A Bountiful Haul!

"I have the power of the insect civilization inheritance. Even with my current strength at the peak of the acquired human rank, backed by a squad of twenty Giant Mantis Beasts, modern civilization on Earth would struggle to pose a real threat to me." Worry clouded Yang Yu's face. "But now that the Immortal Civilization's power has reached Earth, the potential threat is far too great."

"I'll have to keep an even lower profile until I'm strong enough."

"But unlocking the later portions of the Insect Codex will require resources. If members of the Immortal Civilization or cultivators descended from them really do still exist on Earth, I'm almost certain to clash with them."

These thoughts flooded Yang Yu's mind, and he felt the pressure weighing on him.

The Insectoid Civilization had a poor reputation in the universe.

Many civilizations across the universe were even hostile toward it!

The Insectoid Civilization's history of development was, in truth, a history of war and the plunder of rare resources... Although it had gone extinct hundreds of millions of years ago for unknown reasons, even today, the races of the universe still shuddered at the memory of that terrifying race that had once unleashed such turmoil.

Yang Yu had every reason to believe that if the Immortal Civilization lurking on Earth discovered that he carried the insect civilization inheritance...

They would stop at nothing to kill him!

At that thought, Yang Yu clenched his fists.

Whoever became his enemy in the future, even if he fought with everything he had and still lost, he would make them pay dearly!

"Giant Mantis Beasts!" Yang Yu shouted his command.

"Dig faster! Turn these ruins inside out as quickly as you can!" After all, this Immortal Spirit Ghost Market had been left behind by descendants of the Immortal Civilization. Abandoned or not, lingering here still made Yang Yu uneasy.

He had to move quickly, retrieve the treasures he sensed, and get far away from this dangerous place!

This Immortal Spirit Ghost Market belonging to the Yinwood Sect had clearly been excavated and damaged by those who came afterward.

The vast majority of its treasures had already been taken.

But Yang Yu was certain that none of those people had been Fate Soul cultivators... Otherwise, a sweep of Fate Soul power and its mysterious perception would have easily revealed the treasures still buried beneath the ruins.

Even after being plundered, this Immortal Spirit Ghost Market still had some treasures left within its ruins!

Digging them out would be enough to net Yang Yu a windfall!

Although Yang Yu sensed no exceptionally powerful treasures beneath the rubble... there were quite a few mundane objects with ancient auras, as well as items of mortal shedding.

"Dig, dig, dig!"

Dust flew as three enormous Giant Mantis Beasts, clad in sturdy, metallic-colored shells, moved aside the huge stones from collapsed buildings!

One enormous pit after another appeared in the ground.

And each time a pit appeared, an object was unearthed at its bottom!

Within five minutes, Yang Yu had retrieved at least ten antiques of varying value... and a short saber that felt quite heavy in his hand!

A weapon!

One of the Mortal Shedding Treasures!

And a top-quality one at that!

Ten minutes... fifteen minutes... twenty minutes...

The three Giant Mantis Beasts kept digging.

Under Yang Yu's direction, they unearthed almost every suspicious patch of ground.

Meanwhile, Yang Yu channeled Life Energy and released the Black-Spotted Tiger-Stripe Mantises he had just purchased, selecting five to accelerate their growth simultaneously! He kept the remaining five, including the female mantis, as breeding stock!

Racing against time, Yang Yu's face grew pale.

As vast amounts of Life Energy poured into them, the five newly selected Black-Spotted Tiger-Stripe Mantises underwent life modification and evolved rapidly, their bodies swelling almost visibly!

At the ten-minute mark, five new Giant Mantis Beasts appeared and joined the three already under Yang Yu's command...

The new additions greatly increased the Giant Mantis Beasts' digging speed.

Finally, after an hour, Yang Yu had turned almost every patch of ground in the ruins of the Immortal Spirit Ghost Market upside down... Almost everything of value had been unearthed.

At the very least, when Yang Yu searched again with his Fate Soul power, he could no longer sense anything unusual.

"Thirty-seven antiques..."

"Seven Mortal Shedding Treasures!"

"I've struck it rich." At that moment, Yang Yu wanted nothing more than to throw back his head and laugh, letting out all his excitement.

Rustle!

Rustle~~~~~~~~~

A heap of treasures lay before Yang Yu. He pulled down a huge sheet of canvas fluttering among the ruined buildings and wrapped it around the entire pile.

Then he tied it tight!

Swish!

The mass of treasures was bundled into a huge ball within the filthy black canvas.

Its surface bulged unevenly, and two Giant Mantis Beasts gripped it in their mandibles and lifted it.

"Go!" Yang Yu ordered without further hesitation.

As the word left his mouth, he shot forward at incredible speed, becoming a blurry black silhouette as he raced straight toward the exit gate of the ruined Immortal Spirit Ghost Market.

This was a dangerous place, and Yang Yu had no intention of lingering!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Several indistinct, blurry shadows hurtled forward!

They raced across the ground like lightning!

In the blink of an eye, they covered an astonishing distance.

Yang Yu and the Giant Mantis Beasts soon left the ruins and returned to the pitch-black alley with its long passageway.

The instant he entered the alley, Yang Yu heard faint noise coming from the darkness!

It was the sound of someone entering the alley!

"Someone's coming?" Yang Yu's expression, which had only just relaxed, changed abruptly.

"—Giant Mantis Beasts, conceal yourselves!" Yang Yu's pupils contracted. An instant later, he swept his arm out, spread the five fingers of his right hand like claws, and clenched them in midair!

With this series of movements, the eight Giant Mantis Beasts surrounding Yang Yu rapidly scattered outward with him at their center, as though invisible threads in the void were controlling their bodies.

Once they were fifteen to twenty meters away, the space around each of them suddenly churned, splitting into pitch-black spatial rifts that swallowed them.

Yang Yu could now withdraw or release the Giant Mantis Beasts under his command anywhere within twenty meters of himself!

That was the area covered by his life-soul space!

As his Fate Soul power continued to grow, not only would the number of ferocious insects Yang Yu could control increase greatly... the size of his Life-Soul Space and the distance its influence extended beyond his body would also keep expanding.

Before he had begun practicing the Hundredfold Soul-Tempering Score, Yang Yu could only make the few Giant Mantis Beasts under his command appear or disappear within five meters of himself!

PS: I've been sick for a while and just haven't been getting better. I was too tired tonight and lay down for a nap, only to sleep until now... Luckily, I'd written some during the day. After writing a little more, I finally reached the word count, so I'm uploading it now. Sorry, everyone, for keeping you waiting until now.

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