more to see here," Sloppy Old Daoist announced to the onlookers below and then returned to his cave mansion.

Other cultivators, seeing the dissipating Spirit Qi, also dispersed to their respective homes. However, excitement filled their hearts as they dreamed of one day forming their own Golden Core.

No one knew which member of the East Zhou Trading Company had advanced to the Golden Core stage, but it was time to prepare some gifts for a visit.

Many silently rejoiced that they had maintained a good relationship with the East Zhou Trading Company.

After more than ten days, Little Peng's demon core had stabilized. When he emerged from his meditation room, he saw Wang Hong guarding the entrance, and with outstretched wings, Little Peng flew towards Wang Hong.

Then, spreading its wings, Little Peng embraced Wang Hong in one swift motion, and its beak opened and closed repeatedly.

"Ah, ah, um, um, oh..."

Little Peng struggled to produce various syllables from its beak, resembling the babbling of a baby learning to speak.

After some time adapting to vocalizing, it seemed that Little Peng gradually mastered the technique of pronunciation.

"Mom! Mom!"

Surprisingly, the first sentence Little Peng learned to say was this. Wang Hong was at a loss and turned his head aside, pretending not to hear, hoping that Little Peng was just learning to make sounds and was randomly calling out.

"Mom! Mom!"

Little Peng turned and continued to call out.

Wang Hong's last hope was shattered, and he hoped that no one had heard this.

"Don't call me 'Mom'! I'm not your mother!" Wang Hong corrected.

Little Peng fell silent for a long time, seemingly deep in thought. After a while, it turned its head.

"Dad! Dad!"

Apparently, after thinking for a long time, this was the answer it came up with.

"I'm not your dad either. You weren't born to me. Haven't you noticed that you don't look like me? I found you." Wang Hong explained, fearing that Little Peng might come up with some strange names.

It seemed that even though Little Peng had advanced, its intelligence hadn't improved much. Wasn't it said that Demonic Beasts would gain sentience when they reached the third tier? Why wasn't it showing any signs of intelligence?

Oh well, Wang Hong thought, there was nothing he could do about it. At least now Little Peng had the strength of a Golden Core, and in the future, it could communicate with other Golden Core cultivators, even if its vocabulary was limited.

At that moment, a Transmission Talisman arrived from outside the door, and it turned out to be Gu Yuan and Sloppy Old Daoist coming to visit.

Naturally, they had come to congratulate Little Peng on reaching the third tier. Now that Wang Hong had a third-tier Spirit Beast, his strength was not far behind the Golden Core Elders, granting him equal status among them.

Since it was a congratulatory visit, they couldn't come empty-handed, and each brought a gift of third-tier materials.

Wang Hong personally prepared a Spirit Meal and some Spirit Wine to entertain them.

After the two Golden Core Elders left, it was the turn of Foundation Building cultivators to come with their gifts and congratulations. Almost the entire camp, everyone who could walk, came to congratulate Wang Hong.

After receiving the gifts, Wang Hong decided to host a banquet for all these cultivators.

The cultivators didn't hold back and took advantage of this opportunity to enjoy Wang Hong's generous hospitality. After all, at Wang Hong's banquet, there were various Spirit Meals, Spirit Wine, and Spirit Fruit, all of which were now difficult to obtain even with Spirit Stones.

Two days later, all these matters were finally settled, and Wang Hong rode Little Peng out of the camp. He wanted to find a place to test Little Peng's current strength.

Sitting on Little Peng's back, he felt the surrounding scenery rapidly receding. At this speed, there were currently no Spiritual Weapons in his possession that could match Little Peng's speed.

With Little Peng by his side, escaping danger would be much easier in the future. However, with a third-tier Demonic Beast as his fighting companion, why would he need to run?

Little Peng carried Wang Hong into a secluded, uninhabited forest, where it spread its wings to both sides, sweeping away trees and boulders.

Then, this man and bird found a remote spot to practice.

Two hours later, the man and bird took flight from the forest and headed back to the camp. However, the person on Little Peng's back was already covered in injuries.

Wang Hong noticed that after Little Peng advanced, two golden feathers had appeared on its wings. These two feathers could be used for long-range attacks and had quite formidable power.

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay