Lin Mu and the rest had to travel for a few more kilometers beyond that place where they had burned the Bile Cask Beetles. On the way, they encountered more of the beasts, but they got rid of them the same way.
"There has certainly been some kind of a change. The Bile Cask beetles have all gathered in here. Usually there shouldn't be such high numbers of them." Hua Yi stated after Lin Mu burned down the fourth such group.
"Hmm… do you think that sentient spirit herb might have something to do with it?" Lin Mu questioned.
"That may be possible. Other than that, I don't know what else could cause something like this." Hua Yi replied. "Though… there is also a chance that it might be their breeding season?" he guessed.
"Their breeding season? Oh yeah, insect and other beasts do have that don't they?" Lin Mu realized.
"Indeed. But I don't know what that is for the Bile Cask Beetles." Hua Yi replied.
"Let me check if I have anything about them." Lin Mu said before taking out a few records and going through them.
He had already checked a few of them before coming here, thus knew which ones to skip and which ones he had already read.
"Should we take a break, then? It's already sun set and the beasts will start getting more active. It's best we form a camp." Hua Yi spoke.
"Yeah, we should do that." Lin Mu agreed.
"I'll set up a defensive circle while Senior can find the information about the bile Cask Beetles till then." Hua Yi offered.
"Sure." Lin Mu agreed. "And Little Shrubby can make some dinner for us." He added.
~Grrr~
Little Shrubby replied with a growl, agreeing to the work. It was something he did out of his own desire everyday thus he didn't mind it at all.
"I have some new beasts I caught, that I wanted to cook. I can use them now," Little Shrubby said and took out a few beast corpses from his own storage and prepared them.
Hua Yi went on to set up the defensive circle which was just a formation array that was per built using components. It was a common one that was used for camping by many cultivators and was available in many versions, depending on the level of defense one wanted.
The one that Hua Yi set up was enough to repel beasts up to the Nascent soul realm and defend up to Core condensation realm. After all, they didn't really have a need for a defensive array as much as they needed something that could hide them.
All three of them were strong enough to kill the Bile Cask beetles with ease, but what they didn't want was for them to overwhelm them with their bile. Thus, it was better for them to just hide in a formation array like this where they won't be detected by the insect beasts.
Hua Yi was done setting it up in just ten minutes and then watched Little Shrubby cook instead.
"No matter how many times I see this, it's still amazing." Hua Yi muttered to himself.
He could smell the pleasant aroma of the dish that Little Shrubby was cooking and felt tempted to taste it. Still, he was a cultivator and his will power was strong enough to resist it.
Though the average cultivator might not find that easy, since the ingredients being used for cooking were anything but average. There was Nascent soul realm beast meat, spirit herbs being used as spices, and several spirit fruits being used as side ingredients along with just some normal vegetables.
While Hua Yi was watching Little Shrubby cook, Lin Mu finally found the information he was looking for after about an hour's search.
"Here it is!" Lin Mu spoke, "The Bile Cask Beetles will have a breeding season once every three to five years depending on certain conditions such as the availability of food and wood attribute spirit Qi.
If there is surplus of them, the breeding season will arrive early and if there is a deficit, it will take longer."
Hua Yi who heard this, furrowed his brows and Lin Mu could tell that there was some problem now.
"What is it?" Lin Mu asked.
"This information is either incorrect, or there is certainly something influencing the beetles. As far as I know, the last breeding season for the Bile Cask Beetles was last year. I remember there being missions assigned to clear out their population that was spreading to our usual harvesting areas." Hua Yi replied.
"You're right. If it was just a year ago, it doesn't satisfy the minimum or the maximum condition. This is simply to early." Lin Mu agreed.
"Looks like we'll only know once we reach the depths." Hua Yi said, to which Lin Mu nodded.
With the cause still unknown, the trio ate their dinner, which Hua Yi enjoyed a lot and felt a slight improvement in his cultivation base as well. He couldn't help but wish he would get to eat food like this every day.
'This is no less than eating alchemical pills.' Hua Yi thought.
The three of them spent the rest of the time doing their own thing, and time quickly passed. When morning finally arrived, the forest went silent again, and the Trio were free to move.
"We should continue now." Lin Mu said and Hua Yi took down the formation array.
Their travel lasted for two more hours and they encountered one more cluster of Bile Cask Beetles before they finally reached the suspected location of the sentient spirit herb.
"Be alert from here, we don't know what kind of a spirit herb it is and if it is violent, it might hurt us." Lin Mu warned.
If a spirit herb could survive in an area filled with Bile Cask Beetles, there was bound to be something that allowed it to do that and its strength would not be low at all. If anything, the spirit herb might be quite strong.
