The Insect Speaker's Treasure

For endless ages, the stars of the Dark Void—or rather, the Astral Realm—had faithfully followed their own orbits, as though some great will commanded them.

A streak of silver light flashed past. This sudden meteor-like gleam seemed to disturb the silence the stars had kept for countless ages, and the stars on either side paused and moved aside to let it pass.

"This is such a headache. Why can't I sense it anymore? There's no way those idiots could sense my Spatial Beacon. Aah, this is so troublesome." Vanidak sped onward within the silver streak, muttering complaints to himself.

"What a bunch of worry-inducing brothers and sisters. Hmph."

Saying things that so blatantly defied the facts did not help Vanidak find his target. Relying on his "wonderful" intuition, he closed his eyes, pointed in a random direction, shouted, "I choose you!" and charged off at full speed. And now... well, he was lost.

Do not assume that powerful beings like Titans could not get lost. In the vast and boundless Dark Void, up, down, left, and right had lost all meaning. A careless inversion of head and feet could make the direction you had memorized completely opposite. Besides, for a Titan whose mind was filled with all manner of chaotic thoughts, the very concept of "direction" seemed not to exist. To be fair, if the other companions had not led the way during their travels, Vanidak might not have been able to recognize the road ahead at all. In a sense, he could be considered the other Titans' little tagalong.

Though Vanidak refused to accept this label and had no way to retaliate against it, he was still in the midst of charging straight ahead without a care. Still, the many fantastical sights of the Astral Realm added some color to his dull journey, keeping him from going mad with boredom amid the silent voyage. Oh, I forgot—he probably was not quite normal to begin with.

After charging around aimlessly for who knew how long, the reckless impulse gradually faded from Vanidak's mind. At last, he slowly came to a stop, seeming to ponder carefully.

"This won't do. I've traveled for so long, yet I still can't sense the aura of the Spatial Beacon. I need to find another way. Hmm, I should change my line of thinking."

"Come on, let me see. Which nearby area of space has the strongest aura? What if they brought the Spatial Beacon into one and concealed it there? Oh, Creator above, I really am a clever little genius."

"Aha, there's one over there. Let's get moving!"

Apparently having found a target, Vani cried out excitedly. A silver spatial gate immediately opened, and he rushed into it without hesitation.

"Pah, pah, pah."

"This thing doesn't taste that great either, despite being so huge." Vanidak complained as he spat something out. Not far away lay a gigantic creature whose head had already been severed.

This creature, officially certified by Vanidak as unappetizing, had four legs and two arms. Its lower body was enormous, like that of a beast, and scales covered its entire body. Its upper body wore a strange suit of armor, and it still clutched a massive spear in both hands, seemingly its weapon. Naturally, it had never had the chance to use it. That much was obvious from its ugly face, which bore a pair of enormous tusks. Even in death, its expression remained one of utter disbelief, as though it still did not understand what had happened.

Having finally finished spitting, Vanidak turned and looked at the unappetizing creature he had instantly slain. He kicked it irritably, then turned his gaze toward the tiny creatures huddled together and trembling behind it.

These little creatures, seemingly servants of the being Vanidak had killed, were probably terrified out of their wits. They could never have imagined that their master, the invincible ruler of their territory, would lead them on a great and glorious expedition, only to have his head cut off by a sudden flash of silver light. The next second, a figure appeared. The culprit struck what he considered an exceptionally cool pose and muttered to himself, "Live by the blade, die by the blade."

Then came a series of words that baffled them even more: "To ensure the freshness of the ingredients, we need to eat them quickly," "As a solitary gourmet, the cut of the ingredient is naturally of the utmost importance," and "Grilling is the best way to preserve an ingredient's original essence." The servants had already been puzzled by the words of this stronger mysterious being, but then they watched in horror as he produced two pitch-black blades from nowhere and carefully examined their former leader's corpse. He cut off a strip of flesh dripping green blood, then roasted it with an unknown silver flame.

Having witnessed this series of utterly deranged actions by the mysterious powerhouse, the servants were finally scared out of what little courage they possessed. They wailed as they backed away. In the end, with nowhere left to retreat, they crowded into a corner, shivering.

When they saw the butcher, who looked like an evil ghost, turn toward them, their screams and wails grew even more frantic. As he drew closer and closer, one servant, seemingly driven completely insane, shrieked in a voice like a rooster being strangled, "Please don't kill me! Please don't kill me! I'll give you all the treasures in my backpack! Unknown mighty one, please spare my life! My meat doesn't taste good either! Aaaah!"

Vanidak watched with great interest as they screamed while frantically pulling all kinds of miscellaneous strange creatures from the peculiar oversized backpacks on their backs. Seeing that the great being before them did not seem intent on coming over to sample them, the terrified servants moved even faster. Some even turned their enormous backpacks upside down and emptied everything out, as though they wanted to offer every last possession to this cold-blooded, terrifying butcher in exchange for their lives.

As his eyes roamed over the life-saving treasures produced by these strange yet amusing creatures, Vanidak asked with a chuckle, "This isn't enough to make me spare your lives. After all, I've never tried novel creatures like you before. What if... you're delicious?" As he spoke, Vanidak put on the expression of someone starving. This frightened them into taking things out even faster, and they wailed at him, "Oh, no, no, no! Please don't eat me! I'm not delicious at all! We're willing to pay any price for your mercy! Please don't kill us!"

"Fine. I have a few questions for you. I ask, and you answer. If I'm satisfied, I might consider sparing your lives. Anyway, you look like you... hmm... don't have much meat worth eating."

As the servants nodded like pecking chickens, Vanidak continued.

"First, what exactly are you? I've traveled the Astral Realm for so long, yet I've never seen anything like you."

"Insect Speakers! My lord, we are Insect Speakers!" one servant with an especially strong desire to live hurriedly replied.

"Oh, Insect Speakers. What a strange name. Then next question: where did you come from?"

"We don't know either, my lord."

"Hmm?"

"Don't listen to his nonsense, my lord!" After smacking the teammate beside him for lacking tact, another Insect Speaker hurriedly explained, "We followed our lord here. That is... the one beside you."

Vanidak glanced at the cold corpse by his feet and nudged it with his toe. "Oh, a lord. Then what kind of thing is he?"

"A Pit Lord, my lord. He was the strongest creature in our territory." Seemingly recalling something, the Insect Speaker who answered added in a fawning tone, "Of course, of course, he was nowhere near your equal. Compared to yours, his strength was like... like..."

Seeing the Insect Speaker break out in a cold sweat as he struggled to find the words, Vanidak ignored him and continued, "All right, all right, I understand. A Pit Lord. Now back to the original question: where exactly did you come from?"

"We came through a spatial rift, my lord." One Insect Speaker seemed to remember something and answered loudly, "One day, our boss suddenly announced that he would lead us on a glorious expedition to claim new territory. Then we accidentally entered a spatial rift and arrived here. Afterward, that cunning rift closed."

"Ah, a spatial rift. It closed. Fine, I understand more or less. Then lastly..." Vanidak looked around at the nervous Insect Speakers watching him. Then, from the corner of his eye, he seemed to spot something. Picking up a bronze-colored stone resembling a gem, he said with some surprise, "Whoever can tell me where this came from, I'll spare you."

Seeing hope of survival at last, the Insect Speakers grew excited. The largest among them quickly answered, "It's nearby, my lord. I picked up that beautiful stone on a nearby planet just now. You truly have a discerning eye."

"Oh, it's nearby? What luck." Seemingly in a good mood, Vanidak finally delivered his verdict. "Your honesty has earned you the chance to live. Now you may leave. Of course, this stone belongs to me." As soon as he finished speaking, silver light flashed, and Vanidak vanished from the spot.

Watching the great being finally depart, the Insect Speakers who had escaped death collapsed onto the ground. After a moment of silence, one Insect Speaker asked the largest one, "Heavens, he was terrifying. So what do we do next, Oryx?"

The Insect Speaker called Oryx replied, "Of course we continue searching for treasures. Even such a dangerous situation failed to kill us. I can already see more rare treasures beckoning to me. I'll fill my backpack with them!"

Having left the cowardly, ridiculous, yet very interesting Insect Speakers behind, Vanidak held his trophy in one hand. As he sensed the aura within it, he said with a smile, "How interesting. A group of weak creatures discovered a stone with the aura of a Titan. Who could it be? Could it be a new member?"

"Whoever it is, this is a major discovery. Let me see... hmm, this way. I can't be wrong this time!"

Silver light flashed, and Vanidak sped rapidly in one direction.

Before long, Vanidak suddenly appeared and hovered in the Void. Before him was a colossal bronze-colored celestial body. In Vanidak's senses, a powerful Titan aura radiated from within it.

Looking at this celestial body that was likely his new brother, Vanidak sensed it carefully. Then he said in a cheerful tone, "Ah, it seems I really am the chosen one. Aman'Thul will definitely die of jealousy when he finds out that I found one like this. Aha!"

"Hmm... this big fellow seems to have matured long ago. That's good—it saves me the trouble of helping him grow. Though come to think of it, I don't know how to do that anyway. That seems to be Aman'Thul's specialty."

"Then there's only one question left. Tsk, tsk, how should I wake him up? After all, this fellow..."

"Can fight."