A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Rogue Cultivator

"Damn it."

Dozens of puppets, already prepared, launched a simultaneous attack into the depths of the cave, beams of light and energy projectiles instantly transforming into streaks of color. The pitch-black cave was instantly illuminated. And Wang Li, equipped with a microscopic mirror, finally saw what his divine sense had failed to detect: countless tiny insects, densely packed together.

It's not an ant, it looks more like a cockroach.

But it's much smaller than a cockroach, and even smaller than a regular ant.

It was a strange insect that Wang Li had absolutely no recollection of.

"Boom boom boom..."

A burst of light exploded, revealing stone cones and spears that now hindered Wang Li's rescue efforts. In a straight line, numerous beams of light and energy projectiles were intercepted by these protrusions. Only a few stray shots managed to cross a distance and strike Xiao Qi's surroundings, relieving some of the pressure on it.

But this is clearly a drop in the ocean.

Faced with swarms of hundreds of thousands, even millions, the deaths of a few dozen or a few hundred are nothing.

"Hiss..."

In his perception, Wang Li could vaguely feel the pain that Xiao Qi was enduring from being "eaten by ten thousand ants," which made him even more irritable as he inexplicably shuddered.

With a determined effort, he simply pulled out a dozen talismans.

There are dozens of fire-type cards and several wind-type cards as well.

"and many more."

Why does it have to be fire-based?

The butterfly danced around her waist, transforming the fire talisman into dozens of water talismans.

"Go." In an instant, water whips, water snakes, water dragons, water prisons... especially the spherical water prisons several meters in size, more than twenty in total, filled most of the space near the entrance of the cave.

Giant water spheres exploded, splashing water everywhere, and with the help of wind, a rushing waterfall suddenly took shape.

Heading straight for Xiao Qi's location.

As a snake, coiling is Xiaoqi's innate skill, so locking onto a stone cone and withstanding the first wave of impact is not difficult for it.

While insects are small and have many advantages, they also have their drawbacks. For example, these low-level insects lack substantial weight, meaning they are "fragile" and absolutely cannot withstand such a sudden and powerful natural force.

The sudden, turbulent flow of water, like a dam bursting its banks, was enough to wash away most of the debris clinging to Xiao Qi's body, carry away the swarm of insects around him, and buy him at least ten breaths to escape.

Ten breaths is enough to not only escape back, but also to make two round trips.

"Little Seven!"

Wang Li called out.

"Hiss..."

His voice was filled with weakness and exhaustion.

A few breaths later, Xiao Qi, who had barely managed to withstand the impact of the water flow by clinging to a stone cone, dragged his torn, bloody, and bluish-black wounds to his feet.

"hiss……"

"Hiss..."

When Wang Li saw the little thing's current state, he gasped. Little Qi himself was hissing and groaning in pain.

Despite being so badly injured, the first thing the little guy did when he came to him was to rub against his trouser leg.

"You should heal your wounds first."

Wang Li said urgently.

A bottle of antidote pills and a bottle of healing pills specially prepared for spirit beasts were poured into Xiao Qi's mouth. Then, using the Artifact Manipulation Technique, a medicinal liquid was applied to speed up the healing of its wounds. After checking that there were no hidden dangers left on its body, the seriously injured creature was simply put back into the spirit beast bag.

Turning to face the tide that had not yet completely receded, he patted his storage bag, and several mid-level ice-type talismans appeared in his hand.

"freeze."

The talisman ignited with spiritual light, a biting wind swept across, and the frozen path instantly spread, turning everything in its path into ice sculptures.

What was originally a stalactite cave has now become a world of ice crystals.

Then he looked at the tiny holes in the stone wall from which the insects had emerged, his eyes flashing with a cold light.

Chapter 77 Enemies Meet on a Narrow Road

Combinations like water + ice, water + lightning, water + wind, fire + wind, ice + wind, earth + wood, and so on, are also very practical when used in talismans.

To deal with swarms of hundreds of thousands or even millions of insects, Wang Li chose water and ice.

Although its destructive power is not great and it can only seal off the swarm of insects for the time being, its control effect is excellent. At least before the swarm of insects breaks out of the ice, it is enough for Wang Li to take the treasure chest and destroy their nest.

Sure enough, he patted his storage bag and sent Xiao Liu to test it out to see if there was any danger. After confirming that everything was alright, he decisively dashed towards the Abyss Stone Pavilion to retrieve the box. On the other side, he was also controlling dozens of puppets, targeting the holes in the cave walls: using magical weapon shovels to dig deep into those holes.

He was quite curious as to how the swarm could maintain such a large size when there was nothing there.

We can't rely on eating dirt to obtain the resources to raise the next generation and the generation after that, can we?

Wang left the box very quickly, or rather, he had become very skilled at it.

The puppets dug quickly, because the walls, which should have been solid, had become extremely porous after being eaten away by the insects, and the magical shovels could dig out large sections in just a few strokes. Before long, following the tiny holes, Wang Li found the insect swarm's lair.

Through the puppet's perspective, what came into his view was a space several dozen feet in size, resembling a secret chamber. Inside, countless insect eggs were densely packed, along with a dozen or so thumb-sized white mother insects, each protected by a few adult insects. Furthermore, each of the mother insects' dwelling places was adjacent to a small pool filled with misty, milky-white liquid, roughly half-filled with a small bottle.

"This is... a spiritual spring?"

The spiritual spring in his own cave is very similar to these small pools, but much larger in scale.

"No, a mere spiritual spring couldn't possibly form such a dense mass of spiritual energy. And the color of the spiritual spring water shouldn't be milky white. Milky white... wait, could this be... a thousand-year-old spiritual liquid?"

Millennium Spirit Liquid is a special liquid that can only be formed after a thousand years of gathering of the earth's spiritual veins. It contains abundant spiritual energy, which can help cultivators quickly restore their depleted mana; when cultivators practice arduous training, refining it can also slightly improve their cultivation level. Of course, while the effect of Millennium Spirit Liquid is far less than that of Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Liquid, which instantly restores mana, it is still an invaluable treasure.

"That's not right. The Crimson Forbidden Land is ancient, existing for tens of thousands of years. It was just discovered relatively late. There's no reason why these spiritual springs can only produce these thousand-year-old spiritual liquids. Where is my ten-thousand-year-old spiritual liquid?"

The next moment, looking at the dozen or so nests of insects that had stolen his fortune, Wang Li's killing intent surged.

"Buzzing..."

The final resistance began, followed by the final struggle that came to an end.

These insects were indeed quite powerful. In just a few breaths, Xiao Qi was bitten until his skin was torn and his body was covered in wounds, showing no sign of being a high-level demon beast.

Furthermore, its ability to conceal its aura is also top-notch; at least Wang Li's divine sense could not effectively detect it, most likely because it naturally possesses the ability to shield divine sense.

Its disadvantages are low defense and slow movement speed.

Typical high attack, fragile, slow, and stealthy.

Therefore, considering the long term, Wang Li preserved the mother insect and a few high-potential eggs. The remaining insects and eggs were humanely destroyed using a large fireball technique.

Moreover, it was being roasted inch by inch; after all, even with a microscope, he hadn't been able to detect the insect's concealment immediately. Who knows if any escaped?

"My sacred spring, my sacred elixir!"

As expected, he failed to find a single carat of the ten-thousand-year-old spiritual liquid; it had clearly been wasted by these insect queens.

"Damn it."

After scavenging every last drop, they only managed to get a mere five and a half bottles of Millennium Spirit Elixir. The more they thought about it, the angrier they became, and their dislike for the seventeen silkworm-like insect queens grew even stronger.

But killing them now would be too lenient with them.

A dozen earthen wall spells were used in succession, lifting one wall and slightly altering the structure of the stone wall to reseal and hide the place.

Then came the spoils of a large quantity of insect repellent powder, which effectively prevented most insects from digging into the walls.

Then a second round of earthen wall techniques was launched.

Three layers of insurance, each linked to the next.

He currently lacks the ability to move these dozen or so spiritual springs left behind by ancient cultivators, but that doesn't mean he won't be able to in the future.

Let's talk about what lies below the abyss.

It was pitch black; his divine sense could only extend to a distance of a hundred feet. The Bright Light Stone and the Flash Technique, once thrown in, would extinguish within a few breaths. For a fleeting moment, Wang Li seemed to see the darkness below surging, actively capturing the points of light.

After that, three more high-level puppets blindly explored along the cliff face, attempting to delve deeper, but they would immediately lose contact with Wang Li after reaching a distance of 120 feet. Fortunately, their distractions were not damaged and would return to Wang Li's main body on their own; otherwise, he would have likely suffered a minor loss.

Furthermore, both Little White, the Chameleon, and the Seven Little Ones were all very reluctant to go down and explore.

He really dared not take the risk given this bizarre situation.

Even lingering here for a moment longer than necessary, a very unpleasant feeling would arise in my heart.

Therefore, he didn't dare linger near the abyss and returned to the top. He then controlled the puppets to break up pieces of solid ice, pack them up, and throw them in. Wang Li didn't care about this slight delay.

Then came the Water Prison spell.

With the Foundation Establishment stage cultivator unleashing their full power, a water sphere several dozen feet in size rapidly took shape. Finally, the Ice Seal spell was cast, and the water sphere transformed into a giant ice block in just a few breaths.

"boom……"

It crashed down relentlessly.

The bottomless, pitch-black abyss was immediately blocked completely.

Finished and left.

……

Not far from the stone palace in the basin, or more precisely, from the mountainside where the stone palace is located, the young man leading a three-person team from Spirit Beast Mountain suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong, Junior Brother Zhang?"

The other two turned around and asked, puzzled.

"Senior brothers, have you heard anything?"

movement?

"No! Junior Brother Zhang, have you discovered something?"

"To be honest, my two senior brothers, the little beast my grandfather gave me has an excellent hearing. Just now, it heard the slight tremor of the ground and the faint sound that followed in the air."

"Is it the Lightning Sable, the spirit beast that Master Zhang bestowed upon my junior brother?"

The two men looked serious.

After all, it's a top-tier level one spirit beast that can advance to level two at any time.

All I can say is: a grand gesture, worthy of a Core Formation Ancestor.