A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Wang Yu Transmigrates into a Book, the Dao Ancestor of Rein

Chapter 155 Shifting Battles, Devouring

He did not intend to change his cultivation pace because of a level 5 horned python.

For the next two years, Han Li continued to work steadily and surely.

This allows the physical body, nascent soul, and wind-escape techniques to be steadily and continuously enhanced.

Just as high-level cultivators from the Yuling Sect began to appear around Qianjin Valley, he flew straight to the Nine Heavens Gale Layer.

"That's enough, it's time to go somewhere else."

During his three years of reflection at Qianjingu, he also reaped considerable rewards.

In terms of physical strength, it is already comparable to that of a level four demon beast.

His escape techniques have also improved, becoming three times faster. However, without specific reference points, his exact level within the Nascent Soul stage remains unclear.

The strength of their spiritual consciousness has also been greatly enhanced.

Previously, his divine sense could clearly perceive a range of about 110-120 li (approximately 55-60 kilometers) and vaguely perceive a range of about 300 li (approximately 150 kilometers). Now, his clear perception range has increased to 130 li (approximately 65 kilometers), and his vague perception range has exceeded 320 li (approximately 150-160 kilometers).

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time; otherwise, I could have secluded myself for several more decades.

The visible enrichment and enhancement of his abilities truly became addictive for him.

Finally, he left Qianjin Valley from an area few would have thought of.

They avoided direct contact with the Nascent Soul stage expert from the Spirit Control Sect.

"By first conquering the treacherous rapids of the Panlong River, and then taking over Qianjin Valley, the foundation of the Yuling Sect will surely be greatly enhanced. A thousand years from now, the number of high-level inherited spirit beasts in the sect will probably not be just the seventy or eighty currently on the surface, but... over a hundred."

"With such a foundation, if it is allowed to accumulate for another one or two thousand years, it may not be impossible to regain the position of the leader of the demonic path."

Han Li touched a spirit beast bag containing two silver-armored horned pythons and many high-level spirit beasts and sighed sincerely.

The Spirit Taming Sect cultivates immortality by taming beasts, developing bonds with spirit beasts whose lifespans are several times, even ten times, that of the cultivator, and then passing their spirit beasts down through generations. This method is indeed impressive.

This has already broken the usual pattern of inheritance.

If it weren't for the fact that a thousand years ago, as the leader of the demonic path, he was at the forefront of the battlefield, entangled with the righteous path for over a thousand years, causing the sect's foundation to be largely depleted, and ultimately being driven out of the southern hinterland by some rising forces.

If not.

How could the Yuling Sect have fallen to a level that is even inferior to the Tiansha Sect?
"Dongmen Tu went to great lengths to strengthen the sect's foundation and cultivate the Five Elements Spiritual Infants in order to compete for the throne of the Demonic Path Leader. Perhaps, he also harbored the desire or obsession to regain the glory of the Yuling Sect in the past?"

The Imperial Spirit Sect was incredibly glorious a thousand years ago.

A high-ranking monk was in charge.

There are more than ten Nascent Soul cultivators in the sect.

Several ancient beasts and spirit birds at the Nascent Soul level.

There are over two hundred, nearly three hundred, high-level cultivators and high-level spirit beasts.

Even the Hehuan Sect at that time was not as good as it.

If the conflict between the righteous and the demonic hadn't severely damaged their strength and interrupted their accumulation of resources, the Yu Ling Sect would most likely still be the leader of the demonic path.

The most essential element for cultivating immortality through beast taming is time.

"My previous plans have been disrupted by the Spirit Control Sect. Where should I go next?"

Inside the high-altitude gale-force layer, Han Li frowned and said.

He was still quite unhappy that his peaceful cultivation had been interrupted.

After pondering for a while, he thought of his spirit beast and the group of gold-devouring insects in the spirit beast pouch, and then suddenly looked in a certain direction.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Perhaps I should try my luck there."

There are several ways for the Gold-Eating Insect to advance.

The most effective method is undoubtedly to continuously devour various strange insects. However, the cost is too high, and the time commitment is extremely long. Without the support of a powerful force and without a large number of disciples taking on missions to collect larvae or spirit insect eggs, it is simply impractical for him to travel all over the map alone to collect all kinds of strange insects. Another purpose of his occupation and cultivation of the Thousand Bamboo Sect is to have its members keep an eye out for various strange insects in the far west.

The second way to advance the Gold-Eating Insects is through a massive infusion of heaven and earth energy, supplemented with precious spiritual materials, to accelerate their growth. This is what the Tuwu people did. The cost was equally enormous, perhaps even greater. Even after the original owner arrived in the Spirit Realm, it took hundreds of years to cultivate tens of thousands of semi-mature Gold-Eating Insects into mature forms.

Then, it began to devour metal objects.

The Gold-Eating Insects like to devour magical artifacts and metals because these artifacts and metals help the insects transform and evolve.

"I actually have quite a few finished magical artifact hardware items..."

The Lord of the Forbidden Land spared him five strokes of the cane.

"However, the five metals of magic treasures refined by Nascent Soul cultivators are extremely precious. It's not impossible to use them to cultivate Gold-Eating Insects, but it's definitely not something to be wasted now."

Even if you feed them now, they won't grow into mature gold-eating beetles.

Once we obtain the method of accelerating the maturation of the Tuwu people, and gather some auxiliary spiritual materials, along with the five precious magical treasures, we may be able to accelerate the maturation of many mature Gold-Eating Insects.

This is similar to the principle that even the finest spirit stones should be used wisely.

"Although I can't use the magical artifacts and metals here in advance, there is a place where I can borrow gold essence ore to feed the insects."

Therefore, he did not go south to the Yue Kingdom.

They did not head north to Luoyun Sect.

Instead, they headed towards the Panlong River waters northeast of the Yuanwu Kingdom.

Half a day later.

Han Li traversed nearly 200,000 miles.

They flew straight from the northwest corner of Yuanwu Kingdom to the northeast corner.

Because he was traveling through the gale-force winds, he encountered no obstacles, attracted no attention, and caused no disturbance.

Following the clues provided by a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator from the Yuling Sect, he quickly found the canyon area where the gold essence vein was located.

A mighty river, several miles wide, flows majestically.

Occasionally, traces of low-level demonic beasts can be found within.

"This gold essence ore vein was discovered by the Yu Ling Sect a few years ago, and it is a rare medium-sized rich mine. It is estimated that if it is all mined and refined into gold essence, it will be enough to meet the needs of thousands of high-level cultivators. At present, it should only be in the early stage of mining. Even if the Yu Ling Sect has been mining it for a few years, the remaining reserves are probably not low."

If used properly, magical artifacts and metals can be just as valuable high-level strategic resources as spiritual herbs and stones.

"According to the memory of that Yu Ling Sect cultivator, in order to ensure that the mine would not be damaged, the Yu Ling Sect's higher-ups simply arranged for a Nascent Soul cultivator and several Core Formation disciples from that lineage to stay here and never leave for a moment after discovering the gold essence mine."

This demonstrates the level of importance attached to it.

"If I want to intercept the gold concentrate here without anyone noticing, I have to be careful."

He doesn't want to provoke the Yu Ling Sect right now.

There's already a considerable amount of pressure from the Celestial Gate alone.

A hundred miles away from the canyon.

More than a dozen Iron-Armed Beasts appeared.

"Get to work, guys."

Upon hearing this, the iron-armed beasts, which resembled pangolins, began to wave their claws.

Before we knew it, half a month had passed.

The Iron-Armed Beast's efficiency in digging tunnels is beyond doubt.

In just half a month, they reached the outer perimeter of the gold concentrate mine. Here, a protective array barrier separated the inside from the outside.

"As expected, there were arrangements."

However, the level of this array is quite ordinary; it is only used for early warning, detection, and tracking.

If Han Li forcibly disrupts the operation, there is a good chance it will attract the attention of high-level cultivators from the Spirit Control Sect.

However, if he were merely sneaking in, the slight disturbance here wouldn't be enough to unsettle the guards.

Furthermore, the Gold-Eating Insect's ability to sense and devour different kinds of spiritual energy ensures that it will not be tainted by the spiritual energy aura on the array's light screen, thus preventing high-level beings from the Spirit Control Sect from seizing the opportunity to trace its origins.

"Om..."

A cloud of golden insects appeared.

It consisted of several hundred level-four gold-devouring insects and a hundred or so semi-mature creatures comparable to high-level ones.

After becoming a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator from the Soul Searching and Spirit Controlling Sect, he renewed his blood pact two years ago, strengthening the bond between his physical body and the spirit insects. This also enhanced their connection, making the insect swarm more inclined to be with him.

Aside from the dozen or so individuals comparable to level six, which still had the drawback of damaging his own divine sense if controlled for an extended period, the rest of the Gold-Eating Insects were free from the risk of backlash and became even more fearless upon receiving his orders.

"go."

With hundreds of golden spirit insects clearing the way, he infiltrated very smoothly.

The foreign spiritual energy that had clung to his body was completely devoured by the Gold-Eating Insects.

After infiltrating, he didn't forget to use a restoration spell to block the passage he had come from and restore the damaged array light barrier.

The time that followed.

He concealed his presence and aura as he moved through various mine tunnels.

In particular, he released tens of thousands of gold-devouring insects to devour the unmined gold ore.

For the first three months, the low-level miners of the Yuling Sect didn't feel anything was wrong.

Wait until the fourth month.

"Hey, that's not right!"

"what happened?"

"Wasn't it said that this gold concentrate mine was a medium-sized rich mine? But the amount of raw gold concentrate mined recently is less than half of what it was two years ago?"

"Is this caused by some people slacking off and procrastinating?"

One of the managers speculated.

possible.

"Then keep an eye on those Qi Refining stage kids, and don't let them slack off all day."

result.

Another month passed.

The production of gold concentrate ore has not only failed to return to its previous normal level, but has actually decreased significantly. Not only is the quantity of ore mined declining, but the quality of the gold concentrate ore is also decreasing.

This terrified the group of Foundation Establishment stage managers.

"In everyone's assigned mining area, has anyone been dragging their feet?"

"No, definitely not. Before, the thirty-odd disciples in my group worked four hours a day. Now they've increased it to seven hours a day. Everyone has made time for cultivation."

"If no one is slacking off, why is the output of gold ore getting lower and lower?"

Everyone was puzzled.

No one ever imagined that a master thief had broken in.

"Should we inform those Core Formation elders above about the situation?"

"No rush. Let's first re-investigate and reassess the quality of this original ore vein, clarify the situation as much as possible, and then report back."

"Makes sense."

This investigation revealed to the cultivators of the Yuling Sect that the previously estimated rich mining areas were likely actually poor mines. They were creating an illusion of abundance on the surface, but poverty in reality. Furthermore, the previously estimated medium-sized veins were also largely inflated.

As for why no one has ever discovered the traces of the gold-eating beetle swarm acting as thieves?

The reason is simple: the swarm of insects was eating heartily in front, while Han Li was carefully cleaning up their mess behind them.

Any small holes drilled by the Gold-Eating Insects would be patched up by the Restoration Technique. To detect any trace of the Restoration Technique, one would need at least the spiritual sense cultivation of a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator.

Therefore, without those obvious clues, the group of low-level cultivators could only attribute the problem to an early misjudgment.

Furthermore, in areas rich in mineral resources, Han Li only allowed the insect swarm to consume them until they were poor in quality; he never intended to completely devour them. As for those poor-quality mineral areas, he didn't even bother to visit them.

Because of these meticulous details, no flaws were exposed and no one was able to seize upon them.

The gold-devouring insect swarm, having consumed a large amount of gold ore, had its gold color become even more vibrant and intense.

Some individuals at level four have even shown a tendency to advance to the next level.

Not only that.

While manipulating the swarm of insects to devour the raw ore, he also discovered two small pieces of the essence of gold.

This is good stuff.

For Nascent Soul cultivators, these are excellent spiritual materials for refining top-grade metal-attribute flying swords.

It is a treasure of the same level as Geng metal.

When combined with Geng metal to forge a flying sword, its sharpness can be increased several times over.

The key is that it can accelerate the summoning speed of metal-attribute flying swords!

"Unfortunately, the quantity is a bit small."

Two small pieces, about the size of walnuts, were barely enough to reinforce twelve small flying swords.

but.

It did open up new avenues of thought for him.

There are likely many treasures in dangerous places throughout the human realm that have not been discovered by ancient cultivators.

Instead of focusing on the existing spiritual lands and treasures, why not learn from the Spirit Control Sect and explore new lands?
The gold-devouring insects devour food very quickly.

More than half a year.

The mineral veins stretch for hundreds of miles, and most of the rich ore areas have been explored.

These little creatures have a more sensitive sense of smell for gold concentrate than a dog's nose.

Looking back at the former mining area where production had plummeted, I felt a sense of unease.

"I should go see my senior sister."

"By the way, I wonder if Granny Gan from the Hidden Moon Sect has cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage in the past hundred years?"

　It's late, I really couldn't bring myself to write more than two thousand words. I just couldn't bring myself to write more.

　　I spent the morning helping my wife with chores. ┭┮﹏┭┮

　　Otherwise, you could send even more.

　　Last day of the month, please vote!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)