Ghost-Faced Soul-Absorbing Moth

Ghost-Faced Soul-Absorbing Moth

Hearing the prompt for the main quest, Chen Lin could not help feeling a little frustrated.

These main quests appeared without any pattern whatsoever, always catching him off guard. If not for his bit of luck and fortuitous encounters, he might have long since been forcibly erased by the Main God Coffin for having negative Death Energy points.

Therefore, despite possessing over fifty thousand points of Death Energy, he still did not dare spend them carelessly in ordinary times.

"Look, the insect egg has hatched!"

"Heh, I wonder what this insect looks like and what abilities it possesses?"

"Even if it hatches the most ordinary exotic insect, this man will have struck it rich! You have to know that even the most ordinary exotic insects inherit Human-Grade Immortal Techniques within them."

Just then, the insect egg in that fortunate cultivator's hand finally hatched, drawing the curious, burning gazes of the surrounding cultivators toward his palm.

Chen Lin temporarily put aside his frustration and focused his attention on it.

The egg in the cultivator's hand slowly drew in its green glow. Then faint cracking sounds came from its surface, like the sound of an eggshell being broken. Immediately afterward, a strange insect with a scorpion-like head and two wings on its back struggled out of the shell and landed in the cultivator's palm.

The exotic insect was only the size of a thumb. It clumsily wriggled in the cultivator's palm, then actually crawled back to the egg and began gnawing on the shell.

Within just a few breaths, the insect had devoured the eggshell completely. Its body then grew rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, soon reaching the size of half a fist.

A bright red line ran down its spine, seeming to divide its body in two. Its pair of wings were white, while a slit opened across its head, revealing rows of comb-like teeth. It looked vicious and terrifying.

"What kind of exotic insect is this? It looks rather fierce and extraordinary."

"This exotic insect is still in its juvenile stage. Naturally, its exact powers cannot be seen yet. Only its owner can learn that."

The people around them stared eagerly at the exotic insect in the cultivator's palm, their voices filled with jealousy and envy. The lucky cultivator grinned at the insect in his hand, naturally overjoyed.

"Congratulations, fellow Daoist." The smile on the middle-aged stall owner's face was somewhat stiff. As he looked at the savage insect, a trace of heartache flashed through his eyes.

With this successful example of an exotic insect hatching, the surrounding cultivators' enthusiasm for gambling on eggs immediately surged. The insect eggs at the stall rapidly dwindled, and the middle-aged stall owner's previously stiff expression gradually improved.

Chen Lin stroked his chin and stared at the many insect eggs before him. He also crouched down, casually picked up a dark gray egg from the outermost row, held it before his eyes, and examined it carefully.

The egg was oval-shaped and looked utterly lifeless. Its exterior was wrapped in a layer of bark-like material, making it resemble a rotten stone one could find anywhere along the roadside.

Chen Lin's eyes flickered as he connected to the Main God system.

"Unknown insect egg. It may contain a strange lifeform."

Hearing the Guide's icy reply, Chen Lin set down the egg in his hand and picked up another one beside it.

"Unknown insect egg. It may contain a strange lifeform."

It was the same answer. Even the Main God Coffin could not identify these insect eggs. It seemed there was no shortcut to take.

Chen Lin was somewhat disappointed, but he did not give up. Unfortunately, no matter what methods he tried, he could not find anything unusual about these eggs, much less tell whether they were live eggs or dead ones.

"I'll take all these insect eggs. Fellow Daoist, calculate the Spirit Stones."

Left with no choice, Chen Lin stood and spoke calmly to the middle-aged stall owner.

"What?"

The surrounding cultivators all froze at his words, and even the middle-aged stall owner looked stunned.

"I'll take all these insect eggs."

Chen Lin frowned and repeated himself.

Since there was no way to distinguish live eggs from dead ones, Chen Lin could only use the most direct and effective method: buy every insect egg in front of him. Otherwise, before long, these eggs would likely be sold out, and he would not be able to buy them even if he wanted to.

"What? Is this man insane?"

"Exactly. The combined price of all these insect eggs is no small sum. Could he be some favored disciple of an immortal sect, to be willing to spend so many Spirit Stones?"

"If even one of these eggs hatches an exotic insect, that would already be exceedingly rare. Spending so many Spirit Stones will most likely end with the money vanishing like water poured into the sea. What an unwise move."

This time, all the cultivators were astonished, yet none of them thought well of Chen Lin's actions. They believed he was wasting Spirit Stones.

Chen Lin naturally paid no attention to what the others said. He folded his arms over his chest and stared expressionlessly at the middle-aged stall owner.

"Fellow Daoist, do you truly intend to buy all the remaining insect eggs?" The middle-aged stall owner came back to his senses. The look in his eyes as he regarded Chen Lin had changed, though his tone still carried some doubt.

Chen Lin frowned, impatience entering his voice as he said bluntly, "Naturally. Please calculate how many Spirit Stones are needed. I have important matters to attend to and cannot afford delays."

"Of course, of course. Please wait a moment, sir."

Seeing that neither Chen Lin's expression nor tone suggested he was joking, the middle-aged stall owner was naturally overjoyed. He said no more and began calculating in earnest.

"Hey! Fellow Daoist, if he buys them all, what are we supposed to do?"

"Right! I wanted to gamble a few more times. Maybe I could win a live insect egg!"

Seeing that Chen Lin truly intended to buy every insect egg, some of the surrounding cultivators became displeased and began shouting.

Chen Lin grew impatient at the noise. Frowning, he rolled his eyes and said without ceremony, "If you have the Spirit Stones, you can buy them all yourselves. If you do not have the Spirit Stones, why are you yapping nonsense here? What a racket!"

"You...!"

His words naturally enraged some of the surrounding cultivators, but none of them could say anything further. After all, those who frequented such marketplaces were hardly people with abundant wealth. Most were Rogue Cultivators, and they simply could not bear to spend a huge sum of Spirit Stones on these highly risky insect eggs.

Chen Lin naturally did not have enough Spirit Stones on him either, but the Main God Exchange System allowed him to exchange every 2 points of Death Energy for one Low-Grade Spirit Stone. With his total of 54,861 points of Death Energy, he could actually exchange them for more than 27,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

For low-level cultivators, that already counted as a considerable fortune.

Normally, Chen Lin would never use his precious Death Energy points to exchange for Spirit Stones. However, the penalty for failing the quest was the deduction of 10,000 points of Death Energy, equivalent to 5,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones. And spending 5,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones to buy the remaining insect eggs was clearly not too great a loss. Moreover, completing the quest would grant him a chance to draw a precious item from another plane. No matter how he calculated it, it was a profitable deal.

Just then, the middle-aged stall owner finished calculating the price. Rubbing his hands with a broad smile, he said to Chen Lin, "Fellow Daoist, these brightly colored and unusual ones with naturally formed patterns cost 300 Spirit Stones each. There are seven of them. These brightly colored ones without patterns cost 200 Spirit Stones each. There are thirteen of them. As for the rest... the total comes to 5,330 Spirit Stones. We can round it down; 5,300 Spirit Stones will do."

Chen Lin's mouth twitched. The amount had actually exceeded his estimate somewhat, but he could not be bothered to haggle over such trivial details. Without hesitation, he exchanged 53 Mid-Grade Spirit Stones from the Main God Exchange System and tossed them all to the middle-aged stall owner.

Next, Chen Lin carefully placed the insect eggs into his Storage Bag. Seeing that he had no intention of hatching them on the spot, the surrounding cultivators immediately lost interest and dispersed.

Chen Lin naturally ignored them. After quickly putting away the insect eggs, he could not be bothered with pleasantries for the stall owner and promptly turned to leave.

After all, the time limit for the main quest was one hour. He could not afford to waste time.

Returning to the inn, Chen Lin immediately took out every insect egg and began dripping blood onto them one by one to hatch them.

Half an hour passed. He hatched twenty-two insect eggs in all, but every one proved to be dead. Chen Lin remained expressionless and continued. He believed that since the Main God Coffin had issued the quest, at least one of these eggs had to be alive.

Suddenly, while Chen Lin was hatching an inconspicuous dark gray insect egg, the situation finally changed.

Gray light flickered over the egg's surface. As Chen Lin held it in his palm, he could actually sense something wriggling deep inside, as though life was brewing within.

Crack!

The insect egg split open.

A small moth-shaped exotic insect slowly crawled out. Its clumsy body could not stand steadily, and it tumbled into Chen Lin's palm.

A strange light appeared in Chen Lin's eyes as he stared at the exotic insect in his hand.

The insect rapidly devoured the eggshell completely, growing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Before long, it had reached half a foot in size.

This moth-like exotic insect was brilliantly multicolored. Its pair of wings were incomparably dazzling, covered in bizarre and eerie patterns. When the wings folded together, they formed a ghostly face with a vicious, ferocious appearance. Looking closely at its head, it resembled an even more savage human face, making one's hair stand on end at a glance. A pair of stinger-like mandibles had grown out, slender and hook-shaped, chilling and unfathomable.

At that moment, the exotic insect was trembling its wings with a hissing sound, still lying in Chen Lin's palm as though too lazy to move.

Chen Lin's gaze flickered as he connected to the Main God Coffin.

"Ghost-Faced Soul-Absorbing Moth, born from Ghost-Tomb Phosphorescent Fire, fond of devouring souls..."