Xuan · Hundred-Poison Crow

The nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito stood at the pinnacle of flying mosquito-type spirit insects. Its bloodline rivaled that of a top-tier Heavenly Beast, and a fully mature adult could be called invincible beneath the rank of Supreme!

However, the nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito grew slowly. Its body took a hundred years to mature, then underwent a transformation every hundred years, only reaching its complete form after a thousand years. It was said to split into countless millions and devour everything, its flesh-and-blood-sucking mouthparts unstoppable even by a Divine Beast.

According to the Spirit Insect Tribe's Myriad Insect Record, a powerful Spirit Insect Master had captured a Divine Beast-level Xuanwu Turtle a thousand years ago. But a moment of carelessness allowed a nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito to target it, and while the Spirit Insect Master was distracted, the mosquito drained every drop of the Xuanwu Turtle's blood essence...

"Rumor has it that nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito larvae must hatch in an environment of extreme yin, nourished with spirit essences and spirit liquid. So whenever a female mosquito is about to lay eggs, it captures an expert who has survived the spiritual energy tribulation and uses their qi sea as an incubator. Could this pool have formed from some poor bastard's qi sea?"

At that thought, Heavenly Insect could not help shuddering. Looking at the pool of spirit liquid before him again, he broke out in goosebumps.

He kept a wary eye on every corner of the cavern. His greatest fear now was that a female nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito might suddenly charge out of some hidden nook. If that happened, he probably would not even be able to escape!

Only after repeatedly confirming that it was safe did he slowly approach the pool and carefully count the insect eggs inside...

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

"..."

"Sixteen nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito eggs..."

Compared to the thousands upon thousands of eggs a Blood-Mustached Mosquito laid at once, that was pitifully few. Yet the two were utterly incomparable.

Excitement surged through Heavenly Insect. Sixteen nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito eggs! If even a third survived, whether he kept them to raise himself or sold them, they would bring him an enormous windfall.

"What are you wriggling around like an idiot for? There isn't even a ghost here, so who's watching your monkey show? Hurry up and collect that spirit liquid so I can have a proper feast!"

The Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm's grating voice shattered Heavenly Insect's fantasies. His excited flailing froze, and he hurriedly composed himself.

Fuck! I forgot there's another one hiding in my qi sea. Nearly made a fool of myself...

But...

"Golden Cicada, how about we make a deal? Let's not eat this spirit liquid yet. We'll save it until I hatch those nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito eggs. How does that sound?"

The hatching requirements for nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito eggs were far too stringent. With Heavenly Insect's current abilities, he really could not sustain them until they hatched without this pool of spirit liquid.

"No! I found it, so it's mine!" Seeing someone trying to steal its food, Golden Cicada immediately began protesting and defending its claim.

"Besides, they're just dead eggs. They're not worth raising, and leaving the liquid for them won't do any good. So stop dreaming..."

"Dead?!" Heavenly Insect froze, then hurriedly extended his spiritual sense to investigate. Sure enough, just as Golden Cicada had said, the larvae inside all sixteen eggs were on the verge of death...

Had they already hatched and grown into adults, this condition would not have been beyond saving. At least there would still have been a chance to rescue them.

But larvae were fragile, especially embryos that had yet to hatch. Any outside stimulus could cause them to perish, let alone when they were already at death's door. Their failure to hatch was practically guaranteed...

"Are you fucking kidding me..."

Heavenly Insect felt as though he had not even taken a bite of the pie that had fallen into his lap before a basin of cold water dropped from the sky, soaking him through and sending his soaring spirits crashing...

"Hahaha, dumbstruck, aren't you?" Golden Cicada's mocking laughter echoed endlessly in his mind.

"What the hell are you laughing at? Keep laughing, and see if I give you even a drop of this spirit liquid!"

"...Gah!"

Golden Cicada's laughter cut off abruptly.

After a long while, it timidly said, "I was only joking. Don't take it so seriously..." "Well, you actually don't need to be upset. I just checked, and there's a fully mature nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito sealed beneath this spirit liquid. As long as you collect the liquid and dig it out, there's a thirty percent chance of reviving it. Wouldn't a fully mature nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito be more valuable than these eggs?"

Golden Cicada's words made Heavenly Insect's eyes light up. "Is that true?"

A fully mature nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito was worth far more than any number of eggs.

"Yes, yes, yes! Absolutely!"

"If you don't believe me, collect the spirit liquid and dig beneath it. Then you'll know whether I'm lying... But once you get that fully mature nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito, could you give me another ten percent of the spirit liquid?"

Hearing Golden Cicada bargain, Heavenly Insect made a rare show of generosity, sweeping his hand as he said, "Fine. As long as you're telling the truth, you get sixty percent of this batch!"

"Wonderful! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Get started! You'll know whether I'm telling the truth in no time!"

Urged on by the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm, Heavenly Insect acted without hesitation. First, he found a storage Spirit Artifact and collected the entire pool of spirit liquid. Then he began digging into the incredibly hard-looking blue-black rock at the bottom...

After untold years of erosion by extreme yin spiritual energy, the stone had become immensely hard. Even after Heavenly Insect took out a long saber that was a Medium-Grade Spirit Tool, he had to slash with all his strength just to make a small cut.

He had dug less than three feet when a sharp clang rang out. Heavenly Insect discovered that the edge of his Medium-Grade Spirit Tool saber had chipped apart...

"Fuck, this is way too hard!"

Heavenly Insect rubbed his aching wrist and could not help cursing.

But out of trust in Golden Cicada, he rested briefly before resuming his grand excavation project...

Finally, after Heavenly Insect ruined three Medium-Grade Spirit Tools and even his last dagger, a High-grade Spirit Artifact, was close to giving out, the sealed, fully mature nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito Golden Cicada had mentioned was revealed.

It was a huge black mosquito roughly three feet long. Among flying mosquito-type spirit insects, it was certainly large, but compared to Heavenly Beasts of the same rank, its body was truly minuscule.

The nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito's most distinctive feature was the black markings on its legs. Every hundred years, those markings grew another segment, known as a revolution. Only after a thousand years and nine revolutions did it reach its complete form.

What now lay before Heavenly Insect was a fully mature Black-Mustached Mosquito that had undergone all nine revolutions!

A transparent crystalline layer encased the nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito. Without breaking that crystalline seal, reviving it was out of the question.

Clink, clink, clink...

Heavenly Insect tapped the crystal's surface with the tip of his dagger, producing crisp ringing sounds. Yet the High-grade Spirit Artifact could not leave even the slightest mark.

"This is troublesome... Golden Cicada, can you tell what this crystal is? How do I open it?"

A layer of golden light spread from Heavenly Insect's body, then swept across the transparent crystal imprisoning the nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito...

"Hmm, well, I'm not sure either... I can only sense that it should taste delicious, but I can't digest it yet..."

Heavenly Insect's face darkened. Is this fucking thing something for you to eat?!

"You glutton! Can your brain hold anything besides food? What use are you to me?!"

The Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm refused to accept that vicious assessment and retorted indignantly, "What do you mean, useless? Could you have found this place without me?"

"That's about all you're good for..." Heavenly Insect said disdainfully.

Before breaking out of its cocoon and becoming a cicada, the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm truly offered little direct assistance. Still, its supporting role was undeniable.

Heavenly Insect studied the crystalline layer and discovered that it seemed to consist entirely of condensed spiritual energy. But just how powerful did someone have to be to condense spiritual energy into such a hard solid?

Heavenly Insect had no answer. Even having read the original novel in his previous life was no help. Unless he had actually witnessed such a thing, mere words could only give him a vague idea.

That was especially true for someone who read as carelessly as Heavenly Insect had in his previous life. Skimming ten lines at a glance was already a generous description. Often, after finishing, he could recall only the broad plot, while every slightly finer detail had vanished from his mind!

"Anyway, someone beneath the rank of Supreme definitely couldn't do this... Which means this Insect Prison Site probably isn't just an ordinary heaven grade insect prison!"

Once he realized that, Heavenly Insect's eyes shone even brighter. The disappointment he had just felt over the nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito vanished completely.

"Let's put this away for now and keep going!"

He had finally gained a head start. Now that he knew this Insect Prison Space was extraordinary, why would he wait instead of taking the chance to rake in more rewards?

"Little Bug, Little Bug, put this nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito into your qi sea first. I can help you refine that crystalline layer away. Really! Then you'll be able to tame this fully mature nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito..."

"Get lost!" Heavenly Insect immediately bristled. "Call me Little Bug again, you bastard, and you can forget about me ever supplying you with energy!"

"Then what am I supposed to call you...?" Golden Cicada asked pitifully.

"Seriously! You're a bug. Could you stop talking to me in that disgusting tone? Call me Brother Insect from now on!"

"Oh..." Golden Cicada still sounded aggrieved. "Then, Brother Insect, I can help you devour and refine those crystalline layers..."

"Mm, that's more like it." Heavenly Insect nodded in satisfaction, then raised his hand and forced a drop of blood from his fingertip. Guiding it with spiritual energy, he drew a complex blood-colored rune and sent it straight into the crystalline layer surrounding the nine revolutions black-whiskered mosquito. Then, guided by the Blood Talisman, it slowly entered his qi sea.

Once it entered his qi sea, dense golden light instantly surged up like a towering wave and swallowed the mosquito's crystal casing in a single gulp before settling down.

Heavenly Insect smacked his lips and withdrew his spiritual sense, then quickly left the spot to explore elsewhere.

Without the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm guiding him this time, Heavenly Insect proceeded much more cautiously.

First, he released both his Soul Devouring Bee Swarm and his Black Nether Ant swarm. From the sky to the ground, they densely blanketed an area a thousand meters around him.

With the insect swarms conducting a carpet sweep, any danger would be detected before it approached.

As for close-range protection, Heavenly Insect stood atop an Earth Spirit Scorpion, with a Blade Mantis and a Frost Demon Spider beside him, a Wolf Butterfly flying overhead, and three Earthworms underground. From top to bottom, far to near, and earth to sky, his defenses covered every angle without a single blind spot.

Out in the wider world, this would have been a small-scale insect tide. Judging by the strength of the Northern Spiritual Realm's factions, it would have been enough to sweep right through them.

After traveling for some time without encountering danger or discovering any useful information, Heavenly Insect began deliberately expanding his swarms' range so his eyes and ears could reach farther.

Another half-day passed like this before an Earthworm suddenly burrowed up beside Heavenly Insect and relayed a message.

"You encountered someone, and their spirit insect is attacking my Black Nether Ants?"

Because the swarms had spread so far, the Black Nether Ants on the outer perimeter could not relay news immediately. Their rank was also too low, and their intelligence insufficient, so Heavenly Insect had specifically assigned the three high-grade spirit insect Earthworms underground to provide him with information.

"How many spirit insects do they have, and how strong are they?"

High-grade spirit insects were not much less intelligent than humans, so the Earthworm could understand Heavenly Insect's questions.

After the Earthworm transmitted another soul message, Heavenly Insect immediately gained a preliminary understanding of the enemy...

"They have a high-grade spirit insect, but only one... Looks like this Spirit Insect Master didn't raise a swarm and chose the 'single-specialist' path instead."

He reached that conclusion because Spirit Insect Masters with swarms, like Heavenly Insect, always used their numerous, lower-ranked insects to scout. They would not send high-grade spirit insects straight out to fight. This was habitual practice among all Spirit Insect Masters.

As for the possibility that the opponent's entire swarm consisted of high-grade spirit insects, it was not impossible, but Heavenly Insect could only say that such a thing was nowhere to be seen in Flying Spirit City...

Just imagining the terrifying expense of maintaining a swarm of high-grade spirit insects sent a chill through Heavenly Insect. Probably only the Spirit Insect Tribe's top factions could afford it...

"Frost Demon Spider, Wolf Butterfly, work with the Earthworm and take them out!"

Whoever it was, they certainly were not his friend, so Heavenly Insect issued the attack order without hesitation.

As for himself, he would not reveal his presence until the dust had settled...

Sure enough, that decision proved extremely wise. The distant battle soon ended, and the ice-blue Frost Demon Spider threw a woman bound in spider silk onto the ground. Her hands and feet were clearly broken, her clothes were in tatters, her face was covered in blood, and her disheveled hair obscured her features.

Judging by the cold vapor rising from her entire body, she had probably been poisoned by the Frost Demon Spider's frost venom and had little time left.

"A Divine Soul Realm Spirit Insect Master actually made it this far. Looks like this woman wasn't ordinary before this either..."

Moreover, his Wolf Butterfly had actually been killed in the battle. According to the information the Frost Demon Spider and the other spirit insects brought back, this female Spirit Insect Master had initially possessed only one Earth Wolf Insect. Though it was ferocious in battle, it could never have withstood an encirclement by several spirit insects of the same rank.

Yet just as the Wolf Butterfly was about to deliver the killing blow, the woman had suddenly used some unknown means to kill it outright...

Heavenly Insect reached into the front of her robes. Of course, this was not due to any peculiar tastes. Rather, he had found a spirit jade token-Xuan: Hundred-Poison Crow!