This cultivator from the Spirit Controlling Sect was an insect fanatic whose knowledge about bugs extended to those from the times of antiquity. There is a high likelihood that he was the author of the jade slip that contained the ranked list of exotic insects. In the Donghua, The document detailing his insect cultivation experiences was titled "Strange Insects of the World".
He prioritized nurturing insects over refining a plethora of magic treasures and talismans which was evident from the abundance of the former and the lack of latter in his storage pouch that Han Li obtained. After his original body was destroyed, he possessed the soulless body of Crooked Soul until Han Li purged his soul and destroyed his core.
Personality[]
Cunning and shrewd, but not a smooth liar.
Biography[]
Background[]
This insect fanatic is a Devil Dao Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator from the State of Tiandou. As a Core Formation cultivator, his position at the Controlling Spirit Sect isn't low. Within the sect, he has a dainty, pretty Dao Companion and a few obedient disciples.
He enjoys studying about rare exotic insects and takes pleasure in collecting them. Unlike most cultivators, he prioritizes nurturing insects over refining a plethora of magic treasures and talismans. As a result, his knowledge about bugs extends beyond common cultivator knowledge. He has done quite a bit of research on exotic insects from the times of antiquity as well, which is widely speculated to have led him to eventually author a jade slip that contains the ranked list of exotic insects. In the Donghua, The document detailing his insect cultivation experiences is titled "Strange Insects of the World". It is not explicitly stated that he authored this list.
Possessing a new body[]
When he arrives at the State of Yue six years before meeting Han Li for the first time, he gets involved in a battle against one of this country's cultivator, who was likely a Core Formation Cultivator as well. This fight leads to his enemy delivering a mortal wound and ruining his mystic body, which necessitates him to leave his wounded body behind and flee. In an attempt to survive, he seeks for a suitable cultivator's body that he could possess and continue cultivating in. Not long after, within Jia Yuan city, he finds Crooked Soul, whos body had no soul, making it an ideal body to possess. After taking over the body, he cultivates secretly, not daring to go back to his sect, fearing that others would kill him as cultivators abided by the rule of the jungle. Strength was everything, and with his newly possessed body, his cultivation was forced down to qi condensation.
Meeting with Han Li[]
Six years later, when Han Li comes to the State of Yue, he realizes that Crooked Soul wasn't following the orders that he gave him. Curious, he investigates the situation and realizes that Crooked Soul had been possessed. When Han Li confronts him, the insect fanatic realizes that Han Li is a Seven Sects cultivator and thus, impersonates a Spirit Beast Mountain cultivator so that he does not put himself at a disadvantage due to the bad sect relations between the Controlling Spirit Sect and the Seven Sects. Eventually, this impersonation is not able to allievate the hostility between them and they fight untill Han Li restrains the possessed Crooked Soul and starts integorating him.
Apparently, Han Li was the first cultivator the insect fanatic had met after he possessed Crooked Soul. The fanatic dispises this city of Jia Yuan, calling it a backwater place where even birds don’t go to shit, lamenting that the only reason he was here was due to his poor cultivation base after possessing a new body. He reveals that he plans to return to his sect once his cultivation has been restored, which would take him approximately 40 years.
When asked why he tried to impersonate a Spirit Beast Mountain cultivator at the start, he says that Spirit Beast Mountain was actually one of the sects of the Controlling Spirit Sect. He goes on reveal that the Spirit Beast Mountain had never actually broken their secret relations with the Controlling Spirit Sect, and their recent rebellion was just a cover. This cover was prepared by the six Devil Dao sects in order to wait for the cultivators of the two allied countries and deal with the three countries’ cultivators in a single move. Presumably, after the battle is over, the Devil Dao seeks to reign over several countries. These slowly narrated words secretly leaves Han Li in shock.
The fanatic further reveals that the most powerful sect among the State of Yue, the Masked Moon Sect, had also originated from the Harmonious Bond Sect. However, the Masked Moon Sect ambitiously planned to become independant and had truly broken their ties with the Harmonious Bond Sect several hundred years ago. The words of the Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator continued to leave Han Li in shock.
Han Li tries to coerce him into giving him eividence of this plot. So, the fanatic divulges that he possess a few secret letters between Spirit Beast Mountain and his Controlling Spirit Sect. In fact, he was in charge of relaying information in the State of Yue several years ago. The jade slip letters are in his storage pouch that he had placed at a nearby cave. However, he tries to hide the reason as to why he left it there, saying that the reason as to why he didn't carry his storage pouch with him was because Crooked Soul is a reanimated corpse. Although Crooked Soul's senses far exceeds ordinary men, it had lost a majority of it. Therefore, he lies by saying that he fears that during an unknown moment of carelessness, he would lose his storage pouch. Although Han Li senses that something is amiss, given that it was difficult for Crooked Soul to give that explanation, he lets it slide.
The insect fanatic offers to bring Han Li to the cave. However, Han Li decides to go by himself. Before he goes, he questions the fanatic how he had entered that corpse. Even though the body would be easier to possess as it doesn’t contain a soul, it still wasn't a cultivator’s body. The fanatic replies by saying that he truly doesn't know why. During that time, he had dragged his heavily injured body to Jia Yuan City and was on the verge of death. He could only desperately eject his soul and search in every direction for a cultivator to possess. However, he was unable to find a cultivator anywhere nearby. Just when he was about to give up hope, he found this soulless corpse. In a moment of desperation, he attempted to enter its body. Against all his expectations, he was truly amazed that he had succeeded.
When Han Li reaches the fanatic's cave, he discovers a huge mantis, which turns out to be a grade five Golden-Back Demon Mantis, a demonic beast from legend, a monster nearly capable of contending with Core Formation cultivators. Even when he tried to restrain the mantis with one of his most powerful talismans, the mantis could still move. Because of this encounter, Han Li loses many magic treasures as they are easily destroyed by the Mantis. This is when Han Li realizes that the insect fanatic had sent him to a trap.
After returning back, Han Li confronts the insect fanatic who escapes his restraints and fights Han Li till Han Li eventually destroys the core of the Core Formation stage cultivator, leading to the fanatic's demise.
Legacy After Death[]
Later, Han Li revisits the cave again and kills the Mantis. He obtains several chicken egg sized eggs from the Mantis. However, these eggs didn’t contain the slightest aura of life and were clearly lifeless. This was quite common with regards to demon beasts. After all, how could an extraordinary demon beast leave behind offspring so easily.
Inside the cave, Han Li finds a shriveled, gray-robed corpse. The corpse had an intact storage pouch at its waist. The huge storage pouch was actually filled with jars and pots. A majority of them were demon beast feed for insects. The rest was just a bit better, containing all sorts of named insect specimens. There was also a green jade slip that greatly roused Han Li’s interest. The slip contained that Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator’s experiences on breeding insects. Not only did it introduce over a thousand unknown insects to Han Li, but it also mentioned the secret techniques that were used to breed and control them. But what caught Han Li’s interest the most was his ranking of which insects were the most ferocious. The huge mantis was obviously on the list. Although it was gray, he had called it the “Golden-back Demon Mantis”. This caused Han Li to be utterly confused for a moment. Later he realizes that it was gray because the mantis had not matured yet.
This huge mantis was only ranked seventy-three in his list of strange insects. There were still over seventy-two even more fearsome insects on that list. Han Li, who had personally witnessed the strength of the “Golden-back Demon Mantis”, was stunned. Han Li eagerly looked through the list for most of the day before finally withdrawing his spiritual sense from the jade slip. After a moment of contemplation, he started to match the insects in his possession with the description of the fantastical insects he had read about. Without considering any other uses the insects may have, their rankings were far too low. Only two of them were ranked above a hundred and the vast majority of them were ranked among two and three hundred.
Had that Controlling Spirit Sect cultivator heard Han Li’s complaints, he definitely would’ve cursed him out, for indeed, how could these strange insects be so easily acquired? Not to mention the top hundred rankings, even insects ranked in the top three to four hundred were rare breeds that were acquired over several hundred years of effort and violent struggle.
- ↑ Chapter 374 (Novel)