Chapter 66: Seeking the Birthplace of the Spiritual Insect

Even though Fang Yun was eager to leave Ling Shui Island, Fang Kangseng had not yet broken through in his cultivation, so there was nothing he could do.

He couldn't just abandon the Fang family and leave Ling Shui Island on his own.

This was also a good opportunity for him to calm down and not to assume that having a vine transformed into a long whip meant he could disregard external dangers.

Recalling the dangers he had learned about in the world of cultivation, along with numerous examples from the Fang family, Fang Yun felt it was wise to remain cautious.

He certainly didn't want to follow in the footsteps of the previous generation of cultivators from the Fang family.

However, since he now had a certain degree of self-protection capability with the vine, he felt less anxious.

In the remaining time, he could continue planting spiritual rice to stockpile life essence as much as possible.

This life essence could be used to restore magical power and practice the Golden Qi technique.

In such a short time, even if he continued practicing the Golden Qi technique, it would be difficult to develop greater combat power; it would be better to amass enough life essence for when he left the island.

However, before continuing to plant the spiritual rice, Fang Yun had one more task to complete.

That was to look for the spiritual insect he had previously released.

Fang Yun had freed the spiritual insect to find its birthplace and see if there were new areas producing spiritual qi.

However, he had been busy cultivating the vine during this time and hadn't had the chance to check the place where the insect was born.

Now that he finally had the time, Fang Yun wanted to see if there were other locations on the island that produced spiritual qi.

So, after instructing Fang Kangseng to focus on his cultivation, he followed the sensing of the spiritual insect, bringing along the newly acquired vine.

He headed towards the northern mountain range.

With Fang Yun's strength and the lightness technique he had learned earlier, the various cliffs and dense forests in the northern mountain range could not impede his steps.

In just a few days, he reached the center of the mountain range, at a point further north.

This place was also a canyon, but it appeared much deeper and quieter compared to the canyon where Fang Yun had planted his crops.

Looking down from above the canyon, he casually tossed a stone, and it took a long time before he heard the echo.

It was clear that this canyon was at least several hundred meters deep.

Fang Yun sensed that the spiritual insect was located deep within the canyon.

After observing for a while, Fang Yun thought that with his current realm and the newly acquired vine in hand, he should be able to handle any dangers that arose.

With a thought, the vine that had been coiling around Fang Yun swiftly began to climb down into the canyon.

Fang Yun activated his lightness technique and leaped down after the vine.

As he descended deeper, the sky receded further away, and the canyon became increasingly dark and damp.

After quite a while, Fang Yun finally reached the bottom of the canyon.

The area at the base of the canyon wasn't very large, roughly the size of an acre.

Surrounding it were cliff walls riddled with caves, appearing particularly eerie in the dim environment.

Fang Yun took a deep breath, as the more than 80-meter-long vine coiled around him, preventing any unexpected incidents.

He then made his way into a passage where he sensed the spiritual insect.

In this passage, which was taller than a person, he traveled for a long time, and his sense of the spiritual insect grew clearer.

At that moment, Fang Yun felt a movement in his heart as the spiritual insect flew towards him from the end of the passage.

Before long, he saw the insect emitting a silvery glow, rapidly approaching him.

The spiritual insect quickly reached his side, skillfully landing on his shoulder and emitting a friendly aura.

Seeing this, Fang Yun smiled, feeling the tension caused by the environment ease considerably.

Then, he instructed the spiritual insect to guide him forward, continuing toward the place where the insect had been born.

It didn't take long before the spiritual insect in front of him finally stopped.

Fang Yun immediately realized they must have arrived at their destination.

He quickly walked a few steps and exited the passage.

He entered a cave that was several hundred meters in size.

This cave was located deep underground, at an unknown depth, illuminated only by the faint glow of the spiritual insect.

However, with his cultivation at the third layer of Qi training, Fang Yun could see everything around him clearly.

The cave was only a few hundred square meters, with a height of only several dozen meters.

Above him were several relatively ordinary stalactites, slowly dripping water.

The ground was covered with some dirt and a large area of exposed rock.

The only oddity was that a few shrub-like plants were growing on the dirt.

There was no sunlight here, the soil was scarce, and there wasn't much moisture, so it was quite surprising that such plants could grow.

Fang Yun, instinctively drawn to plants, felt that these shrubs might not be so simple and could be closely related to the birth of the spiritual insect.

So, he approached and squatted down in front of the shrubs.

The spiritual insect also landed on the shrubs in the air.

Using the faint glow, Fang Yun examined the plants in front of him.

The plants were not tall, only about a meter high.

They had dozens of branches but no leaves.

The branches appeared somewhat rigid, with long thorns at the tips. Fang Yun wondered what they were defending against in such an environment.

He gently touched one of the branches, and the moment he made contact, he was taken aback.

It felt as if he was touching a metallic object rather than a plant.

Fang Yun frowned, pondering whether these plant-like things were actually not plants at all, but some sort of artificial imitation.

Could they be relics left behind by some predecessors?

Thinking of this, his heart jolted with excitement.

After all, having read so many cultivation novels, he certainly hoped for some kind of adventure.

The scene before him particularly fit the scenario of such encounters.

However, after observing for a while, Fang Yun eventually calmed down.

Despite the metallic texture of the plants, there were no signs of artificiality; they seemed more like plants with a metallic quality.

Although Fang Yun had never seen such plants before, he realized that in the mysterious world of cultivation, creating something like this wasn't impossible.

However, all of this was merely his speculation.

To confirm whether they were indeed plants, Fang Yun had a simpler test method.

So, he channeled the life essence within him through the point of contact on the plant.