Chapter 112: The Way to Raise Insects, Strengthening Secrets

Seated within the De Molinos Clan’s treasury, Arius carefully sorted through his collection of resources.

After the Floating Dream Pavilion raid, his storage ring now held—

Nearly 300 low-grade spirit stones
Various low-tier medicinal pills
A large assortment of low-quality magical treasures and cultivation manuals

Altogether, these items were worth around 500 low-grade spirit stones—

Comparable to the wealth of an average Level 2 cultivator.

For now, Arius had little use for the cultivation manuals and magical treasures.

Rather than selling them for quick profit, he decided to—

Store them as part of the De Molinos Clan’s long-term foundation.
Upgrade them through the Appraising Immortal Mirror when necessary.
Distribute them to clan members with spiritual roots in the future.

Selling low-tier cultivation manuals?
Not worth it. Only Level 4 techniques had true market value.

Selling magical treasures?
Too risky. Flooding the market with high-quality treasures would draw unwanted attention from demonic sects and rival forces.

Instead, Arius chose to keep these treasures hidden—

Letting them accumulate as the De Molinos Clan’s secret reserve.

After securing his treasures, Arius finally turned his attention to—

The 10,000 spirit insect eggs he had purchased from Evan Daguel.

At first glance—

These colorful eggs appeared ordinary, carrying no special aura.

But Arius knew—

Without the right techniques, even millions of eggs might not yield a single fully grown insect.
Many of the eggs were likely already dead.
Some species would kill and devour each other if hatched together.

Thus, his first step was carefully categorizing them:

Supportive Spirit Insects – Used for farming, medicine refinement, and alchemy.
Venomous Combat Insects – Used for battle and direct attacks.
Gu Worms – Used for poisoning, assassination, and mind control.

If he hatched them carelessly, they would fight amongst themselves—

Wasting all his efforts.

Before placing the eggs back into the Spirit Insect Bag,

Arius used the Appraising Immortal Mirror to—

Perform a basic enhancement on the entire batch.
Increase the hatching success rate.
Improve the survival rate of the larvae.

He chose not to over-invest spirit stones in upgrading the eggs themselves.

Why?

Many eggs were already dead. No amount of upgrading could revive them.
It was more cost-effective to strengthen the larvae after hatching.

With proper investment, he could ensure—

That the best surviving larvae would become incredibly powerful.

With the insect eggs prepared, Arius shifted his focus to studying the art of insect cultivation.

Before he could master insect control techniques, he needed to first understand insect breeding.

From his storage ring, he retrieved—

The various insect cultivation manuals he had bought from Evan Daguel.

At a glance, these manuals contained—

A mix of valuable knowledge
An overwhelming amount of useless nonsense

If he relied solely on the unrefined manuals, progress would be slow and inefficient.

Thus, he decided to refine them.

Using spirit stone fragments, he activated—

The Appraising Immortal Mirror. 

As the mirror’s divine light washed over the pile of books,

The paper pages vanished—

And in their place—

A set of jade slips materialized!

These newly transformed jade slips now contained—

Purified and advanced insect-breeding techniques.
Condensed, high-quality knowledge on insect mastery.
Practical methods for raising powerful venomous insects.

This was only the beginning.

Arius smirked.

The low-quality, misleading insect cultivation manuals that Arius bought from Evan Daguel

Had now—

Transformed into genuine high-grade cultivation techniques!

Arius picked up a jade slip titled—

“Insect Cultivation! From Beginner to Grandmaster.”

The title might sound unimpressive, but—

The content was now completely transformed.

From basic principles to advanced techniques,

The entire manual had been restructured—

Making it an invaluable guide to breeding and mastering spirit insects.

Precise techniques for nurturing larvae into powerful insects.
Specialized feeding methods to enhance growth.
Methods to mutate and evolve insects into stronger forms.

Reading through it, Arius’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

According to this newly enhanced manual—

“Given enough resources, one could raise insects powerful enough to rival even Level 5 cultivators!”

A complete and systematic path to cultivating top-tier battle insects.
Guidance on breeding rare species that could even threaten Level 4 experts.

This was beyond expectation.

Arius placed the first jade slip aside and checked the others—

“Insect Cultivation Sutra”
“The Way of the Insect Master”
“Essential Lessons for Aspiring Insect Tamers”

Each of them had evolved into techniques of at least Level 5-grade quality!

Any single one of these jade slips could serve as a sect’s defining cultivation manual!

At this point, Arius truly understood—

If these techniques were ever leaked,
They would be worth cities, or even entire sects!

After upgrading the manuals,

Arius pulled out another book—

“The Insect Cultivation Classic.”

This was a real cultivation technique, unlike the deceptive texts from Evan Daguel.

It was a basic insect mastery method he had taken from the Zhao Clan Ancestor’s corpse.

Although its rank was low,

He still decided to upgrade it,

Since having more knowledge would only improve his mastery.

Unlike traditional cultivation methods,

Insect and beast taming required broad learning and adaptability—

Gathering techniques from all sources and integrating them into a unique system.

“A cultivator’s main technique should be specialized and focused.”
“But insect mastery? It must draw from many schools of thought to be perfected!”

A soft glow spread from the mirror—

Bathing the book in divine light.

Within moments,

The fragile pages disintegrated—

And a brilliant jade slip materialized in their place.

The ordinary book had become—

A refined, high-tier insect mastery jade slip.
Containing knowledge that surpassed its previous form.
Ready to be instantly absorbed by Arius’s spiritual sense.

Unlike books, which required manual reading,

Jade slips allowed cultivators to directly imprint knowledge into their minds—

Making learning incredibly fast and efficient.

However—

Jade slips had one limitation:

They could only be read by cultivators at Level 1 Realm or higher!

Mortals and low-level cultivators lacked spiritual sense and could not access the knowledge inside.

With all jade slips enhanced,

Arius began his training in earnest.

His goal was simple—

Use the Appraising Immortal Mirror.
Maximize efficiency with resources.
Raise combat-ready venomous insects as fast as possible.

Once he had Level 2 insects—

He would have no fear of rogue cultivators or bandits.

In Purple River City, cultivators with Level 2 strength were already considered top-tier experts.

Even if the Aragon Kingdom plunged further into chaos—Even if war between righteous and demonic forces escalated—

The De Molinos Clan would remain untouchable.

After all—

Level 5 cultivators wouldn’t bother attacking such a minor faction.
The real danger came from roving Level 2 and Level 3 cultivators.

Arius needed to be ready.

Because when order collapsed,

Rogue cultivators would flood the lands—
Pillaging, murdering, and looting freely.

Strength was the only way to survive.

Arius took a deep breath.

This was only the beginning.

Alchemy would make his family wealthy and influential.
Venomous insects would make them impossible to challenge.
The Appraising Immortal Mirror would ensure rapid growth.

But for now—

Step by step.

He closed his eyes, beginning his first true attempt at breeding the spirit insects.