Junior sister, I really need to control you

Moreover, although he couldn't identify the species of this strange insect, even judging from its aura alone, it was damp and murky, and by no means could it be anything good.

He spent a few more moments searching through hundreds of Bamboo stalks. Beside the main root of each stalk, there was a strange insect huddled in a cocoon, without exception.

Could it be that these bamboo plants have been infested with insects?

The idea popped into Li Yinsheng's mind, but he quickly dismissed it.

It's not unusual for spiritual plants to attract pests, but the question is, whose pests are so neatly arranged?

There was only one insect under a single stalk of white bamboo, neither more nor less.

Even if these insects are all very well-behaved, love each other, and would never fight over the Spirit Eye and the Plain Cloud Bamboo, how could their numbers be so coincidental?

More likely, it was caused by human intervention.

But who would do this? Who could do this? Where did these bugs come from?

Li Yinsheng once again unleashed his divine sense, carefully examining the entire bamboo forest peak, trying to find any new clues.

After a thorough investigation, he finally made a new discovery.

Deep within the mountain peak, in a place where even the roots of the Suyun bamboo had not spread, there was a faint fluctuation of energy.

This was a highly sophisticated concealment technique in his view, far superior to the Shadow Concealment Formation.

If he hadn't determined that these insects' arrival was unusual and hadn't investigated carefully, he might not have been able to find them.

He became vigilant, his divine light and magical power flowing through his soul, concealing his own soul before heading towards the strange place, directly entering a hollow space about ten feet in diameter.

The cavity is only the size of a cellar, and appears to be naturally formed, with irregular walls on all sides.

But in the center of this small hole, there was a three-foot-tall, jet-black triangular command flag.

The command flag was entirely black, without a single blemish, and unfurled even without wind.

Beneath the command flag lay a worm the size of a palm.

This insect looks completely different from the ones in the cocoon. It's plump and white all over, and it does look somewhat like an oversized silkworm. However, the steel needle-like mouthpart at the very front is a bit scary.

In Li Yinsheng's perception, this insect was not only alive, but its aura was also frighteningly pure.

He could sense extremely pure primordial energy emanating from this insect, far surpassing the crane egg that Master Huanghe had previously given him.

In addition to the vital energy, there is also an extremely pure and solid energy. If one were to refine it, it would probably be equivalent to twenty or thirty years of arduous cultivation.

In terms of quantity alone, it surpasses the peach my junior sister ate before by a considerable margin.

However, although this power is pure, it is also very solid, and it will probably be much more difficult to refine than that peach.

If it were only this insect, Li Yinsheng would have noticed this pure aura long ago.

However, the dark command flag concealed and isolated all surrounding scents, so Li Yinsheng only noticed it when he got close.

The existence of this command flag also confirmed his guess was correct; all of this must have been done by someone.

“I have heard of and seen magical artifacts that can conceal one’s aura,” Li Yinsheng said, not getting too close to the command flag. “However, to be able to hide my current divine sense is probably something that magical artifacts cannot do.”

"Could it be... a magical artifact used to conceal one's aura?" His eyes lit up.

Including the White Rainbow Sword, this was the second magical artifact he had ever seen in his life.

If we only consider complete magical artifacts, then this is the first one.

"The ability to use magical artifacts must be the work of a true immortal."

Li Yinsheng looked at the plump, white worm and suddenly realized: "This worm was obviously raised to be used as a spiritual medicine to increase cultivation and magical power, so it has almost no intelligence. After all, it is just a living spiritual medicine."

"No wonder the aura within is so pure and condensed, yet difficult for ordinary cultivators to refine. It is probably left behind by a true master for personal use."

"For a true cultivator, this insect can naturally be easily refined."

But what are those strange insects inside the cocoons for?

He could sense that this large, fat worm was essentially very similar in aura to the alien insects in the eggshells outside.

To be precise, the strange insects inside those eggshells were probably all born from this big fat worm.

It's like the relationship between a queen bee and her colony, or a queen ant and her colony.

The queen ant gives birth to the ant colony, and the ant colony provides for the queen ant.

But Li Yinsheng didn't see any of the alien insects outside crawling out to feed the mother insect.

Chapter 69 Conspiracy, Array Formation

"Hehehe, this 'Ten Thousand Insects Nurturing Mother' method, which I created, is worthy of being recorded in the superior secret techniques of the Thousand Insect Valley."

"First, raise thousands of offspring with mixed auras, then let them have a full meal and grow up completely, and then dedicate them all to the pure mother insect to help it grow stronger."

"The mother insect's own aura is extremely pure, but the quantity is a bit too small. After being nourished by the feeding of thousands of offspring, although the quality will decrease a bit, the quantity can increase several times."

Master Chongyun chuckled smugly, “Once my mother insect is fully grown, one can increase one’s cultivation by sixty or seventy years. If it is raised well, it is not impossible to increase it by a hundred years! Moreover, as long as one cultivates the techniques of my Thousand Insect Valley, the cultivation gained by the mother insect will be quite solid.”

"Ancestor, you are truly a genius!" Chen Rui quickly complimented.

"It's just a pity that this secret technique is not perfect and has many limitations, otherwise why would I need to cooperate with you?"

Master Chongyun shook his head and sighed.

Chen Rui looked at Master Chongyun with a mixture of awe and curiosity, wondering what limitations this secret technique, which could grant someone an extra few decades or even centuries of cultivation at once, had.

But Master Chongyun merely glanced at him and showed no intention of continuing.

It's perfectly fine to tell this junior how brilliant and powerful your unique secret techniques are; you can even enjoy the junior's compliments.

But how could the flaws of this secret method be easily revealed to outsiders?

This secret technique sounds powerful, but it actually has many limitations.

First of all, the female insect is extremely rare.

The pure aura emanating from the mother insect didn't fall from the sky. He had spent over a decade and invested a great deal of his savings just to raise such a mother insect, even neglecting his own cultivation.

The expenses he spent on the mother insect alone were almost enough for him to forge another new magic weapon for himself.

In addition, it takes about twenty years to cultivate these offspring insects, and that is under the premise of having spiritual energy and spiritual plants to nourish them.

He didn't need to worry too much about this process, and it wouldn't interfere with his cultivation. However, the problem was that after these offspring grew up, they would need to consume a large number of spiritual plants and then feed back to the mother insect in order to maximize the benefits.

This is also why he set his sights on the plain bamboo at Huangzhu Temple.

If he were to rely on buying or cultivating spiritual plants to raise the offspring, he wouldn't be able to raise many even if he went bankrupt.

What could be more convenient than simply taking what someone else has already grown?

Twenty years ago, taking advantage of the moment when the entire Huangzhu Temple was relaxed after harvesting the fruits of their training, he secretly sent the mother insect into the bamboo forest peak and sacrificed his own magic treasure to conceal the mother insect's presence.

The mother insect then lays tens of thousands of eggs. After hatching, the larvae crawl to the Spirit Eye and begin to spin cocoons and sleep, absorbing the life force of the surrounding Suyun bamboo to grow.

Now, the day has finally come when we are about to emerge from our cocoons.

It is precisely now that, in order to solidify and refine itself, each Suyun bamboo is filled with essence.

At that time, these larvae will directly lie on the roots of the Suyun bamboo, absorbing all the essence that the bamboo has stored for fruiting, turning it into their own nutrients, and then offering themselves to the mother insect.

In this way, the mother insect could probably directly increase his cultivation by 180 years.

However, another drawback of this secret method is that it cannot directly and precisely control the timing of the larvae emerging from their cocoons.

These larvae will emerge from their cocoons one after another within three to five days, and instinctively feed on the essence of the surrounding bamboo to nourish their mother.

That won't do.

Three to five days may not seem like a long time, but during that time a large number of Suyun bamboo withered. Unless everyone in Huangzhu Temple is mentally challenged, they would definitely realize that something was wrong.

At that time, he will either have to watch these people discover the mother worm, or he will have to take away the mother worm that has only absorbed some of the offspring worms in advance, leaving a large number of offspring worms that have not yet broken out of their cocoons to go to waste.

This is something he cannot accept.

After planning for so many years, how can we just end it so abruptly?

While he alone cannot remotely and precisely control the timing of each larva's emergence from its cocoon, it would be a different story if he had a large number of people assisting him.

Prior to this, he had already crafted hundreds of magical artifacts that could command insects within a certain range to immediately break free from their cocoons.

As long as he has hundreds of people carrying magical artifacts scattered throughout the mountain, and he personally activates all the artifacts at once, all the larvae will immediately break out of their cocoons and absorb all the essence of the Suyun bamboo.

Even if these people are not evenly distributed, a small number of larvae will still be missed and not covered by the effective range of the magic weapon. The loss will be very small and within his acceptable range.

However, his disciples and followers in the Valley of a Thousand Insects were of no use in this matter.

He needed to find a group of cultivators who could infiltrate Bamboo Forest Peak. The number of them couldn't be small, and their identities couldn't arouse suspicion from Huangzhu Temple.

Shouyi Temple is the best choice; he had already reached a cooperation agreement with Shouyi Temple more than ten years ago.

With the cooperation of the disciples of Shouyi Temple, they will all be scattered on the mountain during tomorrow's patrol. Once he activates his magic weapon, he can immediately harvest all the Suyun bamboo on the mountain to feed the larvae.

Moreover, this matter itself is not something the disciples of Shouyi Temple need to know.

Let the young deacon in front of you carry his magical artifact, and instruct all the disciples of Shouyi Temple to wear it close to their bodies during patrols.

When he crafted the magical artifacts, he deliberately made them inconspicuous and without any markings of Thousand Insect Valley, so as not to arouse suspicion.

These magical artifacts do have some protective effect, although they are not even as good as the lowest-grade defensive artifacts. But no one would doubt that these artifacts are useless.

He had painstakingly planned every step of the process to raise a female insect over several decades.

He didn't even intend to let the offspring complete the process of feeding the mother insect on Bamboo Forest Peak.

This step would take at least half an hour to complete, which was too time-consuming, so he borrowed a spirit insect cage from his senior brother in advance.

After the larvae finished eating the Suyun bamboo, he summoned all of them, put them in the spirit insect cage, and then left with the mother insect and the Shadowless Flag.

If it weren't for the fact that the offspring would develop slowly if they were too far from the mother, he would have taken the mother from the bamboo forest peak long ago.

According to his plan, from the time the people in the bamboo grove noticed the anomaly to the time he left with all the offspring and the mother insect, it would take no more than a quarter of an hour.

He also prepared a "divine escape talisman" in advance, which would allow him to use escape techniques at several times the normal speed to escape as quickly as possible.

Bamboo Forest Peak is located on the edge of the Zhengyang Dharma Lineage, so even if Huangzhu Temple has any means to directly connect with the Zhengyang Dharma Lineage, it will be useless.

The distance from the Dharma lineage to this Bamboo Forest Peak is quite far. Not to mention a Great True Person of the Divine Travel Realm, even a True Person of the Dharma Aspect Realm with an Imperial Title would need some time to arrive.

By the time the powerful figures from the Dharma lineage arrived, he had already escaped the territory of the Zhengyang Dharma lineage.

Unless a legendary immortal intervenes, no one will have time to capture him.