Deep within the Lingwu Grand Canyon Ye Qin walked alone. Zhang, Fan, Xia, and the others had already left the valley and returned to Xian Yuan City. Now, without teammates to offer support, venturing solo through the canyon was perilous. He had to face the monsters lurking everywhere on his own, all while remaining wary of other cultivators harboring ill intent. The danger level had increased several times over compared to before. He even contemplated abandoning the mission and heading back to Xian Yuan City.

But he was unwilling to concede.

This trip to the Lingwu Grand Canyon had yielded almost nothing. Returning to Xian Yuan City now meant waiting until next year to team up with other cultivators again. The task assigned by the Qing Dan Sect—gathering rare spiritual herbs—would be delayed by at least a year. Furthermore, teaming up with others next year might not guarantee a better situation than the present. Delaying this year, and then next year, would make joining the Qing Dan Sect increasingly unlikely.

Ye Qin hardened his resolve and grit his teeth to stay.

If he wanted to join the Qing Dan Sect sooner, taking calculated risks was mandatory. He checked his possessions: the hundreds of talisman papers he carried had mostly been used up, leaving fewer than ten. Besides that, he had a palm-sized sword that could serve as a weapon, and twenty to thirty low-grade spirit stones. His current assets were minimal.

Ye Qin moved cautiously through the canyon. Every few dozen zhang, he would stop, listening intently to his surroundings, trying desperately to avoid encounters with either monsters or groups of other cultivators. By the end of the day, he had explored over ten li of the canyon without any significant findings, though his caution meant he encountered no immediate danger either.

After dark, the Lingwu Grand Canyon became pitch black, so dark that one could not see one's hand in front of one's face. The monsters that lay dormant during the day emerged to hunt, making the night even more dangerous. No cultivator dared to light a fire in the valley, as it would attract the attention of monsters and rival groups of cultivators.

Before nightfall, Ye Qin had carved a small hiding niche into the sheer cliff face of the canyon wall using his palm-sized sword against the hard rock. He sealed the entrance with a massive boulder and hid inside to endure the night in the Lingwu Grand Canyon.

Using the faint light emitted by his palm-sized sword, he examined a manual he had taken from the old Poisonous Worm—the Basic Scripture of Insects. The manual’s cover was wrapped in a very thin layer of silk, made of something unknown, yet it had resisted scorching fire and freezing cold. What astonished Ye Qin was that the manual’s introduction clearly stated it was the basic cultivation scripture of the Beast Spirit Sect, one of the Seven Great Cultivation Sects.

Centuries ago, a name-recorded disciple of the Beast Spirit Sect, having lost hope of reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, returned to his hometown in Xiling, in the Southern Liang Kingdom. There, he passed down a lineage of a cultivation family and left this Basic Scripture of Insects as the family treasure. The Three Poisons of Xiling were the descendants of this very Beast Spirit Sect name-recorded disciple.

Logically, the Beast Spirit Sect was one of the esteemed Seven Great Cultivation Sects, and their path of raising insects should also be upright. Yet, somehow, the descendants of this disciple had strayed onto a crooked path, gradually coming to raise venomous insects and becoming infamous evil cultivators in the vicinity of Xian Yuan City.

Ye Qin didn't care about their background. What intrigued him were the detailed records in the Basic Scripture of Insects describing exotic insects that opened his eyes—over two hundred varieties, all sorts of unheard-of creatures, along with their astonishing effects.

Near the beginning of the pages, he quickly found an illustration of an insect identical to the demonic worms released from the old Poisonous Worm’s black gourd. The sight of the worm corpses littering the ground after the black mist was broken was still vivid in his memory.

Poisonous Locust (Dú Huáng): A Rank One, Wood-element exotic insect. This insect is ferocious, capable of flight, and spits venomous mist that can corrode a cultivator’s magic power. Its sharp mandibles grow by devouring humans and livestock. The power of this insect depends entirely on its numbers; the more there are, the greater the might. If there are tens of thousands, the toxic mist can cover several li. Wherever it sweeps across, nothing remains but white bones. Even Core Formation cultivators dare not challenge it lightly. However, raising these Poisonous Locusts is no simple feat. They require large amounts of food daily, and every ten days, they must be fed a portion of "flesh imbued with spiritual energy" to satisfy them, or their ferocity will erupt, turning against their master.

Judging by this, the venomous mist released by the old Poisonous Worm’s spiritual artifact gourd covered an area of only ten zhang at most. He must have raised about a hundred Poisonous Locusts. For a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining, supporting even these hundred or so locusts would have been a heavy burden. Finding spiritual food every ten days was no easy task.

These Poisonous Locusts were highly aggressive but possessed very weak defenses; they feared fire and cold. They excelled at large-scale area attacks, especially against groups of low-level cultivators. They were not as effective in one-on-one combat against higher-level cultivators and could be easily killed if subjected to intense attacks.

Reading this, Ye Qin couldn't help but sneer inwardly. The old Poisonous Worm had been incredibly unlucky to run into him when he was enraged, causing him to unleash dozens of talismans in one breath. That power was equivalent to dozens of people bombarding him with spells without any interval. It was only natural that a hundred or so Poisonous Locusts could not withstand it.

The book also recorded the Beast Spirit Sect’s methods for taming exotic insects.

The Beast Spirit Sect raised many demonic beasts and rare birds, most of which possessed some intelligence and were easy to tame. However, these exotic insects lacked intelligence, refused to follow orders, and were the most difficult to control. The most basic control method used by the Beast Spirit Sect was employing spiritual artifact gourds to house these insects, allowing them to nest inside. These gourds could perform the simplest functions: "Summon" and "Release." When needed, one would tap the gourd, and the insects would emerge. When not needed, the insects would be stored back inside the gourd.

Coupled with peculiar insect languages devised by successive generations of Beast Spirit Sect disciples, they could execute the simplest commands like "Fly" or "Attack." Each type of exotic insect had a distinct and unique insect language, making it difficult for non-Beast Spirit Sect disciples to grasp the subtleties and secrets. However, the Basic Scripture of Insects did not record these insect languages.

Ye Qin slowly turned the pages, memorizing the appearance and characteristics of these exotic insects. Should he encounter them in the future, he would be able to identify them and avoid missing out on anything good. Turning to the final few pages, Ye Qin spotted a familiar golden insect, and his eyes immediately lit up.

Thorn Bee (Jīngjí Fēng)!

Thorn Bee (Jīngjí Fēng): A Rank One, Metal-element exotic insect. Its tail bears a golden stinger, which has an effect of "Armor Piercing." It is non-venomous.

It had to be admitted that "Armor Piercing" was a rather bizarre ability, directly penetrating protective shields to attack the opponent's physical body. Even the fierce Poisonous Locusts could not achieve this; they had to first corrode all the spiritual power in the opponent's shield before they could possibly bite the flesh.

But the problem was that the Thorn Bee’s golden stinger was non-venomous. Even if it pierced the armor, it was merely a sting, resulting in a large red welt. For ordinary mortals, being stung by the golden stinger would cause a magical injury that would bleed profusely. But for cultivators, this was hardly a major concern; they could eliminate the magical damage from the stinger using their internal spiritual energy and stop the bleeding.

The overall evaluation for the Thorn Bee was: Weak and Useless! Despite the bizarre "Armor Piercing" effect, the golden stinger was too small to kill an opponent.

The members of the Beast Spirit Sect were all masters of insect husbandry; their evaluations of exotic insects were usually accurate.

Ye Qin’s excitement gradually subsided. Looking at the Beast Spirit Sect's assessment of the Thorn Bee, he offered a wry smile and shook his head. He had initially hoped to do something with these Thorn Bees, but seeing this, he realized it would likely be difficult.

He took the single Thorn Bee that had stung him and sent it into his Zifu (Purple Mansion). He wondered if it was dead yet.

Thinking of this, Ye Qin had a sudden thought.

He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and let his divine sense sink into his Zifu.

The floating island.

Ye Qin emerged from the light barrier of the Natal Primordial Spirit Monument and floated above the nearby patch of cultivated Wood Thorns. What he saw there left him utterly dumbfounded. Beneath the two Wood Thorn bushes in the field, more than twenty green berries had formed.

All the flower buds had withered, replaced by berries.

What surprised him even more was that one small golden bee had not died. Instead, it had built a tiny beehive in a rock crevice near the Wood Thorn field and was bustling in and out, diligently working.

Peeling open a ripe berry, he found two Wood Thorn seeds inside. From over twenty berries, he had harvested more than forty seeds at once. Ye Qin was bewildered. Half a year ago, he had obtained Wood Thorn seeds and planted them in the field, but the plants had only flowered and stubbornly refused to bear fruit.

How could they suddenly yield fruit in just one day?

He took out a piece of Wood-element spirit stone, crushed it into powder, and sprinkled all the powder at the roots of one of the Wood Thorns, hoping to understand what was happening. Soon, that Wood Thorn absorbed the spiritual energy and bloomed with more than ten small flowers. The golden bee, busy near the hive, immediately buzzed over upon smelling the floral fragrance and began collecting pollen and nectar from the flowers. After it finished collecting, those flowers withered shortly thereafter, and another ten or so berries formed.

Ye Qin was speechless.

This tiny Thorn Bee had solved the problem that had troubled him for over half a year—a problem he couldn't solve on his own.

Ye Qin pondered for a moment, then became extremely excited. With these Wood Thorn seeds, he effectively possessed a massive supply of "Entanglement Talismans." Although this item lacked strong offensive power, it was excellent for binding, trapping, and delaying enemies.

Imagine facing an opponent stronger than himself, or a threatening monster. Even if he couldn't defeat the adversary, scattering a handful of Wood Thorn seeds would entangle the opponent, trapping them within the encompassing thorns. Even a cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining possessing decent spiritual artifacts would struggle to chop through all the Wood Thorns in a very short time. Before the opponent could clear away the troublesome entanglement, those few breaths of time would be enough for Ye Qin to escape without a trace.

If he encountered a weaker opponent, he could even trap them until they died and finish them off in one go.

With a nearly infinite supply of Wood Thorn seeds, his safety in the Lingwu Grand Canyon would be vastly improved. He could now venture through this dangerous place alone without worrying about being hunted by powerful enemies.

Ye Qin’s excitement surged.

He immediately sorted out all the Wood-element spirit stones he carried—four low-grade Wood-element spirit stones in total—and scattered them all around the planted Wood Thorns. He quickly harvested over forty berries, obtaining more than a hundred Wood Thorn seeds in total. (To be continued. For future developments, please log on to www.ncom. For more chapters, support the author and legitimate reading!)