Although the "Gold Devouring Beetles" ranked among the very top of the Strange Insect Register, according to what that Spirit Commanding Sect cultivator's jade slip described, the abilities of any individual beetle were extremely limited. They relied entirely on overwhelming numbers to achieve their fearsome reputation.
If one had only a dozen or a few dozen of them, even after they reached maturity, they would not be particularly useful.
Only when their numbers reached into the hundreds of thousands or even millions could they truly live up to their ranking on the Strange Insect Register.
The mere thought of countless insects blanketing the sky, swarming forward to attack with no end in sight — killing wave after wave and still more pressing in — sent a chill down Han Li's own spine.
So what he needed to do now was accelerate the maturation of these Gold Devouring Beetles as quickly as possible, then have them breed and produce offspring. Only in this way would their numbers snowball upward at a rapid pace.
But while that was easy to say, it was exceedingly difficult to accomplish!
The Gold Devouring Beetles were an ancient species of strange insect that had long since gone extinct in the Tian Nan cultivation world. The specific methods for raising and nurturing them had similarly been lost for untold generations.
That Spirit Commanding Sect cultivator's insect-rearing jade slip had only compiled some of the beetles' behavioral traits based on a handful of ancient texts — it contained no detailed methods for taming or training them whatsoever.
This had frustrated Han Li for quite some time.
In truth, not only were the Gold Devouring Beetles ranked twelfth — nearly every insect among the top thirty on the list was a monstrous insect species that had long since gone extinct in the Cultivating Immortality world.
That Spirit Commanding Sect cultivator had been an obsessive insect enthusiast. After collecting and analyzing all manner of ancient texts from across the land, he had ranked these primordial insects on the Strange Insect Ranking.
Whether the upper tiers of that ranking could actually be trusted was something only the heavens knew!
That Han Li had managed to obtain these Gold Devouring Beetles — which should have been extinct — was itself nothing short of coincidence.
For these beetles, still in their larval stage, had for some unknown reason been locked in a dormant slumber deep beneath the earth of Xiaohuan Island since the primordial era.
Under normal circumstances, not even mountains collapsing or the seas overturning would have been enough to wake these strange insects.
But Han Li, inside his cave dwelling on Xiaohuan Island, had gathered a great many other strange insects together to raise and feed. Over time, the scent of those insects gradually seeped down underground, miraculously rousing the Gold Devouring Beetles from their slumber en masse, driven by their feeding instincts.
They should have launched their feeding assault long ago, but among Han Li's collection of strange insects were the Blood Jade Spiders — their natural bane. Out of an innate fear of them, the beetles dared not approach too closely to Han Li's cave dwelling.
And so they lay in wait beneath the earth of Xiaohuan Island, never showing themselves above ground, while keeping a fixed, unblinking watch on Han Li's dwelling.
Then came the occasion when Han Li went out shopping and took the Blood Jade Spiders along with him — and that was the opportunity the Gold Devouring Beetles had been waiting for.
Just as Han Li had seen, these Gold Devouring Beetles had devoured all the strange insects he had been raising and had settled in his cave dwelling's herb garden as their base.
As a result, Han Li, who had sneaked back, caught them all in one sweep.
Now, since Han Li no longer possessed his previous insect-rearing techniques, he had to figure things out on his own, step by step.
First, Han Li tried tossing various types of insect feed into the insect chamber. Regardless of the type, every bit of it was instantly consumed by the several hundred Gold Devouring Beetles—they were not picky eaters at all, which greatly delighted Han Li.
However, Han Li's joy only lasted a few months before he discovered that no matter how much feed these Gold Devouring Beetles ate, there was not the slightest sign of growth or change.
This frustrated Han Li, so he had to find another way.
These insects loved metals and spiritual energy. Han Li separately tried feeding them some raw ores of the five metals and some low-grade spirit stones.
After consuming them, the insects showed no unusual changes once again, marking another failure.
Utterly exasperated, Han Li simply threw the dozen or so dead "Golden-Backed Mantis" eggs he had kept all this time into the insect chamber.
After being devoured by the Gold Devouring Beetles, a change finally appeared in the spiritual energy emanating from the insects, and they seemed even more ferocious than before they had eaten.
This both delighted Han Li and left him worried.
Could these Gold Devouring Beetles only mature by devouring other unusual insects? This was going to be difficult!
Aside from the two "Blood Jade Spiders," he had no other strange insects on hand.
Left with no other choice, Han Li went out and bought some animal flesh and blood, throwing it into the insect chamber.
But aside from making the Gold Devouring Beetles even more ferocious and irritable, it had no effect on promoting their advancement or maturity.
With no alternatives left, Han Li finally finished nurturing enough spirit herbs and began refining that "Spirit-Feeding Pill."
In the past, he had been too busy refining pills for his own Cultivating Immortality to ever get around to making this particular one. Now was the perfect time to try.
Within a few days, the first batch of Spirit-Feeding Pills was successfully refined.
Han Li immediately had the "Gold Devouring Beetles" and the two "Blood Jade Spiders" consume a portion.