Bloodwing Black Mosquito

Seeing Elder Mo's crazed expression, Jiao Yu held her blade horizontally, shielding the three of them behind her.

Blackwater Mosquitoes were terrifying—she had just witnessed it with her own eyes. She could raise protective qi around herself, but the three children behind her could not.

If those things swooped down, they would not last even three breaths.

Wei Xuanfeng's expression turned grave.

He realized that even with all his attributes maxed out and his blade aura newly formed, facing this storm of living creatures was no different from standing barehanded in a torrential downpour.

A powerful sense of helplessness spread through his heart...

"Don't be nervous," Elder Mo said blandly. "It's not your turn yet."

He extended his index finger and lightly drew it across the spot between his brows.

A dark red bead of blood seeped from beneath his skin and hovered on his fingertip.

His hands swiftly formed several hand seals before him. The blood bead twitched at his fingertips, then suddenly scattered into an exceedingly faint mist of blood that drifted toward the black cloud overhead.

Elder Mo's face abruptly turned ashen, as if half his life had been drained away. Even his lips took on a layer of grayish white.

The instant the swarm of Blackwater Mosquitoes touched the blood mist, it was as though something had set them alight—they exploded apart.

No longer one cohesive mass, they split into countless smaller clusters and began tearing savagely at one another.

The buzzing was shrill and piercing. The dense black swarm rolled, tangled, and devoured each other in midair. Shattered wings, severed limbs, and translucent insect shells fluttered down like scraps of torn paper.

Wei Xuanfeng saw two Blackwater Mosquitoes biting each other. One had its abdomen ripped open, liquid spraying from within, while the other opened its mouth and swallowed its companion's mangled remains.

More mosquitoes repeated the same process...

Gnawing on one another, devouring one another.

At the same time, an extraordinary fragrance suddenly burst through the air...

Elder Mo stood beneath the swarm, his hands still held in their seal-forming pose. His face was gray with exhaustion, but there was a smile at the corner of his lips.

Duan Hai knelt on the ground with his forehead pressed into the mud, his voice trembling as though he were weeping.

"Congratulations, Elder Mo! Congratulations, Sacred Insect!"

Jiao Yu's foot shifted.

She had barely retreated half a step when Elder Mo's light, drifting voice sounded out.

"Everyone, I advise you to stand still." He raised a hand and pointed at the mosquito swarm still tearing each other apart overhead. "These little fellows aren't very much under my control right now. If anyone moves recklessly, I can't guarantee which direction they'll dart in."

Jiao Yu froze mid-step.

Fox Murong quietly edged half a step closer to Wei Xuanfeng, her shoulder touching his arm.

Wen Shihan stood on Wei Xuanfeng's other side. She said nothing, but at some point, her hand had already clenched the corner of his robe...

"Old man," Wei Xuanfeng said. He had no intention of sitting around and waiting for death, so he took the initiative. "What exactly are these mosquitoes?"

Elder Mo tilted his head slightly, his gaze carrying the pleasure of someone thinking, So you finally asked.

"These Blackwater Mosquitoes came from an insect egg that my Black Banner found in an ancient ruin in the southwest. According to ancient records, they carry a trace of the bloodline of the ancient vicious insect, the Bloodwing Black Mosquito. Black Banner spent decades nurturing them with secret arts before we obtained the first generation of living insects."

"But that trace of bloodline was too thin, like a spark on the verge of going out. To truly ignite it and make them return to their ancestors, they had to use the Earth Immortal Spring Lotus as a catalyst. This thing ranks among the world's ten greatest poisons. An ordinary person dies at a touch, but for the Blackwater Mosquitoes, it is the only nourishment capable of tempering their bloodline."

"I traveled far and wide with it, searching for decades, until I finally learned that an Earth Immortal Spring Lotus had appeared near Kang City. My original plan was to have the Blackwater Mosquitoes consume the Spring Lotus. Once they transformed into Bloodwing Black Mosquitoes, I would use all of Kang City as their first blood meal. The essence and blood of an entire city would be enough for that Bloodwing Black Mosquito to grow to full maturity."

"Unfortunately, word got out. Before I could act, Yang Xuyan found me first. That old bastard struck viciously enough to shatter my physical body with one punch. I had no choice but to seize the body of some dying piece of trash by the roadside to barely survive. To guard against me, Yang Xuyan refined that Earth Immortal Spring Lotus on the spot and left with the pill. I thought I had come all this way for nothing..."

"But I never expected that Earth Immortal Spring Lotus to have one stalk and twin blooms. Nor did I expect that Wu Santong bastard to have the nerve to secretly hide the other bloom right under Yang Xuyan's nose. He thought himself clever, sending Embroidery and Seven Killings to fake their deaths and conceal the lotus, intending to swallow it alone once the storm had passed. He calculated that Yang Xuyan would leave. He calculated that the wolf pack would give chase. But he failed to calculate... that I had been watching him from the shadows all along."

The sounds of slaughter in the sky gradually faded.

Once the fragments had all fallen away, only the final two Blackwater Mosquitoes remained, circling and confronting each other in the air before lunging at the same time.

One was faster. Its proboscis pierced the other's abdomen, and the translucent insect body burst in midair like a crushed bubble, splashing several drops of dark red fluid.

The victor beat its wings and hovered in the air, releasing an exceptionally soft, thin buzz.

Wei Xuanfeng looked up.

That Blackwater Mosquito was black from head to toe, yet a faint dark-violet sheen flowed over its body.

Its wings were no longer transparent. They resembled two thin pieces of polished jade, with faint crimson patterns barely visible along their edges.

It was too beautiful to seem alive, too uncanny to seem born of nature.

Elder Mo raised his hand, and the Blackwater Mosquito gently landed on his fingertip, its six legs lightly clasping the pad of his finger.

"To truly awaken that trace of Bloodwing Black Mosquito bloodline, the Earth Immortal Spring Lotus alone is not enough. They must also feed on their own kind—using offspring to nurture a gu, slaughtering one another until only a single one remains. Only the one that survives to the end has the right to swallow the Spring Lotus and complete its transformation."

He lowered his head to look at the Blackwater Mosquito on his fingertip as though he were looking at his own child.

"Young friend, you are still young. I'll give you a chance." Elder Mo lifted his gaze toward Wei Xuanfeng. "If you are willing to join my Black Banner, I can spare your life."

Wei Xuanfeng merely smiled.

"Even if I don't join Black Banner, I won't die."

"Oh?" The amusement in Elder Mo's eyes deepened. "Then tell me—what other trump card do you have?"

He gently stroked the Blackwater Mosquito at his fingertips, his gaze slowly sweeping across the four of them.

Let alone them—even Wu Santong.

None of them posed the slightest threat to him!

Unless a Martial Saint came in person...

"So you got your physical body blown to pieces. Truly stupid beyond saving," Wei Xuanfeng said coldly. "At your age, you're still this impulsive."

Elder Mo's expression darkened.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is..." Wei Xuanfeng gazed at the exquisite Blackwater Mosquito between his fingers and said leisurely, "How about you first check whether the jade box even contains the Earth Immortal Spring Lotus before making those mosquitoes kill each other?"

Elder Mo's smile froze on his face.

He abruptly lowered his head and flipped open the jade box...

It was empty!!

There was nothing inside.

He froze for a moment, then raised his head and stared at Wei Xuanfeng.

"When did you begin suspecting Duan Hai?"

Old and cunning as a demon, Elder Mo instantly understood everything.

"For that, I have Embroidery to thank. Before she died, she wrote the two words, 'Duan Hai.'" Wei Xuanfeng took a strip of cloth from his robes. "Lord Duan, Embroidery... you were the one who killed her, weren't you?"

"I only killed Seven Killings," Duan Hai said calmly. "As for her, you could call it suicide."

"Duan Hai, take back the Earth Immortal Spring Lotus!" Elder Mo's voice was terrifyingly calm.

"By your command!"

"Leave Duan Hai to me! You all run!"

The one who moved even before Duan Hai was Embroidery!

With a flicker of her figure, she blocked Duan Hai's path.

Blade edges clashed, yet neither retreated a single step.

"Attack!"

Wei Xuanfeng did not run. After shouting that, he charged toward Elder Mo at lightning speed.

Only one Blackwater Mosquito remained, and Elder Mo's cultivation was no more than the Martial Warrior realm.

No matter how one looked at it, the advantage was mine!!

Run!

The one who should be running was Elder Mo!