Although the “Golden Devouring Beetles” ranked near the top of the Rare Insects List, according to the jade slip left behind by the Spirit Beast Mountain cultivator, their individual abilities were extremely limited, relying entirely on their overwhelming numbers to secure victory. If there were only a dozen or so, or even a few dozen, they wouldn’t be of much use even after reaching maturity. Only when their numbers reached hundreds of thousands or even millions would they truly live up to their ranking on the Rare Insects List.
The thought of countless insects swarming through the sky, attacking endlessly and proving impossible to exterminate, sent a chill down Han Li’s spine.
Therefore, his current task was to quickly mature these Golden Devouring Beetles and have them reproduce as soon as possible. Only then could their numbers multiply exponentially.
However, saying it was easy, but actually doing it proved incredibly difficult! As rare insects that had existed since ancient times, the Golden Devouring Beetles had long been extinct in the Tiannan cultivation world. The specific methods for raising and breeding them had been lost for generations. The Spirit Beast Mountain cultivator’s jade slip on insect rearing only summarized some of their habits based on ancient texts, with no detailed guidance on how to train them.
This frustrated Han Li for a long time.
In fact, not only the twelfth-ranked “Golden Devouring Beetles,” but almost all the insects in the top thirty of the Rare Insects List were long-extinct insect-type demon beasts in the cultivation world. The Spirit Beast Mountain cultivator was an insect fanatic who had collected and analyzed various ancient materials to rank these ancient insects on the list. Whether the rankings at the top of the Rare Insects List were reliable was anyone’s guess!
Han Li’s acquisition of these supposedly extinct Golden Devouring Beetles was also a matter of coincidence.
For some unknown reason, these larval Golden Devouring Beetles had been in a state of suspended animation deep beneath Little寰 Island since ancient times.
Under normal circumstances, even if the mountains collapsed and the seas churned, these rare insects would not easily awaken. However, Han Li had been raising a large number of other rare insects in his cave dwelling on Little寰 Island, and the scent of these insects slowly seeped underground, triggering the Golden Devouring Beetles’ instinct to feed and miraculously awakening the entire group.
They should have launched an attack long ago to feed, but among Han Li’s rare insects were the “Bloodjade Spiders,” their natural predators. Out of innate fear, the beetles dared not approach Han Li’s cave dwelling too closely. Thus, they lurked underground on Little寰 Island, keeping a close watch on Han Li’s cave.
When Han Li went out shopping and took the Bloodjade Spiders with him, the Golden Devouring Beetles seized their opportunity.
As Han Li witnessed, these Golden Devouring Beetles devoured all the rare insects he had been raising and settled in the cave’s herb garden, making it their nest. In the end, Han Li, who had secretly returned, captured them all in one sweep.
Now, since Han Li lacked any ancient insect-rearing techniques, he had no choice but to slowly experiment on his own.
First, Han Li tried feeding them various types of insect food. Regardless of the type, the several hundred Golden Devouring Beetles devoured it all without any pickiness, which delighted Han Li.
However, his joy lasted only a few months before he discovered that no matter how much insect food the beetles ate, they showed no signs of growth or change. This frustrated Han Li, forcing him to try other methods.
These insects had a fondness for metals and spiritual energy, so Han Li tried feeding them some raw metal ores and low-grade spirit stones. After consuming them, the beetles still showed no unusual changes. Another failure.
Extremely frustrated, Han Li finally tossed the dozen or so preserved dead eggs of the “Goldbacked Blade Mantises” into the insect room. After the Golden Devouring Beetles devoured them, their spiritual energy finally showed changes, and they seemed fiercer than before.
This both surprised and worried Han Li. Did these Golden Devouring Beetles only mature by devouring other rare insects? That would be troublesome! Aside from the two Bloodjade Spiders, he had no other rare insects.
In desperation, Han Li bought some blood-based food like pigs and sheep from outside and threw it into the insect room. However, aside from making the beetles more ferocious and aggressive, it had no effect on promoting their maturation.
Left with no other options, Han Li finally matured enough spirit herbs and began refining the “Spirit Nurturing Pills.”
Previously, he had been too focused on refining pills to enhance his own magic power and had never gotten around to refining these pills. Now was the perfect time to try.
Within a few days, the first batch of Spirit Nurturing Pills was successfully refined. Han Li immediately fed some to the Golden Devouring Beetles and the two Bloodjade Spiders. The results left him both pleased and worried.
He was pleased because the pills meant to elevate demon beasts’ ranks were indeed effective on these rare insects. However, he was worried because the effects on the Golden Devouring Beetles and the Bloodjade Spiders were vastly different.
The two Bloodjade Spiders, after consuming four or five Spirit Nurturing Pills each, showed a noticeable increase in spiritual energy the very next day—the effect was extremely obvious. In contrast, the Golden Devouring Beetles, which had also consumed several pills, showed only a minuscule increase in comparison, barely noticeable.
Han Li estimated that because there were so many Golden Devouring Beetles—several hundred—dividing the pills among them naturally prevented any significant progress.
And this was only for a few hundred beetles. The thought of needing tens of thousands to unleash their true power made Han Li lose all confidence in continuing to raise them. Even if he used all the green liquid produced by the small vial to refine Spirit Nurturing Pills, it would be impossible to cultivate such a large army of Golden Devouring Beetles within a hundred years.
After reaching this conclusion, Han Li lost interest in training the Golden Devouring Beetles. He fed the remaining Spirit Nurturing Pills to the Bloodjade Spiders and merely tossed some insect food into the beetle room every day.
By this time, Han Li had been in Heavenly Star City for half a year.
In the remaining time, he secluded himself to frantically produce second-level puppets and various talismans.
As for the talismans, without a Golden Core, he still couldn’t master intermediate spells, so he naturally couldn’t produce intermediate talismans either. The only benefit from producing so many talismans was that his skill in creating primary talismans greatly improved. Even for high-level primary talismans, he achieved a nearly fifty percent success rate, saving him a lot of talisman-making materials.
The main material for second-level puppets was ironwood that was several hundred years old, which Han Li could mature himself, significantly reducing the cost of producing each puppet.
As for the souls needed to refine the puppets, he happened to have a surplus in the “Soul Gathering Bowl” he had obtained earlier—all wandering spirits who had long lost their spiritual awareness. Han Li unceremoniously used them directly. After all, without spiritual awareness, these souls had lost their qualification for reincarnation and could only be used as ordinary refining materials.
Finally, over two hundred puppets were completed, all uniformly beast-shaped, which satisfied Han Li immensely.
However, the completion of these puppets also meant that another portion of the spirit stones in Han Li’s pocket had vanished. While the cost of a single puppet might not be high, over two hundred puppets, plus the materials wasted due to failed attempts, amounted to a staggering price.
By now, Han Li had been in seclusion for two full years.
During these two years, all the Spirit Nurturing Pills Han Li refined were used to feed the Bloodjade Spiders. Driven by the powerful medicinal effects, the two demon beasts advanced once again, reaching the top rank of first-level demon beasts.
Meanwhile, over these two years, Qu Hun had mostly refined the “Primal Chaos Bowl.” Although, limited by not being the original owner of the treasure, he couldn’t achieve perfect harmony with it, he could finally store it within his body and unleash about seventy percent of its power.
It wasn’t that Han Li hadn’t considered having Qu Hun refine his own magic treasure. Firstly, the materials for a magic treasure were astronomically expensive, and with the spirit stones he had left, he probably couldn’t even gather the most ordinary materials. Secondly, refining a magic treasure wasn’t something that could be accomplished quickly—it required at least twenty or thirty years of diligent effort to initially take shape and gain power. Han Li simply didn’t have that much time to waste!
He urgently needed a large number of demon beast cores to refine medicine to prepare for the second rotation of the “Triple Revolving Profound Art.”
Previously, whether it was training rare insects or producing a large number of puppets, it was all in preparation for going to sea to hunt demon beasts. He reckoned that with the puppets, Bloodjade Spiders, array-deploying tools, and Qu Hun as the main force, with himself assisting from the side, hunting fifth-level demon beasts shouldn’t be too difficult.
With this in mind, Han Li finally left his cave dwelling one day and headed to the market in Heavenly Star City with Qu Hun. Since he planned to go to the outer sea to hunt high-level demon beasts, he naturally needed some information on demon beasts and the islands in the outer sea near the teleportation array. He should be able to find all of this in the market.
The market in Heavenly Star City was located on the first level of the Sacred Mountain, its scale so vast it occupied more than half of the entire first level.
Every day, numerous cultivators came here to buy and sell various magical instruments and materials. In terms of scale and prosperity, it far surpassed any market Han Li had ever seen before.
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