“A mysterious cave? Proceed inside!”
Qi Ping was still within the range of his special connection with his animal companions, allowing him to command the bee colony in real time.
Upon receiving the order, the bees immediately flew into the cave.
About ten bees entered first and immediately sensed the dense spiritual energy inside.
Using their darkvision, the bees began to scout the cave as ordered. Darkvision was a common ability among spiritual beasts and even Qi Refinement Stage cultivators, though its strength varied.
But shortly after entering, before they could gather much information, something unexpected happened.
Just moments after Qi Ping ordered the bees to enter, he felt a mysterious force attempting to seize control of them. Even his animal companionship contract was being interfered with.
“Something is trying to forcibly control the bees?” Qi Ping’s expression changed as he sensed this.
He quickly stopped other bees from entering.
This mysterious force was unusually sinister—it was directly trying to manipulate the bees’ minds!
The reason his animal companionship contract was triggered was because this force was attempting to enslave the bees!
“What kind of twisted thing is inside?” Qi Ping frowned deeply.
According to ancient texts, such levels of control and enslavement could only be achieved by either an extraordinarily powerful being or a spiritual beast with a royal-level bloodline capable of dominating lower-ranked beasts.
Either way, it meant whatever was inside would be difficult to deal with.
Fortunately, after a while, the mysterious force failed to break the animal companionship contract and gradually receded.
This allowed Qi Ping to breathe a sigh of relief.
It was likely the latter case—if it were an overwhelmingly powerful being, the bees’ consciousness would have been easily destroyed.
Thankfully, the animal companionship contract was far more stable than ordinary blood contracts.
The reason beast-taming cultivators emphasized nurturing bonds with their spiritual pets was because blood contracts had significant flaws.
For example, if a spiritual beast and its master despised each other or were incompatible, it would be impossible to command the pet. In extreme cases, some spiritual pets would rather self-destruct their souls than die alongside their masters.
Additionally, certain mysterious methods could bypass such blood contracts and forcibly break them.
Fortunately, this wasn’t an issue for Qi Ping. The animal companionship contract was far more advanced and stable than blood contracts—it was the foundational ability of the Beast King Druid class.
“Continue investigating! Find out what’s inside!”
After some thought, Qi Ping issued the order again.
“Buzz buzz! (Understood, boss!)”
“Buzz buzz! (That big thing actually tried to enslave us! How vile!)”
Soon, information about the cave began to reach Qi Ping.
“A mysterious altar…”
“Formations… chains…”
“A giant insect corpse… a blood-colored larva…”
With this information, Qi Ping quickly pieced together the scene inside the cave.
It was a relatively small cave, about ten meters in length and width, with walls and overall appearance similar to an ordinary cave.
The only unusual feature was a mysterious blood-colored altar at the center.
This circular blood-colored altar was over two meters wide, surrounded by four spirit stone pillars. Four spiritual chains tightly bound a giant insect corpse at the center of the altar.
The corpse itself showed no signs of life. What had attempted to control the bees was a fleshy, blood-colored larva on the giant insect corpse.
This blood-colored larva was about the size of a human, with a black insect-shaped mark on its forehead.
Inside the cave at that moment:
The bound blood-colored larva on the altar looked at the bees in confusion.
Weren’t these the little insects it had summoned?
Why couldn’t it control them?
Logically, creatures of this size and level shouldn’t be able to resist its control!
Since awakening from its slumber, it had been waking up every three days to release special signals, intending to attract demonic insects to this place, forcibly control them, and use them to break free from its restraints.
Once free, it would be like a fish leaping in the vast ocean or a bird soaring in the open skies!
Outside, after learning the details described by the bees, Qi Ping’s expression changed dramatically!
“The Four Saints Demon-Nurturing Grand Formation!”
This was a method of nurturing demonic insects briefly mentioned in the Demonic Insect Cultivation Manual.
This method required using the corpse of a royal-blooded spiritual insect, combined with various precious spiritual materials and the larvae of the most vicious demonic insects, all nurtured through the Four Saints Demon-Nurturing Grand Formation. It was an extremely mysterious and terrifying cultivation method.
The biggest characteristics of this method were its high material consumption, long duration, and low success rate.
However, if successful, it would give birth to an extremely terrifying Demon Insect King!
This was also why this method was described as horrifying—only the truly insane would use it.
First, the cultivation time for this method was extremely long, often spanning centuries or millennia. Most cultivators wouldn’t live long enough to see it through.
Moreover, once the Demon Insect King was nurtured, it was extremely difficult to control, with the risk of betraying its master ever-present.
Without absolute confidence, those who cultivated such demonic insects were essentially seeking to wreak havoc on the cultivation world.
Once such a Demon Insect King emerged, it could rapidly increase its strength by devouring demonic insects or other spiritual beasts. Its combat power could easily surpass any demonic insect of the same level and most spiritual beasts.
Characteristics of such Demon Insect Kings included immense vitality, high attack power, strong defense, and extreme ferocity.
But that wasn’t the most terrifying part. The most terrifying aspect was the Demon Insect King’s absolute ability to enslave and control ordinary demonic insects!
Masterless demonic insects had almost no resistance to the enslavement of a Demon Insect King. Even owned demonic insects had a high probability of being forcibly enslaved!
Moreover, this control wasn’t limited to demonic insects. Because the Demon Insect King devoured the essence of royal-blooded spiritual insects, it also had strong enslaving and demonic corruption abilities over many ordinary spiritual insects.
Under ideal conditions, a powerful Demon Insect King could control millions, even tens of millions, of demonic insects!
Once a disaster of this scale took shape, it would be an absolute catastrophe for the cultivation world.
Coupled with the Demon Insect King’s high intelligence and cunning nature, disasters of this level often resulted in fields of corpses and lifeless lands wherever they passed…
