Raising the Insects — The Gold Devourer Beetle Problem

Chapter 398: Stirrings Overseas — Raising the Insects

According to the jade slip of that Imperial Spirit Sect cultivator, while the "Gold Devourer Beetle" ranked near the top of the Strange Insect List, its individual capabilities were quite limited. It won entirely through overwhelming numbers.

If one only had a dozen or a few dozen, even after they matured, they would not be of much use.

Only when their numbers reached over a hundred thousand—several hundred thousand—would they truly deserve their ranking on the Strange Insect List.

The thought of a sky-darkening swarm of insects attacking, an endless tide that could never be fully slain, sent a chill even down Han Li’s spine.

Thus, for now, what needed to be done was to hasten the maturation of these Gold Devourer Beetles as quickly as possible, and then make them lay eggs swiftly, so their numbers could multiply exponentially.

But that was easier said than done—it was incredibly difficult.

As an ancient strange insect that had existed since上古, the Gold Devourer Beetle had long been extinct in the Tian Nan cultivation world. The specific methods for raising and training them had been lost for countless generations.

The jade slip on insect raising from that Imperial Spirit Sect cultivator was only a collation of some of this insect’s habits based on ancient texts. It contained no detailed instructions for training them.

This had frustrated Han Li for a long time.

In truth, it wasn’t just the twelfth-ranked "Gold Devourer Beetle." Most of the strange insects ranked in the top thirty were insect-type demon beasts that had vanished from the cultivation world for years.

That Imperial Spirit Sect cultivator had been an insect fanatic. After collecting and analyzing various ancient documents, he had compiled these ancient insects into the Strange Insect List.

Whether the rankings at the top of the Strange Insect List were reliable or not, only heaven knew!

That Han Li could obtain these supposedly extinct Gold Devourer Beetles was a stroke of luck.

For some unknown reason, these larvae of the Gold Devourer Beetles had been lying dormant in a state of suspended animation deep beneath the earth on Little Ring Island since ancient times.

Logically, even if the mountains crumbled and the seas boiled, these strange insects would not awaken easily.

But in his cave on Little Ring Island, Han Li had gathered and raised many other strange insects together. The scent of these insects gradually spread underground, miraculously awakening the Gold Devourer Beetles as a group, driven by their instinct to feed.

They should have launched an attack to feed long ago, but among Han Li’s strange insects was the "Bloodjade Spider," which was their natural predator. Due to an innate fear, they did not dare approach Han Li’s cave too closely.

Thus, they lurked underground on Little Ring Island, keeping a dead-fixed watch on Han Li’s cave.

When Han Li had gone out shopping and took the Bloodjade Spider with him, the Gold Devourer Beetles saw their opportunity.

As Han Li had witnessed, these Gold Devourer Beetles devoured all the strange insects he was raising and made the spirit herb garden in his cave their new nest.

And then, Han Li, who had secretly returned, caught them all in one net.

Now, without any ancient insect-raising techniques, Han Li had to figure things out slowly on his own.

First, Han Li tried throwing various types of insect feed into the insect chamber. No matter what kind of feed it was, the several hundred Gold Devourer Beetles devoured it all without any pickiness. This pleased Han Li greatly.

But Han Li’s joy lasted only a few months. He discovered that no matter how much insect feed the Gold Devourer Beetles ate, there was not a single sign of growth or change.

This depressed Han Li, and he had to try other methods.

These insects loved metals and spiritual energy. Han Li tried feeding them some raw metal ores and low-grade spirit stones respectively.

After devouring these, there was still no change in the insects—another failure.

Extremely frustrated, Han Li simply threw the dozen or so dead eggs of the "Golden-Back Demon Mantis" that he had been keeping into the insect chamber.

After the Gold Devourer Beetles devoured them, the spiritual energy on these insects finally showed a change. They seemed even more ferocious than before.

This delighted Han Li, but it also made him worry.

Could it be that these Gold Devourer Beetles only matured by devouring other strange insects? This was a problem!

Apart from the two Bloodjade Spiders, what other strange insects did he have?

Left with no choice, Han Li simply bought some blood-meat from pigs and sheep from the outside and threw it into the insect chamber.

But this only made the Gold Devourer Beetles more ferocious and irritable; it did not promote their maturation or advancement.

Having exhausted his options, Han Li finally hastened the growth of enough spirit herbs and began refining the "Spirit Nourishing Pill."

Before this, he had been too busy refining pills to increase his own magical power to ever make this pill. Now was the perfect time to try.

A few days later, the first batch of Spirit Nourishing Pills was successfully refined.

Han Li immediately fed a portion to the Gold Devourer Beetles and the two Bloodjade Spiders.

The results of the Spirit Nourishing Pill left Han Li half-pleased and half-worried!

What pleased him was that this pill, which could raise the rank of demon beasts, was indeed effective on these strange insects.

What worried him was that the effect of the pill on the Gold Devourer Beetles and the Bloodjade Spiders was vastly different.

After the two Bloodjade Spiders consumed four or five Spirit Nourishing Pills each, their spiritual energy had clearly increased by a small margin the very next day. The effect was extremely obvious.

The Gold Devourer Beetles, which had also consumed a few pills, did show some effect. But compared to the Bloodjade Spiders, it was truly insignificant—only a minuscule amount of growth.

Han Li estimated that because the number of Gold Devourer Beetles was too large—several hundred of them splitting the pill—it naturally couldn’t provide a significant boost.

And this was only a few hundred. The thought of needing tens of thousands before they could be truly effective instantly drained Han Li’s confidence in continuing to raise them.

Even if he used all the green liquid from the little vial to refine Spirit Nourishing Pills, it would be impossible to cultivate a swarm of Gold Devourer Beetles of that scale within a hundred years.

After reaching this conclusion, Han Li lost interest in training the Gold Devourer Beetles. He fed the remaining Spirit Nourishing Pills to the Bloodjade Spiders and from then on only threw some insect feed into the chamber for the Gold Devourer Beetles.

By this time, Han Li had already been in Heaven Star City for half a year.

During the remaining days, he went into seclusion and frantically began manufacturing second-tier puppets and various talismans.

As for the talismans, it went without saying that without forming his core, he still couldn’t master mid-grade spells and thus couldn’t produce mid-grade talismans.

The only benefit he gained from making so many talismans was a greatly improved skill in producing basic talismans.

Even for high-grade basic talismans, he now had nearly a fifty percent success rate. This saved him a considerable amount of material.

The primary material for second-tier puppets was centuries-old ironwood. Since Han Li could accelerate its growth himself, the cost of manufacturing a single puppet was reduced by more than half.

As for the souls required to refine the puppets, it just so happened that his old "Soul Gathering Bowl" was full of them. They were wandering souls who had long lost their consciousness, and Han Li unceremoniously used them directly.

After all, without consciousness, these souls had lost the qualification to reincarnate. They could only be used as ordinary sacrificial materials.

Over two hundred puppets were finally completed, all of them uniform beast-shaped puppets. Han Li was extremely satisfied.

But the appearance 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, the price of over two hundred, plus the materials wasted on failed attempts, was staggering.

By now, Han Li had been in seclusion for a full two years.

During these two years, all the Spirit Nourishing Pills he refined were used to feed the Bloodjade Spiders.

Driven by the powerful medicinal force, the two demon beasts advanced again, entering the ranks of top-grade first-tier demon beasts.

At the same time, over these two years, Qu Hun had finally refined the "Chaos Yuan Bowl" to about seventy or eighty percent completion.

Although, not being the original owner of this magic treasure, he could never achieve perfect unity of spirit and artifact, he could finally store it within his body and unleash about seventy percent of its power.

Han Li had considered having Qu Hun refine his own magic treasure.

But first, the materials for a magic treasure were astronomically priced. With the spirit stones he had left, he probably couldn’t even gather the most common materials.

Second, refining a magic treasure wasn’t something that could be done quickly by nurturing it within one’s primordial spirit. It would take at least twenty to thirty years of painstaking effort for it to begin to show power.

Han Li didn’t have that much time to waste!

He urgently needed a large number of demon beast inner cores to refine medicinal pills to prepare for the second revolution of the "Three Revolutions Heavy Origin Art."

Before this, whether it was training the strange insects or manufacturing a large number of puppets, it was all in preparation for going out to sea to hunt demon beasts.

He figured that with his puppets, the Bloodjade Spiders, his formation tools, and Qu Hun as his main combatant, with himself assisting on the side, hunting fifth-grade demon beasts shouldn’t be too difficult.

Having made this decision, Han Li finally left his cave one day and headed for the Heaven Star City market with Qu Hun.

Since he was going to the outer seas to hunt high-grade demon beasts, he naturally needed some information on the demon beasts and the islands in the outer sea near the teleportation array.

All of this should be available in the market.

The Heaven Star City market was located on the first level of the Sacred Mountain.

Its scale was enormous, occupying more than half of the entire first level.

Every day, a great number of cultivators came here to buy and sell various magic tools and materials. In terms of scale and prosperity, it far surpassed any market Han Li had ever seen before.