Meng Zhang, as the biggest winner in this incident, unfortunately couldn't publicize his achievements everywhere and could only keep them hidden.
Upon returning to Taiyi Sect, he called Deep EarthSpirit General over, as he was experienced and knowledgeable, to go through their gains together.
During their time in the secret treasure vault of the Li family, Meng Zhang had only made a preliminary count. Now, upon closer inspection, he found quite a number of valuable items.
All the books were sorted individually and after the disciples transcribed them, they were placed in the Hidden Scripture Pavilion.
Although the Li family's heritage spanned over three hundred years, their collection was not exhaustive, but it still had its unique aspects.
During the process of sorting the books, Deep EarthSpirit General occasionally made remarks, which greatly benefited Meng Zhang.
Meng Zhang selected some spiritual objects, pills, and talismans that he could use and carried them with him, while the ones he couldn't use immediately were placed in the sect's treasury, available for the disciples to exchange with their meritorious deeds.
He gave two thousand low-grade spiritual stones to Jue Ying and kept the remaining thousand to cover his expenses and more.
With the Fire Seal, Flying Sword Soft Around The Finger, and Soul-Stirring Bell, Meng Zhang didn't pay much attention to other magic tools. He simply placed all the magic tools they obtained this time into the sect's treasury.
While sorting the magic tools, Deep EarthSpirit General's discerning eye spotted a rare magic tool called the Insect Taming Jar.
This was a special magic tool that only certain sects proficient in the Insect Dao could refine.
The Insect Taming Jar could forcefully contain various demonic insects, allowing them to be strengthened within the jar and then thoroughly tamed.
Demonic insects usually had limited intelligence, making it almost impossible to command them to perform complex tasks.
However, once contained within the Insect Taming Jar, their intelligence and various other aspects would greatly improve.
Before, Meng Zhang had obtained a beast-controlling ring that enslaved demonic beasts. Compared to the Insect Taming Jar, the beast-controlling ring was evidently much lower in grade and far less effective.
Demonic insects controlled by the Insect Taming Jar would never harbor rebellious thoughts and would only wholeheartedly obey their master's commands.
Unfortunately, the Li family cultivators didn't recognize the value of the Insect Taming Jar. They obtained this rare magic tool but failed to recognize it, putting it among the miscellaneous items, which now became a bargain for Meng Zhang.
Cultivators who raised various demonic insects often relied on the sheer number of insects to gain an advantage.
According to what Meng Zhang knew, to the east of Green Bamboo Mountain, there was a cultivator famous for raising thousands of blood-sucking mosquitoes. When engaging in combat, a vast swarm of these mosquitoes would surge and completely engulf their enemies.
Of course, raising so many demonic insects required a considerable amount of resources, which Taiyi Sect currently lacked.
When Deep EarthSpirit General recognized the Insect Taming Jar, Meng Zhang immediately thought of how to use this magic tool.
Deep EarthSpirit General was secretly mining scarlet copper ore, but the efficiency was low, and it consumed too much of his time.
Sand worms were capable of burrowing and going underground, and they were accustomed to devouring various types of ore.
They were perfect miners.
After entering the mine, the sand worms would swallow large amounts of ore and then return to the surface. At this point, controlling the sand worms to spit out the ore would complete the mining process.
This mining method was not only stealthy and efficient, but it also didn't require employing regular miners.
In the past, Meng Zhang had considered taming sand worms for mining. However, he never had a reliable method to control them, especially since their intelligence was low. If he failed to control them properly and exposed the scarlet copper ore, it would be a loss rather than a gain.
Now, with the Insect Taming Jar, he could control the sand worms effectively.
Before using the Insect Taming Jar, there was a crucial step.
Each Insect Taming Jar had to undergo repeated refinement with Lunar True Water to fully unleash its power.
Low-quality Lunar True Water wasn't too precious, but magic tools and dual cultivation techniques that could refine Lunar True Water were relatively rare.
For a while, it was not easy to find Lunar True Water on the market.
Therefore, Meng Zhang had to work hard himself.
Every night, he diligently absorbed the essence of the moon to refine Lunar True Water.
The time spent refining Lunar True Water was significant and affected his cultivation progress.
In the Cultivation World, this was a challenge faced by many cultivators.
If one focused solely on cultivating their foundation and didn't bother with various spells, their cultivation progress would naturally be faster.
However, without spells and defensive techniques, their ability to deal with enemies would be limited.
The more spells one mastered, the more versatile their combat abilities would be, but dividing attention among spells would naturally hinder cultivation progress.
Balancing the relationship between the two and making choices tested the wisdom of every cultivator.
As for magic tools, not every cultivator could obtain enough of them, and the number of magic tools a cultivator could control was limited.
For instance, Meng Zhang, with a Sevenfold Refining Qi cultivation base, already struggled to control a First Rank High-Grade Flying Sword Soft Around The Finger, First Rank High-Grade Fire Seal, and First Rank High-Grade Soul-Stirring Bell. Trying to control other magic tools was genuinely beyond his capacity.
Apart from the Insect Taming Jar, there were also three Second Rank talismans in the Li family's treasure trove.
Second Rank talismans required at least a Second Rank talisman master to create and possessed the power to deal with Foundation Building cultivators. Ordinary Refining Qi cultivators couldn't fully utilize their potential.
One talisman was the Quicksand Giant talisman, which could summon a Second Rank Quicksand Giant.
Another was the Stone Golem talisman, which could summon a Second Rank Stone Golem.
The last one was a Second Rank Earth Escape talisman, which allowed the user to execute the Second Rank Earth Escape Spell.
These were precious life-saving items that Meng Zhang cautiously stored.
As for the guardian lion puppet that watched over the treasure vault, Meng Zhang also took it out.
Within the inheritance he obtained in the Trial Ground, there were some materials related to puppetry, and surprisingly, Deep EarthSpirit General also had some knowledge of puppetry.
Together, they spent a considerable amount of effort to dismantle the Second Rank puppet and modify its preset commands to be directly controlled by Meng Zhang.
Operating the Second Rank puppet required middle-grade spiritual stones, and the consumption was enormous.
One hundred low-grade spiritual stones were said to be exchangeable for one middle-grade spiritual stone on the market. However, in reality, because middle-grade spiritual stones were rarer and had more uses, when exchanging low-grade spiritual stones for middle-grade ones, there was usually an additional twenty percent cost.
This Second Rank puppet finally gave Taiyi Sect a Foundation Building-level combat power, but this stone-eating giant could not be used frequently and could only serve as a hidden trump card.
Meng Zhang had to exert significant effort just to collect enough middle-grade spiritual stones to operate the lion puppet.
Every ten nights, Meng Zhang could only refine a single drop of Lunar True Water.
After toiling for several months, he barely managed to collect enough Lunar True Water to begin the initial refinement of the Insect Taming Jar.
After the refinement process, the Insect Taming Jar could finally be used.
The only regret was that this Insect Taming Jar was only a First Rank magic tool, capable of containing only First Rank demonic insects.
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