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Four jade slips, a broken shield, and some miscellaneous items arranged from top to bottom.

Li Shenxian didn't look at the four jade slips, but was instead drawn to the tattered shield.

The shield was entirely black, likely forged from the shell of some kind of demonic beast, but half of it was damaged and encased in thick ice.

"With this shield in Zhou Ren's storage bag, it should definitely be a spiritual artifact. However, the fact that it has become like this means that Zhao Ying and the others are stronger than I imagined."

Li Shen pondered, carefully examining the thick layer of ice, lost in thought.

Zhou Ren kept it either because he was hoping to find a way to repair it, or because the shield was made of a special material that he couldn't bear to discard.

Either way, they've benefited themselves now.

"However, this ice must have been created using some kind of secret technique, by transforming one's own spiritual power. I wonder if the Soul-Devouring Ants can devour this layer of ice."

Li Shen muttered to himself, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes. He scanned Zhou Ren's storage space again, and after confirming that nothing was missing, he withdrew his divine sense and took out the shield covered with a thick layer of ice.

Immediately, with a thought, thousands of spirit-devouring ants crawled out and lined up neatly on the ground, waiting for their master to give the order.

Currently, most of the young Soul Eater ants that cannot yet fly are produced primarily through the ant colony's powerful reproductive capabilities and the accumulation of time.

Because spirit stones have many uses and cannot all be used for feeding, and there are currently no suitable spirit materials available, and the magical artifacts that can be used for feeding are also quite limited, their growth is extremely slow.

There are even signs of mutual cannibalism.

Fortunately, Li Shen discovered it in time and stopped the behavior directly.

Although cannibalism is one of the instinctive survival methods of spirit-eating ants, it can also help to select for stronger spirit-eating ants.

However, Li Shen's current number of queen ants is very small, only three out of thousands.

Although there has been one instance of a queen ant being born, the probability is extremely low.

There has only been one such instance so far.

Therefore, in order to prevent the rate of mutual cannibalism from exceeding the rate of natural reproduction, Li Shen must forcefully curb this behavior.

If you want spirit insects to have enough combat power, then the quantity must be guaranteed first.

The saying "Many ants can devour an elephant" is not just a saying.

As for whether he could devour this thick layer of ice, Li Shen could only guess.

You guessed right. That will allow the long-starved Soul-Eating Ants to have a decent meal.

Even if I guess wrong, the losses will be within an acceptable range.

This is also why he didn't release the swarm of flying ants.

After this fierce battle, Li Shen once again realized that his strength was still too weak.

Even though the Zhao family has a certain status and influence in the market, if one broadens one's horizons a little, the Yunhe Three Sects, Laoshan, the Demonic Sects, and Linlang City alone have countless experts stronger than Li Shen, not to mention the vast cultivation world, and even the Fire Lizard Island, which is nowhere to be found.

Just considering the battle against Zhou Ren, if he hadn't taken advantage of the battle between the Pupil Serpent and the Xuan Turtle Crocodile, and used the power of the Yin Soul Bead to refine a new batch of Soul Slaves, even with the power of Zhou Ren's golden bead, Li Shen's strongest trump card, the second-tier Crimson Striped Python Soul Slaves, wouldn't have been enough for him to defeat.

Therefore, Li Shen plans to develop in all aspects in the future, so that if he encounters a powerful enemy who can completely control the Soul Slave, he will have other means to deal with the situation or even escape.

"It is undeniable that luck is part of ability, but it is absolutely not possible to rely on good luck all the time."

Once his mind was made up, Li Shen immediately commanded the Soul-Devouring Ants to approach the mass of ice.

The dense, tiny black figures crawled forward like orderly soldiers. The first row, as soon as their tentacles touched the ground, visibly slowed down.

Li Shen frowned slightly and waited for a while longer. He found that the Soul-Devouring Ants had not made any move. He sighed inwardly and was about to recall them when a series of barely audible crisp sounds rang out.

"Snap! Snap!"

The swarm of spirit-devouring ants began to climb the "iceberg" in front of them, and small gaps were quickly gnawed into its surface.

Li Shen's eyes lit up.

There is a play!

After observing quietly for about fifteen minutes, half of the iceberg that had been troubling Zhou Ren had melted away, and half of the shield was now fully exposed.

The spirit-devouring ants obediently went around it and did not bite it.

Li Shen stroked his chin and thought for a moment, then decided to feed the insects with the broken defensive artifact.

Even though he guessed that the spiritual artifact should be of good quality, Li Shen could only put it aside since he had it in his hands at the moment. He couldn't use it, and it was unknown whether he would have the opportunity to repair it in the future.

It's better to use it to feed insects. After all, materials that can be used to make spiritual artifacts are at least materials from second-tier demonic beasts, which are much better than magical artifacts.

Moreover, having learned his lesson from being glared at by a Golden Core expert last time, Li Shen was more inclined to destroy than possess the relics of these disciples with obviously formidable backgrounds.

If you lack the strength, holding it in your hands is like having a ticking time bomb.

Li Shen looked at them for a while, then took out the four jade slips, pills, and talismans and placed them in front of him.

He picked up the first yellow jade slip, examined it for a moment, and finding nothing amiss, probed it with his divine sense. His expression immediately turned strange.

"The Zhou Family Genealogy?"

He was both amused and exasperated.

Why does Zhou Ren carry his family tree with him everywhere?

After a brief glance and some thought, Li Shen understood the reason.

Zhou Ren is the son of Zhou Songyue, the head of the Zhou family, so it is easy to imagine how much the family values ​​him.

His master, along with him, had also joined the Blood Soul Sect, betting their lives on the demonic path. If the Blood Soul Sect were to actually occupy the Cloud Crane Mountain Range in the future, then everyone on this family tree would likely follow Zhou Ren and join the demonic path.

"Are you really that confident that the demonic path will win?"

Li Shen was puzzled. Recalling Zhou Ren's words from back then, he now realized something was off.

"When Zhou Ren pretended to recruit me, he said that the other two sects of Yunhe Mountain were unable to resist the invasion of the demonic path, not the three sects of Yunhe Mountain. However, according to Zhao Ying, although the three sects of Yunhe Mountain compete with each other, they have an agreement to unite against outsiders. Zhou Ren is not a newly entered disciple, so he must know these things. What he said at the time was obviously a subconscious act. First, because he was confident that I would win, and second, because he judged that I was not a disciple of the three sects of Yunhe Mountain, but just a rogue cultivator. Even if he knew, it would not be a big deal, since I would die anyway."

As he analyzed the situation layer by layer, a bold and startling guess came to Li Shen's mind.

"Could it be that the entire Yunhe Sect has defected?"

With this thought in mind, Li Shen frowned, realizing that the situation in the Yunhe Mountains was far more dangerous than he had imagined.

On the surface, the three major sects are fighting against the invasion of the demonic path, but in reality, a knife is already held to the neck of their ally.

Once the war begins in full swing, if the Cloud Crane Sect defectes, the Jade Sword Sect and the Hundred Weapons Sect will be attacked from both sides, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

Li Shen took a deep breath. He had originally planned to attend the three sects' founding ceremony a year later, hoping to encounter more opportunities, but now he realized he needed to think carefully about the matter.

At this level of strategic maneuvering, even if one has successfully established a foundation beforehand and gets involved, the level of danger is incomparable to what it was before.

In the past, if the three sects had fought against the enemy at the same time, they could have relied on daily intelligence and their own methods, and if they had been cautious, they might have been able to take advantage of the chaos and seize some opportunities. But now that one of the three sects is missing, Li Shen is pessimistic about the chances of victory for the righteous path.

If they could get support from other righteous sects, there might be a chance for a turnaround. However, according to intelligence, the demonic forces have attacked more than just the Yunhe Mountain Range.

Other sects are too busy taking care of themselves to have time to support Yunhe Mountain.