The strong liquor brought a faint blush to her delicate face, and her bright eyes looked slightly tipsy, adding a touch of alluring charm to her. This made the eyes of the young men, including Henry Collins, wander restlessly as they all stole glances at her.

Perhaps because she had drunk some wine, Julia Clark paid no attention to her manners. The exquisite breastplate wrapping her ample bosom had split at one corner, revealing a small patch of fair, tender skin that made Henry Collins and the others breathe faster.

“Stellar Iron…” Ryan Carter had also drunk a little, and murmured, relying on the memories in his mind: “Beyond this Silent Ridge, about forty li ahead, there’s a valley. In that valley, there’s a pond, and at the bottom of the pond, there might be Stellar Iron.”

“Who told you that?!” Eric Bennett suddenly stood up, looking excited. “Is that true?”

“My grandfather told me, so it should be right, but I’ve never been there myself, so I can’t be a hundred percent sure,” Ryan Carter replied.

“That’s much better than wandering around aimlessly!” Julia Clark’s face lit up with joy. She tossed her wine pouch to Ryan Carter and said heartily, “I’ll treat you to a drink first. If we really find Stellar Iron, your big brother Tu will definitely reward you well.”

“Of course!” Eric Bennett gave Ryan Carter a hearty slap on the shoulder and laughed, “Brother Lie is our lucky star!”

“Let’s drink, let’s drink!” Henry Collins and the others cheered.

Ryan Carter was surprised. Holding the wine pouch that Julia Clark had thrown over, he glanced at her teasing, playful gaze and smiled. He boldly brought the pouch to his lips and drank deeply. Faintly, he caught a whiff of a fragrance that didn’t belong to the wine, which stirred a ripple of longing in his young heart, making his thoughts wander uncontrollably.

Seeing the look of lingering enjoyment on Ryan Carter’s face, Julia Clark couldn’t help but laugh charmingly, her body shaking with mirth. “You little rascal, you’re quite interesting! Ha, when we find the Stellar Iron, big sis will treat you to another drink!”

“Alright,” Ryan Carter replied with flair.

……

Late at night, when all was quiet, Eric Bennett, Henry Collins, and the others slept soundly, their snores gradually rising.

Ryan Carter stayed by the campfire, pondering for a while before taking out a beast core and playing with it in his hand.

The beast core of a first-rank spirit beast, the Shadow Lightning Eagle, was diamond-shaped, about the size of a thumb, with a blue-green, translucent glow. Looking closely, one could faintly see tiny currents of electricity flowing inside.

Squinting his eyes, Ryan Carter quietly activated the Heavenly Thunder Punishment. A surge of suction burst forth from his palm!

“Hiss, hiss, hiss!”

The fine electric currents inside the blue-green beast core suddenly went wild, all rushing toward the meridians in his palm.

A slightly tingling, numbing sensation spread from Ryan Carter’s palm. He could clearly feel tiny threads of electricity sliding down his arm along his meridians, converging like streams toward his dantian spirit sea.

Ryan Carter was delighted, his spirits lifted, and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

The dantian spirit sea, located in the abdomen, is the core where martial artists store their spiritual power, much like a spirit beast’s beast core, serving as the source of their strength.

The cultivation of a martial artist is the process of absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, gradually gathering it in the dantian spirit sea, tempering the body, and constantly expanding the capacity of the spirit sea so it can store more spiritual power, allowing the martial artist to wield even greater strength.

Over the years, Ryan Carter had also accumulated a fair amount of spiritual power. With the help of the Nine Heavens Thunder Punishment to temper his body, he had even opened up his spirit sea.

But the spiritual power he painstakingly accumulated was often exhausted in a single cultivation session, leaving his dantian spirit sea frequently depleted, with no spiritual power left to use.

The richness and purity of the spirit sea’s spiritual power is a measure of a martial artist’s level. If Ryan Carter wanted to know his true realm, the simplest way would be to first fill his spirit sea with spiritual power, then use some special realm-measuring stones to test it, which would give him a rough estimate of his level.

Gathering spiritual power usually requires refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, a process that takes time and cannot be rushed. Of course, nothing is absolute. In this wondrous world, there are some rare treasures that can greatly shorten the process of gathering spiritual power and filling the spirit sea.

Spirit stones, spirit crystals, spirit pills, spirit herbs, and suitable beast cores can all speed up the accumulation of spiritual power, allowing a martial artist’s cultivation to progress rapidly.

Ryan Carter focused his mind, absorbing the electric currents from the beast core in his palm, guiding them through his meridians, letting them gradually flow into his dantian spirit sea, slowly replenishing the depleted sea…

“Crack!”

When the energy was exhausted, the beast core in his palm shattered, startling Ryan Carter awake.

After quietly sensing for a while, he realized that the power within a single beast core was far from enough to fill his spirit sea.

Much of the energy was lost during the process of channeling and transformation. The amount that actually entered the spirit sea and became spiritual power was only about one-tenth or one-twentieth of the original.

Looking up at the sky, he found that, unknowingly, dawn was already breaking.

“Absorbing the energy from a beast core takes so much time, and this is only a first-rank spirit beast’s core. Judging by the sky, I probably can’t continue cultivating…”

After pondering for a moment, Ryan Carter closed his eyes and took a short nap.

……

After a night’s rest, the next day, everyone was full of energy.

“Ling Lie, you look pretty good! You killed so many Shadow Lightning Eagles yesterday, and I didn’t expect you to recover so quickly. Not bad at all!” Henry Collins called out.