Life-Bound Spirit Insect

The death of one Black Jade Insect was like a fuse being lit. More spirit insects collapsed in rapid succession, their signs of life fading away.

The sight made Heavenly Insect's heart ache and twitch... These should all have been mine!

Heavenly Insect had never imagined that the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm possessed such a terrifying ability. It could control other insects? And that golden light was so powerful that it could even contend with the Blood Soul Array he had risked his life to unleash!

The reason these spirit insects died was simple: the violent clash between the blood soul threads and the golden light had shattered their souls and annihilated their consciousness.

At last, the dust settled.

Eight high-grade spirit insects remained standing, now Heavenly Insect's most loyal guards.

"Not bad, not bad. With the Earth Spirit Scorpion and Blade Mantis, that makes ten high-grade spirit insects. Even against a Heaven Fusion Realm expert, they should be enough."

As for the Black Nether Ants and Devouring Spirit Bees he had lost, as long as he still had the Ant Queen and Bee Queen, raising more would merely take some time and resources.

As for those resources...

Looking at the high-grade spirit insect corpses piled along the passage, along with those in the valley outside, Heavenly Insect's only concern was probably that his Mustard Seed Bracelet was too small to carry away so many precious materials!

Taking out his three remaining bottles of Spirit Insect Liquid, Heavenly Insect left his ten spirit insects outside to rest and recover. He stepped over layer upon layer of corpses and headed toward the dark golden Light Cocoon in the darkness.

As he approached, Heavenly Insect could clearly sense the light within the Light Cocoon flickering faster, much like a person's heartbeat speeding up when they grew nervous.

Meanwhile, the smile on Heavenly Insect's lips grew wider and wider, until he was laughing silently...

He couldn't help it. This was an ancient ferocious insect that might one day reach the level of a Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereign, and now he had actually obtained it. Surely it wasn't too much to say that his future looked bright?

"I knew an Otherworlder couldn't go without transmigration perks... Looks like rebuilding my body was just the basic package. This is the real perk!"

I don't have a system or any other cheat. If I didn't even get a powerful helper, wouldn't this whole transmigration have been for nothing?!

Reaching the Light Cocoon, which stood taller than a person, Heavenly Insect plopped down on the ground. He was still desperately weak from losing so much blood and would probably need many days to recover.

But that was fine. He wasn't in a hurry. Although the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm had little strength left to resist, subduing it would not be easy.

The only method Heavenly Insect could think of was to refine it into his Life-Bound Spirit Insect!

This was much like the Bloodline Link possessed by those ancient Divine Beast bloodlines. Both used a special method to connect a spirit insect's-or a Spirit Beast's-lifeline to a human's.

The benefit was that the human would gain the spirit insect's or Spirit Beast's abilities. It was a more advanced way of acquiring abilities than simply refining Spirit Beast Essence.

The drawback was that the two would become closely bound from then on. If one died, the other would die as well.

Even within the Spirit Insect Tribe, selecting a Life-Bound Spirit Insect involved extremely strict requirements. Its bloodline rank and strength both had to be sufficient. Otherwise, no matter how talented you were, if your Life-Bound Spirit Insect was useless, you would be ruined too.

The original Heavenly Insect had held little standing in the Spirit Insect Tribe, and after both his parents died, no one could find him a powerful spirit insect. Thus, even after cultivating to the late phase of the Divine Soul Realm, he had never found a suitable Life-Bound Spirit Insect. This had also left him the weakest among his peers, with many people far younger than him gradually catching up and even surpassing him.

It was precisely under those circumstances that the helpless Heavenly Insect had chosen to make one final gamble, running off with his family's inherited scroll.

Although the unlucky original owner of this body was already dead, since he had inherited the man's identity and memories,

Heavenly Insect didn't mind lending him a hand with certain things along the way. He could count it as helping that unlucky fellow fulfill his wish... After letting his thoughts wander, Heavenly Insect glanced at the Light Cocoon, which had already settled down.

Perhaps because Heavenly Insect had done nothing, it thought he had no way of dealing with it. The Light Cocoon had clearly lost its earlier nervousness.

Heavenly Insect paid that no mind. Refining a Life-Bound Spirit Insect was no simple task, and there were many things he needed to prepare. He also needed to restore his body to good health.

Over the following days, apart from cultivating and recovering, Heavenly Insect spent his time gathering materials from the spirit insect corpses in the valley outside.

He discarded anything of little value that he had no use for, keeping the valuable materials instead. In particular, he didn't pass up a single high-grade Spirit Beast Essence.

In his spare time, he also used these materials to concoct various substances, such as spirit liquids that accelerated spirit insect reproduction and growth, along with all kinds of strengthening and evolution spirit liquids.

There were also the venom glands, venom sacs, and stingers from these spirit insects. While collecting them, Heavenly Insect extracted quite a lot of venom.

These venoms were useful for far more than simply killing people...

Among insects, a large proportion of spirit insects were venomous. Feeding these venomous insects different kinds of venom could strengthen their toxicity, and some could even evolve as a result... Of the Spirit Insect Tribe's four branches, the Profound Branch specialized in raising venomous insects. When the time came, he could trade these highly toxic materials with its members. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Time slipped by unnoticed, and in the blink of an eye, three months had passed.

Heavenly Insect straightened his back with some difficulty and looked up at the sky, still obscured by black clouds. After all this time, he had finally finished sorting through the spirit insect corpses in the valley. The space inside his Mustard Seed Bracelet was now packed full of materials and the various spirit liquids he had concocted.

"This Mustard Seed Bracelet is still too small. It's already full after holding this little. Once I get out, I have to replace it with a higher-grade Cosmic Bracelet!"

Looking at the materials still scattered all over the ground, Heavenly Insect could only shake his head helplessly. These were all things he had been forced to abandon after sorting through them.

Over such a long period, the valley's thick stench of blood had long since drawn the attention of many Spirit Beasts. With ten high-grade spirit insects guarding him, however, Heavenly Insect's safety had never been an issue.

Now that he could feel his body had returned to peak condition, it was time for Heavenly Insect to deal with the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm inside the Light Cocoon.

After ordering his spirit insects to seal the entrance to the underground passage completely, Heavenly Insect stopped concerning himself with the outside. He entered the underground chamber again and headed into its depths.

"Hehe, little fellow, did you miss your big brother...?"

The sleazy voice reappeared within the Light Cocoon's perception along with a shadow, and the cocoon's light began flickering noticeably faster.

Heavenly Insect's impatient face came into view, like a bully who had successfully abducted a bride and was now closing the door to his bridal chamber.

That form of address, though, seemed a little less than wholesome.

Who could blame him, when everyone in his previous life had liked calling him Brother Jie...

Once he approached the Light Cocoon, crimson lines of blood could be seen forming an extraordinarily intricate array on the ground beneath it.

At the center of the array was a small pool of blood. The surrounding lines were all formed from blood flowing out of that pool.

This was the fruit of Heavenly Insect's three months of work: a specialized version of the Blood Soul Array, prepared specifically for members of the Spirit Insect Tribe to subdue Life-Bound Spirit Insects.

Once this blood array took shape, whether the target was an ancient ferocious insect or an ancient sacred insect, none could escape unless they killed the person who had laid the array.

"After all this time, the blood array has finally taken shape. Next, you and I are going to get very, very close..." Heavenly Insect smiled with satisfaction as he gazed at the Light Cocoon before him, as though admiring a peerless treasure.

Huff, huff...

The Light Cocoon immediately began flickering even faster. Heavenly Insect could almost hear someone breathing angrily.

He couldn't concern himself with all that. Heavenly Insect sliced open his palm and pressed his blood-soaked hand against the Light Cocoon...

Crimson blood slowly trickled down the Light Cocoon, then transformed into a blood net that enveloped it completely.

Blood Soul Array, activate!

With that fierce shout in his mind, bloody light burst from the ground in every direction. The pool formed from the essence blood of over a hundred high-grade Spirit Beasts began to boil.

Bolstered by this boundless blood energy, the blood net on the Light Cocoon began slowly merging into it. Although the cocoon repeatedly unleashed waves of golden light to resist, it still could not stop the blood net from seeping in.

Time passed slowly as the blood net continued penetrating the Light Cocoon. By now, it had reached more than three inches deep. Although it was still a long way from the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm's body within, Heavenly Insect was in no hurry.

Time is on my side...

And so, another three months passed.

The pool that had once brimmed with blood now held only a thin layer at the bottom, while the blood net inside the Light Cocoon was about to touch the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm's body.

After such a prolonged struggle, both the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm and Heavenly Insect were arrows at the end of their flight.

However, the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm had already expended considerable strength controlling the insect swarm and battling Heavenly Insect's Blood Soul Array. With the array also assisting Heavenly Insect, the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm was still the weaker side.

"Are you still going to resist? You know it's useless. At most, your resistance can buy you a little time. Worse, exhausting yourself could cause you to fail when you break out of your cocoon. With your intelligence, surely you know which consequence is more serious?"

Failing to emerge from its cocoon once could destroy a thousand years of the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm's efforts in a single stroke. And if it had to start over, who could guarantee that something even worse wouldn't happen during those thousand years?

The Light Cocoon flickered rapidly several more times. Although it could not speak, Heavenly Insect could still sense the resistance emanating from within.

Heavenly Insect's expression did not change, and his voice remained as still as an ancient well. "I've said everything that needs saying, and I've already given you my promise. Become my Life-Bound Spirit Insect, and we'll share life and death. It will also benefit your future evolution and transformation.

"I don't know whether you possess inherited memories from ancient times. If you do, you should know just how foul the Six-Winged Golden Cicada's reputation was back then. Once you emerge and people discover you, countless people will covet you and hunt you down. You'll truly become a rat crossing the street in the Great Thousand World, with everyone crying for your death!"

At these words, the resistance within the Light Cocoon weakened considerably. Given the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm's bloodline rank, it evidently possessed inherited memories from ancient times and knew how the Six-Winged Golden Cicada had been reviled throughout the Great Thousand World.

The situation this man described, where every expert in the Great Thousand World would cry for its death after it emerged, could very well become reality.

At that moment, the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm inside the Light Cocoon desperately wanted to curse... Damn it, what do the sins that bastard committed back then have to do with me? Why should my little body have to bear them?

Sensing the emotional shift within the Light Cocoon, Heavenly Insect felt a surge of joy and continued coaxing it. "If you become my Life-Bound Spirit Insect, things will be different. First, I have plenty of methods to speed up your growth. And with me handling everything, you'll be able to grow with greater peace of mind.

"At the very least, when you're at your weakest, cocooned and evolving, wouldn't having me beside you as a guard make you much safer?"

At these words, the resistance within the Light Cocoon weakened again, until he could barely sense it at all...

Heavenly Insect suppressed his excitement and quickly turned his gaze toward the blood net within the Light Cocoon. It was now penetrating deeper at a speed visible to the naked eye, and within a few breaths, it had wrapped itself completely around the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm.

Success!

Heavenly Insect shouted excitedly in the depths of his heart.

If this fellow had remained so stubborn, he himself would have been unable to hold on...

"My cultivation is still too low. I can't even withstand this much spiritual energy consumption. Looks like it's time to break through my current realm."

Although someone in the Divine Soul Realm could be considered a regional overlord in the Northern Spiritual Realm, they would not even rank in the whole of Hundred Spirits Heaven, let alone the Hundred Spirits Continent or the Great Thousand World...

Still, such things had to be done one step at a time. Heavenly Insect's current plan was to use this opportunity to subdue the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm and attempt a breakthrough into the Three Heavens Realm!

When the blood net fully merged into the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm's body, Heavenly Insect could clearly feel an inexplicable connection forming between them, as though their consciousnesses could now link freely.

"Remember what you said. Don't lie to me!"

A clear voice suddenly rang out in Heavenly Insect's mind. It sounded like a small child, making it impossible to tell whether it was male or female.

Heavenly Insect was not surprised. Instead, he chuckled softly. "Don't worry. My word is worth a thousand pieces of gold. I will never break my promise."

In any case, even if it wanted to back out now, it was already too late...