txolops Chapter 113 Great Fortune, Harvesting the Gold-Eating Insects!
Chapter 113 Great Fortune, Harvesting the Gold-Eating Insects!
The next morning, Lin Chuan opened his eyes on time, and golden light appeared before him.
Today's divination result: Minor good fortune.
[The divination text reads: Having left Tiandu Street and Kuixing City, a four-hundred-year-old Ganoderma lucidum has been discovered in a mountain valley six hundred li west of Kuixing City.]
"Little Ji...it seems there aren't many opportunities around here." Lin Chuan sighed softly.
Even a small mosquito is still meat.
A four-hundred-year-old spiritual herb might be coveted by some Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Southern Heaven, but in a sea like the Chaotic Star Sea, where demonic beasts abound, spiritual herbs are actually scarce and more valuable.
If you take it to the market, you can get at least several hundred low-grade spirit stones.
He immediately got up, took his avatar, left the rented house, went out of Tiandu Street, and flew westward towards Kuixing City.
The journey of six hundred li was completed in no time.
The valley was hidden among the mountains, in a low-lying area with dense forests. If it weren't for the guidance of the divination, Lin Chuan would never have noticed it.
He found the four-hundred-year-old Ganoderma lucidum behind a giant rock deep in the mountains—it was dark purple all over, with a cap like an umbrella, and emitted a faint medicinal fragrance.
Lin Chuan carefully dug it up by the roots and put it into a jade box for safekeeping.
……
For the next month, Lin Chuan wandered around Kuixing Island.
Guided by the daily divination, he collected all the undiscovered medicinal herbs of a certain age on the island, as well as some special treasures left behind in the wilderness.
Although every day was a "small success," the gains weren't earth-shattering, but they added up.
After a month, the spiritual herbs and materials he collected on Kuixing Island were worth more than 10,000 spirit stones.
This wealth is an amount that an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator could hardly accumulate in a lifetime.
But Lin Chuan was not satisfied.
"Staying in one place will ultimately hinder the full potential of my abilities. I need to leave Kui Xing Island and go to a wider world."
He made up his mind.
Before leaving, Lin Chuan made a special trip to a large map shop in Kuixing City and bought two nautical charts.
One is a detailed map of the southwestern sea area of the Inner Star Sea, marking the distribution of islands, reefs, and spiritual veins of all sizes in this region, as well as the shipping routes between the islands.
This is the main area he will travel to next.
The other map was a complete map of the Inner Star Sea. Although it was not as detailed as the map of the Southwest Sea, it was enough for him to identify the approximate location of each sea area so that he would not lose his way.
However, before leaving, Lin Chuan had one more thing to do.
He's going to Little Huan Island.
Xiao Huan Island is located in the sea hundreds of miles away from Kui Xing Island. It is an affiliated island of Kui Xing Island, with a circumference of no more than a hundred miles. The spiritual veins are thin, and it is inhabited by mortals, but no cultivators reside there.
But Lin Chuan remembered that in the original story, Han Li had opened a cave on this island to feed spirit insects.
By chance, he discovered a swarm of gold-devouring insects that had invaded his cave.
He managed to subdue these insects, which later became a great help to him.
Gold-eating bug.
This kind of spirit insect ranks very high on the list of rare insects, and is a spirit insect that some insect-controlling cultivators dream of.
They feed on metal; the more metal they consume, the faster they evolve and the stronger they become.
After reaching adulthood, they become impervious to blades and spears, water and fire, and can even devour magical artifacts.
Now that he knew they were on or near Xiaohuan Island, Lin Chuan naturally wouldn't let them go.
As for the subsequent cultivation, although Lin Chuan didn't have the Little Green Bottle to accelerate the growth of the Demon-Attracting Grass, he firmly believed that with his daily divination, he could always find other treasures to raise the Gold-Eating Insects, no matter when or where.
……
With his black-robed avatar Qu Hun departing from Kui Xing Island, Lin Chuan piloted the Gray-Winged Boat and flew towards Xiao Huan Island.
An hour later, the outline of an island appeared on the horizon ahead.
The island is not large, only about a hundred miles in circumference. It is covered with lush vegetation, and a few ordinary villages can be vaguely seen.
Lin Chuan did not venture deeper into the area rashly.
He landed on a deserted beach with his avatar, found a simple inn run by mortals, and checked in.
Wait patiently for the divination results to be updated the next day.
……
The next morning, the golden light appeared precisely on time.
Today's divination result: Very auspicious.
[The divination reads: Today, in the woods west of Little Huan Island, you discovered an ancient tree so large that several people would need to encircle it. Deep within the tree's hollow lies a cluster of silver spheres. These are nests of approximately a thousand Gold-Eating Insects, currently in a dormant state.]
"Haha! You really can spot it!"
Lin Chuan was overjoyed, but his face remained calm.
It truly lives up to its reputation as a golden finger for bringing good fortune and avoiding misfortune! The guidance is so accurate, it's as if I saw it with my own eyes.
Without delay, he immediately left the inn and flew towards the west side of Xiaohuan Island.
To the west lies a dense primeval forest, with ancient trees reaching for the sky and blocking out the sun.
Following the clues from the divination, Lin Chuan quickly found the enormous ancient tree that would take several people to encircle.
There was a hole in the tree trunk, about half a person's height, dark and bottomless.
Lin Chuan did not reach out rashly.
With a thought, he opened the mouth of the spirit beast pouch at his waist, and a beam of white light shot out—the Blood Jade Spider.
The level-four demonic beast obediently lay down on the ground, and at Lin Chuan's command, it opened its mouth and spat out a sticky white spider silk that precisely shot into the depths of the tree hole.
A moment later, the spider silk slowly retracted, the end of which was wrapped around a fist-sized, shimmering silver sphere.
The surface of that sphere was densely packed with countless tiny silver beetles. The beetles had hard carapaces like iron and sharp mouthparts like pincers. At this moment, they were tightly huddled together, in a dormant state, completely still.
Gold-eating bug!
And it was a huge group, a full thousand!
Lin Chuan suppressed his excitement and quickly took out an empty spirit beast pouch.
Instead of touching it rashly, he manipulated the Blood Jade Spider to spit out more spider silk, wrapping the silver sphere layer by layer, forming a thick "cocoon of spider silk".
Inside the spider silk cocoon, the gold-eating insects seemed to be disturbed and began to gnaw on the surrounding spider silk, making a soft "crunching" sound.
However, they are still in their juvenile stage, and their grazing speed is not fast.
Taking advantage of the moment, Lin Chuan quickly took out a specially made jade box, put the entire spider silk cocoon along with the gold-devouring insect inside into the box, and then affixed a sealing talisman to the lid of the box to isolate the internal and external energies.
"Alright, it's time to go."
Lin Chuan put the jade box into his storage bag and was preparing to pilot the Gray Wing Boat away from Little Huan Island.
"Senior Brother Lin? What are you doing here?"
A familiar voice came from the opposite side of the sky, tinged with surprise.
Lin Chuan looked up and saw a streak of azure light flying from afar and landing on the ground not far away.
After the light from the magical artifact subsided, it revealed an ordinary yet very familiar face.
It was Han Li.
"Junior Brother Han?" Lin Chuan was also somewhat surprised and asked, "What are you doing here?"
Could it be that before Han Li left the Chaotic Star Sea this time, he did not encounter Nangong Wan, his cultivation level did not drop to the Qi Refining stage, and he still chose to cultivate in seclusion on Xiaohuan Island outside Kui Xing Island?