Chapter 107

"I almost failed the soul search—Wei Ming's spiritual sense is that strong?"

Watching the souls annihilated in the Soul-Drawing Talisman, Yunhe rubbed his temples, feeling his head a bit dizzy.

To be honest, Wei Ming's spiritual sense strength is a bit beyond his expectation.

Much stronger than an average Foundation Establishment late-stage cultivator, even stronger than him.

Left with no choice, he could only drive the beast souls in the Beast Soul Banner to tear apart Wei Ming's soul.

Although this might prevent him from obtaining the information he wanted, there was nothing else he could do.

But fortunately his luck was decent this time, and he still managed to find quite a bit of the information he cared about and wanted to know.

"Insect Sect, Thousand Poison Myriad Insect Technique, Heavenly Insect."

Also a rough map of the Insect Sect, the locations Wei Ming thought might contain valuable items, and a volume titled "Insect Compendium" recording spirit insects.

"Is there no way to leave?"

Yunhe furrowed his brows; without the token, Wei Ming also didn't know how to leave.

"Forget it, first gather supplies; if worse comes to worst, this place isn't impossible for cultivation."

He had already tried; although the Insect Sect's lingering mountain-protection formation prevented him from leaving, it could not block the connection between his Cultivator Body and Demon Beast Body.

So whether he gathered materials with his Demon Beast Body to refine elixirs for his cultivation, or simply focused his main energy on his Demon Beast Body to break through his cultivation bottleneck using that body, either was possible.

Once he had sufficient strength, could this ancient mountain-protection formation that stops Foundation Establishment cultivators also stop Golden Core cultivators, or even Yuan Ying Cultivators?

From now on, use that demonic Soul Search Technique less; seeing too many miscellaneous memories will muddle the consciousness, and if one isn't careful and sinks into it, one may cease to be oneself.

Sitting cross-legged, Yunhe closed his eyes again, discarding some useless things in his mind while retaining what he needed.

Several hours later.

"Let's start from this medicinal field."

Yunhe came again to the place where he had previously stood.

Buzz—

The Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees fluttered around in flight.

Seeing them, Yunhe couldn't help but smile.

"Indeed, it was an oversight; it was the lingering scent from you that put Wei Ming on alert."

He raised his hand and gently stroked the wing of a spirit bee resting on his palm.

If it were another cultivator, they would surely not notice such a subtle scent difference, but from Wei Ming's body Yunhe found a "scent insect."

This insect is extremely sensitive to odors, especially the scent of spirit insects, so Wei Ming initially guessed Xiao Qiyuan, since only he came from the Spirit Beast Sect and was most likely to be hiding spirit insects.

"Didn't find many good things, but ended up finding quite a few spirit insects."

From Wei Ming's storage bag and spirit beast bag, aside from numerous bottles and jars obviously needed for raising spirit insects and spirit beasts, the most numerous were various kinds of insects.

Some were dead, merely specimens.

Some were still alive, well-fed, with diverse functions; one would need to study them thoroughly to figure them all out.

Besides that, he also found a notes on raising spirit insects in Wei Ming's storage bag.

The general approach to cultivation was similar to his, but the methods differed somewhat; some aspects could be borrowed.

He gathered his scattered thoughts, and his gaze fell once more onto the formation before him.

"A rotten formation—better to break it by force than to solve it."

He lightly patted the spirit insect pouch.

Buzz—

A large swarm of Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees surged out of the spirit insect pouch, their gold-red intertwined forming a floating cloud.

With Yunhe's current spiritual sense, controlling nearly a thousand Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees at once poses no problem, but if the number continued to increase, the swarm's agility would decline.

He lightly waved his hand, and the divided swarms densely covered the formation.

Fine chewing sounds mixed with metallic scraping noises rang out.

Four-winged Gold-spotted Bees can gnaw through middle-grade magical artifacts at First Stage Middle, and upper-grade ones at First Stage Late; the Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees, which inherit the Four-winged Gold-spotted Bees' traits, are slightly weaker but not by much.

With so many Four-winged Gold-spotted Bees gathered, even a Foundation Establishment mid-stage cultivator would likely have to give way.

The effect of this "upgrade" on the swarm was so good that Yunhe himself was quite surprised.

"I just don't know why Wei Ming can simultaneously control over ten thousand Black-ring Hornets—is it a trait of the Imprisoned Beast Pillar, or is it due to his powerful spiritual sense or his cultivation method?"

Unfortunately, after searching through Wei Ming's storage bag, he still couldn't find the secret technique or method for controlling spirit beasts and spirit insects.

Click—click click click—

Soon enough.

Under the gnawing of the Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees, the rotten formation protecting the medicinal field shattered completely.

What rushed toward him was a mixed scent of medicinal fragrance and rotten odor, making Yunhe involuntarily cover his nose.

Buzz—

After breaking the formation, the Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees could no longer contain their excitement and surged into the medicinal field.

Fortunately, Yunhe managed to control them in time.

This caused them to hover before a few exposed stalks of blood-colored spirit ginseng; the medicinal fragrance released when the formation opened came from them.

"Thousand-year Dragon Blood Ginseng!"

There were two stalks in total, still growing well inside the medicinal field, while the rest of the field lay in ruins, not even a scrap remaining.

"No wonder you're so excited; Dragon Blood Ginseng is the main ingredient for refining third-grade Breeding Elixir, requiring at least three hundred years. Even the lowest grade of these two stalks is thousand-year level."

Approaching those two Dragon Blood Ginseng stalks and feeling their condensed, undispersed spiritual energy, Yunhe fell into thought.

"Because of the spiritual energy problem here, although these two Dragon Blood Ginseng stalks stubbornly survived, is their growth rate also much slower than under normal spiritual energy?"

"But this is enough; if it were ten-thousand-year Dragon Blood Ginseng, it would probably have already become a spirit, right?"

He carefully picked the two stalks of Dragon Blood Ginseng and placed them into a jade box, storing it in his storage ring.

The Breeding Pill refined from three-hundred-year-old Dragon Blood Ginseng is a low-grade third-rank elixir.

The thousand-year-old Dragon Blood Ginseng could likely be refined into a mid-grade third-rank Breeding Pill, or even higher.

Whether used to feed the bee swarm or simply to boost the Cultivation Base of a Demon Beast Body, it is an excellent choice.

"I just need to improve my alchemy skill."

Third-rank elixirs are still beyond what he can currently refine.

After finishing this medicinal field, Yunhe moved on to the next one.

Back then, the vast Insect Sect naturally had many medicinal fields for cultivating spiritual plants.

However, most of those medicinal fields lacked any protective formation.

Without a doubt, nothing could continue to grow on them.

A small portion of the medicinal fields still had formations, but rarely could any spiritual plant survive there.

After making a round.

Besides those two thousand-year-old Dragon Blood Ginseng, he only found a single thousand-year-old Jade Blue Aconite and a nine-hundred-year-old Blood-Return Herb.

Jade Blue Aconite is also a primary ingredient for refining Breeding Pills, while Blood-Return Herb can be used to make the main ingredient of a "Threefold Blood-Revolving Pill" that accelerates bodily recovery and enhances physical strength.

Although the spiritual plants are few, each is astonishingly high in quality.

If taken out, these spiritual plants would likely make even Golden Core cultivators green with envy.

"Only one piece left."

Finally, Yunhe stopped before the smallest medicinal field formation.

According to Wei Ming's speculation, there is a high chance that a Golden Core spirit object exists within this medicinal field!

"That makes sense."

Large medicinal fields mostly cultivate spiritual plants needed for mass production; only small fields could possibly grow rarer spiritual plants.

Moreover, although the medicinal field is small, its formation is stronger and relatively better preserved.

Bang!!

Merely touching it lightly, a force transmitted from the formation bounced his hand away.

"The strength is indeed different."

"But even the strongest formation, once decayed and not replenished, cannot withstand constant consumption."

Under his direction, the Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees swarmed forward.

Ripples spread across the formation.

Three days later.

The protective formation over the small medicinal field began to turn illusory.

Accompanied by a crisp "crack," the formation shattered.

Thereafter.

A lush, vigorous green tree suddenly loomed into view.

In other medicinal fields, even a hint of green is rarely seen, yet here stands an ancient tree growing so vigorously that it far exceeds Yunhe's expectations.

Moreover, on one of the tree's branches hangs a dark-red fruit resembling an eye, emitting a hazy glow.

"This is."

Doubt appeared in Yunhe's eyes.

To be honest, he does not recognize this tree, nor that fruit.

But for some reason, as the tree's peculiar aura spread, Yunhe felt his spirit lift, as if he had just enjoyed a full night's sleep, leaving him refreshed and clear-headed.

"Golden Core spirit object?"

Buzz—buzz—buzz—

Suddenly.

The circling swarm of Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees became agitated.

"Huh?"

Screech!

Before Yunhe could react, a sound like tearing cloth rang out abruptly.

Following the sound, he noticed that on the trunk of the lushly growing tree, a cocoon nearly blending with the bark had split open with a crack.

Soon, more cracks appeared on the cocoon, and a pair of withered yellow wings, like fallen leaves, trembled as they emerged from within.

A cicada?

Buzz—buzz——buzz—buzz—buzz—

The Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees grew increasingly restless, and Yunhe could clearly sense their unease being transmitted.

Being able to make nearly a thousand Red-ring Gold-spotted Bees feel uneasy at once sank Yunhe's heart.

He glanced at the fruit on the tree, and a hint of resolve flashed.

He immediately tapped his foot, swiftly retreating with the bee swarm, putting some distance between himself and the cicada about to break free from its cocoon.

Straining his gaze, he still saw a cicada emerge from the cocoon, its entire body withered yellow, devoid of any color, like rotting dead wood.

Though it was merely an insignificant-looking cicada, it stirred a strong sense of unease in Yunhe's heart.

He slowly brushed the cicada's withered wings twice, and the wings suddenly vibrated.

The next second.

Whoosh—

It actually vanished from Yunhe's sight in that brief instant.

So fast?!

Yunhe was suddenly startled.

That cicada, which clearly looked like it was about to wither and die, actually could have such speed!

Even when facing a cultivator at late Foundation Establishment, their speed could not surpass Yunhe's naked-eye perception.

The increase in cultivation base brings not only an improvement in spiritual sense, but also an improvement in the five senses.

He immediately took out the "Golden Origin Body-Protecting Talisman" and slapped it onto himself.

At the moment the protective golden light manifested.

Boom!!

The protective golden light that had just risen shattered under an extremely swift impact.

So fast!

Yunhe was also slammed away violently, sliding across the ground for a distance before stopping.

Suddenly.

In Yunhe's mind, as he was bewildered and blown away, a name suddenly popped up.

It was a name he had seen in Wei Ming's memory, recorded in a book titled "Heavenly Insect Compendium".

Spirit insect — the Death-Dormant Cicada!

————

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(End of chapter)