The secret chambers for raising unusual insects were stone rooms that Han Li had carved out of a green stone wall.
To prevent them from escaping, Han Li had also set up some small restrictions between the chambers, making it impossible for them to break through the walls.
In Han Li's view, even though these unusual insects ranked highly, they were still mostly young. The restrictions, though ordinary, should be enough to keep them contained.
But the chambers before him not only had all their restrictions completely gone, but the stone doors were also riddled with honeycomb-like holes, most of them already destroyed.
Han Li felt a chill in his heart. With a thought, Qu Hun stepped forward and pushed open the nearest stone door.
Inside, it was completely empty—nothing at all.
Han Li let out a soft breath. Although he had mentally prepared himself, he still felt extremely depressed.
He scanned the chamber once more, then slightly turned his head, focusing his gaze back on the stone door.
Without a word, he walked over and crouched before the damaged stone door.
The way the door was damaged was very peculiar—its surface was covered in densely packed holes of the same size.
What puzzled Han Li was that the insides of these holes were not smooth at all but extremely rough, hardly something made by magical artifacts.
Han Li frowned and slowly stood up.
He gradually closed his eyes, and his spiritual sense instantly swept through the remaining chambers.
They were all empty. Even the chambers housing two types of unusual insects ranked within the top hundred of the Wondrous Insect Rankings were in the same state. This made Han Li’s heart ache!
Suddenly, his expression shifted, and he opened his eyes.
A cold light flashed in his eyes. He left the room and headed toward another chamber.
It was another empty room, but once inside, Han Li stooped without hesitation and picked something up from the green stone floor.
He placed the object in his palm and held it up to examine closely.
It was an insect shell, about the size of a bean, shimmering with silver light, as if made of pure silver, incredibly beautiful.
Han Li touched the shell with a finger and felt its surface was exceptionally smooth and very hard.
After a moment of thought, he was certain this was not the shell of any of his own unusual insects.
With that, Han Li’s expression became solemn, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
Using these chambers as the center, he began searching his cave dwelling inch by inch with his spiritual sense.
He refused to believe he couldn’t find any clues.
A short while later, Han Li made an unexpected discovery in the herb garden.
Hanging from a sturdy flowering tree was a glittering silver sphere. This was definitely not an original item of the cave dwelling.
Han Li called to Qu Hun, and with a grim expression, he left the chamber and headed toward the herb garden.
The silver sphere was not large, only about the size of a child’s head. But that flickering, eerie silver light was too eye-catching.
Han Li stood at the entrance of the herb garden, gazing at the silver sphere in silent contemplation.
He felt as if he had heard of this silver sphere somewhere before, but he couldn’t recall it at the moment.
However, this object must be closely related to that silver insect shell!
"Insect shell!"
A flash of inspiration struck Han Li’s mind. He seemed to remember something.
He hurriedly reached into his storage pouch, and a green jade slip appeared in his hand—the one that recorded the Spirit Command Sect cultivator’s insights on insect cultivation.
Once his consciousness sank into it, Han Li quickly found the relevant content at the twelfth position on the Wondrous Insect Rankings.
"Gold-Eating Bugs, a swarm of fierce insects, ranked twelfth on the Wondrous Insect Rankings. They love to devour other unusual insects, are adept at consuming metal and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and are incredibly fierce. They are impervious to water and fire, tend to gather in spheres, and dwell under spiritual trees. They can be trapped by objects made of jade or wood, and are mutually restrained by spider-type unusual insects..."
After reading this description several times, Han Li felt both shocked and delighted! He couldn’t help but look up at the silver sphere again.
Although his carefully cultivated unusual insects were gone, if he could replace them with these Gold-Eating Bugs, which ranked even higher than the "Gold-Backed Mantis," he would be more than willing.
However, according to the jade slip, the Gold-Eating Bugs could consume almost anything except jade and wood, making them very difficult to capture.
Fortunately, he still had two "Blood Jade Spiders." Although their rankings were much lower than the Gold-Eating Bugs, they should be able to restrain them.
Because according to the later description in the jade slip, these silver Gold-Eating Bugs were likely newly hatched larvae. The White Spider, which had already reached the first-tier upper stage, was much higher in terms of demon beast level compared to these Gold-Eating Bugs.
But before that, he still needed to test whether these insects were really as formidable as the jade slip claimed.
With that thought, Qu Hun immediately stepped forward in front of Han Li.
Qu Hun’s body emitted a bloody glow. He raised one hand and spread his fingers, instantly sending a large expanse of deep crimson blood light flying over, enveloping the silver sphere completely.
However, the silver sphere remained motionless, as if it were inanimate.
Seeing this, Han Li rubbed his nose, feeling somewhat disappointed.
That Spirit Command Sect cultivator had boasted so much about these insects, but why were they so sluggish?
After hesitating for a moment, Han Li had Qu Hun begin other tests.
Qu Hun looked at the silver sphere, a fierce light flashing in his eyes. He raised his hand and cast a green spell onto the blood light surrounding the silver sphere.
Instantly, the blood light abruptly changed from red to purple and, in the blink of an eye, erupted into raging, formidable demon fire.
The silver sphere, subjected to the eerie demon fire, finally began to change.
As if made of sand, it instantly split into countless points of silver light, emitting a buzzing sound.
Han Li focused intently and saw that these silver lights were all flying insects about the size of soybeans. Except for a pair of visible fangs, their appearance was identical to ordinary beetles, with nothing particularly special about them.
Han Li was puzzled!
Could it be that these were not the Gold-Eating Bugs, and he had misidentified them?
But after watching a while longer, he was shocked.
Because in Qu Hun’s demon fire, these beetles not only showed no signs of being burned to ashes but were instead incredibly lively.
What was even more incredible was that they were consuming the demon fire at an extremely rapid pace. In the blink of an eye, a small portion of the purple flames had vanished.
Seeing this, Han Li, who had come to his senses, was overjoyed!
He immediately loosened the mouth of a leather pouch at his waist. Two streaks of white light flew out from the pouch and landed steadily on the ground—they were the two "Blood Jade Spiders," each about the size of a head.
Without hesitation, Han Li issued the command to capture them alive.
Instantly, at the very moment the last trace of demon fire was consumed by the Gold-Eating Bugs, two streams of white liquid shot from the spiders’ mouths and mid-air transformed into two spider webs, each over a zhang in diameter, enveloping all the silver beetles.
These two webs were vastly different from ordinary ones. Their mesh was extremely fine, and even though the silver beetles were trapped within, they could not escape through the gaps.
The Gold-Eating Bugs seemed to sense danger. They immediately formed into the shape of silver arrows and, like actual crossbow bolts, shot straight toward the webs.
With two muffled sounds, the two white spider webs firmly wrapped around the silver arrows, forming a net ball. Inside, the Gold-Eating Bugs went berserk, emitting piercing shrieks as they began to bite through the spider silk one by one, showing real intent to break free.
But the two White Spiders gave them no chance. They continuously spat out mouthfuls of white liquid from their mouths, and in a short while, wrapped the beetles into a massive ball.
However, Han Li knew that this spider web probably wouldn’t be able to hold the Gold-Eating Bugs for long. He hurriedly took out a jade box from his person, stuffed the soft net ball into it with a few quick movements, and immediately closed the lid, placing it into his storage pouch.
In truth, for containing demon beasts, one should use a dedicated spirit beast pouch. Otherwise, ordinary spirit beasts would suffocate and die in a storage pouch due to lack of breath.
But the unusual insects on the Wondrous Insect Rankings were entirely different. Their life force was incredibly tough, and they could survive perfectly well in a storage pouch without breathing. Otherwise, the Spirit Command Sect cultivator from before wouldn’t have carried so many larvae with him in simple bottles and jars.
Of course, if one truly wanted to command beasts to fight enemies, a dedicated spirit beast pouch was most suitable. Not only was it convenient for summoning spirit beasts, but also for training them.
Most importantly, a spirit beast pouch could shrink overly large demon beasts to fit inside. A storage pouch could not shrink living creatures for storage. Therefore, even for demon beasts of the unusual insect type, once they grew large, only a dedicated spirit beast pouch could be used.
Han Li secured the jade box, afraid he might have missed something else. He searched the cave dwelling and its surroundings once more with his spiritual sense.
The only other discovery was a cluster of densely packed holes in the floor of the storage room.
These small holes must be the traces left by the Gold-Eating Bugs as they burrowed up from underground into his cave dwelling!
With this, Han Li didn’t dare linger in the cave dwelling. He immediately exited the true and false caves, collected the formation tools for the three sets of arrays, and shot into the sky.