Both of these unorthodox arts could serve as powerful aids, directly boosting his combat capabilities.
On this point, Qin Sang had gained considerable experience during his Foundation Establishment stage.
That he had walked this path so smoothly and possessed strength that consistently overwhelmed cultivators of the same realm was naturally due in part to his cultivation method, but even more inseparable from various external aids.
Apart from magic treasures, the greatest help had come from choosing the path of corpses as an auxiliary craft.
Boosting combat strength in the shortest time possible was one of the hallmarks of the Heavenly Corpse Sect's corpse refining art.
Unfortunately, Qin Sang possessed only the first half of the Heavenly Yin Corpse Art. It was not that he had never tried to search for the latter half; whenever he had spare time, he had inquired through many channels for news of the Heavenly Corpse Sect, but had never turned up anything.
Though the Flying Yaksha was formidable, it went no further than that.
Like any living corpse, its strength capped out the moment it was refined. In the early Core Formation stage, the Flying Yaksha was indeed a fine aid, but once his cultivation advanced further, it would become of little use.
Back when Qin Sang was turned into a refined corpse himself, he could find no way to improve; he had even less of a clue on how to advance the Flying Yaksha.
He wondered if the Heavenly Corpse Sect possessed other secret arts that could boost the Flying Yaksha's strength once more, just like refining a corpse core.
The corpse refining arts of other sects clearly did not follow the same path as the Heavenly Corpse Sect.
The only thing he could borrow from them was their methods for tempering a refined corpse's physical body, to see if the Flying Yaksha could break through the restrictions of the Heavenly Corpse Talisman.
Qin Sang had to plan ahead; he could not confine himself to a single path.
After thoroughly studying the Incomplete Records of Taixuan Formations and the Core Formation notes, Qin Sang could not help but close the scrolls and sigh softly. Secret arts like the Heavenly Yin Corpse Art, which could be mastered quickly without draining too much energy, were simply nowhere to be found.
Whether it was the path of spirit formations or the path of beast taming, both inevitably demanded vast amounts of effort and dedication.
Without sufficient attainment in the path of spirit formations, understanding the Incomplete Records of Taixuan Formations was impossible—unless Qin Sang found a spirit formation master for guidance and started learning from scratch.
However, Qin Sang did not abandon it entirely. He regularly contemplated the scroll, drawing parallels to benefit his understanding of restrictions to some degree.
The path of beast taming was not an easy road to travel either.
Although the notes of that Yuling Sect Core Formation cultivator were not obscure, even the cleverest housewife could not cook a meal without rice.
The path of beast taming was equally broad and profound.
Spirit beasts were categorized into birds, beasts, fish, and insects.
For beast tamers, some were like Snake Granny, who raised a single spirit beast exclusively, feeding it with essence blood and binding their lives together. Such a spirit beast's strength was not inferior to its master's, creating a two-against-one advantage when facing an enemy.
Others took the opposite approach to Snake Granny, overwhelming foes with sheer numbers.
There were also those who specialized in breeding venomous beasts, collecting all sorts of bizarre toxins, reaching the same goal through different means as demonic cultivators skilled in the path of poisons.
In that Core Formation cultivator's notes, it was also mentioned that the Yuling Sect possessed methods to set up formations using beasts, known as beast formations. The mightiest beast formations were no inferior to renowned spirit formations, but the various requirements were exceptionally harsh.
That Core Formation cultivator was also an eccentric talent. He held no interest in the methods listed above, favoring instead the insect-controlling arts within beast taming, and the notes he left behind were weighted toward insect control.
To make use of these notes, one could only walk the same path. No wonder old man Dique had gathered so many exotic and spirit insects back then.
The difficulty was obvious: one had to expend massive amounts of energy to find and nurture those exotic insects.
Thinking of this, Qin Sang felt deep regret.
Back in the ancient cultivator's abandoned abode, when he snatched food from the tiger's maw, he had only managed to grab Dique's mustard seed bag, failing to obtain the spirit beast bag. Otherwise, things would be far easier now.
Spirit insects were still relatively manageable; though rare, finding them was not too difficult for a cultivator at the Core Formation stage. However, their potential fell far short of exotic insects. Take the Qingfu insect, for example: even after exhausting effort to raise it to maturity, it could only serve auxiliary purposes.
In truth, within the cultivation world, there was no distinct separation between exotic insects and spirit insects; all were collectively referred to as spirit insects. "Exotic insects" was a classification established by the Yuling Sect itself.
They compiled a list of what they designated as exotic insects.
The criteria were, first, whether they possessed formidable and bizarre abilities, and second, their potential.
Exotic insects possessed greater potential.
Some exotic insects required multiple metamorphoses before reaching maturity, and a mature adult's strength could even rival a Nascent Soul cultivator, or even surpass them!
Yet they were not only exceedingly difficult to find—each exotic insect being something one could encounter only by chance—but nurturing them was also immensely difficult.
The conditions for metamorphosis, in particular, were all brutally harsh, comparable to a human cultivator breaking through a realm.
According to records in the Yuling Sect's classics,
after hatching and before reaching maturity, an exotic or spirit insect's first cocooning metamorphosis was analogous to a human cultivator establishing their foundation, the second was equivalent to Core Formation, and so forth.
Ordinary spirit insects could generally undergo only one metamorphosis, or two at most, before reaching maturity, whereas exotic insects possessed the potential for at least three metamorphoses.
Each metamorphosis grew exponentially more difficult than the last.
Especially after reaching maturity, once their potential was exhausted, unless they encountered a fortuitous opportunity, further metamorphosis was virtually impossible.
Yet possessing potential did not mean metamorphosis was guaranteed.
Back then, Dique had possessed the Fire Jade Centipedes for who knew how long, and they had long since grown to the limit before metamorphosis, yet they had remained unable to begin their first metamorphosis for years, leaving him able to use them only for treasure hunting.
Because even the Yuling Sect did not know how to help Fire Jade Centipedes undergo metamorphosis.
The Yuling Sect's understanding of exotic insects was actually limited, simply because few exotic insects remained in today's cultivation world, and very few cultivators had ever genuinely encountered them.
Drawing from ancient classics or the experiences of their predecessors, they had only recorded the auxiliary spirit herbs needed during metamorphosis for a mere handful of exotic insects.
And even then, it was mostly limited to the first two metamorphoses.
Just like Qin Sang's Blood-Winged Ghosthead Bees; not knowing how to help them, he could only leave them to fend for themselves.
If those two Fire Jade Centipedes had not been fortunate enough to encounter the fruit of the Red Gold Vine, which could assist spirit insects in breakthroughs, they might still be unable to undergo metamorphosis even now.
The Blood-Winged Ghosthead Bees were in an even worse state. Before they even reached the time for their first metamorphosis, their growth had stagnated, and feeding them Scarlet Fire Flowing Gold proved useless.
Qin Sang possessed only a single Red Gold Vine fruit and a limited amount of Scarlet Fire Flowing Gold; naturally, he would not squander them on these bees.
After weighing his options, Qin Sang remained undecided and could only take things one step at a time. If he was lucky enough to encounter an exotic insect worthy of rearing, it would not be too late to pursue the path of beast taming then.
Besides, he did not necessarily have to choose between only these two.
Shaohua Mountain ranked among the Eight Righteous Sects, with so many Nascent Soul and Core Formation seniors and teachers within the sect.
Once he achieved Core Formation, he could consult them or browse cultivation classics accessible only to Core Formation cultivators; perhaps he might find a secret art better suited to him.
Having thought through this, Qin Sang fretted no longer and shifted his attention to artifact crafting.
He had spent over twenty years studying artifact crafting. Though not deeply accomplished and incomparable to true crafting masters, his skills were still respectable, and he could not let this craft go to waste after Core Formation.
Qin Sang planned to craft all his future magic treasures himself.
Qin Sang thought to himself:
Once he formed his core, he might as well befriend a few Daoist friends from the Xuling Sect and seek their guidance. In any case, his artifact crafting skills came from Shopkeeper Wu, learned fair and square.
His sect certainly had treasured crafting classics as well; though perhaps not as profound as those of the Xuling Sect, they were still worth obtaining and studying.
Chapter 545