Golden Cicada Rebirth Art

After Heavenly Insect stopped forcing his breakthrough, a change took place within his aura sea.

The boundless ocean of spiritual energy churned with towering waves. Above their crests, a massive golden cocoon slowly pulsed with golden light in a peculiar rhythm.

"Oh, now that's a rarity. You actually came to your senses on your own. I thought you'd just sink deeper and deeper." Golden Cicada's teasing voice rang out.

Heavenly Insect was speechless. He could not help asking, "If you knew, why didn't you warn me earlier?"

"Hehe, didn't you say it yourself?"

"What you learn on paper is shallow in the end; to truly understand, you have to put it into practice!"

"If I didn't let you figure it out yourself, how would the lesson ever stick...?"

Heavenly Insect's face darkened. He secretly wondered whether silkworm pupae tasted better deep-fried or salt-baked, or perhaps dry-fried or flash-fried...

"All right, all right, stop entertaining those dangerous thoughts. Even if you hadn't come to your senses, I would have stopped supplying energy to stop you when the time came."

As Heavenly Insect's Life-Bound Spirit Insect, linked to him by bloodline and consciousness, Golden Cicada naturally knew every thought in his mind. After witnessing a hundred different ways to die, Golden Cicada very decisively backed down.

"Besides, I have a way to solve your current problem..."

That single, casually delivered sentence instantly turned Heavenly Insect's anger into delight. Even his tone softened considerably. "What method is that, little Golden Cicada?"

"Urgh! Can you act normal?"

"You nearly made me throw up all the energy I ate yesterday..."

"Wouldn't that be perfect? I don't mind, anyway."

"..."

With a victorious smile, Heavenly Insect listened intently to Golden Cicada's proposed method.

"Although the energy I've devoured is extremely pure, it's still unfamiliar energy from an outside source, not something you accumulated through your own cultivation. So when you absorb it directly, that unfamiliarity inevitably affects your control over the spiritual energy and leaves hidden problems..."

"Normally, it wouldn't matter much, because you could spend a tiny bit of time eliminating those problems beforehand.

"But lately, you've been absorbing huge amounts of outside spiritual energy to break through, without spending enough time eliminating those problems. What were originally minor issues have piled up, and when you actually try to break through, they jump out to block you...

"That's why you always feel as though some invisible membrane is restraining you whenever you attempt a breakthrough."

Understanding dawned on Heavenly Insect. He had assumed that spiritual energy devoured and refined by Golden Cicada was pure enough not to leave any lingering complications. He had never expected this additional factor.

"Solving this problem is actually very simple. Settle your mind now and thoroughly hone and refine your spiritual energy. Once you've completely made that outside energy your own, the membrane will naturally disappear, and your breakthrough will follow smoothly."

"How long will that take?" Heavenly Insect asked with a frown.

"Hmm, not too long. Three months should be enough..."

Heavenly Insect: "?"

"Three months? I'm leaving for the Flying Salamander Domain Alliance Gathering in a little over a month. By the time three months are up, even the daylilies will have gone cold!"

"Nothing I can do about that. The spiritual art you cultivate is only a middle-grade one. It's far too ordinary. That three-month estimate already takes into account your strong talent and high affinity for ambient spiritual energy."

Heavenly Insect's frown deepened.

His spiritual art was also his greatest weakness at present. If he were not a Spirit Insect Master, he would probably be worse off than some bit player around Mu Chen...

"Isn't there any other way?"

Although the Flying Spirit City Lord's Estate also had spiritual arts in its treasury, the best were only high-grade ones, not much stronger than the art he currently cultivated. Besides, switching arts now

would take no small amount of time. Three months might not even be enough. Under these circumstances, he would probably need some other means if he wanted to break through before the Flying Salamander Domain Alliance Gathering began.

"No! Didn't I tell you? This is the fastest method."

Heavenly Insect fell silent, weighing his options.

Amid that silence, Golden Cicada's voice drifted out again.

"Still, I could solve your problem with your spiritual art..."

Heavenly Insect: "?!"

"Why didn't you say so earlier? Are you messing with me?"

"Hehe, just tell me whether you want to hear my solution!"

Heavenly Insect gritted his teeth and squeezed out a single word. "Talk!"

Delighted at having evened the score, Golden Cicada radiated waves of golden light. Then a stream of information flowed into Heavenly Insect's mind.

It was actually a spiritual art!

"Golden Cicada Rebirth Art."

"This is a powerful spiritual art from my inherited memories. Even if it can't match the very best spiritual arts in the Great Thousand World, it certainly isn't far behind.

"And this art doesn't just cultivate spiritual energy. It's also an extremely powerful body-refining method.

"Each time you advance the art by one revolution, your body undergoes a tempering and sheds a layer of its outer shell. Afterward, your body becomes stronger, and your defense doubles!"

"If you can cultivate it to nine revolutions, your body will rival a divine artifact!"

Once Heavenly Insect learned all this, excitement surged through him.

Even setting aside the Golden Cicada Rebirth Art's formidable body-refining abilities, its rank alone, comparable to the Great Thousand World's finest spiritual arts, already had Heavenly Insect drooling.

As far as Heavenly Insect knew, anything called one of the Great Thousand World's finest spiritual arts would have to be at least on the level of Mu Chen's Great Pagoda Art, wouldn't it?

Having read the original novel, Heavenly Insect knew very well just how powerful the Great Pagoda Art was!

However, such powerful arts often had cultivation requirements. The Great Pagoda Art, for instance, could be cultivated by people without the Futu Clan's bloodline, but they could not reach its higher levels.

That was precisely the case with Ling Xi, whom Qing Yanjing had adopted in the original novel.

Moreover, only those who cultivated the most orthodox Great Pagoda Art could manifest a Futu Pagoda, and among them, only those with an exceptionally pure bloodline could manifest the Sacred Futu Pagoda!

After his initial excitement passed, Heavenly Insect calmed down and asked Golden Cicada, "Are there any requirements for cultivating this Golden Cicada Rebirth Art?"

"Hehe, clever!"

"The main requirement for cultivating the Golden Cicada Rebirth Art is obtaining the origin energy of yours truly. You just barely meet that requirement now, which is why I brought out this spiritual art..."

When Heavenly Insect had signed the bloodline contract with the Golden Origin Heavenly Silkworm, he had received a considerable amount of its origin energy. After all this time refining and integrating it, that energy had finally fused completely with Heavenly Insect's bloodline, qualifying him to cultivate this top-tier spiritual art.

"That's a relief. I thought there might be some other harsh condition. I never expected it to be so simple," Heavenly Insect said, looking relieved.

"Simple?!"

Golden Cicada was instantly furious.

"If you hadn't tricked me back then, I never would have shared my origin energy with you!"

"Yes, yes, I was awful. I deceived our innocent little Golden Cicada. I'm guilty. I apologize..."

"Argh! I told you not to say my name in that disgusting tone!"

Heavenly Insect spent several days studying the Golden Cicada Rebirth Art carefully, going over it multiple times. Only after confirming that he had firmly memorized every crucial detail did he begin cultivating.

As he circulated his energy along the meridian routes specified in the art's cultivation formula, Heavenly Insect discovered that these routes were quite peculiar compared with those of ordinary spiritual arts...

If all the meridians within his body were mapped out in three dimensions, the new routes along which his spiritual energy circulated would form the image of a strange golden cicada.

"So this is what golden cicada rebirth means..."

Heavenly Insect took a deep breath and urged his spiritual energy to continue circulating quietly along those strange meridian routes.

Because this was his first complete circulation, and because the Golden Cicada Rebirth Art operated so differently from ordinary spiritual arts, the process consumed an extreme amount of mental effort.

Heavenly Insect focused all his attention on the meridians within his body. Enduring the trace of exhaustion creeping into his mind, he worked to maintain a flawless circulation of spiritual energy.

At last, when Heavenly Insect completed his first full circulation, the crystalline spiritual energy in his meridians began to change. Its color gradually turned golden, gleaming brilliantly at a glance, much like the golden light radiating from the cocoon.

This golden spiritual energy showed not the slightest restraint. Its sharp, domineering aura blazed forth without reserve.

That also suited the Six-Winged Golden Cicada's nature. As an ancient vicious insect, it had once been the very embodiment of greed and tyranny, even daring to challenge an entire Super Divine Beast Population single-handedly!

"Tsk, tsk. This doesn't really suit my principle of playing the pig to devour the tiger..." Heavenly Insect clicked his tongue as he sensed the domineering spiritual energy within him.

"Playing the pig to devour the tiger, my ass! Play the pig too often and you might actually become one. Then the tiger will eat you!"

"What kind of young person isn't wild and domineering?"

Heavenly Insect rolled his eyes speechlessly. You're an insect. Are you studying for postgraduate exams? What's with all the fancy rhetoric?

Done trading nonsense with Golden Cicada, Heavenly Insect continued converting his spiritual energy.

After switching to the Golden Cicada Rebirth Art, Heavenly Insect clearly felt that the speed at which he absorbed spiritual energy from his surroundings had increased enormously!

His aura sea also transformed completely through his continued cultivation. The original ocean of spiritual energy became entirely golden, and even the space above it was dyed gold.

As that golden spiritual energy circulated through his meridians to every corner of his body, its golden radiance continually seeped into his flesh, bones, and internal organs, tempering every cell in his body.

Thus, in less than half a month, Heavenly Insect completely converted all the spiritual energy within his body.

Dazzling golden light radiated from Heavenly Insect's body.

It shone through the gaps around the room's doors and windows, even bathing the courtyard where Heavenly Insect cultivated in seclusion in gold.

Outside, Demon Butterfly watched the commotion, her eyes filled with complex emotions.

When she had first met Heavenly Insect, their strength had been roughly on par. Yet how little time had passed? His strength had advanced in wild leaps, as though he were taking some kind of drug, while she remained rooted to the same spot.

If the ancestor had not given her a Black-Feathered Star Locust, she probably would no longer have been qualified to stand before him, would she?

At that thought, the bitterness on Demon Butterfly's face deepened.

Perhaps she should have been grateful that he had not taken a liking to her back then. Otherwise, forcibly binding together two people from different worlds would only leave the weaker one suffering in the end...

Time flowed on, and another half month passed in the blink of an eye. Only half a month remained before the Flying Salamander Domain Alliance Gathering.

In the courtyard where Heavenly Insect cultivated in seclusion, dazzling, brilliant spiritual energy shot into the sky like a pillar holding up the heavens, connecting with a vortex of spiritual energy overhead.

The vast, surging spiritual energy shrouded the sky above the entire Flying Spirit City Lord's Estate in a hazy mist, making it impossible to see clearly within...

Naturally, this had also become the most eye-catching place in all of Flying Spirit City during this period.

Many people in the city looked in that direction every day, unable to hide the shock and curiosity in their eyes. They all speculated whether their newly appointed city lord was about to break through to the Supreme Realm...

But hadn't he only been in the Heaven Transformation Realm before? No matter how they considered it, breaking through to the Supreme Realm in such a short time seemed impossible.

Or had he been concealing his strength before? That seemed quite possible...

Meanwhile, in a secluded manor within Flying Spirit City.

Only one person lived in that vast manor, and she was a woman: Tian Fu, Flying Spirit City's Inspector.

She, too, looked up at the constantly spinning spiritual energy vortex in the sky, her heart filled with astonishment.

"Is this how a genius cultivates? Even absorbing spiritual energy causes such a commotion. I doubt even people breaking through to the Supreme Realm could manage this."

Talent alone could no longer explain this. The cultivation art Heavenly Insect practiced must have been of an extraordinary rank!

With such a powerful cultivation art in his possession, it no longer seemed difficult to understand how Heavenly Insect had returned utterly transformed after so many years away.

"What a lucky man..."

By now, Tian Fu had lost count of how many times she had sighed like that lately.

Boom!

At the very instant her sigh left her lips, a deep rumble suddenly echoed between heaven and earth!

High in the sky, an immense wave of spiritual energy rolled outward in every direction like an ocean swell.

Whoosh!

Countless people throughout Flying Spirit City abruptly raised their heads, their eyes trembling with shock as they looked toward the sky above the City Lord's Estate.

There, violent ripples surged across the immense pillar of spiritual light. Each spreading wave of spiritual energy grew more vast and more violent...

A dazzling ray of light shot upward from the base of the pillar, appearing directly in the sky above.