Fortunately, the spiritual energy density inside the cocoon was no weaker than that of his cave dwelling.

After cultivating, he even had the leisure to set up a small lightning formation to temper his body.

And so, his routine became: Fuse silk, cultivate, temper his body with the lightning formation, cultivate again, consume demonic beast cores, cultivate, use Tier 4 Spirit Sand, cultivate the Hidden Spirit Returning Soul Art, and when hungry, swallow a fasting pill.

Inside the cocoon, aside from the faint glow of the luminous stone, there was no light at all.

He could only rely on an hourglass to track time as the days passed one by one.

Thus, Xiao Shou experienced the most tedious and grueling period of cultivation since his transmigration.

Yet the effort and hardship brought him great rewards.

After nearly two months, the space inside the cocoon had expanded tremendously.

What was once just a small patch of exposed tree bark had now become the entire trunk of the Ice Heart Tree, nearly a thousand meters in circumference, fully enclosed within the cocoon.

There were even faint traces of soil on the trunk, indicating that he had expanded close to the surface.

At the same time, his ability had reached the peak of Tier 4.

With the help of lightning tempering techniques and demon spirit cores, his cultivation had risen from the sixth layer of Qi Refining to the great perfection of the eighth layer.

His Hidden Spirit Returning Soul Art had also advanced to the second layer, granting him divine sense comparable to that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator even before reaching that stage.

Moreover, Xiao Shou made an important discovery.

After advancing the Hidden Spirit Returning Soul Art to the second layer, the color of his ability had deepened.

The amount of energy it contained had increased tenfold.

Although its rank had not changed, the scale and quantity he could fuse had grown by ten times.

Recalling that his Absolute Fusion ability had followed his soul through transmigration, Xiao Shou realized something crucial.

His ability was bound to his soul.

Its strength depended on the strength of his soul.

The Hidden Spirit Returning Soul Art cultivated the soul and enhanced divine sense, which in turn strengthened the soul itself.

That was why his ability had grown alongside the improvement of this technique.

With this understanding, Xiao Shou became even more focused on cultivating the Hidden Spirit Returning Soul Art and setting aside other concerns for the time being.

This day was special for Xiao Shou.

When he once again used his Absolute Fusion ability to reduce the thickness of the cocoon by another ten meters, faint sunlight began to filter through, casting soft rays inside.

Below, patches of flowers and grass, each three times his size, became visible.

Although the ground itself had not yet fully appeared, he knew that with just one more round of fusion, he would be able to break through the cocoon and escape.

Unaware of the habits of the Ice Silk Worms, Xiao Shou thought optimistically.

What he did not know was that earlier, the thunderous sounds from his lightning formation had made the Ice Silk Worms think he was constantly struggling inside.

As a result, they had continuously spun more silk, thickening the cocoon layer by layer.

Only after they could no longer hear any movement did they stop.

Later, because his Absolute Fusion ability worked silently and gradually eroded the cocoon, reducing its thickness bit by bit, the worms were no longer alerted.

In addition, after reaching the great perfection of the eighth layer, Xiao Shou had dismantled the lightning formation a few days earlier to maintain his peak condition.

Combined with his habit of moving steadily on the ground and the fact that the Ice Silk Worms preferred to stay high up on the leaves of the towering Ice Heart Trees, the great distance prevented them from noticing him.

Otherwise, they would have long since continued adding more layers of silk.

Completely unaware that his own habits had unintentionally helped him avoid detection, Xiao Shou stopped fusing the cocoon when he saw that his escape was close.

He stepped onto his wooden crane puppet and flew around near the ground, surveying the area beneath the cocoon where flowers, grass, and rocks were now exposed.

He searched for anything that might catch his interest and potentially help advance his ability.

He also gathered some plants to experiment with, but the results only produced materials around Tier 3 and Tier 4.

None were sufficient to push his ability to the next level.

Perhaps it was because he lacked proper sect inheritance, but he could not even identify whether these plants and minerals were spiritual materials.

The only things he recognized were the more common ones found outside.

As for the ancient spiritual plants and materials within this secret realm, which had long gone extinct in the outside world, he could not recognize a single one.

Left with no choice, he tested them one by one.

Looking at the items he had fused, such as Tier 3 Grass Essence, Tier 4 Grass Essence, Tier 4 Hundred Flower Honey, and Tier 3 Leaf Spirit Crystal, Xiao Shou felt a bit helpless.

Perhaps he should check near the roots of the Ice Heart Tree.

Based on his knowledge from his previous life, plants of such enormous size often had either beneficial companion species growing near their roots or rival plants competing with them for nutrients.

Because in the original story, the female protagonist had only obtained the Millennium Ice Heart Tree Core after expending great effort and eventually trading a huge amount of resources at a top-tier auction attended by Mahayana cultivators, the book had only briefly described its function and origin.

It never mentioned the growth conditions of the Ice Heart Tree.

Before this, Xiao Shou had no idea that there existed creatures like the Ice Silk Worms that fed on its leaves.

As a result, he had no knowledge of what might coexist with or counterbalance the Ice Heart Tree.