Chapter 151

Hornfield Island.

Seeing Yunhe again, the village chief of Rainfield Village on Hornfield Island, Lao Yutou, was naturally overjoyed; the strength and ability Yunhe displayed far surpassed that of the previous immortal master.

Lao Yutou immediately offered to let Yunhe stay another night, but Yunhe had no interest; he merely gave him ten special talismans, saying that if any cloud beasts appeared near Hornfield Island, tearing one talisman would suffice.

After finishing those matters, Yunhe went to the sole mountain peak on Hornfield Island.

He quickly found the cave dwelling left by the previous cultivator and some formations set up around it.

These formations were naturally beneath Yunhe's notice, but he currently lacked any exceptional formation flags or devices, so he simply set up a few common qi‑concealing and mist formations before beginning the frantic excavation of his cave dwelling.

The cave dwelling excavated by the previous cultivator was too small, utterly unable to meet his needs.

Meanwhile, as excavation continued and with the aid of the Spirit Mark Pearl, Yunhe discovered that the previous cultivators had never fully utilized Hornfield Island's spirit vein, nor placed their cave dwellings where spiritual energy was thickest.

Yunhe would certainly not make that mistake.

Using several spiritual artifacts, he spent two days excavating the cave dwelling he needed, placing his cultivation chamber in the spot with the densest spiritual energy.

He crafted this cave dwelling to be nearly identical to those within the Qingzong Sect, complete with a cultivation chamber, artifact refining chamber, pill refining chamber, spirit insect chamber, gu insect chamber, refining corpse chamber, talisman crafting chamber, and all other necessary facilities.

He deliberately placed the gu insect chamber and the refining corpse chamber in the deepest part of the cave dwelling, at least several dozen meters away from any adjacent chambers, to avoid unintended interference.

He also situated the spirit insect chamber at the outermost side of the cave dwelling, providing some protection while allowing the spirit bees to go out and gather honey at any time.

To this end, he further divided the spirit insect chamber into several rooms, each housing a different variety of red‑ring gold‑spotted bees.

Since he was preparing to cultivate a new bee strain, he had to raise different bee queens in order to select the most suitable one for mating.

Moreover, he wished to differentiate the spirit bees according to their traits—separating combat specialists from honey‑gathering specialists—which inevitably required segregated handling.

Besides this, the deathly dormant cicadas and golden‑shadow six‑winged bees each received their own insect chambers.

From Xiao Shanhe's storage bag, Yunhe sorted the barely viable insect eggs he found and placed them in various insect chambers, hoping to hatch decent spirit insects for future options.

Afterwards, he spent another two days outside his cave dwelling, opening up dozens of mu of spirit fields, sowing some ordinary spirit plant seeds bought from the market, and irrigating them with the spirit blood of a wood flood dragon as fertilizer.

He believed these spirit plants would soon grow, enabling the spirit bees to collect more spirit honey.

Once everything was set up, Yunhe, riding his Flowing Cloud Falcon Boat, circled the mountain peak twice and felt quite satisfied.

This gave him a secure foothold for peaceful cultivation here; whether he continued exploring the Upper Cloud Realm or returned to the Eastern Realm, he now had a suitable foothold.

Finally, he laid out the Small Sumeru Profound Thunder Formation around his cave dwelling.

With this formation protecting him, plus the Heaven Capital Gu Corpse, the bee swarm, and his own strength, he would not fear even a fierce attack by an early Golden Core cultivator.

"When the chance comes, I'll add two mountain‑guardian grand formations, and then it'll truly be perfect."

After finishing his work, Yunhe finally sat in his cultivation chamber, pondering how to improve the shortcomings of his cave dwelling.

"That said, the spiritual energy density of Hornfield Peak is indeed somewhat higher than I expected."

Playing with the Gathering Spirit Pearl, Yunhe couldn't help but smack his lips in admiration.

The spiritual energy density of Hornfield Peak can rival that of an upper‑grade first‑stage spirit vein; with his Spirit Gathering Formation and Gathering Spirit Pearl, the density inside his cave dwelling has already reached that of a lower‑grade second‑stage spirit vein.

As long as the Gathering Spirit Pearl continues to function for a period, the spiritual energy can be raised to middle‑grade second‑stage.

This is already more than sufficient for his daily cultivation needs.

After completing everything, Yunhe did not rush to cultivate; instead, he first slept soundly.

After a day and night of full rest, the refreshed Yunhe then came to the refining corpse chamber.

The fact that the Heaven Capital Gu Corpse had actively devoured Xiao Shanhe's soul left him with a lingering unease; although he had checked it several times before and found nothing, if this issue remained unresolved he might never feel completely at ease commanding this refined corpse.

As always, showing no emotional fluctuation or extra movement, lying stiffly in the corpse‑rich refining corpse chamber, the Heaven Capital Gu Corpse had Yunhe take out the corpse gu mother worm and fully focus his divine sense upon it.

He repeatedly scanned it with his divine sense, yet there was still no change.

Even when driving the corpse gu worms and using split‑mind control on the Heaven Capital Gu Corpse, he detected nothing abnormal.

The more this happened, the more uneasy Yunhe felt.

If he truly could not find the problem, he might choose to abandon the Heaven Capital Gu Corpse.

External foes are nothing to fear—he could face even a Golden Core cultivator—but if danger arose from his own side, from somewhere unknown to him, he could not accept it.

Yunhe fell into thought.

A flick of his storage ring produced a great banner; the banners fluttered loudly, and he drew out a first‑stage beast soul.

Afterwards, he released his control over the Heaven Capital Gu Corpse, merely locking his divine sense onto it.

After waiting silently for a while, the Heaven Capital Gu Corpse sharing a room with the beast soul still showed no movement.

"I guessed wrong?"

Suddenly.

Just as Yunhe was secretly pondering, the Tiandu Gu Corpse suddenly moved; it, at an extremely fast speed, easily seized the beast soul and without hesitation swallowed it in one bite.

The speed was so fast that Yunhe couldn't react in time.

But he wasn't panicked; instead, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Found it."

Focusing on the Tiandu Gu Corpse, Yunhe finally found a clue on its body.

He again controlled the Tiandu Gu Corpse, making it lie still on the ground; then he walked to its side, squatted down, and placed his hand on its abdomen, where the corpse pellet, rich with corpse qi, could be clearly felt.

"Now!"

But as Yunhe gave a low shout, while his hand resting on the Tiandu Gu Corpse's abdomen slowly lifted, three grayish-white worms as thick as hair were "pulled" out by him.

Looking at the worms wrapped in magical power, Yunhe narrowed his eyes.

These three worms, aside from their color, are not really different from the corpse worms, but Yunhe could clearly sense their difference from the corpse worms.

Most importantly, he faintly felt from these three worms a connection to his own existence.

Slowly, Yunhe's eyes widened, revealing a look of astonishment.

He suddenly recalled a type of worm recorded in the "Thousand Worms Myriad Insects Art".

"Soul worm!"

Poison insects that feed on divine souls, living souls, and ghost souls.

One of the ten most difficult poison insects to cultivate in the 'Thousand Poison Myriad Insects Secret'.

One of the Ten Great Poisons of the Heaven Insect Sect!

The others include the Substitute Death Poison, Fortune Poison, Nine Revolutions Golden Light Poison, etc.

"No, they differ from true soul poisons; they not only feed on essences, but also on ghostly beings and corpse qi, they are products of corpse poison mutation, and should be called corpse soul poisons!"

Looking at these three corpse soul poisons, Yunhe fell into contemplation.

After a brief consideration, he made a guess about the mutation of the poison insects.

'It should be formed by taking corpse poison as a base, absorbing the remnants of the Heaven Corpse Poison Insect, adding a portion of my divided spirit, and born from the combination of corpse control and soul manipulation techniques, plus some unknown factors.'

Yunhe estimated that his guess was probably about eighty or ninety percent correct.

Indeed, that is indeed the case.

This time, the mutation and birth of the corpse soul poisons, his luck absolutely accounted for ninety-nine percent.

At the same time, this change made Yunhe unable to refrain from sighing; no wonder the Heaven Insect Sect perished because of the Heaven Corpse Poison.

Because poison insects are more special than spirit insects, their likelihood of mutating due to environmental and other factors is far higher than that of spirit insects.

A little carelessness could result in cultivating a poison insect that one cannot control at all.

But for these corpse soul poisons, Yunhe does not need to worry.

Since their creation is related to the divided spirit he left in the Tian Du Poison Corpse, it means that no matter how they mutate, he can fully control them using his divine spirit.

However, he still used the method of the 'Thousand Poison Myriad Insects Secret' and further controlled them with fresh blood.

From the characteristics displayed by the corpse soul poisons, they seem to not only possess the abilities of corpse poison, but also have the effects of soul poison.

You should know that soul poison is one of the ten extremely difficult-to-cultivate poison insects mentioned in the 'Thousand Poison Myriad Insects Secret', and it is the bane of ghostly beings and living souls.

Yunhe separately opened a new poison chamber for the corpse soul poisons, without much thought, decided to cultivate this poison insect.

Under special circumstances, a swarm of corpse soul poisons could perhaps play a very important role.

Finding the problem with the Tian Du Poison Corpse made Yunhe breathe a sigh of relief.

At the same time, obtaining this special corpse soul poison insect made him feel greatly delighted.

After reflecting on his many years of cultivation, he finally felt a surge of luck.

If this poison insect can be successfully cultivated to scale, he might obtain a countermeasure not inferior to the swarm of the Red Ring Golden Spot Bees.

After settling the corpse soul poisons, Yunhe went to the spirit insect chamber.

First, he checked the condition of the death-dormant cicada.

Usually, when not moved, the cicada remains as still as a pupa, only possibly twitching when fed.

But now its appearance has undergone a huge change compared to when Yunhe first discovered it.

Although its withered body is not yet plump, it has improved greatly; the verdant color on its body begins to spread from the wings.

Afterward, he went to check the Golden Shadow Six-Winged Bees.

The bees' condition has recovered well; although still visibly weak, if they continue to be fed the 'Breeding Elixir', they should at least recover enough to mate successfully.

Now the question is whether the queen of the Red Ring Golden Spot Bees can successfully undertake mating.

Yunhe has been focusing on cultivating several queen bees; those that have not yet mated, with his own feeding plus the royal jelly from the swarm, should grow quickly.

From the insect eggs found at Xiao Shanhe, after just a few days, some have been confirmed as dead eggs, which he directly fed to the queen bees; the rest, it is unknown whether they can hatch, and Yunhe does not pay much attention to them.

Afterward, Yunhe immersed himself in cultivation.

He periodically checks the poison chamber and spirit insect chamber at regular intervals.

After finishing the elixir, he spends a month refining several batches.

When inspiration strikes, he goes to make talismans or refine artifacts.

In his spare time, he also tries to explore the 'Dragon Scale Pattern', as well as the special spirit patterns recorded from the Golden Shadow Six-Winged Bees.

After three months of his cultivation immersion, he finally felt something.

The Demon Beast Body has completed its breakthrough, finally reaching the late Second Stage!

This made Yunhe overjoyed, and at once he employed the 'Year Ring Technique' to detect his lifespan.

The result naturally made him overjoyed.

Lifespan—1500 years!

With so much lifespan, he became more determined to cultivate silently until he could no longer advance before leaving seclusion.

Of course.

The awakening of the Demon Beast Body also allowed him to allocate more attention to it.

However, with his current divine sense, divine soul strength, and ability to multitask, as long as no battle occurs, the two bodies can indeed proceed without interfering with each other and grow independently.

(End of Chapter)