When his success rate in refining Tier-One Fireball Symbols reached eighty percent, he ceased practicing symbol crafting and delved into the study of Runes.
Currently, his most proficient skill lay in Flame Runes.
He wasn't in a hurry, though. His Spirit Herb was not yet mature enough, allowing him to produce, at most, a Tier-One Intermediate-quality symbol paper.
Tier-One High-quality symbol papers would take a few more months, and as for the Tier-Two Seven Star Grass needed for Tier-Two Refinement, that would require several more years.
This scarcity of Tier-Two Talismans in the market was primarily due to insufficient raw materials.
He gradually noticed a problem. After reaching the Foundation Building stage, not only were Tier-Two Spiritual Herbs challenging to find for their Realm, but other Tier-Two Spiritual Objects were also elusive.
Materials for symbol crafting and refining tools, he had encountered several times, necessitating him to seek out materials to refine the desired Spiritual Weapon.
So far, his melee weapon was still absent, and he planned to create a Spiritual Weapon-grade Symbol Pen in the future, requiring him to gather materials himself.
He could plant the pen's handle material in his Space, and there were many spirit woods suitable for refining tools.
In the future, he needed to collect such materials, planting them in the Space to save the trouble of searching for materials.
It seemed that, for now, relying on Talismans to enhance his strength in a short time was not feasible.
The fundamental improvement in his cultivation level was essential, but the daily increase in Spiritual Power from his dantian's sea was fixed, with no shortcuts available.
Additionally, he only had Poisonous Bees and poison at his disposal.
After years of nurturing his Poisonous Bees, feeding them ample Spiritual Herbs, some had reached Tier-One Intermediate quality, but most remained at the lower tier, possessing only the strength of the first level of Qi Cultivation.
The few Poisonous Bees that reached Tier-One Intermediate quality only had the strength of the fourth level of Qi Cultivation.
Moreover, all the Poisonous Bees' strengths had ceased growing, as if they had encountered a bottleneck.
After all, it was rare for wild Spirit Bees to reach the first level of Qi Cultivation, and their aptitude was a limiting factor.
Spirit Bee battles relied on quantity, and his Space had its limits, providing a finite supply of nectar. This constrained the number of the bee colony.
Currently, the total number of Spirit Bees and Poisonous Bees in his Space was around a hundred thousand. This quantity ensured a balanced food supply and left a small surplus of Spirit Bee Royal Jelly and Spirit Bee Honey.
Exceeding this number would lead to a shortage of food. If Wang Hong didn't purchase additional Spirit Honey for feeding, many Spirit Bees would starve.
He now had two main goals: finding a way to help them break through the bottleneck, which required him to formulate Spiritual Herbs separately, consuming a lot of time and effort, and conducting numerous experiments.
His initial idea was to base it on the Pill Recipe of the Barrier Breaking Pill, adjusting it to suit Poisonous Bees.
The Barrier Breaking Pill was the most suitable pill for human Qi Cultivation cultivators to break through bottlenecks, and he had no shortage of the main ingredient, Scarlet Blood Ginseng, for refining it.
However, there were differences in the constitution between humans and Demonic Beasts, requiring further refinement.
But there was another limitation to the growth of Poisonous Beesthe normal Spirit Bee's lifespan was only a little over a hundred years.
While Demonic Beasts had relatively long lifespans, it was not infinite. Wang Hong hadn't heard of any species with inherently eternal life.
The lifespan of regular bees is only a few months, while Spirit Bees can survive for over a hundred years, a hundred times longer than regular bees.
The Bee Queen's lifespan is somewhat longer, reaching three to five hundred years.
Currently, time in Wang Hong's Space passes over a hundred times faster than the outside world. As long as he cannot elevate their strength to the Foundation Building stage, achieving an increase in lifespan.
In this way, Wang Hong had just boosted their strength a bit, and then their lifespan would deplete, leading to their demisea futile effort.
However, he had no choice but to do so. In case of an enemy encounter, he still relied on them for battle.
This was another issue Wang Hong hoped to resolve from a different perspective.
Enhancing their overall aptitude, allowing them to reach higher Realms within their lifetime, perhaps even reaching the Foundation Building stage. Of course, this was just a distant aspiration at the moment.
As for Spiritual Herbs that could enhance aptitude, they were considered treasures throughout the Cultivation World, and he didn't possess any. He hadn't even heard of such a treasure.
If such a treasure existed, it would undoubtedly be used to enhance his own aptitude first.
Although he couldn't directly enhance Poisonous Bees' aptitude, he thought of an indirect method.
If he raised the Bee Queen's tier, the aptitude of the offspring it produced should also improve.
In reality, at least among the human race, if the parents were high-tier cultivators, their offspring generally had better aptitude.
Wang Hong speculated that it should be similar for Demonic Beasts.
Moreover, the Bee Queen had a longer lifespan. With three to five hundred years, by heavily using Spiritual Herbs, there was a good chance of cultivating a Foundation Building stage Bee Queen.
Now, he decided to simultaneously enhance the overall strength of the bee colony and work on cultivating a Foundation Building stage Bee Queen using Spiritual Herbs.
His top priority now was to formulate a Spiritual Herb that could help Poisonous Bees break through the bottleneck.
Because the Bee Queen was also currently in a Bottleneck Realm, and it hadn't improved for a long time.
Time passed as Wang Hong practiced daily, took pills, studied Runes in his spare time, and researched Spiritual Herbs. Another year had gone by.
Just last month, he concocted a potion mixed into the poison honey. After some Poisonous Bees consumed it, their strength began to grow again.
Hard work paid off, and he finally successfully formulated a Spiritual Herb suitable for Poisonous Bees to break through. A new type of Spiritual Herb was now present in the world.
Wang Hong didn't know if the demonic races had a similar Spiritual Herb. If not, leaking information about his Spiritual Herb could bring trouble.
Having achieved several steps of success, he was in high spirits. On this day, he prepared a large table of delicacies to reward himself.
Sitting at the Stone Table, he poured himself a cup of fine wine.
Little Peng squatted on the other side of the Stone Table. It had grown much larger, now towering over Wang Hong by a head.
At this moment, it crouched low, pretending to have a shorter stature than Wang Hong, bowing its head to the side as if it had ears, trying to appear shorter than Wang Hong.
In front of it was an empty cup, and it occasionally stole glances at the wine jug in Wang Hong's hand.
Wang Hong, after downing a cup of fine wine, poured himself another full cup.
"You've grown so big, yet no matter how I educate you, it seems useless?"
Little Peng seemed to understand but kept peeking at the wine jug in Wang Hong's hand. A transparent droplet of saliva hung from its mouth, continuously extending.
"I often warn you not to drink if you can't handle it, and if the wine isn't good, drink less. But every time, you want to drink, and after just one cup, you're drunk. Fine, be drunk, stay quiet, or sleep it off. Every time, you have to go crazy with the wine. Last time, you got drunk and flew into the sky, dancing and twisting. The entire Kaiyang Peak's disciples saw it. It scared me into hiding in the courtyard, afraid people would find out it's my Spirit Beast. I can't afford that trouble!"
[Read at /shanefreak, and heartfelt thankyou for your support!]