Starting as a spiritual plant master, may I eventually become the master of all lands.

A moment later, Song Chuan returned to the wooden house.

He was clutching a hideous, monstrous insect the size of a washbasin tightly in both hands.

This demonic insect is entirely brown, with a small head and a large body, and its body is shrouded in a misty haze of moisture.

The demonic insect stretched out its bristly pincers, struggling desperately.

"This is it, you two take a look," Song Chuan said.

Lu Fenghua looked at the giant water bug and her face lit up with joy.

She stretched out her finger and touched a certain part of the giant water turtle, which suddenly stiffened and stopped moving.

Song Chuan was somewhat surprised; this beekeeper did indeed have some knowledge of insects.

Lu Fenghua flipped her wrist and took out a small octagonal mirror, about the size of a palm, and looked it at the insect.

With a flash of light, Song Chuan noticed that there were markings on the mirror surface.

Lu Fenghua looked at the mirror and said, "Senior brother, this insect has probably been a demon for over forty years. I'll calculate it as fifty years for you, five spirit stones, how about that?"

Why go through all this trouble for only five spirit stones? Song Chuan thought to himself with some dissatisfaction.

Lu Fenghua seemed to have seen through Song Chuan's thoughts and smiled:

"Senior brother, the price difference between a demon-transforming stage insect and a first-tier demon insect is like heaven and earth. This forty-year-old giant water bug would only fetch three or four spirit stones at the insect shop in the market."

Song Chuan thought about it and agreed.

While demonic insects in the Transformation Stage aren't exactly everywhere in Vine Flower Valley, they are still quite numerous.

However, the proportion of those who can actually advance to the first-tier demon insect level is probably no greater than that of ordinary people with spiritual roots.

Moreover, most of them are just one part of the symbiotic relationship in the spirit garden, and are not of much use to the cultivators themselves.

It's already pretty good that it's worth five spirit stones; my current monthly salary is only eight spirit stones.

"We'll do as Junior Sister Lu says," Song Chuan said.

Lu Fenghua took out five spirit stones and handed them to Song Chuan, but then heard Song Chuan say:

"As a beekeeper, Junior Sister Lu must have some method to control spirit insects, right? Would you be willing to sell it?"

Lu Fenghua asked in surprise, "The Yuewei Hall has this most basic method, and it doesn't require spirit stones to exchange for it."

"Oh? Then thank you for reminding me, Junior Sister Lu," Song Chuan said.

Xing Yifei, who was standing next to him, looked preoccupied. When Song Chuan asked about the method of controlling the spirit insects, his eyes flickered.

"I wonder what kind of spirit insect you have to control, Senior Brother? Could you show it to us? If it's rare, it could be much more valuable than this giant water bug."

Xing Yifei suddenly spoke up.

Song Chuan glanced at him and shook his head: "I haven't settled on a spirit insect yet. I just plan to keep one to help me take care of the spirit garden, so I don't have to worry about it."

Lu Fenghua smiled and said, "Senior brother can go and take a look at the insect shop in the sect's market. It's managed by our Senior Brother Guo. Now that the transaction is complete, we won't bother you any longer."

After saying that, she pulled Xing Yifei up and took her leave.

Song Chuan watched them walk away, muttering, "Too hasty."

Outside Canxiang Garden, Lu Fenghua scolded Xing Yifei:

"Junior brother, this is our senior's private ancestral garden. Even if there are strange insects here, it's not unexpected. Why ask so many questions?"

"Senior sister, the five-colored cicada only behaves this way when it encounters a natural enemy. I've never heard Master mention any senior who has a natural enemy for the five-colored cicada."

Xing Yifei said sullenly.

Lu Fenghua sighed softly:

"I know you are Deacon Hu's only relative, and you are quite favored by him."

But this Senior Brother Song only appeared three years ago, and his cultivation speed is extremely fast, and we don't know anything about him.

Have you ever considered that this place, which even we don't know about, might be the spirit garden of a Core Formation Elder?

"What? A Core Formation Elder? This..." Xing Yifei said in disbelief.

Lu Fenghua shook her head and flew away. Xing Yifei glanced back at the Spirit Garden, then also leaped away.

In the Fragrant Garden, Song Chuan stood before a spiritual plant called the Awakening Flower, looking at its bowl-sized blossoms, and suddenly muttered to himself:

"The way that person cares so much, his insect sac must contain a precious first-tier spirit insect. Although you're just a hair's breadth away from advancing, trying to prey on insects of a higher tier... you're really something."

He rubbed his forehead, a hint of helplessness on his face.

"It's quite unexpected that someone at the fourth level of Qi Refining couldn't discern your true form."

"I hope I don't cause any trouble. Looks like I need to go to Yuewei Hall first."

He muttered to himself for a while, then turned and walked out of the cemetery.

After a stick of incense had burned, Song Chuan arrived at the mountainside.

This is a huge stone platform. Behind the platform, near the mountainside, stands a wooden building several dozen feet tall, heavy and weathered. It is dark brown in color and engraved with many runes.

Song Chuan glanced at the three large characters "Yuewei Hall" on the wooden building and walked over.

Upon reaching the entrance, Song Chuan looked at the layer of white light shield, took out his disciple token, and waved it.

A few breaths later, the white light barrier opened, and Song Chuan walked in.

Two Qi Refining disciples dressed in light green robes stood in the passageway at the entrance, sizing up Song Chuan. Both of them were at the third level of Qi Refining.

"Senior brother, are you going to the first floor or the second floor?" one of them asked.

"This is my first time here. I wonder what the significance of this floor and the second floor is?"

"Senior brother, are you new here? The first floor is free, but reading on the second floor for half a day costs three spirit stones. If you want to copy jade slips to take away, the cost will be calculated based on the content being copied."

"Just a reminder, senior brother, secretly bringing jade slips to the second floor for copying will be detected by the formation and cause trouble."

Another person chimed in.

Song Chuan nodded: "Thank you both. I'll go take a look around the first floor."

After saying that, he walked straight inside.

After walking through a passage about ten feet long, Song Chuan's eyes suddenly lit up.

At the end of the passage was a rather large space, much larger than it appeared from the outside.

It's not the rows of bookshelves you might imagine, but rather a giant flower.

The flower has seven petals, but they do not grow side by side. Instead, they grow from bottom to top, with each petal forming what is called a "layer".

Each layer of petals is enveloped in a halo of light, and the bookshelf appears and disappears within this light.

Song Chuan arrived at the first layer of petals. Since this layer was free, no special token was needed.

He affixed the disciple token to the spiritual light, which trembled slightly, and a small green stem emerged from it, landing at Song Chuan's feet.

Song Chuan looked him over, then stepped onto the platform.

The green stem slowly retracted, leading Song Chuan into the first layer of petals.

The petals are very large, and rows of tall bookshelves stand in the middle.

The bookshelf contained scrolls, jade slips, paper books, and even leaf books compiled from leaf leaves.

These bookshelves were labeled and divided into several sections.

There are "Eastern Kingdoms", "Rain Master and Drought Demon", "Kongsang Mountains", "Mountain Wood Guest", etc.

Some labels have only one row of bookshelves, while others have dozens. One label that reads "Yunhan Empire" has the most bookshelves.

Song Chuan was shocked. These must be the human geography of this world, many of which he had never even heard of.

The State of Qi was one of the larger states in the Eastern Regions.

As for that "Rain Master Drought Demon", he did know that there was a country called Rain Master Country next to Qi State.

As for the drought demon, he only knew that mortals had the custom of fighting drought demons, but he didn't expect it to be on this label.

He walked slowly, occasionally pulling out a book from the bookshelf to browse through.

I was kept in my family before and didn't know anything about this world. Now I'm starting to understand it a little bit, and it's much more wonderful than I imagined!

Half a day later, he stood under a label labeled "Basic Spells" and looked with great interest at a method for controlling spirit insects.