After confirming that the Black Lion was dead, No. 1 and his two companions slowly approached the Black Lion's body, their expressions remaining calm.

After using the dagger in his hand to decompose the body of the Black Demon Lion, he packed up and slowly left the Black Demon Mountains.

Three people, one level five spirit master and two level three spirit masters, relied on the compatibility honed over a long period of time to successfully kill the black magic lion with the strength of a level seven spirit master without any casualties.

This is something to be proud of.

The golden-haired vulture looked at the three people below and was quite satisfied.

"It seems I need to squeeze them a little harder and make them become Spirit Kings as soon as possible, so that I can leave with peace of mind when the time comes!"

――――

In the desert, the scorching sun was still hanging in the sky. Gu Yuan sat cross-legged on the hot sand, closed his eyes, endured the high temperature, and continued to practice.

At one point, Gu Yuan slowly opened his eyes, looked at the scorching sun in the sky, and murmured, "Looks like it's time to leave. My water supply is almost exhausted. It will take two days to travel from here to Sand City. It seems we need to leave now."

Having made up his mind, Gu Yuan stood up without hesitation, then carefully identified the direction and walked forward. This direction was the direction of Sand City.

He needed to go to the Sand City to replenish his water supply, and then see if he could get any missions. This would also be more beneficial to his cultivation. After all, it was impossible to cultivate alone all the time, and cultivation without combat was ultimately not as good as the tempering in blood and fire. Gu Yuan was very clear about this, so he took this opportunity to leave the desert.

After two full days of traveling through the desert, Gu Yuan finally arrived outside the Sand City. After paying his entrance fee, Gu Yuan couldn't help but curse, "Damn it! This entrance fee is ridiculously expensive, and every time I leave and go back in, I have to pay the entrance fee again."

Gu Yuan couldn't imagine how much money the Sand City must earn in entrance fees, with so many people coming and going every year. He was envious, but there was nothing he could do. This was Sand City, jointly founded by the four major sects. All the profits were controlled by them, and no one could get a share of them.

Shaking his head and sighing, Gu Yuan entered the Sand City. He first returned to his residence to rest for a day, then went to replenish his water supply. This time, Gu Yuan replenished his water supply for a full two months. He cleared a large area in his space ring to store water. This was also why Gu Yuan had made up his mind to practice in the desert for a while.

In this desert, water resources are very expensive. The water resources in these two months alone have cost Gu Yuan a lot of gold coins. Gu Yuan smacked his lips in pain. It is true that one does not know how expensive food and daily necessities are until he manages the household.

After fully preparing the water resources, Gu Yuan headed towards the Desert Exploration Association. He had only just completed two or three Iron-level missions and wanted to take on more. He probably needed to complete a few more Iron-level missions to upgrade his token.

Arriving at the Desert Exploration Association, Gu Yuan handed his token to the pretty staff member at the front desk. He immediately accepted three Black Iron-level missions in a row. With Gu Yuan's current strength as an eighth-level spiritualist, the current Black Iron-level missions were no problem at all in his eyes.

So you can take on several black-level tasks in succession, and then go out and complete them directly, so that you can quickly complete the upgrade from black iron to silver tokens.

"Iron-level mission: Hunt three Shadow Leopards. Reward: 4,000 gold coins."

"Black Iron-level mission: Hunt ten Pegasus, reward: 10,000 gold coins."

"Black Iron-level mission: Hunt down three Thunder Eagle Lions. Reward: 10,000 gold coins."

After taking on three Black Iron-level tasks, Gu Yuan left Sand City directly and completed the three Black Iron-level tasks in half a day.

These tasks were not difficult for Gu Yuan. After all, Gu Yuan was currently an eighth-level spiritualist, and these Black Iron-level tasks could basically be completed by anyone who reached the spiritualist level. So this time, it only took him half a day to complete the task.

After returning to Sand City, Gu Yuan smacked his lips. At this rate, every trip in and out of Sand City would cost him more than enough to cover the entrance fee, which cost a thousand gold coins each time. After some thought, Gu Yuan decided to take on multiple missions in a row and complete them all at once. He already had his water supplies ready, so even a month or two outside wouldn't be a problem.

Besides, Gu Yuan was already an eighth-level Spiritual Master. He was about to break through to Spiritual Lord. He needed to quickly reach the ninth-level Spiritual Master and then break through to Spiritual Lord. Once he reached Spiritual Lord, he would become even more powerful, able to take on more missions and earn more money and resources.

After completing his first mission, Gu Yuan returned to the Desert Exploration Association. He handed his mission over to the staff and, after receiving his reward, he took on twenty Iron-level missions in a row. Even the staff at the Desert Exploration Association were stunned, but after seeing Gu Yuan's strength, they weren't surprised. Some Iron-level missions didn't require high standards from the recipient, so after seeing Gu Yuan's strength, they were quite happy to take them on.

After completing twenty Black Iron-level missions, Gu Yuan left the Sand City directly and headed into the depths of the desert.

All the missions he accepted this time were focused on hunting monsters. This was because Gu Yuan wanted to achieve breakthroughs through combat. Combat was the best way for him to cultivate. He didn't want to take on tasks like searching for medicinal herbs, which only wasted his time. He preferred to take on hunting missions that could bring him some benefits.

This mission wasn't too difficult for Gu Yuan, except for some of the killing missions that focused on killing group-living monsters. This time, Gu Yuan stayed out for a full two weeks, because some monsters needed to be found in the desert. Their tracks were quite cunning, and it wasn't easy to find them right away, so it took Gu Yuan two weeks to complete this mission.

Half a month later, Gu Yuan returned to the desert wearing clothes that exuded a strong bloody smell and walked into the Desert Exploration Association.

Gu Yuan directly handed his space ring to the staff and said, "This is my task. It has been completed now. Please check it."

The staff member smelled the strong bloody smell coming from Gu Yuan and couldn't help but frowned. Then he took out everything inside the ring and checked it.