The terror of the Demon Insect King is undeniable, and the true methods for cultivating it have long been banned from dissemination within the cultivation world.
This is because the Demon Insect King, as a creature, currently cannot be absolutely controlled. Its vicious and cunning nature makes peaceful coexistence with other life forms impossible, and it is almost universally opposed by all cultivators and living beings.
Even territories ruled by spirit beasts absolutely forbid the existence of a creature like the Demon Insect King.
Even demonic cultivators prohibit these cultivation methods, as nurturing such a thing purely undermines their own foundation.
Yet now, a Four Extremes Demon-Nurturing Grand Array has appeared right in Qi Ping’s territory!
And it has successfully nurtured one!
No matter how Qi Ping speculated, he never imagined that such a thing would be born in the place he had been cultivating all along.
“No wonder there was a continuous surge of spiritual energy upwards.”
The materials required to nurture a single Demon Insect King are extremely precious. Even the faintly dispersed spiritual energy from it would be more than sufficient to nurture ordinary first-grade spiritual herbs.
“No wonder, ever since the demon insects emerged, a wave of them has been attracted every three days. It must have been the Demon Insect King below summoning them.”
“Thankfully, I had the Golden Marrow Bees train in combat formations back then, and later nurtured the High-Speed Cutting Bees, which blocked wave after wave of attacking demon insects. Otherwise, if these demon insects, controlled by the Demon Insect King, had damaged the foundational arrays of the Four Extremes Demon-Nurturing Grand Array and allowed the Demon Insect King to escape… the consequences would be unthinkable.”
Moreover, Qi Ping was certain that this Four Extremes Demon-Nurturing Grand Array must have developed some problem; otherwise, it wouldn’t have given the Demon Insect King the chance to summon other demon insects.
It was either deteriorating from age and lack of maintenance, or the one who set the array initially left intentional flaws.
“But this Demon Insect King clearly hasn’t been awake for long, and it just happened to coincide with the emergence of the demon insects… isn’t that too much of a coincidence?”
Qi Ping felt this couldn’t just be a coincidence.
There were simply too many such coincidences.
Sister Nan’s gift, “Spirit Beast Cultivation: Demonic Insects Chapter,” and the mysterious cave dwelling on Peak No. 7 in District A…
The secret realm at the border of Qingshi County and Baiyun County, from which large numbers of demon insects poured forth…
And now, a Demon Insect King appearing beneath the Blood Ginseng…
Coupling this with the Blood Blight Insects in Fatty Zhou’s mountain stream, the chaos brought by calamity cultivators, the infiltrators from the Alliance of Evil Descendants among them, and the strange actions of the Qingyuan Sect…
All these events emerged one after another within these past few years, turning the once peaceful and stable Qingtian Domain into such a chaotic and dangerous place!
The simultaneous appearance of all these factors was enough to indicate that something earth-shattering was brewing within the Qingtian Domain.
“It’s a pity I possess too little information to deduce the true undercurrents behind all this…”
“All I can do now is secretly accumulate strength and wait for the right moment to act.”
At the very least, with his two trump cards—the Lihuo Crow and the Transformative Bees—Qi Ping was confident he could preserve his life, as long as he wasn’t dragged into the center of the vortex.
“But for now, if this Demon Insect King isn’t strong enough yet, I’ll be gladly taking it for myself.”
Since he had discovered the existence of this Demon Insect King, Qi Ping absolutely could not allow such a being to escape.
Although forming a contract with it was impossible, both the corpse of that royal-bloodline demon insect and the bloodline power of this Demon Insect King itself could be used, once he reached Foundation Establishment, to attempt a bloodline metamorphosis for his bee swarm.
Beings of this level were not something he could simply buy with spirit stones—even Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Qingyuan Sect were unlikely to get their hands on such things.
Therefore, obtaining these two corpses would provide the best possible resources for the bees’ future metamorphosis!
Besides that, those four Spirit Origin Stone Pillars were also valuable treasures.
The fundamental reason the Blood Ginseng growth site had such dense spiritual energy was precisely because of those four Spirit Origin Stone Pillars.
The pillars were crafted from Spirit Origin Stone, a precious material used for constructing powerful arrays.
Spirit Origin Stone is a byproduct of spirit stones. It contains very rich spiritual energy, but it is extremely impure. Even high-level cultivators find it troublesome to absorb, so it is mostly used to set up powerful arrays.
Qi Ping wanted these four Spirit Origin Stone Pillars mainly to use them for cultivating spiritual herbs.
According to the bees’ perception, although the spiritual energy within these pillars had been greatly depleted, the remaining amount should still be sufficient for nurturing high-grade first-tier or ordinary second-grade spiritual herbs.
That meant, once he obtained these four Spirit Origin Stone Pillars, Qi Ping wouldn’t need to go through great pains to lease spiritual land in District A for the time being. He could just rent a larger plot in District B and use these pillars to cultivate high-grade first-tier or ordinary second-grade spiritual herbs!
The remaining spiritual energy within the Spirit Origin Stone Pillars could be perfectly utilized by him!
This alone was irresistibly attractive to Qi Ping.
Therefore, as long as his safety could be guaranteed, Qi Ping was determined to find a way to obtain both the insect corpse and the Spirit Origin Stone Pillars.
Besides these two things, the cave interior also contained some items the bees couldn’t describe and some mysterious symbols they couldn’t understand at all. These things also piqued Qi Ping’s curiosity.
There were even records in ancient texts stating that slaying a creature like the Demon Insect King could increase one’s chances of enlightenment and affinity with the Dao…
Thus, Qi Ping now planned to kill the Demon Insect King first before exploring the contents of the cave.
“Let’s see if there’s a way to kill the Demon Insect King while it’s still restrained by the Four Extremes Demon-Nurturing Grand Array. It has just been born and is at its weakest now.”
“It’s just a pity the Demonic Insect Cultivation Manual doesn’t provide more detailed information on the Four Extremes Demon-Nurturing Grand Array or the Demon Insect King. I’ll have to experiment myself.”
After pondering for a while, Qi Ping quickly devised a strategy.
“Bees, send over a combat formation of ten bees as a group to attack the Demon Insect King. Go all out. See if you can hit it or even kill it!”
“Buzz buzz… (Understood, boss!)”
Upon receiving Qi Ping’s command, four High-Speed Cutting Bees, three Ink Armor Bees, and three Venomous Bees immediately formed a combat formation and launched their attack.
The reason for sending so few initially was Qi Ping’s concern that the Demon Insect King might be able to devour the bees’ power. Sending too many at once might just end up providing it nourishment, which would be troublesome.
The combination of three bee types would also allow him to test the restrained Demon Insect King’s attack power, defense, agility, poison resistance, etc.
With this information, Qi Ping could then formulate a plan to kill it.
Meanwhile, inside the cave.
The blood-colored Demon Insect King struggled with its chubby body, utterly astonished.
Not only were these little bees in front of it immune to its control, they now actually wanted to attack it?
Couldn’t they sense the bloodline pressure it emanated?
This situation was quite inconsistent with the memories inherited through its bloodline.
Although puzzled, it wasn’t afraid. Even though its body was restrained by the Four Extremes Demon-Nurturing Grand Array, it wasn’t something these little things could trifle with.
Perhaps it had failed to control them earlier because they were too far away.
Once these little things got close, the true power of its mind domination would take effect!
