I Can Devour Spirits

He reclined on a branch, crossing one leg over the other.

Without looking, he knew what the scene in the clearing of the dense forest was like: all kinds of poisonous insects, snakes, and ants crawling out, teeming everywhere.

To avoid triggering his fear of crowds, he didn’t even look and took this opportunity to rest.

Duan Rong napped on the branch for a while before turning his head, where he saw two piles of dark objects with blurred edges in the clearing of the dense forest...

Those were gathered by the poisonous insects...

Duan Rong jumped down from the tree and filled two sacks with poisonous insects.

At this time, the dusk had already settled faintly in the dense forest. Duan Rong, carrying two sacks, hurriedly walked to a particular place in the forest; it was feeding day for the Black Blood Vine, as it was every three days.

After feeding the Black Blood Vine, Duan Rong exited the vine-entwined stone wall, and the sky was already completely dark.

Duan Rong grasped two empty sacks, his figure flashing in the dense forest. He was preparing to wash off his body in the forest’s pond before returning.

Feeling refreshed, Duan Rong carried an empty wooden bucket, with the two empty sacks stuffed inside, back to his cave.

Duan Rong placed the empty wooden bucket in the corner of the cave entrance, then walked straight to the stone bed and climbed up.

In the dark cave, Duan Rong’s eyes shone brightly.

He climbed onto the stone bed, sat cross-legged, and began to regulate his breathing, calming down slowly. With each breath, True Qi started circulating through his meridians.

After a few breaths, Duan Rong flipped his hand, tossing a Yang Pill into his mouth.

He knew in his heart that this night would be another sleepless, monotonous night of cultivation.

And so, day by day, time passed. In this undisturbed cave, Duan Rong once again embarked on his extreme self-exertion of mad cultivation.

Nourished by the power of refining two Yang Pills a night, the True Qi within his body gradually grew stronger and more concentrated at a pace visible to the naked eye.

In the evening three days later, Duan Rong once again lugged two bulging sacks into the depths of the cave where the Black Blood Vine was located.

Every time he entered this cave, the damp, decaying air made Duan Rong feel uneasy all over.

Duan Rong held a torch as he walked to the edge of the damp, dark rock layer, his eyes catching sight of two bloody deer hides, clearly freshly skinned.

It seems that Chen Hu had already come to feed with blood food.

Duan Rong set down one sack and grabbed the other when suddenly black rain poured down, the poisonous insects in the sack scattering with a crackling around one of the Black Blood Vines.

Duan Rong discarded the now-empty sack, repeated the process, and scattered poisonous insects around another Black Blood Vine.

Duan Rong picked up the two empty sacks, about to leave; he was already aware of the Black Blood Vine’s feeding method. It would turn the blood food and poisonous insects into ooze, absorbing it through the vine, converting it into nutrients for growth.

The ooze produced by the vine was extremely foul, and Duan Rong didn’t want to stay a moment longer since he knew the stench would soon spread...

Just as Duan Rong turned to leave, he suddenly furrowed his brow, staring at the crown of one of the Black Blood Vines.

Duan Rong knew very well that each of the two Black Blood Vines had two fruits on their crowns, glowing with a cyan luminescence.

But at this moment, one of the fruits on one of the Black Blood Vines no longer emitted a cyan glow—instead, it shone with a pale red glow, and in that red glow, black spots seemed to be floating...

”Is it... mature?”

Duan Rong was unsure if, during Chen Hu’s blood feeding, he had noticed that a fruit on the Black Blood Vine had matured.

He decided to inform Pan Yong of this matter first thing in the morning.

This was something Pan Yong had instructed him to do: if he discovered a Black Blood Vine fruit had matured, he should remember to tell him.