You Cultivate, I Farm

Chapter 263: Lustrous Sand

After recognizing the unfamiliar face of Lu Xuan, more than ten white jade spiders became restless again, continuing their skirmish.

"These naughty little spiders."

Lu Xuan sighed. The bug whistle could only control these white jade spiders for a short time. Without Zhong Jingshan's presence, the spiders became too active.

Spiritual energy surged within him as faint spiritual light fell upon the white jade spiders in the bug room.

Derived from the pure and exquisite spirit tea, the Purification Mantra could dispel distractions and desires, rendering one tranquil and desireless.

As the spiritual light descended, all the white jade spiders engaged in the ongoing skirmish suddenly stopped, quietly staying in place with a faint white glow emanating from their bodies, presenting a sacred and serene appearance.

"It would have been better if they had behaved like this earlier!"

"We're all family; it's better to love and get along. Why resort to fighting and disrupting harmony?"

Lu Xuan's face bore a gentle smile as he squinted and spoke.

He retrieved some exotic insects from his storage pouch and threw them into the bug room to feed the enormous spiders resembling white jade.

Concentrating his mind, information about the white jade spiders emerged in his mind.

【Condensing Jade Spiders, third-grade demonic insects. They possess extremely fast speed, with legs like blades, bodies as hard as iron, and the silk they spit out, known as white jade spider silk, is both strong and resilient, making it a primary material for crafting many protective talismans.】

【After spinning silk, Condensing Jade Spiders will enter a period of frenzy, becoming highly aggressive and often engaging in disputes with their kind.】

"So, it's the aftermath of spinning silk."

Lu Xuan muttered to himself, continuing to nurture the dozen or so Condensing Jade Spiders.

These spiders were originally communal demonic insects, so Zhong Jingshan didn't prevent them from fighting each other, instead providing a separate bug room for each Condensing Jade Spider.

Most of the time, they remained peaceful, but during a certain period after spinning silk, they became frenzied and violent, exhibiting high levels of aggression.

Once a Condensing Jade Spider entered this frenzied state and actively attacked its kin, it could easily provoke a counterattack, resulting in a large-scale melee.

Taking advantage of their feeding time, Lu Xuan cast one Purification Mantra after another onto the white jade bodies. Only when he felt all the Condensing Jade Spiders were calm and peaceful did he move on to other bug rooms.

In the third bug room, there were no traces of exotic insects on the spacious ground, only several small mounds formed by black and red fine sand.

Lu Xuan's spiritual sense penetrated inside, only to discover another world within these mounds.

Countless ravines crisscrossed, resembling a vast web woven together, forming an extremely complex underground labyrinth.

There were faint black scorched marks on the surface of the labyrinth passages.

As the bug whistle sounded, slight movements emanated from the deepest part of the underground labyrinth.

Soon, countless fist-sized dark red ants emerged from different tunnels, gathering together and piling up.

Before long, they formed a strange being two zhang tall, continuously emitting black and red flames on its surface.

These dark red ants were called Yin Fire Ants, second-grade demonic insects with some flying ability. They could spew a toxic flame that, when it landed on an enemy, was like a festering sore, lingering for a long time.

Dealing with a single Yin Fire Ant was manageable, but when hundreds or thousands gathered, it became challenging.

Zhong Jingshan raised such a colony of Yin Fire Ants to practice a technique called the Insect Armor Technique, which could control Yin Fire Ants to transform into various forms, especially forming a special armor with strong defense, continuously replenished by Yin Fire Ants.

The simple method of practicing the Insect Armor Technique was recorded on the talisman he handed to Lu Xuan.

Looking at the multitude of Yin Fire Ants piling up higher and higher in the bug room, Lu Xuan's playful spirit surged.

Following the instructions on the talisman, he circulated his spiritual power and cast a spell.

The strange entity formed by the Yin Fire Ants immediately underwent changes, taking on the appearance of a human body, hands folded in front of the abdomen, shoulders trembling, and the upper body moving accordingly.

This form only lasted for about two and a half breaths, with the entire body collapsing continuously before finally crashing down.

"Collapsed, collapsed."

After all, it was only a crude application of techniques to manipulate demonic insects, and since Lu Xuan was using them for the first time, even maintaining a humanoid form couldn't be sustained for long.

The numerous Yin Fire Ants that fell to the ground were unaffected, crawling around the bug room.

Lu Xuan tossed a large piece of dark red spirit ore into the center, and immediately, all the Yin Fire Ants gathered around. With slender flame knives, they cut the dark red spirit ore into countless small pieces and dragged them into the underground labyrinth.

This spirit ore was left by Zhong Jingshan for Lu Xuan to use in nurturing the Yin Fire Ant colony.

Sensing with his spiritual awareness, Lu Xuan watched as the Yin Fire Ants collected all the fractured ore in the depths of the labyrinth, then divided it up according to their strength and rank.

After feeding the Yin Fire Ants, Lu Xuan moved on to the next bug room.

In this room, seven or eight peculiar insects were kept. They resembled the ladybugs from his past life, with pale backs adorned with seven deep white markings arranged in the pattern of the Big Dipper.

These insects were called Seven Star Lustrous Beetles, third-grade creatures. After absorbing sufficient spiritual energy, they could produce a peculiar substance called Lustrous Sand.

This Lustrous Sand could be used to refine several rare elixirs, making it quite valuable.

"Well, in simpler terms, it's the excrement of these Seven Star Lustrous Beetles."

Lu Xuan watched as one of the markings on the back of a Seven Star Lustrous Beetle became exceptionally bright, and then its tail slowly extruded something resembling a lustrous pearl.

Crystal clear and emitting a faint white vapor, it possessed both heat and spiritual light.

Besides nurturing these Seven Star Lustrous Beetles, Lu Xuan also needed to collect this Lustrous Sand and store it in special containers to prevent the loss of its medicinal properties.

He entered the bug room, using the bug whistle to keep the Seven Star Lustrous Beetles away from him, and carefully picked up each piece of Lustrous Sand inside.

"Surprisingly, it gives off a faint fragrance."

Lu Xuan's nostrils twitched slightly, filled with emotion.

"Never thought that after entering the Heavenly Sword Sect, I would one day come out to pick up... No, pick up Lustrous Sand..."

Lu Xuan searched every corner of the bug room, placing all the Lustrous Sand into a sandalwood box.

After placing them all inside, he carefully sealed the sandalwood box with talismans.

Although Lustrous Sand was a third-grade rare treasure and Lu Xuan was the only one in the bug valley, with treasure in front of him, he had no desire to covet it.

Though he might occasionally take advantage of something, such as drawing blood from the dragon in Thousand Dragon Lake for examination, he had always conducted himself with integrity, never engaging in theft of others' treasures.

Moreover, Zhong Jingshan was a direct disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect, and it was difficult to ensure that the fluctuations in production of the Seven Star Lustrous Beetles in the bug room wouldn't alert him if Lu Xuan took a few grains of Lustrous Sand without his knowledge.

In a sense, all the peculiar insects in the bug valley were his eyes and ears.

Lu Xuan didn't need to take such a huge risk of offending a true disciple just to gain a little benefit.

With that effort, he might as well grow one or two more spiritual plants, whose rewards when cultivated were probably even greater than those of the Lustrous Sand.

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