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

At this point, she had only used most of her Wind and Lightning attribute demon spirits from the Xuan Spirit Merchant Hall, and still had thousands left for the other attributes. She rested for awhile before beginning the tedious process again. The positive thing was that her connection with the Nightmare Demon Pot had grown much stronger over the past week and the mysterious aura around the artifact had also grown far richer after absorbing the energy from so many demon spirits.

Within two weeks, she had refined the remaining five demon spirits she wanted and started thinking about who would be able to utilise each one best. The first was a Nightmare attribute demon spirit, a Dark Banshee, which could control and direct sound waves to unleash piercing soul attacks which could seriously disorient or even outright kill an opponent depending on the difference in cultivation bases, and the opponent's ability to withstand these type of attacks. The second was a mighty Scarlet Flame Bear, with incomparable physical attacks and defence but relatively low mobility.

The third was a Fire Salamander, a fearsome beast who was commonly found living in underground caverns next to boiling lava of active volcanoes. It had a natural affinity to elemental fire, which made its attacks far more dangerous, as well as bolstering its defence in close combat. The fourth demon spirit was actually a Water-based Azure Stingray! Although the offensive and defensive capabilities of this demon beast were weak on land, it had the unique capability to wrap itself around a comrade, where its unique life aura could stimulate healing and recovery at a remarkable speed.

The final demon spirit was even rarer, a shapeshifting fae, from the mysterious Goddess Forest at the outer border of the St. Ancestral Mountain Range. Although this demon beast could not replicate battle or special abilities, it had the ability to mimic the external aura and look of any creature it saw, making it extremely effective in coming close to the enemy and launching a surprise attack. Adventurers who had dared venture that far out of Glory City may have seen their comrades come back from relieving themselves in the jungle, then suddenly attack their group out of nowhere.

After integrating with the Panterran Demon Spirit, Ning'Er's soul realm expanded more than two times. Once integrated with a Demon Spirit, the Demon Spiritualist and the Demon Spirit will affect each other, and even the soul force training speed will be increased by more than two times!

As she studied the vitality of the Panterran in her soul realm, she realised how truly powerful this demon beast was. It had a variety of ways to attack and defend, firstly with its powerful armoured forearms and jaws. Its insidious tail whipped around like a thin black rope, able to attack in entirely unpredictable patterns and rhythms, where the tip of the tail even contained a paralysing poison to affect an enemy's movements. The black lightning that constantly flickered ominously around its body allowed its muscles, ligaments and tendons to be charged with explosive speed and strength.

With ecstatic joy, Ning'Er even realised that there was one more ability that she had never read or heard about before from this defining predator of the Black Devil Forest. The black lightning could actually be channeled into a terrifying lightning blast that shot out from its mouth!

Reflecting on her extensive experience, she was able to estimate that she could, after merging with this demon spirit, probably fight evenly with a demon spiritualist at 5-Star Gold Rank and even easily escape from early Black Gold ranked experts. This was while she still remained at 1-Star Gold Rank!

It was almost time for the next school year to start and she excitedly made preparations to enter back into the school year as she thought about meeting all her friends again.

.....

The day before school began, they met up in the training hall in the City Lord's Mansion just like old times. Ziyun, in particular, was so happy to see Ning'Er that she ran into her arms with tears dripping down her face.

Ning'Er was happy to see that all of them had made significant progress in their cultivation and that they had been working hard...some harder than others, of course. Both Lu Piao and Zhang Ming had reached 1-Star Silver Rank, and Wei Nan, Nie Li and Xiangjun had reached 2-Star Silver Rank. Both Du Ze and Ziyun had made incredible progress, Du Ze with his obsessive diligence and Ziyun with her incredible talent and access to resources as the City Lord's daughter. They had reached 3-Star and 4-Star Silver Rank, respectively!

Ning'Er decided not to tell them that she had reached Gold Rank so as to not dampen their spirits because they had indeed made great strides compared to any expert in Glory City in the past. She told them she had a precious gift for each of them and that they needed to diligently practice with it. Their eyes gleamed in antipation as she pulled out the inconspicuous spirit demon stones from her interspatial ring.

"Ziyun, this Giant Winged Roc is for you. It will allow you to launch powerful attacks from range and possesses great mobility if you need to cover great distances in a short time."

"Lu Piao, you can finally put your loud voice to good use. Here is a rare Nightmare attribute demon spirit with mysterious abilities that are extremely difficult to defend against. You need to practice well with it to control it to only affect enemies and not comrades!"

"Du Ze, the Scarlet Flame Bear suits you best with your Flame attribute and direct style. Among demon beasts in the St. Ancestral Mountain Range, there are few who can compare in physical strength and defence."

"Xiangjun, with your Sacred Flame attribute, this Fire Salamander is perfect for you. Make sure you attune properly to its flame abilities which will support you in all your combat functions!"

"Zhang Ming, with your honest approach and Holy attribute, the Azure Stingray is best for you. Although on land it may not increase your attack and defence by much, it will provide invaluable support to your team when you can heal others and yourself, saving lives!"

"Wei Nan, this is a demon spirit that has long gone extinct and would be hard to find ever again, the Shadow Devil! It possesses abilities that are perfectly suited for assassination, which you will need to discover as you integrate with it..."

"Nie Li...with the flexibility of your battle strategies, you'll be able to make use of this the best. It's a shapeshifting fae from the Goddess Forest! You'll understand more once you practice its unique abilities."

Ning'Er explained that each of these demon spirits had a God level growth rate, which would ensure that they could grow up to Legend Rank, matching the cultivation ranks of the demon spiritualist. They were left in shock and gratefulness as they looked at the items in their hands. After saying their thank yous, they each went to find their own space to in the training hall to integrate with these invaluable demon spirits.

Lu Piao made sure to walk next to Nie Li, muttering to his best friend, "This Ning'Er...why did she give us such feminine looking demon spirits? Why does Du Ze get such a manly one? And what did she mean when she implied that I have a big mouth?" He continued grumbling as his friend looked at him with a smirk.

"At least I can shapeshift into a manly form once I merge with my demon spirit. You're stuck with your 'sexy' shape!" Nie Li jested with his friend. He was deeply grateful to Ning'Er's efforts for them and realised the incredible value of these demon spirits because he had not even heard of most of them before! "Maybe you stick to the Grey Meerkat your father bought you recently..."

"Hmmphh!" Lu Piao grumbled. He knew that the Dark Banshee was many times stronger and completely priceless compared to the demon spirit he was currently integrated with that could only reach Gold Rank in future. Continuing to complain to himself, he sat down and released the Grey Meerkat from his soul realm before quickly integrating with the demon spirit Ning'Er had given him.

After they had all properly integrated with their given demon spirits, they came back together to discuss the school year ahead. The interesting thing about the Genius Class of each year was that the teachers allowed the students to pick and choose which classes and trainings they wanted to attend, trusting that the students would know their own condition the best and approach the right people for mentorship and guidance along the way. They decided that they would spend the morning of each school day in the standard classes and training to build and consolidate their foundations, then meet in this training hall for the accelerated programme that Ning'Er put them on.

"There are a few plans that I have in mind and depending on each of our progress along the way, we will decide who takes part in each plan. In one month, I will be heading out to the Ning You City Ruins because I've heard rumours of a very important resource there. Only those who've reached Gold Rank can be risked on this expedition." She looked at their faces as she said this knowing that only Ziyun and Du Ze had any chance of reaching this level within this time frame.

Then in three months, the Younger Generation Tournament will take place. I believe that this will be the proper time for us to make another statement to Glory City that we are the ones who will surpass the older generation. And for me, I also need to send another message to the Sacred Family that they should give up on oppressing us anymore!!" Her eyes gleamed with deadly intent as her friends shivered at the cold tone of her voice.

They thought she was just referring to the Winged Dragon Family's years of suppression but she knew better than that. The Sacred Family's collusion with the Dark Guild would be the downfall of Glory City unless she could stop them in time!