After researching the talents and characteristics of the second-tier bee species, Qi Ping let the Bee Queen begin gestating them.
Qi Ping estimated this process would take a little over two months. He anticipated being able to cultivate around two hundred second-tier Ground Armor Bees, and about ten to twenty of each of the other bee species.
With these second-tier bees, plus the ten thousand first-tier combat bees, Qi Ping’s safety would be significantly more guaranteed, whether he used the swarm for combat or flexibly transformed into first or second-tier bees to escape and evade powerful enemies.
Qi Ping also planned to use this time to research a formation battle array suitable for the Ground Armor Bees, which would further enhance their collective combat effectiveness.
After completing all this, Qi Ping finally turned his attention to his upgraded Druid skill options.
[Swarm Evolution: Gained 85 Druid Level Experience Points]
[Druid Level: lv5 (1/1600)] → [Druid Level: lv6 (26/3200)].
[Druid Level 6 Skills Generating]
[Please choose a Class Skill…]
[Beastmaster Druid (Choose One): Slumber, Bestial Fury]
lv1 Slumber: You can launch a spiritual attack to induce a dormant state in the enemy. The higher your own mental strength and the lower the enemy’s mental strength, the better the slumber effect. (Active, Upgradeable)
lv1 Bestial Fury: Upon casting the skill, burn blood to enter a special state of greatly enhanced all stats. After the state ends, you will be weakened for a period of time. (Active, Not Upgradeable)
[Tree Herder (Tree Herder Exclusive): Nature’s Sanctuary]
lv1 Nature’s Sanctuary (Tree Herder Exclusive): You can designate a location as your Nature’s Sanctuary. Once the location is chosen, changing it requires a cooldown of one year. (Passive, Upgradeable)
Effect One: Within the range of the Nature’s Sanctuary, allied units receive a 10% boost to all stats. The coverage area increases as the skill level increases.
Effect Two: Within the range of the Nature’s Sanctuary, trees bound by the [Tree Spirit Contract], as long as they are not dead, can rapidly recover by drawing upon the sanctuary.
Effect Three: Within the range of the Nature’s Sanctuary, the growth rate of plants increases by 10%.
“Finally, the Nature’s Sanctuary skill is here!”
Looking at the options on the panel, an irrepressible smile appeared on Qi Ping’s face.
He then immediately made his choices:
“Tree Herder chooses Nature’s Sanctuary!”
“Beastmaster Druid chooses Curse Immunity!”
Although there was only one option for the Tree Herder path, Qi Ping still had to actively choose it, as he could also select past Druid skills, like the skill Greedy Vine.
Regarding the Beastmaster Druid skills that appeared this time, both Slumber and Bestial Fury were considered very powerful skills in the game, capable of granting immediate, significant combat strength.
However, in the world of immortal cultivation, they seemed somewhat inadequate.
Bestial Fury could be substituted with similar techniques like the Blood Burning Art in the cultivation world, so its cost-performance was low.
Slumber was much better than Bestial Fury. As its level increased, it could gradually grow into a powerful soul-based magic art, but it was still replaceable.
It might even be outclassed for some time by the Hundred Pupil Demon Realm shared with the Little Flower Fairy, and it would also waste Qi Ping’s time to practice.
So, the cost-performance was still too low. It was better to take the previously discarded [Curse Immunity] skill.
[Curse Immunity: Reduces or immunizes against most curse damage.]
After all, as a passive skill, Curse Immunity could provide Qi Ping with constant protection.
“Also, in the game, I remember two skills from the more mystical side that weren’t classified as curses, but were still resisted by Curse Immunity…”
“Does that mean that some mystical side divination methods, like calculating cause and effect, might also be resisted by Curse Immunity if they are detrimental to me?”
Qi Ping wasn’t entirely sure about this. Since skills like cause-and-effect calculation never appeared in the game, Qi Ping didn’t know the precise scope of Curse Immunity.
“But regardless, Curse Immunity has much higher cost-performance than Slumber or Bestial Fury.”
“Perhaps it could even save my life at critical moments, or avert some unnecessary crises.”
[Nature’s Sanctuary Skill Selected]
[Nature’s Sanctuary Status Generating]
[Nature’s Sanctuary Owner: Qi Ping]
[Sanctuary Level: lv1 (6/100) (Coverage Area: One hundred meters radius)]
[Sanctuary Effects: Allied Units All Stats +10%, Tree Spirit Contract Trees’ Special Energy Recovery Speed +100%, Plant Growth Speed +10%]
[Tree Spirit Contracts: Star Spirit Wood (Spirit Gathering Art)]
[Spiritual Herb Count: First-tier Spiritual Herbs (21 types)]
[Formations: Reality-Illusion Phantom Formation (First-tier High), Concealment Grand Formation (First-tier High), Heavenly Fire Meteor Shower Formation (First-tier High), Earthen Rampart Formation (First-tier Low)]
[PS: The higher the number and strength of Tree Spirit Contract trees within the sanctuary, the higher the sanctuary level.]
“Not bad. Now I can see the status of my territory at a glance!”
Looking at the data displayed on the panel, a satisfied smile appeared on Qi Ping’s face.
With the Sanctuary status panel, he could monitor his territory’s status anytime.
“A radius of one hundred meters is sufficient for now. Converted to area, it’s over thirty thousand square meters, enough to plant many spiritual herbs and trees.”
For comparison, the maximum coverage area of a first-tier high-grade illusion formation is only ten thousand square meters.
Over the past year or so, Qi Ping had invested significant effort, gradually elevating his formation skills to the first-tier high level. He had set up three first-tier high-grade formations, of which the Heavenly Fire Meteor Shower Formation was a first-tier high-grade offensive formation. When activated, it was already sufficient to kill late-stage Qi Refining cultivators.
Being able to arrange formations of this level so quickly was naturally thanks to Qi Ping breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage and possessing high talent in the Dao of Fire and the Dao of Illusion Formations. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to set up first-tier high-grade formations in such a short time.
For formations like the Earthen Rampart Formation, he could currently only manage a first-tier low-grade version.
Qi Ping knew he was still far from becoming a second-tier Formation Master; it would require at least many more years of effort.
However, Qi Ping wasn’t anxious about this. He now had a lifespan of five hundred years!
Spending one or two hundred years to break through to the Golden Core stage wouldn’t matter; he would still be in his prime. With so much time, he could accomplish many things.
But the prerequisite was that he could stay here, developing slowly and safely.
Because staying here required a continuous source of spiritual energy. Relying solely on the Star Spirit Wood to absorb spiritual energy from the Misty Cloud Mountain Range would certainly be insufficient.
Only by cultivating a powerful spiritual vein and completely concealing it within his sanctuary using formations could Qi Ping have an endless supply of spiritual energy to stay here, slowly developing a strong and secure territory.
Therefore, Qi Ping’s most immediate core task was to find a way to obtain a miniature spiritual vein essence, and then use [Nature’s Sanctuary] and [Tree Spirit Contract] to nurture and develop the vein.
The reason these two skills and talents could accelerate the growth of a spiritual vein was based on two main factors:
One was the method of enhancing the spiritual vein. Things like tree essence, spiritual herb essence, spiritual beast essence, human essence, and special spiritual objects containing the power of heaven and earth could all accelerate the vein’s growth.
However, extracting this kind of essence would cause damage to the spiritual tree itself that was extremely difficult to repair. The cost was enormous, and very few people would do this.
But with Nature’s Sanctuary, Qi Ping could extract up to ten percent of the essence from his contracted spiritual trees to enhance the spiritual vein each time, without affecting the trees themselves.
After the contracted trees recovered with the sanctuary’s help, Qi Ping could extract again.
In this way, the spiritual vein could be strengthened rapidly!
