"Capture."
The moment Xu Yi retracted her defensive shield, she hurled the net-rope in her hand.
The net-rope automatically expanded, and upon touching the shadowless slug, it immediately tightened inwards.
Xu Yi could see the net-rope writhing, the shadowless slug within struggling.
"This is my level six..."
Before the remaining words, "magic treasure," could be uttered, the spirit-light flashing net-rope suddenly dimmed.
Xu Yi's expression changed. She retracted the net-rope, flipped it over, and saw a large hole torn in the bottom. The shadowless slug had already escaped through the opening.
Xu Yi quickly searched with her divine sense. However, the shadowless slug was originally impossible to catch with the naked eye, and now, having narrowly escaped the net, it was hiding even deeper.
"I must catch you today."
Xu Yi's competitive spirit was ignited by the shadowless slug. She took out seven small white flags from her storage ring and activated them with spiritual energy.
The small white flags flew out independently, landing in seven positions and encircling an area of ten li centered on Xu Yi.
"Activate formation."
Xu Yi gave a soft shout. A point of light emitted from the first small flag, quickly flying to the second, then the third...
Within a breath, seven pillars of light shot out from the seven flags, connecting end to end to form a confinement array.
After confirming the shadowless slug could not escape, Xu Yi took out a feather that flickered with blue spiritual light from her storage ring.
The reason the shadowless slug was difficult to capture was that its location could not be found.
But now that it was confirmed to be within a ten-li radius, Xu Yi had a way to track its movements.
Xu Yi raised her hand, and the blue feather floated into the air. It spun a few times in the air, as if guided, and slowly drifted towards the southwest.
Xu Yi followed leisurely beneath the blue feather, a smile of determination on her face.
The next moment, disaster struck.
A sense of crisis struck her heart forcefully, and Xu Yi hastily erected a spiritual energy shield.
*Sizzle—*
The spiritual energy shield sounded faintly, like cold water dropped onto a red-hot iron plate.
The spiritual energy shield melted, and the shadowless slug approached Xu Yi's vicinity.
The shadowless slug was highly poisonous, and even Xu Yi did not dare to let it get close. However, with nowhere left to retreat, she instinctively took out her chastisement ruler and swung it forcefully in the direction of the approaching danger.
*Splat!*
She hit it!
However, Xu Yi had no time to rejoice, as the crisis was not yet over.
The shadowless slug was flung away by her, but it remained around her. If she could not catch it in time, there was still a possibility of being attacked by it.
The shadowless slug's poison was not low, and Xu Yi had no intention of testing it with her body.
She looked up, and the blue feather seemed to be spinning wildly in the air, as if out of control.
Clearly, it had failed.
Xu Yi calmed herself, attempting to discern the location of the shadowless slug. After a while, she sighed in frustration, having failed again.
She frowned slightly and suddenly remembered something she had overlooked.
Xu Yi injected spiritual energy into the chastisement ruler again. The ruler split into countless pieces, scattering and sweeping outwards in all directions.
The overwhelming attack forced the shadowless slug, which was hiding somewhere, to defend itself by attacking Xu Yi.
This time, Xu Yi did not dodge. Instead, she focused her attention on her eyes.
Under the threat of death, she could clearly feel subtle changes occurring deep within her eyes.
Then she saw the shadowless slug rushing towards her.
The shadowless slug was called shadowless because its innate divine ability allowed it to conceal itself in the void. Its true form was close to earthy yellow, covered in viscous mucus, and it looked somewhat disgusting.
Xu Yi thought it was a good thing that it made itself unseen.
As the shadowless slug approached, she retreated several steps to the right, causing the slug to attack in vain.
The shadowless slug seemed to disbelieve that Xu Yi had so easily dodged its attack and lunged at Xu Yi again, only to be lightly dodged by Xu Yi once more.
After a few attempts, the shadowless slug slumped listlessly onto the ground, motionless.
Xu Yi looked down at the shadowless slug, a bit troubled. She seemed to not have any magic treasures capable of restraining demonic beasts.
However, if she didn't have one, she could make one herself.
Xu Yi immediately took out various materials from her storage ring, piling them on the ground, and began crafting.
During this period, the shadowless slug attempted to escape multiple times, but it could not break through the range of the formation disk. In the end, it had to choose to remain lying down.
Ten days passed, and two small golden bowls appeared in Xu Yi's hands.
After all, besides the shadowless slug, the little mountain hawk also needed a similar magic treasure to reside in, so they were crafted together this time.
Although the small golden bowls were crafted in haste by Xu Yi, due to the high-grade materials used, they could barely reach level six, which was just enough to house this shadowless slug.
The shadowless slug seemed to have anticipated its fate and did not struggle, obediently being put into the golden bowl by Xu Yi.
Xu Yi counted the days with her fingers, realizing the three-month period was drawing near, and it was time to go back to pick up the little mountain hawk.
She leaped onto a tree and moved rapidly through the forest like a streak of light.
Wei Qingshan and Wei Jiuyi kept their promise and were active near the area where they had met Xu Yi.
When Xu Yi found them, the two were sitting by a campfire roasting demonic beast meat, with a bald bird lying nearby like a lord.
The little mountain hawk had regained consciousness several days ago, but because it had not seen Xu Yi, it had squawked and fussed, and even tried to hit people.
Wei Qingshan and Wei Jiuyi had spent a great deal of effort to finally appease it.
And the way to appease it was by feeding it meat.
Therefore, the two were no longer looking for the shadowless slug, but were sitting there solely to roast meat for it.
Xu Yi found this scene both annoying and amusing, and finally couldn't help but chuckle.
"Senior!"
Wei Qingshan and Wei Jiuyi looked at Xu Yi with surprise, a hint of relief in their eyes.
When they had agreed to take care of the little mountain hawk for Xu Yi, they had not expected it to be so troublesome.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
The little mountain hawk flipped over and stood up from the ground. Then, with a few steps, it rushed to Xu Yi, its small black eyes full of anger.
Xu Yi felt a rare pang of guilt. She reached out and touched the slightly denser down on the little mountain hawk's head, explaining, "I didn't abandon you. Didn't I ask them to take care of you for me? Look how well you're living now."
"Chirp! Chirp!"
Excuses! Excuses!
Xu Yi strangely understood the hawk's language and disapproved, "How can this be an excuse? It's clearly the truth. Besides, if you weren't so greedy, would you have slept for so long!"
Xu Yi would not indulge the little mountain hawk just because it was a fledgling.
Seeing Xu Yi bringing up old issues, the little mountain hawk also felt a bit short of breath. After a brief negotiation between the person and the bird, they finally declared a truce.
Wei Qingshan and Wei Jiuyi looked at the little mountain hawk, which was much more obedient in front of Xu Yi, with envy in their eyes.
"This is the meat you roasted. It looks good. I'll have a skewer."
After appeasing the little mountain hawk, Xu Yi turned her gaze to the meat skewers in front of them and reached out without any pretense to take one.
"Senior..."
Wei Qingshan wanted to stop her, but it was too late. She could only give Xu Yi an awkward wry smile.