A Mortal’s Journey to Immortality: Wang Yu’s Rebirth as the Reincarnation Dao Ancestor - Chapter 157

Chapter 155 Shifting Battles, Devouring

showed no intention of changing his cultivation pace because of a Level 5 Horned Python.

For the next two years, Han Li continued his steady progress

, steadily enhancing his physical body, Nascent Soul, and Wind Escape Technique.

Just as high-level cultivators from the Spirit Control Sect began appearing on the outskirts of Qianjin Valley, he flew directly to the Nine Heavens Gale Layer.

“That’s about enough, time for a change of scenery.”

His three years of cultivation in Qianjin Valley had yielded considerable gains.

His physical body was now comparable to that of a Level 4 demon beast.

His escape techniques had also improved, becoming three times faster. However, without specific reference points, he was unsure of his exact level within the Nascent Soul stage. His

divine sense had also significantly increased.

Previously, his divine sense could clearly perceive a range of 110-120 li, and vaguely perceive a range of nearly 300 li. Now, his clear perception range was 130 li, and his vague perception range exceeded 320 li.

Unfortunately, time was running out; otherwise, he could have secluded himself for several more decades.

The visible enrichment and improvement of his abilities were truly addictive.

Finally, he left Qianjin Valley through a region few would have considered,

avoiding direct contact with the Nascent Soul stage expert from the Yuling Sect.

“First, conquer the treacherous rapids of Panlong River, then take over Qianjin Valley. The Yuling Sect’s foundation will undoubtedly increase significantly. A thousand years from now, the sect’s high-level inherited spirit beasts will likely not just be the seventy or eighty currently on the surface, but… hundreds.”

“With such a foundation, if it accumulates for another one or two thousand years, it might very well reclaim its position as the leader of the demonic path.”

Han Li sighed sincerely, touching a spirit beast bag containing two silver-armored horned pythons and many high-level spirit beasts. The

Yuling Sect cultivates immortality by taming beasts, developing bonds with spirit beasts whose lifespans are several times, even ten times, that of cultivators, and then passing their spirit beasts down through generations. This method is indeed impressive,

having already broken the ordinary inheritance model.

If it weren’t for the fact that a thousand years ago, as the leader of the demonic path, they were at the forefront of the battlefield, entangled in a millennium-long internal conflict with the righteous path, which depleted much of their strength and ultimately led to their expulsion from the heart of Tiannan by rising forces,

the

Yu Ling Sect would never have fallen to a level even inferior to the Tian Sha Sect.

“Dongmen Tu’s painstaking efforts to strengthen the sect’s foundation and cultivate Five Elements Spiritual Infants to vie for the throne of demonic leader—perhaps also driven by a desire or obsession to reclaim the glory of the Yu Ling Sect in its heyday?” The

Yu Ling Sect a thousand years ago was incredibly glorious.

It boasted powerful cultivators,

over ten Nascent Soul cultivators,

several Nascent Soul-level ancient beasts and spirit birds,

and nearly three hundred high-level cultivators and spirit beasts.

Even the He Huan Sect couldn’t match them at that time.

If the conflict between the righteous and demonic paths hadn’t severely damaged their vitality and interrupted their accumulation of strength, the Yu Ling Sect would likely still be the leader of the demonic path today.

The most crucial element in beast-taming cultivation is time.

“My previous plans were disrupted by the Spirit Taming Sect. Where should I go next?”

Han Li frowned, deep in the high-altitude gale-force winds.

He was quite annoyed that his peaceful cultivation had been interrupted.

After a moment of contemplation, he thought of his spirit beasts and the swarm of Gold-Devouring Insects in his spirit beast pouch, then suddenly looked in a certain direction.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“Perhaps I should try my luck there.”

There are several ways for Gold-Devouring Insects to advance.

The most effective is undoubtedly to continuously devour various rare insects. However, the cost is too high, and the time commitment is extremely significant. Without the support of a powerful force, and without a large number of disciples taking on missions to collect larvae or spirit insect eggs, it’s simply impractical for him to travel the entire map alone to collect all sorts of rare insects. His occupation and cultivation of the Thousand Bamboo Sect had another purpose: to have its members keep an eye out for various rare insects in the far west.

The second way to advance the Gold-Eating Insects is through a massive infusion of heaven and earth energy, supplemented with precious spiritual materials, to accelerate their growth. This is what the Tuwu people did. The cost is equally enormous, even greater. Even after the original owner arrived in the Spirit Realm, it took hundreds of years to cultivate tens of thousands of semi-mature Gold-Eating Insects into mature forms.

Then comes the consumption of the five metals.

Gold-Eating Insects love to devour magical treasures and metals precisely because these aid in their transformation and evolution.

“I do have quite a few finished magical treasures and metals…”

The Lord of the Forbidden Land left him a heavy burden.

“But the magical treasures and metals refined by Nascent Soul cultivators are extremely precious. Using them to cultivate Gold-Eating Insects isn’t impossible, but it’s definitely not something to waste now.”

Feeding them now won’t produce mature Gold-Eating Insects.

Once they obtain the Tuwu people’s method of accelerating growth, and acquire some auxiliary spiritual materials, supplemented with the five precious magical treasures and metals, they might be able to accelerate the growth of many mature Gold-Eating Insects.

This is similar to the principle of using top-grade spirit stones wisely.

“While my magical treasures and metals are difficult to use prematurely, there’s a place with raw gold essence ore that I can borrow to feed my insects.”

Therefore, he didn’t head south to Yue Kingdom,

nor north to Luoyun Sect.

Instead, he headed towards the Panlong River in the northeast of Yuanwu Kingdom.

Half a day later,

Han Li traversed nearly 200,000 li,

flying directly from the northwest corner of Yuanwu Kingdom to its northeast corner.

Traveling through the gale-force winds, he encountered no obstacles, attracted no attention, and caused no disturbance.

Following the clues provided by the mid-stage Core Formation cultivator of the Yuling Sect, he quickly found the canyon containing the gold essence ore vein.

A vast river, several miles wide, flowed mightily.

Occasionally, traces of low-level demonic beasts could be found within its depths.

“This gold essence ore vein was discovered by the Yu Ling Sect a few years ago, and it’s a rare medium-sized rich mine. It’s estimated that if it’s all mined and refined into gold essence, it would be enough to meet the needs of several thousand high-level cultivators. Currently, it should only be in the early stages of mining. Even if the Yu Ling Sect has been mining it for a few years, the remaining reserves are probably not low.”

Magical artifacts and metals, if used well, can be just as valuable high-level strategic resources as spiritual herbs and stones.

“According to the memories of that Yu Ling Sect cultivator, to ensure the mine doesn’t encounter any problems, the Yu Ling Sect’s higher-ups simply arranged for a Nascent Soul cultivator and several Core Formation disciples from that lineage to be stationed here constantly after the gold essence mine was discovered, never leaving their side.”

This shows the importance he places on it.

“If I want to intercept this gold mine without anyone noticing, I’ll have to be careful.”

He doesn’t want to provoke the Spirit Control Sect right now.

Having just one Heavenly Gate is already a significant burden.

A hundred miles outside the canyon,

a dozen Iron-Armed Beasts appeared.

“Get to work, you little ones!”

The pangolin-like beasts waved their claws at his command.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

The Iron-Armed Beasts’ digging efficiency is beyond doubt.

In just half a month, they had reached the outer edge of the gold mine.

Here, a protective array barrier separated the inside from the outside.

“As expected, there’s a setup.”

However, the level of this array is quite ordinary, merely used for early warning, contamination, and tracking.

If Han Li were to forcibly disrupt it, it would likely attract the attention of high-level cultivators from the Spirit Control Sect.

But if he were simply infiltrating, the slight fluctuations here wouldn’t disturb the guards.

Furthermore, the Gold-Eating Insects’ ability to sense and devour different kinds of spiritual energy would ensure that he wouldn’t be contaminated by the spiritual energy aura on the array barrier, thus preventing the high-level beings of the Spirit Control Sect from using him as a cover.

“Buzz…”

A cloud of golden insects appeared.

It consisted of hundreds of level-four Gold-Eating Insects and a hundred or so semi-mature beings comparable to high-level ones.

After becoming a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator from the Soul Searching Spirit Control Sect, he had re-signed a blood pact two years ago, strengthening the bond between his body and the spirit insects. This also strengthened the connection, making the swarm more i*imate with him.

Except for the dozen or so individuals comparable to level six, which, if controlled for a long time, still had the drawback of damaging his own divine sense. The remaining Gold-Eating Insects, freed from the risk of backlash, fought even more fearlessly upon receiving his command.

“Go.”

Hundreds of golden spirit insects cleared a path, allowing him to infiltrate smoothly.

The foreign spiritual energy clinging to his body was completely devoured by the Gold-Eating Insects.

After infiltrating, he didn’t forget to use a restoration spell to block the passage he had come from and restore the damaged array’s light barrier.

In the following months,

he concealed his presence, concealing his aura, and traversed various mines.

Especially in the unmined gold essence ore, he released tens of thousands of Gold-Eating Insects to devour it. For

the first three months, the low-level miners of the Spirit Control Sect didn’t notice anything amiss.

But by the fourth month…

“Huh, something’s not right!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Wasn’t it said that this gold essence mine was a medium-sized rich mine? But the amount of gold essence ore mined recently is more than half less than in the previous two years?”

“Is it because some people are slacking off?”

a manager speculated.

Possibly.

“Then keep an eye on those Qi Refining stage kids, don’t let them slack off all day.”

The result?

Another month passed.

The production of gold essence ore not only failed to return to its previous normal level, but actually dropped significantly. Not only was the quantity of ore mined decreasing, but the quality of the gold essence ore was also declining.

This terrified the Foundation Establishment stage managers.

“Is anyone in charge of your mining area lagging behind?”

“No, definitely not. Before, my group of over thirty disciples worked four hours a day. Now it’s increased to seven hours a day. Everyone has made time for cultivation.”

“If no one is slacking off, why is the production of gold essence ore getting lower and lower?”

Everyone was completely baffled.

No one had ever considered that a master thief had infiltrated.

“Should we inform those Core Formation elders about the situation?”

“No rush. Let’s re-investigate and reassess the quality of this original ore vein, clarify the situation as much as possible, and then report back.”

“That makes sense.”

Upon investigation, the cultivators of the Spirit Control Sect discovered that the rich ore areas they had previously estimated were likely actually poor ore. It was a facade of rich ore, but in reality, it was poor. The previously estimated medium-sized ore veins were also mostly inflated.

As for why no one had discovered the traces of the Gold-Eating Insect swarm acting as thieves,

it was entirely because: the swarm ate heartily in front, while Han Li carefully cleaned up the mess behind them.

Every small hole the Gold-Eating Insects made was patched up with Restoration Techniques. To detect traces of Restoration Techniques required at least the spiritual sense cultivation of a mid-Core Formation cultivator.

Therefore, without those obvious clues, the group of low-level cultivators could only attribute the problem to an early misjudgment.

Furthermore, in any rich ore areas, Han Li only allowed the swarm to devour them until they were poor ore; he never intended to completely wipe them out. He didn’t even bother visiting the poor ore areas.

Because of this meticulous control, he avoided revealing any flaws that could be exploited.

Meanwhile, the Gold-Devouring Insects, having consumed a large amount of gold essence ore, had their golden color become even more vibrant and intense.

Some level four individuals even showed signs of advancing.

Not only that, but

he also discovered two small pieces of gold essence while controlling the swarm to gnaw on the ore.

This was a valuable item.

For Nascent Soul cultivators, it was an excellent material for forging top-tier metal-attribute flying swords.

It was a treasure on par with Geng Gold.

Using it in conjunction with Geng Gold to forge flying swords could increase their sharpness several times over.

Crucially, it could accelerate the spiritual connection speed of metal-attribute flying swords!

“Unfortunately, the quantity is a bit small.”

Two small pieces, about the size of a walnut, would barely be enough to strengthen twelve small flying swords.

However,

it did open up a new avenue for his thinking.

The various dangerous places in the human realm may contain many treasures yet to be discovered by ancient cultivators.

Instead of focusing on the existing spiritual lands and treasures, why not learn from the Spirit Control Sect and explore uncharted territories?

The Gold-Eating Insects are incredibly fast. In

just over half a year

, they had explored most of the richest areas of the hundred-mile-long mineral vein.

These little creatures have a nose for gold ore that’s even more sensitive than a dog’s.

Looking back at the original mining areas where production had drastically decreased, they were still unsatisfied.

“I should go see my senior sister.”

“By the way, I wonder if Granny Gan from the Hidden Moon Sect has reached the Nascent Soul stage in the past hundred years?”

I’m posting late; I really couldn’t bring myself to write more than two thousand words. I felt uneasy not writing more.

I spent the morning helping my wife with chores,

otherwise I could have posted more.

Last day of the month, please give me some votes!

(End of Chapter)