Chapter 136 - 130: Insect

Chapter 136: Chapter 130: Insect

Listening to the occasional rumbles from outside.

Li Changsheng felt anxious, but more than that, he felt a sense of powerlessness due to his own weakness.

He had initially revealed his talent for Insect Control and left the Beast Valley for the simple reason that he knew its people were mere Beast Slaves with no hope of advancement.

After arriving at the Miscellaneous Peaks, he maintained a low profile, avoided socializing, and focused wholeheartedly on raising Spirit Beasts, cultivating his Spirit Field, purchasing pills, and never daring to slack off on his cultivation for even a single day.

To cultivate the Spirit Plant inheritance, he had endured the pain of being flayed, having his tendons pulled, and his flesh gouged out. His face had become hideous, yet he felt not a trace of resentment. Instead, he felt more grounded.

The gradual accumulation of his cultivation base and the ever-expanding repertoire of his abilities filled him with a sense of fulfillment.

This lasted until he condensed the Spirit Plant Mark. After that, Vein Condensation Realm Cultivators like Lan Cai Shen treated him with exceptional courtesy, even addressing him as a fellow disciple. Everyone around him was unfailingly polite.

With the sudden shift in his status, cultivation resources were no longer scarce.

Although he didn’t become arrogant, this change gradually altered his once-cautious mindset toward cultivation. It made him slowly forget that he was in the Wanzhong Mountains Range, a Demon Beast Paradise.

Later, when the Cyan Yang Sect slowly revealed its true nature, it only shocked him for a moment. He felt no sense of crisis at all.

After laboriously cultivating the Five Venoms, he didn’t even try to find a way to compensate for the missing one.

He didn’t bother to collect information or analyze the requirements for his Spirit Beast’s advancement.

He was careless with the cultivation of his insect swarm, letting it grow freely.

’At some point, what I relied on shifted from my own abilities to my status.’

’Logically, I should have ridden the favorable winds. With so many people optimistic about my prospects, I should have seized the opportunity to rise.’

’Instead, I seemed to have become lost in the expectations of Lan Cai Shen and the others, truly becoming a farmer, completely engrossed in tending to my fields.’

’It was as if they would pave my entire future path for me, watching me grow strong with the earnest gaze of old farmers.’

Li Changsheng thought about many, many things, and his anxious heart gradually calmed.

"Ha..."

He let out a soft chuckle and held out his palm.

HISS...

With a faint hiss, Xiaohai crawled out from his sleeve and coiled itself in his palm.

Xiaohai was even more slender than before. It looked like a steel wire, taut and powerful.

"Strength."

Li Changsheng stared intently at Xiaohai, and a stream of information flooded his mind.

[Target: Xiaohai]

[Race: Mutated Black Blood Moth]

[Tier 1, High-Grade: 98%]

[Innate Magic: Food Spirit]

[Status: Healthy]

Xiaohai’s cultivation needs were simple, requiring only flesh, blood, and the Snake Saliva Spirit Tree Juice. It hadn’t been idle a single day since advancing to High-Grade. Coupled with the Snake Tide occupying the Spirit Field, its cultivation had progressed by leaps and bounds. Now, it was on the verge of advancing again.

The next step was to condense its spirit and transform into a demon, advancing from a spirit insect to a demon insect.

Li Changsheng placed it on the ground and said softly, "Go..."

HISS...

Xiaohai hissed, its body shooting out like an arrow through a crack in the cave’s entrance.

Li Changsheng closed his eyes and focused his mind. For a fleeting moment, he was in a daze. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a dark, empty void.

The darkness was filled with countless stars, like a vast galaxy.

Li Changsheng gazed at the largest one and slowly immersed his consciousness into it.

As a wave of restlessness washed over him, his vision began to blur.

In the next instant, his perspective suddenly switched to Xiaohai’s.

The world turned into a bright gray. Bright white points of light floated in the air, while the hills appeared dark. The plants growing on them seemed illusory, shrouded in a layer of dim gray mist.

The surrounding scenery flew by at great speed.

As Xiaohai crossed one low hill after another, waves of Spiritual Power fluctuations, like blasts of air, continuously washed over it.

Fear arose in Xiaohai’s mind. It stopped leaping between the large trees and instead dropped down to travel through the thorny undergrowth.

Li Changsheng did not interfere, silently watching Xiaohai run.

「Half an hour later.」

The hills gradually gave way to a gentle plain.

By now, the Spiritual Power fluctuations in the air had grown even more intense.

As Xiaohai sped past, buildings came into view, along with a humanoid figure—a dim gray shape lying on the ground.

Xiaohai leaped over it and weaved between the houses, allowing Li Changsheng to understand the situation.

Far ahead, dazzling balls of light repeatedly crashed into each other, while scorching streams of light rained down upon them, kicking up immense waves of Spiritual Power.

Besides them, many smaller humanoid halos were entangled in battle. Every few breaths, one of the halos would dim and dissipate.

As it drew closer to the center, it saw many dim humanoid halos huddled together inside the houses—some indoors, some underground.

Although Xiaohai moved cautiously through the gaps between houses and in the ditches, it was still discovered. A brilliant white stream of light, as thick as an arm, shot out like an arrow and instantly slammed into it.

Xiaohai was sent flying over ten meters away. It lay there motionless, its life-force halo as dim as a candle flame.

Li Changsheng’s consciousness wavered, and he almost lost his connection to Xiaohai’s perspective.

It was only after he checked their connection that he discovered Xiaohai was only lightly injured. It was using its innate Magic to conceal its life force, playing dead on the ground.

"Ha!"

Li Changsheng breathed a sigh of relief, but he couldn’t help but find it amusing. ’I can’t believe Xiaohai has a skill like that.’

「After half a cup of tea’s time.」

A somewhat dim humanoid halo walked up to Xiaohai, seemingly about to pick up its corpse.

Just then, Xiaohai stopped concealing its life force and suddenly lunged.

The humanoid halo clearly hadn’t expected Xiaohai to be alive. Caught off guard, its head was instantly pierced, and it collapsed limply to the ground.

Following that, Li Changsheng felt a wave of pleasure from Xiaohai’s consciousness—the joy of a successful hunt.

Xiaohai circled the body for several dozen breaths before speeding away.

The aura within its body grew stronger again, just a little shy of reaching its peak.

This time, Xiaohai became more cautious. It no longer wove through the crowds, instead heading for the outskirts.

「After taking a long detour.」

A calm lake, with an eerie green mist rising from its surface, came into view.

HISS...

Xiaohai hissed, leaped into the lake, and swam rapidly toward the island at its center.

「A moment later.」

Xiaohai reached the summit of the island. Without stopping, it headed straight for the center.

「Soon.」

An area came into sight. Its center was wreathed in aqua and ice-blue mist, while its perimeter was encircled by mists of fluorescent white, earthy yellow, and scarlet red.

This was the four-acre Spirit Field planted by Li Changsheng, and growing within it were the very Spiritual Objects that Xiaohai coveted.

Xiaohai stood at the edge of the Spirit Field, its thoughts restless.

Without hesitation, Li Changsheng commanded, "Eat."

HISS...

Xiaohai let out an excited hiss and flew into the Spirit Field surrounded by the fluorescent white mist.

As it devoured one fluorescent white point of light after another, the aura within its body grew more powerful. After consuming a third of them, a fluorescent white ball of light formed inside Xiaohai. It then stopped eating and moved to the second Spirit Field.

Before long, an earthy yellow ball of light and a dark red one also formed inside it.

After it had finished digesting the spirit seeds from the three Spirit Fields,

three thin lines—white, yellow, and red—appeared on Xiaohai’s originally black-and-red skin, stretching from its head to its tail. The aura inside it doubled, finally reaching its absolute peak.

It then arrived at the central Spirit Field.

After a moment’s hesitation, it leaped into the field and consumed three Cold Flame Flowers and three Narcissus Spring spirit seeds.

Then it coiled up in a corner and became still.

As it slowly digested the spirit seeds, the Spiritual Qi within it swelled to its limit. Its once-slender body began to expand, and wisps of cold air emanated from it.

In just a short while, its body swelled to the thickness of a baby’s arm, and its stretched skin took on a bluish tint.

At this moment, a wave of pain surged through Xiaohai’s consciousness. Its body twisted and writhed like a silkworm.

"Hold on..."

Li Changsheng didn’t know what the advancement from a spirit insect to a demon insect entailed, so he could only try to soothe Xiaohai with his consciousness.

But as time passed, Xiaohai’s condition didn’t improve; it worsened.

Its body, bloated with Spiritual Qi, swelled to the thickness of an adult’s arm, and a layer of ghastly white frost began to spread across its skin.

Feeling the constant waves of pain coming from Xiaohai, Li Changsheng grew anxious. But there was nothing he could do except hope that Xiaohai could pull through on its own.

However, at that very moment, ripples suddenly spread across the surface of the dark pool at the edge of the Spirit Field.

SNAP...

A thumb-thick, purple-black object covered in fine tentacles, resembling a tree root, emerged from the pool. It gripped a crevice in the rocks by the water, its countless tentacles adhering to the stone.

Its tendrils slowly contracted, and a purple-black thing about half a meter long, covered in fine tentacles, pulled itself up.

A clear break was visible at one of its ends, as if it had been forcefully torn in half. The break was ragged and uneven.

Its entire body of fine tentacles undulated like seaweed. After pausing for a few breaths, it used the tentacles as legs and crawled toward the nearby Spirit Field.

Li Changsheng, who was worried about Xiaohai, suddenly saw a bright ball of light slowly wriggling toward them through its senses.

"Huh?!"

Li Changsheng was greatly alarmed and hastily tried to warn Xiaohai with his thoughts.

But Xiaohai’s mind was filled with nothing but overwhelming pain. The surging Spiritual Qi inside it left it unable to pay attention to anything else.

By the time the ball of light extended its dense tentacles to wrap around Xiaohai, the insect could only manage to twitch twice before it was completely encased, as if it had become a cocoon.

"Xiaohai!"

Li Changsheng felt Xiaohai’s life force draining away rapidly and called out to it in desperation.

But no matter how he called, Xiaohai’s consciousness seemed to have frozen. It gave no response, and the thoughts he received from it grew fainter and fainter.

Finally, the star representing Xiaohai could no longer bear his consciousness, and his mind was forcefully ejected.

He looked at the star, now as faint as those of his newly contracted insects.

A single thought rose in Li Changsheng’s mind. ’It’s over...’

’I wanted Xiaohai to use its innate Magic to digest the spirit seeds and break through to become a demon insect, giving me another asset in this dangerous situation. It looks like I’ve failed.’

Li Changsheng’s consciousness returned to his body. He stared into the dark space, listening to the occasional rumbles from outside, his gaze flickering restlessly.

「After a long time.」

A sigh echoed in the cave.

"Sigh..."