Stirrings Overseas — Five-Colored Pearls and New Devourer Beetles

Chapter 530: Stirrings Overseas — Five-Colored Pearls and New Devourer Beetles

One of the items was a silver, strip-like object several zhang long—it was clearly a portion of the giant turtle’s tail.

The other was a half-length ghost-headed staff, still retaining a startling amount of spiritual energy.

It seemed that the outcome of that great battle was far from certain.

After the lightning tribulation had ended, the combatants might have pursued each other out of the nearby waters.

After all, at the level of Nascent Soul cultivators and Grade-8 demon beasts, neither a cultivator trying to kill a beast for its core nor a beast trying to devour a cultivator’s Nascent Soul was a simple task. If the weaker side could not win, fleeing was far easier.

Han Li examined the two objects in his hands, a cautious expression on his face.

After a moment of thought, he waved his hands and tossed both items back into the sea.

Even if the chances of trouble were slim, Han Li did not wish to be tracked by retaining these things and inviting disaster.

He swept his gaze across the area once more, confirming that no cultivators or demon beasts were concealed nearby, before flying toward the Misty Sea without further hesitation.

The restrictions outside his cave dwelling were intact, and Han Li’s last shred of worry was put to rest. He hurried inside.

Before the great battle had erupted, Han Li had intended to relocate from this island.

But after witnessing the clash between those three cultivators and the demon beast, he had changed his mind.

The giant turtle—whether it lived or died—had certainly suffered severe injuries. Even if its lair truly was in these waters, it would absolutely relocate after this shock.

Moreover, finding another island this secluded was no easy task. And even if he did find one, who was to say what other high-grade demon beasts might be lurking nearby?

Under these circumstances, this place paradoxically seemed safer.

Still, Han Li did not let his guard down. In one go, he set up several more illusion formations across the island and also constructed two false cave dwellings in other parts of the mountain range, concealing them with restrictions as well.

This way, even if a powerful enemy did invade, he would have a chance to escape.

With all of this done, Han Li finally felt at ease.

What he did not know was that the man-beast battle he had witnessed that day would become the crucial spark that ignited the later beast-cultivator war of the Chaotic Star Sea.

The enraged Flood Dragon clan of the Chaotic Star Sea would join the ranks of high-grade demon beasts slaughtering human cultivators.

Human cultivators would suffer devastating losses as a result.

After some time passed without incident at his cave dwelling, Han Li soon put that day’s battle out of his mind.

For the time being, he focused entirely on refining some formation tools designed to trap enemies, in preparation for hunting demon beasts in the future. Now that he would be dealing with Grade-6 and Grade-7 demon beasts, he dared not be the least bit careless.

It was during this period that the fully devoured Gold Devourer Beetles finally laid their eggs.

When Han Li joyfully examined the eggs, his face instead showed a look of stunned surprise.

The eggs were still white, but their surfaces were now marked with conspicuous black spots.

“This is…”

Seeing this, Han Li’s first thought was that these Devourer Beetles had somehow advanced to their mature form. But he quickly dismissed the idea.

Based on his earlier deductions, while the previous generation’s golden beetles had been quite formidable, they were still far from the legendary nearly-indestructible mature form. There was no way they could have completed their evolution so quickly.

After pondering for a moment, Han Li’s thoughts turned to the countless Iron Fire Ants that had been devoured.

Could it be that by consuming so many Iron Fire Ants, the beetles were undergoing some unexpected evolution?

His curiosity was thoroughly piqued.

Still, based on past experience, it would be about a year before these eggs would hatch.

Without further hesitation, he suppressed his anticipation and set up a soul-binding formation, moving all the eggs inside it and performing blood-contract rituals on them.

Only then did he turn and head toward the adjacent Golden Silk Silkworm chamber to take a look.

By now, apart from the two silkworms that had swallowed the Five-Colored Pearls, the rest had gradually died off despite being kept alive with medicinal herbs.

Even the two that had survived thanks to the miraculous effects of the pearls showed no sign of recovery.

At this point, Han Li had abandoned all hope for them. He deliberately prepared some Neon Robe Grass to feed to the pair, hoping it might induce them to lay eggs, just as it had done with the Devourer Beetles.

By now, Han Li was also certain that even if those Five-Colored Pearls were not Heaven-Mending Pills, they could only be beneficial to the body, never harmful.

Half a month later, Han Li finished refining all the formation tools he needed.

He then fed the Neon Robe Grass to the pair of Golden Silk Silkworms and entered his seclusion chamber to consume the Five-Colored Pearls.

Apart from the small pearl he had used earlier, he still had six in his possession.

…

Sitting cross-legged in the center of the seclusion chamber, Han Li stared calmly at the box of pearls.

Having already made his decision, he was not one to dither. He deftly picked up one pearl and placed it in his mouth.

A faint look of surprise appeared on his face.

The pearl, which should have been rock-hard, had turned soft and pliable the moment it entered his mouth. It had a slightly bitter taste, but he swallowed it with ease.

A strange, warm sensation rose from his dantian region.

Frowning slightly, Han Li performed an internal inspection with his spiritual sense.

The Five-Colored Pearl lay intact in his abdomen, radiating a faint, colorful glow.

Seeing this, Han Li paused in thought for a moment, then made a hand seal.

A slender tendril of azure flame shot out from his Golden Core, completely enveloping the pearl as he began to refine it.

The warmth instantly turned into a scorching heat.

Han Li closed his eyes and entered a meditative state.

Two months later, Han Li had used his core fire to completely dissolve the pearl into nothingness. Yet he still did not feel any immediate change.

After some hesitation, he began refining a second pearl.

In the blink of an eye, over a year had passed.

When Han Li emerged from the seclusion chamber, all six Five-Colored Pearls had been fully refined.

By this point, he could faintly sense that his absorption of heaven and earth spiritual energy, and his conversion of spiritual power, had become slightly faster than before. It was not a dramatic change, but it was enough to fill Han Li with quiet elation.

After all, the effects of these Five-Colored Pearls were only just beginning.

But no sooner had he stepped out of the seclusion chamber than he was doused with cold water.

The Golden Silk Silkworms, having consumed enough Neon Robe Grass, had indeed laid eggs—over a hundred of them. But not a single one was viable; they were all dead eggs.

Moreover, the pair of silkworms had both died shortly after laying them.

Han Li stood outside the silkworm chamber, staring at the room full of dead eggs, completely speechless.

Despite this harsh setback, Han Li had not come away empty-handed.

At the very least, he had confirmed the general medicinal properties of Neon Robe Grass.

He had long suspected that feeding the grass to high-grade demon beasts when its leaves had unfurled could effectively stimulate their reproduction. But he had never had the chance to verify this theory.

The fate of the Golden Silk Silkworms strongly suggested that his judgment had been correct.

The rarer and more advanced a demon beast, the more difficult it was for them to reproduce. No wonder those high-grade beasts swarmed the grass whenever its leaves unfurled.

As the saying goes, fortune and misfortune depend on each other.

While Han Li was nursing his disappointment over the silkworms, the Devourer Beetle eggs began to hatch a few days later.

The newborn Devourer Beetles gave Han Li another pleasant surprise.

In terms of appearance, the beetles were largely unchanged. But besides the silver spots on their golden shells, they now bore black stripes. And the spiritual energy emanating from them felt subtly different to Han Li.

By now, Han Li was convinced that because the previous generation had devoured so many Iron Fire Ants, these new beetles were distinctly different from ordinary Gold Devourer Beetles.

Naturally, Han Li wanted to test just how different they were.

He loaded a spirit beast pouch with some of the new beetles and returned to his secret chamber.

Over half a day later, when Han Li emerged from the chamber, his face could not hide his excitement.

The power of these new Devourer Beetles far exceeded his expectations. His confidence in going out to hunt demon beasts had grown considerably.

Although Han Li also wanted to study the puppet parts he had obtained from the Void Heaven Cauldron, he estimated that this would take more than just a few years to yield results. He had no choice but to set it aside for now.

Instead, he prepared to head out to sea and begin collecting high-grade demon cores.

He naturally brought along the formation tools and the Neon Robe Grass he needed. He also did not leave behind the Blood Jade Spiders or the Crying Soul Beast—there would certainly be opportunities to use them.

But he was still a little worried about the medicinal herbs in his cave, especially the Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng. Still, it would not be wise to transplant it.

After all, he had no idea how long he would be gone. The Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng was a plant; it could not survive being away from the ground for long.

After thinking it over, Han Li simply left a portion of the newly hatched Devourer Beetles in the cave dwelling.

His command to them was: kill any cultivator or demon beast that invaded the cave.

With this measure in place, as long as no Nascent Soul cultivator or Grade-8 demon beast broke in, everything should be secure.

(End of this chapter)