Chapter 129

He did not make any preparations, because there was basically no significant consumption, Yunhe headed straight to the place where corpses gathered.

Just by approaching, one could clearly feel that the surrounding putrid aura was becoming increasingly thick.

Actually, just the aura gathered in this place is enough to poison to death some Qi Refining cultivators with low cultivation base.

But as a demon beast with a strong physique, such small toxins cannot cause much impact on Yunhe.

On the contrary, some of the carrion-eating demon beasts caused Yunhe a little trouble, but it was entirely within an acceptable range.

The reason he did not use the Earth Escape Technique to travel is that, in this kind of swamp, the creatures living in the mud and below are far more numerous than those on the surface; using the Earth Escape Technique would simply be asking for trouble.

Soon.

Yunhe then arrived at the place where corpses were piled up.

Actually, corpses are commonly seen in the Corrosive Swamp, but seeing them piled up this much here is still the first time.

"I wouldn't believe it if someone said no demon beast occupies such a place."

A place like this, a paradise for carrion-eating demon beasts, is certainly favored by some or a certain demon beast.

He spread his Demon Sense outward to scan.

No demon beast had been found yet, but within the corpse pile he discovered two jet-black fruits as dark as ink.

"Rotten poison fruit?"

Moreover, it looks like its age is not low either.

The value of this fruit is actually much higher than that of the previous 'Frostgrass'.

Most importantly, this fruit can be used to refine a potent corpse poison; if used together with corpse refining, the effect will be very significant.

"It's hidden quite well."

Yunhe let out a light chuckle, lightly raised his claw, and a faint stream of water began to swirl around the 'Rotten Poison Fruit'.

With a little force, the two Rotten Poison Fruits flew toward it.

Sizzle!!

The next moment.

In the mud filled with corpses, a huge black-and-gold centipede could no longer hold back, surged forward, and bit toward the two Rotten Poison Fruits.

Seeing this, Yunhe's eyes narrowed slightly.

From an unseen angle, his Demon Sense suddenly condensed.

Heart Worm Technique!

Immediately afterward, the centipede that had suddenly surged up froze in its movements and let out a painful hiss.

Sizzle!!

It slammed heavily onto the ground, its massive body curling segment by segment into a ball, and with its hard carapace it looked anything but easy to handle.

The 'click-click-click' sound of its joints rubbing together, combined with its countless leg-like appendages, gave a creepy feeling.

But unfortunately, no matter how outstanding its defense, it could not withstand an attack originating from Demon Sense.

Although a demon beast's body cannot cultivate the Thousand Worms Myriad Insects Technique, the way it uses spiritual sense and Demon Sense is still the same.

Moreover, an attack originating from Demon Sense has a greater impact on demon beasts than on cultivators.

Demon Sense is inherently the weakest point of low-level demon beasts; an attack targeting Demon Sense yields a more pronounced effect than a direct strike to their vital points.

Yunhe patted his storage pouch, and a great banner rose in the wind, from which beast souls burst forth.

Under this siege, this mid-Second Stage centipede could not resist at all, and soon became covered in wounds from the beast souls' tearing bites, its relied-upon carapace appearing utterly fragile.

When Yunhe retrieved the beast soul banner, the beast souls dragged back a wilted centipede beast soul and flew back into the banner.

After a period of prior collection, the quality of beast souls inside the beast soul banner had considerably improved, but many were burned away by his Profound Dark Yin Flame during his battle with Senior Yunming.

On the contrary, this is a good opportunity to replenish them.

Stepping on piles of white bones, Yunhe walked to the front of the centipede's tattered corpse.

"This place is dark and damp, heavy with corpse qi, full of rotting matter; it is practically a natural breeding ground for 'Corpse Worms'."

He placed his claw on the centipede's corpse and felt it carefully.

Afterwards his eyes brightened slightly, and he said in a low voice:

Gather Yin, absorb qi, spit blood, attach to bone, crave marrow, worm manifest!

Shasha—

Accompanied by an extremely faint movement, several thin, grayish-white, inconspicuous worm-like creatures resembling fine hairs crawled out from the cracks in the centipede's carapace.

Afterwards, many more worm-like creatures crawled out from the rotting mud or some white bones.

These are all the lowest-tier worms.

Yunhe selected from them the worms that contained the relatively strongest corpse qi, took out a jade gourd, and placed them inside.

Although these worms are currently weak and inconspicuous, after some cultivation and metamorphosis they could potentially grow into corpse worms capable of controlling the Heavenly Capital Corpse.

Of course, the time and resources required will not be few.

After finishing the collection, he then put away the centipede's Demon Beast Body.

Afterward, he proceeded to the place of miasma he had seen earlier.

The lush green miasma was like a tangible substance, permeating this area.

Originally Yunhe did not pay much attention to these miasmas; he merely unfolded his Demon Sense to guard against any demon beasts that might suddenly appear.

But soon he realized something was wrong.

"What toxic miasma!"

He showed a hint of surprise, stopped his advance, and retreated from the miasma.

Only then did the earlier numb, tingling feeling slowly fade away.

You should know that, with his current demon beast physique strength, even some late-stage Second Stage demon beasts cannot compare to him.

But only after entering this miasma swamp for a while did I feel a slight discomfort in my body.

If one were to say,

Just going in for a trip and coming out again isn't a big deal; enduring it a bit won't cause any major problems, but if there is one or more demon beasts inside, and he has to spend time fighting them, then it becomes more troublesome.

However, it's not a big problem.

Yunhe came to a relatively quiet corner, concealed his presence, and slowly lay down.

The cultivation world.

In the cave dwelling.

While cultivating, Yunhe opened his eyes to find his hands holding various bottles and jars.

He rose, left the cultivation chamber, and went to the insect room.

He glanced at the dead hibernating cicada lying silently in the corner, barely showing any aura fluctuation.

He then looked toward the corner of the insect room, where a huge beehive encircled by a swarm of bees hung.

His battle of arts with Senior Yunming caused him to lose a large number of Red-ring Gold-spot Bees, but it also let him recognize their strength, so upon returning he immediately had the queen continue laying eggs.

However,

Now the Red-ring Gold-spot Bee is no longer the original Red Pattern Spirit Bee; the queen's egg-laying speed and the hatchling's incubation speed have slowed by an unknown number of times.

In fact,

This is actually the biggest trouble faced by cultivators skilled in insect control.

One must know that, compared to spirit beasts, colony-dwelling spirit insects, although they have short breeding periods, lay many eggs at once, and grow faster, these are all results built upon countless accumulated resources.

Without massive resource accumulation, merely going from egg-laying and hatching to possessing a certain combat capability would at least consume several years, decades, or even centuries.

Furthermore, the stronger the spirit insect's power and the higher its rank, the more time its cultivation consumes.

Thus, in the cultivation world, insect control is not a rare secret art, but cultivators who primarily rely on spirit insects are not common.

Especially, the higher one's cultivation base, the rarer they become.

Among those who rely on insect control, most can cultivate a scale of over a thousand spirit insects in their lifetime, which is already considered relatively good.

Even so, most of this scale is barely achieved through master-to-disciple transmission, with disciples passing it on to the next generation.

Moreover, compared to other spirit beasts, spirit insects are far too fragile.

Like Yunhe, who can command five thousand Red-ring Gold-spot Bees at once and lose only a thousand after a single clash, that is already considered relatively good.

It is not uncommon for all spirit insects to be wiped out in a single battle.

This is also why, even though many cultivators know spirit insects are not weak, few still practice insect control.

In a cultivation world where resources are scarce and everyone fights over them, wouldn't it be better to use the resources spent on raising spirit insects to bolster oneself?

That is Yunhe.

Having a Demon Beast Body that continuously supplies demon beast meat, and possessing the "Breeding Pill," an excellent elixir specially for nurturing spirit beasts and insects, allows one to cultivate a large swarm of spirit insects in a relatively short time and give them some strength.

Furthermore, the top-tier technique "Thousand Insects Myriad Worms Art" provides many excellent methods for nurturing spirit insects, and enables him to simultaneously command so many, allowing him to create a vast bee swarm that even Senior Yunming finds quite interesting.

Thus, even if the Red-ring Gold-spot Bee falls into another cultivator's hands, it is still difficult to unleash the same power as in Yunhe's grasp.

Seeing the bee colony developing well,

Yunhe then threw a lot of demon beast meat into the insect room.

He went to the poison chamber.

Compared to the insect room, the poison chamber's construction is more enclosed and divided into many compartments of various sizes.

As for poison insects, Yunhe does not currently wish to invest too much effort and resources.

Even though he obtained a large amount of resources through his Demon Beast Body, he cannot afford the simultaneous cost of cultivating both the bee swarm and poison insects.

Of course, the Heavenly Insect Sect's experience of being annihilated due to a single "Heavenly Corpse Poison" also had some influence on him.

Therefore, his purpose in cultivating poison insects this time is actually quite simple: just for that one Heavenly Capital Poison Corpse.

After placing the poison insects collected by his Demon Beast Body into the poison chamber's compartments, checking the chamber's condition, and setting up the breeding method, Yunhe then proceeded to the talisman crafting room.

He intended to craft a Second-Stage lower-grade talisman, the "Miasma-Avoiding Talisman".

Such talismans, usable only in specific situations, he had previously kept only a basic reserve for emergencies, but considering that just three "Miasma-Avoiding Talismans" might not meet the Demon Beast Body's needs, he prepared to make a few more on the spot.

Fortunately, his talisman Dao has now reached the threshold of the third stage, so crafting a Second-Stage lower-grade "Miasma-Avoiding Talisman" is not difficult.

Several hours later.

He took a small stack of "Miasma-Avoiding Talismans" back to the cultivation chamber, entered cultivation again, and simultaneously transmitted these talismans to his Demon Beast Body.

With the "Miasma-Avoiding Talisman" protecting him, Yunhe no longer needed to worry about the miasma's influence here.

He walked into the thick miasma.

Perhaps because of the miasma's presence, although there are no particularly powerful demon beasts here, there are many highly toxic creatures.

Scorpions, centipedes, toads, poisonous snakes.

If one were to say, the previous place where corpses piled up was a gathering ground for various corpse poisons and rotting poisons, then this place is a "breeding farm" for all kinds of poison insects.

All kinds of highly toxic demon beasts constantly fight and devour each other, then become poison insects.

However, they apparently have little interest in Yunhe, who is protected by the "Miasma-Avoiding Talisman".

This allowed Yunhe to proceed smoothly to the deepest part of the miasma, before the faintly visible gourd vine.

On two withered, shriveled bare trunks, a jade-green vine twined and grew, accompanied by scattered leaves.

And hanging in the middle of the vine is a conspicuously soy-red gourd, emitting a faint fresh fragrance that seems somewhat out of place amid the surrounding miasma.

"Could this not be the Soft Jade Red Gourd?"

After searching so long for a suitable gourd-type spirit plant and finding none, this one before him absolutely meets the requirements for refining the "Nine-Turned Gourd".

Because, if it truly is the "Soft Jade Red Gourd," then it is a third-stage spirit plant!

"Strange, even with miasma protection, a spirit plant of this caliber ought not to lack a demon beast guardian."

"Never mind, I'll pick it and run."

Having thought this, Yunhe without hesitation plucked the sauce-red gourd, stuffed it into his storage bag, and turned to run.

At the same time.

"Roar!!!"

Somewhere in the swamp.

The poisonous flood dragon that obtained a hunting opportunity because the secret realm opened and many demonic beasts surged in rarely left its dwelling.

After much effort hunting many demonic beasts, it, which was happily feasting, suddenly noticed.

It had been away for only a few days.

Its home had been stolen!

(End of chapter)