Although he said not to bother, Yang Hong, out of curiosity, had Zhong Chengfeng bring back a nest of Gold-Devouring Ants for simple research.
The Gold-Devouring Ants were not large, only about the size of an infant's fist. Their offensive power was not strong; cultivators of the same level could easily fight a hundred of them without taking any damage.
Furthermore, the Gold-Devouring Ants could only crawl on the ground or underground. Even the queen ant of the fourth tier had no flying ability, making them extremely low risk.
After the Gold-Devouring Ants consumed various metals and ores, their excrement was the purest metal, even purer than what ordinary cultivators refined using artifact-forging techniques.
They were simply the most excellent natural miners.
Thus, when the Gold-Devouring Ants were discovered, they were kept and cultivated as cheap laborers.
Through experimental observation, Yang Hong concluded that the Gold-Devouring Ants were deliberately bred for profit. By the time they were discovered, the two major alliances of the Immortal and Buddhist sects were already breeding them.
All cultivators who studied them believed the Gold-Devouring Ants to be harmless. Even after sixty years, when the spiritual veins in areas mined by Gold-Devouring Ants were damaged and the spiritual energy concentration decreased, no cultivator considered the ants harmful.
Only those low-tier, minor sects, after failing to cultivate on spiritual veins or mountains, declared a new insect plague, but their concerns were still not taken seriously.
Yang Hong himself did not pay much attention.
Relatively speaking, spiritual plant teleportation arrays and their arrangement were what truly piqued his interest.
After seeing Zhong Chengfeng off, Yang Hong took a spiritual plant teleportation array and returned directly to Nine Plum Mountain.
At this time, Nine Plum Mountain had transformed into a super teleportation hub.
A fused, super ninth-tier teleportation array!
On the mountaintop, the special Azure Sky Willow tree, which had stopped growing at 1080 zhang, had, under the nurturing laws and time laws, reached the ninth tier, peak grade, its growth limit.
However, Yang Hong's attempts to transform it into a demon using the [System] multiple times had failed.
This was not only the case for the earliest Azure Sky Willow tree, but all Azure Sky Willow trees were unable to transform.
Conversely, ordinary small Azure Sky Willow trees, as long as they evolved to the seventh grade, could be transformed into human-like demons.
And on the entire Nine Plum Mountain, Yang Hong had transformed a total of 129,600 small Azure Sky Willow trees.
With 129,600 tree spirits, even if each person was responsible for regulating one teleportation node, they could connect 129,600 teleportation arrays. When the tree spirits cultivated to the fifth tier, Nascent Soul realm, they could simultaneously manage nine teleportation nodes.
Now, with 129,600 tree spirits already at the seventh tier, Integration realm, handling over a hundred teleportation nodes at a time was child's play.
As soon as he arrived at Nine Plum Mountain, a chubby child about 1.6 meters tall ran up to him.
"Master, master, good news~ good news, we've successfully found a way to block wood escape into the teleportation array, and we can also restrict earth escape techniques."
"Oh~ really? Quickly take me to demonstrate."
Hearing Qing Zhongying, the small Azure Sky Willow tree spirit, speak, Yang Hong's eyes lit up. This was work he had been researching for sixty years, and it was finally successful.
"Master, please follow me."
Qing Zhongying bowed and led Yang Hong to a small Azure Sky Willow tree only nine zhang tall, about a hundred meters away.
Without Yang Hong's instruction, it began to emit a faint silver halo, and spatial fluctuations, almost tangible, fell upon the small Azure Sky Willow tree.
"Master, following your guidance, we have learned to combine spatial energy with the five elemental spiritual energies, imbuing the five elemental spiritual energies with spatial attributes.
Then, based on the cycle of generation and destruction among the five elements, we formed a restriction on our bodies that blocks wood escape techniques while allowing wood-attribute spiritual energy to enter and exit normally.
Moreover, this restriction also has a certain solidifying effect on earth-attribute spiritual energy."
"Master, you can experiment with wood escape and earth escape techniques."
Qing Zhongying quickly explained the function of the restriction and asked Yang Hong to verify it.
"Alright~ here I come."
Yang Hong was also somewhat expectant. His hands rapidly formed seals, and his figure vanished in a flash of green light. When he reappeared, he was ten zhang away from the small Azure Sky Willow tree.
"Good, good, good!"
Seeing where he had appeared, Yang Hong laughed with surprise and joy.
Other techniques were fine, but when it came to the five elemental escape techniques, Yang Hong could confidently claim to be the strongest and most proficient on the entire Taiyuan Continent.
Yet, even he could not emerge from the target Azure Sky Willow tree. This fully confirmed that Qing Zhongying and his companions' restriction technique was successful.
Then, he formed seals and used earth escape.
This time, although he successfully emerged from beneath the Azure Sky Willow tree, his speed was extremely slow, and the resistance during his ascent was immense.
"Hmm, excellent. Ordinary cultivators below the seventh tier would find it impossible to enter. Even cultivators above the seventh tier, if they were to use escape techniques to enter, would be restrained. With this time, you would have enough to attack or alert others."
Subsequently, Yang Hong experimented with all the escape techniques he knew, not limited to the five elemental ones, but also wind, lightning, ice, and even demonic blood escape.
All escape techniques were restricted. As for teleportation, it was completely sealed off.
"Great, now spiritual plant teleportation arrays can truly be promoted. Earning hundreds of millions of spirit stones daily is no longer a dream."
After the experiments, Yang Hong smiled happily. No one who was human disliked money, and a cultivator's money was spirit stones.
Even though he had the [Seven Stars Gathering Spirit Array] and didn't need to worry about spiritual energy, Yang Hong still liked the feeling of having spirit stones around.
As the saying goes, "With grain in the belly, there is no panic in the heart."
"Master, there's a small issue. Only Azure Sky Willow tree spirits at the seventh-tier, Integration realm, can use this restriction, and after using it, we must all revert to our original forms and cannot move."
Just as Yang Hong was excited, Qing Zhongying said softly.
As a tree spirit, after transforming, he had come to enjoy the feeling of running and flying freely.
Asking him to revert to a tree and remain motionless would make him very uncomfortable.
As for the other transformed tree spirits, they generally felt the same way and disliked being constrained.
Looking at the expectant yet cautious Qing Zhongying, Yang Hong quickly guessed his hidden thoughts.
"Hmph~ quite cunning. I will cultivate more seventh-grade and eighth-grade small Azure Sky Willow trees. You will then arrange the arrays and manage them."
"Thank you, master~ thank you, master~
I will definitely research the restriction thoroughly and ensure it works just as well on our un-transformed kin."
Upon hearing Yang Hong's words, Qing Zhongying knelt down excitedly and expressed his gratitude.
Yang Hong had, in essence, given him and his kin an opportunity to "be human."
He had envisioned it beautifully, but Yang Hong was not a philanthropist. He immediately said:
"Qing Zhongying, teach this restriction technique to your kin as soon as possible. You will also need to learn spiritual plant techniques and array formations. The most basic requirement is to know how to plant Azure Sky Willow trees and how to arrange teleportation arrays."
"Master, rest assured, I will handle it perfectly. I will ensure all 129,600 of my kin master spiritual plant techniques and the way of array formations. Not only teleportation arrays, but other arrays as well."
Qing Zhongying quickly patted his chest and guaranteed it.
"Excellent, then go get busy."
Watching Qing Zhongying happily run off, Yang Hong softly said, "Good employees should be like this."
Afterward, he arrived at the summit of Nine Plum Mountain and directly used the ninth-tier teleportation array. Using [Spiritual Light Transmission], he infused the spiritual plant techniques and a vast amount of array knowledge into these 129,600 tree spirits.
As Yang Hong continuously cultivated large and small Azure Sky Willow trees, the Azure Sky Willow tree spirits gradually dispersed. Through the original teleportation arrays in the cultivation world, they slowly spread across the entire Taiyuan Continent.
Wherever teleportation arrays were permitted, the footprints of the Azure Sky Willow tree spirits could be found.
Upon arriving at a location, they would first live there for a period, then seek out the most remote and inconspicuous places to begin planting more Azure Sky Willow trees.
They would then use these Azure Sky Willow trees to cultivate more spiritual plant teleportation arrays.
Under the watchful eyes of the entire cultivation world, Yang Hong's vast teleportation array network was slowly taking shape!