Chapter 119 - 117: Reunion, Swarm Transformation

Chapter 119: Chapter 117: Reunion, Swarm Transformation

"Yes."

The Cultivator cupped his hands in acknowledgment and turned to leave the grand hall.

Mingzhuang didn’t stand on ceremony. He walked over and sat down next to Lan Cai Shen, asking with a wicked grin exactly why he was looking for Dong Yao.

Lan Cai Shen shot him a speechless glance. To prevent any misunderstanding, he said flatly, "A few days ago, a Spirit Plant Master under my command..."

His pace was unhurried as he slowly recounted Dong Xing’s ordeal after coming to the Demon Hunting Corps.

Finally, Lan Cai Shen added softly, "I only have four Spirit Plant Masters under my command, and I almost lost one of them..."

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the few people present changed slightly.

He wasn’t here just to look for someone; he was clearly here to point fingers and assign blame.

Mingzhuang suppressed the annoyance in his heart and said indifferently, "It must be a misunderstanding." With a flip of his hand, he took out a storage bag and placed it on the table. "Will this suffice as my compensation to that Spirit Plant Master on his behalf?"

His meaning was obvious: since the Spirit Plant Master was fine, offering some compensation should be enough to settle the matter.

Hearing this, Luan Jian immediately furrowed his brows.

The other captain-level Cultivators looked at Lan Cai Shen, curious to see how he would respond.

Lan Cai Shen glanced at the storage bag and chuckled lightly. "There’s no need. Since Dong Xing didn’t die anyway, let’s just leave it at that."

"Haha..." Mingzhuang laughed heartily and cupped his hands. "Many thanks, Young Master Lan."

The captains exchanged bewildered glances. Was that it?

As Luan Jian looked at Lan Cai Shen’s placid face, a sudden sense of foreboding welled up in his heart. Just as he was about to speak, faint footsteps echoed from outside the hall.

Everyone turned to look. They saw the captain who had left earlier walk back in, followed by a veiled Female Cultivator.

The moment she stepped into the hall, Dong Yao felt several piercing gazes fall upon her, as tangible as physical weight. Her legs went weak, and she nearly collapsed to the floor.

The captain ahead of her cupped his hands. "Young Master Lan, this is Dong Yao."

"Greetings, Milords," Dong Yao hurriedly bowed in salute.

Just as anxiety gnawed at her heart, a gentle voice sounded by her ear. "Who is Dong Xing to you?"

"Grandpa?" Dong Yao froze for a moment. Panic seized her, and she looked up, asking urgently, "He is my grandfather. What happened to him?"

Lan Cai Shen waved his hand. "Don’t worry, he’s fine." Then, turning to Mingzhuang, he said softly, "To prevent Dong Xing from coming back to seek his own death in the future, I’ll be taking his granddaughter with me."

Mingzhuang frowned. Just as he was about to speak, Luan Jian shook his head slightly at him and said, "As you wish, Young Master Lan."

Lan Cai Shen nodded, stood up, and walked over to Dong Yao. "Let’s go," he said softly.

"Oh, okay." Her mind in turmoil, Dong Yao simply nodded and followed him.

With an eruption of Spiritual Power fluctuations, a brilliant white Escape Light shot into the sky. Mingzhuang and Luan Jian watched him leave.

Once the Escape Light vanished from sight, Mingzhuang frowned. "What exactly did he mean?" He paused, then asked in confusion, "Also, what is a Spirit Plant Master?"

Hearing this, Luan Jian’s face darkened, and a surge of anger swelled within him. Several breaths later, he forcefully suppressed his fury and said coldly, "Do you truly not know what a Spirit Plant Master is?"

The other captains felt the surrounding temperature drop. Seeing Vice Commander Luan’s indifferent expression, they subconsciously backed away.

"If I say I don’t know, then I don’t know!" Mingzhuang glared at him and shouted, "What, do you want to cut me down?!" He pointed at his own head and clamored, "Come on, come on, chop right here!"

"You..." Luan Jian’s body trembled slightly. Suppressing the urge to draw his sword, he asked again, "Then why did you refuse to hand over the person who injured that Spirit Plant Master?"

"That’s a member of my Demon Hunting Corps..." Mingzhuang sneered disdainfully. "He’s not an Elder. Compensating him with some Spirit Stones is already giving him face."

With that, he turned to one of the captains and ordered, "Go find out which little bastard was on duty that day. Give him ten vicious lashes to make sure he remembers his lesson!

"How dare he cause trouble for me!"

The captains shot bizarre looks at the space behind Mingzhuang, then spun around and quickly bolted out the door.

"What are you running for?" Mingzhuang shouted.

At that moment, a furious bellow erupted from behind him. "You ignorant fool!"

Mingzhuang turned his head, only to see a fist flying right at his face, planting itself squarely on his cheek. Even with Spiritual Power protecting his face, he was still sent flying over a dozen meters, smashing violently against the wooden wall.

Mingzhuang stood up, rubbing his face. "Luan Jian, are you crazy?!" he roared in anger.

"I’m crazy?" Luan Jian sneered. "I’m nothing compared to you. For the sake of some troublemaker, you offended Lan Cai Shen?"

"When did I offend him?" Mingzhuang was confused for a second before snapping angrily, "It’s just a Spirit Plant Master. Is he really that petty?"

Luan Jian was speechless. Too lazy to bother with Mingzhuang anymore, he left behind a remark telling him to go find out what a Spirit Plant Master was for himself, then turned and left.

Halfway back, he hesitated for a moment, took out a Sound Transmission Jade, spoke a few words into it, and then returned to his own residence.

"Spirit Plant Master..." Mingzhuang wasn’t stupid. After his anger faded, he quickly realized that the person his subordinate had injured seemed to be quite important. With this in mind, Mingzhuang turned to look at the captains watching from a distance and shouted, "Do any of you know what the hell a Spirit Plant Master is?"

The captains looked at each other. Finally, Dong Yao’s captain stepped forward and explained to him what a Spirit Plant Master was.

Meanwhile, the successive fluctuations of Spiritual Power within the base had drawn over the other Cultivators of the Demon Hunting Corps, who gathered in twos and threes to gossip.

Wu Yong leaned lazily against a wooden cabin. As he listened to the completely undisguised voices of Mingzhuang and Luan Jian, his expression gradually turned serious. Recalling how Dong Yao had been summoned away by the captain, and combining that with what the two commanders were saying, an unbelievable thought suddenly welled up in Wu Yong’s mind, "Dong... Did grandfather become a Spirit Plant Master?"

Listening to the captain’s explanation of a Spirit Plant Master, his heart pounded wildly, and a thought surfaced in his mind, "He is going to be rich..."

Not far from him, a young man standing with a sword said sourly, "To think a mere Spirit Farmer would have such good fortune..."

Wu Yong glanced at him, a sudden sense of smugness rising in his heart. "Wealth, companions, methods, and land—the ancients truly did not deceive me..."

With that, he turned and headed home. He needed to pack up and then go serve his grandfather alongside Dong Yao.

On Mingzhuang’s side, his face grew darker the more he listened. Finally, he couldn’t help but curse out loud, "Which bastard was on duty?! Find him! I’m going to skin him alive!"

WHOOSH...

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of the spectating Demon Hunting Corps Cultivators drastically changed, and they scattered in an uproar.

Vice Commander Ming’s words were not just empty threats. They hadn’t forgotten the bloody scene at the miscellaneous peak.

At Ten Thousand Serpent Lake, on the island, Li Changsheng and Dong Xing lounged lazily in their chairs in the courtyard, chatting idly.

At that moment, an Escape Light descended from the horizon, dropping straight toward the courtyard. Feeling the majestic Spiritual Power fluctuations, Li Changsheng and Dong Xing hastily stood up.

The Escape Light landed in the courtyard. As the spiritual light dissipated, the figures of Lan Cai Shen and Dong Yao appeared.

"Yaoyao!" Dong Xing’s eyes suddenly lit up, crying out in pleasant surprise.

"Grandpa?" Seeing Dong Xing’s swollen and bruised face, Dong Yao froze for a second before running over with a look of pure joy.

Lan Cai Shen looked at Li Changsheng and smiled. "I still have some matters to attend to, so I’ll be leaving first."

Li Changsheng cupped his hands and said, "Many thanks, Senior Brother."

Lan Cai Shen waved his hand, spun around, and transformed into an Escape Light, shooting into the sky.

After watching him leave, Li Changsheng smiled at the reunited grandfather and granddaughter, then strode toward the wooden cabin.

Returning to the third floor, Li Changsheng walked over to a wooden vat in the center of the room. Inside the vat, the Snake Saliva Spirit Tree looked slightly withered. On one of its thick branches, the Insect Mother was currently feeding on its sap.

Li Changsheng fixed his gaze on the Insect Mother.

[Target: Slave Insect]

[Species: Mutated Red-winged Blood Bamboo "Insect Mother"]

[Tier 1 Mid-Grade: 3%]

[Talents: Blood Devour, Reproduction]

[Status: Gestating]

Through the constant feeding by the insect swarm, the Insect Mother had successfully advanced to Tier 1 Mid-Grade, becoming the fourth mid-grade insect following Xiaohai, Big Bro, and Little Bro.

Although it hadn’t awakened any talent Magic, the time it took to breed larvae had shortened significantly. This was the first time in four months that the word "Gestating" had appeared for the Insect Mother again.

Li Changsheng watched for a while, and with a slight shift of his thoughts...

BUZZ...

A cacophony of buzzing wings echoed out as insects continuously flew into the third floor. In just a short moment, over two hundred insects had gathered in front of him. Li Changsheng looked at the insects bred by the Insect Mother. He hesitated for a second before issuing the command for them to advance.

BUZZ...

The insects seemed to have been impatient for this. The very instant his command was issued, over a dozen mental connections abruptly vanished from his mind. The swarm rioted. Without hesitation, they pierced their ferocious mandibles into the bodies of their kin, sucking them dry of their essence in the blink of an eye.

Without stopping, they launched themselves back into the slaughter against their own kind.

The continuous disappearance of connections, one after another, made Li Changsheng’s heart ache. This was the foundation he had so painstakingly accumulated. From the looks of it, he would definitely lose more than half of them.

Looking at the insects beside him that he had refined from Beast Valley, Li Changsheng hesitated. He took out his stored Snake Saliva Spirit Liquid, walked over to a corner, and set it down. Then, he took out a piece of spirit snake meat as thick as a calf and placed it next to it.

"Begin," Li Changsheng willed with a slight shift of his thoughts.

The swarm swooped down, scrambling to feed on the Snake Saliva Spirit Liquid. Once fully saturated, they wobbled over to the spirit snake meat, plunging their sharp mandibles viciously into it to devour the flesh.

Time slowly passed.

After the Red-winged Blood Bamboos absorbed the Blood Food, their carapaces gradually softened, developing fish-scale-like folds on the surface. At the same time, their bodies expanded at a visible rate. The branded patterns on their surfaces grew thicker and deeper than before, and the Spiritual Qi contained within them increased at a slow yet steady pace.

However, contrary to his expectations, their mandibles, which should have softened and transformed into fangs, did not change. Instead, they looked increasingly sharp.

Li Changsheng watched silently for a while before sitting cross-legged and reigning in his focus.

An unknown amount of time passed. In his mind, a faint connection suddenly grew several times heavier. Immediately following that, one connection after another began to transform.

"It worked..." Li Changsheng rejoiced inwardly.