The secret chambers for nurturing the strange insects were a series of stone rooms of varying sizes that Han Li had carved out of a green stone wall.
To prevent the insects from escaping these chambers, Han Li had also set up small restrictions between each room, ensuring they could not break through the walls.
In Han Li's estimation, no matter how highly ranked these strange insects might be, most of them were still young, so even ordinary restrictions should be more than enough to keep them contained.
But the chambers before him not only had all their restrictions completely wiped away, but every stone door was riddled with holes like a honeycomb, seventy or eighty percent destroyed.
A chill ran through Han Li's heart. With a thought, Qu Hun stepped forward in a single stride and pushed open the nearest stone door.
Inside, it was completely empty — nothing at all.
Han Li exhaled softly. Even though he had already steeled himself, he still felt deeply frustrated.
He scanned the interior of the chamber, then turned his head slightly and brought his gaze back to the stone door.
Without a word, he walked over and crouched down before the damaged door.
The pattern of destruction on the stone door was very peculiar — its surface was covered in dense, uniformly sized small holes.
What baffled Han Li was that the insides of these holes were not smooth at all but extremely rough, hardly the work of a magical artifact or anything of the sort.
Han Li furrowed his brow and slowly rose to his feet.
He gently closed his eyes and sent his spiritual sense sweeping through the rest of the chambers.
They were all just as empty. Even the two chambers housing insects ranked within the top one hundred of the Strange Insect Register were in the same state, which made Han Li's heart ache.
Suddenly, his expression shifted, and he opened his eyes.
A cold glint flashed through them as he left the room and headed for another chamber.
It was another empty room, but the moment Han Li stepped inside, he bent down without hesitation and picked something up off the green stone floor.
He placed the object in his palm and held it up before his eyes for a closer look.
It was a piece of insect shell no larger than a bean, gleaming with a silver radiance as though forged from pure silver — strikingly beautiful.
Han Li touched the shell with one finger and found its surface impossibly smooth, as well as remarkably hard.
He lowered his head in thought for a moment and concluded that this was definitely not the shell of any insect he had raised.
At that, Han Li's expression turned grave, and he narrowed his eyes.
Using these chambers as the center, he began searching his cave dwelling inch by inch with his spiritual sense.
He refused to believe he wouldn't find a single clue.
Moments later, Han Li made an unexpected discovery in the herb garden.
Hanging from one of the sturdier trees was a brilliantly gleaming silver sphere — something that did not belong to the cave dwelling.
Han Li called out to Qu Hun and, with a grim expression, left the chamber and headed for the herb garden.
The silver sphere was not large — about the size of a child's head. But its eerie, flickering silver glow was far too conspicuous.
Han Li stood at the entrance of the herb garden, gazing at the silver sphere in silent contemplation.
He felt as though he had heard of this silvery orb somewhere before, but for the moment he could not recall where.
Still, this object surely had to be connected to that silver insect shell!
"Insect shell!"
A flash of inspiration struck Han Li's mind, and he seemed to remember something.
He hurriedly reached into his storage pouch, and a green jade slip appeared in his hand — the very one containing the insights on insect cultivation from a cultivator of the Spirit Command Sect.
Dropping his consciousness into it, Han Li quickly found the relevant entry at the twelfth position of the Strange Insect Register.
"Devouring Gold Insects — a swarm of ferocious insects, ranked twelfth on the Strange Insect Register. They love to devour other strange insects and are adept at consuming all five metals and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Utterly vicious, impervious to water and fire, they prefer to gather in spherical clusters and nest beneath spiritual trees. They can be trapped with jade or wood materials. They are natural enemies of spider-type strange insects..."
After reading through the description several times, Han Li felt both alarmed and elated. He couldn't help but raise his head and gaze at the silver sphere once more.
Even though all his carefully cultivated strange insects were gone, if he could exchange them for this species — ranked even higher than the "Golden-Backed Blade Mantis" — he would agree to it in a heartbeat.