Translator: Cinder Translations
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Next, Song Wen began attempting to evolve a second Black Beetle.
Since the first Black Beetle was male, Song Wen found a female beetle among the Qi Refining fifth-level black-bellied beetles and fed it bone beetle crystals.
After consuming over seventy crystals, the female beetle also spun a cocoon.
Looking at the thirty-odd black-bellied beetles flying around in his cave, Song Wen felt troubled. With the Black Beetle now present, these black-bellied beetles no longer had much use.
Although they had contributed significantly in the past, maintaining them consumed a lot of spirit stones daily.
"After the rabbit dies, the dog is cooked; when the millstone is removed, the donkey is killed!"
Thus, Song Wen killed all the black-bellied beetles except for one male and one female Qi Refining fifth-level beetle, kept as a precaution.
The corpses of the black-bellied beetles were not wasted and were fed to the Black Beetle.
This left Song Wen with only the Black Beetle, two black-bellied beetles, two ordinary beetles, and one cocooned beetle.
Half a month later, the cocooned beetle emerged, and Song Wen obtained a female Black Beetle.
Another month passed, and the female Black Beetle began laying eggs, producing two insect eggs in total.
After being nurtured in the insect cauldron for a month, the eggs began to hatch. Two tiny larvae, covered in black spots, emerged.
Twenty days later, the larvae began to spin their cocoons.
Another half month later, they emerged from their cocoons, and two new Black Beetles were born.
The newly born Black Beetles, like those evolved from the black-bellied beetles, had the strength of Qi Refining eighth level.
Through this period of observing the Black Beetles, Song Wen concluded that only when Black Beetles first emerge from their cocoons do they have a large appetite, requiring a significant amount of spirit materials. After that, their appetite decreases, but each Black Beetle still needs spirit materials worth a few spirit stones daily and must consume one drop of blood daily.
Not everyone can afford to raise them.
Looking at the four Black Beetles before him, Song Wen was troubled.
He debated whether to continue raising more Black Beetles or focus on improving their strength. If their strength could quickly advance to Qi Refining ninth level, he would be essentially worry-free when facing Qi Refining cultivators.
After careful consideration, Song Wen decided to increase the number of Black Beetles to eight and then focus on improving their strength.
Maintaining eight Black Beetles required over a thousand spirit stones per month, equivalent to the value of nine bottles of blood. Song Wen could sustain them with the spirit stones he obtained from selling blood in the dissecting cave.
During the cultivation of the beetles, Song Wen did not neglect his own cultivation.
While practicing the Forbidden Divine Art, he discovered something unusual. In his recent visits to the ancient battlefield, he had absorbed the complete souls of four cultivators, and later, he purchased three more cultivator souls.
After absorbing these complete souls, his practice speed for the Forbidden Divine Art greatly increased. His mental strength was now approaching the level of Qi Refining ninth level.
This discovery excited Song Wen. To quickly raise his mental strength to Qi Refining ninth level, he purchased several more cultivator souls, adding to his already substantial expenses.
On this trip to the ancient battlefield, Song Wen found himself with a powerful body but without suitable combat techniques to match. Therefore, he chose a melee combat technique from the transmission hall, called "Ghostly Claw."
This technique, based on a strong physique and intense killing aura, used claw strikes and was perfectly suited for Song Wen's cultivation.
Practicing the Ghostly Claw required a spirit material called Gengjin Stone, which absorbed its golden essence and was used to temper the hands, making them incredibly sharp and indestructible.
Once the Ghostly Claw technique was cultivated to a certain level, it could produce claw attacks similar to sword Qi, with unparalleled sharpness.
This increased Song Wen's demand for spirit stones even more.
One day, as Song Wen entered the dissecting cave as usual, he found several disciples from the Law Enforcement Hall present, in addition to the usual staff.
One of them, dressed in distinctive attire, resembled a rare formation master within the sect.
The disciples from the Law Enforcement Hall were scattered throughout the dissecting cave, inspecting various areas as if searching for something.
Song Wen walked into Yuan Cheng's cave, collected the corpses, and casually asked, "Senior Brother Yuan, why has the Law Enforcement team come to the dissecting cave?"
Yuan Cheng glanced at the Law Enforcement members in the dissecting cave with a somber expression and said, "Recently, the quality of blood collected in the blood pool has declined. The refined blood produced is about half less than usual."
"The sect is worried that there might be a problem with the Blood Gathering Formation in the dissecting cave, causing a loss of blood energy, so they came to check it."
As the manager of the dissecting cave, Yuan Cheng would also be held responsible if there were problems, so he looked quite worried today.
Song Wen was momentarily at a loss for words. He hadn't considered that his recent frenzied absorption of blood energy might have affected the quality of the blood in the pool, drawing the sect's attention.
In recent days, in order to exchange for enough spirit stones to support his cultivation, he had not only been extracting blood from the corpses he dissected but had also been vigorously absorbing the blood energy dispersed in the air.
"Could it be that absorbing the blood energy from the air has accelerated the loss of blood energy in the blood pool, leading to the decline in blood quality?"
Song Wen pondered this thought.
But then he realized it didn't seem quite right.
He had been extracting blood from the dissected corpses for quite some time, and there had been no issues with the blood pool before. Why would the problem arise now?
Could it be that others were also extracting blood from the blood pool?
Song Wen looked around at the busy dissection workers.
Among these dissection workers, there were probably few good ones.
As for how they were extracting blood, who knows what opportunities or secrets they might have!
Song Wen silently considered whether he had left any clues when selling the blood recently.
After repeatedly confirming that every time he sold blood, he had done so under disguise and could not be recognized, Song Wen finally felt a bit more at ease.
However, he was still troubled by the fact that he had twenty bottles of blood, worth nearly 2,800 spirit stones, hidden in his cave.
Given the current situation, he certainly couldn't continue selling blood in bulk at the market.
If the Law Enforcement Hall couldn't find any issues in the dissecting cave, they might investigate the market.
"Do I have to sell one bottle of blood per day at the market? That's too much trouble. I'd better save up for now and wait until things calm down."
After inspecting the formation for half a day without finding any problems, the Law Enforcement team shifted their focus to the dissecting workers and Yuan Cheng.
With the Law Enforcement team monitoring, Song Wen didn't dare to extract blood in front of them. Although they were unlikely to discover anything, there was always a risk.
After finishing the dissection, Song Wen returned to his cave.
Unfortunately for Yuan Cheng, he was taken away by the Law Enforcement team.
The next day, a new manager named Feng Deng, a Qi Refining eighth-level male cultivator, was appointed to the dissecting cave.
As for Yuan Cheng, Song Wen never saw him again.
Yuan Cheng, a Qi Refining ninth-level cultivator, willingly worked as a manager in the dirty dissecting cave to earn spirit stones to buy Foundation Establishment Pills.
He handled the corpses daily, collecting bones and blood, with plenty of opportunities to benefit from it. After all, who would notice if a few bones or pieces of flesh were missing?
Bones and flesh could be sold for a good price, especially those from righteous path cultivators.
Righteous path cultivators prefer to consume demon beast meat to aid their cultivation, and so do demonic path cultivators, but they eat more than just demon beast meat.
(End of the Chapter)
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