With a great deal of effort, Su Zimo finally managed to send little fatty away. He then squatted at the entrance of his cave abode and focused on setting up a formation.

He set up a Grade 2 formation – Smoke Gathering Formation

Because the stupid bird’s identity was unique, Su Zimo did not dare to set up a killing formation. It would suffice for him to set up a trap formation and restrain the stupid bird.

Standing at the side, the spirit tiger watched. Even though it did not understand what was going on, it realized that Su Zimo’s return must mean that the latter had found a way to suppress that stupid bird.

He was gone for a full three months; it wasn’t a short period of time.

Su Zimo took an entire day to set up the Smoke Gathering Formation.

However, he had no intention of stopping right after. He continued to set up another Soundproof Formation outside the Smoke Gathering Formation.

That way, Su Zimo wouldn’t be affected no matter how the stupid bird cried within the trap.

Thereafter, he made an imprint using the spirit beast badge on the spirit tiger’s neck so that the latter would have unrestricted access to the cave abode.

By the time everything was set up, it was night.

Su Zimo looked at the night skies without feeling sleepy in the slightest bit.

It was less than three months to the year end face-off – he did not have much time left.

According to his original plan, he would have been able to reach Perfected Qi Condensation through sufficient use of spirit stones.

Now that he had spent so much time on Array Peak, he would only be able to reach Level 9 Qi Condensation at max come the end of the year.

After all, he did not have much progress on elixir refinement yet.

Against Feng Haoyu’s Perfected Qi Condensation, Su Zimo knew that he had no chance of winning.

Furthermore, Feng Haoyu was cultivating one of the three major secret skills – Ethereal Sword.

Su Zimo’s only chance of winning was on the two sword formation manuals!

He had to master the Tripartite and Hexagonal Sword Formation before the year end face-off and become a Sword Formation Master!

Su Zimo did not sleep the entire night as he summoned his Elixir Furnace and started with refinement.

Previously, he had a chance of refining Grade 1 elixirs. However, it exploded due to little crane’s interference, wasting all his previous efforts.

After three months of not refining elixirs, Su Zimo’s technique was clearly rusty.

Unable to control the temperature of the flames precisely, the spirit herbs were burnt to ashes.

It was only till midnight when he finally found the feeling and got into the groove.

Failing many times in between, Su Zimo finally managed to refine a cauldron of elixirs come early morning.

Usually, a cauldron would contain nine elixirs.

However, the complexity of the refinement increased with the recipe and as such, the number of elixirs were reduced.

For example, among Grade 1 elixirs, the most difficult of them was the Foundation Establishment Elixir and each refinement would only produce a single elixir, nothing more.

Spirit Gathering Elixir was the most simple to refine amongst Grade 1 elixirs.

Nine Spirit Gathering Elixirs burst forth from the holes in the Elixir Furnace and hovered in midair. Eight of the elixirs had three elixir patterns etched on them – those were superior-grade elixirs!

One of them had four elixir patterns – a supreme-grade elixir!

Looking at the nine elixirs that he had refined floating in the air, Su Zimo’s eyes flickered as he pondered.

It was out of his expectations that he had managed to produce elixirs of such quality with his first attempt.

Refinement of elixirs was unlike that of weapons.

For weapon refinement, fire was the foundation. However, the true core of it was on the steps of tempering and spirit gathering.

As for elixir refinement, the true core lies in the two extraction steps.

The more thorough the extraction, the less the impurities of the elixir and the better the quality of the end product.

With a single thought, a scarlet flame appeared from the fingertip of Su Zimo’s right hand with a loud thud.

There was only a single explanation as to why he could create elixirs of such quality – it was the Level 3 Spirit Fire!

He could vaguely sense that the Level 3 Spirit Fire produced by his right hand was unlike normal Level 3 Spirit Fires. In fact, it seemed to give him a unique advantage in terms of refining spirit herbs.

As long as he continued practicing on grasping the flame’s temperature precisely and familiarizing himself with the ratio of spirit herbs, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to create perfect elixirs!

“Perhaps this flame of mine isn’t actually a Level 3 Spirit Fire? Maybe it just shares the same color as one?”

Su Zimo looked at his right hand repeatedly and fell into deep thought.

Right then, a familiar cry of a crane appeared outside his cave abode.

“Caw, caw!”

The spirit tiger trembled as it jolted up in fright. The hair on its back all stood up as fear seeped out of its eyes.

Even after three months, the spirit tiger still had lingering fears. That was enough to tell how tormented it was by little crane.

“It’s finally here.”

Su Zimo smiled gently as he looked calmly at little crane descending from the skies.

Flapping its wings, little crane looked at Su Zimo with a taunting and gleeful expression.

It’s meaning was clear – ‘Small fry, even if you hide outside for three months, you’ll have to come back sooner or later! You can’t escape from my grasp!’

Right as little crane descended upon the entrance of the cave abode, a bright, bedazzling light shone from the ground!

The formation pattern shone brightly as the Smoke Gathering Formation was activated!

“Caw!”

Little crane’s expression changed as it panicked. It wanted to soar into the skies but it realized that no matter how it tried, it could not fly out of that small region.

It was trapped!

Having grown up in Ethereal Peak, little crane naturally knew of the methods deployed by cultivators. Instantly, it realized that it might have fallen into a type of array formation.

“Caw, caw!”

Enraged, little crane shrieked sharply and loudly. However, its voice reverberated around the Soundproof Formation and could not pass through.

Inside the cave abode, the spirit tiger looked at little crane opening its mouth without any sound coming out. Instantly, it beamed and jumped around the spot in excitement.

It was his turn to see the stupid bird suffer!

“Finally, comeuppance! It’s my turn for revenge!” The spirit tiger reared its head and howled, letting out all its indignance.

When it saw the spirit tiger’s provocation, little crane was even more enraged. It stood silent on the spot for some time before suddenly flapping its wings. Amidst the raging hurricane formed, it swooped towards the cave abode with cold, sharp talons!

The spirit tiger jumped in right. Just as it was about to dodge, it realized that little crane was still stuck within the same region and could not escape at all – it merely slammed around the corners like a headless bug.

That caused the spirit tiger to laugh even more merrily.

Su Zimo heaved out a sigh of relief.

It was obvious that the stupid bird knew nothing about formations. Furthermore, it was not strong enough to break through the formation with brute force.

He could finally cultivate in peace for the next few days.

Totally indifferent towards little crane who was rampaging and crying at the entrance of the cave abode, Su Zimo took out a spirit stone from his storage bag and channeled Qi Condensation to cultivate.

His cultivation was stagnant for three months now and he had to raise it as soon as possible.

Even though he had just refined a cauldron of Spirit Gathering Elixirs, Su Zimo had no intention of consuming them.

He found out from Elixir Peak’s master previously that other than perfect elixirs, all other graded elixirs had impurities. The impact they had on cultivators was something that was undetermined.

At that time, Su Zimo had already made a choice.

Unless it was a perfect elixir, he was not going to consume it casually.

At that moment, Su Zimo did not realize it yet. However, that choice of his was precisely the reason why he would gain a solid foundation that no one could match in his path of cultivation!