Chapter 87: The Evolution of the Spirit Insect

After consuming all five fruits, the spirit insect underwent significant changes.

Its body shrank in size, becoming only as large as a human thumb, and its shape changed from oval to round.

The original dark green color gradually faded, transforming into a bright golden-blue hue.

Its back developed numerous red stripes.

Although it had shrunk considerably, it felt heavier than before.

Its speed had also increased significantly.

At this moment, Fang Yun stood at the volcano's edge, channeling his thoughts to the spirit insect.

The spirit insect transformed into a bright golden-blue light, darting through the rocks of the volcano, drilling one hole after another.

It occasionally flew with excitement, even passing through the rising magma.

It was like a sharp flying sword.

Seeing this scene, a faint smile appeared on Fang Yun's face as he realized he had inadvertently gained another means of combat.

With the spirit insect's flying speed and its demonstrated sharpness, its destructive power was even stronger than that of the vines.

After all, the vines were primarily control-type plants, not directly lethal plants.

However, with both the spirit insect and the vines, Fang Yun felt much more confident in his abilities.

After a while, he calmed his emotions.

Despite this unexpected joy, Fang Yun did not forget the purpose of his trip up the mountain today.

That was to check on the growth status of the new generation of metallic plants.

Several days had passed without his intervention or the infusion of vital energy, and the new generation of metallic plants had regained their original characteristics.

They were slowly absorbing the metallic energy left by the previous generation of metallic plants.

After several days, they had not even grown new roots.

Seeing this, Fang Yun realized that if he let the metallic plants grow at this pace, he would likely wait an eternity before they reached maturity.

It seemed he had no choice but to induce growth again.

However, instead of using vital energy for the induction, Fang Yun decided to try using the growth technique.

Both vital energy and the energy condensed by the growth technique could induce growth, but there were some differences between them.

This time, Fang Yun planned to see what kind of changes the growth technique would produce on the metallic plants.

With this in mind, he approached the area where the metallic plants were growing.

He performed a hand seal, recited the incantation silently, and let the spiritual energy in his body operate according to a certain pattern.

With the small mastery of the growth technique, Fang Yun could sense the strange fluctuations emitted by his spiritual energy.

This strange fluctuation radiated from his body, merging into the world around him.

In an instant, a green energy gathered at Fang Yun's hand seal.

He could clearly sense that this green energy contained not only ordinary wood attribute energy but also ordinary water attribute energy, along with some wood attribute spiritual energy.

This kind of perception was something Fang Yun could not achieve before he reached small mastery and gained that inexplicable insight.

Looking at the green energy in his hand and sensing the spiritual energy within, Fang Yun glanced at the sky around him.

Although this island currently had no spiritual energy, there was still a certain amount of natural spiritual energy permeating the air.

This explained why Fang Yun could still condense spiritual energy when casting planting-related spells on an island devoid of spiritual energy.

But which part of these planting-related spells contributed to the condensation of spiritual energy?

If he could thoroughly understand the composition of the spells and analyze the portion responsible for condensing spiritual energy, Fang Yun felt it would greatly benefit his future cultivation.

After all, as a cultivator, even with vital energy as a foundation, he still required a significant amount of spiritual energy.

Not to mention, the cultivation of spirit rice alone required the participation of spiritual energy.

Moreover, as his cultivation level increased, the number of spiritual plants he needed to cultivate would also grow, thus requiring more spiritual energy.

However, spiritual energy sources that emerged from the ground, such as spiritual springs or veins, were things that nearly all cultivators competed for.

As a cultivator focused on agriculture, Fang Yun, despite currently having a certain level of self-protection ability, instinctively wanted to avoid competing with too many people, as the risks were quite high.

Under the influence of such thoughts, Fang Yun certainly hoped to absorb enough spiritual energy from the air to ensure the complete continuation of his farming endeavors.

Various ideas flashed through Fang Yun's mind, but he temporarily set them aside.

Even if he wanted to study spells now, he did not have the capability for it.

It would be better to wait for future opportunities to come.

Then, Fang Yun directed the green energy in his hand onto the metallic plants.

Stimulated by the green energy, the metallic plants began to grow rapidly.

At the same time, Fang Yun could clearly sense, through his control over the metallic plants, that under the stimulation of the green energy, the metallic cells within the plants began to divide and grow.

However, unlike the stimulation from vital energy, after being stimulated by the green energy, the metallic plants not only divided and grew their cells but also began to crazily absorb the metallic energy left by the previous generation, as well as the surrounding fire attribute energy and earth attribute energy.

Seeing this, Fang Yun understood the differences between vital energy and the green energy condensed from the growth technique.

Vital energy is fundamentally closer to the essence of life.

During the induction process, it can provide plants with more primal energy, reducing their dependence on other forms of energy.

On the other hand, the green energy condensed from the growth technique only has the effect of stimulating plant growth.

However, the plant's dependence on external energy sources remains unchanged.

Based on his previous experience with the growth technique, it was as if the entire plant's growth time was compressed after applying the technique.

However, the need for energy remained essential.

From this perspective, the growth technique could not compare to vital energy.

But it also depended on the needs of the plants being cultivated.

For instance, with the current growth of the metallic plants, Fang Yun felt that the growth technique was obviously more suitable than vital energy.

With this in mind, Fang Yun continued to operate the growth technique, condensing the green energy, and directed it onto the metallic plants.

The green energy had another difference from vital energy: it was somewhat less durable.

This might also be related to the richness of the spiritual energy present in the area.

If the spiritual energy were denser, perhaps the condensed green energy would last longer.

Based on the consumption rate of his two points of spiritual energy, Fang Yun continuously cast the growth technique thirty times.

This caused him to not only run low on spiritual energy but also to develop a headache.

Clearly, during the spellcasting process, there was not just a consumption of spiritual energy, but also a drain on his mental power.

Previously, he had not experienced this continuous casting, so the phenomenon was not as evident.