Jing Xiaoyi, the Soulful Artist~

Planet No. 5 had a warm, humid climate and was covered in every kind of insect, crustacean, worm, and arthropod... The bugs' reproductive capacity was utterly monstrous, and together they formed an incredibly formidable fighting force. As a result, almost no non-insect lifeforms had survived there. It was a true insect planet.

After all these days of intensive studying, Jing Yi had finally shaken off his "illiterate" status. Naturally, he had also read plenty of rumors about the five major planets. True or false, the more he learned, the more curious he became.

The conveyor belt carried them along, and Jing Yi was fortunate enough to witness many incredibly awe-inspiring sights.

He saw several kinds of enormous strange fish.

He saw several dinosaur-like beasts.

He saw all sorts of bizarrely shaped rocks and plants.

He saw an absolutely gigantic beehive, as well as densely packed bee pupae still wriggling inside it.

They finally arrived at District Eleven, naturally the insects' designated area. In fact, the neighboring District Twelve also belonged to the insects, but the insect meat there was either poisonous or carried a foul odor, so Yang Chun wisely ruled it out.

"The insect meat here is generally used to make specialized feed for high-end livestock farming, or pet food. It won't go to waste. But aside from you, I've really never seen anyone who wanted to try eating it themselves..."

Yang Chun glanced at Jing Yi, his expression complicated.

Fan Qiao's face was still green as he stared blankly ahead, looking utterly dead inside.

Jing Yi gave a dry laugh. "You people really don't know how to appreciate a good thing."

Yang Chun retorted, "Then by your logic, the little native bugs back home can be eaten too? That's disgusting, isn't it?"

"Of course they can be eaten! Some varieties are even more uniquely flavorful when they're small!" Jing Yi stubbornly refused to see reason.

Looking at poor Fan Qiao again, it seemed as though half his soul had already left his body.

Yang Chun shut up. In his heart, he kept screaming one sentence over and over—Qin Meng, come back already! Come back and rein in your ferocious spouse!

They had reached the entrance to District Eleven.

The moment they entered, the ceaseless sounds of cutting and grinding filled their ears.

The insects that ruled Planet No. 5 all had savage appearances—some had hard shells, some waved enormous pincers, and some had sharp teeth that gleamed coldly... The poisonous insects next door included a few weaklings, but every species here was genuinely fierce.

Those shells, pincers, and teeth were all valuable. They were cut off and used as Bio-Mecha materials, the most valuable parts of the insects.

The remaining insect meat was instead considered "scrap."

It was carelessly piled off to one side.

A peculiar fishy stench rushed toward them.

Humans were visual creatures. Why had the Sage Mencius left behind the timeless saying, "A gentleman keeps away from the kitchen"? Being unwilling to witness killing was one reason, but the main reason was that the sight was simply too unappealing! The powerful visual and olfactory impact could leave even slightly fragile people with psychological trauma, making them never want to eat meat again.

And that was only when dealing with such fresh and wholesome animals as cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens!

What they were seeing now were insects!

The impact was more than a hundred times greater!

Fan Qiao's face turned from green to red, red to purple, and purple to white, like a color-changing lantern flower.

Even Yang Chun, who had been acting as their field guide, fell silent. He quietly took three masks from his bag, handed one each to Jing Yi and Fan Qiao, and gestured for them to put them on quickly.

Confronted with the slaughterhouse scene again, Jing Yi finally silently rejected his bad idea of making an educational live-action video. He thought that perhaps he shouldn't test everyone's tolerance right from the start. Wouldn't it be better to begin with a comic version?

—Wait, is this really the time to be thinking about that? Please look at Fan Qiao beside you! Why hadn't you considered his tolerance? If you keep courting death like this... congratulations, your brief friendship is about to reach its end.

Soul Artist Jing Xiaoyi~

After Jing Yi finished touring the place, he went to meet the person in charge. Upon hearing that they intended to purchase insect meat, the rugged-looking captain readily agreed without even asking what they planned to use it for. In his view, insect meat was cheap surplus anyway. Some feed factories were happy to take it, but it made no difference who received it. These people had been brought by Chief Guard Yang, and they were not planning to buy everything. Besides, the price Jing Yi offered was not low. Even giving it to him for free would have been fine!

There was no need to sign any agreement for the time being. They merely reached a verbal understanding before taking their leave.

Fan Qiao remained silent the entire time.

Jing Yi was not an idiot who could not read the room. He did not want to scare off this future business partner right at the beginning, so he tried to comfort him. "You can't accept insect meat because bugs are too ugly, right?"

Without waiting for either of them to answer, he continued, "I think that's prejudice, truly. In my eyes, meat is meat. Flavor and nutrition are the top priorities. As for everything else? It's not like you're being asked to swallow them whole! Once properly processed, how is insect meat any different from pork, beef, mutton, or chicken? Its texture is even more delicate, its flavor more delicious, and its energy content richer. Look, if I didn't tell you it was insect meat, would you care? Prejudice really is everywhere. So many people can more readily accept nutrient supplements containing who knows how many chemically synthesized ingredients, yet cannot accept tastier, healthier insect meat. Is it only because nutrient supplements look more aesthetically pleasing to us?