What Was There to Talk About with a Bug?

"Can you talk?"

"No wonder those Beast Kings wanted to devour you. Possessing intelligence really is enough to drive one mad."

Chu Wen had not expected the queen of this insect nest to understand the roundabout tactics of humans and know to stall for time.

"This servant had no choice either. I spent two years building this nest, and it was finally close to taking shape when you barged in."

"If my lord wishes to kill me now, then all I can do is submit without resistance. Is that not so?"

If not for the queen dragging along a chamber several meters long, her voice would have sounded quite pleasant. Unfortunately, Chu Wen had no way to appreciate the sight before him.

"A deal? I don't think you have anything that could tempt me."

"I do, how could I not? I've collected the nutrient-rich parts of countless demon beasts, all brimming with blood qi. My children snatched them back for me. Some of these nutrient parts could fetch an astronomical price among you human martial artists."

"Look, this is half a severed tail from a King Dragon Lizard. My children went to great lengths to find it on the battlefield of Jiangnan Base City, thousands of kilometers away..."

Chu Wen was somewhat surprised. "You even know about Jiangnan Base City?"

"This servant has always been learning."

This was a Demon King—an entirely different level of life from a Beast King!

Only their bodies differed; their intelligence was no different from that of humans.

Chu Wen slowly approached. The Primordial Source Pearl's reaction could not be false. Among this insect queen's treasures, there was likely something capable of attracting the Primordial Source Pearl.

"Anything else? This little bit doesn't interest me." He cast a bored glance over the items, then casually twisted aside, dodging the sneak attack of a red worker ant. "That's not a very good attitude for negotiations."

The queen kept her composure as she studied this human once more.

He was simply a monster. That ghostly movement technique—those dodges did not seem like something a human could pull off.

She had not even seen what happened before her guard's ambush had missed. How had he done it? It was utterly unbelievable.

"Cunning human."

She turned her head and gestured to the guards beside her. One of them spat out an object wrapped layer upon layer in mucus.

"It's all here. I am very sincere. What about you?"

Chu Wen nodded slightly. "Your sincerity is indeed quite impressive."

"But it seems you've gotten one thing wrong."

Confusion was clearly written in the queen's eyes. She did not understand what Chu Wen meant.

"What was there to talk about with a bug?"

The moment the words fell—

A layer of red blood scab erupted over Chu Wen's body.

Blood qi fully unleashed—

Blood Demon State!

Combat power increased by 400%!

A war blade slid out from his combat suit, carving half an arc through the air before turning into a streak of silver light and piercing precisely into the queen's abdominal cavity.

Burning Blade Technique! Shadow Follows Form! Return to Simplicity!

Chu Wen's speed exploded to its limit. With a flash, he seized the blade's hilt once more.

One slash straight through!

It had happened too suddenly and too quickly. The two guards had not even reacted before their queen was already dead.

All that remained was her wide-eyed expression of disbelief and her bloated husk sprawled across the ground.

With the queen dead, the surrounding insects also fell silent one after another, leaving behind only empty shells.

A few breaths later, Chu Wen ignored the sticky fluids scattered around the area and stuffed everything into his bag in one sweep. Whatever would not fit, he carried away too, even if it split the flesh between his thumb and forefinger. He quickly departed with every treasure in the place.

A close call, but no real danger.

The queen's realm should have been that of an early-stage Beast King!

In Blood Demon State, he could at most unleash the destructive power of a high-stage warrior.

Combined with the Burning Blade Technique at Return to Simplicity, he could deal twenty times the damage—equivalent to a high-stage war general.

There was still an entire realm between a high-stage war general and an early-stage Beast King!

Just now, he had been judging the queen's most vulnerable point: her overly swollen abdominal cavity.

When that abdomen wriggled, her yellow skin carried a faint translucent sheen. Its defenses had to be at their weakest there.

His movement technique might have been heaven-defying, but the power an A-grade war blade could unleash, combined with the Burning Blade Technique, had to be just enough to take this queen's life.

Yet Chu Wen did not dare gamble. After all, the queen might have had some trump card she had been reluctant to use.

So if he was going to do it, he had to do it cleanly!

From the moment he saw the honey-storage ants, Chu Wen had sentenced the insect queen to death in his heart.

What the queen did not know was that while she had been stalling for time, so had he—waiting to seize the instant to strike.

Clearly, this queen had still failed to learn one of the essential truths of human martial artists—

Kill you, and there's no need to trade with you.

A few minutes later, Chu Wen recovered his strength atop a collapsed house in the county town.

Blood Demon State could unleash several times his combat power, but it also came with a hidden danger. After the burst ended, he would be left completely without strength for a short time.

Only after confirming that the surrounding area was safe did he carefully open the object wrapped in mucus.

Inside lay a red pearl, very similar in appearance to the Primordial Source Pearl!

Before he could react, the red pearl sank into his glabella and fused with the Primordial Source Pearl in his mind.

Only then did Chu Wen open his mouth in surprise.

[Primordial Source Pearl · Blood Qi (completed once)]

[Primordial Origin Breathing Method can be cultivated]

[Potential Points: 0]

Such a heaven-defying thing was actually incomplete?

Chu Wen hurriedly rummaged through the chunks of flesh in his bag and cleared away the mucus. Only then did the Primordial Source Pearl begin absorbing blood qi.

As blood qi continuously overflowed, his Potential Points kept increasing, soaring to fifty once more.

Only then were those chunks of flesh squeezed dry of their final value.

"To think there was this much blood qi. These chunks of flesh were probably collected by those worker ants during the great battle at Jiangnan Base City. This saliva can even preserve them."

As expected of a Beast King—every part of it was treasure.

Thinking of something, Chu Wen used a cup to collect a full cup of it. This substance might prove useful someday.

After tossing away several chunks of flesh that no longer contained blood qi, he barely managed to stuff those precious materials into his backpack.

Chu Wen was in no hurry to cultivate the breathing method here. He had already spent some time in this place, so after editing a few videos, he returned to the county town entrance where he could connect to the network and uploaded them.

However, what he uploaded was a dead-silent county town, the underground insect nest, and the corpse of the dead Beast King...

He would not expose too much of his strength. Letting it leak out casually later would produce the best effect.

The optical brain would probably judge the video as a clash between Beast Kings, with the insect queen devoured and a human martial artist caught in the aftermath. The Beast King that ultimately won had already left the area.

"Thank you for your work, Comrade Chu Wen. This insect nest is a Level Four ant nest and has been classified as extremely dangerous."

"However, the insect nest clearly had not grown into its complete form. Based on the Beast King's corpse, it can be inferred that the Beast Kings fought each other, and the human martial artist was caught in the aftermath..."

"Given Chu Wen's outstanding completion of this reconnaissance mission, we have applied for official martial artist benefits on your behalf. The corresponding rewards are under review and are expected to be transmitted to your optical brain in two days."

The optical brain would not ask what benefits Chu Wen had gained.

Picking up materials? He had to have the courage to explore first. He deserved them.

Racing all the way, casually killing several beast-soldier-level demon beasts blocking his path, Chu Wen returned to Warrior Fortress No. 033 after being out for only two days.

"Brother Chu? You look like you're in pretty bad shape this time. Did you run into danger?"

"Sigh, no materials to sell? Beast-soldier-level ones are still at the old price..."

Seeing Chu Wen merely greet him before leaving, Chen Yang smacked his lips a few times and said no more. But as soon as he turned around, he received a message from Chu Wen.

[Got some good stuff. If you've got the guts, come to my room.]

Gulp.

A wild thought surfaced in Chen Yang's mind.

He could not possibly hide beast-general-level materials. Could it be Beast-King-level materials!?

"This kid... no way..."