Chapter 708: Hatching, Black Beetle, Frenzied Mealworms, Transformation Again

"Leader, let me show you the mealworm processing workshop..."

Yu Yuan rarely came for an inspection, and Dale wasn't about to let this opportunity slip away.

Just as he was about to head out, he noticed that Yu Yuan remained rooted to the spot, his gaze locked onto the chrysalis.

"Leader?"

Zhou Yuan and Simon exchanged a glance, sensing something was off.

Yu Yuan pointed at the chrysalis, his voice calm: "It... is about to hatch!"

Simon's pupils constricted at the words, and he immediately rushed to the control panel to check.

"Professor Dale, the energy fluctuations from Chrysalis Number 1 have indeed increased by more than five times compared to yesterday, and they're still rising..."

"It meets the hatching criteria, the Leader is right!"

Because of this little interruption, the four of them abandoned their plans to leave.

They all huddled in the small room, waiting in silence.

If anyone was the most excited, it was undoubtedly Dale and Simon.

This chrysalis could be said to be the fruit of the two men's painstaking efforts.

It was also the second mealworm to enter the pupation stage since the Electromagnetic Pulse Worm.

With the Electromagnetic Pulse Worm setting such a stellar precedent, they naturally had high expectations for this mealworm as well.

Yu Yuan reviewed the breeding records of Chrysalis Number 1.

This chrysalis was the mealworm that the two had spent the longest time cultivating.

The Hundred Flowers Nectar consumed alone was worth millions.

An absolute money pit, no doubt.

"Dale, this mealworm... after all this time in cultivation, you're certain there have been no changes or abnormalities whatsoever?"

"That's correct. Number 1 maintains the appearance of an ordinary mealworm, with no signs of growth whatsoever. It stands in stark contrast to the other insects that have consumed Hundred Flowers Nectar."

Dale recalled the situation at the time.

"Simon and I had actually planned to give up, but it was only after cultivating the other insects that we realized their body sizes basically all increased after consuming the Hundred Flowers Nectar.

The fact that this mealworm's size remained unchanged was, in itself, the anomaly."

Simon nodded from the side, confirming that this was indeed the case.

"As the saying goes, 'when things go against the norm, something is afoot.' All the other insects grew larger, yet this mealworm showed no change whatsoever. Professor Dale analyzed that the energy in Hundred Flowers Nectar is fixed. Since that energy wasn't being expended on increasing body size, it must have been used elsewhere.

Otherwise, it would violate the law of conservation of energy. We simply hadn't discovered its transformation yet."

"That's exactly right!" Zhou Yuan chimed in from the side.

"Back when Professor Dale reported this to me, I knew nothing about insect research, but I trusted his judgment. Sure enough, not long after, we received the wonderful news that the mealworm had pupated."

Listening to the three men's explanations, Yu Yuan gradually pieced together the full picture.

His gaze once again fell upon the chrysalis.

Professor Dale's judgment was likely correct.

The energy within this chrysalis had already breached the limits of a Bronze-tier Lifeform.

And yet, it showed no signs of stopping.

It was still rising.

It must be that the energy accumulated within the chrysalis was making its final explosive surge.

And so they waited. Three hours passed.

Inside the breeding room, even Simon and Dale could clearly feel the powerful energy surging from the chrysalis.

They realized that the mealworm they had cultivated was no ordinary creature.

They stared at the chrysalis without moving a muscle, their eyes nearly burning holes through it.

Yu Yuan, who had been sitting to the side with his eyes closed in rest, suddenly snapped them open.

Because he sensed that the chrysalis was about to hatch.

Crack!

A crisp sound rang out in the breeding room.

On the magnified surveillance screen, a fissure appeared on the surface of the chrysalis.

A beam of earthy yellow light shot out from the crack.

Then came the sound of a second crack.

Squeak, squeak...

A faint sound, like insect chirps, like whimpering cries, emanated from within the chrysalis.

The chrysalis split open even wider.

A slender leg emerged from the chrysalis, followed by a second, then a third.

A small black insect appeared before them.

Its entire body was pitch black, its form delicate and small.

It was, in essence, just an adult mealworm. Utterly ordinary and unremarkable.

"This... how could it be an ordinary adult?"

Dale murmured softly.

Simon furrowed his brow as well, while Zhou Yuan, who wasn't too familiar with mealworms, wore a look of bewilderment.

Yet Yu Yuan's gaze remained fixed on this black adult insect.

The Virtual Light Screen hadn't popped up any information at all.

That shouldn't be the case.

He trusted his own perception. The Bronze-tier Lifeform energy he had sensed earlier was no illusion, and the earthy yellow light that shot out when the chrysalis cracked open was no illusion either.

But why was it that, after the insect hatched, everything returned to normal?

The Bronze-tier Lifeform energy was gone. The earthy yellow light was gone, too.

Watching the black beetle begin to devour its chrysalis shell on its own, Yu Yuan looked at Dale.

"Dale, bring it to the mealworm breeding room."

"The mealworm breeding room?"

Dale was slightly taken aback, not quite understanding.

But Simon had already begun to act on instinct. He grabbed a small jar from the side, opened the culture box, and carefully scooped the black beetle into the jar.

The group left the Mutant Insect Breeding Room and entered the mealworm breeding room.

Simon looked at Yu Yuan.

"Put it in the largest breeding box." Yu Yuan instructed again.

Dale had also snapped back to reality: "Go to shelf L-1. The mealworms there are the strongest and highest quality batch at this stage."

With that, Dale led the way and the others followed.

They soon arrived before a multi-tiered breeding rack, where Dale opened the lid of a breeding box.

"Here..."

Simon opened the lid, and before he could even tilt the jar to pour it out, the black beetle, as if catching the scent of its own kind, had already leaped into the breeding box.

And the moment it landed, the instant it made contact with the other mealworms...

An earthy yellow ripple of spirituality flared up from its body.

The Bronze-tier Lifeform energy also resurfaced on the black beetle.

And this life energy, carried along with the earthy yellow light, began to spread to the surrounding mealworms.

The very next moment, the mealworms throughout the entire breeding box began to frenziedly devour the wheat bran, grains, and other food below them.

Their bodies swelled rapidly as they ate, each writhing mealworm transforming into something resembling squirming earthy yellow earthworms.

If anyone with trypophobia were to witness this scene, they'd probably faint on the spot.

Dale, however, amidst his delight, quickly snapped back to action. He ran to the wall, scooped up grain, and began adding food to the breeding box.

But he soon discovered that the black beetle's life energy radiation didn't just affect the mealworms in this one box. It affected the mealworms on the entire rack, and even those in other breeding rooms.

Mealworms in the other boxes had also launched into their own frenzied feasting and growth.

Simon and Zhou Yuan joined in on the feeding.

Throughout this entire process, Yu Yuan's gaze remained fixed on the black beetle, watching its changes closely.

That's right. Even as the mealworms entered their explosive growth phase due to the black beetle's life energy...

That black beetle, at the same time, had begun its own transformation once more...