Tales of Demons and Gods : The Legend of Xiao Ning'Er

Wang Shu studied the pure aura emanating of the Nightmare Demon Pot and asked her, "What is that item? Why was the Sacred Family willing to push the bids all the way to 120 million demon spirit coins for it??"

Ning'Er looked at him seriously and told him, "You cannot let anyone know that I'm in possession of this. If anyone asks, just say you locked it securely in the guild vault and that you're studying the mysterious inscriptions on the outside of the jade material for inspiration." She paused as she considered her next words. "I'm not sure what the pot can do but I just had a feeling that it would be something that will help me understand inscriptions better, especially those relating to the soul."

"Ahhhh, that makes sense." Wang Shu nodded emphatically. His mind was going crazy with excitement thinking about the prospect of Ning'Er uncovering some inscriptions that could attack or defend against soul attacks. Any equipment made with those capabilities would have an unimaginable value because they were unheard of at this point of time! "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I don't want to put you in danger of someone wanting to take the chance to rob an item worth a hundred and twenty million demon spirit coins!"

She thanked him and bid her goodbyes. "I have to go now because my father is still waiting in the carriage outside. I'll be back to Glory City soon and will drop by the guild to assess the materials that you purchased today to see whether my Master can suggest any fresh inscriptions that could make use of it best!"

She giggled to herself as she walked out remembering Wang Shu's face as his saliva had almost dripped out of his mouth in anticipation of learning new inscriptions.

"Sorry for making you wait, father! I was working out some plans with Wang Shu." Ning'Er explained.

Xiao Yunfeng smiled kindly, "It's no problem. Your relationship with the guild is what has stabilised the current financial situation for our family. Take as long as you need. Shall we head home?"

She smiled at him coyly. "Actually, can we stop by Xuan Spirit Merchant Hall?"

"I just haven't found one I liked yet," she replied. In fact, she had been so busy that she had not made it a priority but from the scare she had experienced back in the village, she realised she would need more trump cards prepared for any eventuality. And now, she had the perfect item to upgrade this area for herself and for her friends!

The carriage arrived at the merchant hall, and the attendants immediately ushered Ning'Er and her father to a private VIP room when they revealed their identities. The one receiving them was an elderly man with a white beard and hair. He was the owner of the Xuan Spirit Merchant Hall and was named Shao Ming Feng.

"Please have some tea!" he gestured as the servants poured a steaming cup for each of them. The refreshing scent that filled the room revealed that it was very high quality tea. He was entertaining the leader of one of the aristocratic families of Glory City, after all.

"Thank you!" Xiao Yunfeng smiled widely and said proudly, "I'm here to purchase a demon spirit for my daughter today."

Shao Ming Feng couldn't maintain his composure even though he was an experienced store owner. "A Silver Rank girl who can't be more than 14 or 15 years old! Your daughter is an absolute genius!" he gushed.

Ning'Er smiled and bowed humbly accepting his praise, thinking to herself, 'It's good he doesn't know that I've reached Gold Rank. He might faint from shock!'

The owner calmed himself and asked her, "What kind of demon spirit are you looking at? I can bring out the range of our premium demon spirits depending on your budget."

Xuan Spirit Merchant Hall was northern Glory City's biggest demon spirit trader. They would acquire a huge amount of demon spirits from adventurers daily and then resell them. The cheapest ones could be bought with a few hundred or a few thousand demon spirit coins. The most expensive ones would be several millions of demon spirit coins.

Ning'Er knew that what she needed weren't the most expensive demon spirits, but rather, large amounts of lower tier demon spirits which would allow the Nightmare Demon Pot to upgrade over time, as well as trigger combinations and mutations of unique and powerful demon spirits.

Looking over the three main categories of lower, middle and high tier demon spirits, she told the owner, "Is it all right if I purchase all the lower tier demon spirits currently in this store?"

Her father frowned at her side as he looked over in complete puzzlement, "Ning'Er...are you sure you know what you're doing?" In his mind, he had allocated around two hundred thousand demon spirit coins to purchase an entry level high tier demon spirit for his daughter but he had no idea why she would need to buy a large amount of useless demon spirits instead.

"Trust me, father. I know what I'm doing." she said. "Owner, can you help to bring me those demon spirits and to calculate how much it will cost?"

Shao Ming Feng's mouth was still hanging open because he was as shocked as Ning'Er's father. "Of course...of course!" He progressively brought out all the demon spirit stones from the different categories he had such as those with the attributes of Nightmare, Snow Wind, Fighter, Poison, Fire, Water, Lightning and Earth. In the end, it amounted to thousands of different demon spirits. He took time to calculate the price, making sure that there were no mistakes.

"Since you're giving me so much business, I'm willing to give a full 20 percent discount on the final price! All the lower tier demon spirits in my shop amount to ten million demon spirit coins but with the discount, it will be eight million instead!" he looked over to Xiao Yunfeng in anticipation.

Seeing her father's discomfort, Ning'Er quickly said, "Oh, sorry my father passed me the money earlier. Here you go!" She took a large stack of demon crystal cards out of her interspatial ring and placed it on the table. "Would you like to count it first?"

Wondering why Xiao Yunfeng would allow his young daughter to carry so much money, Shao Ming Feng shook his head firmly. "No need! I trust the integrity of the Winged Dragon Family." he said smoothly, complimenting his customers while subtly scanning the stack of demon crystal cards to be assured that the amount that sat on the counter was around that amount.

They bid their goodbyes to the owner of the shop and Ning'Er and her father headed back to their clan's compound. She was impatient to start refining demon spirits with the Nightmare Demon Pot and excused herself to go back to her room, saying that she felt a bit tired. She knew it would be a long night ahead.

She sat down at the table and began studying the Nightmare Demon Pot, remembering everything Nie Li had taught her in their previous life. This was an ancient treasure that allowed its user to place ten demon spirits together within to be combined refined into an exponentially stronger one, which had allowed their team to possess incredibly powerful demon spirits, raising their battle power immeasureably.

She placed her right hand against the inscriptions on the smooth black jade and began injecting her soul force, sensing that a profound connection was being made between her soul and the artifact. A mysterious aura began churning around the pot and when she sensed that the swirling aura reached a critical point, she quickly placed ten demon spirits of various attributes that complemented her own wind lightning soul attribute inside.

Nie Li had differentiated six different growth rates for demon spirits which were 'Poor', 'Ordinary', 'Good', 'Excellent', 'Extraordinary' and 'God' levels. Every demon spirit had a different capacity to grow, and no matter their starting point of Bronze, Silver, Gold or Legend, the growth rate would determine how far it could grow from there. Therefore, in the long-term, growth rates played a far more significant factor than the starting soul strength, which was why Nie Li had prepared only 'God' level growth rate demon spirits for his team.

The first refinement was a success and Ning'Er ended up with a 'Good' demon spirit, which she put aside. The second and third refinement was a failure, before the fourth was a success again. As the night went on, she was able to visually see evidence that the Nightmare Demon Pot was absorbing more and more power from the refined demon spirits whether the refinement was a success or failure, and the glimmering sheen of the surface of the pot grew shinier and more translucent. She also realised that her success ratio was growing higher and higher the more time passed.

Once she had ten 'Good' growth rate demon spirits, she would then refine those together, following this pattern to keep upgrading the levels of the demon spirits she possessed. She continued like this for around a week in her room, taking breaks to rest as and when needed, and cultivating to replenish the soul force exerted in order to maintain control over the process of refinement. Finally, she had 55 'Extraordinary' growth rate demon spirits, enough for five attempts to refine her first 'God' level growth rate demon spirit.

She rested enough to ensure that she was in her best condition, then placed all her focus onto her first refinement as she threw the first ten demon spirits into the pot. After twenty minutes, there was a soft bang from the Nightmare Demon Pot and smoke rose out before dissipating.

Failure. There was only four more tries.

She took a deep breath and began her second try. The ten demon spirits swirled around the pot, slowly merging with a flickering green light. Wave after wave of soul force fluctuated from the pot around the room. Finally, the ten demon spirits formed into a whole new demon spirit.

"Success!" She breathed a sigh of relief as she realised that she had been able to pull it off. If she could do it once, she would be able to do it again. She looked at the demon spirit lying at the bottom of the Nightmare Demon Pot and guided it gently into a demon spirit stone.

God level growth rate demon spirit!

It was a Giant Winged Roc with silver wings with feathers as lethal as knives and a beak like a wickedly hooked scimitar. This demon beast was one of the more powerful creatures which dominated the air and specialised in ranged attacks with high mobility in the air, and a deceptively powerful close combat ability with its beak and claws.

Ning'Er was excited to try again. If she failed for the next three attempts, the Giant Winged Roc would be the demon spirit she would integrate with. The third and fourth attempts at refinement ended up in a failure and her heart was filled with regret as she wondered if she had been too impatient. Knowing that there would be only one final try tonight, she practiced her cultivation until she sensed that she reached her best condition before she tried the refinement again.

This time round, she could sense a more volatile energy bursting around the pot as though it were trying to escape. She exerted all the soul force she could muster and controlled it to stabilise the reactive artifact. The Nightmare Demon Pot seemed to feed on her soul force and began feeding it into the merging process of demon spirits that seemed to be struggling with each other more intensely than any other refinement attempt in the past. She wondered if this time round there were too many strong demon spirits trying to be the dominant party in the merging process.

Just as she thought that she could not hold on anymore, the pot burst out with a blinding flash of light the colour of jade green before settling down. She looked at the spinning aura that was slowly dispersing and examined the ferocious demon spirit at the bottom of the pot. It was an extremely rare and terrifying demon beast that she had only glimpsed once in the Black Devil Forest.

She had found its name in an ancient tome she found in some ruins, a Panterran. This fearsome species had decimated cities before in order to state its claim as the apex predator of that particular region. The beast looked a bit like a shadowy panther with six legs, a venomous, barbed tail and a large armoured jaw containing nine-inch fangs. But the most scary thing about this creature was its unbelievable speed, using the power of black lightning to move with unparalleled speed among the beasts of the ground. Although its body's defence was nothing special, it was near impossible to track and strike a moving Panterran because of its otherworldly agility and mobility.