On the way back, Meng Zhou was still thinking about this discovery.

The phenomenon of golden beetle swarms and similar phenomena has not been seriously explored in the spiritual world. At least, in the information that Meng Zhou came into contact with, this phenomenon was basically turned a blind eye.

Meng Zhou feels that this is very important, and may even be one of the most fundamental cornerstones of the world.

For a long time, practitioners' judgment of spiritual wisdom has been limited to a specific life form, and through comparison, it has been found that, except for human practitioners, other life forms are basically stupid.

Even though the monsters will continue to sublimate as they break through the shackles of their bloodline again and again, and their spiritual intelligence will become higher and higher, but compared to human practitioners, this improvement is not worth mentioning.

But through the transformation of the golden beetle swarm from the second level to the third level, Meng Zhou basically confirmed a conjecture in his mind.

That is to say, there is another form of spiritual intelligence in the world, which is not limited to the brain of an individual life.

As small as a swarm of golden beetles, it can even be extended to all insect swarms, and as specific as a spiritual insect, they may be non-intelligent and purely combat killing weapons.

But when a large number of non-intelligent individuals gather into a group, there is something called "collective intelligence" covering them and governing them.

Moreover, this "collective intelligence" will continue to improve with the increase in the number of individual spirit insects and the sublimation of life levels.

The "ecosystem" expanded from this to cover all the monsters in Tianqi Mountain, but at its core, it is similar.

Meng Zhou also had some conjectures about the phenomenon that a large number of third-order monsters were "drowned" in the poisonous miasma jungle, but did not cause the "ecosystem" to become abnormally alert.

If you really want to explain it carefully, it may be very complicated and not necessarily accurate, but Meng Zhou felt that a sentence from his previous life was very suitable to explain this phenomenon, "The vassals of my vassals are not my vassals."

Although there is a huge difference in rank, in essence, "ecosystem" and "insect intelligence" are both a kind of "collective intelligence".

As the saying goes, "the county officials are not as good as the current ones", the influence and interference of the "ecosystem" on the insect swarm is much weaker than that of the monster beasts because it is separated by one layer.

They will also behave more slowly when facing events related to the insect swarm.

"If you have a chance, you can try it."

Meng Zhou thought in his mind that he could try to use the golden beetle swarm to hunt those third-level monsters.

If the "ecosystem" covering the entire Tianqi Mountains behaves more slowly as a result, it basically means that my guess is correct.

"Now, because the 'collective intelligence' of the swarm of golden beetles is further manifested, I no longer need to perform detailed operations on each golden beetle.

I only need to pass my needs to the "collective intelligence", and the insect swarm will automatically carry out scheduling operations accurate to the individual according to the instructions I give.

If you think about it carefully, this is actually very similar to the beast tide mode."

"Is it possible to form a contract with the 'ecosystem' covering the entire Tianqi Mountain through the method of a spiritual master, just like the 'collective intelligence' that controls the swarm of golden beetles?

And by controlling him, we can control all the monsters in the entire Tianqi Mountain?"

"If this is really possible, then I can interfere with more than just Tianqi Mountain?"

"Is that the true King of Beasts?"

Meng Zhou's thoughts spread, jumping from the swarm of golden beetles to the entire Tianqi Mountain, and then from Tianqi Mountain to the broader reality.

After a long time, Meng Zhou finally stopped his thoughts that were about to drift into the clouds.

However, the moment his thoughts returned to his body, Meng Zhou naturally thought of a question.

"This 'collective intelligence' can be manifested in insect swarms and monster beasts, but what about humans?"

Naturally, Meng Zhou once again thought of the statue of Lihen that he had glimpsed through the memories of those pill-forming monks in the Lihen Sect.

Meng Zhou suddenly realized that the meaning behind the Lihen Sect, which had failed time and time again in his hands, might be far more serious than he had thought before.

Although he is already a powerful alchemy monk, the world he sees is just a small corner of the real world.

The real world may be much larger and more complex than what you see now.

"Yes, Qingxuan Domain, and even the other four domains, are just some fragments that fell from Xingxiu Palace."

After gaining this level of consciousness, Meng Zhou's mind became inexplicably calmer.

The thoughts that were gradually drifting due to the rapid improvement of cultivation level have once again landed firmly on the ground, becoming down-to-earth once again.

After returning to Aurora Cave, Meng Zhou once again began a regular and peaceful life of practice.

…

[Contract oath: Rope Spirit Level 3 3000/10,000; Painting Spirit Level 3 1250/10,000]

Both Yaya and Bai Zhi successfully completed their breakthrough.

The Xuanling Turtle and the Golden-armored Spirit Insect were also successfully upgraded from the second level to the third level.

After completing this key improvement, you can either rest, retreat, or silently digest the gains and strive to grow.

Four thousand golden armored spirit insects successfully broke through to the third low-grade level.

At the second level, they have powerful vitality, recovery power, defense power, and the ability to resist physical strikes and spell damage of all types, far exceeding Xiaoqiang's.

Now, these characteristics have been comprehensively improved.

Not only that, every golden armored spirit insect is like a pure combat weapon.

There is no intelligence and no soul.

This means that all methods targeting divine souls are completely ineffective against them.

Apart from crushing them into powder from the front with absolute force, there is almost no effective way to deal with them.

Facing this kind of golden-armored spirit insect is not to mention a nightmare for early-stage pill-forming monks at the same level.

Four thousand golden-armored spirit insects gathered in a swarm, and even the monks in the middle stage of pill formation could only kneel down in seconds.

"Probably, only late-stage monks can cause harm to them.

However, with their powerful injury-avoidance and recovery capabilities, it’s really hard to say how much damage they can cause.”

Anyway, it is unrealistic to wipe out a large area like mosquitoes and insecticides.

What's more important is that after these golden-armored spirit insects break through the life shackles of the second to third levels, the massive amount of heart essence and blood stored in the Five Yun Spirit Gourd can finally be supplied to these golden-armored spirit insects.

Because of the abundant supply of heart essence and blood, these four thousand third-level low-grade golden armored spirit insects quickly reached the limit of their bloodline abilities.

However, Meng Zhou did not reduce the supply of essence and blood to his heart, and a large number of insect eggs were hatched.

Although, among these insect eggs, the bloodline of most of the golden-armored spirit insects does not exceed the third level, and there are very few that are better than the current batch of golden-armored spirit insects.

But as long as there is, it means the direction is correct.

Meng Zhou hatched all the golden beetle eggs, and through the stimulation of his heart's essence and blood, as well as rounds of life and death training, he fully stimulated the potential of all the eggs.

In less than three months, a new third-level low-grade spiritual insect was born.

These newly born third-level low-grade golden-armored spirit insects naturally passed through the bottleneck of the second and third levels without any abnormality occurring.

With the continuous addition of new generations, it not only increases the scale of the Golden Armored Spirit Insect Swarm, but also injects more possibilities into the insect swarm with increasingly higher "collective intelligence".

However, Meng Zhou did not allow the insect swarm to expand uncontrollably.

The simple truth is that if the size of the insect swarm doubles, the energy and blood consumed will more than double;

On the other hand, when the size of the insect swarm reaches a certain level, the combat effectiveness of the insect swarm will not increase year-on-year as the size of the insect swarm increases without qualitative changes in individual strength.

After years of accumulation, although the reserve of essence and blood in the heart is very considerable, it cannot last long with the current consumption.

Therefore, after careful weighing, the number of golden armored spirit insects returned to four thousand after a brief increase.

And after a period of "metabolism", it further shrank to 2,000.

But amid such adjustments, the strength of the insect swarm increased instead of decreasing.

Because every golden-armored spirit insect that has survived through survival of the fittest has greatly improved in strength, from entering the third-level low-grade to the peak level of the third-order low-grade.

…

In the blink of an eye, the time has come to the end of the year.

The fifth day of December, afternoon.

Cultivation progress +300, fourth level of elixir formation 9520/10,000;

Third level Spring Water Sutra +3000, master 114,000/120,000;

Black Turtle Bearing Monument True Skill +3000, Master 102,300/120,000.

Not long after he came out of seclusion, Meng Zhou's heart moved, and his consciousness returned to the Sanchuan Plateau, tens of thousands of miles away from the Aurora Cave, and the Ice Heart Blood Lotus clone.

Just now, the Bingxinxuelian clone, who "acted" for both "Song Yang" and "Ge Ping" at the same time, received a message from Yao Gu.

In previous years, Meng Zhou would conduct a large-scale diagnosis and treatment every year.

Before diagnosis and treatment, he would send a message to Yao Gu several months in advance to let the Blue Blood Army prepare the arrangements.

But after the diagnosis and treatment at the end of last year, Meng Zhou left Sanchuan Yuan in his true form.

What remains in Mikawa Plain is just a disguise, and the purpose is only to maintain the existence of this identity in Mikawa Plain.

In addition, as he has perfected the two third-level pharmacist skills of bone regeneration and restoration, Meng Zhou, who is tens of thousands of miles away in the Tianqi Mountains, is immersed in his own practice. Naturally, he has no intention to do it anymore.

Think about this.

Therefore, according to the usual practice in previous years, Yao Gu's matter would be notified in September or October at the latest. At the end of this year, there was still no news.

So Yao Gu also sent a subpoena to "Ge Ping" under pressure from all parties.
To be continued...