Chapter 105: Conspiracy, Setting Up the Array

Chapter 105 -69: Conspiracy, Setting Up the Array

“Hehehe, this ‘Ten Thousand Insects Nourishing the Mother’ method that I created is profound enough to be recorded into the Thousand Insects Valley’s Superior Secret Technique lineage.

“First, I raise tens of thousands of Subordinate Insects with impure auras. Then, I let them feast until they are fully grown. Finally, they will all sacrifice themselves to the pure Mother Insect, supplying it to grow stronger.

“The Mother Insect’s own aura is extremely pure, but its quantity is somewhat lacking. After being nourished by thousands of its descendants, its quality might drop slightly, but the sheer volume will multiply several times over.

“Once my Mother Insect is fully grown, a single one can increase a person’s Cultivation by sixty or seventy years. If raised exceptionally well, a century isn’t impossible! Moreover, as long as one cultivates the Cultivation Technique of my Thousand Insects Valley, the foundation built by the Mother Insect’s boost will remain quite solid,” Chongyun laughed smugly.

“You are truly an unparalleled genius, Forefather!” Chen Rui hastily flattered.

“It’s just a pity that this Superior Secret Technique isn’t perfect yet and has many restrictions. Otherwise, why would I bother cooperating with you all?” Chongyun shook his head and sighed.

Chen Rui looked at Chongyun with a mix of awe and curiosity, wondering what kind of restrictions could possibly apply to a Superior Secret Technique capable of granting someone decades or even a century of Cultivation in a single bound. However, Chongyun merely glanced at him, showing no intention of elaborating.

Boasting to a junior about the brilliance of his original Superior Secret Technique was one thing—it allowed him to enjoy a bit of flattery. But revealing the flaws of this technique to an outsider? Absolutely out of the question. As formidable as the technique sounded, its limitations were actually quite severe.

First and foremost, a Mother Insect was incredibly difficult to obtain. The pure aura naturally carried by the Mother Insect didn’t just fall from the sky. Simply to cultivate this single Mother Insect, he had expended over a decade of painstaking effort and invested a massive amount of his savings, even delaying his own cultivation in the process. The expenses spent on the Mother Insect alone were nearly enough to refine a new Magical Treasure for himself.

Furthermore, raising the Subordinate Insects required another twenty years of effort for them to fully mature, and that was assuming they were nourished by Spirit Charms and Spirit Plants. This process didn’t require much direct supervision from him, so it wouldn’t hinder his own cultivation. The real issue was that once these Subordinate Insects matured, they needed to consume a massive amount of Spirit Plants before nourishing the Mother Insect in order to maximize the yield.

This was precisely why he had set his sights on the Cloud Bamboo of Huang Bamboo Temple. If he had to purchase or grow the Spirit Plants himself to feed the Subordinate Insects, he wouldn’t be able to raise many even if he bankrupted himself. What could be more convenient than directly feasting on someone else’s ready-made bamboo forest?

Twenty years ago, taking advantage of the time when Huang Bamboo Temple had just harvested their Cultivation Fruits and the entire temple was relaxed, he had secretly smuggled the Mother Insect into Bamboo Forest Peak. He even sacrificed his own Magical Treasure to conceal the Mother Insect’s aura. Subsequently, the Mother Insect laid over ten thousand eggs. After hatching, the larvae instinctively crawled to the Spiritual Eyes and began spinning cocoons to hibernate, absorbing the life force of the surrounding Cloud Bamboo to grow.

Now, the day for them to break out of their cocoons was finally approaching. At this exact moment, every stalk of Cloud Bamboo was brimming with essence in preparation to condense its Cultivation Fruit. When the time came, these Subordinate Insects would latch directly onto the root systems of the Cloud Bamboo, completely draining the essence the bamboos had stored for bearing fruit. After converting it into their own nourishment, they would then offer themselves up to the Mother Insect.

This way, the Mother Insect could likely boost his Cultivation by eighty to a hundred years in one go.

However, another flaw in this Superior Secret Technique was that he couldn’t precisely control the exact time the Subordinate Insects would break out of their cocoons. Over the span of three to five days, these Subordinate Insects would hatch one after another, instinctively draining the essence of the nearby Cloud Bamboo before returning to nourish the Mother Insect.

That simply wouldn’t do.

Three to five days might not seem long, but with a massive swath of Cloud Bamboo withering during that time, unless the people of Huang Bamboo Temple were complete fools, they would inevitably realize something was wrong. By then, he would either have to sit back and watch them discover the Mother Insect, or prematurely extract a Mother Insect that had only absorbed a fraction of the Subordinate Insects, leaving the large batch of unhatched ones to go to waste.

This was a scenario he simply couldn’t accept. Having schemed for so many years, how could he allow it to end so hastily?

Although he couldn’t remotely and precisely control the hatching time of every single Subordinate Insect on his own, having a large group of people to assist him was a completely different story. Long before this, he had already refined over a hundred Magical Artifacts capable of commanding Subordinate Insects within a certain range to break out of their cocoons immediately. As long as he had over a hundred people carry these Magical Artifacts and scatter them across the mountain, he could personally activate all the Magical Artifacts at once. Then, all the Subordinate Insects would immediately break out of their cocoons and drain the essence of the Cloud Bamboo.

Even if these people were distributed somewhat unevenly and a small number of Subordinate Insects fell outside the Magical Artifacts’ effective range, the loss would be minimal and entirely within his acceptable limits.

However, his disciples and grand-disciples in the Thousand Insects Valley were utterly useless for this task. He needed a group of Cultivators who could infiltrate Bamboo Forest Peak—a large enough group whose identities wouldn’t arouse Huang Bamboo Temple’s suspicions.

Shouyi Temple was the perfect choice. He had already established a partnership with Shouyi Temple over a decade ago. With the cooperation of the Shouyi Temple disciples, they would all scatter across the mountain during tomorrow’s patrol. The moment he activated the Magical Artifacts, he would instantly be able to harvest the Cloud Bamboo of the entire mountain to feed the Subordinate Insects. Furthermore, the Shouyi Temple disciples themselves didn’t even need to know about this scheme.

All he had to do was have this little Steward in front of him take the Magical Artifacts and mandate that the Shouyi Temple disciples wear them close to their bodies during their patrols. When refining the Magical Artifacts, he specifically made them very inconspicuous, lacking any insignia of the Thousand Insects Valley, so as not to arouse suspicion. In fact, these Magical Artifacts genuinely possessed a slight defensive effect. While they were inferior to even unranked Defensive Magical Artifacts, no one would ever suspect them to be completely useless.

To raise a single Mother Insect, he had painstakingly planned every step for decades. He didn’t even intend for the Subordinate Insects to complete the process of nourishing the Mother Insect on Bamboo Forest Peak. Completing this step would take at least half an hour, which was far too time-consuming, so he had borrowed a Spirit Insect Cage from his senior brother in advance.

Once the Subordinate Insects finished devouring the Cloud Bamboo, he would summon all of them at once, pack them into the Spirit Insect Cage, grab the Mother Insect and the Shadowless Banner, and leave immediately. Had it not been for the fact that the Subordinate Insects’ development would severely slow down if they strayed too far from the Mother Insect, he would have extracted the Mother Insect from Bamboo Forest Peak long ago.

According to his plan, from the moment the people of Huang Bamboo Temple noticed the anomaly to the time he departed with all the Subordinate Insects and the Mother Insect, at most fifteen minutes would pass. He had also prepared a Divine Escape Talisman in advance, which would allow him to cast his Escape Skill at several times his usual speed to flee as quickly as possible.

Bamboo Forest Peak was located on the outskirts of the Zhengyang Dharma Vein. Even if Huang Bamboo Temple had some means of directly contacting the Zhengyang Dharma Vein, it would be useless. The distance from the Dharma Vein to Bamboo Forest Peak was quite vast. Let alone a Grand Daoist of the Divine Travel Realm, even an Imperial Decree Daoist of the Dharma Image Realm would need some time to arrive. By the time the experts of the Dharma Vein rushed over, he would have long since escaped the Zhengyang Dharma Vein’s sphere of influence. Unless a legendary Immortal took action, no one would be in time to catch him. But which Immortal had nothing better to do than meddle in such trivial matters?

And once he fled further away and returned to the territory of his Thousand Insects Valley, even the Immortals of the Dharma Vein could do nothing but stare blankly. Although Thousand Insects Valley couldn’t be compared to the entire Taihao Immortal Sect, they still weren’t afraid of a mere Zhengyang Dharma Vein. Their Thousand Insects Valley also possessed an Immortal Dao Lineage!

Once the Mother Insect was fully nourished, he could boost his Cultivation to at least two hundred and forty years, and then spend another twenty to thirty years eliminating the side effects. Calculating his remaining lifespan, he had at least an eighty percent chance of breaking through to the Divine Travel Realm in the future. If he could manage to raise a few more Mother Insects later on, ascending to the even higher rank of an Imperial Decree Daoist of the Dharma Image Realm might not be entirely hopeless either.

At this thought, Chongyun was in an excellent mood.

“Say, junior,” he reached out and patted Chen Rui’s shoulder. “I am in a good mood today. I find you pleasing to the eye. How about I pass down a trick or two to you?”

Chen Rui was instantly overjoyed. Although the Daoist before him was a Gu Cultivator walking the unorthodox Heterodox Dao, he was still a Daoist! Learning a thing or two from a Daoist could only be beneficial, right? With this in mind, Chen Rui quickly kowtowed in gratitude.

“Of course, once you learn my techniques and handle affairs for me, you must always keep my kindness in mind.” Chongyun patted Chen Rui’s head and handed him a Qiankun Bag. “Before tomorrow’s patrol, distribute these to your Shouyi Temple disciples and have them carry them at all times.”

“Understood, Forefather!” Chen Rui nodded.

Although he didn’t fully know all of Chongyun’s secrets and plans, the Daoist of his temple and Chongyun had already given him very clear instructions on what he needed to do. Once all those damned bamboos of Huang Bamboo Temple were ruined and they failed to deliver the Cultivation Fruits, the rent for Bamboo Forest Peak would turn into a massive debt. At that time, even if Huang Bamboo Temple scraped together every last penny to renew the lease, the Dharma Vein would doubt their ability to recoup the costs. That would be Shouyi Temple’s chance to approach the Dharma Vein and take Bamboo Forest Peak for themselves. Using these tens of thousands of Spiritual Eyes to grow bamboo was truly a waste.

Meanwhile, Li Yinsheng had already set up a Trapping Array formed by one thousand seven hundred black and white go pieces around the hollow containing the Mother Insect and the Command Flag Magical Treasure. Countless black and white pieces spread out like stars around that small hollow before fading from sight and transforming into an Array.

Tight Qi Tribulation.

This was a Trapping Array recorded in the Array of Profound Mystery. Although it was called a Trapping Array, if fully activated, it also possessed some suppressing and sealing effects. Li Yinsheng wasn’t sure how close the Heart and Spirit connection between the Magical Treasure inside and its owner was, so he didn’t dare to act rashly and risk tipping them off.

But he would absolutely not let go of that large, fleshy insect with its incredibly pure aura. Disregarding the drawback of its difficult Refinement, the insect itself was enough to help someone increase their Cultivation by twenty years. If he gave it to his junior sister… although he hadn’t figured out how to convince her to eat such a thing. But if she did consume it, once its Refinement was complete, her Cultivation would reach around thirty years. In terms of Cultivation alone, that would be enough to meet the B Class standard of the Lesser Yang Dao Examination!

This wasn’t just an Exotic Insect; it was clearly an Exotic Treasure! And right next to this Exotic Treasure was a Magical Treasure!

However, the current situation was unclear, and he still hadn’t figured out what was going on with the insects outside. It was best not to just grab the large fleshy insect and the Command Flag and leave. If nothing else, he desperately wanted to know if the insects outside would count towards the rewards of the Cultivation Tribulation if his junior sister killed them. If they did, how much cultivation time would one insect provide? If he directly captured the large fleshy insect, would those Exotic Insects not react, go completely berserk, or just drop dead on the spot? And according to the judgment of the Grotto Heaven, was the person who set up this scheme also part of this Cultivation Tribulation?

All of these matters required careful consideration. Furthermore, he couldn’t be certain when the person responsible for this setup would arrive.

Therefore, in addition to laying down the Tight Qi Tribulation to lock down the large fleshy insect and the Magical Treasure, he also set up two other Arrays in the vicinity. One was called the God-Suppressing Head, a suppression method specifically designed to confront strong foes. Once trapped inside, a target’s Flesh Body, Magical Power, and Divine Sense would all be constrained. For someone with slightly weaker Cultivation, their Divine Sense would be completely locked down, naturally leaving their Flesh Body and Magical Power unable to function as well.

Li Yinsheng didn’t expect the Array to outright suppress a Daoist’s Soul, but he figured it would at least place severe restrictions on them.

The other Array was called Rising Bull, which was purely a Killing Array. Capturing the person alive would be best, but if that proved impossible, he would just send them to their death. Regardless of who it was, anyone employing such underhanded methods that clearly didn’t belong to the Orthodox Dao didn’t deserve any mercy.

Then there were those Exotic Insects still curled up in their cocoon shells. Although they were currently behaving themselves, Li Yinsheng absolutely didn’t believe they would stay that way.

Flying toward the cocoon shell closest to him, Li Yinsheng smiled faintly. “Little bug, oh little bug, your cocoon is too thin, and you lack a sense of security. Let me help you thicken it a bit.”

He raised a finger and tapped lightly. Two white pieces and one black piece surrounded the cocoon shell before fading away to form an Array.

Shuangfeiyan.

It was an extremely simple little Trapping Array, but it excelled in practicality. Next, Li Yinsheng spent some time adding a First Layer of Shuangfeiyan to every single cocoon shell on the entire mountain peak. Now, he no longer had to worry about these flimsy cocoon shells shattering too easily.