The elimination round

According to legend, the Flowing Moon Realm was a wondrous place born alongside Flowing Moon Heaven. Before Flowing Moon Heaven became the homeland of the Twelve Branches, countless earth-shaking battles had taken place there, and countless powerful Spirit Insect Masters and spirit insects had fallen in that land.

After their deaths, a wisp of their true spirits would enter the Flowing Moon Realm, where the dense spiritual energy would allow them to condense anew into strange spirit bodies...

These spirit bodies retained the formidable cultivation insights of those Spirit Insect Masters, and even their secret techniques and methods for raising spirit insects. To Spirit Insect Masters outside, they were treasures rarely encountered.

By choosing this place for the elimination round, Tian Qiu was clearly giving the clan's favored geniuses more opportunities to grow stronger.

Exploring the Insect World was of enormous importance to the Twelve Branches. He had to select the clan's strongest young geniuses to represent them in competing against the other powerful branches.

At Tian Qiu's command, an enormous teleportation array in the center of the square immediately activated. The prodigies qualified for the elimination round rode their Life-Bound Spirit Insects into the array, one after another.

Heavenly Insect was among them, but unlike those riding their spirit insects directly, he was wrapped in sword light. A phantom Ancient Sword Butterfly appeared behind him, and his entire body turned into sword light as he shot straight into the teleportation array.

This was the Flying Insect Art he had begun to master, modeled on the Ancient Sword Butterfly. However, Heavenly Insect disliked the name, so he simply called his movement technique the Sword-Riding Art...

After all, flying as a streak of sword light resembled the sword immortals he had watched in his previous life. The name rolled off the tongue, too, and sounded imposing.

As the teleportation light flared, Heavenly Insect suddenly found himself atop a small hill.

He looked around curiously and discovered that the surroundings were deathly still. Even the sky was murky and chaotic, devoid of life.

Except...

"The spiritual energy here is incredibly dense!"

With such a staggering concentration of spiritual energy, even the large Spirit Gathering Arrays that major factions prepared specifically for their younger members probably could not compare.

He had never expected the Twelve Branches, known as the weakest branch of the Heavenly Meridian, to possess such an extraordinary space.

Perhaps its only drawbacks were that it could not give birth to life, and people could not remain here for long.

"I should get moving. Hopefully, I can find more spirit cores..."

Rankings in this elimination round were determined by the number of spirit cores each person obtained.

These so-called spirit cores were the cores obtained by slaying the special spirit bodies formed from the true spirits of Spirit Insect Masters and spirit insects.

Since the fallen Spirit Insect Masters and spirit insects had varied greatly in strength during their lifetimes, the spirit bodies formed from their true spirits naturally varied in strength as well.

Broadly speaking, they could be divided into Spirit Soldiers, Spirit Generals, and Spirit Kings, corresponding to the Three Heavens Realm, the Three Minor Tribulations of the Sovereign, and the Sovereign stage...

From the weakest Spirit Soldiers to the strongest Spirit Kings, all these spirit bodies possessed considerable combat strength, but lacked intelligence. Thus, participants at the same level would have little difficulty slaying them.

Fighting above one's level, however, was dangerous. A moment of carelessness could easily lead to death, so Heavenly Insect, who was alone, remained extremely cautious.

After checking his bearings, Heavenly Insect shot forward. He had no particularly clear destination, but for now, he only needed to head toward the deepest part of the Flowing Moon Realm.

The exit lay at the center of the realm, where a Teleportation Spirit Array led outside. Many powerful spirit bodies also guarded the surrounding area, so whether they wanted to leave or obtain spirit cores, all the participants would converge there.

Since he was searching for prey, Heavenly Insect did not use his Sword-Riding Art. Instead, he skimmed swiftly above the ground, his eyes constantly scanning his surroundings.

A little over ten minutes later, Heavenly Insect's gaze sharpened, and he slowed down.

A dazzling radiance flickered directly ahead. Narrowing his eyes, he saw what appeared to be a human figure floating along within that light, with powerful spiritual energy emanating from its body.

As Heavenly Insect spotted it, the luminous figure seemed to sense the aura of a living person. It immediately darted forward, charging toward him like a phantom.

"A Spirit Soldier? Judging by its aura, it should be at the Heaven Transformation Realm, but it's certainly fast!"

In terms of speed alone, even an ordinary Heaven-reaching Realm Spirit Insect Master probably could not match this Spirit Soldier, unless they possessed a powerful spirit insect exceptionally skilled in speed as their Life-Bound Spirit Insect.

Heavenly Insect smiled faintly. Pushing off with his toes, he darted forward and swept past the luminous figure. At the instant they crossed, a sword gleaming with dark light suddenly appeared in his hand and sliced across its chest. Violent sword qi erupted, instantly cutting it into fragments.

As the luminous figure shattered, a pale red light suddenly shot out of its body. Before it could escape, however, Heavenly Insect's hand closed around it.

The pale red light gradually shrank in Heavenly Insect's palm, finally becoming a red crystal roughly the size of a longan. Pure spiritual energy emanated from within, and he could also sense faint fluctuations of the soul.

Heavenly Insect shook his head slightly. The soul aura within this spirit core was far too thin. Even if he absorbed it, he probably would not obtain any complete information.

The spiritual energy inside was quite good, though. He could absorb it directly without relying on that fellow Golden Cicada.

"There's still too little spiritual energy in a Spirit Soldier's core. Who knows how many I'd need to overcome the Spiritual Energy Tribulation with these?"

After assessing it, Heavenly Insect decided to exclude Spirit Soldiers from his hunting targets. Unless they came knocking themselves, attacking them would be a complete waste of time.

"I'll just keep looking."

Heavenly Insect felt rather helpless. This was his first time entering the Flowing Moon Realm, after all, and he knew nothing about the place.

The information Elder Tian Zhe had prepared earlier did not seem to contain any detailed information about it either. He did not know whether they were unaware themselves or had simply forgotten.

In that case, he could count on the others even less...

Along the way, Heavenly Insect encountered quite a few spirit bodies, but the vast majority were Spirit Soldiers. He easily dealt with the few Spirit Generals he found as well.

As for the stronger Spirit Kings, he found none at all, leaving him unsure whether to marvel at his good luck or his bad luck...

"Hm? Spiritual energy fluctuations up ahead... Someone's fighting! I wonder whether a participant is hunting spirit bodies, or participants are fighting each other."

Delight appeared on Heavenly Insect's face.

Either situation seemed likely to offer him considerable benefits...

Heavenly Insect shot forward excitedly. Barely ten minutes later, he saw a battle raging on a hill ahead.

"Huh, it really is a fight between participants..." Heavenly Insect was rather speechless. How little time had passed before they started fighting among themselves? Couldn't they wait until everyone had accumulated more spirit cores?

Still, this was a perfect opportunity for him.

While the mantis stalked the cicada, the oriole waited behind. It seemed he had a chance to reap an easy windfall.

On the battlefield, three participants were surrounding and attacking a lone opponent...

Watching from concealment nearby, Heavenly Insect discovered that the person under attack was actually a woman, while the other three were all grown men...

"They really don't know how to cherish a delicate flower..."

Heavenly Insect shook his head.

More importantly, would robbing others like this really yield more spirit cores than joining forces to hunt spirit bodies?

"Miss Tian Yu, we don't want to make things difficult for you. Tell us the direction of that spirit body gathering site you know about, and we'll let you go!" At the edge of the battlefield, a lean young man watched the woman, who was struggling more and more, and chuckled.

"In your dreams! You three think you can take me down?"

The young woman called Tian Yu had a fiery temper. The moment words failed, she went straight to fighting!

After observing them, Heavenly Insect judged that Tian Yu was at the Spiritual Energy Tribulation stage. The three surrounding her were at the same stage, so even if she unleashed all her strength, she was unlikely to repel all three by herself.

Heavenly Insect did not care about any of that, though. The only thing that interested him was the spirit body gathering site the young man had just mentioned...

No wonder these three grown men swallowed their pride and ganged up on a woman. She actually knows about a spirit body gathering site. If there are plenty of Spirit Generals inside, or even a Spirit King, I'll hit the jackpot!

Heavenly Insect pondered silently.

He had assessed all four of them. Although their cultivation was one level above his, none had a Sovereign-level spirit insect protecting them. They were merely four ordinary participants, no match whatsoever for his Ancient Sword Butterfly.

Looks like I really will have to play the hero saving the beauty...

With a quiet chuckle, Heavenly Insect stepped out without hesitation.

"Stop! Let that girl go and let me... uh... let that girl go!"

Heavenly Insect hastily corrected himself after almost letting the familiar line roll off his tongue, but that instantly ruined the dashing entrance he had intended to make.

All four combatants, including Tian Yu, stared blankly at Heavenly Insect, wondering where this fool had popped out from...

"You're only at the Body Tribulation stage, yet you dare play the hero saving a beauty in front of three of us at the Spiritual Energy Tribulation stage? Brother, are you an idiot?" the lean young man asked, staring at Heavenly Insect in disbelief.

Heavenly Insect glanced at him, then ignored him and addressed Tian Yu directly. "I'll get you out of this situation. Afterward, we'll hunt together at that spirit body gathering site you know about. How does that sound?"

The lean young man immediately flew into a rage. A mere Body Tribulation fellow actually dared to ignore them!

"You're courting death!"

Enraged, the lean young man immediately prepared to attack.

But a golden figure was faster...

Whoosh!

The golden figure flashed through the three men at an indescribable speed. Before they could react, a slender palm had landed lightly on each of their chests in turn.

The lean young man's pupils instantly contracted as he stared at Heavenly Insect, who had appeared before him like a phantom...

That speed was truly terrifying!

Bang!

Violent physical force erupted from Heavenly Insect's palms. All three men, including the lean young man, were instantly sent flying backward as though struck by an enormous hammer...

After carving long furrows across the ground, the three crashed into a massive boulder. As the rock shattered, the three unfortunate fellows were knocked unconscious.

Since this contest prohibited needless killing, Heavenly Insect had held back and not even used sword qi. He had sent three Spirit Insect Masters at the Spiritual Energy Tribulation stage flying with nothing but his tremendous physical strength, leaving Tian Yu staring with wide, shocked eyes.

Heavenly Insect glanced at the stunned woman, thoroughly satisfied with his performance. He nodded before asking, "Miss Tian Yu, what do you think of my proposal?"

Roused by Heavenly Insect's words, Tian Yu stole a glance at him, then immediately looked away when her gaze met his smile.

This was no maiden's bashfulness after being rescued by a hero. She was simply frightened by the violent strength Heavenly Insect had displayed.

"Y-yes. But there are quite a few powerful Spirit Generals at that gathering site, as well as a considerable number of terrifying spirit insects. Wouldn't it be a little dangerous with just the two of us?"

A gathering site was a place where numerous spirit bodies congregated for some special reason. Such places could easily give rise to high-level spirit bodies, and their numbers were often terrifying.

Unless one formed a team with formidable combat strength, one or two people charging in alone would probably be swallowed up by those violent spirit bodies...

Heavenly Insect frowned. He had learned about gathering sites from the information Elder Tian Zhe had given him, and knew that his only hope of securing a place in the top five lay in them.

But how could that possibly be easy...

Even setting aside the danger, merely locating a gathering site would probably be extremely difficult for Heavenly Insect.

Now that he had finally stumbled upon an opportunity to find one, he was unwilling to let it slip away.

"Do you know how many spirit bodies are in that gathering site, and how strong they are?"

Tian Yu shook her head slightly. "I only came across it by chance. It was too dangerous, so I didn't dare approach. I just observed it from a distance.

"Even on the outermost edge, I saw no fewer than several thousand spirit bodies, with over a hundred Spirit Generals alone. As for what lies deeper inside, I don't know..."

Her words left Heavenly Insect shocked, but also pleasantly surprised.

"A hundred Spirit Generals on the outskirts alone? Then this must be a large gathering site. A site of that size definitely has a Spirit King commanding it, or they couldn't have gathered together!"

At that thought, Heavenly Insect clenched his fist hard.

If he could obtain a Spirit King's core, his ranking would absolutely soar.

Moreover, a Spirit King's core would greatly aid Heavenly Insect's cultivation, and make it easier for him to obtain powerful secret techniques from the memories lingering in those remnants of true spirits!